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 4
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WILLIAM WADDEN TURNER (1843-52) was a model of good and patient scholarship, noted alike for his modesty and his learning, and his name would no doubt have been far more widely known had not he too been cut off prematurely.
HENRY HAMILTON HADLEY (1858-64) was a representative of the finest type of Yale scholarship and character. For several years he was my parishioner; and I shall never forget the lovely Christian traits that endeared him to all his friends. His patriotic ardor cost him his life. He went " to the front " in the service of the Christian Commission, and there fell a victim to the cause of the Union as truly as any soldier on its battle-fields.
49
DEVELOPMENT IN TEACHING FORCE.
In 1875 Charles Augustus Briggs became Professor of Hebrew and Cognate Languages. The chair of Biblical Philology was created in 1879, and Francis Brown was appointed to give instruction in it. It thus appears that the original department, which Dr. Rob- inson organized and for nearly a quarter of a century conducted with such ability, consists now of three different chairs ; no one of which, I may add, is per- haps less exacting than that of Biblical Literature fifty years ago.
The chair of Systematic Theology has remained essentially the same from the days of Dr. White. His successor, appointed in 1851, was James Patriot Wilson, now the venerable and honored pastor of the South Park Church, Newark, N. J. In October, 1853, Dr. Wilson resigned, and Professor Smith was trans- ferred to the chair. In January, 1874, Dr. Smith resigned, and Professor Shedd was appointed to suc- ceed him.
The chair of Church History was first occupied by. Henry Boynton Smith, in the autumn of 1850. Up to that time Church History had been taught either by a Professor Extraordinary, or by a temporary in- structor. On the transfer of Dr. Smith to the Pro- fessorship of Systematic Theology, Roswell Dwight Hitchcock was called to the vacant chair.
A chair of Pastoral Theology was established in 1836, and Dr. McAuley appointed to fill it. After his retirement, in 1840, instruction on the subject was
4
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given by Professors Extraordinary until 1848, when Thomas Harvey Skinner was chosen Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, Pastoral Theology, and Church Gov- ernment. In 1873 William Adams was appointed to the Presidency of the Seminary, and also to the chair of Sacred Rhetoric. In the same year George Lewis Prentiss became Professor of Pastoral The- ology, Church Polity, and Mission Work. Mission Work, if I mistake not, was then for the first time engrafted upon the regular curriculum of theological study in this country. Upon the death of Dr. Adams, in 1880, Professor Hitchcock was appointed to succeed him in the Presidency of the Seminary, and Thomas Samuel Hastings was called to the chair of Sacred Rhetoric. This meagre sketch will serve to show how greatly the teaching force of the institution has been enlarged since 1836. For twelve years the Seminary had two Professors only, if we except Dr. McAuley's brief connection with it in the chair of Pastoral Theology. The two have increased to seven ; while the scope of instruction has constantly widened with its growing power.1
1 This does not always appear in the mere titles of the different chairs. Upon the accession of Dr. Hastings, for instance, to the Professorship of Sacred Rhetoric, instruction in Pastoral Theology was transferred to him from the Skinner and McAlpin chair; while to this chair has been added, from time to time, instruction in Catechetics, Apologetics, and Christian Ethics. The " Course of Study," as given in our Catalogue for 1886-87, will best indicate these changes and additions. It will be found in Note A, p. 88. In Note B, p. 94, will be found the names of the different Pro- fessorships, together with the times and manner of their endowment.
51
THE LECTURESHIPS AND FELLOWSHIPS.
Nor is the enlargement of the curriculum all that has been done to add to the scope and efficiency of instruction in the Seminary. Since 1866, valuable. courses of Lectures have been given to the students on the Morse Foundation, upon the Relations of Sci- ence and Religion ; on the Ely Foundation, upon the Evidences of Christianity; and on the Parker Foundation, upon topics connected with Physical and Mental Hygiene. Besides these, special courses have been given upon Missions, Preaching, the Method of Preparation for Preaching, the Relation of Civil Law to Ecclesiastical Polity, Property and Discipline, Hymnology, and various other subjects. Among the Lecturers have been Rev. Albert Barnes, President McCosh, the Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs, Prof. Calderwood and Prof. Bruce of Scotland, Prof. Arnold Guyot, Justice William Strong of the Supreme Court of the United States, Dr. Willard Parker, Prof. Theodore W. Dwight, Prof. Cooke of Harvard University, and other eminent divines, scientists, and physicians. Excellent instruction in Sacred Music has been provided almost from the beginning; and since 1865 Elocution, under accomplished teachers, has formed a part of the regular course of study and training.
In 1876 the Philadelphia Fellowship was estab- lished, and in 1877 the Francis P. Schoals Fellowship. These fellowships are perhaps even more important than the lectureships in their bearing on the use- fulness of the Seminary and upon theological educa-
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tion. We owe them mainly to the wise foresight and influence of Dr. Adams.1
VII.
SUCCESSIVE ENDOWMENT EFFORTS. - LATER FINANCIAL HISTORY. - DEPARTED FRIENDS AND BENEFACTORS. - REMOVAL OF THE SEMINARY.
THE original plan of the founders of the Seminary contemplated, as we have seen, no proper endowment. On becoming pastor of the Mercer Street Presbyterian Church, five and thirty years ago, it so chanced that my first appeal to my people for money was on occa- sion of an annual collection in behalf of the Union Theological Seminary; and, to my surprise, I had learned that of the money thus raised a large por- tion would go toward paying the salaries of three of the Professors. I determined, therefore, to preach a sermon on the claims of the Seminary, and to urge its immediate endowment.2 The response to my ap- peal demonstrated that the friends of the Seminary
1 Some account of the three Lectureships, the two Fellowships, the Instructorships in Music and Elocution, and the Hitchcock Prize in Church History, will be found in Note B, p. 95.
2 The Union Theological Seminary: a Sermon delivered in the Mercer Street Church on Sabbath Morning, October 19, 1851.
The sermon was published at the request of Charles Butler, Caleb O. Halsted, David Hoadley, and other Directors of the Seminary, who were present; and also by desire of the Synod of New York and New Jersey, before which it was preached later in October. Some extracts from it will be found in Note C, p. 97.
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SUCCESSIVE ENDOWMENT EFFORTS.
were prepared already for a new departure. A few months later, on the evening of February 9, 1852, they met at the house of Mr. Charles Butler, No. 15 East Fourteenth Street, to inaugurate an effort for its immediate and full endowment. This meeting took place in accordance with a unanimous resolution of the Board of Directors. Long and painful experience had at length convinced them that the plan of the institu- tion, financially considered, was radically defective. Strange to say, its founders really believed that, once fairly started on its career, with suitable buildings, library, and teachers, it might thenceforth safely de- pend for support upon the annual contributions of its friends in the churches of New York and Brooklyn. Established for the specific purpose of educating for the sacred ministry pious young men of these two cities, they hoped that the general sympathy with its object, and personal interest in it, would furnish from year to year all the funds necessary to carry it on. This, I say, was a radical error of the founders; an error rendered more serious by their not considering that the proper function of a theological seminary is not only to train young men for the ministry by giving them thorough instruction in all branches of divinity, but also to be itself a living, perennial centre of theological learning, science, and power; and that, in order to fulfil this last all-important function, it must depend not merely upon popular sympathy and annual contributions, but upon sources of supply
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unaffected by fluctuations of business and the chan- ging moods of the hour ; in other words, upon solid, *
permanent endowments.
The meeting at Mr. Butler's formed a vital turning- point in the history of the Seminary. After a com- parison and interchange of views, it was unanimously agreed that without delay vigorous measures should be taken for placing the institution on a sure founda- tion. In pursuance of this decision the Board ap- pointed a special committee, to which the whole matter of an endowment was intrusted. On the 22d of March, 1852, the committee issued a circular to the effect " that the Directors of the Seminary, believing that the time had come when the institution should be placed on a permanent basis, have resolved to take measures with a view to secure its adequate endow- ment." This circular was accompanied by a copy of the Sermon already mentioned, and also by a very forcible Statement and Appeal, addressed to the friends of the Seminary, which, at the request of the com- mittee, had been prepared by Professor Smith.
The institution owed much already to its financial agents, particularly to the Rev. Gideon Noble Judd (1839-41), the Rev. Lubin Burton Lockwood (1843- 50), and the Rev. George Franklin Wiswell. It was specially fortunate in obtaining the services of the Rev. Joseph S. Gallagher as its financial agent at this time. Had the whole land been searched through, one better adapted to the task could hardly have
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SUCCESSIVE ENDOWMENT EFFORTS.
been found. Mr. Gallagher had served for years as a gallant officer in the United States Army ; he was a man of affairs, prudent, clear-sighted, fully im- pressed with the importance of the object, and a Christian gentleman. He soon obtained access to men of wealth, who contributed quite as much, per- haps, from confidence in him and his judgment, as from interest in the object itself. In a little more than a year the sum of $100,000 had been raised. A few years later another $100,000 was also secured by him. In 1865 Dr. Hatfield became financial agent, and through his persistent, wise efforts the additional sum of $150,000 for endowment and scholarships was subscribed. Another appeal for $300,000, made through the same agency from 1870 to 1872, was also sustained.1 Then came the princely gift of $300,000 by Mr. James Brown; and still later, in 1880, that of Governor Morgan for a fire-proof library building and a library fund. Governor Morgan's further gifts, and those of Morris K. Jesup, Daniel Willis James, and Frederick Marquand, which furnished the means of erecting our halls of instruction, our dormitory, and this chapel, followed not very long after. What a change from those early poverty-stricken years of trial, struggle, and hope deferred !
1 This sum included $25,000 subscribed by Mr. David Hunter Mc Alpin, and $25,000 subscribed by Mr. William E. Dodge, Mr. Charles Butler, Mr. Benjamin F. Butler, Mr. Enoch Ketcham, together with other friends of Dr. Prentiss and old friends of Dr. Skinner, to endow the " Skinner and McAlpin Professorship of Pastoral Theology, Mission Work, and Church Polity."
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And what motives, what considerations of public duty, wrought this change ? Substantially the same Christian motives and the same high considerations of public duty which animated the founders of the Union Seminary. Our benefactors have understood perfectly what they were doing, and why they were doing it. In his letter to Dr. Adams, dated March 29, 1880, offering to establish a fund of $100,000 for the erection of a new library building and for the im- provement, increase, and support of the library, Gov- ernor Morgan begins by saying, "I desire to show my appreciation of the usefulness of the Union Theo- logical Seminary, and to aid in the great work that it is now doing for the country." Allow me further to illustrate my meaning by an extract from another letter of Governor Morgan's. When he gave this $100,000, it occurred to me that he might be inter- ested in reading the appeals which the Board of Directors issued in furtherance of the endowment effort of 1852. Accordingly, I sent him the two pamphlets published at that time. In a letter, dated New York, January 4, 1882, Governor Morgan writes as follows : -
I had the pleasure, a few days since, of receiving your valued favor, and also two pamphlets, one containing " an Appeal," and the other " a Sermon " preached by you about thirty years ago, setting forth the condition and the advantages of the Union Theological Seminary in New York. ... There is not an expression in either pamphlet which I do not approve. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for presenting this
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SUCCESSIVE ENDOWMENT EFFORTS.
vastly important subject in its true light. Although both of the papers were written fully thirty years ago, they seem per- fectly applicable to the present state of affairs. The manner in which they presented the advantages of a great city, like this, for theological education, ought to have impressed the public very favorably then ; and although I had not your documents, nor any others, to guide me, yet the same idea controlled me when I commenced to aid our Seminary.
I have always thought, and I still think, that New Yorkers, of all others, ought to do something for a good institution, like the Union Seminary, in their own city. . . . I am con- vinced now, more than ever, that my judgment in this respect has not been at fault.
Our friends and benefactors have been moved to help us as Governor Morgan was moved, -not so much by personal appeals as by a sense of public duty, and their high opinion of the Seminary. The institution had won their confidence by its usefulness and the spirit by which it was governed ; and so they were impelled to identify themselves with its sacred interests. I do not doubt that the same cause will raise up for it generous helpers in the years to come. Its best financial agency will still be the visible evi- dence that it is doing the work of God in our own land and in all the world.
As we sit to-day under the shadow of the magnifi- cent tree planted and nurtured by our friends and benefactors who have "crossed the flood," we are all, I am sure, in the mood to thank God for what they did, and for what they were. Of some of them
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I have spoken already, because their names are so identified with all our early and our later annals that it is not possible to talk about the origin and growth of the Seminary without talking about them. I wish there were time on this occasion to speak of others, whose services, although now less widely known, were not less real, nor in some cases less vitally connected with its prosperity.
Gladly too would I speak of some of the living benefactors to whom we owe so much; not to please them, for they have a better reward, but to give vent to the grateful emotions that fill our hearts. Of one of them, indeed, it would be a wrong not to speak ; and my words, I know, will find a cordial response in all your breasts. Yet I am puzzled whether to speak of him as my own dear and honored friend for five and thirty years, or as one of the founders and for half a century one of the most loyal, wise, and gen- erous friends of this Seminary. I think God has spared him to more than fourscore years, to the end that in his person we might see with our eyes to-day what sort of men planned and reared this temple of sacred learning. In your name, in the name of the Faculty, in the name of the Board of Directors, I congratulate the venerable President of the Board on being permitted to keep with us this semi-centennial anniversary. God bless him !
Before passing from our financial history, let me speak of the removal of the Seminary to this place.
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SUCCESSIVE ENDOWMENT EFFORTS.
As long ago as 1869, the Board of Directors had de- termined to leave University Place and go up town. After much inquiry and discussion, lots were secured on Avenue St. Nicholas, between 130th and 133d Streets. It is one of the most attractive sites on the island, and its purchase was regarded at the time, by the friends of the institution, as nothing less than a special favor of Providence. Elaborate and costly plans were procured, and it was expected that in a couple of years the beautiful height would be crowned with the finest seminary buildings in the country. But before sufficient means for erecting them had been obtained, the great panic of 1872-73 came, and the whole movement was abandoned. Although at the time a severe disappointment, the result was, per- haps, a fortunate one, and saved the institution from grave financial embarrassment. After a delay of ten years, during which various additions and improve- ments were made to the old building in University Place, the question of removal up town was again agitated. In April, 1881, this site was obtained, and on December 9, 1884, these new buildings were dedi- cated, in services that will not soon be forgotten by any who took part in them. "The present location," to repeat the words of Dr. Hitchcock's Address on the occasion, "is apparently for many decades, if not for all time. This commanding site, so near the centre of the island, is in little danger of losing its advantages. Right behind us is the grand Central Park; close
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around us are hospitals, schools, and galleries of art, the trophies and adornments of an advancing civiliza- tion. But this institution of sacred learning which we dedicate to-day, interpreter of God's word, herald of God's grace, outranks them all."
VIII.
DEPARTED PROFESSORS, AND WHAT THE SEMINARY OWES TO THEM.
THE power of a theological seminary, whether in training up young men for the ministry, or as a centre of sacred learning, depends mainly upon the charac- ter of its teachers. No wealth of endowment, no advantages of situation or equipment, no soundness in the faith, can supply the place of living men, who are thoroughly furnished for their work by the best gifts and discipline of both nature and grace. There are but few spheres of human activity or influence in which the very highest qualities can be so effectively used. The ideal of a theological teacher is the ideal of Christian manhood in the whole intellectual and moral life. Something of this seems to have been in the thought of the founders of this Seminary, when, in the preamble to its constitution, they avowed it to be their aim and hope, with the blessing of God, to call forth and enlist in the service of Christ "genius," as well as "talent, enlightened piety, and missionary
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THE WORK OF DEPARTED PROFESSORS.
zeal." The greatest and most variously gifted man in the history of the Church, the man who more than any other laid the foundations of Christendom, was a theological teacher. Theological teachers were the leaders of European thought and opinion in the Middle Ages. The greatest man in the Protestant annals was a professor of divinity in the little town of Wittenberg. Great theologians are indeed rare products of any soil, in any age; but for that very reason, when they do appear, they are all the more to be prized. This Seminary has been signally fa- vored in the character of the men who once filled its chairs of instruction, but are now at rest in God. If not all endowed with genius, they were all endowed with such manifold talents, learning, and graces of the Spirit as fitted them, each and all, for their pecu- liar tasks.
Of HENRY WHITE I have spoken already, as one of the founders of the Seminary. Dr. White may not have been a great or a very learned divine, but he was acute, clear-headed, judicious, modest, and de- vout, -a man of uncommon practical wisdom, apt to teach, beloved by the students, highly esteemed by the Board of Directors, and universally regarded as sound in the faith. These qualities specially fitted him to take the chair of Systematic Theology at a time when suspicion was abroad, and the whole Presbyterian Church seemed a battle-field of warring schools and passions.
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THIE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
For organizing and conducting the department of Biblical Literature, there was not, I repeat, on this side of the Atlantic, a man better qualified than EDWARD ROBINSON. His understanding and his scholarship were equally solid. He regarded genuine, thorough work as a cardinal virtue ; and he illustrated this vir- tue in all his teaching and in all his investigations, whether about a Hebrew root, or the site of some memorable scene or place in the Holy Land. Sooner than tamper with truth in great things or small, he would, I believe, have cut off his right hand. He abhorred pretentious and loose scholarship as a down- right immorality. His early accession to the Faculty of the Union Seminary was itself a rich endowment of the chair of Biblical Literature. I first saw him in Berlin, going in and out, like one of them, among the renowned Gelehrte of that famous University. Neander and Karl Ritter were his intimate and admir- ing friends. He was then on his way home from the Holy Land, laden with the treasure of his invaluable Researches. In later years he was my parishioner, and I learned to know and honor him for his simple- hearted piety and manly every-day virtues, as well as for his learning. Dean Stanley's tribute to his mem- ory, in the address entitled An American Scholar, de- livered to our students on October 29, 1878, brings out very happily some of the traits by which he impressed himself so strongly upon the early character of this institution. Here is an extract from that address : -
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THE WORK OF DEPARTED PROFESSORS.
My first acquaintance with American theological literature, I might almost say, my first acquaintance with American lit- erature at all, was in reading the works of a Professor of Union Seminary. I mean the Biblical Researches of Dr. Rob- inson. They are amongst the very few books of modern literature of which I can truly say that I have read every word. I have read them under circumstances which riveted my attention upon them, - while riding upon the back of a camel in the desert, - while travelling on horseback through the hills of Palestine, - under the shadow of my tent, when I came in weary from the day's journey. These were the scenes in which I first became acquainted with the work of Dr. Rob- inson. But to that work I have felt that I and all students of Biblical literature owe a debt that never can be effaced. . . . Dr. Robinson, I believe it is not too much to say, was the first person who ever saw Palestine with his eyes open as to what he ought to see. Hundreds and thousands of travellers had visited Palestine before, - pilgrims, seekers after pleasure, even scientific travellers ; but there was no person before his time who had come to visit that sacred country with all the appliances ready beforehand which were necessary to enable him to understand what he saw; and he also was the first person who came there with an eye capable of observing, and a hand capable of recording, all that with these appliances he brought before his vision.
The appointment of THOMAS H. SKINNER to the ยท chair of Sacred Rhetoric was not less fitting than that of Dr. Robinson to the chair of Biblical Literature. He had been a Director of the Seminary, and identi- fied with its history from the first. The prayer for God's blessing upon its organization had been uttered by his lips. But for his powerful aid and that of the
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THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
Mercer Street Presbyterian Church, of which he was pastor, it would probably have perished in its in- fancy. The position to which he was called required the highest type of personal and Christian character, large pastoral experience, a thorough acquaintance with the art of preaching and the care of souls, the best literary and theological culture, in union with generous sympathies and an unfailing spirit of broth- erly kindness and charity in dealing with the doubts, the trials, and the imperfections of young men pre- paring for the sacred office.
Dr. Skinner possessed all these qualifications in a very unusual degree. For a third of a century he had been one of the first preachers and sacred orators in the land; as a pastor and guide of souls he had few equals ; he was an accomplished scholar, enthusi- astic in the pursuit and discussion of theological truth, and able to excite similar enthusiasm in others; his piety was full of spiritual depth and unction, and he was a model of the Christian gentleman. He had, moreover, discharged the duties of this very chair, for several years, in the leading seminary of New Eng- land, besides having written and published a number of admirable essays on subjects connected with it. . His intercourse with his pupils, both in and out of the class-room, was not merely that of a teacher; it was also the fellowship of a friend and brother in Christ. He invited them, one by one, to visit him at his home ; he manifested an affectionate personal interest in their
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