The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York : historical and biographical sketches of its first fifty years, Part 21

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 21


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" Welcome the hour of full discharge, Which sets my longing soul at large, Unbinds my chains, breaks up my cell, And gives me with my God to dwell." 1


1 Henry Boynton Smith, his Life and Work, pp. 452-456.


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HENRY BOYNTON SMITH, D.D., LL.D., was born at Portland, Me., on November 21, 1815. At the age of fifteen he entered Bowdoin College, where he graduated in 1834. His theologi- cal studies were pursued at Bangor and Andover, and, later, at the Universities of Halle and. Berlin. While in Germany he devoted himself with enthusiasm to philosophy and church history, as well as to divinity. At Halle his relations with Tholuck and Ulrici were especially intimate ; they loved and treated him as a younger brother. In Berlin he was often a welcome guest at the house of Neander. His teachers, indeed, seemed to regard him less as their pupil than as their friend and equal. With some of the younger theologians - Kahnis and Godet, for example - he formed ties of friend- ship, which remained fresh to the day of his death. After his return to the United States, he served for a year as an instructor in Bowdoin College. In 1842 he was ordained as pastor of the Congregational Church in West Amesbury, Mass. In this little village he spent five pleasant years, winning more and more the love of his people, and here began his happy domestic life. From 1845 to 1847 he also gave instruction in Hebrew at Andover. In 1847 he be- came Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in Amherst College. His work here, though short, was full of good and lasting fruit.


In 1850 he received a unanimous call to the chair of Church History in the Union Theological Seminary. After long delib- eration and not without a severe struggle of mind he accepted the appointment. He entered the Presbyterian Church to be- come one of its most honored teachers and leaders ; but his filial affection for New England continued strong to the last. It was, however, a period of ecclesiastical as well as theological change, transition, conflict, and readjustment ; suspicion and jealousy were in the air, and loyalty to new was sometimes mistaken for disloyalty to old relations. Dr. Smith did not escape the trial- and a very sharp trial it was -of being


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sometimes represented as unfaithful to New England. He was the more tried, because a number of his most intimate friends were charged with the same offence. He defended both his friends and himself in a series of articles in The New York Evangelist, and there the matter ended. This was the only painful incident of his experience in passing from a Congregational to the Presbyterian Church.


In 1854 he was transferred from the chair of Church His- tory to that of Systematic Theology. Four years later he revisited Europe. The war for the Union stirred him to the depths of his being, and called forth in its defence some of the most powerful articles he ever wrote. He was deeply exer- cised also on the subject of the reunion of the Presbyterian Church, and by the sermon entitled Christian Union and Ecclesiastical Reunion, preached by him at Dayton, Ohio, in 1864, as retiring moderator of the General Assembly, struck the key-note of that great movement. In 1866 he made a third visit to the Old World, going in the interest of the Evangelical Alliance. Toward the close of 1868 his health became so much impaired that he had to abandon all work and flee for his life. Early in 1869 he went abroad with his family, and spent a year and a half in Germany, in Italy, and in the lands of the Bible. Returning in 1870, better, yet not well, he resumed his work in the Seminary. But toward the close of 1873 he was prostrated by a new attack of disease, and on the 13th of January, 1874, he resigned his chair. He was at once made Professor Emeritus, and afterwards Lecturer on Apologetics. During the next three years he carried on the struggle for life with extraordinary resolution. In the autumn of 1876 his strength had so rallied that the Board of Directors appointed him to deliver the Ely Lectures on the Evidences of Christianity. He was in the midst of his prepa- ration for a course on Evolution when death overtook him. He entered into rest on Wednesday morning, February 7, 1877, in the sixty-second year of his age. " His last public utterance


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was in the prayer meeting at the Church of the Covenant, on the evening of November 1st, 1876. The subject for the even- ing was one of the Pilgrim Psalms, the 122d: 'Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.' He rose, and taking up the thought of what Jerusalem had been to the Church of all ages since its foundation, he dwelt upon the love and longing which had gone out to it from the hearts of the pilgrims in its palmy days, from beneath the willows of Babylon, from prince and devotee and Crusader, touching here and there upon salient points in its history, until, with the warmer glow of emotion stealing into his tremulous voice, he led our thoughts to the Jerusalem above, - the Christian pilgrim's goal, and the rest and perfect joy of the weary. The talk was like the gem in Thalaba's mystic ring, - a cut crystal full of fire. Perhaps something of his own weariness and struggle crept uncon- sciously into his words, and gave them their peculiar depth and tenderness." 1


Professor Smith's funeral took place in the Church of the Covenant on the afternoon of February 9th. The assembly was such as is seldom seen in this country, representing what was highest and best in American scholarship. In a letter to me, dated February 10, the late Henry W. Bellows, D. D., the distinguished Unitarian minister, thus refers to "the great and glorious scholar " by whose bier he had just been standing : -


The depth and breadth of Professor Smith's theology and piety, the unaffected charity of his sympathies, his modesty under the crown of learning and philosophy which he so manifestly wore, his entire freedom from low ambition of place or name, his gayety of heart in weary invalidism, and the vigor of his soul so set off by the frailty of his body, - all these rare and precious characteristics I with thousands of others who have a nearer right to avow them shall ever cherish and lament to lose. How it belittles our sense of human recognition and estimation to think how feebly the gen-


1 Dr. Marvin R. Vincent.


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eral public knows what a treasure has dropped from the world, and how poor it leaves the church and the scholarship of America ! Excuse my seeking this means of relieving my own sorrow, and of making you the receiver of this feeble testimony to the worth and dignity of the honored saint we have just buried.1


In a letter to Professor Briggs of the Union Seminary, Dr. Dorner of Berlin thus referred to Dr. Smith : -


Sehr schmertzlich hat mich der Tod von Henry B. Smith berührt. Ich habe ihn als einen der ersten, wenn nicht als ersten Ameri- kanischen Theologen der Gegenwart angesehen ; festgegründet in christlichen Glauben, frei und weiten Herzens und Blickes, philo- sophischen Geistes und für systematische Theologie ungewöhnlich begabt.


Here is an extract from a letter of Professor Godet, of Neuchatel, to Mrs. Smith : -


La première fois que nous nous sommes rencontrés, c'était à Berlin, chez notre père spirituel, l'excellent Neander. J'ai appris alors à connaître en lui l'un des jeunes chrétiens les plus aimables, l'un des gentlemen les plus chrétiens que j'ai jamais rencontrés. Plus tard j'ai eu la joie de revoir M. Smith en Suisse. Devenus pro- fesseurs l'un et l'autre, nous causâmes naturellement de théologie, et j'appris alors à connaitre l'un des esprits les plus profonds, les plus judicieux et les plus perspicieux que j'ai jamais rencontrés. Il dominait chaque sujet et me dominait en en parlant. En appre- nant la mort de cet homme éminent, j'ai eu le sentiment bien pro- fond : Voilà un citoyen rentré dans sa patrie !


I will add one other tribute, that of Dr. Francis L. Patton, now President of Princeton College, in his address at the dedication of the new buildings of the Union Theological Seminary, December 9, 1884 : -


Speaking of the Reunion, however, reminds me that some time ago I printed a sentence which has been quoted several times since


1 Professor Smith was warmly attached to Dr. Bellows. As the steamer was on the point of sailing, in 1869, he handed me his card with a few farewell words written upon it in pencil, saying, " If I never come back, give this to Dr. Bellows." After his death I sent it to Dr. Bellows, who was deeply touched by the incident.


.


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for no other reason, I am sure, than its transparent truthfulness. I said that " Henry B. Smith was the hero of Reunion." So he was; and if this were his only glory, this in the minds of some men were glory enough. But this was not his only glory. The last generation had three Presbyterian controversialists in the sphere of dogmatic theology : William Cunningham, Charles Hodge, Henry B. Smith. Each supreme in his special department, and Henry B. Smith, we do not hesitate to say, was a monarch in the sphere of historico-philosophical discussions pertaining to theology. I beg Dr. Hitchcock's pardon. I have called Dr. Smith a controversialist. Perhaps I ought not to have done it, in view of what we heard this morning. I know that the theology of Union Seminary is irenic. But I could not help thinking, when Dr. Hitchcock told us so this morning, that if Dr. Smith was irenic when he wrote his review of Draper, and his criticism of Mill, and his refutation of Whedon, I would have given anything to see him when he was roused.


I wish that my friend Dr. Hodge were in my place, for I should like you to know what a representative dogmatician thinks of Dr. Smith's systematic theology. I will not attempt to give his esti- mate of that work, but I am telling no secret when I say that the students of Princeton Seminary are in the habit of reading this volume in connection with Dr. Charles Hodge's Systematic The- ology, and that they do it under the advice of their Professor. I may be allowed to say a word in regard to the recently pub- lished volume of Apologetics, as it falls within my own depart- ment. It is a fragment, they say ; in one sense a fragment, and yet in another not. The foundations of the building are not the building ; and we have here the foundations of a cathedral the like of which does not exist. The plans and specifications of the ar- chitect are not the building, yet they have a completeness of their own; and in this volume we have the defences of Christianity sketched by a great architectural genius with a comprehensiveness which, I think I may soberly say, cannot be duplicated by anything in the literature of Apologetics.


Professor Smith was an indefatigable worker both in and outside of the theological chair. While at West Amesbury he did much in the way of translations from the German for the Bibliotheca Sacra. In 1859 he founded The American Theological Review, which in 1863 became united with The


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Presbyterian Review under the title of The American Pres- byterian and Theological Review .. This again, in 1871, was united with The Princeton Repertory, under the name of The Presbyterian Quarterly and Princeton Review. A good deal of his best literary work consisted of articles in these Reviews, and of occasional addresses. The volume entitled Faith and Philosophy (1877) is composed chiefly of such articles and addresses. Among them are The Relations of Faith and Philosophy (1849) ; Church History as a Science (1851); The Idea of Christian Theology as a System (1854) ; and The Reformed Churches of Europe and America (1855).


In 1859 he published a History of the Church of Christ in Chronological Tables (folio). He also edited a revised trans- lation of Gieseler's Church History (4 vols., 1859), and of Hagenbach's History of Christian Doctrine. After his death appeared Lectures on Apologetics (1882) ; Introduction to Christian Theology (1883); and System of Christian Theology (1884) ; all edited with great care and 'ability by one of his old pupils, the late William S. Karr, D. D., Professor of The- ology in Hartford Theological Seminary.


Of Professor Smith's personal and social qualities, his manly simplicity, his unpretending modest ways, his genial sympathies, his quiet mirth, his quaint humor, his love of books and all good fellowship, his catholic spirit, his high- toned sense of truth and justice, his patriotic zeal, his kindly interest in young men and readiness to serve them, his devo- tion as a friend, his sweet domestic affections, - of all these there is no room to speak here. But the memory of them, and of that library, with which some of them are indissolubly associated, how very pleasant it is! " Who can forget that room, walled and double-walled with books, the baize-covered desk in the corner by the window, loaded with the fresh philo- sophic and theologic treasures of the European press, and the little figure in the long gray wrapper seated there, - the figure so frail and slight that, as one of his friends remarked,


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it seemed as though it would not be much of a change for him to take on a spiritual body, -the beautifully moulded brow, crowned with its thick, wavy, sharply parted, iron-gray hair, the strong aquiline profile, the restless shifting in his chair, the nervous pulling of the hand at the moustache, as the stream of talk widened and deepened, the occasional start from his seat to pull down a book or to search for a pam- phlet, - how inseparably these memories twine themselves with those of high debate, and golden speech, and converse on themes of Christian philosophy and Christian experience !" 1


In 1881, Henry Boynton Smith, his Life and Work, edited by his wife, was published by A. C. Armstrong and Son. It is a most worthy and beautiful tribute to his memory.


WILLIAM ADAMS, D.D., LL.D., was born at Colchester, Conn., January 25, 1807. His early studies were pursued at Phillips Academy, Andover, of which his father, John Adams, LL. D., was the principal. He graduated at Yale College in the class of 1827, and at Andover Theological Seminary in 1830. His first pastorate was over the Congregational Society in Brigh- ton, Mass. In 1834 he accepted a call to the Broome Street (later the Central) Presbyterian Church in New York. In this important field he labored with great success until 1853, when the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, so closely associ- ated with his name, was formed. Here he labored for twenty years ; and they were years crowded with spiritual prosperity and usefulness. Both as a preacher and pastor his influence was powerful, far-reaching, and full of blessing. No Presby- terian minister in the country stood higher in the confidence and esteem of his own denomination, or of the Christian pub- lic. In 1852 he was chosen moderator of the New School General Assembly, and some years later took a leading part in the discussion and negotiations which issued in the re- union of the Presbyterian Church. In 1873 he accepted the


1 Dr. Marvin R. Vincent.


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appointment of President of the Union Theological Seminary, and Professor of Sacred Rhetoric. He died at his summer home, Orange Mountain, N. J., August 31, 1880. Dr. Adams was a frequent contributor to the religious press. He was also the author of the following volumes: The Three Gar- dens ; Eden ; Gethsemane and Paradise, or Man's Ruin ; Re- demption ; and Restoration (1856) ; Thanksgiving ; Memories of the Day and Helps to the Habit (1865) ; In the World and mot of the World (1867); Conversations of Jesus Christ with Representative Men (1868). The second work mentioned is, perhaps, the most characteristic, as well as the most striking and attractive, of his books. He had marvellous skill in pic- turing and reproducing the family gathering, with the joyous domestic scenes and sweet grateful memories that rendered the old Thanksgiving festival such a red-letter day to the chil- dren of New England.


Dr. Adams was among the foremost preachers of his time. His printed sermons show his vivid apprehension of the sav- ing truths of the Gospel, his evangelical fervor, his pastoral tenderness and wisdom, his power as an expounder of the in- spired oracles, his devout spirit, and his whole-hearted zeal for the cause and kingdom of Christ; and yet there was an influ- ence and a charm about the man himself, which his printed sermons only partially reflect. He was very gifted in saying the right word on special occasions. His address of welcome at the opening meeting of the Evangelical Alliance on Octo- ber 2, 1873, may serve as an instance. He knew how to speak comfortably to the bereaved and sorrowing, to speak a word in season to him that was weary, and to melt all hearts by the scriptural warmth, aptness, and pathos of his utterance. His platform addresses were sometimes marvels of felicitous thought and illustration. I have heard few men who seemed to me to equal him in this respect. In the spring of 1864 I accompanied him on a visit to the Army of the Potomac, just before its march into the Wilderness. On our way from


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Washington to the front, we found ourselves in the same car with General Grant, who invited us to attend the review of General Hancock's Corps on the following day. We did so, and remained with the army over the Sabbath, Dr. Adams preaching at head-quarters. Not long after our return home he spoke at the annual meeting of the American Tract Soci- ety, May 11, 1864, on the resolution, "That the salvation of our soldiery demands, and the blessing of God upon past effort justifies, increased faith and zeal and labors for the Army and Navy of the United States." His address is so characteristic, so interesting, and at the same time recalls so vividly one of the most anxious and eventful periods in the whole history of the war for the Union, that I cannot help giving it almost entire : -


I feel that there is but one object now in all our thoughts, the army of the country, - our own fellow citizens, our own brothers, our own children, who are toiling, fasting, fighting, bleeding, dy- ing, for our sakes. In fact, such is the crisis that we have reached, and the amount of suffering, suspense, and agony with which our hearts are wrung, that all ordinary topics and forms of discourse seem stale and insipid. And it would better suit my own feelings if, instead of talking one to another, we should pour out our swollen emotions before our common Father, as best in accordance with the solemn sympathies of this hour.


I suppose that I have some peculiar emotions in regard to the reports that come to us, meagre as yet, but enough to excite our utmost solicitude in the midst of all our hopes, because I have re- cently had my eye upon that magnificent Army of the Potomac, and have mingled with its officers and men. Their faces are very distinct now to my eye, and my hand has not yet lost the warm pressure from the gallant Sedgwick and Wadsworth, which they gave me when, in the name of the Christian ministry and all these Christian churches, I invoked the blessing of Almighty God upon them and their cause.


It is but a few days ago, just when they were striking tents and ready for marching, that I was at the front; and the Lieutenant- General of the army courteously provided me with the means of seeing the major part of the army pass in review before me, with


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its magnificent cortege of officers. I have seen some great masses of troops in the Old World. I remember one holiday review, three or four years ago, of thirty thousand riflemen in Hyde Park, Lon- don. But that was all show ; this was solemn work. Not a word was said as that splendid body of men passed by their com- mander, regiment after regiment, brigade after brigade, division after division, hour after hour, - men seasoned for their work, whose physique was most imposing, and who had all the actual ap- purtenances and equipments of war. And the feeling lay solemnly upon the heart that they were upon the eve of an eventful crisis, when many of them who were in the pride of life and health would sleep on the earth that was waiting to be saturated with their blood.


I preached at head-quarters just two Sabbaths ago, the very last service that was held there. Just conceive of an audience com- posed entirely of one class, -not an old man, not a civilian, not a woman, not a child, but armed men ; the commander in chief with all his staff, the officers of the army, and the great company of soldiers ; and this just on the eve of a great movement ! I am told that that was the last sermon preached there ; the tent was struck shortly after, and preparations were made for the march. You can imagine what would be the emotions of a Christian minister in such a presence as that, and what he would chiefly speak of. I did not forget to say to them that they were remembered at the throne of grace. and that there never was a gathering in our Chris- tian churches where they were not commended to God in prayer ; and that they might be sure that many a gentle hand, unequal to the wielding of any other weapon than the sword of the spirit, in the closet would be wielding it for their defence and their blessing.


I told them in the plainest terms the great truths of the Gospel, what pertained to their personal salvation ; and feeling that appro- priateness was the first law of discourse, I told them of the dan- gers to which they were going, and what was their only protection. How, if they would adopt the habit of ejaculatory prayer, whether at the head of a column, running across the field in the discharge of some commission, or in the ranks exposed to the deadly hail, there was a way in which they could pray; that the channel of communication was opened between their hearts and God, and that death could not overtake them so quick but that they could lift their hearts to that Saviour who had brought them what was better


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than valor, better than life itself, - His own blessing and salvation. I shall never forget the scene, the feeling that there was but a step between many of them and death. O what suspense there is in all our hearts with regard to personal friends, knowing not what shall be reported to us when the veil shall lift! When called to pronounce the blessing upon them, I could hardly master my own powers of articulation in an hour of such solemnity.


And now in regard to the army, where this society, it seems, has been very active in all its various agencies during the past season. Very few persons know what an army really is, and I confess that I had no conception of one myself. We have been accustomed to think that it was some compact body of men, that could be brought together in an hour or two, as we see at a parade or review in our own city. I speak of one army, the Army of the Potomac. This hall will hold, I suppose, not more than a thou- sand people, if as many, seated ; but what would you think of a hundred such congregations !


I know that that Army of the Potomac, which we thought of as such a compact body, to be trundled hither and thither, as civilians would have it, at the word of command, - and nothing is more absurd than the criticisms and suggestions which are frequently made by civilians in regard to this whole subject, - this army when I saw it covered a space of one hundred square miles ! Instead of being compact, it was a congeries of villages of tents all over the country ; and if you jumped upon the railroad for sixty or seventy miles, you had it upon your right hand and upon your left all the while. In reply to my question, as to how long it would take in case of an assault to bring that army together compactly, I was surprised to hear the response of the Lieutenant-General, that it would take twenty-four hours. What a field is this for Christian effort !


Now as to its peculiar constitution. It is composed of the very flower of the country, men of one class, in the full vigor of life ; and now I speak of it before that army was in motion, for then the agencies of this society were moved with the greatest activity for its spiritual advantage. How can I depict the scene to you? Sup- pose we go over to the extreme right, to the head-quarters of the gallant Sedgwick of the Sixth Corps, and see the series of six villages of tents. There is a regiment I single out in my mind. Do you wish to know how they live? They have made for them-


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selves cabins out of mud and logs of wood, lined with canvas, and they are very comfortable, with a fire-place in them. These cabins are laid out in streets, a street for the officers and a street for each company ; and they aim to keep them perfectly neat. When the soldiers are in this condition, - not in motion, not drilling, but waiting, - can you conceive of circumstances better adapted for religious instruction ? I think not. They are away from home ; they have a great deal of leisure, the hours of the day are all dis- tributed with strict regularity ; and there are very many hours when they have entire leisure, and then is the time when they can be approached with the greatest effect.




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