The Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York : historical and biographical sketches of its first fifty years, Part 5

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 5


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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24


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fortunes ; he sympathized tenderly with them in their mental struggles, cheered them in their despondency, was very patient and considerate toward their faults, and helped them by his prayers and with the lessons of his own experience to get the victory over their religious doubts and perplexities. For this how many of them, now scattered through the earth, bless God at every remembrance of him! When called to the service of the Seminary, he had reached almost three- score years; but the enthusiasm with which he gave himself up to his work never waned to the last, nor did the strength and charm of his Christian exam- ple. He retained in old age full possession of all his powers, and they were beautified by the very in- nocence and simplicity of childhood. I never saw an instance of the two extremes of life, its fresh sweet dawn and its late sober eve, blending in fairer colors. " How calmly he sat in his stall in the cathedral of life, with the banner of Christ's love over his head, waiting for the service to be over, that he might say with all his heart, Amen ! " 1


The coming of HENRY BOYNTON SMITH to New York was an event in the history, not of the Union Theo- logical Seminary only, but of the Presbyterian Church. He came after long deliberation, and deeply impressed with both the importance and the difficulties of the position. Some of his most influential friends protested


1 Dr. William Adams.


5


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strongly against his leaving New England. I remem- ber well the sharp conflict of mind through which he passed on reaching the final decision. No man ever took so grave a step less blindly. His keen eye almost by intuition seized and comprehended the situation, - its strength and its weakness. In a letter to me, dated Amherst, September 17, 1850, he writes : -


I go to New York in full view of all the uncertainties and difficulties of the position. The literary character of the Seminary is slight, its zeal in theological science is little, the need of a comprehensive range of theological studies and of books thereto has got to be created. Its theological position is not defined. It stands somewhere between Andover and Princeton, just as New School Presbyterianism stands between Congregationalism and the consistent domineering Presby- terianism, and it will be pressed on all sides. Whether it is to be resolved into these two, or to be consolidated on its own ground, is still a problem. These things will make one's position a little more free, but at the same time they will make it more arduous. I am going there to work, - to work, I trust, for my Master.


His inaugural address on Church History revealed to many a student of divinity a new realm of truth, as well as a new method of learning truth, while it elicited from the best scholarship of the country ex- pressions of approval and delight scarcely less striking than those which greeted his address at Andover, two years before, on the " Relations of Faith and Philos- ophy." " Your orations," Mr. George Bancroft wrote to him, " are admirable. I know no no one in the country


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but yourself who could have written them. In Church History you have no rival in this hemisphere."


Dr. Smith's transfer, in 1854, to the chair of Syste- matic Theology met with strenuous opposition in the Board of Directors and also in the Faculty. Nobody else, it was said, could fill his place in the chair of Church History. But admirable as he was in that department, theology pure and simple was really his forte ; and I think he knew it. Here all his gifts, both natural and supernatural, original or acquired, had ample scope, and wrought in perfect unison; - his acuteness and mental grasp, his power of scientific analysis and clear, discriminating statement, his genial, quaint humor, his vast learning, his familiarity with all philosophy as well as all divinity, his fine literary culture, his spiritual insight, his pious humility and reverence, his absolute allegiance to the truth and kingdom of Christ, his Lord. Hence the variety and catholicity, as well as strength, of his influence as a theological teacher. No susceptible mind could long be subjected to this influence without feeling itself in an atmosphere of true light.


Some, who did not know him well, used to wonder how this quiet, unpretending scholar could come here from New England, and begin forthwith to wield such an influence in the New School Presbyterian Church. Nothing is easier to explain. He brought with him the ideas and principles which had called that Church into separate existence, had inspired its early struggles,


.


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East and West, and largely constituted its proper strength ; while at the same time his New England and German training had kept him free from the dis- turbing passions and prejudices engendered by the great division. If he had been a vain, conceited man ; if he had not been a very prudent, far-sighted man, self-poised, reticent, wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove, thoroughly loyal to the obligations of his new position, and, above all, to the Divine Master,-if he had not been all this, the fact that he not only at once became a power, but so soon began to wield a shaping influence, in the New School Presbyterian Church, would be hard to explain in a way creditable to either party. As it was, I repeat, nothing is easier to explain. In three months Prof. Smith found him- self as much at home and in his element in New York, as he had been in Andover or in Amherst. The lead- ing ministers of the Church of his adoption welcomed him to its fellowship and service. Such men as Skinner, Cox, and Adams, Asa D. Smith, Hatfield, Albert Barnes of Philadelphia, and many others like them, were men after his own heart. He soon learned to love and honor them; and it was beautiful to see how soon they learned to love and trust, and, in grave matters both ecclesiastical and theological, even look up to him. Before he came, some of them had their doubts and fears ; he had studied in Germany, and had publicly testified his reverence for the name of Schleiermacher. At the time of his nomination in


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the Board of Directors, the address at Andover con- taining this testimony was brought forward, and the question raised of his entire soundness in the faith. His Christological views had also excited some mis- giving. Shortly after his election, he wrote from New York : -


Last evening I spent wholly, till eleven o'clock and after, with Dr. White, talking over the whole Seminary and matters thereto belonging. He was rather curious about some of my theological opinions, and we got into a regular discussion of two hours on the person of Christ, in which he claimed that I advocated something inconsistent with the Catechism, and I claimed that he taught what was against the Catechism, which was rather a hard saying against an old-established professor of theology. However, it was all very well and kind on both sides, and did not prevent his urging my coming here.


But no sooner was he on the ground and at work than doubts and fears, so far as any such still existed, began to give way; and before he passed from the chair of Church History to that of Systematic Theol- ogy, he had become, I believe, as firmly rooted in the confidence and affection of the New School ministers and laymen of New York and vicinity - to say noth- ing of the Church at large- as if he had spent his whole life among them. In the matter of church polity, he held that, notwithstanding the difference of forms and rule, the ecclesiastical principles of Pres- byterianism and of the old Congregationalism of New England were essentially the same; as to other points,


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he was still among Calvinistic ministers of the moder- ate type, - a type at once conservative and liberal, - and among Christian men and women of the New Testament type. But while Prof. Smith's theology brought him into cordial sympathy and fellowship with the great body of New School ministers, it was at the same time so independent, so catholic, and so mediatory in its spirit, that it brought him into ever- growing sympathy with many Old School ministers ; thus preparing the way for the all-important part assigned him by Providence in initiating and helping to accomplish the great reunion of 1869.


Of WILLIAM ADAMS there is no need that I speak at all to many here present; nor can I say anything that must not seem feeble in comparison with what their own memories will say at the bare mention of his name, for he was their old pastor, their revered teacher, their dear friend. And yet, few as have been the years since his departure, they separate him as by a generation from those now passing through the Semi- nary. The last day of August, 1880, when he left us for the Church above, seems far back in the past. But if it were many times as far, the distance could only serve to render more distinct and impressive the image of that remarkable man. What a unique personality was his! How many fine elements of both nature and grace combined to form it! What ripe experi- ence, what fervor of spirit, what broad, Christ-like


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sympathies, what tenderness, what refreshing outflow of devout feeling, what felicity of thought and expres- sion ! A drive with him through the Central Park, an evening with him in familiar talk, a little journey with him as companion, - each was an event in one's ordinary life.


For four and forty years Dr. Adams was a Director and steadfast friend of the Seminary; for seven years its President and Professor of Sacred Rhetoric. Great, varied, and far-reaching as was his usefulness during his long pastorate, these seven closing years embraced the crowning work of his life. No other man in the Presbyterian Church could have accomplished what he did in this brief period. The Seminary reaped the consummate fruit of his labors and his influence. No other minister in New York had so wide an acquaint- ance, or so many friends among its leading Christian laymen; no one else by reason of age and service stood so high in the public esteem. He was by gen- eral consent one of our most eminent citizens, and the foremost representative of the Presbyterian clergy. He could, therefore, as President of the Seminary, speak for it with extraordinary force of appeal. With- out dwelling here upon the manner in which he ful- filled in it the office of teacher, or upon his many other claims to our gratitude, we are indebted to him and his influence for the munificent gift of $300,000 by Mr. James Brown for the full endowment of the chairs of instruction, - the wisest and most consid-


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erate, as well as largest, gift ever made to the insti- tution ; for Governor Morgan's gift of $100,000 to erect a fire-proof library building and serve as the nucleus of a library fund; and also for this beautiful chapel, reared to his memory by his old friend and parishioner, Mr. Marquand.


I have spoken of departed Professors. I wish it were proper for me to speak with equal freedom of my beloved colleagues, to whom the precious interests of the Seminary are now intrusted. My age and long connection with the institution will justify me, I trust, in saying this much: that truer or better men have never sat in its chairs of instruction, or toiled and prayed for its prosperity. Each in his own way, and according to the measure of the gift of God, and all in such hearty union and concert as becomes Christian scholars, they have labored and are laboring to accom- plish the design of its founders. They need, it is true, no praise of mine; and yet why should I not be al- lowed to say what, I am sure, is in the thoughts and hearts of so many before me ?


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THE LIBRARY, ITS GROWTH AND NEEDS.


IX.


THE LIBRARY, ITS GROWTH AND NEEDS. - SOME LESSONS OF THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL CATALOGUE. - NATIONAL AND MISSIONARY CHARACTER OF THE SEMINARY. - ITS ALUMNI.


OUR Library contains about 55,000 volumes, 47,000 pamphlets, and 183 manuscripts. Its history forms one of the most striking chapters in the annals of the institution. The famous Van Ess collection was its nucleus. How that collection came into our posses- sion is related by Dr. Hatfield in The Early Annals of Union Theological Seminary. Having depicted the financial trials which marked the second year of the Seminary, he proceeds as follows : -


Thus far very little had been, or could have been, done in the way of securing that indispensable acquisition, a theologi- cal library. An empty treasury, and heavy indebtedness for stone and mortar, gave small promise for the desired attain- ment. A kind Providence, long years before, however, had anticipated this very want. One result of the bloody conflicts that desolated the fairest portions of Europe at the beginning of the present century, and particularly of the Peace of Lune- ville, February 9, 1801, was the secularization of the terri- tories of the prelates, and the sequestration of the property of religious houses in Germany, taking effect early in 1803. Among the sufferers by this spoliation was the Benedictine monastery of St. Mary, at Paderborn. Anticipating this event,


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the fraternity appropriated individually so much of the com- mon property as could be divided among them. The monastic library had been the growth of centuries. At the time of the Reformation, a collection had been made of the controversial literature of the period, mostly in the original editions. Some six hundred works of this description, large and small, had thus found their way into a small apartment, the door of which was marked with the words " Libri Prohibiti," of which the key was kept by a monk whose family name was Leander Van Ess. This collection, with other volumes, fell to the share of this trusted brother, then about thirty years of age. Not long afterwards he became the Roman Catholic Professor of Divinity in the ancient University of Marburg. An ardent thirst for learning had characterized him from boyhood. To the study of the original Scriptures he gave himself with in- tense interest. He was thereby led, through divine grace, into the liberty of the children of God. He became a devout and devoted follower of the Lamb of God. Full of his new- found joy, he longed to impart of his spiritual wealth to his countrymen. He set himself, therefore, to make a careful and accurate version of the Bible, particularly of the New Testament, into the vernacular. He gathered Bibles, poly- glots, lexicons, concordances, commentaries, the Latin and Greek Fathers, the decrees of councils and popes, church histories, and other similar literary treasures, including a large collection of Incunabula, the rare issues of the earliest period of the art of printing, - in all, with what he had saved from the wreck at Paderborn (more than 13,000 volumes), about 6,000 separate works. He translated the New Testa- ment into German, published it in 1810, and, by the aid of the British and Foreign Bible Society, put into circulation, prin- cipally among the Roman Catholics of Germany, with the liap- piest spiritual results, 523,000 copies of the New Testament, and more than 10,000 Bibles. Grown old and infirm, he retired at length from the University of Marburg to the quiet


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little town of Alzey, in Hesse-Darmstadt, west of the Rhine, about equidistant from Mayence and Worms, and offered his great library for sale, for 11,000 florins.


Prof. Calvin E. Stowe, just returned from Europe, was advised of the fact. In a letter from Lane Seminary, to Dr. Robinson, April 3, 1837, he advised the purchase of this unique collection by the New York Theological Seminary. Terrible as were the times, Dr. Robinson, on his departure for Europe and the Holy Land, in July, was instructed to obtain the re- fusal of the collection. After a careful examination of the books by Mr. Philip Wolff, of Erlangen University, (a brother of Mrs. Gurdon Buck of this city,) the purchase was effected, in April, 1838, for 10,000 florins. It had cost Dr. Van Ess 50,000 florins. Its whole cost to the Seminary, when it arrived in October, all charges paid, was $5,070.08. It was received just in time to find its way into the alcoves of the library room of the new building. It has served as an inval- uable nucleus around which to cluster the needful volumes of the more modern press. It is a treasure, rare and pecu- liar, whose riches have as yet been but partially explored. If lost, it could not possibly be replaced.1


To this original nucleus have been added, from time to time, special collections, together with many thou- sands of separate volumes and pamphlets, until we have one of the best theological libraries in the coun- try. For this result we owe a large debt of gratitude in particular to the skill, labors, and scholarly devo- tion of three former Librarians, Dr. Edward Robinson (1841-1850), Dr. Henry B. Smith (1850-1876), and


1 An article on the Van Ess collection, entitled " Treasures of a New York Library," appeared in The Evening Post of May 8, 1888. It was written by Prof. T. F. Crane, of Cornell University. The larger portion of this very interesting article will be found in Note D, p. 101.


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Dr. Charles A. Briggs (1876-1883). In almost all departments of bibliography they were at home; in some of the most important they were accomplished experts. Several of the special collections to which I have referred bear the names of old friends of the Seminary, having been given to it by their surviv- ing families. In this way the very valuable libraries of Dr. Hatfield and Dr. Gillett became a part of our own. It has been enriched also by additions from the collections of Edward Robinson, David D. Field, John Marsh, Henry B. Smith, William Adams, and others.


Three of its departments have been endowed; two of them by David H. McAlpin, namely, the " McAlpin Collection," and the " Gillett Collection," named after his life-long friend, the late Rev. Dr. E. H. Gillett ; and the third, the " Henry B. Smith Memorial Library of Philosophy," by the Professors and Alumni of the institution. The McAlpin Collection is particularly rich in Westminster Assembly literature. This depart- ment contains not a few works that could hardly be replaced, - Puritan catechisms before those of West- minster, for example; nor, taken as a whole, can its equal probably be found under one roof, anywhere outside of the British Museum.


It is safe to say that but few even of the Directors of the Seminary have any adequate conception of the treasures of theological literature and learning hidden away in our alcoves. And yet, good as it is, our


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Library ought to be far better. Its deficiencies and its needs are still great. Notwithstanding Governor Morgan's gift, an additional library fund of $100,000 would be a veritable god-send to the institution. Ev- ery one of its teachers is more or less thwarted in his work because the book he wants to read or consult is so often sought for in vain. To me it is a matter of endless wonder, that men of wealth, who believe in the power of books, take delight in giving, and de- sire to do good in the most enduring way, do not put more of their money into so precious a reservoir of knowledge, both human and divine, as the Library of the Union Theological Seminary. Such a reservoir is an inexhaustible fountain of good influences. The time is not, I trust, so very far distant when every lover and investigator of sacred truth, from far and near, will be able here to find whatever he may want in the way of books, be he a Protestant, a Roman Catholic, or a Jewish scholar.


In addition to the Library we have a Museum, which bids fair to become one of our most attractive and valuable possessions. It includes Biblical and Chris- tian antiquities, rare manuscripts, characteristic speci- mens of medieval and early Reformation books and pamphlets, together with objects illustrative of Mis- sionary life and work.


The Semi-Centennial Catalogue of the Seminary, prepared with so much care by the present Librarian, is full of instructive facts bearing upon the history


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and working power of the institution. I must con- tent myself with calling your attention to a few of them. The first thing that strikes us is the fact, that, instead of belonging to the cities of New York and Brooklyn, as was expected by the founders of the Seminary, the most of its students have come from New England, from the rural districts of New York, from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, from the South, and West, and farthest Northwest, -in a word, from all quarters of the land, and even from beyond the sea. The graduating class of 1837, for example, consisted of a single student, and he was a native of Massachusetts. The class of 1838 contained nine students, and of these three came from Connecticut, three from the interior of New York, one from New Jersey, one from Vermont, none from Brooklyn, and one only from New York City. The class of 1839 contained thirty; of these ten were natives of Massachusetts, two of Connecti- cut, one of Rhode Island, one of Vermont, one of New Hampshire, six of the interior of New York, one of Pennsylvania, one of New Jersey, one of Ireland, two only of Brooklyn, and four of the city of New York. The class of 1840 numbered twenty-eight; of these fourteen came from the interior of New York, six from Connecticut, two from Massachusetts, two from Vermont, one from Pennsylvania, one from Scotland, two from the city of New York, and none from Brooklyn.


The class of 1850 numbered forty-five; of these


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eighteen came from the interior of New York, five from Connecticut, four from Massachusetts, two from New Hampshire, four from Vermont, one from New Jersey, one from Pennsylvania, one from Illinois, three from Tennessee, one from Michigan, one from Kentucky, one from Bohemia, two only from the city of New York, and one from Brooklyn. The class of 1860 numbered fifty-three; of these eight came from Massachusetts, five from Connecticut, three from New Hampshire, one from Rhode Island, one from Ver- mont, two from Ohio, one from Michigan, one from Illinois, four from Pennsylvania, three from New Jersey, one from Virginia, one from the District of Columbia, one from New Brunswick, one from Scot- land, one from Schleswig-Holstein, one from France, nine from the interior of New York, nine from New York City, and none from Brooklyn.


Let us now take a class graduating in the midst of the civil war, that of 1863. It numbered fifty; of these eleven came from the interior of New York, three from Massachusetts, three from Vermont, four from New Hampshire, two from Maine, two from Connecticut, three from Ohio, three from Pennsyl- vania, one from Maryland, one from Virginia, three from New Jersey, two from Tennessee, one from Ala- bama, one from Scotland, one from Persia, one from Greece, one from England, three from Brooklyn, and four from New York City. The class of 1870 num- bered sixty-one; of these fourteen came from Ohio,


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fourteen from the interior of New York, two from Massachusetts, three from Pennsylvania, one from Wis- consin, three from New Jersey, one from South Caro- lina, two from Connecticut, two from Vermont, four from Michigan, two from Indiana, one from Kentucky, two from Scotland, one from Ireland, one from France, one from Rhenish Prussia, one from Canada, one from Syria, one from Brooklyn, and four from New York City.


Passing on to 1885, we find a class of forty-nine, distributed as follows: two from Vermont, two from Massachusetts, one from Rhode Island, ten from the interior of New York, eight from Pennsylvania, two from New Jersey, one from Nova Scotia, two from Indiana, two from Illinois, three from Ohio, two from Missouri, one from Texas, one from Louisiana, one from Virginia, one from the Indian Territory, one from Maryland, one from Austria, one from Germany, one from Brooklyn, and six from the city of New York.


At first, almost none came from west of the Alle- ghanies, none from beyond the Mississippi, and few from Pennsylvania or the South. The founders as little dreamed, in 1836, that they were establishing a theological seminary for the whole Union, rather than for New York City and Brooklyn, as they dreamed that in less than fifty years the whole Union would extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific shores, and be covered with a network of tens of thousands of miles of railroad, on which students would be able


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THE ALUMNI.


to travel hither from Texas, from Oregon, or from California as easily, and almost as quickly, as from adjoining cities.




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