m. mm m-: w^ ^i(^'M m MMM m mm ?h-M iWhvi^ 'M m. ^i^i\ mm w^ mm m im 4;^!v)i!-'»;t;i Bm: mm m^ i<,]i;^m-M W !m intijeCttpofiSfttigork THE LIBRARIES ^Ci:^ / > oAycfi-oA^-^^ / ^. /tL MEMOIR JAMES PETIGRU BOYCE. 'f /?^.^^2^^g>^ -/7'-- 7 MEMOIR OF JAMES PETIGRU BOYCE, D.D., LLD, LATE PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY LOUISVILLE, KY. BY JOHN A. BROADUS A. C. ARMSTEONG AND SON LOUISVILLE, KY. BAPTIST BOOK CONCERN Third and Jefferson Sr. 1893 Copyright, 1893, By John A. Bkoadus. John Wilson and Son, Cambkidge. U. ^ / 4- TO MRS. BOYCE AND HER DAUGHTERS, WITH MANY PRECIOUS MEMORIES IN COMMON, AND HEARTY PERSONAL FRIENDSHIP. J. A. B. PREFACE. This Memoir has been prepared by request of the family, and through strong impulses of personal affec- tion ; for we were of the same age, and had worked side by side for thirty years. But in depicting a char- acter so elevated and sincere, one feels obliged to restrain the natural tendency to eulogium. I have especially tried to represent the environment and development of Dr. Boyce's early life in Charles- ton, at Brown University, and at Princeton Theological Seminary, and to bring out his labors as editor in Charleston, pastor in Columbia, and professor in Fur- man University. The part which he took in the war, and in South Carolina politics, is not overlooked. As his recognized life-work was the foundation and establishment of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, a biography of him could hardly fail to comprise a history of that institution. But this is for the most part thrown into distinct chapters, which some readers can pass over if they like. For the his- torical sketch of the institution I have carefully used printed and manuscript records, besides recollections which go back almost to the beginning of the move- ment. If any persons interested in theological educa- viii PREFACE. tioii wish really to understand the peculiar plan and operations of this Seminary, they will find a brief chapter of explanation. The account of Dr. Boyce's ancestry and early life is most of all indebted to Dr. H. A. Tupper, who was his friend from boyhood and married his sister, and who has written copious memoranda and furnished a long series of letters, carefully arranged, from which I drew many facts and impressions, besides the extracts given. Valuable assistance was also afforded by Dr. Boyce's sister, Mrs. Burckmyer, and by William G. Whilden, Esq., Judge B. C. Pressley, and numerous other friends, to whom indebtedness will be found acknowledged at one point or another. The Misses Boyce have carefully selected from their father's let- ter-books all such as they thought likely to be helpful, and have written notes of his later journeys which they shared, and also personal recollections of his home life and traits of character, which are freely used in the closing chapters. I heartily thank many former students and others who have furnished material for this labor of love. J. A. B. Louisville, Ky., A2:)nl 15, 1893. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. BIRTH AND ANCESTRY. The Scotch-Irish. — The 'Boyce Name and Family. — The Grandfather's Services and Adventures during the Revolutionary War. — The Father, Ker Boyce, settles in Charleston as a Cotton-Factor. — Weathering a Financial Storm. — James Boyce's Mother. — Her Conversion, during a Sermon by Basil Manly, Sr, Pages 1-9. CHAPTER II. THE CITY OF CHARLESTON. Beautiful Bay, Islands, and Rivers. — The Rich Planters of "Sea Island " Cotton. — The Carolina Aristocracy. — Story of Dr. Jeter. — Population of Charleston at Different Periods. Pages 10-13. CHAPTER ni. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. The Namesake, James L. Petigru. — The "Little Guarasman" at Church. — Sketch of the Pastor, Basil Manly, Sr. —James's Early Fondness for Books. — His Archery Club and Debating Society. — His Mother's Early Death. — The Lesson she once gave him in Truthfulness. — His Boyish Care of the Younger Children, and how they regarded him. — Six Months in a Dry-Goods Store. — CONTENTS. Reading the Works of Gilmore Simms. — At Professor Bailey's School, and at the High School with Dr. Brims. — Tinirod and Hayne. — H. H. Tucker his Sunday-School Teacher, and after- wards Judge Piessley. — Hearing Dr. Thornwell. — At the Charleston College under Dr. Brantly. — Tribute of his Fellow- Student, F. T. Miles. — Sketch of Dr. Brantly, the Pastor and President. — Business and Political Activity of Mr. Ker Boyce. Pages 14-32. CHAPTER ly. AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. Early Interest of South Carolina Baptists in Brown University, — Sketch of President Wayland, whom James Boyce resembled in Impor- tant Respects. — Dr. AVayland's Controversy with Dr. R. Fuller on Slavery. — Professors Caswell, Gammell, Lincoln, and J. R. Boise. — Various Fellow-Students who became famous. — Visit of Adoni- ram Judson. — Letters of Boyce to H. A. Tupper. — Tributes to him by J. R. Boise and J. H. Luther. — His Conversion, through the Influence of Fellow-Students at Brown, and the Preaching of Dr. R. Fuller in Charleston. — His Zeal on returning to College, and Important Revival there. — His Studies. — Lively Letter to a Charleston Lady. — Continued Religious Labors. — Letters. — Determination to become a Minister. — Disappointment of his Father and some others. — Graduated and licensed to preach. Pages 33-54. CHAPTER V. MARRIAGE AND EDITORIAL WORK. How he became acquainted at "Washington, Ga. — The Ficklen Family. — The Village, its Schools and Society. — Quickly enamoured, and long persevering. — How prevented from studying Theology at Hamilton. — Marriage. — Editor of "The Southern Baptist" in Charleston. — Characteristics and Success in that Capacity. — Much in Company with Dr. A. M. Poindexter. Pages 55-ti6. CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER VI. AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 1849-1851. Archibald Alexander and his Famous Sons, James and Addison. — Dr. Charles Hodge. — Fellow-Students, Presbyterian and Baptist. — Very laborious, his Wife aiding by copying Notes. — Preaching often at the Penn's Neck Baptist Church, near Princeton. — The Karlie-st Sermon that remains. — A Vacation with the Ficklens in Virginia, preaching every Sunday. — Letters to Mr. Tupper, now his Brother- in-law. — Plans on leaving Princeton . . . Pages 67-8'6. CHAPTER VII. PASTOR AT COLUMBIA, S. C, 1851-1855. The City, its Surroundings and Beautiful Homes. — Capitol, South Carolina College, Presbyterian Theological Seminary. — The Baptist Church in Columbia, and his Ministerial Labors. — Getting a Strong Hold upon the Colored People. — Setting up a Home. — His Father's Death there. — Closing Estimates of Mr. Ker Boyce. — The Young Minister left as Active Executor. — At the Southern Baptist Convention in 1855 Pages 84-99. CHAPTER VIII. PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN FURMAN UNIVERSITY. History of the Furman Institution from 1827, and its Eemoval to Green- ville in 1851, as Furman University. — Boyce elected to its Theological Department in 1855. — Sketches of President Furman and Professors Judson, Edwards, and others. — Boyce's Anxiety to have another Theological Professor. — His Faithful Labors. — Sermon on the Death of Senator A. P. Butler . Pages 100-110. Xli CO^'TENTS. CHAPTER IX, FOUNDATION OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. Almost every Baptist College began with a Theological Department. — Young Basil Manly and others going to Newton, in Massachusetts. — SejAration of Northern and Southern Baptists, in 1845. — Idea of a Common Theological School for all Southern Baptists.— Various Consultations, at Augusta 1845, Nashville and Charleston 1849, in Virginia 1854 ; in Educational Conventions, at Montgomery 1855, Augusta 1856. — James P. Boyce's Address in 1856 at Furman University on "Three Changes in Theological Institutions." — Copious Extracts from this Epoch-Making Address. — His Views compared with those of President "Wayland, Three Years before, in " The Apostolic Ministry." — Proposition of the South Carolina Baptists accepted by an Educational Convention in Louisville, 1857. — Professor Boyce at work as Agent in South Carolina. — Final Convention at Greenville, 1858, organizing the Seminary. — Opening delayed a Year Pages 111-154. CHAPTER X. THE seminary's PLAN OF INSTRUCTION. Its Aim to give Tlieological Instruction to ]\Ien in every Grade of General Education. — How could these work together ? — System of Independent "Schools," like the University of Virginia. — Every ]\Ian's Studies completely elective. — List of the Seminary's Schools, or Departments. — Great Stress laid upon the Study of the English Scriptures. — Remarkable Experiences in that Direction. — How the Plan has worked, with even Unexpected Good Results. — Peculiar- ities as to Graduation. — New Degrees recently introduced, and New Titles. — Wide Range of Special Studies. Pages 155-165. CONTENTS. ■ xiii CHAPTER XL THE seminary's THREE FIRST SESSIONS, 1859-1862. The Town of Greenville and its Environs. — The Four Professors. — Some of the First Students. — Opening full of Encouragement. — Dr. Boyce's Country Pastorate. — His Kindness to the Students. — Dedicating the New Church at Columbia. — Second Session dis- turbed by the Great Political Excitement. — Visiting Fort Sumter after its Capture by South Carolina Troops. — Thii-d Session greatly hindered by the War. — Dr. Boyce's Correct Forecast as to Duration of the War. — His Diligence in Study amid so many Interruptions. Pages 166-182. CHAPTER XII. DR. boyce's part IN THE WAR. Opposed to Secession, but went with his State. — Fearing a Long and Bloody War. — Prospect of Heavy Financial Losses. — Chaplain in Confederate Army. — Member of the South Carolina Legislature. — Important Bill and Speech as to helping the Confederate Finances. — Extracts from the Speech. — Aide-de-Camp to the Governor. — His House at Greenville plundered by Union Soldiers, Pages 183-197. CHAPTER XIIL FIRST SIX years AT GREENVILLE AFTER THE WAR, 1865-1871. The Seminary reopened, with very Few Students, and Ruined Finances.-- Working for the Future. — Dr. Boyce's Personal Losses and Embar- rassments, and Great Exertions to collect Support for the Seminary. — Salaries once a Whole Year in Arrears, amid the High Prices, — Southern Interest in Higher Education, and Real Generosity of many.— Boyce refusing Offers of Large Salary. — Number of Stu- XIV • CONTENTS. dents slowly increasing. — Finances improving, and (1869) a Fifth Professor appointed, C. H, Toy. — Dr. Boyce's Sermon at the Funeral of Dr. Basil Manly, Sr. — Extracts. — Professor B. Manly, Jr., goes to be President of Georgetown College, Ky. Pages 198-217. CHAPTER XIV. SERIES OF EFFORTS TO REMOVE THE SEMINARY. What had become of the Original Subscribed Endowment. — Necessity for Removal slowly recognized. — Various Suggestions and Proposi- tions, from 1869 onward. — Offer to make Boyce President of Brown University. — Decision in 1872 to remove the Seminary to Louis- ville. — Professor W. H. Whitsitt elected in 1872. —Dr. Boyce yields the Chair of Systematic Theology to Dr. Williams. — Elected President of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1872-1879. — Removes his Family to Louisville, 1872. — Letters to J. 0. R. Dargan and Mrs. Butler. — Grave Difficulties encountered at Louisville, and Opposition of some Excellent Men. — Financial Collapse of 1873. — Boyce's Great Speech before a Meeting in Louis- ville, and another before the Southern Baptist Convention in 1873. — Remarkable Contributions in Texas, and at the Baptist Anniver- saries in AVashington City. — Tour of Kentucky. — Long Series of Efforts to secure Endowment in Kentucky and elsewhere. — Preach- ing much in Louisville. — Work of the Seminary at Greenville. — Failing Health of Dr. Williams, and his Death. — Sketch, and Tribute by Dr. Curry. — Removal of the Seminary to Louisville in 1877 Pages 218-250. CHAPTER XV. TEN BUSY YEARS IN THE SEMINARY AT LOUISVILLE, 1877-1887. Extracts from Dr. Boyce's Opening Lecture on History of the Seminary. — Professors cordially received in Louisville. — Dr. Boyce again teaching Theology. — Number of Students nmch increased. — Resignation of Dr. Toy (1879), and Return of Dr. Manly. — Dr. CONTENTS. XV Boyce's Work as a Teacher. — His Method of Instruction in The- ology. — His Jjove of Turrettin, and Chiss in *' Latin Theology." — His Teaching in Church Government, Pastoral Duties, and Parlia- mentary Practice. — His New Studies in Various Directions. — Seminary's Financial Condition unsatisfactory, and Boyce's Labors and Journeys. — The Institution saved by a Single Gift, in Answer to Prayer, with Further Gi^ts in Louisville and New York. — More Students. — Assistant-Professor G. W. Riggan. — Need of Ground and Buildings. — New York Hall. — Death of Riggan. — Assistant- Professors J. R. Sampey and A. T. Robertson. — Letters of Boyce to his Sister and others, to M. T. Yates and other Missionaries. Pages 251-303. CHAPTER XVI. PUBLISHED AND UNPUBLISHED WRITINGS. Brief Catechism of Bible Doctrine. — Abstract of Theology. — History of its Production. — Adapted to his Method of Class Instruction, but very useful also to Working Preachers. — Highly Favorable Notices in the " Standard " and the "Independent." — Mention of Various Sermons, Lectures, and Essays, which ought to be published Pages 304-313. CHAPTER XVII. DECLINING YEARS AND DEATH. Occasional Attacks since 1871. — Overwork. — Co-Professor F. H. Kerfoot in 1887. — Various Letters, one to William E. Dodge, of New York. — Journey with Family to California and Alaska. — Notes of Miss Boyce. — Assault on Dr. Manly, impairing his Health. — Dr. Boyce once more presiding in Southern Baptist Convention, 1888. — Voyage with Family to Europe. — Letters. — Miss Boyce's Notes of their Travels in England and Scotland. — Very ill in London. — Death of two Sisters. — Letters. — Sojourn in Paris, with Failing Strength. — Death at Pau, in the South of France, Dec. 28, 1888. — Funeral from Broadway Church, Louis- ville. — Memorial Meetings Pages 314-344. XVI CONTENTS. CHAPTEE XVIII. GENERAL ESTIMATES OF CHARACTER. Various Qualities stated, with Numerous Extracts from Memorial and Funeral Addresses, from Letters of Students and other Friends, and from Miss Boyce's Notes Pages 345-371 MEMOIR JAMES PETIGRU BOYCE. CHAPTER I. BIRTH AND ANCESTRY. JAMES PETIGRU BOYCE was born in Charleston, South Carolina, January 11, 1827. His father, Ker Boyce, had removed ten years before from Kewberry Dis- trict.^ This large district, or county, lies in the fine central region of South Carolina, which is rolling and healthful, and near enough to navigable streams to have been earlier developed than the upper portions of the State, towards the Blue Ridge. An enthusiastic old citizen is reported to have said: '^ South Carolina is the garden spot of the world, and Newberry District is the garden spot of South Carolina.'' While the early settlers of South Carolina were chiefly English, there were two other considerable elements, which have always been highly influential in the business, politics, and society of the State, — the Huguenots and the Scotch-Irish. These last are a people who have made 1 The terra "district" was always used in South Carolina until the Reconstruction legislation of 1866 changed it to "county." The dis- tricts near the coast were subdivided into parishes, some of which had separate representation in the State Legislature. 1 3 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. themselves felt in all parts of the world. They went from Scotland centuries ago to the adjacent portions of Ireland, and have continued to occupy all the northeastern part of that island, having Belfast and Londonderry as their chief cities, and keeping themselv^es mainl}' distinct from the properly Irish population. They followed the example of their kinsmen in Scotland in becoming Protestant and Presbyterian, and they now constitute an important factor in the possibilities and the difficulties of Home Rule in Ireland. The father of Ker Bo3^ce was John Boj'ce, who was born in Ireland. The family name is still common in northeastern Ireland and in various parts of the United States.-^ John Boyce removed to the British colonies of 1 Prof. James R. Boise, formerly of Brown University, and now Emeritus Professor in the Divinity School of Chicago University, in a letter of February, 1889 (after James P. Boyce's death), from whi(;li we shall hereafter quote further, says, "I had correspondence with him a few years ago respecting the various forms of our name ; and the result may be interesting to some of his relatives and numerous friends. By the aid of encyclopaedias and biographical dictionaries we arrived at the following list, showing that the name is found in Greek, Latin, German, Italian, French, and English ; and it is (juite likely that other forms might be found : Bo-ndSs, Borjd6o5, Boethius. Boetius, Boethe, Boecius, Boece, Boecio, Boezio, Bois, Boice, Boyce, Boyse, Boise, Boies, Boyes, Boys, Boyis, Boiss, Boeis." There is some reason to believe that all were primarily of Huguenot origin, their ancestors having emigrated, when banished from France, to the north of Ireland, where they found Protestant sympathy. It may be worth while to mention that about 1786 Gilbert Boyce is spoken of as an English Baptist minister, and that a collection of hynms published in England in 1801 contained twenty-one hymns by Samuel Boyse (Diet. Hymn., p. 167). Dr. Eubert Boyce, author of an important medical work, is now a medical professor in University College, London. We learn further, through the researches of Samuel Wilson, of Richmond, that persons named Boyce were early prominent in Virginia. Chyna (Cheney) Boyse came over in 1617, and was of the Assembly of Burgesses in 1629; John Boys was of that body in 1619, both representing Charles City county. Several others appear among the immigrants of that century. BIRTH AND ANCESTRY. 3 North America in 1765. In 1777 he married Elizabeth Miller, daughter of David Miller, of Eutherford, North Carolina, and shortly after settled in Newberry District, about fifteen miles north of the town of Newberry, in a section which has for many years been called Mollohon. He thus began his married life in the midst of the Eevo- lution. The battle of Fort Moultrie had been fought in June, 1776. On the 15th of January, 1778, the city of Charleston was set on fire, — according to the popular supposition by '^ partisans of the British," — and lost two hundred and thirty-two houses, valued at half a million of pounds sterling. In the spring of this year the Schophel- ites, followers of Colonel Schophel, a militia colonel whom Moultrie called " slu illiterate, stupid, noisy blockhead," organized in South Carolina and moved across the Savan- nah River to form a junction with the British troops in St. Augustine, Florida. It was expected that these troops would invade South Carolina, and the military prowess of the Carolinians was greatly aroused. Alexander Boyce, a brother of John not otherwise known to us,^ obtained a commission as captain; and as a jjrivate in his brother's company, John had his first military experience. At the siege of Savannah, Captain Alexander Boyce, on the 9th of November, 1779, in a gallant attempt to carry the British line, fell at the head of his company. John Boyce afterwards joined a company commanded by Captain (sub- sequently Colonel) Dugan, and was in the battles of Black- stocks, King's Mountain, Cowpens, and Eutaw. After one of these battles he returned home for a brief visit, but had scarcely seated himself to eat when he was startled 1 Nor do we know what kin to John and Alexander was James Boyce, who also came from Ireland to North Carolina before the Revo- lution, settling near Charlotte. He was an eminentl}^ religious man, and highly respected. His grandson is Rev. Ebenezer Erskine Boyce, D.D., of Gastonia, N. C, and the latter's son is Rev. James Boyce, of Louisville, Ky., minister of the Associate Reformed Church. 4 MEMOIR OF JAMES V. BOYCE. b}^ tlie approach of horses. Springing to the door, he found himself confronted by a party of Tories, headed by the celebrated partisan William Cunningham, and an- other man equally dreaded, named McCombs. Hurling his hat into the faces of the horses, which made them open right and left, he rushed through the opening to- wards the woods, not reaching them till he had lost three fingers from his uplifted arm, by a furious blow of Cun- ningham's sabre. When the Tories withdrew^, he hurried to the house, that his hand might be bound up; then joined his company, and before night was in pursuit of the mur- derous marauders. On the Enoree River, near the mouth of Duncan's Creek, they captured eleven or twelve of the party, and among them McCombs. ''These were con- veyed to the place where the Charleston road crosses the old Ninety-Six road (now Whitmire's), and there a 'short shrift,' a strong rope and a stooping hickory, applied speedy justice to them all. A common grave, at the root of the tree, is their resting-place for all time. "On another occasion Mr. John Boyce w^as captured, and tied in his own barn, while a bed-cord was sought for to hang him 5 his negro man (long afterwards known as Old Sandy), being hid in the straw, while the captors were absent on their fell purpose arose to the rescue, untied his master, and both made good their escape. . . . These are a few of the hairbreadth escapes which tried the men of that dark and bloody period, when home, sweet home, could not be enjoyed for a moment without danger, and when wife and children had to be left to the tender mercies of the bloody, thundering Tories." The late John Bel- ton O'Xeall, Chief-Justice of South Carolina, from whose ''Annals of Newberry " the above details are taken, adds: "John Boyce lived long after the war, enjoying the rich blessings of the glorious liberty for which he had perilled so much. He lost his wife in 1797, and died in 1806, leaving seven sons and a daughter, Robert, John, David, BIRTH AND ANCESTRY. 5 Alexander, Ker, James, Andrew, and Mary.'' It will be noticed that several of these sons bore familiar Scottish names. It is. a family tradition that he and all the seven sons were noted for their wit, and fond of practical jokes; and many anecdotes are preserved which show how the old gentleman, at the age of seventy-five and eighty, still en- joyed getting the best of ''the boys." We shall find this characteristic fully inherited by Ker Boyce and by his son James. Judge O'Neall says that John Bo3^ce was ''a well-in- formed, though not a well-educated, man, who had read much, and exercised a just and wholesome influence in the section where he lived. He was a Presbyterian and an elder in McClintock's church. Gilder's Creek, and his re- mains rest in the graveyard of that church." His sons all led industrious and prosperous lives, making them- selves favorably known in Newberry, Laurens, Union, and elsewhere, and no doubt permanently influenced by the ''Let us worship God," heard night and morning in the home of their youth. A son of Robert was Hon. William W. Boyce, a distinguished member of the United States Congress and of the Confederate Congress, and a prominent lawyer, who spent his last years in Washington city in the practice of his profession, and died in 1889. Beyond the general good influence of the home and the church, we know nothing as to the early life of Ker Boyce, born April 8, 1787, save that he was mirthful and mis- chievous, so that some imagined he would not succeed well in business, but found themselves very much mis- taken. His educational advantages were limited, but he showed a quick and bright intelligence. After some experience as clerk in a store, he established himself as a merchant in the town of Newberry, and steadily prospered. In 1812 the Legislature elected him to be tax-collector for Newberry District over several opponents, and it is related that he showed much electioneering skill in deal- o MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. ing with the members, aided by his contagious good humor and wit. In the year 1813, when the second war with Great Britain interrupted communication by sea with the Northern States, Mr. Boyce began to trade overland with Philadelphia. Cotton was hauled from Newberry to Philadelphia in wagons, which then brought back goods purchased there by the young merchant, who made the journey on horseback. In 1815 he and a friend went on horseback to Amelia Island (off the Forida coast, near Pernandina), purchasing a stock of goods which was there for sale, and transporting it to Newberry by wagons. In 1815 Ker Boyce was married to Miss Nancy Johns- ton, of Newberry. She and also his second wife (the mother of James P. Boyce) w^ere sisters of Job Johnston, who was distinguished as a chancellor. The following account of their father was copied from a Family Bible by Hon. Silas Johnston, of Newberry: ''John Johnstowm [note the spelling] was born in the county of London- derry, Ireland, and married Mary Caldwell, daughter of Job Caldwell, in the same county, July 2, 1785. The father of John was David Johnstown, whose w^ife was Mary Boyd, who was the daughter of Thomas Boyd, who served on the side of King William at the siege of Londonderry, in the year 1689. ( Vide Smollett's History of England.) " So w^e see that the mother also of James P. Bo3^ce was of a Scotch-Irish family, and they too were Presbyterians. Nancy Johnston was born in Fairfield, S. C, Oct. 9, 1795, and married July 11, 1812. Judge O'Neall remarks, *'No more lovely woman ever blessed a husband." In 1817, two years after the close of the war with Eng- land, it became manifest that there were great possibilities for the cotton trade from Charleston to the Northern cities and to Europe. Our far-seeing and enterprising young merchant became dissatisfied with Newberry, as too narrow a field, and too far from the sea. So he and his brother-in- law, Samuel Johnston, formed a co-partnership, and com- BIRTH AND ANCESTRY. 7 menced business as merchants in King Street, Charleston. Subsequently they transferred their business to ''The Bay," and became factors and commission-merchants. The term ''factor," according to its original use, might suggest that such men were only the agents of the cotton-planters, to sell their cotton and buy their plantation supplies. But the leading cotton factors soon began to advance money on the cotton, and themselves furnish the supplies. They would often provide these for the current year, taking the planter's obligation to pay with interest when the cotton should be sold, or taking a lien on the crop, which was sometimes specially authorized by law. Thus the cotton factors frequently became operators on an extensive scale, and men of great business talents had opportunity^ for large acquisitions of wealth. Judge O'^eall tells us that Mr. Samuel Johnston "was the most perfect man of busi- ness" he ever knew. He credits both the young part- ners with "an excellent judgment," and ascribes to Mr. Boyce "tireless energy and activity." So the firm made large profits, and rose rapidly to financial power. But Mr. Johnston's health gave way, and he died of consumption in 1822. A Mr. Henry had been associated with them, and the firm was for some years Boyce and Henry, and then Boyce, Henry, and Walter. "In 1823 Mr. Boyce sustained the first great misfor- tune of his life," in the death of his admirable wife, who lies buried in the cemetery at Newberry. She left three children, — John Johnston, Samuel J., and Mary C, who became Mrs. William Lane. In 1825 occurred one of the great periodical revulsions in trade and finance. At such times cotton factors are exposed to peculiar danger, when from the beginning of the year they have made large advances in supplies to planters, expecting to borrow money as needed, and replace it all when the cotton should be sold the next winter. When the banks shut down, and private loans become 8 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. impossible, the cottou factor of large connections is apt to go under. Mr. Boyce's iirm is said by our authority to have accumulated by this time fifty thousand dollars. He put the whole of it in requisition to save his business, but this would b}" no means have sufficed. Mr. Blackwood, presi- dent of the Planters' and Mechanics' Bank, had closely observed Mr. Boyce's business talents and character, and told him that the bank would furnish him funds to any needed extent. In all pursuits and relations, personal character tells. We learn (from an obituary) that at this time Mr. Boyce also upheld various other men, in whom with his remarkable insight he put just confidence, and enabled them to tide over the time of danger. In the latter part of this year, Oct. 25, 1825, Ker Boyce formed a second marriage, with his previous wife's younger sister, Amanda Jane Caroline Johnston, born Dec. 3, 1806. Her children were five; namely, James, Nancy (Mrs. H. A. Tupper), Eebecca (Mrs. Burckmyer), Ker (or Kerr), Elizabeth (Mrs. Lawrence). This young wife, the mother of James, is described as singularly attractive and admirable. Thus Dr. H. A. Tupper says: ''A more gentle and lovelier Christian woman never lived. Her person had the frail beauty of the lily; her character, the rich fragrance of the rose. The writer, as a little boy, knew her well and admired her greatly. Tristram Shandy saj^s a man's history begins before his birth. The almost womanly gentleness and amiability of James P. Boyce may be clearlj^ traced to his mother, — just as his hard common-sense, great executive ability, and deep vein of Jiumor may be with equal readiness traced to his father and his paternal grandfather." It cannot be ascertained under what precise circum- stances Mr. Boyce and his wife, though both reared in Presbyterian families, began to attend the ministry of the young Baptist pastor, Basil Manly (see below in chapter iii.). In November, 1830, the pastor felt bound, for some BIRTH AND ANCESTRY. 9 highly important reason, to attend the Baptist State Con- vention, tliough one of his children was very ill. He and his wife prayed for direction, and decided that he must go; and all matters at the convention were satisfactorily ar- ranged. Eeturning, he found that the child, named John, had died and been buried. It was hard for him to preach on the following Sunday; but under a similar sense of duty he did preach, taking as his text Genesis xliii. 14: ^'If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved." ^ Through that sermon Mrs. Ker Boyce was converted; and others were known to have been specially blessed, as well as the preacher himself. In after years he would sometimes tell of these events, as showing that it is always best for us to subordinate personal and family affection to the claims of duty in the service of Christ. And who would have thought that Mrs. Boyce's little boy, near the same age as the one he had lost, was in the course of Providence to preach Basil Manly's funeral sermon, with grateful recog- nition of the good done by that day's discourse? ^ 1 The notes made in preparing are still in existence, and are singu- larly interesting and suggestive. Every thought comes right out of the text or the occasion, and the tone is healthy and uplifting. 2 In October, 1891, the venerable and greatly beloved widow of Dr. Manly recited the circumstances of her child's death in a letter to a be- reaved young mother, and added : " The Lord was with us both, and strengthened us for our duties. I can truly say He comforted us, and has ever been to us a tender, loving Father. Never doubt His tender mercies, my child, but trust in Him, and He will sustain and com- fort you." 10 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. CHAPTER II. THE CITY OF CHARLESTON. CHARLESTOiSr has always been the most important city on the southern Atlantic coast. Its harbor is not so extensive as that of Port Eoyal, farther south in the same State, but was far better adapted to defence against assaults from the sea. Its advantages in this respect attracted world-wide observation during the War of Se- cession. The principal channel across the bar has some sixteen feet water at ebb tide, which sufficed for the largest sea-going vessels until recent times. Since 1891 jetties have been built by Congressional appropriations, which are beginning to wash out the bar; and it is hoped they will so deepen the channel as to receive the largest ocean steamers of to-day, and thus greatly increase the prosperity of this ancient seaport. The site of the city is beautiful. The Ashley and Cooper risers, as they approach the sea, run a parallel course for nearly six miles, at no great distance apart, but somewhat widening towards the point at which they flow into, or in one sense consti- tute, the bay. On this peninsula between the rivers the city is built. The lower end, fronting the bay, is known as the Battery,— doubtless because (as in New York) bat- teries were early placed there for defence against hostile ships. The Cooper Eiver, on the northeastern side of the city, and the Ashley, ^ on the other side, are pleasing 1 The rivers of South Carolina mostly retain their Indian names, as Santee, Pedee, Wateree, Congaree, Enoree, Edisto, Ashepoo. Saluda, etc. So the two rivers here mentioned were called Etiwan and Kiawah, hut THE CITY OF CHARLESTON. 11 streams, and after their union the bay winds its way out for some seven miles southeastward to the ocean, with islands on either side that produce a picturesque effect, besides affording great facilities for defence. Sullivan's Island, on the northeastern side of the bay, has long been the seat of summer homes for some of the citizens. Here is situated Fort j\Loultrie, successor to that palmetto fort which in 1776 resisted the bombardment of the British fleet, and fairly drove it away. The cannon-balls might penetrate into the palmetto logs, but their peculiar tough- ness of texture received and held the iron masses, without weakening the fortification. On the other side of the harbor lie James's Island and Morris Island, which be- came so famous during the recent war. Between Morris and Sullivan's Island, upon a shoal in the harbor, and covering the main channel, is Fort Sumter, which was first built when James P. Boyce was a child, but in fact was not entirely completed when it became the theatre of the celebrated bombardment and defence.^ On a smaller shoal and much nearer to the city is the little fort called Castle Pinckney. The two rivers, the inner harbor, and the narrow straits that separate the islands from the main- land and from each other, are admirably adapted to boat- ing and fishing; and all the coast region formerly abounded in game, attracting the vigorous huntsman, with, his gun and dogs. The city is very healthy, for those who are ac- climated, as the heat in summer is delightfully tempered by the sea-breeze. The average mortality is far less — as also in most of the cities on our southern coast — than in the great cities of the North. Occasional outbursts of afterwards received the two names of Sir Ashley Cooper. Gilmore Simms has a novel called " The Cacique of Kiawah." 1 See "The Defence of Charleston Harbor (1863-1865)," by Rev. John Johnson, who was Confederate Major of Engineers in charge of Fort Sumter, and has gWen us an admirable book. Charleston: Walker, Evans, & Cogswell Co. 12 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. yellow fever, brought from the West Indies, impress the imagiuation of people at a distance like some great rail- way or steamboat accident, while yet travel by steamer or rail is on the average far safer than by private convey- ance. The diseases produced by extreme cold in northern regions are much more destructive to life than those pro- duced by extreme heat, — a fact vrhich reminds us that all the earliest seats of civilization were in hot countries.^ The wealthier people of Charleston and all the adjacenu coast region could in summer cross at pleasure to Sullivan's Island and other cool spots on the bay, or coull journey in their private carriages to Ccesar's Head, Flat Rock, or Asheville, in the mountains of North Carolina, or far away to the White Sulphur and other springs in the Virginia mountains, where South Carolinians used to be very nu- merous, or could go by sea to Saratoga and Newport, or across to Europe. Thus they possessed a rare combination of advantages for health and ever}'- higher gratification. The planters who produced ''sea-island" cotton, the long staple of which was so much better adapted than "up- lands " to the manufacture of all the finer fabrics, and thus commanded a greatly higher price, were better off than the owners of a gold-mine. Besides the summer journeys above mentioned, many of them would spend part of the winter in spacious and hosjiitable establishments which they maintained in Charleston, or in Columbia, the capital of the State, where they formed a ruling element in legislation and government. Every low-country parish had its separate senator, and the districts a much larger proportionate representation in the lower house than had been assigned by the old and still unchanged legislation to the up-country districts. In a word, the wealthy planters around and the wealthy citizens of Charleston constituted an aristocracy, with all the good and ill attach- ing to such a social condition. It is the fashion now in our country and in most countries to have only words of THE CITY OF CHAKLESTON. 13 scorn for aristocratic institutions; yet, as often seen in America as well as in England, they certainly afford very great opportunity for developing and exalting individual character, and furnishing noble leaders of mankind. Many of these Charleston an! low-country homes gathered large and carefully chosen libraries, with a growing preference for English editions, and often bound in English tree-calf. These books were read, and high discussion of history and literature, as well as philosophy and politics, prevailed in domestic and social gatherings, besides clubs and societies formed for the purpose, and conducted with great spirit. Charleston was long the chief seat of culture at the South, as Boston was at the North. Dr. J. B. Jeter, a celebrated Baptist minister of Virginia, from whom a thousand say- ings are repeated, once visited Charleston, having pre- viously spent some time in Boston. One day he asked a friend in Charleston, '' What do you think is the difference in the look of a Boston man and a Charleston man?'' The friend referred the question back to him, and he said: " A Boston man looks as if he thought, ' I know everj^thing;* and a Charleston man, 'I know everything that it's worth while for a gentleman to know.' " It was a palpable hit, and might repay a good deal of reflection. The population of Charleston in 1830, when James P^ Boyce was a child, was 30,289, of whom 12,828 were whites. In 1840 the whites were 13,030, and the blacks had fallen off a little, being probably more in demand on the plantations, so that the total was 29,261.*^ After this the white population gained more rapidly. In 1860 the total was 40,519, of whom 23,373 were white. In 1870 it was 48,956, of whom the whites were 26,207; but it is un- derstood that the blacks in that census were often quite incompletely enumerated. In 1890 the total was 54,955, of whom 23, 919 were whites ; and the blacks were again largely in the majority. 14 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. CHAPTER III. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. THE oldest child of Ker Boyce's second marriage, born Jan. 11, 1827, was named after James L. Petigru, a highly distinguished lawyer of Charleston, a man of brilliant wit and other attractive qualities, and Mr. Boyce's cherished friend. He was of mixed Scotch-Irish and Huguenot ancestry, and born and reared in Abbeville District, adjoining Newberry. Mr. Boyce and he were of nearly the same age, and removed about the same time to Charleston. Ere man^^ years Mr. Petigru had no rival at the Bar. In 1822-30 he was attorney-general of the State, and exceedingly popular. This popularity was greatly diminished by his opposition to the Nullification move- ment of 1830-32, which doubtless prevented his rising into the highest political distinction. In later years he was also steadfastly opposed to the Secession movement; but (as we shall see) was so highly esteemed for personal char- acter, and legal abilities and attainments, that a Legis- lature bitterly hostile to his opinions treated him with marked consideration. Mr. Petigru's wife was quite a mu- sician, and one of their daughters was an artist; but he does not appear to have been himself much acquainted with music, whatever other artistic gifts he may have possessed. The story is told that once when Ole Bull came to Charles- ton, at the height of his reputation, and, appearing on the platform, began to tune the violin a little, Mr. Petigru turned to his wife and said, "My dear, isn' t that superb ! " "Hush, Mr. Petigru! " she replied, " he is only tuning the instrument; you'll disgrace yourself." The great lawyer CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 15 subsided in humiliation, and a good while afterwards, when Bull was in the midst of one of his noblest passages, Mr. Petigru timidly touched his wife's elbow and said, *'My dear, will the man never get done tuning his violin?" Mr. Petigru long outlived his early friend, surviving until 1863, when his namesake had become a man widely known and honored.^ The earliest glimpse we get of Jimmy Boyce, as he was familiarly called, is in connection with public worsliip. In the old First Baptist Church of Charleston, not many squares from the Battery, the beloved Thomas P. Smitli, long a cotton factor in the city, recently pointed out to the writer the Boyce pew. It is a long pew, rather near the pulpit, extending from the centre aisle to the side aisle, and having only space enough for one seat between the side aisle and a large wooden column. In this space the rotund boy, with his fine head, could be seen regularly every Sunday, absorbed in a book until the service began ; and people called him '^the little guardsman,'' always at his post. In this slight incident are already revealed several distinctive characteristics, — punctuality and self- reliance, love of reading, interest in public worship. The pastor at that time, as already indicated, was Basil Manly the elder, who became one of the most eminent Baptist ministers in the whole country. He was born in Chatham County, North Carolina, 1798 ; his elder brother, Charles, became governor of that State, and his younger brother, Matthias E., became a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State. Basil graduated at the College of South Carolina in 1821, with the first honor, his fellow- students including many gifted men. After preaching some years at Edgefield Courthouse, he removed to Charles- ton in March, 1826, and remained till 1837. Then for nearly twenty years he was president of the State Uni- 1 See a Biographical Sketch of J. L. Petigru, by W. J. Grayson. New York: Harpers, 1866. 16 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. versity of Alabama, showing extraordinary talent for administration as well as instruction. But lie always loved the pastorate best, and returned to Charleston in 1855. He spent his last years of failing health with his son and namesake at Greenville, S. C, where he died in 1868. It was among the marked advantages of James P. Boyce's childhood to attend on Dr. Manly's ministry, and be brought in contact with such a pastor. His preaching was always marked by deep thought and strong argument, expressed in a very clear style, and by an extraordinary earnestness and tender pathos, curiously combined with positiveness of opinion and a masterful nature. People were borne down by his passion, convinced by his argu- ments, melted by his tenderness, swayed by his force of will. James Boyce was only ten years old when this hon- ored pastor moved away; but we might be sure he received from him in public and in private many a wholesome and lasting impression. Nor are we left to conjecture as to this matter. Witness the following extract from Dr. Boyce's Funeral Discourse upon the death of Dr. Manly in 1868: " Indeed, I do not know how a people could be more attached to a pastor than they were to Mr. Manly. He made himself accessible to all, manifested deep interest in their welfare, readily ad- vised them according to his best judgment, and above all showed a cordial sympathy with their joys and sorrows. Especially was this true in spiritual matters. No one ever understood better how to console a suffering soul, or dealt with it more tenderly. And his people loved him with a depth of devotion seldom equalled. Nor was this confined to the members of the church. The presence of no one conferred more pleasure upon any family. The little children felt him to be their own, and spoke of him as such. And he loved them, and never forgot the word of kind exhortation, or admonition, or sympathy, suited to their case. The elders found in his genial intercourse a CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 17 true copy of that of his Master, who mingled with men everywhere, entering into the ordinary social festivities of life, yet ever ready to utter the warning words of wisdom or counsel. It was his peculiar forte to say a word in season, and from his lips things unseasonable from others would be acceptable, because of the way in which he spoke them. . . . After a lapse of more than thirty years I can yet feel the weight of his hand, resting in gentleness and love upon my head. I can recall the words of fatherly tenderness, with which he sought to guide my childish steps. I can see his beloved form in the study, in the house in King Street. I can again behold him in our own family circle. I can remember the very spot in the house, where the bands which he was accustomed to wear with his gown were laid on a certain Thanksgiving Day on which he dined with us. I can call to mind his conversations with my mother, to whose salvation had been blessed a ser- mon preached on the Sunday after the death of one of his children upon the text, ^ If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.' And once more come to me the words of sympathy which he spake while he wept with her family over her dead bod}", and ministered to them as it was laid in the grave." James's boyhood and early youth were not fruitful of events. He entered, we are told by a comrade, into few of the games that prevailed among boys. He did not ''shoot marbles," "play shinny," or engage in games of ball or ''prisoner's base."^ As a bigger boy, he was not given to running, swimming, rowing, sailing, horseback-riding, or gunning. He was even averse to most of these sports, and through life never felt at ease on horseback. The ex- planation of all this is not found in any lack of sportive 1 Another schoolmate writes to the same general effect, but says that he joined with great zest in such games as ball and shinny. In this conflict of authorities the Muse of History can only leave the question undecided. 2 18 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. disposition, for lie was the very quintessence of fun and jollity, but chiefly in the fact of his unusual size, which did not qualify him for sports requiring much activity or involving risk, and to which he sometimes referred in later years as having materially conditioned his early life. For the same reason, he never indulged in boxing, fencing, or fighting, — a not uncommon amusement of Charleston boj^s in his school-da^^s. But this negative view of his youthful likes and dislikes makes only more prominent his fondness for archery. He organized a company of archers on the spacious grounds about his home in George Street, and was j:iuite enthusiastic in the sport. Some of his friends find significance in this early desire for a definite object to aim at and hit. And his occasional liking for the more complicated aims and movements of the billiard table, with the great delight in chess which he developed at a later period, could hardly fail to suggest the skill and mastery of his combinations in after life. A friend of about the same age who knew him well adds the testimony that he was scrupulously temperate, and that the most searching scrutiny of memory does not recall a single act which stained his youth or young manhood with the slightest dishonor. From early childhood, James was an excessive reader. AYhile his companions were in the ''city square," or on the ''citadel green," engaged in their physical sports, he would be lying flat on the " joggling-board, " in his father's piazza, absorbed in some story-book, novel, or his- tory. He would often drive down town with his father, on the way to the bank of which Ker Boyce had become president, and return with a pile of books on the front seat of the carriage, brought from the Charleston Library and other places; and these books he would devour in an incredibly short time. His voraciousness only increased by gratification ; and the number and variety of books that he read, all through life, was a marvel to his family and CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 19 intimate friends. Besides his arcliery club, he organized at home a debating society. The ''hall'^ was the room over his father's carriage-house. He was a leader then, as he became afterwards in the college societies and in denom- inational gatherings. Some of the lads who stood with him in that ''upper room" have ranked, or rank now, among the foremost men of the Southern country. It is evident that the wide reading, which was thought exces- sive by his home folks and teachers, would serve him a good part on the floor of the debating society. When James was ten years old, his mother died, leav- ing four children younger than himself, of whom she charged him to take care; and this he often recalled in after life when thanked for any kindness. Her life and character made a great impression on Mary also, the daughter of the first laarriage, then fourteen years old; and she and James would try very earnestly in the years that followed to carry out all her rules in the home life. The oldest now surviviiig daughter can remember but little of their mother, except that she was very particular about truthfulness, as James also was through life. It is related that she once gave the lad a hard Irsson in this respect. He remarked one Saturday morning that he would spend all his Saturday money on candy, and eat it all himself. When he returned, and, with his usual hearty generosity, wanted to distribute his candy, he was required to eat it all himself, because he had said he would. He took one of the little girls aside, and begged that she would ask mother to let him give her some; but no. Such was Mrs. Boyce's extreme solicitude as to truth ; for there was no thought of James's being stingy. At that time and through life he was not only generous, but very considerate towards others, and seemed to have as much delicate tact and intuitive per- ception of the situation as women have. He was also very grateful for any present or any slightest attention, — a rose, a book, or anything; and would tell his little sister 20 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. how kind somebody had been. The younger children were very fond of James, and felfc that they could dej^end on him. He seemed to be an "all-round" person, ready for everything. It is said that the four boys and four girls of the household gradually fell into couples; James and Re- becca being special cronies, John and Mary, Samuel and Nanny, Kerr and Lizzie. Yet James showed no unplea- sant favoritism in any way, and was always sympathetic, not only towards the other children, but to everybody. A friend states that the family housekeeper of those days, who cared for the children, was in after years uniformly visited by Dr. Boyce when in Charleston, and we learn from his business agent in Charleston that he regularly supplied her wants as long as she lived, and provided for her funeral. At home, as well as elsewhere, James was fond of fun, delighting in all manner of jokes, and never at all vexed when made the butt of a joke himself. This sportive turn of mind was clearly inherited from his father, who over- flowed with amusing stories of his own youth. James liked when a lad to go out at Christmas to the plantation homes of his father's friends, where they often dispensed a magnificent and delightful hospitality; and when some- what older, he was quite fond of being with girls. His father required the boys to be scrupulously polite and attentive to their sisters, and himself alwaj^s treated his daughters with marked courtesy and consideration. If one of them was out at evening, she must not come home in the carriage alone, but one of her brothers must go after her. Through life their father would give a son almost anything that one of his sisters asked. ^ The beginning of James's library was made with a gift of five hundred 1 In like manner Patrick Henry, as we learn through his brother-in- law, was always the advocate of his sisters "when any favor or indul- gence was to be procured from their mother" (Wirt Henry's Life of Patrick Henry, vol. i. p. 9). CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 21 dollars, handed him in New York after he graduated at college, at the special request of Nanny, as a gift to her. James was remarkable for being easy to please as to bodily comfort, and this continued through life, in all his wide travelling; he would be sometimes quite solicitous about a companion's comfort, and not seem to think of himself. It is also remembered that he appeared to his sisters a brave boy, while gentle and tender, and that he was sin- gularly kind to animals. Those who knew him in later life would see in all this how ''the child is father of the man." Mrs. General Dickinson, of Florida, nee Mar}^ Elizabeth Ling, on a visit to Louisville in 1890 told that when a little girl at the dancing-school in Charleston she was al- ways glad whenever Madame Feugas told her to waltz with Jimmy Bo^^ce, because he was so springy and strong, and they went whirling. This exercise served to make some amends for the lad's disinclination to schoolboy sports. We know that his "barrel-shaped" figure — as several have described it — finally developed into a very symmet- rical specimen of " episcopal dimensions," and his move- ments were always remarkably light and graceful. In his earlier school-days James was hardly a student, in the common acceptation of the term, but seemed to neglect his text-books through devotion to general reading. Dr. W. T. Brantly, Sr., who was pastor of the First Church from 1837-1844, called Mr. Boyce's attention to this defect in the lad. He was not then old enough to enter Charleston College, though he had been over the requisite studies. The father, who had a remarkable knowledge of men, as shown throughout his business career, had tried a successful experiment on an older son, which he now re- peated. Samuel, who was seven years older than James, had said much about a desire to go to sea. His father finally secured him a cabin passage from New York around Cape Horn-, and after an absence of two years, he never 22 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. spoke again of going to sea. In like manner, James was taken from school and put in the wholesale drvgoods store of Wiley, Banks, & Co., in which his father was a partner. This new life would give excellent training of a certain kind until he grew old enough for college. James him- self once told the writer in later years how his father gave express directions, both to him and to the men in the store, that he was to perform his full share of all the roughest and hardest work done by other boj-s of the same age. He must rise at six in the morning, go down and help to sweep out the establishment, and at any time be ready to help bring out the heaviest boxes, and in general must stand back for nothing. All this exactly suited his energetic temperament.^ Many a rich man's son might feel in after life, as was felt in this case, that such a boyish discipline had been very helpful. However, six months of it sufficed for the lad's wishes, and he was quite willing to return to school. He had always stood fairly well in his classes, as a classmate testifies. The fact is, he acquired the appointed lessons w^ith wonderful rapidity; and then threw aside his school-books to revel in his favorite authors, — never, however, of evil or doubtful character, the books he read being always open to the in- spection of the family. But returning now to school, he turned over a new leaf as to the lessons, and applied him- self with such diligence as to have an excellent standing in his classes, both at the well-known private school of Professor Bailey, at the High School, and at the Charleston College. Yet, while the lessons now received regular attention, the wide reading continued. Apart from the books com- 1 The early familiarity witli elegant dress-goods also helped to develop his remarkable talent and taste in that respect. In after years his wife and sisters and daughters not only sought his advice in such matters, but would often commission him, when visiting Charleston or New York, to make the most important selections. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 23 mon to all well-f urnislied boys of that period, — those great classics of literature for the young which are at the present day in danger of being neglected for the immense multitude of current and transient books, — and besides the novels of Cooper and Marryatt, we can see that the eager young reader would find much to attract him in the early history of Charleston and of South Carolina. He would often notice a fine statue of William Pitt (Earl of Chatham), '' erected by the Commons House of Assembly of South Carolina,'' in gratitude for his procuring a re- peal of the Stamp Act in 1766. It was placed in 1769 at the intersection of Broad and Meeting Streets. The right arm was destroyed by a cannon-ball from the English bat- teries on James Island during the siege of Charleston in 1780. After 1808 it stood in front of the Orphan House until a recent time. This fine statue would kindle the lad's curiosity about the causes of the great American Eevolution. William Gilmore Simms published in 1840, when James Boyce was thirteen years old, a *' History of South Carolina, from its first European Discovery to its Erection into a Republic," designed avowedly for the young, and suggested by the wants of his own daughters. Written in the author's flowing and agreeable style, and detailing the early settlement of South Carolina, the three attacks of the British upon Charleston, including the famous story of the Palmetto fort and Sergeant Jasper, and the stirring adventures of Marion and Sumter, we may be sure that this book was eagerly seized upon by a lad so fond of reading. Mr. Simms was a native of Charleston, and spent his life there (1806 to 1870), though usually giving half the year to his country home in Barnwell Dis- trict. Before the appearance of this history he had pub- lished numerous volumes of poems and romances, including the " Yemassee," which is considered his best novel, and the "Partisan," which is a romance with Marion as the chief hero; many others appeared while James Boyce was still 24 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. growing up in Charleston. Mr. Simms, like some other famous novelists, wrote too rapidly and hurriedl}^, and thus fell short of doing justice to his noble powers. Yet Edgar A. Poe pronounced him ''the best novelist America had produced, after Cooper/' and bis books of every kind were exactly suited to delight an enthusiastic Charleston youth. It is worth while to notice that his History of South Caro- lina ended with the close of the Revolution; and the phrase in the title, "to its Erection into a Eepublic," is an amus- ing indication of the type of political opinion which was so popular in the State. ^ Besides the works of Simms and others, ''Horse-shoe Eobinson " was at that time a favorite Southern romance. James was too youijg to be much in- terested in the brilliant and powerful " Southern Eeview," published in Charleston from 1832 to 1840, and edited by the famous Hugh S. Legare and others ; but he read the volumes as he grew older, and was not a little stirred by the presence in the city of several gifted and eminent men who had contributed to it essays seldom equalled in even the great English Quarterlies. Professor William E. Bailey, who was young Boyce's first teacher after he returned to school, was a man of classic tastes and aspirations, and evidently became much attached to this now diligent pupil; for when James P. Boyce opened the Theological Seminary at Greenville in 1859, it received Professor Bailey's library, specially be- queathed by him for that purpose, and comprising, among the thirteen hundred volumes, many of the most elaborate and costly editions of the great classic authors, as well as the histories of Prescott and Motley and many others, and a complete edition of Gilmore Simms's novels, which have doubtless many a time relieved the ever-arduous labors of theological students. 1 After this was written appeared the Life of William Gilmore Simms, by W. P. Trent (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.). It is an interest- ing book, but the author seems curiously incapable of understanding the Carolina people of that day. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 25 The Charleston High School had been organized in 1839. The venerable Dr. Henry M. Bruns, who still resides in Charleston, at a great age, was principal at the time when James Boyce was for six months a student there. Among the teachers was Andrew Flynn Dickson, who is said to have been a remarkably gifted man, specially zealous about distinguishing between words, and always using exactly the right term. It is quite likely that in this respect he made a definite impression on his pupil, who was through life solicitous to get the right word, and was thereby frequently retarded in extemporaneous utterance. Dr. Bruns recently told the writer that young Boyce was fonder of mathematics than of classics, and received at the Commencement a silver medal for solving an original problem in algebra. He was a good, sensible lad, con- scientious in preparing his lessons, jolly, and quite pop- ular with the students. The Commencement mentioned was held at the Lutheran church, the pastor of which was the celebrated Dr. Bachman, whose works on natural history (some of them in association with Audubon, v»dth whom he was also closely connected by marriage) did not begin to appear until 1850. Bachman was already a great promoter of education. Coming originally from New York State, he continued pastor of this church from 1815 until his death in 1874. He was a friend of Ker Boyce, and was always regarded by his son with great pride as an honor to Charleston. Other medals were taken at this Commencement by Bazile E. Lanneau, afterwards a Pres- byterian minister and theological professor (and brother of Rev. Charles H. Lanneau), whose kinsman and namesake is Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, the famous Professor of Greek in the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins University, himself a native of Charleston; by Charles H. Simonton, now United States Judge for the District of South Carolina, and one or two other men who became well known. The venerable principal remembers that the poet, 26 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. Henr\^ Timrod, was also his pupil at the High School, and that he recited at Commencement a passage from Moore with beautiful effect. Timrod was a native of Charleston, two years younger than James Boyce, and is said by Mr. W. G. Whilden to have been one of Boyce's intimate friends. He afterwards studied law in the office of Mr. Petigru, as Boyce would no doubt have done had his father's cherished wish been carried through. Paul H. Hayne, another distinguished Carolina poet, was also a Charlestonian, three years younger than James Boyce, and resided there during the greater part of his life. After Boyce had sj)ent some time at Charleston College, and de- signed to enter Brown University, Dr. Bruns gave him some special lessons by way of j^reparation. It is said that at the memorial services held in the Old First Church after Dr. Boyce's death, this aged teacher was present, and showed deep emotion. A life-long instructor can have no truer, deeper joy than in survejang the noble character and useful career of those whom he helped to mould in their youth. Mr. Whilden states that while at the High School James was frequently a peacemaker among the boys, because of the confidence felt in his justice and equity; also that his amiability and courtesy won him friends among all classes, rich and poor; and though all knew that his father possessed large means, it was no bar- rier to general sociability. This was the more remarkable in the case of one who already had very decided views, and a ver}^ earnest way of expressing them. In the Sunday-school he was at one time taught by Charles H. Lanneau, Sr., a man of excellent talents and noble character, other members of the class being J. L. Reynolds, Basil Manly, Jr., William Royall, William J. Hard, and T. W. Mellichamp, all of whom became ministers. When twelve years old his Sunday-school teacher at the First Church was Henry Holcombe Tucker, who became one of the most distiuguished Baptist preachers and edu- CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 27 cators in the Southern country. He was a native of Georgia, but spent most of his early life in Philadelphia, where his grandfather, Dr. Henry Holcombe, was pastor; he graduated in 1838, at the Columbian College, in Wash- ington city (now Columbian University) ; and the next year, at the age of twenty, was residing in Charleston, as ''clerk'' in a bookstore kept by his uncle, Mr. John Hoff, in Broad Street. It was a great privilege for young Boyce to be brought even for a short time under the influence of that singularly acute and powerful mind, that enthusiastic and inspiring instructor. We shall have occasion towards the close of this Memoir to quote from Dr. Tucker's striking address at the memorial services held before the Southern Baptist Convention after Dr. Boyce's death. At a somewhat later time Dr. Brantly formed a Sunday- school class in the Greek Testament; and being greatly burdened with duties as pastor, and professor in Charleston College, he afterwards turned over the class to B. C. Press- ley, Esq., a member of the church. Judge Pressley re- members as belonging to the class, James P. Boyce, H. Allen Tupper, James K. Mendenhall, and B. Furman Whilden, Avho all became ministers. He says that young Boyce seemed anxious to get the exact meaning of the Greek, and that he thought him likely to become a strong and clear thinker. When some fifteen years old, James was enamoured of a girl belonging to one of the Presbyterian churches. He went one Sunday morning to that church, and so placed himself in the gallery as to command a full view of her family pew. There came a stranger into the pulpit, and preached, more than an hour, a sermon abound- ing in deep thought and strong argument. When it was over, the lad felt positively ashamed of himself, for he had been so busy listening as hardly to look at his girl. The preacher turned out to be the great Dr. Thornwell, who probably never received a higher tribute to his powers. 28 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. It is also clear that the entranced hearer was no ordinary 3'outh. From 1843 to 1845, James Boyce was a student at the Charleston College, passing through the curriculum of the Freshman and Sophomore classes. This institution had heen founded in 1787, and though lacking sufficient endow- ment to support a large faculty, it had some able teachers. Dr. Brantly, the Baptist pastor, an able and scholarly man, was now president of the college. One of the professors was Edward R. Miles, a student of Sanskrit and learned in various languages, wdio afterw^ards became an Episcopal clergyman. At college the youth was increasingly stu- dious ; but no study suppressed his exuberance of spirits, w^hich occasionally overflowed in some ''college prank," never injurious to an}^ one, and alwaj^s regarded among his comrades as venial, because clearly the result of mere humor and merriment. Dr. Brantly formed a high esti- mate of his abilities, but had some misgivings on the score of his jollity, w^ith which the grave and stern presi- dent could not readily sympathize. Once when engaged in some practical joke on the campus, James ran behind a tree which was not big enough to hide him, and Dr. Brantly, looking out of a window, said, ''There is Boyce, who will be a great man, if he does not become a devil." Yet he stood well in every class, especially in Latin and mathematics, and in history. And no one was more popu- lar, in the class-room, in the debating societj^, or on the campus. Several fellow-students state that James's utter loathing of everything mean, and the brave and manly stand he always assumed when any principle was involved, together with his uniform regard for the feelings and wishes of others, made him a general favorite in the col- lege. At a time w^hen many students w^ere hostile to the president, young Boyce stood up for him, even wdien al- most alone. On one occasion he slapped a student in the face for some reason ; but that evening waited for him CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 29 and begged his pardon. James's ringing laugh could be heard afar, and was contagious. He would sometimes purposely mistranslate a Latin phrase, and when called to account would justify it by a joke, which worthy Dr. Hawkesworth, the Latin professor from Dublin, did not always appreciate. Among his classmates was Francis T. Miles, a native of Charleston, and now a distinguished physician and medical professor in Baltimore. In a letter of February, 1889, to Dr. Tu^^per, he speaks concerning Boyce as follows: — ^^It was my good fortune during my college career in Charles- ton to have for a friend and classmate James P. Boyce; and al- though ever since we have been widely separated in life, I have always carried with me a strong and affectionate remembrance of him. '' He was conspicuous among his class and the students of the college by his talents and the strong, rapid grasp of mind, which not only enabled him to master with ease the studios of the cur- riculum, but caused him to push his reading, thought, and inquiry quite beyond the circle of required recitations. But it is not only as the clear, original thinker, the quick, cogent reasoner, that I remember him. I recall him as the genial, amiable, affectionate companion, who was never tempted (how rare a quality among young men !) to give pain or annoyance by a jest, nor, standing as he did on the high ground of a very pure morality, to scorn or animadvert upon those on an inferior level. '' I believe his subsequent life was the bright day of this clear dawn; and he now rests from labors which endeared him to those who admired him." In March, 1845, the pastor and college president, Dr. Brantley, died. Born in North Carolina in 1787, he was graduated with distinction at the South Carolina College in Columbia, and early became remarkable for his fine classical culture and his eloquence as a preacher. His pastorates of eight years at Beaufort, S. C, of seven years at Augusta, Ga., — where he founded the church, and was 30 MExMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. at the same time rector of an academy, — and of eleven years at the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia, weve all surpassingly popular and successful. His health be- ginning to fail in Philadelphia, he returned southward, succeeded Dr. Manly in Charleston in 1837, and soon after became president of Charleston College. Such com- bined labors, though often performed by eminent minis- ters, are necessarily apt to be exhausting. It was a great blessing for young Bojxe, and several others destined to become eminent ministers, to attend upon the ministry of this great man. Dr. Richard Fuller said of Brantly that 'Miis char- acteristics were grandeur of conception, and reverence for divine revelation." Dr. Manly sai'd: "He seemed ever to come fresh from communion with his Saviour, mellowed and enriched by hours of prayerful seclusion. I must regard him as the most uniformly engaging, instructive, and inspiring preacher that it has ever been my good for- tune to hear." Dr. Sprague in his ''Annals" says in regard to some of Brantly's published writings: ''They were read and re-read, and laid up among the selectest treasures of memory." ^ It was no doubt partly in consequence of Dr. Brantly's death that Mr. Boyce determined at the close of that ses- sion, which was James's Sophomore year, to send him to Brown University. The father's penetrating insight into character must have already begun to discern in the youth of eighteen years no ordinary possibilities. There was in many respects a striking resemblance. James inherited his father's large frame, fine head, and strong features; also in a remarkable degree his business talent and force of will, together with his cheerfulness even in times of special adversity and trial. It was Mr. Boj^ce's fond hope i See H. A. Tupper's volume, "Two Centuries of the First Baptist Church in South Carolina (1683-1883)." Baltimore: R. H. Woodward &Co. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 31 that his son would become an eminent lawyer, perhaps a distinguished statesman, and at the same time would con- serve and carry forward his own great business under- takings, and care for the financial interests of his numerous children. While his son was growing up, Ker Boyce had lived a very laborious life, for some years adding political activities to liis ever-enlarging business engagements. When the great Nullification struggle began, in 1830, we are assured by Chief Justice O'Neall, from personal knowledge, tliat Mr. Boyce was opposed to the dangerous experiment; but in the political combinations that arose, and through the skilful tactics of General James Hamilton, he was induced to act with the Nullification party, as practically the wisest course. The Chief Justice, who was on the opposite side, says that this ^^secured the triumph of Nullification;" for Mr. Boyce's many business friends, scattered all over the State, ''took very much his lead." He was subse- quently a representative in the Legislature for the parish of St. Philip's and St. Michael's, and State Senator during two terms (1840-1848). When the Bank of Charleston was started, Mr. Boyce took a large amount of the stock, which he found very profitable ; and some time afterwards was president of the bank for several years. This was at that time the largest bank in the South, having a capital of three millions. S. Y. Tupper, Esq., of Charleston (who died in 1891), being in Washington city in 1840, had a conversation with President Van Buren, in which ''the President said he had read Mr. Boyce's bank reports with much interest and instruction, and that they were the most able and intelligent papers on finance and banking he had ever read, and had been of service to him in his messages to Congress."^ Mr. Boyce was also actively concerned in the leading 1 Mr. Tupper wrote down these words soon after leaving the Presi- dent, and gave them in a letter of January 9, 1889. 32 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. improvements of the city, such as the erection of the Charleston Hotel and the Hayne Street buildings; and two important wharves still bear his name. In 1837 he passed through a second great commercial revulsion. But though popularly supposed to be much shaken, he had learned from the former experience, and was now in no real danger. He had to pay out large sums for his friends and customers, but he had habitually taken pains to become liable for no man who had not more than the corresponding amount of visible property. Many an eminent business man has from some early experience of severe struggles and losses — sometimes even temporary failure — acquired the prudence necessary to temper his enterprising spirit, and enable him to steer safely through all the financial storms of subsequent life. After this period of trial in 1837, Mr. Boyce retired from the factorage and commission busi- ness, and emploj^ed his great and increasing wealth in other ways. He was one of the founders of the Graniteville Manufacturing Company, which established near Aiken, S. C, the most extensive cotton factories in the Southern States. This great establishment is still prosperous, and stock in it is still held by some of Mr. Boyce's heirs. He also united with a friend in establishing a wholesale dry- goods house in New York city which did a very large Southern business, and of which we shall afterwards hear, in the course of his son's history. Soon after the period M^e have reached, he began large investments in coal lands around Chattanooga, and a furnace, foundry, etc., in that rising city, which were afterwards developed and made ex- tremely profitable by James, as his father's executor. Mr. Ker Boyce never became a church member, but he was for many years president of the board of trustees of the Baptist church to Avhich his wife belonged, and a generous finan- cial supporter. AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. 33 CHAPTER IV. AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. THE Baptists of South Carolina had from the begin- ning taken an active interest in Brown University (originally called Rhode Island College), founded at Providence, R. L, in 1765, and generous contributions were sent by them towards its support and endowment. This being the first American college founded by Bap- tists, it awakened interest among the churches of that denomination throughout the colonies. The movement for its institution began with the noble old Philadelphia Asso- ciation, and was heartily taken up in Rhode Island; and it is doubtful whether anywhere else the zeal for it was as great as in South Carolina, where the leading Baptists were already quite pronounced in favor of an educated ministry. In fact, it was at first a question whether the proposed institution should be placed in Rhode Island or in South Carolina; and the former is said to have been preferred ^ because the principles of religious liberty which Roger Williams had infused into that Colony made it eas}^ for a Baptist institution to obtain a charter, while in South Carolina there was a religious establishment, namely, of the Episcopal Church. Among the honored presidents of the University had been Jonathan Maxcy, D.D., who afterwards went South for his health, and was for sixteen years president of the College of South Carolina at Co- lumbia, where his extraordinary eloquence Avas greatly admired by such men as Mr. Petigru and Judge CNeall. I So Dr, Boyce stated in an address before the alumni of Brown University in 1871. 3 M MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. He died there in 1820, and his tomb is conspicuous on the campus. When young Boyce entered Brown, in 1845, the president for eighteen years had been Francis Wayland, who was one of the most distinguished of all American educators, and who made a more potent impression ujDon the char- acter, opinions, and usefulness of James Boyce than any other person with whom he came in contact. Dr. Way- land's famous sermon on " The JMoral Dignity of the Mis- sionary Enterprise " had been preached in Boston as early as 1823. His ''Elements of Moral Science," published in 1835, was already widely used, and is believed to have become- the most popular of all treatises on the subject in our language, including a revised edition in 1865. The ^' Elements of Political Economy " had appeared in 1837. Erom the nature of the subject, and the necessity of taking sides upon some questions involving heated political dis- cussion, this treatise gained no phenomenal circulation, but it has been very widely used, and regarded as a re- markably good introduction to political economy as then held and taught. Dr. Wayland was already giving a full course of original lectures on Intellectual Philosophy, but his treatise on that subject did not appear till 1854. It is a notable epoch in the life of many a gifted young man when he first makes systematic study of psychology and logic, of ethics and sociology. This must have been in a very high degree the case with young Boyce when studying these subjects under the lead of a man so able in general, so impressive as an instructor, and (as we can now see) so like in many respects to the type of char- acter and abilities which the young man himself was des- tined to develop. Eor we can perceive that each possessed sound practical judgment, combined with love of abstract thinking, and intense but quiet religious fervor; each showed great force of will and personal dignity, united with humility, considerateness, and benevolence; each AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. 35 was eminently truth-loving in studious inquir}^ and in statement, promptly indignant at any exhibition of insin- cerity or dishonesty, and yet forbearing, and in all per- sonal matters ready to forgive; each was cheerful and sometimes merry, yet full of serious aims and purposes. In style also, both men were clear in explanation and strong in argument, and used excellent English. These similarities may help to account for the profound and per- manent impression made by Dr. Wayland upon this pupil, who throughout his life delighted in every grateful ex- pression of obligation, and in supporting his own views by reference to any similar opinion of the great college presi- dent. And if this instance was conspicuous, it was far from being singular; for no pupil of Dr. Wayland can have failed to receive benefit, and very many, including men of great distinction in various callings, have ac- counted their contact with him as the highest educational privilege of their life. Mr. Boyce adopted, when he be- came a teacher of theology. President Wayland's method of analytical recitations, without questioning; and some other pupils, probably many others, have done likewise. Hon. C. S. Bradley, Chief Justice of Ehode Island, stated to the writer some years ago that the alumni of Brown were proud of the very large proportion of eminent law- yers included in their number; and he believed it to result from Wayland's method of teaching, since the main thing for a lawyer is the power of making a clear and complete analysis of the case. Dr. Wayland's studious fairness and moderation in argument had just been strikingly exhibited in a newspa- per discussion with Dr. Richard Fuller, then of Beaufort, S. C. (afterwards of Baltimore), on *' Domestic Slaver^^ con- sidered as a Scriptural Institution.'' The articles on both sides were afterwards published in a volume. The sympa- thizers with each of the disputants generally considered their champion to have had the best of the argument; but 36 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. it was universally agreed that both conducted the discus- sion in a good Christian spirit and with good taste. This was notable, for it was a day of grievous political bitter- ness, and the controversy as to slavery was swelling higher and higher towards the terrific outburst of fifteen years later. Among the other professors during Boyce's two years at Brown University were several men of marked ability and distinction. Dr. Alexis Caswell, Professor of Math- ematics and Natural Philosoph}^, was an able and ear- nest teacher, an agreeable preacher, and remarkable for his courtesy as a gentleman, and the strong hold he took upon the respect and affection of young men. William Gammell, Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, was a man of fine literary taste, and the au- thor of some w^ell-written books. John L. Lincoln, son of the famous Boston publisher, had just become Professor of the Latin Language and Literature, after a course at Brown and Newton, and several years as a student in Ger- many, and was already a j^leasing and inspiring teacher; he afterwards published very good and poj^ular editions of Livy and Horace. James R. Boise had also recently be- come full Professor of the Greek Language and Literature, which he has ever since continued to teach, in various institutions, with uncommon exactness of scholarship and skill as an instructor, and with the high respect of all who know him. He is now Emeritus Professor of New Testament Interpretation in the Divinity School of Chicago University; besides ''Exercises in Greek Composition " and other text-books for school and col- lege, he has published several small and excellent volumes explaining the Greek text of certain Epistles of Paul. The Junior class of 1845-1846, which James P. Boyce entered, contained thirty-five men. Several of these must be here mentioned; and there are doubtless others whose names would attract the attention of persons more thor- AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. 37 oughly acquainted with New England and the Northwest. Frederic Denison became a Baptist minister, pastor of sev- eral churches in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and chap- lain in the Union Army for three years, and has published a large number of pleasing and popular works. George Park Fisher afterwards studied theology at Yale and An- dover and in Germany, and is the well-known Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the Yale Divinity School. Be- sides numerous elaborate articles in the reviews, he has published quite a number of valuable books, including "The Beginnings of Christianity," ''History of the Peformation, " ''Outlines of Universal History," "Faith and Rationalism," "The Grounds of Theistic and Chris- tian Belief,'' and "History of the Christian Church.'^ Reuben Aldridge Guild has spent his life as librarian of Brown University, becoming one of the eminent librarians of the country. He has produced several books of great interest, including a life of James Manning (the first president of the university), a Biographical Introduction to the Writings of Roger Williams, a History of Brown University, and "Chaplain Smith and the Baptists." He and Boyce formed a special friendship, which was maintained with ever-increasing cordiality through all the years. Whenever Dr. Boyce was able to attend annual meetings of his class he was the guest of Dr. Guild; and a visit of the latter to Boyce in Louisville is remembered by many with special interest. John Hill Luther graduated at Newton in 1850, and has ever since lived in the South, as teacher and Baptist minister, — in Georgia and South Carolina, in Missouri and Texas. He edited the "Central Baptist" of St. Louis for ten years, was long president of Baylor Female College at Belton, Texas, and is now one of the editors of the "Baptist Standard," Waco. He delivered an address at a memorial meeting after Dr. Boyce's death. Amos Fletcher Spaul- ding was afterwards graduated at Newton, and spent 38 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. his life as a Baptist pastor in Canada and New England, much respected and beloved. Ambrose P. S. Stuart be- came a distinguished Professor of Chemistry in New- England and Illinois, afterwards residing in Nebraska. Benjamin Thomas went to Burmah as a missionarj-, and has been called ''the Apostle to the Karens." From a class report forty years after their graduation it appears that thirteen of the class became ministers, eight lawj^ers, and five presidents or professors, and four are set down as poets. According to the class system, which at that time was rigorously observed, a student had but little association with members of other classes than his own. But it ought to be mentioned that among the Seniors of Boj^ce's Junior year were Samuel Sullivan Cox, — the celebrated ''Sunset Cox," — and Francis Wayland, Jr., now the dis- tinguished Professor of Law in Yale University. Among the Sophomores of that year were James Kirk Menden- hall, of Charleston, who was a friend of Boyce from boy- hood, was afterwards with him at Princeton, and has been very useful as a Baptist minister in South Caro- lina; James Wheaton Smith, who graduated at Newton, and was long an eminent Baptist pastor in Philadel- phia; and Adin B. Underwood, who was Boyce's room- mate, and an earnest Christian, who became a prominent lawyer and a brigadier-general in the Union army; and the two had a jo^-ful reunion at Providence some years after the war. The Freshman class of that year included James Burrell Angell, now president of the University of Michigan, and Heman Lincoln AVayland, now editor of the "National Baptist; '' and in the Freshman class of Boyce's senior year was George Dana Boardman, now Baptist pastor in Philadelphia. In May, 1845, James P. Boyce had been present at the Baptist Convention in Augusta, Ga., which formed the Southern Baptist Convention, — though he was not a AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. 39 member of that body, being not yet a church-member. But although a division then took place between Northern and Southern Baptists as to their missionary work, those of the South felt, and have always continued to feel, a deep interest in the work of their Northern brethren, and especially in Adoniram Judson. So it cannot have failed to impress the young student when, in November, 1845, Judson came to Brown University, of which he was an honored graduate, and remained some time as a guest of Dr. Wayland. Some persons of like age remember to have been profoundly impressed bj^ even the reports of persons present at the Southern Baptist Convention in Eichmond the following spring, who saw the great mis- sionary^, and could repeat the few words he was strong enough to speak. Concerning Boyce^s life as a student in Brown Uni- versity, the testimony on all hands is that he did his work thoroughly and well. Take, for example, the following extract from a letter of James R. Boise, the Professor of Greek, written in February, 1889 : — " He was a pupil of mine in his college course, and I have a very distinct recollection of him as he appeared in the class-room. He was always attentive, scholarly, and a perfect gentleman. He was one of that type of students whom a teacher does not soon forget. Though more than forty years have elapsed since that time, and though I have had classes, often very large, through the entire intervening period (excepting a year and a half spent in Europe), yet there is no one of the many who have been in my class-room whom I have loved and respected more than James P. Boyce." We begin now to find letters from the young student to his friend and future brother-in-law, H. A. Tupper, of Charleston. They are at first chiefly occupied with mat- ters pertaining to their young friends in that city, and the experiences of a beginner at Brown, together with 40 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. plenty of the gay badinage which is natural in the inter- course of young fellows at the age of seventeen or eighteen. It will be remembered that Boyce had excelled in mathe- matics during his Charleston studies, but here he found that this branch was completed within the Sophomore year. His father urged him to enter Junior, if possible, — wishing him to begin promptly the study of law; but he had done nothing in analytical geometry, and a letter tells of the severe and desperate exertions he made to work up this subject in time for the entrance examination, sometimes tempted to give it up as too difficult a task, but finally knowing every proposition Professor Caswell called for. A month after the session began, we meet something of a new student's usual summary and sharp judgment of one or another professor. Some young man had said in Charles- ton that the students at Brown were not gentlemen ; but Boj^ce finds it far otherwise. ''There are some as noble- hearted fellows here as jom would find anywhere ; onl}^ one or two in college with whom I would not wish to associate, and these are gentlemen's sons, though not themselves what I call gentlemen." This favorable judgment came from one who through life was extremely'' sensitive to every point of propriety and honor. In another letter he says it was reported that to a student who had greatly misbehaved, Dr. Wayland said, ''My son, go home; and if you can make anything of yourself, do try and do so." Boyce thought this a fine combination of paternal kindness and strict discipline. Catalogues show that at this period the Junior class studied Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology, something in Greek and Latin poetry. Modern Languages (in Boyce's case the French, which he acquired in a very short time, and through life read with great ease). Logic (which brought him in contact with President Wayland), and Modern History, in Smythe's Lectures, — a book to which he not unfrequently referred in after life. Our student AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. 41 soon begins to glorify his literary society, the United Brothers, which has most of the Southern students, and in general the best men of the University, admitting a few exceptions. Didn't we all talk so, especially during the first session, about ^'our society"? He supposes his friend has '^ heard of the secret societies which are gen- erally attached to the Northern colleges; " and mentions in confidence that he has just been initiated into one of them, the Delta Phi. He thinks these societies are some- thing similar to the Odd Fellows and Masons, though held for different purposes. It is believed that the col- lege secret societies were at that time just beginning their somewhat checkered career. In one letter he gives some account of the Senior speaking, saying that S. S. Cox was the best, having " in reality a splendid piece. He is by far the best writer of his class. His speech was well written, well delivered, and was filled with some of the most splendid imagery." One can't help wondering whether already the imagery included a gorgeous '' sunset," such as afterwards gave to the admired statesman his familiar sobriquet. College students are not at the time fully aware to what an extent they are influencing each other, intellectually and morally. Yet every one who looks thoughtfully back upon his own life when prolonged, and around upon cur- rent and recorded examples, will be likely to perceive that a 3^oung man's fellow-students are hardly less important to him than his instructors. Even the memory and fame of those who studied there in other days, and have since achieved something honorable in the world, becomes to susceptible young minds a powerful incentive. There is thus great advantage in attending an institution which has a large number of students, gathered from far and wide, and possesses an inspiring list of distinguished alumni. The glimpses we catch of James Boyce in his association 42 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. with fellow-students at Brown, reveal the same character and disposition we have heretofore observed. Dr. J. H. Luther, in an address after Boyce's death, speaks as follows : — '^ Little did we once think that the central figure of a group that nightly met in a Madl-furuished room in University Hall would be chosen of God to be a leader in theological thought, and the founder of a school of the prophets. That group was composed of noble spirits, — Stoddard, EUis, Robert, Garusey, — not one then a professor of religion; but they were all true gen- tlemen. A happier set of fellows I have never met since. They enjoyed the good will of their professors, and the respect of the entire class. But ' Jim ' was the leading spirit. There was a magnetism in his humor, a nobility in his presence, and a manly expression in his language, which made him attractive to all. Blessed with a generous allowance from his father, he took a lively pleasure in helping a poor student to bridge over a crisis in his college course ; and when he had once made a gift, he would never suffer the recipient to return it." It is remembered that at the end of a session, when James submitted a statement of the year's expenditures, his father expressed some surprise at the gift of a large sum to a fellow-student, and was evidently inclined to dis- approve. But one of his daughters said, "You know. Father, that if James had spent it in buying a horse or the like, you would not have objected.'' And so the matter was dropped. At the approach of Christmas vacation, Boyce was sent as ambassador to Dr. Wayland, and obtained leave for the Southern students, who could not go home, to continue oc- cupying their rooms, and get their meals down town. He had thought of going to Boston; but it was " so tremen- dously cold that were I in Boston I hardly believe I 'd budge a foot from my lodgings." Students from the far South of course felt the difference of climate. In March, 1846, he lets his correspondent know that he AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. 43 has been chosen to take part in the Junior speaking, by an amusing extravagance of complaint as to a professor's cor- rections of his address: ''Confound it all, here have I been called away just at this moment by the old prof., to examine my exhibition piece ; and as a matter of course have more work to do. But wait, I will tell you when I come back. ... As I thought, more corrections, dubita- tions, and scratchations (if I may manufacture a word), than I would have thought it possible for one man to make in a year, and he has had it but a day and a half. Alas, alas, wretched being that I am ! These confounded profs, are the hardest to please. If you don't curse, they tell you your piece is too tame; if you do, they tell you it is profane. It is absolutely impossible to tell what they do want. Now, here I have one half my piece to write over, and the whole to copy over, just for those inquisitive women w^ho must be coming up here to see us make fools of ourselves. Oh, how I wish they were all sunk in the bottom of the sea!" He is evidently proud of the distinction, and extremely anxious to please both the professors and the rather dreaded audience from the city. The little outburst reveals a lively and exuberant nature. We come now to a highly important event in James P. Boyce's life, — his conversion to Christ. It is known that Dr. Wayland earnestly longed and labored for the conver- sion of all his students, and often greatly impressed them by private conversations as well as public addresses and sermons. In this he was seconded by other professors and by devout students. The class to which Boyce belonged contained up to its Junior year many who were not Chris- tians. In 1889 Dr. R. A. Guild, the librarian, published in the ''Watchman" a series of articles entitled "Revi- vals in Brown University," from one of which we extract. It is stated that many students below the Senior Class of 1846 were not professors of religion. 44 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. ''This was a source of anxiety to Dr. Wayland, who in his familiar talks to us frequently alluded to the subject, and urged upon Christians the importance of earnest prayer and special effort in behalf of the impenitent. Meetings for prayer and con- ference were for a time held every evening, and there were several conversions. In September, 1845, James Petigru Boyce, whose recent death is so deeply deplored, especially throughout the South, entered the class as a student from Charleston College. He was a fine scholar, very popular in his ways, and the heir-pre- sumptive to large wealth, his father being the richest man in Charleston. His classmates at once became deeply interested in his spiritual welfare, and made him a subject of special prayer, that his wealth and gifts and graces might all be consecrated to the Master's use. Several of the class who were thus interested had ' power in prayer.' I might mention one especially, whom, on account of his piety, we named ' St. James,' and another, the sainted Thomas, whom we know now in missionary history as the Apostle to the Karens. ''The usual college fast for the last Thursday in February was a day of great solemnity, and was attended by the. students generally, including Boyce, who appeared to be deeply interested. The meeting in the morning was ccmducted by Dr. Wayland, who made the opening prayer. He was followed by Dr. Caswell, who spoke upon the necessity of religion in college, and dwelt upon the influence exerted by pious students. Professor Gammell en- larged upon the importance of cultivating our spiritual natures as well as improving our intellectual faculties. In the afternoon, Dr. Wayland preached an eloquent and practical discourse, ad- dressed mainly to the impenitent. Shortly after this occurred the spring vacation for 1846." James K. Mendenhall tells that he and Boyce went at that time by steamer from New York to Charleston. The voyage was in a rather small sailing-vessel, and extremely protracted. He noticed that Boyce kept his state-room a great deal, and supposed he was reading a novel or the like; but at length found that he was reading the Bible. They had then much talk together, and before arriving at Charleston he was deeply under conviction of sin. We AT BKOWN UNIVERSITY. 45 learn incidentally from a subsequent letter that some two years before this he had been a good deal moved, but the feeling had passed away. On reaching the city they were met by the news that their friend H. A. Tupper had just been received into the church, and that one of Boyce's sisters was deeply concerned. That wonderful preacher, Dr. Richard Fuller, had come from Beaufort, and was preaching every da}^, and a mighty religious movement was pervading the community. The appeals of Allen Tupper to James and his sister deepened his impressions. This sister, on the occasion of Dr. Boyce's funeral, recalled an expression used at the time in regard to her brother, which shows his high reputation for moralit}'', and her imperfect conception at that time of the nature of the Gospel. She said, *'But James has not been so bad as the rest of us." He, however, felt himself a ruined sin- ner, and, like the rest, had to look to the merits of Christ alone for salvation. On the 22d of April he was bap- tized, Dr. Fuller's meetings being still in progress. The Charleston pastor at this time (1845-1847) was N. M. Crawford, from Georgia, who afterwards became quite dis- tinguished as a college professor and president. Let us pause to notice that young James Boyce had thus, by the age of nineteen, been brought under the special influence of six of the most notable Baptist ministers in America, — Manly andBrantly, Tucker, Wayland, Crawford, andFuller. Writing from Brown University on May 15, Mr. Boyce speaks with great interest of the previous Sunday, which he and Mendenhall spent in Philadelphia on their way back. They attended in the morning Dr. Ide's church, and heard from some visiting minister "a most excellent sermon," which is reported at considerable length. At the afternoon observance of the Lord's Supper — ''We spent a delightfully solemn hour in commemorating the death of our Redeemer. It seemed so delightful thus among strangers to join in recalling that event which makes us brothers 4:6 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. and sisters. As I looked around I was almost ready to go up and speak with those around me as to our hopes of meeting in heaven. I am sorry now that I did not ; I think it would have been better for me if I had done so." The letter continues : — '^ There has been no revival here. The work has been going on among a great number of the colleges, but we have none here. Pray for us, Allen, pray for us ; pray that God may shower down his Spirit among us, and bring sinners to repentance. There is a strong feeling among those of the college who have professed Christ, and they I believe are praying earnestly for a revival. But what though we pray forever, and use no means of exhorta- tion, can we expect our prayers to be answered f Surely not ; and yet that is just our case. . . . The members of the First Baptist Church are interested for us. They have a prayer-meeting every morning from eight to half-past eight o'clock, and at two o'clock on Sundays ; and while praying for the youth of the church they are also kind enough to remember us, and to offer up prayers for a revival here. I hope their prayers may be answered ; I am sure they are needed." The letter concludes with loving messages and exhorta- tions to the recent converts in Charleston. With this letter accords the further narrative of Dr. Guild: "He returned to college a changed man. He at once joined the religious society, and with characteristic energy and zeal engaged in efforts to promote a revival, of which his conversion may be regarded as the beginning." His subsequent letters show similar fervor and zeal. He proposes to join by letter the First Church, and begins to teach a class in the Sunday-school. He is glad to hear that his correspondent has decided to be a minister. He speaks with much interest of some devotional tracts and books he has been reading, and of the Foreign Mission Journal just started by the F. M. Board of the Southern Baptist Convention at Eichmond. He tells of a serious fellow-student, reared under Unitarian influences, whom AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. 47 by prayerful effort he has convinced of the divinity of Christ, and the need of atonement. An address was given at Brown just before the close of the session by J. L. Shuck, a missionary to China, — now connected with the Southern Board, — and made quite an impression. *' Those who are accustomed to call all nations barbarian and ignorant except some two or three, Mr. Shuck's remarks must astonish. To those also who put education before Christianity as a means of civilization, what a lesson must his account furnish ! To think that a nation should be so literary, should have ad- vanced so far in the arts and sciences, and yet present such a picture of degradati(jn in morals ! . . . I only wish there were more to go to carry the news of salvation to the ends of the world. I am rejoiced to hear of the efforts being made in Charleston for the cause of missions." In the summer vacation (1846) he made a long trip for recreation and improvement. The letters speak with enthusiasm of the Catskill Mountains and of Niagara, From Montreal he returned by Lake Champlain and the Hudson steamer. Before railways made us so eager for speed, the great river-steamers probably afforded the most delightful mode of travel ever known on earth. Mr. Boyce's Senior year (1846-1847) demanded closer work than he had ever before known. The Senior class gave some time to Plato, and studied astronomy and geology, continuing also the modern history, but devoted its prin- cipal attention to intellectual and moral philosophy, with Christian Evidences and Butler's " Analogy," and to rhetoric and political economy, and the American Constitution. In this year he was brought constantly in contact with Dr. Wayland, and received from him those lasting and power- ful impressions which have been already mentioned. With subjects so congenial and a teacher of such power he was stimulated to great exertions. He also took a very large share in the religious interest which had come over 4R MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. from the former session, and was now deepening. He taught a Sunday-school class with regularity, and found time for a good deal of devotional reading, as appears from the books recommended in his letters. Besides the correspondence with Mr. Tupper, he cor- responded with Miss Mendenhall, of Charleston (now Mrs. Scott), a friend of the family, and whose brother James was his fellow-student and room-mate ; and he was of course much interested in the accounts she gave of all that was going on in the city he loved so well. One of his letters has been preserved, written Dec. 11, 1846, when James Mendenhall had returned home for a time on account of some trouble with his eyes. She had informed Boyce of a visit to Charleston by two 3'oung ladies. So he overflows with gratitude at the outset : — '^I can hardly express the pleasure I experienced at receiving your letter. The fondest li()})es I had dared to entertain were that Jimmy would now and then favor me with a paper. But when in the place of a paper there comes a letter full of news, and every- thing pleasing, you cannot imagine my pleasure. You write me that is in Charleston, and also . This is news ; I had not heard of it before. Pray remember me to my old sweetheart, and tell her I regret that T am not now at home, that I might do the honors of the house. I suppose is as lively as ever. I often look back upon the pleasant days I have spent in her company, — days which will never be forgotten so long as I have the power of memory, or of experiencing pleasure in the events it brings to n)ind. Do remember me to ; tell her I often think of her, and that it is by no means seldom that my prayers ascend to God for his blessings upon her and hers." He then sends an imploring and vehement entreaty that she will use all possible influence for the salvation of one of his near relatives, and ends the paragraph by saying: '' Dear , God bless her ! She has ever reminded me of my mother. May she be as faithful a Christian, and be preserved to eternity ! AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. 49 '' Another term has closed, and the Senior class now rest upon their well-earned laurels. Not a single man has been unsustained in a single study. During the whole of yesterday a blaze of glory surrounded as with a halo the members of our venerable class. Symptoms of gratification ever and anon bnjke forth from the examining committee and strangers present while we pro- ceeded in stately dignity to enlighten their ideas, and teach their withering minds to blossom with new vigor. Tell Jimmy, would for his sake I could say the same for the Juniors ! With their usual luck, they came out with two unsustained, both in rhetoric. All the Sophs and all the Freshmen were sustained. " The students are mostly all gone. A few of us retain our rooms during the vacation. This morning I laid out as the busi- ness of the day the mending of my carpet^ (no small job, I assure you, and so can Jimmy) and the writing of two letters, — this for the morning, and the arranging of my books for the afternoon. All this, I am happy to say, will be accomplished. Tell Jimmy that I am going to board at the eating-houses. However, to-day we will have a private dinner, — that is, Mabbitt and I will ; Mabbitt is cook, and I am to help him eat. " We had a heavy fall of snow last night, and the snow now lies some ten or twelve inches deep. This afternoon and to-mor- row we shall have fine sleighing. Don't you wish you were here? " I expect to study pretty hard this vacation. I have laid out about three or four thousand pages to read. First there is Plato ; then Mill's Logic ; then the Eepublic of Letters ; while on the 1 His skill with the needle was well known to his friends. When a small boy he went to a dame's school and learned to sew, becoming soon so proficient as to make a complete outfit for liis little sister's doll. In after years he would tell his children of this with great glee, explaining that he made " leg of mutton " sleeves for the doll in imitation of what he saw worn by the young ladies. Once, when he was President of the Southern Baptist Convention, a brother had the misfortune to tear his pantaloons; and various gentlemen, dropping in at the President's room in the hotel, were much amused to find him mending the rent. The owner — whose name has not been kept in memory — differed with Dr. Boyce on some theological points*; and upon warmly thanking him, received the good-humored reply, *'Ah, Brother , I only wish I could mend your theology as easily." 4 50 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. moral and religious side come Wayland's Discourses, Milton's Paradise Lost, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, interspersed with other books occasionally. So you see I have my hands full." He proceeds to narrate at length how two students had been recently expelled, and then taken back. One of these, who became a famous Baptist minister, was expelled for lecturing on temperance during study hours. The other was expelled for striking a student during the rush for library books. By the intercession of one of the pro- fessors, both w^ere restored. It is evident that the young Southerner relates w4th considerable gusto the circum- stances of this personal rencontre; but it has to be admitted that the parties concerned w^ere both from New England. The letter ends : — '^ I suppose ere I receive your answer, Christmas, Mdth its eventful times, will have passed. Would that I were home on that day ! " Even in this lively letter of the gay young student to a lady friend we see that his religious earnestness shows itself. In letters to Mr. Tupper, during the early part of 1847, he is full of devout fervor, and longing for the sal- vation of friends, both in college and at home. On March 5 he says that for five or six weeks he has been greatly occupied and deeply impressed. A revival has now begun in the college, and there are three converts, including two of his special friends. "Everything seems to indicate a great work about to be accomplished." Near the close of the spring term he tells that the revival has made a great change in the moral tone of the college, putting an end to profanity and other forms of irreverence. "There was not a particle of excitement. Not a single man, as far as my knowledge extended;^ seems to have been converted under excitement. Many, I know, took works on the Evidences of Christianity, and, reading with a determination to learn the truth, AT BROWN UNIVERSITY 51 were convicted of their sins, and taught to cry out, ' What shall I do to be saved ? ' Several, myself among the number, who had unconverted room-mates, have been gratified by seeing them turn to the Saviour. Two or three who had been brought up in the doctrines of Universalism were convinced that these were un- scriptural and absurd, and taught to look to Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith. Nor do we expect it to end here ; we are determined, with the aid of God's Spirit, to continue this work during the next term, and not to rest until not a soul can be found here who has not felt and known the pardoning grace of God. Many of those who have recently become cob verted will labor among their impenitent friends at home, and return, we trust, strengthened in the faith of Jesus Christ. Never have I felt until this revival what a blessed privilege it is to save a soul. May my prayer evermore be to God that he may make me instrumental in his hands in tlie salvation of many ! It is indeed a glorious and blessed privilege to labor in the vineyard of my Master." Dr. Guild tells us that the revival went on throughout the session, with much earnest praj^er and effort on the part of devout students, and constantly fostered by the conversations and discourses of President Wayland. Be- fore the close of Boyce's Senior year the converts included George P. Fisher, James B. Angell, H. L. Wayland, Eowland Hazard, and in all twenty-seven of the students. Probably few people consider how much a revival at a col- lege may amount to. Among these quiet but bright-eyed young men there are almost sure to be some who will be a great power in the land. Xot only on set days, but often, in public and in private, ought Christians to pray for those who teach and those who learn in colleges and uni- versities, in theological seminaries, and all educational institutions. The spring vacation (1847) was spent by Mr. Boyce as the guest of his room-mate, Adin B. Underwood (after- wards General Underwood), at Milford, Mass. Writing to Mr. Tupper from Milford, on April 17, he refers to the approaching Commencement, saying that the Senior 52 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. class is reputed the very best that has ever graduated at Brown, and speaking of a subject for the Commence- ment address, of which he has been thinking. In a postscript to this letter comes an important statement, for which an extract from a former letter has pre- pared us: "I believe I have never told j^ou my inten- tion to study for tlie ministry. I will tell you all about it another time." Two w^eeks later he writes: "As to my profession, I think at j^resent that I shall study for the ministry. That seems to me the onlj^ sub- ject in which I could have any interest; and it seems to me a theme so glorious, and one so much needed by man- kind, that I should love to proclaim it." In June we find that he has written to his father about his desire to be a minister, and to study at some theological school. His father suggested that he should wait till he comes home. He is now hesitating whether first to spend a year in gen- eral reading (as a resident graduate at Brown, or at home in Charleston), or to go next fall to a theological seminary. August 2 he writes from ISTew York that he has been sick some days, and is barely able to sit up. He was doubt- less broken down by the hard study of the session, accom- panied by intense religious zeal and effort. Later we learn that his grade was seven (in a class of thirty-four) ; he had hoped to be fifth. The Commencement would occur in September, and his graduating address was to be on "International Charity, a IS'ew Thing in the Civiliza- tion of the World." When Boyce returned home after being graduated at Brown in September, 1847, it became increasingly mani- fest to those who knew him well, not only that he was thoroughly earnest in the religious life, but that he was developing great intellectual power. His mind was full of questions which he was anxious to have solved. On one occasion, in company with Allen T upper, he ap- proached a distinguished divine at Charleston, and im- AT BROWN UNIVERSITY. 53 mediately after the exchange of salutations the minister said, ''I ain very glad to see you, James; but please do not ask me any hard questions." He was equally pleased to have hard questions asked him. He delighted to un- ravel any knotty matter, whether a coimndrum, a philo- sophic paradox, or a social difficulty. He would be merry in positions wherein others were perplexed. His father, as we are told, was now very proud of James, and expected him to become a man of distinction. The young man, for his part, was burning with ambition for profound scholar- ship and the widest possible mastery of knowledge. One indication of this was in the character as well as number of the books he began at once to procure, at large cost. He was laying a broad foundation for life-long acquisition. While circumstances, during the greater part of his sub- sequent life, largely denied him the benefit of studious quiet, he did become a very remarkable combination of scholar and business man, such as one rarely sees. But his youthful ambition for vast attainments and profound scholarship was sadly hindered and thwarted throughout his busy years; and those who loved him best will appre- ciate the statement of Dr. Tupper, made from personal knowledge, that Boj^ce regarded this as the greatest sacrifice he made for the theological semmary. It was a sad disappointment to Mr. Ker Boyce when he found, during the summer and autumn, that James was immovabl}'^ resolved to be a minister. Besides a natural ambition that his son might become distinguished as a lawj^er, and perhaps as a statesman, — for both of which pursuits the father's insight discerned in him peculiar qualifications, — he began alread}^ to hope, as we have heretofore observed, that James would be the man to take charge of his large estate, and carry on his great business undertakings, for the benefit of the whole family. While a strictly moral man, and a generous supporter of the church he attended, the father had no great sympathy with 54 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. the claims of the ministry; and, as in many other such cases, it was hard for him to acquiesce in the youth's de- termination to ''throw away" all his practical powers and possibilities upon the work of a minister. There were of course others who took a similar view. His namesake Mr. Petigru said, ''What a lawj^er he would have made!" We hear of an old merchant in Charleston, one of his father's partners in the dry-goods house, who, being told that Jimmy Boyce meant to be a parson, said, ' ' Well, well, why don't he follow some useful occupation ? If he would only have stuck to business, he would have made one of the best merchants in the country." Young men of no remarkable talents or worldly advantages often have to pass through similar opposition and reproach in enter- ing upon the ministry of the gospel. A surviving sister testifies that their father was already proud of James's talents, and became so more and more ; and we shall find him gladly affording every possible advantage for the prosecution of ministerial studies. On the 14th of November, 1847, H. Allen Tupper and James P. Boyce were licensed to preach by the church in Charleston. Two weeks earlier, Boyce had written to his friend from Aiken, the summer home of the family, where he was teaching his young brother Kerr, preparing him for boarding-school. In this letter he greatly laments his decay of spirituality. When he offers a prayer, it " often seems to be the discord of the lips, and not the music of the heart." A fortnight after the licensing he writes again, " Rejoice with me, for my joy now is not exceeded by that which I felt when I first entered on Christ's de- lightful service." Such changes of feeling are neither rare nor strange. He was already beginning to preach on Sundays, and writing some articles for the South Carolina Baptist. MARRIAGE AND EDITORIAL WORK. 55 CHAPTER V. MARRIAGE AND EDITORIAL WORK. AMONG James Boyce's classmates at Brown Univer- sity, and for a while his room-mate, was Milton G. Kobert, of Robertville, S. C, belonging to a family which has produced several distinguished Baptists. In visiting his brother, Rev. L. J. Robert, pastor at Wash- ington, Ga., this young man made a marriage engagement with Miss Colby, of that place, and he still lives in the vicinity. After their graduation he took James P. Boyce with him to Washington, as one of the "waiters" at the wedding, Dec. 9, 1847. One of the bride's attend- ants, though not his partner, was Miss Lizzie Llewellyn Ficklen, daughter of Dr. Fielding Ficklen, of that village. It is related by a resident that the young man became quite enamoured that evening. The next day, when the wedding party were going into the country to djne, he was reproached by the bridegroom for asking to accompany Miss Ficklen instead of his partner. Things went so fast with his feelings that in returning from the country din- ner he asked her to marry him, but without success. In fact, it cost the ardent youth several months of repeated visits, to say nothing of numerous letters, before he could gain any promise of marriage. Dr. Ficklen had come from Virginia, where his brother, George Ficklen, was an eminent citizen and leading Bap- tist of the famous Gourd Vine Church, in Culpeper County, and another brother, Burwell Ficklen, was an honored citizen of Fredericksburg ; while the family connection in- cludes a number of well-known men in different parts of 56 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. that State. The Ficklens were of Welsh origin, and one fancies that they exhibit some of the better Celtic traits of character. Dr. Ficklen's wife was Miss Frances Ann Wingfield, whose grandfather came from Albemarle County, Va., the name showing an English family. The doctor did not give his whole attention to the practice of medicine in Washington, but turned more and more towards planting, in which he was quite successful. In middle life he became a Christian, and afterwards a greatly honored deacon of the Baptist church in Washing- ton, — a man of frank and manly bearing, " transparent can- dor, scrupulous conscientiousness, and Christian probity," and notably strict in his ideas of Christian life and of church discipline. Miss Lizzie had been educated in a very remarkable school at Washington, which had been built up especially through the efforts of Adam Alexander (father of the Confederate general, now railroad presi- dent), whose numerous daughters, there educated, became the wives of distinguished men in Georgia and South Carolina. The lady principal at the time when Lizzie was educated was Miss Bracket, who had come from the North, and afterwards married Dr. Nehemiah Adams, a well-known Congregational minister of Boston. Washington is a pleasant village in Northeastern Georgia, eighteen miles north of the Georgia Railroad, and not far from the South Carolina line. It is the centre of a rolling and healthy countrj^, which the Wingfields com- pared to Albemarle, very fertile in grain and cotton. Here the famous Jesse Mercer was the first Baptist pas- tor, and started here, in 1833, ''The Christian Index," which is still the Baptist paper of Georgia. Here lived the celebrated Senator Robert Toombs, and Alexander H. Stephens went to school here, — in a square wooden build- ing which still stands, — but made the home of his life at Crawfordsville, in an adjoining county. Thus the village and surrounding country presented good societj?^ as well as MARRIAGE AND EDITORIAL WORK. 57 good schools. To these advantages of family and educa- tion were added rare personal attractions, great kindness of heart, and extraordinary brilliancy in conversation; so that our young collegian, with all his ardor, may be de- fended as not having lost his head when he so quickly lost his heart. We cannot venture to quote the letters written to his friend and future brother-in law during the next few months. On one occasion whole pages are filled with outpourings of a lover's wretchedness when rejected, but winding up with the steadfast purpose to try again. A loving sister brings to bear upon the case a certain feminine clairvoyance, and comforts him with the hope that he may succeed at last. Then the correspondence fails us, as a well-behaved corresjDondence should do; but in May we learn, from an allusion to plans for the future, that an understanding has been reached, and definite hopes are permitted. In April, 1848, Mr. Boyce and Mr. Tupper went to New York, on their wa}^ to Madison University, at Ham- ilton, N. Y., — now called Colgate University, — for the purpose of entering the theological department. After arriving in Nf^w York city, they heard from Dr. T. J. Conant, then Professor of Hebrew at Hamilton, that three months of Hebrew had to be made up in about three weeks, in order to enter the theological course at the point they desired. Mr. Tupper accomplished this, and went through the course at Hamilton. Mr. Boyce found his eyes so weak and suffering at the time that it was evidently unwise to attempt the Hebrew. On April 28 he wrote from New York to his friend at Hamilton a very sad letter. The celebrated Dr. Delafield had ordered that he should stop study for a year, and advised that he should abandon altogether the idea of a studious life. *'I shall therefore adopt the latter advice. I regret much that we cannot pursue our studies together, but 58 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. more that I am compelled to give up that profession towards which I have so long looked. I shall return to-morrow week to Charleston." A week later he writes again that he is not going to give up the study for the ministry. The physician thinks that hy leading a very active life during the summer, together with certain med- ical treatment, he may recover the use of his eyes for study. The doctor has said that a trip to Europe would of itself be sufficient to cure him. But he shrinks from making this journey without a certain companionship, on which he may not count. We learn from others that his return voyage to Charles- ton was protracted b}^ bad weather ; and through the con- sequent nautical experiences he was relieved of extreme biliousness, and this contributed to the cure of his eyes. Throughout the summer he found it necessary to be care- ful, but his eyes finally recovered strength. He often suffered through life from severe bilious attacks, but we never again hear of any trouble with the eyes, though he read so widely, at all hours, on railway trains and every- where. A like trouble from study at college led Richard H. Dana, Jr., to a voj^age to California in 1834-1836, described in his famous book, ''Two Years before the Mast; " and the biographer states that he also never afterwards suffered from weak eyes. In the autumn we find Mr. Boyce in much better health, and preaching with great zeal at Aiken, at Washington, Ga., and other points, and at length undertaking impor- tant duties in Charleston, to which we shall presently give attention. The marriage occurred at Washington, Dec. 20, 1848, and the young couple went at once to live in Charleston. But he delighted in visiting the pleasant village where he had found his wife, and easily made himself a place in the family circle. Some time after her marriage the bride told his sister, in her sportive way, that her mother always took sides with James rather than MARRIAGE AND EDITORDVL WORK. 59 with her. So glad he was to have a mother again! In one of the subsequent visits, it is stated by Capt. J. T. Wingfield, Mrs. Boyce's cousin, that the young minister preached, at the time when he was ordained deacon, a ser- mon an hour and a half long, which the captain quaintly declares to have been ''the shortest long sermon" he ever heard. Some years later, Mr. Boyce's brother-in- law, Rev. H. A. Tupper, became pastor at Washington, and remained there nearly twenty years, taking great delight in his charge, and resisting many invitations to go elsewhere.^ 1 The following was published not long ago in the "Wasliington [Ga.] Gazette : " — " GENERAL LAWTON AND WASHINGTON. "The unforeseen consequences of our actions are often the subject of comment. On a November day of 1845, Gen. A. R. Lawton came to Washington on a very interesting occasion ; namely, to be married. He doubtless felt very pleasantly disposed to the little up-country town in which he found his wife. On one of his trips he was accompanied by a bachelor friend, Mr. Milton Robert, who fell in love with another Washington girl, and married her. There came to this wedding another bachelor, Rev. James P. Boyce. He, too, married a Washington girl. From these two marriages Washington has derived many advantages besides the blessing of good husbands to her daughters. The children and grandchildren sprung from them form a large circle of excellent and desirable citizens. But this was not all the good derived from General Lawton to Washington. In consequence of the marriage of Rev. James P. Boyce, Dr. Tupper, who married his sister, was invited here. The good Dr. Tupper did is untold. His influence on religion, and his thousand kindnesses, will never be forgotten while a single person remains who knew him. Now, General Lawton, though not the cause, was certainly the occasion, of all this good to Washington. . . . This is a good deal to owe to General Lawton ; and running it up, it seems as if we ought to present the general with a silver service. But it occurred to us just here that General Jjawton owes a good deal to Washington, for the town furnished Mrs. Lawton. In detailing all this to the general, we asked him, did he not think he and Washington were even? 'Yes,' he said, 'more than even. I owe Washington 60 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. In May, 1846, there Lad appeared in Charleston '^The Southern Baptist," a weekly paper which was contin- ued till the beginning of the War of Secession. For more than two years it was '' edited by a committee of brethren of the Baptist churches in Charleston." The pastors of the First Baptist Church at that period were the famous Georgian, Dr. N. M. Crawford, from 1845 to 1847, and from 1847 to 1854 Dr. J. R. Kendrick, of the dis- tinguished Baptist family in ISTew York State. No doubt each of these took an active part in the editing, and they were aided by James Tuj^per, Esq., a leading lawyer and Baptist, and others whose names are not known. On Nov. 22, 1848, the heading reads, "James P. Boyce, Editor." A notice of the change, signed ''The late Editors," says: ''Mr. Bo^^ce is a graduate of Brown University, a licentiate of the First Baptist Cliurch in Charleston, and possesses qualities of mind and heart which give promise of distinction and usefulness in the new field of labor he has entered." The new editor's salutatory mentions that the paper has been going into three thousand families, thinks that in excellence " it has been surpassed by none of our Southern Baptist papers," and very earnestly asks for increased patronage and continued contributions. In fact, their high stand- ard of intelligence and taste had caused the brethren to make a better paper than could at that time be supported in a comparatively small State, where the great mass of the Baptists were in the middle and up country, — and railroads did not then extend above Columbia. The young editor threw himself earnestly into the under- taking, and produced a paper of real value. To a much greater extent than was then common in religious week- lies, it is seen to have given copious and well-collated "boot, — large boot.' And come to think of it, it was in fact Mrs. Lawton wlio brought the general here, and set the ball rolling in the first instance." MARRIAGE AND EDITORIAL WORK. CI oiews, foreign and domestic, secular as well as religious. There are many notices of books and periodicals, with special interest in the four British Quarterlies, and '' Black- wood^s Magazine," which were republished in this country by Leonard Scott & Co., and at that day represented the very cream of good reading. Many a young man of that period can remember the instruction and inspiration de- rived from these great British periodicals. Remarkable space is given in the paper to foreign missions, those of the Missionary Union in Boston, as well as those of the Southern Baptist Convention, organized three years before. No opportunity is missed for commending institutions of learning, or discussing questions of education. The edi- tor's writing consisted largely in brief paragraphs, such as have now become common in the best papers. Among the leading editorials, such general topics as ''Purity of Heart," ''Faith an Antidote to Trouble," "The Blessed- ness of Affliction, " are discussed in a readable and help- ful fashion. Under the head of "State Schools and Teachers," great earnestness is shown in urging improve- ment of public instruction. Under "Southern Baptist Literature," it is said: "We trust the day is not distant wdien Southern Baptists will be extensive producers as well as consumers of religious reading." Under "Mis- sions among the Southern Slaves " : "No planter, we con- tend, should rest satisfied until he has taken measures either to provide a religious instructor for his negroes, or to instruct them himself; " and favorable mention is made afterwards of the way in which this was managed by B. C. Fressley, Esq. (now Judge Pressley), on his plantation. An editorial in the first number for 1849 refers quite impressively to the European revolutions of the preceding year. On March 28, 1849, a leader of unusual length favored the establishment of a "Central Theological Insti- tution " for all Baptists of tlie South, — a subject which had been broached two or three years before, and with t>- MKMOIK OK JAMKS V. r>OVrK, Nvliii'li tliis Memoir must lavgoly ooiu-oru itsolt in later ohaptors. ^loamimo. on March 7, Kov. A. M. roiiuloxtor. nn ho had tlio proNious summor oomo from \ irginia to I'harloston to ho C'orrospondin;;' Soorotarv of tho now Southorn Baptist ruhlioation Sooiot \ . uavo tho folhnving notioo in tlio paper: ••Tho Poposirory of tho S. l>. V. S. has hoou romovod to U>, l>road Street, and l\ev. dames V. l^oycc has heen apj>ointed Pepository Agent." From that time the advertising eohimns eontain Knig lists oi religious books as kept for sale at the depository, with his name as agent. The editor aiul ineipient theologian found great deliglu in the intimate friendship thus begun witli Pr. Poindexter. one of the strongest theoh>gieal thinkers in the eountry. and destined to a highly intluential eo-opera- tion with him in the future establishment of tlie theolog- ieal sehool. His own jh/w/ianf for tlioology, oven at this early period, appears in his allowing tho paper to be for many weeks weighted down by two dist inguisheil brethren with long and elaborate articles on the doetrino of •'Im- putation." in which comparatively few of tho readers could be expected to take nmch interest. On April 11 the editor in three several instances dofonds himself against ]HM-sonal attack. The "Christian Index" had severely com]^lained of the "Southern Bap- tist" for publishing a misleading account of action taken by tho trustees of ^NForcor University in regard to tho question of a general theological institution, ami declared that statements given in quotation marks were utterly ditloront frotn what had been actually said in tho report of tlio trnstees. ]\lr. l^oyce rejdies: " Strict inrs of the * Chnstlan Indtw.' — Wo regret very much that errors such as tho • Index ' notices in tho piece qnoted below should liavo been found in any article in the ' Southern Baptist.' AVo oopy tho entire strictures of the • Index.' purposely to manifest our regret. And vet we are not ta blame." He MAIiiilAGE AS I) KiJlTOltlAL WOJlK. O.'i goes on to explain that his account of the matter had heen derived from another paper, and the quotation-marks re- ferred to tfjat paper\s statements. The defence is ample, and the opening expression of regret is characteristic of a man so frank and candid. It is said that some ofte connected with the paper censured tliis expression, on the ground that a newspaper cannot well afford to admit that it lias made a mistake. This idea does appear to be enter- tained in some editorial offices; but one can imagine that James P. Boyce must have been not a little vexed at the mere suggestion. Following this editorial is another, in reply to the criticisms of a correspondent. Thes^ had included an utter misstatement of something the editor had said, and he replied very sharjdy: ^' We said no such thing; and how a man of common sense and common hon- esty can assert it, we know not. This may seem strong language, but ... it is enough to irritate any man to have his language perverted in this way." A third edi- torial replies to an anonymous "Subscriber" who grossly misrepresents the editor, and upon the strength of this misrepresentation announces that he will cease to be a subscriber when the time expires for which he has paid. The editor in reply tries to be calm in pointing out the misrepresentation, but adds : *' In conclusion, we say to a ' Subscriber ' that if he will but forward his name, it shall be immediately stricken from the list. "VVe would not for ten times the sum of his sub- scription be again subjected to so much impertinence and injustice.'' The number for May 2d ends the third volume of the paper. The editor calls attention to that fact, and says : ''Our own connection with the paper is to close with the present number. We opened its editorial charge at the solicitation of our brethren, and with no expectation of retaining it beyond a few months. We feel a deep interest in the ' Southern Baptist,' and the prosperity of the Bap- 64 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. tists of South Carolina, and this interest alone induced ns to consent to occupy our present post." He states that the former editing committee will resume their task, but that the paper is still in debt, and the receipts not sufficient to pay the expenses; and so he appeals for pa3^ment of subscriptions in arrear, and for efforts to procure new subscribers. In resuming the editorship, on May 9, the committee state that < Muring five months the paper has been gratuitously and efficiently edited by Rev. James P. Boyce. " ^ In the editorial that follows they speak of the fact that editors must expect at times to have " their mo- tives misapprehended and rudely impugned, their honest opinions perverted and unkindly assailed.'' This goes to show that the J^oung editor had keenly felt the injustice done him, especially by the writers he had replied to on April 11. He was a man so thoroughly honest, candid, and just that he felt surprise at first, and then indigna- tion, at any cases in which the opposite qualities appeared to be manifested; and few men of twenty-two would have been quite patient under such provocation. Had he felt bound b}^ some high sense of duty to pursue the editorial career, he would have learned to bear quietl}^ such unjust assaults, even as he afterwards did learn in other relations that any servant of the public must expect to be now and then misrepresented, and to have some speech or action of his perverted and seized upon as the occasion for exploiting personal views. But Mr. Bo^'ce had not at all undertaken to make editing his life-work. The discussion of religious topics would only deepen the desire for regular theological education, which he now determined to seek at Princeton in the autumn. The close of the paper's third year was a convenient time for ending his connection with it, and the recent assaults perhaps made him impatient to throw 1 The number of subscribers had increased while he was editor, but the receipts had been five hundred dollars less than the expenses of publication. MARRIAGE AND EDITORIAL WORK. 65 the task aside without delay. All this may remind us that truly great and useful men have seldom escaped early struggles with impatience, and have never been without strong feelings which it was difficult to control. A great man has an ardent nature, or he would not be a force in the world. Those who see men of eminence silently bear- ing undeserved reproach, or explaining with quiet dignity, frequently have little conception of the discipline which has been needed to make this possible. For one so young, with little experience in preaching, and no regular study of theology, Mr. Boyce had done remarkably well as an editor. Had he thought proper to continue in that line of work, his great administrative talent, wide and eager reading, special interest in the practical enterprises of missions and education, and rapidity of composition, would sooner or later have made his editorial life a marked success. Years afterwards he more than once intimated that if the Seminary could be- come fully established and allow some leisure, he would like to conduct a religious quarterly or monthly. Until the end of July, 1849, he continued to act as depository agent for the Publication Society, and some- times wrote for the paper over his initials. During the summer he hesitated whether to take a theo- logical course at Hamilton, where Mr. Tupper was, or at Princeton. There was much talk at the time of removing the theological school from Hamilton to Rochester, and he did not fancy being there in a time of dissolution and reconstruction. He inquired particularly about the extent and value of the library at Hamilton, in which respect Princeton then doubtless greatly excelled. Few patrons of higher education appreciate the value of a great library in attracting the more aspiring students and in promoting breadth of culture. In April, 1849, Mr. Boyce's eldest brother, John John- ston Boyce, died in Florida. He had married his cousin, 5 66 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. the daughter of Chancellor Johnston. His father had established him on a plantation in Florida, with the vague hope of stopping the ravages of consumption. An obituary in the paper which James was editing says that he died "in the hope of a glorious resurrection.'' AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINAIIY. 67 CHAPTER VI. AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 1849-185L IN September, 1849, Mr. Boyce went to the Presby- terian Theological Seminary at Princeton, and re- mained there as a student for two years. This famous seminary had, like all the rest, its small beginnings. It was founded in 1812, and for one year Archibald Alexander was the sole professor. In 1813 Samuel Miller was added, and in 1822 Charles Hodge. By 1849 Princeton and An- dover were the two leading theological schools in America. The whole number of students during Mr. Boyce's first session was one hundred and thirty-six, and for the second session one hundred and forty-seven. The division of the Presbyterian Church into Old School and New School was by this time thoroughly established, and Princeton was recognized as the great bulwark of Old School theology. When our student entered, in 1849, Dr. Samuel Miller had just been made Emeritus Professor, and he died in January of the next year. His numerous practical writ- ings on ecclesiastical questions and ministerial duties must have been quite in demand among the students. The author of '' Clerical Manners " was somewhat formal in his own deportment, but proved quite cordial when visited at his home. The active professors at this time were Dr. Archibald Alexander, his two sons, James and Addison, and Dr. Charles Hodge. Archibald Alexander had in 1840 turned over the department of Didactic Theology to Dr. Hodge, and was Professor of Pastoral and Polemic Theology. Though now 68 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. seventy-seven years old, and taking but a limited part in the instruction, this gifted and charming man left a last- ing impress upon his students, and Mr. Boyce often spoke of him with gratitude and affection. He was a sort of pastor for the young men, with whom they found counsel and sympathy.^ His numerous works gained a wide circu- lation, and his ''Moral Science," "Religious Experience," and "Sermons to the Aged" may still be particularly commended. The memoir by his son James is a delight- ful book. Dr. Alexander excelled in the somewhat diffi- cult matter of helpful criticism upon sermons preached by the students before the class. His general kindness and sympathetic appreciation gave keener edge to the caustic remarks which sometimes appeared needful. Dr. Boyce used to relate that on one occasion a student took as his text, "Let there be light, and there was light," and launched into a magnificent description of the creation of light, with great splendor of diction and vehemence of de- liver}^ The aged professor sat with his chin on his breast, quietly listening throughout the performance, and then, lifting his head, said, in the piping tones characteristic of old age, " You're a very smart young man, but you can't beat Moses." A few years earlier, a student of very im- posing talents and bearing, a Presbyterian then, but who afterwards became a High Churchman and a bishop, made a grand discourse upon the religious instincts. He represented that every man's character and life will depend simply upon which of his instincts gets the upper hand, 1 It was probably at an earlier date that we must place a story which theological students might find suggestive. An old negro was accus- tomed to attend a church some miles from Princeton, and often praised the "high larnt " young preachers who came out from the seminary. One day he looked glum on returning home, and being asked whether he had had a good sermon, said, " No, sir; no, sir. There did n't none of them high larnt young gentlemen come to-day, but jes' a old man, and he stood up and jes' talked and talked." The preacher was Archibald Alexander. AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 69 and everything human was made to turn on a battle of instincts. When he finished, and the time came for critical remarks by the students, they seemed afraid to venture, and were silent. Dr. Alexander simply said, '' My instincts are not sufficient to comprehend, much less to criticise, that discourse." In these cases the severity was no doubt well deserved, and ought to have proved beneficial. But professors of homiletics, and even unofficial critics of preaching, doubtless often err, and sometimes gravely and hurtfully err, in bestowing their causticities as well as their commendations. Dr. James Waddell Alexander this year succeeded Dr. Miller as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Church Government, and the next year took over from his father the subject of Composition and Delivery of Sermons. He resigned in 1851, and it was Boyce's singular good fortune to hear his only course of lectures on this latter topic, — the notes of which lectures the student always greatly valued. From 1851 to 1859 Dr. Alexander was pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church of New York cit}^, which he did much to strengthen and train, and which, under the pastorate of Dr. John Hall, is now recognized as one of the leading churches of America. He published a large num- ber of popular and useful books, of which the ' ' Sermons on Consolation,'' the biography of his father, and the ''Forty Years' Familiar Letters of J. W. Alexander," are of particular interest and value. His now venerable mother was the daughter of James Waddell, the ''blind preacher," whom William Wirt heard in a church near Gordonsville, Va., and described in an often-quoted pas- sage of "The British Spy." James's wife was also a Virginia lady, a sister of the famous medical professor, Dr. James L. Cabell, of the University of Virginia. These two ladies naturally took a special interest in Southern students, and the elder once said that she knew the Baptist students better than the Presbyterian, because 70 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. they were more inclined to be sociable. Her daughter and namesake, Miss Janetta Alexander, is also remembered as particularly cordial and agreeable towards the wife of a student. The younger son, Dr. Joseph Addison Alexander, among the foremost of American Biblical scholars, was still Pro- fessor of Oriental and Biblical Literature, which two years later he gave up for Biblical and Ecclesiastical History. His great work on Isaiah had appeared in three parts in 1846, 1847, and ^'The Psalms Translated and Explained" came out in 1850. Addison was by no means a patient teacher of the elements of Hebrew. He learned languages himself with marvellous facility, and could not sympathize with, or patiently endure, the slow mental movements of the ordinary student. One day, when some fellow had made a very bad out of his Hiphil forms of the verb, the professor threw down his Hebrew grammar on the table, and angrily said, ''Gentlemen, I can't spend any more time on these elementary matters. Learn them for your- selves. I shall begin lecturing on Genesis to-morrow.'' Eor three years before this, his students had enjoyed the help of William Henry Green as instructor in Hebrew, who resigned that position in 1849, and in 1851 succeeded Dr. Alexander in the chair which he still occupies with so much honor. In 1850, when the professor had worked alone for one year, it was found advisable to appoint another instructor in Hebrew. It is somewhat frequently the case that a great linguistic or mathematical genius proves ill- suited to elementary instruction in the subjects he masters with such facility; and a teacher, in whatever department or grade, must constantly strive to maintain intellectual sympathy with his pupils. As a lecturer on exegesis, Dr. Alexander made a great impression. He did not teach the students how to make exegesis for themselves, but he set them a noble example, by his complete mastery of the requisite learning, his honest and unwearied pursuit of AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 71 truth, and the clear and convincing fashion in which his results were stated. He was particularly fond, as his works also show, of reconciling antagonistic views, not simply by the easy method of taking an intermediate position, but often by rising to some higher principle, which compre- hended them both in its unity ; and he would often startle by the felicity with which he converted objections to the truth into arguments for its support. A few years later, as Professor of Biblical and Ecclesiastical History, his course for the Junior class consisted really of lectures on the English Bible, and awakened great enthusiasm, so that Presbyterian pastors in Philadelphia would run out to Princeton to hear them, and students of that period have often dwelt upon their extraordinary interest. Dr. Chalmers had in his Lectures in Theology, a few years earlier, urged upon his students a thorough study of the English Bible. But these lectures by Alexander are the earliest known instance of making the English Bible the text-book on a large scale in a theological seminary, — a plan afterwards much more extensively and systematically pursued in the Seminary which James P. Boyce founded, and of late j'-ears beginning to be adopted in various institutions. In his last years, Addison Alexander published Commentaries on Acts, Mark, Matthew (chapter i.-xvi., interrupted by his death in 1860), which are admirable specimens of penetrating and judicious exposi- tion, and must long continue to be necessary to a minister's library. The memoir by his nephew. Dr. Henry C. Alexan- der, is a work full of inspiration for any minister or stu- dent for the ministry who values high scholarship, and appreciates rare and varied gifts. It is said that Princeton students were greatl}^ impressed by Addison's occasional sermons, and many of these have been collected in two volumes of great value. His intellectual power seized upon a truth with the most vigorous grasp, his imagina- tion threw over it the chastened splendors of a genuine 72 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. illumination, and liis wealth of clioicest English fitted it- self to every phase of truth like a garment to him that wears it. A shy and recluse student, he was never a pas- tor, and was not widely known as a preacher; but others besides the students have testified that when inspired by some great theme he would at times read one of his noble discourses with overmastering and seldom-rivalled power. Dr. Hodge once said to Dr. J. AY. Warder that Addison had the finest mind he had ever known. It may be a use- ful warning to add that this admirable man presumed on his always vigorous health, and devoted himself to in- cessant reading and writing, with an almost total neglect of exercise; and so, at the age of fifty, there came a sudden collapse, and the world lost all those other noble works which he might have been expected to j)roduce, and which some of us were so eagerly awaiting. But the most influential of all Boyce's instructors at Princeton was Dr. Charles Hodge, now fifty-two years old, and at the height of his powers. A graduate of the seminary, and professor there since 1820, he had spent 1826-1828 as a student in Paris and German3\ He had founded in 1825 the ^'Biblical Bepertory, " afterwards called " Biblical Bepertory and Princeton Beview," which he was still editing, and which as a theological quarterly had no rival in America save the Andover '' Bibliotheca Sacra." Two years before this he had collected from the review his two volumes of '^ Princeton Theological Es- says," and much earlier (1835) had sent out his famous ''Commentary on Bomans," abridged in 1836, and en- larged in 1866. Other works had also appeared from his busy pen, including an excellent practical treatise called ''The AYay of Life." The Commentaries on Ephesians and on Eirst and Second Corinthians came out some years later, and his magnum opus, the " Systematic Theology, " three volumes 8vo, did not appear till 1871. But already in Boyce's time this great theological course was mainly AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL , SEMINARY. 73 developed, and laboriously dictated to the students. Dr. Hodge was a singularly clear and consecutive thinker. Dr. Manly remembered it as a saying of the students, *'His thoughts move in rows." Even in the most fa- miliar address^ every thought would bring with it the related thoughts. In the Sunday afternoon meetings, when his turn came to speak upon the practical topic which had been chosen, he would first lead up to the subject, then discuss it, and finally draw inferences or lessons; and this not in the way of formality, but through the habit of his mind. He was also a man of marked Christian earnest- ness and fervor, with whom the great doctrines were living facts, James Boyce was more powerfully impressed by Dr. Hodge than by any other Princeton professor, and probably more than by any other teacher except President Waj'land. Dr. Manly also felt satisfied that he learned more from Hodge than any of the others. It was a great privilege to be directed and upborne by such a teacher in studying that exalted system of Pauline truth which is technically called Calvinism, which compels an earnest student to profound thinking, and, when pursued with a combination of systematic thought and fervent experience, makes him at home among the most inspiring and enno- bling views of God and of the universe he has made. Dr. Hodge was at this time in quite poor health, and suffered great and long-continued distress at the death of his wife, Dec. 25, 1849; but his work was faithfully done. We have thus seen that, except the lack of Dr. Grreen's help in Hebrew, our student was greatly favored in his Princeton professors. Hodge and Addison Alexander were at the height of their great powers. Archibald Alexander was still giving, in the class-room and in private, the fruits of his eminent gifts and rich experi- ence, and these were the last two years of his long life. James Alexander was an inspiring teacher and friend, and his professorial work was limited to Boyce's two years. 74 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. His fellow-students also comprised a number of superior men. Among the fifty-two members of the entering class, even persons little acquainted with Presbyterian history can point out several who afterwards became distinguished. E,. F. Bunting, D. D., was long pastor at San Antonio and Galveston, Texas, and at Nashville, Tenn., and in 1876 became editor of the Texas " Presbyterian." W. C. Cattell, D. D., was Professor of Greek and Latin in La- fayette College, Pa., 1855-1860, and in 1863 became president of the college. J. M. Crowell, D. D., was long pastor in Philadelphia. Caspar Wistar Hodge, D. D., son of Charles Hodge, was teacher and pastor for some years, and in 1860 became Professor of the New Tes- tament in the seminary, having succeeded Addison Alexander, who. had held that position for one year; Dr. C. W. Hodge died in 1891. George McQueen was a mis- sionary in Western Africa from 1852 to his death in 1859. Robert Price, D. D., a Mississippian, was long pastor in Vicksburg. Robert Watts, D. D., a native of Ireland, was pastor in Philadelphia for ten years, and in Dublin for three years, and since 1866 has been professor of Sys- tematic Theology in the Assembly's College at Belfast, Ireland. He is the author of numerous works in support of Presbyterianism or of general orthodoxy, of which the best known are "The Newer Criticism" (1881), ''The Rule of Paith and the Doctrine of Inspiration" (1885), and ''The New Apologetic." Among the students who entered a year later than Boyce we may mention Edgar Woods, who was Presbyterian pas- tor at several i^laces in Virginia and Ohio, and after 1877 a teacher at Charlottesville, Va. There was also quite a group of Baptist students from the South who entered that year, the division between Northern and Southern Baptists making many reluctant to attend Newton or Hamilton. Alfred Bagby has spent a very useful life as pastor of Baptist churches in King and Queen and adja- cent counties of Virginia. Andrew Fuller Davidson was AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 75 also a beloved pastor of churches in Virginia for a good many years till his death. James K. Mendenhall had been Boyce's friend in Charleston, and his fellow-student at Brown University. He became pastor of various Baptist churches in South Carolina and Florida, and since 1875 has labored as missionary and evangelist in South Carolina, residing in Greenville. Kichard Furman Whilden had studied at the Furman Institution in South Carolina, and was admitted to the middle class in Prince- ton, thus becoming Boyce's class-mate. He was graduated in 1852, was pastor and teacher at various points in South Carolina, and since 1864 has resided in Greenville County, teaching and preaching. Of those who had entered a year earlier than Boyce at least a few ought to be mentioned. Eobert G. Brank, D. D. , was long pastor in Lexington, Ky., and since 1869 has been a well-known pastor in St. Louis. S. S. Laws, LL.D., was for some years president of Westminster College, Mo., and then president of the University of Missouri from 1875 to 1890. Joseph W. Warder, D. D., of Kentucky, had been two years a student at Newton Institution, near Boston, and came to Princeton for his third year. He was Baptist pastor at various points in Kentucky and Missouri, and of the Walnut Street Baptist Church in Louisville, 1875-1880. Since that time he has been Corresponding Secretary of the Executive Board of the Baptist General Association of Kentucky. Of those who composed the Senior class when Boyce entered, L. G. Barbour, D. D., has been a teacher at various points in Kentucky, and is now professor in the Central University at Richmond, in that State. Basil Manly, Jr., of Ala- bama, after one year at Newton, had entered Princeton in 1845, and been graduated in 1847. This was two years before Boyce entered; but it is mentioned because they had been boys together in Charleston, and were destined to be colleagues for many years. iO MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. Almost every student is more interested in one or two subjects than in the rest of his appointed course of study. Mr. Bo3'ce had at Brown University become a thoroughly earnest student; and the conviction that it was his duty to be a preacher, together with his brief experience as an editor, must have deepened the desire to become acquainted with all the leading departments of a theological course. He worked faithfully in all directions. He also gave un- usual attention to the library, steadily accumulating that general knowledge of books for which he was remarkable through life. Observe the plans indicated in a letter writ- ten a few weeks after his arrival at Princeton : — " I am now pursuing, in connection with lectures on that sub- ject, a full course of reading in Mental Philosophy, designing to extend it from that of the Greeks down to the present day. At the same time I am pursuing Hebrew Exegesis in Genesis, and Greek in Romans, and am carrying on a course of reading in the biography of the great and the good who have shed lustre upon the Christian name." But his favorite study from beginning to end was Sys- tematic Theology. He was naturally inclined to reflect upon principles and causes, and had a facility in organiz- ing the results of reading and talk which was akin to his unusual talent for organizing and administering business affairs. These natural capacities had been no little devel- oped by Dr. Wayland's instructions in psychology and ethics, and by his familiar association with Dr. A. M. Poindexter, who delighted to draw every young minister into the deepest theological inquiry and the most animated discussion. The leading subject at Princeton has always been Theology. Thus the whole atmosphere of the place united with the great powers and influence of Dr. Hodge and the native tendencies and previous training of this student to make him especially earnest in the study of Systematic and Polemic Theology. AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 77 During the second session be took his regular part in the appointed preaching and in the prayer-meeting; but Mr. Whilden says he was not prominent in the debating society. This must have arisen from the pressure of his studies, for he was naturally fond of discussion, and through life his powers always worked to better advantage in debate on the floor than in pulpit discourse. During the second session, when Mr. Whilden was there, Boyce was overwhelmingly busy, for he determined to carry on the studies of the Senior class together with those of the Middle class, to which he belonged. He obtained from some fellow-student the full notes of Dr. Hodge's course in Theology, as dictated in previous years ; and these were patiently copied by the young wife, thus saving him a great deal of time and toil. Add to this that he had an extraordinary power of application and endurance, — he could work for weeks, when under any special pressure, with five hours a day of sleep, almost no exercise, and well- nigh incessant application to study. His recreation was found in cheery talk at meals, in the occasional drives of which he was fond, and the somewhat frequent visits which he and his wife paid to his sister Mary, Mrs. William Lane, of New York city. In December he writes to Mr. Tupper that they have a delightful place of boarding, with the widow of an emi- nent physician. The Georgia wife is "in perfect ec- stasies with the to her somewhat unusual sight " of a heavy snow. Two of his sisters have just been married in Charleston to Mr. Tupper and Mr. Burckmyer, and in sending congratulations he speaks most enthusiastically of his own wife. He is exceedingly pleased with Dr. James Alexander, — a handsome man, with beautiful dark eyes, and the bearing of a Christian gentleman, and in the department of sacred rhetoric ''the most delightful lec- turer I have ever heard." He thinks Addison Alexander "the most gifted, but by no means the most admirable^ 78; MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. member of the Faculty," having seen him display "an ungovernable temper," — probably with reference to the Hebrew. Dr. Archibald Alexander is fast declining in 3'ears, and does not seem '' as gifted as his sons, but has a very clear, logical mind." Dr. Hodge '' is one of the most excellent of men; so modest and yet so wise, so kind and fatherly in his manner, and yet of so giant an intel- lect, he is a man who deserves a world of praise." In February Boyce has been to Xew York, and finds the Lane family about to build a home on Madison Square, and attending the ministry of the famous Dr. "William E-. AYilliams. He expresses much fervent solicitude, and again and again proposes special prayer for the conversion of various relatives. He affectionately urges Mr. Tupper, who has become pastor at Graniteville, S. C. (near Aiken), to be very faithful in pastoral visiting, which he thinks a good many ministers comparatively neglect. On Feb. 17, 1850, Islv. Boyce preached the first ser- mon that remains to us, and it is indorsed as written in January. It was given at a Baptist church called "Penn's Xeck," a few miles from Princeton. The text is Acts xxvi. 28: "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." It is thoroughly practical, and intensely earnest, abounding in pointed address to different classes of hearers, and fervent exhortation. You feel in reading that you are dealing with a man of strong intellect, great force of character, and large heart, a man full of Christian love and zeal, and consumed with desire to save souls. The sentences are often wanting in symmetry, and show the hurried negligence from which his style never wholly recovered; but the thoughts are made entirely clear, and are expressed with vigor and force. Written when he was just twenty-three years old, it is a notable sermon. We learn from his wife that he frequently preached at "Penn's Neck" during this and tlie following session. Dr. C. W. Hodsje, who was his fellow-student, in a letter AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 79 after Boyce's death spoke of *'his high reputation for eloquence and strength in the pulpit/' and says he ''was in request for supplying pulpits out of town." It is well that seminary students should preach somewhat fre- quently, not for practice and criticism before a class, but as actual preaching to a real congregation. They can thus add greatly to the evangelizing and pastoral work of the city and vicinity, and in this day of fast trains can go to distances of a hundred miles or more. In every theolo- gical school there are doubtless some students who spend too much time in preaching, especially when they become pastors, and must hold protracted meetings. But on the whole it is believed that students should be encouraged to preach, for they may do good to others, and gain benefit to themselves. The religious fervor in which a young man gave himself to the work of the ministry will often be best maintained by actual preaching, or at any rate by teaching in mission Sunday-schools and the like. Theo- logical studies ought to be pursued throughout as having a practical aim; and this aim is best kept in view by the student who is doing some actual ministerial work. Be- sides, the pecuniary compensation which is sometimes received will enable a man to continue his studies without depressing want or extreme dependence upon the gene rosity of others. Mr. Boyce's means are well known to have been ample; but through life he welcomed, and indeed required, suitable compensation for ministerial service, because he would have just that much more to give away, and because he was not willing to encourage a church in the neglect of its own duty to support the ministry. The vacation in the summer of 1850 was spent by Mr. and Mrs. Boyce with her relatives in Virginia, chiefly with her uncle, Burwell Ficklen, in Fredericksburg, and her uncle, George Ficklen, at Thompsonville, in Culpeper County, and her aunt, Mrs. Brown, who lived in the same neighborhood. These were all families of high standing 80 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. and large hospitality, where many agreeable acquaintances were to be made, besides the circle of kinsfolk. It was a delightful way to spend vacation. The Piedmont Coun- ties of Virginia, east of the Blue Ridge, are a singularly healthy region, half way betw^een Xorth and South, half way between sea-coast and mountain. In summer weather, to ride or drive over beautiful hills and vales, gazing at will upon the deep-blue mountain range on the west, and to visit the large country houses and large-hearted country folk, must be healthy in every sense. Our young couple were both remarkably adapted to enjo}" such a series of visits, and to brighten life for all with whom they met. Few men so promptly win and so permanently hold the confidence and affection of others as did James P. Boyce. Highly cordial in manner and manifestly sincere, big- hearted and considerate, overflowing with vitality, and yet full of gentle courtesy and abounding in delicate tact, he seemed perfectly at ease, and made all around feel at ease, alike in the palaces of the rich and in the cottages of the poor. One fancies there must still be persons in Cul- peper and m Fredericksburg who remember that summer visit of their gifted and charming young cousins as an epoch of rare enjoyment. This region was full of Baptist churches. A sermon remains, indorsed by Boyce as first preached at Mount Le- banon church, Rappahannock County, Va., August 11, and at Fredericksburg, August 25, 1850. It contains glowing expressions about the beauties of Nature, which leave little doubt that it was written in Culpeper, amid the beautiful hills and in sight of the beautiful mountains; for Prince- ton, with all its celebrity and advantages, lies in a flat and dull country. It is always pleasant when the thoughts of poet or speaker take shape and color from the immediate surroundings. This sermon is on John iii. 16, ''For Grod so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son," etc. The introduction is excellent, and the plan good. AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 81 There is perhaps too much of theological discussion about the divine nature and purposes, and the relations of the Father to the Son, for a discourse meant to be thoroughly practical. It often requires considerable experience before the ministerial student can avoid carrying unchanged into the pulpit the thoughts and methods which have deeply interested him in the lecture-room. But the fault in this case is at any rate not serious. The sermon is earnest, and aims at practical results ; and it can hardly have failed to have been heard with great interest, when read in the sonorous and musical tones, and with the impressive and engaging aspect, of the young preacher.^ After leaving Virginia he visited New York city, and attended a meet- ing of his class at Brown University, introducing his wife to his classmates. Through his first letter from Princeton in September we learn that this summer travelling had occupied more tlian four months. On every Sunday but three he had preached, and had enjoyed much time for general reading. His health was now excellent. He had decided to carrj^ on the third year's work together with that of the second year, and was beginning to plan for the next summer, wlien he should leave Princeton. If no immediate opening for use- fulness should be found in South Carolina, he thought of going to Halle, in Germany, especially to study German and Hebrew; or, to avoid separation from his wife, he might spend several months in some ISTortliern city, and there 1 He must have left Culpeper for Fredericksburg about August 20. Ten days later, the writer of this memoir, having been graduated in June at tlie University of Virginia, and gone to visit his kindred in Culpeper, attended a meeting of the Shiloh Association at a place only four or five miles from Mr. George Ficklen's, and was frightened by being asked to preach. If Boyce had remained a little longer he would have attended also, for he was fond of Associations, and two, who were destined to toil so long together, would have met years before they did meet. Hawthorne has a quaint story to illustrate how often things come very near happening, and do not happen. G 82 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. study the same languages. Two weeks later he is still considering where he shall settle as a minister. If there is no available place in South Carolina, he would be willing to labor near Providence, R. I., or else he will go West, having had already an informal invitation to St. Louis. His present studies (probably meaning especially Theology and Homiletics) have impressed on him afresh the great importance of the ministry. He feels deeply unworthy to be an ambassador for God, not competent to speak words on which must depend men's happiness or misery, according as they shall believe them. He envies his correspondent the ministerial usefulness already at- tained, and longs to equal him, — yea, wishes he could do more than man ever did, in saving souls through the grace of Grod. He is engaged in anxious self-examination as to the reality of his call to be a minister. In December he expresses great regret at learning that all the pamphlets, etc., he left at home have somehow been destroyed. He was through life very solicitous to preserve every pamphlet or periodical, and bequeathed to the Seminary a very large and valuable collection of these, along with his theolo- gical library. This early loss included all his college addresses, and some sermons, with valued letters, etc. He is rejoiced to hear that Mr. Tupper has been preaching on Sunday afternoons to the negroes, including a large number of hired men engaged in building a railroad, and urges him to continue this, if his health will possibly allow. "The Lord will bless your labors to them. Teach them as well as preach to them. You know I have long thought that for such congregations there should be given a great deal of exposition, such as is suitable to explain and cause them to remember the sacred text. I should delight to preach to them myself. I think that while we from the South should support our mission to Africa, we should also remember Africa at home. Let us teach them, preach to them, bear with them, explain to them, though they AT PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 83 may be slow of heart to believe. May Grod bless your efforts, and those of all who attempt to preach the gospel to these poor of our land." Mr. Boyce left Princeton somewhat before the close of the session, May 1st. As a matter of course he received no diploma, since he did not remain till the end of the course. He was always satisfied that he learned more by the plan pursued than if he had entered the middle year (making up the Hebrew by private work), which would have given him the regular graduation. He spent two or three months in New York, devoting himself to a thorough review of his theological studies. He considered the question of going to study in Germany, but concluded that he must now begin ministerial work. Writing to Mr. Tupper in March, he expresses a deep sense of un- worthiness, but a strong desire to be the means of saving souls and glorifying Christ. In July we find him at Washington, Ga., considering an invitation to become pastor of the Baptist Church at Columbia, S. C. The church records show that, August 9, they received a letter from him accepting the pastoral charge, to take effect 1st October. In the summer of 1851 Mr. Ker Boyce made a trip to Europe, accompanied by his youngest children, Ker and Lizzie; but we have no details. The desire to visit Europe grew upon James through all the years, but had to be denied till near the close of his life, — one of the many sacrifices he made for the work of theological education. 84 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. CHAPTER YII. C'^OLUMBIA, the capital of South Carolina since 1790, J is one hundred miles northwest from Charleston, on the Congaree River. This river is formed by the junction of the Broad and the Saluda, and is navigable to the rapids which lie just below the junction. Hence the location of the city, and marked advantages in the way of water-power, never realized till recently. The population in 1851, when Mr. Boyce became pastor, was about seven thousand. There was a railwaj^ to Charleston, which presently made a junc- tion with a railway leading northward by Wilmington, N. C, and lower down with another leading westward by Augusta and Atlanta. Of late years Columbia has become quite a railroad centre, and there has been a marked growth in manufacturing and in population. The city is in a healthy region. The ridge of sand and pines, which near Augusta has become so famous at Aiken, the home of consumptives, extends northeastward so as to include the neighborhood of Columbia. The sand absorbs moisture so as to dr3^ the atmosphere, and the pine-trees take out malarious elements, so that in this region persons having weak lungs in early ^^ears have lived a comparatively long and vigorous life. Columbia was already quite a handsome Southern town. The spacious streets were well shaded, some of them hav- ing not onl}^ trees along the sidewalks, but a double row along the centre, with a walk between, as in Augusta, Savannah, and other Southern cities, and in Commonwealth Avenue, Boston. There were many handsome residences, PASTOR AT COLUMBIA. 85 built in the Southern style, with large rooms and ample windows, and with broad porticos or verandas, sometimes on all four sides of the house, and even repeated for the second story. The principal dwellings were surrounded by extensive grounds filled with trees, shrubbery, and flowers. It is difficult for one who has not seen them to imagine the delightsomeness of these Southern abodes, found often in the country as well as in the town. From the blazing sun you passed into an atmosphere of de- licious coolness, delicately perfumed by the odor of grow- ing flowers that entered at every window. The family were often highly educated, and always had in a high de- gree the charming manners of an aristocratic society. The hospitality seemed j^erfect. The memory of even brief visits to those noble Southern homes bears now a touch of romance, like the history of the old French noblesse, and something like the stories of the Arabian Nights. Prob- ably the most notable residence in Columbia was the famous Hampton House, built by the second Wade Hamp- ton, whose father was colonel in the Revolutionary army, and general in the War of 1812, who was himself aide to General Jackson at the battle of New Orleans, and whose son, of the same name, is the Confederate general and United States Senator, — all three celebrated for skilful horsemanship, all gifted and gallant soldiers, all capital specimens of the Southern gentleman, and born leaders of men. The Hampton House and its grounds are said to have cost $60,000, which was then a large sum of money. Around Columbia in various directions are low and pleas- ing hills, which, with the river scenery, make fine drives, such as Boyce delighted in. The Legislature of South Carolina possessed unusual powers, electing not only governor and judges and senators, but the electors for president, and also appointing all man- ner of county officials. This gave dignity to the post of State representative or senator, and so the Legislature 86 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. included many of the leading planters. These, with the governor and other members of the State government, who were apt to be wealth}^, constituted every winter a very attractive social circle in Columbia, often occupying handsome dwellings of their own, and dispensing a lavish and refined hospitality. The State sustained in Columbia a military school, called the Arsenal, for the first and second years of study, the two higher years being taken at the Citadel, in Charleston. Here also was the South Carolina College, founded in 1804. We have seen that among its alumni were J. L. Petigru and Basil Manly, and may add that they included by 1851 a great many men of whom South Carolina is justly proud, in every leading pursuit of life. Among them was the celebrated William C. Preston, who in the United States Senate and elsewhere was recognized as almost unrivalled in oratorical splendor and passion (not strange in the son of Patrick Henry's sister), and who was just ending in 1851 a term of six years as president of the college. His wide popularity, and the charm of his personal influence, had attracted many students ; and though not remarkable for teaching power or general administrative talent, he had given to the college great celebrity and a commanding influence. The famous James H. Thornwell, D. D., one of the most eminent Presbj^terian ministers and educators in America, was also an alumnus of the college, and had for thirteen years been professor, at first of Logic and Metaphysics, and afterwards of Sacred Literature, with the additional and influential office of chaplain. He had resigned in May, 1851, and gone to Charleston to be pastor, but was destined soon to return. There was also at Columbia a Presbyterian Theological Seminary, which had been twenty years in existence, and was in a prosperous condition. Among the professors was Dr. George Howe, a good Biblical scholar and a very gifted teacher, of whom Mr. Boj^ce oft*en spoke with admiration PASTOR AT COLUMBIA. 87 in subsequent years; and from 1853 Dr. B. M. Palmer, who since 1856 has been pastor in New Orleans, and one of the most eminent preachers in America. As a matter of course, the city had a very flourishing Presbyterian church. The Scotchmen and Scotch-Irish, who had been so influential among the early settlers of the State, were generally faithful to Presbyterianism, and so were many of the Huguenot families; others of the Huguenots, to- gether with the leading English families among the early settlers, attached themselves to the Epis€opal Church. These retained the social prestige brought over from the English Establishment, as Presbyterians still held the educational and social influen-ce which they had brought from Scotland. Both of these important religious bodies have endeavored in America to confine their ministry to men regularly trained for the purpose. This has pre- vented their taking hold upon the American people at large, — even as the lawyers and doctors of this country have necessarily included a very large proportion of men irregularly trained; and the great popular denominations have been those that encouraged every man to preach who felt moved to do so, and whom the people were willing to hear. But the fact that Presbyterian and Episcopal clergymen were regarded as an educated class added to the influences above mentioned in giving those religious denominations a powerful hold upon American cities and towns, which continues to the present day. About the middle of this century, just at the time when James P. Boyce began his work as a pastor, we can see signs of a marked advance among Methodists, Baptists, and other denominations, in the way of having a larger proportion of their ministers to be men thoroughly trained for that calling. The Baptist ministry had always included some such men, in South Carolina and in all the States ; but about this time there was a definite forward impulse. The Baptist church at Columbia comprised in 1851 but 88 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. few members, none of them possessing much of social in- fluence or wealth. The house of worship was a small brick building, presenting a very plain gable front. When young men reared in Baptist families came from the coun- try or from Charleston to reside in the capital, there was everything to draw them away from the Baptist church to the other denominations of whom we have spoken; and yet far-seeing men could perceive that it was wise to be- stow special labor upon this little church. If a minister of ability could manage to live there, faithful work would tell ; for the Baptists were numerous in some parts of the State, and beginning to grow almost everywhere. Mr. Boyce's predecessor, Kev. H. A. Duncan, was a man of talents and worth, but doubtless found it impossible to sustain himself on the meagre salary. Mr. Boyce had the advantage of a large private income, and also of personal acquaintance and influence in the Charleston Association, to which the church at Columbia belonged, and which might be induced to give aid and comfort. It was under- stood before he accepted the call to be pastor that an effort would soon be made to erect a better house of worship, for which it was believed that he could obtain assistance in other parts of the State. So we find our young minister entering upon his duties as pastor in Columbia, Oct. 1, 1851. Two weeks after, he writes that he is much pleased with the work. The con- gregations are very small, but he hopes, by the blessing of God, to be useful. In ^JSTovember he was ordained, the pres- bytery comprising J. R. Kendrick (of Charleston), John Culpeper, John M. Timmons, and the famous Dr. Thomas Curtis, whom we shall meet later in these Memoirs. Dr. Curtis asked the candidate for ordination if he proposed to make a life-long matter of preaching; and he answered, ■' Yes, provided I do not become a professor of theology. '^ These early jears of ministry present, as frequently happens, but little to record. As he is now near to Mr. PASTOR AT COLUMBIA. 89 Tiipper and they often meet, the letters between them are few. We may be sure that he was diligently studying theology, reading widely in his own already large collec- tion of books and in other accessible libraries, and faith- fully preparing his sermons. Besides the Seminary, the College library was one of the best in the South. Board- ing at the principal hotel, he had opportunity for making pleasant acquaintance with legislators and other leading men. His father being known as the wealthiest man in Carolina, and he himself being uncommonly attractive and agreeable, while his wife possessed like qualities in a remarkable degree, he would rapidly gain consideration in important quarters. Yet these things did not at all hin- der his visits to the humblest homes of his congregation, nor his personal influence over all who attended his minis- try; for he had rare power of making himself easy and agreeable among all, and he was deeply earnest in the desire t.o be useful as a minister of the gospel. In December Col- onel Preston left the presidency of the college, on account of ill health, and Dr. Thornwell yielded to much urgency, and, giving up again his cherished desire to be a pastor, returned to Columbia and became president. As a gradu- ate of Princeton, the son of Ker Boyce, and an attractive gentleman, the young Baptist pastor must have early be- come acquainted with this great man, whose sermon in a Charleston pulpit had so charmed him in boyhood, and whose influence must have conduced to the promotion of profound thinking, wide reading, and great earnestness in the gospel ministry. On May 13, 1852, the church, as its meagre records show, granted the pastor three months, or longer if neces- sary, to visit other churches in the State, and solicit con- tributions towards building a new house of worship. The pulpit was to be supplied by his early friend and fellow-stu- dent. Rev. J. K. Mendenhall. We know that in his private carriage Mr. Boyce drove over large portions of the State. 90 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. The contributions pledged do not seem to have been suffi- cient at that time for the purpose, as the new church was not built till several years later. In the summer of this year he was thinking of purchasing a certain house and fitting it up for his residence. In April, 1853, various letters to Mr. Tupper in Charleston contain nothing but requests to select this article, and order that, for his house. It was his fancy that the dwelling should be com- pletely finished and furnished when his young wife first entered it; and those who knew him well can imagine the pleasure he took in arranging all details and perfecting all preparations for their home life. Here they lived for more than two j^ears, delighting to entertain their friends and kindred. In the summer of 1853 Mr. Boyce went north- ward. He had stipulated with the church in the begin- ning that he should have one month of vacation every summer, such definite arrangements being at that time rare in Southern churches. During this trip to the North he attended the meeting of his class at Brown University, now six years after their graduation, and took the degree of A. M. in course. On Jan. 11, 1853, the church records show that the pastor succeeded, after months of persuasion, in intro- ducing a melodeon to help the singing; and the next year he secured a choir-leader, at a salary of one hundred dol- lars per annum. It requires time and patience to alter any fixed usage of a Baptist church; and this respect for established custom is, on the whole, a beneficial check upon the action of a thoroughly free organization in a period enamoured of progress. Throughout these four years of pastoral work at Colum- bia, the young minister was encouraged by a steady growth of the little church. We have seen that the white peoj^le of the city were mainly attached to other churches, and so the material available for him was not large. But there was a marked increase in numbers, and still more in lib- PASTOR AT COLUMBIA. 91 erality and other Christian graces. It mnst have been especially gratifying that he was enabled to get a strong hold upon the colored people. We have seen him dwell- ing upon this subject when editor, and exhorting Mr. Tupper, in one of his letters from Princeton, to work faithfully among the negroes, giving them much oral explanation of the Scriptures. He doubtless pursued this course himself, striving not only to touch their religious susceptibilities, but to give them helpful instruction in the way of salvation and the fundamental duties of a Christian life. A wealthy and highly educated young minister was fitly employed in such labor for the benefit of the slaves. Nor was this a singular case. While the reading world was just then becoming fascinated and enkindled by the high-wrought pictures of '^ Uncle Tom's Cabin," published in 1852, and deeply impressed with the real and supposed evils of slavery; while events were rapidly moving towards the great and awful conflict of ten years later, numerous ministers throughout the South, chiefly Baptist and Methodist, were faithfully laboring to convert and instruct the vast multitude of colored people among whom they found themselves called to the work of the ministry. By no means all was done that ought to have been done; when and where has this been the case about anything ? But thousands and ten thou- sands of Christian men and women did feel the burden of these lowly souls laid upon themselves, did toil faithfully and often with great sacrifice to bring them to the Saviour, and lovingly to guide their weak and ignorant steps in the paths of Christian life. Certainly there was among them, in some respects, a very low standard of Christian morality, as is usually the case with ignorant converts of any degraded race. But there are many still living who can testify, from personal observation and effort, that not a few of these negro Christians gave real and gratifying evidence of being Christians indeed. They were not 92 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. black angels, as some romantic readers of romance half imagined, nor jet black demons, as some who hated them then and now would have us believe; they were and are simply black men, from among the lowest races of man- kind, yet by no means beyond the reach of saving Chris- tian truth and loving Christian culture. Some of us remember them with strange tenderness of feeling, like that of foreign missionaries for their lowl}^ converts, and find it painful to see them grossly misrepresented, either by fanciful eulogj^ or foolish censure. And now that the long conflict is long past, and we are facing the most remarkable problem that any civilized nation was ever called to attempt, — the problem of slowly and patiently lifting these people up to all they can reach, — it were well if mutual misjudgments could be laid aside, if the faithful work of many Christians in those trying jesivs could be on all sides appreciated, and the whole undertaking before us could be estimated in part by its best results, and not simply by its worst difficulties. — ' From this ministry of four years there remain notes of several sermons, and a good many sermons written in full. He usually prepared by making a rather extended sketch, — what lawyers call a " brief," — which he kept before him when speaking. Most of these were allowed to perish in the course of years. From the outset we find him grasping with decided vigor the thought or several thoughts of the text, explaining and strongly vindicating the great doctrines of Scripture, applying the truth to his hearers with direct and fervid exhortation. There is still not much of illustration, but now and then an expanded figure that shows imaginative powers worth}^ to be oftener employed. The style is sometimes negligent, but rarely fails to be lucid and vigorous. Above all, the sermons show a man very anxious to do good; they belong to ''an earnest ministr3\" In later 3'ears we shall meet several sermons that will recpiire our special attention. PASTOR AT COLUMBIA. 93 On March 19, 1854, occurred the death, at Columbia, of Mr. Ker Boyce. He had for some years made his home at Kalmia, not far from Aiken and Graniteville, where he had a delightful residence, shared with him by Mr. and Mrs. H. A. Tupper, until they removed, in 1853, to Washington, Ga. Going to Columbia on a visit to James, he was taken ill with heart-troubles, and after lingering ten days he died on a Sunday at midnight. His children had all gathered, and it is said that they ^'confidently expected his recovery; but he was persuaded of his ap- proaching death, and in view thereof he spoke calmly and with resignation, expressing his hope and trust in the mercy of Christ." Dr. Tupper says that during their residence together at Kalmia he showed great love of the Bible, and special interest in the family worship. Numerous letters to the Tuppers during 1850-1854 have been preserved, and not only abound in the warmest ex- pressions of fatherly interest and affection, but often speak in a distinctly religious tone. Obituaries in numerous papers of South Carolina and other States, and personal recollections of various friends, all go to show that Ker Boyce was a man of remarkable abilities and character. His achievements in the business world would necessarily imply this; for causes have to be equal to effects, and he who has through a long life achieved great things must necessarily be at least in some respects a great man. Mr. Boyce was especially noted for his insight into the character and abilities of men. To an extent quite unknown before that time in Charleston, he trusted his business associates and em- ployees. People observed that notwithstanding predic- tions to the contrary, the enterprises in which he was interested almost always proved successful; and it slowly dawned upon them that he was safe in trustinc^ men, because he selected men who could be trusted. We liave already seen that he was a man of great nerve and pluck. 94 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. wlio in time of commercial panic never feared, but held up things. It is said that he had an extraordinary mem- ory for business matters, keeping details in his head, and never forgetting his business engagements. A marked peculiarity was the ease with which he left all business anxieties behind him at the close of the day. He some- times said that in shutting the doors of his bank he shut in all his worries; and when in the family circle you could hardly have imagined that this was a great finan- cier, daily engaged in large transactions, for he seemed as lively and gay as the children. This power of com- pletely throwing off one's cares, and heartily enjoying the cheery and humorous side of life, has been observable in many of those who have endured great labors and carried through great undertakings in the world. After the death of James P. Boyce, his colleague. Dr. Basil Manly, wrote as follows in a newspaper article: "My memory, as a child, of Mr. Ker Boyce, is of a most dignified, vigorous, commanding figure. The cast of his countenance and the peculiar compression of his lips indicated settled convic- tion and determination, while his penetrating eye showed the intelligence and inquiring mind which made him a power in the city and the State." Portraits show that James strikingly resembled his father in personal appear- ance; and his friends are well aware, as his whole career shows, that there was also a marked resemblance in many admirable points of character. Mr. Ker Boyce bequeathed $20,000 to the Orphan House in Charleston, — an institution highly esteemed in the city, — and $30,000 to the College of Charleston. The income of this latter fund was to be used in aiding needy students, who were chosen by his son James as long as lie lived, and are now chosen by one of the sisters. His large estate was left under the control of a son only twenty-seven years old, and a busy and faithful minister of religion. The associate executors. Judge John Belton O'Neall, Arthur PASTOR AT COLUMBIA. 95 G. Eose, Esq. (who afterwards went to live in England), and James A. Whiteside, of Tennessee, are said to have never taken any part in the management, fully sharing the father's confidence in his son. This confidence was the more remarkable, as much of the estate was to continue in the hands of his executors for many years, the final division not to be made till the youngest grandson should come of age. Through all the trying losses of the war time, and all the solicitudes of the years that followed to the end of his life, the executor bore these burdens of weighty responsibility. It was inevitable that he should need some time for undivided attention to the settlement of so large an estate. Accordingly, the church records show that on April 8, 1854, he asked and obtained leave of absence from pastoral duties until October, ''at which time he hoped to be able to resume them,'' his salary to be used in securing a supply. The letters of that summer to H. A. Tupper are almost entirely occupied with business details. Indeed, from this time forward he had to write so many business letters that there was seldom opportunity for speaking of general matters such as would interest the readers of a Memoir. In November he was chosen moderator of the Charleston Association, thus for the first time called to exercise his remarkable powers as a presiding officer, which we shall have frequent occasion to observe hereafter. In that year Eev. Edwin T. Winkler became pastor in Charles- ton, having previously served two years as Corresponding Secretary of the S. B. Publication Society, and editor of the ''Southern Baptist." The frequent meeting thus occasioned with one so gifted and cultured and lovable must have been a great pleasure to the Columbia pastor. At the end of the year came out Dr. Thornwell's "Dis- courses on Truth," a small volume of sermons which had been delivered in the chapel of South Carolina College. These made a profound impression on some young pastors 96 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. of that day, which might well be deepened in the case of Mr. Boyce by his personal acquaintance with the author. During that winter or spring there were probably negotiations as to the idea of Mr. Boyce's becoming Pro- fessor of Theology in Furman University at Greenville, S. C, the health of Professor Mims having hopelessly failed ; for the church records show that on April 29th Boj'ce tendered his resignation, to take effect October 1st. The church earnestly sought to prevent this dissolution of the pastoral relation, but on May 6th they accepted his resignation, with unusual expressions of regret and affec- tion. They had indeed unusual cause, apart from the pastor's personal worth ; for he showed his interest in the struggling church of which he had for four years been pastor, by proposing to contribute $500 towards a salary of $1200 for his successor.^ We know also of a promise on his part to contribute $10,000 towards a new house of wor- ship for the church, whenever they should be prepared to build, — a promise dulj^ carried out a few years later. It was probably in the autumn of 1854 that he also promised to aid in building a new church on Citadel Square, in Charleston. Mr. Burckmyer, who had married his sister, was about to be baptized, and consulted James B03 ce and B. C. Pressley, Esq., as to whether he should join the First Church, or the newer church on Went worth Street. Pressley said he should do neither, but took them out to Citadel Square, and showed the point at which a new and elegant church building ought to be erected. James approved the idea, and said they could put him down for $10,000. The movement soon began, and others of the Boyce family gave $30,000 more towards erecting what was for along time, and is perhaps.still,the noblest Baptist house of worship in the South. Let it not be imagined that our young minister was thoughtlessly giving away his ample 1 These extracts from the records have been kindl)^ furnished by Eev. W. C. Lindsey, D.D., now pastor of the church at Columbia. PASTOR AT COLUMBIA, 97 inheritance. He gave with reflection and foresight, as we shall find him continuing to do through life. In May, 1855, just after his resignation had been accepted, Mr. Boyce attended the Southern Baptist Con- vention (which then met once in two years) at Montgomery, Ala. Some of us were on the long journey of three or four days from Central Virginia, by way of Wilmington and Augusta. At a point some hours west of Augusta, a branch road came in from Washington, Ga., and several passengers came aboard the train, among them a young man of large figure and smooth, youthful face, at whose entrance the Foreign Mission secretaries. Dr. James B. Taylor and Dr. A. M. Poindexter, both rose eagerly, and met him with great cordiality. Presently Poindexter came and sat down by a young minister of the company, and said, ''Yonder is a man I want you to know. He is a minister of ability and thorough education, and full of noble qualities. His father was a man of great wealth, and he is now very generous in his gifts. He is going to be one of the most influential of all Southern Baptists. I want you to know him." At the introduction, it is re- membered that his marked heartiness seemed somehow a little clouded by a certain reserve. It was not thought by the person introduced, though sometimes thouglit by others in after years, that this reserve was due to hauteur. All who knew him well soon came to understand that he had simply such a contempt for all affected cordiality as sometimes to go just a little towards the opposite extreme, and thus be slightly misunderstood. He was in fact, from youth to age, the soul of cordial kindness. At Mont- gomery the Convention appointed a Committee to investi- gate some controversy between the Foreign Mission Board and Rev. I. J. Roberts, one of the missionaries to China. The details of the controversy would be of no importance now, if they were remembered. The Committee examined very carefully the whole matter, and directed Mr. Boyce, 7 98 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. one of its members, to draw up an elaborate report. He sat up all night to perform the task. When he came for- ward the next day with his report, his commanding figure, ringing voice, and look of unpretending genuineness and broad good sense made an impression that has lasted; and the report so marshalled the facts, and explained all the matters involved, as to vindicate the Board, without casting any painful censure upon the zealous missionary. Poindexter remarked afterwards that he had scarcely ever heard a report of a committee that was so ably written and so impressively read. Mr. Bojce was then twenty-eight years old. It may be well enough to mention that at this meeting of the convention some of us for the first time encountered a new term, and an idea which for the next few years awakened no small controversy. After the organization, some one offered, as usual, a resolution inviting ministers of other denominations to sit with us and participate in our deliberations. This was at once sharpl}- objected to, and there arose a debate which lasted a whole day. Presently the words ^'Old Landmark'' were used; and some of us from distant portions of the South, upon asking what in the world that meant, were told that Rev. J. M. Pendle- ton, of Kentucky, had published in Nashville a tract entitled, ^'An Old Landmark Reset." In this he was said to have maintained that it was a former custom of Baptists not to give any invitation or to take any action which might seem to recognize ministers of other persua- sions as in a just sense ministers. These were also the views of Rev. J. R. Graves, editor of the ^'Tennessee Bap- tist," published at Nashville. These honored brethren, and a number of others from that part of the country, maintained these ''Landmark" views with great earnestness and ability. Those who held a different view appeared in many cases to be taken by surprise, through the novelty, as it seemed to them, of the " Old Landmark; " and they PASTOR AT COLUMBIA. 99 did not always agree among themselves, nor maintain any well-considered or very consistent position. After the day's discussion, it was proposed to end the matter by letting the resolution be withdrawn, upon the understand- ing that those who saw no objection to its passage would concede thus much to the views of their brethren who objected so strongly. Some present thought already that there was no such extreme difference of opinion among us as appeared to exist. The controversy in the next few years rose high, and in some quarters threatened division. But it has now long been felt by most brethren that we could agree to disagree upon the matters involved, and that the great bulk of us were really not very far apart. 100 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. CHAPTER YIII. PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN FURMAN UNIVERSITY. FUEMAi^ University had grown out of the Furman Academy and Theological Institution, opened at Edgefield Court-House, in January, 1827. ^ The South Caro- lina Baptists had previously aided many young men in preparing for the ministry, at various private and public institutions. This school of their own was located at Edgefield in the hope that the Georgia Baptists would unite in building up there a theological seminary. Two years later it was removed to the High Hills of Santee, as exclusively a theological school, the name being after- wards changed to the Eurman Theological Institution. The professors were Jesse Hartwell and Samuel Eurman, the latter being a son of the famous Richard Eurman, l^astor in Charleston during the Revolutionary^ days and afterwards, in whose honor the institution was named. Various attempts were made to combine with the theologi- cal a classical school, having at one time a Manual Labor feature. Tlie theological professors for some j^ears were Rev. William Hooper, D.D., and Rev. J. L. Reynolds, D.D., who both became eminent men. Professor J. S. Mims was elected in 1842, James C. Eurman in 1844, and Peter C. Edwards in 1846. Mims was to teach Systematic Theology, Edwards the Hebrew Language and Biblical Exegesis, and Eurman to teach Sacred Rhetoric and Pas- toral Duties, and Ecclesiastical History. In 1850 it was decided to remove the institution to the town of Green- 1 See an excellent historical sketch by Professor H. T. Coolc in the " Baptist Courier " for July 14, 1892. PROFESSOR IN FURMAN UNIVERSITY. 101 ville, as the Theological Department of a new Furman University, which was Oi^ened in 1851. The theological instruction was given mainly by Professor Minis, as Pro- fessors Furman and Edwards were chiefly occupied with the instruction of the general classes in the University. Professor Mims was a man of high talents and good educa- tion, diligent in study, and loved as a teacher. He was a native of North Carolina, interrupted in his youthful studies, and much hindered through life, by rather feeble health. After studying some time at the University of North Carolina and at the Furman Institution, he was graduated at the Newton Theological Institution, near Boston. He strongly opposed the usual Calvinistic view as to the doctrine of Imputation, and defended himself before the Trustees of the Furman Institution in 1848, in a caustic address on "Orthodoxy," which was published as a pamphlet. This probably led to the two long and elaborate series of articles on Imputation which young James Boyce admitted into the " Southern Baptist, " while he was editor, in 1849. Professor Mims's health quite gave wsLj during the session of 1854-1855, and he died on June 14, 1855, at the early age of thirty-eight. Some books that came from his collection are found in the library of the S. B. T. Seminary, and there is a certain touch of inspiration, a trace of scholarly enthusiasm and discrimi- nation, even in his brief marginal notes. When the trustees met, in July, they elected James P. Boyce as successor to Professor Mims. On July 26 he wrote to H. A. Tupper, then in Europe, that he had been appointed professor, and had accepted, on condition that he should have further assistance, and added that on Tupper's return from Europe in the autumn the chair of Biblical Literature and Exegesis would be offered to him. Boyce quite urges his friend to accept the position. He says there are four students in the theological department, and thinks that by February there will be several others, while 102 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. about twenty are in the collegiate department of the Uni- versity, preparing for the ministry. Notwithstanding the small number of students, there had been, and was, a high ambition to give them thorough training. Professor Mims had worn himself out with the task. Boyce felt, and judicious friends agreed with him, that alone he could not possibly do the requisite teaching. He declared himself willing to divide the salary with a colleague, or to 3'ield it all, if the colleague should lack other means of support. He wrote again to Tupper, on September 29, after begin- ning his work : "I cannot teach more than half the classes next term " (when there would be more students and more classes). Mr. Tupper reached Charleston in October, and at Boyce's request met him in Columbia to consult. But he felt obliged to decline, because unwilling (as he wrote to President J. C. Furman) to sever the ''sacred and happy relation" that bound him to the church at Washington, Ga., ''or to exchange in a measure the office of preaching for that of teaching." Thus Boyce was left to struggle on unaided through his first session. It is stated by stu- dents of the time that he actually taught five hours a day, and some days six hours. To prepare all these lessons, with his high standard of thoroughness and kindling am- bition, was a severe task, to be sure. Dr. John Mitchell, of North Carolina, who was a tutor in the University that year, says that Boyce "was industrious, laborious, and made a fine impression as a teacher from the first." Indeed, Furman University was the seat of much thor- ough study and high teaching. Great advantages are enjoyed by the students and professors of a large and amply endowed institution, and nothing wiser or nobler can be done by generous givers than to build up such endowments. But it must not be forgotten that a very large part of the best educational work that has been done in our new country was performed by small institutions, in which a few struggling professors, ambitious that their PROFESSOR IN FURMAN UNIVERSITY. 103 students should lack for nothing in the way of instruc- tion, were doing each two men's work on half of one man's salary, and really got closer to the students, got hold of them more strongly and impressively, by reason of not being too far in advance of them, because all were toiling and struggling on together. Every limita- tion and disadvantage in life has certain compensations where the men concerned possess real talent and kin- dling aspiration. President James C. Furman, D.D., son of the Richard Furman after whom the institution was named, had as a young preacher enjoyed very remarkable success in numerous revival meetings at important points in the Carolinas. He was for some years pastor of the singularly interesting community about Society Hill, S. C, in the region lying between Columbia and Wilmington. He greatly longed to be only a preacher and pastor, as was true of some others who have felt compelled to yield their preference, and spend their lives in aiding the preparatory studies of their ministerial brethren. When first elected professor in the Furman Institution, he declined; but he accepted in 1843, and remained in connection with the Insti- tution, and afterwards University, until his death in 1890. Dr. Furman was a man of high and varied talents and accomplishments, a very winning and impressive preacher, and a very lucid and engaging teacher. His singularly mild and gentle tones of voice and his general bearing really harmonized perfectly with his force of character and strong convictions. Had he possessed higher bodily health to endure the immense labor of wide study and varied teaching, and had he been gifted with a more resolute and commanding tone in public speech, he would have been generally recognized as one of the ablest men in the coun- try. Numerous students, through almost fifty years, have felt more and more with the unfolding of their own ex- perience how great a privilege they had enjoyed in his 104 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. ripe instruction and his charming personal influence and example. C. H. Judson, the Professor of Mathematics, had been educated at Hamilton and the University of Virginia, and had become professor in Furman University upon its establishment in 1851. The plan of organization of the University, which was adopted the next year, was chiefly prepared by Professor Judson, upon avowed comparison with the documents published by the University of Virginia and by Brown University, which liad in 1850 changed its curriculum into a number of separate schools. Professor Judson remarkably combines a special talent for metaphysi- cal thinking, extraordinary gifts as a mathematician, and uncommon energy and skill in practical business affairs. As treasurer, he helped to carry the University through many years of trial, before and after the war. As teacher of mathematics, he has always been remarkable for very clear statement, given in a forcible and cogent way, and with an enthusiasm for the subject which his quiet man- ner did not prevent from kindling the susceptible student, — a combination making up a great teacher of mathe- matics. He was also at this time teaching the School of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy, and the School of Chemistry and Natural History. Professor Peter C. Edwards, born near Society Hill, S. C, had been graduated in South Carolina College and the Newton Theological Institution. He was now a laborious Professor of Ancient Languages in the University, and had little time for the instruction in Biblical Exegesis which he had formerly given in Furman Institution. A man of strong intellect, great powers of imagination, and depth of feeling, he was an enthusiastic student and teacheT, but was comparatively^ deficient in practical knowledge and practical judgment. Upon some thor- oughly congenial and in itself kindling theme he would preach a sermon of wonderful charm and power, while PROFESSOR IN FURMAN UNIVERSITY. 105 most of his discourses failed to interest the average hearer. A question about some favorite theory of Greek syntax would lead him off into endless and impassioned disqui- sitions, quite unsuspecting that a lad who did not know his lesson had raised that question to stop the recitation. All v\^ho knew Professor Edwards well, greatly admired and loved him, and students naturally inclined to the study of language found him a most inspiring teacher. With the able Professor W. B. E-oyall as head of the Academic Department, and John Mitchell as tutor, — afterwards Thomas Hall, J. B. Patrick, John F. Lanneau, — the University was prepared to do, and really was doing, much first-rate work in teaching. Our ambitious and laborious young Professor of Theology had come into a busy workshoii. The previous professors — Hooper, Keynolds, and Minis — had taken more interest in the directly Biblical studies than in Systematic Theology. Boyce was most interested and best prepared in Systematic Theology and cognate subjects; and for this reason, as well as the excess of labor, he greatly desired a colleague for the Biblical work; but meantime he went on faithfully teaching all the subjects. Professor Mims's course had been arranged for two years; Boyce proposed to insert a previous "undergraduate year," in which for six months before the Commencement the col- lege students for the ministry would give some attention to Hebrew and Biblical History. Among the little group of students was Kev. John G. Williams, who has long been a popular minister in South Carolina. He writes as follows : — ''Dr. Boyce taught us Systematic Theology (using Dick's Theology as a text-book). Church History, Greek New Testament Exegesis, and Hebrew. It was easy to see then that Theology was his strong point, and had already taken a strong hold on him. I thought his lectures — which he required us to take down — on one of the Gos})els were very able, and have always regretted that I 106 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. lost iny uotes of them during the late war, ^yith the greater part of my library. Dr. Boyce impressed me as beiug a very hard student, and one who had found his true calling as a theological professor. It was a calling that stirred his enthusiasm and brought out his real power, thus proving that this was to be his life-work. Dr. Boyce was always interesting, thorough, and patient as a teacher. He took great interest in us, and we felt that he was our friend. We went to his recitation-room, which was in his own house, with the feeling that we were not only going there to be taught, but to have a good time with a warm-hearted, sympathizing friend and brother." Mr. Williams remembers among bis fellow-students at the time A. K. Durham, John Morrall, and J. B. Hartwell. The last was a son of Jesse Hartwell (an early professor in the Furnian Institution), and has labored as a mission- ary in China, and of late to the Chinese in California. During Boyce's second year J. F. B. Mays, of Virginia, was a theological student, and there were some others whose names cannot now be recovered. When formally inaugurated in July, 1856, he delivered an inaugural address entitled '' Three Changes in Theologi- cal Institutions," of which we shall have much to say in the next chapter. The young professor, still only twenty- nine years old, and convinced that he was to speak on vital themes at a time of crisis, prepared this address with great care. Three distinct forms of it appear among his manuscripts. At this meeting of the Board in July, E. T. Winkler was elected to be adjunct professor of theology and of the ancient languages, which would have made him a helper to Professor Edwards also. He declined, and in the fol- lowing January H. A. Tupper was again elected to the same position, and again declined. W^e can easily see now that this series of disappointments, fixing the convic- tion that he could not carry out his cherished plans in a theological department for a single State, was steadily leading Professor Boyce on towards the foundation of a PROFESSOR IN FURMAN UNIVERSITY. 107 general theological seminary for Southern Baptists, for which the way had been preparing through a dozen years. Four months after this last failure to get a colleague, he was at the educational convention in Louisville, throwing his whole soul into the project of establishing a common theological seminary at Greenville. Dr. H. A. Tupper would have made an uncommonly accurate and enthusiastic instructor in Hebrew and other Biblical studies. He mentioned in New York to the famous Dr. T. J. Conant, who had been his teacher at Hamilton, that he had been asked to consider a Hebrew professorship, and had declined, because no Hebraist. Dr. Conant gave a noteworthy replj^: ''You made a mistake. No professor knows much of his chair when he first takes it.'' Doubtless every professor feels thus, whether he begins teaching in youth or in later years. We may add a companion saying of Dr. Gessner Harrison, of the University of Virginia: ''A man ought to stop teaching a subject when he stops learning it." In February, 1857, Boyce writes to Mr. Tupper that he had been asked to consider an election as President of Mercer University, but did not encourage the idea. He is thinking of a trip to Europe as soon as he is free, " either through resignation or additional help in the theological department, or the establishment of a Central Institu- tion." The Mercer appointment was urged upon him again in May, after the Louisville educational convention, with a salary of $2,500, which for that time and region was remarkable; but he positively declined. In August he was formally and unanimously elected to Mercer, but declined. Brethren were beginning to see clearl}^ that here was a man capable of bringing things to pass, and they wanted him. Professor Boyce really taught in Furman University only two years. In July, 1857, he tendered his resigna- tion; but the Board requested him to retain the office of professor, and use his time as he should think proper. He 108 MExMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. spent a considerable part of the next eight months in trav- elling through the State to raise an endowment for the projected theological seminary. About this period, or somewhat later, he gave gratuitous instruction in several subjects in the Greenville Female College, — for which the trustees voted him their thanks in 1860, — and for one year gratuitously discharged the duties of President of that institution. Among his sermons we find one on the recent death of A. P. Butler, United States Senator from South Carolina, who died May 25, 1857. The sermon was probably delivered in Greenville, where some relatives of the Senator were personal friends of the preacher. Judge Butler was a man of very high character, greatly honored and beloved, and since the death of Mr. Calhoun he had been very generally looked up to as a great bulwark and defender of the State in the senatorial conflicts. Mr. Boyce was by no means given to high-wrought eulogium, but he sj^eaks in strong terms of the Senators elevated character, intellectual re- sources, and patriotic spirit, adding as follows: ''Well may the State mourn to-day the loss of such a man. Pure in patriotism, prudent in counsel, pre-eminent above all his contemporaries in that peculiar eloquence which silences and rebukes with withering sarcasm the false charges of unworthy foes, — in these days of misconception, if not of aspersion, of dangers from within and from without, the loss of no man in the national councils could be felt to be more serious. Especially may Carolina mourn the loss of her wise and noble son, of her peerless and invincible champion." A year before his death. Senator Butler had been the subject of a very bitter personal attack in a speech from Senator Charles Sumner. Whether he had pro- voked this by something of his own "withering sarcasm," we know not. But Mr. Sumner was famous for terrific invectiv^e, and it is well remembered that he attacked Mr. Butler in terms so personal and insulting as to be thought PROFESSOR IN FURMAN UNIVERSITY. 109 by the latter's friends simply intolerable. Butler was sixty years old, and in feeble health. It was these cir- cumstances which led his nephew, Preston S. Brooks, a member of the lower House, to determine that he would avenge the insulting assault upon his uncle by physical chastisement of Mr. Sumner. Weary of waiting for him to come forth. Brooks finally rushed into the Senate cham- ber, after adjournment, and assailed Senator Sumner with a cane as he sat writing in his seat. This unjustifiable course turned a very general tide of sympathy in favor of Mr. Sumner, and has caused it to be frequently overlooked that the famous Senator sometimes indulged his powers of invective in ways quite overpassing the limits of pro- priety. How often men forget, in the heated animosities of discussion, that it is a cheap thing to be personally insulting, instead of convincing by earnest argument. If we are to have an end to physical assaults, as is so much to be desired, there ought to be at least some limit to verbal assaults. The hot passions of the period referred to — four years before the war — are revealed by the fact that many men in Carolina and elsewhere not only excused, but unreservedly commended Mr. Brooks's entire course, and many at the North glorified Mr. Sumner as a martyr to free speech, without ever tolerating the suggestion that all the same he had grievously insulted an aged and feeble Senator of the highest character. Even at the present day it is difficult to look back upon that period of varied con- flict and judge fairly of one side or the other. During these years Mr. Boyce also took interest in agri- culture, as his home in the edge of Greenville reached out into several fields of arable land. An agricultural monthly of February, 1858, reported that in Greenville District Pro- fessor James P. Boyce made on one acre fifty thousand nine hundred and thirty-five pounds of ruta-baga turnips and tops, and the men are named who weighed them. It also 110 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. states that of wheat he made forty-four bushels and a peck to the acre, — a remarkable yield for the soil of that region, better suited to corn and cotton than to wheat. He also took interest in the introduction of improved stock; yet not as a mere gratification, for everything must pay, so that others might be encouraged to do likewise. SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. Ill CHAPTER IX. FOUNDATION OF THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 1 ^T^HE idea of a common theological institution for all X Southern Baptists is thought by some to have been first suggested by the eminent South Carolina minister, Dr. W. B. Johnson, while others ascribe it to the equally distinguished Dr. E. B. C. Howell, of Tennessee, and Dr. J. B. Jeter, of Virginia. It had doubtless arisen inde- pendently in the minds of various brethren in different States; and things were slowly preparing for the movement in many ways.^ Nearly every Baptist College at the South had at one time a theological department, like that of Furman Uni- versity, in which James P. Boyce taught. Indeed, several of them were begun as simply theological institutions, and afterwards grew into colleges (frequently called univer- sities, because it was hoped they would finally reach that character), commonly retaining the theological department, though sometimes dropping it. Thus, when the Baptist 1 Some readers will be likely to exercise, in regard to tins and the next chnpter, what Sir Walter calls "a faculty of judicious skipping." But persons interested in the Seminary, or in the general matter of theological education, may like to have the historical sketch here given. 2 A brief historical sketch of these preparatory events was prefixed by Dr. Boyce to the Seminary's first catalogue ; and another was pub- lished by Dr. Manly in the "Seminary Magazine" for December, 1891. Other materials have been drawn from various sources and from personal recollection. ■• 112 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. Seminary at Eichmond, Va., was about to be re-organized as Eichmond College, a Baptist member of the Legislature earnestly and successfully urged that they should drop the theological department, on the ground that for the Legis- lature to incorporate a theological institution squinted towards a union of Church and State, — so great was the sensitiveness on that subject which had survived in Vir- ginia from the fierce conflicts of half a century before. The legislator in question insisted that young preachers should study the Bible and theology under the guidance of older pastors, or that seminaries for the purpose could be conducted without incorporation. This sensitiveness passed away, and several theological seminaries of other denominations were afterwards incorporated in Virginia. In most States the theological department was retained, sometimes with two professors, as we have seen Boyce anxious to have it, but oftener with only one. Much earnest and helpful work was done for small classes in these various institutions, yet there were obvious and very serious difficulties, often keenly felt by the struggling professor himself. Several of these professors were among the most earnest advocates of the establishment of a com- mon seminary, though each naturally wished that the institution with which he was connected might become the nucleus for such a new organization. When Basil Manly, Jr., graduated in 1844 at the Uni- versity of Alabama (of which his father, Basil Manly, Sr., was president), and determined to devote himself to the ministry, the question how he could be best prepared for the work was earnestly discussed between his father and Dr. John L. Dagg,^ then Professor of Theology in Mercer University at Penfield, Ga. (since removed to Macon). 1 Dr. Dagg was a man of great ability and lovable character. His works are worthy of thorongh study, especially his small volume, " A Manual of Theology" (Amer. Bap. Pub. Soc), which is remarkable for clear statement of the profoundest truths, and for devotional sweet- SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 113 Dr. Dagg, while residing in Tuscaloosa, Ala., had been associated with young Manly's early religious experience, so that the latter was inclined to study theology at Mercer under his direction. ''But he advised," says the narra- tive above mentioned, ''with characteristic earnestness and fidelity, that I should not content myself with that, but should seek at once the best advantages and the fullest course that could be procured. These, it was agreed, could be found then at the Newton Theological Institution, near Boston, Mass. When the disruption of 1845 occurred between Northern and Southern Baptists, in their volun- tary missionary organizations, — for the division extended only to these, and never to the actual relations of the churches, — it led to the withdrawal from Newton of the four Southern students who were there, S. C. Clopton, E. T. Winkler, J. W. M. Williams, and myself. The other three went directly into ministerial work,^ while I deter- mined, as I was younger, to prosecute further preparatory study, and went, under the advice of my father, of Dr. Dagg, of Dr. Francis Wayland, and other friends, to Princeton Theological Seminary. . . . There was not at that period an institution at the South where anything like a full theological course could be enjoyed. It was felt that that state of things ought not to remain so. Articles were written in the leading papers by a number of eminent brethren bearing on the question, and suggesting different plans for relieving the situation." During the meeting in Augusta, Ga., in 1845, at which it was decided to organize the Southern Baptist Conven- ness. The writer of this Memoir may be pardoned for bearing witness that after toiling much, in his early years, as a pastor, over Knapp and Turrettin, Dwight and Andrew Fuller, and other elaborate theologians, he found this manual a delight, and has felt through life the pleasing impulse it gave to theological inquiry and reflection. A stepson of Dr. Dagg is the eminent professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Virginia, Dr. Noah K. Davis. 1 They had all been at Newton two years, Manly but one. 114 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. tion, a couference of brethren from various States was held, to consider the question of establishing a theological seminarj^ of a high order. In 1847, at a meeting of the Indian Mission Association, held at Nashville, Tenn., the subject was again discussed by prominent brethren of Kentucky and Tennessee. When the Southern Baptist Convention was to meet on May 2, 1849,^ at Nashville, Dr. W. B. Johnson tried to secure a meeting of South Carolina delegates, at Aiken, on their way to Nashville, to consult about this matter, and with a view to put for- w^ard the Furman Theological Institution as the nucleus of a common seminary ; but this meeting was prevented by the general abandonment of the trip to Nashville. Tho trustees of Mercer University took action about the same time, favoring the idea of a concentration upon that in- stitution. Some scattered cases of cholera in Nashville excited an alarm in distant States, being magnified into an epidemic, and kept away many of those who would have attended the Southern Baptist Convention at that place. But in the meeting there held, it is stated by Basil Manly, Jr., that '' Brethren E. B. C. Howell and J. E. Graves, whom I then met for the first time, were both enthu- siastic and zealous for the establishment of the new insti- tution. In fact, they thought the very time had come." Young Manly considered that matters were scarcely ripe for this desirable enterprise, and was challenged by Brother Graves, who was already a skilled and renowned debater, to discuss the matter before the Convention. He declined the discussion, and gives the following reasons: "I did not want to be put into the false position of antagonizing the progressive movement for theological education, which I earnestly favored ; and I am not ashamed to say I dreaded 1 Its first regular meeting was held at Richmond in 1846. Being at first triennia], like the old Triennial Convention of Baptists of the whole country, its next meeting fell in 1849. Afterwards it became biennial, and of late years annual. SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 115 to cope with so vigorous and able an opponent as Brother Graves in an extempore debate." The Nashville Convention adjourned to meet in Charles- ton on May 23. In anticipation of this meeting in Charles- ton the " Southern Baptist," of which Boyce was just then ceasing to be editor, republished two elaborate articles on this question from the ''Monthly Miscellany, '^ edited in Georgia by Joseph S. Baker. The first article was from E. B. C. Howell, D.D., then pastor in Nashville. He recognizes that many men have been, and many wall be, very useful in the ministry, without formal education at college or seminary. But he argues that the progress of general knowledge, the necessity of encountering trained ministers of other denominations, the demand of many of our churches for better-prepared pastors, all combine to require a larger proportion of thoroughly educated Baptist ministers. He proposes a union of all existing Baptist theological schools in the Southern States at some central and accessible point; and if this be found impracticable, a new theological institution. This article was replied to in the May number of the '' Miscellany " by Robert Ryland, President of Bichmond College. He argues that a great central theological school is impracticable, for it would require $100,000, which cannot be had ; and as the inevitable failure of the attempt would produce general discouragement, he thinks the scheme had better be abandoned. He also inclines to regard a good college course as the main thing, since a man of trained mind could study theology for himself, as many had been doing with great advantage. He remarks upon the impatience of the young men, as often preventing a sufficiently long attendance upon college, and a great theological school would only increase the difficulty. This last, it may be observed, is really one of the grave difficulties in the w^ay of American theological education, and particularly in the far Southern States, where the young grow up so early, and 116 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. are so impatient to enter upon the permanent relations of life. At the Charleston meeting of the Convention, Boyce was one of the delegates, and Basil Manly, Jr., was Assistant Secretary. At a special and separate educa- tional meeting. Dr. W. B. Johnson, President of the S. B. Convention, read an elaborate essay in favor of establishing a central theological institution. Young Manly made an address upon the subject, the notes of which he published in the ''Seminary Magazine" (itt sitjjra). In this he stated that there were then seven theological professors, in as many Southern Baptist insti- tutions, having in all about thirty students. He argued the great advantage of a single central institution for economy and for efficiency. Some of his points under the latter head ought to be quoted, as showing how thoroughly the subject was understood by the men en- gaged in promoting the project. " (a) A division of labor can be had, so that the professors can give better and more thorough instruction, each taking his special subject. . . . (c) A larger number of professors, with their varied characteristics and excellences, would exert a stronger influence, and one not so liable to produce one-sided development, on the students. Strong and good men form their pupils, not only by what they teach, but by what they are ; and the more of such men we have together, the larger the benefit, (d) The mutual acquaint- ance of a large body of students, gathered from different parts of our country, would have a strong tendency to pro- mote a general union of Baptists in all good things, and to keep down local or sectional peculiarities and jealousies. (e) It would afford greater stimulus to study if the stu- dents came into contact with the picked men of a wider area, enjoying, many of them, the advantages of higher culture; and this would be more beneficial to them than if they met simply men from their own State, and brought SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 117 up under circumstances precisely like their own. ' ' He men- tions three plans which have been suggested: ''(1) Trans- fer all present theological funds to a new board, to establish one institution at some point to be agreed on. It is doubt- ful whether this can be legally done. (2) Let the funds remain in the hands of the present local or State boards, but let all agree to use the income for sustaining pro- fessors at some common centre. Hard to get all to agree. (3) Establish a new institution, with new board, new funds, possibly using some one of the existing theological departments as a foundation, but giving it into the charge of a board of trustees selected from all States of the Southern Baptist Convention. This last seems most likely to be carried into execution." After repeated consultation at meetings held during the sessions of the Convention, — for the Southern Baptist Convention itself never at any time took up the question, — a large committee was appointed (A. M. Poindexter, chairman) to correspond with the trustees of existing theological schools, and propose to Conventions or Asso- ciations any means "they may believe calculated to secure in the Southern States a thorough and useful training of our young men who are entering the gospel ministry." There was no practical result of all this, but interest in the subject was slowly widening and deepening. Up to this time James P. Boyce had naturally taken no prominent part in the movement. He was only twenty- two years old, and had not yet begun his theological stud- ies at Princeton. But two or three times, while editing the " Southern Baptist " during the preceding months, he had expressed himself as favorable to the movement. The next action taken, as far as records are accessible, was at the Baptist General Association of Virginia, in June, 1854, proposing a meeting of "the friends of theo- logical education" on May 11, 1855, at Montgomery, Ala., during the session of the Southern Baptist Convention. 118 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. We have seen in a previous chapter that Eev. James P. Boyce, who had just resigned his pastorate in South Carolina, was present and active in this Montgomery Convention. At the accompanying educational meetings B. Manly, Jr., was Secretary, and a Committee of Cor- respondence was appointed, consisting of J. B. Jeter, J. P. Boyce, and others. Eesolutions offered by A. M. Poindexter, and unanimously adopted, declared ''that in the opinion of this meeting it is demanded by the inter- ests of the cause of truth that the Baptists of the South and Southwest unite in establishing a Theological Insti- tue SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 127 schools is of great advautage to the miuister truly trained in the word of truth, has been illustrated by the labors of Paul, Augus- tin, Calvin, Beza, Davies, Edwards, and a host of others who have stood forth in their different ages the most prominent of all the ministry of their day, and the most efficient workmen in the cause of Christ; while in the eleven Apostles, in the mass of the ministry of that day, and of all other times and places, God has manifested that he will work out the greater portion of his purposes by men of no previous training, and educated only in the mysteries of that truth which is in Christ Jesus. ''Never has he illustrated that principle more fully than in connection with the progress of the principles of our own denom- ination. We have had our men of might and power who have shown the advantages of scholastic education as a basis, but we have also seen the great instruments of our progress to have been the labors of a much humbler class. Trace our history back, either through the centuries that have long passed away, or in the workings of God during the last hundred years, and it will be seen that the mass of the vineyard laborers have been from the ranks of fishermen and tax-gatherers, cobblers and tinkers, weavers and ploughmen, to whom God has not disdained to impart gifts, and whom he has qualified as his ambassadors by the presence of that Spirit by which, and not by might, wisdom, or power, is the work of the Lord accomplished. '' The Baptists of America, especially, should be the last to forget this method of working on the part of their Master, and the first to retrace any steps which would seem to indicate such forget- fulness. It has been signally manifested in the establishment of their faith and principles. The names which have been identi- fied with our growth have been those of men of no collegiate education, of no learning or rhetorical eloquence, of no instruction even in schools of theology. Hervey, Gano, Bennet, Semple, Broaddus, Armstrong, Mercer, who were these ? Men of education, of collegiate training, of theological schools ? Nay, indeed. All praise to those who did possess any of these advantages ! They were burning and shining lights. They hid neither talents nor opportunities, but devoted them to the cause they loved, and accomplished much in its behalf. They maintained positions which perhaps none others could have occupied. But their number was not sufficient fur the work of the Lord; and he gave a multi- 128 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. tude of others, — men who were found in labors oft, in wearisome toils by day and by night, in heat or iu cold, facing dangers of every kind, enduring private and public persecution, travelling through swamp and forest to carry the glad tidings of salvation to the lost and perishing of our country. And the Baptists can neither forget them nor the principle taught us in their labors, by the providence of God. Whatever may be the course of those who have the training of their ministry, these ideas have sunk so deeply into the minds of the denomination that they can never be eradicated. And the day will yet come, perhaps has already come, when the churches will rise in their strength and demand that our Theological Institutions make educational provisions for the mass of their ministry. I have spoken of our miuistry in the past, as composed of men whose success illustrates the theory of the need only of theologi- cal education. And yet it is apparent that they enjoyed none of the advantages for that purpose which are connected with the pre- sent arrangements for study. In the absence of these, however, they did attain to the amount of theological education which is essential. This was accomplished through excessive labor, exer- cised by minds capable of mighty efforts, and drawn forth under circumstances favorable to their development. When we look attentively at the record they have left us, or contemplate those of them whom God's mercy to us permits yet to linger with us, we perceive that they were not the uneducated ministers commonly supposed. It is true, as has been said, that they had not the learning of the schools. A few books of theology — perhaps a single commentary — formed, with their Bibles, their whole ap- paratus of instruction, and measured the extent of their reading. But of these books they were wont to make themselves masters. By a course of incessant study, accompanied by examinations of the word of God, they were so thoroughly imbued with the pro- cesses and results of the best thoughts of their authors that they became, for all practicable purposes, almost the same men. And if, by any course of training, substantially of the same kind, our theological schools can restore to us such a mass ministry as was then enjoyed, the days of our progress and prosperity will be real- ized to have but just begun; and we shall go forward, by the help of the Lord, to possess the whole land which lieth bef(^re us. If by any means to these can be added at least fivefold the SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 129 number of those now educated in the regular course of theology, I doubt not but it will be felt that the most sanguine hopes they have ever excited will be more than fulfilled." He now proceeds to inquire whether arrangements can actually be made for offering theological education to that great mass of ministers who have not been to college. '' I believe, gentlemen, that it can be done; and more than this, that in the attempt to do it we shall accomplish an abun- dantly greater work. Let us abandon the false principle which has so long controlled us, and adopt the one which God points out to us by his word and his providence, and from the very supplies God now gives to us may be wrought out precisely such a ministry. Those who have entered upon the work will be rendered fully capable to perform its duties, and numbers besides will be called forth to it who have heretofore been restrained by insurmountable obstacles." The suggestions next offered, as to which seminary studies may be pursued by this great mass of students, need not be here introduced, since the more fully developed plans which a year or two later were wrought out, with his assistance, and introduced into the organization of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, will be given in our next chapter. He now proceeds to restate the benefits of the change he is advocating: — '^ By the means proposed, the theological school will meet the wants of a large class of those who now enter the ministry with- out the advantages of such instruction, — a class equally vrith their more learned associates burning with earnest zeal for the glory of God aud deep convictions of the value of immortal souls, one possessed of natural gifts capable, even with limited knowledge, of enchaining the attention, affecting the hearts, and enlightening the minds of many who surround them ; a class composed, however, of those who, with few exceptions, soon find themselves exhausted of their materials, forced to repeat the same topics in the same way, and finally to aim at nothing bnt con- tinuous exhortation, bearing constantly upon the same point, or, 9 130 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. as is oftentimes the case, destitute of any point at all. In their present condition these ministers are of comparatively little value to the churches, having no capacity to feed them with the word of God, affording no attractions to bring a congregation to the house of God, and no power to set before them when gathered there such an exposition of the word of God as may, through the influences of his Spirit, awaken them to penitence, and lead to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What the same men might become, were they better instructed, is apparent from the results attained by men of the same previous education, who, possessed of more leisure, or of a greater natural taste for study, have so improved themselves as to occupy positions of greater respecta- bility and usefulness. " The class of men whose cause I now plead before you is, of all those which furnish material for our ministry, that which most needs the theological training I would ask for it. Every argu- ment for theological schools bears dire(;tly in fiivor of its interests. Are such schools founded that our ministry may not be ignorant of the truth? Which class of that ministry is more ignorant than this ? Is it the object of their endowment that such education may be cheapened? Who are generally in more straitened circum- stances ? Is it designed to produce an abundant, able, faithful, and practical ministry? Where are the materials more abun- dant ? Whence, for the amount of labor expended, will come more copious harvests ? So that it appears that whatever may be our obligations to other classes, or the advantages to be gained in their education, the mere statement of them impresses upon us our duty, and the yet greater advantages to be gained by the education of that class which should comprise two thirds at least of those who receive a theological education. '' The men who go from college walls untaught in theology have yet a training and an amount of knowledge of incalculable benefit. They can do something to make up their deficiencies. But what chance is there for these others ? They know not how to begin to study. Let one of them take up the Scriptures, and he finds hiriiself embarrassed in the midst of statements which the Church for centuries after the Apostles had not fully har- monized, — statements which constitute the fiicts of theology, from which, in like manner with other sciences, by processes of induction and comparison, the absolute truth must be established. SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 131 If to escape the difficulty he turns to a text-book of theology, he is puzzled at once by technicalities so easily understood by those better instructed that this technical character is totally unper- ceived. If he turns in this dilemma to our seminaries, he finds no encouragement to enter. A man of age, perhaps of family, he is called upon to spend years of study in the literary and scientific departments before he is allowed to suppose that he can profitably pursue theology. Straitened, perhaps, in his circumstances, and unwilling to partake of the bounty of others, he is told that he must study during a number of years, his expenses during which would probably exhaust fivefold his little store. With a mind capable of understanding and perceiving the truth, and of express- ing judicious opinions upon any subject, the facts of which he comprehends, he is told that he must pass through a course of study, the chief value of which is to train the mind, and which will only benefit him by the amount of knowledge it will inci- dentally convey. I can readily imagine the despair with which that man would be filled who, impelled by a conviction that it is his duty to preach the Gospel, contemplates under these circum- stances the provisions which the friends of an- educated ministry have made for him. We know not how many afiected by that sentiment are at this moment longing to enter upon preparation for a work which they feel God has intrusted only to those who, because of their knowledge of his word, have an essential ele- ment of aptness to teach. Be it yours, gentlemen, to reanimate their drooping hopes by opening up befoi'e them the means of attaining this qualification." But he holds that great benefits will also follow in regard to college-bred men. '^ The adoption of the true principle will not only tend, how- ever, to secure for us this education in the masses, which we need, but will also increase fivefold the number of those who will receive a thorough theological education. It will do this by the change of policy to M-hich it will lead in reference to another class of our candidates for the ministry. ^' We have among us a number of men who have enjoyed all the advantages of college life, but who have not been able, or willing, to spend the additional years needed for theological 132 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. study. These are possessed of far greater advantages than those of the other class, — men of polished education, of well-trained minds, capable of extensive usefulness to the cause of Christ ; but their deficiencies are plainly apparent, and readily traceable to the lack of a theological education. They are educated men, but not educated ministers; for, while familiar with all the sciences which form parts of the college curriculum, they are ignorant for the most part of that very science which lies at the foundation of all their ministerial labors. The labors of their pastoral charges prevent such study of the word of God, either exegetically or systematically, as will enable them to become masters of its con- tents. Having entered upon the work of the ministry, however, they are forced to press forward, encountering difficulties at every step, — fearing to touch upon many doctrines of Scripture lest they misstate them, and frequently guilty of such misstatements even in the presentation of the simpler topics they attempt, because they fail to recognize the important connections which exist among all the truths of God. A few, indeed, possessed of giant minds, capable of the most accurate investigations, and filled with indomitable energy in the pursuit of what they feel to be needful, overcome every obstacle, and attain to knowledge often superior to that of others whose training has been more advantageous. But the vast majority find themselves burdened with a weight which they cannot remove, and by which they feel that their energies are almost destroyed. It is needless to say of these that the churches do not grow under their ministry ; that, not having partaken of strong meat, they cannot impart it ; and that their hearers pass on from Sabbath to Sabbath awakened, indeed, to practical duties, made in many respects efficient in co- operating with Christ's people, but not built up to this condition on their most holy faith, but upon other motives, which, however good, are really insufficient for the best progress, — at least of their own spiritual natures. Such is not the position in the ministry which four-fifths of our educated men should occupy. They will tell you themselves, gentlemen, that this should not be the case. If due to their own precipitancy, they will attach blame to them- selves ; but if it result from the exclusiveness of theological schools, their declaration is equivalent to testimony in favor of its removal, and of the admission of all who are capable of pursuing the regu- lar course to participate in its advantages. The disturbances felt SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 133 about unsettled doctrines, the inability experienced to declare the whole counsel of God, the doctrinal mistakes realized as frequently committed, have long since convinced them that all of their other education is of but little value compared vv^ith that knowledge of theology which they have lost in its acquisition. '' The theory of the theological school should doubtless be to urge upon every one to take full courses in both departments; but when this is not possible, it should give to those who are forced to select between them, the opportunity of omitting the collegiate, and entering at once upon the theological, course. I see not how any one can rationally question that many, if not all, of those who are fitted for the Sophomore, or even the Freshman, class in college are prepared, so far as knowledge of books or languages is concerned, to enter with very great, though not with the utmost, profit upon the study of theology. The amount of Greek and Latin acquired is ample for this purpose. The study of Hebrew and Chaldee is commenced in the theological course; while that which is really the main object for the younger men in the collegiate course, the training and forming of the mind so far as at all practicable, will for the older students have been already accomplished, or for them and for the younger ones may be compensated in great part by that more thorough training in the studies of the Seminary necessary to all who would acquire such knowledge of theology as will make them fully acquainted with its truths." The views of the last paragraph and of that which fol- lows would not be acceptable to some college presidents and professors, and are not a necessary part of Dr. Boyce's general scheme. Perhaps the best practical course would be that seminary professors and students should never encourage college men — save in highly exceptional cases — to break off their college course and enter the seminar}^; and that college professors and students should not treat it as an unpardonable sin if some college men do quit college to enter a theological school at once. After all, the students must be treated as free; and their own instinctive judgments, after proper counsel, will oftener lead them right than wrong. 1.34 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. '' Since this is the case, why compel this chiss to spend their time in studies which, however valuable in themselves, have but a secondary importance, compared with those they are made to supersede ? If there be any who will pursue the studies of both departments, their number will never be diminished by the adop- tion of the plan proposed. If it will, better that this be so than that so many others neglect theology. But we may confidently believe that the results will only be to take from the collegiate course those who would neglect the other, and cause them to spend the same number of years in the study of that which has an immediate bearing upon their work. It is simply a choice as to certain men between a thorough literary and a thorough theo- logical course. The former may make a man more refined and intelligent, better able to sustain a position of influence with the world, and more capable of illustrating, by a wide range of science, the truth he may have arrived at ; the latter will improve his Christian graces, will impart to him the whole range of revealed truth, will make him the instructor of his people, truly the man of God prepared in all things to give to each one his portion in due season." He now concludes his discussion of the first change proposed, by insisting that it will involve no radical alter- ations in the w^orking of a theological school, and that it will promote just views of ministerial education. '' The same course of Systematic Theology will be sufficient for all classes, the advantages possessed by those more highly edu- cated enabling them simply to add to the text-book or lectures the examination of Turrettin or some other prescribed author. In the study of Scripture Interpretation, it may be necessary to make two divisions, though experience will probably prove th.e pi'acticability even of uniting these. There will be needed for all classes the same instruction in the Evidences of Christianity, in Pastoral Theology, in the analysis of texts, the construction of skeletons, and the composition of essays and sermons ; and in all of these the classes may be united. So that, really, we shall only so fiir revolutionize the institution as to add numbers to the classes, and permit some of those whom we add to take up those studies only which a plain English education will enable them to SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 135 pursue profitably. All the inconvenience which may accrue therefrom will be gladly endured by all for the benefit of the masses, and because of the mutual love and esteem which, by their throwing together, will be fostered between the most highly educated and the plainest of our ministry. *' In adopting this change we are so far from saying that educa- tion is unnecessary that we proclaim its absolute necessity. We undertake, however, to point out what education it is that is thus essential, and what that which is only valuable ; and while we urge upon all to acquire all useful knowledge as an aid to that work, we point out the knowledge of the word of Grod as that which is first in importance, and we provide the means by which this second class may pursue its appropriate studies, and those by which adequate theological instruction may be given to the four- fifths of our ministry who now enjoy no means of instruction. And we look with confidence for the blessing <»f God upon this plan, not because we believe that he favors an ignorant ministry, but because, knowing that he requires that his ministry be instructed, and that by his word and his providence he has pointed out the nature of the learning he demands, we believe that the plan proposed is based upon these indications ; and that his refusal to send forth laborers has been chastisement infiicted upon us that we may be brought back to his own plans, which we have abandoned for those of men." The second change v/liicb Professor Boyce suggests is that after completing the usual course of theological study, some students should be encouraged to remain for further graduate studies. A proper provision for such graduate studies would tend to promote theological scholarship in our countr}^ *' It has been felt as a sore evil that we have been dependent in great part upon the criticism of Germany for all the more learned investigations in Biblical Criticism and Exegesis, and that in the study of the development of the doctrine of the Church, as well as of its oatward progress, we have been compelled to depend upon works in which much of error has been mingled with truth, owing to the defective standpoint occupied by their authors. "And although the disadvantages of American scholars have 136 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. been realized, arising from tlie want of adequate theological libraries, as well as from the inaccessible nature of much other material, it has been felt that it has been in great part due to the limited extent to which the study of theological science has been pursued among us, that we have been so much dependent upon others, so unable to push forward investigations for ourselves, and even so inadequately acquainted with the valuable results of others who have accomplished the work for us. But a few perhaps have participated in this sentiment, but the evil which awakens it is not, therefore, the less momentous." In this matter Baptists ought to feel themselves specially concerned. " It is an evil which may be regarded as pervading the whole field of American religious scholarship, and the remedy should be sought alike by all denominations. It is a matter of the deepest interest to all that we should be placed in a position of indepen- dence in this matter, and that our rising ministry should be trained under the scholarship of the Anglo-Saxon mind, which, from its nature, as well as from the circumstances which surround it, is eminently fitted to weigh evidence, and to decide as to its appropriateness and its proper limitations. But the obligation resting on the Baptist denomination is far higher than this. It extends not merely to matters of detail, hut to those of vital interest. Tlie history of religious literature and of Christian scholarship has been a history of Baptist wrongs. We have been overlooked, ridiculed, and defamed. Critics have committed the grossest per- versions, violated the plainest rules of criticism, and omitted points which could not have been developed without benefit to us. His- torians who have professed to write the history of the Church have either utterly ignored the presence of those of our faith, or classed them among fanatics and heretics ; or, if forced to acknowl- edge the prevalence of our principles and practice among the earliest churches, have adopted such false theories as to church power, and the development and growth of the truth and principles of Scripture, that by all, save their most discerning readers, our pretensions to an early origin and a continuous existence have been rejected. " The Baptists in the past have been entirely too iudifierent to SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 137 the position they thus occupy. They have depended too much upon the known strength of their principles, and the ease with which from Scripture they could defend them. They have therefore neglected many of those means which extensive learning affords, and which have been used to great advantage in support of other opinions. It is needless to say, gentlemen, that we can no longer consent to occupy this position. We owe a change to ourselves, — as Christians, bound to show an adequate reason for the dif- ferences between us and others ; as men of even moderate scholarship, that it may appear that we have not made the gross errors in philology and criticism which we must have made if we be not right ; as the successors of a glorious spiritual ancestry, illustrated by heroic martyrdom, by the profession of noble prin- ciples, by the maintenance of true doctrines ; as the Church of Christ, which he has ever preserved as the witness for his truth, by which he has illustrated his wonderful ways, and shown that his promises are sure and steadfast. Nay, we owe it to Christ himself, whose truth we hold so distinctively as to separate us from all others of his believing people ; to whom we look con- fidently to make these principles triumphant ; for whose sake, on their account, men have been ever found among us M^illing to sub- mit to banishment, imprisonment, or martyrdom ; and for whose sake, in defence of the same truth, we are willing now to bear the scorn and reproach, not of the world only, but even of those who love our Lord Jesus Christ." He proceeds to inquire how this object can be accomplished : — ''It is scarcely necessary to remark that any plan which can be devised must be based upon the presence in the institution of a good theological library, — one which shall not only be filled with the gathered lore of the past, but also endowed with the means of annual increase. Without this, no institution can pursue extensive courses of study, or contribute anything directly to the advancement of learning. The professor is cut off from valuable and necessary books, and the student hindered from making even the least important investigations in the course of study he is pursuing. " The plan I propose to you supposes the possession of such a 138 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. library ; and this, even if it be such, is its only peculiar item of expense. Taking the idea from the provision made in some of our institutions for the degree of Master of Arts, it has occurred to me that an additional course of study might be provided for those who may be graduates of theological institutions. This course might extend over one or two years, according to the amount of study the student may propose to accomplish. In it the study of the Oriental languages might be extended to the Arabic and the Syriac. The writing of exegetical theses would furnish subjects for investigation, and give a more ample acquaint- ance with the original text and with the laws of its interpretation. The text-books or lectures studied in Systematic and Polemic Theology could be compared with kindred books, the theories of opponents examined in their own writings, and notes taken for future use from rare and costly books. These and similar studies, which should be laid down in a well-digested course, would bestow accurate scholarship, train the student in the methods of origi- nal investigation, give him confidence in the results previously attained, and open to him resources from which he might draw extensively in interpreting the Scriptures, and in setting forth the truths they contain. The result would be that a band of scholars w(»uld go forth, from almost every one of whom we might expect valuable contributions to our theological literature. ''It is to be expected that but few would take advantage of this course. Such would certainly be the case at first. The only result would be that but little additional provision will be needed. Two additional recitations a week for each of three or four pro- fessors would be more than adequate. And though such students should not be more than a twentieth part of those graduated, though not more than one each year, will not their value to the denomination more than counterbalance the little additional attention which will thus be given ? " It is then further shown that these arrangements would help to train missionaries, such as may wish to translate the Scriptures into heathen languages, or to encounter learned and able teachers, heathen or Mohammedan. This would also give special training of various kinds to men suited to become professors in our colleges, seminaries, etc. SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 139 The tliird change, proposed by this address, to be made in theological institutions was that a ''declaration of doctrine " should be adopted, which persons assuming professorships should be required to sign, pledging them- selves to teach in accordance with, and not contrary to, the doctrines thus laid down. It is urged as very desir- able that every particular church among us should have some statement of doctrine in which its members may be instructed. It is shown to be still more important to examine carefully the men about to be ordained as min- isters, in order to see whether they are sound in the faith, — a duty generally recognized among us, and more or less faithfully performed by churches and ordaining presbyteries. And then it is argued, a fortiori, that above all we ought to ascertain and guard the doctrinal sound- ness of a theological instructor. '' But the theological professor is to teach ministers, — to place the trath, and all the errors connected w^ith it, in such a manner before his pupils that they shall arrive at the truth without dan- ger of any mixture of error therewith. He cannot do this if he have any erroneous tendencies, and hence his opinions must be expressly affirmed to be, upon every point, in accordance with the truth we believe to be taught in the Scriptures." This point is strongly set forth and strikinglj^ illus- trated, as follows: — '' It is with a single man that error usually commences ; and when such a man has inHuence or position, it is impossible to estimate the evil that will attend it. Ecclesiastical history is full of warning upon this subject. Scarcely a single heresy has ever blighted the Church which has not owed its existence or its development to that one man of power and ability whose name has always been associated with its doctrines. And yet, seldom has an opinion been thus advanced which has not subsequently had its advocate in every age, and which in some ages has not extensively prevailed. 140 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. " The history of our own denomination in this country furnishes an illustration. Playing upon the prejudices of the weak and ignorant among our people, decrying creeds as an infringement upon the rights of conscience, making a deep impression hy his extensive learning and great abilities, Alexander Campbell threatened at one time the total destruction of our faith. Had he occupied a chair in one of our theological institutions, that destruction might have been completed. There would have been time to disseminate widely and fix deeply his principles, before it became necessary to avow them publicly ; and when this neces- sity arrived, it would have been attended by the support of the vast majority of our best educated ministers. Who can estimate the evil which would then have ensued ? " The danger w^hich threatened in this instance may assail us again. Another such, and yet another, ma^' arise, and, favored by better circumstances, may instil false principles into the minds of his pupils, and, sending them forth to occupy the prominent pulpits of the land, may influence all our churches, and the fair fabric of our faith may be entirely demolished. " This it is that should make us tremble when we think of our theological institutions. If there be any instrument of our denom- inational prosperity which we should guard at every point, it is this. The doctrinal sentiments of the Faculty are of far greater importance than the proper investment and expenditure of its funds; and the trusts devolved upon those who watch over its interests should in that respect, if in any, be sacredly guarded." He thus concludes as to the third proposed change: — ''It is therefore, gentlemen, in perfect consistency with the position of Baptists, as well as of Bible Christians, that the test of doctrine I have suggested to you should be adopted. It is based upon principles and practices sanctioned by the authority of Scripture and by the usage of our people. In so doing, you will be acting simply in accordance with propriety and righteous- ness. You will infringe the rights of no man, and you will secure the rights of those who have established here an instrumentality for the production of a sound ministry. It is no hardship to those who tench here to be called upon to sign the declaration of their principles ; for there are fields of usefulness open elsewhere SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 141 to every man, and none need accept your call who cannot con- scientiously sign your formulary. And while all this is true, you will receive by this an assurance that the trust committed to you by the founders is fulfilling in accordance with their wishes, that the ministry that go forth have here learned to distinguish truth from error, and to embrace the former, and that the same precious truths of the Bible which were so dear to the hearts ot its founders, and which I trust are equally dear to yours, will be propagated in our churches, giving to them vigor and strength, and causing them to flourish by the godly sentiments and emo- tions they will awaken within them. May God impress you deeply with the responsibility under which you must act in reference to it ! " Among the closing paragraphs of the address, the fol- lowing ought assuredly to be quoted. We have seen that B. Manly, Jr., had made similar suggestions in his address at Charleston ; and experience goes to show that the point in question is of very great importance. '' It will be perceived that the great peculiarity of the plans proposed is that they contemplate gathering all our students into a single institution. The courses of study are all to be pursued conjointly. The several classes of young men are to be thrown together in the pursuit of their respective studies. It is for this, as opposed to any other method, that I would strenuously contend. The object is not the centralization of power in a single institution, for I believe the adoption of these changes will make many seminaries necessary. I advocate a single one now, because the demand for more than one does not exist. But it is that our young men may l)e brought into closer contact with each other. Various prejudices are arising in our denomination among the various classes of the ministry. This would be my scheme to remove them. The young men should be so mingled together as to cause each class to recognize the value of the others, and thus truly to break down entirely any classification. Those who take the plain English course will see the value of learning in the increased facilities for study it affords to their more favored companions. Those who have this learning will see that many 142 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. of the other class are their superiors in piety, iu devotion to God, in readiness to sacrifice for his cause, in willingness to be counted as nothing, so that Christ may be preached. The recognition of such facts will be mutually beneficial. The less-educated min- isters will feel that they have the confidence and afifection of all their brethren; the better-educated will know the esteem with which they are regarded ; and the bonds of mutual love will yearly grow stronger, until we shall see a ministry of difi'erent gifts, possessed of extensive attainments, thrown into entirely different positions in the field, yet laboring conjointly, mutually aiding and supporting one another in advancing the kingdom of Christ, in preaching his glorious gospel, in calling forth laborers into his field, and in fostering those influences which shall tend to the education of a sound and practical and able ministry." This address by Professor Boyce proved to be epoch- making in the history of theological education among Southern Baptists. He was accustomed to say, in conver- sation on the subject, that his ideas had been partly derived from his revered instructor, President Wayland, of Brown University, to wdiom we have seen that he always felt himself in many ways very greatly indebted. Besides the general effect of his lectures and conversations upon the quite similarly constituted mind of young Boyce when a student, President Wayland had, three years before the delivery of Boyce's inaugural, given a notable address at the University of Rochester, by request of the New York Baptist Union for Ministerial Education, entitled, ''The Apostolic Ministry." In this he had shown that our strong denominational belief in a divine call to the ministry ought to have an important bearing upon our methods of ministerial education. ''If we are willing to follow, and not to lead, the Spirit of God, — that is, if we educate no man for the ministry until we are satisfied, not that he may he, but that he has been, called of God to the work of preaching the Gospel, — we shall always have among our candidates a large number of those who have passed SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 143 the period of youth, and for whom the studies of youth would be uusaitable, if not useless. Yet these are the very men to whom appropriate culture would be specially valuable. Others, in various degrees, have been more favored with preparatory education, and the means for more extended discipline. The means and advantages of our candidates must therefore be exceed- ingly dissimilar. If, then, we would labor to give to the ministry the means of improvement, we must provide those means for them all. A system of ministerial education adapted to the con- dition of but one in twenty of our candidates, commences with the avowed intention of doing but one -twentieth part of its work, and of helping those only who have the least need of its assis- tance. We should therefore provide, for all our brethren whom God has called to this service, the best instruction in our power; adapted, as far as possible, not to any theoretical view, but to the actual condition of the mass of our candidates, leaving each indivi- dual, in the exercise of a sound and pious discretion, to deter- mine the extent to which he is able to avail himself of our services. While means should be fully provided for pursuing an extended course of education, we must never lose sight of the large number of our brethren to whom an extended course would be impossible." These views of Dr. Wa^'-land excited at the time consi- derable newspaper discussion on the part of educators, the discourse being printed in tract form and widely circulated. They probably had some effect upon the existing Baptist Theological Schools, in making them less unwilling to receive students for a partial course. But our Baptist Colleges and Theological Seminaries in America had fol- lowed very closely the Congregational and Presbyterian pattern, built upon ideas brought from England and Scotland; and any departure from the curriculum, and introduction of men imperfectly prepared, to pursue an irregular course, was generall}'- regarded with disfavor on the part of presidents and professors. Dr. Wayland had several years earlier made an earnest effort to intro- duce different ideas and methods, through the re-organiza- 144 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. tion, in 1850, of Brown University. He travelled over tlie United States, visiting many universities and colleges, and finally succeeded in introducing at Brown a thoroughly elective method, quite similar to that which for twent^'-five years had been in successful operation at the University of Virginia.^ We have seen that he recognized in ''The Apostolic Ministry " the propriety of allowing a theologi- cal student to exercise some discretion as to the extent of his theological studies. In a famous series of articles published in "The Examiner, '' and collected into a volume in October, 1856, entitled ''Principles and Practices of Baptist Churches," he speaks sarcastically about the exist- ing theological seminaries : — " If, however, a suggestion iu respect to them might be made without presumption, I would ask, could they not be rendered more efficient ? By the tables already referred to, they graduate annually about one student and a half to each officer of instruc- ticra. Could not this proportion be somewhat exceeded? The labor of teaching such classes cannot be oppressive; might not other courses, adapted to other classes of students, be introduced ? So long as our seminaries admit none but those who have pursued a coUegiate course or its equivalent, their number of students must be small, and the labor of instructors not burdensome. ... If it might be done without offence, I would ask, might not more direct effort be exerted to make preachers ? — I say preachers, in distinction from philoh)gists, translators, professors, teachers, and writers on theology. Other professional schools aim to render men able in the practice of their several professions. . . . Why should not the theological school aim more simply at making good and effective preachers ? Men need instruction and practice 1 The writer remembers the feeling of denominational pride with which, as a student of the University of Virginia, he was introduced to the famous president and author, and gazed upon his commanding form and noble face while he sat in a lecture-room. Dr. Gessner Harrison and Dr. McGuffey explained to Dr. "Wayland, in extended conversa- tions, sought by him, the nature and working of Mr. Jefferson's plans of elective education. SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 145 in the every-day duties of the ministry. They should acquire the po^Ycr — and it is a great power — of unwritten, earnest, effective speech." He expressed gratification that in Newton particularly arrangements were now made for the especial improvement of theological students who have not passed through a collegiate course. While Dr. Wayland's ideas were in general rejected, we thus perceive that they had some effect; and through the years that have followed, professors in various Baptist Theological Schools have earnestly striven to do their best for the less-prepared students. They have been embarrassed in this by the fact that all their work rested on the basis of a curriculum; but, wdiether cheerfully or reluctantly, they have labored in this direction. The recent exclusion from the Rochester Theological Seminary of all who have not been prepared by a college course or its equivalent; the arrangement in the Newton Theological Institution by which less-prepared students are entirely separated from the others, and taught in sej)arate classes ; and various other indications, — show that our able and honored Baptist breth- ren engaged in theological education have deeply felt the difficulty of admitting irregulars upon the basis of a curri- culum. And yet the ideas set forth by Dr. Wayland have not ceased to live among thoughtful Baptists of the great North and Northwest. Indeed, he and Professor Boyce were but interpreting the fundamental Baptist ideas of the ministry. And wherever Baptists have striven to confine their ministry to men regularly trained in college and seminary, thej^ are still comparatively limited in numbers; while, on the contrary, wherever they have encouraged every man to preach w^ho felt called of God to preach, whom his church indorsed as suitable, and a presbytery as sound, and whom the people were willing to hear, — there the Baptists have grown rapidly, and are a people mighty, at 10 146 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. least in numberSj and great in tlieir possible future, No one need be surprised if among our Northern brethren there should come any year a new utterance of ideas like those of Dr. Wayland, and new plans for getting hold in some way of the many ministers who cannot — or (what is for independent Baptists equivalent) will not — go through a regular course at college and seminary. Some Baptist educators in the Southern States were in like manner wedded to the idea of restricting our exertions to the thorough training of well-prepared men; but in general the history of Baptist progress in the South and Southwest — the vast number of ''self-educated" or "un- educated" ministers who had been very useful, together with the spirit of local independence which pervades great agricultural regions, and the disposition of Southern na- tures to delight much in the oratorical fervor which may be manifested without high mental training — led many thoughtful men among Southern Baptists, in the ministry and out of it, to see the wisdom of Boyce's ideas. More- over, these ideas were embodied in a representative quali- fied in an extraordinary manner — by gifts and character, by training and personal influence, by youthful vigor, com- bined with practical wisdom — to carry these ideas into effect. A long struggle was before him, which if foreseen might well have been deemed hopeless. But we can now perceive that in him, and the older and younger men of whom he would become the leader, and in the situation and aspirations of Southern Baptists, there existed the elements of success. We return now to the proposition — which, at the sug- gestion of Professor Boyce, had been made by the South Carolina Baptist State Convention, and directed to be laid before the proposed convention in Louisville in the following May — that the South Carolina Baptists would give one hundred thousand dollars for the endowment of a common theological institution at Greenville (incor- SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICxVL SEMINARY. 147 porating therein the theological department of Furman University), pro^^ided that an additional hundred thousand should be raised elsewhere. The Educational Convention held in Louisville, May, 1857, in connection with the sessions of the Southern Baptist Convention, included eighty-eight delegates, from Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas, from Georgia and Alabama, from Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, from Tennessee and Kentucky. Much interest was ex- cited by the fact that a definite and generous proposition had been made by the South Carolina brethren, together with the assurances of Professor Boyce and others that the money needed from that State could be raised. A great desire was felt to push the now hopeful movement into practical operation as speedily as possible. After much earnest discussion, it was agreed to propose the establish- ment of the desired theological institution at Greenville, S. C, in the following year, provided that the sum of one hundred thousand dollars should be raised in that State by May 1, 1858, ready to be placed in the hands of trustees. The interest of this money (seven thousand) was to be used for the support of three professors, for the purchase of books (not exceeding five hundred dollars annually), and for paying a proper agency in the other States to secure the hundred thousand dollars which was to be raised elsewhere ; provided, also, that recitation and lecture rooms could be secured in Greenville free of rent for some years. It was further arranged that if the remaining hundred thousand should not be made up within three years, then the endowment furnished from South Carolina should revert to the Furman University, for theological purposes, and the contributions collected elsewhere to their respec- tive donors. These arrangements show Boyce's hand throughout. They were bold and inspiring, and yet carefully guarded. It was then proposed that a special educational convention should be held at Greenville in 148 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. May, 1858, to organize the desired institution, provided the South Carolina Baptist Convention should accept these conditions. Committees of five were appointed to prepare a plan of organization, to nominate professors, to secure from the South Carolina Legislature an appropriate charter, to provide for a suitable agency in other States, and to issue an address to Southern Baptists. In an- nouncing the Committee on Plan of Organization, the President, Dr. B. Manly, Sr., said apologetically that he had appointed comparatively young men, because it was proposed to form a new institution suited to the wants of our own ministry, and young men were more likely to be successful in devising new plans. So he announced J. P. Boyce, J. A. Broadus, B. Manly, Jr., E. T. Winkler, William Williams. This is worth mentioning because, as will hereafter appear, these five were destined to be elected as professors in the Seminary, and four of them to serve. Probably the wise old heads of the Convention had their plans already; but certainly one member of the committee had no thought of such a thing. Dr. Jeter prepared a ringing address to Southern Bap- tists. He showed that a common institution was de- manded, and brethren had for a number of years been earnestly striving to compass its establishment. The scheme now proposed was feasible, having been unani- mously approved by a body "which commenced its ses- sion with very conflicting views.'' It was also eminently promising, for Greenville would be a very desirable loca- tion, as to accessibility, health, and cheapness of living. He stated that the Seminary was to be organized upon a new plan : — '' Being free from the shackles imposed by the old systems and established precedents, and having all the lights of experience and observation to guide us, we propose to found an institution suited to the genius, wants, and circumstances of our denomina- SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 149 tion; in which shall be taught with special attention the true principles of expounding the Scriptures and the art of preaching efficiently the Gospel of Christ." He guarded a point on which some natural apprehension was felt : — "■ This scheme will interfere with no existing institution. It does not propose to curtail the labors or inliuence of any of our State colleges. Some of them will probably continue to give, as they have heretofore done, a limited course of theological instruc- tion, and those who find it desirable will avail themselves of its benefits. But it is proposed in the Greenville institution to furnish a more thorough course of instruction than any as yet adopted in our State seminaries ; and also perhaps a more Hmited course for those students whose age and circumstances will not permit them to pursue an extended course. ... On the whole, we cannot but think that the divine hand has guided us thus far. Obstacles seemingly insuperable have been removed out of the way, conflicting opinions and interests have been harmonized, and a bright and cheering prospect of success has suddenly opened before us. It only remains that we should trustfully follow the divine guidance." In July the State Convention of the Baptist denomina- tion in South Carolina adopted the Louisville modification of their proposal, and appointed Eev. J. P. Boyce as agent to collect the needed $70,000. He tendered his resigna- tion as professor in the University, but the Trustees declined to accept, and authorized him to act according to his own judgment in regard to the agency work during the coming year. He. probably had very little time for teach- ing in the course of the next session. We know that in his two-horse buggy, driven by a servant, he travelled far and wade over South Carolina, visiting out-of-the-way churches, and planters on remote plantations, and throwdng all the energies and resources of his being into what was then and there a very large and difficult undertaking. It 150 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. was no doubt often with a sense of heavy sacrifice that the young husband and father left the bright home he loved so well, with the already rich store of choice books in which he so delighted, for these laborious and not always successful journeys. He no doubt cheered himself with the thought that all this would be only for part of one year. If he had foreseen that after a season of great and ruinous calamities he would have to spend a considerable part of every ^^ear i]i like absences for the Seminary's sake, to wear himself out for it, witli all manner of heavy sacri- fices, one does not know whether even that strong and brave young heart could have faced the life-long task. Our ignorance of the future is often, under the leadings of God's providence, a necessary condition of our worthiest undertakings and largest successes. In August, 1857, Professor Boyce called a meeting in Richmond, Va., of the committee on the Plan of Organi- zation of the proposed Seminary. He had requested B. Manly, Jr., to draw np an abstract of doctrinal principles, to be signed by each professor; had undertaken himself to devise the legal and practical arrangements in regard to trustees and professors ; and had requested J. A. Broadus to prepare the outline of a plan of instruction. The last- mentioned had suggested at Louisville that the "changes" proposed in Boyce's address, especially the apparently dif- ficult matter of uniting all grades of theological students in the same institution, could be effected through a plan adapted from that of the University of Virginia, with which he was familiar. The other two members of the committee did not come. We met in Richmond, at the residence of Manl}', who was Principal of the Richmond Pemale Institute, and discussed together the portions which each had provisionally drawn up. Through their experience as students at Newton and Princeton, Boj^ce and Manly were able to make valuable emendations of the plan of elective education for a theological school, which after much study SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 151 of theological catalogues had been drawn in substantial imitation of the method pursued in the great University, — by that time nearing the height of its distinction, hav- ing as many students 'as were then found at Harvard or Yale, and sending its graduates to be professors in colleges and universities all over the South. It was a great pleasure, during those days of earnest conference, to enter into intimate acquaintance with the young professor, to recognize his energy and wisdom, his courtesy and delicacy, his broad views of every question, his eager desire to make this institution a success beyond all precedent, his true-hearted devotion to the cause of Christ. The last in this long series of educational conventions for the purpose of establishing a common theological sem- inary was held in G-reenville, S. C, May 1st, 1858. It was a time of general revival throughout the South, and many pastors were on that account kept from carrying out their known purpose of attending the convention. But Dr. G. W. Samson was there from Washington, who had attended two or three previous conventions for this purpose, and had manifested the greatest interest in the enterprise. Drs. Jeter and Poindexter and four others were present from Virginia, with two from North Carolina, one from Louisiana, one from Georgia (Professor William Williams of Mercer University), and thirty-three from different bodies in South Carolina. The object of this convention was to adopt a plan of organization for the Seminary, to elect professors, and provide for its going into operation the following autumn. The plan of organization proposed by the committee was carefully discussed, at many points, by a committee for the purpose, and by the whole convention. Drs. Poindexter and Samson were particularly earnest, various others also taking part, in discussing the Abstract of Principles; and Dr. Samson remembers the special interest that was taken in 152 MEMOIR OF JAMES F. BOYCE. the article about the Doctrine of Imputation, which nine 3'ears before had been discussed in two long series of articles in the '' Southern Bax^tist," when young Boyce was its editor. Some brethren in the convention had their doubts about the wisdom of arranging no curriculum, but a number of distinct departments, or schools, in each of which a separate diploma or certificate of proficiency should be given. But Boyce had heartily accepted a plan which promised to make it easy for students of every grade of preparation to study together in the same institution, and for the most part in the same classes ; and many others cheerfully accepted the scheme. The final vote as to every part of the organization is believed to have been unan- imous ; but the discussions had been so free and full as to occupy five days. Instead of three professors, as had been suggested at Louisville, Boyce boldly proposed the appointment of four professors. He had obtained nearl}^ all of the requisite $70,000, and was sure of the rest in a few weeks. Part had been paid in cash, and the remainder was held in bonds bearing seven per cent interest. He felt confident that special contributions for income could be had, if neces- sary; and his boldness m planning was upheld by the fact — one not very common in the case of young ministers founding institutions — that he had a large private income. He had made arrangements for securing, with- out rent, the recently vacated house of worship of the Greenville Baptist Cburch, w^hich was just then entering its new and beautiful building. This small but well-built house could be adapted with little cost to use for lecture- rooms and library. He stated it as his opinion that the Seminary ought to abstain from spending money upon buildings until it should first liave secured an ample endowment for support of the instruction. In hearty approval of this idea, an expression was thrown out by one of the speakers, which was repeated years afterwards in SOUTHERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 153 New York, and lias spread all over the couiitiy. Rev. Thomas Curtis, D.D., a member of the convention, and Prin- cipal of the Limestone (S. C.) Female Institute, was an Englishman, a man of commanding appearance and abil- ities. He said, with sonorous English tones and rolling r's, '^ The requisites for an institution of learning are three ^'s, — bricks, books, brains. Our brethren usually begin at the wrong end of the three &'s; thej' spend all their money for bricks, have nothing to buy books, and must take such brains as they can j^ick up. But our brethren ought to begin at the other end of the three b's." Seven years later, when the question was of undertaking to carry on the Seminary after the war, with the endowment lost, and in a land swept as by a cyclone, it was remem- bered with special gratitude that Boyce's plan had been adopted in regard to buildings; for even a few thousand dollars of debt would then hav^e sunk the enterprise beyond redemption. Hon. A. B. Woodruff remembers that during the dis- cussions Boyce once spoke, according to his plans and hopes, of ''the great Southern Baptist Theological Semi- nary." Dr. Basil Manly, Sr., who was presiding, checked him, — ''Don't say ffreat until you succeed in your work of endowment. When j^ou have your Seminar}^ safely en- dowed, I don't care if you write ' great ' with a pencil as long as a streak of lightning; but don't say it yet." Upon nomination by a committee of leading men, the convention unanimously elected four 2:)rofessors, — J. P. Boyce, J. A. Broadus, B. Manly, Jr., E. T. Winkler. It has been often said that but for the presence of William Williams upon the nominating committee (he being the only delegate present from Georgia), he would have been nominated and elected. However that may be, Winkler would have filled with great ability the chair of Church History, and of Church Government and Pastoral Duties, as Williams afterwards did. 154 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. But Winkler promptly declined the election. Another one of those elected carried the matter home as a great burden, because Poin dexter and others were pressing it upon him, and, after weeks of anxious consideration, felt bound to decline also. As only Boyce and Manly had accepted, it was thought best to delay for another year the opening of the Seminary. The income could thus be used for more extensive and efficient agency in collecting the hundred thousand dollars from other States. The Board of Trustees, which the Convention had appointed, was to hold its first meeting in connection with the Southern Baptist Convention at Eichmond, in May, 1859, and could then fill the vacant chairs. Boyce had placed it among the fundamental and unalterable regulations of the Seminary that a professor should not be elected except at a regular annual meeting of the Board. So it was hoped that by a year's delay the Seminary might open in a satis- factory condition. When the Board met at Richmond they re-elected Broadus and Winkler; as the latter again declined, they elected William Williams. Few, if any, theological seminaries in the United States had at that time more than four professors. Boyce reported the finances as in a very hopeful condition; and the Seminary seemed likely to open, the following autumn, with good prospects. THE SEMINARY'S PLAN OF INSTRUCTION. 155 CHAPTER X. THE seminary's PLAN OF INSTRUCTION WE have seen that the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary was organized with the avowed view of giving theological instruction to young ministers in every grade of general education. Men thoroughly prepared by college studies or their equivalent were to have as extensive and thorough a theological course as could be found else- where. Men who were entering the ministry with only a partial college training, or without having attended col- lege at all, were to have an opportunity of carefully study- ing the English Scriptures, and all the other branches of theology for which they were prepared. Men who could attend the Seminary only a single year must be welcomed to such theological studies as would give them the best practical training for their work. It was thought to be highly important that all these grades of students should live together in the same institution, and, so far as pos- sible, study together in the same classes, seeing that this would tend to prevent invidious distinctions in the min- istry, would promote mutual appreciation, and prepare for an intelligent and cordial co-operation. But the question was, how could all this be effected? To establish a cur- riculum suited to college graduates, and then to carry along in the same institution a number of men who knew no Greek or Latin, probably no psychology or logic, some of them having only the plainest English education, would obviously be a surpassingly^ difficult task; and the experi- ments which had been tried in one or two Baptist theo- 156 MEMOIR OF JAMES 1\ BOYCE. logical schools were understood to be hardly encouraging. Thoughtful men who had read president Wayland's ad- dress on ''The Apostolic Ministry," and who now found Professor Boyce's address on ''Three Changes in Theolo- gical Institutions," setting forth more fully and forcibly the need of some such arrangement, and earnestly assert- ing that surely the thing could somehow be managed, were asking each other the question, in correspondence and conversation, how can it be done? How can we pre- vent the less thoroughly prepared students, and the men designing only a single session's work, from feeling them- selves to be placed in an inferior position, from being discouraged rather than stimulated, by their proximity to the regular students in the regular course? How save the men pursuing their curriculum from being hindered and embarrassed by the presence of these others, especially if reciting in the same classes ? The attempt was made to solve all these real difficulties by a thoroughly elective sj^stem, patterned after that which had for thirty years been in highl}^ successful operation at the University of Virginia. The term "elective" has of late years become common in many universities and col- leges, and some theological schools, to denote studies, not all required as part of the curriculum, but a certain num- ber of which may be chosen by each student, in addition to those required, so as to make out his complete course. But something very different is meant when we say that all the studies of this Theological Seminary were to be elective. One who really cares to understand the plan upon which this institution was organized, and upon which it has ever since been consistently carried on, must lay aside all other conceptions of elective studies, and look a moment at the elective method here in question. It was arranged that the Seminary should comprise eight distinct, and in a sense independent, departments of instruction, or schools, namely : — THE SEMINARY'S PLAN OF INSTRUCTION. 157 I. Biblical Introduction. In this school would be taught the Canon of Scripture and Inspiration, with Biblical Geography and Antiquities, etc. II. Interpretation of the Old Testament. Here there would be two classes, — (1) The Interpretation of the Old Testament in English ; (2) Hebrew and Chaldee, and Hebrew Exegesis. It was added that other Oriental languages, as Arabic, Syriac, etc., might also be taught. III. Interpretation of the New Testament. (1) Interpreta- tion of the New Testament in English. (2) New Testament Greek, and Greek Exegesis. IV. Systematic Theology. (1) A general course, in which the instruction should not presuppose any acquaintance with the learned languages. (2) A special and more erudite course, in which there might be read theological works in the Latin, etc. V. Polemic Theology and Apologetics. VI. Homiletics, or Preparation and Delivery of Sermons. VII. Church History. VIII. Church Government and Pastoral Duties. " In each of these schools a separate diploma shall be given to those students who exhibit, upon due examination, a satisfactory acquaintance with the studies of that school. In those schools which comprise two classes, a general and a special course, the diploma shall require a competent knowledge of both ; while to those. whose attainments extend only to a general or English course, there shall be awarded a Certificate of'Proficiency." From this it will appear that the English classes, in the Bible and in Systematic Theology, were not at all designed as a makeshift for persons who could not pursue a more thorough course. The diploma in any such school must cover both the general and the special course. The study of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures would not constitute the regular and sufficient course, for which some study of the English Scriptures might be substituted by men having no acquaintance with Hebrew or Greek; hut the study of the English Scriptures was recommended to all students, and required of those who pursued Hebrew and 158 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. Greek Exegesis also, if they desired the Diploma in Old Testament or in New Testament, or the General Diploma of the Seminary, which was to be given to those who had obtained diplomas in all the separate schools. It was left entirely free for any student, if he chose, to study in only the Hebrew or the Greek class, omitting the English; though in that case no di23loma would be given. In point of fact, not one student in a hundred of those entering the Seminary through its whole history has failed to enter the classes for study of the English Bible; and no one has ever thought of studying the more erudite course in S3'stematic Theology, without also taking the general or English course. The Seminary's classes in the English Bible have proved to be one of its most marked features. The course runs over the entire Old Testament or New Testament history, locating the Prophets, etc., and the Epistles, where they most probablj^ belong in chrono- logical relation to the historj^, dividing the history into periods, analyzing each book into its natural divisions, studying a book as a whole, and a group of books in their relation to each other, and taking in general such broad views of Scripture as are not possible for those wdio have in hand only the partially known Hebrew or Greek. At the same time as much exercise as possible is given in the careful exegesis of particular passages and of entire books. As the students in the Hebrew and Greek classes in this way have gained, or are at the same time gaining, so much general knowledge of the Bible in English, they can afford to bestow more attention upon the Hebrew and Greek languages themselves, than if they must hurry on to exegesis. While having abundant specimens of exegetical study of the originals, they can be especially trained to make exegesis for themselves, by thorough and prolonged study of the language in hand. It was soon found that a good many college graduates, from all parts of the country, possessed a quite inadequate acquaintance with Greek. So, THE SEMINARY'S PLAN OF INSTRUCTION. 159 after a few years the original plan of having the course in every school completed in one session was abandoned so far as concerned Greek and Hebrew, each of these being divided into a Junior and a Senior class. Yet one who brings a really good knowledge of Greek can of course enter the Senior class at once ; and in a few rare cases this has been done by students of Hebrevv\ It was confidently hoped at the outset that by this completel}'- elective plan the thorouglily prepared students would be able to pursue their separate special studies in the Bible and Systematic Theology, without being at all hindered by the presence of so many other students in other classes. Indeed, the plan seems at once to insure such a result. But it was soon found, as the years went on, that more than this was gained by the arrangement. As the whole course could be studied, except the special classes in Hebrew and Greek and in ^' Latin Theology,'' by in- telligent men having only an ''English education," men were not pressed into studying the original languages without some real talent for acquiring a knowledge of language, and some strong personal desire to know Hebrew and Greek. Even the Junior classes in those languages thus included only persons impelled to enter them by personal aspiration. Added to this natural selection was the further selection of those who advanced from the Junior to the Senior classes in Greek and Hebrew. Consequently, these Senior classes can be carried over a much wider and more thorough range of learned study than would be possible if the class comprised also a number of men who were members of it only as a thing necessary to obtaining a diploma, or to taking a respectable position before their fellow-students and the country. It has thus been found that the system of free choice has greatly promoted true scholarship, while lessening the number of nominal scholars. Persons who give a moment's careless observation or reflection to this Seminary, which admits so 160 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. large a number of mere English scholars, have often taken it for granted that the whole thing must be of comparatively low grade. The reason is that the idea of a curriculum underlies all their thinking on the subject; and so they take for granted that a course which begins so low will of necessity be prevented from reaching very high. Yet the completely and consistently elective system is found to work exactly otherwise; and those who are willing to give the matter some attention must sooner or later find that such is the case. In all the other schools of this Seminary — i. e., except Old Testament, New Testament, and Systematic Theology — it was arranged that there should be only one class for all grades of students, as indeed all study together also in the general or English classes of the three schools just excepted. Critics having little or no experience in the matter often take for granted that men of such various qualifications cannot without great difficulty hear the same lectures and take part in the same recitations and exami- nations. The real difficulties are found to be very slight, compared with the great advantages of throwing all the students together in these various departments. The less erudite men soon find that work will tell, and that they can often share very comfortably in a recitation with some college graduate. At the same time, they have occasion to observe the advantage possessed by fellow-students, or the professor, from an acquaintance with the learned lan- guages ; and every year there are some men, endowed with a natural talent for language, who quit after one session, and go off to college for a thorough course, or who go to work, by private instruction or resolute unaided study, to master Greek, some of them w^ith real success. Others who come as college graduates, soon find, and show, that they have really little talent for language, and when dis- posed to leave the Hebrew and Greek, and confine them- selves to the English course, they are not dissuaded. Thus THE SEMINARY'S PLAN OF INSTRUCTION. 161 the elements move freely up and down. Men do that for which they have ^preparation, turn of mind, and time or patience; and get credit for exactly what they do. Every year some men come for a single session, and are led to complete an English or a full course. Every year some enter for a full course, and leave at the end, or before the end, of the first session. Here, as in the New Testament form of Church Government, the benefits of freedom far outweigh its inconveniencies. The free choice of studies, provided for by James P. Boyce and his associates, has shown itself thoroughly adequate to furnish theological education for students of very diverse grades as to prepa- ration, all in the same institution and for the most part in the same classes. But thoroughly elective education necessarily requires that the graduation be made difficult. Without this, the more aspiring men will be tempted to undertake too much, — which is one of the chief snares of an elective system. As to the bulk of students, they will lack the impulse given by a curriculum which bears the whole mass along together, and so they must have a more power- ful individual stimulus in the difficulty of graduation. Such has always been the experience of the University of Virginia, and so likewise in this Seminary. A man must pass independently in each of the schools before he can receive a general diploma. No allowance can be made in one subject for his having done well in others. Accord- ingly, in the Seminary as in the University, it is the rule to have in every school, or class of a school, an intermediate and a final written examination, lasting nine or ten hours, with a brief oral examination in addition upon certain subjects. These written examinations are a severe test of a man's acquaintance with the whole course of study in that school or class, and his pov/er of satisfactorily stating what he knows. A man who has in the course of three or four years reached the degree of Full Graduate in the Semi- 11 162 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. nar}" has passed more than twenty of these all-daj^ written examinations. Every question is separately valued, on a scale of one hundred for the whole; and his paper must be worth at least seventh-five per cent on the whole in order to pass. Many fail to pass who have yet studied with great profit. The result of all this is that the num- ber of general graduates will seem small in proportion to the whole number of students, when looked at b}^ persons familiar only with a curriculum. Some students remain only one or two sessions; some pass in various subjects, but fail in others. As a whole, the students are power- fully stimulated by the high standard of graduation. Those who obtain a diploma know that it means some- thing. Those who fail to obtain it often feel, and some- times voluntarily say, that they would rather fail with a high standard than succeed with a low one. At first it was arranged to have only one general di- ploma, with the title of Full Graduate, to be given to those who had obtained separate diplomas in all the separate schools. In the year 1876 it was provided that the degree of English Graduate should be given to students who have been graduated in all the schools except the classes of Hebrew and Greek and the class called '^ Latin The- ology." This has perhaps prevented a few students from studying the original languages, since they could obtain a general degree without it; but it has certainlj^ led a good many to remain two or three years, and complete all the schools required for ^'English Graduate," who would otherwise have left sooner or omitted some subjects. In the year 1890 a further provision was made for the degree of Eclectic Graduate. This is given to those who have been separately graduated in the Junior classes of Hebrew and Greek, in Systematic Theology (the general or Eng- lish class). Church History, and Homiletics, and in any four of the remaining nine schools or classes. The degree can be taken in two years by a well-prepared student, THE SEMINARY'S PLAN OF INSTRUCTION. 163 otherwise in three years. Tt gives as much knowledge of Hebrew and New Testament Greek as is gained in the majority of theological institutions, and prepares the stu- dent to use the elaborate learned commentaries, and, if he will keep up these studies, to use the original in examining his texts; while yet he is not required to work through the extensive and difficult course of the Senior classes in Hebrew and Greek. Some excellent students, who are pressed by lack of time or means, can thus in two years obtain a highly valuable degree. Some content themselves with this who might perhaps otherwise have remained and toiled through the entire eight schools (thirteen classes); but others are encouraged, by finding that they can take this degree, to remain and com- plete the whole range of study for the degree of Full Graduate. All works freely, with the occasional dis- advantages of freedom, but with its constant and high advantages. Besides these eight schools (thirteen classes), which constitute the rauge of study required for the degree of Eull Graduate, there have been established numerous special departments, such as of late years have been intro- duced in various other theological seminaries. In this Seminary there are now thirteen of these special studies, including the Arabic, Aramaic, Assyrian, Coptic, and Modern Greek languages. Patristic Greek and Patristic Latin, Old Testament Prophecy, Textual Criticism of the New Testament, Foreign Hymnology (Latin and Greek Hymns, German and French Hymns), History of Doc- trines, Historical Seminary (original researches and essays in Church History), and Theological German (two classes for reading German works in Exegesis, Systematic or Practical Theology, Church History, etc.). In each of these special departments the Faculty has authority to give a separate diploma; and so in other departments, which may be organized as needed. But these special 164 MEMOIR OF JAMES P. BOYCE. diplomas cannot be substituted for any part of the range of study required in order to the degree of Full Graduate. In May, 1892, the Board of Trustees established a new system of titles. The degree of English Graduate is to carry the title of Th. G., or Graduate in Theolog^^; the degree of Eclectic Graduate, that of Th. B., or Bachelor in Theology; the degree of Full Graduate, that of Th. M., or Master in Theology, — corresponding very much to the famous old degree of Master of Arts in the University of Virginia, and to the similar M. A. in several Southern colleges. And any one who, after taking the Master's degree, remains as a close student in the Seminary for at least one whole session of eight months, and has been graduated in at least five of the special departments above mentioned (the choice to be approved by the Faculty), and who, furthermore and especially, has prepared a satis- factory thesis, presenting the results of original research or original thought in some subject connected with theo- logical studies, shall receive the degree of Th. D., or Doctor in Theology. As originally organized, the Seminary had no president, but Professor Boyce was made Chairman of the Faculty. In May, 1888, the title was changed to that of President, but with the express provision that the government should remain in the hands of the Faculty. Several colleges have in like manner imitated the University of Virginia by having only a Chairman of the Faculty. This was Mr. Jefferson's democratic reaction against the autocratic power exercised by some presidents of universities or colleges, not only as to discipline, but as to the appoint- ment and removal of professors. In theological schools, where there are usually but few professors, and very little has to be done in the way of discipline, it is best that the faculty should govern the institution, whatever title may be given to the presiding officer. But in a university or THE SEMINARY'S PLAN OF INSTRUCTION. 165 college there is much reason for thinking it desirable to have a real president, who shall give unity to the general work, and shall be the recognized representative of the institution, busily canvassing for students, and striving, through personal acquaintance and influence, to obtain additional gifts for endowment and support. 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