USA > Ohio > Delaware County > Delaware > Fifty years of history of the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio : 1844-1894 > Part 9
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Methodist Theology, because centered in deep religious ex- perience, holds, we believe, the key of a more scientific bib- lical interpretation and furnishes a greater certainty in the realm of Christian Evidences. Methodist thinking has placed intuitive divinity in a focus of light. But enough.
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As an educator, I can but admire a Theology which, by the removal of all pressures against native convictions, feeling and logic, opens a more untrammelled and richer develop- ment of the intellect, and which, by its fearless advocacy of the divine proffer of perfectibility of human nature, and the possibility of a sinlessness that does not involve guilt, makes plain that paradox of present perfection and boundless soul development in unmistakable voice :
"The highest mounted mind, she said Still sees the sacred morning spread The silent summit overhead."
" Forerun thy peers, thy time, and let Thy feet millenniums hence be set In midst of knowledge, dreamed not yet."
" Thou hast not gained a real height Nor art thou nearer to the light Because the scale is infinite."
Methodism points definitely to an interminable progres- sion in knowledge, holiness and power, and a life-time of comparative study has but deepened also my respect for Wesleyan Psychology. There is a Wesleyan Psychology, and it is coincident with the dominant Psychology of the day.
PSYCHOLOGY is the science of the whole soul, intellect, sensibility and will. Methodism is applied Psychology. The laws of hermeneutics of the Scriptures are obviously Armin- ian, and necessitate methodistic exegesis.
John Wesley stepped one night into his experience of justification by faith alone in the blood of Jesus Christ. This wonderful experience was in keeping with that imarvelous epoch in the world's history. The air of the age was vibrant with spiritual light and heat. It was followed by a brilliant series of physical discoveries giving unprecedented impulse to
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the world's material progress. It was a day of revelations, of quickened intellects, and stirring views of man's privileges.
Mr. Wesley saw in a new and clearer light the real nature of the human soul. Then to him was verified, once for all, the truth so well stated by another great Englishman : " Not in the knowledge of things without, but in the perfec- tion of the soul within, lies the empire of a man, aspiring to be more than a man," and this experience taught that real eloquence and gave faith to that strange power of touching the springs of the human spirit, which seem to justify our definition of Methodismn as applied Psychology, and I claim for our thinkers remarkable success in the study of the soul.
High religious experience has produced able thinkers. Not as blind, burrowing moles of thought, but as winged observers, looking upon the soul as a world bathed in light, have our psychologists framed their system of Psychology. This could hardly be otherwise to those who entertained the self-genesis of the human will and the possibilities of faith. The names of Fisk, Olin, Edward Thomson, of Bishop Foster, John Miley, Borden P. Bowne, Whedon, B. F. Cocker, H. H. Moore, J. B. Wentworth, and A. Mahan, are sufficient to call the inind to the splendid champions of Wesleyan Psychology; born in a lucid living experience at the cross of Christ, and confirmed by one hundred and thirty years of incessant revivals, and sitting crowned to-day in the home of mental research ; a mother whose children are the bright solutions of numberless psychological difficulties wholly unsolved by any others.
"Give me a young man in Metaphysics, and I do not care who has him in Theology," said Dr. Nathaniel Taylor, one of the most gifted of all Yale's gifted professors. In this sentence we see the duty of the custodians of your institu- tions to stand guard over your chair of Philosophy.
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Reason with awe enquires what the Bible says. Rational- isın enquires, impudently, what the Bible ought to say, and then often puts a finite mind to sit in judgment on the sayings of the infinite intellect. And who has let in clearer light on the vagaries of rationalism than our own Bishop John F. Hurst, who has written, says Dr. James McCosh, the best history and refutation of rationalism that has ever been given the world, and what pen in Christendom has poured more convincing light on the latent, but dangerous, errors of rationalism than our own Dr. J. W. Mendenhall, editor of the Methodist Quarterly Review, whose sun hastened to its setting "while yet it was day."
IDEALISM is another form of erroneous philosophy that is now pressing hard upon us, which says that there is no objective world; that material existence cannot be proved ; nothing has being but ideas.
" Idealism impeaches my knowledge of matter as material- ismn impeaches my knowledge of spirit," said Dr. Asa Mahan. It prefers the shadowy evidence of the inference from doubt- ful premises to the clear, powerful evidence of the intuition of the senses. A inind preferring a feeble, smoky evidence to one that is inexpressibly stronger, at once enters, from habit, the empire of uncertainty, and goes on hesitating and doubting to the end of life.
One of our own authors-H. H. Moore, I think-has shrouded this most dangerous form of philosophical error for its grave, its final resting place.
The associational school in Philosophy derives all the wonderful powers of the mind from a single impression made on the sensorium, and yet it is an impossibility, acknowl- edged by all philosophers, to trace the connection between an impression, made on the brain, of a house, and the cognition of that house, received in the consciousness. This
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system of thought, headed by names many and great, Borden P. Bowne has refuted more magnificently than any other error in all the realms of Philosophy. Professor William James, who is now Professor of Psychology in Harvard University, has written a heavy work, "Physiological Psychology," in which he says: "Almost all physiological psychologists deny the freedom of the human will, and they have no hesitancy in denying it." What a galaxy of great qualities in inan you must surrender if you deny to him free- dom. Dr. Bowne is pronounced by Joseph Cook to be the ablest metaphysician in all New England, and he has an impatient antagonism to this form of psychological error.
Professor Eben Andrews, President of Brown Univer- sity, one of the greatest men of the age, writes ine that he is at one with me in my dread of Physiological Psychology. All who receive the freedom of the will, with all its measured implications, will feel toward Professor James as he would feel toward John Stuart Mill, discussing "The Mind is a Series of Feelings."
Professor A. E. Dolbear, one of our graduates, said to me that the materialists had now to seek new arguments in support of materialism, for that Dr. Bowne hliad triumphantly answered all the arguments upon which they had hitherto relied. Could I be considered immodest, then, in urging our claims for Wesleyan Psychology ?
PATRIOTISM .- Among the voices of the heart that struggle for utterance at this time I am compelled to call your atten- tion to Patriotism I cannot stifle that love of country which comes to be the special heritage of the true educator. The spirit of Patriotism lies in every school of American Methodism. One great calamity of the period out of which we seem to pass has been the depreciation of all enthusiasmns by a class of educators, who have thus vitiated the influence
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of otherwise brilliant talents. And Patriotism has shared in the general discount. But now the day of old-fashioned enthusiasms and Patriotism revives, and it is a most healtlı- ful sign. The spires of this University to-day, as never before, throw their shadows over the dome of your State. True citizenship is more consciously than ever one great aim of academic culture. Nothing is more attractive to our youth, man or woman, than to become a patriot and a patriot scholar. And the spirit of Methodism, rich in enthusiasms, always true, always real, always warmn, always hopeful, nurtures the very soul of Patriotism. That spirit is certainly one of the sources of those moralities, devotions, and simple earnestness upon which civic virtue rests.
There is a clearer call to-day for a deeper, richer, wider love of country than ever before. The times demand a ringing Patriotismn. Never was there need of greater, not even when the war drums throbbed about our campus, calling the brightest of our students to battle and to death for our sacred Union. Who can forget them? Captain Clason, Captain Buchwalter, Captain Woods, Captain Purdy, and many others. My unstrained vision sees them pass in honor's bright array, while in their shining eyes I read their undivided love of college and of country. But, from the pictures of ineffaceable memory, we turn to feel our present National needs. Patriotism as splendid, as daring, as uncompromising, as self-sacrificing as theirs is still de- manded. While yonder spring pulses through the years, may the crystal fount of Patriotism flow on forever here, to the memory of which the private citizen, the brave soldier, and the hard-pressed patriotic statesman shall turn and find grace to help in times of sorest need.
UNIVERSAL BENEVOLENCE is another of our cherished enthusiasms. Much, however, as university associations may
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deepen the claim of the local and the greater claim of the National, one cannot but recognize their steady tendency to broaden the mind to world-wide sympathies. The atmosphere of a college breathes universal interest within the human heart.
Years of collegiate service clear the eyes so that we seem to view the suffering and the disability of the human race as waiting in the porches of the university for some promised angel of mercy. The university of the present justifies the assumption of its title by its relations to universal helpful- ness ; for, while the sick, the illiterate, the maimed in body and soul are lingering in their helplessness, lo! out of the university walks the spirit of Jesus Christ, leading a growing throng of trained workers and helpers into hospitals, asylumns, schools, and missions. More and more, in the future, shall the path of universal benevolence lie through your uni- versity.
University life is everywhere awaking from its selfish dreams and short visions to see across the straits of human sorrow an apparition of the man who beckons and cries; " Come over and help us!" The man of socialism rises, grisly and begrimed, and calls : "Come over and help us !" The man of crime and criminal instincts rises from behind the steaming slums and the frown of prison walls, and cries : "Come over and help us!" May the university be able to answer all such calls. The man of heathenism, drenched with the blood of unholy penances, rises, stung by demons of despair, and cries : "Come over and help us!" And the university nobly answers that call with thousands of her best and most consecrated sons and daughters.
Look again. Behold all semblances of human woe blended in a well-known form; it is the man of sorrows, identified with all the broken-hearted, bleeding, bowed children of
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men, standing and calling to all that is best in our university life and culture : "Come over and help us!" Through . every door and casement, however lofty, which advancing culture has opened, comes the pleading of that voice. And who is there but feels that our university life should swell with a responsive sympathy as universal and as practical as that boundless love which condescends to utter its mnost imperative commands in the simple terms of human neces- sities.
Standing here to-day, I realize most strongly the identity of the mission of the cross and the mission of the university. On the one, Jesus of Nazareth died, and in the other he lives for the revelation of the nature of God, and the vindication of the value of the human soul, and to exhibit the truest patriotism, and to fill the world with His universal benev- olence.
The enthusiasms of that heart which broke on Calvary are ours. The enthusiasms of that mind in which are held the treasured ideals of true humanity are ours. May God empower us to go up and possess these diviner enthusiasmns. To me, these enthusiasms seem life's worthiest lessons; the surest satisfaction of the present, and the joy of what years may come. They bring us soul to soul with Jesus Christ, in sympathy and in vision, and in this experience we share the 'inward fragrance of His divine heart."
In such an hour as this we need no retrospective glance. The past crowds upon us as a most solemn and impressive now. Not alone our Presidents; not alone our professors ; not alone our trustees, who, in the heroic years of the Uni- versity, gave time and thought and sacrifice to secure the "sinews of learning; " not alone women who have put hands "beautiful with patient toil" to the rearing of this structure; not alone to students beloved, and students now
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renowned ;- but I see a countless throng of itinerant Method- ist preachers, silver and gold having none, poor in this world's goods, but rich in faith, going to poor appointments, or good appointments, or to none, but always and every- where heralding the gospel of the college with the gospel of Jesus Christ. They shared their little pittance with the University. They counted nothing dear to themselves if thereby the University might win.
Quarried out of the itinerant's heart of sacrifice and love, these walls on which we look to-day are walls of salvation. These stones are precious stones indeed. These heroes cannot be forgotten; they live while the University lives, and they live in its sons and daughters the wide world over.
And what is the message to-day from this varied and mingled cloud of witnesses out of all the past? Is it not : "Do justly; " "Love mercy;" "Walk humbly with thy God;" "Contend manfully for the faith once delivered to the saints ;" "Be loyal to the standards of the fathers as they were loyal to the living, ever living word of God." Then none shall be greater than the Ohio Wesleyan University ; none shall be stronger. Great in Him who is the fountain of all blessings, and strong in Him who is the fountain of all grace.
FREDERICK MERRICK.
WILBRAHAM, MASS., January 29, 1810. DELAWARE, OHIO, March 5, 1894.
[ Extracted from the report of President Bashford to the Board of Trustees, June, 1894.]
You are already aware of the most important event of the past twelve months in the history of the University. One face is painfully missed as we gather for our semi-centennial celebration. Ex-President Merrick first set foot upon these grounds fifty-one years ago this Summer, one year after the college was chartered, and one year before it was opened for students. There met his gaze an empty building, and a heavy debt. From that time until his death he was in the service of the University, two years as a Financial Agent, fifteen years as a Professor, thirteen years as the Presi- dent, and twenty-one years as Emeritus Professor and Lec- turer on Natural and Revealed Religion-fifty-one years in all. His long services, his generous gifts to the college, and his strong character deserve recognition at our hands.
Dr. Merrick had the advantage of birth and early years upon a farm. The son of a merchant or of a professional inan is sometimes stunted in his physical development by his lack of exercise and of suitable surroundings. He can- not know the details of his father's business. He cannot trace the growth of his father's income. He sees before him no tasks which he can profitably perform, no ways by which he can contribute to the support of the family. But a farm boy has good food, plenty of exercise, and quiet hours for
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sleep. He comes in contact not only with nature but with the realities of life. He meets law face to face, and reaps the visible products of his sowing. He soon becomes a factor in the life of the family, and feels the restraint and the impulse of responsibility. Happy is the man whose birth is on a farm.
In addition to his early farm life, Dr. Merrick had the advantage of a commercial training. At seventeen he be- came a clerk in a store, and soon made himself so indispen- sable to his employer that he was admitted as a partner. Here he secured that commercial training which, together with his native capacity for business, made his financial services invaluable to the University. For over forty years he was Auditor, and had almost complete charge of the grounds and buildings, of the receipts and expenditures, of the loans and investments. It was his native ability and his providential training, combined with his unselfish devotion to the college, and the help of the Heavenly Father which enabled him, in 1851, to raise sixteen thousand dollars for Thomson Chapel ; in 1853, to supplement Mr. Sturges' gen- erous gift of ten thousand dollars with five thousand more, and thus to secure our present Library Building ; in 1859, to raise five thousand dollars for the purchase of the Prescott Cabinet.
Another important factor in the preparation of this man for his providential work was his scholastic training at the Academy and College, and his experience as a teacher and administrator before he came to us. Soon after his con- version, which was the turning point in his life, he entered Wesleyan Academy, at Wilbraham, Mass., and later matric- ulated at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn. He failed to complete the college course, not for lack of scholar- ship, but on account of the superior qualities which were
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already recognized in him. During his Senior year, Presi- dent Fisk nominated him for the headship of the Conference Seminary, at Amenia, N. Y., and he was called to face the responsibilities of life before he was fairly through with his college work. His success as a teacher and as an adminis- trator was remarkable, and, in 1838, he was elected to the chair of Natural Science in the Ohio University, at Athens, and taught there until his call to this University, in 1843. Among the young men whom he helped to train at Athens, none gave more brilliant promise or has had a more brilliant and useful career than Professor McCabe, who soon after be- came his fellow-worker at Delaware.
The fourth and most important element in the training of this noble man was his religious faith, growing out of his Puritan ancestry, his Methodist conversion, and his life-long consecration to the service of God and of his fellow inen. His birthright and his Christian experience enabled him to coinbine the best elements of the Puritan and the Methodist. Puritanism at its best is man living face to face with duty, walking in the presence of God, striving to meet the re- sponsibilities of life. The Cavalier at his best is a man governed by the sense of personal honor, animated by the spirit of chivalry, believing in the naturalness of human joy, and trying to make his neighbor happy. Both concep- tions of life are united in Christ. Frederick Merrick inade the decisive choice in his destiny when, at the call of God, he turned from earthly ambitions and comforts and made duty the supreme law of his life. Duty and responsi- bility were the key words, especially of his early and middle career. How often have the hosts of young people gathered around him heard above the multitudinous clamour of pas- sions and appetites their spiritual commander trumpeting forth these two watchwords, Duty, Responsibility.
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Puritanism made heroes. Methodism makes heroes, too ; and then turns them into saints. Professor Merrick's Puritan ancestry and New England training led him to select first the earlier half of Methodist discipline, and the heroic element in his life appeared. This element, perhaps, pre- dominated during the greater portion of his life. The
students believed absolutely in his integrity, admired his un- selfishness, dreaded his rebukes, and felt that they ought to follow in the paths of duty and of service which he pointed out and in which he unflinchingly walked himself. During this time the leader of the college worked for such reforms as are the glory of a city and of a nation. He was an un- compromising Abolitionist, when the profession of such sentiments was unpopular. He contributed to the Under- ground Railway, by which slaves passed across the State to Canada. He strengthened Thomson as that intrepid soul went out to arouse the conscience of the Church upon this national sin; and after the departure of the matchless Presi- dent, Dr. Merrick so encouraged and strengthened the sentiment of freedom kindled by his predecessor that, at the outbreak of the war, the college was almost emptied of students for the Union Army. I believe that only two of our students entered the Confederate service, and these two went back to serve the States that gave them birth with a loftier courage and a more heroic devotion to duty because of their contact with this prophetic soul.
But after President Merrick's health broke down, and he was relieved of the heavy responsibilities and cares which he had borne for many years, people began to see the saint emerging from the hero. I think that Dr. Merrick at least showed capacity for sainthood in his earlier days. Under- neath the Puritan exterior there was in him a predisposition toward sweetness and light, a largeness of sympathy, and a
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fullness of joy which characterizes the higher types of Christianity. This second tendency in his nature led him, on coming to Delaware, to organize at the Court House a union prayer-meeting for the promotion of sympathy and fellowship between the churches. He called on every min- ister, and attended every church in the town, including the Roman Catholic, and was to a large extent the creator of that mental and spiritual hospitality which is a characteristic of our city. While he was an uncompromising foe of the saloons, voting with the Prohibitionists from the first, no man was a more tender friend to the saloon-keeper. He made an annual visit to each one of these inen, treating each as a fellow-citizen, and talking with him about his plans for time, and for eternity. As he made upon a saloon-keeper some three years ago a call, which proved to be his last, he told him that his strength was failing, and added, with prophetic foresight: "I may not be able to call upon you again, but I will pray for you so long as both of us shall live." £ Every saloon-keeper in Delaware ought to have closed his saloon on the day of this good inan's funeral-and never to have opened it again. No citizen in Delaware made so many calls upon the poor. Faith Chapel in South Delaware is due to him, and it may be his finest monument in the sight of angels.
He displayed his love for others and his growing sense of beauty by leaving the picturesque ravine lying north of his house to the college and to the town. He crowned his bene- factions by providing that his entire property-some twenty- five thousand dollars-should go to the University for the founding of a Lectureship upon Experimental and Practical Religion.
I never knew his wife. But from the glimpses which he gave of her character in his closer communings with his
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friends, I imagine that during the forty-seven years of their married life she was a guide and an inspiration to him in the richer experiences and in the graces of the Christian life. His physical sufferings, also, and his sorrow at her death did their providential work in helping transform the hero into the saint. At any rate, he grew steadily and rapidly in spiritual-mindedness and love until he became the St. John of the city, and perhaps accomplished more during his last ten years in transforming the characters of others, by the sanctification of his own, than during any preceding period in his history. He said little about holiness in the technical sense of that term, but he lived a "life hid with Christ in God," and became the best embodiment of the possibilities of grace we have ever seen. Had an angel visited Delaware and asked us to name our best man and our most useful citizen, our people would have unanimously nominated Frederick Merrick. He was the father of our college, as Washington was the father of our country. His was not the greatness of talent and achievement, like that of Napoleon or of Cæsar, but the greatness of goodness and of character, like that of Lincoln and Alfred the Great.
I have thus dwelt at length upon dear Dr. Merrick's life and character, first because I loved him ; second, because in these years of toil and in the festivities of our Jubilee we are in danger of forgetting our benefactors ; and, third, because Drs. Thomson, and McCabe, and Merrick, and Williams seem to me to be the founders of the College. The united labor of Drs. Williams, McCabe, and Merrick, in connection with one college for forty-nine years, is without a parallel in the history of American schools, and, probably, of European universities. The mystic circle is broken. May the apotheosis of the departed one furnish an intimation of our appreciation of the other two.
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