RANSOM BETHUNE WELCH, I). IX, LL I). 
 
 / MEMORIAL. 
 
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ADDRESSES 
 
 IX MEMORY OF 
 
 RANSOM BETIIUNE WELCH, D.I)., LL. D., 
 
 PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY 
 
 IN 
 
 AUBURN THEOLOGICAL .SEMINARY. 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE 
 
 FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, AUBURN, N. Y. 
 
 NOYEMBER ii. 1S90, 
 BY 
 
 y 
 
 REV. JAMES S. RIGGS, D. D., 
 
 -\ND 
 
 REV. TEUNIS S. HAMLIN, D. D. 
 
 AUBURN. N. Y., 1S91. 
 
PRESS OF KNAPP, PECK & THOMSON, 
 
 AUBURN, N. Y. 
 
The lore of Christ and his apostles twelve 
 He taught; kU, first, he folloiued it himselve. 
 
THE MEMORIAL SERVICES. 
 
 Professor Welch fell asleep at Healing Springs, 
 Virginia, on the twenty-ninth of June, 1890. The 
 burial was in the Fort Hill cemetery in Auburn, on 
 the second of July. At his late residence and at the 
 grave, there were brief and simple services, conducted 
 by his pastor, with the assistance of the profes- 
 sors in the Seminary and other ministers of Auburn. 
 
 On Tuesday evening, the eleventh of November, 
 1890, memorial services were held in the First Pres- 
 byterian Church in Auburn, pursuant to arrangements 
 made by the faculty of the Seminary. These ser- 
 vices were in charge of the Rev. William H. Hub- 
 bard, the pastor of the church, and Mr. I. V. Flagler, 
 the organist. After the invocation and the singing 
 of a hymn, the Rev. Talbot W. Chambers, D. D., of 
 New York, read a portion of Scripture, and offered 
 prayer. Mrs. Charlotte Robinson Winkler sang "O 
 rest in the Lord !" (from Mendelssohn's ElijaJi). 
 
Professor James S. Riggs, D. D., speaking in behalf 
 of the pupils and the colleagues of Professor Welch 
 in the Seminary, delivered an address. Mrs. Wink- 
 ler sang James McGranahan's •' Beloved, now are we 
 the sons of God." This was followed by the longer 
 address of the evening, by the Rev. Teunis S. Ham- 
 lin, D. E)., pastor of the Church of the Covenant, 
 Washington, D. C. Afterward, the Rev, A. M.Stowe, 
 a Seminary classmate of Professor Welch, offered 
 prayer, a hymn was sung, and the service closed with 
 the benediction, pronounced by the Rev. John Brain- 
 ard, D. D., rector of St Peter's Church, Auburn. 
 
IN MEMORY OF DR. WELCH 
 
 ADDRESS BY 
 
 PROFESSOR JAMES S. RIGGS, D.D. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 Because of the double relationship of pupil and 
 colleague, the privilege of saying a few words, in 
 memory of him whom we are glad to honor, has been 
 given to me by my brethren. The picture before me, 
 which I wish to outline for you, is not that which has 
 for its background the large relationship of the church 
 and the world. The more competent pencil of him 
 who succeeds me will give you that. Rather out of 
 that sphere of life in which both as students and 
 teachers we had a common part, come to me now 
 those memories which are inseparable from the kind, 
 familiar face to be seen no more here on earth. 
 
 In one's course of preparation for the business of 
 life, that is a time of earnest thoughtfulness and quick- 
 ening realization, when work begins upon those sub- 
 jects which lie close to a chosen line of future action. 
 To the student for the ministry this is peculiarly true 
 of Theology. Never to be studied in the cold light of 
 intellectual illumination alone, but always with the reg. 
 
10 
 
 ulative help of spiritual sympathy and insight, it stands 
 as the great central theme of the Seminary curriculum, 
 requiring the best there is within us and all there is 
 mentally within us for its development. Well can I 
 remember the earnest interest with which we gathered 
 as a class for the great study. As I recall these days, 
 and the many earnest talks which since then I have 
 enjoyed with him in his study, three characteristics of 
 Dr. Welch as a teacher stand out before me. The 
 first of these was his earnestness for the truth. The 
 great themes of the class-room were always to him vital 
 in their import. The exigencies of the hour often 
 demanded that the outline of their meaning should 
 be given us, but many a time I have seen him turn 
 from his notes and with warmth of feeling and in 
 imaginative vision seek to make the truth stand out 
 before us. His theology was Christ-centred and all 
 aglow with his convictions regarding the justice, 
 mercy and love of God. Peculiarly he loved to dwell 
 upon those unities of thought which gave scope to 
 his imagination. He saw the foe making attack all 
 "along the line " of the Christian defences ; the con- 
 summation of all things in Christ, King of Kings, 
 and Lord of Lords, was often before him. The great 
 
II 
 
 sweep of Paul's triumphant thinking inspired him. 
 He delighted in that which was comprehensive, and, 
 while not so congenial to his mental habits, he was 
 none the less earnest about those teachings which were 
 concerned with details. Every student who has been 
 under him will remember his carefulness about the 
 doctrine of Inspiration and his insistance upon clear 
 and right conceptions of the Atonement. Indeed, 
 the cross as the " symbol of the ages," that emblem 
 of divine love and sacrifice "towering o'er the wrecks 
 of time," suited well his love of ideal unities, and it 
 was often the subject of his spoken thoughts. More 
 and more as I have been permitted to enter into fel- 
 lowship with him, was the earnestness of his thought 
 and life regarding these high things made manifest. 
 Upon the great sustaining truths of the Gospel his 
 own life securely, serenely rested. No mere desire 
 for large phrase or great-orbed conceptions impelled 
 him. He saw as a man sees who stands upon some 
 height. There he preferred to stand. The measure 
 of his conception was in the reach of his vision — 
 and vision he had, to him inspiring and uplifting. 
 
 Out of his earnestness for the truth as he saw it 
 came a second characteristic, and that was a conserva- 
 
12 
 
 tive caution. Clearly, sharply drawn in his own 
 thinking, was the line between revealed and specula- 
 tive truth. In regard to the latter he was exceedingly 
 careful. When a sure word of scripture was not 
 behind him, he was cautiously reticent. I am but 
 bearing witness, I believe, to experience when I say 
 that often a class in theology will rush in where 
 " angels fear to tread." Metaphysical discussions con- 
 cerning the very throne-room of God are easily in 
 order. Questions which themselves bristle with dis- 
 pute are made off-hand. Two reasons seem to have 
 shut out the Socratic method from Dr. Welch's class- 
 room — his wish to avoid useless discussion and his 
 earnest desire to place before his students a system of 
 truth in its entirety. Like Dr. Charles Hodge of 
 Princeton, he preferred that way which, if possible, 
 makes one part of a developing system fit into and 
 explain another, and leaves all to the help of reflection. 
 From this cautious attitude he refused to be moved ; 
 whatever the judgments of his own thought, he would 
 not be drawn incautiously into definition and defense. 
 Both experience and circumstances, doubtless, con- 
 vinced him of the ultimate fruitlessness of all merely 
 impulsive discussion. Time was too short, the sub- 
 
ject too great to permit of it. This same careful 
 cautiousness characterized all his utterances upon 
 those questions which are so provocative of differences 
 of opinion. Anything like dialectic fencing was dis- 
 tasteful to him. He himself weighed, measured what 
 he had to say upon difficult and disputed points. He 
 felt the unsafety of any other way of procedure. 
 
 In this mere sketch of his prominent characteristics 
 as a teacher, I wish place for one other, and that was 
 his progressive and charitable spirit. At first glance 
 this may seem inconsistent with that habitual caution 
 of which I have spoken. It was not so. He was 
 cautiously progressive. He saw and felt, as many 
 have felt with him, that men's thoughts about God and 
 His unchanging purposes are widening. In these 
 enlarging thoughts he caught fresh glimpses of that 
 coming consummation, when in the harmony of the 
 Spirit, all Christendom, forgetting its unessential differ- 
 ences, should seek with one heart-purpose the evan- 
 gelization of the world. And the realization brought 
 him back with renewed delight to think upon those 
 ideal unities of which I have spoken. I shall not 
 soon forget the last talk I had with him about that 
 
14 
 
 cardinal doctrine of our Confession — election. How 
 little we then knew that he should soon see its mean- 
 ing from the heights of heaven and join with those 
 who sing the song of the Lamb " slain from the foun- 
 dation of the world !" I ci^o know that that day he 
 magnified once and again the love of God and tried 
 to lift the teaching of "God's elect" up and away 
 from between the hard and fast lines of heartless 
 logical deduction into the radiant light of the truth 
 of the redeeming love of God. And we all know 
 with what care he labored, in conjunction with one of 
 our honored city pastors, to put into form for Presby- 
 terial consideration his conceptions of the progress of 
 thought beyond the statements of our Confession. 
 His conclusions were not born of haste, nor of mere 
 sentimental considerations ; they were based upon a 
 study of the Word, and formed after a wide consider- 
 ation of the reasoning of others. 
 
 Never in all my fellowship with him did I hear him 
 deal in harsh judgments upon others. He had his 
 opinions, as all thinking men are bound to have. If 
 ever he chose to express them, and this was not 
 often, it was with no bitterness, generally with some 
 charitable apology for what seemed amiss. 
 
15 
 
 Such he was as a teacher. The lectures are over ; 
 the voice is silent, but the memories of him will go 
 on with us all, "till we meet again." 
 
 A group of six men is not very large. With pain- 
 ful emphasis came the message of life's brevity and 
 uncertainty, as our fellow-laborer was called away. 
 We had rejoiced for his sake that the end of the year 
 was near, that he might have change of scene and 
 freedom from care. How gloriously, after all, both 
 came to him. Not among the mountains or by the 
 sea, not in quietude of mind about the problems of 
 life, nor in the rest of a tired, suffering body, but 
 amid the scenes that no finite thought can picture ; in 
 rest eternal ! 
 
 When some years ago my face was first turned 
 toward Auburn as a student, this word was given me : 
 you will find Dr. Welch a man of reserved, rather 
 formal manners, but beneath all he has a warm heart. 
 May I now bear witness to the abundant truth of all 
 this. From first to last he was my friend — warm- 
 hearted and sincere. The reserve of which I have 
 spoken and which was not easy for him to put away, 
 prevented many from really knowing him. It placed 
 
i6 
 
 an undefinable barrier about him, and I cannot but 
 feel that he lost something by reason of it, for sym- 
 pathy is so full of blessings both to him who gives it 
 and to him who receives it. To any of you, then, who 
 came no nearer to him than that felt boundary would 
 permit, let me tell you of his brave, sympathetic, cor- 
 dial heart, which revealed itself to me more than once, 
 in helpful counsel and cordial kindness ; and I am only 
 one of those who knew him. His love for the Semi- 
 nary needs no word of confirmation. As coming 
 classes shall meet in ampler rooms for work, and have 
 the help of greater facilities for the accomplishment 
 of their desires, his name again shall be repeated and 
 the measure of his affection gained anew. 
 
 It was not until after he was gone that we knew of 
 the weary hours of agonizing pain that attended upon 
 nearly every effort that he made ; but, as I remember 
 the cheerful face, the uncomplaining fortitude, the 
 indomitable fidelity, which kept him in our midst 
 working, counseling, enduring, till the close of the 
 year, all other sweet memories of him are but strength- 
 ened and beautified. 
 
 And now we gather here, with the night shadows 
 about us, to remember him. Our memory touches 
 
17 
 
 upon the scenes which were only as the threshold of 
 life to him, for while I remember him as amid those, I 
 think of him now exulting in the surpassing realities, 
 whose dim reflection in the words of truth so often 
 inspired him; glad with the gladness of heaven, going 
 on, and on, and on, to know the Lord and the count- 
 less wonders of His grace. 
 
RANSOM BETHUNE WELCH 
 
 ADDRESS BY 
 
 THE REV. TEUNIS S. HAMLIN, D. D. 
 
ADDRESS. 
 
 A gentleman of singular polish and courtesy ; a 
 scholar of wide and accurate research ; a teacher whose 
 clearness and frankness won, and whose thoroughness 
 stimulated every pupil ; a preacher of gentle, though 
 logical and persuasive eloquence ; a writer of lucid 
 and vigorous style ; a theologian of views as broad 
 as they were sound and Scriptural ; a friend always 
 thoughtful, self-denying and steadfast ; a man of 
 affairs, keenly alive to every social and public interest ; 
 a Christian that impressed every observer as living 
 each hour very near his Lord ; — such was Ransom 
 Bethune Welch. To trace the development of his 
 life and character, and to sketch his multifarious labors, 
 is the delightful duty with which you have been 
 pleased to honor me. I thank you for the privilege 
 of laying my offering of undying love upon his grave, 
 here among his colleagues and pupils, and the num- 
 berless neighbors and friends that knew and admired 
 him, and that cherish his memory as a precious 
 heritage. 
 
22 
 
 Dr. Welch was born on the 27th of January, 1824, 
 in the town of Greenville, in Greene county, New 
 York. He was of Holland blood. His father, John 
 Welch, was a farmer ; handsome, of refined manners, 
 and of marked religious character. His mother, 
 Hannah Van Etten, was a model of thrift and piety. 
 From such parents have sprung the vast majority of 
 our eminent scholars, statesmen, merchants, inventors, 
 authors ; who have made the American name 
 respected throughout the world. 
 
 Ransom was the youngest of fifteen children, all 
 honest, industrious and moral, though not all secured 
 a liberal education ; all of whom lived to have families 
 of their own, but of whom only one survives. His 
 early years were spent on the farm, and attending the 
 district school, an institution now too little esteemed, 
 but which has awakened in many a man a thirst for 
 knowledge, and started him on the road to greatness. 
 It did this, and something more, for him ; for his first 
 distinct religious impressions came through the daily 
 Bible-reading and prayer of his devout teacher, 
 Thankful Smith. He never doubted that in these 
 early days he fully gave his heart to Christ. 
 
 His parents were members of the Christian Church ; 
 
23 
 
 In which on the 15th of July, 1836, at twelve and one- 
 half years of age, Ransom was baptized by immer- 
 sion. He was at once, as always, an outspoken, active, 
 aggressive disciple. A life-long friend says : "A prayer 
 that I heard him offer when he was about fourteen 
 years old, wrought in me the first conviction that I 
 needed repentance and forgiveness." 
 
 He was always fond of study, and quickly won and 
 steadily maintained a reputation for being at the 
 head of his classes. He was thorough in everything, 
 never passing a point until he understood it, shunning 
 nothing because it was difficult. This high grade of 
 scholarship brought him admiration ; his beauty, his 
 gentleness, his refinement, his humor, brought him 
 love ; and he was a general favorite throughout the 
 community. 
 
 From boyhood he made his own way in the world. 
 His chief income came from teaching country schools. 
 Before he was sixteen he went into a district where 
 many of his pupils were older and larger than himself, 
 and where his frailty totally unfitted him to meet the 
 inevitable bullies of such a school on their own ground 
 of force. But he met them on -his orround of tact and 
 gentleness and patience and love ; and speedily was 
 
24 
 
 master of the situation, and achieved complete suc- 
 cess. The amount of money thus earned was very 
 small ; and it was supplemented only by $60, for 
 which sum he sold his interest in a legacy left him by 
 an uncle. But the cost of living in rural places was 
 then very moderate ; he had no expensive habits ; 
 and was neither afraid nor ashamed of rigid economy. 
 He pursued a thorough preparatory course at the 
 Gallupville and Greenville academies, leading his 
 classes in all studies, despite the frequent and serious 
 interruptions of teaching. 
 
 In 1844, at the age of twenty, he entered the junior 
 class at Union College, where he at once and con- 
 stantly signalized himself by scholarship and charac- 
 ter. A college classmate^ writes of him as " an indus- 
 trious and conscientious student ; a genial, unselfish 
 and loved companion ; an unostentatious and noble 
 Christian young man." 
 
 Near the close of this college year Prof. Alonzo 
 Potter, afterward Bishop of Pennsylvania, testified to 
 his " high standing as a scholar and unexceptionable 
 character as a Christian."- The next year President 
 
 ' The Hon. John T. WentwortU, Racine, Wis. 
 
 'July 17, 1845. 
 
25 
 
 Nott pronounced him of "unblemished moral and 
 religious character, and well qualified to take charge 
 of an academy."' These testimonials were given to 
 aid him in finding teaching for self-support. He was 
 graduated in 1846, in a class of 106 members; one of 
 twenty-six that had an equally high standing,^ another 
 being the Hon. Henry R. Pierson, late Chancellor of 
 the University of the State of New York. He was 
 a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. 
 
 For two years he continued the work of teaching, 
 first, as principal of the Academy at Red Hook, New 
 York; afterward, at the Academy at Jonesville, New 
 York, then a very prosperous school. His salary here 
 was, for the first term, $30 a month and poor board ; 
 subsequently $40. 
 
 Meanwhile he had been reading widely and think- 
 ing deeply upon religious themes, with the result of 
 gradually drifting away from the Unitarian bias of his 
 childhood, and becoming a thoroughly-grounded Trin- 
 itarian. The views thus formed by independent 
 research were of course peculiarly clear ; and he 
 never ceased to feel that this experience enabled him 
 
 ' Feb. 20, 1846. 
 
 ' All were marked 500+ , according to the system then in use. 
 
26 
 
 to help young men who were passing through similar 
 seasons of painful doubt and questioning. 
 
 He had long had the ministry in view as his life-work; 
 and in the autumn of 184S he went to New York 
 city, intending to enter the Union Theological Semi- 
 nary. His earnestness and promptness in all religi- 
 ous duty are shown by the fact that he at once joined 
 the Bleecker Street Church, of which Dr. Erskine 
 Mason was then pastor, and took a Bible-class in its 
 Sunday school. Even at this early age of twenty- 
 four, his bent was distinctly toward theology, as dis- 
 tinguished from the other Seminary studies ; and the 
 great fame of Prof. Park attracted him to Andover. 
 After getting that splendid teacher's system in the 
 junior and middle years, the same passion for this 
 chief of the sciences brought him to Auburn to sit 
 at the feet of Dr. Laurens P. Hickok. Here he 
 repeated the middle year, and took the senior. 
 
 What a rare training in theology, to have full 
 courses under two such men as Park and Hickok! 
 Of the former's magnificent abilities and unique fas- 
 cination as a teacher I know only what all the world 
 knows. But of the latter's majestic simplicity of 
 character, profound moral earnestness, child-like faith, 
 
27 
 
 self-denying unworldliness, burning devotion toChrist; 
 of his depth of philosophical insight, his logical acu- 
 men, his herculean grasp of the greatest problems of 
 human thought, and his masterful elucidation of them; 
 I can speak with the loving gratitude of a reverent 
 pupil. It would be hard to name two men that have 
 produced a deeper impress than have these on the 
 metaphysics, the ethics and the theology of this and 
 the preceding generation. 
 
 Mr. Welch's class in this Seminary, that of 1852, 
 was a very remarkable one. All of its thirty mem- 
 bers have honored their profession and their Alma 
 Mater. There have been among them eminent pas- 
 tors, such as Dr. Robert R. Booth, of New York ; 
 executive officers, as secretary N. G. Clark, of the 
 American Board ; college presidents, as Dr. Park 
 S. Donelson, of the Ohio Wesleyan Female College, 
 and Dr. Julius H. Seelye of Amherst ; professors in 
 theological seminaries, as Dr. Herrick of Bangor, 
 Dr. Morris of Lane and Dr. Welch of Auburn. And 
 many of these men have duplicated the honors they 
 have nobly won ; president Seelye having served bril- 
 liantly for four years in congress, and Dr. Morris 
 having been moderator of the General Assembly ; 
 
28 
 
 while of the sixteen clerical members of the Assem- 
 bly's committee to revise the Confession of Faith, 
 two, Drs. Morris and Booth, are of this class. It is 
 a notable fact that when the chair of theology here 
 became vacant by the resignation of Dr. Hall, five 
 members of the class of 1852 were deemed worthy 
 of the succession to which Dr. Welch was finally 
 appointed. Dr. James Eells, professor in Lane Sem- 
 inary and moderator of General Assembly, Dr. John 
 Bascom, long president of the University of Wis- 
 consin, and Dr. F. F. Ellinwood, secretary of the 
 Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, were fellow 
 students with him in the Seminary, though not 
 classmates. 
 
 At the close of his middle year here, he was 
 licensed to preach by the Presbytery of Onondaga, in 
 session at Salina, June 12, 185 1. He preached fre- 
 quently as was, and is, the wise custom of students ; 
 supplying for some time the church at Jordan. In 
 January, 1853, he was called to what is now the Con- 
 gregational Church of Oswego, then the Second 
 Presbyterian. He entered upon the work ; but the 
 lake winds proved too severe for his weak lungs, and 
 he declined to be installed. 
 
29 
 
 Very delicate health induced him to make, in 1853 
 and 1854, a tour on horseback through the south, espe- 
 cially Mississippi, as a colporteur of the American 
 Tract Society. His sales of books were unpreceden- 
 ted; and he was urged to continue in the work. But as 
 soon as he had gained sufficient health, he was eager 
 to be again in the pulpit, to which he felt himself 
 unmistakably called of God. He was even able to say 
 with Paul, " Woe is unto me if I preach not the Gos- 
 pel." Accordingly he accepted a call to the Reformed 
 (Dutch) Church of Gilboa, N. Y., and was ordained 
 and installed Jan. 9, 1855, by the Classis of Schoharie. 
 He 'at once took rank as a preacher of such power 
 and attractiveness that people drove many miles to 
 attend his services. A revival soon began that 
 brought some sixty persons to confess their faith in 
 Christ. 
 
 From Gilboa he was called to Catskill, and installed 
 over the large and influential Reformed (Dutch) 
 Church on the 17th of April, 1856. His first work 
 here was the removal of a lono^-standinor debt of some 
 $3,500, toward which he gave $100, one-tenth of his 
 yearly salary, besides personally securing most of the 
 subscriptions. 
 
He found the church in a very cold and back-slidden 
 condition. Only one member of it would pray in public. 
 He felt that such a state of things, unless corrected, 
 would kill him ; and he at once threw himself into 
 unstinted labors for a revival of religion. His preach- 
 ino- on the Lord's day was heart-searching and ten- 
 derly appealing. He held services during the week 
 in the five rural neighborhoods of the parish where 
 Sunday Schools were maintained. He conducted cot- 
 tage prayer-meetings, and social meetings for counsel 
 and instruction. He visited almost night and day 
 from house to house. He succeeded in setting many 
 idle Christians at work. Soon God's Spirit was gra- 
 ciously poured out, and a powerful revival spread, not 
 only through his own congregation, but through the 
 entire community. One hundred and thirty-seven 
 persons confessed Christ in Mr. Welch's church 
 alone ; and no subsequent communion season passed 
 without accessions to the church from the world. 
 
 During these arduous labors, the pastor employed 
 no evangelist, or other clerical helper. And this as a 
 matter of deliberate choice. I have heard him say 
 that he believed a pastor should do his own evangel- 
 izing work just as far as possible, since no other man 
 
31 
 
 can so well know the needs of his people and how to 
 supply them. 
 
 It was at this time that he learned an experimental 
 lesson, invaluable to him and to every minister of 
 Christ. He was much worn by incessant labors. 
 The week had been full of interruptions. Sunday 
 morning found him illy prepared for the pulpit. He 
 said to the relative,' from whom I get these facts : " I 
 walked across the bridge, and up the hill to the church, 
 feeling sorely depressed, and saying to myself, ' There 
 is nothing in the sermon worth uttering. How can I 
 face the congregation with the poor, half-digested 
 thoughts that it contains ? O Lord, if any good is 
 done today. Thou, and not I, must do it ! '" In such 
 conscious humiliation, and with an earnest appeal to 
 the Holy Spirit to help his infirmities, and make good 
 his deficiencies, he entered the pulpit. He was not 
 conscious of any marked uplifting of his downcast 
 soul. At the close of the service he hastened to the 
 privacy of his room that he might abase himself 
 before the Lord as an unprofitable servant. He had 
 no expectation of ever hearing anything good in con- 
 nection with that poor sermon. But during the same 
 
 'Rev. John W. Teal, D. D., Elizabeth, N. J. 
 
32 
 
 week a young man, who had been awakened by it 
 came to Mr. Welch to ask what he must do to be 
 saved ; and at least half of those that became 
 Christians durinor that revival traced their first desire 
 and purpose to that sermon. 
 
 During those three years at Catskill Mr. Welch 
 was emphatically a pastor, proving his complete fit- 
 ness, in everything except physical strength, for that 
 most practical and exacting sphere of ministerial labor. 
 One of his parishioners^ at that time, writes : " He had 
 a faculty for setting his people to work, and there was 
 no resisting his loving urgency. His sermons and 
 prayers were full of the marrow of the Gospel. He 
 was active and industrious, neglecting no one that 
 required his services. The only pain he ever gave 
 us was when he resigned his place as our pastor." 
 
 This resignation was due solely to ill health. While 
 conducting a cottage prayer-meeting he was seized 
 with violent hemorrhage from the lungs. The church 
 granted him protracted leave of absence ; but it soon 
 became evident that he could not resume his duties ; 
 and on the 25th of May, 1859, ^^^ Consistory reluc- 
 tantly accepted his reiterated resignation. 
 
 • Mr. Wm. H. VanOrden, Catskill, N. Y. 
 
33 
 
 A few weeks later he was able to cross the ocean ; 
 and the next ten and a half months, July 2, 1859 ^^ 
 May 19, i860, were spent in traveling in Europe, 
 Egypt and Palestine. He was well equipped to get 
 the most from such a tour ; and that he did so, his 
 delightful letters to the New York Herald, the Trib- 
 une, the Christian Intelligencer, the Independent, the 
 Observer, the Evangelist, and other papers, abundantly 
 testified. 
 
 On his return he received calls from churches In 
 Paterson, N. J., and Owego and Albion, N. Y. He 
 accepted the latter, believing, or at least hoping, that 
 he was now strong enough to endure pastoral labor. 
 But a very few months proved the contrary, and, to 
 the great regret of his people, who had already 
 become tenderly attached to him, he resigned. 
 
 On the 5th of June, 1861, Mr. Welch was married 
 to Miss Lydia G. Kennedy of Clifton Park, N. Y. 
 Of the beautiful and happy family life thus begun I 
 may not speak in detail. Nor is it necessary among 
 those that have witnessed it, and have enjoyed that 
 cordial, refined. Christian hospitality whose charm 
 owed no less to the native tact, delicate thoughtful- 
 ness and sparkling conversation of the devoted wife 
 
34 
 
 than to the elegant courtesy, acute observation, wide 
 learning and ready wit of the tender husband. 
 
 The next five years were spent at Clifton Park, by 
 no means in idleness, for Mr. Welch read constantly 
 and in many lines ; travelled much m this country ; 
 and wrote numerous letters and articles for news- 
 papers, magazines and quarterlies. But the main 
 business of this period was to regain health, and this 
 he did slowly but surely. 
 
 In 1866, upon the election of his classmate, pro- 
 fessor N. G. Clark, as secretary of the American 
 Board, Mr. Welch succeeded him as professor of 
 Logic, Rhetoric and English Literature in Union 
 College. I was then a junior at that institution, and 
 vividly remember with what intense interest we 
 scanned the face of the new professor the first morn- 
 ing he appeared at chapel. He bore the scrutiny 
 well. His remarkably handsome, cultured face ; his 
 erect, soldierly bearing ; his melodious, carefully 
 trained voice ; his dignified but perfectly cordial man- 
 ners ; at once won all hearts. And closer acquaint- 
 ance only confirmed first impressions. No teacher 
 could be more fair and kind, while never lowering 
 the standard of requirement. His department imme- 
 
35 
 
 diately evidenced his power, and subsequent com- 
 mencements were notable for the very high order of 
 the rhetorical and elocutionary work of the students. 
 
 One of his college pupils^ says : " He gave me 
 some of the best, most lasting impressions of my 
 life. He had great skill in laying hold of crude 
 young men ; kindling in them high ambition ; firing 
 them with earnest belief that their dreams of suc- 
 cess might, by perseverance, be realized. I always 
 admired the equipoise of the man, the even balance 
 of his abilities and attainments. To the Christian 
 spirit he added the ready tact which comes only 
 from large experience with the world ; and the social 
 refinement to produce which travel, literature, com- 
 panionship with cultured circles, — all must blend. I 
 knew him as the accomplished teacher of belles- 
 lettres ; accurate, elegant ; raising the ideals of his 
 classes ; making us appreciate how broad, varied, 
 comprehensive, should be the education of the Chris- 
 tian scholar." 
 
 Another,^ who was his pupil here also, writes : " I 
 shall never forget the afternoon when he came to 
 
 1 Rev. Horace C. Stanton, Ph. D., Albany, N. Y. 
 * Rev. Newton L. Reed, Glean, N. Y. 
 
36 
 
 my room in college to invite to his house one of the 
 crudest country boys that ever aspired to a degree. 
 And that evening at his home was my first gHmpse 
 of that Christian refinement and social power so 
 potent in his contact with men." 
 
 Another •} " That 1 should have named one of my 
 sons after him is but a slight evidence of the rever- 
 ence, the appreciation, the love, I felt toward him." 
 
 And still another :^ " He seemed almost like a 
 father to me. I shall never forget his interest in 
 me, and the great kindness he always showed me. 
 I feel that all I am, and all the success I may have 
 had, is due to him. I should like to prove myself 
 not wholly unworthy of his great regard and loving 
 thought for me." 
 
 His ten years at Schenectady witnessed sad troubles 
 in the college, that brought deep grief to his gentle 
 and peace-loving heart. They also overloaded him 
 with labors. After president Hickok's retirement in 
 1868, professor Welch taught metaphysics, and part 
 of the time political economy. When he had gone, 
 the work that he had done unaided and without com- 
 
 ' Prof. John G. Lansing, D. D., New Brunswick, N. J. 
 "> Rev. George Fairlee, Troy, N. V. 
 
37 
 
 plaint had to be divided among several instructors. 
 But he found time for much literary labor. In 1865-7, 
 the Methodist Quarterly Review published four elabo- 
 rate articles from his pen, on " The Greek Church." 
 In 1874, the American Church Review had a notable 
 article on "Periods of Transition in English History." 
 In 1876, he was one of the centennial preachers for 
 the Reformed (Dutch) Church, his theme being 
 "The Hereditary Interest" of that Church "in all 
 forms of Education." He was an active member of 
 the University Convocation of this state, before which 
 he read the profound paper on " The Modern Theory 
 of Forces," that was the germ of his book, " Faith 
 and Modern Thought." This volume was published 
 early in 1876, with an appreciative preface by Dr. 
 Tayler Lewis, whose name sheds such splendid lustre, 
 not only on Union College, but on American scholar- 
 ship. Dr. Hickok pronounced Dr. Welch's treatment 
 of his theme, "original and vigorous." Prof. Benja- 
 min N. Martin of the University of the City of New 
 York, wrote : " I am much struck with the complete- 
 ness of your exhibition of the force philosophy, as 
 presented by the physical writers. You have left 
 none of them unexplored, or unappreciated." 
 
38 
 
 His labors were widely recognized. In 1868, Rut- 
 gers College and the New York University, each 
 conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity ; 
 and in 1872, Maryville College that of Doctor of 
 Laws. 
 
 In the autumn of 1876 there came to him, unsought 
 and unexpected, the call to the chair of Richards and 
 Hickok and Hall. To those that best knew both 
 Auburn and Dr. Welch, the fitness seemed ideal. 
 " His theological position was rather that of the 
 consensus of the creeds of the Reformed churches, 
 than that of the Westminster standards taken by 
 themselves." ^ He was a loyal, liberal Calvinist. 
 He aimed at a Christo-centric theology. He pro- 
 foundly reverenced the Holy Scriptures, and said in 
 his masterly inaugural :^ " Our theology must be con- 
 structed, not from philosophy and science, but from 
 divine revelation." I personally know how strongly 
 the title ^ of this chair attracted him. Becoming a 
 theologian did not unmake him as an exegete. He 
 had a well-defined philosophy, but no one would ever 
 
 'Prof. W. J. Beecher, in Pres. & Ref'd. Review, Oct. 1890, p. 661. 
 *Oct. 3, 1877. 
 
 ^ " Christian Theology," as distinguished from "' Dogmatics," or " System- 
 atic Theology," or " Didactic Theologj-." 
 
39 
 
 suspect him of twisting the Bible into conformity to 
 it, or of defending it by isolated proof texts, falsely 
 so called. Entirely conversant with the past, he did 
 not make it a fetich ; nor imagine that the last word 
 had been spoken by the fathers, the schoolmen, or 
 even the reformers. His face was toward the east ; 
 and no one could conceive his glorying in the thought 
 that no new idea in theology could be promulgated 
 in Auburn while he filled this honored chair. The 
 pastorate was the work he most loved ; its spirit never 
 left him ; and he taught a preachable, workable, evan- 
 gelizing Christian theology, as only one that has been 
 a practical pastor can do. He accepted the place 
 with his whole heart ; and so in all respects, he fitted 
 into the historic niche of Auburn to a nicety. 
 
 Dr. Henry A. Nelson, in his address of welcome 
 said : " We have no doubt that, with daily study and 
 daily prayer, you will, with ever increasing ability 
 teach Christian theology, the theology of the Chris- 
 tian Scriptures. We have no fear that such study and 
 prayer will discover any serious disagreement between 
 the Scriptures and our Westminster symbols ; but we 
 put no restraint upon your endeavor to ascertain 
 whether there is not more of theology in the Bible 
 
40 
 
 than those symbols have stated, and whether aught 
 that is therein stated can be stated more clearly, more 
 intelligibly, more availably for the instruction of God's 
 people and their children. To such faithful endeavor 
 a fair construction of your inaugural vow pledges 
 you." 
 
 He began his work here with the beginning of the 
 year 1877; ^^^^ ^^ ^^ Union College, immediately 
 won the hearts of his pupils. He never treated 
 doubts harshly or trivially. He asked no young man 
 to accept his ipse dixit. He aimed to set every one 
 to thinking, and so to develop his best personality. 
 He never forgot that his errand was to train up, not 
 professional theologians, but preachers and pastors 
 for the living church. He subordinated scholarship 
 to Christian discipleship, according to his own maxim 
 that "character is much more to be desired than 
 gifts." One of his pupils,^ now a missionary at 
 Teheran, Persia, wrote, a few days ^ after hearing of 
 Dr. Welch's death : " Christ was his great theme. 
 Many times during these last three or four days, I 
 have gone back to the old class-room in the old 
 
 ' Rev. Lewis F. Esselstyn. 
 'Aug. 13, 1S90. 
 
41 
 
 chapel building, and listened again to him as he 
 gradually warmed to his subject, waxed eloquent, 
 and lost himself and us in his theme so entirely 
 that we all forgot when the hour expired." Such 
 teaching is safe from the reproach often aimed at our 
 seminaries, that they are detrimental, or even fatal, 
 to vital piety. Dr. Welch was first and foremost a 
 fervent Christian ; and no philosophizing or theolo- 
 gizing could obscure this in the eyes of his pupils. 
 He taught grandly with his noble equipment of log- 
 ical acumen, pellucid expression, varied and thorough 
 scholarship ; he taught more grandly still by his stead- 
 fast faith, his unfailing patience, his transparent sin- 
 cerity, his deep human sympathy, and above all, his 
 passionate devotion to Christ. 
 
 The coming to Auburn involved new ecclesiastical 
 relations. He had been twenty-three years in the 
 ministry of the Reformed (Dutch) church ; and had 
 comparatively small acquaintance in Presbyterian 
 clerical circles. But he fell easily into his new envi- 
 ronment. He was not an ecclesiastic, either by taste 
 or knowledge, or training ; but he was a faithful 
 presbyter, doing his duty conscientiously in this rela- 
 tion as in every other. In the denomination at large 
 
42 
 
 the challenge of his position was tremendous ; he must 
 stand beside such men as Morris at Cincinnati, Pat- 
 ton at Chicago, the Hodofes at Princeton, Shedd and 
 Henry B. Smith in New York. The estimate and 
 welcome of the Board of Commissioners of this 
 Seminary, were ratified by the Presbyterian church, 
 and by the Christian church generally. Responsibil- 
 ities and honors came quite as fast as he could meet 
 them. In 1881 he became one of the editors of the 
 Presbyterian Review, and continued in the same rela- 
 tion to its successor, the Presbyterian and Reformed 
 Review. He represented our church as delegate to 
 the Presbyterian Alliance in 1884 at Belfast, and in 
 1888 at London. At the former he read, by appoint- 
 ment, a paper on ministerial duty. He was a mem- 
 ber of the General Assembly's committee to revise 
 the proof texts of the Confession of Faith, and of 
 its committee of conference on the organic unity of 
 the Christian church. In all these positions he hon- 
 ored himself and those that trusted him. 
 
 But the denominational limits of even so great a 
 church as ours could not confine his activity and use- 
 fulness. He contributed largely to the Indepe7tdent, 
 and other weekly journals ; to the Princeton Review 
 
43 
 
 and the Homiletic Review, to the Old a7id New Tes- 
 tament Student, and to other magazines. He was a 
 member of the Victoria Institute, and one of the most 
 active men in the American Institute of Christian Phil- 
 osophy, a number of important papers that he read 
 before it being subsequently published in Christian 
 Thought. He was a delegate to the World's Con- 
 vention of Young Men's Christian Associations at 
 Berlin in 1884, and to the World's Missionary Con- 
 ference at London in 1888. Everywhere he readily 
 took a foremost place, not by self-assertion, which 
 was totally alien to his nature, but by genuine and 
 quickly recognized merit and fidelity. 
 
 During all these years of abounding professional 
 and literary labors, he was never for an hour a mere 
 book-worm and recluse. He was thoroughly en rap- 
 port with his age. Politics, social problems, all 
 reforms, he studied, sympathized with, and as far as 
 possible shared in. I shall never forget his high dis- 
 course on national themes, as, one year ago this very 
 day, we stood together before yonder statue of Sew- 
 ard, whose name has made your beautiful city famous 
 throughout the world, and were thrilled anew by that 
 great statesman's sublime appeal from even the con- 
 
44 
 
 stitution of his country to the " higher law." How 
 Dr. Welch's eye kindled ; how his form became, if 
 possible, more erect ; how his voice deepened and 
 quivered ; how his soul shone out through its too 
 frail tabernacle ; only those can appreciate that have 
 enjoyed the rare privilege of being with him in such 
 moments of inspiration. He was eminently a Chris- 
 tian patriot. 
 
 And he always kept his heart in warm contact with 
 the living church, and the active working world ; not 
 an easy thing to do in the philosophical atmosphere 
 and scholarly seclusion of a theological professorship. 
 To the limit of his strength, and beyond it, he 
 preached in the surrounding churches, and at your 
 noble neighboring University of Cornell — as cheer- 
 fully in the smallest village as in the largest city, and 
 always with great acceptance. He addressed temper- 
 ance meetings, and Young Men's Christian Associa- 
 tion anniversaries, Bible society and missionary gath- 
 erings. He voiced your grief when Garfield fell by the 
 bullet of an assassin. He spoke for this Seminary at 
 the Centennial Assembly at Philadelphia, and nobly 
 vindicated its historic position as to Christian doctrine. 
 He stood for substantial revision of the Westminster 
 
45 
 
 Confession of Faith ; and with his co-presbyter, Dr. 
 Sprague, did a great work in showing how this can 
 be accomplished along the lines of the Larger and 
 Shorter Catechisms. In the noblest sense, he was a 
 man of affairs, sensitive to the best thought of his 
 day, and well abreast of every forward movement for 
 man and for Christ. 
 
 These multifarious activities were not those of a 
 robust man, of sound health, in whom overflowing 
 vitality is an imperative summons to labor. He had 
 a feeble constitution, and never knew what it is to 
 be perfectly well. He worked all his life against the 
 great odds of constant need of care and almost con- 
 stant suffering. This meant loss of time and oppor- 
 tunity that he deeply deplored. But, despite all, his 
 industry was prodigious. He acquired readily, but 
 did not write easily. Every important letter was first 
 committed to paper in pencil, and then copied. His 
 reviews, essays, sermons, were carefully revised and 
 re-written. He jotted down thoughts on scraps of 
 paper, which became the material for his most elab- 
 orate articles. He practiced what he taught his 
 pupils, that whatever is worth doing at all, is worth 
 doing well. Having accomplished what he did in 
 
46 
 
 the face of early poverty and life-long infirmity, he 
 believed there is no limit of possibilities for the 
 majority of young men ; and it was by this practical 
 faith that he stimulated so many of his pupils to 
 noble ambition and self-sacrificing living. 
 
 " A clergyman's virtues consist not in singularities. 
 All Christian excellence is in great and substantial 
 duties ; in the doctrines of faith cordially embraced 
 and applied ; in the love of God ; in charity to man ; 
 in temperance, in integrity, in humility ; in the con- 
 trol of the appetites and desires ; in prayer and other 
 exercises of piety ; in the fixed love and admiration 
 of heavenly things."^ If this is a true ideal for the 
 minister of Christ, Dr. Welch realized it to a singu- 
 lar degree. He knew how to live as a true man 
 among men. A member"^ of one of the leading firms 
 in this city, writes : " Our business relations for a 
 number of years have been exceedingly pleasant. 
 His confidence in us, his cheerful smile and conversa- 
 tion when in our office, can not be forgotten. I can 
 honestly say that in all our business experience, we 
 never met more of a gentleman, more of a man." 
 
 'John Davidson, quoted by Cardinal Newman, Essays, Vol. II, p. 394; 
 Lickering, London, 1871. 
 ' Mr. Fred H. Fay. 
 
47 
 
 Such plain but sterling business virtues are com- 
 monly thought to be all too rare in clergymen. Yet, 
 he was emphatically a heavenly-minded man. "He 
 was as true in his loyalty to the good and the right 
 he was courteous and kind."^ He was genuinely 
 humble. Flattering attentions at home and abroad, 
 multiplied scholastic and ecclesiastical honors, left no 
 stain upon his beautiful simplicity. Pain never 
 soured the sweetness of his disposition. Disappoint- 
 ments never made him misanthropic. He took no 
 pleasure in searching for evil in his fellow-men, but 
 found a deep joy in discovering good that others 
 had overlooked. His keen wit was never caustic. 
 His sharp arrows of repartee were never poisoned. 
 Petty jealousies and rivalries he hated with godly 
 hatred. After a familiar friendship of many years, I 
 can not recall one word of his I would wish unsaid, 
 one act I would wish undone. 
 
 Nor did the charm come only with long acquaint- 
 ance ; it was immediate. " No one could know pro- 
 fessor Welch even casually, without loving him. 
 Sweet in temper as a woman ; guileless as a child ; 
 mighty against all unrighteousness ; theologically, I 
 
 ' Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler. 
 
48 
 
 think of him somewhat as I do of St. John the 
 divine ; he went down very deep toward the under- 
 lying fundamentals, and he soared high toward the 
 throne."' A most estimable lady,^ whose guest he 
 was in London in 1888, writes : " We never had any 
 one stopping with us that we liked so much, or that 
 seemed to us such a model of a Christian ofentleman, 
 in the highest sense. He was so gentle and loving, 
 kind and humble, and yet so bright and cheerful 
 always; and how unwilling to give any trouble ! His 
 prayers were so beautiful that we could not help feel- 
 ing he lived very close to the dear Saviour." That 
 from an acquaintance of a few days, and this from a 
 classmate and life-long friend :"^ "He was to me the 
 very type of the Christian scholar; of rich, sweet 
 spirit ; the soul of courtesy ; generous in all his 
 thought and sentiment ; ever loyal to Christ and 
 his truth." 
 
 Another writes : ^ " Something over two years ago, 
 it was my privilege to cross the Atlantic on the same 
 steamer with Professor and Mrs. Welch, and also to see 
 
 ' Rev. John Gordon, D. D., Omaha, Neb. 
 ' Mrs. Galbraith. 
 ' Dr. N. G. Clark. 
 * Dr. F. F. Ellinwood. 
 
49 
 
 much of him in the Missionary Conference and the 
 meeting of the Presbyterian Alliance, both of which he 
 attended, in the city of London. In our promenades 
 upon the deck of the steamer, at the table in the din- 
 ing saloon, on the floor of the Conference and the 
 Alliance meeting, in the many little gatherings of a 
 social nature connected with these great occasions, I 
 had opportunity to see many sides of Dr. Welch's 
 character, and I found that, as with a true diamond, 
 from whatever angle I contemplated him, there was 
 always to be seen the same central light of truth. 
 He stands in my memory as a model of the Chris- 
 tian gentleman and the cultivated Christian scholar. 
 In London, he received the hospitality of some of 
 the most distinguished of all those who entertained 
 the members of the Missionary Conference, and it 
 was a satisfaction to us to know that America was so 
 well represented in those highest and yet most Chris- 
 tian circles, whose good opinion of our countrymen 
 our national pride led us to value most." 
 
 Surely it must have been a singularly consistent 
 and symmetrical Christian character that could make 
 such an impression at the very first, and maintain and 
 deepen it through the varied tests of many years. 
 
50 
 
 Dr. Welch's life-long habit of enduring pain with 
 Christian fortitude stood him in good stead during 
 his last year on earth. He believed that he was in 
 the relentless grasp of a mortal disease ; almost daily 
 in his prayers at family worship, he alluded to it. A 
 less brave man would have faltered. A less devoted 
 disciple of Christ would have laid down his work. 
 He did neither. So unmurmuringly and patiently 
 that his students, and neighbors, and even his near 
 friends, knew nothing of his condition, he taught his 
 classes as usual ; was always in his place at their devo- 
 tional meetings ; kept up his large correspondence ; 
 reviewed many books ; wrote for the reviews; main- 
 tained the reputation of his home for ungrudging 
 and cordial hospitality. If any man ever fulfilled 
 Dr. Roswell D. Hitchcock's counsel to one of his 
 classes, it was Dr. Welch : " At whatever cost, accept 
 the service offered you, high or low, far or near. 
 Then burn to the socket."^ 
 
 But when the last Seminary year closed, he knew 
 that the flame was flickering low. He accepted cheer- 
 fully his Master's will. He felt as Mr. Bancroft, the 
 illustrious historian of the United States, wrote to a 
 
 ' Eternal Atonement, p. 165. 
 
51 
 
 friend in 1882 : *' I was trained to look upon life here 
 as a season for labor. Being more than four score 
 years old, I know the time for my release will soon 
 come. Conscious of being near the shore of eter- 
 nity, I await, without impatience and without dread, 
 the beckoning of the hand that will summon me to 
 rest." ^ Dr. Welch had not Mr. Bancroft's comfort 
 of knowing that he had finished man's allotted time 
 on earth ; he was in his 67th year, when many men 
 are still almost in their prime. Nor was his resigna- 
 tion the cover of morbid disgust with life, or cowardly 
 shrinking from its burdens. He longed to live. In 
 a well-worn volume of Tennyson that he carried, 
 these lines, among others, are marked : 
 
 •' Whatever crazy sorrow saith, 
 
 " No life that breaths with human breath 
 
 " Has ever truly longed for death. 
 
 " 'Tis life whereof our nerves are scant ; 
 " O, life, not death, for which we pant ; 
 "More life and fuller that I want." 
 
 And so he did what he could to get well again. 
 Faithfully attended by his devoted wife, he set out 
 
 ' To S. Austin AUibone, Decoration Day, 1882. 
 
52 
 
 for the Hot Springs of Virginia. He tarried with us 
 a few too brief days at the Capital. We were told of 
 his illness — not by himself; but he was so bright and 
 brave we could not help believing that love exagger- 
 ated the peril. There was no abatement of his inter- 
 est in public affairs. He was as anxious as ever to 
 see and meet great and good men. An interview 
 between him and General Fremont was something 
 never to be forgotten. His prayers in the household 
 were "as ointment poured forth." Never had his 
 faith seemed more serene ; his friendships more pre- 
 cious ; his love to God and man more profound ; his 
 vision of Heaven more unclouded. 
 
 At the Hot Springs he grew rapidly worse, and a 
 change was made to the Healing Springs. Alas, they 
 were wrongly named, for him. When told that the 
 end was near, he accepted the message as calmly as 
 if it had been a permit to go to his Auburn home. 
 Then came days of patient waiting and of exquisite 
 suffering. "You are going," said his wife, "where 
 there is no more pain." He cried : " I am glad it is 
 so ; O, I am glad it is so ! " On one of the last days 
 she asked, " What shall I read aloud ? " " Read from 
 the 14th chapter of John." When she reached the 
 
53 
 
 queries of Thomas and Philip, he said : " Ah, there 
 questions arise ; let us dismiss them, and dwell only 
 on the promises. As I become weaker, I realize 
 more and more that Jesus is not only kind and gra- 
 cious and loving, but that he is also a strong Savior. 
 There is a divine side of upholding strength, and I 
 sink my own weakness into His almightiness." " Do 
 you regret leaving home ? " " No." " Would you not 
 have been more comfortable there ? " More comfort- 
 able ? Yes. But ' comfortable ' is not the word, you 
 know. We have followed the best of advice. Our 
 life is given us to make the most of, and we have 
 tried to do this. The end must come at last ; and 
 having acted according to the best of our knowledge, 
 we should have no regrets." And so, with faith 
 unclouded, and fortitude unexhausted, on Sunday 
 morning, the 29th of June, 1890, at half past six, he 
 fell asleep. 
 
 Amid all the beautiful characteristics of his Chris- 
 tian life, these predominated : a profound conviction 
 of sin and an intense love for his Savior. In his last 
 days of agon}'', he used often to exclaim : " What a 
 dreadful thing sin must be to bring such suffering 
 as this ! " He returned from many an evening walk 
 
54 
 
 sadly depressed in spirit because he saw so many 
 human beings apparently going to destruction. " He 
 longed inexpressibly to see the Christ. And some- 
 times, when his soul was lifted in prayer, it seemed 
 as if the vision was vouchsafed him. But it was not 
 the Christ child that appeared to him, as to St. 
 Christopher, and St. Anthony of Padua ; it was 
 rather the risen Christ, still bearing the wound-prints 
 in his hands and feet and side. It was the risen 
 Savior, who having made atonement for sin, and 
 having triumphed over death, now came with this 
 cheering message, ' Fear not ; for I have redeemed 
 thee ; thou art mine.'"^ And now at last he sees Him 
 face to face, where " there shall be no more death ; 
 neither sorrow nor crying ; neither shall there be any 
 more pain." 
 
 Dr. Welch had an intense love for his home and 
 all its surroundings. He loved his pastor, this 
 church, this city and all its people. It is at his own 
 desire that his ashes repose in your beautiful Fort 
 Hill cemetery. And he loved his colleagues and his 
 students. He not only gave to Auburn Seminary his 
 ripest years and powers in ungrudging service, but 
 
 ' Mrs. Welch. 
 
55 
 
 he left the munificent bequest of $36,000 to enlarge 
 its usefulness. " This was not the gift of a rich man, 
 from his abundance. It was not the result of a 
 fortunate speculation, or of an unforeseen advance 
 in the value of property. It was simply the sav- 
 ings of a careful, economical, self-denying, hard- 
 working, honest man, whose income was never so 
 small that he did not put aside a part of it."^ With 
 his fondness for travel, for good books, for works of 
 art ; his adaptation by natural bent and by cultivation 
 for luxurious living ; it would have been easy for 
 him to spend this sum, and much more, in the mere 
 gratification of refined tastes ; a self-indulgence that 
 most men would readily have found reasons to justify 
 to their consciences. His gift thus means more than 
 economy ; more than ordinary generosity ; it means 
 the habitual dominance of a sanctified will over his 
 entire manner of life. When the building thus pro- 
 vided for shall stand beside those erected by other 
 generous friends of sacred learning, may it speak to 
 teachers and pupils and citizens, of something more 
 enduring than its own granite, the love of God and 
 of man that never faileth ; the love that burned so 
 
 ' Mrs. Welch. 
 
56 
 
 brightly in that heart that has ceased to beat on 
 earth, in that hfe that is now blossoming and fruiting 
 in heaven. 
 
 Diligent student ; tender pastor ; skillful teacher ; 
 good citizen ; kind neighbor ; faithful friend ; consci- 
 entious steward ; devoted husband ; humble, devout, 
 zealous, consistent Christian, glorified saint, "until 
 the day break and the shadows flee away," hail and 
 farewell ! 
 

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