Wabash College - Wabash Yearbook (Crawfordsville, IN)

Page 14 text:

I well remember the day, in September, 1870, when President Burroughs, then a timid and trembling boy of fifteen years of age, entered the Sophomore Class at Princeton, and I remember, equally well, how youthful shyness and inexperience gradually gave way to a positive and strongly developed character. It was then and there that those deep and broad foundations of mind and personality were laid, on the basis of which there has been reared so goodly a structure. Dr. Burroughs' college course, from first to last, was successful and satisfactory, a steadily progressive career in all that constitutes the life and work of an undergraduate student. Diligent in the improvement of every academic privilege, and conscien- tiously careful as to his personal Christian influence, he was a pronounced example to his fellow students of what a college man should be, in securing what Milton terms a complete and generous education. Especially able along classical and literary lines, and thus early de- veloping that taste and talent in biblical study which has ever characterized his subsequent life, he graduated with the 'second honor of his class, and entered thus, with more than usual promise, on his professional work. Entering the Seminary, at Princeton, in 1874, his theological course was equally creditable, while the special success that he achieved in the sphere of Oriental languages, opened the way for that scholarly work that he has done in later years in that department. Of President Burroughs' pulpit and pastoral work at Slatington, Pa., Fairfield, Con11., a11d New Britain, Conn., it is needless to speak, further than to say that he brought to it the wide and rich results of all his pre- paratory study, and proved him to be a good minister of Jesus Christ, rightly divining the word of truth, and blessed of God in all his personal labors among the people. His call to Amherst College, in 1886, as Professor of Biblical History and Interpretation, and as Pastor of the College Church, marked a new era in his life, and, in its combination of the educational and ministerial, afforded rare opportunities of usefulness and ever-widening influence.

Page 13 text:

GEORGE STOCKTON BUKKOUGHS. PH. D., D. D. . MVN, ,XL J,..', ', -. -NA 1-:ORGE S'1'oc1c'roN Buaxoucsi-is was born January 6, 1855, at Waterloo, N. Y., where his father, Rev. George W. Burroughs, was at that time pastor of the Reformed tDutch'J Church. Boyhood and youth were passed mostly in Brooklyn, N. Y., and in Philadelphia, Pa. His mother was his teacher and inspirer, and when he began attendance at school, at the age of eleven, he was more advanced and ahler than any of his class. In two years he was prepared to enter college. But thirteen was too young an age. He entered the Sophomore Class at Princeton College when he was sixteen and graduated, with the highest honors of the college, in 1873, when he was nineteen. His theological training in the Seminary was with the class of 1877, at Princeton. Dr. Burroughs was married on the 30th of May, 1877, to Miss Emma Frances Plumley, daughter of Rev. G. S. Plumley, D. D., F. S. S., at Metuchen, New Jersey. Their children are Mabel, Ralph and Edmund. On july IO he was ordained to the ministry and made pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Slatington, Pa. After serving that church two years he accepted a call to the First Congregational Church, Fairfield, Conn., where he labored for four years. From 1883 to 1886 he was pastor of the Center Congre- gational Church, New Britain, Conn., from which he was called to the pastorate of the College Church of Amherst, Mass., and from that position he was called to the presidency of Wabash College. His alma mater has honored him in quick succession with its academic degrees: A. B., M. A., Ph. D. and D. D. Dr. Burroughs is director and secretary of the American Institute of Sacred Literature, and is also a member of two other societies of sacred learning, namely, the American Oriental Society and the Society of Biblical Literature and Exegesis. His specialties being sacred learning and philosophy, he is emi- nently qualified for teaching those branches which usually belong to the President. .,,,,,.o

Page 15 text:

Himself a young 111811, and, both by natural endowment and thorough training, eminently fitted for the duties of his double office, we have not been surprised to hear, from time to time, of his sing-ular success, both as teacher and preacher, among the students whom he taught and guided. His preaching is what all preaching should be, evangelic and evangel- istic, sound in its doctrinal basis, and apostolic in its spirit a11d effect. The degrees of Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Divinity, conferred upon him by his alma mater, honored her and him alike, and happily indicated tl1e fact that his philosophy was biblical, and his theology philosophic. His active membership in societies founded in the interests of biblical study, and his various publications in the line of linguistic criticism, and practical suggestion as to tl1e English bible, confirm this combination of the divinities and humanities, as they also evince his right to speak with au- thority on those critical questions at present so prominent. In their choice of President Burroughs, the Trustees of tl1e College deserve high praise as having had an eye to the fitness of the man for the place, and the place for the man, thus assuring the future prosperity of tl1e institution whose interests they are guarding. President Burroughs comes to his new and most important oftice with large acquisitions at command, with a keen fllld thorough scholarship, with wide experience in the church and college, and with a personal and Christian enthusiasm full of vitalizing influence, and full of promise for the cause of liberal learni11g in the West. Princeton sends her son to Wabash as she did to Amherst, while Princea ton and Amherst join in cordial congratulations to the institution that they have thus so richly endowed, and also join with special fervor in the prayer that, from the very outset, the administration of President Burroughs may be in favor with God and man. THEODORE W. HUN'1', P1-1. D., Professor of English, Plzilologgv and Disrourse in the College of New jersey.