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

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plish the purpose of showing how that combined philosophy and theology are to be utilized in meeting the old standing problems or the new issues which his day brought him. For practical wisdom, united to profound insight, they are unsurpassed and are equally worthy of study with his Philosophy and Theology. His Defence of Virginia and the South and his Life of Stonewall Jackson contain the one a reasoned and absolutely iznpregnable exposition and the other an equally convincing, practical and biographical vindication of the Southern position in '61 to '65, Taking all in all in consideration, the church in our day and country has no greater name to offer in the sphere of theological scienceg and of a piece with it were his services to Hampden-Sidney, Union Theological Seminary, the Austin Seminary and the University of Texas. Worthy to be associated with him was his life-long friend, another one of Hampden-Sidney's sons, Dr. C. R. Vaughan, who hlled for some years the same chair in the Union Seminary. His Gifts of the Holy Spirit deserves wide acknowledgment of its value in filling a place for which no substitute can be found, viz.: a solid theological discussion fitting into the Calvinistic system of the great subject which the title presents. His Sermons, Doctrinal, Apologetic and Practical are of a high order, richly suggestive as to the best mode of handling on the pulpit for practical edification the doctrines of the Woi'd. In the field of Exegetical Theology, the name of Dr. Benjamin M. Smith may well head the list-for thirty-nine years professor in the Union Seminary. and accounted by those who know its history as largely to be credited with its continued existence and large usefulness after the disastrous losses of the Civil War. It was his good fortune to train in Biblical interpretation a large number of the most useful and acceptable ministers in our Southland. His practical wisdom, united to competent scholarship, made him one of the most widely useful men of his clay. Too busy as a teacher and administrator to be prolific in the production of books, he still is the author of A Commentary on Psalms and Proverbs, an Introduction to the Poetical Books of Old Testament and Family Re- ligion. The name of Rev. Dr. B. Shearer can not be omitted from any summary, however meagre, of the names and contributions of Hampden-Sidney's alumni to Theolog- ical Science. The virtual founder of the Southwestern Presbyterian University and professor in its Divinity School, President of Davidson College, as a teacher for many years he has been engaged in solving the problem of introducing the Bible into the curriculum of study in the College and the University. He is a pioneer and discoverer in this region. His genius is shown in that he has solved the problem. As one who used as a professor in the University classroom, Dr. Shearer's Bible Course Syllabus in three volumes, the writer can testify to the scholarship and gifts which make these volumes so admirable a foundation upon which to build the structure of rational and satisfactory Bible Study, thorough without being sectarian, scholarly without being technical, biblical without being unduly philosophic or theological. His Studies in the Life of Christ, Sermon on the Mount and lVlodern Mysticism give the ripe results of a half century of study and instruction in the interpretation of the Scriptures, and not only the generations of students 24

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Theological science of the church and the world. The accomplished Grecian who pro- duced The Irregular Verbs of Attic Prose and who caused a multitude of future theologians to know something of Greek by the patient and persistent and inflexible drill of a master in the classroom has done a large work for the science of theology, which will bear fruit for generations. To make men competent expositors of the New Testa- ment, while or by teaching them Greek, may not always pass for theological work, but it is really theological work of a high order, which will secure recognition as such in the day when the God of things as they are has his reckoning and metes out his rewards. All the theological institutions of our church and many of other churches are her debtors. At Union Seminary to-day Prof. T. C. Johnson fills the important Chair of Church History as a Hmaster-workman who needeth not to be ashamed, and Prof. A. D. P. Gilmour as associate in the Chair of Oriental Literature, particularly charged with the duty of showing the application of Christianity to modern social problems has an opportunity for conservative and constructive scholarship, by which he may enrich the whole church. At the Kentucky Theological Seminary Prof. Gray lVlcAllister is occupying the professorship of English Bible and Biblical Theology, and at South- western Divinity School Prof. C. W. Somerville is teaching the department of Old Testament Exegesis. In that youngest star in the hrmament of theological study, which is illuminating the strategic territory of the Southwest, three noble sons of the old Nlother are dong worthy service, and Austin rejoices in the work of Prof. Thornton R. Sampson in Church History, Prof. L. Bell in New Testament and Prof. E. C. Caldwell in Old Testament Exegesis. While far across the waters on the other side of the world Prof. L. Stuart, Jr., is teaching the interpretation of the New Testament in the Union Theological Seminary at Nanking, Chinag and these are the proof that the stream which still pours out of that classic spot in old Prince Edward is still able to make glad the City of our God. But the direct contributions to theological Science through authorship are chiefly in evidence. And first in the realm of theology proper stands the splendid name of Dr. Robert L. Dabney, who has brought the whole Kingdom of God into his debt by his books covering a vast range on this queen of all the sciences. The philosophy which underlies revelation, the system of truth which is contained in the inspired revelation, and the applications of that truth to many of the deepest problems of life, political, economic, social, all receive illuminating exposition from his master hand. In his upractical Phil- osophy and Sensualistic Philosophy there is presented a complete philosophy marked by that combined penetration and depth, that searching analysis and sane construction which he brought to the discussion of every theme. His lectures on Theology constitute a text-book for theological study which easily ranks among the very first in our language, and which is destined to put the name of its author in the list of the great theological system builders of the church of all the ages. l'-lis four volumes of Discussions contain a vast array of articles which, while not professing this as their end, yet practically accom- 23

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whom he has taught and those whom he is to influence indirectly through them, but an in- creasing number of readers, will profit as they study these products of his mature and scholarly pen. In the department of Historical Theology, the name of Dr. T. C. johnson may well head our list. ln addition to his services as a master-teacher and author in the technical department of Church History, he has written two standard biographiesvthe Life of Dr. Dabney and the 'iLife of Dr. Palmer. ln addition to giving us a life-like picture of two noble men and showing us the development of their minds and characters, until at last each came to be a great master in his respective field: and presenting also the catalogue of services rendered by these signally usful men of herculean and adamantine industry and of splendid gifts splendidly disciplined. Dr. Johnson likewise most skilfully exhibits the history and inner character of this section of our country. The scene is laid in turn in Virginia, Texas, South Carolina, Louisiana, and no juster account of the culture. character, civilization, modes of life and thought, manners and customs of the South can be found than on these pages. Each of these biographies is a master-piece. And we are not left as a people without a witness so long as these books shall live. The reader will meet not only with a great man, but he will understand also the environment out of which the noble character sprang and by which it was influenced and upon which in turn it expended its influence. Dr. Johnson has already brought our country under obligation and encourages the hope that his studious and versatile pen has still further work to do by which we shall be further enriched. Another accomplished alumnus is Dr. Parke P. Flournoy, whose 'Search Light of St. Hippolytusu makes both interesting and profitable reading. It shows how modern discovery explodes the claims of the papacy and sheds much light on the New Testament. The discovery made about sixty years ago in the old monastery on Mount Athos of Hippolytus' uphilosophizing or Refutations of all Heresiesn restores to us one of the most valuable productions of this Ante-Nicene Father. Dr. Flournoy uses this book to show that the Bishops of Rome in Hippolytus' day were not yet recognized as popes, for this old father does not hesitate to apply to Zephyronus and Callistus, now canonized as popes, the illuminating epithets which exactly described them, but which do not comport with the papal claims. In several directions Dr. Flournoy turns the Search-Light and discredits the claim of the Tuburgen School that the Gospels had a late origin by showing by quotations from Hippolytus' heretics, from the new-found Diatesseron of Tatian, and the more recently discovered Synac Gospels, found by the two Cambridge sisters, Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson, that the New Testament canon was certainly in existence by the beginning of the Second Century. A later book, New Light on the New Testament, will add to Dr. Flournoy's justly-deserved reputation for scholar- ship and power of popular exposition. In the Section of Practical Theology there is one name which will never be forgotten as the name longest connected with Hampden-Sidney as student, tutor, alumnus, and trustee for sixty-two years, from IS37 to IS99, and as the most brilliant representative of the spirit and culture which have made the College famous all around the world-Moses Drury Hoge. A noted editor of the leading Z5