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 MEMORIAL 
 
 MAR 6 191] 
 
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 REV. JOHN PARIS HUDSON 
 
 A MINISTEE OF THE GOSPEL IN THE PRESBYTERIAN 
 CHURCH FOR SIXTY YEARS 
 
 CO«PILED AND PUBLISHED BY HIS DAUGHTER 
 M. LOUISE^HUDSON 
 
 "He being dead yet speaketh.' 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN PUB. CO. 
 
 1905 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This little volume is affectionately dedicated to the memory 
 of Rev. John Paris Hudson The contents of the following 
 pages will doubtless be of interest only to those who knew 
 and loved my dear father, and to those associated with him in 
 his ministerial life in the close relations of friend and fellow- 
 worker. He left to his children the precious heritage of his 
 teachings and the example of a pure and stainless life. With 
 the love of God abiding in him richly in all its sweet fragrance, 
 hallowing all his cares, consecrating every sorrow and ruling 
 every thought, he devoted his best powers for a long period to 
 the service of the Church and of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 In his rare private character, a spirituality and personal 
 magnetism were exhibited, winning others to holy living, and 
 inspiring all with exalted ideas of God. His life until 
 
 "God's finger touched him and he slept." 
 was a benediction which no biographer, however loving, can 
 fittingly record. M. L. H. 
 
 Williamsport, Pa., March, igos. 
 
Keo. John Paris l^udson 
 
 Di$ Descent and Tatnily f^istory 
 
 John Paris Hudson was of English and Huguenot an- 
 cestr)-, and through his father and mother, related to many 
 old and well-known families in Virginia and West Virginia. 
 
 He was a descendant of an ancient English family, the 
 family of Henry Hudson the navigator, founded according 
 to tradition, by a follower of William, after the Norman Con- 
 quest, and distinguished through succeeding reigns as "a 
 race of scholars and brave gentlemen." In the sixth year of 
 thie reign of King George I, April, 1720, George Hudson, the 
 younger son of a Yorkshire gentleman, from whom Rev. Mr. 
 Hudson was in the fifth generation in line of descent, came to 
 Philadelphia, and purchased from the Proprietaries several 
 hundred acres of land in Caernarvon township, Lancaster, 
 then Chester county, in the Province of Pennsylvania. Caer- 
 narvon was a beautiful and fertile section of Eastern Lancas- 
 ter county, bounded on the north by the Welsh Mountains, 
 and on the south by the Forest Hills, through which flow the 
 head waters of the Conestoga. It was the third settlement in 
 point of time within the limits of Lancaster county, "the most 
 aristocratic and exclusive settlement in the county, and for 
 seventy years maintained that character." Some of the 
 houses of the early colonists still standing with solid stone 
 walls, show the perfection of finished workmanship, in "elabo- 
 rate carved wainscoting and oaken paneling." 
 
 The children of George Hudson, the early colonist, were 
 Joyce, wife of Evan Pugh ; Charles, George, Nicholas, and 
 
another son, William, who never came to America. George 
 Hudson and his sons, Charles George and Nicholas, were 
 founders and prominent members of the Bangor Established 
 Church of England at Churchtown. 
 
 The ancient charter, a quaint document granted by 
 William Penn to the first settlers of Lancaster county, is 
 recorded on the old Parish Register of Bangor Church. The 
 first Bangor Episcopal Church, erected in 1730. remained 
 until 1754, when a new stone church was built, of which the 
 late Mrs.M.J. Nevin,of Caernarvon Place, Lancaster, writes : 
 "I remember it as a beautiful specimen of an English country 
 church, with its graceful spire and belfry, its square, high, 
 box pews, and its sounding board over the little box-paneled 
 pulpit." The lands immediately surrounding the church, and 
 conveyed to it prior to 1730, were let out on ground rents, 
 the leases running for ninety-nine years, for the purpose of 
 supporting the Rector, and the parish school established by 
 the early colonists. 
 
 The name of Hudson appears on the old Parish Register 
 of Bangor Church, as vestryman and church warden, until 
 1793. In 1746 George Hudson, the original colonist, died, 
 leaving a legacy to Bangor Church, and devising all his lands 
 to his sons, Charles, Nicholas, and William, if he would come 
 to America. As George Hudson had died before his father, 
 and William Hudson never left England, the real estate in 
 Pennsylvania was inherited by the two sons, Charles and 
 Nicholas, with bequests to the children of his daughter, Joyce, 
 wife of Evan Pugh, and Margaret and Morris Hudson, chil- 
 dren of his son George. Charles Hudson, son of George, 
 died in January, 1749, willing all his property, both real and 
 personal, to his beloved wife Mary, and to his three sons. 
 
Joshua, George, and William, showing his love to old Bangor 
 Church by a generous legacy. Some years later George 
 Hudson, the second son of Charles Hudson, purchased all the 
 lands of his two brothers. He married Jane Davies, daughter 
 of Thomas Davies, of Caernarvon, whose family were early 
 Welsh colonists at Radnor, Chester county, and were all 
 zealous members of the Church of England. The entire 
 towmship of Radnor, five thousand acres in 1681, was 
 patented to Richard Davies, of Wales, the ancestor of the 
 Davies' families of Caernarvon. From these families were 
 descended Jonathan Jones, of Kanawha, Virginia ; Colonel 
 Jacob Morgan, of Morgantown, a distinguished ofificer of the 
 Revolution ; Hon. Edward Davis, member of Congress, the 
 wife of the Hon. H. G. Strong, and the Hon. J. Glancey 
 Jones, member of Congress, and Minister to Austria. On 
 June 3, 1772, George Hudson sold all his property in Lan- 
 caster county (which then consisted of three large tracts of 
 land, in Heidelburg and Caernarvon townships), to his uncle, 
 Nicholas Hudson, and removed first to Washington county, 
 Maryland, where he purchased a beautiful estate, but the 
 climate being unhealthy, in 1777 he left Maryland and settled 
 in Augusta county, near Staunton, Virginia. He here pur- 
 chased estates in Montgomery and Augusta counties and was 
 the owner of several mills in Augusta. 
 
 The Valley of Virginia, to which he had now finally re- 
 moved, was settled principally by Scotch-Irish from Ulster 
 at a later date than the Virginia of the tide-water. It was a 
 lovely and temperate region, diversified by gentle swells and 
 slopes. Through it flows the river which, on account of its 
 surpassing beauty, was named by the Indians the Shenandoah 
 "daughter of the stars." The Scotch-Irish settlers were pious 
 
Calvinists who did not share the fox hunting and horse rac- 
 ing proclivities of the tidewater Virginians ; but devoted 
 themselves to making pleasant homes, educating their chil- 
 dren, and erecting churches and colleges. It has been said 
 that "God sifted the nations of the earth, that He might send 
 choice spirits to people this continent, and that many of the 
 choicest of them came from Ulster." From these families 
 were descended some of the most eminent men of Virginia. 
 In this beautiful and fertile valley, with its long lines of blue 
 mountains, and landscapes lovely beyond description, George 
 Hudson, a pious evangelical churchman of liberal spirit, to- 
 gether with his wife, Jane Davis Hudson, fondly remembered 
 for her exceeding beauty, united with Bethel Presbyterian 
 Church, then under the ministry of Rev. Archibald Scott, and 
 died in the communion of that church December, 1792. He 
 was the father of three sons, Isaac Hudson, of Montgomery 
 county, Virginia ; Charles and George Hudson, of Augusta ; 
 and of three daughters, Mary, wife of Thomas Paris, of Ohio ; 
 Nancy, wife of George Paris, of Augusta, and Jane, who died 
 in early hfe. Three grandsons entered the ministry of the 
 Presbyterian Church : Rev. Thomas D. Hudson, of Mont- 
 gomery county, Virginia ; Rev. John Paris Hudson, and Rev. 
 John D. Paris, missionary to the Hawaiian Islands, who mar- 
 ried a daughter of the Rev. Rufus Anderson, D.D., Secretary 
 of the American Board. A great grandson. Rev. Thomas D. 
 Hudson, was pastor of churches in Bath and Montgomery. 
 A grandson, Hon. Robert M. Hudson, was Judge of the Dis- 
 trict (Superior) Court of Virginia, and a great grandson, 
 Hon. Isaac Hudson, is now Judge of the Courts of Pulaski 
 county. 
 
 Morris Hudson, the son of George Hudson, and grand- 
 
son of George Hudson, the first of the name in Lancaster 
 county, married EHzabeth Davis, a sister of the wife of his 
 cousin, George Hudson, of Augusta. Augtist i, 1782, he was 
 made a vestryman in Bangor Church. He purchased "Wash- 
 ington's Grant," a large tract of land in the Kanawha Valley, 
 Virginia, which had been granted to General Washington for 
 services in the French and Indian wars, and previous to 1790 
 sold out all his possessions in Lancaster county and removed 
 to Virginia. His sons were Davis, a Major in the United 
 States Army ; Samuel, of Kanawha, and Jesse, who married 
 Martha Jenkins Wilson, a neice of Robert Jenkins, the iron 
 master of Lancaster. Some of the numerous descendants of 
 Morris Hudson intermarried among the Fitz Hugh and Lee 
 families, and one branch of the Washington family. Soon 
 after settling in Virginia, Morris Hudson and his wife do- 
 nated four acres of land and erected upon it a church which 
 they had consecrated Bangor, named for the old church in 
 Lancaster county, and also paid the entire salary of the 
 Rector. Morris Hudson lived to a great age at his hospitable 
 home at Colesmouth (St. Albans), loved and honored by all 
 who knew him. He remained a member of the church of 
 his fathers, with its many sacred associations and traditions. 
 His descendants are, for the most part, in the Episcopal 
 Church, while those of George Hudson are Presbyterians. 
 Charles Hudson, the second son of George and Jane 
 (Davis) Hudson, of Beverly Manor, Augusta county, Vir- 
 ginia, was married on December 20, 1800, to Mary Paris, a 
 lineal descendant of a French Huguenot family, who escaped 
 religious persecution on the Revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes in the autumn of 1685 by flight from their estate near 
 Paris to the city of Londonderry, Ireland, and were in the 
 
memorable seige of that fastness of Protestantism. John 
 Paris, the grandfather of Rev. Mr. Hudson, was born in 
 Londonderry, and there married Martha Henderson, a name 
 famous in Scotch history. In 1769 he sailed from London- 
 derry to America, with his wife and two children, Mary, then 
 two years of age, and Martha, an infant, who became the 
 wife of John Dennison, a ruling elder in the old Augusta 
 church under Dr. Speece's ministry. His wife died on the 
 voyage. He landed at Snow Hill, Maryland, where he re- 
 mained a short time, and then purchased an estate near 
 Staunton, Virginia, and married Hannah Henderson, of 
 Augusta, a cousin of his first wife. He was a Calvinist of the 
 most pronounced type, whose ancestors had stood the test of 
 fire and sword, and coming to Virginia he declined to join 
 the Episcopal Church, which was then the Established 
 Church of the Colony. In the personal narrative, from which 
 many of these facts are taken, Mr. Hudson says: "I recall 
 with mingled feelings of joy and sadness, a memorable Christ- 
 mas eve, at my grandfather's fireside, in the long ago days 
 of my boyhood, and the group of children and grandchildren 
 surrounding him. With a countenance glowing with enthu« 
 siasm and features quivering with emotion, he recounted tale 
 after tale of the persecutions of his family for righteousness' 
 sake in sunny France, and their sufifering in Protestant 
 Ulster. Five of his namesakes were then present, his son, 
 John Paris, and four grandsons. The group of Johns was 
 completed by my grandfather's colored body-servant "John," 
 who stood an interested spectator." 
 
 A brother of John Paris, George Paris, a Colonel in the 
 British Army, visited him at Staunton at the close of the 
 Revolution. Large grants of land in Ohio, and in the Caro- 
 
linas, were bestowed upon him for distinguished services in 
 the army. Although never in America before, and not with 
 the forces engaged in the Revolutionary struggle, he was 
 compelled to shorten his visit, on account of the feeling which 
 was then so hostile in the United States toward the mother 
 country. Before his return to England, where he died, he 
 succeeded in securing to his brother all his grants in the 
 United States. The children of John Paris were four sons 
 and six daughters, all of whom, with the exception of one son 
 and one daughter, were residents of Virginia. He was an 
 intelligent, devoted Christian, and until his death a member 
 of Hebron Presbyterian Church, one of the oldest Presby- 
 terian congregations in the Valley of Virginia, organized by 
 Dr. John Blair during a visit to the State in 1746. 
 
 "Virginia, I love it ! It was the home of my youth, and 
 in it are the graves of my fathers." 
 
 Peace to their memory. 
 
Qis €arly Cift and €<lucation-Wa$bindton eol- 
 
 lege— Cbcological Crainina at 
 
 Princeton Seminary 
 
 John Paris Hudson, the second son of Charles and Mary. 
 (Paris) Hudson, was born March 14, 1804, at Beverly Manor, 
 near Staunton, Virginia. He was bom in a Presbyterian 
 household, felt its power in early youth, and never ceased to 
 bless God for its restraints and loving piety. His father, 
 Charles Hudson, an Englishman in manners and appearance, 
 was a man of cultured literary and musical tastes, from whom 
 his sons inherited their decided fondness for mathematics. 
 Mr. Hudson's early religious impressions were received from 
 a mother who could repeat questions and answers of both 
 the Larger and Shorter Catechism, and the whole book of 
 Psalms. Whilst these parents were anxious that their sons 
 should be liberally educated and fitted for lives of usefulness, 
 it was their earnest, prayerful desire that they should be the 
 servants of God. On May 19, 1823, Mr. Hudson's mother 
 writes to her son, at college: "I dedicated my two older 
 sons (George Davis* and John Paris) to the Master in in- 
 fancy, the one was taken and the other left. I have been 
 careful all j'our life to impress your mind with piety and 
 virtue. You are blest with talents, and I trust that Almighty 
 Being, who watches over you when far from me, has blest 
 you with truth and sincerity. You have the Holy Scriptures 
 for your guide, the works of learned men, the company of the 
 servants of the Most High, and the promises of your glorious 
 Master, that He will be with you to the end. You have a 
 merciful Master to serve who knows all your weakness, and 
 
 •George Davi» Hudson died January 15, 1810. 
 
13 
 
 will make you a conqueror, and more than a conqueror 
 through Him who loved you. Be faithful unto the end, and 
 you will receive a crown of glory." He was reared amidst 
 the beautiful and picturesque scenery of the Valley of Vir- 
 ginia, and found in it the source of much pure thought and 
 noble inspiration. Inheriting a fondness for books, he was 
 surrounded by much that was calculated to draw out the best 
 that was in him in a literary as well as a moral point of view. 
 He grew to manhood in Bethel congregation, organized in 
 1772, one of the large congregations in the valley, where he 
 enjoyed the ministrations of Dr. Robert H. Chapman and 
 Dr. Francis McFarland, for some years Secretary of the 
 Presbyterian Board of Education. God's grace was ten- 
 derly following him as a chosen vessel through whom He 
 would send to many precious souls the treasures of his divine 
 truth. 
 
 He was baptized in infancy by Rev. John Glendy, D.D., 
 who had married his parents, and at the age of sixteen years 
 professed a hope in Christ, and united with Bethel Church, 
 then under the ministry of Rev. Robert Hett Chapman, D.D. 
 The love of Christ from that time constrained him to go 
 forth and labor in His vineyard, and he solemnly vowed, if 
 God counted him worthy, to devote his life to the Gospe! 
 ministry. The Bible now became his greatest treasure; as 
 he made it his counsellor, and gadned skill in the study and 
 use of it, there grew upon him a sense of wonder and admira- 
 tion, at its perfect adaptation to all his necessities. 
 
 He received a thorough preparation for college at the 
 Staunton Academy, an institution in which men most eminent 
 in the professions in the State of Virginia have received their 
 preparatory training. He here read Horace and Homer in 
 
a class with William M. Peyton and Alexander H. H. Stewart, 
 Secretary of the Interior (1850-1853). He frequently spoke 
 in after years of the great benefit he received at this insti- 
 tution, and of his admiration for the Rector, Rev. Daniel 
 Stephens, D.D., and the Professors, Louis Jean Giradin* 
 and Bartholomew Fuller. He was a popular student, owing 
 to his attractive manners and his great store of fun. 
 
 He writes : "The days of my boyhood were very happy. 
 1 loved the Virginia sports. I loved the Virginia hills and 
 fields, and thought that I was the happiest boy in the State, 
 as I rode into Staunton to school, on my little Kentucky 
 pony, with a small silver watch for a timepiece, gifts from my 
 kind father, on my twelfth birthday. The Virginians have 
 always been noted for their love of horses. In my stripling 
 days, the sound of hound and horn was music to my ears, and 
 no greater pleasure to me than being allowed to attend a 
 'meet.' One sunny morning as I was starting to school, 
 my uncle, Thomas Paris, rode up to our door, on a horse, 
 which he informed me could beat anything in the State of 
 Virginia. He was followed, as was the custom of the gentry 
 of those days, by his colored servant with the saddlebags. I 
 I looked at the horse and thought my uncle was a large man 
 on a large horse, and I was a little boy on a pony, and ban- 
 tered him for a race. So off we started. Losing my hat and 
 books by the way, I rode mto Staunton far ahead, and up to 
 the Academy amid the cheers of the Faculty and students 
 assembled on the campus. A servant followed with my lost 
 'impedimenta.' On returning home. I received a severe rep- 
 rimand from my good Presbyterian mother, while my father, 
 with his English-loving tastes, merely smiled at the escapade. 
 
 *A graduate of the University of Paris. 
 
IS 
 
 Uncle Tom never said horse to me afterward. Dear old 
 Staunton is associated with many pleasant hours spent in the 
 society of the loved companions of my youthful days. Sandy 
 Stewart and myself are now (1888) survivors of the rapidly- 
 diminishing circle of merry schoolboys, who stood with 
 'heads uncovered' on a bright morning in the leafy month of 
 June, as Thomas Jefferson, bowing to right and left, entered 
 the Academy with Judge Stewart and Dr. Waddell, two of 
 the trustees. We then silently filed "into our seats to listen 
 to an address by the ex-President of the United States, whom 
 we very irreverantly called, 'Old King Tom.' We studied 
 hard in the days when Sandy and I were head boys of our 
 form, yet how eagerly we listened for old Giradin's sharp 
 'Abeatis in pace,' which Peyton translated to the little boys 
 of the lower form, 'you can go out into the passage' !" 
 
 He entered the Junior class in Washington College, now 
 Washington and Lee University, at Lexington, Virginia, at 
 the age of eighteen years. At the close of his Junior year he 
 was elected Professor of Mathematics in Staunton Academy, 
 to fill a vacancy caused by the death of Professor Fuller. 
 
 Rev. William S. Plumer, D.D., then a fellow-student, 
 thus writes to him on his appointment : 
 
 Lexington, Va., December 13, 1823. 
 My Dear Friend: — On inquiring some lime ago whether you 
 were expected to return to college this session, I was most agreeably- 
 surprised to learn, that you had been elected to fill the honorable 
 station of Professor of Mathematics in Staunton Academy. 
 
 I feel disposed to congratulate you highly, on the honorable re- 
 ward of your unwearied diligence and industry. It must be a pleas- 
 ing reflection to you, to look back to the time when you were so 
 busily engaged in poring over the volumes of literature, intent on 
 qualifying yourself for filling with credit, some honorable station in 
 life, that thus early you have been called by the respectable trustees 
 of a public seminary of learning to fill a Professor's chair. 
 Sincerely your friend, 
 
 William S. Plumer. 
 
i6 
 
 Mathematics was a study for which he had much taste. 
 At sixteen years of age he had surveyed the lands beyond the 
 Blue Ridge which Lord Fairfax, of Greenway Court, had 
 selected General Washington to survey for him, and although 
 so young, he was now thought to have but few equals as a 
 mathematician in his native valley. 
 
 John Howe Peyton, at this time an eminent lawyer at the 
 Staunton Bar, and State's Attorney, repeatedly urged him to 
 enter upon the study of the law in his office, predicting for 
 him a brilliant future in the profession in which his younger 
 brother became distinguished. 
 
 At the close of one year, to the regret of patrons and 
 pupils, he resigned his position at Staunton, returned to 
 Lexington and entered the Senior class in Washington 
 College. 
 
 Having particularly distinguished himself in linguistic 
 studies, he was graduated with the classical ('the first honors) 
 of his class, April 15, 1825, under the presidency of Rev. 
 George A. Baxter, D.D., the best Greek scholar in a class, 
 which numbered among its members Hon. William D. Alex- 
 ander, Judge of the Circuit Court of Georgia ; Rev. William 
 S. Plumer, D.D., Rev. S. H. Blaine, and Rev. William G. 
 Campbell, of Virginia ; Hon. Edward E. Wilkinson, Judge 
 of the. Superior Court of Mississippi, and others of equal 
 ability. 
 
 French, the language of his mother's family, he read and 
 spoke with fluency from childhood. 
 
 Later in life, wishing to become familiar with the best 
 philosophical and theological works of the great thinkers of 
 Germany, he devoted much time to the study of the German 
 language. 
 
17 
 
 Immediately after graduation, he was elected Adjunct 
 Professor of Languages, Latin and Greek, and remained a 
 member of the Faculty four years, 1825-1829, at a salary of 
 eight hundred dollars per annum. On April 18, 1827, the 
 degree of A.M. was conferred upon him. 
 
 His home during his entire residence in Lexington was 
 in the family of William H. Letcher, father of John Letcher, 
 afterward Governor of Virginia, his younger brother, 
 Robert, being with him three years. 
 
 In college he was one of the leading spirits of the 
 Graham Philanthropic (now Graham Lee) Society. In 1828 
 he and Dr. Henry Ruffner, afterward President of the college, 
 were appointed to prepare the new Latin diploma for th" 
 Society. The diploma of Mr. Hudson was accepted by the 
 Faculty, as in the opinion of the Committee, "the more cor- 
 rect and finished piece of Latin composition." 
 
 A fellow-student writes : "He was soon distinguished in 
 college for his gifts of oratory. When he arose to speak in 
 the Graham P. Society we were all silent. This popularity 
 was not confined to our own Society, but during the years of 
 his connection with the college, he was appointed commence- 
 ment orator, both for our own and the rival society. 
 
 "One of the largest audiences in the town of Lexington 
 was assembled, when, with the love of 'such troops of friends,' 
 he addressed the Washington Literary Society on its anni- 
 versary, February 22, 1829." 
 
 During his connection with Washington and Lee, glow- 
 ing names shine on the roll of students, "who here garnered 
 the knowledge, which in after years shed so gracious a light 
 upon themselves and their countrj'": Socrates Maupin, 
 Professor in the University of Virginia ; John T. L. Preston,. 
 
of the Virginia Military Institute; Francis T. Anderson, 
 Judge of tlie Superior Court of Appeals of Virginia ; Mat- 
 thew Hale Houston, M.D., of Richmond; the four Brown 
 brothers (ministers), Henry, Joseph, Samuel and William 
 Brown, D.D.; George W. Leyburn, missionary to Greece, 
 and his brother, John Leyburn, D.D., with many others who 
 graced the professions of the ministry, the law, and medicine. 
 He spent six peaceful years at Lexington, "bright pictures 
 on memory's wall," and here developed rare gifts in teach- 
 ing. With great reluctance the faculty and trustees accepted 
 his resignation, when he felt that the time had arrived to 
 sever the tender ties which bound him to his Alma Mater, 
 and enter upon the work to which he had consecrated his life. 
 
 He left Lexington with the intention of entering Union 
 Theological Seminary at Hampden Sidney, Virginia. The 
 influence of his pastor. Dr. McFarland, who was a Prince- 
 ton man, and a meeting with Dr. Archibald Alexander, during 
 one of his frequent visits to his native valley, decided him to 
 go to Princeton with a number of young men from Lexington 
 Presbytery, alumni of Washington College. He entered 
 Princeton Theological Seminary, July 2, 1829. 
 
 At Harrisonburg, Virginia, on October 30, 1830, "having 
 given satisfaction as to his experimental acquaintance with 
 religion, his accomplishments in literature, and his pro- 
 fidency in Divinity, and other studies, the Presbytery of 
 Lexington expressed their approbation of the parts of trial 
 assigned him, and licensed him to preach the Gospel."* 
 
 A friend writes to him from Augusta, shortly after his 
 licensure : 
 
 utes of Lexington Presbytery; signed— Francis McFar- 
 
19 
 
 "Your examination before the Presbytery, and your trial 
 sermon met with general approval. Drs. Baxter, Ruffner 
 and McFarland speak of it in terms highly gratifying. 
 
 "Everyone who is acquainted with you, is apprised of 
 your profound knowledge. Dr. Speece, never known to be 
 very prodigal of his praise, says he 'never knew a young man 
 in his life better acquainted with the whole system of Di- 
 vinity.' " 
 
 After one year's residence in Princeton his health failed, 
 and he was persuaded by Dr. Alexander, to accept for one 
 year, the position as Principal of Union Academy at Snow 
 Hill, Maryland, the duties of which he conducted very suc- 
 cessfully, assisted by Mr. Lewis Caton. Having been re- 
 cently licensed, he was frequently called upon to exercise his 
 gifts in the church at Snow Hill, and in the cluster of churches 
 in the neighborhood, the scene of the labors and "hallowed 
 by the memory of Francis McKemie." 
 
 At the Seminary he took a special interest in Biblical 
 literature, reading the whole of the Old Testament in 
 Hebrew, and much of his theology in Latin, being generally 
 acknowledged as one of the best Hebrew scholars in the insti- 
 tution at that time. 
 
 During his residence in Princeton, he was actively en- 
 gaged in Sabbath School and church work, acting as Super- 
 intendent of a Sabbath School five miles distant. 
 
 He was graduated in the full three years' course at 
 Princeton Theological Seminary, September 24, 1832. His 
 excellent education admirably fitted him to fill a Professor's 
 chair, and a Professorship was open for his acceptance at 
 Washington and Lee, until the completion of his Seminary 
 course. In after years, under the presidency of Dr. Henry 
 
Ruffner, he was again earnestly urged by the Faculty and 
 Trustees to return and accept the Professorship of Lan- 
 guages. 
 
 With the surrender of personal ambition he felt that it 
 was his duty to engage more actively in the Master's service 
 than he could have an opportunity of doing when filling a 
 Professor's chair, that with Paul, he must "endure hardness 
 as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Life was to him a gift 
 used for Jesus, and fully realizing the words of the apostle, 
 "They which live should not henceforth live unto them- 
 selves," he counted all things loss, for the excellency of 
 Jesus Christ his Lord. 
 
 After graduation he remained one term at the Seminary 
 as a resident graduate, when he expected to return to his 
 native State and the Virginia churches that were seeking to 
 win him to their bosom. 
 
 Rev. James M. Brown, D.D., then pastor of the church 
 at Martinsburg, Virginia, writing of "interesting and im- 
 portant" churches in his native State that were anxious to 
 secure his services, kindly adds : 
 
 "I feel pretty well acquainted with you, although our 
 intercourse has been limited. We came from the same Pres- 
 byterian county, were licensed by the same Presbytery, were 
 educated at the same college, and I believe were members of 
 the same literary society. I hope that a more intimate ac- 
 quaintance is now commencing, and that we will be workers 
 together in building up the Church in our native State. I 
 trust that a visit here will result in a settlement, and that you 
 will be the honored instrument in gathering many souls into 
 the kingdom of God." 
 
 God had willed his future far otherwise. 
 
O tlicre are scenes divinely fair, 
 O'crspread with smiles of beauty rare, 
 And spots of splendid glory, where 
 Our steps in gladness roam: 
 
 We've thought of many a palace grand. 
 We've dreamed of many a happy strand, 
 But ah! they're nothing to the land 
 Where smiles our natal home. 
 
 Still, there's a better land on high, 
 Where flowers of glory never die. 
 Like those beneath life's cloudy sky. 
 In which our steps shall roam; 
 
 When time, with all her dreams is past: 
 And death hath spent his withering blast — 
 O sweeter far in heaven at last. 
 We'll find an endless home. 
 1833. John Paris Hudson 
 
ministerial Cifc 
 
 Having accepted an invitation to visit the church at 
 Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, then vacant by the death of Rev. 
 Robert Bryson, in October, 1832, Mr. Hudson feU that here 
 was a promising field of usefulness. 
 
 Persons still living, recall his arrival at Bloomsburg in 
 December, 1832, when, with the easy grace of a Southern- 
 bred horseman, he rode into the village on his Virginia horse 
 "Saltram." 
 
 His Virginia friends were by no means confident that 
 he was wise in his removal to Pennsylvania. The step was 
 an important one, as it severed him from friends and native 
 State. A Virginian to the last, he never ceased to regret 
 the loss of that peculiar warmth and cordiality which belong 
 so exclusively to the South and frequently recurred to the 
 days of his ministry as halcyon ones, when he visited the 
 beloved Southland, preaching and renewing the friendships 
 of his youth, and mingling with the great gatherings which 
 assembled at sacraments, presbyteries, and synods. 
 
 He was ordained as an evangelist by the Presbytery of 
 Lexington, at Lexington, Virginia, April 2, 1833. "This 
 was done at a pro re nata meeting, at which the Rev. Samuel 
 Houston was Moderator, the Rev. John D. Ewing preached 
 the ordination sermon, and the Rev. A. B. Davidson presided 
 and gave the charge to the newly-ordained minister. After 
 these services Mr. Hudson took his seat as a member of Pres- 
 bytery. He then applied for, and received a dismission to 
 the Presbytery of Northumberland, Pennsylvania,"* in which 
 State his whole ministerial life was spent. 
 
 •Extract from minutes of Lexington Presbytery. 
 
23 
 
 He united with the Presbytery of Northumberland, 
 October, 1833, and served as pastor the churches of Blooms- 
 burg, Briar Creek, and New Columbia, for six years, 1832- 
 1838. 
 
 These congregations were not new organizations, 
 Bloomsburg having been organized in 1817 and Briar Creek 
 some twenty years earlier. The charge was a laborious one. 
 His custom was to preach regularly three times on the Sab- 
 bath, with frequent services during the week, extending his 
 labors to Orangeville, which was then in the bounds of the 
 old Briar Creek congregation, and occasionally to Berwick. 
 His residence was Bloomsburg, where during these years, 
 his home was a pleasant one, in the family of Mr. William 
 McKelvy, and of Dr. John Ramsay. After his settlement at 
 Bloomsburg, two of the aged ruling elders, in this pastoral 
 charge, Mr. John Chemberlin, of Bloomsburg, and Mr. James 
 Hutchinson, of Briar Creek, full of years and strong in faith, 
 found the rest which is "sweet after toil before the Father's 
 throne." Another member of the Bloomsburg session, Mr. 
 Joseph Wardin, removed to Philadelphia. Mr. Josiah Mc- 
 Oure and Mr. John Robinson were then ordained and in- 
 stalled by Mr. Hudson, as elders of the Bloomsburg Church ; 
 Mr. Daniel Melick at Briar Creek, and Mr. Peter Leidy and 
 others at New Columbia. 
 
 From the commencement, his labors were crowned with 
 the divine blessing at Bloomsburg, and the church was re- 
 vived and strengthened. 
 
 His pastorate was marked by special outpourings of the 
 Holy Spirit, during the winter of 1834-35, and the following 
 winter, 1835-36, was memorable by the ingathering of mem- 
 bers to the communion of the church, receiving at one time 
 
24 
 
 forty members on examination, to many of whom the ordi- 
 nance of baptism was administered. During protracted ser- 
 vices, the pastor was assisted by his intimate friends and 
 fellow-students at Princeton, Revs. Robert Dunlap, Isaac 
 Grier, P. B. Marr, and other clergymen. The church con- 
 tinued to increase in membership until the close of his minis- 
 try, and it was then thought that it was destined to become 
 the strongest congregation in the Presbytery. 
 
 Bloomsburg was the scene of Mr. Hudson's labors, in 
 the years when "the days were all summer." He ever after 
 regarded the church with peculiar interest and affection and 
 rejoiced in its prosperity. 
 
 A call, attested by Rev. John Bryson, Moderator, was 
 presented to him from the First Presbyterian Church of Wil- 
 liamsport, Pennsylvania, on October 2, 1837. 
 
 He was permitted by the Presbytery "to retain this call 
 for consideration." He did not fully enter upon the duties 
 of this pastorate until the following year (1838). His friends 
 at Bloomsburg who were much attached to him, were anxious 
 to retain him as their pastor, "and on the twenty-first day 
 of December, 1837, a meeting of the congregations of 
 Bloomsburg, Briar Creek, and New Columbia was held in 
 the Presbyterian church of Bloomsburg, for the purpose of 
 calling a pastor. In the absence of the Rev. P. B. Marr, who 
 had been invited to preach a sermon, the Hon. Leonard 
 Rupert was elected Moderator. 
 
 "On the votes being taken, it was declared by the 
 Moderator that the Rev. John Paris Hudson was unani- 
 mously elected pastor of these congregations, and it was 
 Resolved, That the call be laid before Presbyter/, to be 
 placed in the hands of Rev. J. P. Hudson, and that Col. 
 
25 
 
 James McQure be the delegate from this pastoral charge to 
 attend the next meeting of Presbytery, and report the pro- 
 ceedings of this meeting"* 
 
 This call was for six hundred dollars, to be paid in regular 
 half yearly payments, the same salary for which Mr. Hudson 
 was called to Williamsport, and which was then the highest 
 salary paid to any of the pastors in the Presbytery. 
 
 It is dated January i, 1838, attested by Leonard Rupert, 
 Moderator, and is signed by one hundred and twelve persons, 
 the greater number of them being heads of families ; by James 
 McClure, Josiah McClure, and John Robinson as members of 
 session of the Bloomsburg church, and by the members of 
 session of the churches of Briar Creek and New Columbia. 
 
 Mr. Hudson left a deeply attached people, an interesting 
 field of usefulness, and congregations in a peaceful and united 
 state to enter upon his work at Williamsport. He was in- 
 stalled pastor of the First Presbyterian Church by the Com- 
 mittee appointed by Presbytery, Revs. John Bryson, P. B. 
 Marr, and Isaac Grier. While pastor of this church, he was 
 married to Miss Hetty Bryson, youngest daughter of the Rev. 
 John and Jane Montgomery Bryson, of Warrior Run, Penn- 
 sylvania. In connection with his pastoral labors at Wil- 
 liamsport, he taught a Classical School on Third Street from 
 October, 1838, until October, 1840. During this pastorate 
 the congregation made steady progress in all the departments 
 of the missionary and other benevolent work of the Church. 
 The reviving and regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit 
 was felt. The heavenly dews were distilled upon the good 
 seed sown. The Head of the Church was honored in these 
 
 •Extract from minutes of meeting: signed, L.eonard Rupert. Moderator. 
 
26 
 
 tokens of good, reviving the confidence of the servants of 
 God, and encouraging the pastor. 
 
 The weekly prayer-meetings and Sabbath School were 
 very interesting and encouraging features of the work. In 
 the "Religious Museum," Northumberland, Rev. Robert F. 
 N. Smith, editor, the following item appeared on January 13, 
 1819: "We are rejoiced to announce the organization of a 
 Sabbath School at Williamsport. A number of ladies have 
 united in this labor of love. We trust that they will not be 
 weary in well doing." This was doubtless the first Sabbath 
 School organized in Williamsport. On June 19, 1827, a 
 Sabbath School was organized by the Presbyterians, and 
 numbered two hundred and fifty members during Mr. Hud- 
 son's pastorate. 
 
 The First Church was then the place of worship of the 
 leading attorneys of the town, Judges of the Courts, and their 
 families. The Hons. Ellis Lewis, A. V. Parsons, Joseph An- 
 thony, William F. Packer, Governor of Pennsylvania, and 
 James Armstrong, Francis Campbell and Robert Fleming. 
 John B. Hall, Tunison Coryell, John Elliott, Dr. Samuel Pol- 
 lock, Oliver Watson, John Gibson, Hon. Wm. H. Armstrong, 
 and others. Some of these families afterward united with 
 Christ Episcopal Church upon its organization. The mem- 
 bers of session were Alexander Sloan, John Torbet, Henry 
 D. Ellis, and Peter W. Vanderbilt. 
 
 In the early spring of 1840, Mr. Hudson was called to 
 Staunton, by the serious illness of his beloved mother. 
 
 It was his privilege to sit beside her dying bed, vvith her 
 hand clasped within his own, when the summons came for her 
 to enter upon the higher service, in the presence of the 
 Saviour, whom she loved and trusted. 
 
She entered into eternal rest, the rest for which she so 
 much longed, on March 13, 1840, aged seventy-two years. 
 
 In the following year, his father was called from earth to 
 heaven. As his illness was short, death resulting from paraly- 
 sis, Mr. Hudson did not reach Staunton in time to receive his 
 dying testimony. He peacefully passed away, his "only hope 
 in a Saviour's righteousness," that Saviour whom he had 
 found "so precious" for many years, and was reunited to his 
 beloved companion on November 12, 1841, aged seventy-one 
 years. 
 
 Mr. Hudson remained at Williamsport until March, 1841, 
 and then ministered to the church of Shamokin six years, 
 1841-1847, and Chillisquaque and Moorsburg, 1847-1850, in 
 connection with the church at McEwensville. 
 
 On the petition of one hundred and seven (107) persons, 
 members of Warrior Run Church, three of whom, Jacob 
 Kher, Isaac Vincent and P. Kerr Russell, Esq., were members 
 of the Warrior Run session, who "believed that the cause of 
 Christ would be advanced by the organization of another 
 Presbyterian congregation in the Warrior Run country," the 
 church of McEwensville was organized on May 3, 1842, by 
 the Committee appointed by the Presbytery of Northumber- 
 land : Revs. D. M. Barber, James Williamson, and elder 
 John B. Boyd. 
 
 On the organization of this church, of which lie was the 
 founder, Mr. Hudson was called and remained the pastor 
 twenty-one years. 
 
 He was installed over this charge by the Committee ap- 
 pointed: Revs. David Hull, P. B. Marr, and Isaac Grier. 
 
 During this pastorate he was Principal of the Turbutville 
 Academy ten years, and of the McEwensville Academy three 
 
years, succeeding Mr. C. Low Rynearson. 
 
 His work at Shamokin was blessed by many accessions 
 to the church. 
 
 After a series of meetings continued through several 
 weeks, he writes to Mrs. Hudson, January 15. 1843: 
 
 "My intention when I left home was to return on Mon- 
 day night, but our meetings have continued day and night, 
 until last night. 
 
 "There are now fifty-four persons who have given their 
 names as inquirers, the greater number of whom have expe- 
 rienced a hope in Christ. I have appointed the Communion, 
 on next Sabbath, and have more labor to perform in preach- 
 ing and in conversing with the young converts, and those 
 who are inquiring, than I can possibly attend to." 
 
 On the Sabbath referred to, he received to the com- 
 munion of the church fifty-six on examination. 
 
 One present at these meetings remarks: "How those 
 precious revival scenes linger in my memory ! It seems but 
 yesterday, although more than twoscore years have passed. 
 I see once more the things that were in days gone by. I 
 seem again to see and hear Mr. Hudson, and the three minis- 
 ters assisting him (who were all fellow-students at Prince- 
 ton), engaged in preaching, prayer and praise. The church, 
 its worshippers, its pastor, are before me. I seem to hear 
 the very tones of his voice directing the penitent to the Lamb 
 of God. I recall particularly one solemn occasion, when the 
 congregation being dismissed after an evening's service, an 
 invitation was given for those who desired to remain, not att 
 individual left the church ! All took their seats ! The solemn 
 silence was broken by Mr. Hudson coming down from the 
 pulpit, taking his place at the table, and starting a hymn in 
 
29 
 
 his clear, strong voice, which filled the whole church with 
 melody, the most wonderful voice I thought that I had ever 
 heard. The tune was one never before heard by us, but 
 afterward learned and sung throughout the entire region. 
 Mr. Hudson was attractive in manners and personal appear- 
 ance, and honored his calling by his dignified bearing and sin- 
 cere interest in his fellow-men. Placed in circumstances like 
 these, calculated to draw out the best gifts of pulpit elo- 
 quence, his fluency and command of language were remark- 
 able." An elder of the church, remarked to him shortly 
 before his death, "when you reach heaven, Mr. Hudson, you 
 will be welcomed by the converts of that precious work." 
 In January, 1844, thirty more were added to the member- 
 ship of the church. 
 
 Immediately after its organization, the congregation at 
 McEwensville, erected the brick church building in the village 
 which was named Bethel, to the building of which Mr. Hudson 
 contributed one year's salary, and some years later, 1853, 
 they purchased the congregational cemetery near the vil- 
 lage. During his long and useful pastorate at McEwens- 
 ville, the congregation increased in membership under the 
 faithful preaching of the Word of God, which liveth and 
 abideth forever. The winters of 1855, 1856, 1857, and 1858 
 were marked by large accessions to the church, following 
 special revival services. The good old Presbyterian names 
 of Montgomery, Bryson, McCormick, Sample, Caldwell, 
 Russell, Gudykuntz, Vincent, Hutchinson, Rynearson, Smith, 
 Everett, Kehr, Burrowes, Oakes, Taggart, Cameron, Nicely, 
 Watson, Armstrong and others were found in the member- 
 ship, and in the officers of this church. Robert McCormick 
 and Charles Gudykuntz were active and influential members. 
 
30 
 
 the former a trustee for many years, and the latter a ruling 
 elder. Here as in all other places of his ministry, he greatly 
 endeared himself to the young of his congregation, over 
 whom he acquired a strong influence. In late years, since the 
 close of his pastorate, the church suffered much by removals, 
 its sons and daughters are scattered in many of the states of 
 the Union, the church of Milton has been strengthened from 
 its membership and three decades after its own organization, 
 the church at Watsontown was organized by members of the 
 McEwensville and Warrior Run churches, two of the 
 original elders of the Watsontown congregation, Robert 
 M. Russell and William B. Bryson, being members of the 
 McEwensville session. 
 
 Mr. Hudson's home from the time of his leaving Williams- 
 port, in 1841, until 1866, was at Turbutville and McEwens- 
 ville, in the bounds of the McEwensville congregation, in the 
 midst of attractive scenery, "fertile plains, and wooded hills," 
 surroundings much to be admired, for more than half a cen- 
 tury, the scene of the labors of his sainted father-in-law, the 
 Rev. John Bryson, part of whose ministerial charge, Chillis- 
 quaque, he had very pleasantly served for three years in con- 
 nection with McEwensville. 
 
 After his resignation at McEwensville, January, 1863, 
 he supplied the First church at Mifflinburg until he received 
 a call, November 11 , 1865, to the Lick Run church, at 
 Jacksonville, Pa., to which he ministered five years. He 
 united with the Presbytery of Huntingdon, at McVeytown, 
 April 10, 1866, and in May, 1866, was installed pastor of the 
 Lick Run church, by the committee appointed. Rev. William 
 J. Gibson, D.D., a former pastor, Rev. J. H. Barnard, and 
 Rev. W. B. McKee. This period of the church's history was 
 
marked by a greater number of additions than for some 
 years previous, no communion season passing without some 
 accessions to the membership of the church. The Sabbath 
 School work was encouraging, and the attendance at both, 
 the Sabbath and week day meetings very gratifying. 
 
 Lick Run is one of the old historic congregations of the 
 Presbytery of Huntingdon. Two large and flourishing 
 congregations in Western cities were organized by members 
 of this church alone. 
 
 In August, 1870, Mr. Hudson removed to Williamsport, 
 which city was his home until his death, to take charge of 
 the City High School, of which he was Principal, 1870-187X. 
 He united with the Presbytery of Northumberland, October 
 1870, severing with regret his pleasant associations with the 
 brethren of Huntingdon Presbytery, of whom he writes: 
 
 "I have seldom met with a body of more dignified 
 Christian gentlemen, reminding me much of dear old Lex- 
 ington, in their manner of conducting business. The kind- 
 ness, courtesy, deference and fraternal feeling displayed in 
 the midst of their most animated discussions exhibited much 
 of the spirit of Christ." 
 
 He ministered to the churches of Montoursville and 
 Pennsdale, 1870-1875. Linden, 1871-1884. 
 
 In July, 1875, while on a visit, with his sister-in-law. 
 Miss Jane M. Bryson, to her old home in Northumberland 
 County, they were both thrown from the carriage in which 
 they were riding and severely (the one fatally) injured. 
 Miss Bryson, "a lady of cultivated tastes," who had endeared 
 herself to all who knew her, by her "lovely Christian charac- 
 ter" died two days later. 
 
 Mr. Hudson never entirely recovered, but suffered from 
 
32 
 
 the effects of the injuries receivd until his death. He con- 
 tinued, however, to preach regularly at Linden alone, until 
 January, 1884. Having then almost reached his eightieth 
 year, and completed the fifty-first of his active ministry, he 
 was compelled by the partial loss of sight, caused by a hemor- 
 rhage of the retina, to resign his much loved work, and com- 
 mit to another's care "the little flock" to whom eminently a 
 wise counsellor, and spiritual guide, he had ministered for 
 thirteen years. 
 
 In his pastoral farewell, to the people of this charge on 
 the last Sabbath of the year, he could "give thanks to God" 
 for the many acts of kindness received, in the years, in which, 
 they were associated as pastor and people, and commend 
 them to His grace and protection, as he parted with them 
 in peace and love. 
 
ebaractcristies-Tllness and Deatb 
 
 In all the years of his busy life, his influence and friends 
 extended beyond the Church, to which he had pledged him- 
 self, while his Catholic spirit commanded the respect of Chris- 
 tians of all denominations. His motto ever was — 
 "Pro Deo, pro ecclesia, et hominun salute." 
 
 A true patriot during the years of civil strife, between 
 the North and South, when public meetings were called, he 
 is remembered as a central figure. 
 
 In a State, where all gentlemen were members of the 
 Masonic fraternity, he became an active and zealous member 
 of the Augusta Lodge, of Staunton, and of the Rockbridge 
 Lodge of Lexington. He was by inheritance a Mason, as 
 grandfather, uncles, and cousins were all members of the 
 order. After coming to Pennsylvania, he never fully identi- 
 fied himself with the fraternity, although in one place of his 
 residence, he received many acts of kindness from members 
 of the Knights Templar Commandery, and was invited to 
 unite with them and act as their Chaplain. 
 
 In early life in deep sympathy with an oppressed race, 
 he taught his father's slaves to read and write, and loved to 
 talk to them of Him, whom to know is life eternal. He was 
 regarded by them with the warmest afTection, and his letters 
 when far away, were read by them with streaming eyes, and 
 preserved as their most precious treasures. At the death of 
 his father, in 1841, he rejoiced that these attached family ser- 
 vants received, by will, their free papers. To the close of his 
 life he was a sincere friend to, and deeply interested in, the 
 the education and elevation of the freedmen. 
 
34 
 
 He loved the Westminster doctrine and polity and 
 preached the strongest Calvinistic tenets. Thoroughly loyal 
 to the Standards of the Church, his anxiety was great that 
 it should not be moved from its old foundation. 
 
 While the preaching of the Gospel took precedence over 
 all other work, he never lost sight of education. An associate 
 of scholars, he was deeply interested in colleges and other 
 educational institutions. In addition to his own literary so- 
 ciety at Washington and Lee, (the Graham-Lee), he was 
 elected an honorary member of the American Whig Society, 
 of Princeton College, of the Philomathaen Literary Society of 
 Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, Pa., and of the Diag- 
 nothian Literary Society of Franklin and Marshall College, 
 at Lancaster, Pa., and of the Washington Literary Society 
 of Lafayette College, for which colleges he had prepared 
 many students. 
 
 He was a man of refined literary taste, distinguished as 
 an educator, and "acknowledged as an authority in theology 
 and literature."* He was instrumental in training both the 
 mental and spiritual powers of many young men who have 
 since risen to distinction in the ministry, and other profes- 
 sions. He retained his scholarly tastes throughout life, de- 
 lighting in metaphysical research, with a taste and facility 
 for historical study, he was equally at home in the annals of 
 ecclesiastical record, and th^ latest scientific discoveries, 
 reading with delight the pages of Plato, and Sophacles, and 
 keeping up his daily readings of the Scriptures in the origin- 
 al languages. The Greek of the New Testament, by con- 
 stant study had become very familiar. To the last of his 
 reading, he daily perused one chapter each of Hebrew, and 
 of the Greek Testament. 
 
35 
 
 During his entire ministerial life, he was diligent in Bible 
 class and Sabbath bchool instruction, in revival work, when 
 he preached the Gospel, with simplicity and power, and loved 
 to guide the penitent to the cross of Christ, in pastoral visi- 
 tation, and until the close of his life, was a zealous advocate 
 of the missionary, and all other benevolent schemes of the 
 Church. 
 
 Possessing a mind fitted for accurate distinctions, and 
 logical discussions, he was positive in his convictions, ready 
 in debate, and warmly attached to the doctrine and govern- 
 ment of the Presbyterian Church. A Presbyterian by heritage 
 and conviction, he did not hesitate to express his strong in- 
 dignation against those who professed to be Presbyterians, 
 but were disloyal to the principles they professed. 
 
 He was a diligent attendant upon the meetings of Pres- 
 bytery and Synod, and fittingly represented his Presbytery 
 in the General Assemblies of 1834, 1847, 1864, the Reunion 
 Assembly at Pittsburg, in 1869, and the Assembly at Cleve- 
 land, Ohio, in 1875. 
 
 He was greatly beloved in his pastoral charges, where 
 his work was blessed in many precious ingatherings, and the 
 rich joy of the harvest experienced and he was much en- 
 couraged by young men in his several pastorates, devoting 
 themselves to the work of the Gospel ministry, and going 
 forth to proclaim the unsearchable riches of Christ. "A 
 striking personal appearance, dignified demeanor, fine voice 
 and careful preparation rendered his ministrations attractive, 
 and his labors successful."* His sermons were delivered 
 without manuscript, and were marked by fine literary taste, 
 clear, strong and convincing logic, purity of style, vigor of 
 thought, soundness of doctrine, and rich Christian experi- 
 
36 
 
 ence, combined with an impressive oratorical delivery. 
 
 He will be remembered as a beautiful type of a cultivated 
 Christian gentleman, and a minister wholly and unreservedly 
 consecrated to Christ. How far reaching the influence of this 
 life, of eighty-five years, of almost sixty years of faithful ser- 
 vice in the ministry, no one can pretend to measure, but who 
 can doubt that now his voice is still, in other years his work 
 will be continued, by those who sat under his teachings, and 
 have caught something of the impress of his spirit, of his 
 wisdom, piety, devotion to the truth, zeal for the honor of 
 God, and love for the souls of men. His rich personal ex- 
 perience was shown in a countenance radiant, with uncom- 
 mon spiritual joys, especially in his sermons and addresses 
 at the Lord's table, in his ministrations of love and sympathy 
 in the sick room, and in his family prayers which he con- 
 tinued until the day previous to his death. 
 
 Prayer was his "vital breath," "his native air." It was 
 "his watchword at the gates of death." He entered "heaven 
 with prayer." He had passed through many trials in life, 
 had followed many, who were dear to him, to the grave, 
 and was enfeebled by declining health, in his last years, and 
 much sufifering patiently borne, but his faith in God was 
 never shaken, and he ever turned upon his friends, the smil- 
 ing face, which in the days of his full health, had won so 
 many hearts to him, and which, combined with his rare 
 charms of mind and manner in social intercourse, had in- 
 woven with the web of his life many precious threads of 
 friendship and companionship spun by Northern and South- 
 ern hands. 
 
 It is seldom one is found so beautifully gentle! Age 
 had not embittered but sweetly mellowed him. He loved tht< 
 
37 
 
 Word of God, his faith was strong. He had frequently re- 
 marked, "It is only when we are willing to be used as instru- 
 ments in the Master's hands that our work is successful or 
 abiding." These words gathered peculiar force when his own 
 willingness to suffer and endure hardness was severely tested 
 — when life's lesson learned, he could then make his own the 
 language — "Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and 
 shall we not receive evil?" "Though He slay me, yet will I 
 trust in Him." Thus filled with the fruits of the Spirit, in the 
 full possession of his intellectual powers, he daily ripened 
 for the kingdom of Heaven, and continued to climb to a sub- 
 lime height of clear faith and trust, in God, until he was 
 done with the sorrows of earth and was "to drink forever- 
 more of the great river of the Water of Life." A believer 
 of whom it could be said he was "a garden of fruit trees," 
 and so was "useful," but he also had "spices," and so was 
 attractive. 
 
 Although in very frail health for six years, those who 
 loved him, and were constantly with him, saw with sorrow 
 that he was growing perceptibly weaker in the last year of 
 his Hfe. He frequently spoke of his approaching death, say- 
 ing: "Whether life or death it is all peace." "All the days of 
 my appointed time I will wait till my change come." On the 
 first day of January, 1890, he remarked, "God has mercifully 
 spared my life to see another 'happy New Year,' in all human 
 probability the last to me upon earth. I am in the hands of 
 a gracious and merciful Father, and His dealings with me 
 have ever been those of love, and I feel certain that the few 
 days that remain to me will overflow with His goodness and 
 mercy." His life was his preparation for death. His own 
 words were, "This life is the preparation for death. It matters 
 
38 
 
 very little when, where, or how we die, if we are prepared. 
 The only safety is in Christ. The precious blood of Christ 
 cleanseth us from all sin. He is my only trust." 
 
 A fellow worker with the wise and good, with Him who 
 made them what they were, having early begun to serve God 
 until the dose of life, he could still chant his "morning song." 
 
 He sweetly fell asleep at Wilhamsport, Pa., on Friday, 
 January 24, 1890, after a few days' illness of la grippe. His 
 death was the peaceful and triumphant close of a well spent 
 life, rejoicing in God, his Saviour. 
 
 At the commencement of his brief illness which he felt 
 from the first would be the last, his early days seemed 
 to pass before him in review. On the last day he sat 
 up, he referred to his licensure, the fifty-ninth anniversary 
 of which had passed, to his dislike to the text assigned him 
 by the Presbytery, Romans 9 : 3, describing the meeting at 
 Harrisonburg, Virginia, and recurring to the many loved 
 friends and relatives in attendance. Later on in his illness, 
 he related his last conversation with his "dear dying mother" 
 as she testified what, to her, would be the chief joy of Heaven. 
 With holy rapture, he recounted God's gracious dealings 
 with his own soul, and the goodness and mercy which had 
 followed him all the days of his life, refeiring to such pas- 
 sages of Scripture as the twenty-third, the one hundred and 
 third Psalms, and the eighth of Romans, as "precious, 
 precious, wonderful." 
 
 For the last time with failing strength, he united with 
 his sorrowing children, in a prayer, in language approaching 
 the sublime, in its confident faith and trust, as he committed 
 his loved ones to the care of a covenant-keeping God. His 
 last utterances were, "I feel that my powers are all failing." 
 
39 
 
 "My race is run." "How soon the dream of life is over." 
 "It is such a comfort to me to be here, with all my dear chil- 
 dren." "Jesus is my only trust." "There remaineth a rest, 
 to the people of God." Thus sustained and soothed by an 
 unfaltering trust, he entered upon the joy of his Lord, before 
 the Father's throne, welcomed to that heavenly joy by many, 
 who can ascribe their salvation under God to him. 
 
 "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end 
 of that man is peace." 
 
 "Calm on the bosom of thy God, 
 
 Fair spirit! rest thee now! 
 E'en while with us, thy footsteps trod, 
 
 His seal was on thy brow." 
 
 "Dust to its narrow house beneath! 
 
 Soul to its place on high! 
 They who have seen thy look in death. 
 
 No more may fear to die." 
 
Tun<ral Services, and Other Cestimonials of 
 Respect 
 
 The funeral services at which his brethren of the Pres- 
 bytery of Northumberland officiated, and other ministers of 
 the city were present, were held at his late residence at 
 Williamsport, Pa., on Tuesday afternoon, January 28. 1890, 
 and were very largely attended. 
 
 The services were conducted by the Rev. Adolos Allen, 
 then pastor of the Third Presbyterian church of Williams- 
 port, and were opened by the chanting of the twenty-third 
 Psalm by the choir of the Presbyterian church of the Cove- 
 nant. 
 
 Suitable selections of Scripture were read by Rev. J. B. 
 Kennedy, then of the First church, and addresses were de- 
 livered by Rev. D. J. Waller, Sr., D.D., of Bloomsburg ; Rev. 
 Joseph Stevens, D.D., of Jersey Shore, and Rev. C. B. Gil- 
 lette, of Elmira, N. Y. Dr. Waller opened his remarks with 
 words like these : "We have come, to pay the last tribute of 
 respect, to our brother in the Gospel. I thought on my way 
 here to-day that it was just fifty years since I first preached 
 for him in Williamsport, and that I am now coming to attend 
 his funeral at the same place. I was his successor at Blooms- 
 burg, in a congregation where I found his r.ame a household 
 word, loved and honored. 
 
 "Ours has been an unbroken friendship for fifty years. 
 During all these years, I cannot recall a single word or look 
 to mar the harmony of our intercourse. Even in the most 
 heated discussions in our ecclesiastical meetings, when he 
 was invariably on the side of right, nothing ever occurred to 
 disturb this fraternal feeling." 
 
Dr. Waller then paid a fitting tribute to his ripe scholar- 
 ship, and his long and useful ministry. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Stevens in his opening remarks, referred to his 
 intimacy of thirty-nine years with his deceased brother, and 
 spoke at length upon his character as a minister of the 
 Gospel, and his influence as a Presbyter, saying, "for many 
 years he examined all the candidates for the ministry in the 
 Presbytery. We all thought no one could do it as well as he." 
 He referred with much feeling to the pure Christian life of 
 the deceased, the blessedness of the rest upon which he had 
 entered, and the sure hope to his sorrowing children, "if 
 they live, as he lived, they will surely meet again." 
 
 Rev. Mr. Gillette spoke of the eminent abilities, the 
 faithful ministry and useful Christian life of his departed 
 brother, and very kindly alluded to his pleasant intercourse 
 with him, for some years when a member of the Presbytery 
 of Northumberland ; having been examined by him upon 
 entering the Presbytery. 
 
 Brief reminiscences were given by Rev. Adolos Allen 
 and Rev. James W. Boal, D.D.. then pastor of Newberry 
 Presbyterian church. 
 
 The following letter from Rev. Joseph Nesbitt, D.D.. of 
 Lock Haven, who was expected to take part in the funeral 
 services, was then read by Mr. Allen : 
 
 Lock Haven, January 2^, 1890. 
 Rev. Adolos Allen, 
 
 My Dear Brother:— I am recovering from an attack of la grippe. 
 I am still confined to the house. I very much regret that I shall 
 not be able to attend the funeral to-morrow.. When I became con- 
 nected with the Presbytery, twenty-nine years ago. Mr. Hudson was 
 a conspicuous member of it. He and a few others were looked up 
 to, as authorities, on Presbyterial usage, and ecclesiastical law. The 
 impression he made upon us, in the beginning has only deepened 
 
as the years roll by. He was a ripe scholar, a systematic thinker, 
 an established believer. He had clear and comprehensive views of 
 the truth revealed in the Scriptures, and this truth he expounded 
 and applied with zeal and fidelity and diligence. He preached as 
 hebelieved and felt, and lived and worshipped as he preached, and 
 now at the end of a long, faithful ministry, has entered upon his 
 reward. 
 
 Having fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the 
 faith, there is laid up for him, the crown or righteousness, which 
 God the righteous Judge shall give to all them that love his ap- 
 pearing. While his family has the fullest reason for consolation, in 
 his life of faith upon the Son of God, they may be assured at the 
 same time, of the cordial sympathy of his brethren in the ministry, 
 and of all his Christian friends. 
 
 With kindest regards, 
 
 J. Nesbit. 
 
 The hymn, "How blest the righteous when he dies," was 
 then sung by the choir. The closing prayer was offered by 
 Mr. Allen, and the benediction pronounced by Dr. Waller. 
 
 It was a funeral service which bore the thoughts to the 
 verge of Heaven, the light of the resurrection, and of im- 
 mortality, dispelling the gloomy shades of death, and shed- 
 ding a halo of light upon the grave. 
 
 On Wednesday morning, after a few selections were 
 read from the Manual, used by Mr. Hudson on funeral oc- 
 casions, and prayer offered by Rev. Mr. Kennedy, the re- 
 mains were taken for interment to McEwensville, amid the 
 scenes of an early pastorate, where the funeral cortege was 
 met by many friends and former parishioners. The services 
 at the grave were conducted by Rev. Dr. Boal, assisted by 
 the Rev. G. L. Van Alen, then pastor of the Watsontown 
 Presbyterian church, and in the brilliant sunlight of a Janu- 
 ary afternoon, this "new treasure" was left to slumber in the 
 silent dust, by the side of his deceased wife, in the Presby- 
 terian Cemetery at McEwensville, which contains the 
 
43 
 
 "sacred relics" of the Revs. John and Robert Bryson. 
 
 "They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as 
 the stars forever and ever." 
 
 The surviving children of Mr. Hudson are three 
 daughters and one son. His wife, two sons and a daughter 
 had preceded him to the spirit-world. 
 
 Mrs. Hetty Bryson Hudson died at Williamsport, Feb- 
 ruary 25, 1876. She was born at her father's residence, near 
 Warrior Run church, Northumberland County, Pa. Her 
 father, the Rev. John Bryson, for more than fifty years was 
 the beloved pastor of the congregations of Warrior Run, and 
 Chillisquaque. Her education was commenced under her 
 father's guidance, who taught her to read Latin with her 
 brother, Robert, and completed at the old Milton Academy, 
 under Rev. Dr. David Kirkpatrick, and at Mrs. Plumm's 
 Young Ladies' Seminary, at Northumberland. 
 
 At the age of sixteen years she united with the Warrior 
 Run church, then under the pastoral care of her father. 
 
 She was a woman of marked strength of character, 
 lovely as a wife, mother, friend, "zealous of good works, 
 serving the Lord with all humility and readiness of mind, and 
 possessing much of the gentleness and meekness of Christ." 
 After a brief but severe illness, "with praise on her lips, and 
 praise in her heart," she went to join "the spirits of the 
 just made perfect, and the great assembly of the redeemed, 
 who praise God forevermore." 
 
 Hon. Robert M. Hudson, the only brother of Mr. Hud- 
 son, died at Fincastle, Virginia, April 19, 1869, at the age 
 of fifty-seven years. 
 
 He was prepared for college at the Staunton Academy, 
 and was graduated with the classical honors, at Washington 
 
and Lee University in the class of 1828. He then passed 
 through the two years' course of Judge Baldwin's Law 
 School at Staunton, and was admitted to the bar of Staunton. 
 
 He entered upon the practice of the law in Staunton, 
 but shortly after removed to Fincastle, Virginia. He was 
 elected a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, and in 
 1853 was appointed Judge of the Circuit (Superior) Court of 
 Virginia, which office he held until his death. He united with 
 the Bethel church at an early age, under the ministry of Dr. 
 Francis McFarland, and uniformly sustained the character of 
 a faithful, devoted Christian. 
 
 Judge Hudson was an accomplished scholar, and was 
 distinguished for his eminent legal and judicial abilities. 
 
 Mr. Hudson wrote to his son, at Lafayette College, 
 Easton, Pa. : 
 
 Howard, Pa., May 13, 1869. 
 
 My Dear Sm: — I have received by letter, from my niece, Mary 
 F. Williams, formerly Mary F. Hudson, the sad intelligence of the 
 recent death of my only brother, Robert M. Hudson. His health, 
 she informs me, was delicate during the winter, but he rallied to- 
 wards spring, travelled to Richmond and Washington City and was 
 present at the inauguration of President Grant. On his return home, 
 he seemed gradually to decline until he passed away in great peace, 
 and the assured hope of a crown of life. His family are thus be- 
 reaved of a tender and affectionate husband and parent. I call up 
 in sad remembrance, the pleasant bright eyed boy, learning his 
 Latin lessons, with my assistance, while seated on my knee, and then 
 the honest pride and pure delight, v,'ith which I witnessed his rapid 
 progress in the Grammar school and college closing with the diploma 
 and first honors of his Alma Mater. Afterward his career was 
 brilliant — rising as he did to the first rank of a practitioner at the 
 bar, in the highest courts of his native State, and then appointed 
 Judge of the Superior Court of Law and Chancery in which position 
 he maintained an unblemished reputation. 
 
 The ties that united us were both strong and tender. I felt 
 for him in a degree, the affection of a father, being so much older 
 
than he, while he was my daily companion for long years, my con- 
 stant room-mate, my only brother. I humbly hope that ere long, 
 we will be united in our Father's house forever, in purer friend- 
 ship, and holier ties, than are found and felt on earth. 
 Your afTectionate father, 
 
 John P. Hudson. 
 
 He married Miss Eliza Ross, of Botetourt, who sur- 
 vived him, with two sons and two daughters. A daughter 
 writes, "I feel that our parents have left us a priceless in- 
 heritance in their example of pure and holy Christian lives." 
 
 The tributes of esteem from Mr. Hudson's brethren in 
 the ministry and friends in this and his native State, the pub- 
 lished notices of his death in the Virginia papers, especially 
 the Staunton Spectator, and the Central Presbyterian, of 
 Richmond, were warm and significant. A few of these testi- 
 monials are here appended : 
 
 The following from Rev. James Carter, pastor of the 
 Second Presbyterian church, now the Church of the Cove- 
 nant, explains his absence at the funeral of Mr. Hudson. 
 "Believe me, that I sorrow with you sincerely in this sudden 
 and supreme loss, and it is the deeper regret that 1 am 
 not well enough to be with you in these days when your 
 hearts are so heavy. I had hoped to express, by my presence 
 this afternoon, the esteem and veneration which I have to- 
 ward a faithful minister of Jesus Christ, who had so kindly 
 welcomed me to my work here. It is not without a deep 
 sense of personal loss that I write to you. The loss of so 
 kindly a spirit as your father is that which words may not 
 easily express. May the God of your father be with you all 
 and comfort you all this day." 
 
 The Rev. Stuart Mitchell, D.D., of Mount Carmel, 
 writes: "You will have great comiort in the thought of the 
 
46 
 
 long and useful service your father has rendered, and the 
 assurance that he is more than a conqueror, through Him 
 who loved us. May the Lord help you and your sisters and 
 brother, to keep the consolations of the Gospel before your 
 minds until faith is lost in sight, and this temporary separa- 
 tion is forgotten in his company in the everlasting habita- 
 tions." 
 
 The Rev. R. L. Stewart, D.D., of the Mahoning church, 
 Danville, now of Lincoln University: "To this beloved 
 brother God has given many years of usefulness and honor, 
 and while we mourn his loss, we know that death was to him 
 the gateway of life eternal." 
 
 Rev. A. T. Young, of Cleveland, Ohio: "I can readily 
 conceive the break made, in your family circle, by this event 
 to you all, most painful, 'not joyous but grievous.' Yet be 
 assured that it has placed you all within the pale of our 
 Heavenly Father's most precious promises. My fraternal 
 intercourse with your father was most happy, and is recorded 
 among my most pleasing recollections ; his ripeness, both in 
 scholarship and ministerial experience always bringing me 
 profit. Allow me, therefore, to place myself and Mrs. Young 
 among the bereaved ones 'who on earth shall see his face 
 no more.' I have no doubt the event we all deplore will 
 bring us, in both spirit and desire, nearer the 'rest' that re- 
 maineth 'to the people of God,' nor will we grudge the dear 
 departed one the holy joys upon which he has entered. Be 
 assured of our hearty sympathy with you all in your sorrow, 
 with the earnest hope that the 'peaceable fruits of righteous- 
 ness' may be abundantly reaped.' " 
 
 Dear friends to whom Mr. Hudson was tenderly at- 
 tached, write : 
 
47 
 
 "You know how we all loved your dear father, a talk 
 with him always refreshed me, mentally and spiritually. I 
 will not try to write words of comfort to you, my dear sor- 
 rowing friends, in your sore bereavement, but I would love 
 to put my arms about you, and weep with you and then I 
 can talk to the loving Father about you all." 
 
 "Your dear father's death was the triumphant close of a 
 true and beautiful life 
 
 "He has entered into the 'rest' that remaineth 'to the 
 people of God.' He now knows in fuller measure, than here, 
 that peace and blessedness, that passeth understanding. We 
 do believe that to the Christian — 
 
 "There is no Death! what seems so is transition, 
 
 This life of mortal breath 
 Is but a suburb of the life elysian, 
 
 Whose portal we call Death." 
 
 "What is far more comforting than these words, are 
 the Words of God. He that 'liveth and believeth in me shall 
 never die.' I have often thought of the words of one of the 
 clergymen at your dear mother's funeral, that instead of 
 weeping on such an occasion, we should walk around the 
 casket saying, 'Thanks be unto God, who giveth us the vic- 
 tory through our Lord Jesus Christ.'" 
 
 The Presbytery of Northumberland, of which Mr. Hud- 
 son had been a member for fifty-two years, adopted the fol- 
 lowing resolutions, at Renova, on April 22, 1890: "Since 
 our last meeting, the senior member of this Presbytery, the 
 Rev. John P. Hudson, has passed from the Church on earth 
 to the Church of the First Born in Heaven. He died peace- 
 fully in the bosom of his family at Williamsport, on January 
 24, of the present year. A memorial of his life and labors is 
 
in the hands of the Clerk of Presbytery. We are thus re- 
 minded of our own mortality. We tender to the bereaved 
 family our deep sympathy and commend them to the kind 
 care of the Father of the orphan. 
 
 "D. J. Waller, Sr., Chairman of Committee." 
 He was the last survivor of eight ministers, who had 
 been fellow students at Princeton Seminary, and who en- 
 tered the Presbytery about the same time. The others were 
 Rev. Robert Dunlap, Rev. W. S. Stone, Rev. Isaac Grier, 
 D.D., Rev. David Hull, Rev. Robert Bryson, Rev. S. S. Shed- 
 dan, D.D., and Rev. P. B. Marr. 
 
Rev. N. Grier White to Miss Louise Hudson: 
 
 New Haven, Pa., July 28, 1891. 
 
 Dear Friend: — I first became acquainted with your beloved and 
 excellent father, the Rev. John P. Hudson, at the Theological Semin- 
 ary at Princeton, during the Fall of 1830, when a very pleasant bond 
 of- acquaintance and friendship was formed which lasted for nearly 
 sixty years. He had entered the Seminary one year befoie I did — 
 both of us having taken "the full course" we were associated as 
 fellow students and classmates, for two full years. 
 
 While in the Seminary, we all knew him as a modest, retiring 
 and unassuming brother, who tunlike many others) greatly im- 
 proved in our respect and love upon further acquaintance. In the 
 class room, however, he early and deservedly secured our reipect 
 and admiration, for his talents and scholarly acquirements, which 
 were plainlv superi'r to those of a majority of his f.elIow students. 
 But, better still, was the fact that his daily walk and conversation 
 convinced us all that he was eminently a pious and godly man. im- 
 bued with the Spirit of the Divine Master. 
 
 After leaving the Seminary, our respective fields of labor were 
 not geographically so very far apart, yet for several reasons we did 
 not see each others' faces for a number of years. When, however, 
 we became members of the same Synod, we were frequently thrown 
 into each others' company. It was the uniform testimony of all 
 those, whose privilege it was to hear him preach the Gospel, and 
 who heard him with pleasure and profit that he was "a workman that 
 needeth not to be ashamed, rightly divioing the Word of God." 
 
 The last time that I met your beloved, and now sainted, father 
 was in his own happy home in Williamsport, and during the ses- 
 sions of the Synod. It was then and there, that I partook of, and 
 enjoyed the kind hospitality of himself and family, in their Christian 
 home. We talked of our mutual joys and sorrows, of our labors 
 and burdens, and the very recounting of our former experiences 
 seemed to strengthen and cement the bonds of Christian love and 
 fellowship formed a half a century before. I am thankful that your 
 father lived to see in his own family, the fulfilment of that precious 
 promise, "I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee." 
 For I am persuaded that he would heartily join the beloved Apostle 
 in saying— "I have no greater joy than in seeing my children walk- 
 ing in the truth." Happy father of such a household and blessed 
 children of such a parent. 
 
 My kind regards to the family of my departed friend and brother. 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 N Grier White. 
 
so 
 
 Rev. Horatio W. Brown to M. Louise Hudson: 
 
 WoosTER, Ohio, August 25, 1891 
 
 My Dear Friend: — One of the most valuable testimonies to your 
 dear, and now sainted father's worth, is that he has inspired those 
 of his own house with so deep a reverence for his character and life, 
 that everything relating to him is sacred to you. I can understand 
 too, how your father has so large a place in your thoughts and af- 
 fections by reason of his very genial, ardent nature. It was evident 
 to any acquaintance that with him family life was most delight- 
 ful. Indeed! I do not recall any one who seemed to have greater 
 joy in little children than he had. I remember when he would come 
 to see us, how eagerly he would inquire after the babes of the house, 
 and what a fond interest he took in them. Such love for children 
 kept his heart young even to the end. 
 
 There was much about Mr. Hudson that impressed me, thus 
 he was a fine type of a Christian gentleman. Hailing from Virginia 
 —home of so many good and noble men, there was in his bearing 
 a certain quiet dignity and stateliness of manner, which told plainly 
 of an early training such as the old Dominion was wont to give 
 her favored sons. 
 
 And when in conversation the days long back were touched upon, 
 it was with an enthusiasm which showed at once how pleasing the 
 topic was. 
 
 But it is especially as a Christian and as a minister that your 
 father will be remembered. And on this point very much might be 
 said, and yet how little need to do it, for his life and work speak for 
 him. Few men in the Church have labored so long. And it is a 
 cheering thought that his influence will go down from generation to 
 generation, with ever increasing blessing. 
 
 He was well versed in theology and in Presbyterian polity. But 
 happily now his knowledge needs no accession of earthly helps. 
 Here "we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now 
 we know in part, but then we shall know, even as also we are known." 
 To this joyful day of eternal light, he often looked forward with in- 
 tense longing. In God's own time, may we follow him into the 
 same blissful presence. 
 
 With alTectionate regards to you all, 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Horatio W. Brown. 
 
Rev. James Clark, D.D., of Philadelphia, writes August 
 28, 1891 : 
 
 "It will aflford me much pleasure to add my tribute to the memory 
 of your dear and now sainted father." Dr. Clark's ill health and 
 death shortly after prevented. A warm and ardent friendship was 
 formed when students at Princeton Seminary which continued 
 through the years, when they were associated as pastor of n'jigh- 
 bouring congregations (Dr. Clark being the beloved pastor of Lew- 
 isburg Church). This friendship of almost sixty years was broken 
 only by death. They parted on earth to meet in the same holy 
 presence on the other side. 
 
 He rests from his labors, and his works do follow him 
 into the world of light and love, where he has gone to dwell 
 with Christ forevermore. 
 
 In his own words, written in 1858, on "The Eternal 
 Reward to the Faithful Minister of the Gospel," he now 
 "is rejoicing in tlie holy residence of the redeemed in that 
 circle infinite, sublime" — 
 
 "That sing, and singing in their glory move." 
 God's sovereign grace adding pathos to his joy in the realms 
 of glory, while he unites with the full choir in raising the 
 anthems to Him who loved him. 
 
 He has heard that voice sweeter than the music of angels 
 sounding in his ravished ears, "Well done, good and faithful 
 servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." He has ex- 
 changed the helmet of hope for the glory crown— the sword 
 for the palm. He has taken his place among the conquerors 
 by the Cross. It was his privilege as a faithful minister of 
 Christ to gather fruit into eternal life and having operated 
 on mind — cultivated spirit — sown immortal seed in immortal 
 soil— he reaps at last of an evergrowing harvest and plucks 
 fruit, over which time and change have no influence. 
 
52 
 
 How divine the delight of finding himself in the presence 
 of the great Master — receiving his approbation — entering 
 into his joy — rejoicing with Him in the welfare of sanctified 
 spiritual beings — in the attainment of which He allowed him 
 the honor to participate." 
 
 "Servant of God wel! done! 
 
 Rest from thy loved employ! 
 The battle fought, the victory won, 
 
 Enter thy Master's joy. 
 
 Soldier of Christ, well done! 
 
 Praise be thy new employ, 
 And while eternal ages run, 
 
 Rest in thy Saviour's joy." 
 
 Of the seven children of the Rev. John P. Hudson, the 
 eldest son died in infancy. The first break was made in the 
 little family circle, when Augusta Virginia, a blue-eyed darl- 
 ing, her head sunny with golden curls, was taken to the 
 gardens of the Lord, leaving her fond parents to grieve over 
 the sad change in the home life caused by the loss of this 
 lovely little girl. 
 
 "How many hopes were borne upon thy bier, 
 O child of stricken love !" 
 
 At the age of twenty-three years, Robert Paris Hudson, 
 gifted to a wonderful degree, with powers both intellectual 
 and moral, was called to rest. 
 
 He devoted hitnself to study at a very early age, and 
 was well prepared by his father for entering the junior class 
 in college, when his health failed. "Wearing the white 
 flower of a blameless life," he took a front rank in his classi- 
 
53 
 
 cal and all other studies. A handsome personal appearance, 
 commanding figure, and fine voice, combined with eminent 
 scholarship, seemed a fair prospect to fit him for a life of 
 usefulness. The fond hopes of parents and friends were 
 blasted by the early death of one so amiable, so truthful, so 
 talented, but they were not left to sorrow as others who 
 have no hope. 
 
Uirflinia Paris l^udson 
 
 Entered into rest at her home, in Williamsport, Penna., 
 on January 15, 1904, Virginia Paris, youngest daughter 
 of the Rev. John Paris and Hettie Bryson Hudson, and 
 youngest grandchild of the Rev. John Bryson. 
 
 She was born at Turbutville, during her father's pastor- 
 ate of the McEwensville Church. "Little Pet" will be af- 
 fectionately remembered in the later pastorates of her father. 
 The characteristics of English, Huguenot and Scotch-Irish 
 ancestry, uniting formed in her a rare and beautiful character. 
 Delighting in music and poetry, and in the study of classic 
 and elegant literature, hers was a life of intellectual and 
 artistic pursuits. Self-sacrificing and loving, she was never 
 so happy as when doing for others. In the home circle of 
 •which she was the joy and pride, her beautiful qualities shone 
 brightest. Reared in the benign influences of a minister's 
 home, she received a careful religious training and very early 
 in life she gave her heart to Christ. 
 
 Positive in character, and a Presbyterian by heredity 
 and conviction, she loved the house of God, and was deeply 
 interested in the missionary and all other benevolent agen- 
 cies of the Church. She dwelt during all the years of her 
 Christian life, far away from the damps that arise about 
 Doubting Castle and near the Beulah land, where the sun- 
 light ever falls. 
 
 In her last illness, she was ever looking with strong 
 faith to the hills from whence came her help, and longing 
 for the Master's call to enter the mansion prepared for her 
 in her Father's house. The same gentle, lovely spirit which 
 
55 
 
 marked her character in life shone with increased lustre in 
 her last moments, until she saw her Pilot face to face, when 
 she had crossed the bar, and He steered her through the 
 troubled waters to the glorious world beyond. 
 
 "He giveth his beloved sleep." 
 
 The last surviving children are Mary J. Hudson, M. 
 Louise Hudson and John Bryson Hudson, all of Williams- 
 port, now Watsontown, Pennsylvania.