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

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cant,- with no rash iconoclasm, and they contain a broad, liberal spirit and an earnestness which show that liberalism need not be cold. Dr. Greer had gained the reputation as a preacher, all administrator, and a man of admirable discretion and remarkable executive and personal power, when he was invited to St. Bartholomew's Church, in 1888. He has since strengthened that reputation. The man who can bring things to pass does a far greater work than that which his hands touch or his brain conceives. Dr. Greer is such a man. His courage, his faith in man, his efforts for man, accomplish a magnificent work in his own parish, but even more and greater in the world outside. The great Parish House on Forty-second street, near Third avenue, occupying nearly a whole block, is practically his creation, though the house was built by Mrs. William H. Vanderbilt, on land bought by Cornelius Vanderbilt and his wife, and was endowed with 8525Q,000 by Mrs. William H. Vander- bilt and with S5400,000 by Cornelius Vanderbilt. Dr. Greer is the director of all the parish work, is the head of everything in it, and no pastor in a poor parish, where the people are unable to provide any assistance, is more conscientious than he in the performance of his multifarious duties. He is profoundly interested in sociological questions, and since he has presided over St. Bartholomew's Parish, in New York, has inaugurated several new, a11d elaborated the old 'system of caring for the poor and bettering their condition, physically as well as morally and spiritually. The Parish House embodies the idea of a practical man and a thorough student of the needs of poor people. It contains, in ad- dition to quarters for the various religious clubs connected with the parish, social clubs for men, women and boys 3 medical, surgical and eye and ear clinics 3 an employment bureau and a loan bureau. It can be truly said of Dr. Greer that he has discer11ed the signs of the times, and he is an important factor in the solution of problems in practical Christianity. p A preacher of power, a man of wonderful executive ability, Dr. Greer is also an author of considerable note, having published a number of works, among them the following: The Historic Christ, 'f The Preacher and His Place, From Things to God, Visions. In 1895 he delivered the Lyman Beecher Course of Lectures at Yale College.

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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

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