His Semi-Centennial, April 24, 1872

As we have seen from Dr. Hodge’s journal given in chapter 5, in which he records the celebration of the jubilee of Professor Nehemeyer in Halle, it has been customary in Germany to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of veteran professors. The jubilee of his old friend, Professor Tholuck, was celebrated in 1874, two years after his own. But this, as far as known, is the first instance in which such an event has crowned the life of an American professor. As he had become a teacher in this seminary in 1820, and had been elected professor by the General Assembly in May, 1822, the fiftieth year of his professorship terminated with the end of the academic year ending April 23d, 1872. The suggestion of this great honor originated with and its execution for the most part devolved on his loving and filial pupil and colleague, Prof William Henry Green, D. D. Nothing could be more beautiful than the affectionate attention with which for more than twenty-five years he honored his senior and friend. Our father, just before his death, veiy solemnly laid upon his children the inheritance of obligation incurred by this long and singular kindness of his friend and theirs.

In anticipation of this event, the Board of Directors of the Seminary at their annual meeting in 1 871, invited the alumni and friends of the Seminary to assemble in Princeton on the day subsequent to the completion of this half century, with a view to its glad and grateful commemoration. They also suggested the creation at that time of “some memorial of the long, faithful and useful professorial labors” of Dr. Hodge, and proposed further that an alumni association should be formed; and appointed a committee of seven, to devise and carry into effect such measures as might be requisite for the end contemplated.

This committee of the Directors forthwith named a committee of seventy alumni residing in various parts of the country, whose counsel and co-operation were solicited, and who were invited to meet in Princeton, June 28th, 1871, the day of the commencement of the College of New Jersey, in order to deliberate upon the best method of accomplishing what had been proposed and adopting such measures as might seem advisable for the purpose.

Encouraged by cordial responses to letters of inquiry and by the general interest manifested, the committee of seventy, with such others of the alumni of the Seminary as were then gathered in Princeton, met in the chapel of the College on Commencement day, and with great unanimity and cordiality endorsed the project in the following resolutions:

“Resolved, I. That the proposed celebration of the semi-centennial of Dr. Hodge meets our hearty concurrence, and we cordially unite with the Directors in inviting the friends and former students of the Seminary to meet for this purpose in Princeton, on Wednesday, April 24th, 1 872; and that this invitation be very particularly extended to all our brethren in different Christian denominations, and in every section of our country, as well as in foreign lands, who have received their education here in whole or in part. And we express the earnest hope that the hallowed memories of the past, personal attachments, and local and literary associations with this cherished spot, may be permitted to overcome the long and wide separation of time and place, and yET. 74-] HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL, 51 r

ecclesiastical organization, so that we may all upon this glad occasion gather around the instructor whom we all love and revere, a band of brethren, cemented in Christian love, renewing and pledgmg a mutual confidence and affection which nothing in the past shall be suffered to dim or to obliterate, and nothing in the future shall be permitted to disturb.

‘’Resolved, 2. That an Alumni association be then formed, consisting of all who have been for any length of time connected with the Seminary as theological students.

“Resolved, 3. That, in our judgment, the most fitting memorial of this half century of faithful and distinguished service will be the permanent endowment of the chair which Dr. Hodge has filled with such pre-eminent ability.

“Resolved, 4. That this endowment be immediately unr dertaken, and, if possible, completed by the 24th day of April next.”

Bishop Johns having found as the time approached that it was impossible for him to attend, intimated that fact to Dr. Green by letter. To this Dr. Hodge sent the following response:

Princeton, April 24, 1872.

Dear yohn, my Twin-brother Friend: — Dr. Greer sent me over your letter to him, and I am so disappointed and grieved at its contents, I do not know what to do. I dread the 24th, and hoped for your support. Why can’t you visit some of your churches before the 22d, so as to be free a few days after that date? A bishop is not worth the mentioning if he cannot do what he pleases.

Another thing troubles me very much: your letter is not in your hand-writing. Why is this? Do let some one tell me that it is a lame finger or something of that kind. I am over head and ears in getting the third volume of my big book through the press and ready for it. It is really awful. Even worse to write than it is to read. Love to all your children within hearing.

You have only one such life-long friend as I am out of your own family.

Charles Hodge.

“The appointed day of the celebration brought together a large concourse of friends of the Seminary, including four hundred former students. The first class upon its roll is nowstarred throughout; the second shows but a single survivor, and the third but two. From the next class, which entered in 1815, the year preceding Dr. Hodge’s own matriculation as a student, four of its five surviving members were present; and every subsequent class was represented with possibly three or four exceptions. They came from Texas and Colorado and California, as well as from places less remote. The leading theological and literary institutions of the country deputed one or more of their Professors to indicate their interest in the occasion. The church in which the exercises were held was densely thronged, and by an assemblage remarkable for the number of venerable heads and thoughtful faces. Every available standing place was occupied. The enthusiasm, which was great throughout, reached its climax at that point in the proceedings when Dr. Hodge himself, almost overcome by emotion, advanced to greet his gathered pupils and to respond to the address made to him by Dr. Boardman. The exercises were admirably conducted throughout, and in harmony with the character of the day. And nothing occurred to mar the general gratification, which was heightened by the fact that notwithstanding the brevity of the time since the suggestion had first been made the projected endowment was brought to the verge of completion, ^45,000 of the proposed ;^50,000 being already raised, and a purse of ;^ 15,350 having besides been made up as a present to Dr. Hodge. One gentleman has also given ^^50 towards a fund, whose income shall be expended in the purchase of copies of Dr. Hodge’s Theology or of his Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans to be given to needy students of the Seminary.

“The amount thus far contributed to the endowment is from 575 separate donors, mostly former students of this Seminary, residing in twenty-five different States and Territories of this country, some of them missionaries in China, India, Siam and South America, a few in the Dominion of Canada, and one who is now Professor of Theology in the Assembly’s College in Ireland, and who has embraced this opportunity to renew his old allegiance. It may safely be said that few funds of like amount represent an equal measure of self-denial and devotion on the part of those who have contributed to them. Ministers, themselves receiving an inadequate support, have aided in this endowment with a generous enthusiasm, sending sums that they could not well afford to spare, but forward to testify their indebtedness to their honored teacher, and eager to have a share in erecting this monument to bear his name.”

The 1st Presbyterian Church of Princeton was arranged with an extended platform as has been the custom on college commencements from time immemorial. Dr. Hodge and Dr. Boardman sat on the opposite sides of the President of the occasion, the Rev. Dr. Snodgrass, President of the Board of Directors.

The first order, after prayer, was the delivery of an admirable Address on the appropriate theme, “The Title of Theology to rank as a Science,” by the Rev. Joseph T. Duryea, D.D., of Brooklyn, N. Y.

Dr. Snodgrass then introduced the Rev. Dr. Henry A. Boardman, of Philadelphia, who, in the name of the Directors and Trustees of the Seminary, and of the Alumni, addressed Dr. Hodge, and spoke substantially as follows:

“My Honored Father, Brother, Friend: — I am commissioned by the Directors of our Seminary to present to you their cordial congratulations, and to assure you of the profound sense they entertain of the invaluable services you have rendered to the cause and kingdom of Christ. We this day bear our public testimony to the eminent ability, the ample and various learning, the practical wisdom, the thorough conscientiousness, the unswerving fidelity, and the humble, devout, earnest spirit which you have brought to the discharge of your high trust. We offer our thanksgivings to the Author of all good, that you have been spared to us so long, and in reviewing this half-century of your labors, we reverently glorify God in you.

“The occasion takes our thoughts back irresistibly to the origin of this School of the Prophets. At this hour, hallowed by so many tender and sacred memories, there rise before us the venerable forms of those two patriarchal men, Drs. Alexander and Miller, in whose arms the institution was cradled. We gratefully acknowledge the Divine goodness and mercy in sparing them for forty years to impress themselves upon its character, to define its theology, to determine its direction, and to infuse into it the animating tone and spirit by which it was to be controlled in after times. It was the universal feeling of our Church, that a mercy so signal was too great to be repeated. Yet what hath God wrought! The mantle of our Elijahs has certainly fallen upon our Elisha. Their associate first, and then, in the true line of the apostolical succession, their successor, he has taken up and carried forward their work, and we to-day commemorate a ministration, not of forty, but of fifty years, marked with every attribute which can command our homage, or win our gratitude. But I forget my errand. Assigned to a service to which I feel myself most unequal, and from which I sought in vain to escape, I am instructed to speak to you on behalf, not only of the Directors of our Seminary, but of the Alumni also. I have no words for this. Here, in the scene before us, is the only adequate expression that can be given to the feelings of your former pupils. From far and near, the aged and the young, moved by a common impulse, have hastened to this festal service. Commingled with them are the learned Faculties of other seminaries and colleges, distinguished laymen, and honored legates of European Churches. No eye can look upon this sea of upturned faces without being impressed with the spectacle. As interpreted by its object,

^T. 74-] BIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 515

and by the free, generous inspiration which pervades the entire body, it bears an aspect of moral beauty — nay, of moral sublimity — beyond almost any convocation our Church, or even our country has witnessed. Who has ever seen a gathering like this? Ovations to heroes, and statesmen, and authors are no novelty, but here is the spontaneous homage paid to a simple teacher of God’s Word, and defender of his truth, by a vast assemblage, worthily representing the highest culture, and the most exalted moral worth of our land. No man of our times has received a tribute comprising, in an equal degree, the choice elements that are blended here. And, my beloved friend and brother, there is but one name among the living that could have drawn this concourse together. Nor is this all. What we see, imposing as it is, is as nothing to what we do not see.

“Of the twenty-seven hundred men who have sat at your feet, there are few in the field who are not here in spirit to-day. The wires are up, and there is a sweet tide of thought and sympathy flowing to us at this hour from our toiling brethren in Europe, in Africa, in Eastern Asia, in South America, and in the Isles of the Sea. It is not less for them I speak than for the hundreds of your students who are present, when I say we rejoice with you in this Jubilee; from our heart of hearts we thank you for the priceless benefits we have received at your hands; and we praise God for all that affluence of blessings which he has bestowed upon you, and through you upon his Church. Do not imagine, however, that we have come together merely to recognize in you the great expositor and defender of the faith once delivered to the saints, I appeal to you. Fathers and Brethren, that it is not this sentiment only, nor mainly, which throbs in our breasts to-day. Beheld from a distance, even friendly eyes see on this ancient hill simply a giant oak, with its grand old branches swaying to the winds of heaven. But to us, branches and trunk alike are so covered with vines, and flowers, and clustering fruits, that we scarcely wot of the massive props that are underneath. And so, whatever of honest admiration we may feel for our gifted master, it is not that which brings us here, but the affection rather which we cherish for him as an unselfish and sympathizing friend. If the homely phrase may be allowed, while we honor him for the great head which God has given him, we love him for his still greater heart.

“Allusion has been made to the type of theology taught in this Seminary. It has two leading characteristics. In the first place, the principle upon which it rests, and which underlies every part and parcel of the lofty superstructure, is the absolute, universal, and exclusive supremacy of the Word of God as the rule of faith and practice. A censorious critic said the other day, derisively, in reviewing the volumes of Theology lately published: “It is enough for Dr. Hodge to believe a thing to be true that he finds it in the Bible!” We accept the token. Dr. Hodge has never got beyond the Bible. It contains every jot and title of his theology. And woe be to this Seminary whenever any man shall be called to fill one of its chairs, who gets his theology from any other source. The second characteristic of this system is that it is a Christology. Christ is its central sun; its pervading element; the stem from which everything in dogma, in precept, in religious experience, radiates, and towards which every thing returns. Not as a mere anatomy does Christ dwell here — the crown of a speculative organism, symmetrical and complete, but without flesh and blood and vitality. Rather is He the living soul that animates, and guides, and hallows the whole. If a theology must needs take somewhat of its essential tone from the temper of its expounder, who can marvel that the theology of this institution should be instinct with a gentle, loving, humble Christ-like spirit?

“To be permitted to set forth and inculcate a system like this, even in the ordinary routine of personal labor, is no

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trivial privilege. But what honor, beloved Brother, has God put upon you! For fifty years you have been training men to preach the glorious gospel of the grace of God to their fellow-sinners. The teacher of teachers, your pupils have become professors in numerous Colleges and Seminaries at home and abroad. Not to speak of one or two thousand pastors, who are exerting an ameliorating influence upon this nation more potent than that of an equal number of men belonging to any other calling, you are helping, through your students, to educate a great body of Christian ministers, not a few of whom are to be employed in laying the foundations of Christianity in pagan lands. And now there is superadded that which all your friends regard as the crowning mercy of your life, viz.: that health and strength have been given you to complete and publish the only comprehensive work of Systematic Theology in our own or any other language, which comprises the latest results of sound scriptural exegesis, discusses the great themes of the Augustinian system from an evangelical standpoint, and deals satisfactorily with the sceptical speculations of modern philosophy and science. In thus supplying what was confessedly, in the way of authorship, the most urgent want of Protestant Christendom, you have extended indefinitely the range of your beneficent power.

“Your Theology must soon become the Hand-Book of all students of the Reformed faith who speak the English tongue. Where you have taught scores, you will now teach hundreds; and where you have taught hundreds, you will teach thousands. Thus, through your pupils, dispersed over the four quarters of the globe, and through this great work, comprising your mature views in the noblest of all sciences, is your influence extending in ever-multiplying, ever-widening, concentric circles, until the mind is awed in attempting to conceive, not of its possible, but of its certain results, as the ages come and go. That you should live to see this mighty mechanism in motion — to guide into so many of its countless channels this broad stream from the Fountain of living waters, is a distinction so rare and so exalted that we cannot but look upon you as a man greatly beloved of God, and honored as He has honored scarcely any other individual of our age. When He has thus spoken, we have no right to be silent. We render the praise to Him whose providence and grace have made you what you are, and given you to us and to His Church. Again we do offer our thanksgivings for all that He has done and is doing for our Seminary, for the Church, and for the world through your instrumentality. Again with one heart and voice do we, the Directors, Trustees, and Alumni of the Seminary, the Faculties and graduates of sister institutions, the representatives of the other liberal professions, and your friends of every name and calling here assembled, congratulate you on this auspicious anniversary, and pay you the tribute of our grateful love. ‘The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace!’”

As Dr. Hodge rose to reply, the audience spontaneously rose, and a large portion remained standing until he had finished his response, which was as follows:

“Gentlemen of the Board of Directors and of the Board of Trustees, Friends from abroad who have honored this occasion by your presence, and dear Brethren of the Alumni, I greet you.

“A man is to be commiserated who is called upon to attempt the impossible. The certainty of failure does not free him from the necessity of the effort. It is impossible that I should make you understand the feelings which swell my heart almost to bursting. Language is an imperfect vehicle of thought; as an expression of emotion it is utterly inadequate. We say, ‘I thank you,’ to a servant who hands us a glass of water; and we thank God for our salvation. The same word must answer these widely different purposes; yet there is no other. When I say I thank you for all your respect, confidence, and love, I say nothing, I am powerless. I can only bow down before you with tearful gratitude, and call on God to bless you, and to reward you a hundredfold for all your goodness.

“Allow me to say one word. I have been fifty years connected with this Seminary as professor. During all those years no student has ever hurt my feelings by any unkind word or act. You are disposed to cover — to overwhelm me with your commendations. It is you who should be commended and blessed.

“But I am not here to speak of myself. Let me speak of the Seminary. Brethren, I too am an Alumnus; I share your feelings. We love our Alma Mater, not because she is fairer, richer, or better than other mothers, but because she is our Mother.

“Dr. Boardman has anticipated in part what I wished to say. Princeton Seminary is what it is, and what, I trust it will ever continue to be, because Archibald Alexander and Samuel Miller were what they were.

“The law of the fixedness and transmissibility of types pervades all the works of God. The wheat we now grow, grew on the banks of the Nile before the pyramids were built. Every nation of the earth is now what it is, because of the character of its ancestors. Every State of our Union owes its present character to that of its original settlers. This holds good even of counties. Before the middle of the last century a whole church with its pastor emigrated from Massachusetts to Liberty County, Georgia; and that county is the Eden of Georgia to this day. It is a proverb that the child is father of the man. The same law controls the life of institutions. What they are during their forming period, they continue to be. This is the reason why this Institution owes its character to Dr. Alexander and Dr. Miller. Their controlling influence is not to be referred so much to their learning, or to their superior abihties, as to their character and principles.

“It was of course not peculiar to them that they were sincere, spiritual, Christian men. This may be said of the founders of all our Theological Seminaries. But there are different types of religion even among true believers. The religion of St. Bernard and of John Wesley, of Jeremy Taylor, and of Jonathan Edwards, although essentially the same, had in each case its peculiar character. Every great historical Church has its own type of piety. As there are three persons in the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so there appear to be three general forms of religion among evangelical Christians. There are some whose religious experience is determined mainly by what is taught in the Scriptures concerning the Holy Spirit. They dwell upon his inward work on the heart, on his indwelling, his illumination, on his life-giving power; they yield themselves passively to his influence to exalt them into fellowship with God. Such men are disposed more or less to mysticism.

“There are others whose religious life is determined more by their relation to the Father, to God as God; who look upon Him as a sovereign, or law-giver; who dwell Aipon the grounds of obligation, upon responsibility and ability, and upon the subjective change by which the sinner passes from a state of rebellion to that of obedience. “Then there are those in whom the form of religion, as Dr. Boardman has said, is distinctly Christological. I see around me Alumni whose heads are as grey as my own. They will unite with me in testifying that this is the form of religion in which we were trained. While our teachers did not dissuade us from looking within and searching for evidences of the Spirit’s work in the heart, they constantly directed us to look only unto Jesus — Jehovah Jesus — Him in whom are united all that is infinite and awful indicated by the name Jehovah; and all that is human, and tender, and sympathetic, forbearing and loving, implied in the name Jesus. If any student went to Dr. Alexander, in a state of despondence, the venerable man was sure to tell him, ‘Look not so much within. Look to Christ. Dwell on his person, on his work, on his promises, and devote yourself to his service, and you will soon find peace.’

“When I was about leaving Berlin on my return to America, the friends whom God had given me in that city were kind enough to send me an Album, in which they had severally written their names, and a few lines as remarks. What Neander wrote was in Greek, and included these words: Oudiv ev kauzw, nothing in ourselflv Kupiw Ttduza, all tilings in the Lord; w fibvu) douXeuecu doa xal xao-^qpta, zvhom alone to serve is a glory and a joy. These words our old professors would have inscribed in letters of gold over the portals of this Seminary, there to remain in undiminished brightness as long as the name of Princeton lingers in the memory of man.

“Again, Drs. Alexander and Miller were not speculative men. They were not given to new methods or new theories. They were content with the faith once delivered to the saints. I am not afraid to say that a new idea never originated in this Seminary. Their theological method was very simple. The Bible is the word of God. That is to be assumed or proved. If granted; then it follows, that what the Bible says, God says. That ends the matter.

“There recently resided in this village a venerable lady, as distinguished for her strength of character as for her piety. A sceptical friend once said to her, ‘My dear madam, it is impossible that a woman of your sense can believe that story in the Bible, about the whale swallowing Jonah.’ She replied with emphasis, ‘Judge, if the Bible said that Jonah swallowed the whale, I would believe it.’ That may have been said by others; I know it was said by her. I am not authorized to affirm that Dr. Alexander would say the same thing. But he would come pretty near it. And he is no true Princetonian who will not come as near to it as he can.

“But admitting that the Bible is the word of God, there are different principles of interpretation which may be applied to it. Instead of understanding it in its plain historical sense, there are those who say that the letter killeth, the spirit maketh alive; that the literal sense amounts to nothing; that it is the hidden mystical sense which alone is of value. Others adopt what may be called the philosophical method. They admit that there are doctrines in the Bible, which are the objects of faith in the common people; but these are only the forms under which lie abstract truths, which it is the business of the philosopher to elicit. He throws the doctrinal formulas of Christianity into his retort and transmutes them into gas; thus losing the substance with the form. Thus the doctrine of Providence, or the control of all events by an extramundane, personal God, who governs by his voluntary agency the operations of second causes, working with them or without them, so that it rains at one time and not at another, according to his good pleasure; all this is evaporated into cosmical arrangements, leaving us no other God to pray to than the forces of nature. The same principle is applied to the doctrines of redemption. We were taught by our venerable fathers to take the Bible in the sense in which it was plainly intended to be understood.

“The principles above stated are those on which those who founded this Institution acted. These are the principles which have determined its character, and give it its hold on the hearts of its Alumni.

“Brethren, I said I am an Alumnus. I know the feelings with which you revisit your Alma Mater. Those feelings are very complex, including those with which children return to the home of their childhood, and those with which a man, with uncovered head and unsandaled feet, enters the cemetery of his fathers. Here are the tombs of Dickinson and Burr, of Edwards, of Davies and of their illustrious successors in the presidency of our sister-institution. Here lie the ashes of Archibald Alexander and of Samuel Miller. The memory of these men constitutes the aureola which surrounds the brows of Princeton, a glory which excites no envy, and yet attracts all eyes.”

After the benediction had been pronounced by the Rev. Dr. Musgrave, of Philadelphia, the meeting of the Alumni was called to order, a constitution adopted, and the Rev. John C. Backus, D. D., of Baltimore, was chosen President, and the Rev. Dr. Wm. E. Schenck, Secretary. After a public dinner, the Alumni Association met again at 3.30 p. M., in the Church, for the purpose of hearing congratulatory speeches from representative delegations, and receiving written addresses from friends not present.

Speeches were made by Rev. J. L. Porter, D. D., LL. D., of Belfast, Ireland, as a special representative of the Assembly’s College in that city; by the Rev. James M’Cosh, D. D., LL. D., President of the College of New Jersey, as the appointed representative of the theological faculties of the Free Church, United Presbyterian and Reformed Presbyterian Churches of Scotland; by the Rev. Hugh Smyth, of Whitehouse, near Belfast, Ireland, as the appointed representative of Magee College, Londonderry, Ireland; by the Rev. Henry B. Smith, D. D., LL. D., as the representative of Union Theological Seminary, N. Y. City; by the Rev, Melancthon W. Jacobus, D. D., LL. D., as representative of the faculty of the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny City, Pennsylvania; by Professor Egbert C. Smyth, D. D., of the Theological Seminary of Andover, Massachusetts; by Rev. Theodore D. Woolsey, D. D., LL. D., Ex-President of Yale College; by the Rev. R. S. Vermilye, D. D., of Hartford, Professor in the Theological Institute of Connecticut; by the Rev. Joseph T. Cooper, D. D., Professor of the United Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Allegheny City, Penna.; by the Rev. Charles P. Krauth,

D. D., of Philadelphia, Professor in the Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church; by the Rev. Francis L. Patton, Professor in the Presbyterian Seminary of the North-west; by the Rev. Joseph Packard, D. D., Professor in the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary of Virginia; by the Rev. E. P. Rodgers, as representative of the Reformed (Dutch) Church, and the faculty of the Rutger’s Theological Seminary, New Brunswick, N. J.; by Rev. S. H. Kellogg, D. D., Professor in the Presbyterian Theological Training School, Allahabad, Northern India; and by his classmate Doctor Ravaud K. Rodgers, and by Doctor Irenseus Prime of the New York Observer, and the Rev. Alfred Nevin, D. D., as the representative of the Alumni of the Allegheny Theological Seminary.

Deputations were also present from the Baptist Theological Seminary, Newton, Mass.; from the Reformed Theological Seminary at New Brunswick; from the United Presbyterian Seminary at Newburgh, N. Y.; from the Drew Theological Seminary at Madison, N. J., and the Crozer Theological Seminary at Upland, Pa. The Universities of the City of New York and of Pennsylvania, Union, Lafayette, Rutger’s, and Bowdoin Colleges also were represented by their Presidents, or other members of their Faculties.

Letters were presented from the Faculties of Belfast Presbyterian College, signed in their behalf by W. D. Killen, D. D., President of the Faculty; from the Theological Professors of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Scotland, signed by Wm. H. Goold, D. D., Wm. Binny, D. D., and Wm. Symington; from the United Presbyterian Presbytery of Edinburgh, signed by Wm. Reid, Moderator, and Wm. Bruce, Clerk. Also the following, (given as a specimen):

To the Rev, Charles Hodge, D. D., Princeton, New Jersey.

Reverend Sir, — We, the Principals and Professors of the Theological Faculties of the Free Church of Scotland at Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, desire to offer our most cordial congratulations to you on your entrance on the fiftieth year of your Professorship in the Theological Seminary at Princeton.

We only express to yourself what, on occasions without number, we have expressed to others, when we say that we regard your services in the cause of revealed truth, extending over half a century, as of inestimable value, and that we look on you as one of the chief instruments raised up by the Head of the Church, in these times of doubt and contention, for maintaining in its purity the faith once delivered to the saints.

While the Princetojt Review, under your management, has continued from year to year to bear testimony fearlessly, yet firmly, for the truths of God’s Word, and to commend them alike to the understanding and the conscience, and while your Commentaries have placed these truths in a similar light before the mass of readers, your Systematic Theology, the crown of your labors, has brought together the invaluable information and reasoning of your Articles and Lectures, and forms a Treasury of Evangelical truth expressed in a spirit eminently calm and Christian, which will extend still more widely the wholesome influence of your life and labors.

We congratulate you further on the honorable and distinguished place which you hold in the esteem of the whole Presbyterian Church, and of all churches that prize Evangelical truth, — on the affectionate regard so warmly cherished for you by your students both past and present, — and on the happy domestic influence which through God’s blessing, has given to the Church sons like-minded with yourself, following in your footsteps, and aiding in your work.

It is our earnest prayer, and that of the whole church with which we are connected, that you may yet long be spared to your family, to the Seminary, and the Church universal, and eminently blessed in such further labors as your strength may enable you to undertake, and that in God’s good time an entrance may be ministered to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

{Edinburgh.)

ROBERT S. CANDLISH, D. D.,

Principal of the New College, Edinburgh.

ALEXANDER DUFF, D. D., LL. D.,

Professor of Evangelistic Theology.

GEORGE SMEATON, D. D.,

Professor of Exegetical Theology.

ROBERT RAINY, D. D.,

Professor of Church History.

A. B DAVIDSON, LL. D., D. D.,

Professor of Hebrew, etc.
JAMES MacGREGOR, D. D.

Professor of Systematic Theology.
WILLIAM G. BLAIKIE, D. D. LL. D.
Professor of Apologetic and Pastoral
Theology.
JOHN DUNS. D. D., F. R. S. E..
Professor of Natural Science
(Glasgo7u and Aberdeen.)

PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D. D.,

Principal of Free Church College, Glasgow.

GEORGE C. M. DOUGLAS, D. D.,

Professor of Hebrew in the F. C. College,
Glasgow.

ISLAY BURNS, D. D.,

Professor of Divinity, F C. College, Glasgow.

JAMES LUMSDUN, D. D..

Principal and Senior Professor of Theology, Free Church College, Aberdeen. DAVID BROWN, D. D.

(Princeton and Aberdeen,) Professor of Theology and Church History, Aberdeen. WM. ROBERTSON SMITH,

Professor of Hebrew, etc., Free Church
College.

(This address was elegantly engrossed on vellum and forwarded in a purple morocco case.)

Also from the Faculty of Magee Presbyterian College, Londonderry, Ireland, signed by Thomas Witherow, Richard Smyth, James G. Shaw, John J. Given, J. T. McGaw, Henry Shell McKee and J. R. Leebody. From the Theological Faculty of the University of Edinburgh, signed in their behalf by the Dean, Thos. J. Crawford, D. D. From the Professors of Theology in the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, signed by James Harper, D. D., N. McMichael, D. D., John Eadie, D. D., LL. D.. and John Cairns, D. D. Also from the Theological Seminaries at Bangor, Boston, New Haven, Auburn, the Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church at Philadelphia, the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, the United Presbyterian Seminary of the Northwest, the Union Theological Seminary of Virginia, from the Faculty and from a Committee of the Students of the Seminary at Columbia, S. C, the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Greenville, S. C, the Theological Department of Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tenn., Danville Theological Seminary, Ohio, and the youngest born of all our Seminaries, the Presbyterian Seminary at San Francisco, Cal. From Williams and Amherst Colleges, Mass., and from Dartmouth, New Hampshire, from Hampden Sidney College, Virginia, and Westminster College, Missouri, and from the University of Mississippi, from the venerable Gardiner Spring, New York City, from many Alumni of Princeton in the Northwest, and from Chiengmai, North Laos, Farther India.

/E-T. 74.] HIS SEMI-CENTENNIAL. 527

The letter from his life-long friend, Bishop M’llvaine,

was as follows:

Cincinnati, March 8, 1872.

.,. As one of the associates and friends of Dr. Hodge, than whom there can be but very few living whose loving associations began so early, or under circumstances so calculated to make it abiding, I cannot withhold an expression of lively interest in the contemplated celebration, as a rendering of honor to whom it is most justly due, and of praise and thanksgiving to the fountain of all wisdom and grace for having given to His Church on earth for so many years a light so bright and shining.

It is now some fifty-eight years since, while students together in the College of my native State, our friendship began; and nearly as many years since, by the grace of God making us new creatures in Christ Jesus, we became brethren one of another, in a very near and affectionate association. We were then, as now, of different churches in the one everliving Church of Christ; but I am thankful to be able to say, that no dividing lines have ever touched our oneness of heart, or hindered the consciousness and manifestation of that confiding Christian attachment with which our religious life began.

It is under these circumstances that I regard with great pleasure the intended meeting and its object. It is very meet and right thus to acknowledge the goodness of God in having given and preserved to the work of His truth in the earth, during so many years of exacting study and labor, a teacher so efficient and beloved, and an author so enlightened and wise; at whose lips so many have learned how to make known and defend the doctrine of Christ, and for whose writings of eminent learning and power, the whole Church is deeply indebted to the grace which made him sufficient for such valuable service.

Desiring my respectful and fraternal regards to those who shall meet together on the 24th of April, and hoping to meet them in that blessed Assembly and Communion of which it will be the universal joy to ascribe all honor and glory “to Him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever,” I remain

Your friend and brother,

Chas. p. McIlvaine.

All the addresses and letters were dignified as well as full of kindness and respect. The testimony of Dr. Charles P. Krauth, as the most active as well as earnest champion of Lutheranism in America, “to the candor, love of truth, and perfect fairness which characterized all Dr. Hodge’s dealings” with the doctrines of Churches differing from his own, was the one particular personal vindication to which Dr. Hodge referred afterwards with the most emphatic satisfaction.

During the afternoon, while these congratulatory addresses were being made Dr. Hodge remained for the most part out of sight, sitting or reclining on the sofa in the pulpit behind the stage. Ex-President, Theodore D. Woolsey, LL. D., stood on the stage close by the side of the pulpit where Dr. Hpdge lay. When the former spoke tenderly of the affection he hid cherished for his friend ever since 1828 when the latter had ministered words of Christian “cheer, comfort and of strength” to his heart, then in darkness, Dr. Hodge suddenly rose and interrupted him with a kiss.

Dr. Boardman said to him, while he was lying there, as the long series of laudatory addresses closed, “How did you stand all that?” “Why,” said he, with a pleasant smile, “very quietly. It didn’t seem at all to be me they were talking about. I heard it all as of some other man.”

The editor of the Nnv York Observer wrote,” It was a day of rare and memorable interest to the graduates who returned to the arms of their old mother, meeting their surviving teacher and one another, standing again by the graves of their departed and venerated professors. Of the first class, that of 18 12-13, only one survives, James Hill Parmelee of Ohio; of the class of 18 13-14 only one, John Ross of Indiana; of 18 14-15, only one, Thomas Alexander of Indiana. None of these were present. Of the class of 1815-16 two live, Salmon Strong and Gilbert Morgan; the latter was present in a cheerful, bright old age. In the next class was Charles Hodge, who entered the Seminary in 18 16, fifty-six years ago. Of his class George S. Boardman, Benjamin Gildersleeve, Samuel S. Hatch, John Johns, Aaron D. Lane, Constant Southworth, William B. Sprague,

^T. 74.] HIS SEMI-CENTEXNIAL. 529

and Thomas S. Wickes are among the h’ving. Of those who are now above the stars, and who are well known in the Church, from that class, were Artemas Boies, William Chester, Sylvester Easton, John Goldsmith, William James, William Nevins, Absalom Peters, William C. Woodbridge and Henry Woodward. Taking the dead and the living it was certainly a remarkable class. In the next was Bishop Mcllvaine, Caruthers, Coe, Crane, Austin, Dickinson, David Magie, S. S. Smucker and Thomas M. Strong.

“Princeton Theological Seminary has given instructions in her halls to 2969 men, and of these 2700 (before his death in 1878 it amounted to over 3000), have sat at the feet of Dr. Hodge!!! Among them are men who have been the shining lights of the Church, and yet they are not the brightest stars in his crown. Multitudes of men unknown to fame; of whom some have taken their lives in their hands and gone far hence to the heathen, and others in retired parishes who have kept the faith and fed the hopes of the Church, turning many sinners to righteousness and guiding them to heaven, will in the day when the jewelry of God is gathered, be as brilliant crowns of Dr. Hodge’s rejoicing, as those who have stood in what is called the bright places of Israel.

“Then who can estimate the extent of that one man’s power over the human mind. And as that power has been in moral influence mainly, what estimate can be put on its effect on the destiny of the country and of individual souls. His eye is not yet dim, nor his natural force abated. He still discharges every duty with ability and regularity. He is cheerful, fond of that humor that good men always enjoy, and which tends to longevity, usefulness here and hereafter. In the midst of his family and friends he is playful, bright and genial, and takes the way of life as comfortably as any other intellectual and laborious man. His form is portly, his face ruddy, his eye lighted with love, and his voice as sweet as in youth.”

The evening was set apart to a reception of the friends of Dr. Hodge from all parts of the land, and from abroad, at his own residence. Over the doors were significant figures 1 822-1 872. The Seminary building was illuminated, and in every becoming way the affection and admiration of the Alumni for their venerated preceptor was gracefully manifested, and gratefully accepted.

In his private journal, under date, he notices the fact that his aged brother, now blind, and all his children, and all his own children and grand-children were gathered around him at the time. “April 24th. The apex of my life. The Semi-centenary Anniversary of my connection with the Seminary as Professor. The day, by the blessing of God, was fine, and the celebration a wonderful success. The attendance of Alumni very large; delegations of other institutions numerous, and of the highest character; the congratulations from all at home and abroad of the most gratifying kind, altogether affording an imposing and most affecting testimony of the unity of the faith, and of common love to the same gospel, and to our common God and Saviour Jesus Christ.”