Washington and Jefferson College - Pandora Yearbook (Washington, PA)

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The pulpits to which Dr. Gregg has been called are the leading pulpits of their respective denomina- tions, Covenanter, Congregational and Presbyterian. The Covenanter pulpit which he was then filling had formerly been occupied by the renowned Dr. J. R. W. Sloan, also a graduate of Washington and Jefferson College. Dr. Gregg was in this pulpit sixteen and one-half years, and every year was one of unprecedented prosperity. During his pastorage in New York City he was chosen Moderator of the Covenanter Church, being the youngest man that had ever presided over the deliberations of that august body. During this time he had received several calls from Providence, from Boston, and from Pittsburg. All of these calls were declined, however, and he remained in his New York pastorage until tendered a call by the historic Park Street Church of Boston. This is the largest Congregational Church in New England, the home of Congregationalism. His father was bitterly opposed to his leaving the Covenanter Church, and wl1e11 David finally announced his decision to accept the call, his millionaire father, who was a close communist, disinherited him. This is the price he had to pay for liberty and progression. The price was paid without a regret. Money is trash in comparison with mental independence. Dr. Gregg left this Church in a flourishing condition. There was not an unpleasant thing in his pastorage in Boston. VVhen he was about to leave, the public press said : ' He has won the hearts of all.' Journalists, college professors of Harvard and Boston Universities, and the leading citizens of Boston, joined in petitioning him to remain. But when he decided to go to Brooklyn, all bade him Godspeed. He still holds the hearts of the Boston people, and whenever he preaches in the old church, the great auditorium is crowded, and people sitting on camp stools and on the pulpit steps. These brief words will give some idea of the pastor who has shown himself earnest, forceful, and progressive. He is ranked as tl1e greatest of the living divines for which the City of Churches is famous. In his study, high up in the church tower, away from the world, he studies the Scriptures, communes with God, and prepares the magnificent sermons in which the way of salvation is made plain, the ways of God vindicated to man, the objector confounded, and an answer is made ready for every one that asks him a reason for the hope that is in him. -9-

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REV. DAVID GFIEGG, D. D., LL. D. REV. DAVID H. GFIEER, D. D., LL. D

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Eingrapbiral iheirh nf 131211. Darwin Jijiumiuell fbrvmf, B. E. wk 'rf sf R. GREER was born of Jacob R. and Elizabeth CArmstrongj 'Greer, in Wheeling, W. Va., March 19, 1844. His father a prosperous city merchant, David never knew anything of adver- sity, and enjoyed the advantages of early training, first in the Wheeling schools and later in ,U f the Morgantown Academy, from which he came to us in the Junior year. With this excellent fgfxis preparation, good natural ability and studious habits, he at once took a high place both in scholarship and in the Washington Literary Society, which he represented as contest orator. p , Q He studied Theology at the P. E. Seminary, Gambier, O., and was ordained deacon in June, 1866. During his diaconate he had charge of Christ Church, Clarksburg, W. Va. He i i was ordained to the priesthood at Alexandria, Va., in 1868. The same year he accepted a call to Trinity Church, Covington, Ky., remaining there until 1871. On June 29, 1869, he married Miss Caroline Augusta, daughter of Q. A. and Priscilla D. Keith, of Covington. After a year in Europe, he in 1872 became rector of Grace Church, Providence, R. I., where he re- mained until September, 1888, when he accepted a call to St. Bartholomew'S Church, New York. The de- gree of D. D. was conferred by Brown University, Kenyon College and the University of the South, and the degree of LL. D. by VVashington and Jefferson College. Dr. Greer has been three times invited to the Episcopate. He might have succeeded the distinguished Phillips Brooks as Bishop of Massachusetts as a whole. In June, 1897, he declined an election as Bishop Coadjutor of Rhode Island, and in the recent election of Western Massachusetts he again felt it his duty to say, uolo ej1z1vcoparz'. Dr. Greer has the ciualities of a popular preacher. He stands for that kind of preaching which reaches the hearts of thinking, active business men. While somewhat dramatic, he is never theatrical or sensational. He is a student both of men and books, and addresses his hearers in lucid sentences shorn of all re- dundancy, and always preaches a Gospel of hope. He thinks his sermons out carefully, pencil in hand, but uses no manuscript and takes no notes into the pulpit. His sermons are entirely free from dogmatism and