Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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request, Professor J. R. S. Sterrett, a member of the XVolfe expedition to Baby- lonia, purchased for the library two additional cuneiform tablets of small size. During the eighteen years after the Civil W'ar, Dr. Smith, while accomplish- ing so much for the general interests of the Seminary, had borne the whole burden of teaching in the department of Oriental Literature without assistance. In 1883 the lloard of Directors took action looking to the employment of an assistant in this work. In the language of the record: The consideration leading to this step is the propriety of bringing some relief to the Rev. Dr. IS. M. Smith, the able, faithful, and honored professor in that department, in view of the weight of advancing years and the disabilities which naturally attend upon them. Their choice, at Dr. Sn1ith's own suggestion, fell upon the Rev. VV. XV. Moore, then a young pastor in Kentucky, who had been graduated from the Seminary a few years before, and who is now widely known as one of the ablest professors and most attractive preachers in our country. For those who knew Dr. Smith only in his extreme old age when the strength and brightness of his faculties had somewhat waned, it will be interesting to have the estimate of an honored colleague who knew him at his best. The Rev. Dr. H. C. Alexander, in a paper before me, speaks, as only one so capable of appreciat- ing his varied excellences could, of his rare executive ability when he was in his prime, his astonishing facility and fecundity as an offhand speaker: of his more formal addresses before church boards and judicatories, as well as popular assem- bliesg of his peculiar, almost unrivaled, genius, in his best days for debate, of his felicitous, and sometimes humorous, after-dinner speeches tor talksj-as for in- stance, at one of the trienuial banquets of NVashington and Lee University, and tin a more serious and impressive veinl at the Hampden-Sidney Centennialg of his unusual gifts and success as a pastor, both in town and country: of his long and useful service as collegiate pastor twith his mighty colleague, Dr. Dabneyj at Hampden-Sidney and of his extraordinary qualifications and merits as an effective, as well as instructive, preacher, when he was roused to the utmost by the audience or the occasion. He tells us of the estimate of a most competent judge of preaching: Joseph Addison XiVaddcll if tl: it has calmly said to me that he has heard Dr. Smith preach in Staunton when he seemed to him to be ' almost inspired to say exactly the right thing, in exactly the right words, exactly at the right time.' But his own testimony is hardly less emphatic: The strongest impression I ever knew him to make by a single memorable discourse was at Columbus, Mississippi, during the meeting of the General Assem- bly. Dr. Palmer preached that day: but on returning from one of the Methodist 34

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with home-made mucilage and sent back with the answer enclosed. At this time, especially, his correspondence was voluminous and envelopes were probably quite dear. The making of lilibusses was another scheme for doing away with the use of matches then under a heavy stamp tax. The old letters, instead of being burned after reading, were torn in strips and skilfully rolled in a graceful spiral so as to form excellent lighters for lamps, while they were not unornamental to the mantelpiece, standing in a Hower-vase, as they generally did. He had the same disposition to keep his hands busy as Dr. Dabney. Though he did not, like him, make cart-wheels, doubtless many a sermon or lecture was shaped in his mind while these I' filibusses were rolled in his deft fingers. XVhere he got the name I never knew. XYalker's tilibustering expedition of some years before may have suggested this as a mode of harmless tilibustering on the domain of the match manufacturers. We can think of few greater contrasts than that between the work of these fingers and that of the mind which was subconsciously, or half-consciously, moving them. Dr. Smith was at this time striving to save the Seminary and to set it on a new career of usefulness. Through these years of stress and struggle he could say of this great work, 'A This one thing I do, though minor occupations were continually claiming his attention and receiving their relative share of it. Not only did he succeed in retrieving the losses occasioned by the war, but in preparing the institution for a larger work than it had ever accomplished before. Wliilst one of the most conservative of teachers in the best sense, he was at the same time progressive and enterprising in securing the best means for keeping abreast of the times and equipping the Seminary with the best appliances for furthering the knowledge and culture of the students. The progress of archae- ology, which has become so marked a characteristic of our times, was compara- tively in its infant stages then: but it enlisted his deep interest-especially every- thing in it connected with the newly-deciphered cuneiform inscriptions. This can be illustrated by another extract from Dr. Moore's sketch, He sought help in this line from those able to give it. Among the donations of this period were an inscribed brick from Babylonia, two valuable casts of other cuneiform tablets in the British Museum, and a set of fine photographs of the cities of the seven churches in Asia, all presented in 1879 by Mr. XV. R. Reynolds, of Norfolk, Ya. In 1883-84 the same liberal gentle- man made another generous gift to the library, a plaster cast facsimile of the celebrated black marble obelisk of Shalmanezer H f85O B. CJ, with its wealth of bas-relief sculpture and cuneiform text, About the same time, at Dr. Smith's 23

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churches where I had held forth, myself, all the town was agog about Dr, Smith's grand sermon on the Kingdom of God. Dr. Alexander also speaks of his remarkable gifts as a debater, and remarks on a peculiarity in his case. XVhile it is generally the case in the discussion of great questions that the first speech is the best, because it has been thoroughly thought out and arranged in the speakers mind for the occasion beforehand, Dr. Smith grew stronger and stronger as a debate proceeded: and, so, very generally carried his point. He had the faculty of thinking while on his legs, and his speeches thus thought out often gave the impression of elaborate and painstaking composition. . Une of his successors in the pastorate of Tinkling Spring Church tells of the impression he made on thinking men in the eldership of churches in the Valley of Virginia, and of the widely pervasive and permanent influence he exercised in that region of stalwart Presbyterianism: The old men in XrVaynesboro, Bethel, Staunton, Tinkling Spring, all talked to me about him. Such men as old Mr. Matthew Pilson, Mr. XYithrow, and Dr. XVaddell, of XVaynesboro, Captain Ben Ellis, and many others, all bore testimony to the fact that there llC'Z'Cl' was such a frearllcr, after Dr. Speece, in the Valley of Yirginia, and there were giants in those days toof' He adds: His preaching did more than that of any other man to shape the Presbyterian Church to the needs of a more active life. To him was due a good deal of the impulse which gave the church deacons well organized sessions, carefully kept rollsg and especially to him, much of the spirit of giving. The church was loyal, but did little work. Tinkling Spring, before 1840, did little more than meet for worship. One thing which took Dr. Smith to Staunton was to stir up Vtfaynesboro and Tinkling Spring to support pastors separately, and the experiment was a decided success in many ways. As an ecclesiastic, his Valley life was as conspicuously successful. Both his boldness and readiness and his efhciency as a Presbyter were important factors in the early Virginia church. Dr. Alexander also gives another view in concluding: What he was as a social companiong as a friendly adviser, as a man of affairs, earthly and eccle- siastical, in the bosom of his domestic privacies-I must leave without further description or comment. The great number of young men whom he has encouraged or warned or helped in various ways could bear testimony to his wisdom and goodness, but only those who have dwelt under his roof could know what he was to those nearest and dearest to him. Though never foolishly lavish and indulgent to his children, his tender affection and attention to every want can never be forgotten. A speaker in the Synod of Virginia some years ago spoke of the homes clustered about the Seminary as little heavens. Many who knew Dr. Smith in his family 25