The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York : historical and biographical sketches of its first fifty years, Part 20

Author: Prentiss, George Lewis, 1816-1903
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: New York : A.D.F. Randolph
Number of Pages: 322


USA > New York > New York City > The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York : historical and biographical sketches of its first fifty years > Part 20


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as far as they might wish to avail themselves of it for any ob- jects connected with the Seminary. His letter closes thus :


Should you deem it compatible with the interests of the Semi- nary that I take the office under this condition, I am ready to throw myself heart and soul into the work, and exert to the utmost all the feeble powers which God has given me, trusting that in co-operation with my respected colleagues, and with the blessing of God upon His own work, an institution may be raised up which, by its happy influence upon the churches of this city and of our land, shall repay a hundred-fold into the bosoms of its founders the cares and exertions and sacrifices which they have been called to make in its behalf.


In accordance with the condition mentioned in this letter, Dr. Robinson set sail for the Old World, July 17, 1837, and, leaving his family in Berlin, proceeded at once to the East. Early in 1838, accompanied by the Rev. Eli Smith, an hon- ored missionary of the American Board, he entered upon the task of thoroughly exploring the Holy Land. In October he rejoined his family at Berlin, where he remained nearly two years, busied in preparing for the press his Biblical Researches. In 1841 this great work appeared simultaneously here, in England, and in Germany. It was greeted with universal ap- plause. In 1842 the Royal Geographical Society of London awarded him a gold medal, and the University of Halle hon- ored him, as Dartmouth College had done in 1831, with the degree of D.D. Two years later, he received the degree of LL. D. from Yale College. In the autumn of 1851 the Board of Directors, unsolicited, voted him leave of absence for a second exploring tour in Palestine. Setting out in December of that year, he visited Berlin, landed in Beirout early in April, 1852, accomplished the new exploration, and reached New York again on the 27th of October. In 1856 the results of this journey appeared in a new volume of Researches.1 Dr.


1 This volume contains the following Dedication : "To CHARLES BUTLER, EsQ., of New York, the Earnest Promoter of Christian Learning and of Chris- tian Enterprise, a Friend of many Years' Standing, to whose Encouragement


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Robinson projected another great work on the Holy Land, to be entitled Biblical Geography ; but although fully planned and actually begun, ill health and the failure of his eyesight prevented its completion. In May, 1862, he went abroad for the purpose of consulting Dr. Graefe of Berlin, the renowned oculist. But the end was rapidly drawing near. He returned to New York about the middle of November, and on Tuesday evening, January 27, 1863, quietly passed away from earth, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.


A little volume, published by Anson D. F. Randolph in 1863, contains warm and just tributes to his memory by two of his colleagues.1 I give a single extract from the remarks of Prof. Henry B. Smith : -


Francis Bacon tells us that there are three kinds of workmen : spiders, who spin all from their own bowels ; ants, who simply col- lect ; bees, who collect and work over. Dr. Robinson is to be ranked among the latter of these classes, having left something well worked over for the benefit of mankind. He was emphati- cally a working man, seduced neither by the pleasures of imagina- tion nor by the subtleties of metaphysical refinement. A "large roundabout common sense " characterized all he did and said ; an inflexible honesty presided over his investigations. Of himself and his own works he rarely spoke unless solicited, and then briefly ; but he was always ready to impart what he knew, that he might increase the sum of knowledge. Attached to the faith in which he was bred, he was never a polemic ; he never took part in eccle- siastical agitations ; he stood aloof from doctrinal controversy, and ever showed a truly catholic and magnanimous spirit.


In person he was built upon a large and even massive scale ; with broad shoulders and muscular limbs, that denoted capacity for great endurance and toil ; crowned with a head of unusual volume, a broad and open forehead, with perceptive powers predominant ; a shaggy eyebrow, a full bright piercing eye, though usually and Aid in this Second Journey to the Holy Land the Author has been greatly indebted, This Volume is gratefully dedicated."


1 The Life, Writings, and Character of Edward Robinson, D. D., LL. D., read before the New York Historical Society, by Henry B. Smith, D. D., and Roswell D. Hitchcock, D. D. Published by Request of the Society.


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shaded through infirmity ; and altogether giving the impression, even to a casual observer, of a man of weight and mark. . . . In his character, habits, associations, and sympathies, he was every whit an American, and loved his country more the more he knew of other lands. He died in the midst of the perils and darkness caused by the " weight of armies and the shock of steel"; but he did not doubt the final triumph of the cause of liberty and law.


HENRY WHITE, D. D., was born in Durham, N. Y., on June 19, 1800. His early years were spent mostly in laboring on his father's farm. In the winter he attended the district school, and at the age of seventeen began himself to teach. When about eighteen he passed through a sharp spiritual conflict, which at length issued in Christian peace and hope. Soon after, he united with the Presbyterian Church in Cairo, a few miles from his native place. He was fitted for college in the Academy at Greencastle, N. Y., then under the care of Mr. Andrew Huntington, and joined the Junior class in Union College in 1822. The following extract from a letter of the Rev. Dr. J. D. Wickham, of Manchester, Vt., dated December 17, 1886, touches upon this period of his life : -


My first acquaintance with Dr. White was when he had com- menced a course of study preparatory for college, with a view to entering the Christian ministry. This was in Greencastle, N. Y. The venerable Pastor Hotchkiss of that place introduced him to me as a young man of high promise, who needed and should have help in obtaining an education for the work of preaching the Gospel. I was at that time an agent of the Presbyterian branch of the American Education Society, having been engaged for this service by the Rev. Drs. Richards and Hillyer, the committee for agencies. It may interest you to read a memorandum then made regarding one who in the course of time was to be the first Professor of Sys- tematic Theology in the Union Theological Seminary. It is as follows : -


Henry White of Cairo, N. Y. For two years a member of Green- castle Academy. He wishes to enter the Junior class in Union College. Characterized by Rev. Mr. Hotchkiss as a pious, discreet, and excellent young man, highly esteemed in this place, called a very good scholar


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by his instructors, not brilliant, but judicious and accurate. Was ex- amined by Professors of Union College and recommended to the Amer- ican Education Society two years ago. His father is poor, but endeavors to help him to a part of his clothing. Upon acquaintance am much interested in the young man. What shall he do?


The above is my memorandum made in 1822. Having a few days before been told by the Rev. Dr. Porter, then pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Catskill, that a Ladies' Education Society in his congregation would be willing to appropriate their funds to some worthy young man preparing for the ministry, I wrote to him about Mr. White. The result was that his expenses were borne by that society till he had finished his college course. When, therefore, our acquaintance was renewed by Mr. White's call to the pastorate of Allen Street Church, I was accustomed to help him in emergencies by preaching in his pulpit, and on one occasion by taking part in a course of lectures to his people on Church History. We met as old friends as often as we found ourselves together at the assembling of Chi Alpha.


Mr. White was especially distinguished, during his college course, in the departments of mathematics and philosophy, and graduated with high honor in 1824. Having studied theology at Princeton for two years, he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Columbia, in 1826. Soon after, he undertook an agency for the American Bible Society in the South. In 1828 he accepted a call to the Allen Street Church in this city, and was installed as its pastor. Having taken an active part in founding the Union Theological Semi- nary, he was elected to be its first Professor of Systematic Theology. On the death of Dr. Richards he received a call to the same chair in the Auburn Theological Seminary ; but he declined the call, and continued his labors in this institu- tion until his death, which occurred on August 25, 1850. To the last moment his self-possession and peace of mind re- mained undisturbed. In response to an inquiry of his physi- cian he exclaimed : " Oh the unspeakable preciousness of the atonement by the blood of Christ! I have preached it for years, and taught others to preach it, and now I know its


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worth." A few extracts from a warm and discriminating tribute to his memory, written by his friend, Dr. Asa D. Smith, will show what manner of man he was, both as a pastor and theological teacher : -


For more than fifteen years I was intimately associated with him, - at first as a co-presbyter, and one of his nearest ministerial neighbors, and much of the time afterwards as one of the Direc- tors in the Seminary in which he attained such eminence as a theo- logical teacher. During most of the last years of his life, my relations with him were still more peculiar, - almost those of a co- pastor. I knew him well, and sorrowfully feel that, while I had few such friends to lose, there remain to the Church few such men in the list of her public servants.


As to his personal appearance, Dr. White was of medium height and of rather spare form. He had a very keen eye, a lofty, expan- sive forehead, and in all respects a contour and cast of countenance indicative of intellect and energy of character. The furrows of thought and care in his face, and the premature and unusual white- ness of his hair, made him appear much older than he really was. Though but fifty at his death, a stranger, judging from the venera- ble aspect he presented in the pulpit, would have pronounced him at least sixty. His personal habits were marked by great plain- ness and simplicity, yet he was ever affable and courteous. He had naturally a strong, discriminating mind, well balanced and abounding in practical wisdom. He was not of that class who, however profound in professional matters, as to all common things are mere children, and need to be kept in leading strings. A rare counsellor he was, as well in regard to life's minor matters as to its weightier concernments. He was a man of great decision, - not hasty in laying his plans, but, when they were once adopted, stead- fast and immovable. I have seldom met with a man who held to deliberately formed purposes with so tenacious a grasp. He had great directness and transparency of character ; he was at a great remove from low intrigue, and from all disingenuous or dishonest management. Sagacious he was indeed, skilled in men as well as books ; he knew better than most how to approach most felicitously our many-sided humanity; he knew what a Roman poet has called the "tempora mollia fandi." He was in all points reliable ; you knew not only where to find him, but where he would remain.


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As a preacher he was eminently thoughtful, clear, convincing, and pungent. Professor of theology though he was, deeply versed in metaphysical subtleties, yet all who were accustomed to hear him can bear witness how plain and scriptural, how suited to min- ister, not to " vain jangling," but to "godly edifying," were his topics and his treatment of them. His career as a pastor was very successful. With the tenderest interest do the members of the Allen Street Presbyterian Church still recur to the scenes of his ministry among them. As nearly as I am able to ascertain, not far from four hundred persons were, during the eight years of his pastorship, received into the church, about one hundred and ninety of them on profession of their faith.


As a teacher of theology, Dr. White had peculiar and almost unrivalled excellence. His system was eclectic, but yet origi- nal and independent, - the result of his own careful examination and profound analysis. He loved the old paths of God's Word. Though he called no man master, his system was Calvinistic in its great outlines ; yet to him it was greater praise to call it Biblical. And eminently skilled was he in unfolding it to his pupils. Re- markable especially was his tact in setting their own minds at work, and then meeting, by a single condensed statement, by a sin- gle but clear distinction, by a familiar but luminous illustration, whatever difficulty their awakened intellects might be troubled with. Great and almost irreparable is his loss to our Seminary. He was its first Professor, he began with its beginning, he had personal experience of all its trials, and the point of prosperity which the institution has in so short a time reached is in no small degree ascribable to his great ability, his unwearied labor, and his ready and ample sacrifices. As children for a father, so mourn the students for him.


THOMAS HARVEY SKINNER, D. D., LL. D., was born near Harvey's Neck, N. C., on March 7, 1791. He entered the College of New Jersey in 1807, joining the Junior class. On leaving college he began the study of law in the office of his brother, at Edenton, N. C .; but upon his conversion, shortly after, he decided to exchange the study of law for that of divinity. To this end he went to Princeton, and later to Elizabethtown, where he became a theological pupil of the


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Rev. Dr. John McDowell, a leading Presbyterian pastor of that day. He was licensed to preach on December 16, 1812, and ordained co-pastor with Dr. Janeway of the Second Pres- byterian Church, Arch Street, Philadelphia, on June 10, 1813. In 1816 he accepted a call to the Fifth Presbyterian Church in Locust Street, and was installed over it on December 1. A few years later a new house of worship was erected in Arch Street, near Tenth, and dedicated on June 8, 1823, Dr. Miller


of Princeton preaching the sermon. Here he labored with remarkable power and success. Early in 1828 he accepted a call to Boston ; but the climate proved unfriendly, and at the earnest entreaty of his old flock in Arch Street he returned to Philadelphia and resumed his pastorate there. In 1832 he consented to take the chair of Sacred Rhetoric in the Theo- logical Seminary at Andover. In October, 1835, the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church, New York, was organized, and Dr. Skinner was invited to become its pastor. He accepted the call, and this was his last and in some respects most im- portant pastorate. It continued for thirteen years, and was fruitful in the highest degree. I doubt if any other man then living could have taken his place and done his work in New York. The great schism in the Presbyterian Church was soon to occur. The Union Theological Seminary was about to be founded. Dr. Skinner's history, his uncommon weight of personal and ministerial character, his wide acquaintance and intimacy with leading men in New England and the Middle States, and his position as the pastor of one of the strongest metropolitan churches, gave him an influence in the New School body, and in sustaining as well as shaping the course of the Union Seminary, which nobody else could have wielded. To him, indirectly at least, the institution was indebted for the legacy of Mr. James Roosevelt, an honored member of his Mercer Street flock, for the twenty thousand dollars bequeathed to it by one of his old Philadelphia friends, Mary Fassitt, and for the various gifts of Mr. James Boorman ;


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all of which helped so effectually to rescue it from its financial troubles.


We come now to the closing period of his public life. He resigned his pastoral charge early in 1848, and in March of that year was inaugurated Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, Pastoral Theology, and Church Government in the Union Theological Seminary. In this position he labored without interruption for almost a quarter of a century. On Febru- ary 1, 1871, in the eightieth year of his age, he passed away from earth. His funeral took place on Saturday, February 4, at the Church of the Covenant. It was a scene never to be forgotten by those who witnessed it. The following is an ex- tract from Dr. Henry B. Smith's address on the occasion :


Our Seminary owes as much to Dr. Skinner as to any other man ; in some respects, especially in its spiritual power and his- tory, it owes more to him than to any other man. I am to say a few words on what he was to us, and of our special loss. A theo- logical seminary needs to be poised upon a spiritual centre ; not only to be rooted in Christ the Head, but also to centre in some visible impersonation of the spiritual power of a living Christian faith, animating its members by example and by word. That was the position which our venerable senior Professor held (all uncon- sciously to himself) to both the Faculty and the students of this institution.


Few men whose lives are so long spared are what he was. He never outlived his enthusiasm for anything good and true, even though it might be new. On the themes that interested him he would light up to the last with the fervor of youth. In his higher mental powers he did not seem to grow old. Now and then the brightness of his eye was dimmed, his hearing became a shade less acute, his abstraction from external things was somewhat more noticeable ; but his intellect remained clear and active ; his soul grew larger with his growing years, and the scope of his spiritual vision was widened as he mounted higher and higher. How easily he surpassed us all in spiritual discernment !


And this was what distinguished him : while living in the world, he lived above the world. I have never known a more unworldly character. He was absorbed by a higher life. The so called fas-


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cinations and distractions of this teeming metropolis were no temp- tations to him ; he was among them, but not of them ; they just glanced off from his untarnished shield. And even in the Church he could never understand manœuvring and ecclesiastical politics ; he knew so little about such by-means that he was really amazed at them. He just thought and said what seemed true, and did what seemed right, and all the rest was no concern of his ; some- body would take care of it. And he was so single-minded that, had the necessity come, he would, I doubt not, have marched to the stake singing the song of victory. He believed in another life. In Plato's immortal description of the cave and the light, he tells us that the dwellers in the cave when they come to the light seem to others to be dazed. There is always a kind of ab- straction about great thinkers, poets, and divines. Common peo- ple cannot quite see through them. They speak from a larger view, and to a greater audience, than that of their own generation. Mutely they appeal to a coming tribunal. And so our departed friend was at times engrossed and absorbed in the high subjects of Christian thought. He pondered them by day and by night. He saw them from the mount of vision. He described them in glow- ing periods. His fellowship was with the Father and the Son. If he thought and spoke less of the things of time, it was because, like Paul, he was rapt in a higher sphere, - where " God's glory smote him in the face." He was to the last a reader, a student, and a thinker. No student in the Seminary had a keener relish for hard work than he, or found more to learn. Until within two or three years he was always rewriting his lectures and even his sermons. His most carefully prepared work, his Discussions in Theology, an admirable book, was published only three years ago. Some of the essays in it are not only complete in their anatomy, but are finished with the refined art of a sculptor. The same volume also defines his theological position. In seeking for truth he never seemed to ask, What is the view of my side? but, What is the truth itself? He did not take his definitions from any man. Cordially attached to the theology of the Reformed Churches, he was always willing to merge lesser differences for the sake of the unity and prosperity of the Church.


His Seminary duties were not official tasks ; he loved his work, and it grew upon him. His lectures on Church Government, and Sacred Rhetoric, and the Pastoral Office, were wrought out with


17


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comprehensive thought and care. To the very last he read all new works on these subjects, though he did not find in them much that was new to him. But he praised many a book, and many a ser- mon, rather from the fulness of his own vision than from what others could find in them.


All true human greatness is also humble ; it does not seem to seek its own. With his acknowledged superiority, how deferential was our brother to others, even to men of low estate! It was sometimes embarrassing to us to find that he was not aware of his- own superior position. He was among us as one that serveth. There was about him a certain grace of manner, an old-time chiv- alry of tone (now almost a tradition), towards those less and younger and weaker than himself, which showed the true nobility of his soul. It came from his high sense of personal honor, which made him honor all men. He was magnanimous, because he was humble.


And what a helper and friend he was! His personal affections were unswerving. When I came here, he took me by the hand, and its cordial pressure was never relaxed. When the pastor of this church succeeded him in the ministry, no one greeted him and no one has clung to him as did he. He was never weary of talking of his old friends at home in North Carolina, - of Dr. Wilson, and Brother Patterson, and Albert Barnes, with whom he was united in life, and by death not long divided, -of his teachers and classmates in Nassau Hall. What he was as a husband and a father, - dearest of all earthly names, - they only fully know who to-day mourn most deeply and are most deeply comforted.


A thousand of his pupils, all over our country and in many a distant land, mourn with us his loss; and many thousands to whom he preached the Gospel will sorrow for him who led them to Christ, and by his own life showed the way.


As a teacher in the Presbyterian Church he was cordially at- tached to its doctrine and government. But this did not exclude, it rather favored, his love for the whole body of Christ. It not only gave him zeal for our auspicious reunion, but enlarged his love for all who profess and call themselves Christians. His char- ity could not be bounded by the confines of any sect. He believed more fully in the invisible than in the visible Church. He loved all the brethren and labored for all men.


His power and influence as a theological teacher were also in-


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creased by his keen sense of the honor and dignity of his own pro- fession. In this he was not humble, for he spake from a high call- ing. Necessity was laid upon him. No student could doubt that he really felt, Woe is unto me and to you, if we do not preach the Gospel, for eternity is here at stake. No one could doubt that he truly believed the ministry of the Gospel to be the highest and the most serviceable office which man can fill, that of an ambassador for Christ, at the service of all men for their spiritual welfare.


His personal power was also enhanced, year by year, with the increase of his spiritual life ; while the outward man was perishing, the inward man was renewed day by day. He became more and more a living epistle, a gospel of God's grace, known and read of all men. Vexed and perplexing questions were merged in a higher life. Revealed facts took the place of the doctors of the schools, and with advantage.


Thus he lived and grew day by day, in his serene and hallowed old age, towards the measure of the stature of a perfect man in Christ Jesus. Was he, then, a saint on earth? He was called to be a saint, and he was always fulfilling his calling, not counting him- self to have attained, but ever pressing onward. Upon the whole, I think he was as saint-like a man as any of us have ever seen.


So he lived on, with his wiry and flexible frame, mind and body active to the last. Every succeeding winter we have thought might be too much for him. But he bore up bravely till he touched the verge of fourscore years. The shadows of his life lengthened, but he saw not the shadows, for his face was turned to the light. Ten days ago I met him at the Seminary for the last time, and his grasp was as firm and his look as warm as ever, though even then he said, " I cannot long be with you." He went out into the piercing cold, its rigor seized upon him ; its fatal grasp could not be loosened. His time had come; his Master called, and he was always ready. Of death he had no fear, though be sometimes said that he shrank from dying. But at last even this natural fear passed away, and he could say with a full heart :




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