LIBRARY OF PRINCETON 
 
 NOV 2 I 2002 
 
 THEOLOGICAL mmm 
 
Thirty Years in Lane 
 
 -AND- 
 
 OTHER LANE PAPERS. 
 
 BY EDWARD D. MORRIS, 
 
 Professor of Church History, 1867-74, 
 Professor of Systematic Theology, 1874-97. 
 
 Walk about Zion, and go round about her ; 
 
 Tell the towers thereof : 
 
 Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces, 
 
 THAT YE MAY TELL IT TO THE GENERATION FOLLOWING. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Cincinnati, O,, December 8th, 1896. 
 The Rev. E. D. Morris, D.D,, LL.D., 
 
 Dear Brother : 
 
 The Lane Club has heard 
 with pleasure your paper on *' Thirty Years in 
 Lane." It is their judgment that this paper and 
 others which you have prepared on the history 
 of the, Institution are worthy of preservation in 
 permanent form. 
 
 The undersigned, therefore, acting in be- 
 half of the Club, and under their appointment, 
 request that you place such papers as you may 
 choose in their hands, to be published by them 
 as a souvenir of your retirement from your life 
 of active service as a Professor in Lane Semin- 
 ary. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 J. N. Ervin. 
 W. P. Miller. 
 
Columbus, O., December 31st, 1896. 
 Rev. J. N. Ervin and Rev. W. P. Miller, 
 
 Beloved Pupils and Brethren : — In grateful 
 response to the request presented by the Lane 
 Club, through 3^ou as their committee, I place 
 in your hands the paper recently read be- 
 fore the Club, entitled ''Thirty Years in Lane,'' 
 in the hope that it will be kindly read by many 
 Alumni and others as in some sense a record, 
 not merely of my own prolonged service as pro-, 
 fessor, but also of the history of our beloved 
 Seminary during the latter half of its existence 
 as a theological institution of the Presbyterian 
 Church. 
 
 In accordance with your suggestion I have 
 appended the following papers prepared at var- 
 ious times, which wi^l contribute something 
 further toward such a history, namely : 
 
 Leaves from the Early History of 
 Lane. — A paper read at the fortieth anniversary 
 of the Seminary, November, 1869 ; in conjunc- 
 tion with the Reunion of the Presbyterian 
 - Church. 
 
 Historical Sketch of Lane. — An ad- 
 dress delivered before the Centennial General 
 Assembly of the Presbyterian Church,' at Phila- 
 delphia, May, 1888. 
 
 The Doctrinal Platform of our 
 Church. — An address delivered at the opening 
 of the Seminary year, September, 1882. 
 
The Theoi.ogians of Lane. — A paper 
 read by appointment before the Club, at the 
 sixtieth anniversary of the Seminary, December 
 1889. 
 
 Memorial Tribute to Professor Allen. 
 — Presented to the Club, December, 1887. 
 
 Memorial Address on Professor Evans. 
 — Delivered before the Club, January, 1893. 
 
 I trust that these papers, selected from a 
 considerable number of manuscripts and printed 
 documents, written on various occasions, in the 
 interest of the Seminary, may be of some value 
 in the way of preserving in some measure its 
 remarkable and precious history, and of stimu- 
 lating the affection of those wlio have studied 
 within its walls, and the confidence and devotion 
 of its generous friends. 
 
 Your teacher and friend, 
 
 Edward D. Morris. 
 
[The formal resignation of Professor Morris, tendered in May, 
 18M6, and the action of the Board of Trustees thereon, may, In view 
 of their biographic and historic value, be properly incorporated in 
 this memorial volume.— Coinmitlee on Publication ] 
 
 The Letter of Resignation. 
 
 To THE Board of Trustees of 
 Lane Theological Seminary. 
 Brethren: — In 1863 I became a Trustee of 
 the Institution now under your charge. During 
 the winter of 1864-65, while still a pastor, I 
 gave instruction here for several months in the 
 department of Homiletics. In October, 1867, 
 I was elected Pi-ofessor of Biblical Exegesis, 
 but on the following day was transferred to the 
 chair of Church History. In 1870 I was again 
 elected Trustee in order that I might, in an 
 emergency which had arisen, serve also as 
 Treasurer and Superintendent. In 1874 I was 
 transferred to the chair of Systematic Theology, 
 and for twenty-one years have held that posi- 
 tion. My connection with the Seminary in 
 these various ways now covers quite one half of 
 the entire period of its existence as a theologi- 
 cal institution. 
 
 Of the Board of Trustees to whom I owe 
 my first election as Professor, your present 
 President is the only member remaining in 
 office ; most of the other members have passed 
 from life. Of those who voted for my transfer 
 
Vlll INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 to the chair of Theology in 1874, but one other 
 member remains. Within this period six Pro- 
 fessors have died, one holding an emeritus rela- 
 tion, the others in active service, and all but 
 one several years younger than myself at their 
 death. Seven Professors have resigned their 
 chairs ; and since July, 1893, I have been the 
 only inaugurated Professor in the institution, 
 standing alone in a sphere where everything 
 about me has been passing through almost in- 
 credible change. 
 
 It is not needful that I should detail my en- 
 deavors to serve the Seminary in the two de- 
 partments of instruction successively assigned to 
 me. My beloved colleague, recentl}'- deceased, 
 for whom the chair of Church History may be 
 said to have been created, had during the four 
 years preceding my election, done admirable 
 work in that department — work to which it be- 
 came my privilege for seven years thereafter to 
 give further expansion and prominence, espe- 
 cially in the line of the History of Sacred Doc- 
 trine. During these years my studies in that 
 line led me to accept afresh, with matured con- 
 viction and with increasing earnestness, that 
 type of Reformed or Calvinistic Theology in- 
 culcated here' by my honored predecessors, 
 Beecher and Allen and Nelson, and represented 
 elsewhere by such men as my beloved teacher, 
 Dr. Hickok, of Auburn Seminary, and the re- 
 vered Professor Henry Boynton Smith, of Union 
 Seminary. And when the unanimous voice of 
 the Board called me to serve in that depart- 
 ment, I esteemed it alike my duty and my 
 privilege to uphold, as far as I was able, the 
 historic teachings and best traditions of the 
 
INTRODUCTORY. IX 
 
 Seminary, and to inculcate upon the minds of 
 the young men committed to my charge those 
 clear, strong, harmonious, practical conceptions 
 of divine truth which I had received while sitting 
 at the feet of such sainted teachers. 
 
 But inasmuch as, for years previous to that 
 transfer, the two bodies separated by the schism 
 of 1837 had been united again on equal terms 
 in one Church, it also became my duty and my 
 privilege to recognize and specially to respect 
 other types of Calvinistic theology held and 
 taught in some other Seminaries of the united 
 denomination. It is a significant fact that Lane 
 had shown its allegiance to the Union in an 
 eminent way by being the first among these 
 Seminaries to elect and provide for a Professor 
 from the other body, and also by electing for 
 almost' every vacancy that occurred, (nine with- 
 in five years, ) a representative Trustee from 
 the same quarter. In harmony with this irenic 
 policy, while still adhering to my cherished 
 convictions and belief, I have never given theo- 
 logical instruction here in any dogmatic or par- 
 tizan spirit, but rather even at the risk of seem- 
 ing to be less positive, too indulgent to opposite 
 opinion than I ought, have laid the main stress 
 habitually on those elements of generic and es- 
 sential Calvinism in which all who hold to our 
 Confession of Faith are in fact substantially 
 agreed. To that Confession, (especially as re- 
 cently interpreted and revised, ) I have been 
 faithful from first to last as containing more 
 fully than any other Protestant symbol the sys- 
 tem of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures. 
 
 My share in the general administration of 
 the Seminary has always been larger than I 
 have desired. Whenever any such service was 
 
X INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 to be undertaken for the advancement of the in- 
 stitution in whatever direction, I have never 
 been unwilling to face my full share whether of 
 labor or of responsibility. How often and how 
 regretfully I have turned aside to this end from 
 loved studies, and from the process of personal 
 preparation for the professorships I was ap- 
 pointed to fill, is known only to myself, and to 
 the Master. Many of the severer duties inci- 
 dent to the general administration, such as the 
 discipline of unfaithful students, have especially 
 within the last twenty years fallen very largely 
 upon me. 
 
 My labors in. furtherance of the financial 
 interests of the Seminary have, until within a 
 comparatively recent period, been continued 
 without intermission. Bringing with me when 
 I came the legacy of a beloved parishioner, the 
 largest legacy with one exception in the history 
 of the Institution, I have conscientiously striven, 
 year by year, publicly and privately, to increase 
 the General Endowment Fund, and the Scholar- 
 ship and Library Funds ; to secure contributions 
 for the reconstruction of some buildings and the 
 erection of others, especially the present Semi- 
 nary Hall ; and to help otherwise in providing 
 adequate financial resources for the support of 
 teachers and students, and for the general ad- 
 vancement of the Seminary in all its material 
 interests. It is useless to say that I speak of 
 this in no temper of boastfulness, but simply as 
 an index of my abiding love and devotion. 
 
 During this long period I have had occasion 
 to realize that in such a position as this, no 
 amount of effort or sacrifice can protect the oc- 
 cupant from trial. From the beginning there 
 were difficulties to be confronted, embarrass- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. Xl 
 
 ments to be overcome, oppositions to be faced, 
 which were enough to try abundantly both faith 
 and patience. Without referring speciiically to 
 any of these, I may now confess that more than 
 once or twice during these years nothing but 
 the sternest sense of duty to a precious institu- 
 tion, beleaguered with perils and in great need, 
 has kept me from surrendering a service whose 
 toils and vicissitudes have at times quite out- 
 weighed its advantages. That I have not yielded 
 to any such impulse has been due in the first 
 instance to the divine grace which, having 
 placed me here for some good purpose, has en- 
 dued me with strength to live and labor on 
 through whatever trial, until that purpose should 
 be accomplished. Next to this divine help, it 
 has been due to the wonderful support which in 
 such dark hours I have received from trustees, 
 from alumni older and younger, from the sev- 
 eral classes of students, and from those old and 
 tried friends of the Seminary who have given to 
 it the bulk of its endowment, and who have 
 never ceased to give it also their love and loy- 
 alty, and their sustaining prayers. 
 
 Cheered from time to time by such evi- 
 dences of regard and confidence, I have remained 
 at my post for nearly a generation, though for 
 some years realizing that my long day of labor 
 was drawing toward its close. At no time dur- 
 ing the last five years would such a close have 
 been unwelcome, whenever it could be reached 
 without detriment to the Seminary. And when 
 in 1891 the first gusts appeared of that wild 
 cyclone which afterwards so nearly wrecked the 
 institution, distracting and dividing its friends, 
 giving opportunity to its enemies, checking the 
 flow of sympathy and of resources, and reduc- 
 
Xll INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 ing the number of students to the lowest point 
 in its history, it became my supreme desire and 
 purpose to escape at the earliest possible mo- 
 ment from the "windy storm and tempest." On 
 one side I found myself unable, after the most 
 thorough investigation possible to me, to accept 
 and approve certain views concerning the Scrip- 
 tures advanced by some of my colleagues, 
 though cherishing all the while unabated faith 
 in their personal loyality to the Divine Word. 
 On the other side, believing (as I still believe, ) 
 that the matters in question could best be set- 
 tled, not in the courts of the church and amid 
 the heats of judical controversy, but rather in 
 the arena of free and brotherly discussion, it 
 was impossible for me to join hands or even 
 sympathize with those who held and carried out 
 the opposite opinion. Standing thus in a posi- 
 tion where, as I was painfully aware from the 
 beginning, I could only bring down upon my- 
 self the criticism and possibly the enmity of 
 both parties in the rising conflict, I was yet 
 convinced more and more that in this attitude 
 alone I could best subserve the interests of the 
 Seminary thus brought into so grave a peril. And 
 in such a dilemma, it became my duty, as I sup- 
 posed, to suppress for the time my growing de- 
 sire for retirement, and simply to hold on and on 
 until God should open the way more clearly for 
 my withdrawal. 
 
 I have no occasion to refer in detail to the 
 sad events that followed. Just at the beginning 
 of the agitation, one Professor had been con- 
 strained to retire because the means for his sup- 
 port were wholly wanting. In the spring of 
 1892 a beloved colleague with whom I had been 
 associated in close and precious intimacy for a 
 
INTRODUCTORY. xiii 
 
 quarter of a century, gave up his position here 
 and accepted a position equally honorable in his 
 native land, but only to become a victim of fatal 
 disease, and in a few months be brought back 
 for burial. In May, 1893, another Professor re- 
 tired from service, and in July the remaining 
 two also resigned, leaving me as the sole rem- 
 nant of a Faculty of six members who two 
 years before had been laboring together to build 
 up the Seminary and make it useful to our 
 Church, and to the world. Had it been practi- 
 cable for me also at this juncture to cease from 
 active service without exposing the Seminary to 
 certain perils which were seen to be consequent 
 upon an indefinite closure, I would, (as is well 
 known to some of your number, ) have welcomed 
 such release in the way and form suggested by 
 the action of this Board. 
 
 But it seemed to be my paramount duty, 
 with the concurrence of the Board, to make one 
 earnest effort more to preserve the Institution 
 from such perils, and to maintain for it, as far as 
 I might be able, a continuous life. Upon that 
 effort God has been pleased to grant His bene- 
 diction, as the history of the past two years 
 plainly testifies. The number of students for 
 these years has been quite equal to the aggre- 
 gate of the two years preceding, and the aggre- 
 gate of expense for the institution has been re- 
 duced just one-half, from $26,000 to $13,000. 
 Such results would have been impossible, how- 
 ever, without the assistance generously rendered 
 by a large number of non-resident instructors, 
 men of exceptionally high standing in the 
 Church, who consented, in some instances at 
 considerable sacrifice, to help the Seminary in 
 this way through its painful emergency. That 
 
xiv INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 the instruction thus imparted has been worth far 
 more than it has cost, and that the training and 
 advancement of the students by this method, 
 superadded to the regular instruction, have 
 been in a high degree satisfactory, will be ob- 
 vious to the Board, on careful examination of 
 the Faculty report. It is pleasant to add that 
 the fidelity and the loyality of the students, and 
 their religious temper and purposes, have shown 
 them to be worthy of the efforts made for their 
 benefit. The hand of a gracious God has mean- 
 while protected the Seminary from external 
 harm, and has been maintaining for it more and 
 more manifestly its just place in the confidence 
 and regard of the Church. I see no reason for 
 doubting that the near future will bring with it 
 further signs of the divine blessing, and am as- 
 sured in my own mind that, these shadows of 
 trial passing off as they will, a long day of 
 brightness will soon dawn upon an institution 
 whose entire history has been a signal illustra- 
 tion of the preserving, magnifying, enriching 
 grace of God. 
 
 But the time has now come when, having 
 served the Seminary in all fidelity through 
 these eight and twenty years, I find myself led 
 by a variety of considerations to the conclusion 
 that I may properly at this juncture ask to be 
 retired from the active and responsible services 
 in which I have been engaged for almost a gen- 
 eration. To some of these considerations per- 
 mit me briefly to refer : 
 
 One strong reason for such withdrawal lies 
 in the fact that the Seminary has now reached 
 a point in its history where an enlargement of 
 resources, an increase in the teaching force, 
 and a general advance in all its appointments, 
 
INTRODUCTORY. XV 
 
 are becoming necessaiy to its progress towards 
 the larger prosperity and influence which we 
 all agree in desiring. To such progress it is 
 not likely that at this stage of my life I could 
 make any special contribution. I am rather im- 
 pressed with the hope that my retirement at 
 this juncture may enable this Board with 
 greater freedom to undertake the complex and 
 difficult process of reconstruction — the way 
 being thus opened more widely for whatsoever 
 steps or projects may seem to the Board desir- 
 able. And I may add that it will be a joy to 
 me if I can thus contribute, at whatever imme- 
 diate cost to myself, to a result in which I would 
 rejoice not only in this life, but even in the life 
 to come. 
 
 But another cogent reason for my retire- 
 ment at an early date lies in the fact that, hav- 
 ing now reached the seventieth year of life, and 
 being apprehensive that I might break down 
 entirely, and perhaps at some very inopportune 
 moment, if I should attempt to carry much fur- 
 ther the same amount of care and strain which 
 has been upon me for the past two or three 
 years, I feel it my duty as well as my privilege 
 to pause at this point, and to seek by such re- 
 tirement the relief and rest which a tired body 
 and a still more tired mind and soul are crav- 
 ing. I am sure that I have carried this sacred 
 weight about as long and as far as I can carry 
 it with safety to myself and to the Seminary, 
 and therefore, not without pain and with a sad 
 sense of failure at many points, I ask you at the 
 earliest practicable date to remove this weight, 
 and to lay it as God may guide you on younger 
 and stronger shoulders. I am not concerned 
 about specific questions of time or circumstance 
 
XVI INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 or condition, confiding entirely in your judg- 
 ment on such matters of detail — being anxious 
 most of all that no detriment should come to the 
 Seminary through my withdrawal from its ser- 
 vice. And in thus resigning my place, it is 
 right for me to say that I take this step in no 
 mood of disaffection, with no disposition to har- 
 bor hostility towards any, but in peace and good 
 will toward all men, and especially with a deep 
 sense of gratitude to this Board for all the kind- 
 ness and confidence manifested toward me in 
 the passing years. And my daily prayer while 
 life lasts shall be that Lane Seminary under 
 your wise guidance shall continue to stand in 
 its past and present position as representative of 
 a free and liberal orthodoxy and of a true, de- 
 vout evangelism, and under that banner shall 
 grow generation after generation in resources 
 and numbers, and in power to instruct and bless 
 the world. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 EDWARD D. MORRIS. 
 
 Lane Seminary, May 1, 1895. 
 
Action of the Board of Trustees. s 
 
 * * * In accepting the resignation by Rev. 
 Edward D. Morris, D. D., LL. D., of his office of 
 Professor of Systematic Theology in this insti- 
 tution, the board of trustees desires to put on re- 
 cord, for a perpetual memorial, its expression of 
 high and sincere regard for him. For thirty- 
 two years he has sustained relations of trust 
 and responsibility in the Seminary. In I8G0 
 he was elected a trustee and served until 
 his election to the chair of Church History in 
 1867. In 1870 he was again elected a trustee in 
 order to act in an emergency as treasurer and 
 superintendent, for which duties his admirable 
 business qualifications gave him peculiar fitness. 
 In 1874 Dr. Morris was transferred from the 
 chair of Church History to that of Systematic 
 Theology. In all his various relations to the 
 Seminary, he has always held the highest re- 
 gard and confidence of the trustees and of the 
 community. The many and hearty testimonials 
 given to him on fitting occasions show the warm 
 and sincere esteem in which he has always been 
 held by the alumni of Lane and by his fellows 
 in the ministry and bv the church. 
 
 His work for the church at large has been 
 conspicuous. As a pastor he learned how to 
 train pastors. As a preacher he learned how to 
 guide preachers. As a theologian he has stood, 
 
XVlll INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 in the, culmination of his strength, among the 
 first of the living theologians of the Reformed 
 Chixrches in our own and other lands. He has 
 bfien honored by our beloved Church with the 
 highest office in its gift, and intrusted with the 
 duty of representing it on many occasions of 
 public import. He was one of the Assembly's 
 Committee on the revision of the Confession of 
 Faith, and one of the most influential of its mem- 
 bers. A man of untiring industry, he has done 
 much to sustain by his pen the reputation of 
 Lane Seminary for sound scholarship and wide 
 literary attainment. 
 
 This Board would also record its special 
 obligation to Dr. Morris for the signal service 
 which he has rendered the Seminary during the 
 past two years, the most trying years in its his- 
 tory. His heroic and wise efforts to preserve 
 the continuous life of the imperiled institution 
 have been, in important respects, the most valu- 
 able in his long official service, and we rejoice 
 with him, not only in the remarkable success of 
 these extraordinary efforts, but also in the prom- 
 ise, thus assured, of coming prosperity to the 
 rescued Seminary. Nor would we fail to put 
 on record our high appreciation of that devoted 
 loyalty to the Seminary, which at all times has 
 caused Dr. Morris to make every danger that 
 has seemed to menace its usefulness and repu- 
 tation a matter of personal concern, and our 
 hearty commendation of that strong sense ©f 
 duty which has impelled him to defend its pol- 
 icy and administration against all influences 
 which have seemed hostile to its best interests. 
 It is our belief that the Church, which he has 
 so faithfully served in all these years, will not 
 fail to give him due honor for his masterly ad- 
 
INTRODUCTORY, XIX 
 
 vocacy of the interest of the Seminary in what 
 seemed to him and this Board occasions of spec- 
 ial peril. There are times in the history of 
 institutions when proposed changes in their pol- 
 icy have to be met not only by a searching in- 
 quiry as to the grounds of such action, but, if 
 need be, by a firm resistance to every threatened 
 invasion of compact and charter rights, and 
 whatever of infelicity may attend such defenses 
 of imperiled interests will surely be overlooked 
 when the conscientious and noble purpose that 
 inspired them stands out in the clear light of 
 history. 
 
 In accepting with deep regret his resigna- 
 tion, tendered by reason of advancing years, 
 and the monition of Providence, we wish to put 
 on our permanent records this expression of our 
 appreciation of Professor Morris as a Christian 
 man, a scholar, a teacher, and a most faithful 
 colleao-ue. 
 
Thirty Years in Lane, 
 
 PAPER READ BEFORE THE LANE CLUB. 
 
 DECEMBER 8, 1896. 
 
Brethren of the Lane Club : 
 
 When the centennial celebration of Lane 
 Seminary shall occur in 1932, it will appear 
 that the history of the century has divided itself 
 into three nearly equal periods. The first of 
 these periods extended from the organization of 
 the hrst theological faculty in December, 1832, 
 to the reorganization of the faculty, after several 
 serious changes, in the autumn of 1867. The 
 second period reaches from that date to the 
 equally important reorganization just now in 
 progress ; and the third v^ill extend from 1897 
 to the centennial year. God grant that this 
 coming period may be brightest and best as well 
 as last in this initial century in the history of 
 this beloved Institution. 
 
 It is not needful to revert on this occasion 
 to the first of these three periods, or to the events 
 which led on from the first charter as early as 
 1829, and the organizing of a preparatory insti- 
 tution in the autumn of that year to the election 
 of Lyman Beecher and his associates, and the 
 opening of the Seminary for the reception of 
 theological students. Nor is it desirable now to 
 speak at any length of that group of illustrious 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 3 
 
 men, Beecher,* and Biggs, f and Stowe,J: and 
 Dickinson, § and Condit, || and Allen, and Day, 
 the last still among the living, who carried the 
 Institution on so courageously and successfully, 
 down to the time when the last of them retired 
 from the service. I shall have opportunity in 
 another way to express my veneration for their 
 characters, and my profound and increasing ad- 
 miration for the work which, often amid great 
 trials, they accomplished here for Christ and his 
 Church. Nor will it be practicable for me to 
 become either prophet or counsellor with respect 
 to the new period just dawning, beyond the ut- 
 terance of a few suggestions that may be helpful, 
 and the expression of a strong hope that all our 
 warmest and largest desires for Lane may be 
 realized in the generation to follow. My pres- 
 ent task relates only to the middle period in the 
 
 *REV. LYMAN BEECH KR, D. D. 1832-1850. Born New 
 Haven, Conn., Oct. 12, 1775; Yale Collejje, 1797; Ord Sept. 5, 
 1799 (Pre-b.); Easthampton, L. I., 1799-1810 ; Litchfield, Conn., 
 1810-1826; Boston, Mass., 1826-1832; Pres. and Prof, of Syst. 
 TheoL, LA\E, 1832-1850; Emeritus Prof, till his death in Brooklyn, 
 N. Y., Jan. 12, 1863; D. D. Mid -It^b. College, 1818. 
 
 fREV. THOMAS JACOB BIGGS, D. D. 1831-1838. Born 
 Philadelphia, Pa , Nov. 29, 1787; College of N. J., 181=;; Prince- 
 ton Seminiry. 1815-1817; Ord. 1818 (Presb. of Phila.); Frankford, 
 Pa., 1818-1832; Prof. ( hurch Hist.. LANE, 1832-1839; Pres. Cin- 
 cinnati College, 1839-1845; Pres. Woodward College, 1845-1851 ; 
 Pastor, Cincinnati, 1852-1856 ; resided in Cincinnati till his death, 
 1863. 
 
 JREV. CALVIN ELLIS STOWE, U. D. 1833-1S50. Born 
 at Natick, Mass., April 6, 1802; Bowd. College, 1824; Andover 
 Seminary, 1825-1828; Instructor do., 1828-1830; Prof. Dart. Col- 
 lege, 1830-1833; Prof. Biblical Literature, LANE, 1833-1850; Prof. 
 Bowd. College, 1850-1852 ; Prof. Sacred Literature, Andover, 
 1852-1872; die I Aug. 22, 1886, in Hartford, Conn. 
 
4 THIRTY YEARS IN I.ANE. 
 
 century, from 1867 to 1897 — a period whose 
 history I have known as no one else now living 
 knows it, and in whose experiences, joyful and 
 sorrowful, I have largely shared. 
 
 I trust that no one will fancy me vain 
 enough to suppose that either my coming or my 
 going is of sufficient moment to constitute an 
 epoch in the history of this beloved Institution, 
 or will fear lest I may presume to occupy this 
 significant hour with personal biography merely. 
 It so chances that both my coming and my go- 
 ing do so far synchronize with the marked transi- 
 tions in that history to which I have just re- 
 ferred, that I may properly claim to represent 
 this middle period as no other can, and to speak 
 concerning it as no other can speak. And if 
 what is personal seems to any to blend too 
 largely at any point with the main elements in 
 my narration of these Thirty Years in Lane, I 
 
 ^^REV. BAXTER DICKINSON, D. D. 1835-1839. Born 
 Amherst, Mass., April 14 1795; ^'^^^^ College, 1817; Andover 
 Seminary, 1818-1821 ; Ord. Longmeadow, Mass., 1823 (Cong.); 
 Longmeaifuv, 1823-1829 ; Newark, N. J., 1829-1835 ; Prof. Sacred 
 Rhetoric, LANE, 1835-1839; Prof. Sacred Rhetoric, Auburn Sem- 
 inary, 1839-1847; Acting Prof., Andover, 1848; Sec'y Am. and 
 For. Christian Union, 1850-1859; resided at Lake Forest, 111., 
 1859-1868; at Brooklyn, N, Y., 1868, till his death, Dec. 7, 1875; 
 D. D. Amherst College, 1838. 
 
 II REV. JONATHAN BAILEY CONDIT, D. D. 1851-1854. 
 Born Hanover, N, J., f^ec. 16, 1808; College of N. J., 1827; 
 Princeton Seminary, 1827-30; Ord. Longmeadow, Mass., July 14, 
 1831 ; Longmeadow, 1831-1835 ; Prof.^Amherst College, 1835- 
 1838; Portland, Me., 1838-1845 ; Newark, N. J., 1845-1850; 
 Prof. Sacred Rhetoric. LANE, 1851-1855; Prof. Sacred Rhetoric, 
 Auburn Seminary, 1855-1873; died in Auburn, N. Y., Jan, I, 
 1876; D. D. College of N. J., 1847. 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 5 
 
 can only trust that this almost unavoidable in- 
 trusion of the personal factor will be cordially 
 forgiven. 
 
 My first visit to Lane Seminary occurred in 
 May, 1863, in the discharge of the duties which 
 an election in the preceding year as trustee had 
 laid upon me. I remember that I was then the 
 guest of Prof. Day in the house which he had 
 recently built, and which afterwards became, 
 and has so long been, my own home. From 
 that date, now a third of a century distant, my 
 active connection with the Institution began. 
 The Faculty then consisted of Prof. D. Howe 
 Allen, in the chair of Theology ; Prof. George E. 
 Day, in the chair of Hebrew and Greek ; and 
 Prof. Evans, a graduate of 1860, who, after two 
 years or more as pastor of the Lane Seminary 
 Church, was just now entering upon duty in the 
 chair of Church History. On account of the fi- 
 nancial stringency occasioned by the civil war 
 and other causes. Dr. Henry Smith, who had 
 served the Seminary with very marked success 
 from 1853 to 1861, in the chair of Sacred Rhet- 
 oric, had resigned his place in the latter year to 
 accept a pastorate in Buffalo. His withdrawal 
 left the Institution without needful training in 
 that department, and several adjacent pastors 
 were called in from time to time to assist in such 
 training. It was in this way that I was asked by 
 the Faculty and Executive Committee in the au- 
 tumn of 1864 to lecture and give practical instruc- 
 
6 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 tion here in the line of Homiletics — a service 
 which, in the midst of much pastoral care at home, 
 I rendered for four months or more during that 
 winter, visiting the Seminary each week for sev- 
 eral days, and returning in time to prepare, after 
 a fashion, for the ministrations of each recurring 
 Sabbath. Meanwhile I was continuing to render 
 what service I could as trustee, in the serious 
 emergency, financial and otherwise, which had 
 come like a dark shadow upon the Institution. 
 
 Darker shadows were soon to follow. Dr. 
 Smith had returned in 1865, and taken up again 
 with his accustomed vigor the work of his own 
 department. But the health of Dr. Allen began 
 to fail seriously under the pressure of the many 
 cares which fell upon him, not only as the lead- 
 ing Professor, but also as both treasurer and 
 superintendent ; and during the two years fol- 
 lowing it became more and more evident that his 
 work for Lane and for Christ was ending.* In 
 May, 1866, Prof. Day,t after rendering valuable 
 
 •«REV. DIARCA HOWE ALLEN, D D. 1840-1S67. Born 
 Lebanon, N. H., July 8 1808; Dart. College. 1829; Anrlover 
 Seminary. 1829-1830 and 1832-1S33 ; (Teacher, Charleston, S. C. 
 1830-1832); Prof. Marietta f'oliege, 1 933- 1 840 ; Prof, of Sacred 
 Khetoric, LANE, 1840-51 ; Prof, of Svst, Theol , 1851-1867, and 
 Emeritus Prof, till his death at Granville, O., Nov. 9, 1870; 
 D. D. Mar. College, 1848. 
 
 fREV. GEORGE EDWARD DAY, D. D. 1851-1866. Born 
 PittsfieM, Mass., March 19, 1815; Yale College, 1833; Yale Sem- 
 inary, 1835-1838; A.<;sistant Instructor, Yale ^eminaiy, 18^8-1840; 
 Ord. Marlborough, Mass. (C^mg.), Dec, 2, 1S40; Marlborough, 
 1840-1847; Northampton, 1848-185 1 ; Prof. Biblical Literature, 
 LANE, 1851-1866 ; Prof. Hebrew Language and Literature and 
 Biblical Theol, Yale Seminary, 1866- 1896. 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 7 
 
 services for fifteen years, resigned his chair for a 
 similar position in the Divinity School at Yale, 
 and Rev. Elisha BallantineJ: was elected to fill the 
 place. But during the earlier months of 1867 it 
 became evident to all that the beloved Allen could 
 no longer remain in the position which he had 
 occupied so long and so well ; and just after the 
 term had opened in the fall, Dr. Ballantine also 
 resigned. And when the trustees were called to- 
 gether, early in October, to consider the critical 
 situation, there were but two Professors remain- 
 ing — Smith and Evans, and a small group of stu- 
 dents, numbering, perhaps, sixteen. 
 
 In such an exigency occurred that reorgan- 
 ization of the Faculty to which I have referred 
 as introducing the second era in the life of the 
 Serhinary. At that meeting of the Board, the 
 Rev. Henry A. Nelson, D. D., then pastor of the 
 First Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, was 
 elected to fill the place of Dr. Allen, and I, 
 greatly to my surprise ( for I had earnestly urged 
 the election of another ), was chosen to succeed 
 Prof. Ballantine. On the following morning, be- 
 
 JREV. ELISHA BALLANTINE, LL. D. 1866-1867. Born 
 Schodack, N, Y., Oct. 11, 1809; Ohio University, 1828; Union 
 Seminary, Va ; Ord. April, 1834 (West Hanover Presb.); studied 
 in Germany, 1834-1835 ; Teacher in Union Seminary, Va., 1836- 
 1838; Briery Church, 1S38-1839 ; Prof. Ohio Utdversity, 1839- 
 1840; Douglas Church, Va., 1840-1847 ; Washington, D. C. (First 
 Church), 1847-1851; Teacher, 1851-1854; Prof. Indiana Univer- 
 sity, 1854-1863; Dist. Sec'y A. B. C. F. M. (at Cincinnati), 1863- 
 1866; Prof. Biblical Literature, LANE, 1866-1867 ; Prof. Indiana 
 University, 1867-1878 ; died in Bloomington, Ind., April 20, 1886; 
 LL. D. Indiana University, 1878. 
 
8 THIRTY YEARS IN I.ANE. 
 
 fore the Board had adjourned, an exchange of 
 chairs was effected, and Dr. Evans became the 
 Professor of Hebrew and Greek Exegesis, as the 
 title then ran, while I, much to my relief, was 
 placed in the chair of Church History. In No- 
 vember both appointments were accepted to- 
 gether. At the close of the year I entered upon 
 my work, and in the following April Dr. Nelson 
 also undertook his duties in the department of 
 Systematic Theology. In May, following, the 
 Board of Trustees devised some new plans for 
 the enlargement of the Seminary ; certain lands 
 were advantageously leased ; J|;40,000 were raised 
 for the Endowment Fund, chiefly among the trus- 
 tees ; cheering indications of increased sympa- 
 thy and confidence seemed to be manifest ; the 
 prospect for students brightened ; the instructors, 
 old and new, began to work together in utmost 
 harmony ; and, to human view, it appeared that 
 a new era of prosperity and growth was about to 
 dawn. 
 
 I wish that we had a series of daguerre- 
 otype views of the Seminary and its sur- 
 roundings, as they appeared at that time. An 
 undulating country road ran in front where now 
 we have the graded city street, and along that 
 side a tight board fence of the picketed sort 
 extended, sometime or other whitewashed to 
 impart a certain air of respectability, yet now 
 giving way at various points to the pressure of 
 years and western winds. There were two tan- 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 9 
 
 bark walks, and a truly rural rather than civic 
 driveway leading straight from the outside 
 world to the old dormitory, now the boarding 
 hall, and to the chapel respectively. Six long 
 rows of locust trees planted at some early day, 
 tall and stout, but racked and fractured with 
 the storms that had beaten upon them for a 
 generation, filled the main space in the south- 
 ern half of the campus ; and six more rows of 
 catalpas, planted later — beautiful during their 
 brief day of blossoming, but scraggy and ugly 
 enough for the remainder of the year — filled 
 most of the northern half. The campus itself 
 stretched away eastward as far as Park avenue, 
 and ampng its numerous trees and bushes a 
 thousand birds made their happy nests. On its 
 southern side two dwellings for professors and 
 a small office once occupied by Dr. Allen, were 
 carefully fenced off from the main space and 
 hidden away amid the abounding shrubbery. 
 A cow, a horse, quietly browsed in a narrow 
 strip of land on the southwest corner provided 
 for that purpose, and two unsightly but quite 
 essential barns displayed themselves in the rear 
 ©f the two dwellings. Robins and orioles and 
 bluebirds, sometimes a wanderino- flock of 
 quails, an occasional squirrel, wild rabbits in 
 abundance, and once a family of opossums, 
 made their homes with us. Nor were there 
 wanting other features of rustic, even primeval 
 beauty, such as that old walnut tree, as dear as 
 
lO THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 it was gnarled, which stood on the corner tow- 
 ard the distant city — all parts and features ©f a 
 scene which, like the day that is dead, so ten- 
 derly sung by Tennyson, will never come back 
 to Lane. 
 
 The buildings were quite in harmony with 
 these primitive surroundings. The dormitory, 
 erected in 1834, was at this time altogether 
 innocent of porches or mansard roofing, or any 
 such adornment, and standing by itself among 
 the tall and scraggy locust trees that sur- 
 rounded it, looked like nothing on earth but a 
 New England cotton factory of the most antique 
 type, or old South Middle at Yale, built some- 
 where in the last century. Near it, to the 
 north, stood the first buildinof erected on the 
 ground and occupied generally as the boarding 
 hall, partly destroyed three months later by 
 fire, but rebuilt shortly afterwards and in larger 
 dimensions on the old site where it still stands. 
 North of this, where now there is a vacant 
 space, stood the dear old chapel, dedicated in 
 1836, with its spacious steps and fluted columns 
 in front, built on the model of the Parthenon, 
 but like the Parthenon unstable and subject to 
 decay — torn down some fifteen years ago, much 
 to my sorrow, for I would rather have covered 
 it with ivies and let it stand through the gen- 
 erations as a silent witness to that primal age 
 when Lyman Beecher and Baxter Dickinson 
 and Calvin Stowe flashed and argued and won 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 11 
 
 men to Christ within its sacred walls. The 
 present library building had just been finished 
 and filled with such books as were then pos- 
 sessed, and stood by itself among the catalpas 
 to the northwest of what was then the main 
 front of the Seminary — a noble monument of 
 the Christian liberality of him who provided it, 
 and as it stands, a prophecy — let us hope — of a 
 larger and completer building yet to be reared 
 as one element in the developing future of 
 Lane. Such were at that time the material 
 structures of the Institution, and at that date 
 no one dreamed of the three dwellings for pro- 
 fessors afterwards erected, or of this central 
 structure which for the past sixteen years has 
 been so attractive and so valuable a feature in 
 our institutional life. I trust that before many 
 years this building, at once a home and a 
 church as well as a school, may be completed 
 by the erection of the southern wing according 
 to the original plan, and so made ready to 
 accommodate another score or two of happy 
 students. 
 
 The outlook in several other aspects was 
 not encouraging. The number in attendance 
 during that year of changes was said by a 
 witty friend to be somewhere between sixteen 
 and seventeen — the uncountable member being 
 a sort of half student and half preacher, and 
 not much of either, who for a while fastened 
 himself on the Seminary, but came to grief 
 
12 THIRTY YEARS IN LAN]^. 
 
 and nothingness before the close of the year. 
 The course of study was less extensive than it 
 became in subsequent years, though no better 
 men could have been found in any school of the 
 prophets than those who, amid many disabili- 
 ties, were accomplishing year by year so much 
 in the effective training of scores of young 
 preachers for useful and honorable work in the 
 church. 
 
 The financial resources of the Institution in 
 1867 were less than half what they now are ; 
 the scholarship fund was wholly inadequate, 
 and the library fund can hardly be said to have 
 had existence. The buildings also, the library 
 excepted, were thirty years old and more, and 
 apparently beyond profitable repair. The 
 chapel furnished in its damp basement the only 
 recitation rooms ; no modern convenience, no 
 great amount of comfort in surroundings, was 
 apparent anvvvhere. It must also be confessed 
 that at that juncture, though the trustees were 
 hopeful, some old friends of the Institution out- 
 side of the Board were considerably discour- 
 aged as to the future, and disinclined to render 
 further aid. And perhaps it may be added here 
 that the growing prospect of that union between 
 the two branches of the Presbyterian Church 
 which occurred two years later, involving as it 
 inevitably would some loss of constituency, 
 some shiftinor of interest here and there, the 
 closing of some sources of supply, the develop- 
 
Thirty years in lane. 13 
 
 ment also of some fresh forms of jealousy and 
 even of enmity, contributed not a little to the 
 occasions for solicitude in the breasts of those 
 to whom the welfare of the Seminary, whether 
 for weal or for woe, had been entrusted. Cer- 
 tainly it was no light or easy task in which the 
 Faculty and the Board were now to be engaged. 
 But by degrees, as I have already inti- 
 mated, the light broke in— the light of provi- 
 dence and of grace. The burned boarding hall 
 was restored during the next summer, a*^d in 
 1868 the dormitory was entirely renewed, with 
 considerable additions to its beauty and com- 
 fort, at a cost of $7,000. Provision was made 
 soon after for the heating and lighting of the 
 library building, and better accommodations 
 were secured, chiefly in the dormitory, for class 
 instruction. During the next two years the 
 number of students more than doubled, and the 
 general situation and prospect continued to im- 
 prove steadily. The union of the two Presby- 
 terian households which was celebrated here 
 by special services in November, 1869, in con- 
 junction with the fortieth anniversary of the 
 existence of Lane as a chartered institution, 
 and concerning whose effect grave apprehen- 
 sion had been felt by some, proved after a little 
 to be more a blessing than a damage. Students 
 came in consequence from new quarters, and 
 new friends by degrees made themselves appa- 
 rent. As the Seminary had existed with de- 
 
14 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 nominational approval before the unhappy 
 rupture of 1837, and had maintained its position 
 without change during the division, it now sim- 
 ply renewed its allegiance and stood just where 
 it had always stood, in full loyalty to the united 
 church, but retaining the useful and happy 
 autonomy which its official board had exercised 
 from the beginning. It may in justice be said 
 here that no theological institution on either 
 side of the line was so prompt and generous in 
 adopting practical measures in the interest of a 
 comprehensive and irenic denominational unity. 
 One illustration of this appears in the fact that, as 
 fast as vacancies in the Board of Trust occurred, 
 they were filled by successive elections of trus- 
 tees from the other branch, until within five 
 years such representative men constituted 
 more than one-third of the organization. And 
 in less than two years after the union, when no 
 similar step had been taken elsewhere, that 
 branch was also represented in the Faculty by 
 the election of one of its ablest scholars and 
 preachers, the Rev. Thomas E. Thomas, D. D., 
 to the chair of New Testament Exegesis, Prof. 
 Evans accepting as his special field the corre- 
 sponding chair of Old Testament Language and 
 Literature. This increase in the working force 
 was regarded as a very important movement in 
 that development in the scope and thoroughness 
 of instruction respecting which all were alike 
 earnestly agreed. 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. ig 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that during the first 
 five and forty years in the history of Lane no 
 professor had been removed from ofiice by 
 death. Prof. Biggs and Dr. Beecher had died 
 in 1863, years after their retirement from ser- 
 vice ; but Dr. Allen v^as the first, after more 
 than three years of bodily and mental disabil- 
 ity, to pass from life, November 9, 1870, while 
 retaining an honorable though emeritus relation 
 granted together with an annuity by the trus- 
 tees at his retirement in 1867. I shall have the 
 privilege of expressing in another way my 
 appreciation of one whose twenty-seven years 
 of continuous service here were of such ines- 
 timable value to the Seminary and to the 
 Church, and on whose sturdy, balanced, thor- 
 oughly christianized personality the Institution 
 stood during one of the darkest periods in its 
 history as on a rock. He was no perfunctory 
 teacher, content with filling out an assigned 
 program of professional duty. In his position 
 here he showed himself incapable of selfishness, 
 cheerful always amid difficulties, and cordial in 
 all sacrifices— ready by both principle and in- 
 stinct to take up any burden, whether imposed 
 by Providence or by human choice, and prompt 
 and faithful in the discharge of any duty how- 
 ever unwelcome. For seventeen years after 
 the retirement of Dr. Beecher, he took the 
 Seminary on his heart, and held it in his arms 
 as if it were his child. Professor, treasurer, 
 
16 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE!. 
 
 superintendent, agent and general representa- 
 tive, the willing and capable servant of the 
 Institution at every point ; ever seeking money, 
 and seeking students, and seeking friends and 
 advantages for it wherever he could find them ; 
 doing this often in the midst of painful crit- 
 icism and oppositions, and spending himself in 
 this loved interest as lavishly as if it were to 
 him the whole Kingdom of God on earth. He 
 wore himself out all too early, and died at 
 sixty-two from exhaustion of physical and men- 
 tal power at a period when, to human view, he 
 might have lived through at least another dec- 
 ade of eminent service, and when his retire- 
 ment and death seemed a calamity dark and 
 irreparable. May his name be perpetuated and 
 venerated here while Lane Seminary stands ! 
 
 The records of the four or five years suc- 
 ceeding this bereavement show decided ad- 
 vance, but an advance mingled with much of 
 trial and change. The attendance of students 
 continued to increase year by year, until in 
 1873-4, it attained (for that year only) the 
 unprecedented aggregate of fifty-seven. The 
 quality of the students, also, their better 
 preparation for the assigned studies, and their 
 measure of diligence and success in the work, 
 were such as to inspire each teacher to the 
 highest possible degree of devotion and effi- 
 ciency. Advances were made also in the en- 
 largement of funds and the financial administra- 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 17 
 
 tion, and a steadily widening sympathy with the 
 Institution and its work became apparent among 
 many ministers and churches of the region. It 
 seemed as if a decade or two of like develop- 
 ment along such lines would place the Semi- 
 nary on high vantage ground, with adequate en- 
 dowment and an increasing reputation such as 
 would insure for it an expanding and most fruit- 
 ful future. 
 
 But change and trial were near at hand. 
 In 1871 Dr. Smith, carrying out a long cher- 
 ished purpose of retirement at the age of sixty- 
 five, tendered his resignation. The resignation 
 was not accepted in form, but an arrangement 
 was efft^cted by which he was obligated to con- 
 tinue in actual service only some portion of 
 each year — an arrangement which with some 
 variety in time and in work was maintained un- 
 til his decease, Jan. 14, 1879.* 
 
 Dr. Thomas entered on his duties in the 
 autumn of 1871, commanding at once the re- 
 spect and affection of the students and en- 
 dearing himself more and more to his associates 
 as well as to those under his instruction — prov- 
 
 ♦REV. HENRY SMITH, D. D.. LL. D. 1855-1879. Born 
 Milton, Vt., Dec. 16, 1S05; Middlebury College. 1827; Tutor, do , 
 1828-1830; Andover Seminary. 1830-1833; Prof. Marietta College, 
 1833-1846; Pres., do.. 1846-1855; Prof. Sacred Rhetoric, LANE, 
 1855-1861; Pastor, Buffalo, N. Y., 1861-1865; Prof. Sacred Rhe- 
 toric, LAME, 1865, till his death, Jan. 14, 1879; D. D. Middleb, 
 College, 1847; LL. D. Marietta College, 1864, 
 
18 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 ing himself year by year an able scholar and a 
 skillful exegete and teacher, until his sudden 
 death at the age of sixty-three, in Feb. 1875.* 
 In all his relations to the Seminary he won 
 and held the cordial regard of trustees and 
 teachers and alumni, and had his life been 
 spared, he would undoubtedly have continued to 
 increase in influence and in usefulness. As a- 
 preacher, and especially as an expository 
 preacher, he was not only clear and sound, 
 but in a high degree eloquent, and in the coun- 
 sels of the church he was deservedly influential. 
 In contact with men, he was sincere, cordial, 
 winning in manner as well as appearance, but 
 always courageous in opposing wrong, and as 
 faithful to what he believed to be true, what- 
 ever might oppose, as that Apostle to the Gen- 
 tiles of whose career it was so much his delight 
 to speak. Occupying also a peculiar position as 
 in some sense a representative of that branch of 
 the church which the union had brought into 
 new relations with the Seminary, his service 
 had very special value, and his death was re- 
 garded by all as a serious disaster. 
 
 *REV. THOMAS EBENEZER THOMAS, D. D. 1871- 
 1875. Born in Chelmsford, Eng., Dec. 23, 1812; Miami University, 
 1834; Ord. July, 1837, Harrison, O.; Pastor at Hamilton, 1838- 
 1849; Pres. of Hanover College, 1849-1854; Prof. Biblical Litera- 
 ture, New Albany Seminary, 1854-1858; Pastor Dayton, O., 1858- 
 1871; Prof. New Testament Exegesis, LANE, 1871, till his death, 
 Feb. 2, 1875; D. D. Wab. College, 1850. 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN I.ANE. 19 
 
 In 1874 Professor Nelson* whose six years 
 of labor here had greatly endeared him to 
 students and instructors and trustees, and indeed 
 to all who were anyway interested in the Semi- 
 nary, resigned his chair in order to enter again 
 on that pastoral work in which he had previously 
 been so successful, and toward which his heart 
 was strongly drawn. He might have remained 
 until this day, crowned with increasing success, 
 and rejoicing more and more in his special 
 form of service, and it might have been his 
 privilege rather than mine to tell in your 
 presence the story of these changeful years. I 
 have been permitted in another connection to 
 give my estimate of the work he did here as a 
 theological teacher, and need only now advert 
 gratefully in passing to the friendship which be- 
 gan early in our ministerial lives, has been con- 
 tinued without interruption for almost fifty 
 years, and is likely to be continued until death, 
 and long after. His resignation led unexpect- 
 edly to my transfer to the chair he had vacated, 
 and to that high and sweet task of giving in- 
 struction in theology, to which the last three 
 and twenty years of my life have been given. 
 As one consequence of this transfer. Rev. Henry 
 
 -REV. HENRY ADDISON NELSON, D. D. 1867-1874. 
 Born Amherst, Mass., Oct. 31, 1820; Hamilton College, 1840; Au- 
 burn Seminary, 1843-1846; Ord. July 29, 1846 (Cayuga Presb.); 
 Auburn, N. ¥., 1846-1856; St. Louis, Mo., 1856-1868; Prof. Syst. 
 Theo., LANE, 1868-1874; Pastor, Geneva, N. Y., 1874-1881; Editor 
 of The Church at Home and Abroad. Philadelphia, 1886-1897. 
 S. T. D. Ham. College, 1857. 
 
20 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 Preserved Smith, who had been graduated in 
 1872, and had just returned from extensive 
 studies abroad, was called in for the ensuing 
 year as an assistant instructor in History, while 
 the task of lecturing on the history of Christian 
 Doctrine, in addition to Systematic Theology, 
 was still laid on me. 
 
 The decease of Prof. Thomas compelled at 
 once some new adjustment of the work in his 
 department, and Dr. Evans was assigned to the 
 Greek chair, a position which he afterwards held 
 without change until his death. Yet the ad- 
 vanced work in Hebrew exposition was still left 
 in his hands, while Mr. Smith was transferred 
 from his work in Church History to the task of 
 preliminary instruction in the Hebrew language. 
 To fill the vacancy thus created in the depart- 
 ment of Church History, Rev. Zephaniah M. 
 Humphrey, D. D., was called in May, 1875, 
 from a prominent pastorate in Philadelphia, and 
 entered upon his duties, the History of Doctrine 
 and Church Polity included, in the ensuing aut- 
 umn. After this adjustment, the teaching force 
 remained the same until 1879, except that Mr. 
 Smith was in 1876 appointed as an Assistant Pro- 
 fessor, and 1879 as full professor, in Hebrew and 
 Old Testament Exegesis — a position for which 
 he had well qualified himself by another inter- 
 vening period of special study in Europe. 
 
 But other changes were soon to follow. In 
 June, 1879, Rev. Henry Smith, D. D., LL. D., 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 21 
 
 after a period of declining health, passed into an- 
 other life, at the age of seventy-three. Born and 
 educated in New England, as Dr. Allen also had 
 been, he had spent his ministerial life in Ohio — 
 first as Professor for fifteen years, and then for 
 ten years as President of Marietta College. His 
 connection with Lane Seminary, not subtracting 
 his absence of four years as a pastor, extended 
 from 1855 to 1879 — a period of more than twenty- 
 three years. He was by choice and habit a thor- 
 ough scholar, and had made himself acquainted 
 with much of the best that is known in theology 
 and philosophy and exegesis, as well as in his 
 own specific department. To that department he 
 brought not only accurate and systematic knowl- 
 edge of what is involved in rhetoric and logic and 
 kindred disciplines, especially as related to the 
 work of making and delivering sermons, but also 
 an eminent example of skill and power in the ex- 
 ercise of that higrh art. The first sermon that I 
 ever heard from him was preached in January, 
 1856, at my own installation as pastor at Co- 
 lumbus. His theme was the Ministry for the 
 West ; and so vigorous and expansive, and really 
 overpowering, was his description of the kind of 
 man needful to fill acceptably the pulpit in this 
 region, that I felt more like fleeing back to the 
 quiet village in Western New York from which 
 I had come, than undertaking the new service to 
 which I had supposed myself to be providentially 
 called. Those who heard him preach from time 
 
22 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 to time in the Chapel, and especially those who 
 listened to his profound and solemn series of dis- 
 courses on the Ten Commandments, can never 
 forget the deep impression made by his com- 
 manding person, his clarion voice, his forceful 
 gestures, as well as his earnest expositions of di- 
 vine truth. 
 
 The tine tributes paid to him shortly after 
 his decease, by President Andrews, his successor 
 in the presidency of Marietta College, and by 
 President Tuttle, of Wabash College and his 
 pupil, render needless any further tribute from 
 me. It was a sad thing to me to see him, like his 
 lifelong friend and associate, Allen, passing out 
 of a sphere which he had filled so well, througli 
 progressive disease and enfeeblement, although 
 his dauntless will kept him at his beloved em- 
 ployment until a very short time before his work 
 was closed by death. The question of a succes- 
 sor soon arose, and in the follov^ing May, 1879, 
 Rev. James Eells, D. D., LL. D., then a pastor 
 in Oakland, California, was chosen to fill the 
 position, with some addition of certain specific 
 branches, particularly Church Polity and Church 
 Work. He came into the Seminary in the au- 
 tumn, at the height of manly vigor apparently, 
 bringing with him a large experience both as 
 pastor and as Professor of Homiletics in the 
 Theological Seminary at San Francisco, and at 
 once impressing all by his imperial presence, 
 his genial manners, his knowledge of men and 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 23 
 
 affairs, and his ability in the pulpit, as a fit suc- 
 cessor of the great man who had fallen. The 
 Faculty now consisted of five professors, and the 
 curriculum of studies had been both broadened 
 in extent and, probably, better distributed and 
 defined among those engaged in the common 
 work. The attendance of students in 1879 was 
 thirty-four, which number had been for some 
 years, and for some years after continued to be, 
 the annual average. There was much to en- 
 courage, and comparatively little to depress 
 hope in the general situation — that wide sorrow 
 excepted, which the death of three such conspic- 
 uous teachers in the short period of eight years 
 had occasioned. 
 
 The great forward movement of the decade 
 was the erection in 1879 of this central building 
 as Chapel, Recitation Hall, and Gymnasium, 
 and in the following year of the north wing as 
 a Dormitory. Better provision for class instruc- 
 tion, and for the general exercises of the Sem- 
 inary, had long been imperatively needed, and 
 at one time it was proposed to reconstruct the 
 Chapel, then vacated, for these purposes, re- 
 serving the original front of the Seminary as 
 determined by the Chapel and old Dormitory, and 
 retaining the campus as it had stood in its vast- 
 ness from the beginning. But during several 
 preceding years the old locusts first, and then 
 the catalpas, had mostly been removed, leaving 
 a broad and open space in front ; and after full 
 
24 THIRTY YEARS IN T.ANE. 
 
 examination it was decided to bring the Semi- 
 nary forward into this vacant space, and so es- 
 tablish a new campus, smaller, indeed, than the 
 old, but yet large enough for all uses, and am- 
 ply supplied with young trees, which preceding 
 generations of students had planted. This central 
 building was dedicated December 18, 1879, in 
 conjunction with the inauguration of Professor 
 Eells. Over half of its cost, which was a little 
 more than $20,000, was a donation from the 
 same generous friend. Preserved Smith, Esq., 
 who provided the means to erect the Library 
 Building fifteen years before, and the other half 
 was secured from other friends. The cost of 
 the wing, with furniture, was about $26,000, and 
 this also, with the exception of $6,000 supplied 
 from the Endowment Fund, was obtained from 
 various friendly sources, Mr. Smith giving one 
 fourth of the amount, while Anthony H. Hinkle, 
 Esq., another generous and faithful trustee, and 
 sometime Treasurer, furnished the steam-heat- 
 ing apparatus for the whole structure. One pro- 
 fessorial dwelling had alread}^ been built, in ad- 
 dition to the two standing long before on the 
 south side of the campus, and shortly after, the 
 two others on the north side were built, thus 
 completing the arrangement as it now stands. 
 The effect of these material improvements upon 
 the public mind was quite marked, and those 
 who had looked long on the old structures as 
 mute prophecies of the decline of the Institution 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 25 
 
 itself began to realize that Lane had still many 
 warm and generous friends who would not suffer 
 it to fall into decay. 
 
 So far as the work within the Seminary 
 was concerned, it is doubtful whether any more 
 satisfactory or fruitful period can be named 
 than that which was inaugurated by the con- 
 struction of these spacious and pleasant ac- 
 commodations. The instructors were greatly 
 encouraged in their harmonious endeavors to 
 make here the best theological institution pos- 
 sible, and the students were as a body intelli- 
 gent and competent and faithful, and from year 
 to year they went out to service in the churches 
 well prepared in mind and heart for their hol}^ 
 office, and as a body popular everywhere. Bet- 
 ter graduates at no stage in the history of Lane 
 had ever cfone out from these walls. The 
 library, of which about four thousand volumes 
 had been purchased many years before by Prof. 
 Stowe, and four thousand more by Prof. Day 
 shortly before his departure, and which had 
 been . admirably arranged for useful reference 
 and reading, was now annually supplied from 
 the income of a permanent fund of nearly 
 $10,000, with much of the best exegetical, the- 
 ological, historical literature of the day, and 
 was much more in use than it could have been 
 as it was once, for a quarter of a century, 
 stored away in the loft of the old Chapel. The 
 scholarship fund had grown from $7,000 to more 
 
26 TklR'TY YEAkS IN LANE. 
 
 than $50,000 and was an invaluable help in as- 
 sisting students who needed pecuniary aid ; and 
 to crown all, the watchful attention of the Board 
 of Trust, and the large generosity of some 
 among its members, had been a constant factor 
 in the development of the Institution at every 
 point. I look back to those years as among 
 the brightest and most satisfying that I have 
 seen here in a whole generation. 
 
 One dark shadow rested on the whole. 
 Early in November, 1881, Prof. Humphrey 
 was stricken down with fatal disease in the 
 midst of his usefulness, and after a brief illness 
 passed into the immortal life.* He had been in 
 the Seminary but six years ; yet during that 
 lime he had commended himself in many ways 
 to the respect and confidence of all who were 
 associated with him here. In his own depart- 
 ment he was an assiduous student, a thoughtful 
 and accurate historian, and every way a suc- 
 cessful teacher, fond of his classes, and in turn 
 beloved by them. He accepted cordially his 
 share of the general duties devolving upon him, 
 especially in connection with the matter of 
 building, and was a valuable member of the 
 committee to which that enterprise had been 
 
 *Rev. Zephaniah M. Humphrey, D. D., was born at Amherst, 
 Mass., August 29, 1824. Graduated at Amherst College, 1843, ^"^^ 
 Andover Theological Seminary, 1849. Pastor at Racine, 1850-56 ; 
 Milwaukee, 1856-59; First Church, Chicago, 1859-68; Calvary 
 Church, Philadelphia, 1868-75 J Professor of Church History in 
 LANE, 1875 till his death, Nov. 13, 1881. 
 
27 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 entrusted. He, was experienced and wise in all 
 such affairs, as the address which he made at 
 the dedication of this Chapel pleasantly mani- 
 fests. His spiritual influence upon the students 
 and upon us all was salutary and quickening, 
 and his personal example was a fine illustration 
 of what natural manhood may, through grace, 
 become. His ministry was much desired among 
 the churches, and his sermons were always in- 
 structive and profitable to attentive minds. His 
 last discourse, delivered by request of the Fac- 
 ulty a fortnight before his death to the Synod 
 of Indiana at Crawfordsville, was on The Min- 
 isterial Office ; its Dignity, its Attractiveness, 
 and its Rewards. And so, having beautifully 
 illustrated in his own life as both teacher and 
 preacher the truth then proclaimed as his part- 
 ing message, he entered in his fifty-eighth year 
 on those rewards which he had so felicitously 
 described. His work here, though brief, is still 
 bearing precious fruitage. 
 
 In the following May, 1882, Rev. John De 
 Witt, D.D., also a pastor in Philadelphia, where 
 his historical discourses had first revealed his 
 special fitness for such a position, was elected to 
 fill the vacancy which death had created. His 
 inaugural discourse was an able discussion of 
 Church History, as a Science, as a Theological 
 Discipline and as a Mode of the Gospel, as that 
 of Dr. Humphrey had been on History as a 
 Record of Thought — of thought more than of 
 
28 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 events. Both of these addresses were charac- 
 teristic. Professor De Witt came to the institu- 
 tion well equipped for the service to which he 
 was invited, and as a teacher he was diligent and 
 successful, while in his relations with other 
 teachers he was in a high degree brotherly and 
 enjoyable. In 1888 he resigned to accept a 
 professorship of Apologetics in the McCormick 
 Seminary at Chicago, and after three or four 
 years left that position to resume his work as an 
 historical instructor in Princeton Seminary, the 
 scene of his earlier training.*' 
 
 Scarcely had the sense of sorrow in the 
 loss of Dr. Humphrey passed measurably away, 
 though his place had been supplied, before the 
 Seminary, stripped of its jewels again and 
 aorain, was called to face still another bereave- 
 ment. On the ninth of March, 1886, Professor 
 Eells, the fifth in the series within sixteen years, 
 was taken from us as in a moment. f I had 
 known him for more than forty years, originally 
 as my first teacher in Latin, afterwards as a 
 
 *REV. JOHN DE WITT, D. D. LL. D. Born Harrisburg, 
 Pa., Oct. lo, 1842; Grad. College of New Jersey, 1861, and Union 
 Sem., N. Y., 1865. Pastor Irvington, N. Y., 1865-9; Center Church, 
 Boston, Mass., 1869-76; Tenth Church, Phila., 1876, till his election 
 to the Chair of Church History in LANE, 1882; resigned 1888. 
 
 tREV. JAMES EELLS, D. D. LL. D. Born in Westmore- 
 land, N. Y., Aul^ 27, 1822, Grad. Hamilton Coll., 1844, and Au- 
 burn Theol. Sem., 1851; Pastor Penn Yan, N. Y., 1851-4; Cleve- 
 land, O., 1854-9; R. D. Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., 1859-67; First 
 Church. San Francisco, 1867-71; Cleveland, O., 1 87 1-4; Oakland, 
 Cal., 1874-9; and Prof, of Practical Theology in LANE till his 
 death, March 9, 1886. 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 29 
 
 member, though in different classes, of the same 
 Theological Seminary ; then as a neighbor in 
 the pastoral office, first in western New York 
 and afterwards in Ohio, and also as a valued 
 relative by marriage, and through all the years 
 an intimate friend. His coming to Lane was an 
 event in which I greatly rejoiced, and in all his 
 effective work here he had my ardent sympa- 
 thy. He confided in me as I habitually con- 
 fided in him ; he was for many years before he 
 came here, and still more afterwards, my prized 
 companion in enjoyment as well as in service, 
 and he died in my arms. 
 
 Dr. Eells possessed many qualities which 
 made him attractive and valuable in this place. 
 While he was less scholarly or profound than 
 his predecessor, and while his exposition of 
 homiletical topics was less technical and less 
 complete, abstractly viewed, he was even more 
 magnetic and inspiring in manner, and no less 
 effective in teaching the students how to preach 
 so as to reach and help men. His experience 
 of thirty years as a pastor greatly aided him in 
 this regard, and with his previous work as in- 
 structor in Homiletics on the Pacific coast to 
 help him, he was no novice in his chosen chair. 
 His general influence over the students was al- 
 ways both commanding and helpful, while in 
 the Faculty and in caring for the affairs of the 
 Institution he was always ready to do his part. 
 During the brief period of less than six years 
 
30 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 in which he wrought here, he did much toward 
 securing funds and helping on the Seminary 
 interests, and had he lived it was his purpose to 
 take still larger share in the prosecution of pro- 
 posed plans for its advancement. As a preacher 
 he was very highly prized, and consented alto- 
 gether too much for his own good to fill adja- 
 cant pulpits, and to speak in various ways for 
 the Church at large. Like Dr. Humphrey, he 
 had been Moderator of one of our General As- 
 semblies since the Reunion, and this fact added 
 to the value of such service, as it also made the 
 lamentation over his decease almost continental. 
 But the strain of all this upon his splendid phy- 
 sical structure was too great, a subtle disease of 
 the heart laid hold of him, and at the age of 
 sixty-three he entered into rest. 
 
 The general condition of the Seminary, not- 
 withstanding these successive bereavements, 
 was in a high degree encouraging. It cannot 
 be better described than in the folio vving state- 
 ment mad(i by the Trustees and Faculty jointly 
 in 1886, when they were endeavoring to interest 
 friends in the Institution and its future. Their 
 circular says : 
 
 ^'During the past fifteen or twenty years 
 the Seminary has made healthful and encourag- 
 ing progress. Within this period the new Hall 
 and Dormitory have been erected, three new 
 houses have been built for the Professors, the 
 Boarding Hall has been renovated, and the 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. . 31 
 
 Campus much improved. Within this period 
 the General Fund, devoted to the support of the 
 Institution; the Scholarship Funds, whose in- 
 come is used to aid the students; and the 
 Library Fund, given for the care and increase 
 of the Librarj^ have also been greatly enlarged. 
 Within the same time the Faculty has been in- 
 creased from four to five, and additional instruc- 
 tion has been secured from other teachers in 
 Elocution and in the department of Apologetics. 
 The course and style of training have also been 
 greatly improved, and the education given has 
 come to equal that of any Seminary in our 
 Church. Meanwhile, the number of students 
 has gradually increased, until for the past three 
 years it has reached an aggregate of fifty, and 
 the prospect for further increase is highly en- 
 couraging. And while the Institution has thus 
 been growing into greater capacity and effec- 
 tiveness inwardly, its place in the confidence 
 and esteem of the Church has been more and 
 more assured ; the loyalty of its earlier friends 
 has strengthened with the years, and many new 
 friends have been raised up for its support; its 
 influence as a representative Seminary has been 
 more widely and beneficently felt, and, in our 
 judgment, its future has become more assured 
 and more full of promise than ever before." 
 
 It is not in harmony with my general pur- 
 pose to refer at any length to those instructors, 
 still among the living, whose several connec- 
 
3^ THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 tions with the Seminary occurred at later dates. 
 In May, 1886, Rev. W. H. Roberts, D. D. was 
 elected to succeed Professor Eells in what had 
 come to be designated as the department of 
 Practical Theology. His connection here was 
 terminated in 1893 by the suspension of that de- 
 partment as a separate section of the Semi- 
 nary curriculum and the distribution of its 
 functions, (so far as this was practicable) among 
 the occupants of other chairs. In 1886 Rev. 
 James A, Craig, Ph. D., began his work as an 
 instructor in Hebrew, for the first year or two 
 by private provision, but afterwards through an 
 annual appointment by the Board, until in 1890 
 he was made adjunct Professor of Hebrew and 
 Biblical Exegesis, which position he held with 
 marked success as a teacher until he resigned on 
 account of the financial straits of the Institution 
 in 1891. In 1888, after the withdrawal of Dr. 
 De Witt, Rev. Arthur C. McGiflert, Ph. D. was 
 appointed instructor in Church History, and two 
 years later he was chosen as Professor in that 
 department, and continued to hold that place 
 until July, 1893, when he resigned to accept a 
 similar Professorship in Union Theological 
 Seminary in New York City. At the same 
 date occurred the resignation and retirement of 
 Professor Henry Preserved Smith, D. D. who 
 had been connected with the Institution for 
 years, and who from 1879 on had conducted 
 with great fidelity and diligence, and with a 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 33 
 
 large measure of success, the instruction in the 
 Hebrew language and literature. He had also 
 served for several years as Librarian, an office 
 held first by Dr. Evans, and then from 1872 to 
 1884, by myself, and in various other ways and 
 connections had proved himself, though re- 
 latively young, a valuable member of the 
 Faculty.* 
 
 Early in 1892 occurred the resignation of 
 Prof. Llewelyn J. Evans, LL. D., in order to ac- 
 cept a similiar department of instruction which 
 had been tendered to him in the Theological 
 College connected with the Calvinistic Metho- 
 dist Communion in Wales, and located in the 
 beautiful village of Bala in that principality. 
 His resignation was accepted with profound 
 regret, and only because he cherished the hope 
 that his shattered health would be restored in 
 that stimulating climate, and under the inspira- 
 tion of new associations and a somewhat varied 
 form of work. But that hope was vain, and in 
 July his exhausted vitality gave way, and he 
 passed forever into the fellowship of the glori- 
 fied. His remains were brought back in the 
 autumn, and were laid with appropriate ser- 
 vices and with many a tear in the beautiful 
 
 *REV. HENRY PRESERVED SMITH, D. D. Born, Troy. 
 O., Oct, 23. 1847; Grad. Amherst College; 1869; Lane, 1869-72; 
 Instructor in Church History, Lane Seminary, 1874-75; Instructor 
 in Hebrew, do., 1875-76; studying at Leipzig, Saxony, 1876-77; 
 Assistant Professor of Hebrew, Lane Seminary, 1877-79; Professor, 
 do., 1879-93. 
 
34 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 cemetery where also lies, not far away, the body 
 ©f the beloved Allen. Dr. Thomas was buried 
 at Dayton, Dr. Smith at Marietta, Dr. Humph- 
 rey near Chicago, and Dr. Eells in Cleveland, 
 while these two who had loved each other so 
 much, sleep together in our own Spring Grove.* 
 The connection of Professor Evans with 
 Lane Seminary extended, with the interruption 
 of a year spent abroad in search of health, from 
 1863 to 1892, a period of twenty-nine years, during 
 all of which time he, was lovingly engrossed by 
 day and by night in the study of that One Book of 
 whose doctrines and beauties he was never 
 tired of speaking, and of whose origin and au- 
 thoritativeness as the One Book of God, a super- 
 natural and gracious message sent from heaven 
 to our lost race, he never entertained a doubt. 
 I have already spoken at length in this place of 
 what he was and came more and more to be as 
 a teacher and as a Christian man, and the hope 
 that what I have thus borne already as my lov- 
 ing testimony mav yet be made public, justifies 
 me in refraining from any extended statement 
 now. We were together here as teachers for 
 more than a quarter of a century, and for near- 
 ly twenty years we resided side by side, so 
 
 *REV. LLEWELYN J. EVANS, D.D. LL. D. Born, Treud- 
 dyn, North Wales, June 27, 1833; Racine College, 1856; Lane, 
 1857-60; Ord. May, 1862 (Cincinnati Presb.); Pastor Lane Seminary 
 Church, 1860-1863; Prof. Church Hist., Lane, 1863-67; Prof. Bibl. 
 Lit. and Exegesis, 1867, till his resignation. April, 1892 to accept a 
 similar chair in Bala, Wales; died at Bala, Tuly 25, 1892; D. D, 
 Wab. College, 1872; LL. D. Hanover Coll., 1886. 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 35 
 
 that I probably knew him as well as any one 
 could know a nature so rich, so versatile, and so 
 elevated. Never a shadow dimmed our friend- 
 ship through these years, and never a doubt of 
 his rare Cliristian manliness and worth entered 
 my mind. As a scholar he was thorough and 
 profound, as a teacher superb, as a professor 
 simple as the air and cordial as the light, as a 
 preacher eloquent and thoughtful in a marked 
 degree, as a friend tender and true in all rela- 
 tions, as a citizen loyal to all righteousness and 
 hostile to all sin, and as a man one of those rare 
 personages whom we do not often see in such a 
 world as this, and whose departure from our 
 poor life is like the going down of the sun, 
 leaving' dense darkness everywhere. 
 
 The simultaneous retirement of Professors 
 Smith and McGiffert following so closely upon 
 that of Professor Craig and Drs. Evans and Rob- 
 erts, live in all, within fifteen short months, left 
 me, as the sole survivor of the Faculty, in a posi- 
 tion whose real dreadfulness I possess no lan- 
 guage to describe. I have no wish to revert 
 to any of the painful incidents connected with 
 this cyclonic disaster, except to say that I could 
 see no sufficient reason why Lane Seminary 
 should swerve from its historic position of loy- 
 alty to the Church, mingled with just liberty of 
 thought either, to accept a theory of inspiration 
 never known in the Institution through all its 
 sacred past, or to take part in judicial proceed- 
 
36 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 ings, in opposition-to such theory, not unlike those 
 from which both Lyman Beecher and the Insti- 
 tution had suffered so disastrously nearly sixty 
 years before. And as for myself, I have only 
 to add that while it was not possible for me with 
 my measure of knowledge to accept the new opin- 
 ions broached by some of my associates, I never 
 for a moment lost my faith in their personal 
 loyalty to the Divine Word, and therefore found 
 it equally impossible to join with those who felt 
 bound in conscience to condemn such opinions, 
 even by the use of ecclesiastical penalties. 
 
 Meanwhile for me, practically, but one task 
 remained — to save Lane Seminary, if possible, 
 from the rocks on which, in the turbulence of 
 this unexpected storm, it seemed in danger of 
 being wholly wrecked. During the two years 
 of agitation preceding July, 1893, the number of 
 students had fallen from forty-five to thirty-four, 
 and then from thirty-four to seventeen, the low- 
 est record, with one possible exception, in its 
 entire history. There were other complications 
 and ominous possibilities to which it will not be 
 profitable to refer, but which were symptomatic in 
 their nature, and might be fraught even with de- 
 struction. The Board of Trust was almost over- 
 whelmed with both the calamity actually occur- 
 ring and the calamity impending, and in adjourn- 
 ing, after the acceptance of these resignations, 
 left me under instruction to keep the keys, and 
 to open the doors if in the coming autumn any 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 37 
 
 should come here seeking instruction. To me 
 this was one of the darkest hours of life — as 
 dark almost as that day, not three months dis- 
 tant, when I was called to suffer the sorest prov- 
 idential bereavement that can come upon man. 
 But God is most opportune and most gra- 
 cious when we sink into our deepest, darkest ex- 
 tremity. A competent assistant in the sacred 
 languages (Rev. Kemper Fullerton, A. M. ) was 
 found ; able lecturers were secured ; every avail- 
 able provision was made for adequate instruction 
 in the several branches ; many friends pledged 
 their sympathy and their prayers in the emer- 
 gency ; and when the opening September day 
 dawned, not a smaller but a considerably larger 
 number of students came in, as if divinely sent, 
 like doves to their windows, to receive all the in- 
 struction and the stimulus which the depleted In- 
 stitution could give. It was to me a most gra- 
 cious and comforting revelation, and the year 
 which thus began with an auspiciousness alto- 
 gether unexpected went on, month by month, 
 with very little to awaken solicitude, until that 
 bright day in May, 1894, when the first year of 
 struggle was happily ended. The next year 
 seemed to take care of itself, with its company 
 of students increased from twenty-three to 
 twenty-eight, with its Faculty enlarged by the 
 addition .of Rev. Henry W. Hulbert, A. M., in 
 the department of Church History, with other 
 improved provisions for instruction, and with the 
 
38 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 Steadfast and growing support of those friends 
 and helpers who did not think it possible for Lane 
 Seminary to die. The third year was brighter 
 still, and better in all its arrangements, while the 
 attendance rose to thirty-eight, the actual aver- 
 age for the last quarter of a century. I need not 
 speak in detail of these events, which, in fact, 
 are already known to most here present ; but I 
 desire here reverently and gratefully to lift up 
 into view the simple histor}^ of these years during 
 which the Institution was rescued from destruc- 
 tion, and raised at least to an appreciable degree 
 of prosperity, and cry out from my deepest heart : 
 It is not, it is not the work of man ; it is the 
 work of God! 
 
 Standing here now at the end of nearly thirty 
 years, as the sole survivor amid all these changes, 
 and myself just ready to pass from the stage as 
 an actor in these varied scenes, I desire to speak 
 of two things which are specially prominent in 
 my thought at this tender hour. Of these, the 
 first is the constant carefulness, the generous de- 
 votion, the loving loyalty of those who during 
 this period have served the Institution in the office 
 of Trustee. At the dedication of this Chapel in 
 1879, Rev. E. P. Pratt, D. D., himself a valued 
 trustee for many years, made an address fitlv 
 commemorative of those who during the first 
 thirty years or more had filled this office. A no- 
 ble body of men they were, both those who con- 
 stituted the original Board, and those who took 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 39 
 
 up the sacred task in the succeeding years. All 
 have now passed from life, excepting the vener- 
 able George M. Maxwell, D. D., who became a 
 trustee in 1859, and who was for thirty-one 
 years the faithful President of the Board. It is 
 to me an impressive fact that, with this exception, 
 all who took part in the election of Dr. Nelson 
 and myself have already joined that blessed com- 
 pany, and the majority of those who since then 
 have filled this office have also entered into rest — 
 four within the past four or five years. 
 
 But I bear grateful testimony at this time 
 to the remarkable fidelity and remarkable gen- 
 'erosity of both the dead and the living. It is 
 within my personal knowledge that the larger 
 part of all the money received for various 
 uses during the past thirty years has come 
 from trustees. In the numerous plans for the 
 improvement of buildings and the campus, for 
 the increase of the permanent endowment, and 
 for the accumulation of scholarship and library 
 funds, they have always been cordial, have, 
 always been first to make sacrifices, and have 
 alwcys served without compensation, even for 
 traveling expenses. Without their prompt sup- 
 port this noble building could never have been 
 reared, and without their donations the library 
 and scholarship funds would be little more than 
 a fragment. Ministers and laymen have vied 
 with one another in this helpful service ; and if 
 at any time difi"erences of judgment or of policy 
 
40 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 have arisen, all have acquiesced cordially in 
 the results finally determined. It should be 
 gratefully added that when their course has 
 been criticised and their administration as- 
 sailed ; when they have been called upon to 
 take steps in conflict with the charter and the 
 history of the Seminary, and have been con- 
 demned for refusing to swerve from their alle- 
 giance to the sacred trust committed to their 
 keeping, they have, stood by their convictions 
 and their sense of duty at whatsoever tempo- 
 rary cost. To their faithfulness and their gen- 
 erosity and their Spartan loyalty the Institution 
 really owes its life. And 1 should be untrue to 
 my own deepest feeling if I did not avail 
 myself of this last public opportunity to ex- 
 press my personal gratitude for the support 
 which the trustees as a body have always 
 extended to me, and for their brotherly care for 
 my remaining years. 
 
 The other matter of special interest relates 
 to the large body of Alumni who during these 
 sixty years have gone out from Lane as min- 
 isters not only into nearly all parts of our own 
 land, but into every continent and many sec- 
 tions of the earth. It has been the usage here 
 to place on the roll of alumni not merely the 
 graduates, who for the first forty-five years con- 
 stituted about sixty per cent, of the whole 
 number, but all who have spent one year 
 or more as regular students in the Institution. 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 41 
 
 The aggregate of the names thus enrolled is 
 1,087, and of this aggregate 597 were students 
 prior to the year 1867, and 490, not incl-jding 
 any now in the Seminary, since that date. In 
 fact the difference between the two periods is 
 very slight. A careful examination of the Min- 
 utes of the last General Assembly shows that of 
 those who left the Institution prior to 1867, only 
 83 now remain, and most of these are retired 
 from active service, while 301 of those in whose 
 training I have had the privilege of sharing, 
 appear in that list. Forty or fifty others who 
 have studied here are enrolled in other evan- 
 gelical denominations. And it is an inexpress- 
 ible comfort to me to think that, countino- out 
 those who, though registered in the Minutes, 
 are for various reasons not in the regular 
 service, there remains still so large a body of 
 brethren, my own loved puf^ils, who are now 
 diligently serving the Master in our own 
 church and in other evangelical communions. 
 They are widely scattered, the large majority 
 of them laboring in Ohio and the adjacent cen- 
 tral States ; many others in the farther west 
 and on the Pacific slope, and several in heathen 
 lands. 
 
 It has been my joy to follow this goodly 
 company as they have gone forth into the great 
 harvest field ; to note their fidelity, almost with- 
 out exception, to the doctrines which have been 
 taught them ; to watch their various labors in 
 
42 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 the Church, in Christian institutions, and else- 
 where ; to weep with them in the afflictions 
 which some among them have been called to 
 sulTer ; and to rejoice with them as I have seen 
 them in glorious scenes of revival, bringing 
 their sheaves with them. It v/as my pri\^lege 
 at the dedication of this chapel, in 1869, to 
 bear testimony in behalf of the Faculty to the 
 work and the great usefulness of those who up 
 to that time had been students here. I spoke 
 then, having full statistics in hand, of the fact 
 that these alumni had been a race of preachers, 
 catching their inspiration from Lyman Beecher 
 and his associates and successors, and making 
 it the main business of their lives to put into 
 practice the theological and homiletical instruc- 
 tions which they had received here. I spoke of 
 the missionary spirit which had prevailed 
 among them and which had incited them to go 
 out as messengers of Christ not only to the 
 destitute and distant frontiers of our own coun- 
 try, but into pagan lands and the benighted 
 islands of the sea. I spoke of the fact that 
 labor for and in revivals had been very largely 
 characteristic of these men, and of the marked 
 success which had accompanied their efforts in 
 saving souls. I spoke also of their ardent ser- 
 vices in the broad field of Christian reform, 
 especially in connection with the awful sin of 
 intemperance and with that horrible iniquity of 
 slavery which had just before been blotted out 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 4^ 
 
 with blood, and of the eminent services which 
 some of them had rendered in various ways in 
 the great cause of Christian education. And I 
 further said that all this good work was yery 
 largely due to that type of Calvinistic doctrine, 
 that practical and preachable theology, which 
 they had learned while sitting here at the feet 
 of those illustrious teachers and preachers of 
 whom I have spoken. 
 
 What I said then is true still— more true 
 than before, by so much as the teaching force 
 here has been enlarged, the curriculum of 
 studies broadened, and the providental stimu- 
 lants to diligence and consecration increased. 
 It has been more and more my supreme aim to 
 give to those under my instruction the same 
 type of theology which their predecessors had 
 learned from those who taught in the earlier 
 days, and to tQach them how to use that theology 
 for the only purpose for which any theology has 
 any value — the instruction, persuasion, convic- 
 tion and conversion of sinners, and the edifica- 
 tion of saints and of the Church. That type of 
 theology, as I humbly conceive, was born not 
 of man or by man, but of the living Scripture 
 primarily. It aims to exalt the Bible above all 
 the teachings and creeds, even of the wisest and 
 best of believers and of churches. It seeks to 
 proclaim the law of God in all its clearness, 
 emphasis, solemnity, as the supreme arbiter in 
 the ethical life of man. It endeavors to exalt 
 
44 THIkTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 the moral government of God over man, as the 
 great central fact in human history — a govern- 
 ment including in its sweep all mankind and all 
 of the life of each human being, and ruling in 
 infinite majesty over the acts and destinies of the 
 race. It strives to offer the Gospel as the 
 divinely ordained feast of grace for the world, 
 and in the name of Christ to invite the world in 
 its hunger and sin and sorrow to come and be 
 fed, It strenuously maintains the doctrine of 
 human ability notwithstanding all the moral dis- 
 abilities surrounding and impairing it ; it empha- 
 sizes human responsibility for every moment of 
 continuance in sin ; it proclaims the guilt of the 
 sinner for all disobedience, and specially for the 
 crowning offense of rejecting this blessed Gos- 
 pel. It denounces excuses, defies cavils, resists 
 unbelief as both irrational and wicked ; it con- 
 vinces the gainsayer, encourages the feeble, 
 enlightens the ignorant, strengthens the godly, 
 and by a thousand penetrating arguments seeks 
 to bring all who hear to faith, to holiness and 
 to God. 
 
 Such a theology, so conceived and held 
 and so preached, will always have power. Men 
 will hear it, and their reason and their con- 
 sciences will be moved by it ; it will bring 
 them immediately to the more vital questions in 
 religion, and will lead them on to reformation, 
 to public confession, to holy trust and love and 
 hope. Churches will grow under it, both in 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE, 45 
 
 numbers and in spiritual activity and fruit. And 
 this is especially true in such a country and 
 among such a people as ours, for the American 
 mind, amid all the noise and speculation and 
 doubt that are current, after all spontaneously 
 welcomes such a theology, proclaimed in the 
 true spirit, and freely confesses its sacred claim 
 both to support and to allegiance. Such a type 
 of theology has been inculcated here from the 
 beginning, living, earnest, progressive, rever- 
 ent and practical — a theology shaped through- 
 out with supreme reference to the exigencies of 
 preaching ; and in proclaiming such a theology 
 the Alumni of Lane have found, are finding, 
 will always find, favor with God and with man. 
 For all that this blessed company of 
 Alumni, older and younger, has been to me, in 
 the line of inspiration in study, of diligence in 
 teaching, of enthusiasm and courage, in such 
 labors as I have been called to carry on for 
 them or with them, I shall sing great songs of 
 gratitude to God while I live. I trust that 
 though I shall vanish from their sight, I shall 
 not disappear from their remembrance, and that 
 in the years of decline which are before me I 
 shall be carried in their hearts, even as they 
 will be carried in mine until that heart shall 
 cease to beat. And I still more earnestly desire 
 and pray before God, that, though they should 
 forget the teacher, they may never lose either 
 their faith in or their inspiration and energy 
 
46 THIRTY. YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 drawn from the sublime and potential doctrine 
 of God which it has been at once the most dif- 
 ficult and the sweetest task of his life to impart. 
 My daily petition, so long as 1 have strength to 
 plead with God, shall be that the sons of Lane 
 shall be known wherever they go, not simply as 
 scholars, as reformers, as specialists in any 
 line, but as living and earnest and effective 
 preachers of a Gospel which is in every part 
 and passage divine. 
 
 I cannot refrain from asking myself, as I 
 approach the close of regular service here, 
 what shall be the future of this beloved Semin- 
 ary. It is too much to hope that death and 
 change will work no further ravages, since 
 change and death are universal in human life. 
 It may be that some of the struggles and con- 
 flicts which have at times shadowed the past, 
 will show themselves in new and trying forms 
 in the future. It is not impossible that the 
 waves of partizan agitation or of ecclesiastical 
 turbulence may again and again dash and break 
 against these sacred walls. But I cannot doubt 
 that an Institution which has stood so lono- and 
 survived so many forms of disaster, which was 
 planted in faith and hope by consecrated minds, 
 and has been the object of so much munificence 
 and of so much love and prayer, and which has 
 in it so many capabilities of usefulness genera- 
 tion after generation, will be preserved and 
 perpetuated here throughout the coming cen- 
 
THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 47 
 
 turies. Christ, through his sainted ones, has 
 made too large an investment here, not of 
 money, sympathy or prayer alone, but of human 
 lives freely builded into this hallowed struct- 
 ure, to allow it all to go down into darkness 
 and ashes. I believe rather that Lane Semin- 
 ary is a constituent and permanent factor in 
 that great plan of His which comprehends the 
 race, and which can be consummated only in 
 the conversion of that race unto Himself. And 
 if the principles on which it was founded are 
 faithfully maintained ; if its precious traditions 
 are preserved, its safe precedents regarded, its 
 historic teaching and temper cherished as its 
 choicest heritage ; and if its teachers and guard- 
 ians continue to work together as harmoniously 
 and effectively as in the past, I firmly believe 
 that when another company shall gather here 
 at the end of the first century in its life, they 
 will be able to repeat, as I now repeat with 
 devoutest gratitude and hope, that song of 
 ancient prophecy addressed to the troubled 
 Church of God : 
 
 D u .9/r''",f?'^^^'^' ^"^^"^ '^^^^ tempest, and not comforted I 
 J^ehoid ! 1 will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy founda- 
 tions with sapphires. And I will make thy windows of agates, 
 and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant 
 stones. And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord : 
 
 AND GREAT SHALL BE THE PEACE OF THY CHILDREN. 
 
II. 
 
 Leaves From the Early l^istopy of Lane. 
 
 PAPER READ AT THE 40tli ANNIVERSARY, 
 
 NOVEMBER 24, 1869. 
 
One of the surest evidences of capacity to 
 use the future wisely, lies in a manifested capaci- 
 ty to comprehend and appreciate the past. He 
 who can patiently and reverently gather up the 
 records of that past — who can measure its resour- 
 ces, and sympathize with its aims, and give cred- 
 it even to its partial successes, is of all men best 
 fitted to bear its immature enterprises forward to 
 a larger growth, and a more conspicuous fruit- 
 age. To him alone is given a just estimate of the 
 material in hand ; to him alone the true line of 
 maturing development is revealed ; to him alone 
 belong the inspiration, the vigor, the courage, 
 essential to complete success. 
 
 The two great denominations whose formal 
 union is rendering the present year and the pres- 
 ent month historic in Presbyterian annals, and 
 who are already looking forward as one body to 
 a broader and more glorious future, may well ob- 
 serve and apply this principle. For that future 
 is to be the resultant, on the human side, of forces 
 already existing and of materials already gath- 
 ered ; the resultant, in the main, of those contri- 
 butions always varied, sometimes diverse, which 
 the past has transmitted as an inheritance to the 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF LANE. 51 
 
 living present. And it is only as that inheritance 
 is duly appreciated in both its excellence and its 
 deficiency — as on every side the resources, aims, 
 tendencies, results of that past are candidly meas- 
 ured — as present and prospective processes of de- 
 velopment are shaped by wise, careful estimate 
 of these existing materials and forces, that the 
 future of hope can be transformed into a future of 
 glad fruition. 
 
 The principle'ma}'' well receive a closer ap- 
 plication. The new era in the life and history 
 of these two denominations brings with it a new 
 era in the relations and work of this beloved In- 
 stitution. It, indeed, shares henceforth the duty 
 of theological training and ministerial supply 
 with three other seminaries located in the same 
 spacious field, and now associated with it under 
 the broad banner of a common faith. Yet in thus 
 sharing the field and the labor, its sphere is not 
 limited, neither is its responsibility or privilege 
 diminished. Without trenching in the least upon 
 the prerogatives of other kindred institutions, it 
 may yet claim a larger constituency and a larger 
 work than ever. Nearly a thousand churches in 
 the Central West will send their young men to it 
 to receive instruction, and will in turn look to it 
 for the supply of an educated ministry. And 
 with such a constituency and such opportunity, 
 and with the enlarged resources which the new 
 era must confer, how wide becomes the sphere 
 thus opening before it, and how fruitful and noble 
 must its future be! 
 
52 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 As we look forward into that future with in- 
 quiring and resohite gaze, willing to accept its 
 new responsibilities, and cheered by the hopes it 
 already justifies, should we not also at this junc- 
 ture turn our thoughts backward, and from the 
 treasured past gather up such lessons, such mo- 
 tives, such inspirations, as alone can qualify us 
 to meet or shape the opening future! Is it not 
 well at such an hour to call to remembrance the 
 early days in the history of this sacred Seminary 
 — to examine afresh the foundations on which it 
 reposes, and the sources of its vitality and 
 growth ; and to consider with sympathetic inter- 
 est, and perhaps with lenient forbearance, the 
 purposes that have animated it, and the fruitage 
 it has borne! It will surely augur well for the 
 future, if we thus prove able, in any large de- 
 gree, to comprehend and appreciate the past. 
 
 As early as 1825, the General Assembly of 
 the Presbyterian Church, taking into considera- 
 tion the rapid increase of population in the valley 
 of the Mississippi, and the interests of the denom- 
 ination in that region, declared it expedient to es- 
 tablish a Western Theological Seminary, and ap- 
 pointed a committee to perfect a plan, and to in- 
 quire as to a suitable location for the proposed in- 
 stitution.* In the following year the committee 
 
 *To the General Assembly of 1826, Rev. Joshua L. Wilson, 
 Rev. James Kemper, Sen., and Elder Caleb Kemper, were elected 
 commissioners from the Presbytery of Cincinnati, especially to sc 
 cure the location of this Seminary at Walnut Hills. 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF LANE. 53 
 
 suggested three locations, of which Allegheny 
 Town, and Walnut Hills in the vicinity of Cin- 
 cinnati, were the most prominent ; and in the 
 next year (1827) the Assembly, by a small ma- 
 jority, decided in favor of the former place, f It 
 is not surprising, therefore, that the subject of es- 
 tablishing, in this section of country, a seminary 
 of learning, principally designed for the educa- 
 tion of pious and indigent young men, for the 
 Gospel ministry — to use the exact words of the 
 original record — should have continued to attract 
 
 f Through the kindness of a member of the Kemper family, the 
 writer is permitted to publish, in part, the following letter, which 
 furnishes an interesting confirmation of some statements made in 
 this sketch : 
 
 "Walnut Hills, April 27, 1827. 
 
 "Rev. and Dear Sir: The location of the Western Theo- 
 logical Seminary will probably occupy much of the time of the 
 General Assembly at the ensuing sessions. But why? Will not 
 the place that unites the most central, healthful, yet retired and 
 populous neighborhood, in the vicinity of a very populous and 
 growing city on the Ohio River, at once present itself to the As- 
 sembly as the proper place? Such a place is Walnut Hills, near 
 Cincinnati. Here we will give for the above purpose, in one or 
 more lots, twenty acres of land, affording convenient situations for 
 all the necessary buildings. ■'-' * And further, on one of the sites we 
 would propose, there is a well finished academy, v/ith a good frame 
 dwelling-house by it. A good and sufficient title will be made to 
 the whole, if accepted. We state, further, that there is reason to 
 believe that subscriptions would be as liberal in favor of the place 
 or places here proposed as in any part of the western country. 
 When the subject of the Seminary is brought forward, you will 
 please to lay this before the House at the proper time; and, as you 
 have once passed over the ground, I think you will be able to make 
 some statements satisfactory to the Assembly, I am confident, 
 however, that what is right on the whole will be done. 
 "With respect and esteem, 
 
 **I am, Rev. and Dear Sir, 
 "Yours, 
 "(Signed) JAMES KEMPER, Sr. 
 
 Rev. Ezra Styles Ely, D.D., 
 
 "Philadelphia." 
 
64 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 attention in Cincinnati and the vicinity ; or that 
 during the succeeding year there should have 
 ripened an earnest determination to create such 
 an institution at this point, as soon as favoring 
 providences should seem to open the way. 
 
 Such a providence revealed itself in the 
 summer of 1828, in the proposal of the brothers 
 Lane, merchants then doing business in New 
 Orleans, to contribute $1,000 annually for four 
 37'ears, and one-forth of their annual income 
 thereafter, as a pecuniary basis for the projected 
 Seminary. In consequence of this generous 
 proposal, an association was formed at Cincin- 
 nati, in the autumn of that year, under the name 
 and title of the Ohio Board of Education ; a 
 charter was procured shortly afterward ; and 
 steps were at once taken to obtain a suitable 
 location, and to organize the institution. Early 
 in 1829 Mr. Elnathan Kemper made a proposi- 
 tion in' behalf of himself and others to donate to 
 the Board sixty acres of land from the north 
 end of his farm, on the east side of the Mont- 
 gomery Road, and to sell, for the sum of .$4,000, 
 forty additional acres lying south of the do- 
 nated tract. This proposal was gratefully ac- 
 cepted, though the purchase was subsequently 
 declined by the Board ; and near the close of 
 that year, Mr. Kemper acting for himself, and 
 also for his father, Rev. James Kemper, and 
 two brothers, David R. and Peter H. Kemper, 
 formally deeded to the Seminary the tract he 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF LANE. 55 
 
 had proposed to donate. The forty acres 
 offered for sale, with ten acres additional, 
 were three years later transferred to the Insti- 
 tution by Mr. Kemper himself, on perpetual 
 lease. 
 
 Let us pause for a moment to contemplate 
 the spirit which led to these generous gifts. 
 When it is remembered that the brothers Lane 
 were Baptists, of New England origin, but 
 Southern by residence, it seems surprising that 
 they should have been inclined to establish, in 
 the West, such an institution, under such aus- 
 pices. What could have been the motive but a 
 profound conviction of the necessity for an edu- 
 cated ministry throughout this destitute portion 
 of the country, and a love for our common 
 Christianity rising above all considerations of 
 locality or of sect? The letter of Mr. Kemper, 
 making his first proposition, contains an earnest 
 prayer in which the other donors doubtless 
 shared, that this donation might be improved by 
 the Board for the advancement of the kingdom 
 of our blessed Lord and Savior ; and that 
 the Board, in the administration of this 
 trust, might be preserved from all selfish- 
 ness, passion and prejudice, but might rather 
 at all times be under the influence of 
 the spirit of Christ. Let these memorable 
 words never be forgotten! And through all 
 its future, may this beloved Institution, 
 while faithful to its Presbyterian name, 
 
56 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 ever be true to the broad, catholic, gener- 
 ous. Christian temper, that gave it exis- 
 tence!* 
 
 It may be that the resolution of the General 
 Assembly of 1825, ordering that the proposed 
 Western Seminary should be shaped, in every 
 practicable feature, upon the plan of the Semi- 
 nary at Princeton, indicates one decisive reason 
 for its location at the sources of the Ohio. For 
 it is obvious that the idea of blending literary 
 with theological training, had from the first 
 been prominent in the minds of those who en- 
 deavored to secure its location in this more 
 Western field. If they argued that a large pro- 
 portion of the young men, who in this region 
 would devote themselves to the ministry, were 
 lacking in the literary qualifications requisite to 
 the successful prosecution of a purely theologi- 
 cal course, such as was arranged at Princeton 
 
 •=-The services of the Kemper family, in the cause of liberal and 
 Christian education, during the ten years previous to 1829, are de- 
 serving of special remembrance in this connection. The fact is, 
 that in substance, though not in form, the history of Lane Semi- 
 nary runs back to the year of 1819, when its seeds were first planted 
 by them. The following memorandum, in the handwriting of Rev. 
 James Kemper, and now in the possession of one of his grandsons, 
 establishes this fact: 
 
 "As early as the year 1819, Elnathan Kemper and Peter H. 
 Kemper devoted eight acres of land on Walnut Hills, at the earnest 
 request of their father, for the support of the Walnut Hills Aca- 
 demy, that year established by the Rev. James Kemper, Sen., on 
 the Manual Labor plan. In this school the Latin and Greek lan- 
 guages were taught, with the ordinary branches of an English edu- 
 cation, until the close of the year 1825. when the health of Mr. 
 Kemper so far failed that he was compelled to suspend the school, 
 though it was flourishing and successful." 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF LANE. 5*7 
 
 — if they judged that a Seminary so constituted 
 would fail by reason of this lack of adjustment 
 to existing needs, and that the urgent necessi- 
 ties of the churches demanded the establishment 
 of another institution upon a more comprehen- 
 sive and practical plan, any inconclusiveness in 
 their reasonings may well be pardoned, in view 
 of the earnestness of their convictions, and the 
 nobility of their aims. They believed that the 
 institution demanded by the existing necessities 
 of the church, must be substantially collegiate 
 as well as theological, and must even em- 
 brace an academic department, where those 
 who could not pursue a collegiate course 
 might . still receive a suitable preparatory 
 training. 
 
 Under this conviction the Board of Trus- 
 tees acted, and on the eighteenth of November, 
 1829, the preparatory school was opened. This 
 school was accessible to all, whether students 
 for the ministry or otherwise, who desired to 
 avail themselves of its advantages, and was con- 
 ducted by the Rev. George C. Beckwith, who 
 was also directed to give such instruction in 
 theology as might be demanded prior to the 
 complete organization of that department. Tem- 
 porary arrangements were made for the accom- 
 modation of students from abroad, and plans 
 were at once devised for the erection of a build- 
 ing adapted to meet the permanent necessities 
 of the institution. Durino- the summer and au- 
 
58 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 tumn of 1830, this building, afterward known as 
 the Boarding Hall, was completed and brought 
 into service.* 
 
 The literary department was continued in 
 an experimental form, and under great embar- 
 rassment arising from tlie lack of funds and 
 other causes, until the autumn of 1834. Mr. 
 Beckwith withdrew from the enterprise in the 
 fall of 1830, and his place was filled successive- 
 ly by a number of other professors, assisted by 
 such subordinate teachers as the school re- 
 quired, until the final discontinuance. The 
 change was gradual, but the result was inevita- 
 ble. At the outset, some intelligent friends of 
 the institution, such as the venerable Dr. Bishop 
 of Miami University, had advised against the 
 attempt to unite together things so obviously 
 distinct. As early as 1833, the question had 
 been discussed in the Board, whether it was ex- 
 pendient to incorporate in one institution, on the 
 same premises, a theological seminary and a 
 college or large literary institution. In the fol- 
 lowing year the Faculty expressed to the trus- 
 tees their joint opinion that the interest of the 
 Seminary required the maintenance of a select 
 or limited preparatory department, adapted to 
 meet the wants of candidates for the ministry, 
 not yet qualified to enter on the theological 
 
 *After nearly eight and thirty years of use, this structure was 
 destroyed by fire, April i8, 1868, 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF LANE. 59 
 
 course. But it was soon discovered that in con- 
 sequence of the increase of academic and col- 
 legiate privileges in various sections of the 
 country, even such cases could for the most 
 part be suitably provided for without such an 
 arrangement ; and meanwhile the Seminary 
 proper so completely exhausted the resources of 
 the Board, as to render them willing to ac- 
 quiesce in the disappearance of this feature from 
 their original plan. 
 
 Another element in that plan was subjected 
 to a similar experiment and met with a 
 similar fate. The founders of the Semi- 
 nary had their eye on a class of young men 
 who were not only pious, but indigent — as the 
 original record relates — and they therefore re- 
 garded it as a matter of prime importance, that 
 those who desired to enjoy the advantages of 
 the institution should have the opportunity of 
 supporting themselves while students, by some 
 form of manual labor. The Lane and Kemper 
 donations were both granted under the condi- 
 tion that such opportunity should be given; 
 though that condition was afterward so modified 
 at the suggestion of the Board, as to leave the 
 matter to be tested by further experience. 
 Manual Labor schools were just then specially 
 popular in all parts of the country ; the theory 
 on which thev were founded was exceedingly 
 beautiful, and nothing but time and experiment 
 could prove whether the realization would cor- 
 
60 THIRTY YEARS IN I.ANE. 
 
 respond with the grandeur of the dream. It was 
 to introduce this feature, that the original farm 
 was given, and the further lands were leased ; 
 and as it gradually became evident that agri- 
 cultural labor was not sufficiently remunerative 
 to meet the necessity, various forms of mechan- 
 ical employment were from time to time intro- 
 duced. A part of the students were organized 
 as a printing association ; and another portion 
 as a company for the manufacture of furniture ; 
 and regular contracts were entered into by the 
 Board with firms in the city, for the purpose of 
 rendering the labor of such associations profit- 
 able. Brooms were also manufactured, and 
 students who were already experienced as me- 
 chanics in other directions, were furnished with 
 facilities for the exercise of their skill. Three 
 hours daily were devoted to such forms of em- 
 ployment ; and there is no reason for doubting 
 that the students generally conformed to the 
 letter of the enactment. Sundry resolutions of 
 the Board and Faculty seem to indicate that the 
 danger in the case lay rather in the inclination 
 to expend more time in such labor than was 
 consistent with the main purpose of the institu- 
 tion. 
 
 The experiment was faithfully prosecuted, 
 but with unfavorable results. With what devo- 
 tion the trustees clung to their original hope, 
 their records bear effectual witness. Their 
 numerous resolutions concerning stewards and 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF LANE. 61 
 
 superintendents, concerning the methods of 
 keeping the agricultural and mechanical ac- 
 counts, concerning the management and use of 
 the farm, concerning the purchase of tools and 
 machinery, concerning wages, concerning the 
 clearing up of forest grounds for pasturage, 
 concerning the planting of orchards, concerning 
 a garden, concerning the purchase and sale of 
 milch-cows, and wagons, and divers other such 
 matters, show that like true men they stuck to 
 their convictions until it became too evident that 
 the students, if they were not eating their own 
 heads off, were devouring the institution, leaf 
 and stalk. Probably the greater part of the in- 
 terest and attention of the Board was for sev- 
 eral years directed to this feature in their plan ; 
 yet from year to year the expenses exceeded 
 the receipts, and experience indicated more and 
 more unerringly that v^hat was originally an 
 obligation, binding upon all, should be changed 
 into an opportunity afforded to such as were in 
 need of it. And when that conclusion was 
 reached, the end of manual labor, as a distin- 
 guishing feature of the institution, became only 
 a question of time. 
 
 If the attention of the trustees was largely 
 engrossed by this experiment, they were by no 
 means indifferent to other important interests. 
 In the spring of 1832, they entered upon the 
 erection of the dormitory, and in 1836 the 
 chapel was also erected ; thus completing the 
 
62 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 arrangements for the material abode of the in- 
 stitution. Dwellings for professors were also 
 provided during the first decade ; progress was 
 made in the beautifying of the grounds, set 
 apart as a campus. With means so limited, and 
 with other demands so urgent, it is an occasion 
 for wonder, not that so much remained to be 
 done, but rather that so much was accom- 
 plished. 
 
 Though the literary department was opened 
 in the fall of 1829, and though from that time 
 there were some persons on the ground, who 
 were candidates for the ministry and studying 
 theology informally, yet the theological depart- 
 ment did not get into operation till December, 
 1832. Dr. Lyman Beecher was first elected 
 President, and Professor of Didactic and Pole- 
 mic Theology, October 22, 1830 ; but hindrances 
 arose in the way of his acceptance, and the 
 election was repeated, January 23, 1832. On 
 the 9th of August his letter of acceptance was 
 received ; and on the 26th of December he was 
 formally inducted into office. On the same day 
 Thomas J. Biggs, D. D., of Frankford, Penn- 
 sylvania, who had been elected to the Profes- 
 sorship of Church History and Church Polity, 
 January 17, 1831, was in like manner inaugu- 
 rated ; and the work of theological instruction 
 at once began in earnest. Calvin E. Stowe, 
 D. D., was appointed professor of Biblical Lit- 
 erature, August 9, 1832 ; but did not enter upon 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF LANE. 63 
 
 the duties of his office till July of the follovvitig 
 year. Baxter Dickinson, D. D., of Newark, 
 New Jersey, was added to the Faculty as Pro- 
 fessor of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Theo- 
 logy, Oct. 28, 1835 ; being inducted into office 
 on the 9th of December following. Thus the 
 several chairs of instruction were ably and hap- 
 pily tilled, and the efforts of the trustees in this, 
 as in other directions, seemed to be crowned 
 with success.* 
 
 i\nd now their days of trial began. They 
 had succeeded in erecting the needful edilices, 
 and in securing to the Seminary a suitable and 
 beautiful place of abode. They had succeeded 
 in obtaining a complete Faculty, and one of 
 marked ability and extensive reputation. They 
 had succeeded in procuring a partial endowment 
 for the several professorships, and were justified 
 in hoping that friends, eastern and western, 
 would still further assist them in placing the in- 
 stitution on a secure foundation. With how 
 much of fidelity, of generosity, of wise plan- 
 ning, of skillful management, of earnest prayer, 
 these partial results had been secured, none but 
 those who read the record of their meetings can 
 bear tit witness. 
 
 ••In tlie dairy of Rev. James Kemper may be found the fol- 
 lowing significant entry: 
 
 *^ March, J 833. All is well that ends well. After long labor 
 and much expense, I have a Literary and Theological Seminary at 
 my door." 
 
64 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 But at this point the shadows of financial 
 convulsion began to darken the American sky. 
 Remaining debts began to press heavily upon 
 the institution, and to call for payment, when 
 payment was impossible except at fearful sacra- 
 fice. Tlie resources of friends were taken 
 away, and their good intentions frustrated. One 
 entire professorship was lost at a stroke. Pro- 
 jects for further advance were instantly arrested, 
 and the preservation of what had been secured 
 became more and more uncertain. How they 
 passed through the crisis, it would probably be 
 impossible for either trustees or professors to 
 tell. In the fall of 1839, two of the latter were 
 constrained to resign ; and in the following au- 
 tumn the Faculty was reconstituted by a triple 
 division of the work, and by the election, as 
 Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, etc., of D. Howe 
 Allen, D. D., then an instructor in Marietta 
 College. 
 
 Other shadows rested heavily upon the 
 young and struggling institution. The earlier 
 signs of that sad conflict which led to the sepa- 
 ration of the Presbyterian Church in 1837, and 
 gave occasion for its union in 1869, had become 
 apparent, even before the Seminary entered 
 upon its strictly theological work. In Decem- 
 ber, 1831, the respected Dr. Wilson, within the 
 walls of whose church the institution had re- 
 ceived its birth, and who as the President of the 
 Board of Trustees, had probably done more 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF LANE. 65 
 
 than any one else to foster and strengthen it in 
 the days of infancy, resigned his seat and sepa- 
 rated himself wholly from the enterprise. 
 Others, including some of its earliest benefac- 
 tors, were led to follow his example ; and thus, 
 even before its work had fairly begun, the 
 Seminary became involved in that darkest of 
 earthly troubles — -the trouble that springs from 
 alienated friendships. The time has passed for 
 any questioning of the motives of those who 
 thus turned away from the enterprise they had 
 loved. The hour has come when, however 
 deeply we may regret the consequences of their 
 course, we ought fully to admit the sincerity 
 of their convictions, and the purity of their acts. 
 Let us honor them for what they did in its be- 
 half ; and only regret, as they doubtless re- 
 gretted, the stern pressure of duty that con- 
 strained them to cease from doing more. 
 
 The succeeding years were full of similar 
 embarrassment. The suspicion with which the 
 teachings of the venerable Professor in Theol- 
 ogy were regarded by many, insensibly affected 
 the standing of the whole Institution, and 
 greatly diminished both its receipts and the 
 number of its students. And when the type of 
 doctrine which he represented came into public 
 collision with other types of Presbyterian doc- 
 trine widely prevalent, especially in this region, 
 and when the denomination for whose good the 
 Seminary had been founded was openly rent 
 
66 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 asunder, the effect on the Institution became 
 still more disastrous. The anti-slavery agita- 
 tion, from 1834 onward, added largely to the 
 embarrassment occasioned by these denomina- 
 tional diversities. Standing as it did in that 
 central territory where the extremes of popular 
 sentiment on both sides met in fiercest collision, 
 and refusin<7' to be surrendered to the control of 
 either party, it was inevitable that the most 
 zealous advocates both of freedom and of slavery 
 should become dissatisfied with its position, and 
 should withdraw their patronage from it. These 
 causes combined with the financial difficulties 
 and other embarrassments already noted, both 
 to lessen the resources and diminish the num- 
 bers in attendance^ and to make the. position of 
 both professors and trustees one of peculiar 
 trial. What they suffered during that eventful 
 period is known only to Him who remembers 
 the prayers and counts the very tears of all 
 who toil in any sphere for Him ! 
 
 It is a comforting fact that difficulties of 
 this class, in whatsoever sphere experienced, 
 are of necessity transient — the sovereign law of 
 gravitation maintaining its sway, and ere long 
 compelling the turbulent billows to subside into 
 calm. From 1840 onward, for a decade, the 
 Seminary went on quietly, doing a great and 
 precious work. Its position was in the main 
 secure. Its Faculty, though incomplete, was 
 able and efficient. Its librar}'-, purchased chiefly 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF LANE. 67 
 
 in Europe by Prof. Stowe, was far superior to 
 any other theological collection west of the 
 Alleghenies. Its classes were large ; nearly or 
 quite equal to those of prominent Eastern insti- 
 tutions. Its graduates were found in general to be 
 trained, sound and earnest men ; and were 
 greatly welcomed by the churches in the Cen- 
 tral West. The missionary spirit prevailed in 
 the Institution during this period, and many of 
 its alumni either went to pagan lands or conse- 
 crated themselves to an equally arduous work 
 in the newer portions of our »wn countr}^ 
 Other denominations shared in its privileges 
 and were benefited by the labors of its o-radu- 
 ates. -As the onlj- Seminary of the New School 
 body in the West, the Institution thus occupied 
 a useful and conspicuous position. Though 
 still suffering under the burden of debt and but 
 partially equipped in several directions, it yet 
 was gaining for itself year by year a name and 
 a place in the land such as none of its friends 
 need blush to call to remembrance. 
 
 The decade closed with the resicrnation of 
 Dr. Beecher, and his withdrawal from all active 
 service in the Seminary. At the ripe age of 
 seventy-five, after eighteen years of such labor 
 as few men could endure, the brave old warrior 
 retired from the field to enjoy for a little season 
 that earthly rest which twelve years later was 
 to be exchanged for the repose of heaven. We 
 shall do well to celebrate his work and to per- 
 
68 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 petuate his memory. Tried by any just stand- 
 ard, he must be pronounced a most remarkable 
 man. The fame of his eloquence as an orator 
 had preceded him to the West ; but it was here 
 that that fame received its grandest indorse- 
 ment. His ability as a theologian had been 
 established in New England, and especially in 
 conflict with the Socinianism of its chief city ; 
 but that ability was never fully exhibited until 
 the duties of his western position brought it 
 into clear relief. The purity of his character, 
 the stability of his principles, the boundless 
 generosity of his nature, had been known to all 
 who were thrown into contact with him during 
 his earlier life ; but these virtues and graces 
 bloomed most freely, emitted their richest fra- 
 grance, after his transfer to this more virgin 
 soil. Here his greatness came to its consum- 
 mate flower. If his learning was less extensive 
 or profound than that of many men in similar 
 positions, few ever excelled him in that quick- 
 ness of insight and that fecundity of genius 
 which sometimes seem to render learning insig- 
 nificant. If the range of his vision was less 
 broad — his survey of the great field of Christian 
 theology less complete than that of some among 
 his compeers, none surpassed him in the warmth 
 of his conceptions, or the vigor of his grasp of 
 such truth as it had been given him to know. 
 If his Calvinism was of a less distinct, positive, 
 unreserved type as to all that is contained in 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF LANE. 69 
 
 the element of divine sovereignty, it was be- 
 cause he possessed so eminently that vis vivida 
 vitae — that buoyant, keen, controlling conscious- 
 ness of freedom and of consequent responsi- 
 bility on the part of man, which stands forth as 
 the perpetual antithesis to such conceptions of 
 the Deity. If in the height and turmoil of the 
 battle he struck hard blows and inflicted serious 
 wounds, none were more ready than he to atone 
 for every error and to embrace those who had 
 been his foes. And in the fullness of his devo- 
 tion to the work to which God had here called 
 him — in the almost youthful ardor with which 
 he entered into every scheme for the advance- 
 ment of this Institution — in the number of 
 his sacrifices for it, and for those who came 
 here to obtain its culture — in the fiery enthusi- 
 asm, the supreme desire to know, the ardent 
 consecration, the purpose of work, which he 
 enkindled in the breasts of his pupils, he cer- 
 tainly had no superior among the theological 
 teachers of his age. During those eighteen 
 3''ears his influence became an imperishable 
 element in the atmosphere of this Institution, 
 and his name was graven inefTaceably upon 
 its walls. May a just and generous apprecia- 
 tion of his worth here abide forever ! 
 
 It is remarkable that but one other among 
 the instructors in the Seminary has, during the 
 whole period of its existence, been removed by 
 death. Rev. Dr. Biggs, who first occupied the 
 
70 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 Chair of Church History and Church Polity, 
 and whose six years of strict, faithful, generou^ 
 service are still gratefully remembered by the 
 older friends of the Institution, departed from 
 life in the city of Cincinnati during the year 
 1863. In the circle of the trustees the record 
 of mortality is much more extensive. The first 
 President of the Board, the venerated Dr. Wil- 
 son, has long since gone to that world where 
 the ransomed are seeing eye to eye, and where 
 those who differed here are associated together 
 in a fellowship never more to be broken. And 
 with him, and those two earliest teachers, what 
 a group of their associates in this earthly labor 
 are now convened in that better life ! Kemper 
 and Burnet and Groesbeck, Boal and Tichenor 
 and Neff, Brainard and Bishop and Mills and 
 Duffield, Macy and Vail and Baker and Me- 
 lendy, and others who served the Institution in 
 this capacity, have been gathered there to 
 receive the reward of their earthly fidelity, and 
 to join together without one discord in the vast 
 song of the redeemed. Is it an undue exercise 
 of faith to believe that they may be with us 
 mingling unseen in this glad anniversary ; or 
 that in their glorified estate they may be rejoic- 
 ing together in this evidence that their toil and 
 sacrifice were not in vain in the Lord ! 
 
 Here may the curtain fitly fall. The nearer 
 Past blends imperceptibly with the living Pres- 
 ent. Its personages and its events are too close 
 
EARLY HISTORY OF LANE. 71 
 
 and too replete with the mobility of life to be 
 contemplated in the perspective of history. The 
 labors, sacrifices, devotion of Stowe and Dick- 
 inson and Condit and Day and Ballantine are 
 yet to be told. Neither may we speak, as 
 future history will, of him (Rev. Dr. Allen) 
 whose seven and twenty years of service form 
 the golden chain that binds this earlier Past 
 with the living Present, and whose absence 
 from these scenes, under the strokes of an 
 afflictive Providence, renders the joy of this 
 commemorative occasion less complete. In- 
 spired by such examples and likewise admon- 
 ished by such providences, may we who remain 
 go forward into the Future with earnest and 
 resolute hearts. And may that Future, vital 
 and affluent and fruitful, while it justifies our 
 hope, bring to realization the brightest dreams 
 of those who, forty years ago, laid in the name 
 of Christ these strong foundations. 
 
III. 
 
 Historical Sketch of Lane, 
 
 AN IDDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE 
 CENTENNIAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 
 
 MAY 19, 1888. 
 
Protestantism in its main branches has dif- 
 fered widely from Romanism, not only in its 
 conception of the minister as distinguished from 
 the priest, but also and by necessary consequence 
 in the scope and the methods of its training for 
 the ministerial office. While Romanism secludes 
 its candidate for the priesthood within some 
 cloistered retreat, subjects him to a prescribed 
 cultus, drills him in a specified theology, trains 
 him in rubric and ordinance, and makes him an 
 expert in the technics of clerical administration, 
 Protestantism provides for its ministry a broader 
 culture, leads them through wider fields of thought 
 and experience and research, educates them into 
 loftier beliefs and a more comprehensive doc- 
 trine, trains them for preaching rather than for 
 sacramental service, equips them with completer 
 panoply whether for defensive or offensive strug- 
 gles, and in the end sends them forth, not as the 
 robed and stately representatives of a hierarchal 
 church, but rather as living, disciplined, positive, 
 sanctified messengers of God commissioned chief- 
 ly to proclaim his Gospel to a fallen race. 
 
 I deem it one of the glories of Presbyter- 
 ianism that no branch of Protestantism has ex- 
 celled it at any time, either in its conceptions of 
 the ministerial office, or in its requisitions and 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF LANE. 75 
 
 provisions for the completest preparation of those 
 who should fill that supreme position within the 
 church. And it may well be counted among 
 the distinguishing characteristics of our Ameri- 
 can Presbyterianism especially, that from the 
 first it has cherished so elevated an ideal of the 
 Christian minister, and even under the stress of 
 comparative poverty has so generously provided 
 for him, particularly in its theological seminar- 
 ies, the apparatus and the culture requisite to 
 his thorough training for its service. It was no 
 accident that the first and the second Protestant 
 theological school on this continent were found- 
 ed by Presbyterians as early as 1794 in Penn- 
 sylvania, and 1804 in New York, the latter 
 event antedating by eight years the founding of 
 our parent seminary at P;a*inceton. Nor was it 
 an accident that within a single decade after 
 Princeton was so established in 1812, the rapid 
 growth of our denomination westward along the 
 natural lines of migration from the seaboard to 
 the wilderness of Kentucky and Ohio, should 
 have given rise to proposals for a second insti- 
 tution of like character and structure somewhere 
 west of the Alleghenies. In the Minutes for 
 1825 it is recorded that the General Assembly 
 ''taking into consideration the numerous and 
 rapidl}^ increasing population of that part of the 
 United States and their territories situated in 
 the great valley of the Mississippi, and believ- 
 ing that the interests of the Presbyterian Church 
 
7Q THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 imperiously require it, and that the Redeemer's 
 kingdom will be thereby promoted, Resolved 
 that it is expedient forthwith to establish a Theo- 
 logical Seminary in the West, under the super- 
 vision of the General Assembly." After further 
 action, prescribing minutely the constitution and 
 character of the proposed seminary, a commis- 
 sion composed of five persons (of which com- 
 misssion Gen. Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, 
 who three years later became President, was 
 the chairman) was appointed to consider the 
 specific and perplexing question of location. 
 There is good reason for believing that the real 
 center of this original movement lay rather in 
 Ohio and Kentucky than in Western Pennsyl- 
 vania, three of the committee of six by which 
 the constitution was .drafted, three of the five 
 members of the commission to locate, four of the 
 seven agents appointed to collect funds, and a 
 majority of the first Board of Directors being 
 residents within the former regions. The first 
 meeting of the Board of Directors also was 
 ordered to be held at Chillicothe, until recently 
 capital of the state of Ohio, and of the four 
 places specially advocated as the seat of the 
 contemplated seminary, two were in Ohio and a 
 third as far west as Indiana, which had become 
 a state only nine years before. The question of 
 place soon became prominent and troublesome ; 
 the commission was not unanimous in its judg- 
 ment ; divisions of opinion and of feeling arose 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF LANE. 't7 
 
 among the advocates of the more western local- 
 ities, and at length the Board, by a vote of eight 
 to five, recommended to the Assembly of 1826 
 the selection of ''Allegheny Town, opposite the 
 city of Pittsburgh," mainly on the ground that 
 th-e other localities were too far away in the 
 younger West, It was, however, determined by 
 the Assembly, after considerable debate, that 
 the seminary should be located "either in Alleg- 
 heny Town in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, or at 
 Walnut Hills in the vicinity of Cincinnati, or at 
 Charlestown, Indiana, as the General Assembly 
 of 1827 should decide." The latter name sug- 
 gests at once that local movement for the secur- 
 ing of an adequate ministry for the Mississippi 
 Valley, which resulted a few years later in the 
 founding first at Hanover and then at New Al- 
 bany of what has since become the affluent and 
 prosperous Seminary of our church at Chicago. 
 But at that time there was only one small Pres- 
 bytery in the state of Indiana, and this was 
 associated ecclesiastically and by other afhlia- 
 tions with the Synod of Kentucky — a fact which 
 probably explains the proposing of Charlestown 
 rather tlian any point in Ohio or Pennsylvania 
 as the site of the new institution. Chillicothe 
 and another location in this state, as well as 
 "Walnut Hills, near Cincinnati," were proposed 
 as suitable locations for the new seminary. Had 
 the friends of the movement in Ohio been able 
 to agree among themselves as to locality, there 
 
t8 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 is little room to doubt that the second great theo- 
 logical institution of our church would have been 
 planted elsewhere than at the confluence of the 
 Allegheny and the Monongahela. 
 
 But the General Assembly of 1827, after a 
 strenuous discussion, decided through calling 
 the roll, and as tradition alleges by a bare 
 majority of one, that "Allegheny Town should 
 be the site of the Western Theological Semin- 
 ary." That this decision should have proved 
 acceptable to the advocates of ihese other local- 
 ities, would hardly be expected. Cincinnati, 
 being the mediate and central point, was the 
 only one in which there could finally have been 
 general acquiescence. But that decision in fact, 
 with unexpected fertility, brought into existence 
 three theological seminaries at once ; for within 
 two years the foundations of a second institution 
 had been laid on Walnut Hills, and within four 
 years a third had been organized at a lower 
 point on the Ohio River, as an adjunct of Han- 
 over College. More than this might be said, 
 for simultaneously with these movements in the 
 West the South had been roused by the action 
 in the Assembly to similar effort, and the 
 Union Seminary, founded in Virginia in 1824, 
 and recognized officially by the Assembly in 
 1826, and also the Columbia Seminary, organ- 
 ized by the Synod of North Carolina and Georgia 
 in 1828, were the practical results. Five semi- 
 naries thus sprang into being within a single de- 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF LANE. 
 
 70 
 
 cade. Everywhere American Presbyterian ism 
 was apprehending more fully than ever the vital 
 importance of an educated ministry and of estab- 
 lishing institutions fitted to impart such education. 
 Those who were interested in founding 
 such an institution at Walnut Hills were not 
 daunted by the adverse decision of the Assem- 
 bly. A Presbyterian academy had been in 
 existence at this point since 1819, and this eas- 
 ily became in 1828 the nucleus of a broader 
 institution, both collegiate and theological in 
 design, for which a State charter was procured 
 early in 1829, and a financial basis laid through 
 the Christian munificence of the members ''of 
 the Kemper family, and a gift of several thou- 
 sand dollars by two brothers bearing the name 
 of Lane, merchants in Cincinnati, who were 
 Baptists. The academic department went at 
 once into operation, and in the autumn of 1830 
 the theological department was introduced by 
 the election of Lyman Beecher, then of Boston, 
 as Professor of Didactic and Polemic Theology! 
 This appointment was at first declined, although 
 Dr. Beecher had characteristically said that 
 the grandest thought that had ev^er entered his 
 mind was the thought of educating in the West 
 a ministry for that great West which to his vis- 
 ion was limited by the Mississippi River, but 
 to ours is scarcely bounded by the Pacific 
 Ocean. In 1832 the election was repeated and 
 at length accepted, and in December of that 
 
80 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 year the Seminary was opened with Prof. 
 Thomas J. Biggs and the eminent scholar and 
 teacher Calvin E. Stowe, who came early in 
 1833, as associate instructors. Two years later 
 the Faculty was completed by the addition of 
 the venerated Baxter Dickinson, subsequently 
 professor in Auburn Seminary, and widely 
 known in the Church as the author of the 
 Auburn Declaration^ an historic document, the 
 original of which still remains as a precious 
 relic in the library of the Institution. 
 
 But althoug-h solid foundations had thus 
 been laid, a Faculty of marked ability secured, 
 and a large number of students brought to- 
 gether, the endowment was wholly inadequate 
 at the best, and in the period of financial de- 
 pression that followed in 1837 much of this was 
 lost. One pledged professorship perished entire 
 through the business failure of its donor, Arthur 
 Tappan of New York. Differences of judg- 
 ment as to policy arose early, and divided coun- 
 sels led to distraction and to alienation. That 
 sad conflict — theological, political, administra- 
 tive — which finally culminated in the disruption 
 of 1837, naturally found a strategic centre here 
 as in other seminaries of the Church. As the 
 battle progressed and waged at large, it became 
 more fierce, more personal, more destructive at 
 this centre also, eventuating finally in the trial 
 of Dr. Beecher for heresy in 1835, in the with- 
 drawal of some who had been friends, in the 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF LANE. 81 
 
 diminished attendance of students, and in great 
 sorrow of heart to many who deprecated alike 
 the strife and its results. The current agitation 
 touching slavery as to both its moral quality 
 and its political status, greatly increased these 
 embarrassments, and other difficulties were not 
 wanting to obstruct still further the pathway to 
 that peaceful and beneficent progress of which 
 the founders of the Institution had so fondly 
 dreamed. Two of the professors, Dickinson 
 and Biggs, were constrained in 1839 to resign 
 their places ; and though the Faculty was 
 reconstructed by the addition in 1840 of the 
 beloved and venerated Allen, who for more 
 than a quarter of a century after served the 
 Seminary with singular fidelity, the general 
 outlook still gave occasion for the gravest soli- 
 citude. 
 
 During the decade from 1840 to 1850 the 
 Seminary, though crippled, still went on doing 
 quietly a large and valuable work, and increas- 
 ing somewhat year by year in resources and in 
 influence. Its classes, attracted largely by the 
 fame of Dr. Beecher, nearly equaled those of 
 more conspicuous institutions at the East ; its 
 graduates were generallv found to be sound 
 and earnest and practical men, and were widely 
 welcomed by the churches. A fine missionary 
 temper pervaded the Institution, and many 
 went forth from it during this period inspired 
 with a Christ-like desire to plant the Gospel 
 
82 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 along the frontier lines of the Republic or to 
 proclaim Christ in pagan lands. Albert Bush- 
 nell and five others in Africa, Wilson and 
 Adams in Syria, Bonney and Cummings in 
 China, Chandler and others in India, Pogue 
 and Andrews in the Sandwich Islands, Spauld- 
 ing and Williamson among the American Indi- 
 ans, and others like them, were notable 
 examples of a missionary zeal which throbbed 
 through the Institution in that early day, and 
 which gave to it both character and power. 
 Meanwhile, as the only Seminary of the New 
 School body in this region, a wide field of use- 
 fulness gradually opened before it in what is 
 now the Central West, and a very large 
 proportion of the churches connected with that 
 body within this region gratefully received 
 from it their ministerial supplies. 
 
 In 1850 Dr. Beecher, bowing under the 
 weight of seventy-five years, and of almost un- 
 precedented cares and labors, resigned his chair 
 and returned to the East for the remainder of 
 his life. 
 
 ^ * --k * ^ He * 
 
 Time would fail me were I to speak as they 
 deserve of his associates in the first Faculty — 
 Biggs and Stowe and Dickinson ; or of those 
 who followed him during the dark period of the 
 Disruption, Allen and Condit and Smith and 
 Evans and Day, the last two still among the liv- 
 ing ; or of those who came into service after the 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF LANE. 83 
 
 day dawn of the Union, but who now have ceased 
 from their earthly labors, Thomas and Humph- 
 rey and Eells. Few institutions have been blessed 
 with a more valuable Faculty, either in the class 
 room and in seminary life at large, or in their more 
 general relationship to the church. Seven of 
 the professors, including the one who still sur- 
 vives, have been Moderators of the General As- 
 sembly, and nearly all have filled conspicuous 
 pastorates or occupied other important posts of 
 service in the church. Time would fail me were 
 I to refer to the long series of intelligent, earn- 
 est, faithful trustees, who at various stages have 
 carried the Seminary on their hearts and have 
 rejoiced to spend and be spent in its service ; 
 especially that central group of Christian lay- 
 men now deceased, from Elnathan Kemper and 
 Gabriel Tichcnor and Nathaniel Wright down 
 to Edward D. Mansfield and Robert Boal and 
 Anthony H. Hinkle iind Preserved Smith, to 
 whose thorough loyalty and wise counsels and 
 wonderful generosity the institution might justly 
 be said to owe its very life. 
 
 The period from the resignation of Dr. 
 Beecher to the Union of 1869, was one of dis- 
 tinct usefulness, though shadowed by constant 
 financial difliculties, and marked by much strug- 
 gle and sacrifice on the part alike of these guard- 
 ians of the institution and of those who taucfht 
 
 o 
 
 within it. The history of many a developing 
 college and seminary in our country, like the 
 
84 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 records of many a Christian church, will exhibit 
 some such period as this in which work is done 
 in a compressed and depressing atmosphere, and 
 in which nothing but sanctified grit, holy patience 
 and a dauntless fidelity can bear the sacred trust 
 in hand into a large and fruitful place. With 
 the Union, such opportunity came and was cor- 
 dially welcomed. While the institution had no 
 traditions to blot out, or principles to sell for 
 any anticipated success, however great, it was 
 in fact the first of our seminaries to adjust itself 
 freely to the changed conditions by introducing 
 a new element into its Board of Trust ; b}^ bring- 
 ing into its Faculty those who should ably rep- 
 resent other modes of stating, explaining and 
 defending the common Calvinistic system, and 
 by welcoming to every privilege it could offer 
 all of whatever Presbyterian antecedents who 
 desired the ministerial culture it was established 
 to give. And it has had its just reward in an 
 increase of loyal friends and of loyal students 
 also, in enlarging resources and an enlarged 
 Faculty, in a more commanding position and 
 reputation, and — what is more to be prized than 
 all the rest — in a steadily expanding sphere of 
 useful and fruitful service for the church and for 
 the world. 
 
 As the first class was not graduated till 1836, 
 Lane Seminary may be said to have but little 
 more than completed the first half century in 
 its career of fruitfulness. During this period 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF LANE. 85 
 
 the institution has sent out nearly nine 
 hundred persons who have received the whole 
 or much of their preparation for the ministry 
 within its walls, and who have gone forth, the 
 wide world over, to preach the Gospel, to found 
 or foster churches, to build up colleges and 
 other kindred institutions, and to help forward 
 with intelligent minds and resolute hearts every 
 great and good interest of humanity. More than 
 fifty of that number have gone into the foreign 
 field, and more than half of the rest, it is esti- 
 mated, have spent their lives chiefly in that 
 gigantic task which so often aroused the elo- 
 quence of Lyman Beecher, the task of implant- 
 ing the Church of God firmly in the Mississippi 
 Valley and the regions beyond. Of this body 
 of alumni, between three and four hundred are 
 now on the roll of our own church ; a consider- 
 able number, especially of the earlier classes, 
 being at service in the Congregational and other 
 evangelical denominations. A small proportion 
 of these alumni are located at difTerent points 
 from Massachusetts to Florida in the Atlantic 
 division of the Republic ; nearly one hundred, 
 including sixteen on the Pacific coast, are labor- 
 ing in the vast Western division beyond the Mis- 
 sissippi ; while the rest are at service within the 
 seven states comprised in the great Central di- 
 vision, stretching from Michigan to Tennessee 
 — nearly one hundred of them in Ohio alone. 
 And it may be counted one of the special glories 
 
86 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 of the institution that it has so long been, and 
 still is, so important a factor in making that 
 magnificent group of central states, spiritually, 
 politically, socially, what the whole country 
 knows tiiem to be. A noble, goodly company 
 of ministers these are — animated specially by 
 that missionary spirit, that absorbing love for 
 souls, in which the Seminary had its origin — 
 trained rather for service than for parade, char- 
 acteristically intelligent and ardent in their 
 work, faithful as they were taught to every good 
 and great interest, friends by instinct of revivals 
 and rejoicing to labor in them, and everywhere 
 eminently loyal as a body to the Truth as it is 
 in Christ. 
 
 Permit me to close this cursory sketch with 
 a single remark : The seminaries of our church» 
 born of an intelligent and profound conviction, 
 admirably distributed geographically, already 
 largely endowed and equipped for effective serv- 
 ice, the elect and chief source of supply for our 
 churches and our rapidly expanding missionary 
 work, and manifestly destined as their needs 
 are met to bear far greater fruitage in the future, 
 constitute one of the distinctive excellencies, one 
 of the crowning glories, of our beloved Church. 
 They are eminently worthy of respect and love 
 and continuous aid, and also of habitual and 
 earnest commendation by the church and 
 around the family altar to the benediction of 
 Him to whose cause and triumph they are all 
 
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF LANK. 87 
 
 alike consecrated. And in that goodly fellow- 
 ship, with malice toward none, with charitable 
 greeting to all, seeking no advantage for itself 
 at the expense of others, in affectionate loyalty to 
 the compact of 1869, the Lane Seminary desires, 
 as the one theological institution of our Church 
 in the Ohio Valley, to hold now and always 
 some fair, some worthy place. 
 
IV. 
 
 The Theology of Lane. 
 
 AN OPENING ADDRESS DELIVERED IN LANE 
 SEMINARY CHAPEL. 
 
 SEPTEMBER 14, 1882. 
 
 — " The man 
 That could surround the sum of things, and spy 
 The heart of God, and secrets of his empire, 
 Would speak but Love: With him the bright result 
 Would change the hue of intermediate scenes, 
 And make One Thing of all Theology." 
 
Brethren of the Seminary : 
 
 What is the place which the element of 
 doctrine holds in the Presbyterian conception 
 of the Church? What is the generic type of 
 Presbyterian doctrine, and under what admis- 
 sible forms or varieties does this general type 
 exist? How far does American differ, as to 
 type and place of doctrine, from European 
 Presbyterianism ; and what is the special posi- 
 tion of our own Church with respect both to the 
 doctrine which it confesses, and to the temper 
 in which such doctrine should be accepted 
 and maintained? What is our rule of subscrip- 
 tion to doctrine, and what the proper spirit in 
 which all questions affecting doctrine should be 
 treated by us as true Presbyterians? What is 
 the attitude of this Seminary toward all such 
 issues ; and what should be the doctrinal dispos- 
 ition of those who are assembled here, whether 
 to receive or to impart instruction? To such as 
 are called to the high office of teaching in this 
 hallowed place, and to those who gather here as 
 students, whether at the beginning or some- 
 where along the line of their theologic training, 
 these inquiries will seem worthy of thoughtful 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 91 
 
 attention — especially as we stand together to- 
 night on the threshold of another year of fellow- 
 ship and of labor. God give us grace to con- 
 sider them rightly! 
 
 1. Presbyterianism throughout the world 
 may be said to be in an eminent sense doctri- 
 nal ; doctrinal, because it is Calvinistic. The 
 Roman Catholic Church, especially since the 
 Reformation, has set the element of doctrine re- 
 latively aside, or has consented to wide diver- 
 sities in doctrine, in order to secure through 
 that sacrifice a more complete and effective 
 scheme of organization and worship. Luther- 
 anism has, at times, diverged widely from its 
 primitive system of doctrine as enunciated by 
 Martin Luther — in the interest on one side of a 
 churchly sacramentarianism, or on the other of 
 a latitudinarianism in opinion, which begfins by 
 ignoring doctrine, and ends, too often, with re- 
 jecting it. Episcopacy, in its varieties, has fre- 
 quently consented to similar latitude on doctri- 
 nal questions for the sake of securing position 
 as a state religion, or of maintaining ecclesias- 
 tical unity around a prescribed liturgy. Method- 
 ism has largely preferred to lay the chief stress 
 in its organization, not on the Thirty-Nine 
 Articles or the Institutes of Watson, or even on 
 liturgical forms or church methods, but rather 
 on the Christian life, and on the realization of 
 the gospel in human experience and in practi- 
 cal religious activities. Baptist bodies every- 
 
92 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 where find their main bond of union in the mode 
 of administering a Christian sacrament ; and for 
 the sake of unity here are willing to admit both 
 Calvinistic and Arminian teaching alike, within 
 their prescribed communion. Even the Congre- 
 gational churches, especially of America, though 
 strongly impregnated with the Augustinianism 
 of men like Edwards, and Dwight, and Em- 
 mons, have been inclined in some degree, es- 
 pecially of late, to set aside doctrinal tests, and 
 to find elsewhere the proper basis and measure 
 of denominational organization. 
 
 But Presbyterianism, wherever found, has 
 alwavs been eminently, persistently, and in the 
 eyes of some, offensively doctrinal. Thus, at 
 the Reformation, while the eye of the Lutheran 
 was fixed much on the central sacrament of 
 grace, the eye of the Calvinist was drawn in- 
 tently toward that great scheme of truth of 
 which the doctrine of justification by faith was 
 the central principle. And while in process of 
 time Germany followed mainly this primitive 
 bias toward what was formal and churchly, 
 Switzerland and Holland, and, finally, Scotland 
 and all Presbyterian churches speaking the 
 English tongue, yielded rather to the attractions 
 of that grand system of belief which the genius 
 of John Calvin had thrown into organic form. 
 The history of European Presbyterianism shows 
 singularl}^ how strong this attraction was, and 
 how largely the element of doctrine figured 
 
The theology of lane. 93 
 
 thus in the developments of church life. Vari- 
 eties in the presentation of the common truth 
 indeed occurred frequently, as may be seen in 
 the rise of the Arminian controversy in Hol- 
 land, and the growth of the influential school of 
 Saumur in France ; but however wide the diver- 
 sity, it was always a diversity, not about polity 
 or liturgy or method, but about the dogmas 
 embraced, and the interpretation of the accepted 
 creed. The same general fact is equally ap- 
 parent in our own time ; and, perhaps, the re- 
 mark might be ventured, that doctrine really 
 occupies a higher place among Presbyterians 
 now than it held in the days of our fathers. 
 Both the conflicts of divergent schools within 
 the common domain, and the battles which 
 Presbyterianism has v^aged in this century both 
 with other types of Protestantism and with 
 Romanism and unbelief, have probably intensi- 
 fied this devotion to doctrine, and exalted such 
 doctrine into even greater prominence and con- 
 trol. At least, it is no less true now than for- 
 merly that, among the various branches of nom- 
 inal Christianity, the Presbyterian Church in all 
 its varieties is eminently the Church of the Doc- 
 trines. 
 
 The secret of this lies partly in other 
 causes, but chiefly in the nature of Calvinism 
 viewed as a doctrinal system. It is safe to say 
 that no scheme of sacred dogma, ever built up 
 within the Christian Church, has such power to 
 
94 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 hold Strongly and permanently those who once 
 embrace it. Under various names, it has exhib- 
 ited this rare power from. the days of Augustine 
 until now, even within the Roman, and still 
 more within the Protestant fold. Starting with 
 the fundamental conception of God in his per- 
 sonality and character, and his purposes and 
 relations to his creatures, it has erected 
 on that foundation a scheme of the universe, 
 of man, and of salvation, which has withstood 
 the criticism of fourteen centuries, and 
 which still maintains a conspicuous, if not 
 a supreme, place among the types of faith cur- 
 rent in Christendom. It has been a strictly 
 logical system — logical sometimes even to the 
 undue bending of the flowing language of 
 Scripture to lit the forms of the syllogism or the 
 demands of exact, deductive demonstration. It 
 has had in it a large, sometimes an excessive, 
 philosophical element — in some cases exalting 
 this to an equality with Revelation itself, and 
 requiring submission to it as rigidly as it de- 
 manded acceptance of the dogma of sin or of 
 grace. It has at times been carried to the ut- 
 most extremes, and its most refined and remote 
 inferences have been set forth as equally impe- 
 rative with its most immediate biblical concep- 
 tions. It has often been dogmatic, imperious, dis- 
 dainful of opposing systems — ever ready to 
 make battle with every varying scheme, even 
 of evangelical belief. These are among the lia- 
 bilities or frailties of the system ; but are they 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF EANE. 95 
 
 not themselves a mute testimony to ^ the vigor, 
 the commanding force, of the system that be- 
 trays them? That system appeals immediately 
 to the intellect— roots itself inextricably in the 
 brain. It proposes both to commend Christian- 
 ity conclusively to the reason, and to bring 
 every rational thought into intelligent captivity 
 to the truth in Christ. There is no problem in 
 the realm either of nature or of grace, of which 
 it does not attempt a solution ; it aims to take 
 in within its wide compass every question which 
 the soul raises, and which the Bible professes to 
 answer. Complex in detail, strict in structure, 
 and thus high and comprehensive in its pur- 
 pose, Calvinism has always commanded the in- 
 terest even of its enemies, and has held intellec- 
 tually those who have once embraced it, as a 
 strong anchor holds a ship amid the storm'. Its 
 grasp of the conscience is equally firm and in- 
 exorable ; the moral sense responds to it deci- 
 sively, if at all; and its spiritual bonds are 
 strong enough to hold and regulate the most 
 vigorous life. If it sometimes seems cold and 
 passionless, failing to reach the warmer sensi- 
 bilities as other systems have done, still it is 
 not in Itself a feelingless form of faith. It has 
 entered potentially into multitudes of human 
 hearts,' and has caused them to respond in notes 
 as sweet and deep as those of angels are. 
 Above all, it has entered most vitally into the 
 characters of those who have received it, elevat- 
 ing their purposes while it enlarged their con- 
 
96 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 ceptions, strengthening their manhood ixs well 
 as their reason, and so certifying itself in much 
 of the best Christian experience and activity 
 historically recorded. Though it has been 
 marked sometimes by positiveness, by narrow- 
 ness or coldness of feeling, by tendencies 
 toward dogmatic formalism, yet in the main 
 Protestantism has thus far revealed no form of 
 faith which has dene more to make men ac- 
 quainted with the truth, or to carry the gospel 
 round the world. Such, in a word, is the doc- 
 trinal system which bears the current name of 
 Calvin ; and such is the secret of the fact that 
 Presbyterianism has been so largely and strong- 
 ly doctrinal from the days of the Reformation 
 until now. 
 
 11. Presbyterian Calvinism has always 
 existed, and, from the nature of the case, still 
 exists, under a law of progressive variety or of 
 diversified progress ; exhibiting itself historical- 
 ly, in other words, in constantly varying forms 
 and proportions, and so moving on from age to 
 age toward greater completeness, and therefore 
 toward increasing power. To suppose that a 
 system of truth, having in it so many elements, 
 and holding these in an organic unity so ela- 
 borate, should have sprung forth at once as a 
 consummate flower into its final and perfected 
 shape — a system from which nothing could ever 
 be eliminated, and to which the study of future 
 times could add nothing -is to fancy what never 
 has existed, and what, from the nature of the 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 97 
 
 case, never can exist. Calvinism was a thou- 
 sand years older than Calvin ; it had its real 
 genesis in the exigencies of that ancient Pela- 
 gian conflict which rent the Cliristian Church 
 during the fourth and fifth centuries. What 
 Calvin did was to revive and recast, to define 
 and expand, and t© formulate afresh what Aug- 
 ustine had already taught. Yet John Calvin, 
 dogmatic and severe toward opponents as he 
 often was, never ventured to claim that his ela- 
 borate system had been brought by him to its 
 final perfection. He was never narrow enough 
 to suppose that other men, in later ages, would 
 never see the truth of God more clearly than he 
 saw it, or state that truth in terms more ade- 
 quate or more in harmony with that divine 
 Word, wliich he always recognized as the ulti- 
 mate test and measure of all systems devised by 
 man. And, in fact, Calvinism, even during the 
 first century of its recognized existence as a 
 system, became not one but many — one in its 
 essential elements, but many as the churches 
 and the theoloofians, in the manner in which 
 these elements were combined, and in the spirit 
 with which they were received and applied in 
 the religious life. Even Swiss Calvinism soon 
 varied from Calvin ; the general system, as pre- 
 sented by the Turretins and others, was in 
 many aspects unlike that formulated in the im- 
 mortal Institutes. As received in the Palati- 
 nate, and incorporated into the Heidelberg 
 Catechism, that system underwent other and 
 
98 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 Still more decisive variations. The hard, ex- 
 treme Calvinism of the Dutch Church, which 
 finally drove thoughtful men like Arminius and 
 Grotius into open revolt, and led on to the 
 formulation of Arminianism as an antagonistic 
 scheme, was a natural, yet a special, outgrowth 
 of that extreme logical quality and that rigid 
 type of philosophic rather than biblical state- 
 ment, introduced into the system by the Hol- 
 landish theologians of the preceding century. 
 The doctrine of the Covenants, first fully form- 
 ulated and set in place in the system by the 
 hand of Cocceius, again modified and in some 
 directions largely improved the general scheme, 
 as it came from the brain of Calvin. On the 
 other side, we see in the French School of 
 Saumur, with its peculiarities in teaching and 
 soirit, another influence modifying and also 
 meliorating the severities of the primitive sys- 
 tem. So, in the British Isles, Knox and Mel- 
 ville were not able to hold Calvinistic thought 
 always in one changeless mood ; varieties grad- 
 ually appeared, first in individual teaching, 
 then in the belief and position of churches, un- 
 til Presbyterianism in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, 
 England, became as diverse as the billows, 
 though one as the sea.* The generic type has 
 
 ^It is no secret to those who have studied the Minutes of the 
 Westminster Assembly, as published by Prof. Mitchell, or examined 
 the writings of the leading divines in that venerable body, or con- 
 sidered the phases of theology current in Europe in the middle ol 
 the seventeenth century, that the Confession and Catechisms of 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 99 
 
 everywhere been strongly held ; but the ele- 
 ments have continually been shifting and pre- 
 senting- themselves in new forms of combina- 
 tion, and in the main with higher aspiration. 
 x\nd he would be wide of the mark, who, under 
 any fancied stress of loyalty to historic Calvin- 
 ism, should affirm that no improvement had 
 ever crossed the channel since the days of 
 Knox ; or that British Calvinism, stern and fixed 
 and rocky though it often seems, is to-day pre- 
 cisely what it was in that earlier age! 
 
 Westminster were not the expression of one unvarying, unanimous 
 form of theological thought — a type of Calvinism in which all were 
 perfectly agreed, as to both substance and expression ; but rather 
 were the final outcome of strenuous and prolonged debates, assum- 
 ing at last the form of a mediatory compromise between recognized 
 extremes. The cardinal doctrine of decrees, fundamental in the 
 system enunciated by the Assembly, itself illustrates alike the exist- 
 ing diversities in the body, an.l the final agreement on a definition 
 of the truth, in which all could for substance harmonize. So, in re- 
 spect to the freedom of the will, and the position and responsibility 
 of the sinner with regard to offered grace, there are clear evidences 
 of a conscious compromise between men who still realized their wide 
 variety on secondary features or phases of the generic truth. Many 
 such evidences may be found in other directions ]>y anyone vvhocare- 
 fidly examines our symbols in the light of contemporaneous records. 
 And is it not one of the glories of that memorable Council that its 
 members, however widely they differed in particulars, were still 
 able to discern the broad, underlying Calvinism which led them to- 
 gether, and made them essentially one? They saw and frankly 
 stated their differences; but their common desire to frame a creed 
 in which the Protestantism of the British Isles could be united and 
 unified, made them willing to merge all differences in the grander 
 unity of faith and church to which they all aspired. Worthy ex- 
 ample for their descendants of liter times — for us, who inherit their 
 composite creed, and who should inherit also their catholic spirit! 
 The more we know of the men of Westminster, and of their noble 
 work, the less shall we fall apart in the presence of slight diversi- 
 ties—the more clearly and heartily shall we rest in the conviction 
 that such diversities are of "no moment when compared with our 
 common heritage in that magnificent set of symbols which they gave 
 to us and the world. See Mitchell: Introduction to Minutes of the 
 Westminster Assembly. 
 
100 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 The conditions of such variation and such 
 advance lie partly in the historic relations which 
 this remarkable system has been called to sus- 
 tain, and in the external changes through which 
 it has passed. Had Calvinism been simpler and 
 more superficial, it might have retained its ori- 
 ginal type more exactly. Had its life been 
 shorter, or its distribution less extensive, or its 
 points of contact with human philosophy or hu- 
 man experience been fewer, it might have lived 
 on through its brief day, unaltered and unim- 
 proved. But we are to bear in mind the fact that 
 three centuries have passed since Calvin died, 
 and fourteen since Augustine was the light and 
 leader of the African Church. We are to re- 
 member that their scheme of doctrine has ven- 
 tured on the experiment of extensive travel from 
 its original homes in Africa and among the 
 Alps ; that it has spread itself over the whole of 
 Northern Europe, from Geneva to the Arctic 
 Seas, has been diffused throughout the British 
 Isles, has crossed oceans and visited many peo- 
 ples in this continent and in others, widely un- 
 like in thought and nature the African peasants 
 or the Swiss mountaineers who first swore alle- 
 giance to it. We are not to forget that modern 
 life has been essentially changed during the 
 three momentous centuries since Calvin wrote — 
 that new philosophies have come in, and new 
 usages and laws and nationalities have sprung 
 into being, and new experiences have been 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 101 
 
 awakened, such as the Europe of the Reforma- 
 tion could never have foretold. Even the Chris- 
 tian Church, though the same, is yet widely 
 another ; and the Protestantism of to-day is no 
 longer a simple protest, but a positive, complex 
 growth of belief, polity, worship, experience, as 
 many-sided as modern life is, and more urgent 
 than its prototype in its demands on Christian 
 theology of whatever sort. Now, to fancy that 
 amid so much of change and variation — amid 
 such radical shiftings and improvements in al 
 other directions, a system of belief such as Cal- 
 vinism could have remained in one form, un- 
 modified and unimproved at any point, from 
 century to century, is to fancy that system to 
 be no less inspired and divine than the heavenly 
 Word from which it sprang. In such circum- 
 stances and transitions, variety and improvement 
 were inevitable. 
 
 The conditions of such variation and ad- 
 vance also lie largely in the nature of Calvinism 
 itself. Glance again, for a moment, at this re- 
 markable system, whose real worth and force 
 are the rather proved than called in question by 
 the transmutations through v^hich it has passed. 
 Observe again how complex it is, and what op- 
 portunity it gives for a hundred different com- 
 binations of the diversified elements that com- 
 pose it. Observe how broad it is in its range — how 
 comprehensive it aims to be in its grouping of all 
 that is contained in the divine Word : and conse- 
 
102 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 quently how easy it becomes for men to omit this 
 or unduly exalt that feature — to press one side of 
 the scheme into the shadow in order to bring an- 
 other into clearer light. Observe also how in- 
 quisitive and penetrating this system is — what 
 problems it grapples with, and what profound 
 responses it makes ; and how much room, con- 
 sequently, it affords for variety in speculation 
 and teaching. Observe how much philosophy — 
 sometimes sensuous or mechanical, sometimes 
 ideal and even rationalistic — has had to do, not 
 merely with the language employed, but even 
 with the real elements, the actual construction 
 of the system. Observe in the same connection 
 the broader necessity whicii even divine truth 
 is under, to express itself always in words and 
 tones suited to the condition of those whom it 
 seeks to bless ; note the modifications in lan- 
 guage, expression, structure, which each revolv- 
 ing century in Christian experience reveals, and 
 which each nation, each latitude, exhibits in its 
 appropriation of the gospel itself ; and see how 
 extensively all this must affect systems of doc- 
 trine, as well as types of Christian living. It is, 
 of course, never to be forgotten that the truth of 
 God in his Word remains the same forever ; and 
 that in this sense theology, as the structural ex- 
 pression of that truth, is — as Macaulay held — a 
 finished science.* But one of the most striking 
 
 ^The position of Macaulay, as stated in his essay on Rankt;\^ 
 History of the Popes^ includes natural as well as revealed theology. 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 103 
 
 evidences of the divinity ©f Scripture lies in 
 the fact that its circumference steadily widens 
 as the thoughts of men expand, and that a deeper 
 depth reveals itself to each new age of believing 
 investigation. The Bible is larger, and will al- 
 ways be larger, than humanity. The Christian 
 Church, especially, is learning more and more 
 of the light, sweetness, grace, which are con- 
 tained in this Book ; and such advancing knowl- 
 edge is steadily recording itself in both her ex- 
 perience and her teaching. In this sense the 
 Bible is a constantly unfolding revelation — ex- 
 hibiting itself in a species of evolution, as grand 
 as that by which the oak emerges from the 
 acorn, and passes upward to its predestined per- 
 
 Hc claims that natural theology is not a progiessive science, on the 
 ground that the arguments employed by Paley to prove the divine 
 existence were employed as well by Socrates that we, in our day, 
 ''have precisely the same evidences of design in the structure of the 
 universe which the early Greeks had;" that the proofs of the im- 
 mortality of the soul, derived from nature, have not increased in 
 any degree with the advance of knowledge and civilization. In like 
 manner, he further claims that revealed theology is "not of the na- 
 ture of a progressive science," because the materials used in its 
 construction are in all ages the same. All divine truth is contained 
 in certain books ; all the discoveries of all the philosophers in the 
 world cannot add to these books a single verse. " A Christian of 
 the fifth century with a Bible, is on a par with a Christian of the 
 nineteeth century with a Bible, candor and natural acuteness being, 
 of course, supposed equal." Hence he infers that old errors in 
 theology are just as likely to be repeated now as in any former age, 
 and that the progressive enlightenment of modern times is not ''fa- 
 vorable to Protestantism, and unfavorable to Catholicism," as is be- 
 lieved by Protestants. 
 
 The fallacy of Macaulay is the same in both directions. The 
 cosmological and teleological arguments indeed remain the same, 
 as arguments, but the material employed in the reasoning is con- 
 stantly accumulating, and the cogency of the reasoning is conse- 
 quently increasing, from age to age. The forty years which have 
 passed since this famous essay was written, have added immensely 
 
104 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 fection in the skies. And if this be true of 
 Scripture, still more must it be true that every 
 system of theology, deriving its materials from 
 that unfolding volume, exists under a primal law 
 of evolution and advance. Whatever is narrow 
 in any such system must be broadened ; what- 
 ever has been omitted must be brought in and 
 set in its legitimate place and relations ; what- 
 ever is based on erroneous interpretations must 
 be adjusted anew to the divine Original ; what- 
 ever is philosophic statement merely must be 
 modified if deficient — thrown aside if false ; and 
 whatever has been introduced to meet the pecu- 
 liarities of any given race or age, must be so 
 stated as to meet in like manner the spiritual 
 needs of other ages, or other races. This is true 
 of all human theologies ; and in some respects it 
 is eminently true of Calvinism. I have no idea 
 that much, if anything, that now appears to be 
 
 to both material and proof in this department. So, while the car- 
 dinal teachings of Scripture cannot be altered or improved by hu- 
 man ingenuity, the volume of teaching in the Bible is found to be 
 steadily expanding, as the human intelligence increases in capacity; 
 and both the forms and the cogency of revealed doctrine are con- 
 stantly developing through progressive inquiry and vi^idening 
 knowledge of the Word iiself. Christian theology is thus not a 
 stationary and finished, but a steadily advancing science, ever set- 
 ting the truth of God in fresh lights and rclitions, discovering new 
 harmonies in that truth, and thus building up, century by century, 
 a temple of sacred doctrine, whose full completion it may not be 
 given to mortal man to behold. Those who hold the opposite view 
 must prepare themselves not only to accept the painful inference 
 which Macaulay draws, but also to submit to many other conse- 
 quences, far more painful. To crystallize Christian doctrine into 
 one final and irreversible shape, and then declare the process of 
 evolution finished forever, would be to doom that doctrine, and 
 the Christian Church with it. to a death without a resurrection. 
 
"THfe THEOLOGY OF LANE. 105 
 
 essential to that great scheme will ever be set 
 aside ; nor have I the slightest apprehension that 
 any modifications will occur, that will change 
 Calvinism into Arminianism, or into any other 
 antithetic scheme of evangelical belief. But I 
 am sure that, as thj_s S3^stem Yirs alvvays exi_sted, 
 und_er a variety of forjns, and under a clear law 
 of progress, so it will continue to exist — proving 
 all the more its essential truthfulness by its de- 
 monstrated capacity to pass on from good to bet- 
 ter, from glory to glory, even unto the end. 
 
 III. In American Presbyterianism we ma}^ 
 observe, in some especial forms, the presence 
 in high degree of both of the general facts al- 
 ready described. Considering first the doctrinal 
 element generally in connection with denomina- 
 tional life, we see at once that among the various 
 divisions of nominal (^Christianity on this conti- 
 nent, the Presbyterian is especially the one 
 which exalts and emphasizes doctrine. Catholi- 
 cism, Lutheranism, Episcopacy, Methodism, re- 
 tain here largely the peculiarities which have 
 marked them in the Old World. The more 
 minor divisions, so far as transplanted from 
 Europe, exhibit the special characteristics of 
 their parentage ; and the new sects originating 
 here have been organized generally around some 
 other principle than a scheme of doctrine. But 
 American Presbyterianism, of whatever variety, 
 is known rather by the stress it lays upon dog- 
 ma. It cares little for rituals ; the robe and the 
 
106 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 ritual are uncongenial to it. It holds to the 
 spiritual rather than the formal conception of 
 the sacraments ; it is no stickler for mere modes 
 of administration. Though boastful of its policy, 
 it still is not churchly ; it generally subordinates 
 even church order tr the church belief. It be- 
 lieves equally with any in a vigorous, fruitful 
 religious life as one distinguishing mark of a 
 true Church ; but it maintains also the insepar- 
 able relations of a strong and penetrating doc- 
 trinal system to such a life. It holds up its 
 creed or creeds as its central standard, and calls 
 upon its adherents to rally first of all, and last of 
 all, around these, as the sign by which it would 
 be known among the Churches. It may thus be 
 characterized as supremely a doctrinal body. 
 This has been thrown at it as a stigma ; it ac- 
 cepts the stigma, and wears it as an honor. No 
 branch of Protestantism has a stronger or ampler 
 creed ; none holds its creed more tenaciously or 
 with greater fervor. Here, as in Europe, amid 
 all its varieties, it is conspicuously the Church 
 of the Doctrines. 
 
 Wherever we find him, this fact is vividly 
 illustrated in the typical Presbyterian. We 
 spontaneously fancy him a man of lengthened 
 feature, of serious aspect, of reflective nature. 
 His belief was wrought into him with the i-psis- 
 si7na verba of the Shorter Catechism. It was 
 confirmed by the type of preaching to which he 
 listened in his youth, and perchance by further 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 107 
 
 Studies in the Symbols. The Epistle to the Ro- 
 mans, even before the Psalms, is his favorite 
 portion of Scripture. He believes tirst of all, 
 and above all else, in God ; God as sovereign 
 in all his purposes, and righteous in all his ways. 
 He has wrestled with the dark problem of the 
 decrees and of election, and believes himself 
 from eternity a predestinated heir of grace. 
 His faith in the divine elements and factors in 
 salvation is absolute, unconquerable. He finds 
 his daily meat and drink in the most cardinal 
 truths of the gospel, and gathers strength from 
 them day by day. The doctrines are his de- 
 light ; they work themselves, as living verities, 
 into all -his experience ; they constitute the stuff 
 and substance of his character as a religious 
 man. He is more ready than other men to talk 
 of the doctrines, to argue for or about them, to 
 fight for them on whatever field. Always posi- 
 tive and sometimes dogmatic, he knows what 
 he believes and why he believes as he does, and 
 above most other disciples, is always ready 
 to give a reason, or a multitude of reasons, for 
 the faith that is in him. Hence the cast and 
 complexion of his experience, his exaltation of 
 preaching, his aversion to liturgy and form, his 
 sober and apparently passionless devotions. 
 Hence also his special zeal for the truth of God, 
 his ardor in the exaltation and diffusion of the 
 Scriptures as the trulj^ inspired Word, his inter- 
 est in Christian missions, his readiness to make 
 
i08 thir-Ty years in lane. 
 
 large sacrifices for the gospel. In a word, he 
 is what he is, as a Christian man, because he is 
 so vitally a man of doctrine — a man in whom 
 the truth of God, as gathered into his accepted 
 creed, is both center and circumference in be- 
 lief, — both light and life to the soul. 
 
 But while American Presbyterianism is thus 
 distinctly doctrinal, it is also true that the doc- 
 trine has never existed here in any single and 
 permanent variety, but rather has developed 
 itself historically in diversified and progressive 
 forms. A distinguished friend has said that our 
 Presbyterianism is like hickory — excellent tim- 
 ber, but it splits too easily. It lies in the nature 
 of the case, as humanity is constituted, that those 
 who hold truth very tenaciously, should be the 
 readiest to hold tenaciously either side on some 
 recognized point of difference, — should be the 
 first to divide about trifles. Latitudinarians 
 often agree because they are not sufficiently 
 earnest in the faith to generate a difference, 
 or to adhere to. differences. In like manner, 
 sects which are organized around mode or 
 worship or polity primarily, naturally give dog- 
 ma a secondary place, and for the sake of union 
 elsewhere consent often to wide diversities in 
 faith and teaching. The old taunt against the 
 Anglican Church as having a Popish liturgy, an 
 Arminian clergy, and a Calvinistic creed, applies 
 not merely to all State churches, but to every 
 church that is organized around any other than 
 
triE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 109 
 
 a distinctive, positive, and regulative doctrinal 
 system. And on the other hand, a church so 
 organized is especially exposed to diversitj-, to 
 conflict, and even to disruption, on points con- 
 nected with either the substance of its creed or 
 the principle of subscription to such creed. 
 Even little differences, which would hardl}^ 
 agitate another type of organization, may ser- 
 iously disturb or convulse this. This inherent 
 tendency, it may be added, is also greatly in- 
 creased in a country where thougrht is so free, 
 and where the expression of free thought is 
 almost absolutely unrestrained. For, while 
 American Presbyterianism may be said to have 
 inherited all the varieties of Calvinism devel- 
 oped in Europe, from the Swiss controversies 
 and the rupture of Dort down to the various di- 
 visions of the Scottish Church, 'it has also been 
 exposed, in addition, to many native centrifugal 
 tendencies, and thus under both classes of in- 
 fluence has easily and sadly fallen apart, in 
 many cases, where it might wisely have remained 
 one. Its history, from the division of 1741, down 
 to this day, furnishes abundant confirmation of 
 this truth.* 
 
 *Not only is it true that American Presbyterianism has 
 never yet existed in any one variety ; the expectation that it will 
 ever become one, by any combination of these varieties in doctrine, 
 seems to be extensively surrendered. Not withsranding the many 
 impressive inducements to such unification, and aUhough we stand 
 essentially on the same general basis of belief, yet continued diver- 
 sity of organization around matters confessedly minor appears to be 
 expected, and even desired, almost universally. A man can hardly 
 
llO THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 But it is also obvious that this tendency to 
 variation, partly inherited and partly native, has 
 carried with it some actual and healthfiil advance 
 in the generic type of doctrine mentioned. The 
 phrase, American Calvinism, is not a merely 
 geographic term ; it represents a phase or mode 
 of Calvinistic thought and Calvinistic temper, 
 as real as the Scottish or the Continental, and 
 in some respects an improved mode. Though 
 it may be difficult to define the differences, yet 
 few would deny their existence. American Cal- 
 vinism is Calvinism adjusted in both form and spirit 
 to our country, our people, our time. It carries 
 on its face less of the technical, the scholastic, 
 the abstruse. It has litle interest, relatively, in 
 old parties and old issues, born of European 
 life ; it exhibits less of the rigidness and the 
 pomp characteristic of its prototypes in the east- 
 ern world. It is naturally less tenacious of 
 trifles, and more in love with what is generic 
 in the cherished scheme. It more easily subord- 
 
 broach the broader view without being accused of disloyalty, not 
 merely to the little specialty that divides, but also to the body that 
 embodies and glories in it. Yet the broader doctrinal unity here 
 suggested really exists, and doubtless the lime is coming when it 
 will be recognized. At least, I cannot forbear the expression in 
 this connection of a hope, that in this country there is yet to be 
 developed a wider, more generous and more unifying view of what 
 essential Calvinism is ; that these varieties will fade away in the 
 presence of that grander conception, and that somewhere in the 
 future there shall grow up here, before the gaze of the world, one 
 American Presbyterian Church, not only numerically larger, but 
 also intrinsically greater and more full of power, than any the world 
 has ever yet seen. vSuch is my humble hope; such my earnest 
 daily prayer. 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. ijX 
 
 inates the doctrinal to the practical, and holds 
 the truth rather— as the Bible does— for what the 
 truth accomplishes in life, than for what the 
 truth is in abstract shape. It strongly eYalts 
 the biblical above the philosophic aspects of the 
 system, and tends rather toward mediate than 
 toward extreme presentations. It draws more 
 careful distinctions between the plan of God in 
 nature and his method in grace— is less fatalis- 
 tic in the impression it makes. It presses out 
 more fully the .human factors in salvation- 
 dwells more on the responsibility of man for his 
 personal dealing with the gospel. Freer and 
 more flowing in its statements, and more catholic 
 m Its temper, it offers the gospel to all men 
 more readily, and on scriptural grounds opens 
 more widely the doors of grace. Under the 
 pressure of its vast responsibility on this conti- 
 nent, it is suffused more largely with the mis- 
 sionary spirit, and demands to be stated not 
 with technical completeness, but rather in such 
 ways as will best commend it savingly to the 
 unevangelized multitudes thronging to our shores 
 Toward other types of evangelical belief it is in 
 the main less antagonistic ; its grasp of every 
 Christian hand is more spontaneous and more 
 fraternal. In a word, it has gathered largeness 
 breadth, catholicity, from the vastness of its hab- 
 itation ; it has caught and embodied much of 
 our national spirit, purpose, tendencies ; it is 
 not Continental or British, but American. 
 
112 THIRTY YEARS IN T.ANE. 
 
 IV. What has been thus defined as the 
 characteristic attitude and temper of American 
 Presbyterianism, is conspicuously true of our 
 own beloved Church. The errand historic Union 
 of 1869 may be introduced as a valuable illus- 
 tration here. In that memorable compact, which 
 made ours the largest Presbyterian body in the 
 world, there was no compromise, no ignoring 
 of any essential element in the common Calvin- 
 ism. Doctrine still held the foremost place. 
 Both parties, having adhered to the same stand- 
 ards during their separation, adopted those 
 standards anew, and made their common belief 
 — the creed rather than sacrament, or order, 
 or mode of worship — the primary basis of their 
 combination. Neither confessed any doctrinal 
 aberration or divergence ; neither claimed or 
 admitted any superior othodoxy. Both were 
 true in that compact to the spirit of historic 
 Presbyterianism in holding forth essential unity 
 of faith as the only basis on which a Presbyter- 
 ian Church can safely stand. And their unifica- 
 tion, though incited largely by other consider- 
 ations, was the result essentially of their mutual 
 trust, their intelligent confidence in each other, 
 as first of all, and always, Reformed and Cal- 
 vinistic. 
 
 Yet this unification, remarkable as it was, 
 did not prohibit the action of that principle of 
 progressive variety inherent in the common 
 system. Those who thus agreed in avowing 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 113 
 
 afresh their allegiance to that system, at the 
 same time granted to each other all that liberty 
 of varied statement and explanation and adapta- 
 tion of the system, which had been recognized 
 heretofore as consistent with loyalty to what 
 was essential. All accepted the obvious prin- 
 ciple that in a great Church, of continental pro- 
 portions and composed of representatives of 
 every type of historic Calvinism, such diversi- 
 fied growths of opinion must be not merely 
 admitted, but generously welcomed as genuine 
 offshoots from the common stock of faith. All 
 recognized the consequent obligation to look 
 beneath and around each specific difference for 
 the bnoader oneness that comprehends it ; all 
 accepted in that union the blessed lesson of a 
 widened doctrinal brotherhood, and of a more 
 generous Christian catholicity. The Church 
 and the School were no longer coterminous — 
 within the one Church there were many schools ; 
 and what divided the schools was placed forever 
 in its due subordination to what united the 
 Church. Such, in a word, was the Union of 
 1869, so far as it related to doctrine ; and that 
 Union, important as it was in other aspects, has 
 this as its chief claim to historic remembrance, 
 that it was thus a conscious, trustful and gen- 
 erous combination of real varieties of opinion 
 under the broad banner of the common Calvin- 
 istic faith. 
 
H4 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 The same general law or principle is also de- 
 termining our interpretation of church doctrine, 
 and our theory of subscription to the accepted 
 creed. The wider the varieties of opinion ad- 
 missible within the boundaries of a given* doc- 
 trinal system, the more generously must the 
 system itself be interpreted, and the more gen- 
 eric must be the subscription. Such varieties are 
 bound to judge each other charitably, and to 
 deal courteously with each other, as brother 
 deals with brother in the Church of Christ. As 
 I have no right to claim precedence for my 
 conception of the common scheme, or to demand 
 that the antithetic conceptions of others shall be 
 tested or measured by mine, so I am bound by 
 fidelity to the Union itself to resist all like as- 
 sumption on the part of others. Liberty, equal- 
 ity, fraternity, are the only rule and safeguard 
 here ; and he who, under any special stress of 
 partisanship, allows himself to depart from this 
 rule, is recreant not merely to the mutual obli- 
 gations of the Union, but to the law and the 
 spirit of historic Presbyterianism universally. 
 So in the matter of subscription as well as in- 
 terpretation. What is required here, is an hon- 
 est and manly allegiance by each and all, and 
 especially by all who teach or who hold official 
 position, to all that belongs essentially to the 
 common Calvinism. This alleoriance must also 
 be coupled with an equally honest and manly 
 recognition of the ricrht, not of the individual 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 115 
 
 subscriber, but of the Church, to decide what is 
 thus essential. To require less than this would 
 be to open the doors to a loose and destructive 
 individualism, which is inconsistent with the 
 Presbyterian conception of a true Church. To 
 demand more than this, as by superadding to the 
 common faith the idiosyncrasies of a school, or 
 by insisting on a strictly verbal acceptance of 
 the symbols, would be an equally destructive 
 and unwarranted invasion of personal liberties 
 constitutionally guaranteed. Nor does such a 
 position give room, as some have supposed, to a 
 dangerous latitudinarianism ruinous to church 
 unity. The fact rather is that strong and cordial 
 unity in what is cardinal is best secured by al- 
 lowing variety in things which are not essential. 
 I'here is less room, rather than more, under 
 such a constitution, for a man who is not in 
 heart and brain a Calvinist ; and wherever judi- 
 cal processes are needful to the exclusion of 
 such a man, such processes are immensely 
 strengthened by the fact that his divergence 
 has occurred in the face of a broad and gener- 
 rous interpretation of standards to which the 
 erring party has once freely declared his alle- 
 giance.* 
 
 *It is far less difficult than at first sight may seem apparent, to 
 determine what variations in Calvinistic thought are admissible un- 
 der the Union, or what degree of liberty in subscription is allow- 
 able. Those who hold alike to the eternal purpose, may state the 
 doctrine of decrees in various ways, and differ in respect to the or- 
 der of the divine determinations; the supralapsarian and the sublap- 
 sarian are alike Calvinistic. Those who belieye equally in the trans- 
 
116 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 On this general basis, our Church is com- 
 mitted for the future to the widest liberty of 
 thought consistent with denominational integrity, 
 and to the cordial recognition of every true ad- 
 vance which free thought, under the guidance 
 of the Spirit, may be led to make. We are not 
 held movelessly, as if it were a spell, by the 
 Calvinism of Calvin, or the Calvinism of the 
 Turretins, or the Calvinism of the Synod of 
 Dort, or the Calvinism of Scotland, either past 
 or present. We hold our Calvinism as Ameri- 
 cans ; counting ourselves at liberty to admit in- 
 to it any modifying or improving influence that 
 may flow from American life, and at liberty 
 
 mission of sin through the race in consequence of tlie Adamic trans- 
 gression, may explain that fact on either the physical or the federal 
 theory; on the Edvvardean conception of a divine constitution work- 
 ing out this issue; or even on the hyi'Oth-^sis of a social liability or 
 exposure eventuating always in individual sin and condemnation. 
 Thos- who accept together the great fact char the justice as well as 
 the love of God is expressed and glorified in the atoning work of 
 Christ, may view the satisfaction in the case as either personal or 
 legal, primarily — may differ as to the meaning of penalty, the con- 
 ception of imputation, the scope and end of the atonement. Those 
 who rest equally in the doctrine of particular election, may vary in 
 their apprehensions of the relations and functions of faith viewed ^s 
 consequent upon the divine choice, and may be more or less free in 
 their announcement of the great scheme of gra-e as, in some true 
 sense, both provided for and therefore offered to the race. Those 
 who hold alike to the primacy of the Spirit in regeneration, and to 
 the sovereignty of God in the dispensa'ion of the Spirit, may differ 
 as to their mode of describing that deadness of human nature which 
 makes such divine working needful, or in their presentations of the 
 duty and ttie responsibility of the sinner, when summoned under the 
 gospel to repentance and faith. Those who adhere sincerely to the 
 common Calvinism in general, may on one side delight in setting 
 that Calvinism forth in its highest, extremest, most dogmatic forms, 
 exalting most of all the things -which separate it from other types of 
 evangelical belief; or, on the other hand, may regard themselves as 
 bound by the principle of supreme loyalty to the common gospel, to 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 117 
 
 also to express it as we hold it, not in imported, 
 but in American terms. In common with all 
 true Presb3^terians in all times, we place the 
 Bible above our standards, and regard oursel- 
 ves as bound tirst of all to study the Divine 
 VV^ord for ourselves, and then to believe what it 
 teaches, just as God gives us grace to appre- 
 hend it. And if, in his great love and under 
 the impress of the amazing influences affecting 
 us in such a land and age as ours, we are per- 
 mitted to see the truth at any point more clear- 
 ly and more comprehensively than our fathers 
 in Britain or in Holland saw it two or three 
 centuries ago, I trust that we have courage 
 
 (lescril)e their accepted Ijelief in mediatinir, moderate forms, where 
 its evangelical atftliations may be specially prominent, aid its bibli- 
 cal and Christian quality be most readily seen by other minds. And 
 those who subscribe honorably to the same Confession, may either 
 seek to enforce that document in every line and letter, as an arbi- 
 trary and inexorable bond holding every adherent as in chains, or 
 may they rather v^^elcome with fraternal temper all who in substance 
 accept that Confession as their generic creed, and amid conscious 
 variety delight to call all Calvinists their brethren. It is on this 
 broad foundation, which provides for unity in what is essentia), 
 with just variation in modes of statement and explanation, that our 
 beloved Church was placed by the Union of 1869. The language 
 of the unifying act, the voluminous reports and conferences which 
 preceded that historic event, the declarations of men of all previous 
 parties and shades of belief, and the entire history of our ecclesiasii- 
 cal action since that date, confirm these statements. So thoroughly 
 is this accepted as fundamental by all cla«;ses among us, that the 
 men or the party who should attempt to crowd the Church back in- 
 to the narrow boundaries of any school of interpretation, or to limit 
 by any rigid process the measure of liberty thus constitutionally 
 guaranteed, would be sure to be overwhelmed by the popular pro- 
 test and condemnation. And, on the other hand, he who can not 
 content himself with this measure of liberty, but demands the priv- 
 ilege of wider divergence in opinion or in subscription, whatever 
 else he may be, can hardly be classed among us as either Calvinist 
 or Presbyterian. 
 
118 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 enough as a Church to welcome such revela- 
 tions, and fidelity enough to the common Cal- 
 vinism to express them. I am no advocate of 
 loose thinking or loose language in the sphere 
 of belief : a Christian creed, born of the thought 
 and struggle of centuries, is to me one of the 
 most sacred things on earth. I am no friend of 
 that reckless temper which would tear down the 
 old before discovering any worthier substitute ; 
 there is a fancied progress which is downward 
 toward iconoclasm in faith, and toward an ulti- 
 mate extinction of faith. But while avoiding 
 this hazardous extreme, we may still believe in 
 healthful progress in theological opinion within 
 our Church, and may look happily forward to 
 advance upon advance in Calvinistic thought in 
 our communion, even from century to century. 
 Such, at least, is my personal hope and my 
 constant expectation and prayer. 
 
 V. Fresh illustrations and confirmations of 
 these general statements may be derived from 
 more recent developments in our denominational 
 experience. It is an obvious truth that the nat- 
 ural influence of such principles and such a 
 spirit as I have described must be to awaken 
 confidence, to exclude divisions, to promote har- 
 mony, to quench incipient heresies. The larger 
 love thus evoked will furnish an interior spring 
 to union in effort, and to rivalry in consecra- 
 tion to the common good. Ephraim and Judah, 
 under its action, will instinctively drop the un- 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 119 
 
 profitable process of mutual vexation, and devote 
 themselves rather to the unfolding and defense 
 of the common faith. Doctrine will not he less 
 regarded or Calvinism the less honored, while 
 the Church will be the more broadly and strong- 
 ly loved. Such is the natural tendency of such 
 a denominational attitude as I have outlined, 
 and such results might be expected to accom- 
 pany its realization. What a confirmation of 
 that inference do we discover in the remarkable 
 degree of doctrinal harmony which, in the 
 main, has characterized the period since the 
 Union! Never was there a time during their 
 separation when the bodies uniting were more 
 true to their symbols, more settled in their Cal- 
 vinism, or more thoroughly unified in the pres- 
 ence of conscious variety, than now. And if 
 the}^ remain true to the principles and temper 
 of their alliance, this natural and healthful pro- 
 cess of unification may be expected to continue 
 until our Church shall exhibit to the world the 
 spectacle of an organization, not simple but 
 complex ; not abiding in any single form, but 
 dwelling in many forms ; yet consciously one in 
 faith and spirit, and one alike in purpose and in 
 destiny. 
 
 This process of unification is not likely to 
 be arrested by any discussions current among 
 us, even around such cardinal questions as the 
 inspiration, or the unity, or authoritativeness of 
 the word of God. It is a noticeable fact, that 
 
120 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 most of these discussions relate to matters 
 which lie clearly outside of our Confession. 
 The theologians of Westminster did not con- 
 cern themselves, for example, with any specific 
 theories of inspiration ; but simply asserted the 
 broad fact — which we all accept — that the Bible 
 is the literally, adequately inspired word and 
 revelation of God ; fully and authoritatively 
 teaching what man is to believe concerning 
 God, and what duty God requires of man. Vari- 
 ous theories of this great fact of inspiration have 
 since arisen, and various explanations still are 
 current in evangrelical circles — from that of 
 simple superintendence by the Holy Spirit, to 
 that of a verbal dictation running with equal 
 rigidity through psalm and history, prophecy 
 and parable and dogmatic precept. In respect 
 to all such opinions, the attitude of our own 
 Church, and even the regulative principles of 
 the common Protestanism, constrain us to the ex- 
 ercise of large liberality, so long as the cardinal 
 fact is faithfully held. No man or school has a 
 right to furnish a hypothesis here, and require 
 others to accept it under peril of denominational 
 disfavor. Differences in explanation or defini- 
 tion are clearly admissible, so long as the ex- 
 plaining is not an explaining a way — so long as 
 the defining is not a destructive, but a construc- 
 tive process. The Church, indeed, possesses 
 the supreme right, ecclesiastically, to introduce 
 more exact statements, and then to make these 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 121 
 
 Statements authoritative within her own bounds. 
 In other words, the Church of our times may, 
 as justly as the Presbyterianism of the seven- 
 teenth century, declare her definitive judgment 
 on this or any other vital point, and may enter 
 her protest against all opinions at variance with 
 that judgment. But until this is done, honest 
 loyalty to the essential fact as described in our 
 symbols is all that a just, sensible, catholic Pres- 
 byterian can require. 
 
 Another illustration forces itself upon our 
 notice in the questions now under discussion 
 within the field of biblical criticism. Without 
 being an expert in such matters, and while rest- 
 ing my faith largely on the conclusions of more 
 competent brethren, I am free to say that the 
 conception of the Pentateuch as, especially in 
 its legal portions, a growth of several centuries, 
 finally compiled and presented to the Church in 
 one organic shape, has not yet commended 
 itself to my judgment as anything more than an 
 interesting but unverified hypothesis. I am free 
 also to say,, that I anticipate from the dis- 
 cussion of the question thus raised, only 
 a firmer faith in the Mosaic authorship 
 essentially, and beyond this a serener 
 confidence in the entire Old Testament^law, 
 and psalm, and prophecy — as a veritable com- 
 munication from God. Yet two things are en- 
 tirely clear to me here. First, that one may 
 hold the other view, and yet adhere as fully as 
 
i22 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 any of us to the cardinal conception of a divine, 
 supernatural agency at work in and through the 
 entire process of revelation as recorded in the 
 Pentateuch, though that process may have re- 
 quired ages and the joint action of many minds 
 for its accomplishment. And second, that there 
 is no warrant whatever, either in our S3^mbols or 
 in our historic position as a Church for condemn- 
 ing, or even suspecting ecclesiastically those 
 who hold such an opinion. The true tribunal 
 here is the tribunal of sanctified scholarship ; 
 and they who carry such a question to any other 
 court, may justly be suspected of inability to 
 handle it successfully in this. 
 
 On all such questions, whether already 
 present, or just now hanging like distant clouds 
 on the horizon, catholic Presbyterianism can 
 take but one position.* Those who regard 
 theology and exegesis as finished, and the faith 
 
 "*It has indeed been broadly intimated that our Church, in ac- 
 cepting such a basis, has surrendered itself fatally to the control of 
 a destructive latitudinarianism ; that unorthodox elements have 
 thus been admitted into the body, and are festering there, to the 
 corruption of its character as a sound and faithful representative of 
 Calvinism. Organic union, and even fraternal fellowship with 
 such a Church would be, it is loftily said, sinful complication with 
 heresy, and even disloyalty to Christ. Such opinions, like the 
 flaunting blossoms of certain poisonous plants, may safely be left to 
 wither on their stem. We may spare ourselves the pain of char- 
 acterizing them as they deserve. No thoughtful mind can doubt 
 that our beloved Church, going forward firmly in the path already 
 chosen, will prove her orthodoxy all the more efficiently in and 
 through her large liberality, and win popular assent and affection 
 all the more widely, the continent over, because she has learned, 
 not to only hold the truth, but according to the Pauline motto to 
 hold the truth in love. 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 123 
 
 of the Church as settled once for all, can do 
 nothing but confront every such issue with some 
 dictum born of other times, and invoke on those 
 who raise it the fluctuating gales of ecclesiasti- 
 cal discipline. They can only appeal to some 
 church father or to some church school, or pos- 
 sibly assume to be fathers or schools themselves, 
 in order by such methods to frown down or 
 scare down each rising problem. But our 
 Church is not likely to fall in with a policy so 
 narrow or so pernicious. The steps already 
 taken toward a large interpretation of her sym- 
 bols, and the general treatment accorded to her 
 chosen sons in whatever field of scholarly research 
 are sufficient pledges for the future. The path of 
 such a church is of necessity onward. To hes- 
 itate is to surrender to the past ; to surrender 
 to the past, and suffer the past to control the 
 future, would be simply to die out, and give 
 way to younger growth and a worthier type of 
 thought and life. It may therefore be antic- 
 ipated that our beloved Church will continue 
 more and more to be a Church of real, bene- 
 ficent, and in the main harmonious progress in 
 all such directions. On the broad platform of 
 a catholic Calvinism, firm as granite on every 
 essential point, but generous to all variations 
 within the territory of essential truth, she may 
 and will go on to be all that any Church of 
 Christ can become in progressive power, in 
 widening faith a-nd influence, even down to mil- 
 
i24 THIRTY YEARS IN I.ANli. 
 
 lennial times. God grant iti The Presbyter- 
 ianism of the world needs, all Protestantism of 
 whatever variety needs, the common Christianity 
 needs, the vision of such a Church, leading as 
 an archangel along the path of true Christian 
 catholicity, toward that final form of church 
 faith and church life in which these shall all 
 become one, even as Christ and the Father are 
 one. God grant that such a vision, such a glory, 
 may yet become real! 
 
 VI. Descending finally from these high 
 ranges of inquiry to what more directly con- 
 cerns ourselves, I may now add the closing 
 declaration, that Lane Seminary as an institu- 
 tion, if I justly apprehend its position, is firmly 
 planted on the broad platform of historic Pres- 
 byterianism, which I have thus very imperfectly 
 described. It is but just to remark that in pass- 
 ing under the banner of what was termed the 
 New School Church into the historic union 
 already defined, this Seminary was called, on 
 the one side, to surrender no distinctive phase 
 of doctrine, to sacrifice no revered tradition, to 
 accept no new standard or test of faith or of in- 
 struction. It was simply to continue to be, as 
 it had been, a Calvinistic institution ; bound to 
 be true always, as it had always been true, to 
 every essential element in the common symbol 
 of faith. But it is also just to say that, while 
 abiding thus in its admitted and approved variety, 
 tliis Seminary, as well as every other, came, in 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 125 
 
 the spirit of that high compact, under new ob- 
 ligations to recognize sympathetically all other 
 admitted varieties in Calvinistic opinion, and so 
 far as lay within its power to make that union 
 doctrinally, as well as ecclesiastically, a real 
 unification. While it retained its original type, 
 it was no longer called upon to emphasize its 
 specialties in any sort of antagonism. It was 
 rather bound to cultivate all admissible affinities, 
 to meliorate existing differences and contrasts, 
 and especially to bring out and hold up all the 
 more zealously what was most central and vital. 
 None the less, but rather the more, was it sum- 
 moned to lay stress on the element of doctrine, 
 as true. Presbyterianism has always done ; and 
 none the less, but rather the more, was it bound 
 to hold forth the Calvinistic scheme, embodied 
 in our symbols, as the clearest, strongest, most 
 complete type of Christian belief. It also came 
 under renewed obligations to be true to the best 
 traditions and principles of American, as distin- 
 guished from European, Presbyterianism ; and 
 to stand forth, as God should give its represen- 
 tatives grace, in the forefront of the battle for a 
 free and generous interpretation of our creed, 
 and a kindred development of our denomina- 
 tional policy and life. Abandoning nothing 
 that had belonged to it in the past, it was thus 
 called to enter, with every other like institution, 
 into the grander future opening before our be- 
 loved Church, with an enlarged sense of wha 
 
u 
 
 126 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 the common Calvinism is, and with a spirit as 
 broad and free as that scheme of doctrine essen- 
 tially is. For, they who most firmly hold the 
 Pauline type of Christian belief should also be 
 the first to cherish the Pauline spirit ; in them 
 the large caritas of the Epistle to the Corinthians 
 should have the freest manifestation ; and while 
 they most firmly hold the truth, they should be 
 the first to teach all men how to hold the truth 
 in love. Such has been the prevailing purpose 
 and temper of this institution from the day 
 and hour of the union until now. The theology 
 here taught has been unpartisan, mediating, 
 f generous and cordial toward all other types of 
 teaching in our Church ; ever seeking less the 
 triumph of dogmatic or partisan opinion, or the 
 training of a class of narrow catechumens, than 
 the sound and fresh indoctrination of intelligent 
 students in the highest verities of our Calvinistic 
 faith. In every department of instruction here, 
 the development of such a type of mind and 
 character has been the supreme purpose ; and 
 the measure of success attained is abundantly 
 recorded in the fact that no son of Lane, in 
 this later era, has ever proved recreant to our 
 Church, in either his teaching or his influence. 
 Such has been the prevailing plan and temper 
 of Lane Seminary, and such is to be its future 
 spirit and mission in these delicate denomina- 
 tional relations. It will continue to maintain 
 steadfastly, not a narrow and extreme, but a 
 
THE THEOLOGY O^ LANE; 127 
 
 generous and mediate Calvinism, as much as 
 possible in harmony with all other existing types 
 of evangelical faith. It will continue to main- 
 tain this, not with dogmatic assumptions of 
 superiority, or with systematic purpose to exalt 
 any difference which may divide us from other 
 Calvinists, but rather in that temper of trustful 
 catholicity which extends to all within our 
 Church a cordial hand — which beareth and 
 believeth, hopeth and endureth much from all, 
 and which submits in silence even to unjust 
 smiting from those who should be brethren. 
 May this high mission never be dishonored here, 
 and never may any narrower spirit or purpose 
 pervade these halls! 
 
 In harmpny with what is thus due to its de- 
 nominational relations, Lane Seminary is also 
 committed, by its entire record, to generous 
 sympathy with every true advance in whatever 
 field of legitimate inquiry. It is not believed 
 here that Calvinistic theology is a finished 
 science, bearing upon its closing page the au- 
 thoritative Finis of the seventeenth or the eigh- 
 teenth century. It is rather believed that our 
 doctrinal system is yet capable of expansion and 
 improvement, not merely in forms of expression, 
 but in the adjustment of truth to truth, and es- 
 pecially through the addition of great truths of 
 grace, such as the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 
 as yet but inadequately expressed in our sym- 
 bols. Nor is it believed here that the last word 
 
128 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 has been said in regard to the structure or pur- 
 pose of the inspired Word of God, or that the 
 Bible has been already exhausted of its divine 
 contents ; but rather that careful investigation 
 will reveal new truths and new glories in the 
 Scripture — truths and glories which are to pour 
 their splendor on coming generations, as the 
 grand harmonizing doctrine of justification by 
 faith made glorious the thought and life of the 
 sixteenth century. It should, indeed, be said 
 that Lane Seminary is not the home of crude 
 novelties, or of untested hypotheses in either 
 doctrine or exposition ; that a destructive ration- 
 alism has never found shelter or encouragement 
 here. That charge is false, by whomsoever 
 made. Nor is it the fact that untrue or danger- 
 ous opinions of any sort are taught to the young 
 men here assembled — opinions subversive of the 
 common doctrine or belief of our Church. That 
 allegation, by whomsoever made, is too obvi- 
 ously untrue to be dangerous. Yet it can be 
 said, with truth and emphasis, that this institu- 
 tion stands clearly, as to both teaching and 
 spirit, in what we believe to be the real line of 
 healthful and evangelical development for our 
 Church and for the Church of Christ. Lane 
 reverentl3r cherishes the past, is loyal to the 
 present, and is also hopeful as to a future, in 
 which the Calvinistic doctrine shall stand forth 
 in still freer and finer perfection, and in which the 
 living Word of the living God, critically studied 
 
THE THEOLOGY OF LANE. 129 
 
 and thoroughly believed, shall be seated on the 
 throne, supreme alike over the creed and the 
 life. On the divine orgin and the adequate in- 
 spiration and essential unity of that Word, and 
 on its absolute right to bring every thought into 
 captivity to itself; on the Pauline scheme of 
 doctrine, as therein revealed, and as tested by 
 eighteen centuries of Christian experience ; and 
 on the platform of a just historic catholicity, 
 this honored Institution stands, and, by the 
 grace of God, shall ever stand. And if she is 
 thus true to the truth, as the truth breaks forth 
 more and more from that divine fount ; and thus 
 loving toward all who in whatever variety ad- 
 here • to that truth — moving earnestly in this 
 temper along the path of true progress in 
 thought and experience — we may be assured 
 that nothing can harm either this beloved Semi- 
 nary, or those who as teachers and students 
 assemble to-day within its welcoming walls. 
 And may God bless us all! 
 
V. 
 
 The Theologians of Lane. 
 
 A PAPER READ BEFORE THE LANE CLUB. 
 
 DECEMBER 10, 1889. 
 
Twenty years ago, on the twenty-sixth day 
 of November, the friends of Lane Seminary 
 were gathered in these grounds to commemor- 
 ate the close of the fortieth year in the life of this 
 beloved Institution. A second reason for the 
 assemblage and the celebration lay in the fact 
 that on the tenth day of the same month the re- 
 union of the two branches of the Presbyterian 
 Church had been formally consummated at 
 Pittsburg. It was fitly remembered that, al- 
 though the Seminary had for thirty years been 
 affiliated closely with but one of these branches, 
 it had been organized before the dark days of 
 the separation, and might therefore be justly 
 regarded as the creation and inheritance of the 
 now united Church. It was also believed that 
 the Reunion, under conditions so cordial and 
 auspicious, would open wider doors of service 
 and usefulness to the Institution, and prove to 
 be for it, as for the Church, the beginning 
 of a larger, grander career. 
 
 Twenty years have passed, and we are here 
 to celebrate with gratitude to God, the sixtieth 
 anniversary in the life of the Seminary, and the 
 twentieth in the organic existence of the great 
 denomination for whose advantage it was found- 
 ed, and with whose remarkable development it 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 133 
 
 has had the privilege of being happily and vi- 
 tally associated. In such celebration we have 
 abundant occasion in both aspects to sing great 
 songs of praise in memory of the past, and to 
 frame new purposes of consecration, to gird 
 ourselves for larger endeavors, in view of the 
 expanding and attractive future opening alike 
 before the Institution and the Church. 
 
 It is not my purpose at this time to tell the 
 suggestive story of these twenty years ; to speak 
 of the general growth and progress of Lane 
 Seminary during this somewhat critical period 
 in its history, or of the wonderful things which 
 God has wrought in and for the Presbyterian 
 Church. Among the many specific themes 
 which this conjunction of historic events sug- 
 gests, my mind has been turned toward one 
 which has not hitherto received the connected 
 treatment it deserves, and whose presentation at 
 this time for several reasons seems to be fitly 
 devolved upon me. That theme is Oiu' Theologians 
 and their Theology ; considered especially in 
 their relations to the belief and career of our 
 united Church. 
 
 The first incumbent of the theological chair 
 in Lane Seminary was Lyman Beecher, clariiui 
 et venerabile nonien. Born and educated in Con- 
 necticut, a graduate of Yale College and a stu- 
 dent of theology under President Dwight ; a 
 young pastor first on Long Island ; then for sixteen 
 years a minister at Litchfield, Conn., where the 
 
134 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 foundations of his fame were laid ; afterward for 
 six years the occupant of an important pulpit in 
 Boston, just at a time when evangelical ortho- 
 doxy was beginning to make successful head- 
 way against the dominating forces of Unitarian- 
 ism, headed by the eloquent Channing ; always 
 in the forefront of the battle in behalf of what 
 he conceived to be the faith once delivered to 
 the saints ; recognized as a writer of rare vigor, 
 as well as a commanding preacher, Dr. Beecher 
 came to this Institution after a first and then a 
 second election, at the close of 1832, and three 
 years after the Academic Department had been 
 established. He became almost immediately, 
 not only the President of the Seminary, but also 
 the pastor of the Second Church in this city, 
 and a welcome leader in all church affairs ; en- 
 tering thus, in the prime of his powers, on a 
 career in which for eighteen years of mingled 
 sunshine and shadow he won for himself his last, 
 if not his highest laurels, as a teacher and 
 preacher of righteousness. 
 
 It was the dream of Dr. Beecher after his 
 retirement, that he might be able to prepare his 
 System of Theology for the press ; but that 
 dream, like many others of like character, failed 
 of realization. From the three manuscript vol- 
 umes of his lectures, now in possession of the 
 Seminary, it would be impossible to draw out 
 such a sketch of his system as would do justice 
 to his memory. These manuscripts are in such 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 135 
 
 condition, from their obscure chirography, from 
 the numberless erasures and altercitions, from 
 defective and shifting arrangements, and from 
 general lack of method and order, as almost to 
 defy the most loyal and patient attempts at in- 
 terpretation. Furthermore, few men were less 
 bound by manuscript or by strict rules of me- 
 thod, or were readier at any time to make di- 
 gressions from a preconceived line of precedure. 
 One of his most competent and accomplished 
 pupils (Rev. Dr. Tuttle), in an article on Dr. 
 Beecher, written shortly after his decease, gives 
 us some conception of his manner and mode of 
 instruction in these words : 
 
 "A-s a teacher. Dr. Beecher was not very 
 systematic. * * * Our notes show that he 
 began to lecture our class on the abstruse themes 
 of Butler's Analogy. Among our most delighful 
 hours were those spent in listening to his illumi- 
 nated lectures on Butler ; and we hope to see 
 these lectures in print, although it is certain 
 that some of the best parts of them were never 
 written. Then came his lectures on the Divine 
 Existence, Cause and Effect, and Mental Philoso- 
 phy, followed by the lectures on Conscience, by 
 far the most thrilling discourses we ever heard 
 from him. He first delivered them out of place, 
 as to the system, to our class, and we heard them 
 a second time in one of the Cincinnati churches. 
 We regard the occasion when he spoke of the 
 Power of Conscience as among the grandest ex- 
 
136 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 hibitions of his pulpit powers. After this splen- 
 did ej)isode of lectures on Conscience, came his 
 course on the Will, the Affections, and Moral 
 Government ; and in the midst of a discussion 
 of his favorite theories of Man's Free Agency, 
 the whole course was dislocated by the intro- 
 duction of his lectures on the Trinity." 
 
 So far as his system of theology can be 
 traced from his tangled and blurred manuscript, 
 his instructions fell under two main divisions. 
 The first of these contains what he describes as 
 the elementary doctrines ; the being of God, the 
 divine attributes, the image of God in man, the 
 law of God, the character of man, the divine de- 
 crees, the plan of redemption. The second di- 
 vision included the Trinity, the divinity of 
 Christ, the atonement, election and pardon, the 
 work of the Spirit, the means of grace, repent- 
 ance and faith, human responsibility under the 
 Gospel, the day of judgment, eternal life and 
 eternal death. This, at least, was his general 
 outline, though it is doubtful whether he followed 
 it from year to year, without marked and some- 
 times startling variations. It was originally in 
 substance the system which he had learned from 
 his revered teacher, though Dr. Dwight, at least 
 in the pulpit, gave much greater prominence to 
 some single branches, such as the exposition of 
 the moral law as revealed in Scripture. There 
 were two special influences acting upon Dr. 
 Beecher at later stages in his history, which 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 137 
 
 had great effect upon at least the proportions 
 if not the substance of his theology. These 
 came especially from his two great controversies 
 with the Unitarianism of eastern New England, 
 touching the sinfulness and depravity of man, 
 and the full divinity and vicarious mediation of 
 our Lord. In his efforts to defend against such 
 antagonists as Channing, the evangelical doc- 
 trine as to man and his moral needs, he had been 
 led to emphasize in his own mind, and perhaps 
 unduly, the voluntary element in all sinning, and 
 had consequently lost in some degree, the sense 
 of what sin is as a state of the soul, involving 
 some species of hereditary taint and of trans- 
 mitted guiltiness. His strong and stirring con- 
 ceptions of the moral government of God, de- 
 rived partly from Butler and partly from 
 Edwards, had doubtless strengthened and con- 
 firmed this tendency, So his profound belief in 
 the divinity of Christ, in the necessity for his 
 mediation, in the need of an atonement to satis- 
 fy justice and meet the claims of this divine 
 government, in the moral ability and consequent 
 responsibility of every sinner, in conversion on 
 the part of man as correlative to regeneration as 
 an act of God, gave a peculiar cast and tone to 
 all he taught, even at some hazard of dislocation 
 in his teaching and of incompleteness in his 
 system as a whole. 
 
 Those who have read his famous sermon on 
 the Faith Unce Delivered to the Saints, 
 
138 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 preached at an ordination in Worcester, two 
 years before Dr. Beecher removed to Boston, 
 will remember the remarkable summary of 
 evangelical truth with which that discourse be- 
 gan. There can be little doubt that the author 
 of that summary was a Calvinist, in whose very 
 heart the great distinguishing features of the 
 Calvinistic system were sacredly treasured. 
 Tliis judgment is confirmed by his able defense 
 of his position against the criticisms' of his Uni- 
 tarian opponents. To class him among Pela- 
 gians or even among Arminians after that de- 
 fense, would be impossible to any mind not 
 influenced by the rabies theologorum. Nor was 
 there ever a time when such a classification 
 could be justified by fair and full evidence. It 
 was true, as alleged against him in his famous 
 trial, that in emphasizing the responsibility of 
 the sinner, and the guilt which attaches to vol- 
 untary and personal transgression, he sometimes 
 made too little of the doctrine of depravity in 
 the nature, in some sense transmitted from our 
 first parents, and the source of all actual sins. 
 It was true, that in urging the guilt of every 
 soul for its own sin, he seemed at times to make 
 too little of the fact that we are by nature the 
 children of wrath, and are by original sin as 
 well as by actual transgression exposed to the 
 divine judgment and condemnation. It is true, 
 that in pressing sinners to the point of repent- 
 ance and faith — in calling upon them to work 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 139 
 
 out their own salvation by the most strenuous 
 efforts of which they were capable, taking the 
 kingdom of heaven as by violence — he occa- 
 sionally appeared to be laying too little stress 
 on the helplessness of the soul apart from grace, 
 and on the indispensableness of the work of the 
 Spirit in order to salvation. But on the other 
 hand, no one who candidly reads his discourses 
 bearing on these great antithetic aspects of the 
 gospel, or who studies his Views of Theology, 
 which contains his defense of himself in the 
 ecclesiastical trial through which he was com- 
 pelled to pass, can have any serious doubt as to 
 the sincerity of his convictions on these vital 
 points of doctrine, or of his essential loyalty to 
 that system of theology in which these doctrines 
 figure as essential elements. That his thinking 
 and teaching were somewhat one-sided and out 
 of proportion, may readily be admitted ; that it 
 was heretical, few would now affirm. 
 
 That Lyman Beecher rendered valuable 
 service to American Calvinism, and to the theo- 
 logical training of the Presbyterian Church, can 
 not be denied. Unquestionably he did much, even 
 by his exaggerations of the opposite, to arrest 
 certain tendencies toward narrow and mischiev- 
 ious extremes in doctrine which had revealed 
 themselves in some quarters — extremes which 
 limited the rano-e of the atonement, narrowed 
 down the scope of election, denied the salvable 
 condition of man, exalted the sovereignty of 
 
i40 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 God to the point of arbitrariness, held to repro- 
 bation even from eternity, and, in a word, turned 
 Calvinism into a species of Christian fatalism 
 which was destructive not merely to sound be- 
 lief, but also to vital religion. From such lia- 
 bilities, subtle and dangerous, it was his special 
 mission to free the mind and the heart of the 
 Church. In proclaiming with almost passionate 
 zeal the freeness of the gospel, the adequacy of 
 redeeming grace, the fullness of the Spirit, the 
 world-wide offers of mercy, the guilt of the sinner 
 for every instant of delay, he not only corrected 
 certain injurious tendencies in the minds of men 
 in those days, but also implanted the seeds of a 
 younger and fresher type of Calvinism, whose 
 rapid growth and influence are at this moment 
 the wonder of us all. Thus, when for example, 
 it is proposed to improve our Confession by the 
 addition of a full and definite statement of the 
 love of God for all men, the free offer of salva- 
 tion to all, and the obligation of the Church to 
 preach the gospel of salvation to all the world, 
 we can not fail to recognize in such a proposi- 
 tion the direct embodiment in confessional terms 
 of what Dr. Beecher held and taught in this In- 
 stitution fifty years ago. And when, for another 
 example, it is proposed to eliminate from the 
 Confession the implication that there are dying 
 infants not elect, and to declare that all infants 
 dying in infancy are saved by the grace of Christ 
 through the wonderful efficacy of the Spirit, we 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 141 
 
 should not forget that among American divines 
 it was Lyman Beecher who, before he became 
 a teacher here, openly advocated this broader 
 view, and gave it currency first in New Eng- 
 land and then in the Presbyterian Church. 
 
 That the first occupant of the Chair of The- 
 ology in this Institution was a great theologian, 
 can hardly be claimed. Constitutionally he was 
 builded for a great preacher, and there are those 
 who regard his transplantation to another sphere 
 and work at the age of nearly three-score as a 
 mistake. What he might have become had he 
 been called to the task of teaching divinity 
 twenty years earlier, no one can well determine. 
 As it vvas, the wonder is that, beginning at that 
 late period of life, oppressed with a multitude 
 of domestic cares, loaded down by the demands 
 of a large parish, called in many directions to 
 deliver addresses, organize churches, preach in 
 revivals, and all the while weighted with 
 burdens and perplexities connected with the 
 Seminary in its impoverished condition, he vvas 
 able to do half what he did in his difficult de- 
 partment of service. But besides all this, if 
 there is one thing which stands especially in 
 the way of calm, consecutive, successful study 
 of divine things, it is the fact of being suspected 
 and criticised by unfriendly minds— of having 
 both ability and orthodoxy ruthlessly challenged 
 —of being compelled, as he was, to enter on the 
 pitiable task of ecclesiastical defense against 
 
l42 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 the charge of disloyalty to the accepted faith. 
 In such a world as this, it is the too frequent 
 result of eminence, that one becomes an object 
 of envious and carping criticism, and has his 
 noblest feelings and aspirations repressed, and 
 his best endeavors impaired and even frustrated 
 at the hands of narrower and meaner minds. 
 Dr. Beecher experienced all this in an unusual 
 degree, and he must have been conscious, even 
 with his buoyant and generous -nature, that his 
 career in Lane was far from being what it might 
 have been under rnore propitious conditions. 
 And when, at length, at the ripe age of seventy- 
 five, and burdened with the painful sense of fail- 
 ing powers, he retired from his post, there must 
 have been an indescribable element of sadness 
 mingling in his soul with the just consciousness 
 that he had been permitted to do a great work 
 here for the truth and for the Church of God. 
 
 On the retirement of Dr. Beecher in 1851, 
 Professor Allen, who had for eleven years occu- 
 pied the Chair of Sacred Rhetoric, was trans- 
 ferred to the vacant post, and continued to serve 
 the Seminary as a teacher of theology until 1867, 
 when his health gave way entirely, and he re- 
 moved to Granville, O., where, after a long 
 period of progressive enfeeblement in both body 
 and mind, he died in November, 1870. I have 
 had an opportunity on another occasion to speak 
 of the general services of Dr. Allen to this In- 
 stitution during the twenty-seven years of his 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 143 
 
 active connection with it, and especially during 
 the sixteen years of his tlieological professor- 
 ship, when the main burden of caring for its 
 material interests rested far too heavily on his 
 willinor shoulders. What he was as a theologian 
 it is now my privilege to describe, not in my 
 own words, but in the language of a beloved 
 colleague — Prof. Evans — who knew him inti- 
 mately when a student under his instruction, and 
 who afterward became still more fully intimate 
 with him as an associate in the Faculty for 
 the four years preceding his retirement. The 
 following outline has been prepared by Dr. 
 Evans at my request for this occasion : 
 
 Dr. Allen's pre-eminent merit as a teaclier 
 was clearness, and like water which is so 
 clear that sometimes we take for crranted it can 
 not be deep, his treatment of great themes 
 might at times leave the impression at tirst that 
 it was marked by almost elementary simplicity. 
 It was only as we reviewed the ground, or from 
 some advanced vantage-point surveyed in tlieir 
 broad affiliations the well-defined, far-reaching, 
 much-embracing statements which had seemed 
 so simple, that we realized the full extent and 
 value of our possessions. His method of teach- 
 ing was by lectures. His own course was the 
 best vindication of the method. No text-book 
 certainly could have given us his system in its 
 organic completeness, philosophical development 
 and logical unity. 
 
l44 THIRTY YEARS IN LANli. 
 
 The lectures were so orderly and luminous 
 that it was easy to take notes of them. Inabil- 
 ity to report them would have been proof of 
 dullness, which of itself should have been es- 
 teemed a disqualification for the ministr}^. One 
 peculiarity may be noted here which I found 
 exceedingly lielpful. In beginning the study of a 
 great theme, t\ o-., the Atonement, the discussion 
 would start from a tentative general statement, 
 embodying the central idea or fact in its simplest 
 protoplasmic form. This was then unfolded, 
 point by point, part by part, in all their several 
 implications and bearings, difficulties were stated 
 and examined, qualifications were suggested and 
 weighed, collateral considerations presented and 
 adjusted, until the end was reached in the shape 
 of an enlarged and completed statement, in 
 which all the vital factors of the discussion 
 seemed spontaneously to crystallize. In a word, 
 the inductive process which had been pursued 
 in the study was reproduced in the lecture-room, 
 so that each student could see the way to work 
 out the problem for himself. 
 
 The first fifteen minutes of the hour were 
 generally given to a review of the preceding 
 lecture, and free conversation on the subject. 
 This was always interesting and profitable, and 
 not seldom absorbed the larger half of the hour. 
 Dr. Allen's genial spirit, accessible, unassum- 
 ing manner, and brotherly sympathy, invited 
 confidence, and encouraged the independent ex- 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 145 
 
 pression of thought. The simplicity and sincerity 
 of the nnan disarmed all idle and captious in- 
 quisitiveness, while every honest inquiry was 
 entertained with frank hospitality. His remarks 
 were short, clear, and always to the point. He 
 was quick to see the weakness of a false posi- 
 tion, and enjoyed beyond most men the logical 
 luxury of a redttctio ad absurdum. At the same 
 time the kindly twinkle of his eye was no less 
 persuasive than his logic or didactic was con- 
 vincing ; and to a company of theologues be- 
 fogged with theological chimeras, his straight- 
 forward, homely common sense was like a stream 
 of pure air and a river of sunshine to the stifled, 
 bat-ridden prisoners of a cave. Especially con- 
 siderate, cordial and helpful was he in dealing 
 with the peculiar individual difficulties and 
 struggles which were carried to the privacy of 
 his own study, where, even more than in the 
 lecture-room, the heart of the man, the deep 
 experience of the theologian, brought not only 
 mental relief, but spiritual benediction. 
 
 Dr. Allen's detinition of Christian Theology 
 is : The Science of God manifested in Christ. 
 The only safe method to be pursued in con- 
 structing it he believes to be the inductive. 
 The constructive principle of unity for it he 
 states to be ''the incarnation and work of Christ, 
 in order to render it possible that divine favor 
 might be extended to the guilty consistently with 
 the deniands of sovereign authority;" or 
 
146 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 "more briefly, the incarnation and death 
 of Christ for the purpose of harmonizing the 
 justice and mercy of God." The system, it 
 will thus be seen, is characteristically Christo- 
 centric. The essential features of a sys- 
 tem constructed on this principle are thus 
 specified : 
 
 "1. It will exalt the righteousness of God's 
 law and government, placing holiness, or obedi- 
 ence to the law and government of God, above 
 everything else ; above happiness, station, fame, 
 honor, or any other form of good. 
 
 "2. It will present the depravity of the 
 transgressor so that it will be seen that, if a 
 righteous law takes its course without mercy, 
 he will perish. 
 
 "3. It will present the bearing of the 
 Atonement on the righteousness of the universe, 
 or the sustaining of a righteous law. 
 
 "4. It will exhibit the consequent freedom 
 of grace. 
 
 "5. Also, the reinstating of the sinner who 
 accepts the Atonement, both in a righteous state 
 and in a holy character, as conditions of happi- 
 ness. 
 
 "6. And finally, the abiding misery of those 
 who reject the Atonement." 
 
 Along these fundamental lines the develop- 
 ment of the system advances from beginning to 
 end. 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 147 
 
 The two great divisions of the system are : 
 God as Sufreme Ruler ^ and God as Redeemer. 
 In discussing the Being of God, the preference 
 is given, as might have been expected from the 
 author's Baconianism, to the a -posteriori argu- 
 ment in its various forms — cosmological, teleo- 
 logical, moral, although the c; ^r/^ri ( on tolog- 
 ical) argument receives fair attention and close 
 criticism. The Attributes of God, fitting him 
 to rule, are defined and described with exact 
 discriminations. The Chief End of God in Cre- 
 ation is defined to be the realization of his own 
 glory as the sum of all excellence and blessed- 
 ness, both for God himself and for all his crea- 
 tures. The immortal analysis of the subject by 
 Jonathan Edwards is indorsed, with thoughtful 
 qualifications of his phraseology. 
 
 After the Ruler and Kis End, comes the 
 Plan by which He rules, commonly, but as Dr. 
 Allen thinks, less satisfactorily, designated as the 
 Decrees of God. The o-round of this Plan is the 
 Sovereign Will of God, thus defined : '*A will 
 uncontrolled by any higher power, and always 
 acting in the light of absolute, infinite knowledge 
 and benevolence.'' The vexed question of 
 the relation of Divine Sovereignty to man's 
 Free Agency is treated with humility, 
 candor and due reserve, the key to the working 
 solution of the problem being found in the 
 distinction between necessity and certainty, a 
 distinction more fully elaborated in the 
 
148 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 analysis of the Action of the Will, which is 
 given further on. 
 
 The Execution of the Plan is then taken up 
 in the two-fold sphere of Creation and Govern- 
 ment. The former head introduces the discus- 
 sion of the history, order and time of creation, 
 and the nature and properties of created things. 
 Here the discussion, while embracing a brief 
 outline of angelology, centers in Matter and Man. 
 Under matter, the chief point of interest is the 
 reality and potency of secondary causes, argued 
 in the affirmative with vigor and acuteness. 
 Here, as elsewhere in his philosophy, we see dis- 
 tinct traces of the influence of Reid and Ham- 
 ilton. 
 
 The doctrine of man is elaborated with 
 great fulness and profundity. Dr. Allen, at this 
 point, introduces an admirable summary of his 
 system of Mental and Moral Philosophy. This 
 is fundamental to his theology as the science of 
 God as Ruler and Redeemer. Stress is laid on 
 the inductive method here again. The sources 
 of our knowlege are found in the Bible, in con- 
 sciousness, and in observation. The three de- 
 partments of man's being are given as the In- 
 telligence, the Sensibilities and the Will, repre- 
 senting the three-fold activity of Thought, Feel- 
 ing and Choice. In the sphere of Intellect we 
 find three distinctions of the mind as knowing : 
 Consciousness, as knowing the Me ; as knowing 
 the Not-Me ; Reason and Understanding ; the 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 149 
 
 former the organ of necessary truth, the latter 
 of contingent ideas. The validity of the deliver- 
 ances of consciousness is strenuously maintained* 
 This is characteristic of Dr. A's system every- 
 where. 
 
 The law of the reason's action is thus 
 stated: ''There must be in the mind an idea of 
 an object or event, as the occasion of the mind's 
 action in apprehending a necessary truth. Body, 
 e. g:, suggests to the mind, or is the occasion of 
 its having, the idea of space." While certain 
 ideas are intuitive and necessary when they 
 exist at all, they do not come into existence in 
 the sphere of consciousness or mental action, 
 without an antecedent occasion, Jiol cause. The 
 term ' understanding ' includes all the varied 
 activities of mind which do not fall into the pre- 
 ceding categories, suc^h as perception, concep- 
 tion, association, abstraction, deductive or in- 
 ductive reasoning, etc. 
 
 The primary law of the sensibilities is the 
 law of necessity. By this is meant that the 
 mind is so constructed that certain feelings result 
 necessarily from the presentation of the objects 
 to which they correspond. Appetite for food is 
 instinctive or natural. But this law needs to 
 be supplemented by another, to-wit, that it is 
 within the power of man's will to control both 
 the exercise or indulgence of these sensibilities, 
 and the disposition or state of heart on which 
 man's susceptibilities and affections largely de- 
 
150 THIRTY YEARS IN I.ANE. 
 
 pend. Hence, while on the one hand there is in 
 the action of the sensibilities an element of con- 
 stitutional necessity, there is, on the other hand, 
 a voluntary element which correlates them to the 
 divine law. 
 
 Dr. Allen's treatment of theWill, which is of a 
 special and elaborate character, is a hne example 
 of masterly analysis. The preference is given to 
 this definition : Will is the power of an alterna- 
 tive election. The classification of choices is an 
 important section of the discussion. They are 
 divided into three classes : ( 1 ) Generic, the 
 act of the soul determing the chief end of its 
 being. (2) Specific, the executive volitions 
 by which the abiding preference is expressed 
 and carried out. (3) Irregular, such as have 
 no obvious connection with the governing, and 
 may be in confliict with the generic. Here be- 
 long the bad actions of good men, or the rela- 
 tively good actions of bad men. 
 
 But what is the relation of the will to the 
 other powers of the mind ? To the intellect it 
 stands related thus : There must be an intel- 
 lectual apprehension of an object of choice. 
 To the sensibilities thus : The object appre- 
 hended by the intellect must affect, move the 
 sensibilities to or from itself. The sensibilities 
 are thus the link between the intellect and the 
 will, the channel of influence, motive power, 
 from the one to the other. This combined 
 action of the mind and sensibility constitutes 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 151 
 
 what is commonly called a motive to a choice, 
 understanding by motive — in the language of 
 Edwards, "all that which moves, excites, or in- 
 vites the mind to volition." 
 
 The strength of the motive depends on a va- 
 riety of considerations ; the nature of the object 
 presented, the condition of the intellect and of 
 the sensibilities, the governing or generic pur- 
 pose, etc. The motive, however, is the occasion, 
 the condition of the mind's action, not the pro- 
 ducing cause of the choice. Here Dr. A. 
 breaks with necessitarianism. The will, in re- 
 sponding to the motive, is left free. There is no 
 compulsion, no such necessity as rules in the 
 realm qf matter. The essential idea which lies 
 at the foundation of responsibility, is the power 
 of alternative choice in respect to one's own 
 end of being, ( generic choice ). The idea of 
 this liberty is a simple and necessary idea, hav- 
 ing, indeed, like all sim.ple and necessary 
 ideas, its chronological antecedent, to-wit, 
 the consciousness of conflicting claims, or 
 of the conflicting influence of different mo- 
 tives or desires. The reality of the idea is 
 attestedby the sense of personal responsibility, 
 the testimon}' of Scripture, and that of con- 
 sciousness. 
 
 My limits will not permit even a summary 
 of Dr. A. 's masterly analysis of the relation of 
 motive to the action of the will. Suffice it to 
 state briefly the leading points. 
 
152 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 We recognize in the history of moral, re- 
 sponsible action, the following stages : 
 
 First stage : The antecedents : partly ex- 
 ternal, objective, furnishing the occasion, and 
 the material of the motive ; partly subjective, 
 psychological, conditioning the strength of the 
 motive, its moving^ power. 
 
 Second stage : The response of the mind : 
 the movement of the sensibilities, accompanied 
 by a comparison and balancing between the 
 claims of the object with those of its opposite. 
 
 Third stage-. The final, decisive act of 
 choice. In respect to this choice, note the fol- 
 lowing points : 
 
 (1). The antecedents of choice are substan- 
 tially the same in all, lying as they do on one 
 side in the inherent qualities of the objects of 
 choice, their attractiveness, their adaptations 
 to our appetencies and needs, in a word, their 
 moving power, and on the other side in the 
 psychological conditions of the agent. 
 
 (2). The connection between the motive 
 and the responsive action of the mind is accord- 
 ingly that of antecedent and consequent, and par- 
 takes of the quality of law in the uniformity, 
 universality and certainty of its operation. 
 
 (3). The connection, however. Is that of an- 
 tecedent and consequent, having for its exponent 
 certainty ; not that of cause and effect, having for 
 its exponent necessity. However uniform and 
 certain the result, the mind acts as an indepen- 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 153 
 
 dent, self-determining agent, always reserving to 
 itself the power and right of making the alter- 
 native choice. Without this there can be no 
 such freedom as makes responsibility intelligible 
 or possible. 
 
 These positions are fundamental and of su- 
 preme importance, as we shall see at the central 
 and vital points of the system. Before leaving 
 them let me call special attention to this entire 
 scheme of Mental Philosophy as definitive of the 
 broad, thoroughgoing and consistent Calvinism 
 of the Theology in the emphasis laid on the prin- 
 ciple of certainty on the one side, correlating 
 human actions to the decretive will of God, and 
 in the emphasis laid on the principle of freedom 
 and responsibility on the other, correlating hu- 
 man actions to the preceptive will of God. 
 
 Dr. Allen's Moral Philosophy is no less 
 carefully and skillfully elaborated, and no less 
 closely wrought into the very marrow of his sys- 
 tem. I can only touch on two or three points. 
 The question. What is Right ? is answered 
 in two ways : 
 
 ( 1 ). Right in the abstract is defined to be 
 "that quality of moral acts which excites the 
 feeling of oughtness or obligation, which calls 
 forth the mind's approbation, and excites the 
 the emotion of complacency and pleasure, and 
 gives rise to the idea ot good desert." 
 
 (2). Right in the concrete is defined to be 
 Love. The arcrument to establish this conclusion 
 
154 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 is (whether it be deemed absolutely satisfactory 
 or no) certainly the strongest I have ever met 
 with, displaying the keenest psychological in- 
 sight, and pregnant with practical significance. 
 The question, What is Conscience? is at 
 the close of a long and profound analysis thus 
 answered : Conscience is a complex term 
 under which are comprehended the following 
 facts of our moral nature : 
 
 1. The intuitive apprehension of the right- 
 ness of benevolence in the broadest sense. 
 
 2. The feeling of oughtness or obligation 
 to be benevolent. 
 
 3. The feeling of complacency or remorse, 
 pleasure or pain, in view of one's self as being or 
 not being benevolent. 
 
 The real intention and use of conscience, 
 thus defined, is pronounced to be simply to 
 correlate the human mind to the law of God, to 
 link intelligence and virtue together, to bind 
 man with God. The judgment may be at fault 
 in particular instances in determining what the 
 law of love may require or prohibit ; but what- 
 ever is believed to be so required or forbidden 
 is of binding force, felt to be such. Thus 
 conscience binds man to virtue and to God. A 
 law designed to bind all created mind together, 
 and all to God, the Creator, would be of no 
 use unless Its binding force were recognized. 
 There must be that in the mind on which law fas- 
 ns, with which it can grapple. There must 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 155 
 
 be correlation as of loadstone to iron. So con- 
 science correlates free mind to the law of God. 
 
 The whole discussion of conscience and of 
 morals is the product of a master mind, moving 
 with the ease of conscious power in the realm 
 of the central, eternal principles of the divine 
 government, and of the laws and facts of human 
 nature ; and is throughout intended and calcu- 
 lated to establish the absolute, eternal, immut- 
 able factors of God's government, to account 
 for the relative, the phenomenal, the variable in 
 human nature and experience ; to correlate man's 
 moral being to God's law, to justify duty, to 
 maintain and quicken the sense of responsibility, 
 to illustrate the process of sin and salvation, and 
 to vindicate the claims of God to unconditional 
 obedience, as these claims are urged upon us 
 through nature, consciousness or revelation, 
 through law or gospel. 
 
 In considering the execution of God's plan 
 in government, the interest of the treatment 
 centres in the moral administration of the plan. 
 Here the New England elements of the system 
 come into special prominence. Dr. Taylor's 
 impress is noticeable, although some of that great 
 theologian's leading theories and conclusions 
 are vigorously and successfully contested. The 
 following positions are laid down as funda- 
 mental: 
 
 " Law must be maintained by appropriate 
 and adequate sanctions. The sanctions of law 
 
156 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 are the rewards of obedience in the form of en- 
 joyment, and the penalties of disobedience in 
 the form of suffering." 
 
 *'The character or measure of the sanctions 
 of law depends on the importance of the ends 
 at which government aims. If those ends are 
 of infinite value, then the rewards must be im- 
 measurably precious, and the penalties immeas- 
 urably dreadful." 
 
 "It follows that the reward due to obedience 
 is perfect happiness while obedience continues." 
 
 "It follows also that the penalty of disobe- 
 dience must be perfect and endless misery. 
 Nothing less can express God's estimate of the 
 end he seeks." And here we have the true 
 measure of the ill-desert of sin. 
 
 Dr. Allen's hamartology is at once 
 speculatively philosophical and profound, and 
 concrete, psychological, practical. Dogmatic 
 refinements and subleties are brushed aside like 
 so many cobwebs, and the realities of the situ- 
 tion are grasped and set forth with a firm hand. 
 Note the following statements : 
 
 "Objectively : As related to law, sin is the 
 voluntary transgression of it. As related to 
 God, it is a personal affront to his authority ; it 
 is opposition to his personal character ; it is re- 
 volt from his service. 
 
 "Subjectively : Sin is the abiding prefer- 
 ence of the soul for what law forbids, or the 
 abiding opposition of the soul to what the law 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 157 
 
 requires. Or, in its concrete torm, sin is self- 
 ishness." 
 
 In discussing guilt, the emphasis comes not 
 on the legal sense of the term as represented by 
 the Latin reus^ but on the moral ; subjectively, 
 as the reaction of sin on the sinner himself in the 
 personal conviction of wrong doing ; objectively, 
 as the conviction of a wrong done to God, 
 carrying with it still further the obligation to 
 sustain law by rendering satisfaction, or in other 
 words, by enduring punishment. Its measure 
 has already been given in the measure of ill- 
 desert. 
 
 In treating of punishment, Dr. Allen ad- 
 heres throughout to the strict judicial sense of 
 the term as suffering inflicted for the trans- 
 gression of law, by proper authority, in the ex- 
 ecution of a judicial sentence, and for the pur- 
 pose of sustaining and honoring the law. 
 
 In this strict sense punishment is not ad- 
 ministered in this life, regarded as a period of 
 gracious probation. The penalty is suspended 
 for all by the Atonement ; the sufferings of the 
 present are disci-plinary^ not penal. 
 
 Dr. Allen's rip-id insistence on these defini- 
 tions of guilt and punishment was signiflcant of 
 certain essential features of his theologic think- 
 ing, as e, g.: 
 
 (1). His aversion to a theology which 
 could not be preached, and commended to men's 
 consciences. 
 
158 THIRTY YEARS IN T.ANE. 
 
 (2). His conviction that a double sense of 
 fundamental terms in ethics and religion, where- 
 in the secondary sense involves not only a de- 
 parture from the primary, but to some extent a 
 contradiction of it, can only work confusion and 
 mischief. 
 
 (3). His belief that the above definitions 
 are essential to a true appreciation of the tragic 
 fact of suffering in God's universe, and of its 
 relation to sin : 
 
 a. On the part of men in this life — disci- 
 plinary, to purify from sin. 
 
 b. On the part of Christ — sacrificial, to 
 atone for sin, by furnishing a divine expression 
 or measure of the ill-desert of sin, which con- 
 stitutes an equivalent of the expression or meas- 
 ure of ill-desert furnished by the endless suffer- 
 inors of the transgrressor. 
 
 c. On the part of the lost — penal, to pun- 
 ish sin. 
 
 The historical aspects of the fall are con- 
 sidered appropriately under the head of the ex- 
 ecution of the divine plan in moral government. 
 In this connection the divine permission of evil 
 receives attention. While the essentially insol- 
 uble character of the problem is fully recog- 
 nized, Dr. Allen is inclined to the statement 
 that evil is — not as Bellamy and others say, 
 necessary — but incidental to the wisest adminis- 
 tration of a moral system. 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 159 
 
 The second ^reat division of the course in- 
 troduces us to God as Redeemer. 
 
 Here first we have the ground of the possi- 
 bility of Redemption in the Trinity, which leads 
 to the examination of the doctrine of the Trinity, 
 and in particular of the person and work of 
 Christ. 
 
 In considering the work of Redemption, 
 our attention is directed first to the disease or 
 the condition of the race in consequence of the 
 fall. Throughout the discussion the emphasis 
 is laid on the facts of Scripture and of consci- 
 ou^^ness, rather than on human speculations. 
 The first sin was an act of free self-detei'mina- 
 tion. -It consisted in the choice of self rather 
 than God, as the end of the life. It was 
 thus a generic, permanent choice, decisive of 
 character and of destiny. It brought our first 
 parents under the condemnation of the law, and 
 under the power of selfishness (self-indulgence), 
 through the derangement of the sensibilities. 
 
 The fall having taken place, it was open to 
 God to execute the sentence of death at once. 
 But he suspended the sentence, inaugurated at 
 once a system of Redemption, introduced a new 
 form of probation, not legal as the former, but 
 gracious, under which the curse of sin becomes 
 disciplinary, especially under the reinforcing 
 stimulus of the hope inspired by grace. 
 
 But Adam's fall involves his posterity. 
 The race becomes depraved. Two great laws 
 
160 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 co-operate to bring about this result : The law 
 of descent — "like begets like," and here Dr. 
 Allen is a Traduciaiiist — and the law ®f social 
 liability. These two laws suffice to account for 
 the facts, and meet all the requirements of 
 Scripture teaching on the subject. The Mani- 
 cheanism, which derives sin from matter ; the 
 Realism, which attributes universal depravity 
 to generic identity with Adam ; the Federalism, 
 which puts imputation before depravity ; the 
 Transcendentalism, which locates the fall in a 
 timeless pre-existence — all these theories are 
 subjected to a rigorous examination, and rejected 
 on scriptural and philosophical grounds ; and 
 universal depravity is referred to the laws of 
 heredity and the social solidarity of the race. 
 The depraved nature which we inherit from our 
 first parents implies a diseased personal and 
 social organism, the beclouded intelligence and 
 the deranged sensibilities, which, as anteced- 
 ents of volition, re-enforced by the moral chaos 
 of the social environment, ensure for each and 
 for every one the choice of self as the first, gen- 
 eric, abiding choice which determines character 
 and destiny. 
 
 After a careful analysis of the nature and 
 extent of the deseased condition, we are 
 brought to the remedy — the work of the Re- 
 deemer, as Prophet, Priest and King. The 
 interest here centres in Christ's work as Priest, 
 or the iVtonement, of which the foUovvinor oren- 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 161 
 
 eral statement is given : "The x\tonement is a 
 government transaction, having immediate refer- 
 ence to the power and authority of moral gov- 
 ernment in view of the suspension of penalty, 
 or offer of pardon, and the bestovvment of 
 pardon on certain conditions. Its immediate 
 object is to sustain the law and government of 
 God in another way than by executing the pen- 
 alty on the transgressor. It does this by means 
 of the sufferings and death of Christ as a sub- 
 stitute for the execution of the penalty, through 
 the influence of those sufferings and that death 
 on the sinner himself an^ upon the universe." 
 It should be added that in Dr. Allen's intention 
 this definition includes the satisfaction of justice, 
 justice being the divine attribute specially con- 
 cerned with the upholding of law and government, 
 so that whatever secures that end satisfies justice. 
 
 The necessity of the Atonement is proved 
 from the fact of its institution, from the necessi- 
 ties of law and government, from the require- 
 ments of God's justice, from the requirements 
 of his benevolence, from the demands made by 
 the greatest good of the universe, and is con- 
 firmed by the workings of conscience, by the 
 experience of the race, and by the teachings of 
 Scripture. 
 
 The universality of the Atonement is argued 
 from Scripture, from its nature and design, from 
 its relations to the universal benevolence of 
 God, who loves all, desires the salvation of all, 
 
162 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 has provided an Atonement to nnake salvation 
 possible for all, who offers salvation to all, 
 who applies the motive-power of the Atone- 
 ment to persuade all to accept this offer, 
 who, on the ground of the Atonement, has 
 already suspended the penalty, instituted a 
 gracious probation for all, bestows on all the in- 
 fluences of his Spirit, through whom he draws 
 all to himself, leaving the responsibility of not 
 coming to him on the man himself. The Atone- 
 ment being the condition of all this universal 
 provision of grace is of necessity universal. 
 The alls of the gospel are emphasized through- 
 out with special earnestness and love. 
 
 The consideration of the conditions of the 
 bestowal of the blessings of the Atonement leads 
 to the doctrine of Justification by Faith. The 
 discussion, I need not say, is clear and evange- 
 lical, but needs no special reference here. 
 
 The application of the atoning work of Christ 
 brings before us first, the Agent — the Holy 
 Spirit, and the Plan — Election. It is most in- 
 teresting to note that Dr. Allen, besides decis- 
 ively rejecting Supra-lapsarianism, prefers to 
 the ordinary Infra-lapsarianism, which regards 
 Election as subsequent to the Fall, a third theory 
 which might be characterized as Sub-infra- 
 lapsarianism, which regards Election as coming 
 not after the Fall but also after the Atonement, 
 and as designed " to honor the atoning work 
 of Christ by giving [and securing] to him a 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 163 
 
 reward of his sufferings." Election is thus pre- 
 eminently an outcoming of Love — the love of 
 the Father for the Son blending with the Divine 
 Love for the elect. The definition given of 
 Election is accordingly this : "By Election we 
 understand that God, having from eternity pur- 
 posed to provide a Savior for the human family, 
 and foreseeing that not one of them self-moved 
 would accept of him, determined to exert upon 
 a certain portion of them by his Holy Spirit 
 such influences as would certainly and infallibly 
 result in their repentance and faith and per- 
 severance unto eternal life ; and that in the 
 Covenant of Redemption these were given to 
 Christ as the reward of his sufferings." 
 
 In discussing the ground or reason of Elec- 
 tion, not only are we referred to the sovereignty 
 of God and to his purpose to manifest his glory 
 in all that he decrees and does, but also to the 
 great characteristic of the system of Redemp- 
 tion as operating through Jesus Christ. Elec- 
 tion, as already defined, is the purpose to render 
 the Atonement effectual in the case of those 
 who are given to Christ. Election and Atone- 
 ment both centre in Christ. Both are made 
 effectual through the same means of grace— 
 the agency of the Spirit, and the instrumentality 
 of the truth. Both aim at the same result — 
 holiness. Hence, while we know not what the 
 reasons of election are, we may well believe 
 that they are associated in the Divine Mind with 
 
164 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 the workings of the scheme of redemption. 
 We locate them in redemption rather than 
 law. The number of the elect, according to 
 Scripture, is immensely large. 
 
 The actual application of atonement takes 
 place by regeneration, which is thus defined : "A 
 radical change of a man's character, produced 
 by the agency of the Holy Ghost, in which, from 
 being supremely selfish and therefore totally 
 sinful, he begins to love God supremely, and 
 therefore begins to be holy." The character of 
 this great change is considered, the agency of 
 the Spirit as involving the application of truth, 
 and the control of antecedent influences and 
 conditions determining the will, so as to insure 
 the result without impairing man's liberty, the 
 homiletic use of the doctrine — all these and re- 
 lated points are discussed con aniore. I doubt 
 whether any department of theology enlisted Dr. 
 A.'s heart so thoroughly as this. His analytic 
 psychologism, his doctrinal evangelicalism, and 
 his practical revivalism, found here their largest 
 and finest scope. This remark will also include 
 the discussion of sanctification, or the Christian 
 life. 
 
 The remainder of the course was devoted 
 to "The Result of Christ's Atoning; work : or, 
 Christ as King" : embracing Ecclesiology and 
 Eschatology, and need not specially detain us 
 now. 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 165 
 
 Let me under a few heads emphasize the 
 distinctive features of the theology of which a 
 sketch has been thus attempted : 
 
 1. It was a logical unit, a complete organic 
 whole. 
 
 2. Its organizing principle was Dr. A.'s 
 philosophy — fundamentally that of Reed, with 
 large modifications from Sir Wm. Hamilton and 
 Cousin, in less measure from Coleridge, but 
 chiefly from Dr. A. himself. 
 
 3. A mediating influence was constantly 
 exerted by his teaching — in that he was always 
 careful to point out how divergent views in the- 
 ology were largely due to the application of 
 varying philosophies. 
 
 4. His method was thoroughly inductive, 
 a -p^'iori assumptions or reasonings being, for the 
 most part, carefully eschewed. 
 
 5. The data of its inductions were mainly 
 biblical. The number of passages cited as 
 proof-texts was extraordinary. Nor was the 
 lecturer content with referring to them. There 
 was no small amount of exegesis, and the final 
 impression received was a scriptural O. E. D. 
 
 6. The data of consciousness were also 
 largely utilized. Hence, as we have seen, the 
 theology is pre-eminently psychological. 
 
 7. While the system was thus thoroughly 
 and profoundly philosophical, it was at the same 
 time singularly popular and practical. Abstrac- 
 tions, technicalities, artificialities were as much 
 
166 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 as possible put aside. It was characteristically 
 a theology of common sense. A sly query in 
 the vein of Socrates, a shrewd maxim or jest in 
 the style of Benj. Franklin, would prick many 
 a theological bubble. 
 
 8. While Dr. Allen's culture was by no 
 means narrow, his theology was by far rather the 
 product of individual thinking than of extensive 
 reading. 
 
 9. While strong on the intellectual side, it 
 was a theology of the heart quite as much as of 
 the intellect. The vital connections of theology 
 and experience were never overlooked. His 
 logic often melted in tears. Christianity in the 
 system is far more than a creed, it is a relig- 
 ion. 
 
 10. Scarcely more is it a theology of the 
 intellect and of the heart than a theology of 
 the conscience. The idea of right is every- 
 where pivotal : in God and in man, in govern- 
 ment and in redemption. 
 
 11. It is characteristically a revival theol- 
 ogy, fitted to be an inspiration rather than an 
 incubus in a season of religious interest, and to 
 help the preacher both to awaken and to deal 
 with a spirit of anxious inquiry. 
 
 12. At the same time it is a theology of edi- 
 fication, eminently adapted to promote growth in 
 the knowledge and grace of Christ, and to inspire 
 the activity of that love which, according to it, is 
 the Alpha and the Omegcvof the Christian religion. 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 167 
 
 The third incumbent of the theological chair 
 was Dr. Henry A. Nelson, who entered upon 
 his duties early in 1868. It should be said here 
 that, for two years previous to the retirement of 
 Dr. Allen, he had been so far disabled as to need 
 assistance in his work. That assistance was 
 rendered in 1866, and again in 1867, by Dr. 
 Henry Smith, Professor of Sacred Rhetoric from 
 1855, with two intervals, until his death in Jan- 
 uary, 1879. On the retirement of Dr. Beecher 
 in 1851, Dr. Smith had been invited to become 
 the Professor of Theology, and was eminently 
 fitted as a scholar and teacher to give instruction 
 in that department, as well as in the chair to 
 which he was called four or five years later. 
 Educated in New England, versed in that type 
 of Calvinistic doctrine which, originating with 
 Jonathan Edwards, was represented in his youth- 
 ful days by men like Dwight and Emmons, he 
 had framed for himself a theological system 
 which he held tenaciously, and which under 
 favorable conditions he might have set forth here 
 with commanding power. One who knew him 
 well (Rev. President Tuttle ), has said of Dr. 
 Smith as a theologian : 
 
 "My judgment ma}^ be partial, but to me he 
 seemed — by his intellectual endowments and 
 learning, his rigid analytic and logical habits, 
 his fidelity to truth, especially as revealed in 
 the Bible, his great eloquence, as well in the 
 class-room as in the pulpit, his magnetic enthu- 
 
168 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 siasm in what he taught, and also in teaching 
 it, and withal the supreme crown of all his 
 qualities, his devout piety — by all these he seemed 
 to me to have qualifications for the department 
 of theology of the highest order. Eminent as 
 he was in other departments of education, he 
 would have proved himself preeminent in this." 
 Though Dr. Smith left behind him no printed 
 expositions of his system, those of us who list- 
 ened to his series of discourses on the moral 
 law and the moral government of God, can well 
 appreciate the justice of this exalted estimate. 
 
 Dr. Nelson came- into the Seminary from a 
 pastoral care of twenty-two years, in two exten- 
 sive and important parishes. He brought with 
 him into this new sphere, as Dr. Beecher had 
 done, those warm and practical conceptions of 
 Christian theology which would naturally arise 
 in any active and earnest mind under the influ- 
 ence of such an experience as the actual minis- 
 try ciffords. Trained in Auburn Seminary by one 
 of the most vigorous, acute, systematic and philo- 
 sophical teachers of our Church (Dr. Hickok, ) 
 he had also learned by thoughtful experiment 
 in how many ways the teaching of the school 
 must be modified and moulded afresh in order 
 to adjust it to the needs of the pulpit and the 
 pastoral work. His own mind had long been 
 chiefly interested in such modes of stating and 
 illustrating gospel doctrine as proved themselves 
 valuable in persuading sinners, edifying saints, 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 169 
 
 instructing and developing the Church. And 
 herein appeared that special usefulness which se 
 largely characterized his work here. In other 
 words, his success lay mainly in the fact that, 
 drawing from such a well of personal experi- 
 ence, he was enabled to send his pupils out into 
 the great field, well supplied with the body and 
 substance of the Gospel in forms immediately 
 available in the pulpit. Following one who had 
 never filled the pastoral office, as he in turn had 
 followed a great preacher and an eminent pas- 
 tor, Dr. Nelson may be said to have completed 
 the symmetry of Lane theology, and given per- 
 manence and worth to it as a theology for the 
 people, Dr. Allen had indeed preached much, 
 labored much and successfully in revivals, and 
 had imparted to his pupils in a rare degree a 
 a type of doctrine which they could preach, and 
 preach with power. To his successor it was 
 given to take up essentially the sanie doctrinal 
 system, and so to clothe it with argument and 
 illustration, and so to emphasize it with the re- 
 sults of large observation and of earnest per- 
 sonal reflection upon divine things, as to make 
 it still more available in the myriad exigencies 
 of the pastoral sphere. 
 
 Those who have read the brief treatise of 
 Dr. Nelson, published since his retirement, and 
 entitled Sin and Salvation, will readily appre- 
 hend both the substance of his system, and the 
 forms in which he specially delighted to frame 
 
170 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 it. Its practical presentation of sin as an act, 
 sin as a state of the soul, sin as a disease for 
 which man can provide no remedy, sin as an 
 inheritance, involving guilt and the doom of 
 separation from God even in this life, and ulti- 
 mately an eternal banishment from His pres- 
 ence, is both clear and strong. In this treatise 
 the author takes no decisive position respecting 
 the various Calvinistic theories of sin and guilt 
 as associated with the Adamic transgression, 
 though he evidently prefers the Edwardean view 
 of a divine constitution of things, by which sin- 
 fulness flows down by natural processes through 
 the blood and life of the race. His main stress, 
 however, like that of Beecher and Allen, is upon 
 that personal element which is essential in all 
 sin — upon that immediate form of guiltiness 
 which involves not only exposure to retributive 
 consequences, but also individual criminality. 
 The entire treatise may be described as a thor- 
 oughly Calvinistic statement of the essential 
 facts in the case, not so much for the eye of the 
 speculative theologian, but rather in their living 
 relation to the needs of the preacher. 
 
 In like manner the correlative fact of sal- 
 vation is presented as primarily an act, an act 
 often varying in its aspects and conditions, but 
 always spiritual in substance ; an act wrought 
 through the energies of the Spirit of God, work- 
 ing upon and within the sinful and corrupt soul. 
 The author follows the example of Chalmers in 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 171 
 
 dwelling much on sin as a disease, and on the 
 mediatorial work of Christ as a remedy, includ- 
 ing deliverance from delusion and disorder as 
 well as guilt, and involving a loving return to 
 God through the ministries of the Spirit, and a 
 complete and everlasting union with him in 
 glory. The full divinity of the Mediator, the 
 greatness and preciousness of his mediatorial 
 work, the worth and scope of the atonement as 
 adequate to meet every demand of redemption, 
 the freeness of the gift of the Spirit, and the 
 consequent applicability and universality of the 
 gospel, are clearly and strongly stated, though 
 always in language and imagery that harmonize 
 with the practical aim in view. Had Dr. Beech- 
 er or Dr. Allen prepared a volume under such 
 a title and with such an aim, it would have been 
 very much what this admirable treatise is. It 
 may be they would have laid less stress on sin 
 as a vttiu7n, and more on sin as a cidfa — would 
 have been somewhat more inclined to set forth 
 the strictly personal elements in sin, and its con- 
 sequent criminality, and somewhat less disposed 
 to see sin in its deeper organic forms, . as a 
 quality of human nature from which all 
 actual transgressions do proceed. Yet the 
 differences would have been theoretical and 
 secondary ; the harmony is fundamental, is 
 complete. The voices of the teachers might 
 differ in tone and volume, but the utterance 
 is one. 
 
112 
 
 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 It will be remembered that the Reunion, of 
 which this occasion is in part commemorative, 
 occurred within eighteen months after Dr. Nel- 
 son commenced his theological work. As one 
 of the conspicuous minds in one branch of the 
 Church, he had been summoned while still a 
 pastor to a special service in connection with 
 that union. He watched every stage of the pro- 
 cess with assiduous and sympathetic interest, 
 and when the event occurred, his vote and his 
 heart were in it. No hand grasped more cor- 
 dially the spade with which, on that November 
 day, we planted the Reunion elm on these 
 grounds, and no one entered more trustfully than 
 he on the new alliance then formed. He saw 
 instantly how indispensable to its success the 
 confidence of all parties in each other must be ; 
 how much must be overlooked, how much must 
 be borne with, how much must be patiently 
 moulded into form, if the union was indeed to 
 be a permanent and blessed thing. He espe- 
 cially saw that in the teaching of theology for 
 the common Church, with its accepted varieties 
 of stating and illustrating the common Calvin- 
 ism, it was incumbent on the teacher to be thor- 
 oughly irenical in his expositions — to lay less 
 stress than before on the differences, and empha- 
 size his own specialties of opinion less tenaciously, 
 and, above all, never to indulge in such polemic 
 tempers as not infrequently manifested them- 
 selves on both sides in the old days of division. 
 
THE TlIEOLO(iIANS OF T.ANE. 173 
 
 At the same time he had no principles to con- 
 ceal or to sell, and no compromises to make ; 
 he consented to no sacrifice of valuable historic 
 traditions, here or elsewhere. He held that the 
 grand old elm which had been planted on this 
 hill, should be and remain an elm still, and that it 
 was absurd to wish it an oak, a maple or a hick- 
 ory. In his judgment, it was better for every 
 interest concerned that it should stand as before, 
 a graceful elm, with its sturdy trunk, its broad 
 branches and its welcoming shades, in the wide 
 landscape of our common ancestral domain, 
 while hickories and maples and oaks give min- 
 gled variety and beauty to the scene, and, at 
 their own sweet will, grow and prosper where- 
 ever the good hand of the Master may have 
 planted them. 
 
 Fifteen years and more have passed since 
 Dr. Nelson returned to his loved work in pul- 
 pit and parish, and the present incumbent was 
 transferred from another department to this re- 
 sponsible and difficult position. His study and 
 teaching of Church History, and especially of 
 the History of Christian Doctrine, during the 
 seven years preceding, had in some measure 
 prepared him to pass over into this new depart- 
 ment with some knowledge of the kind of ser- 
 vice to be rendered, but also with a keen sense 
 of the perplexities and exposures involved in 
 such a transplantation. In general, his task 
 was simply to carry on, in their spirit and with 
 
174 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 like strenuous endeavor, the work whicli 
 Beecher and Allen and Nelson had for more 
 than forty years been prosecuting. The master 
 hand of the first great architect had laid broad 
 and deep foundations for a theological system ; 
 the second had elaborated the structure with 
 more of scientific method and philosophic pre- 
 cision, and with wider adaptations ; the third 
 had contributed to its completeness by such ad- 
 ditions and adjustments as a long and success- 
 ful pastorate would supply. But three things 
 remained to be undertaken, in order that the 
 theological edifice should become, in the fine 
 phrase of Tennyson, 
 
 * * * "a tower of strength, 
 
 That stood four-square to all the winds that blew," 
 
 Of these three things, the first grew out of 
 certain current aspects and movements of unbe- 
 lief which have made themselves specially mani- 
 fest during the last quarter of a century, and 
 through which the common Christianity has 
 seemed to be exposed to new and strange perils. 
 Skepticism has apparently been gathering 
 strength for a fiercer onset, not against any 
 specific element of the Gospel or any particular 
 class or system of doctrine, but against the in- 
 nermost citadels of our holy faith. It has hurled 
 special challenges at Christianity in respect to 
 the character and administration of God, to his 
 relations to the universe natural and moral, to 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 175 
 
 the proofs of his existence, to the fundamental 
 facts of his supernatural and supreme personal- 
 ity. It has denied or questioned the possibility 
 of our knowing anything concerning divine 
 things, the validity of human reasonings in the 
 sphere of theology the nature and offices of the 
 human conscience, the fundamental fact of im- 
 mortality. It has assailed the Christian theories 
 as to the origin of man and the material uni- 
 verse, has resolved all law and order into blind 
 and characterless force, has affirmed that there 
 is no pre-determined outcome to humanity or 
 the world, and that the only alternative is 
 either an endless succession with no consum- 
 mation anywhere, or perchance a pitiless catas- 
 trophe in which man and the universe shall go 
 down together into some eternal abyss of noth- 
 ingness. It has challenged the possibility of 
 revelation, spurned the Christian evidences, 
 declared miracle and prophecy to be delusions, 
 and scouted at the fundamental truth of an in- 
 spiration from God into the heart and life of 
 men. In a word, unbelief has shifted its whole 
 line of battle, and assailed Christianity by 
 methods more radical, by postulates more de- 
 structive, than any heretofore known in the long 
 struggle of the ages. And he who would be a 
 faithful teacher of theology in the presence of 
 such an emergency, must of necessity concern 
 himself relatively less with that which has been 
 elaborated so well by those who have gone be- 
 
176 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 fore him, and become more extensively an apo- 
 logist for the Gospel. He must devote himself 
 with special zeal to the defense of those great 
 and fundamental verities of religion, without 
 which there can be no Christian theology of 
 any sort. In such an age as this, the exposition 
 of the profound Analogy of Bishop Butler, how- 
 ever brilliant, would be insufficient. Man as a 
 being rational and spiritual, and therefore cap- 
 able of theologizing ; nature in all her wonders 
 of phenomenon and law and cosmic energy, 
 bearing her living testimony to something be- 
 yond herself ; God as a Personal Being, proved 
 to exist in his supremacy and his perfection by 
 lines of argument that can not be broken ; Reve- 
 lation as a true communication from God to 
 man, and having in it the core of all knowledge, 
 the sum of all hope, the pledge and assurance 
 of an eternal salvation ; these are the great un- 
 derlying verities with which a wise and faithful 
 teacher, be he Calvinist or Lutheran or Armin- 
 ian, must first and chiefly concern himself in 
 this age. If these are lost, all is lost! 
 
 A second special task to be attempted in 
 this chair appeared in the providential necessity 
 for a broader exposition of the system of theo- 
 logy here taught, in its very interesting rela- 
 tions to the faith and teaching^ of the universal 
 Church. One who has learned to appreciate 
 the grand organic developments of Christian 
 thought as they appear through the ages — who 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 177 
 
 sees how amid a thousand varieties and con- 
 flicts the one sublime unfolding has gone on and 
 on toward some glorious unity, to be attained at 
 last in belief as truly as in life, could never be 
 content with the mere enunciation of his own 
 personal or provincial speciality, as if that con- 
 tained the entire and the completed Gospel. 
 Every student of Church History knows how 
 disastrous to the best interests of Protestantism 
 for the last hundred and fifty years have been 
 the wranglings of theologians, the strifes of 
 schools and sects, growing out of the failures 
 to appreciate each other in this broad and 
 irenic way. In this clear and happier age such 
 isolated and provincial exposition of divine 
 things is no longer to be justified. Nothing il"^ 
 clearer now than the fact that no man can fully 
 comprehend or utilize his own system of doc- 
 trine, until he has studied it under the revealing 
 and rectifying lights which such cosmic investi- 
 gation flashes down upon it — until he puts it to 
 the crucial tests which the organic thought of 
 the whole Church of God on earth supplies. As 
 no one could comprehend the noble symbols of 
 Westminster until he examined them in the 
 light shed upon both their substance and their 
 language by the antecedent creeds of the Re- 
 formation, so one who is set for the exposition 
 of any specific type of the Protestant Theology, 
 must measurably and perhaps sadly fail in his 
 task so long as he is absorbed and centered in 
 
178 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 that type, as a silkworm in its web. To see the 
 particular system in its general relationships, 
 and to interpret what is specific by what is uni- 
 versal ; strengthening, modifying, correcting and 
 expanding the particular teaching in whatever 
 wav these broader relationships suggest, is a 
 fundamental condition of safe, healthful, fruitful 
 jheologizing, at least in our times. If the par- 
 ticular teaching is wrong or narrow, defective 
 in quality, or erroneous in tendency, such com- 
 parative investigation makes the fact as palpa- 
 ble as the day, and leads the teacher either to 
 abandon his task in despair, or to search with 
 an agonizing earnestness for some worthier con- 
 ception of the common Gospel. On the other 
 hand, these comparative studies may enable 
 him to see, as never before, how thoroughly 
 truthful his cherished system is — how tender and 
 gracious are its affiliations with all other evan- 
 gelical systems — and how safely and ardently 
 he may proclaim it in his appointed place as 
 containing in essence and substance, not only 
 what his own denomination or school may hold, 
 but the glorious Gospel in whose light all indi- 
 vidual types of doctrine are harmoniously cen- 
 tered. To teach theology under the benign in- 
 fluence of such considerations as these, is — as a 
 happy experience certifies to me — a privilege 
 immeasurably superior to any Avhich the inten- 
 sest, narrowest, most pugnacious little dogma- 
 tizer on earth can enjoy. 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 179 
 
 The third and last special task which 
 seemed to devolve upon the present instructor in 
 theologv has been already suggested ; it was 
 found in the new obligations springing out of 
 the historic union of 1869. He who would be a 
 teacher of the whole Church at such an inter- 
 esting and critical juncture in its history, must 
 of course adjust his teaching to these peculiar 
 conditions. There was indeed little, if any- 
 thing, in the Lane Theology to be thrown aside 
 in consequence of that union ; but there were di- 
 rections in which what was held and taught in 
 each Seminary should, so far as possible, be 
 harmoniously correlated to what was held and 
 taught elsewhere. Antagonisms of a formal 
 sort were to be abandoned ; difference's in 
 method and statement were to be minimized 
 and harmonized ; each point of recognizable 
 unity was to be conserved ; and that in which 
 all were agreed, was to be pressed everywhere 
 into the front. This was to be done, even at 
 the hazard of seeming to be in some particulars 
 indifferent, if not disloyal to the original system 
 represented by the teacher. It was to be done 
 even if the process should sometimes be misin- 
 terpreted as suggestive of incapacity or tending 
 to indefiniteness or vagueness in the teaching ; 
 it was to be done even if it was sometimes de- 
 nounced by those who were more zealous for 
 some favorite dogma than for the peace and 
 unification of the Church, 
 
180 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 Such a course was also indispensable to 
 success in the training of a body of ministers, 
 who should be in harmony with the spirit of the 
 age, and with the temper of the reconciled de- 
 nominations. For, a student taught to know 
 nothing else than the i-psissima verba of some 
 tenacious and litigious old theologian, who re- 
 gards nothing as of value but what he himself 
 holds and teaches, can become nothing but a 
 young and narrow dogmatist after all, either 
 growing narrower and more bitter like his mas- 
 ter as he grows old, or waking up at last to find, 
 that his own little system is not the whole of 
 things as he supposied it to be, and that he him- 
 self has no raison cV ctre as a minister in such a 
 « Church as ours, at such a magnificent period in 
 its history. That church needs no men of this 
 class in her pulpits. The more carefully and 
 widely her young men can be trained in her 
 institutions to see divine things in broad rela- 
 tionships as history reveals them, and to see 
 them also as the living cords and ligaments by 
 which a great church like oui's is to be held in 
 unity through the generations, the more secure 
 will such unity be, and the stronger will the 
 Church become for her appointed work in the 
 world. 
 
 If there has been any appreciable diflerence 
 between the present and the past instruction in 
 theology in this Institution, that difference has 
 manifested itself in these three directions and 
 
THE THEOLOGIANS OF LANE. 181 
 
 for these three ends. If there has been any 
 change of aspect or color in that theology, it 
 has become more rather than less Calvinistic, 
 as the teacher has meditated with an ever-deep- 
 ening interest on those great problems respecting 
 God and his purposes and administration, and re- 
 specting man in his fallen and lost yet salvable 
 condition, around which the profoundest thought 
 of the Church has in all ages been centered. 
 The conclusion of such meditations, carried on 
 through many years under the illumination of 
 the Word of God and in the ligrht which the 
 history of Christian thought supplies, is that no 
 other system of theology proposed by man em- 
 bodies the essential truth of Scripture so well 
 as that formulated in our own church symbols, 
 and that the Church needs no other theological 
 equipment for its great work in the world, if 
 only that system be broadly, generously, ration- 
 ally set forth in her seminaries and her pulpits. 
 How well this task has been done here during 
 the past fifteen years, and in the presence of 
 some peculiar embarrassments, it will remain 
 for another hand to narrate. For the present it 
 is enough to see that the theology of Lane has 
 been one theology from the beginning until now, 
 with no essential principle or element sacrificed, 
 though with steadily widening scope and aim, 
 as the spirit of the age and the needs of the 
 united Church, going out on its grand mission 
 to humanity, have demanded. The essence and 
 
182 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 substance have been unchanged, though the one 
 doctrine may have assumed some new aspects, 
 and caught a fresh coloring under the special 
 conditions which have been named. 
 
 As the present reverently carries the past 
 in its bosom, it may also stand as a sure pro- 
 phecy of the future. It is an authenticated fact 
 that fifty years after the death of Melancthon, 
 his successor in the chair of theology at Witten- 
 berg, on an occasion when the authority of 
 Melancthon was appealed to, tore down from 
 the wall the portrait of the great reformer, and 
 trampled it under foot in the presence of the as- 
 semblage. It is hardly to be fancied that the 
 fifth occupant of the same chair in Lane should 
 turn these speaking faces of Beecher and Allen 
 to the wall before proceeding with his work of 
 instruction in the place they occupied so well. 
 The man who could dream of such wretched 
 treachery as that, might well remember that the 
 name of Melancthon grows more precious with 
 the centuries, while the world has long ago for- 
 gotten the writings and the name of Leonard 
 Hutter. The present stands as a sure prophecy 
 of the future, and we may confidently antici- 
 pate that through many a decade the substantial 
 Calvinism taught here from the beginning until 
 now will continue to be taught, though we may 
 hope with ever-widening adaptations, and in 
 forms more and more comprehensive, more and 
 more full of power and of grace. 
 
VI. 
 
 Rev. Diarca Howe i^llei)^ S. T. D. 
 
 A PAPER READ BEFORE THE LANE CLUB. 
 
 DECEMBER 13, 1887 
 
The devotion of this day to the fitting task 
 of commemorating the life and the labors of one 
 who for more than a quarter of a century in 
 various relations served this Institution with re- 
 markable fidelity and skill, has my profoundest 
 sj^mpathy ; and I esteem it a peculiar privilege 
 to add my testimony to that already given, re- 
 specting both what he did and what he was for 
 so long in a relationship which has now for 
 nearly eighteen years been terminated by death. 
 
 My acquaintance with Dr. Allen began 
 more than thirty years ago, shortly after I came 
 as a pastor to Ohio, That acquaintance was 
 broadened into both deep respect and warm 
 friendship on my part as the following decade 
 brought us in ways which need not now be de- 
 tailed into closer connection here and elsewhere. 
 Once during that decade (1864-65) it was my 
 pleasant task to give some instruction in the 
 Seminary, while he was still here in the height 
 of his activity and usefulness as a Professor. 
 Subsequently in 1867, I shared with the other 
 trustees in receiving, with universal regret, his 
 resignation from active service, and in confer- 
 ing on him the honor of that emeritus relation 
 which he sustained during the remainder of his 
 life. When three years later, that life had 
 
MEMORIAL OF DR. ALLEN. 185 
 
 reached what seemed to all who knew and 
 loved him too early and too sad a close, it be- 
 came my duty to share with others in the touch- 
 ing services over his remains. And now 
 for thirteen years, I have sat in the chair of in- 
 struction which he filled so well, and have in 
 my humble measure been inculcating the same 
 type of doctrine, and seeking to train success- 
 ive generations of young men for that ministry 
 of grace of which he was so fine an example. 
 Why should I not share therefore with his own 
 pupils as a friend among friends, in the loving 
 and reverential services in which we are this 
 day engaged? 
 
 It is not my purpose to speak of Dr. Allen 
 as a teacher, since those who were privileged 
 to know him more intimately in that capacity 
 have already said so much and so well. I may 
 only add that, standing as he did in such direct 
 succession to that great prince among preach- 
 ers and genius among instructors, Lyman Beech- 
 er, he has held a less prominent place in the 
 public estimate, than in my judgment he de- 
 served, since he obviously had some high quali- 
 ties as a teacher which his distinguished prede- 
 cessor did not possess, and since the value of his 
 work has now for a quarter of a century been 
 fully proved by the tlieologic excellence and the 
 marked efficiency in Christian work of those 
 who from 1851 to 1867, enjoyed the thorougli 
 instruction which he alwa_ys aimed to give. 
 
186 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 Neither will I attempt at this time to speak at 
 length of what Professor Allen was as a man, 
 though the memory of his welcoming counte- 
 nance, of his benignant eye, of his genial man- 
 ners, of his finely blended gentleness and firm- 
 ness, of his catholicity of feeling mingled with 
 sturdy conviction, his devotion to all good 
 causes, and his unaffected and healthful piety, 
 lives as truly in me as in any among those 
 who sat at his feet in the class-room, or gained 
 inspiration from him through closer relation- 
 ship. I need only to say now that in him, in a 
 degree which is rare even among Christians, 
 the true, the beautiful and the good — that PI0- 
 tonic triuity in character — were singularly 
 blended. I trust that the influence of his holy 
 manhood, as well as of his clear and sound in- 
 structions, may long be felt within these sacred 
 walls. 
 
 It has seemed to me most fitting that I 
 should speak at this commemorative service 
 of the more general relations of Dr. Allen to 
 Lane Seminary during the seven and twenty 
 years of his connection with it, — realizing mean- 
 while with tender pain how rapidly the recol- 
 lection of the most strenuous and valuable ser- 
 vices of the most earnest man, in any sphere 
 however elevated, passes out of mind and is 
 lost appreciably even by those who are enjoying 
 the very advantages which it cost him so much 
 to secure. And I may add that there is some 
 
MEMORIAL OF DR. ALLEN. 18? 
 
 special reason for turning your attention in this 
 direction at this time ; first, because the ac- 
 knowledged excellence of the man and the 
 teacher have in some degree crowded this more 
 general service into the background of popular 
 vision ; and, secondl}^ because it may well be 
 questioned whetlier even the greatest work of 
 Dr. Allen did not lie within this more external, 
 yet less noticeable field of activity. Certainly, 
 what for more than twenty years, with patience, 
 with wisdom, with unselfish ardor and cour- 
 age, he did for this Seminary, to strengthen 
 its foundations, to conserve and increase its re- 
 sources, to build up every material interest — in 
 a word^ to keep it alive in a time of great ad- 
 versity and peril, may well be ranked by us 
 among the greatest services of his consecrated 
 and useful life. This oreneral work let me en- 
 deavor briefly to sketch. 
 
 The withdrawal of Dr. Beecher after nearly 
 eighteen years of labor and trial, accompanied 
 as it was by the almost simultaneous resignation 
 of Professor Stowe, brought on a serious crisis 
 in the history of Lane. Dr. Beecher was then 
 in his seventy-fifth year, and his great powers, 
 physical and mental, had begun to give way 
 under the enormous strain to which they had long 
 been subjected. He had fought a hard theolog- 
 ical battle, running through many years, and 
 not with unvarying success. His work as a 
 teacher had from the first been greatly inter- 
 
188 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 rupted by the multifarious labors of a city pas- 
 torate, and by much other public ministration in 
 both the west and the east, and also by the con- 
 stant effort to sustain the Institution on its finan- 
 cial side, even to the extreme of raising his own 
 salary year after year. As his powers began 
 to decline, his ability both to draw students and 
 to hold and instruct them, began to fail also. 
 Some degree of disaffection, growing mainly out 
 of the impoverished condition of the treasury, 
 increased the difficulties of the situation. Pro- 
 fessor Stowe and his family shared in the de- 
 pression which spread itself as a gra}^, wintry 
 cloud over the sky. And when the trying ex- 
 perience culminated in the resignation of two 
 such teachers, both eminent in the country at 
 large, there was left in the faculty but one man, 
 and he not quite forty-two years of age, and 
 hardly ten years a professor, on whose shoulders 
 the whole future of the institution, in almost 
 every respect, seemed to be cast. 
 
 The vacant chair of theology was offered to 
 at least two men ; the Reverend Robert W. 
 Patterson, D.D., an alumnus of the Seminary, 
 who had already made a name for himself both 
 as a theologian and as a wise man of affairs, and 
 the Reverend Henry Smith, D. D., then presi- 
 dent of Marietta College. After they had each 
 declined the pt)sition. Professor Allen was trans- 
 ferred to the vacated place from his first sphere 
 as a teacher in sacred rhetoric. The Reverend 
 
MEMORIAL OF DR. ALLEN. 189 
 
 George E. Day, D.D., now of the Yale Divin- 
 ity School, was at the same time elected to the 
 chair of biblical literature, which he occupied 
 for the fifteen years subsequent ; and Reverend 
 Jonathan B. Condit, D.D., was cliosen professor 
 of sacred rhetoric — a position which he held for 
 four years until 1855, when he resigned to ac- 
 cept a similar chair in the Theological Semin- 
 ary in Auburn, New York. He was succeeded 
 by Dr. Henry Smith, who then consented to ex- 
 change the college presidency for the place thus 
 vacated. In this way the crisis was satisfactorily 
 met, SQ far as the filling of vacancies was con- 
 cerned ; but the numerous changes brought in 
 their natural results in smaller classes, in scan- 
 ty resources, in diminishing influence and fruit- 
 fulness, and in some other special forms of trial. A 
 period of relative depression followed, daring 
 which trustees and alumni and friends, as well 
 as teachers, were at times much burdened with 
 solicitude — a solicitude made the harder to bear 
 sometimes by indifference and even opposition 
 from the outside. An earnest and partially suc- 
 cessful effort to improve the financial situation was 
 perhaps the brightest event of the period. It 
 was not long before the civil war broke like a 
 cyclone upon the Seminary, as upon the coun- 
 try, frustrating all hope of progress, and for a 
 time even imperiling existence. I need not 
 speak in detail of the events of the trying decade 
 from 1855 to 1865, when the internecine strife 
 
ISO THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 was ended. I allude to them only for the op- 
 portunity of saying that during that eventful 
 period, Lane Seminary seemed to stand on 
 the patience, the energy, the wisdom and faith- 
 fulness of one man, far above all others. Dr. 
 Allen was the rock on which the whole struc- 
 ture, not in the class-room so much as in all the 
 various departments of administration, within and 
 without, appeared primarily to rest. 
 
 To account for this fact, we must recur to 
 the action of the Board of Trust, as early as 
 April, 1844, which made Professor Allen, then 
 but thirty-six years of age, and four years a 
 teacher here. Superintendent of Seminary prop- 
 erty and business, as the resolution of appoint- 
 ment stated it. Under this resolution he was 
 required to take charge of all the property of 
 the institution and superintend the collection of 
 rents, the leasing of lands, the sale of the ceme- 
 tery lots, the repairs of the buildings and fences, 
 the making of all needful improvements, the 
 supervision of the boarding-house and lodging 
 apartments, and all other matters naturally com- 
 ing under the care of such an officer ; and was 
 required also to report to the Executive Com- 
 mittee of the Board on all these matters once in 
 three months. And at the same meeting he was 
 also appointed in connection with Dr. Beecher 
 to solicit funds in this city and other places in 
 the West for the payment of pressing claims 
 against the Seminary, and to make such arrange- 
 
MEMORIAL OF DR. ALLEN. 191 
 
 ments with its creditors as would postpone their 
 claims, if they could not be relinquished or 
 liquidated. 
 
 Such was the language of the resolution 
 which laid so heavy a burden on the shoulders 
 of the young Professor. Although the vener- 
 able Gabriel Tichenor, one of the earliest and 
 best friends of the Institution, was nominally 
 the Treasurer, the practical care and use of the 
 funds fell from this time chiefly into the hands 
 of Dr. Allen. How difficult and delicate the 
 task was, it would be hard for anyone at this 
 day to describe. The salaries of the three in- 
 structors was but $1,000 each, and the expendi- 
 tures, all told, were hardly one-fourth of what 
 they became in later periods. Yet the records 
 of the Board for many years after 1844, as well 
 as before that date, show painfully how embar- 
 rassed the Trustees were, and how inconven- 
 ienced were the Professors, and how scant was 
 the financial equipment at every point. The 
 efforts of Dr. Beecher and others, includino- 
 some financial agents, to raise money east and 
 west, were constant, and often far from success- 
 ful ; and notes and loans secured, and other forms 
 of obligation incurred, took too often the place 
 of the hard cash necessary to round out well 
 each trying year. Moreover, the general ex- 
 penses naturally increased from time to time ; 
 the salaries of the teachers were raised to $1,- 
 500, and each increase brought its added bur- 
 
192 THIRTY YEARS IN I.ANE. 
 
 den. A floating debt was thus created, and 
 carried along year after year, at what we would 
 now regard as exorbitant rates of interest ; and 
 when Drs. Beecher and Stowe retired, they car- 
 ried away with them legal papers representing 
 large balances due them on salary and for other 
 claims. Six or seven years later this aggregated 
 indebtedness ranged between $15,000 and $20,- 
 000 ; while the Institution was unable with the 
 scant resources at its command, even to pay 
 the interest required — to say nothing of provid- 
 ing for the first dollar of the immense principal 
 justly due to teachers, trustees, and other pa- 
 tient creditors. 
 
 In all this long struggle with poverty for 
 more than twenty years. Professor Allen as 
 superintendent and business manager, was the 
 chief factor. For eleven of these years he and 
 Gabriel Tichenor, the nominal treasurer, con- 
 ducted these financial affairs together and in 
 per^ct harmony ; and after the death of Mr. 
 Tichenor, Mr. Robert Boal, an honored elder in 
 Cincinnati, became treasurer for a brief period, 
 who was followed by good Anthony H. Hinkle, 
 another elder in one of our city churches, and one 
 of the best friends that any institution ever had. 
 So complete had the confidence of all in Dr. 
 Allen become that, as Mr. Hinkle once told me, 
 he, although a treasurer in form in order to 
 comply with the requirements of the charter, 
 had never himself handled the funds, but had 
 left the administration wholly in the hands of 
 
MEMORIAL OF DR. ALLEN. 193 
 
 the superintendent, contenting himself with the 
 signing of the report at the end of each finan- 
 cial year. It was the superintendent to whose 
 faithful hands the entire interest was thus practi- 
 cally entrusted, and on whom the strain and the 
 trial fell. That all acquiesced and rejoiced with 
 him in what he did, and without jealousy, without 
 severe criticism, without any questioning of his 
 motives, cheered him on in such service year 
 by year, is a fact which it is pleasant even at 
 this distant date to mention. That even he had 
 occasion sometimes to realize how keen a thing 
 the tooth of ingratitude is, and how sharp a pang 
 it sends through the soul when the best that one 
 can do is harshly or ungenerously censured, 
 must also be confessed. But the beautiful fact 
 in the case remains, that he went straight on, 
 straight on to the end, filling a sphere which no 
 one else could have filled so well. For the sake 
 of acquainting myself more exactly with the 
 financial history of the Seminary during 
 that period, I once read his annual reports, 
 more than twenty in number, carefully through 
 and through, — learning much which I could 
 never otherwise have known, and learning 
 above all to appreciate as never so fully before 
 the practical wisdom, the tireless activity, the 
 Christian fidelity of the mind that drafted them. 
 And I venture here to testify that these 
 faithful records of a consecrated life have taught 
 me lessons and inculcated duties and stirred up 
 
194 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 aspirations which have been and are a constant 
 stimulus in the work which the Master has 
 assigned to me in this sacred place. 
 
 One prominent feature in the financial pol- 
 icy of the Seminary during this period has often 
 been criticized, — the leasing of its lands in per- 
 petuity, and with no provision for the increase 
 of the annual rental. But Dr. Allen was not 
 responsible for that feature, even if the plan 
 could be shown to be wrong. He found it here, 
 and carried it on as he found it, and in such a 
 way as to mitigate its evils, so far as this was 
 practicable. He enforced the salutary regula- 
 tions which were incorporated in each lease ; 
 he weeded out worthless tenants, he enhanced 
 the value of the lands and secured to the Sem- 
 inary a more steady and reliable income from 
 this source. But it may safely be said furth- 
 er, that the policy itself was the only one in 
 vogue in the city and region at the time, and 
 especially that it was the only policy that could 
 have kept the Institution alive during the first 
 thirty or forty years of its existence. It may 
 be added also, that the Board of Trust has 
 never been able to improve upon that policy, and 
 that the very year after Dr. Allen resigned, it 
 leased nearly all its remaining landed possess- 
 ions in the same way. Nor is it unlikely that 
 in the long future this mode of investment may 
 be seen to have been the best and safest possi- 
 ble ; even now it is probably better than the in- 
 
MEMORIAL OF DR. ALLEN. 195 
 
 vesting of permanent funds in transient bonds and 
 mortages, or in dwellings always needing re- 
 pair, and certain after awhile to pass into decay. 
 I have sometimes heard what seemed tn me 
 inconsiderate criticism of one feature in the 
 administration for which, as I have been led to 
 think, Professor Allen was himself responsible 
 — the leasing of a considerable section in the 
 northeast corner of the Seminary land to colored 
 tenants. It is possible that if he had foreseen 
 all the practical results of that experiment as 
 they have been developed within the last twenty 
 years, he would have hesitated to enter into such 
 an arrangement. But it is to be said that his 
 plan was repeatedly approved by the Board, 
 and was continued by the Board after he had 
 ceased to act. It is also to be said that the in- 
 come derived from such leases is quite as great 
 in proportion to the real value of the land leased 
 as that obtained from any other like contract: 
 that for twenty years the accruing rents have 
 been as- well paid, and that the income from 
 this source has contributed no small share to 
 the annual expenditures. And if the moral 
 outcome in the way of developing the temper 
 of industry and frugality and temperance among 
 this class of tenants, has not been all that the 
 generous and hopeful heart of the Superintendent 
 anticipated, still the presence of schools and 
 churches on this land, and other like results, should 
 at least go far toward the justifying of his course. 
 
196 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 How much Dr. Allen did personally in the 
 way of increasing the Seminary resources, it 
 would be impossible at this late date to say ; 
 like many another Christian effort in this world, 
 its only record is on high. What I have chanced 
 to know has led me to the opinion that the ag- 
 gregated results of such endeavor on his part 
 were quite large. I have alread}^ alluded to 
 the fact that in 1857-1858 he was conspicuous in 
 an earnest effort to raise $50,000 in order to meet 
 current expenses, to pay teachers, to erect a Li- 
 brary Hall, to endow the library, and to subserve 
 SDme other important ends. For nearly two 
 years two agents, Reverend Henry Little, D.D., 
 and Reverend W. M. Cheever, were engaged 
 with him in this movement ; and it may be said 
 that substantial success, thougrh not all that had 
 been hoped for, crowned their exertions. I have 
 no doubt that it was his hand that wrote the ear- 
 nest and vigorous pamphlet now in my posses- 
 sion, setting forth the needs of the Institution, 
 and pleading effectively for sympathy and help. 
 And without detracting in any degree from the 
 credit due to others, whether teachers or trustees, 
 I feel myself justified in saying that it was he 
 more than any others who for two long de- 
 cades gathered together the means which 
 carried the Seminary on, — if indeed, es- 
 pecially during the dark years of the civil war, 
 he did not actually preserve it from financial 
 extinction. 
 
MEMORIAL OF DR. ALLEN. 197 
 
 It would be a deli^rht to me to enter on this 
 commemorative occasion much more into detail 
 as to this general work for Lane in which Dr. 
 Allen was so long and thoroughly engaged. 
 But I must forbear, although it pains me to 
 think that in a little while such recital of details 
 by any one will become forever impracticable. 
 I have long coveted the privilege of saying what 
 I have now said, and shall count one of the du- 
 ties of my life done, now that I have been per- 
 mitted to lay this brief but just tribute upon his 
 tomb. And I have been the more anxious to 
 speak in this way of his remarkable career of 
 care and labor here, outside of his own profes- 
 sorship, because it has been said that the 
 acceptance of these extraneous duties was the 
 great mistake of his life. It certainly adds em- 
 phasis to such a declaration if we remember, as 
 we must, that while in the midst of such engros- 
 sing engagements, which left him but little time 
 for rest or recreation, his finely balanced organi- 
 zation, remarkable always for the ease as well 
 as efficiency of its working, gave way as in a 
 moment, long years before the natural end of so 
 vigorous and healthful a life. But there are two 
 very diverse theories in regard to the sphere and 
 duties of a professor in an institution such as 
 this ; one is to do regularly and well the work 
 of the class-room from Septerhber to May, and 
 then count the contract for the year ended 
 in letter and spirit ; the other is, to do 
 
198 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 as Dr. Allen did, and to be so far as possible 
 what he was, Certainly all men are not consti- 
 tuted alike, and there are those occupying 
 such positions who on one side find themselves en- 
 grossed and satisfied with their special work, 
 and on the other naturally shrink from the ac- 
 ceptance of any extraneous responsibilities, or 
 judge themselves under no obligation, however 
 qualified, to carry such additional weight. More- 
 over, under the charter of the Seminary strictly 
 construed no professor can properly be a treas- 
 urer, as Dr. Allen was ; and not more than one 
 member of the Faculty, if any, could at any 
 given time become a superintendent, as he did. 
 But there never has been a day in the life of 
 Lane Seminary when it was not dependent on 
 such general assistance as its teachers, and 
 they alone, could give — never a day at least 
 within the first forty years, when it could have 
 sustained itself without their aid, over and above 
 the best that they could do in their respective 
 chairs of instruction. In some deep sense it 
 must always be true that the best there is in 
 any teacher — the sum total of his capacities, at- 
 tainments, opportunities, influence, belongs of 
 right to any institution which he is called and 
 chosen to serve, and with whose prosperity the 
 practical results of his own life and work as a 
 Christian man are indissolubly conjoined. 
 
 Dr. Allen saw this from the very first, and 
 continued to see it and to feel it down to the 
 
MEMORIAL OF DR. ALLEN. 199 
 
 last. It is an error to suppose that he was fond 
 of these extra-professorial labors. He loved his 
 study and his teaching far more, and only turned 
 himself to this less welcome task because it had 
 to be done, and to be done by some teacher. 
 It is an error to fancy that any man whose life 
 has been consecrated to the high business of in- 
 struction in such a place as this, can betake 
 himself easily to repairing fences, or selling lots 
 in a cemetery, or struggling with an unworthy 
 tenant, or, last and worst of all, begging bread 
 to keep the institution alive. But he did this, 
 and did it in a spirit of sacrifice which it would 
 be well for all teachers here through all the 
 future to emulate, so far as God may give them 
 grace and opportunity. For this he deliber- 
 ately accepted a lower place in the public esti- 
 mation than he might have filled as an instructor ; 
 for this he gave up the preparation of his theo- 
 logical lectures for the press ; for this he worked 
 on and on, summer and winter, for seven and 
 twenty years until he fell. 
 
 But it was not the great mistake of his life ; 
 it was rather its peculiar joy and crown. The 
 vSeminary as it stands is the beautiful proof and 
 evidence. It is true that seventeen short years 
 have done much, too much, to obliterate the 
 specific traces of his loving hand and care. 
 Buildings and grounds have changed ; genera- 
 tions of students have come and gone ; new 
 teachers fill the old places ; new trustees, many 
 
200 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 of whom never knew him, at least intimately, 
 and are not specially cognizant of his work, are 
 now handling this sacred trust. I had beguh to 
 fear that there would be even no portrait of his 
 thoughtful, benignant, saintly face to grace 
 these walls in honor of his faithful services. I 
 realize that in a few moments the sun of this 
 day of commemoration will have set, and that 
 in a few years more the memory of him will 
 have become a tradition, beautiful and winning, 
 but a tradition only. Yet I can not count such 
 a life a mistake, or in any sense whatever a 
 disappointment. For, the men who do the hard 
 and rough work of the world — wh© build up its 
 enduring interests, carry on its institutions, push 
 forward its practical enterprises, and for the 
 time carry on their hearts and in their arms, so 
 far as they can, the whole cause and kingdom 
 of God on earth, are after all the valuable men 
 and the remembered men. That President 
 Dwight should have written his able and spirit- 
 ual and quickening compendium of Christian 
 Theology was a great thing ; that he should have 
 builded Yale College was a greater thing, and 
 the world could now much better spare the The- 
 ology than the College. Dr. Allen did not live 
 to print his admirable system of doctrine, but he 
 did live to build up and preserve Lane Semi- 
 nary, and a monument to his memory, grander 
 than that system of doctrine, is here. 
 
VII. 
 
 h, llewelfn J. [vans, D.D. LLD, 
 
 A MEMORIAL ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE 
 THE LANE CLUB. 
 
 JANUARY 17, 1893. 
 
Llewelyn loan Evans was born at Treud- 
 dyn, near Mold, North Wales, June 27, 1833. 
 The family had been prominent in that section 
 of the Principality for two generations, espec- 
 ially in connection with the Calvinistic Metho- 
 dist church of Wales in which one of his grand- 
 fathers. Rev. Robert Roberts, had been a 
 conspicuous minister. His father. Rev. Ed- 
 ward T. Evans, was also an esteemed minister 
 in the same connection, first in Wales and then 
 in America, where he labored chiefly in Racine, 
 Wis., and Newark, O., until his death in 1881. 
 His own boyhood was happily passed under 
 such intellectual and spiritual stimulus as these 
 surroundings would supply, and from his youth 
 he was familiar with divine things and knew by 
 sweet experience the saving grace of God. For 
 three years he was a student in the academic 
 and theoloo-ical institute at Bala, in central 
 Wales — the same institution within which, in its 
 new development as a theological seminary, he 
 had expected, after his resignation here, to spend 
 the remainder of his active days as a teacher. 
 It was a strange fact that, after a residence of 
 more than forty years in a foreign land, he 
 should have closed his eyes on earth at the very 
 spot where he had received the lirst elements of 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 203 
 
 that intellectual discipline and culture for which 
 his maturer life was so marked. 
 
 Traditions are current respecting his rare 
 intelligence and precocity as a youth. One of 
 the many tributes published since his decease 
 speaks of the testimony of his classmates at 
 Bala and elsewhere as to his remarkable dili- 
 gence and success in studies. He became early 
 a writer unJer various fictitious names in the 
 weekly and monthly periodicals. Though but 
 seventeen when his father emigrated in the sum- 
 mer of 1850 to America, he had already acquired 
 some local reputation at home as both orator 
 and poet. It is related that a somewhat con- 
 spicuous Welsh bard, Llew Llwyfo, who was 
 associated with his father in certain business lines 
 and residing under the same roof with him, once 
 found himself vigorously criticised by some un- 
 known antagonist in a local periodical, and was 
 after a time surprised to find that his vigorous 
 antagonist was none other than the young lad 
 who sat day by day at the same table. And it 
 is a pleasant supplement to the story that in the 
 year after the migration Llew Llwyfo published 
 in a volume of poems a highly complimentary 
 ode to the young student, with a preface describ- 
 mg him poetically as one of the most beautiful 
 flowers in the field of Welsh literature, and la- 
 menting his departure as a loss to his native 
 land. It is also an interesting incident that his 
 departure should have been made the occasion 
 
204 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 of a public meeting in Bangor, where addresses 
 were made, poems read, and books presented to 
 the departing emigrant as a marked token of the 
 public regard. 
 
 It is now an amusing fact that the young 
 immigrant to America, doubtless with a view to 
 his own support, proposed after a while to be- 
 come a carpenter, and to that end actually 
 entered upon an apprenticeship and began labor 
 in that line, though all the while carrying on 
 his studies and his literary work. But the 
 thirst for knowledge was too strong to be sup- 
 pressed, and in 1852 he entered the Episcopal 
 college in Racine, and resumed his studies with 
 exemplary assiduity and success, until he was 
 graduated with honor, receiving the degree of 
 B. S. in 1854 and of B. A. in 1856. His grad- 
 uating address was a poem on the Loss of 
 Childhood, which was thought worthy of pub- 
 lication in the local press. I have heard that his 
 struggle for support while pursuing the collegiate 
 course, was such as taxed all the energies of his 
 buoyant and resolute nature, as has been true in 
 the case of many who have risen, perhaps 
 through the discipline which such struggle 
 brings, to the highest position in church or state. 
 He was at once engaged as an instructor in the 
 college, and continued during some part of the 
 subsequent year to discharge the duties involved 
 in such a connection. 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 205 
 
 One of the most interesting chapters in the 
 life of Dr. Evans is that which includes the period 
 between his entrance upon collegiate duties and 
 the commencement of his career five years later 
 as a student in Lane Seminary. Allusion has 
 already been made to his remarkable mental 
 development as a youth in Wales. The promise 
 of that early day was more than realized in the 
 period just defined. During his college life and 
 after his graduation, he gave himself largely to 
 literary work in the Welsh language, and to the 
 furtherance of the intellectual and moral inter- 
 ests of his countrymen in the city and in the 
 state. He became an ardent advocate of tem- 
 perance, and his numerous addresses on that 
 subject are described as remarkable for their 
 earnestness and their effect. He interested him- 
 self in the culture of the musical talent for which 
 the Welsh people are so noted. In the Sabbath 
 school, which constitutes so prominent a feature 
 in the Welsh religious life, he was no less active 
 and useful. He organized a Welsh literary soci- 
 etv in Racine, and was the chief agent in secur- 
 ing the first Eisteddfod held in that section of 
 the West. He was appointed as the poet of this 
 Eisteddfod, and his contributions are said to have 
 constituted one of its most attractive features. 
 The red-headed and curly-headed boy, says one 
 who knew him at that time, was the animating 
 spirit of the entire movement, and the idol 
 and leader of his countrymen in all that 
 
206 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 concerned either their intellectual or their 
 moral life. 
 
 A correspondent in a Welsh magazine ( T 
 Cyfaill, December, 1892 ) relates in an interest- 
 ing way his first impressions of Dr. Evans at this 
 period. Having come to Racine as his chosen 
 home, the vvrriter, in company with an acquaint- 
 ance, started out to see the city. Coming in 
 their wanderings to the Welsh Calvinistic Meth- 
 odist Church, which is described as a small, 
 plain edifice, they were attracted by light in the 
 building. On looking through the window they 
 saw — as he says — a well-formed and handsome 
 young man, florid in complexion, his hair curled 
 and bushy, standing before the pulpit addressing 
 an audience of young people with such earnest- 
 ness and effectiveness that they seemed, as it 
 were, to be fastened upon his lips. He was 
 explaining to them the principles and rules of 
 Welsh literature, especially poetry, and with 
 such charm and force that all present were 
 astonished at his learning and his persuasive- 
 ness. On inquiring who the speaker was, the 
 writer was told of his remarkable abilities, of 
 his intelligence and education, of the prominence 
 he had already gained, and of the current ex- 
 pectation that he would in time come to be one 
 of the great men of the country. 
 
 The second Racine Eisteddfod was held at 
 the Christmas following his entrance upon studies 
 here. His poetical contributions to that Eistedd- 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 207 
 
 fod were a poem of 1,450 lines in blank verse, 
 on the Victory of the Cross, an ode of 600 lines 
 on Time, a Shepherd Song of nearly 500 lines, 
 and some verses on the Good of Patriotism. 
 The Shepherd Song has been described as one 
 of the finest productions of the class in the 
 Welsh language, and the poem is one of extra- 
 ordinary beauty and power. For these and for 
 the verses on Patriotism he received the highest 
 prize, and their publication gave him at once a 
 prominent place among the younger poets of his 
 people. The eminent bard who made the de- 
 cision, in his final adjudication warns the poets 
 of Wales to beware lest their bardic honors be 
 carried away to this side of the Atlantic. About 
 the same time the young poet composed an ode 
 of 850 lines in dramatic form on Martyrdom, 
 which received the first prize from the older 
 Eisteddfod at Utica, N. Y., and which the ad- 
 judicator describes as characterized by extensive 
 knowledge, by painstaking and sympathetic in- 
 sight into the theme, and by great taste and 
 skill in the composition. Beautiful and precious, 
 he says, are the pearls found in this poem, and 
 fitting is the shell of measure and rhythm that 
 contains them. Other poems of this period are 
 a graceful and touching Hymn to the Harp, and 
 another on the Harmony of the Spheres, both 
 of which have since been set to music. One of 
 his papers is an essay on the True Worth of 
 Learning, published in the Welsh quarterly, 
 
208 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 T" Traet/iodydd, an essay which the editor com- 
 mends as exhibiting talents of the highest order. 
 An admirable paper on Oliver Cromwell furn- 
 ishes another illustration, alike of his intellect- 
 ual activity and of his literary abilities. 
 
 When the poem on the Victory of the Cross 
 was published, the young author was bitterly as- 
 sailed by an anonymous critic in the Welsh press, 
 as having copied in substance certain passages 
 of the poem from the Paradise Lost, or hav- 
 ing at least too closely imitated Milton in the 
 thoughts as well as the form of his production. 
 A painful controversy followed in which Dr. 
 Evans defended himself with vigor and success, 
 but which led him (unfortunately) to abandon 
 all further poetical composition in the Welsh 
 tongue. He kept up his scholarly study of the 
 language and its literature, was recognized as a 
 cultured and fluent speaker and preacher, and 
 as a high authority on all linguistic questions, 
 and frequently consented even in the last years 
 of his life, to act as adjudicator upon competi- 
 tive poetry and prose in the national Eistedd- 
 fodau. His love for the language and his joy in 
 the study and use of it and faith in its remark- 
 able capabilities grew with his years, and was 
 never more intense than at the time when he 
 supposed that the remainder of his life would 
 be spent in literary work in his native land. 
 His interest in the Welsh Bible, viewed as a 
 literary work only, was profound. He has more 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 209 
 
 than once assured me that he regarded the trans- 
 lation as quite superior to our English version 
 in its reproduction, especially of the New Tes- 
 tament Greek. The language itself is remark- 
 ably saturated with this biblical quality ; the 
 old Bible has made it largely what it is. As 
 some one has said of it, it is dyed red with the 
 blood of Calvary. But from the date of this 
 controversy he ceased his literary labors in the 
 Welsh toncrue. and his farewell to the Welsh 
 muse in the pamphlet with which he closes the 
 discussion, is one of the most pathetic pieces of 
 composition to be found in literature. I wish 
 that there were room to introduce it here as an 
 illustration alike of his literary skill and genius, 
 and of his poetical temperament and the sensi- 
 tiveness and the elevation of his nature. It 
 seems a pity that such a development should 
 have been arrested so suddenly and entirely, 
 whether by the bitterness of hostile criticism, 
 or even by the new call to a new sphere of 
 thought and experience into which his entrance 
 on theological studies was now summoning 
 him. 
 
 Before we turn to contemplate the student 
 life of Dr. Evans, we should notice in a word 
 his brief but brilliant career in the political 
 sphere. In the presidential campaign of 1856 
 he became an earnest advocate of Fremont and 
 of the party of which that distinguished general 
 was at the time the elect representative. His 
 
210 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 power as a skillful orator was at once recog- 
 nized, and calls for his services on the platform 
 came from far and near. Shortly after he was 
 nominated as a candidate for the Legislature of 
 Wisconsin from the city of Racine, and was 
 elected by a substantial majority. Though pos- 
 sibly the youngest member of the body, he was 
 made chairman of the Committee on Education, 
 and is said to have made for himself a very 
 creditable record in that position. But in the 
 following year he removed from the city and 
 the state, and henceforth his interest in political 
 principles and movements was rather that of the 
 Christian student and thinker than of an active 
 participant in party affairs. What he might not 
 have become in the political sphere, after an in- 
 troduction so conspicuous, and with abilities so 
 rare, it is hard for us to surmise. It may be 
 that he might have been called to administer as 
 governor the affairs of the state of his adoption, 
 or to sit as its representative in the national sen- 
 ate, instead of becoming the noble and devout 
 scholar and preacher whom we have all rejoiced 
 to know and to honor. 
 
 The student life of Dr. Evans in this insti- 
 tution began during the autumn of 1857, and 
 some time after the opening of the term. 1 am 
 not familiar with the causes or considerations 
 that brought him to Cincinnati in the earlier 
 half of the year. He was already in the city, 
 engaged as an assistant in the editorial manage- 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 21 1 
 
 ment of the old Gazette^ when his determination 
 to enter the Seminary was formed. In a letter 
 to a personal friend in Wales written in the 
 summer of 1858, he describes in a manly and 
 earnest way his purpose in studying theology, 
 his mental and spiritual conflicts in contempla- 
 tion of the ministry, and his firm resolve to be 
 true to the truth and to himself, whithersoever 
 such fidelity might lead him. I sliould hardly 
 be justified in quoting at length from this inter- 
 esting letter. The author speaks confidentially of 
 the period of self-questioning and struggle with 
 himself through which he had passed at the close 
 of his junior year ; of his growing desire to be 
 of service in some way to God and to his fellow- 
 men ; of his determination to do whatever he 
 finds to be right, and of his interior spiritual life 
 and hopes. He confesses himself uncertain as 
 to whether he shall be able to adhere in con- 
 science to the very rigid type of Calvinism in 
 which he had been trained, but avows his un- 
 swerving purpose to adhere to the fundamental 
 verities of Christianity, however great may be 
 the mystery that surrounds them. He declares 
 with earnestness that he cannot be false to him- 
 self without losing faith in everything else, and 
 even indicates his intention to return to literary 
 work unless he can enter the ministry with clear 
 convictions and an honest heart. 
 
 Surely it was a special providence which 
 brought this young, vigorous, earnest, inquiring 
 
212 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 mind under the instruction, just at this juncture, 
 of so broad and clear and spiritual a teacher as 
 Dr. Allen. That eminent man had himself been 
 trained in the Edwardean theology, and had 
 cordially accepted the improvements which 
 Jonathan Edwards had made in the older type 
 of Calvinism. By natural calmness of temper, 
 by a habit of close and discriminating thought, 
 and by a sweet experience of grace, he had 
 been peculiarly fitted for the chair of systematic 
 theology, into which, in the fortieth year of his 
 life, he had been inducted six years before. 
 The heart of the young student turned to him at 
 once, and a love sprung up between them which 
 lasted through life, and wliich doubtless is now 
 revived and enjoyed as one of the felicities o^ 
 heaven. 
 
 I have heard Dr. Evans speak especially of 
 the lectures of his trusted instructor on the mo- 
 ral law and government of God, and the con- 
 science, as among the most helpful influences in 
 forming both his theological system and his re- 
 ligious sentiments and experience. On such 
 subjects as election and grace, the person of 
 Christ, the atonement, the nature of faith and 
 justification, he then received what became the 
 substance and marrow of all his subsequeut 
 thinking in the department of Christian doctrine. 
 The theology of the Seminary in general as 
 represented by the entire Faculty of that day, 
 stamped itself ineflaceably upon his mind and be- 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 213 
 
 came the accepted theology of his life. There 
 was at the time an average attendance of thirty 
 or more in the Seminary, and a Faculty of three 
 members, each one of whom was in a high de- 
 gree efficient in teaching and deservedly popular 
 among the students and in the Church. The 
 five classes with which Dr. Evans came into con- 
 tact during the three years of his stay, con- 
 tained a considerable number of men who have 
 since then made their mark as ministers and have 
 shed special lustre upon the institution in which 
 they were trained. It was a period of unusual 
 interest in missions, both foreign and at home, 
 no less than six of his associates having gone 
 into foreign lands, while a large majority be- 
 came home missionaries, either in this region or 
 in the farther west. It was also a period of vigorous 
 mental activity, of both study and discussion, 
 and of special stimulation along lines alike in- 
 tellectual and spiritual. And into all this Dr. 
 Evans entered with the keenest zest and with a 
 most sympathetic temper, as his associates agree 
 in testifying ; always among the foremost, 
 whether in study or in debate, and always influ- 
 ential in both opinion and example. 
 
 There was also something in what I may 
 call the atmosphere, the geist^ of the Seminary 
 itself, which was peculiarly fitted to stimulate 
 and nourish a nature such as his. Founded for 
 the purpose of training an intelligent, earnest, 
 capable ministry for what was then the West ; 
 
214 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 taking form and temper largely from the person- 
 ality of Lyman Beecher, its first instructor in 
 Christian Theology ; saturated with the spirit of 
 revivalism, and with the broadest desire to save 
 men, even though it should be by some sacrifice 
 of the rigidities of doctrine, Lane had come to be 
 in some degree peculiar in its broad and free 
 exposition of divine truth, in its catholic animus, 
 in its genuine brotherliness toward all of what- 
 soever name who loved and served the common 
 Lord. The Institution was no stickler for tech- 
 nical dogmas, never intolerant toward permis- 
 sible variations of belief — in no sense narrow or 
 bigoted in maintaining what it regarded as true. 
 It was at once conservative and progressive ; con- 
 servative as to everv essential of evancrelical 
 ■J & 
 
 faith, yet believing heartily in progress along all 
 legitimate lines of investigation, and ever ready 
 to welcome new truth from whatsoever source. 
 The ecclesiastical trials to which its leading 
 teacher had been subjected for his failure to ac- 
 cept the ifsissima verba of a certain school in 
 theology, had wrought out unanticipated results 
 in the development, not merely of a freer type of 
 belief, but far more in the culture of a more gen- 
 erous and loving temper, even toward those who 
 were its fiercest antagonists. And through the 
 quarter of a century that followed these trials, 
 this better spirit had become enthroned here and 
 was even a crowning characteristic of the Sem- 
 inary life. Without becoming in any instance 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 215 
 
 a nursery of error in doctrine or a representative 
 of mere novelties, theological or exegetical, Lane 
 was in the best sense a liberal institution — a place 
 in which no young man was ever narrowed in faith 
 or feeling ; in which no mere dogmatist could 
 breathe freely, and from which no mere dogmatist 
 ever emerged to disturb the peace of the church. 
 Into such a spirit how easy it was for a young 
 man like Evans to enter sympathetically, and 
 how natural for him to become suffused with 
 that spirit, as an organizing and inspiring life I 
 He would have been a free, broad, tolerant, lov- 
 ing man under any conditions, but breathing the 
 historic atmosphere of Lane, he became such in 
 a higher measure than might have been attain- 
 able elsewhere. May the time never come 
 when this beloved institution shall cease to pro- 
 duce such manly, such catholic characters as 
 his. 
 
 Shortly after his graduation in 1860, Dr. 
 Evans was invited to the pastorate of the Lane 
 Seminary church, an organization which had 
 sprung into existence as early as 1834, and was 
 originally composed almost entirely of the pro- 
 fessors and their families, and of the students, 
 but which at this time had grown by the accession 
 of families resident on Walnut Hills, until it had 
 attained a membership of 114. With great accept- 
 ance he served in this relation through three 
 succeeding years, making a record for intellec- 
 tual ability and for Christian devotion which is 
 
216 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 Still remembered here, until in May, 1863, he 
 was elected to be the Professor of Church His- 
 tory in the Seminary. Previous to that time, 
 the instruction in this department had been di- 
 vided among the incumbents of other chairs, but 
 the trustees were wisely alive to the growing 
 importance of the department, and were exceed- 
 ingly fortunate in their selection of the man who 
 should lift it into its deserved prominence in the 
 curriculum of the institution. The new teacher 
 was full of enthusiasm in his new work, and his 
 lectures, especially on prominent personages in 
 church history, were listened to with great in- 
 terest, not only by the students, but by others 
 who were permitted to attend them. An address, 
 which, taking the place of Dr. Allen, he deliv- 
 ered before the General Assembly at Dayton, in 
 1864, at the celebration of the tercentenary of 
 the death of John Calvin, is still remembered 
 as a remarkable specimen alike of historic in- 
 sight and of literary finish. 
 
 It may be questioned whether instruction 
 in Church History was the line of work to which 
 constitutionally and by experience he was best 
 adapted. Some indication of his own judgment 
 in the matter appears in the fact that when, 
 after the resig-nation of Prof. Ballantine in the 
 fall of 1867, the chair of Biblical Literature, 
 including both the Hebrew and Greek Scrip- 
 tures, was offered to him, he very cordially 
 accepted it, and from that date entered upon what 
 
Memorial of professor evans. 217 
 
 proved to be the main work of his life. At that 
 time I became his associate, taking the chair 
 which he had vacated, and thenceforth our lives 
 became linked and intertwined in a relation- 
 ship of service and friendship which continued 
 for a quarter of a century without break, and 
 was ended only with his death. 
 
 In 1871, the work of his professorship was 
 divided, and he became the instructor in the 
 Hebrew language and literature only. But 
 upon the death, in 1875, of Dr. Thomas, to 
 whom the corresponding work in the Greek had 
 been given, he was by his own choice trans- 
 ferred to that department, and remained in it 
 without, change for seventeen years, until his 
 final resignation. His entire period of service 
 in all departments was twenty-nine years — the 
 longest professorate in the history of the Sem- 
 inary. 
 
 How diligent he was in his loved studies, 
 how faithful to the great department assigned 
 him, how broad and thorough in his investiga- 
 tions, how accurate and comprehensive in his 
 acquisitions, it is not needful that I should say. 
 By day and by night he was always reading, 
 always studying. The Hebrew and Greek Scrip- 
 tures became almost vernacular with him. He 
 made himself familiar with cognate languages, 
 and with oriental literature. He consulted 
 commentaries of all schools and of various 
 tongues, familiarized himself with all philoso- 
 
218 THIRTY YEAkS IN LANE. 
 
 phies, was at home among the theologians. He 
 brought to bear upon the sacred oracles all 
 available lights ; summoned to his aid each use- 
 ful help ; used criticism of all altitudes, never 
 wearying in his endeavor to ascertain by what- 
 ever process the very mind of God as set forth 
 in his Holy Word. So ceaseless and so fertile 
 was he in his elucidation of the Bible, especially 
 of those portions of it in which his interest was 
 particularly centered, such as the Epistle to the 
 Roman church, that I used playfully to accuse 
 him of finding more in that grand epistle than 
 the apostle himself had ever seen in it. His 
 steady growth in insight and knowledge was 
 apparent, year by year, to those who were in 
 continuous contact with him. There was an 
 affluence in his acquisitions which seemed at 
 times overpowering ; there was also a progres- 
 sive maturity in his conclusions which gave 
 them convincing dignity and a commanding 
 effect. And so he grew to be a great biblicist 
 and exegete, and all unconsciously won for him- 
 self a place among the foremost New Testament 
 scholars of our Church. 
 
 How gentle, how sympathetic, how patient 
 he was as a teacher! The dull, or idle, or cap- 
 tious, or unfaithful student found in him an apol- 
 ogist rather than an accuser ; the defectively 
 trained mind, stumbling painfully through its 
 task, felt the touch of his helpful hand. At the feet 
 of the bright and earnest pupil he was ever ready 
 
MEMORIAL Ot PROFESSOR EVANS. 219 
 
 to lay the results of his long years of investiga- 
 tion. None of his classes loved him more than 
 those who enjoyed the benefit of his most ma- 
 ture researches, but who also realized that his 
 weakening physique was the sign of service 
 nearly ended. For his loved work he prepared 
 himself in the most conscientious way, even 
 after his declining strength would have war- 
 ranted him in depending on past preparations ; 
 and so he won the reward which such a habit 
 would naturally bring, in a steadily increasing 
 capability and success. His professorship was 
 not an incidental thing whose claims upon his 
 time and his powers were such as might be 
 shared with other interests or affairs however 
 important. He gave to it freely, ungrudgingly, 
 all there was of himself, and found in it enough 
 to occupy and absorb all his noblest capacities. 
 It would be too delicate a task to compare him 
 with other teachers of this Institution ; but it is 
 safe to say that none of them, from Lyman 
 Beecher down, ever excelled him in devotedness 
 to his appointed work, or won more justly that 
 praise which nothing but such devotedness can 
 ever secure. 
 
 The literary work of Dr. Evans while in 
 Lane will be sketched by another hand. I may 
 simply say that the promise of his youth was 
 fully justified in his mature years, though his 
 efforts in such lines were too occasional and too 
 fugitive to secure for him the reputation which 
 
220 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 he might under other conditions have gained. 
 Now and then there came from his ready pen 
 some bits of poetry that made us long for more, 
 and assured us that there was within his breast 
 a harp whose chords might have sounded out in 
 louder and richer strains. His newspaper articles, 
 though not frequent, were graceful, pungent, in- 
 structive and convincing. , His debates in the 
 public press were always telling, though 
 he did not always estimate the weight of his 
 Qwn sledge-hammer, and sometimes simply de- 
 molished the opponent whom he was seeking to 
 persuade. In his earlier days as a professor he 
 was for some years a regular contributor to one 
 of our religious papers — The Central Christian 
 Herald^ and for five or six years prior to 1890 
 he was an associate editor of the Presbyterian Re- 
 view. 
 
 Some of his review articles, especially that 
 on the Revision of the New Testament, and the 
 editorial on the Intermediate State, were models 
 of thorough and skillful discussion. I have seen 
 but little of his English poetry in print. An 
 ode or hymn entitled Anno Domini, and pub- 
 lished twenty years ago in Our Monthly, has 
 often recurred to me as a striking illustration 
 alike of his poetic capacity and his theological 
 trend. His style seemed at times too affluent in 
 imagery, too florid in illustration, and perhaps 
 too intuitional rather than logical and discursive, 
 though I say this with deference in the case of 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 221 
 
 one whose fine poetical quality was so apparent 
 even in his most rigorous argumentation. A 
 marked illustration of this appears in his re- 
 cent pamphlet which has been so much criti- 
 cised and so much misunderstood, where he 
 runs the famous parallel between the work 
 of creation and the process of incarnation 
 on the one side, and the movement of inspira- 
 tion on the other— a parallel in which the two 
 former are described for the sake of illustrating 
 and proving his view of the latter, in terms 
 which seems to me excessive and liable to sucr- 
 gest conclusions from which none would be 
 readier than he to shrink. Yet, there was a sin- 
 gular .charm in his rich, affluent method of pre- 
 senting truth, before which all cultured minds 
 were constrained to bow. Many illustrations of 
 this will occur to those who hear me. I recall 
 to this day a sermon which he delivered for me 
 in Columbus, almost thirty years ago, on The 
 Young Manhood of Jesus, and in which his 
 facile, graceful way of treating a theme which 
 commanded his deepest interest was remarkably 
 apparent. It was a fitting recognition of these 
 qualities of style as well as of his scholarly 
 capacity and his rich thought, when the Wabash 
 College gave him, in 1872, the degree of D.D., 
 and again when Hanover College honored itself by 
 honoring him with the degree of LL.D., in 1886. 
 I have already alluded incidently to the 
 theological views of Dr. Evans, and to the ear- 
 
222 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 ]y and strong trend of his mind towards what 
 may be described as the broadened, improved, 
 spiritualized Calvinism of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. In his bright paper, read at the dedica- 
 tion of this building (the Lane Seminary 
 Chapel) in 1879, he has set forth for himself his 
 conception of what that Calvinism is, and of 
 what it ought to become as an educating and 
 evangelizing force in such a country and such 
 an age as ours. He was himself, in his own 
 thinking and belief, a signal illustration of what 
 he supposed that type of Christian theology to 
 be. I do not suppose that in his maturer years 
 he ever thought of surrendering any of the fun- 
 damental axioms of Calvinism ; he was too pro- 
 foundly convinced of their necessary, internal 
 truthfulness. But more and more his thoughts 
 and interest gathered around the personal 
 Christ as the true center of all Christian theo- 
 logy, above the abstract conception of an eter- 
 nal decree, above the thought of sovereignty, 
 and far above the range of logical teachings and 
 dogmas drawn from these high premises. To 
 him the personal Christ, in all his divine quali- 
 ties, in all his gracious offices, in the complete- 
 ness of his personality as both man and God, 
 became the primary postulate, the one grand 
 axiom from which all theology is to be deduced. 
 It is a fact worthy of note that so much of the 
 best thinking of our times in evangelical circles 
 is moving along these new structural lines, not 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 223 
 
 indeed surrendering the old, but grouping all 
 other doctrines more and more around this new, 
 this living and divine center. In Dr. Evans, 
 this process was very apparent in the later 
 years of his life. I do not remember to have 
 heard him ever utter a word of sympathy with 
 the current notion that our Lord in becoming 
 man lost his omniscience — became imperfect or 
 fallible in his knowledge of the Scriptures, or 
 of divine truth in any form. Those who heard 
 his last introductory address at the opening of 
 the term in 1891, on Personal Christianity, will 
 recall the most tender, most sweet, most solemn 
 impression made by his discussion on this vital 
 point. • It was evident to all that to him the per- 
 sonal Christ, divine as well as human, had be- 
 come center and key, heart and brain, Alpha 
 and Omega — all in all. 
 
 Such a type of theology naturally made 
 him catholic and irenic toward all thinking and 
 thinkers who, amid whatever minor diversities, 
 could agree with him at this central and com- 
 manding point. It would have been impossible 
 for him to become, under such convictions, a 
 shouting, boisterous sort of Calvinist ; rejoicing 
 in the contrast between himself and other men, 
 and ready to make battle against Arminianism or 
 Lutheranism for the technicalities of his own 
 creed. He had no such pride of opinion, no 
 theologic conceits, no pharisaic zeal. His sym- 
 pathies were as wide as the church of God ; he 
 
224 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE, 
 
 would join hands with any and all who loved 
 the Christ. He had studied Christian theology 
 historically, and knew well that all divine truth 
 is not comprehended or confined even within 
 the magnificent temple of doctrine raised by 
 John Calvin. He had studied Christian theology 
 spiritually, and he knew well that all spirtual be- 
 liefs must be restless forever until they find their 
 center and their rest in the Messiah, the way 
 and truth and life of men. 
 
 But how could Dr. Evans have become 
 such a theologian if he had not in his heart of 
 hearts believed the Bible to be throughout an 
 authoritative and perfect record and revelation 
 of the divine Christ? I have known many men 
 who loved the inspired Scriptures, and studied 
 them day by day as the supreme light of mind 
 and soul in every thing pertaining to the spirit- 
 ual life and to human salvation. But I bear 
 my sincere testimony at this sacred hour that I 
 have never known a man to whom the Scrip- 
 tures seemed so much, who so dwelt in them as 
 in a home, who so cherished, even worshipped, 
 them as the voice and message of God to our 
 lost race. The allegation that he, above all men, 
 was engaged in teaching theological novelties 
 rather than the living truths of the living God ; 
 that he was indifferent to that doctrinal evil 
 from which his soul shrank as it were a serpent ; 
 that he was disloyal to the infallible word and 
 to the perfect person of his Lord Jesus Christ, is 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 225 
 
 one which it is impossible to pardon except on 
 the plea of "invincible ignorance." It is known 
 to all that I have never been able to accept his 
 later theory of the nature and method of Inspi- 
 ration ; and the profoundest reflection that I am 
 able to give to a theme whose deep mystery all 
 thoughtful men concede, is not bringing me per- 
 ceptibly nearer this view. I certainly prefer 
 the statement brief and incomplete as it is, 
 which is found in the Review already mentioned 
 on the doctrinal significance of the Revision of 
 the New Testament. But I would no sooner 
 challenge his faith in the essential fact of Inspi- 
 ration, or question his trust in or his complete 
 and lovinor submission of soul to the Bible which 
 
 o 
 
 he here expounded so sincerely and faithfully, 
 than I would doubt that his pure personality is 
 now with God. 
 
 The following statement of his view of In- 
 spiration was written at my request during the 
 last months of his life. It shows how thorough- 
 ly loyal he was to the Divine Revelation, and 
 how faithful to that Divine Process by which 
 that Revelation has been preserved and perpe- 
 tuated in the world. 
 
 "inspiration." 
 
 "1. The Bible is the literar}'' embodiment 
 or record of the supernatural Revelation which 
 God has made of Himself and His will for the 
 salvation of a lost world. 
 
226 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 "2. The record is given generically and 
 primarily to accomplish the great end for which 
 the Revelation itself was made, the salvation of 
 the world. 
 
 "3. Specifically and secondarily, and as 
 the means of accomplishing its great generic 
 end, the record is given to perpetuate, to inter- 
 pret, and to apply the Revelation, as this 
 seemed to the All-wise God to be necessary and 
 providentially possible. 
 
 "4. Inspiration is that supernatural agency 
 in the personal and providential preparation of 
 the record which makes it divinely authoritative 
 and effectual in the accomplishment of all its 
 ends generic and specific. 
 
 "5. The quality, measure and scope of the 
 Inspiration of Scripture are determined by the 
 vital relations of the process, 
 
 ^ a ) To the Spirit of God as the source of 
 the record. 
 
 (<5) To the men of God who as filled by 
 the Spirit of God were, in whatever way, con- 
 cerned with the preparation of the record. 
 
 (c) To the spiritual contents of the record 
 as factors of a Divine Revelation for the salva- 
 tion of the world. 
 
 ((^) To the spiritual functions of the re- 
 cord as the divinely appointed medium for the 
 production and culture of the spiritual life in the 
 hearts of men. 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 227 
 
 "Based more especially on the three great 
 loci classici: 1 Cor. ii. 4 — 16, 2 Tim. iii. 15 — 17, 
 2 Peter i. 21." 
 
 How many times have I learned new lessons 
 from his lips, as we have conferred together as 
 brethren, rather as pupil and teacher, respecting 
 some difficult portion of the sacred word! How 
 often have we heard him in this place 
 set forth divine truth, derived directly from 
 the Bible, in such ways as to fill us all 
 with a new thrilling sense of what that word is 
 and may become to the mind and heart of those 
 who believe! His insight into the Scriptures 
 was something wonderful, and his power to de- 
 scribe what he saw there was scarcely less won- 
 derful. Above all men that I have known, he 
 was the man of one book, and that book was 
 none other than the Holy Book of God. 
 
 While Dr. Evans was not inclined to take 
 an active part in ecclesiastical affairs, he was 
 ardently devoted to the Church he served, and 
 thoroucrhlv believed that in rendering such ser- 
 vice he was doing the best thing possible for the 
 whole Church of God. He believed in a free, 
 growing Christianity, and always rejoiced in the 
 fact that American Presbyterianism is so largely 
 animated by this progressive temper, and is in 
 such high degree representative of the best 
 thought, the highest purposes, of evangelical 
 Christendom. He welcomed, for example, the 
 mpveinent for the revision of our theological stand- 
 
228 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 ards, and heartily seconded what had been done 
 on that line, while still desiring other and lar- 
 ger improvements, so far the Church could give 
 its consent. So he rejoiced in the improving 
 activities of the denomination, and hoped for the 
 time ^when its blue banner should float freely 
 among the various banners of the one grand 
 army of grace in every section of the Continent. 
 He was indeed no noisy ecclesiastic, filling the 
 air with lofty pretensions, or aspiring for prom- 
 inence, or figuring as a shrewd manager of 
 church affairs, as if the welfare of the denomi- 
 nation depended on his adroit handling. But in 
 a far higher and better sense he was a true 
 churchman, loyal in spirit and faitliful in service 
 as God appointed him, even to the end. 
 
 Would that it were within my power in this 
 brief paper to portray as he deserves, not ^ the 
 theologian, or the exegete, or the churchman, 
 but the man himself, both as he was constituted 
 by nature, and as he became under the decisive 
 action and impress of grace. Some of us re- 
 member the lithe and elastic form and move- 
 ment of his earlier years, his fondness for athle- 
 tic games, his horseback galloping, his vigorous 
 walk, his keen zest in all physical life and ac- 
 tivity. And we know how this was symbolic of 
 a kindred interest in all that pertains to human 
 life along higher lines. It was instinctive with 
 him to be a man among men, sharing cordially 
 in their works, their joys, their sorrows. For 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 229 
 
 reasons which are not fully known to me, he 
 did indeed withdraw himself more and more 
 from that kind of contact with the world which 
 he must have enjoyed keenly in his youth and 
 earlier manhood. There is a difference which I 
 cannot explain to myself between the young 
 temperance orator, the competing poet, the plat- 
 form speaker, the zealous legislator, the secular 
 editor and chronicler of daily events, and the 
 quiet, reserved, rather seclusive scholar of the 
 last two decades. There have been times when 
 I have thought in my heart that he was not ready 
 enough to join hands with others in a common 
 work, to stand by them in even urgent strife, to 
 show all men what he really felt in specific 
 crises, individual or public. But I am sure 
 that though he followed some deep impulse of 
 his nature in seeking retirement rather than 
 publicity, seclusion rather than struggle, he was 
 never indifferent to affairs, never selfishly un- 
 concerned respecting anything that involved the 
 well-being of his fellow-men. He was full of 
 the fine instinct of humanity to the last ; tender, 
 courteous, sympathetic, yet courageous, reso- 
 lute, true to the truth, and ready to face any 
 peril in the interest of humankind. Looking 
 down to the bottom, you could not fail to see 
 that he was through and through a man, and a 
 manly man. 
 
 It may be that his deepening religious ex- 
 perience teaded somewhat, as all deep experi'? 
 
230 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 ence tends, to bring about the progressive segre- 
 gation to which I have ventured to refer. 
 Doubtless the increasing feebleness and disabil- 
 ity of these later years compelled him to retire 
 more and more from life, and to live more and 
 more within himself. Yet, he walked alone 
 very much because like Enoch he walked with 
 God. His life was a hidden life largely because 
 it was, like that of Paul, a life hid with Christ. 
 There lies on my table, as I write, a vol- 
 ume of the poems of Frederick William Faber, 
 belonging to him, whose marked passages, evi- 
 dently read over and over, and sometimes com- 
 mitted to memory, have been to me a kind of 
 revelation as to the nature of the spiritual ex- 
 perience which bound together as by some 
 sacred band the author and the reader. No one 
 could be much in contact with Dr. Evans with- 
 out realizing how deeply, thoroughly Christian 
 he was in thought, in sentiment, in purpose and 
 aspiration. His studies were visibly transmuted 
 into experiences, and were constantly blossom- 
 ing out into prayers whose sweep and pathos 
 had for all who shared in them a holy charm. 
 His life as a disciple of Christ was a continuous 
 benediction, growing richer and sweeter to the 
 last. 
 
 As the end of life drew near, and he be- 
 came conscious of the physical dissolution im- 
 pending over him, he said less and less about 
 l>jmse]f and his religious thoughts and aspira- 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 231 
 
 tions. I wish for our sake that it had been 
 otherwise. One precious revelation came to us 
 all in his conduct of a funeral service, just be- 
 fore his departure for Wales, and especially in 
 his tender words touchingr Him whom, like 
 Luther, he loved to call the Lord Christ — the 
 Lord of human life in all aspects, and therefore 
 the Lord over and in all human sorrows. It 
 sounded to many of us as if it were his own 
 farewell to earth, and his own trustful Alleluia 
 as he was ascending to his Savior and his God. 
 The end was not far away. The stormy voy- 
 age across the Atlantic, the welcoming voices of 
 old friends, the attacks of illness once and 
 again, the selection of the new home, the con- 
 templation of the new work which he was never 
 to do, the alternating hopes and fears as the 
 days and weeks of enfeeblement went on, and 
 at last the quick summons of the Master in 
 the night watches, and the exchange of the 
 morning dawn of earth for the morning dawn of 
 heaven — this was the end. And so he passed 
 from the labors, the sufferings, the vicissitudes 
 of this present transitory life to be forever with 
 the Lord. 
 
 Rarely has any theological institution been 
 called to suffer such a series of bereavements as 
 have befallen Lane Seminary during the last 
 five and 'twenty years. The paralysis and con- 
 sequent retirement of Dr. Allen in 1867, fol- 
 lowed by his dcc^th in 1870, the decease of Dr. 
 
232 THIRTY YEARS IN LANE. 
 
 Thomas while in the midst of active service in 
 1875, the like decease of Dr. Smith in 1879, the 
 loss of Dr. Humphrey in 1881, and of Dr. Eells 
 in 1886, make up certainly a very remarkable 
 record. All were men of worth and power, and 
 with one exception, all were at that useful stage 
 of life where another decade of useful labors 
 might have been anticipated. Yet, God thought 
 it best to call them one by one away from the 
 spheres in which we would have wished to de- 
 tain them, and though the successive attacks of 
 their removal have seemed to shake the Semin- 
 ary to its very foundation. And now the name 
 of Dr. Evans is to be added to the starred list, 
 youngest but one in length of days, but longest 
 of all in his term of service, prostrated while at 
 the full acme of his powers and capacity for use- 
 fulness ; a man unlike any of his sainted associ- 
 ates, yet surpassed by none of them in scholar- 
 ship or w^orth, and as deserving as any of 
 thoughtful commemoration while Lane Seminary 
 shall survive. 
 
 How ardently he loved the Institution in 
 whose service one-half of his life had been spent, 
 how loyal he was to its best traditions, how 
 faithful to its interests so far as these were com- 
 mitted to his keeping, how true to his associates 
 in the Faculty, how manly in all his bearing and 
 fellowship here, it would be superfluous in me 
 to say. Believing as he did that there is enough 
 in any of these departments of instruction to 
 
MEMORIAL OF PROFESSOR EVANS. 233 
 
 command all the time and all the abilities of the 
 most competent mind, he never frittered him- 
 self away in miscellaneous affairs, or accepted 
 any absorbing external service, however attract- 
 ive or important. He loved the Seminary well 
 enough to give the whole of himself to it, in en- 
 tire sincerity and devotion. With all schemes 
 for the diverting of this school of the prophets 
 from its original design, as representative of a 
 catholic and irenic type of Calvinistic belief, 
 and as a school for the training of men who 
 should preach with power a pure and a free 
 gospel of the Pauline cast, he had no sympathy 
 whatever. Loyalty to the Institution just as 
 Christ -had organized it, and just as the fathers 
 had constructed it, was with him not only a 
 duty, but a sacred passion. Whether any ever 
 did more for it, none loved it more, or more 
 purely, as none ever served it better. And 
 while Lane Seminary keeps green the memory 
 of those who had given themselves loyally to 
 its advancement, it can never forget the name 
 of him who was the first Alumnus in its Fac- 
 ulty, and the longest in service in the long line 
 of its honored and sainted teachers. 
 
ADSUM 
 
 I. 
 
 Present, O Lord, Thy servant stands 
 
 And waits the call from thee ; 
 Whatever falleth from Thy hands 
 My lot, my joy, shall be : 
 
 Alleluia, 
 II. 
 Present, O Lord! for Thy dear claim 
 
 I set the world aside — 
 To live for Thee, to wear Thy name. 
 And in Thy love abide : 
 
 Allelina. 
 III. 
 Present, O Lord! Thy work to take. 
 
 And faithful still to be, 
 Since work is bliss for Thy dear sake, 
 Wherever done for Thee : 
 
 Alleluia. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Present, O Lord, to wear the cross 
 
 Thou givest me to bear ; 
 For if I bear the pain, the loss, 
 
 I shall the glory share : 
 
 Alleluia. 
 
 V. 
 
 Present, O Lord! I humbly wait 
 So near Thy blessed home ; 
 
 Open, I pray, the heavenly gate, 
 And bid Thy servant come : 
 
 Alleluia — Amen. 
 
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