Copyrig hted 1 887 PressJOH N WANAMA ! E R T IM E S PR INTIN ! HOU SE ,
Ph iladelphia . Philadelphia .
TH IS D ISCOUR SE WA S DEL IVER ED IN THE CHAM B ER S
PR ESB Y TER IAN CHU R CH,Z I ST DECEMB ER , 1886 ,
IN
COMPL IANCE WITH A N I N VITATION ! R OM THE PH I LA
D EL PHIA PR ESB Y TER IAN M INISTER IAL A SSOCIATION ,
A N D I S N OW PUB L ISHED AT THEIR R EQUEST .
MEMOR IA L DISCOURSE .
! E A R t hat I have l ittle fitness for the service
I have been so kindly invited to perform,b e
yond the fact that I had a Share in Dr . Hodge’s
confidence,that I loved him clearly
,and that dur
ing the Short period of my acqua intance with him
I had come to know him wel l . I t has occurred to
me more than once S ince the preparati on of this
Discourse was undertaken,that some one who had
known him longer and whose record of memories
reaches back to the years of a common boyhood
would have done ampler j u stice to th is occasion .
For,when a great man d ies
,there i s a natural
,
and su rely a pardonab le,curiosity on the part of
al l to know someth ing of h i s early l ife . We love
to study h is history in the l ight o f the facts
that made up the total ity of h is career,and to
read in stories of his ch i ldhood the promise of a
greatness attained in later years . In the case of
one l ike Dr . Hodge,whose personal ity was so
un ique,so manifold
,and so manifestly marked
by gen ius , we natu ral ly suppose that those who
have been h i s companions for a l ifetime are In
possess ion of rem in iscences that would abun
dan t ly gratify this very natu ral desi re . It may
yet fall to the lot of o n e Special ly qual ified,to
do what obviously I cannot do . I mu st content
myself with describ ing what I saw,and repre
senting Dr. Hodge to you as he appeared to me .
That we were engaged in kindred pursu i ts,that
we had both taught from the same text-book , and
had traversed in frequent conversations the lead
ing top ics embraced in Dr . Charles Hodge’s Sys
temat ic Theology,may qual ify me in a measure
for form ing a j ust estimate of his pos ition in the
theo logical world . This estimate I Shal l at least
try to make,n o t in the form of fu lsome eu logy
for a S imp l e statement of the truth wil l be eu logy
enough— bu t in tender regard for h i s prec i ous
memory and under the restrictions of sober fact .
The death of Dr . Hodge i s such a sore b e
reavemen t to ou r enti re Chu rch,that a memorial
service held in the midst of a larger commun ity
than that embraced in the Un ivers i ty-town where
6
the last years of h is l ife were Spent,seems em i
n en t ly proper ; and I know of no place where
that service could be more appropriately held
th an in this city of h is forefathers,the C ity that
he loved above al l others,and for wh ich h is last
and ripest work was done . On this day of the
week and at th is hou r of the day,many of you
had hoped to hear h is vo ice not many days hence
as you heard it last winter,when he exh ibi ted
so clearly,with such aptness of i l lustration and
characterist ic affluence of express ion,the great
doctrines ofour faith . How l ittle any one dreamed
that death wou ld give such S ign ificance to h is
c los ing words when for the last t ime he addressed
the large aud ience that had gathered week by
week to hear h im How little did any one suppose that these clos ing words were to be
treasu red afterwards as the swan-song of the
dying theologian ! We Shal l meet together
here no more . Let us pledge one another to
reassemb le in heaven . We part as p ilgrims
part upon the road . Let uS take ou r way
heavenward,for if we do we Shal l soon
,some of
us very soon,be at home with the Lord .
! H is
removal is God’s stran g e work . We can only
say : I was dumb,I opened not my mouth b e
cause thou didst it . We b ow subm iSSive lyA t o
ou r Father’s wi l l,and are here to-day to thank
God for the l ife of AR CH I B A LD AL E ! A N DE R
HOD ! E,to read afresh the record of that l ife
,and
in its lessons find new insp i ration .
Phi ladelphia,as I have said
,was the city
of Dr . Hodge’s ancestors . His great-grand
father,h is grandfather
,and h is eminent unc le
,
l ived and d ied here . His mother’s ancestry,in
several l ines of descent,i s sti l l numerously rep
resented here . His father was born here in
1797,and married here in 1 8 2 2 . Arch ibald
Alexander was born in Princeton on the 1 8th
day of Ju ly , 1 8 2 3 . An old frame-house on the
corner of Witherspoon Street is sti l l pointed
out as the p lace where he first saw the l ight .
He grew up i n an intel lectual atmosphere .
During his boyhood h is father’s study was the
meeting-place for al l the great l ights of Prince
ton . The O ld and New School controvers ies,
and the New Haven Divinity were discussed
in h i s hearing by men l ike Dod,the Alex
anders, John Maclean , and Charles Hodge . The
IDA/im am R eview began i ts career in his boy
8
hood,an d he was famil iar with al l the men
who were active in its organ ization . If there
I S any advantage in breathing “ the atmosphere
of float ing knowledge,
! wh i ch Dugald Stewart
says is “ around every sem in ary of learn ing,
!
Archibald Hodge must have enj oyed it to the
ful l . Y et he does not seem to have been a
very stud ious boy or over-fond of books . I
am inc l ined to th ink that boys,as a ru le
,
do not care much for intel lectual atmospheres,
and that they do not profit so much by the i r
environments as we might suppose . Books are
too numerous to be counted luxu ries by the
sons of l iterary men,and l i terary men them
selves come into too C lose contact with their
sons to be the ir h'eroes . I t is the boy who
gets knowledge under difficulties,who buys h is
Vi rgi l only by saving pennies,who has felt the
pangs of book-hunger w ithou t the means of
grat ifying h is appetite,that i s more l ikely to
develop a love of read ing and to devour l ibra
r ies . Thi rst for knowledge young Archibald’s
environment did not g ive him . But i t gave h im
the air of one who is to the manner born . It saved
h im from priggishn ess and conceit . I t kept h im
9
from displays of vanity and egotism that are
so apt to mar the greatness of men who have
transcended the intel lectual conditions of thei r
childhood . In Co l le g e he was one of Profes
sor Henry’s most distingu i shed pup i ls . It was
through the influence of th is eminent man that
he developed the taste fo r phys ical sc ren ce that
he retained through l ife ; and i t i s probab le , that,
next to his ow n father,Professor Henry exerted a
more fo rmative influence upon his mind than any
other teacher he ever had . He was graduated
in 1 84 1 he taught awhi le at the Lawrencevi l le
Schoo l,and was for a year or two after that a
tuto r in the Col lege . In the Seminary he was
one of a group of students,cons isting
,bes ides
himself,of Messrs . Lacy
,McPheeterS
,Phi l l ips
and Scott,who were special ly interested in the
study of Systemati c Theology . Dr. Charles
Hodge was then beginnin g to write h is lectu res .
The members of th is group di stributed among
themselves the work of taking a veréa z‘z'
m report
of these lectu res,which they were in the hab i t
of putting together in connected form after the
lecture was over. Besides thi s,they were re
qu i red to read Tu rrett in and present written
I O
answers to questions which Dr. Hodge h imself
prepared every week . In t hese days of a
crowded curricu lum,
i t could hardly be ex
pected that students shou ld devote so much
t ime to a department as important even as
Systematic Theology ; and now that they can
for the first part l isten indolently to lectu res w i th
a printed syl labus in the i r hands,the labor of
tak ing notes has been greatly reduced b u t there
can be no doubt that those who were w i l l ing to
work accord ing to the old method j ust described
became thorough theologians . It was through
this method o f study , taken in connect i on with
conversations w ith h is father on theolog ical sub
jects , that Arch ib ald Hodge laid the fo undation
for h is own em inent career,though no one
wou ld have prophes ied— and least of al l h is
father—that he would one day be a teacher of
theology himself. On one occasion,however
,
he won a compliment from h is father which he
must have val ued highly,for he has told me
the story more than once . It seems that he had
written an essay,and on reading it to Dr. Charles
Hodge,that distingu ished theologian looked up
with an expression o f pleased astonishment on
I I
his face,and sa id that A lexan der must read the
essay to the c lass . I wou ld give a great deal to
see that essay ; for I doubt not that i t wou l d
be another i l lustration of the wel l-known fact that
a man’s best and ripest th inking often consists
in the development of ideas that are germinal ly
man i fested in early l i fe . I am pret ty confident
that the subj ect of the essav was the R elation
of God to the World,
—a topic which was the
subj ect of Dr . Hodge’s latest thought,and which
he dealt with in a forth - coming artic le,the manu
script of which was placed i n my hands on ly a
few weeks before h is
Leaving the Seminary,Archibald Hodge
offered himself to the Board of Foreign Miss ions,
was accepted,married
,and sai led fo r India in
1 847. His stay in India was Short,owing to his
own i l lness and that of hi s wife . He rendered
important service,however
,to the M iss ion at
Allahabad,harmoniz ing discordant elements and
gaining personal influence and affection,which
rendered his retu rn a seriou s disappointment to
h i s col leagues . But what was far more import
ant,h is experience in the miss ion-fiel d enhanced
*Presb y terian R eview , Jan uary, 1 887.
1 2
h is zeal for the miss ion-cause,gave h im a grasp
of the m iss ionary prob lem ,and an interest in
miss ionaries that made him always the trusted
counsel lo r of al l those among h is pup i l s who
contempla ted a m iss ionary career . If the stu
dents wished advice, they went to h im : if the
Sunday evening m iss ionary meeting was to be
addressed,he was called upon if
,at the Monthly
Concert,the expected Speaker fa i led to arrive
,he
was called upon : i f the son of a converted Brah !
m in was sent here to be educated,he was h is
guardian : if a penniless Oriental,bent o n knowl
edge,and seek ing i t
,that he m ight carry the g os
pel back to h is countrymen,sought premature
admiss ion to the Sem inary,he found an eager
advocate in Dr . Hodge,i f anyth ing could be
said in h is behalf ; and if,as somet imes hap
pened,it was necessary to let h im know that h is
com ing had been a m istake,k ind words from
Dr . Hodge,and not in frequently a draft upon
h is exchequer,sent him away in peace : if the
Inter-Sem inary M iss ionary Conference held i ts
meetings at Hartford,Dr . Hodge must make an
address : i f it me t in Princeton,Dr . Hodge at
least must pray .
Dr . Hodge retu rned from ' India w ith his
wife and two chi ldren in 1 8 5 0 . In 1 8 5 1 , he
settled in Lower West Nottingham,Md . I t was
a rural charge,and the salary—a l ittle more than
S ix hundred dol lars a year—was very inadequate :
but i t was!
better than noth ing,and it afforded h im
an opportunity to preach the gospel . He Was
not indifferent to pecun iary compensation,nor
ignorant of the pu rchasing power of money . On
the contrary,his action in this instance i s adm ir
ably i l l ustrative o f the wise and caut ious fo re
thought in money-matters,which characterized
his whole l ife . He did not put the cal l i n h is
pocket and wa it for an opportunity to compare
i t with another ; nor did he act l ike an aucti oneer
u sing a b id from one chu rch to stimu late a h igher
b id from another ; nor d id he get h is friends to
correspond with such vacant chu rches as he
deemed worthy of bein g served by h is gifts nor,
go ing to West Nottingham,d id he plan for a
scale of expenditure exceeding h is income , with
the idea that When hi s necess it ies became known
friends wou ld ral ly to h is support . He went
there with a del iberate determ ination that,come
what may,he would l ive on h i s sa lary and keep
I 4
out o f debt . He even took a few dollars that he
had in h is possess ion , an d, prov iding against the
d irest cont ingency possible,secured a pol icy of
l ife- insu rance ; and actually l ived w ithout debt
and pa id h is premiums—an examp le,I th ink
,to
multitudes in the m in istry and out of i t,whose
lack of thrift and forethought has far more
to do with the d i stress of widows and orphans
than is commonly supposed . I mention this,
because there are men among us who remain
unemployed s imply because they Wi l l not take
the churches they can get,and who seem to
have the impress ion that if they bury themselves
in smal l places remote from Cities and away from
rai l roads,God w i l l not know how to find them
when the great work is ready which he has for
them to do . But He found Alexander Hodge
when the church in ! redericksb urg was vacant
in 1 8 5 5 ; He found h im when Wi lkes -Barre
wanted a pastor in 1 86 1 ; and He found h im
aga in when Allegheny Seminary stood in need
of a systemat ic theologian in 1 864— each step
proving in the end to be a preparat ion for the
work that Dr . Hodge was subsequently to do
in the Chair of Didact ic Theology in Princeton .
1 5
Few men have the cou rage to seek obscurity for
the sake of its advantages,but there can be no
doubt of the intel lectual advantages of a qu i et
country charge . When I hear men complain of
the lack of stimu lu s i n a ru ral parish,or find
them longing for opportunity to preach to audi
en ces more cu ltivated and worthy of thei r talents,
I feel d isposed to th ink that the poor qua l ity of
thei r intel lectual fabrics i s due not so much to
lack of proper app l iances,bu t rather to dearth of
the raw material . Many a man wi l l tel l you that
he owes all that he ever afterwards became,to
the c i rcumstance that,under God
,he enj oyed
the qu iet of ru ral sol itude,and had opportu
n ity of uninterrupted thought and readin g.
Though not a prol ific writer,Dr . Hodge was
always busy wi th h i s pen,and it i s worth whi le to
remember that the “ Outl ines of Theo logy was
not the fru it of a leisu rely professorsh ip . It went
ou t from the l ittle study in the parsonage at
Fredericksbu rg ; and what has s ince that day
become a text-book in theology in different
languages was first of al l preached to a congrega
tion of Presbyterians i n Vi rg in ia . It i s said,some
t imes,that we cannot preach theology . Here is
16
problems,h i s power of minute analys i s
,an d his
determination to see every subj ect with which he
dealt i n its variou s relations,made preaching a
very S imple m atter,and he fed his congregation
with the finest of the wheat . On the other hand,
the necessity under which he rested of presenting
theological truth in forms su ited to the minds of
ordinary people,fostered in him his natu ral gift
for i llustration and saved h im from becoming a
mere dealer in the dry formu las of scholastic i sm .
Many a Spark struck ou t in the c lass-room was
fanned into a flame of glowing i l l ustration in the
pu lp it ; and many a popu lar sermon ,I ventu re to
say,served to l ight up and lend fervor to the
sc i entific discuss ions of the c lass- room . There
was an interchange of amenities,I doubt not
,b e
tween the pu lp i t and the professor’s-chai r,that
was of advantage to both ; and the doub le duty
he performed at Allegheny had much to do with:
the superlative eminence he afterwards achieved
in doing what many wi l l regard as,on the whole
,
the greatest work of h is l ife .
In 1 877, i t became apparent that some re l i ef
Shou ld be afforded Dr . Charles Hodge, who ,
though entering upon h i s e ightieth year, was st i l l
1 8
teach ing both Didact i c and Exeget ical Theology .
There cou ld be no doubt respecting the man who
was most consp i cuously fit to be the assoc iate
and successor of Dr . Charles Hodge . It m ight
seem l ike an ungracious act to bring him from
Allegheny ; but when the interests of the Church
at large were taken into account,there cou ld be
no doubt that i t was of paramount importance that
the cha ir of Systematic Theology in Princeton
shou ld be fi l led by the best ava i lable man . Dr .
A . A . Hodge was one of Princeton’s noblest sons,
and h is a lum ma ter exerc i sed her n atu ral right to
summon him to her help in her hou r of need .
He was inaugu rated on the 8 th November,1 877.
R eferring to this occasion,a wr i ter in the Pr rséy
Zerum sa id : During al l the services,we noticed
that many eyes were tu rned to a corner of the
chu rch,in which a venerable man sat apart com
muning with himsel f,with hi s heart
,doubtless
,
fi l led with vary ing emot ions . ! The reference,of
course,i s to Dr. Charles Hodge
,of whom h is
b iographer says H i s mind mu st have gone
back to August 1 2,1 8 1 2
,when he
,a stripl ing
lying on the rai l of the gal lery of the same church,
looked down on the inaugu ration of Dr .’
A .
19
Alexander to the same office. For from Augu st
1 2,1 8 1 2
,to November 1 8
,1 877, for more than
s ixty-five years,there had been only two pro
fessorS of Systemat i c Theology in Pr inceton,and
Dr . Hodge received the office from a man he
del ighted to cal l father,and n ow transmitted it
to h is so n .
!
Th e career of Dr . Charles Hodge was won
derfu l and beautifu l beyond express ion . During
his long l ife of un interrupted l iterary activity he
had been brought into close relat i ons with every
act ive movement in what was a very active period
of the Chu rch’s l ife . He had achieved em inence
in every Sphere of ministerial renown :preacher,
debater,reviewer
,exegete
,ecc les iastic
,historian
,
and systemat i c theolog ian,
- h e was great - in each
of these dimensions of measu rement . His p lans
ripened,and hopes that others entertained in
h is behalf were fu l ly real ized . He garnered
the wisdom of h is l i fe and left his Theology
as a legacy to the world . When old ag e came
upon h im he stood between two strong sons who
lightened his labors and afterward divided b e
tween them the work,that he left beh ind . He
’
kept his facu ltie s to the last,and taught hi s c lasses
2 0
wi th in a few weeks of h is death . H is death was
as ideal as h is l ife had been and,therefore
,when
,
one beaut ifu l afternoon in June of 1 878 , h is own
sons took up the ir sad burden and carried him to
h is grave,we al l felt that everyth ing was exactly
as we cou ld have w ished .
We must look now,however
,upon a very
d ifferent picture . The coming of Dr . A . A .
Hodge brought new l ife to Princeton Sem inary ;
and when h is father d ied the work went on wi th
out abatement . He fil led h is father’s place . In
the pu lp it,at the Conference
,and in the class
room,he was a power
,and was recogn ized as
such by h is col leagues and h is pup i ls . We
l istened to h im w i th pr ide and adm i ration,and
derived from him intellectual refreshment and
Sp i ritual profit . We fondly hoped that many years
of labor were before h im,and that
,l ike h is father
,
by and by he would have a glorious sunset.
Alas for us ! h is sun has gone down at noon ; he
has been taken away in t h e prime of his man
hood,and when to al l ou tward seeming he was
phys i cal ly and intellectual ly at h is best . I t is
not strange that Princeton i s in mourn ing . She
has met as great a loss as She could poss ibly su s
2 I
tain . Dr . Hodge was emphatical ly a Princeton
man . He was born there . It was h is father’s
home,and he was bound to it by a net-work of
domestic relat ionships . He was l oyal beyond
measu re to the ideas with which Pri nceton is
identified,and loved to refer to her traditions .
H is large heart emb raced the world,but no one
could m istake the Special place that Princeton
had in hi s affections . In the distribu ti on of
hypothetical mi l l ions o f which,according to h l S
hab it of j ocose exaggeration,he was so fond
,
i t was Princeton Coll ege and Princeton Seminary
that he always thought of. Sometimes,when
my own heart yearns for the scenes of my
chi ldhood and the b lue waters of my is land
home,I can apprec iate h is affection fo r Prince
ton : it was home . I bel ieve that i t gratified h is
heart’s des i re when he wen t back there to l ive
and after that,to be h is father
’
s successor,to
Sit i n h is father’s study,to walk under the Shade
of the elms that his father had planted,and
,
i n the ways opened to h im by Providence,to do
the kind of work h i s father did,was his highest
amb ition . I do not know what hi s ep itaph wi l l
b e ; but I ventu re to say , that no words wi l l so
2 2
well convey the idea of what he would regard
as a rounded l ife of reali z ed des i re as those
which state the S imple fact that he was Third
Professor of Theology in Princeton Sem inary .
Of course,S ince Princeton was so dear to h im
,he
was correspondingly dear to Princeton . A shock
of personal bereavement was felt by every one
and by al l classes when word wen t out on the
morning of the 1 2 th November that Dr . A . A .
Hodge was dead . A man may do excellent work
in h is department and not be generally known
in a commun ity as smal l even as Princeton .
Were such a man to pass away,the publ ic m ight
acknowledge that a great l ight had gone ou t,bu t
he wou ld not be generally m issed . Dr . Hodge,
however,was a c i tizen and d id h is duty as such .
Everybody knew h im . He was publ ic- Spirited .
He helped every good cause . We met him in
social c ircles and at the house of mourn ing .
He was a lead ing man in his church and a
trustee of the Col lege . In the Faculty he man i
fested the excel lences w i thout the fau l ts or
defects which sometimes show themselves when
men are assoc iated together . He was n o t Op in
ion ated,nor arrogant
,nor ret icent , nor indifferent.
2 3
He pressed his views with manly confidence in
thei r correctness,but cou ld yield gracefu l ly to an
adverse decis ion . He was not S imply attached
to the Seminary . His l ife was grafted into its
corporate ex istence,and he was always planning
for i ts interests . He was frank , generous , fu l l of
good fel lowship,and we were exceedingly fi l led
with h i s company . His study-door,fac ing u S as
we went to and fro,was an invitat i on to tu rn in
for a friendly chat . Ah ! the echo of his fami l iar
greeting l ingers in my ear,and I seem to hear h im
tel l me to “ come again .
!
Men die,bu t in stitutions l ive . God
,no
doubt,wil l send a man worthy of the fou rth
place in this great success ion “i’: H e
. may be as
great and in some respects even greater than
h is predecessors , but no matter what h i s attain
ments may be,i t i s not l ikely that he can be to
us what Dr . Hodge has been . The glory has de
parted from Princeton Seminary and the Church
at large has lost a leader . I c laim for h im no
supremacy,of cou rse
,among contemporary theo
lo g ian s , but no one wi l l hes itate to make u n
grudging recogn ition of h is greatness . It wil l
*Dr . B . B . Warfi e ld,of th ewest ern Theolog ical Semin ary ,
Al leg heny ,
Pa . ,has since received and accep ted a ca ll to this position .
24
sary alarm,not al lowin g the c itadel to be sur
pri sed : faithfu l to the last degree,and when he
pu t the trumpet to h is l ips,giving no uncertain
sound . He was writing,preaching
,l ectu ring
,
making addresses,coming into contact with men
,
i nfl uencing them an d,by doin g so
,widening
the influence of truth . Men far and near corres
ponded with him and sought his counsel . He
had the confidence of the Chu rch as few men
have . The North loved him ; the South honored
h im . In Canada,in Great Britain
,and over the .
wide miss ionary area,his j udgments on theolog
ical matters were deferred to and quoted with
respect . If a theological question was u nder
debate,a few lines from his pen in a rel igiou s
paper went the rounds of the press . Think now
of the work that came to a stand-sti l l when
God’s finger was laid upon that throbb ing heart,
and estimate,i f yo u can
,the loss that Chri sten
dom has susta ined .
Dr. Hodge was in the zenith of h is power
when he died . Every element that entered into
h is eminent reputation put on i ts best express ion
in the closing years of h i s l ife . Let us seek to
form a j ust estimate of h im as a theologian and
2 6
a man . We Shal l understand h im better as a
theolog ian if we know him as a man,for the ele
ment s of manhood gave form to h is theolo g y
and we shal l not understand him as a man if we
do not know h im as a theolog ian,for theology
was a large part of h is manhood . H is theology
flashed into prismat ic colors on the d iamond
points of h is man ifold personal ity,and his man
hood was warmed by a rel ig ious fervor that ;streamed l ike the fires of the opal from the '
theological convictions imbedded in the core
of his be ing .
Systemat ic Theology is themost important,
the most comprehensive and the most difficu lt
of al l the theolog ical Discipl ines . I t i s,i n fact
,
the synthes is of them al l . The ideal dogmatic ian
Should be a good phi lologist,a good exegete
,
and a thorough student of B ibl ical critic ism . He
Should know the h istory of op inion and Should
understand the forces,eccles iastical and ph i lo
sophical,that in the success ive centuries have been
at work on doctrinal bel iefs . He shou ld be able to
prove the separate doctrines from Scripture,to
defend them against error,and then
,looking at
them w ith the eye of an arch itec t,b u ild them into
2 7
system . It is,therefore
,very seldom that we find
an i dea l systematic theo logian . I t i s seldom that
scholarship,erud ition and philosophica l acumen
meet in such proportions in any Individual as to
produce th i s resu lt . We must be contented,
therefore,to find men in whom the predominance
of any one of these qual ities imp l ies a relat ive
deficiency of the other two . We must bear th is
i n mind when we undertake to form an estimate
of Dr . A . A . Hodge . When he entered the
Theo logical Seminary he had the education
which the o rd inary American col lege offered
its students forty years ago . He was gener
al ly wel l- informed,fond of phys ical sc i ence
,
interested in metaphys ical prob lems,and pos
sessed of fai r class ical attainments . He was a
di l igen t studen t of Systematic Theology in the
Sem inary,as we have al ready seen
,and went out
well fu rn ished w ith a theology that he under
stood thoroughly,and cou ld use with faci l ity . In
after l i fe,and through a professo rial career of
over twenty years he devoted himself exc lu s ively
to this department . He made himself acquainted
with the creed-statements of the Chu rch,and
k n ew bo th the ir contents and the hi story of the i r
2 8
format ion . He was a d i l igent reader o f the books
that trace the development of doctrine, and that
d iscuss h istorically or polem ical ly the great sys
tems of theological op in ion . He was a student
of the Bible,and divin e test imony was his test
of every doctrinal statement . We can see in
h is Outl ines ! how constantly he appeals to the
Scriptures,and how much he refers to the great
R eformed theologians of the seventeenth century .
Y et he was not distingu ished e i ther for erudit ion
or scholarsh ip . H i s d istingu ish ing characteristi c
as a theologian— I mean,as compared w i th others
of the class to wh ich he belongs— was h is power
as a th inker. He had a mind of S ingular acute
ness,and though never a professed student of
metaphys ics,was essential ly and by nature a
metaphys i c ian . He had great reverence for God’s
word,and was j ealous of the intrus ion of ph i lo s
Ophy into theology :b u t he was,nevertheless
by temperament and by hab i t,a phi losophical
theolog ian . He loved the “ high priori road,
!
and m ight have been seen walk ing on it in many
an hour of qu iet contemplation . He loved some
t imes to take short cu ts to h is conclus ions,seeing
in advance of spec ial induction that,
S ince th is
29
and that are so,this and that are also so . He
wou ld not manipulate texts,however
,to serve
the pu rposes of foregone conc lus ions,nor bu i ld
towering structu res of dogma upon the aéu‘
er
diam of inspi red wri ters . He had b road and
sc ientific i deas of what a dogmatic induction
ought to be,though he did not have the patience
requ i s ite for minute exegetical investigation . H e
was always reasoning on the relations of doc
trines to each other,and to the great scheme of
grace . But he never ceased to affi rm ou r enti re
dependence upon the Bible fo r the authority
of doctrines ; and so distrustfu l was he of human
reason,so consc i ou s at the same time of the
inj u ry that has resu l ted from the al l iance of
theo logy with a fal se ph i l o sophy,that I be l ieve
he wou ld hardly have l iked i t i f I had cal led h im
a phi losophical theologian . Y et,that i s what
he was . Theo logy was to him a revealed worlda
view . He would have said with Henry B . Smith,
“ Incarnation i n order to R edemption,and
the reby have expressed his phi losophy of rel i
gion . He wou ld also have said,R edemption and
Incarnat ion for the greater glory o f God,and
thereby have expressed hi s phi losophy of history.
30‘
Think then of Dr . A . A . Hodge as havin g
an acute mind ; interested in theologi cal Specu la
t io n ; rethinking independently the old questions ;analytic in h is mental processes ; fu l l of scho
lastic subtleties ; bold , confident,intense in his
convictions ; fi l led with reverence for good trad i
tions ; holding the R eformed faith as a sacred
trust,and also as a personal possess ion ; pervaded
by this faith and l iving on terms of easy famil iarity
wi th i t ; able to d istingu ish between essence and
acc ident,and knowin g when harmless idiosyn
crasy runs into serious doctrinal divergence ;strong in h is convi ctions
,but not l itigious tena
cion s of principle,but never sticking in the
bark :a sturdy,robust thin ker
,always ready to
defend the faith : a bri l l iant thinker,so that
,as
ci rcumstances requ ired,he cou ld send truth out in
the Shining drapery of soft and beautifu l Speech
or Shoot i t forth l ike forked lightning,hot and
scathing,to leave on the face of error the scarred
record of it s presence— think of him,I say,
as
exhib iting this many - s ided mental express ion,
and you have my conceptio n of the type of theo
lo g ian s to which Dr . Hodge belonged . Beyond
al l question he takes his place among the great
3 1
men of America and the great theo logians of the
world .
As to the contents of Dr . Hodge’s theology
i t IS enough to say,that i t was the theology of
the R eformed Confess ions and 'the Shorter Cate
chism : it was the theology of Pau l and Augus
tine,o f Anselm and Calvin
,of Tu rre tt in and
A mesius,of Wil l iam Cunningham and Charles
Hodge . He had no pecul iar views,and no pecu
l iar method of organ iz ing theolo g ical dogmas .
He was interested in the methods of other men,
and probably took more trouble to compare them
with one another than h is father had ever done :
but after al l,he has no taste for theolog ical archi
tectu re ; and the o ld-fashioned fou r- square house,
cons ist ing of Theology,Anthropology
,So terio l
ogy,and Eschatology
,with all its obvious fau lts
of logic,pleased him by its roominess and sim
pl ic ity . He taught the same theology that his
father had taught before him ; but he was inde
pendent as wel l as reverent,and I prefer his state
ments sometimes to his father’s . He saw that his
father had occas ionally spoken on such topics as
Imputation and Original Sin , without fu l l knowl
edge of the history of op in ion ,“ and he was more
32
that, theological ly speaking , the sun of analys is
had set,and the sun of synthesis had begun to
Shine . He saw,moreover
,that in the new issues
coming or already here,the old men on both
S ides wou ld now stand shou lder to Shou lder.
He was del ighted with Dr . Henry B . Smith ’s
Systematic Theology,and cordial ly commended
it to hi s c lasses . In a generou s artic le,begun but
never finished,i t i s pleasan t to see how fairly
and apprec iat ively he puts the two theo logies,
Dr . Sm ith ’s and Dr . Hodge’s,s ide by S ide
,and
,
overlooking minor points,treats them as the
two great ci s -Atlantic defences of the Calvin i sti c
system . There was a hot controversy in the old
days between Dr . Charles Hodge and Dr . Park,
but in h is late debate D r . Park has had no greater
admirer than he of whom we speak . Dr . Hodge
had an accu rate eye for theological perspective
and presented truth in proper proporti ons .
He he ld the church-doctrine regardin g eternal
pun i shment,and had he l ived would have pu t
on record a reasoned protest against the new
be l ief in a second probation . But he wou ld not
have given the doctri ne o f eternal punishment
a p lace co -ordinate with the divin ity of Christ ,
34
or the insp iration of the Scriptures . He was a
Champ ion of Calv in istic theology,but he rightly
thought that the most important matter now is
not the defence of Calvin ism,but the defence of
Christian ity . Accord ingly,in al l h is later wri t
in g s ,he affi rms wi th ever increas ing warmth th e
doctrine that the Scr iptures are the very word of
God,and the only infall ible rule of fa i th and
practice . He was impatient of any l i terary tam
per ing w ith the B ible that would weaken i ts
authori ty,or comprom ise i ts insp iration ; and he
saw in the appeal to Chr istian consc iousness,
an attempt to overthrow the supreme au thori ty
of the Scriptures,and set up a subjective ru le
of faith under the sanctions of a pious plaus i
b il ity . Dr . Charles Hodge took pride,I th ink
,
in say ing on the occas ion of h is sem i -cen ten
n ial celebration,that Princeton had never origi
n ated a S ingle new idea . We all understand
the sense in wh ich that remark is true : i t is in
that sense,therefore
,that I am to be understood
when I say that Dr . A . A . Hodge made no origi
nal contributions to the sc ience of theology . If
he d id,i t was in h is - very able article entitled
Ordo Su lu z‘
z
’
s,publ i shed in the Pr z
’
ueez‘
ou R eview,
3 5
wh ich I th in k he probably regarded as the best
piece of theo lo g ical work he ever d id .
I‘ have been t rvin g to Show what Dr .
Hodge was as a theologian . Perhaps I Shal l
succeed better if I remind you of what he d id .
There were three modes i n wh ich“
Dr. Hodge
declared himself as a theolog ian :by the Press,
the Pu lpit,and the Professor’s-Chair .
Great talkers seldom wri te much . Dr .Hodge
was a gen ius in oral express ion,in th i s respect
resembl ing Dr . Archibald Alexander . Bu t he
wrote eas i ly and with a runn ing pen . H is style
is very Spontaneous . His sentences artless,u n
studied,sometimes exqu is itely beautifu l
,some
times cumbrous and greatly need ing the services
of the fi le . He had,i n fact
,two styles . He was ,
on the one hand,a scholastic and ful l of scho
lasti c d istinctions,to which he attached great
importance . He was very analytical,and when
he w rote insisted 0 11 making these distinction s,
and on marking them with formal exactness as
he went along . So that i t is not always an easy
matter to thread ou r way through a th icket of
l ower-case letters,Arab ic figures
,and the same
repeated in brackets,each serving to mark the
36
heads and sub -heads of an analys is increas ing in
m inuteness at every step . Th is,h owever
,is the
style which we find inh is Outl ines ! and in the
Commentary on the Con fess ion of Fa i th .
! I t
i s the style in wh ich he l iked to do h i s serious
work,and the only one by wh ich
,unt i l recently ,
he had made h imself known . On the other hand ,
he had a poet’s eye for metaphor and a poet’s
ear for rhythm ; and , had he Chosen , could have
excel led as a writer of Engl ish prose . Some of
h is shorter articles reveal h is capac ity in th i s
respect . We all remember the characteristics
of h is style in these articles,
— especial ly the
long sentences,crowded wi th dependent C lauses
,
cumulative,now arrested in the i r flow for the
wri ter to make d istinct ions or guard against
being m isunderstood,now moving S lowly on
under a cumbrous we ight of words,now spark
l ing with S im i le,and then end ing in a torrent of
strong superlative ep i thets that were equal ly
express ive of his admiration or h is scorn . I
recal l h is article on Dean Stanley in the Ca thol ic
Presby z‘eriau
,and h is notice of Farrar’s Bampton
Lectures in the last Presby ter ia n R eview as i l l us
t fat in g what I mean ; though I th ink that for
37
effective writ ing and as i l lustrating a more chas
tened style,he has done nothin g that I S qu ite
equal to h is Biography of h i s father. His first
book and the one by which he i s best known was
his Outl ines of Theology, pub l ished
'
in 1 86 0,
and at different intervals s ince repub l i shed in
Great Brita in and translated into Wel sh,modern
Greek and Of cou rse th i s work owed
its first appearance to the relation of the author to
h is father ; but it i s an independent studv of the
top i c w ith which it deals,and
,particu larly in the
enlarged edition,i s valuab le for its conc ise and
comprehens ive defini tions . Dr . Hodge’s book
on the Atonement was wri tten during the agita
tion of the R eunion question,and is sti l l one of
the best treat i ses we have upon the subj ect . His“ Commentary on the Confess ion of Faith is a
very usefu l book,fu l l of clear th inking and com !
pact statement . Dr . Hodge contributed a lso
important artic les to Encyc lopedias—Johnson’s ,
McCl in tock and Strong’s,and also the Schaff
Herzog . He pub l i shed several theological tracts
and pamphlets,and was one of the founders
of the PreséJ/z‘
eriuu R eview,to the pages of
*A t ranslation into Malag asy is in p rog ress and one into I talian contemp lated .
38
wh ich he was a constant contributor . He wrote
the important article ent i tled Ora’e Saiu z‘
is to
which I have j ust referred he wrote a valuable
controvers ial article for the N er i‘
n A merica n ;
another on the reun ion of Christendom for T/z e
Cen z‘ur and an admirably written paper from
h is pen on the subj ect of R el igion in th e
Publ ic Schools ! has appeared S ince h is death in
the N ew Prin ceton R eview . But he was not d is
t in c t ively a wri ter o f R eview-articles as were
h is father and the late Dr . Atwater :h i s l iterary
activity seemed to flow more natu rally in other
c hannels .
Speaking of Dr . Hodge the other day,some
one asked me if he was the pastor of a church or
j ust a professor . I regarded the question as a
naive express ion of the popular est imate of the
class to wh ich I belong : and it may be true that
we are not always interestin g preachers . Those
who reproach us for th i s sometimes do it k indly
and under the gu ise of compl imen t,say in g that
we are too learned and preach over the heads of
the people ; or they use great plainness of Speech ,
s ay ing that we r ide hobbies in the pulpit,
a n d preach old sermons ful l of the bones of
39
theology which,l ike those of E zekie l ’s val ley o f
VIS IOH, are very many and very dry . Dr . Hodge
’
s
preach ing was not of th i s so rt. He had been a
pastor during most of h is m inisterial l ife and had
been settl ed over four congregati ons . He there
fore knew the peop l e . He preached o ld sermons,
but,as he did not read them
,he went through the
process of thinking them over as often as he
preached them . It was the old metal,but it
went t o the melt in g-po t every time,and the red
wine of divine truth was pou red in to a shapely
cup of the br ightest S i lver . It was easy for h im
to preach,and he cou ld interest and instruct an
audience w ith very l ittle effort . His material s
were always within easy reach . Phi losophical
thought,theo logical dogma
,historical facts
,sc ien
t ific i l lustrat ions,poetic images
,personal expe
rien ces,lo cal al lus ions
,and suggestions springing
o u t o f recent conversations,were ever ready to do
his b idding . He had only to wi l l it,and they set
themselves in array and passed the portal of h is
l ips,a Shin ing company , march ing to the rhythm
of a solemn music i n the service of the Lord .
There weresome sermons that he preached habit
ual ly . They were never written,and
,I fear
,can
no
thought,express ion an d del ivery
,each of these
great sermons was a wonderful comb i nat ion : i t
was a un ion of theology,phi losophy
,Christian
experience,knowled g e of human natu re , quaint
humor,elaborate description
,a metaphor dropped
as a diamond unob served might fal l out of a
casket,fac i le utterance
,a disdain of elocution
,
few gestures,the face l ighted up
,the eye opened
wide as though the speaker saw a vi s ion of glory,
the voice tremb l ing when the Savi ou r’s name is
men t i oned,the sensit ive frame responding to the
pressu re of emotion,and emotion finding vent at
last in involuntary tears .
Dr. Hodge was a man of wit and humor .
He had a keen sense of the l ud icrous . Had he
chosen to make preaching a matter of Sunday
entertainment,he cou ld have preached to packed
audiences in ou r great c ities . But with him
preach ing was a seriou s bus iness ; he thought
that the pulpit was no place for j oke or witticism,
and never preached without produc ing upon hi s
audience an impression of solemn ity . A S words
are commonly u sed among u s,I feel that I am
employing a tame express i on when I say that he
was a great preacher . I th ink he was one of the
42
greatest preachers in this land ; and in compari
son with some who,by the ir concess ions to a
popular demand for pulp i t l ev ity and m eret ri
c ious rhetoric are feed ing the multitudes who
l i sten to them with that wh ich is not bread,and
are called great by the world,he was— I am
tempted to u se h is own favori te extravagance of
speech,and say that he was infin itely ! great .
Y e t let me not exaggerate :Dr . Hodge cou ld
be d isappo inting at times . Though he never fail ed
to be instructive,the glow of enthus iasm was
sometimes lack ing ; and if anyth ing occurred to
interfere wi th h is spontane i ty,the weak vo ice and
labored utterance formed a un ion hosti le to o ra
t orica l effect . Nor do I doubt that he revealed
the h ighest qual i ti es of h is m ind most frequent ly
in the professor’s-cha ir . A S a former pup i l,now
a Free Church m inister in Glasgow,writes : “ I t
was in the class -room that he shone,or in a
company smal l enough or congen ial enough for
h im ‘ to commit himself unto them .
’
It is poss ible to enterta in several d ifferent
v iews of what a professor’s funct ion ought to be .
Much depends upon the department and not a
l i ttle upon the man . Accordin g to one view,a
43
professorship mean s an opportunity for spec ial
i nvestigation and leisu rely research,the resu lts of
which are communicated in the lectu re-room to
men who des i re knowledge . The desi re to know
being presupposed ,t he m atter and not the man
ner of presentation is the main thing . The sub
jec t i s s upposed to be treated complete ly . If the
student does not intend to prosecute it fu rther,i t
i s probab le that his best education i n i t i s secu red
by his plac i ng him self in contact with a l iving
master and then reproducm g i n written form
the s ubstance of what he hears . I f he intend to
prosecute the subj ect by independent research as
good a preparation for it as he can have is prob
ably of the k ind described . According to another
Vi ew , the academ ic lectu re i s intended to st imu
late interes t i n the department to which it
belongs . It may deal in outl ine with the whole
department,or be a discu ss ion of a s ingle phase
of it . I n ei ther case,i t i s the particu lar contri
b u t io n that the professor brings to the advance
ment of his sc ience . But i t i s not intended to be
a substitute fo r i ndependent reading,and that
mastery of the subj ect wh ich only independent
reading can give . W ith th is view of the pu rpose
44
wh ich i t serves,a great deal depends upon its
form :and,instead of b e ing a series of paragraphs
d i ctated to a class,or a compac t and sol id mass
of fact or argument to be read s lowly and trans
ferred to note-books,it is wr itten with some
regard to the requ i rements of l i terary art as
someth ing addressed to the ear and intended to
please as well as to inform . Accord ing to st i l l
another View,the professor’s bus iness is to see
that a certa in defin ite body of instruction is safely
and surely transferred from h is m ind to the minds
of those who hear h im . He is not only or even
ch iefly to present tru th that men may rece ive if
they choose :he i s to see that they receive i t .
Each type of professorial work,when it is of a
h igh order,wi l l secu re good results
,and i t is no t
well to insti tute comparisons between method s
that are so d ifferent . The tea cher of the first
c lass wi l l reach those who,e i ther by natural taste
,
or the pressure of sufficient motive,are w i l l ing to
undergo the labor of d i l igent note-tak ing. The
man of the second class wil l commun icate less
knowledge,but wi l l
,perhaps
,make up for th is by
the enthus iasm wh ich he awakens . Men will,at
least,l isten to him w i th interest
,wil l be enter
45
tain ed,w i l l absorb someth ing
,and a few wi ll be
put upon the road of special investigation and
independent inqu i ry . The man of the th i rd class,
being less intent on giving than on seeing that
the studen ts get what he gives,w i l l succeed in
fi l l ing the largest number of minds with hi s
teaching . He wil l,perhaps
,so emphasize his
duty as a teacher,that h is students wi l l mi ss the
Charm of feel ing that he i s a fel low-laborer with
them in fields which they are invited to enter,and
which to comers even as late as they st i l l hold
out the prom i se of reward ; b u t he wil l succeed
in incorporat in g the body of truth which he
expounds into thei r mental l ife . He wil l give
them what can never be forgotten :a xvii/1 a 5 g ol e!
something that i s thei r own,somethin g indeed
that is part of the i r very selfhood . Now it is
easy to see that S ince Systematic Theology con
st itu tes the matter that men are to preach,it i s
very important that the teaching of thi s depart
ment Should be of the kind last referred to and
I regard Dr . Hodge as the greatest teacher of
this type I ever knew . He was exacting and in
tolerant o f indo lence and i rregu l arity . He was
very far from being a s imple hearer of rec itati ons
46
but he insisted first of al l that students should
know the text-book,
—and they usual ly d id . He
made use of h is father’s Systemat ic Theology ; but
that book in h is hands was l ike an i l l uminated
med iaeval manuscript,and from t itle-page to colo
phon,i t was fi l led with the bright
,beau tifu l
,
quaint and sometimes grotesque creations of h is
fancy . The students saw every doctr ine as it
presented itself to h is v is ion . They benefited
by h is power of conc ise statement and C lear defi
n it ion . He held up the representative systems
of theology with such Sharpness of outl ine and
such accuracy of articulation,that they knew them
as one knows the face of a fam il iar friend . They
questioned h im,and he answered the i r questions .
They ra ised obj ections,and so woke in him the
hot fires of h is polemic . They fai led sometimes
to comprehend a dogma,and he Swept the uni
verse for i l lustrations,and poured them out so
Cop iously and w i th such manifest spontaneity,
that they overwhelmed h im with the i r applause .
“ And yet,
! says one of h is admiring pupilsfi<
he never confused s imile and logic ; and
although h is wealth of happy imagery led h im
*R ev. Pau l van Dyk e .
47
to support many o f his arguments w ith an i l l ustra
t ion, he often warned h is students never to mis
take a metaphor for an argument . H is l ogic
was the logic of the Westminster divines,adm ir
ably su ited to its pu rpose,exact
,stra ightforward
,
and not lacking in the warmth of intellectual and
emotional enthusiasm . I cannot do better tha n
continue the quotation His patience and inte l
lectual charity were both large,and he al lowed
the greatest freedom of debate to his scholars .
In these con tests,he was always ch ival rous
,and
dismounted to meet hi s adversary on equal terms .
H is many pecu l iarities of speech
and manner never impai red his courtesy as a
gentleman or his d ignity as a professor . He had
a powerfu l brain,a large heart
,and the S imple
faith of a l itt l e ch i ld . He taught the knowledge
of God with the learning of a scholar,the Sym
pathy of a lovin g man,and the enthusiasm of a
loving Christ ian .
I was struck,says Dr . Shedd
,with hi s
great d irectness and s incer i ty,i ntel lectual ly as
Wel l as moral ly . H is mind,l ike his heart
,worked
wi thout amb iguity or drawback . Hence hi s e n
erg y i n the perception and Statement of truth
48
but they were greeted,also
,by eager eyes when
they went o u t on the i r wide r m iss ion upon the
wings of the newspaper press : and they will soon
appear in a volume that w i l l find a welcome,I
hope,in many thousand hou seholds— and not
in Presbyter ian households only,for the truths
declared in these lectures are,for the most part
,
the common inher i tance of al l who love the
Lord ; and by h is defence of them Dr . Hodge has
made Christendom h is deb tor . He was bu i ld
ing better than he knew . I remember very wel l
how h is Characterist ic modesty showed itself in
connection w i th the printing of these lectures :
how it d istressed h im to have h is own qua int,
and sometimes queer col loqu ial i sms brought
under h i s eye through the fidel ity of a shorthand
report ; and how,i f he had acted upon hi s own
impulses,he would h ave stripped these b irds of
parad ise of half the i r plumage . Bu t I am glad
that we shal l have at l east one volume that can
be trusted as a fa ithful mirror of h is mental l ife .
These lectures are not s imply i l l ustrations of h is
a cademic power,though his pupi l s wil l recogn ize
in them the manner with wh ich they are fam i l iar .
Nor are they S imply sermons,though his ordi
50
nary pu lpit discourse possessed many of the
qual it ies that are present here . The preacher
and the professor are al ike Vis ible in these lec
tures,and both in the ir best estate . Dr . Hodge
was to have del ivered another course of lectures
in Philadelphia th is winter . He was lecturing
to large aud iences in Orange,New Jersey ,
when
taken i l l ; and inqu ir ies were already afoot
respecting the poss ib i l ity of having these lec
tures del ivered in other c ities . When I th ink
of what he was do ing,and of what
,had h is l ife
been spared,he m ight have done
,I am rem inded
of the day when A belard lectured to vast aud i
en ces in Paris,wak ing a centu ry from it s intel
lectual lethargy,and fi l l ing the popular m ind
with enthus iasm for ph i losoph ical theology.
And who can doubt that i t is some work l ike
that wh ich Dr . Hodge was so wel l qual ified to
do,that ou r age and country need ! I do not
take a discou raged view of things . A S I look
along the rugged coast- l ine of the cen turies,
my eye fall s upon no h igh-water mark above
my head , tell ing me where the tide of rel i
g ious l ife once reached . I bel ieve we watch to
day a ris ing tide ; though at th is momen t , it
SI
may be,we are stand ing on the sand left wet
by a recedi ng wave . But when I th ink that the
narrow strip exposed to View by th i s receding
wave extends so far adown the Shores of “l ife,and
that the interval between its crep itant retreat
and its tumu ltuou s rebound may invo lve the
fortunes of a generation,I have some sympathy
with those who face the rel igious outlook with
feel ings bordering on fear . We see men tu rn ing
away from God . They are drinking the wine o f
prosperity,and are intox icated with worldly suc
cess ; or they have come to fee l the ho l lowness
of the world’s promises,and have no refuge in
a better l ife . We witness excess of luxu ry, and
begin to apprehend the drying up of the chan
nels of benevo lence. We take the census of the
chu rch-going popu lat i on,and find that ou r houses
of worsh ip are poorly fil l ed in the morn ing and
almost deserted at night . Men who have never
investigated a s ingle doctrine pride themselves
on the i r Intellectual independence,and fal l easy
victims to the fal lac i es of a Shal low Skepticism .
M in isters of the gospel feel the bu rden that i s .
placed upon “ them and,i n order to escape the
imputation of deal ing in platitudes,or In thei r
5 2
endeavor to l ift the gospel chariot out of the m l:of
routine,somet imes secularize the i r holy cal l ing ,
deal in pulpit flippan eies, and ensnare thei r audi
en ces into the hearing o f the gospel by intro
duc in g i t as a S ide- i ssue , and by way of remote
al l us ions . We need a theological revival . We
need an era of conviction . We need— if this
appal l ing inertia and rel igious ind ifference is to
be overcome—the outbreak of an epidem ic of
faith . We need a revoluti on’
of thought that
shall reach the core of manhood and that shal l
make men see that they have forsaken God,the
founta in of l iving waters,and have hewn ou t unto
themselves c isterns,broken c isterns that can hold
no water. We heed a prophet who can speak
in words that sh ine and burn . Alas our El ij ah
has been taken away,and there is no one who
can wear h is mantle . We can only hope,that
,
by the bless ing of God,a portion of h is spirit
may come upon his surviving col leagues,upon
the min isters of th i s city who meet here to-day
to do honor to his memory,and upon the whole
Church that is bereft of h i s leadersh ip .
It may seem to some of you that my admi
ration of Dr . Hodge has made me extravagant
5 3
in h i s praise,and that stan ding in the shadow o f
a great sorrow I have supposed that th is theo
log ical ec l ipse is v is ible over a wider area than
it i s . It is easy to fal l into this mistake . But I
bel ieve that the j udgments I have expressed are
those of sober truth . From far and near,from
other lands,and from al l quarters of this land
,
the testimonies have come in that speak of the
l oss which Chri stendom has su stained i n Dr.
Hodge’s death . Dr . Cairns,of Edinbu rgh
,gives
expression to a sent iment shared by multitudes,
when in a letter to Mrs . Hodge,he says The
whole Evangel ical Chu rch has lost in him a
powerfu l and intrepid defender of its best and
dearest bel iefs ; and— strong as i s the array of
Presbyterians on you r continent— he was a leader
whom we cou ld il l afford to lose .
In presen t ing Dr . Hodge as a theo logian,I
have already in great measu re described the man
and yet I th ink we mu st come a l ittle c loser to
h is personal ity to get a fu l l impress ion of what he
was,and to understand the charm that invested
h is pub l ic l ife . The b lend ing of attributes in h i s
case,and the interpenetrati on of hi s publ ic and
his private l ife,are very wel l appreciated by h is
54
pup i l,Mr. Salmond
,from whose letter I quoted a
l ittl e wh i le ago,when he says : “
H is courageous
earnestness,w i th itsother S ide of p layfu l humor
and qua int hyperbole,h is burn ing sympathy w ith
al l that is good,and burn ing ind ignation at al l
that is false or mean ; h is [fi rso n al modesty,
amounting even to Shyness,w ith i ts counterpart
of fearless and cand id courage in defence of
tru th—qual ities l ike these made h im a model
professor and an invaluable friend .
Dr . Hodge was a h igh -am in ded,warm -hearted
Christian gentleman . He was cast in a unique
mould and was su i g en er is . He could only have
fa i led to be a gentleman through an entire su s
pens ion o f the law of hered i ty ; for he was all ied
on both his father’s and h is mother’s s ide,and
for several generations,to some of the best and
most distingu ished fam i l ies in th is c ity and th is
land . Aristocratic sympath ies were very stron gin h im
,and they found express ion sometimes in
an extravagant avowal o f Tory ism that was partly
j est , and partly based upon a real conservat i sm
of sentiment respect ing the ph i losophy of social
l ife . Though not v iolat ing proprieties , he had n o
sedu lous regard for art ific ial and mean ingless
5 5
conventional ities,an d sometimes carried h i s in
difference to what other people say and do , a
l ittle fu rther than he need have done . L ike al l
men of gen ius,he was eccentric ; and l ike most
pos i t ive natures,he had vio lent l ikes and di s l ikes .
If he was in an g st rac ted mood,he might wear
an air of indifference , which was i n n o sense
intended for coldness . But he made no effort
at concealment if men were not congenial to
him,and he recogn ized his right to “ shut men
out of h is un iverse,
’ as he used to express i t,
without feel ing that he had abated any of thei r
c laims . He was not i nd ifferent to the luxu ries
that money wil l pu rchase nor to the avenues of
usefulness that it opens ; and when assoc1ated
with refinement,he had great respect both for
it and its possessor : b u t he hated the sord id
temper that money-making so often begets,and
he had an unmeasu red contempt for the “ gold
that gilds the straitened forehead of the fool .
I think,too
,that he sometimes underestimated
t he d imens ions of the rich man'
s forehead .
When his p rej ud ices were n o t involved he cou ld
separate the chaff from the wheat in h is estimates
o f men ; an d I have known h im to tolerate a
56
them . Hence he was prompt,prudent and always
beforehand . Hence,t oo
,he suffered twice : suf
fered in the actual experience of pain,and suffered
in antic ipation of suffering . His imagination took
hold of the possib i l i ti es of experience in dying’
and he shrank from them . The subj ect was often
in h i s mind,and had been pondered
,I doubt not
,
profoundly,although i n his conversation on th i s
and kindred them es,he woul d commonly vei l the
maj estic depths of his nature by the ripples of
pleasantry . He loved the beautifu l,was fond of
su rroundin g himself with beauti fu l th ings,and
found no smal l Share of his enj oyment in see ing
how others enj oyed them . He was humbl e and
had the most deprec iative estimate of h imself.
He was capab le of admiration,and I never knew
a man who was so ready to give ungrudging praise .
He loved with a large heart and a generous and
most tender affection . Such a friend as he one
rarely finds in this selfish world . I am glad to
quote this test imony regarding h im from one
whom he greatly admi red . Says Profes sor Y oung
of Princeton I remember him as one of the
most amusing,humorous and witty men I ever
knew . He was one of themost affecti onate and
58
tender-hear ted,one of the most imag inat ive and
poet ic,and also
,as such m en sometimes are n o t ,
one of the most transparently and purely S incere
and truthfu l . I Shal l never forget
some of our walks and talks when questions were
ra ised and discussed relating to the incessant
activi ty of God as the foundation of phys i cal
enti ties and forces ; or to the correspondence
between revealed and humanly d iscovered truth,
and the right relat ions and mutual respect to be
observed between th e in terpreter of Scr iptu re and
the investigator of sc ience or our debates as to
the place and dut ies of earnest Christians in
pol itical society . I feel that I owe more to h im
intel lectual ly and moral ly,for perhaps half a
dozen hours of th is sort,than to any but a
very,very few of the instructors of my youth .
He was broad and tolerant,an utter desp iser of
Shams and conventional ities,and he went right
to the bottom of th ings,penetrating almost in
stan t ly to the rocks and vacuums wh ich equal ly
l im i t ou r human powers of thought .
!
Dr . Hodge was a timid ch i ld,and perhaps
wou ld have made a poor soldier. But he had
the courage of h is convictions . He was S incere
and scorned dupl ic i ty . He was honest and chiv
a l rous, and hated everyth ing that was S in ist er or
mean . He was devoted to h is work and Showed
no sign of self-seeking. Men sometimes serve
God through thei r ambitions,but h is amb it ion
was to serve God . Dr . Hodge had been rel igiou s
from chi ldhood . The type of piety which h e
saw in his father,a n d in D r. Archibald Alexander
whom he always reverenced as a saint and a sage,
gave tone,I doubt not
,to hi s re l igiou s experience .
He had been chastened by sorrow. Firs t hi s
mother died,then the mother of hi s chi ldren
passed away . He knew,therefore
,how to inter
p ret grief and to comfort others wi th the com
fort wherewith he himself had been comforted of
God . I shal l never forge t the prayer he made a t
the funeral of a Chri stian phyS IC ian :how,taking
the varied threads of human experience,he wove
them into a vei l of exqu is ite textu re,and la id
it across the face of death—how in the seeming
medley of earth’s mus ic,through chan g ing keys
and in spite of discord,he traced the love o f
Christ and found in it the motif that un ified
it al l—how he led us along the wind ing way of
l ife,from l ight to dark
,fromdark to l ight again
,
6 0
unti l we entered the celestial c i ty— and how he
left u s there alone with God .
Dr. Hodge was deeply interested in the
Sp i ritual welfare of both the Col l ege and the
Sem inary . He was n ot S imply a theolog ical
professor ; he was a great sp i ri tual force . In a
note received yesterday,Dr . M cCosh says : “ I
w i l l be glad if,in you r notice of ou r friend Dr .
A . A . Hodge,you mention that he is nearly as
much m issed in the Col lege as in the Seminary .
He took the deepest interest in us . He often
preached to us,and preached w ith great fel icity
of i l lustrat ion . From time to t ime he addressed
ou r students at the i r prayer-meet ings,and ever
brought the we ightiest truths to bear practical ly
on character and l ife . We all feel that we have
lost a friend : a loss to us,a ga in to heaven
above . A lo ss,indeed
,to us
,a gain to h im and
heaven . And so sweet thoughts are m ingled
wi th our sorrow . So are they comforted who
cal led him father and to whom he was so dear.
So finds She solace in her grief who wears to
day the drapery o f widowhood . So they whose
thought of him grows tender when memory
brings back the far-off years,find resting-place
6 1
for hope in the Father’s house of many mans ions .
He sa id that heaven was the “ consummate flower
of the universe !
: he knows its beauty and its fra
granee now . He l ikened i ts welcome to that
which a fond paren t gives a beaut iful daughter
whose school-days are over : he knows to -day
how far the real i ty transcends even h is most
tender though t . Those who loved him best wil l
grudge him least h is welcome home ; and the
pain of separat ion w i l l be lessened when they .
think that i t i s only a l i tt le wh i l e,an d then
God’
s love shal l set them at h is S ide aga in .
Dear friend,farewel l ! Thy go ing has made
Heaven near . Full many a vase of comely
phrase I keep among my treasu res as wi tness
to the cunn ing of thy hand . Thy loving words
shal l l ive in memory’s garden l ike sweet forget
me-nots :an d I wi l l hold the broken thread of
our h igh d iscourse unti l we meet again .