The Thornton Shirley Graves Collection of 18th Century Drama This collection began as the private col- lection of Professor Thornton Shirley Graves, when he was a member of the English Department of Trinity College, 1913-1921. After his death his library was pur- chased for the Duke University Library by the Class of 1916, as a memorial to their Classmate, John T. Ring. The books belonging to Professor Graves' special field of scholarly inter- est were set aside as The Thornton Shirley Graves Collection of 18th Cen- tury Drama, and have since been augmented. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/drjameswoodrowas121wood DR. JAMES WOODROW AS SEEN BY HIS FRIENDS. CHARACTER SKETCHES BY HIS FORMER PUPILS, COLLEAGUES, and ASSOCIATES. Collected and Edited by His Daughter, Marion W. Woodrow. PART I. PRINTED BY THE R. L. BRYAN COMPANY. COLUMBIA, S. C. 1909. if 9. ■ if & | \-i 1 -"3. Z TJ^ersity Library DEDICATION. To my Mother, of whom my Father said, "She aids me in all I undertake, " "In the proudest hour of my life she consented to receive my name," this volume is lovingly dedicated by their daughter, Marion W. Woodrow. CONTENTS. Reference to Pages. Part I.— Character Sketches. Account appearing in "Who's Who in America" for 1906- 1907 Sketch published in The State, of Columbia, and the News and Courier, of Charleston, Jan. 18, 1907, written by the Rev. Dr. J. Wm. Flinn Dr. Flinn, who was of Scotch and Scotch-Irish ancestry, was born in Marshall County, Miss., July 11, 1847 ; entered the Con- federate Army in 1862, before he was fifteen years old; served as a soldier for three years, being in eighteen great battles, wounded four times, and taken prisoner twice; gradu- ated at the University of Mississippi in 1871, and at Columbia Theological Seminary in 1875; was licensed in the historic "Flinn church" (Second Presbyterian) of Charleston, S. C, in 1875; studied at the University of Edinburgh in 1875 and 1876. On Dec. 10, 1876, he married Miss Jane Ann Adger Smyth, the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Smyth, pastor for forty years of the Second Presbyterian church of Charleston. Their five daughters and one son are still living. In 1877 he was ordained and installed as pastor of three churches in Mecklenburg Presbytery, N. C; was pastor of the Memorial church in New Orleans from 1878 to 1888; professor of Moral Philosophy and chaplain of South Carolina College from 1888 to 1905; died after a very brief illness Dec. 27, 1907. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Central University, of Kentucky, in 1893. During all his ministerial life Dr. Flinn took an active part in the councils of the Church, being regular in his attendance at the meetings of Presbytery and Synod, and being sent several times as a delegate to the General Assembly. He carried the Sadie Means telephone case through all the church courts to success- ful issue in the General Assembly of 1894. He was one of the staunchest, most outspoken of Dr. Woodrow's supporters from beginning to end of the evolution controversy, setting forth clearly Dr. Woodrow's two chief points, namely, the silence of Scripture on scientific subjects, and the doctrine that God's word and his works cannot contradict each other. VI CONTENTS. A Series of Articles appearing in the Central Presbyterian, Nov. 13, 20, and 27, 1907, written by the Rev. Dr. A. M. Fraser, Staunton, Va 33 Dr. Fraser, the son of the late Judge T. B. Fraser, of Sumter, S. C, was born in Sumter June 14, 1856; was prepared for college by Mr. Thomas P. McQueen, who taught in Sumter for forty years; graduated at Davidson College in 1876, and at Columbia Theological Seminary in 1880; was licensed by the Presbytery of Harmony in 1879, and ordained and installed as pastor of Mt. Horeb church, in the Presbytery of West Lexington, Ky., in 1881. He married Miss Octavia Blanding, a daughter of Col. J. D. Blanding, of Sumter, in 1881. In 1893 he became pastor of the First church, of Staunton, Va., which church he is still serving. Dr, Woodrow and the " Silence of Scripture." An article (with additions) published in the Central Presby- terian, written by the Rev. Dr. E. M. Green, of Danville, Ky 47 Dr. Green was born in Darlington, S. C, Sept. 10, 1838; was prepared for college in the Rev. J. W. Baker's School at LaFayette, Ga.; graduated at Oglethorpe University in 1859, and at Columbia Theological Seminary in 1863; married Miss Emily Howe, daughter of the Rev. Dr. George Howe, June 24, 1863; commissioned chaplain in the Confederate Army, Dec. 15, 1863; ordained in 1864; became pastor of the church at Washington, Ga., 1866; had charge of the Southern Presby- terian during Dr. Woodrow's absence in Europe, 1872 to 1874; became pastor of the church at Washington, N. C, 1874, and of the First church in Danville, Ky., in 1877, of which he is still the pastor. He was Moderator of the Synod of Kentucky in 1883, and of the General Assembly in 1898. At various times he was a Director of Columbia Theological Seminary, a Curator of Central University, and of the Louisville Theo- logical Seminary, which latter position he still holds. He was intimately associated with Dr. Woodrow from the time he entered Oglethorpe University as a student. An Account adapted from those appearing in Phi Gamma Delta, 1898, and the Garnet and Black, 1899 52 Personal Reminiscences, by the Rev. Dr. Thomas H. Law. 56 Dr. Law was born in Hartsville, S. C; graduated at the South Carolina Military Academy in 1859, and at Columbia Theo- logical Seminary in 1862; was pastor of Florence and Lynchburg churches, at that time in Harmony Presbytery; CONTENTS. VII evangelist of Charleston Presbytery from 1867 to 1869; pastor of the church at Spartanburg, S. C, for several years; District Superintendent and Field Agent of the American Bible Society for twenty years, his residence still being at Spartanburg; has been Stated Clerk of the Synod of South Carolina since 1875, and Permanent Clerk of the General Assembly since 1904. A Tribute, by the Rev. Dr. James L. Martin 68 Recollections and Appreciation, by the Rev. Dr. George L. Petrie 77 Dr. Petrie was born in Cheraw, S. C, Feb. 25, 1840; was prepared for college in Charleston, S. C, and Marietta, Ga.; graduated at Oglethorpe University in 1859, and at Columbia Theological Seminary in 1862; was chaplain of the 22nd Alabama Regi- ment of the Confederate Army; taught for a few years after the war; was pastor of the church at Greenville, Ala., from 1870 to 1872, of that at Petersburg, Va., from 1872 to 1878, and of that at Charlottesville, Va., from 1878 to the present time; received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Hampden-Sidney College in 1887. Recollections, by Rev. Dr. Wm. E. Boggs 80 Dr. Boggs was born May 12, 1838, at Ahmedmeggar, India, where his parents were serving as foreign missionaries; was prepared for college in South Carolina; graduated at South Carolina College in 1859; entered Columbia Theological Seminary in 1860; enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861, serving with the troops defending the coast of South Carolina soon after the fall of Fort Sumter; became chaplain of the Sixth South Carolina Regiment in 1862, and saw service with it until surrendered by Gen. Lee at Appomattox April 9, 1865. He became pastor of the First church in Columbia, S. C, in 1866; married Miss Marion Alexander, daughter of Mr. Adam Alexander, of Washington, Ga., in 1870; became pastor of the Second church in Memphis, Tenn., in 1871; of Central church in Atlanta, Ga., in 1879, when the health of Mrs. Boggs, which had been shattered by an attack of yellow fever in the great epidemic of 1878 at Memphis, required change of climate; was professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government in Columbia Theological Seminary from 1882 to 1885; again became pastor of the Second church in Memphis in 1885; became Chancellor of the University of Georgia in 1889, and pastor of the First church in Jacksonville, Fla., in 1900; was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1909; and is now Secre- tary of Schools and Colleges. VIII CONTENTS. Some Reminiscences, by the Rev. Dr. Eugene Daniel ..... 86 Dr. Daniel was born near Livingston, Ala., in 1849, the family- removing to Raymond, Miss., during his infancy. He grad- uated at Columbia Theological Seminary in 1871 ; married Miss Susannah T. Witherspoon, of Camden, S. C, the same year; was licensed by Harmony Presbytery, ordained by Ouachita Presbytery, and was installed pastor of the church at Camden, Ark., in 1871; became pastor of the First church in Memphis, Tenn., in 1875, remaining there nearly eighteen years, passing through the yellow fever epidemics of 1878 and 1879, having the fever himself; was pastor of the First church in Raleigh, N. C, for ten years, and has been pastor of the church at Lewisburg, W. Va., for nearly seven years; delivered an address, alternate for Dr. Palmer, before the General Assembly at Charlotte, N. C, on the 250th anniversary of the West- minster Assembly; delivered the address at the Memorial service of Dr. B. M. Palmer in the First church in New Orleans; received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from the Southwestern Presbyterian University. Some Impressions, by the Rev. Dr. C. R. Hemphill 112 Dr. Hemphill was born in Chester, S. C, April 18, 1852; attended the University of South Carolina and that of Virginia, 1868-1871; graduated at Columbia Theological Seminary in 1874; was tutor in Hebrew in Columbia Seminary 1874- 1878; married Miss Emma Louise Muller, of Columbia, in 1875; was Fellow in Greek at Johns Hopkins University, 1878 and 1879; professor of Ancient Languages in the Southwestern Presbyterian University, 1879 to 1882; professor in Columbia Seminary, 1882 to 1885; pastor of the Second church in Louis- ville, Ky., 1885 to 1899; one of the founders of, and professor in, the Louisville Theological Seminary from 1893 to its consolidation in 1901 with the Danville Theological Seminary, the consolidated institution being the Kentucky Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in which Dr. Hemphill has been pro- fessor of New Testament Exegesis and Practical Theology from 1901 to the present time. He received the honorary degree of D. D. from Central University and Davidson College, and that of LL. D. from Hanover College and Westminster College. He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1895, and of the Synod of Kentucky at its centennial meeting in 1902. A Reminiscence, by the Rev. Dr. S. L. Morris. . 116 Dr. Morris was born in Abbeville, S. C; graduated at Erskine College, and at Columbia Theological Seminary; was licensed and ordained by South Carolina Presbytery; was pastor of CONTENTS. IX the church at Walhalla, S. C, for six years, evangelist of South Carolina Presbytery in Edgefield for seven years, and pastor of Tattnall Square church, in Macon, Ga., for twelve years; visited the Orient in 1895; became Synodical Evangelist for the Synod of Georgia in 1900; became Secretary of the General Assembly's Committee of Home Missions in 1901, which position he still holds. He was offered, but declined, the Presidency of Columbia Theological Seminary in 1906. He was a member of the committee which prepared the Hymn Book for the Southern Presbyterian Church; is the author of the Home Mission text-book, "At Our Own Door"; and is the editor of "The Home Mission Herald." An Appreciative Estimate, by the Rev. Dr. Neander M. Dr. Woods was born at Harrodsburg, Ky., Sept. 4, 1844; attended the University of Kentucky in 1859 and 1860; entered the Confederate Army in 1861, and served with the Cavalry until 1865; married Miss Alice Birkhead in 1866; graduated at the University of Michigan in 1867; studied law at Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., and theology at Union Theological Seminary, Va.; was ordained in 1873; was pastor of the Second church at Norfolk, Va., from 1873 to 1880; of the church in Galveston, Texas, in 1881; of the Second church in Charlotte, N. C, from 1881 to 1886; married Miss Sallie H. Behre in 1885; was pastor of the First church in Columbia, S. C, from 1886 to 1889; of the Second church in Memphis, Tenn., from 1889 to 1902; of the Second church in Louisville, Ky., from 1902 to 1905; Chancellor of the Southwestern Presbyterian University from 1905 to 1908; pastor of the Central church in Montgomery, Ala., from 1908 to the present time. Dr. Neel was born in Fayette County, Tenn., Nov. 13, 1841 ; attended the Synodical College at La Grange, Tenn.; entered the Con- federate Army at the beginning of the War, and served until the end. He was in many battles, but was wounded only once. He was captured at the battle of Kennesaw Mountain, near Marietta, Ga., and was confined in "Camp Douglass", Chicago, 111., for eight or nine months. While a prisoner, a copy of Blackstone's Commentaries was smuggled in to him, which he read clandestinely, a fellow-prisoner, who was a lawyer, aiding him in his studies. When released from prison at the end of the war he studied law and practised it for a few years. But the conviction that he should preach grew upon him, and the sudden death of his wife was the occasion of his yielding to that conviction. He entered Columbia Theological Seminary Woods 120 A Retrospect, by the Rev. Dr. S. M. Neel 123 X CONTENTS. in 1868, studied there two years, at Edinburgh eight months, and at Tiibigen for three months. In 1871 he married Miss Anna Maria Adger, daughter of the Rev. Dr. J. B. Adger. Soon afterwards he became pastor of the church at Oxford, Miss.; in 1875 he was called to the First church in Shelbyville, Ky.; and in 1888 to the Central church of Kansas City, Mo., of which church he is still the pastor. He has been a Com- missioner to the General Assembly nine times, and was elected Moderator of that body in 1904. The Testimony of a Son-in-Law, by the Rev. Melton Clark 126 Mr. Clark was born in Columbia, S. C, April 19, 1874; graduated at South Carolina College in 1895, and at Columbia Theological Seminary in 1898; married Miss Mary Charlotte Woodrow, youngest daughter of Dr. Woodrow, in 1896; became pastor of the church at Florence, S. C, in 1898, and of the First church in Greensboro, N. C, in 1906, which church he still serves. A Student's Tribute, by the Rev. Dr. J. T. Plunket 130 Dr. Plunkett was born at Franklin, Tenn.; graduated at the South- western Presbyterian University, the University of Nashville, and Columbia Theological Seminary; was pastor of Steele Creek church, Mecklenburg Presbytery, N. C; Madison Ave. church, Covington, Ky.; Jefferson Ave. church, Detroit, Mich.; First church in Augusta, Ga., and is now pastor of Highland church, in Birmingham, Ala. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Central Univer- sity, Richmond, Ky., and of Doctor of Medicine from the Medical Department of the University of Georgia. He has been Commissioner to the General Assembly four times, and to the Pan-Presbyterian Council twice. He was Moderator of the General Assembly in 1905. A Few Impressions, by the Rev. Dr. W. J. McKay 131 Dr. McKay was born in Harnett County, N. C, in 1848 ; graduated at Davidson College in 1870, and at Columbia Theological Seminary in 1873; became pastor of Salem (Black River) church in Sumter County, S. C, in 1873; has been for more than twenty years President of the Board of Trustees of Davidson College, and is now Vice-President of the Board of Directors of Columbia Theological Seminary. The degree of D. D. was conferred on him by the University of North Carolina. He married Miss Sarah Knox Witherspoon, of Sumter Co., S. C. CONTEXTS. XI The Opinion of a Friendly Acquaintance, by the Rev. Dr. Alexander Sprunt 132 Dr. Sprunt was born in Glasgow, Scotland, of Scotch parentage; was reared in Wilmington, N. C; graduated at Davidson College, N. C, and at Union Theological Seminary, Va.; has been pastor of churches in Virginia and North Carolina, the church at Rock Hill, S. C, and is now pastor of the First church in Charleston, S. C. He has been offered the Presi- dency of two Colleges and has declined the calls of many churches. During the whole of his ministerial life he has done a great deal of the administrative and executive work of Presbytery and Synod. A Woman's Impressions, by Miss I. D. Martin 134 Miss Martin was born in Columbia, S. C. Her father, the Rev. William Martin, was a pioneer Methodist preacher, and his daughter is very proud of the fact that he gave some of the best years of his life as a missionary to the slaves. Her mother was one of the earliest inhabitants of Columbia, her parents having come here from Scotland early in the last century. She was a writer of some note in her day. Miss Martin has spent most of her own life in teaching, having been at the head of one of the most flourishing schools in Columbia for some years, later occupying the chair of Mental and Moral Science in Columbia College, S. C. Resolutions adopted by the Faculty of South Carolina College 136 Resolutions adopted by the Alumni Association of South Carolina College 138 A Colleague's Tribute, by Dr. E. S. Joynes 140 Dr. Joynes was born in Accomack County, Va., in 1834; graduated at the University of Virginia in 1853; received the honorary degree of LL. D., from Delaware College in 1875, and from William and Mary College in 1878; married Miss Eliza W. Vest, of Williamsburg, Va., in 1859; was successively from 1859 to 1908 professor of languages at William and Mary College, Va., Washington and Lee University, Va., Vanderbilt University, Term., University of Tennessee, and South Carolina College; is the author and editor of the Joynes-Meisner German Grammar, Minimum French Grammar, and other text-books in French and German. XII CONTENTS. Some Personal Impressions and Recollections, by Mr. J. J. McSwain 144 Mr. McSwain was born at Cross Hill, S. C, in 1875; was prepared for college at his home school and at the Wofford College Fitting School; entered South Carolina College in 1893, having won a scholarship offered by the Laurens County alumni of the College. This scholarship he used only two years, however, thereafter earning part of the money he needed, and borrowing the rest. He graduated in 1897; taught school for four years; began the practice of law in 1901, and is now a prominent lawyer of Greenville, S. C; in 1905 he married Miss Sarah McCullough, of Greenville. Dr. Woodrow and Sidney Lanier. An Article appearing in The State of Jan. 18, 1907, written by Dr. George Armstrong Wauchope, Professor of English in South Carolina College 156 A Student's Impressions, by Prof. A. C. Moore 159 Dr. Moore was born in Spartanburg County, S. C, in 1866; grad- uated at South Carolina College in 1887 ; taught for a year in Spartanburg, S. C; was superintendent of schools in Camden, S. C, from 1888 to 1890, and principal of the High School of Birmingham, Ala., from 1890 to 1898; studied at the University of Chicago from 1898 to 1900. He was elected assistant professor of Botany in the University of Chicago in 1900, and the same year was offered the chair of Biology, Geology, and Mineralogy in South Carolina College. He accepted the latter position, and now occupies the chair of Biology in South Carolina College. He married Miss Vivian May, of Alabama, in 1900. He was Acting President of South Carolina College in 1908-1909. A Newspaper Man's Retrospect, by Mr. August Kohn .... 168 Mr. Kohn was born in Orangeburg, S. C; graduated at South Carolina College in 1889; for many years has had charge of the News and Courier Bureau in Columbia; is, and has long been, one of the most prominent newspaper men of South Carolina. The Opinion of a Scientist, by Dr. D. S. Martin 166 Dr. Martin was born in New York City, June 30, 1842; received the degree of A. B. in 1863, that of A. M. in 1866, and the honorary degree of Ph. D. in 1878, all from New York Univer- sity; was professor of Geology in Rutgers Female College, New York City, from 1868 to 1895; lecturer on Geology in the CONTENTS. XIII College for Women, Columbia, S. C, from 1898 to 1903; and holds a similar position now at Chicora College, Greenville, S. C. He has done and is still doing a great deal of work in many museums, among others in those at South Carolina College and in Charleston, S. C. He has always been especially interested in the relations of scientific and religious thought, as was his father, Prof. B. N. Martin, of New York Univer- sity (1852 to 1883) before him; and he has written much on the subject. He is a Fellow in many prominent scientific associations. Dr. Woodrow as a Business Man, by Mr. W. A. Clark. . . . 170 Mr. Clark was born on James Island, S. C, Feb. 22, 1842; was pre- pared for college at Mt. Zion Institute at Winnsboro, S. C; entered the Sophomore Class at South Carolina College in 1860; entered the Confederate Army in 1861, and served to the end of the war; from 1866 to 1871 he engaged in Sea Island cotton planting on James Island. In 1866 he married Miss Esther Virginia Melton, the daughter of Major C. D. Melton; moved to Columbia in 1871, studied law and became a member of the firm of Melton and Clark; in 1904 he formed a law partnership with his son, Mr. Washington Clark, under the firm name of Clark & Clark. In 1881 he was elected President of the Carolina National Bank of Columbia, which position he still holds. The Testimony of a Business Associate, by Mr. R. W. Shand 180 Mr. Shand was born in Columbia, S. C, in 1840; graduated at the South Carolina College in 1859; entered the Confederate Army at the beginning of the War Between the States, and served to the end; began the practice of law in 1866, practising until 1883 in Union, S. C, since which time he has been a prominent member of the bar in Columbia. He was Reporter of the State Supreme Court from 1879 to 1895. Woodrow Memorial Church 181 Mrs. Woodrow's Memorial Gift to the Young Men's Christian Association of Columbia 191 An Appreciation, by the Rev. Dr. Thornton Whaling. ... 195 XIV CONTENTS. Part II.— His Teachings. I. Sermons 201- 364 John 1 :36. And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God ! 201 Acts 4:12. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved 211 Mark 8 :36, 37. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? 220 Romans 6:23. (First clause). For the wages of sin is death 230 Romans 6:23. (Latter clause). The gift of God is eter- nal life through Jesus Christ our Lord 243 These live sermons are among those Dr. Woodrow preached to the four churches he served during the years 1858-60, while he was Professor in Oglethorpe University at Milledgeville, Ga. These churches were at Eatonton, Madison, Irwinton, and Perry, in the Presbytery of Hopewell, afterwards Augusta Presbytery. As Dr. Woodrow says, to serve these churches "required forty-four to one hundred and seventy miles' travel each week, a large part of it by private conveyance. But by travelling at night, I did it without neglecting any duty." The Presbyterian Doctrine of the Bible 252 This address was delivered before the Presbytery of Augusta August 14, 1886, during the Centennial Celebration at Bethany church, Greene Co., Ga. It was during this meeting of Augusta Pres- bytery that Dr. Woodrow was tried for heresy, and tri- umphantly acquitted. He repeated this sermon several times by request, among others, before the Bible Society of Charleston, S. C, and the students of the Normal and Industrial College at Columbus, Miss. The form in which he gave it on these occasions will be seen by reading the sermon, The Word of God, p. 300. John 17:17. Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth 276 This sermon was preached during the meeting of the General Assem- bly at Chattanooga, Tenn., in May, 1889. CONTENTS. XV Ps. 119 :9. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way ? By taking heed thereto according to thy word . 289 Baccalaureate Sermon preached in the chapel of the South Carolina College, June 27, 1892, during his Presidency. The Word of God 300 Baccalaureate Sermon preached in the chapel of the South Carolina College, June 27, 1897, at the close of his Presidency. Josh. 13:1. (Latter clause). There remaineth yet very much land to be possessed 314 This sermon was preached before the Presbytery of Augusta during the War between the States. Eph. 4:5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism 328 This sermon was preached by Dr. Woodrow as Moderator before the Synod of South Carolina, at Columbia, Oct. 21, 1902. The Work of the Church 352 This sermon was preached by Dr. Woodrow as Moderator before the Synod of South Carolina, at Cheraw, Oct., 1903. Dr. Woodrow was elected Moderator of Synod at the meeting in Charleston, Oct., 1901, and held the office until his successor, the Rev. Dr. D. N. McLauchlin, was elected at the meeting held in Columbia in 1902. Dr. McLauchlin having removed beyond the bounds of the Synod during the following summer, Dr. Woodrow again became Moderator, and acted as such at the meeting in Cheraw until the election of his successor, the Rev. Dr. Robert Adams. Dr. Woodrow thus had the rather unusual distinction of presiding as Moderator at three con- secutive meetings of Synod. II. Inaugural Address 365 This address was delivered at Marietta, Ga., Nov. 22, 1861, before the Board of Directors of the Theological Seminary by Dr. Woodrow at his Inauguration as Perkins Professor of Natural Science in Connexion with Revelation. III. Review Articles • . 388- 507 Geology and its Assailants 388 This article appeared in the Southern Presbyterian Review for April, 1863. XVI CONTENTS. An Examination of Certain Recent Assaults on Physical Science 407 This article, which appeared in the Review for July, 1873, was in answer to assaults on Natural Science made by the Rev. Dr. R. L. Dabney, Professor in Union Theological Seminary, Va. A Further Examination of Certain Recent Assaults on Physical Science 460 This article, which appeared in the Review for April, 1874, was in answer to Dr. Dabney's answer to the preceding article. IV. Defence before the General Assembly at Huntsville, Ala., May, 1871 508 This speech was in answer to charges against him of dishonesty and malfeasance in office while he was Treasurer of Sustentation and Foreign Missions. In order to a full understanding of the circumstances, a large part of the proceedings of the General Assembly on that subject is included. V. Editorials on various Subjects. 555- 579 Anti-Instrumental Music Convention 555 Congregational Singing and Music Reform 556 The South Carolina Baptist Convention 557 Punishment or Chastisement 559 A Merry Christmas 560 What Shall we get for our Children 561 Criminal Sentimentalism 561 A Dark Future 562 Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon . 564 The late Professor Gray 565 Is it Proper? 565 The Best Way 566 Prayer for the General Assembly 568 The Tariff on Ministers 568 The Barnwell Lynching 573 The Salvation of All the Infant Dead. . 573 Voluntary Associations 574 Our Foreign Missionary Work 577 VI. Editorials on Organic Union 580- 616 Some Results of Union 580 Dr. Palmer's Open Letter 582 The Race Instinct in Ohio and Kansas 586 CONTENTS. XVII The Negro at the South 587 Northern Ideas about Organic Union 590 The Overture on Organic Union 592 The Committee of Inquiry 593 Are We Agreed? 595 Politics and Religion 601 Organic Union 603 Co-operation ; not Union 605 "What about the Northern Negro?" 607 Co-operation 610 "The Practical Difference" 613 VII. Evolution 617- 973 Address on Evolution 617 An address delivered May 7, 1884, before the Alumni Association of the Columbia Theological Seminary. This address was made the occasion, though it was hardly the cause, of a war on Dr. Woodrow which lasted for twenty-five years. This book is published solely for the purpose of honoring Dr. Woodrow's memory, and in the hope that though he is no longer with us in the body, he may yet continue the work he so loved when on earth, that of teaching God's truth. There- fore his speeches and editorials alone are included, the action of the church courts being given only when deemed necessary to a clear understanding of his remarks. Editorials 646- 720 The General Assembly and the Perkins Pro- fessor 646 Honorable Correction 650 Discussion of Evolution 651 Evolution 653 The Bible and Natural Science 653 What does the Bible teach? 655 How far is Evolution true? 660 How far is Evolution to be believed? 664 Objections Answered 669 The Only Question at Issue 679 Objections Answered '. 679 Objections Answered 691 The Central Presbyterian 697 Objections Answered 698 CONTENTS. Inaugural Address . . . . 708 The Evolution Discussion . 708 Uselessness of Further Discussion 712 Speech before the Synod of South Carolina 721 Editorials 785- 912 The Rev. Dr. Kellogg on Evolution 785 Who are Evolutionists? 788 The Christian Index 791 Evolution. (Critical review of Dr. G. D. Arm- strong's pamphlet.) 793 Good Advice 799 An Apology 801 Commendable Progress 803 As to Articles in the Review . . . . 804 The Central Presbyterian 805 Questions Answered 806 Desire to Close Discussion 809 Is it Untrue? 810 Does the Bible Teach Natural Science? 811 A Fair and Truthful Statement 817 Drs. Hodge and Patton and Evolution 818 The Rev. Drs. A. A. Hodge and F. L. Patton on Evolution 823 Drs. Hodge and Patton on Evolution and the Scriptures 828 Sir Wm. Dawson on the Relations of Evolution to the Bible 832 Change in Biblical Interpretation 835 The Origin of Adam's Body. (Letter to the News and Courier.) 837 Condemned and Sentenced May 29 ; to be Tried Aug. 15. Action of Augusta General As- sembly 839 Not Guilty. (Verdict of Augusta Presbytery) . . 840 To What do we Object? 840 Evolution 843 From the Dust 845 Comments 848 CONTENTS. XIX "Good Logical Inferences." 853 Presbyterians and Evolution 855 "Within the Space of Six Days" 858 A Simple Plain Statement of how I have Under- stood Dr. Woodrow 861 Why Are They not Forthcoming? 864 Letter from the Rev. Dr. Wm. Adams 865 Letter from Rev. Dr. Adams. "Recognised Geologists" 872 Dr. Adams's "Recognised Geologists". 878 The Earnest Worker on Evolution. (Review of Dr. Armstrong's book, etc.) 887 Intentional Misrepresentation 899 The Rev. T. H. Law and the Mecklenburg Society 901 Is Religious Controversy a Foe to Piety? 904 A Fearful Responsibility 906 A Mistake Corrected 908 Evolution: What it is not, and What it is 910 Argument before the General Assembly at Baltimore, in May, 1888 913 Closing Argument — Reply to Dr. Adams 956 The Presbytery of Augusta, Oct., 1888 971 PART I. Character Sketches. 1— TV DR. JAMES WOODROW. Account Appearing' in "Who's Who in America" for 1906-1907. James Woodrow, educator; born in Carlisle, Eng., May 30, 1828 ; son of Rev. Dr. Thomas and Marion Williamson Wood- row ; graduated at Jefferson College, Pa., 1849 ; studied in Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard, in summer of 1853 ; University of Heidelberg, A. M., Ph. D., summa cum laude, 1856; (hon. M. D., Georgia Medical College; D. D., Hampden- Sidney College; LL.D., Davidson College; J. U. D., Washing- ton and Jefferson College) ; married Aug. 4, 1857, Felie S.. daughter of Rev. J. W. Baker, of Georgia. Presbyterian clergyman ; principal of academies in Alabama, 1850-1853 ; professor of Natural Science, Oglethorpe University, Ga., 1853 to 1861 ; in medical department (chief of laboratory at Columbia, S. C), Confederate States Army, 1863 to 1865; professor, 1869 to 1872, 1880 to 1897, president, 1891 to 1897, South Carolina College ; professor Columbia Theological Semi- nary, 1861 to 1886, deposed on account of views concerning evolution, in pamphlet: Evolution, 1884. Treasurer Southern General Assembly's Foreign Missions and Sustentation, 1861 to 1872. Corresponding delegate to the Churches in Great Britain and on the Continent of Europe, 1874. Commissioner to Southern General Assembly, 1866, 77, 79, 80, 86, 89, 96, 99. Moderator Synod of Georgia, 1879, Synod of South Carolina, 1901. President Central National Bank, 1888 to 1891. 1897 to 1901. Editor and proprietor Southern Presbyterian Review (quarterly), 1861 to 1885, Southern Presbyterian, (weekly), 1865 to 1893. Associate of Victoria Institute, London; Isis, Dresden, Saxony ; Scientific Association of Germany ; Scientific Association of Switzerland; fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science; of the International Congress of Geologists. 4 DR. JAMES WOODROW. SKetch Published in The State, of Columbia, and The News and Courier, of Charleston, January 18, 1907. WRITTEN BY THE REV. DR. J. WM. EUNN. "Who reverenced his conscience as his king; And we see him as he moved, How modest, kindly, all-accomplished, wise, With that sublime repression of himself, And in what limits, and how tenderly, * * * Through all his tract of years, Wearing the white flower of a blameless life." "He had done his work, and held his peace, and had no fear to die." He who serves well his country and his Church needs not ancestral fame to give lustre to his name. Virtue and achieve- ment, not birth, make man noble. Yet high worth in one whose pedigree is a long line of honorable forefathers gratifies the moral sense, as a rich jewel in a fine setting pleases the aesthetic taste. An unbroken succession of noble sires and sons suggests the immortality of virtue, and inspires us to achieve in our own lives excellence that may be perpetuated in our posterity. We are the children of eternity. We project our hopes and efforts into an endless future, and feel that the moral order of the world corresponds with our natural longings for endless life when we see the repetition and continuous duration of the best in human character and works. We feel reverent before an ancient castle that has stood unmarred and unbroken against decay and storm. "How much more when we behold an ancient family that has stood unstained and unbroken against the waves and weathers of time." The continuity of the manly virtues and the womanly graces of our old-country- across-the-sea ancestors constitutes the strength and the orna- ment of our land and people. Dr. Woodrow's distinguished life and character are the proper fruitage in America of a tree transplanted from Great Britain, from an ancient stock in a rich soil long prolific in good men and good women. From Dr. Robert Wodrow's biography of his father, James Wodrow, the following data in the family history are gathered. CHARACTER SKETCHES. 5 About seven hundred years ago, not far from the year 1300, the Wodrow ancestors of the family came from England to Scotland. "They owned the Hill of Eglishame (Eaglesham) or other lands, without interruption for more than three hun- dred years before Prof. James Wodrow's birth in 1637." Eaglesham is a village and parish about seven miles from Glasgow. "It has beautiful scenery and moors abounding in game, and the remains of a castle, built by Sir John Mont- gomery with the ransom money of Harry Hot Spur, whom he took prisoner at the battle of Otterburn." Like the family of Aaron, in which the priesthood was hered- itary, one or more of the Wodrows, in many generations for centuries, has been an honored Christian minister. Before the Reformation, Patrick Wodrow, a Roman Catholic priest, was converted to the Protestant form of faith, and was vicar of the parish of Eaglesham. His wife was Agnes Hamilton, daugh- ter ito a brother of the house of Abercorn. Their names are graven on their tombstones in the churchyard at Eaglesham. Patrick's son, John, left several sons, the youngest of whom was Robert Wodrow, an able lawyer, born about 1600. He married Agnes Dunlop, daughter of John Dunlop of Polnoon Milne in Eaglesham, and granddaughter to the Earl of Dunlop, an old family of Ayrshire. Robert Wodrow's fourth son, James, (born 1637), was the distinguished professor of theology in the University of Glas- gow from 1692 until his death in 1707. His biography presents many features of life and character strikingly similar to those of his illustrious descendant and namesake, who has just gone to his reward. He lived in a momentous period in the Church of Scotland's history. From 1637, his birth year, to 1687 were days of trial for the Scottish Presbyterians — days of fire and blood that tested the mettle of men's souls. He was born the year before the "Solemn League and Covenant" was adopted by the Scot- tish parliament. His contemporaries and friends were cove- nanters, martyrs, members of the Westminster Assembly, and heroes of Bothwell Bridge. "God made him eminent in upbuilding his Church in Scot- land in a momentous age. He trained more than six hundred 6 DR. JAMES WOODROW. young men for the ministry. He had the principal part in formulating and in leading the Church of Scotland to adopt the polity and discipline." So Dr. James Woodrow of the Presbyterian Church in the United States from 1828 to 1907 lived in a critical period in the history of his Church. This period embraced the controversy and division of the Old and New School branches ; the debates concerning slavery ; the separation of the Church into Northern and Southern Presbyterians, incident to the States Rights war ; the revision of the Book of Order and Discipline; the adjust- ment of modern Christian thought on various topics connected with the interpretation of the Bible and of nature in their relations to the subjects of geology, the antiquity and unity of the human race, and the method of creation. In these latter affairs, Dr. Woodrow had a guiding and leading part ; and like his ancestor, he trained several hundred young men for the ministry. The seventeenth century prototype and his nineteenth cen- tury representative were giants in a great age among great men. The spirit of the ancestor lived again in America, two hundred years after his well-done work was finished in Scotland. Prof. James Wodrow of the seventeenth century was noted for his modesty — amounting to bashfulness — deep conscien- tiousness, profound sense of awe and solemnity in facing the duties of a minister and teacher ; tireless industry and diligence as student and teacher. "He was seven years old before he would speak any but a few broken words about food and drink and such things. This was due to bashfulness and not lack of intellect, as his father feared. He at last overcame it. The first time he spoke, and before he knew a letter, he repeated the Short Catechism, which he had heard his brothers getting and repeating, without missing one word of it, which surprised them all with much pleasure." Evidently the silent small boy had been doing some close listening and thinking. The truth in the "Short Catechism" had stirred his heart and loosed his tongue. What memory power was revealed in this outflow on faith and duty ! He was so bashful, he feared he could never preach. His views of the ministry were so solemn and the difficulties of its CHARACTER SKETCHES. r right discharge in those persecuting days were so great that it required the earnest pleas of eminent ministers to induce him to become a candidate. These recitals of the progenitor's life recall to men now living incidents in the class-room, the church court, and the home which revealed strikingly similar traits in the Dr. Wood- row of our day — his manner quiet and reserved ; an air almost shy and diffident; the voice low and gentle; a blush often on the face in the beginnings of his utterance. But as the beauti- ful drapery of a glowing cloud — morning's blush at the sight of her king — melts and vanishes before the rising sun, so with the vision of truth maligned or right assailed, before duty to be done, wrong to be averted, and error to be refuted, Dr. Wood- row's reticence and shyness disappeared. His speech flowed full and free. From a memory remarkable for its accuracy and fulness, facts and principles poured forth, organised in orderly logical phalanx by a commanding reasoning power, notably quick and strong. While never parading his learning, yet like his ancestor, he kept his classics fresh in memory as "organa" of learning. His ancestor, in the persecuting days in Scotland, prior to 1687 endured great hardships and persecution, often narrowly escaping imprisonment and death, to which he was exposed because of his loyalty in holding to the Reformed Faith, and his fidelity in preaching it to Scotland's elect, hunted and scattered in fields, moors, woods, and mountains. Twenty-eight years he spent in this life of trial, training, and study. God was providentially fitting him for the nineteen years of his profes- sorship of theology in the University of Glasgow. During all these years he kept up his study in the classics, divinity, church history, and church government, Greek and Roman history, and belles-lettres. While his descendant was not the subject of physical perse- cution, yet he showed the same spirit of loyalty to what he held as truth under the fire of criticism, and in the strenuous battle of heated controversy over convictions for which he would have chosen death rather than surrender or retreat. Like his ancestor, he spent long years of training for his great life work, mastering the natural sciences. His zeal, energy, and thorough- 8 DR. JAMES WOODROW. ness as a professor likewise inspired his students with a "mind to work," and with the desire for accuracy and fulness of knowledge — not merely for its own sake, but to increase the power of serving God and doing good to men. In 1673, the great ancestor, James, married his first wife, Margaret Hair, of whom her son, Robert, says: "She was a godly, discreet, and virtuous gentlewoman, of a sweet and comely countenance, of singular prudence and discretion, and noted for management of a family." The great-grandmother of the modern Woodrows • and her descendants of other names came from a long line of noted progenitors. Her father, Wil- liam Hair, married Janet Steuart, daughter of James Steuart, tutor of Blackhall, whose wife was Marion Maxwell of Stainley, an honorable family in Scotland. James Steuart's forefathers for several generations bore the name, James, back to their ancestor in the fourteenth century, Sir John Steuart of Ardgowan, son of King Robert III — the Bruce — who won the victory of Bannockburn. The best thing in kings is not blood or race, name or place, but the adornment of "The king-becoming graces * * * Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude." The best in Robert the Bruce, "devotion, patience, courage, fortitude," belonged to James Woodrow of Columbia. The portrait of James Wodrow's wife in the seventeenth century, drawn by her son, presents many features found in the wife of his nineteenth century son and heir. Those who knew her in the glow of her youth, in the prime of her womanhood, and in the years of the "age calmed" face, would place upon her head a crown like unto that Robert set upon his mother's brow nearly two hundred years ago. Dr. Woodrow was born in Carlisle, England, May 30, 1828. The original and present form of the name in Scotland is Wodrow, pronounced Wudrow or Woodrow. When Dr. Woodrow's father, the Rev. Thomas Wodrow, D. D., became pastor at Carlisle, the English people sounded the o in the first syllable short. To retain the ancient and correct pronunciation of the name, Dr. Thomas inserted an o in the first syllable. CHARACTER SKETCHES. 9 Dr. Thomas Wodrow, born in 1793 in Scotland, was a man eminent for piety, earnest, evangelical spirit as a preacher, uprightness of life, and scholarly taste. In 1836 he was sent as home missionary to Canada,, but found the climate too severe. In 1837, therefore, he removed from Canada to Chillicothe, Ohio, a town settled by people from Virginia in 1796. He was the fourth generation from his ancestor, James Wodrow, and his father was John Wodrow, an elder in the church at Paisley, Scotland. The wife of Dr. Thomas Wodrow was Marion Williamson. He died in 1877. Among his well known descendants in this country are Presi- rent Woodrow Wilson of Princeton, Dr. George Howe of North Carolina university, son and grandson, respectively, of Rev. Dr. Joseph R. Wilson, former professor in Columbia seminary, whose wife was Dr. James Woodrow's sister. James Woodrow, with the aid of his father, prepared himself for college. He entered Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, now Washington and Jefferson, where he graduated in 1849 with the degree of A. B., with highest honors in a class of fifty-five members. He then came South, and was principal of acade- mies in Alabama from 1850 to 1853. The dominating principle and passion of his whole life made him a power for good in those Alabama communities, in this apprentice time of his teaching work, the passion for learning truth and imparting it in order to elevate men to better living. He gathered knowl- edge from all classes of people. He talked with physicians, ministers, lawyers, merchants, farmers, and mechanics. He studied law. In company with his pupils, he gathered nature's lore from field, forest, and stream. He honored Truth, and his loyalty to her led his pupils to honor her. In the summer of 1853, he was a student at the Lawrence Scientific school at Harvard university, under the renowned Louis Agassiz. A great man is the focal point in which a thou- sand rays of light converge and from which they diverge, a reservoir of forces gathered and distributed. Agassiz was of French Huguenot blood, born in Switzerland. His forefathers for six generations were clergymen. The greatest doctors of the day were his teachers and friends. Many of his pupils became world-famed savants. 10 DR. JAMES WOODROW. The friendship formed between the young teacher from Alabama and the great naturalist lasted through Agassiz's life. His influence on Dr. Woodrow was profound and permanent. He moulded and kindled into warmer glow his intellectual interests and sympathies. His achievements were an inspira- tion to his efforts. His noble Christian character gave the joy and strength that a man of high soul feels in the presence of a kindred spirit, that cherishes the life ideals he loves. Dr. Woodrow's students in college and seminary caught from him the admiration he felt for his own great teacher. A great teacher is not the mere informer of thought, but the maker and builder of character by the admiration he inspires. Men are elevated, not by mere knowledge poured into them, but by the homage kindled in them for great things and great char- acters. In 1856 he took the degree of A. M. and Ph. D. in Heidel- berg university "summa cum laude," that is, with highest praise or highest honors. The extraordinarily high qualities of his work, the fulness of his attainments, and the remarkable power he displayed in completing in four months what students usually require several semesters to accomplish, revealed to those learned German scholars the fact that a very unusual man was before them. Those Germans have an eye for great talents and scholarship. The universities keep sharp lookout for them and maintain keen rivalry in securing them as the lights and attractions for their institutions. Immediately upon Dr. Woodrow's graduation he was offered a full professorship in Heidelberg university. Germans are accused of believing that no good thing in the way of scholarship or teaching can come from outside of Germany; but here they found a man they wanted to adopt and honor with one of the richest crowns that this "Land of Lore" could put on a man's head. They wanted to enthrone him in a professorial chair, to be a ruler and leader in the empire of learning, to expand this empire, and train scholars like himself. This young man, twenty-eight years old, a citizen of a Southern State, declined the proffered crown, because he loved the Church and the people of the sunny land of his adoption. Them would he serve with his rare gifts and high attainments. He went to Germany not CHARACTER SKETCHES. 11 for the honor she might give him, but to gain and take back to the land of his love, Germany's treasures for her enrichment. An adopted son of the South, a grandson of Scotland ! Ger- many's greatest philosopher and teacher, Immanuel Kant, of Konigsberg, was a grandson of Scotland! Dr. Thos. C. Johnson, in his noble life of Dr. Dabney, which reveals this great man, whom we all knew to be great, to be even greater than we knew him, quotes a letter from Dr. Dabney to his wife, commenting on German conceit and depre- ciation of other nations' scholarship. With characteristic vigor, Dr. Dabney says : "Their contempt for the scholarship of other nations is absurd and most blamable. If they would consider other people's writings some, perhaps they would not be so everlastingly running after new-fangled crotchets and heresies. They are like Job's fools : 'Surely we are the people ; and wisdom will die with us.' " Describing a visit to the famous professor Luthardt, he says : "I thought I would amuse and please him by telling him how familiar we were with German lexicons, etc., in Virginia. He swallowed it all gravely and said, 'Yah, Shermany ist de school-mistress of de vorldt !' " In Dr. Woodrow the "school -mistress" found one man in "de vorldt" outside of "Shermany," competent to teach her sons! In Germany, and while travelling and studying on the conti- nent and in Great Britain, he made friendly acquaintanceship with many noted scholars — men deeply versed in various natural sciences, in theology, philology, ethnology, and phi- losophy. Prominent among these were Virchow, Quatrefages, Tyndall, Huxley, Lyell, and many others. Among his German professors and fellow-students were some who were either skeptics or indifferent to Christianity. These men sometimes expressed surprise at his firm evangelical faith in the inspira- tion of the Bible, the divinity of Christ, and other cardinal doctrines, and also at his regular fidelity in attendance upon Sabbath worship. He was quick, bold, and clear in avowing to them that it was perfectly logical for believing students of God's works in nature and history to be also believing students of God's word. A skeptical atmosphere never chilled the ardor of his faith. Skeptical winds, instead of swerving him from his course, made him, like the eagle, breast the blasts with 12 DR. JAMES WOODROW. bolder wing and move strongly on against them and above them. In 1853 he was made professor of Natural Science in Ogle- thorpe university, Georgia. He was given leave of absence without salary and retained in this professorship during his foreign sojourn. After this he taught continuously at Ogle- thorpe until 1861. During this period he formed many friend- ships in the ministry and the laity of the Presbyterian Church in Georgia and Alabama that lasted in unabated warmth through life. One of his students at Oglethorpe was Sidney Lanier, Georgia's greatest poet, and in the opinion of many, "the Tennyson of the South, standing with the first princes of American song." His influence on Lanier is typical of the formative and guiding power he exerted on the minds of many of his students. Professor Morgan Callaway, in the introduc- tion to his "Select Poems of Sidney Lanier," quotes the poet's declaration that to Dr. Woodrow he owed "the strongest and most valuable stimulus of his youth." In 1881 when Lanier was making his last battle for life in the North Carolina moun- tains, I met him twice, and was with him a few days at the Sulphur Springs near Waynesville. One day we were talking of the relations between the scientific and the poetic view of nature, one being an interpretation of nature by thought, the other a construction of nature by imagination, one nature known by the head, the other nature felt by the heart. We agreed heartily that the conception of nature as "the art of God" was a conclusion the mind must logically reach, when it goes beyond nature's mere phenomenal uniformities to the phil- osophical question as to the ultimate cause and source of her complex and unitary mechanism. We had spoken of Dr. Woodrow, of his teachings as confirming and impressing this faith, of our admiration and mutual indebtedness for his teach- ings. He said: "I am more indebted to Dr. Woodrow than to any living man for shaping my mental attitude toward nature and life. His spirit and method not only guided and enlarged my scientific knowledge, but they had a formative influence on my thought and fancy in all my literary work," and more to the same purport. It is something worth living CHARACTER SKETCHES. 13 for to have helped a Lanier to sing his songs and see his visions that will gladden and uplift many thousand souls for genera- tions to come. While in Alabama, and at Oglethorpe, he used offered oppor- tunities to give religious instruction. He was licensed to preach, and in 1859 ordained by Hopewell Presbytery. He preached statedly to various congregations of small churches in the vicinity, in connexion with his college duties. This work to him was not small, for it was the Master's. In 1857, August 4, he married Miss Felie S. Baker, daughter of the Rev. J. W. Baker, a Presbyterian minister in Georgia. Their wedded life almost reached its golden anniversary. Through all these years the devoted and gifted wife has been her husband's helper and sunshine ; a tireless ministering angel in all life's troubles, and in the last long illness. She is left behind, awaiting the call to join him in the "house not made with hands." Of the children born to them, the only son, James, a noble young man, died in 1892. His parents said of him: "He never gave us one heartache." He left a widow, Kate McMaster Woodrow, and three children. Of their three daughters, Jeanie married the Rev. Saml. I. Woodbridge, a missionary in China; Lottie married the Rev. Melton Clark, pastor of the Greensboro, N. C, First Presbyterian church. They both have several children. Marion, the unmarried daughter, is left bereft of the father she loved next to God. In 1859 a new chair, unparalleled then in any institution on the globe, was added to Columbia Theological Seminary. Its endowment was the munificent gift of a noble Mississippian, Judge Perkins, of "The Oaks," near Columbus. Its title and specific purpose were the conception of his pastor, the Rev. Dr. J. A. Lyon : "The Perkins Professorship of Natural Sci- ence in Connexion with Revelation, the design of which shall be to evince the harmony of science with the records of our faith, and to refute the objections of infidel naturalists." Drs. J. H. Thornwell, Thomas Smyth, Jno. B. Adger, and others welcomed with delight this addition to the Seminary's course of instruction, not sharing at all Dr. Dabney's fear that it would tend (towards "anti-Christian opinions." 14: DR. JAMES WOODROW. The Synods controlling the Seminary, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, elected Dr. Woodrow to this chair, and he assumed its duties in 1861. His inaugural address set forth his views of the scope and purpose of the chair. He was oppressed "with a sense of responsibility and self-distrust," by the fact that he was an absolute pioneer in a work that had no similar chair in any institution in Christendom to serve as a model. He held that the work of his chair would be to show that objections to the Bible based on alleged natural science were founded either upon "science falsely so-called, ,, or upon misinterpretation of the Bible. For nature is God's work and the Bible is his word, and being a God of Truth he cannot con- tradict himself in either. Summarising the principles of the address: There are no errors in the Bible, the original text being given ; there are no errors in nature, the real facts being given. The books of nature and of revelation are both inerrantly true, both being rightly interpreted. Hence there can be no conflict between them — for truth, like its author, is one. Hence apparent con- flict arises from (1) false text, or misapprehended fact, or (2) false interpretation of either text or fact; or (3) false infer- ence from some truth of revelation or truth of nature. Correct these — the false text, or misapprehended fact, the false inter- pretation or inference — and the apparent conflict disappears. We must not judge the truth of nature or of the Bible by preconceptions drawn from the supposed teachings of either. For about twenty-five years he developed and impressed these principles upon successive classes of students for the ministry. He reviewed the conflicts of opinion in successive ages as to the supposed teachings of the sciences on the one hand and of the Bible on the other, on the subjects of chro- nology, death in the animal world before the fall of man, geography, astronomy, Noah's flood, zoology, geology and the age Of the earth, the antiquity and unity of the race, the nebular hypothesis, and, in the latter half of this period, evolution — or the theory as to the mode or origin of the forms of life, whether by immediate, instantaneous creation, or mediately by generic derivation, or descent with modification. He showed with luminous and convincing clearness that all the apparent con- CHARACTER SKETCHES. 15 flicts between the Bible and nature, and the opposition either to the Bible or to the science concerned, arose from a violation of the fundamental principles that should have been applied. The limits of this sketch forbid more than a brief indication of his great life work — his Seminary teachings — in the form of a partial digest and interpretation, based upon three years of student work under him, his writings and speeches, upon the testimony of students from all his classes from 1861 to 1886, upon note books (recording his lectures) of students from several classes, and from friendly intercourse since 1872. During twelve years of this period I was his colleague in the South Carolina College. His fundamental thesis was: "The Bible and nature are both from God. They can not be contradictory. Apparent conflicts arise from misinterpretations of one, or the other, or of both. Remove these conflicts by ascertaining and interpret- ing correctly the facts of both." The spirit of honesty and candor of mind to accept truth on proper evidence must guide this work. Man can not dictate what nature should be, or what the Bible must say. He is a learner of God's thoughts and ways in nature, and of his will in the word. The methods of all science, physical and spiritual, as science, are the same, the application varying with the sub- ject matter. To reach truth in the ascertainment and interpre- tation of biblical and physical facts we must follow honestly and fearlessly the logical methods of induction and deduction. God gave us laws of thought that underlie and permeate these methods, and a universe of reality, spiritual and material, to be known and interpreted by them. As we are "made free men by the truth," we must claim and allow freedom of research. To the Christian, when he is learning from nature or the Bible, he is learning what ultimately comes from God — differ- ent truths indeed, and in ways differing with the subject-matter — but truth from God. God, therefore, is the teacher to the mind that recognises and trusts him as the maker, ruler, and guide of man and the world. The real Christian student is devout and reverent. He may and should pray for the help of that Spirit promised to guide us into all truth. 16 DR. JAMES WOODROW. Study of nature is not a godless work, whose essence and purpose is to make men atheistic. The Bible tells us that nature and the Bible are both revelations of God. "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no (articulate) speech or language, yet without these their voice is heard." (Psalm 19). "That which may be known of God is manifest to them ; for God has showed it to them. For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being under- stood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." (Romans 1.) Other Scriptures teach the same. Nature reveals "his power and Godhead," his glory, skill, and wisdom — yea, his general goodness, as Maker and Ruler. Scripture reveals his grace and salvation, redeeming man from sin and ignorance and blindness caused by sin. Clearly ascertained, rightly interpreted Bible truth is supreme, and has "right of way" over all other supposed truth. If conflict were possible between scientific and Bible truth, and should it emerge, and appear irremovable, the supposed scien- tific truth must yield. Reason must bow to Revelation, whose sphere and aims are moral and spiritual. The universe of nature is subservient to the moral universe. While error may be as possible rn the interpretation of a word, as of a fact, the relatively supreme and immediate moral purpose of the former gives it primacy in supposed possible conflict with the latter. The evil of making the Bible bow to supposed scientific truth would entail the disaster involved in impugning the trust- worthiness of the guide and helper, the light and power of the moral and spiritual life. Nature, meant to be the arena, and the subservient material system and mechanism of law and force for the outworking and realisation of moral ends, would really contradict itself — its ultimate moral purpose — if its facts contradicted the Bible truths, revealing the laws and realities of that moral system involved in both. Nature is a cosmos — a system of order and beauty — but correlative with, and subordi- nate to, the cosmos of moral order and spiritual beauty. Hence, CHARACTER SKETCHES. 17 if interpretations of the two seem irreconcilably conflicting, the Bible truth must have the primacy. Does this involve dethronement or contradiction of reason? Xo. Reason and nature, rightly interpreted, find their glory and honor in their subserviency to that order of spiritual right- eousness which Bible truth aims to realise. God and moral truth are supreme. The glory of reason is to read ''God's thoughts after him"' in nature, and do God's will as revealed in the Bible. Reason, taught by history and Scripture, can wait for ''new light to break forth from the word"'' and from the works, that will dissolve the apparent conflict between them. The sphere and purpose of Xatural Science and of the Bible are different. The sphere of Natural Science is the natural world. It studies the phenomena, the on-going processes of nature in order to understand what can be known of her his- tory, her laws and forces, her structure and mechanism, the direction, the conditions, and the forms of her working from the microbe to the macrocosm. Man studies nature primarily to know her, and then to use her aright for his welfare. Ascer- taining her laws, he adapts himself to them ; discovering her forces, he makes them instruments of his will, in his tools, inventions, and machines. In a word, the study of the works of God is one of the enabling conditions of power to obey the divine command, "Subdue the earth," and take the throne that God gave man in the eighth Psalm : "Thou hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet." Thus man is by divine appointment "the minister and inter- preter of nature" and commanded in the Bible to study it, seek out its wonders, and know its ways. His science, acquainting him with nature's laws, i. e., God's uniform, regular, habitual methods of action, enables him to plan his industry and direct his conduct in the business of life. The sphere and purpose of the Bible, on the other hand, is moral and spiritual. "The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man." From this exact statement of the Bible's sphere — its subject matter and purpose — it follows that we are forbidden 2—vr 18 DR. JAMES WOODROW. to seek in it anything else than the two contents, specified as the principal teaching: Faith as to God, and man's duty. All else is subsidiary, secondary, incidental, and illustrative. It is revelation to man as a fallen sinner making known redemption from sin through a Saviour. Sin not only defiles, it blinds and leads to error. Salvation, through the atonement of Christ — accepted by faith — is salvation from sinning and its penalties to holiness, and from ignorance and mental blindness to knowledge of truth — all truth, in Christ, God, and the Bible, primarily. And this truth incites him on to know truth in nature, history, and man. Its aim is to enable man to know God aright, to love God, and to honor him with holy living. This being true, we would expect to find every part of it per- meated and moulded by this purpose. As every bay and inlet of the sea responds to the pulsings of its vast tidal movements, so every chapter of the Bible throbs with this dominating and all-moulding purpose. "The waves are many, the sea is one; the words are many, the truth is one." The Bible speaks to men, not as men of science, or to teach them technical science, but to tell them of God and duty. It uses the common language of every day life, the language of appearances, phenomenal language based upon the sensuous impressions of things. The speech of the field, the shop, the mart, and the home; the speech of the poet, the shepherd, the traveller, and the soldier. It speaks of sunrise and sunset, of the quarters and corners of the earth; just as our astronomers and geographers do, even in almanacs, though they know the earth moves, not the sun, and the earth is round and has no corners, just as men will always speak; for the "appearances of things" will always remain substantially the same, while men's scientific constructions of those appearances have been chang- ing nearly every century for thousands of years. Now, the obvious conclusion is that the Bible does not mean to teach any scientific theory whatever on any natural object it mentions "in the heavens above or the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth." It teaches: "God made all things" wisely and well. He appointed unto all things in heaven and earth their times, bounds, and seasons, their place and work in the universe. He ruleth over all. His goodness is over all CHARACTER SKETCHES 19 his works. Alan, made in his image, is appointed to '"dominion over the work of his hands." to ""subdue the earth." to live in i: as his home, and to "'glorify God and to enjoy him forever," as the chief end of life. Hence man will search in vain within the Bible for technical teachings on any of the sciences. As Calvin long ago said : ''If you seek knowledge on astronomy and occult mysteries., go elsewhere.'"'' Nature is man's material home; the Bible gives the laws and ideals of life he is to follow in that home. To understand the architecture and the building methods, the tools and processes employed in its construction, man must study the building itself., not the moral code given for his life guidance in the building. This code is silent on the subject of the building's architecture, and the structural pro- cesses involved in it, beyond the mere fact that God was its builder, and that man must study these questions in the build- ing itself, and use it rightly. These general truths, in germ at least, were seen by the ancient thinkers. An old German said : ''The Bible tells us not how the heavens go. but how to go to heaven." While truth is eternal and changeless., man's knowledge of it grows, espe- cially in its extent, application, and correlations. The growth in this knowledge is often very slow in God's saints, as well as in sinners. Hence in past times, remote and modern, strifes have arisen. Men have injected scientific teachings in the Bible which God never put there. They have misrepresented the word and its Author to the world, making the Bible teach contrary to well established scientific truth. Hence they brought the Bible into disrepute, caused men to reject it and become skeptics or unbelieving rationalists. Therefore, the Christian ministry is bound, by their loyalty to God. by their love for the souls of men whom they are commissioned to win for Christ, to know aright God's word and the truth in his works, lest they drive men to hell by causing them to reject the Bible and the Christ that God gave for their salvation. Thus Dr. YVoodrow taught for about twenty-five years. A word summary and a mere skeleton interpretation, as given above, of that teaching is a poor portrayal of the man that taught, of his method's steady progress to a goal,, the scenery on the way, the vistas opening beyond and upward to other 20 DR. JAMES WOODROW. mountain ranges of truth, the illumining illustration, the widened vision that comes from the unexpected bringing together of a simple fact and a great truth — no tongue or pen can give these. He taught simple truths, but he made them large and sacred. Reverence towards God, faith in his word, hatred of sin, love to man, and what God can do for him through his pure gospel, joy in life and work in this world because it is God's world, made for men to know and enjoy by studying it, and God in it — these were the great lessons he impressed on his students. Some have charged that his teaching was rationalistic. Dr. Johnson quotes Dr. Dabney to this effect in a letter to Dr. Strickler, in his life of Dr. Dabney, page 345 : "Now what is rationalism in religion? Rationalism is the adoption of reason as our sufficient and only guide, exclusive of tradition and revelation." It is the setting up of reason as the supreme arbiter as against the Scripture or testimony — the system that deduces religious faiith from reason as distinguished from and opposed to revelation. Now it is easy to make charges. From the foregoing it is plain that every fibre of Dr. Woodrow's being revolted from theological rationalism — the basis, the frame-work, the spirit and aim, and every substantive doctrine he taught opposed it. Both the logical implications and the explicit statements of his teachings are anti-rationalistic. Dr. Dabney was a great and good man, but he sometimes erred. This was one time. Dr. Woodrow was a great and good man and sometimes erred, but not here. The War Between the States from 1861 to 1865 drew into the Southern armies all the youth and all the gray-haired men of the land capable of service in the field and in the hospital, in armories, shops, foundries, and laboratories. The theological students in the Columbia Seminary left the lecture rooms for the battlefields. Scottish blood always flows faster in the presence of war for the right. Dr. Woodrow's blood rose to the normal Scot- tish temperature. He volunteered as a private in a company formed in Columbia. He was made its chaplain. The company was disbanded and its members distributed in other commands. CHARACTER SKETCHES. 21 There was other work the government had for the volunteer professor. The hospitals needed medicine. There were few expert chemists in the South who could manufacture medicines. Dr. Woodrow was one who could, and he was assigned to duty as chief of the Confederate chemical laboratory in Columbia. Here he wrought, making medicines for the army, a work as necessary in war as making and shooting bullets. Much of the work was done in the Seminary buildings. * He did the work as chief. Dr. LeConte was the official head, at least for a time, but as he said to Dr. Woodrow, to whom he gave actual charge, his knowledge of chemistry then was mainly theoretical. Dr . Woodrow was expert in analytical and synthetic chemistry. He managed the work with the tubes, retorts, pans, etc. Nitrate of silver was one of the main products. He was busy with this work when Sherman's army came and burned Columbia. Dr. Woodrow secured some wagons, put in them his materials and apparatus, and saved them from Sherman. The Confed- eracy went down. But Dr. Woodrow's apparatus was not captured. It was not silver ! Some of the tubes and pans are in the family home to-day, gathering the dust of time, mute memorials of battlefields and camps from which wounded and sick men were borne to hospitals, and treated, soothed, and healed, made ready for another battle, by the medicines made in them more than forty years ago by 'the Seminary professor, born in Carlisle, England. He gave his State the best he had ; in peace, an upright life; in war, expert skill. The war ended with a people overpowered, homes desolate, fortunes destroyed, and institutions impoverished. It was hard to be brave and hopeful in those days. The Seminary endowment was so reduced that it looked like a forlorn hope to reopen it. But there were men in those days who loomed above the cloud of defeat, erect and strong, like Israel's heroes of old, beholding Jerusalem in ruins. A call rolled and vibrated from *The Confederate laboratory was in the buildings of the old Fair Grounds in the northwestern part of Columbia. Here Dr. Woodrow worked all day with his men. But at night, with his wife as his only assistant, he continued to work for many hours, using his own apparatus and materials, the Government furnishing only the silver for the nitrate. It was this private work alone that was done in the Seminary chapel. Afterwards, when Sherman's army occupied Columbia, Mrs. Woodrow, by making personal application to Gen. Logan, succeeded in saving Dr. Woodrow's apparatus from destruction by the soldiers. — Editor. 22 DR. JAMES WOODROW, myriad hearts to myriad hearts : "Let us rise and build." "So they strengthened their hand for this good work, for ithe people had a mind to work." They began rebuilding States, homes, families, business, schools, colleges, churches, and seminaries. Dr. Adger tells us that in counselling, with heavy hearts, over the Seminary, Dr. Woodrow inspired them all by his hope and vigor, and by his wise plans and practical help they soon reopened the Seminary, in September, 1865. Strong professors were soon ait work. Drs. George Howe, John B. Adger, James Woodrow, and soon after, W. S. Plumer and Jos. R. Wilson. Students who had been Confederate soldiers came to the Semi- nary halls. This type of man soon found Dr. Woodrow one of the powers and attractions in the Seminary. They had learned to be steady and hold their ground or charge in battle. A few years later when the controversial storm and battle raged around their honored teacher, they stood firm; they fought, too, with vim and valor, feeling sure, then and now, that they were "on the Lord's side." The Church's benevolent enterprises needed skilful and faith- ful management of their finances. The Church had learned that Dr. Woodrow could "do things ;" hence he was elected to be the treasurer for the General Assembly's Foreign Missions and Sustentation — an office he filled with great efficiency from 1861 to 1872. In 1865 he became editor and proprietor of The Southern Presbyterian, a weekly religious journal which he conducted with great skill and power until 1893. This paper under his editorship was a power for good in the Church, through its high editorials, its fine literature, its spotless editorial integrity. It was not a money-making enterprise ; but money-making was not its design. Its main support was the editor's pocket, from funds made elsewhere. From 1861 to 1885 he was editor and proprietor of The Southern Presbyterian Review, a strong theological quarterly to whose pages the ablest men of the Church contributed during the thirty-six years of its life. Like the weekly periodical, the quarterly had to be maintained from funds outside of the subscription receipts, but Dr. Woodrow and his co-laborers, who gave freely the work of their brains and pens, willingly spent money for the spread of truth in print. CHARACTER SKETCHES. 23 He served as professor in the South Carolina College from 1869 to 1872, withdrawing in 1872, when the Reconstruction regime — carpetbaggers, scalawags, and negroes — seized the College and rilled its chairs and its dormitories with their kind, and held it until South Carolina, under the leadership of Hamp- ton, with his co-patriots, rose up in righteous might and put down and out the usurper and alien. When the College was reopened in 1880, Dr. Woodrow was again made professor, and served until 1897. The subjects he taught were as follows: From 1869 to 1872: Chemistry, geology, pharmacy, and mineralogy. From 1880 to 1885: Mineralogy, geology, botany, and zoology. From 1888 to 1897 : Geology and mineralogy. From 1888 to 1891 he was also dean of the school of liberal arts and sciences. His powers as a teacher, indicated in the foregoing part of this sketch, were extraordinary in clearness and force of instruction, in luminous and impressive method — in mastery of principles and details, in burning zeal and interest, kindling the same in others, in love of thoroughness and hatred of pretence that shamed indifference, and unflagging industry that rebuked idleness and dignified work in the minds of his students. He was president of the College from 1891 to 1897. As president his career justified the faith of the students and of his colleagues in their expressed wish that the Board of Trus- tees would make him President McBryde's successor. He took the office in a trying time of political commotion in this State with the incoming of Gov. B. R. Tillman's administration. Uncertainty prevailed as to whether the new regime would abolish the College. Young men who would otherwise have entered the institution went to other colleges in the State and outside. When doubt as to the safety and permanence of the College subsided, the attendance increased year by year from seventy to about one hundred and eighty students. President Woodrow's administration deepened confidence in the value and perpetuity of the College. He administered discipline and the finances firmly and wisely. He trusted and 24 DR. JAMES WOODROW. encouraged his colleagues, and upheld them by his warm com- mendations at home and abroad. He projected admirable policies of instruction and equipment. At the age of seventy, according to previous purpose, he resigned. It would have been a beneficent course for the College if the Trustees had insisted on retaining him as professor. His wise counsels in the faculty, his moral influence over the students, his wide reputation for high scholarship were priceless treasures in the resources of the institution for the making of men. The history of the evolution controversy in the Southern Presbyterian Church is fresh in the minds of men now living. It can not be rehearsed in the limits of this sketch. Its history is on record in books, periodicals, pamphlets, and church court minutes. Its salient points may be briefly indicated : In 1884, at the request of the Seminary Board of Directors, Dr. Wood- row delivered an address on evolution, giving his views as to its probable truth, and its relation to Bible teaching. The address was published. The Board approved of his view that the theory, in its essential nature, is a hypothesis as to the mode of the creation of plants, animals, and man's body, on which the Bible is silent, and that, therefore, it does not contradict the Bible. They did not commit themselves to the view that the facts of the natural sciences prove that the hypothesis is prob- ably true. A storm arose, the Church was divided, one party holding that the hypothesis does contradict the Bible teachings as to the creation, especially concerning man's body. The other party sided with Dr. Woodrow in holding that the Bible is silent on the subject of the mode by which God created Adam's body out of dust, or earthly material, while very few committed them- selves to the view that the hypothesis is probably true ; mainly on the ground that the evidence for the hypothesis was fully understood only by expert biologists, was not fully in their possession, hence they could neither affirm nor deny. Holding the hypothesis to be extra-Biblical and theologically harmless, they were unconcerned from the religious point of view, whether it is true or false. CHARACTER SKETCHES. 25 A careful examination of the Scripture statements concerning creation shows that they mean to teach merely the fact that God created Adam's body "from dust;" whether this dust was organic or inorganic; whether the processes employed were immediate fashioning from clay and sand, or whether they were derivative, genetic, biological processes ; whether God made Adam's body directly, or by long processes of descent through pre-existing animal forms until "in the end of the ages" of this mediate derivative making the predetermined body was, by the final creative act, transformed into final shape, and made the body of man when "God breathed into it the breath of life, and man became a living soul," on these questions, said Dr. Wood- row, the Bible is silent. It states the fact of the creation by God of man's body from dust. It says nothing of how he did it, how long the creative process lasted, nothing of the previous history of the dust from which God made Adam's body. The Bible being silent on these subjects, the Christian believer is free to seek information on them in the only place where it can be found, in God's works in nature. The evidence from nature makes the theory probably true. The Bible neither denies nor affirms this theory, hence it is not the Church's province to affirm or deny. It is extra-biblical, hence beyond the Church's province, just like theories in chem- istry, botany, or zoology. A Christian is just as free to accept or reject the theory of evolution as he is to accept the theory that Mars is inhabited, or that radium is an element. Dr. Woodrow never committed himself definitely to any of the twenty forms of the evolution theory, which, in substance, is as old as the Greek philosopher, Anaximander, 600 B. C. He strove to prevent the Church from committing herself for or against the theory, because she would thereby disobey God, misrepresent his word, and go beyond her province into the secular domain. The general results of the controversy were : Dr. Woodrow was removed from the Seminary by the controlling Synods ; a majority of South Carolina Synod stood by him. He was tried by his Presbytery and acquitted of heresy in his belief by a nearly three-fourths vote. Georgia Synod, on a complaint, annulled this judgment. The General Assembly of 1888 con- 26 DR. JAMES WOODROW. firmed Synod's annulment, but in so doing declared through its Moderator and Georgia Synod's counsel that whether the Assembly sustained or overruled the complaint, Dr. Woodrow's ecclesiastical status, as fixed by his Presbytery's judgment of acquittal, would not be affected, i. c, that he would still remain as a regular orthodox minister in good standing. His Presbytery in 1888 declared that the annulment of her judgment, by Synod and Assembly, did not affect, in the slight- est degree, Dr. Woodrow's good standing. Thereupon, his Presbytery unanimously elected him Moderator and sent him as her commissioner to the next Assembly. Georgia Synod approved the records of Presbytery's action and the General Assembly approved of Georgia's approval, and appointed Dr. Woodrow chairman of an important committee in 1889 and in 1899. Thus the Church, through her courts and agencies, declared that Dr. Woodrow's beliefs do not affect a man's orthodoxy or soundness in Biblical, Christian faith, nor his good standing in the Church. And yet inconsistently affirmed in removing him from the Seminary that they were so unsound that he must not teach them to her young men. That teaching, let it be marked, was that the Bible is silent on evolution as God's mode of creation. He never taught his students that evolution was true, or, for that matter, that many other accepted scientific doctrines, on many subjects, were true. He taught that, true or false, they do not affect the Bible. This was the gist of his teaching on evolution. He would have resisted to the death the teaching of evolution as true by the Church, because it is not her business to teach science, as such, for the Bible does not teach it. Her sole duty is to teach God's word and preach the gospel. Scientific theories, as extra-biblical, are left to private judgment and secular agencies. One result of the conflict is a blessing to all Christendom. No other Church will ever need to fight that battle. Dr. Wood- row's work settled that question forever. The intelligent Christian world believes that he was right. Doubtless a vast majority of the Southern Presbyterian Church to-day would agree with Dr. Woodrow in his main contention: That the Bible is silent on evolution. The historic establishment of great principles often wins its way through the martyrdom of CHARACTER SKETCHES ■2: their first advocates, The form of martyrdom Dr. Woodrow suffered, in his professorial deposition and in the condemnation of many in his Church, whose friendship and approval he would have prized, is the price he willingly paid, though the pain was great, for the triumph of the truth he loved. He was willing to die for truth and the Lord of truth. Time will yet crown his name and memory with the wreath that he ought to have worn in life. The Church would have honored and blessed herself, had she kept on his head the Seminary professorial crown until the Lord called him above to give him the ' "crown of righteousness."' He served his Church in her courts as faithfully in these last years after his removal from the Semi- nary as in former times. He was no Achilles sulking in his tent. With magnanimous ardor he cooperated heartily with his fellow-presbyters in doing all he could, by wise and earnest counsel, for the welfare of the Seminary whose door had been closed against him. Men will endorse the judgment and the prophecy of the clear-headed and righteous-hearted Dr. Peck in his defence of Dr. Woodrow. though not adopting his views : '"'He has been righteously acquitted by his Presbytery of the charge of heresy. He did not teach evolution in the Seminary. The agitation did not begin with him. and his whole course has been one of self-defence — defence of his legal rights as a pro- fessor and a minister in the Presbyterian Church. He has not been fairly dealt with. The constitution of the Seminary and the constitution of the Church have both been violated in perse- cuting him. and I am also sure that the Church will acknowl- edge it in the end." Yes, in the end, when we no longer "see through a glass darkly, but face to face.'"' He was a leader in the courts and agencies of his Church. He was a member of Augusta Presbytery. Synod of Georgia, until 1892, and of South Carolina Presbytery. Synod of South Carolina, from 1892 until his death. Tan. 17, 1907; commis- sioner from these Presbyteries to the General Assembly in 1866, 1877, 1879, 1880, 1886. 1889. 1896. and 1899 ; moderator of the Synod of Georgia in 18T9 and of the Synod of South Carolina in 1901 ; corresponding delegate from the Southern Presby- terian Church to the Council of Churches in Great Britain and the Continent of Europe in 1874. In all these bodies he was 28 DR. JAMES WOODROW. influential in guiding and shaping their proceedings. His mind was potent in moulding to its final form the revised Book of Order and Discipline of the Southern Presbyterian Church. His wide knowledge of law and of constitutional principles made him a legal light in the Church. In ecclesiastical deliberations he was a tower of strength in debate. The shock of battle brought out his full force and fire, and made his eloquence "logic all aflame." In debate, he was a "hot spur" without his rashness; in controversy, a Junius without his malignity. In the ardor, lucid diction, classical correctness, and epigrammatic terseness of his style; in his keen wit, quick antithetic retort, and in the illustrative energy of his apt and convincing similes, as well as in his knowledge of detail, grasp of principles, and vigor of sentiment, his polemic powers had traits like those of the great Junius, whose "letters" were a terror to statesmen and a wonder to scholars. He had Junius's power without his ferocity, his skill without his cunning, for he grieved to wound a heart, and he scorned to fight from ambush. Those who heard him, especially in the great debates in the Assemblies of '66, '80, '86, and '88, and in the Synods of South Carolina and Georgia in '84, were impressed, not only by his learning and power, but by his dignity and courtesy. While he was a raging lion against wrong and error, he was gallant and knightly towards the per- sons of his opponents. That men should crown this man is but natural. One way of crowning is by fellowship, sought and proffered. Another way is by the bestowing of titles and degrees, as marks of honor deserved and acclaims of worth and nobility recognised. Dr. Woodrow wore many such crowns. He was made a member of the following learned societies : The Victoria Institute, London; Isis, Dresden; The Scientific Association of Switzer- land, The Scientific Association of German Naturalists, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Fellow of the International Congress of Geologists. He received the following titles : Ph. D., summa cum laude, from Heidelberg University; honorary M. D., from the University of Georgia ; D. D., from Hampden-Sidney college ; CHARACTER SKETCHES. 29 IX. D., from Davidson college ; J. U. D.. f doctor of both canon and civil law,) from Washington and Jefferson college. In the city of his citizenship. Columbia, his townsmen, recog- nising his business wisdom and probity, made him president of the Central National Bank from 1888 to 1891, and again from 1897 to 1901. Xot by inheritance, but by industry and economy he was possessed of worldly substance. His activity in public welfare extended to every form of lawful interest. He was a man of amazing industry and versatility. He impressed men as an expert in even* form of work he under- took. He never idled. Robert says that "chess was the recreation' 7 of his father. James, and quaintly adds "if chess can be called recreation, for it is a very up-taking game." Dr. Woodrow's recreation was change of work, from lecture room to laboratory, editorial chair to bank, debate in faculty and Presbytery. He kept a few scientific instruments in his study, collections of minerals, often plants, etc. To him work was play, and play was work. He watched with deepest interest all the movements of thought and life in religion, science, educa- tion, politics, commerce, and industry. Often strangers talking with him on some subject, apparently remote from his profes- sional work, thought he was a specialist on that subject. Life to him was large, because its field was the world God upheld and ruled — the field where God's thoughts and plans had sway. He was a man whose courage was uncooled by danger, for it had God for its reason. His honor unsullied shone, for he walked the peaks of right whose snows no dust of wrong defiles. His epitaph will be in the hearts of men whom his life helped to love God and good men. His reward will be the presence of the King he served and the full vision of the truth he loved. Editorially The State said : Within the limits prescribed by a newspaper's restrictions, the life story of James Woodrow, distinguished citizen, is told in The State to-day by one competent, through personal associ- ation and scholarly ability, to speak of one of the most remark- 30 DR. JAME)S WOODROW. able personalities this country has known. To that sketch we can add nothing. Under the glaring light of publicity that falls perpetually upon the great statesman or orator or soldier, their names become household words, and they are ever present in the public mind; but in other fields of greatness there is a shade that partially screens even the most brilliant. In the inner circle of scientists, in the libraries of the scholars, and in the studies of churchmen, James Woodrow is known from sea to sea, but there will be many even in his home city who will this morning read of his remarkable attainments and career of use- fulness, and wonder at their ignorance of the greatness of their neighbor. Greatness as applied to men is more frequently misapplied than correctly employed in description. There are men great in some specialty ; there are some whose qualities of greatness are marred by other qualities representing the antithesis of greatness. Few, very few, among the teeming millions, so successfully develop their endowments by nature as did this distinguished adopted son of South Carolina. A profound scholar, a deep theologian, a practical scientist, a splendid teacher, a strong and logical writer, a business man of high ability, with great courage and unwavering determination, and possessed of the philosophy of self-control that gave absolute mental poise. Dr. Woodrow was a mental giant, but far more uncommon, there was a full rounding, a symmetrical filling out, a perfected whole. His was a great mind, admirably balanced ; the blend- ing and application of theoretical and practical wisdom of the highest order. His was the growth of other times and other systems. The following also appeared in The State of Jan. 18, 1907 : After weeks of patient suffering James Woodrow died yes- terday at his home on Washington street. It was like the dying of the embers, so peacefully did his soul leave its earthly tenement. The fire of vitality had been smouldering; and gently, almost imperceptibly, dissolution had crept upon the great soul. As the dawn of a beautiful day came upon the city CHARACTER SKETCHES. 31 he loved, his life ended and his immortal self passed into the new day of the great beyond. Dr. Woodrow had been ill for months, and he had suffered uncomplainingly. Because his death was looked for does not remove any of the weight of sorrow from the hearts of those who loved him. Though not a native of this State, he had done much for South Carolina and for Columbia. A sketch of his life will be found elsewhere in The State. His biographer, Dr. Flinn, gives a beautiful pen picture of Dr. Woodrow, the preacher, professor, patriot. There is one inci- dent which is not mentioned, and this will summerise the high principles of his life more aptly than all others. The Foreign Missions Executive Committee of the General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church determined to invest thousands of dollars of the funds with Hoyt & Gardner of New York. Dr. Woodrow, as treasurer, firmly opposed the measure, but it was carried through against his will and protest. Not long afterwards Hoyt & Gardner failed. Dr. Woodrow was away from home at the time. His wife telegraphed him about the failure, advising him to go to New York and see what could be done. Cheques amounting to about $4,000 had been mailed by Dr. Woodrow to missionaries in various parts of the world to pay their current salaries. Dr. Woodrow hastened to New York. A grave crisis confronted him and the Church. Unless satisfactory business arrangements could be made, the cheques on Hoyt & Gardner would be protested, the missionaries would be in distress, the Church would be in trouble. Dr. Woodrow was equal to the emergency. He arranged with another bank to make good the Hoyt & Gardner cheques, and the foreign missionaries were so notified by cable. To secure the bank making this guarantee, Dr. Woodrow mort- gaged his home in Columbia, corner Washington and Sumter streets. At the next meeting of the Executive Committee the situation was discussed. Dr. Woodrow insisted that the immediate agents in the matter, and not the Church, must be the losers, and that the situation must be met within the committee itself ; otherwise a grievous scandal would ensue, confidence would be destroyed, and the work of the Church would be crippled ; and 32 DR. JAMES WOODROW. besides, honor and right required this course. He held that the arrangements he had made in New York must stand. The committee opposed, urging that the investment had been made against his counsel and will ; that he was not to blame, and that the fault lay with the committee. But Dr. Woodrow stood firm, and shouldered the loss. To this day the Church has never known how his sense of honor and regard for the Church's welfare saved her from disastrous, crippling scandal, distrust, and great soreness of heart. He knew the value of money, but he was its master, not its servant. While not personally responsible, he willingly made sacrifices to protect the honor and welfare of his Church. On account of the fact that some members of the family will be detained, the hour of the funeral has been changed from twelve until three o'clock to-day. The pallbearers will be: Honorary, Mr. Allen Jones, Mr. John T. Sloan, Pres. Benj. Sloan, Judge A. C. Haskell, Dr. E. S. Joynes, Dr. T. T. Moore, Dr. W. B. Burney, Mr. W. G. Childs, Dr. J. W. Klinn, Dr. T. M. DuBose, Dr. Lancaster, Mr. John Crawford, Mr. J. L. Mimnaugh, Mr. R. W. Shand. Active: Mr. T. S. Bryan, Mr. W. Clark, Mr. W. Gordon Belser, Mr. J. S. Muller, Mr. W. D. Melton, Mr. Henry Muller, Mr. W. M. Gibbes, Jr., Mr. D. L. Bryan, Mr. August Kohn. CHARACTER SKETCHES. 33 A Series of Articles Appearing' in The Central Presbyterian, Nov. 13th, 20th, and 27th. BY THE REV. DR. A. M. ERASER. PART I. ANCESTRY, SCHOLARSHIP, TEACHING, CIVIC SERVICES. The Rev. James Woodrow, D. D., LL. D., died at his home, in Columbia, S. C, January 17, 1907, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. He was one of the great men of the Southern Presbyterian Church. This estimate of him is based on the fulness and accuracy of his learning, the variety of his attain- ments, his ability and success as a teacher, the force of his personal character, the number of men moulded by his influ- ence, the powerful and wholesome impression he made upon his students, and his work as an editor, presbyter, and citizen. Considering his life as a whole, he is entitled to a place in the front rank of the men who have made our Church what it is. When I entered Columbia Seminary, I was conscious of a strong prejudice against Dr. Woodrow. I do not know whence that prejudice came, for my father, who was one of the direct- ors of the Seminary and sometimes warmly differed with him in matters of Seminary policy, and at other times as heartily agreed with him, always held him in the highest admiration. But whatever was the source of the prejudice, it did not con- tinue after I became his pupil. I soon began to admire his intellect, his masterly teaching, and his immense industry, then to revere his devotion to truth and righteousness, and then to love the man for the warmth of his heart, for the tenderness of his sympathies, for his unobtrusive charities, and for the loyalty of his friendship. It is no disparagement of the other teachers under whom I sat, and some of whom were superb men, to say that for me Dr. Woodrow was the finest teacher 1 ever had. I owe more to him than to any other man I ever met, except my own father. I therefore crave the privilege of pay- ing to his memory some small tribute of veneration, affection, and gratitude. 3— w 34 DR. JAMES WOODROW. The Rev. Dr. J. William Flinn, a colleague of Dr. Woodrow in the faculty of the South Carolina College, and a warm personal friend for many years, contributed to the Charleston News and Courier and The State of Columbia on the day after his death an elaborate sketch of his life. I am indebted to that carefully prepared sketch for many of the facts to which I shall allude. Dr. Woodrow was of a family distinguished for learning, piety, and notable service. In every generation of this family, for centuries, there have been one or more ministers of the Gospel, including Patrick Wodrow, a Roman Catholic priest in Scotland before the Reformation, who was one of the first to embrace the doctrines and spirit of Protestantism. Another ancestor was the Rev. James Wodrow, D. D., of the seven- teenth century, a great-grandson of Patrick Wodrow, and one of the most influential ministers in Scotland in his day. In this family was the militant blood of Robert the Bruce, but sublimated to a finer quality of devotion to right, patient endur- ance, indomitable perseverance, and tolerant charity, as it passed through the veins of the confessors of the Reformation time. Dr. Woodrow was an accomplished scholar in law, the sciences, and theology. The superiority of his scholarship was fully recognised in the world of education and research. Upon his graduation at Heidelberg he was offered a full professorship there. That was a rare tribute to an American from a German university. Before that he had been a pupil of Agassiz, and a warm personal friendship between the two continued through- out the life of Agassiz. He was a "fellow" of many of the leading societies for the promotion of learning and original research, and institutions of learning heaped honorary degrees upon him. Nor was his store of information derived altogether from books. He went to the original sources and studied nature for himself at first hand. He spent well-nigh a half- certtury in education, in Alabama, at Oglethorpe University in Georgia, at Columbia Theological Seminary, and in the South Carolina College, of which he became at last the president. All of this time a steady stream of students flowed through his life. Upon the majority of these his influence was that of a commanding personality. Of course there were some of his CHARACTER SKETCHES. 35 students who lacked the personal affinity with him which is so important for getting the greatest benefit from a teacher. This is always true, whoever the teacher may be. But his influence upon the large majority of his students was powerful and gracious. One of the most distinguished of his pupils was Sidney Lanier, the poet of Georgia. He declared that "the strongest and most valuable stimulus of his youth" he owed to Dr. Woodrow. He also said : "I am more indebted to Dr. Wood- row than to any living man for shaping my mental attitude toward nature and life. His spirit and method not only guided and enlarged my scientific knowledge, but they had a formative influence on my thought and fancy in all my literary work." An incident will illustrate the regard in which he was held by his students. There was a student with whom he had a misunderstanding in the Seminary. An alienation sprang up between them which lasted for years. But when, in the course of time, Dr. Woodrow's trouble came, the former student came at once to his support in the most generous and manly manner. He boldly and repeatedly bore testimony to his profound respect for Dr. Woodrow's godly character and his learning, and did effective service in putting his position correctly before the Church. All of this he did at the risk of his own popularity in the Church and at the risk of a business enterprise upon which he had just embarked, and which he eventually lost. Dr. Woodrow taught chiefly by lectures, and I recall vividly one of the peculiarities of his style. He would array his facts before the class in the most deliberate, patient, and painstaking manner, and keep the listener wondering what connexion all these facts had with each other. But as he drew near to the end a few concluding sentences would throw a light back upon the entire group of facts and show their relation to each other, and the whole discourse, '''fitly joined together by that which every part supplieth," would stand out before the mind, com- plete, symmetrical, luminous, beautiful. Having an enormous capacity for work, he was frequently engaged in collateral secular work, but never so much so as to impair his efficiency in either sphere. During the war he was practically the head of the Confederate Government's plant at 3G DR. JAMES WOODROW. Columbia for the manufacture of medicines. Dr. Le Conte was the nominal head, but he declared that his own knowledge of the subject was theoretical, and as Dr. Woodrow' s was practical and expert, he placed him in actual charge. The buildings of Columbia Seminary were used for the purpose.* A part of the apparatus then used is still in possession of the family, and if it were available, would be a valuable addition to the Confederate museum. In after years, at two different times, he was called to be the president of one of the leading banking institutions in Columbia. On the day following his death one of the oldest and most influential daily papers in the State paid him the following tribute: "Although modest to a degree and shrinking always from publicity, it may yet be doubted whether any South Caro- linian was so widely known and so generally respected among scholars and men of attainments the world over as Dr. Wood- row. America boasted few riper scholars, and his versatility was no less remarkable than the thoroughness with which he mastered every subject to which he devoted his attention. He was a theologian of eminence. His scientific attainments were recognised in every part of the globe. As a teacher he dis- played unusual ability ; and as the head of the South Carolina College he administered the affairs of that institution with rare capacity. He was an editor, a teacher, a deep student, the executive head of a great State college, and yet, in addition to all these things, found time to devote to business affairs, where he displayed the soundest of judgment, the highest value being placed upon his advice." PART II. CHARACTER — SERVICES TO THE CHURCH — PUBLIC SPEAKING. I never knew Dr. Woodrow, in a single instance, to flinch from doing or saying what he believed to be right. No fear, no consideration of his own interests or of the feelings of *The Confederate Government medical laboratory was located in the buildings of the Fair Grounds in the northwestern part of Columbia. But, after working there all day, Dr. Woodrow continued his labors far into the night, ably assisted in this, as in all his other undertakings, by his wife. This is the work which was done in the Seminary chapel. — Editor. CHARACTER SKETCHES. 37 others kept him from the discharge of his duty. When he exclaimed in self-defence before the Baltimore Assembly. "Moderator, I fear no one but God, and I fear him only as my heavenly Father," all who had ever known him well knew that he was speaking the literal truth. Like Stonewall Jackson, and like most men in whom the sense of righteousness is highly developed, he had no patience with the man who shirked his duty or who was in any respect dishonorable. Alas! it is true that even students of theology are not always faithful men. Anything like pretence or a lack of seriousness, or a want of conscience on the part of a student for the Gospel ministry was shocking to him, and he never concealed his scorn. Once a student had been appointed to debate in the Seminary chapel on the question of Calvin's part in the burning of Servetus, and Dr. Woodrow was to preside on the occasion. But the young man failed to appear when the time came for the debate. As he went to his class the next morning he met Dr. Woodrow and approached him with the smile and air of one who was conscious of having done something very adroit, and said, '''Well, Doctor, did you burn Servetus last night?" "Yes," replied the doctor, not changing his countenance in the least, ''and without any assist- ance from you." Not slackening his pace or otherwise noticing the student, he ascended his rostrum and called the class to order. He was an extremely diffident man, and he overcame his diffidence by a prodigious effort of the will. His rigid self- control, combined with his real abhorrence of all that was false, led many to think that he was austere. That impression, however, did him a great injustice. He was really a man of a tender heart. Several times I learned by accident of gracious charities of his. so quietly done that his left hand would not know the deeds of his right, except by accident. On three memorable occasions I saw him so overcome by emotion while speaking in public that he could not proceed with his speech. A member of my class died during the Seminary term, and before the body was removed to his home, a little funeral service was held at the Seminary, conducted by the faculty. In 38 DR. JAMES WOODROW. the course of his remarks on that occasion his voice broke, and it was only after a painful pause that he could resume. Another time was at one of the professors' conferences, held weekly in the Seminary chapel. It was his time to conduct the meeting. His subject was the "Righteousness of God." He was reading brief passages from different parts of the Bible bearing on the subject before beginning his own remarks. As he passed from one passage to another he became so over- whelmed with a sense of the righteousness of God that he was unable to continue the reading. He simply sat down in silence and signaled to the professor whose speech was to have followed his own to proceed. There was a pause, and we thought he was ill. Every sort of attention and ministration was offered, but kindly and quietly declined. It was several days before the explanation transpired. The third occasion was his speech to my class at graduation. He was making a strong and tender address, when he was overcome and could not recover for a perceptible time. Intense and tender as he was, naturally his home life was particularly gentle and beautiful. His wife was his co-laborer, in enthusiastic sympathy with his ideals and his work. Without the compromise of parental dignity, his relations with his children were intimate and even playful. There could be no finer tribute to parents and child than the brief sentence which appeared in the Southern Presbyterian upon the death of his son, and in response to numerous letters of condolence, namely : "He never gave us one heartache." He is survived by his wife and three children, Mrs. S. I. Woodbridge, of China; Mrs. Melton Clark, of Greensboro, N. C. ; Miss Marion Woodrow, of Columbia, S. C. ; and a number of grandchildren. As the editor and proprietor of the Southern Presbyterian, he rendered most valuable service to the Church. He pur- chased that paper and began the publishing of it within a few months after the surrender. He hauled the printing outfit from Augusta, Ga., to Columbia, S. C, on a cart, he himself walking by the side of the cart and driving the mule, sometimes putting his own shoulder to the wheel to help the mule in rough places. He made his paper a power for righteousness and truth. The first page was always devoted to selections, and CHARACTER SKETCHES. 3D those selections were unique for excellence of matter and style. He thus placed before his readers every week a large page of the very choicest reading matter suitable for the Sabbath day. It was often remarked that that one page was worth the whole price of the subscription. The editorial department was conducted with the ability and fearlessness which characterised the man, and was one of the important forces that determined the attitude of the Church toward every question that arose. Dr. Flinn is authority for the statement that the enterprise never made money, but, on the contrary, was a drain upon his other resources. He also, for many years, controlled the Southern Presbyterian Review, the only religious magazine in our Church at that time, and with similar results, both as to usefulness to the Church and personal loss to himself. He was for a long while the Treasurer of our Foreign Mis- sion and Sustentation work. In this connexion Dr. Flinn tells a story that not only illustrates the high character of Dr. Wood- row and his loyalty and value to the Church, but is deeply interesting as a part of the history of our Church. It is best told in Dr. Flinn' s own words : "The Foreign Missions Executive Committee decided to deposit with Hoyt & Gardner, in New York, thousands of dollars of the Foreign Missions funds. Dr. Woodrow, as treasurer, opposed and protested. The measure was carried over his head. Shortly afterwards Hoyt & Gardner failed. Dr. Woodrow was away from home. His wife telegraphed him about the failure, advising him to go to New York to see what could be done. Cheques on Hoyt & Gardner, amounting to about four thousand dollars, had been mailed to pay the current salaries of missionaries in various parts of the world. "Dr. Woodrow went to Xew York and arranged with another bank to make good these cheques. To secure this bank he mortgaged his home in Columbia (corner Sumter and Wash- ington streets ), and thus saved the missionaries sore embarrass- ment and the Church a scandal. "The Foreign Missions Committee met and discussed the situation. Dr. Woodrow insisted that the Church must not be the loser, otherwise it would create scandal, destroy confi- dence, and cripple the Church's work; besides, honor required 40 DR. JAMES WOODROW. that the immediate agents in the matter should be responsible. He himself assumed the financial loss. The committee opposed, urging that the loss was not his fault, for he had protested against the investment, and the fault lay with the whole committee. Dr. Woodrow stood firm, saying: 'No, it must be done/ So he shouldered the burden and saved his Church and her agencies from trouble. To this day the Church has never known how his sense of honor averted heavy loss and grievous heart-soreness/' In the courts of the Church Dr. Woodrow was always a power. His information was wide and accurate, his views were clear, his convictions intense, and he was remarkably ready with clear, strong statement. These qualifications made him always a leader. He was a powerful speaker. That he was so came largely from self-culture — sacrifice, painstaking, persevering, indom- itable. As a youth he was extremely bashful, and his voice was thin. He was consequently not adapted to public speaking. He regarded this as a fault rather than a misfortune, and determined to overcome the obstacle. When he was a young teacher in Alabama he took a course in voice culture from a teacher in Philadelphia. The lessons thus learned he practised in his strolls through the woods and as opportunity otherwise came to him. The result was the mastery of the art of effective speaking. The effectiveness of his speaking did not rest upon the superficial attractions of oratory. There were no graceful gestures, no impressive poses, no practised tones. But he inspired one with confidence in his honesty of mind, his love of the truth, his thorough knowledge of his subject. His analysis of his subject was lucid, his statements clear, and his literary style a model of simplicity and force. He never spoke on any subject without being fully informed upon it. At the beginning of his speech his voice was always feeble and could scarcely be heard at all. But as he proceeded his voice grew louder and clearer, till he could easily be heard in every part of the building. One of the greatest speeches of his life was the one he made before the Synod of South Carolina at Green- ville in 1884, while defending his position in the evolution controversy. A college professor belonging to another denom- CHARACTER SKETCHES. 41 ination, who heard that speech, remarked to a friend. "I have all my life longed to hear eloquence that, in my judgment, was like that of Demosthenes, and that speech has fully gratified my desire." PART III. EVOLUTION. There was one thing about Dr. YVoodrow's famous address on Evolution that seems to me to illustrate the fearless inde- pendence of his mind more than anything else, though I have never seen it mentioned. It was his avowal of a belief in the immediate creation of Eve. By his adoption of any form of evolution he jeopardised his standing with the orthodox ministry of the Church, and by his excepting Eve from the operation of the supposed law of evolution he would probably forfeit the regard of the evolutionists. The evolutionists could tolerate his saying that he felt at liberty to embrace evolution because he did not think the Bible forbade it. Provided he accepted their theory on scientific data, they would not care for his views as to the relation of that theory to the Bible. But when he declared that the evidence from nature led him to believe in the evolution of Adam and yet he would not include Eve, because the Bible account of her creation would not allow him to do so, he could expect no sympathy from that direction. Yet neither the prospect of ridicule on the one hand nor ecclesi- astical censure on the other, caused him to deviate a hair's- breadth from the exact position that he believed to be correct. His reverence for the Scriptures as the very word of God was the most absolute and profound I have ever encountered, and I am indebted to him more than to any other person for the reverence I feel for the Bible. I do not recall that I ever knew him once to use the language of the Bible to point a jest or use it in any other than what he believed to be the intended sense. Xor do I recall a single instance of his even smiling at the witticism of another that had been sharpened by some misapplication of Scripture words. Through all his controversy on evolution he stoutly maintained that he would instantly abandon the theory if he were convinced that he had misinter- preted the Bible account of the creation of man, and that no 42 DR. JAMES WOODROW. amount of evidence from nature would weigh with him as against any statement of the Bible which he believed to contradict it. He was a Christian first and a student of science afterwards. He believed, as he said, in "the absolute inerrancy of every syllable" of the Bible. It was, therefore, truly like the irony of events that when such a man was called to contend so mightily for his standing in the ministry, it should have been upon a question involving his loyalty to the inspired word as the supreme and infallible guide in religion. He was tragically misunderstood on that subject. The impression that he taught evolution in Columbia Semi- nary is incorrect. I am a personal witness to the facts. I received as his student the most advanced views he ever advo- cated before any Seminary class. I was a member of the very last class (the class of 1880) before which he discussed the subject in any of its aspects. After my graduation the Semi- nary suspended for a few years. After it was reopened he once more taught there for some months, but not long enough to reach this subject. As a member of that last class he ever addressed on the subject, I bear testimony that he did not teach evolution. He stated the theory and gave the evidence on which it was supposed to rest. He declared, however, that he regarded the evidence as insufficient to establish the theory, and he fully explained what he held to be the fatal defect in the proof. It was after the reopening of the Seminary and before he ever again lectured to his classes on that subject that, in response to a request of the Board of Directors of the Seminary to prepare an address on evolution, he carefully reviewed the whole field and changed his opinion. He did declare, however, to my class and to other classes for years before mine came on, that there was nothing in the Bible, rightly interpreted, to forbid the holding of some form of evolution. But personally he did not himself embrace it at that time in any form, and his influ- ence was against it. Here is the story of the genesis of the trouble. In the year 1859 Judge Perkins, of Mississippi, endowed a chair in Colum- bia Seminary for instruction in "Natural Science in Connexion with Revelation." Dr. Woodrow was elected to fill that chair. No professorship like it existed in any institution at that time, CHARACTER SKETCHES. 43 and there were no precedents to guide him in the conduct of the chair. The plan of instruction adopted by him was to discuss in turn each of the various scientific theories supposed to be in conflict with the teachings of the Bible and to consider carefully its relation to those teachings. The age of the earth, the antiquity of man. the universality of the flood, and evolution were some of the subjects so treated. He was thus led naturally, even necessarily, to canvass evolution with his pupils. The germinal principle of his department, out of which all his teachings grew, was that nature and the Bible are from the same source — the Omniscient, the- God of Truth — and. there- fore, they could not conflict with each other, and if there seemed to be a conflict it arose from a wrong interpretation of either nature or the Bible. It was his custom to examine before the class with impartial fairness the passages of Scripture involved., giving the grammatical construction of the original, applying rigidly the rules of Hermeneutics approved by the soundest and ablest expositors, and then to present with equal impartiality the facts of nature bearing on the subject. Thus the true teachings of each were confronted with the true teachings of the other, and the result in every case was the disappearance of the difficulty. But this regnant principle was never for an instant lost to view, that if the difficulty was not removed, and there still seemed to be conflict, the Bible statement must be accepted as the end of controversy, because the Bible was given for the very purpose of correcting the mistakes of reason. These guiding principles, strongly and clearly stated, often repeated, convincingly and charmingly illustrated, from wide and exact learning, had the most wholesome effect on his students. Instances are known of young men who were rescued from skepticism by his teachings. The effect on the majority of his students was to set their minds at rest forever as to any possible danger to their faith from the discoveries of science, and also to eliminate entirely from their preaching all nervous, excited, and ill-informed tirades against science. The student left the class-room with the truth rooted in his soul that the object of the Bible was to reveal to men the way to salvation, and that the commission of the Christian minister was to learn the meaning of the Bible and to preach that, and nothing else. 44 DR. JAMES WOODROW. There was a solemn sense of responsibility to "preach the word" without fear of assault and without misgiving as to the result. My impression is that a majority of his students accepted his interpretation of Genesis 2 :7, namely, (to express it in the language of the Augusta Assembly, which disapproved his teachings) that the passage revealed the fact of God's creating man, but not the inscrutable mode. But if a single one of his students ever embraced his scientific theory of evolution, I have never heard of it. The act of the Creator by which he imparted to Adam those characteristics which distinguished him as man from any possible animal parents was, in Dr. Woodrow's view, as truly supernatural and divine, was as typical a case of creation, as that by which matter was originally brought out of nothingness, or that by which a soul dead in sin is made spiritually alive in regeneration. He was no materialist, no rationalist. He believed in the Trinity, in the divine creation of Adam, in the fall of man, in the incarnation of the Son of God, in the vicarious atonement of Christ, in regeneration by the Spirit, in justification by faith, in a progressive sanctification by the word and the Spirit, in the adoption of believers, in the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures, in prayer, in the eternal duration of rewards and punishments. When his friend, Dr. J. Leighton Wilson, once asked him what book of theology he regarded as the best, he replied, "The Confession of Faith/' He was to the last vehemently unwilling to see our Church enter into any alliance with other Churches whereby our testimony to this system of truth might be endangered. His orthodoxy was never called in question except upon one point. He believed that the creation of Adam's body was mediate, and not immedi- ate, as his brethren held. As we now teach children that God created them, meaning thereby a mediate creation through the operation of second causes, in the same sense he believed in the mediate creation of Adam, only in that case the difference between parent and offspring was greater. In two recent issues the Central Presbyterian has quoted with approval this remark of Prof. James Orr, of Scotland: "The new form of the doctrine of evolution now growing up will be in perfect accord with the most orthodox Christianity." It is hard to see how CHARACTER SKETCHES. 45 any theory of the evolution of man can come nearer being in accord with orthodox Christianity than that form held by Dr. Woodrow. It is not my purpose to follow the serpentine windings of the long-drawn-out judicial case which ended in the Assembly's disapproval of his views, but leaving his ecclesiastical standing intact. And I would be greatly disappointed if anything I have written should revive, even slightly, any of the bitterness of those days. It is enough to say that in the whole history of the Southern Presbyterian Church there has never been a ques- tion that so thoroughly aroused the entire membership as the Evolution controversy did. Every one who read the Church papers at all was excited about it and deeply concerned for the result. Yet within twenty-three years the excitement has com- pletely subsided. Within five years of the close of the controversy one of the most conspicuous and one of the ablest of Dr. Woodrow's defenders was elected moderator of the General Assembly. He was the youngest man who ever filled that chair. In a very few years more we see Dr. Woodrow himself a member of various Assemblies, the chairman of most important committees, and a respected and honored leader as of yore. Eater still, he is enthusiastically elected moderator of the Synod of South Carolina, where the controversy had raged the fiercest. And in the last few months of his life the Board of Directors of Columbia Seminary expunged from its records every entry reflecting upon him. A few months before his death I called to see him. He was ill, and a long examination by consulting physicians had left him prostrated. That illness was the beginning of the end. No doubt his heart had already heard the last call. His hair had become snow white, and as it lay spread out about his head on the pillow, it reminded me of the words of Proverbs, "The hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness." With heart and conscience fully adjusted to the other world, he had nevertheless relaxed none of his grasp on the interests and responsibilities of the earthly stewardship. He responded heartily to every personal sug- gestion and at every mention of the questions agitating the Church he had so long served so lovingly, so laboriously, so 4G DR. JAMES WOODROW. courageously, his eye kindled and the energy of his speech and gesture suggested one that girded on the harness rather than one ready to put it off. As I recall the scene in connexion with his death, which followed not long after, I think of Mont- gomery's lines : "Servant of God, well done ! Rest from thy loved employ; The battle fought, the victory won, Enter thy Master's joy." CHARACTER SKETCHES. 47 Dr. Woodrow and the "Silence of Scripture." An Article, with Additions, which Appeared in the Central Presbyterian. BY THE REV. DR. E. M. GREEN. It was often said during the Evolution controversy that Dr. Woodrow would never be understood or appreciated while he lived. Personal feeling and prejudice entered so largely into the discussions and influenced so powerfully the judgment of many, that time had to be allowed for these to pass away. Dr. Woodrow is now dead. Time has produced the effect that was anticipated. Asperities have been softened, animosities have been forgotten, prejudices have died out, and those who knew and admired and loved him can now speak without awakening antagonism, and will be listened to when they tell what manner of man he was, and what his real opinions and teachings. Such splendid tributes to his memory as that which Dr. Flinn has given, and such temperate and judicious articles as those Dr. Fraser has recently been giving through the columns of The Central Presbyterian, ought to do much to place his life and character and teachings in their true light before the Church and the world. Those who are familiar with the controversy referred to will bear witness that Dr. Woodrow's purpose throughout the whole discussion was not to establish any hypothesis of evolu- tion — as to this he was indifferent — but it was to prove the silence of Scripture respecting the mode of the creation of Adam's body. This he regarded as vital. But why did he make so much of this? Why did he think it so important to establish the fact that on this point the Scriptures are silent? As this was the subject of many conversations between us, I can give the matter as it lay in his own mind. He was inti- mately associated with the scientists of his day. Many of these eminent men, whose names were known over the civilised world, he counted as his personal friends ; he knew and loved them ; he respected them as earnest searchers after truth, and, as a Christian, he felt deep concern that they should 48 DR. JAM£S WOODEOW. believe as he did in divine revelation. But many of them rejected the Bible because of the false interpretations put on its teachings. In regard to the creation they were told that the earth and all that is therein, together with the heavens above, were made of nothing, in the space of six natural days, and only about six thousand years ago. They reasoned that the Church ought to know what the Bible teaches. The ministers of the word are, many of them, scholars of acknowledged learning and ability, who make a special study of Scripture, and are experts in its interpretation. Hence they accepted as authoritative these statements of theirs as to its teachings. But this account of the creation being inconsistent with the facts established beyond doubt by their studies and investiga- tions, they naturally discredited the whole Bible, which thus began in palpable error. The Church has at last learned that the error was hers, and that the Bible does not say what it was supposed to say. Scientific men are satisfied with the present accepted interpretation of the Mosaic account of crea- tion ; but much harm was done by the mistaken view of what the Bible really taught. And now, in regard to the formation of man's body: why should we try to commit the Bible to a certain mode of crea- tion, when as to the mode it is silent? In doing so, do we not oppose a needless difficulty in the way of those who have been led to think differently from ourselves? The silence of Scripture is sometimes as significant as its speech; and to make the Bible say what it does not say, may be to make infidels. Where it is silent we should be silent, and it certainly is silent as to the mode of the creation of Adam's body. The Lord formed it of the dust of the ground, but by what process or in what length of time we are not told. We may be right in thinking that it was formed "directly" from the dust, but the Bible does not say so, and others have the same right to their opinions in the matter that we have. Nor does it much matter how Adam's body was made out of the dust; he was not man till God breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul. Dr. Woodrow's object was not to interpret the Bible accord- ing to the teachings of science. His sole purpose was to find CHARACTER SKETCHES, 49 the true meaning of Scripture, knowing that there would be no conflict between this and a true interpretation of the facts of science : and this would remove the great difficulty in the way of his many friends among the students of science accepting the truth of that divine revelation which he believed with all his soul. His famous reply to Dr. Dabney's ''Assault on Physical Science." published in the Southern Presbyterian Review of July, 1873, was printed in pamphlet form and widely distrib- uted among his friends in Europe and America. At that time the business management of the Review and of the Southern Presbyterian, of which he was proprietor, was in my hands, and we were intimately associated. Taking me into his confi- dence, he read me numerous letters from various parts of the world, written in German. French, and other languages (which he translated for my benefit), from eminent scientists, express- ing their indebtedness to him for his luminous exposition of the relations between Revelation and Natural Science. And when the address on Evolution was published, which became the subject of controversy, nothing gratified him so much as the assurances he received from many of its having helped them to clearer views of the truth and stronger faith in the word of God. One of these was a pronounced infidel, who had been active in assailing the Bible from the scientific point of view, but who surrendered his opposition and became a believer in divine revelation; and another, a judge of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, whose difficulties had all been removed by reading the address, and who, consequently, became a believer and a Christian. Dr. Fraser refers to Prof. Woodrow's fearless independence of mind in favoring the hypothesis of the formation of Adam's body by process of evolution, yet not admitting the forma- tion of Eve's body by a similar process, because the Bible account of her creation would not allow him to do so. This was a seeming inconsistency for which he has been much criti- cised. But he was first loyal to Scripture, and, secondly, loyal to science as he understood it. In private conversation he gave me this illustration : Had he been in Galilee in the early days of Christ's ministry and been asked in respect to two 4— w 50 DR. JAMES WOODROW. glasses of wine on the table before him, whence they originated, his reply would have been that the wine in both glasses had been made in the usual method from the juice of the grape. If the reply had been, "No, this glass of wine is some of that which was made by Jesus last night, at the marriage in Cana," then he would have said, "If you certainly know that to be a fact, I will admit that this glass was so made; but as to the other glass, I must believe that it was made by the usual method, unless you can assure me to the contrary/' The Scriptures tell us that Eve was formed from the body of Adam. That is authoritative, and settles the matter as to her body. But as the Scriptures are silent respecting the mode by which Adam's body was formed, we must believe that it was by the usual process of development which we see in everything else. This was his manner of reasoning. It was probably not satisfactory to his fellow-scientists, nor any more so to his fellow-religionists; but he thought for himself, and took all the consequences. The General Assembly of 1888 gave its judgment that "Adam's body was directly fashioned by Almighty God of the dust of the ground," and this ended the controversy. Had the word "directly," for which no proof text was cited, been omitted, the decision would have been concurred in unani- mously. That the Creator formed man of the dust of the ground, the Scriptures plainly enough declare. If the scientists can discover the mode by which it was done, they are free to do so. Dr. Woodrow was profoundly loyal to the Sacred Scriptures, and he accepted every word of the Bible, from beginning to end, as the inspired word of God. I have often heard him say that to his mind nothing was so fully and satisfactorily proven as the truth of the Holy Scriptures, and that he could not for a moment accept anything as true which contradicted the divine word. If science, philosophy, or human reason declared any- thing contrary to Scripture, it proved that they and not the Scriptures were in error. The love of truth was ingrained into the very fibre of his character, and he could tolerate nothing that was not perfectly genuine and true. When the present writer was a student in CHARACTER SKETCHES. 51 college, riding one day with the young professor near a large public building then in course of construction, some remark was made as to its beauty and magnificence. His reply was that he could not altogether admire it, for while it was an imposing structure it was a practical lie. Explaining his meaning, he said that it was built of brick, as all knew, yet it was stuccoed and marked in squares to imitate brown stone. The building would have been more pleasing to him if the plain brick had shown. This was an index to his mind and character. When his address on Evolution was published and a storm of criticism had been aroused, a friend suggested that as Evolu- tion was a hypothesis only, and could neither be proven nor disproven, he might have stated the theory without positively committing himself to it, and so escaped censure. His answer was that he had been asked to give his views, and he could not do otherwise than honestly give his views. He knew nothing of the art of evasion. He had always the courage of his con- victions, and accepted the responsibility of his opinions. After the storm had passed and the trouble was all over, he said that the Evolution controversy had been a costly one to the Church and to himself personally, but that it was worth all it had cost, that it had been educational, the ministry of the Church had been lifted to broader and more intelligent views, and it was impossible that such a controversy should ever again occur in our Church. 52 DR. JAMES WOODROW. An Account Adapted from Those Appearing in Phi Gamma Delta, 1898, and The Garnet and Black, 1899. In the old historic city of Carlisle, England, within six miles of the Scottish border, James Woodrow was born May 30, 1828. His father, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Woodrow, a native of Paisley, Scotland, and an A. M. of the Glasgow University, married a lady of Glasgow, the daughter of a deacon in Dr. Ralph Wardlaw's church. Thomas Woodrow was at first a minister of the Established Church of Scotland (Presbyterian). Not approving the connexion between Church and State, he severed his relationship with the Kirk, and became pastor of an independent church at Carlisle. When James Woodrow was eight years old, his parents removed to America, in 1836, settling at first in Canada, but subsequently coming to the United States in May, 1837. The father became pastor of the First Presbyterian church at Chillicothe, Ohio, and this was his home for some time. Young James was taught at home chiefly, by his father, attending school a while at Brockville, Canada, and Chillicothe and Athens, Ohio. He entered Jefferson College at Cannons- burg, Pa., in 1846. Here he was known as a quiet and retiring man and a close student, and on his graduation in 1849, he received the first honor in an exceptionally large and able class. Upon leaving college, he taught school for two years in Alabama, and in 1853 he spent part of his vacation in study at the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University. In January, 1853, he was elected Professor of Natural Science in Oglethorpe University, Georgia, a position he retained until January 1, 1861. While a Professor at Ogle- thorpe, he engaged in mission work among the feeble churches near Milledgeville, and being convinced that it was his duty to preach regularly to them, he took up privately the full course of (theological study required, including Hebrew, and was licensed and afterward ordained to the ministry at Milledge- ville, Ga., in the spring of 1859. He was not ordained as a CHARACTER SKETCHES. 53 minister to qualify himself for a theological professorship, but in order to "preach the gospel to the poor." In 1855-56, he was studying in Germany, and took the degree Ph. D., summa cum laude, at Heidelberg, March 6, 1856. The day he graduated he was offered a full professorship in the Uni- versity of Heidelberg, he being only twenty-seven years of age. However, he desired to return to America, and the following year (1857) he was married to Miss F. S. Baker, daughter of Rev. J. W. Baker, of Marietta, Ga., and from this union four children grew up. In November, 1860, he was elected to the "Perkins Profes- sorship of Natural Science in Connexion with Revelation," in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Columbia, S. C, and entered on his duties January 1, 1861. For a time the Civil War interrupted the exercises of the Seminary; but Dr. Woodrow continued his studies, and was very active in the service of the Southern Presbyterian Church, and from 1861 to 1872 he was Treasurer of Foreign and Domestic Missions. He also rendered valuable services to the Confederacy, of which he was an ardent supporter. The South Carolina College, too, claimed Dr. Woodrow's services, and from 1869 to 1872 he taught Chemistry and Geology in that institution. Many of his theological students attended his college lectures also. Moreover, in 1865 he became editor and proprietor of the Southern Presbyterian, which position he retained until 1893. The Southern Presbyterian Review was also owned and published by him from 1861 until 1885, and much of the editorial work connected with it devolved upon him. Under this accumulation of duties, and with his intense application to work so varied and so responsible, it is little wonder that his health, never robust, was about to give way. In 1872, he went to Europe with his family, and remained there until 1874, revisiting America, however, on several occas- ions. While there he spent much time in travelling over regions most interesting to geologists, and in making personal inspection of remarkable formations, and otherwise adding to his store of learning upon this subject. It was during this period that Dr. Woodrow, on one of his excursions near Dres- 54 DR. JAMES WOODROW. den, Saxony, discovered a most important fossil {Catamites gigas) for which many noted geologists had been long search- ing. Its importance is due to the fact that its presence deter- mined the age of the layer of rock in which it was found, geologists not having been able to classify that and other similar layers before this fossil was found. After his return from Europe in 1874 Dr. Woodrow took up his work once more with renewed energy. He was often called upon for ecclesiastical duties, being sent as commissioner to many meetings of the General Assembly, besides his attend- ance on Synod and at important meetings of Presbytery. On the 7th day of May, 1884, at a meeting of the Alumni Association of the Theological Seminary at Columbia, Dr. Woodrow delivered, by request of the Board of Directors of the Seminary, an address on Evolution which produced unusual excitement and discussion in the Presbyterian Church. The position taken by Dr. Woodrow was that Evolution in some form is probably true; that it applies probably to the body of man, but not to his soul ; and that it may be recognised as "God's plan of Creation" without interfering with a theistic and Christian belief. The controversy that followed agitated the Church for years. A perfect flood of newspaper and review articles was poured forth, and the discussion resulted in oust- ing Dr. Woodrow from his chair in the Seminary, the with- drawal of two professors — his colleagues and sympathisers — a complete change in the Board of Directors, and the temporary closing of the Seminary. The Perkins Professor was tempo- rarily re-instated, and ceased to act as Professor in May, 1886. From 1880 to 1891, he was Professor in the South Carolina University, occupying the chair of Geology and Mineralogy, and from time to time filling also the chairs of Botany, Zoology, Physiology, Astronomy, and Natural Philosophy. In 1891, in the reorganisation of the University, he was elected President of the South Carolina College, still retaining his chair of Geology. His long experience as an educator, his high character as a Christian gentleman, his abilities as a finan- cier, and his attractive manner towards young men, fitted him admirably for this important position. CHARACTER SKETCHES 55 In June, 189 7, Dr. Woodrow resigned the Presidency and his Professorship in the South Carolina College, with the intention of retiring to private life. In the summer of the same year he attended the International Geological Congress at St. Petersburg. While in Russia he and his fellow-members were the guests of the Czar of Russia, which means, among other things, that all their travelling expenses were paid by the Government during their entire stay on Russian territory. On account of his ability and excellent business qualities, he was, on his return from Europe, made President of the Cen- tral National Bank in Columbia, which position he held until 1901. Besides his degree of Ph. D. from Heidelberg, Dr. Woodrow was made an M. D. by the Georgia Medical College, at Augusta, Ga. ; a D. D. by Hampden-Sidney College, Virginia ; an LL. D. by Davidson College ; and a J. U. D. by Washington and Jefferson College. He was a member of the German Scientific Association ; the Swiss Scientific Association ; the Isis, of Dresden, Saxony; the Victoria Institute, of London; Fellow of the .American Association for the Advancement of Science; and a member of the International Congress of Geologists. Dr. Woodrow" s mind was eminently clear, logical, judicially balanced, and scientifically impartial. Never dogmatic on open questions, and never insisting on an opinion being received on personal authority, he was candid, positive, and outspoken on matters, scientific or religious, on which his mind was settled. His style of address was simple, quiet, and perspicu- ous, rising at times to intensity and strong but restrained emotion, when the whole man was roused to a defence of what he esteemed truth. When Dr. Woodrow spoke as a scientist, it was as one who knew — not the whole subject, for no scientific man would claim that — but the best and freshest thought upon it, with the reasons therefor. When he spoke as a religious teacher, it was as one who heartily and loyally believed in the divine authority of the Holy Scriptures, and who esteemed them as the most precious heritage of mankind. 56 DR. JAMES WOODROW. Personal Reminiscences. BY THE) REV. DR. THOMAS H. LAW. I began my course in the Theological Seminary at Columbia, S. C, in October, 1859. Among my intimate associates and classmates there, were a number of the graduates of Ogle- thorpe University, then located at Milledgeville, Ga. One evening as we had gathered at our boarding house for supper, some one who had received a letter or local paper from Mil- ledgeville, reported that Professor Woodrow of the University had been ordained to the ministry by Hopewell Presbytery, and there was at once a deeply interested discussion of the matter by his former students. And as indicative of the high appreciation of his character and learning, the remark was made: "Well, I would like to have heard his examination!" Having myself been educated entirely in South Carolina, this was the first time that I ever heard of the talented and dis- tinguished young professor at Oglethorpe, who, as I observed, had made so profound an impression upon those who had fallen under his instruction and influence there. Professor in the Columbia Theological Seminary.* At the beginning of that same year, the Seminary had received a handsome donation from Judge Perkins of Mississippi, to endow a chair of "Natural Science in Connexion with Revela- tion." The duty of selecting a professor to fill this new chair fell upon the Synod of Georgia, according to the rule then in force — the controlling Synods electing professors in turn. Much interest was felt in the choice, especially as this marked a new *In this account of the establishment of the Perkins Professorship and of the election of Dr. Woodrow to fill the new chair, Dr. Law omits a few facts which are necessary to make the account complete. The fund donated by Judge Perkins became available in January, 1859. Not long afterwards Judge Perkins announced his intention of adding several thousand dollars to the fund, provided his friend and pastor, the Rev. Dr. James A. Lyon, were elected to fill the new chair to be established. The Faculty of Columbia Seminary was naturally- very much interested in the whole matter, and also naturally wished to see Dr. Lyon elected. The Rev. Dr. Howe was sent as the Faculty's representative to the Synod of Georgia at its meeting in 1859, to urge the election of Dr. Lyon. But he found the Synod had already (unofficially) decided to elect Dr. Woodrow. Thereupon he exerted all his energy to have the election postponed for a year, and in this he CHARACTER SKETCHES. 57 departure in theological education. And, after careful consid- eration of the whole matter, it was the judgment of the Seminary faculty, consisting then of Drs. Howe, Leland, Thornwell, and Adger, that Rev. Dr. James A. Lyon, the pastor of Judge Perkins at Columbus, Miss., under whose advice and counsel his distinguished and generous parishioner had been led to make the liberal donation, was the most suitable man to inaugurate this new line of theological study and instruction. To advocate these views of the faculty, Dr. Thornwell who had entered very heartily into the whole scheme, was sent as a spe- cial commissioner to the Synod of Georgia. In discharging this commission, Dr. Thornwell, who had spent the previous sum- mer in Europe and had visited Heidelberg University in which Dr. Woodrow had taken his degree some years before, took occasion to speak most warmly of the splendid reputation which the young Oglethorpe professor had left behind him there, and how his praises were still on the lips of many; but notwith- standing, (he urged) in the deliberate judgment of the faculty and other friends of the Seminary at Columbia, the distin- guished Mississippian should be chosen to this new chair. The Synod, however, knowing its man, would have none other than Dr. James Woodrow, and promptly elected him to be the first incumbent of the Perkins professorship, which selection the other controlling Synods, South Carolina and Alabama, cheerfully confirmed. As thus elected by his own Synod, the following January Dr. Woodrow removed to Columbia and entered upon the duties of his new and responsible office as Perkins Professor in the Theological Seminary. succeeded. Thinking that if Dr. Howe could succeed in having the election postponed, even though the Synod was not only ready but eager to proceed with the business, Dr. Thornwell would be able to persuade it to elect Dr. Lyon, the Faculty sent him as its special commissioner to the meeting of the Synod in 1860. Dr. Law tells us with what success he met. It must not be thought from the above that the members of the Faculty were opposed to Dr. Woodrow. I think none of them had a personal acquaintance with him at that time. But it was natural that they should try to have Judge Perkins's plans carried out fully. It is pleasant to be able to add that though at first Judge Perkins was very much dis- appointed at the result of the election, he not only was fully reconciled to it after making Dr. Woodrow's acquaintance, but became very fond of him personally. — Editor. 58 DR. JAMES WOODROW. I well recollect his first appearance there. He was then thirty-two years of age; tall, slender, clean shaven, wearing spectacles; with thick, dark hair, rather long; somewhat stooped in figure; a little awkward in manner, and somewhat hesitating in speech when he spoke in the pulpit or class-room. According to the special arrangements provided for his new chair, he was limited in his teaching to lectures and allowed only two hours per week. Under these restrictions, he had not a fair opportunity at that time, as compared with the other professors, to impress himself upon the students. But he at once commanded their profound respect and secured their warm affection ; and of the manner in which he met his obliga- tions and fulfilled his commission, others have already freely spoken. What impressed me particularly in this first acquaintance with Dr. Woodrow was his attractive personality, and espec- ially his charm as a conversationalist. I soon became very fond of him, and frequently visited him at his home, where I greatly enjoyed and profited by his conversation. He had the happy art of bringing himself into close personal touch with his associates, and he was the most widely and accurately informed man with whom I ever had -the privilege of fellowship. So, in conversation, without any spirit or appearance of patron- ising, he entered quickly into the personal interests of his com- panion, got a knowledge of his family, of his life, of his views, of anything that specially interested him, and seemed never to forget these things, and would frequently recur to them afterwards. And then, he would lead on the conversation from topic to topic, so that it never lagged ; and the hours spent in his company were always full of interest and pleasure. I may add that these early impressions never changed ; to the last, when- ever I was in Columbia and had the opportunity, I esteemed it a special privilege and joy to drop in and have an hour's delightful chat with my cherished friend and preceptor. At the Close of the War. South Carolina had passed the ordinance of Secession the month before Dr. Woodrow came to the Columbia Seminary, and the dreadful war between the States began the following April. How he deported himself during this fearful struggle CHARACTER SKETCHES. 59 of four years' continuance. Dr. Flinn has clearly set forth. But I never saw him in a more striking and impressive mani- festation of his sterling character and inestimable worth than at the close of the war. The South had failed in her supreme effort to maintain her independence ; her sons by the hundreds of thousands had fallen by disease or upon the field of battle, her fair land had been swept over by contending armies, her homes desolated, her people impoverished, her whole industrial and political system overturned ; and we all were in a state of deep despond- ency and doubt, hardly knowing where to look or what to do. An appalling gloom had settled down upon us. The Synod of South Carolina had adjourned to meet that year, 1865, in Cheraw ; but as Sherman, in his devastating march through the State, had overrun that town, the people there felt unable to entertain the body; and Salem, Black River, a country church in Sumter County, whose territory had escaped, came to the rescue and invited the Synod to meet there. Many incidents connected with that meeting are indeli- bly impressed upon my memory, but none so much as Dr. Woodrow's appearance there and the measures which he pro- posed for the rehabilitation of our Church and its work. While others were depressed and despondent, he was buoyant with hope and full of resource and enterprise. I remember well how he spoke, and how he laid his purposes and plans before the Synod. One of these was that the Seminary, whose buildings remained intact, but whose endowment was largely lost through the results of the war, should reopen and go on with its work, the country congregations sending in contributions in the shape of provisions for the support of the professors and students. Another was the resurrection of the Southern Presbyterian newspaper, which had suspended in the latter days of the war. He had with some help from others, taken over this paper, and proposed to edit and publish it and the Reviezv. And in connexion with this enterprise he proposed to open and conduct a book depository in Columbia for the supply of our people with much needed religious literature, stationery, etc. 60 DR. JAMES WOODROW. In carrying out these latter plans, Dr. Woodrow became a sort of factotum to our Church in this section. We looked to him for information on all subjects; we got our books and writing material at his hands ; and even sent all kinds of Church contributions through his office. And thus began his illustrious career as Editor. The Southern Presbyterian in his hands, furnished to our people largely at his personal expense, since it utterly failed to pay the cost of publication, was a noble and most valuable paper. Its editorials, written by himself and such able assistants as Drs. Adger, Stillman, Leighton Wilson, and others, were pitched upon a high plane, and made their large impress upon the Church ; and the selections which were partic- ularly fine, and forcible correspondence on important questions, enriched the pages, so that it proved a joy and a blessing to many appreciative readers. Later, in the Evolution controversy, when Dr. Woodrow used the columns of his own paper to set forth his views and defend himself against the fierce and unwarranted assaults made upon him, some thought that he was at times unduly severe and dwelt too much upon that one subject. But it should not be forgotten that he felt that he was contending for the truth, in the face of gross misconception and misrepresentation of his views, and even of harsh personal assaults upon his character ; and that plain speech was required in such circumstances. During all those twenty-eight years that Dr. Woodrow edited and published the Southern Presbyterian, I was a constant and careful reader of its pages, as well as a frequent contributor to its columns; and I am convinced that he rendered a most valuable and important service to the Church, but at the cost of a considerable fortune to himself. In the General Assembly at Huntsville, Ala. In the organisation of the Southern Presbyterian Church at Augusta, Ga., in 1861, although cut off from foreign nations by the war then in progress, the General Assembly recognised and proclaimed to the world its missionary character, and appointed an Executive Committee of Foreign Missions, which it located at Columbia, S. C, with the veteran missionary, Rev. Dr. J. Leighton Wilson, as Secretary. The Assembly at the same time appointed Dr. Woodrow as Treasurer of this cause, CHARACTER SKETCHES. 61 an office which he consented to accept upon the express condi- tion that he should receive no salary therewith. Continued in this office, by annual reelection, for many years, the Assembly subsequently insisted that he should receive a salary, and later combined the Executive Committees of Foreign and Domestic Missions, with Drs. Wilson and Woodrow serving as Secretary and Treasurer respectively of both causes. And as the Church and its work grew, as Foreign Missions and Domestic Missions (having taken the name of Sustentation and Evangelistic Labor) developed especially after the close of the war, Dr. Woodrow, the efficient financial officer of these two great departments of work, rendered most valuable and eminent service to our Church. How he was able to accomplish so successfully and well all that he was doing — as professor in the Seminary and also in the University of South Carolina, editor and publisher of the Southern Presbyterian and Review, book merchant, and Treasurer besides — was a wonder to many. And so excellent and inestimable were his services that we who were familiar with them could think and speak of them only in terms of highest admiration and praise, and could hardly understand how any one could think or speak of them otherwise. But early in 1871 criticisms of the Committee and of his treasurership in particular, began to appear in at least one of our Church papers. And so frequent, numerous, and sharp were these criticisms, some of them even impugning the integ- rity of the Treasurer, that much feeling was aroused in the Church with regard to them. Although Dr. Woodrow replied to the charges and stated the facts in explanation, they were repeated, and became more and more severe, and were even carried up to the General Assembly. I was a member of that Assembly, which held its sessions in Huntsville, Ala. The very morning it opened I was myself directly approached by a member who I knew had taken part in these criticisms, and asked: "What are you brethren in South Carolina going to do about the abuses in the Seminary and Committee?" My indignation was stirred at once, and I replied that I knew of no abuses, and gave the brother pretty plainly my mind about the matter. Afterwards I learned that this same Commissioner had been busy interviewing other mem- 62 DR. JAM£S WOODROW. bers by the way and at the Assembly, and with the help of a newspaper editor, had been diligently endeavoring to work up a sentiment against Dr. Woodrow. And as the Assembly pro- gressed, several overtures and motions aimed at the Columbia Committee were presented ; but were promptly voted down by the Assembly. However, things had taken such shape before the public, that Drs. Wilson and Woodrow, Secretary and Treasurer of Foreign Missions and Sustentation, requested the Assembly to investigate carefully and fully their official transactions ; and a committee was appointed for this purpose. Meanwhile the agitation was going on privately, and the feeling was becoming more and more intense. At length, when the committee's report, which fully vindicated the Secre- tary and Treasurer in the face of all the charges which had been made against them, was being considered, some of the charges were repeated on the floor of the Assembly, and came from a source of sufficient respectability to justify Dr. Woodrow in speaking in his own defence. The provocation had been very great, the feeling was intense, and the issues were important both to the Church and to the individuals impli- cated. Dr. Woodrow, under powerful emotion, but with entire self-control, took the floor and spoke for two hours. And such a speech I have never heard before or since. It was a thorough and complete vindication of himself and the Commit- tee, and a most fearful exposure and demolition of the person, who using several different noms de plume in the same news- paper, had been the author of the numerous charges, and was here pushing them before the Assembly. That this speech was severe is to put it mildly. It was overwhelming and crushing to his assailants. And the effect was profound. At its close many of the Commissioners were in tears, and the whole audience, filling the large auditorium, was deeply moved, and indignation ran high. The upshot of the matter was that the Assembly fully vin- dicated and re-appointed Dr. Woodrow as Treasurer ; the brother who had specially brought forward and advocated the charges against him and the Committee, openly apologised and withdrew his offensive language ; and the Assembly, which had been so wrought up, adjourned in a happy love-feast. CHARACTER SKETCHES. 63 But, as Dr. Woodrow's speech, taken down verbatim by a most competent stenographer, was afterwards published in full, some who read it only in cold type and did not know all the cir- cumstances or understand the immediate provocation, con- demned its severity. For myself, however, as on the ground and in the very midst of the exciting conflict, and considering the character, the manner, and the persistency of the charges against him, involving dishonesty and malfeasance in office, I can hardly see how Dr. Woodrow could have spoken other- wise. At any rate I readily excused the severity of his speech. The worries and distress involved in this experience, together with the burden of the immense and exacting labors which he was performing, proved too much for Dr. Woodrow's strength, and he broke down in health, necessitating a temporary relief from work and care, and a year's rest, which he took with his family in Europe. The Evolution Controversy. I was a director of the Columbia Theological Seminary from 1879 to 1886. In this way I became personally associated with the beginning of the Evolution Controversy in which Dr. Woodrow so prominently figured, and which brought about his removal from the Perkins Professorship. At the annual meeting of the Board of Directors in May, 1883, the Rev. Dr. J. B. Mack, an active and influential director, the Secretary of the Board, and the Financial Agent of the Seminary, proposed that the Board formally request Prof. Woodrow to publish in the Southern Presbyterian Review his views touching Evolution, especially as concerns the body of Adam. This was based upon an official statement which Dr. Woodrow had just laid before the Board covering his teach- ings in the class-room on the subject of Evolution. Not sus- pecting for one moment any sinister purpose in connexion with this proposition, and feeling assured that Dr. Woodrow had nothing whatever to conceal about his teachings in the Semi- nary, and that we all desired sincerely for the Church to know exactly what was being taught in this cherished school of the prophets, I cheerfully voted for the resolution offered. At 64 DR. JAMES WOODROW. the same time the Alumni Association of the Seminary, meet- ing during this session of the Board, selected Dr. Woodrow to deliver the annual address before the Association the next year, the express understanding being that he might prepare and use for the double purpose the desired article on Evolution. With this understanding, he did deliver before the Alumni Association, when the Directors were all present, his famous address in May, 1884, which he also published as requested in the next (July, 1884) issue of the Southern Presbyterian Review, and laid before the Board of Directors at its next meeting, the following September. Now a few words should be said in connexion with the delivery of this address. For months beforehand it was widely known that Dr. Woodrow would at this time speak on Evolu- tion, and the information was generally circulated in Columbia. The public exercises of the Alumni Association were held Wednesday evening in the First Presbyterian church, from whose pulpit Dr. Woodrow spoke. Students and citizens, as well as those connected with the Seminary, had assembled to hear him. At the conclusion of the address, during the further sessions of the Alumni Association — of which I was at that time Secretary, — Dr. Mack moved that the thanks of the Asso- ciation be extended to Dr. Woodrow for his address, and the motion was adopted without objection. The daily papers of the next morning appeared absolutely without mention of the address of the evening previous. The Board of Directors con- tinued its sessions the day following, and not a word was said in its meetings about it. True, there was some discussion in private circles in regard to Dr. Woodrow's views as expressed in his address, and its probable effect in the Church. I remem- ber that one director expressed the decided opinion that serious trouble would come of it. But I recollect also that when that distinguished professor of the Seminary who afterwards vigorously opposed Dr. Woodrow in the Synod and elsewhere, was asked at his home in my presence what he thought of it, he replied that while he did not agree with the views expressed by Dr. Woodrow, he doubted whether they would provoke much public discussion, emphasising the point that only an expert in Natural Science would be competent to meet Dr. CHARACTER SKETCHES. 65 Woodrow in the discussion. These facts I mention to show that this address on Evolution at the time of its delivery created no special alarm or excitement in the Church. It was therefore a great surprise to me shortly afterwards — but before the address had been published in the Review and had been read — to notice in connexion with the proceedings of the General Assembly, which met that year at Vicksburg, Miss., hints as to error being taught in Columbia Seminary ; and that a little later the church papers were full of attacks upon the orthodoxy of Dr. Woodrow and his teachings. I have thus been thoroughly convinced that the violent and bitter controversy which followed, well nigh disrupting our Seminary at Columbia, greatly disturbing the peace of our Church, and entailing injury and suffering and distress upon her faithful servant, Dr. Woodrow, proceeded largely from a lamentable misunderstanding of his views. As furnishing some evidence of this, when the Board of Directors of the Seminary met the following September and carefully considered his address, then formally laid before them in printed copies, of the eleven members present, all of whom had been appointed without any reference whatever to their relations to Dr. Wood- row or his views, but because of their general qualifications for the office, eight of them, after full discussion and most care- ful consideration, declared by formal resolution that while they were not prepared to accept Dr. Woodrow's view of the proba- ble creation of Adam's body, yet in their judgment there was nothing in Evolution as denned and limited by him, inconsistent with perfect soundness in the faith. For myself I have never claimed to be an Evolutionist. I am not sufficiently versed in Natural Science to form a decided opinion on the question from my personal knowledge. But, from the beginning I have understood Dr. Woodrow's position to be this : That Evolution, which concerns only the mode of creation, is a question altogether outside the Scriptures, and hence equally outside the province of the Church to decide, but purely one of Natural Science. Therefore he denied the right of a church court to utter any opinion pro or con, on this ques- tion, and he would as stoutly have opposed the Church's declar- ing in favor of Evolution, as against it. And he contended 5 — w 6G DR. JAMES WOODROW. with all the powers of his acute and mighty intellect, and all the ardor of his great soul, that nothing had impaired or ever could impair his confidence in the absolute integrity and inerrancy of the Bible as the infallible word of God. And while he believed and taught that Evolution was probably in his opinion the mode which