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HISTORY
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Theological
BY HENRY K. ROWE
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NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS
1933
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LIBRARIES
Thomas Todd Company
'Printers 'Boston
1077050
TO
VAUGHAN DABNEY
PREFACE
THE various interests of mankind are served by social
institutions which have arisen and have been sanc-
tioned by society because they are valuable for the
preservation and better ordering of the achievements of civ-
ilization. Among these are churches and schools. Ministers
of colonial churches in America had been educated overseas
or went to Harvard, Yale, and other colonial colleges. Late in
the eighteenth century the time came when a distinctively
theological school seemed preferable, and the Seminary was
the answer to the need. Andover was the first such institu-
tion among the Congregationalists, the first in New England
of any Christian denomination.
The eminence of Andover among American theological
schools, the new departure which it is making in its affilia-
tion with Newton, and the arrival of the one hundred and
twenty-fifth anniversary of the Seminary, seem sufficient
reason for this historical sketch. Andover alumni have been
distinguished in the parish ministry, in home and foreign
missions, in education and literature. Andover professors
Stuart, Phelps, Park, Smyth, Tucker, Harris, Thayer, Moore
and Evans have given the school an enviable reputation for
scholarship.
In spite of hindrance, misfortune, even near tragedy, the
old institution still lives, and by the faith that has sustained
it faces the future with courage. The history of Andover
Theological Seminary is a story worth the telling ; may it be
an inspiration to those who read it.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. THE FOUNDING OF THE SEMINARY ... i
II. SEMINARY LIFE IN THE EARLY YEARS ... 23
III. STUDENTS AND FACULTY 40
IV. THE MIDDLE DECADES 62
V. ANDOVER MEN IN THE PARISH MINISTRY . . 86
VI. ANDOVER MEN IN FOREIGN MISSIONS . . . in
VII. ANDOVER MEN IN EDUCATION AND LITERATURE . 136
VIII. THE NEW THEOLOGY 159
IX. LIBERTY AND UNION 185
Vll
CHAPTER I
THE FOUNDING OF THE SEMINARY
HIGH up from a beetling cliff in the White Mountains
of New Hampshire the Old Man of the Mountain
thrusts his rugged profile, keeping ward over the
Franconia valley. From a tarn at his foot a tiny stream be-
gins to flow its fretted way through the forest until, grown
larger, it emerges into the ampler reaches of the valley below.
Increased in volume by tributary streams, it becomes the
Merrimac. Even well down stream its way is hindered by
rocks and ledges, and at length it is forced to leave its south-
ward course and find an uncharted route in another direction.
Yet uriconquered it moves steadily towards its goal until it
merges with the open sea.
Herein is a parable of Andover Seminary.
Old Andover stood on an ancient hill whose northern slope
blends with the valley of the Merrimac. Its undergirding
rock is older than the strata of the mountains where the river
had its birth. On that rock New England Congregationalism
fitly built its ecclesiastical foundation. As the Merrimac was
born under the majesty of the Great Stone Face, the school
at Andover was cradled under the stern sovereignty of Cal-
vinism. As the stream is hindered on its way by rocks, so
Andover has been buffeted by theological controversy. As
the Merrimac found a new direction to the sea, so Andover
Seminary after the career of a century changed its course,
but not its goal.
Andover Seminary was built sturdily to breast the gales
that beat against Puritan orthodoxy, as Brick Row on An-
dover Hill fronted the northern blasts that in winter sweep
unchecked from the far Laurentian highlands of Canada.
The halls of the Seminary were permeated by a theology as
cold and as irresistible. The sunset sky at times was reddened
with a glow that was lurid enough to remind a student of the
destiny of the damned. Coffins fashioned in the workshop
by student hands were grim reminders of the brevity of life.
The chapel bell rang its compelling summons to classes and
funerals, with that "sweet, solemn solemnity" which was so
tuneful to the ears of the elect, but boded only ill to those
who were unregenerate. And hard by the winter snows drifted
over the graves of students who had died before their time
and lay in the winding sheet of God's Acre.
Andover was different in summer. Then her fields lay lush
and green, and her elms drooped gracefully over the shaded
campus. Students attended classes even in July, but there
were walks and talks on the campus and about town, and the
men rambled at times over the surrounding country. Classes
were not dull to those who enjoyed logic and argument, and
in summer bird song mingled with theological phrases and
the scent of new-mown hay drifted through the open windows.
On occasion classes were dismissed because a professor
wanted the help of the students in getting in his crop of hay.
Professors' families in time even went on picnics. Eventually
Puritan rigor relaxed until the church sociable was invented,
a pastime neither grave nor gay, but enjoyable to those who
might not venture to break the taboos against lighter amuse-
ment. When the eminent Dr. Tholuck of Germany was call-
ing upon Professor Park he remarked: "How do you get
along without the opera and theatre?" And the reply was
prompt : "You forget that we have the church and the sewing
society." And there was always Commencement Day to an-
ticipate and recall.
And the theology of Andover mellowed with the years.
In the lower valley the first settlers of Andover made their
homes within fifteen years of the colonization of Boston.
By 1644 l an d had been purchased from the Indians, scattered
farms had been occupied, and a village had been started at
the northern end of the town. There in the North Parish
the first Congregational church was organized in 1645. By
mid-century Andover people were making highways to
Ipswich, Rowley, and Newbury. At times the town suffered
materially from Indian raids down the Merrimac valley, but
it was disturbed in mind even more by the witchcraft delusion,
which resulted in the judicial murder of three persons. In
the mental sanity of the eighteenth century they laid the
foundations of Andover's educational reputation.
Among the best people of the community the Phillips family
took first rank. Its ancestor was Reverend George Phillips,
who went from Salem to Watertown in the earliest days of
Massachusetts settlement. His son Samuel was minister of
the Congregational church in Rowley for nearly half a cen-
tury. Samuel's grandson and namesake settled over the South
Parish in Andover in 1710. His son Samuel was prominent
in Andover, and before he died he could write Honorable
before his name. A second son, John, settled in Exeter, and
became as respected as his brother. These two brothers
founded and endowed Phillips Academy on Andover Hill
in the year 1778. But it was the influence of Samuel's son,
Samuel, Junior, which led them to establish the foundation.
The young man was the only heir of his father and his uncle,
but he was eager to sacrifice a part of his inheritance for the
sake of a school, and it was he who had most to do with
the establishment of the Academy. Later, as Judge Phillips,
he was admired by his fellow-townsmen, and was honored by
the Commonwealth with the office of Lieutenant Governor.
He died at the age of fifty, but his widow and his son John
continued to take an interest in education. It was they who
became sponsors of Andover Theological Seminary.
The south village of Andover rises in a southerly direction
to the crown of a hill. It was there that the Academy was
located and there that the Seminary was to rise. Not a few of
the hilltops of New England have been set apart as shrines
of education or religion. Whether it seemed as if an aureole
of divinity rested peculiarly upon the hills, or as if the expand-
ing mind might reach out to distant horizons, the fathers chose
the hills for their institutions. As altars smoked on the high
places of ancient Palestine, so the shrine of Andover smoked
at times with the fires of theological controversy, for the early
nineteenth century was an open season for polemics. But sac-
rifice and devotion sent up their invisible breath of the spirit
to an unseen God, and the main purpose of the Seminary was
constructive.
The Phillips family was loyal to religion as well as to edu-
cation. The blood of the Puritan ran in their veins. They
would preserve the best .traditions of the fathers at a time
when liberalism was threatening to weaken, or at least to
change, those traditions. In their original deed of gift, com-
monly called the Constitution of Phillips Academy, they there-
fore provided that "whereas many of the students in this
Seminary may be devoted to the sacred work of the gospel
ministry," the school should teach the fundamentals of Chris-
tian theology, "as the age and capacities of the scholars will
admit, not only to instruct and establish them in the truths of
Christianity, but also early and diligently to inculcate in them
the great and important Scripture doctrines of the existence
of the one true God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; of the
fall of man, the depravity of human nature ; the necessity of
an atonement, and our being renewed in the spirit of our
minds; the doctrines of repentance towards God, and faith
towards our Lord Jesus Christ ; of sanctification by the Holy
Spirit, and of justification by the free grace of God, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; together with the
other important doctrines and duties of our Holy Christian
Religion."
It was in the minds of the founders of the Academy to
establish a chair of divinity in the school, and Dr. John Phillips
of Exeter provided a scholarship fund of twenty thousand
dollars "for the education of youth of genius and serious dis-
position in the Academy." In 1795 he left a legacy, giving
one-third of his estate to Andover Academy to furnish aid
to students who should study with a Calvinistic minister,
until an instructor should be appointed in Andover or Exeter
academies as a professor of divinity. It is easy to understand
how such a man could be the grandfather of Phillips Brooks.
To this fund William Phillips of Boston added four thousand
dollars. On that foundation twelve students of divinity were
aided before the establishment of the Seminary, while they
studied theology with Reverend Jonathan French, the min-
ister of the South Parish.
At the opening of the nineteenth century the people of New
England were taking a new interest in religion. The devo-
tion to their Puritan faith, which was characteristic of the
first generation of colonists, had yielded long since to the
claims of everyday living. There had been extensive lands
to develop, and many a pioneer in Maine and New Hampshire
had helped to push back the New England frontier. Others
had turned their energies to the promotion of industry and
commerce, which promised more profit than the cultivation
of a grudging soil. Religion held an honored place in the lives
of the people, but it tended to be formal. They had had diffi-
culty in satisfying the early requirements of church member-
ship, and had lowered the standards of admission. The result
was a lukewarmness regarding the claims of religion that
boded ill for the continuing strength of Congregationalism.
There was need of a revival of religious interest.
The Great Awakening came marching up the Connecticut
valley a century after the beginnings of colonization. The
beacon fires of a renewed faith blazed along the coast and
from many an interior hilltop. At Northampton in Massa-
chusetts, where Jonathan Edwards preached in the second
most prominent pulpit in New England, a revival swept the
community. Edwards lashed the consciences of his hearers
with his fiery discourses, and George Whitefield staged a
triumphal progress up the coast, and preached irresistibly to
thousands of persons on Boston Common. But again dis-
tractions of various kinds intensified the natural reaction
against religious excitement. The political excitement of the
Revolutionary period, absorption in the repairing of damages
of war, the interest in the experiment of making a federal
government, and the economic problems that vexed the people,
chilled religious enthusiasm. The blight of indifference was
made worse by the skepticism of many persons. French in-
fidelity was popular. Atheism was flaunted in the colleges.
President Dwight of Yale found it expedient to go thoroughly
into the basic questions of theology in his lecture room. Then
as the reaction against the Edwardean revival had led to in-
difference and even hostility, a reawakening of religious
interest came as- a reaction against the indifference and
unbelief.
The Evangelical Reawakening, as it is called, began about
the close of the eighteenth century. It produced no conspicu-
ous evangelist. Local preachers kindled the feelings of their
people. Revivals flamed out like beacon lights of the gospel
from hill town to hill town in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
The beginnings of the movement had come even earlier in the
Middle States, and it penetrated to the newer settlements of
the Southwest. On that frontier the camp meetings produced
emotional excitement similar to that of the Great Awakening,
but in New England the movement was saner and more per-
manent. It continued intermittently for several decades, swell-
ing from time to time to increasing volume and then subsiding
only to rise again.
The effects of the religious revival appeared in evangelism,
missionary activity at home and abroad, and increased interest
in Christian education. Pastors of churches preached with
new fervor and visited neighboring communities with evan-
gelistic intent. Societies were formed for the purpose of send-
ing out preachers to the expanding frontiers. It was a time for
the planting of academies and colleges. They soon dotted the
landscape of New England, and accompanied the new churches
along the expanding frontier.
It was in this stirring period that Andover Seminary had
its birth.
Among the Congregationalists three schools of religious
thought disputed the field. The first was known as the Old
or Moderate Calvinists. Inheriting the theological convictions
of their Puritan ancestors, they adhered to the Westminster
Confession of the Presbyterians as their standard of doctrine.
Except with regard to the right wing of Strict Calvinists, time
had softened somewhat the ancient rigor. They believed in
the untrammeled will of God, the inherited depravity of man
and his helplessness because of the imputation of Adam's sin,
and the grace of God as the sole means of salvation. But
they thought it advisable to use such means of grace as the
church provided in its worship and ordinances, even though
they would not avail if the persons themselves were not among
the number of God's elect. Baptism or the Lord's Supper
might make them more easily salvable if the Spirit of God
should come their way. A man hoped that thus the mercy of
God would make his calling and election sure.
A second group was called Hopkinsians from their doctrinal
spokesman, Samuel Hopkins, a pupil of Jonathan Edwards
in theology. Edwards, besides being an evangelistic preacher,
was a profound thinker on the problems of the divine will and
human salvation. If his sermon on "Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God" stirred the consciences of his hearers, his
theological arguments appealed to the reason of his readers
and made him the exponent of New England theology. Him-
self a graduate of Yale, he put his stamp on a whole genera-
tion of Yale divinity students. Samuel Hopkins was his
understudy, and others took his interpretations of Calvinism
as superior to the theories of the Old Calvinists. To a layman
of these days the distinctions of that time seem of small
account, but the ministers regarded them as supremely im-
portant.
Both parties accepted the Westminster standards for sub-
stance of doctrine, but the Hopkinsians stressed certain prin-
ciples to an extreme. Their pulpits reverberated sonorously
with the echoes of divine sovereignty and predestination, of
foreknowledge and election, of total depravity and reproba-
tion and eternal retribution, but they had improved explana-
tions of their own as to how the divine and human minds
worked. Particularly did they explain the difference between
a natural will which man possesses and which makes him
capable of exposing himself to divine influences, and a moral
will which must be energized by the Spirit of God before the
soul can make its way into His presence. The Hopkinsians
condemned specific means of grace as sinful, because such
means were used for selfish spiritual gain, whereas the true
attitude was one of disinterested benevolence, like that of God
i?}-
Himself, and unconditional surrender to the sovereign will
of God. As sweet a saint as Mrs. Jonathan Edwards had
brought herself to the state of mind where she was able to
say that she was willing to be damned if God could be glorified
thereby. Because the Hopkinsians emphasized the eternal de-
crees of a sovereign God, they were dubbed hyper-Calvinists ;
but because they made so much of the divine benevolence,
they were suspected of being Arminian, which was another
way of saying that they were heretics in the eyes of the ortho-
dox Puritans. They liked to speak of themselves as 'Con-
sistent Calvinists.
The Old Calvinists included many of the people of high
social position, and their clergy were highly respected men.
They were most numerous in the eastern part of New Eng-
land. They were not in sympathy with revivals as among the
means of grace. The Hopkinsians on the contrary were sym-
pathetic with the revival, or New Light, Movement. They
were vigorous in their convictions and unyielding in their
debates. Their strength centered at Yale College, and they
numbered a majority of the Congregational ministers in
Connecticut and western Massachusetts. Hopkinsianism was
proud of its designation as the New England theology.
A third party in Congregational circles was more liberal in
its theological interpretations. It had found its inspiration
in Charles Chauncy and Jonathan Mayhew of Boston, who
had protested against the extravagances of eighteenth century
revivalism. It cherished a belief that God was not so unap-
proachable as the Calvinists maintained, nor so implacable in
His attitude towards the human creatures whom He has made.
The thoughtful men who represented the Liberals put less
stress on the necessity of an atonement for men through
Christ and more on human righteousness as a recommenda-
tion of the soul to God. They were few in number at first and
with few exceptions lived under the shadow of Beacon Hill
or nearby, but as the nineteenth century advanced, they were
conscious of an access of strength, and their representatives
became more outspoken in the village pulpits of Greater
Boston. A few of them were avowed Unitarians. When
Reverend Henry Ware of Hingham was elected to the Hollis
professorship of divinity at Harvard College in 1805, New
England Congregationalism felt the shock, for it was well
understood that Ware was really a Unitarian, and that at Cam-
bridge his influence would be radical. It was altogether likely
that such an event occurring at the heart of Puritan tradition
would set in motion a desire for a more orthodox training
center for the ministry in Massachusetts.
The main purpose of New England Congregationalists in
founding Harvard and Yale had been to educate colonial min-
isters. There they were wont to absorb divinity as a part of
their college education. If students could not have the ad-
vantages of Oxford and Cambridge in Old England, they could
at least imitate the discipline. Harvard had felt liberalizing
influences, but as staunch a Christian as Thomas Hollis, the
London Baptist, had chosen Harvard for his munificence in
endowing a chair of divinity. His generosity showed his con-
fidence in the essential orthodoxy of the college, though the
Hollis professor was required to take a specific pledge scarcely
less stringent than the one adopted for Andover. But the
tendency of the period was to introduce other studies in place
of the older discipline, as science and modern literature became
more popular in learned circles than Hebrew and Greek.
Theology lost its position as queen of the sciences. The Hollis
professor continued to give two courses for those who planned
a ministerial career, but French might be substituted for
Hebrew, an ill omen, when one recalls the skeptical and revo-
lutionary character of the literature of contemporary France.
Specific study in divinity became advisable after graduation
from college, and it became customary for students to ask a
prominent minister for the privilege of living in his home,
reading under his direction, and enjoying the practical advan-
tages that his parish supplied. Reverend Joseph Bellamy in
his parish at Bethlem, Connecticut, indoctrinated many a
youth in the New Divinity of Hopkinsianism, and Reverend
Nathaniel Emmons in Franklin, Massachusetts, taught nearly
one hundred such students. The method had the advantage
of personal contact and parish experience, and, not least valu-
able, it gave opportunity for intensive cultivation of the ac-
quaintance of ministers' daughters, which partly explains why
so many of them married ministers. But the doctrinal stamp
of a single man tended to narrow the outlook of the student,
and the method was criticised as lacking systematic instruction
in biblical exegesis and ecclesiastical history.
These were among the circumstances that favored the
thought of a theological seminary. The idea fermented in
several minds about the same time. Reverend Jonathan
French, who was the instructor of certain students in divinity
in the Academy, made a suggestion for a seminary as early as
the foundation of the Academy. In a letter to Nathaniel Niles
of Vermont, expressing the wish for a theological seminary,
he said : "The students should be such only as have been grad-
uated at some college, or are otherwise qualified to enter upon
the study of divinity ; should tarry three years at trie Academy
and be boarded in common. None should be allowed to enter
but persons of sobriety and good morals. The president should
be the first in the land for good principles, learning, and piety,
if to be had ; the best of libraries for the purpose be procured,
and a whole course of divinity be studied, and everything
practicable that may assist to qualify young gentlemen for the
work of the ministry be taught."
Dr. Eliphalet Pearson was disturbed gravely by the liberal
trend at Harvard. Pearson was one of the outstanding men
of the time in educational circles. He had been the first prin-
cipal of Phillips Academy and had established its reputation,
and after eight years he had been elected to a professorship
at Harvard. There he served with such acceptance that
Leonard Woods could say of him: "No other officer in the
college had equal influence in promoting improvement in lit-
erature, and the higher interest of morality and piety." When
President Willard died in 1804 Pearson was acting president
for over a year, and presumably he hoped to be elected Wil-
lard's successor. He was one of the five members of the Board
of Fellows, and, with Jet'ediah Morse of Charlestown, he op-
posed the appointment of a Unitarian to the Hollis professor-
ship of divinity. When he failed to stem the tide of liberalism
in 1805, and then when Professor Webber was chosen presi-
dent the next year, Pearson resigned his office and went back
to Andover, convinced that something needed to be done to
defend orthodoxy. The Academy, of which he was a trustee,
cordially welcomed his return and gave him a year's rental of
a new house nearby. Then he began to plan for the establish-
ment of a theological institution "which should maintain the
doctrines of the fathers of New England against the threat-
ening apostasies of the times."
Dr. Pearson interested Andover residents in his plans.
Among these residents was Samuel Abbot. He was an An-
dover citizen who had made money in a mercantile business
in Boston. He shared his wealth with Harvard students and
with ministers, and planned to make a generous bequest to
Harvard. But his concern over orthodoxy made him transfer
his interest to Andover and a possible theological center there.
He was a trustee of the Academy, and so active did he become
in the counsels of the time that Pearson, French, and Samuel
Farrar were spoken of as his privy council. It was these men
who wrote the constitution of the original Foundation, and
so wisely did they outline the functions of each department
that little change was necessary in subsequent decades. The
Phillips family kept its interest in theological education, and
Madam Phillips, the widow of Judge Phillips, and her son
John readily agreed to make the plan concrete by providing
accommodations for sixty theological students in a new build-
ing, which should include also a lecture hall and a library.
While these initial steps were being taken at Andover, the
Hopkinsians were cherishing a similar purpose. Their leader
was Dr. Samuel Spring, minister at Newburyport. He had
been a pupil of both Hopkins and Bellamy, and had been a
recognized leader in eastern Massachusetts for forty years.
Leonard Woods, a young minister at West Newbury, was his
close friend. Through Spring and Woods three laymen were
aroused to an interest in theological education. These were
William Bartlet, a successful merchant of Newburyport,
Moses Brown of the same town, and John Norris of Salem.
They were all men of wealth, and though not all church mem-
UU
bers they were willing to use their money for religious pur-
poses, and they soon agreed to support the plans for a
theological school at West Newbury. Reverend Nathaniel
Emmons at Franklin, one of the most eminent of the Hop-
kinsian theologians, was an active supporter.
Here then were two groups of Calvinists, equally deter-
mined to establish a stronghold of orthodoxy for the Congre-
gational churches of New England, preparing to found two
schools of theology within twenty miles of each other, and to
appeal to the same denominational constituency. At Andover
the foundation was already laid and the Hopkinsians were
making progress, when Woods and Morse, who were associ-
ated in the publication of the Panoplist, an organ of the Ortho-
dox Calvinists against the Unitarian Anthology, discovered
each other's enterprise. Immediately it was apparent to both
that the two groups ought to combine forces. Both were Cal-
vinists and equally hostile to the Liberal movement in Massa-
chusetts, and they were agreed in their purpose to provide or-
thodox training for the Congregational ministry. It was to
require patience, long discussion, sweet reasonableness, and
perseverance, before the two parties could be brought to ar-
range a merger. The Old Calvinists were especially desirous to
have the school at Andover. The Hopkinsians were insistent
upon their own interpretation of Calvinism as the doctrinal
foundation of the school. Eventually they compromised recip-
rocally, but progress toward union was discouragingly slow.
Pearson and Woods labored indef atigably. Pearson's chaise
became a familiar object as it traveled back and forth more than
thirty times over the highway between Andover and Newbury-
port in an endeavor to unsnarl the theological tangle. Woods
had an inexhaustible gift of diplomacy which he used to good
effect. But there was mutual suspicion. Dr. Spring was doubt-
ful about joining with a theological enterprise which would be
controlled by the Trustees of the Academy at Andover, who
were content with the Westminster standards of doctrine.
Some of them, living in Boston, were dangerously liberal.
Spring expressed the Hopkinsian suspicion when he wrote:
"Our Constitution we must have at Andover independent of
them; or, a separate trust collected from Andover, making
half the united trust provided by our Constitution, must be the
condition of our connection, or we cannot safely remove to
Andover, nor even then ; for we can't before the Millennium
govern them any more than we can the Emperor. And they
must not govern."
Since the Trustees were not allowed by their charter to hold
an estate sufficient to carry out the design of the donors, the
Legislature of Massachusetts on June 19, 1807, authorized
the Trustees to receive and hold additional property " for the
purpose of a theological institution and in furtherance of the
designs of the pious founders and benefactors of said Acad-
emy." Madam Phillips, John Phillips, Jr., and Samuel Abbot
then joined in executing a Deed of Gift, dated August 31, 1807,
and embodying sundry rules and regulations which were to
be the Constitution of "a public theological institution in
Phillips Academy." Madam Phillips and John Phillips, Jr.,
thus undertook to erect two buildings for the purpose of the
proposed Seminary, while Samuel Abbot gave twenty thousand
dollars "as a fund for the purpose of maintaining a professor
of Christian Theology" in the Seminary. His gift to Andover
was the first American foundation for a chair in theology out-
side a university, for in 1807 a foundation for purely theologi-
cal education was almost unknown in America. In the Middle
States the Dutch Reformed and Presbyterian churches had
made small beginnings, but in New England the Congrega-
tionalists had depended on Harvard and Yale. In a legal sense
the new Seminary at Andover was the theological institution
in Phillips Academy, but it was so distinct in faculty, buildings,
and funds as to be actually a separate school.
The deed of August 31, 1807, was signed in the belief that
union with the Hopkinsians was likely to prove impossible.
The Trustees immediately voted to "accept the sacred and very
important trust devolved upon them by the preceding instru-
ment." Among the regulations which the Trustees thus ac-
cepted was one to the effect that every professor in the Semi-
nary must "be a man of sound and orthodox principles in
divinity according to that form of sound words or system of
evangelical doctrines, drawn from the Scriptures, and denomi-
nated the Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism, and
more concisely delineated in the Constitution of Phillips
Academy." In further regulations it was provided that every
professor must at the time of his inauguration solemnly prom-
ise to maintain and inculcate the Christian faith as summarily
expressed in the Shorter Catechism " in opposition not only to
Atheists and Infidels, but to Jews, Mahommetans, Arians,
Pelagians, Antinomians, Arminians, Socinians, Unitarians,
and Universalists, and to all other heresies and errors, ancient
or modern, which may be opposed to the Gospel of Christ, or
hazardous to the souls of men," and that every professor must
repeat this declaration in the presence of the Trustees once in
five years.
The purpose of the Founders, according to their constitu-
tion, was to increase "the number of learned and able de-
fenders of the Gospel of Christ, as well as of orthodox, pious,
and zealous ministers of the New Testament; being moved,
as we hope, by a principle of gratitude to God and benevolence
to man." A similar purpose motivated the Associate Founders,
the Hopkinsians, who in the Associate Statutes which they
drew up said more rhetorically: "To the Spirit of Truth, to
the divine Author of our faith, to the only wise God, we desire
in sincerity to present this our humble offering, devoutly im-
ploring the Father of Lights, richly to endue with wisdom
from above all His servants, the Visitors of this Foundation,
and the Trustees of the Seminary, and with spiritual under-
standing the professors therein, that, being illuminated by the
Holy Spirit their doctrine may drop as the rain ; and that their
pupils may become trees of renown in the courts of our God,
whereby He may be glorified."
For some months it seemed likely that two schools would
arise on account of their differences in theological interpreta-
tion, unfortunate though such duplication of effort would be.
But the idea of affiliation was still at work. In the spring of
1808 the Hopkinsian promoters met and on the twenty-first
of March adopted their series of associate statutes, and as
Associate Founders submitted their constitution to the Trus-
tees of Phillips Academy. Their project carried with it an offer
of ten thousand dollars each from Brown, Bartlet, and Norris,
and a promise of an additional ten thousand from Bartlet.
These sums were intended to provide for the support of two
professors and for student aid. These were tempting offers,
but the statutes drawn up by the Associate Founders contained
three provisions which caused hesitation among the Founders.
The Hopkinsians had drawn up a creed for their school
which contained articles interpreting their theology, and they
would not compromise with the Founders at Andover upon
this point. In order to safeguard their tenets they prescribed
that every professor should be a Hopkinsian and at his inaugu-
ration should subscribe to the creed. Then, to make doubly
sure, it was stipulated that a board of visitors should be ap-
pointed, after the example of the Overseers at Harvard, to
examine, when necessary, the orthodoxy of the members of
the Faculty, to see that the funds were not misused, and to
control the Trustees in their administration of the property.
The Founders had agreed that the Associate Founders might
prescribe additional statutes and appoint visitors to enforce
such statutes, but it was not anticipated that the visitors would
be their masters. The third provision of the Associate Stat-
utes was that the alliance should be subject to revision at any
time during the first seven years, even to the withdrawal of
the Associate funds.
The patience and pertinacity of Pearson and Woods had
brought about a tentative agreement in the preceding Decem-
ber. They kept steadily at work and were rewarded at length
on the tenth of May when seven out of eight of the Trustees
present agreed to accept the terms of the Associate Founders
and the affiliation was completed. It was prophetic of the habit
of affiliation which Andover was to acquire later.
The compromise which was reached provided that the Semi-
nary should be located at Andover, and the Trustees of the
Academy should hold and administer the endowments under
their charter. The original Constitution of the Founders was
to stand, and the Associate Statutes of the Hopkinsians to be
of equal authority. Every occupant of a chair endowed by
the Associate Founders should be a Hopkinsian. Madam
Phillips and her son were to erect the building for the Semi-
nary, Phillips Hall, and the donations offered were accepted,
twenty thousand each from Abbot and Bartlet and ten thou-
sand each from Brown and Norris, the last three gifts con-
stituting the Associate Foundation and the donors constituting
the Associate Founders. A self -perpetuating Board of Visi-
tors was given power to review the acts of the Trustees, to
interpret the Creed and the Associate Statutes, as occasion
might arise, and to preserve the orthodoxy of the Seminary.
Appeal might be made from the Visitors to the Supreme
Judicial Court of Massachusetts, if they "should exceed the
limits of their jurisdiction and constitutional power," or "act
contrary to" the statutes of the Seminary. The Visitors were
intended to be censors of the school as long as the sun and
moon endure, visiting it at least once a year, and to see, as it
was phrased, that the true intentions of the Founders of the
Seminary were carried out. The charter of Phillips Academy,
enacted by the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1780, provided
that the Trustees should not be more than thirteen or less than
seven, and that the majority should be "laymen and respec-
table freeholders" ; and provided further that the Board should
be a self-perpetuating body. The Visitors were three in num-
ber, two of them clergymen, likewise self-perpetuating. They
must subscribe to the Associate Creed. The records of the
Trustees were to be open to the public ; those of the Visitors
were a closed book.
It was a moot question whether the acceptance by the
Trustees of the donations of the Hopkinsians and of the Hop-
kinsian Board of Visitors was not in violation of the charter
of Phillips Academy. That forbade the Trustees ever to re-
ceive any grant or donation, "the condition whereof should
require them or any other concerned, to act in any respect
counter to the design of the first grantors or of any prior
donation." It also provided that the Trustees then in office
and their successors should be "true and sole Visitors, Trus-
tees, and Governors of the said Phillips Academy in perpetual
succession forever."
The Hopkinsian Creed differed somewhat from the West-
minster Confession, omitting a few sections and modifying
others. It was in substance an affirmation of belief in the
authority of the Bible as superior to reason, in the sovereignty
of the divine will, in the election of some to be saved from the
consequences of the fall of Adam, in the atonement of Christ
intended for all, but really limited to the elect, and in the
assured salvation of these few, but the hopeless condemnation
of the rest. It was intended to include, as has been said, "just
as much of the peculiarities of each party as would not ex-
clude the participation in the resultant symbol of the other."
It was phrased in an irenic spirit, but it was an effort to com-
bine two schools of theological thought which could not be
harmonized, and theologically the compromise was destined
to prove a tragic failure.
The two orthodox parties agreed against the Liberals that
the Scripture was a fixed deposit of truth rather than a pro-
gressive revelation, and that reason had no right to contradict ;
that man is handicapped from the start and is saved only by
the grace of God, mediated through the Cross; that Christ
died to satisfy divine justice, and that He was very God Him-
self. But the two Calvinistic parties differed at many points
themselves. The Hopkinsians maintained the doctrine of
divine sovereignty, but they modified the plight of man. They
rejected the Old Calvinist doctrine of the imputation of
Adam's sin, as if Adam were the representative of the human
race, and maintained that every man's sin is his own personal
responsibility. They made less of human depravity and more
of actual sinning. They did not believe that God had closed
absolutely the door of hope, because there is in man a certain
natural ability to obey God's law. And Christ had died for all
men, not as a penal satisfaction to an outraged deity, but as an
expression of his universal benevolence. And man should rely
on the atoning Christ and not on any outward means of grace.
The Associate Statutes provided that every professor on the
Associate Foundation should on the day of his inauguration
publicly make and subscribe a solemn declaration of his faith
"in divine revelation and in the fundamental and distinguish-
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ing doctrines of the Gospel" as expressed in the Creed, and
that every five years he should repeat the declaration, includ-
ing the following : " I do solemnly promise that I will open and
explain the Scriptures to my pupils with integrity and faith-
fulness ; that I will maintain and inculcate the Christian faith
as expressed in the Creed by me now repeated, together with
all other doctrines and duties of our holy religion, so far as
may appertain to my office, according to the best light that
God shall give me, and in opposition not only to atheists and
infidels, but to Jews, Papists, Mahommetans, Arians, Pela-
gians, Antinomians, Arminians, Socinians, Sabellians, Uni-
tarians, and Universalists, and to all other heresies and errors,
ancient and modern, which may be opposed to the gospel of
Christ or hazardous to the souls of men ; that by my instruc-
tion, counsel, and example I will endeavor to promote true
piety and godliness ; that I will consult the good of this insti-
tution and the peace of the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ
on all occasions ; and that I will religiously conform to the con-
stitution and laws of this Seminary, and to the statutes of this
foundation."
The Hopkinsians lived in continual dread lest the school
might be captured at any time by their rivals. Nathaniel
Emmons wrote in 1819 : "I have feared and do still more and
more fear that that richly endowed Seminary will erelong
become the fountain of theological errors, and disseminate
them through all New England, if not this America. I have
for some time been convinced that neither the teachers nor
the taught strictly adhere to that excellent Creed upon which
the institution was professedly founded. They are fast verg-
ing towards the absurdities of the Old Calvinism." So difficult
was it to put the mind of man in a strait-jacket. Yet the pro-
fessor of theology throughout that period was Leonard
Woods, who was so active as a Hopkinsian in the foundation
of the Seminary.
The Creed was duly insured and as it seemed placed in safe
deposit by the language of the Associate Statutes, which read :
" It is strictly and solemnly enjoined, and left in sacred charge,
that every article of the abovesaid Creed shall forever remain
entirely and identically the same, without the least alteration,
or any addition or diminution."
In 1842 the Trustees decided that it was unnecessary for
the associate professors to subscribe to more than the Creed.
Professor William J. Tucker, before signing the Creed in
1880, declared explicitly: "The creed which I am about to
read and to which I subscribe, I fully accept as setting forth
the truth against the errors which it was designed to meet.
No confession so elaborate and with such intent may assume
to be the final expression of the truth or an expression equally
fitted in language or tone to all times."
There was a single saving clause for the liberal interpreter,
"according to the best light God shall give me." Perhaps the
attitude of the early Faculty is best expressed by Moses
Stuart, whose orthodoxy was undoubted. In a sermon
preached at the dedication of Bartlet Chapel in 1818, he said :
"We profess to adopt for substance the sentiments of the
Westminster Catechism, but it is not our standard of ortho-
doxy, nor any other human production. In principle, I be-
lieve in practice, we are genuine Protestants. The Bible we
regard as the sufficient and only rule of faith and practice.
We believe in the doctrines of our Creed, merely because we
suppose the Bible teaches them. We profess to shrink not from
the most strenuous investigation. I am bold to say, there is not
a school of theology on earth, where more free and unlimited
investigation is indulged, nay inculcated and practiced. The
shelves of our library are loaded with books of Latitudinarians
and Skeptics, which are read and studied. We have no appre-
hension that the truths which we believe are to suffer by such
an investigation."
The Creed was apparently the law within which the prophet
was free to range, as the aviator performs his evolutions, al-
ways mindful of the law of mechanics. The fathers did not
think of theology as a thing of life, and so subject to change ;
therefore they made their creed a test of orthodoxy rather
than a simple confession of faith. It was a confession of fear
of heterodoxy in an age when heresy was one of the cardinal
sins of Protestantism, as in the Catholic Church. That they
could come together at all with their rivals inside the same
fold is more remarkable than it is today that schools of differ-
ent denominations should affiliate. Their common faith in the
true fundamentals of the Christian gospel made that possible.
If the Hopkinsian Creed was a wall to keep others out of
the Hopkinsian preserves, it was not a wall to shut them in.
And when the students of the Seminary greeted one an-
other as brethren regardless of their party stamp, the old
competition was forgotten. Students never were required to
subscribe to the Creed, and several different denominations
were represented among them.
One of the first tasks of the Board of Trustees was to choose
a faculty. Two men were logical candidates, the two men who
had done the most to perfect the union, Pearson and Woods.
Pearson had been a prominent teacher, and Woods was the
intended professor of theology for the proposed school at
West Newbury. Pearson represented the Old Calvinist tra-
dition, Woods the Hopkinsian interpretation. In the interests
of harmony Samuel Abbot of the Founders selected Woods as
the incumbent of the professorship of Christian theology,
which he had endowed, and William Bartlet of the Associate
Founders accepted Pearson for his professorship of natural
theology, with the expectation that he would expound sacred
literature. But curiously enough Woods, the Hopkinsian, who
should have subscribed to the Associate Creed, signed the
Catechism only, and Pearson, whose party stood for the West-
minster Catechism, signed only the Creed. At the opening of
the Seminary prayer was offered for the two professors that
they might be "a lovely, happy pair."
Not only was the control of the Seminary provided for very
carefully, but control of Faculty 'and students was buttressed
by numerous regulations. The Associate Statutes contained in
all twenty-eight articles. The original Constitution contained
thirty- four articles, and to these thirteen articles were added
by the original Founders. The Associate Statutes were ac-
cepted by the Trustees on May 10, 1808. The rules of the
Seminary were published the next year in seven chapters of
sixty-five articles; again in 1837 in thirteen chapters of one
hundred and two articles. Each professor's instruction was
regulated carefully for his department. By the professor of
natural theology, for example, "the existence, attributes, and
providence of God must be demonstrated ; the soul's immor-
tality and a future state, as deducible from the light of nature,
discussed ; the obligations of man to his Maker, resulting from
the divine perfections and his own rational nature, enforced ;
the great duties of social life, flowing from the mutual rela-
tions of man to man, inculcated; and the several personal
victues deduced and delineated ; the whole being interspersed
with remarks on the coincidence between the dictates of reason
and the doctrines of revelation, in these primary points ; and,
notwithstanding such coincidence, the necessity and utility
of a divine revelation stated."
The munificence of the friends of the school established it
on equally firm financial foundations. The most liberal donors
were the members of the Phillips family. They provided for
buildings with gifts of forty thousand dollars, and sixty thou-
sand more went for land and endowment. William Bartlet
was the most generous single donor. He contributed one-half
of the Associate Fund of forty thousand, added fifteen thou-
sand later for the Bartlet professorship, and built Bartlet
Hall (the Chapel), and three houses for professors. Samuel
Abbot brought his total contribution to over a hundred thou-
sand dollars. John Norris and his wife gave forty thousand,
Moses Brown thirty-five thousand, and there were other gifts
amounting to about seventy-five thousand dollars, including
scholarships. Altogether about four hundred and fifty thou-
sand dollars were available for buildings and endowments
within the first half century.
The establishment of the Seminary was a significant event
in American church history. The union of the two theological
groups of conservatives in the Seminary proved an effective
counterpoise to the Unitarian trend in Congregational circles.
Naturally the Liberals were not pleased. The Harvard atti-
tude was not friendly. Woods reported to Farrar in 1807 that
there was "loud murmuring and reproach and imprecation."
On his own part Woods did not feel cordial. He wrote to
Jedediah Morse: "I hate to fight with such creatures as the
'Anthologists.' They can make the loudest noise. They never
will feel conquered. They will use instruments and methods
of battle which we disapprove and despise. Let not our pages
be soiled with their matters." All of which is evidence of the
hostilities of the period. The Congregational churches ex-
pressed their good will for the school and confidence in it.
Most of the ministers were in sympathy with the course that
had been followed, and they believed in the principle of theo-
logical education. The General Association of Massachusetts
in 1808 recorded its satisfaction that an important theological
institution had been established in the county of Essex. Two
years later its committee on the state of the churches reported
that the smiles of God rested on the Theological Seminary.
As far away as New York City a lively interest was felt and
surprise was expressed at the financial resources and the num-
ber of students. The Seminary marked a distinct stage of
advance in theological training, and spurred the Congrega-
tionalists to establish other institutions for theological educa-
tion. Bangor Theological Seminary was opened at Hampden,
Maine, in 1816, for students without college training, and was
removed to Bangor three years later. Yale Divinity School
was founded as a distinct department of the University in
1822, as Harvard Divinity School had been at Cambridge in
1815. Other denominations were soon establishing their own
schools on the Andover model.
The foundations at Andover were laid firmly. The super-
structure was to be built into the lives and characters of gener-
ations of theological students, and the influence of the Semi-
nary on the Hill was to be felt around the world. For the first
half century it was to train most of the pastors of the Congre-
gational churches of Massachusetts and nearly all the foreign
missionaries of the American Board, and many Presbyterians
who found their fields of labor in the Middle and Western
States. Because of its high standards, competent instruction,
and thorough discipline, Andover became a recognized leader
in theology, in biblical research, and in general contribution
to the study of religion.
CHAPTER II
SEMINARY LIFE IN THE EARLY YEARS
ON a delightful day in early autumn, the twenty-eighth
of September, 1808, the friends of the new Seminary
gathered from far and near to celebrate the opening
of the school. Some of them had been present at the founding
of the Academy thirty years earlier. Andover was still a small
village, but it was to become famous for its educational insti-
tutions. Already the Academy was in good repute. Now it
was to become a shrine of religion, and from it were to radiate
influences that would be unbounded in their scope. No one in
the audience which gathered to share in the exercises of the
day could have imagined how soon alumni of the Seminary
would go far afield on foreign mission bent, to India and
Burma, to Africa and the Near East, or how many would
find almost as difficult a field of labor with Indians on the
southwestern frontier of America. But already the mission
purpose had crystallized under a haystack in Williamstown
at the other end of Massachusetts, presently it would focalize
at a point nearby for missionary organization, and then its
sponsors would make the name of Andover known at the ends
of the earth.
The people filed into the pews of the parish meetinghouse,
and gave their attention to the order of exercises. It would
have been unseemly if so grave an event as the institution of
a theological seminary should not be observed with the most
solemn dignity and with a profound sense of the significance
of the occasion. It was fitting that the people should take time
to dedicate the institution and to invest its faculty with the
authority of their office.
Reverend Jonathan French, pastor of the church, made the
introductory prayer. This was especially appropriate because
of his primary interest in organizing a seminary, his part in
its organization, and his office as pastor of the church. After
the prayer had been offered, Dr. Eliphalet Pearson recounted
the history of the Academy from the time of its founding.
Then he read the Constitution for the new foundation. Dr.
Jedediah Morse read the statutes of the Associate Founders.
These were supplemented by the Additional Statutes which
Squire Farrar had penned for the original Founders, read now
by Dr. Daniel Dana, the most uncompromisingly conserva-
tive of the Board of Trustees. These events were carried out
in the prolix fashion of that day, and the forenoon exercises
ended with music. The music of the day was furnished by the
musical associations of Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk coun-
ties, aided by "other respectable gentlemen, both of the clergy
and the laity, who politely gave their assistance in the solem-
nities of the day."
After the visitors had enjoyed the hospitality of the towns-
folk, they wended their way again to the meetinghouse for
the service of the afternoon. This was an occasion of special
interest because it was to include the ordination of Dr. Pear-
] I son, professor-elect. No unordained man could be a professor
I \ in Andover Seminary. The village had long known and hon-
ored Dr. Pearson. The people knew him in Revolutionary
days, when he dabbled in chemistry to obtain the saltpetre
needed for the army. They had sat under his instruction in one
of those singing schools that relieved the tedium of village life
and combined education and enjoyment. They had known
him as a schoolmaster, and had been gratified over the honors
that he had received at Harvard. They had welcomed him
back to citizenship in the old town. They were aware of the
part that he had taken in the creation of the new theological
foundation. They were ready to give him his full meed of
local honors.
Prayer was offered by Dr. Dana ; the sermon was preached
by Dr. Timothy Dwight, President of Yale College ; and the
consecrating prayer was made by Dr. Spring ; then followed
the charge to the candidate by Mr. French, and the hand of
fellowship by Dr. Morse. After the ordination service was
over Dr. Spring read the Creed, which to the Hopkinsians was
so important a part of the machinery of the establishment.
Dr. Dwight declared Dr. Pearson a professor in the Seminary
and invested him with the rights of office, and Dr. Pearson in
turn rendered the same service to Dr. Woods. Professor
Woods then delivered his inaugural address, On the Glory and
Excellency of the Gospel. Leonard Woods had been valedic-
torian of his class at Harvard, he appreciated the importance
of the occasion, and he did full justice to it. The day proved
too wearisome to Dr. Pearson, who was not in the best of
health, and his oration was omitted. After a closing prayer
by Dr. Dwight, the service concluded with an anthem by the
choir, which was pronounced highly gratifying to the audience.
Phillips Hall was not yet ready for classes, so that Dr.
Woods held his first class in his own house. In due time the
new building was ready for occupancy, and the proceedings
became more regular. It had been hoped that perhaps as many
as twelve young men might desire to avail themselves of the
opportunity to study at Andover in preference to residing
with a Congregational minister, or living in the dangerous
environment of Harvard College. No one was optimistic
enough to expect a larger number. It was not easy to gain
admittance. The candidate must show a certificate of good
character from those who knew him. The Constitution pre-
scribed that students must be young men, "of good natural
and acquired talents" who have honorably completed "a course
of liberal education" and who sustain "a fair moral char-
acter." Each man must submit to an examination before two
professors and Dr. Spring, and show his ability to use Latin
and Greek, and if he had not graduated from college he was
required to show some knowledge of science.
The influx of students surprised everybody, and taxed thej;
accommodations of the school. Before the first year was overs;
thirty-six students had enrolled. Classes averaged approxi-
mately fifty men during the first eight years, then the numbers i
increased until in 1819 more than one hundred were enrolled.
Students came mainly from the Congregational colleges of
New England, but Hamilton, Union, and Princeton, each had;
its quota. The class of 1810, with fifty-six students, repre-
sented Williams with sixteen men, Yale nine, Middlebury
seven, Brown, a Baptist college, seven, Princeton five, Har-
vard three, Union, Dartmouth, and Bowdoin two each, and
the University of Vermont one. In the first ten years only
four men were graduated who had not received the Bachelor
of Arts degree. During the first twenty-five years only forty-
two out of six hundred and seven Andover graduates were
not college graduates. By that time Dartmouth rivaled Yale
in furnishing the largest number of students, the one sending
one hundred and sixteen, the other one hundred and nine.
Middlebury had prepared and sent eighty-six. These three
thus supplied more than half of the total number. The record
continued with Williams sixty-two, Amherst forty-six, Brown
thirty-eight, Bowdoin thirty-two, Hamilton twenty-two, and
Union sixteen. In the first thirty-eight years of the school's
existence twenty different colleges were represented. Andover
thus brought together into a close fraternity men for the min-
istry who otherwise might have remained provincially minded.
And in the first quarter century of the Seminary's history
sixty-seven men were commissioned as foreign missionaries.
Altogether fifteen hundred students sat in Andover class-
rooms in less than forty years.
It was some time before those who came were persuaded
that the theological discipline required three full years in prep-
aration for pastoral responsibilities. Less than two-thirds of
the whole number of students completed the three years'
course. Some came to receive instruction in a single subject
or from a particular professor. The curriculum rather en-
couraged such a method, for it was organized on the principle
of concentration on a single field of discipline, biblical studies
during the first year, theology for the second year, and homi-
letics with a little church history for the third year. The junior
class usually declined in numbers as the year wore on. Certain
students were impatient to get settled in a parish. To one such
youth who claimed that he must be sowing the gospel seed a
professor suggested that it might be advisable to get some
seed to sow. Sometimes the real reason for a theologue's
426Y
haste was his desire to marry. The health of not a few stu-
dents broke down and a number died. Too sedentary an occu-
pation following upon farm work sapped the health, and
insufficient or improper nourishment took its toll. Pecuniary
difficulties hampered some and prevented a continuance of
study, in spite of the low cost of living in the school, and the
student aid that was provided. Certain men improved an
opportunity to teach. A few shifted to another seminary for
denominational reasons, as when the Baptists founded Newton
Theological Institution in 1825. As an offset other men entered
to advanced standing.
The founders realized the need of substantial buildings,
and when the need arrived they were ready to make generous
provision. The ground available for construction needed to
be landscaped. It was a field of rocks and bushes. A stone
wall surrounded the present campus. There was need of super-
intendence in putting the grounds in order, and it became a
frequent spectacle to see the dignified form of Professor Pear-
son perched aloft among the branches of a neighboring tree.
From this vantage point he planned and directed the improve-
ment of the grounds. Before everything was in order students
had made gravel walks across the campus; maple, chestnut,
birch, and especially elms, were shading the area; and the
place began to resemble the classic environment of college
students.
The first three of the oldest structures which constituted
Brick Row was Phillips Hall. This was the gift of the Phillips
family, and was completed during the first year of the Semi-
nary. It was constructed of brick with a slate roof, was four
stories in height, and was divided in the middle, with a front
and a rear entry on each side. The building contained thirty
rooms for students, and one room in the building was used
successively as chapel, reading room, and a memorial to one
of the later professors.
An unpublished letter which was written on Thanksgiving
Day, 1825, gives a glimpse of the building. Addison Kingsbury
had entered the Seminary as a junior, and he relates his ex-
periences to his brother. Leaving Boston by stagecoach on a
Saturday afternoon with eleven passengers inside and four
outside, he spent three hours on the road, reaching Andover
about seven o'clock in the evening. Then he continued: "I
have had some trouble in getting located, as the rooms were
principally taken up. I have at last succeeded in obtaining a
room in the fourth story, though with few or no accommoda-
tions. I expected the rooms were furnished. I accordingly
brought no furniture with me and I find none here of conse-
quence except a poor bed without any clothing. I have how-
ever succeeded in obtaining some from a society that fur-
nishes students in certain cases. My tables are not fit to stand
in your old kitchen, and as for chairs I am now sitting upon one
without any back writing to you. . . . However I am not dis-
posed to complain, though I have complained, but I would
have students come on here with their eyes open and with the
expectation of finding very inferior accommodations the first
year." He says that the older classes of students have every-
thing comfortable and pleasant in Bartlet Hall.
The second building to be erected in Brick Row was Bartlet
Chapel. This was the gift of the generous benefactor, William
Bartlet, to whom Trustees and Faculty turned as needs de-
manded. Already he had provided houses for the professors,
as well as contributing liberally to the endowment. Now in
1818 he was ready to pay for a chapel building in Bulfinch
design, which would include classrooms as well as a place for
devotions. As bricks made in Newburyport were better than
those made in Andover, it was arranged that four powerful
oxen should haul them over the hills, and so again Newbury-
port came to Andover. The new building originally was three
stories high, with a small, round cupola. The room for the
chapel occupied one side of the building on the main floor, and
the library was housed above it. On the other side of the chapel
were three classrooms. Some confusion was caused by the
fact that the building at first was called Bartlet Hall, but
when the second dormitory was built in 1821 the name Bartlet
Hall was transferred to that, and the chapel building was
called Bartlet Chapel.
The increasing number of students was making more dor-
mitory space imperative. Many of the students had to find
lodgings at a distance. William Bartlet again was equal to the
occasion. One morning the professors found his men at work
excavating the cellar. The newest addition was a three-story
brick structure, one hundred by forty feet, and flanked the
Chapel on the right, completing Brick Row. It was the most
pretentious of the three buildings, for its thirty-two rooms
were arranged in suites of a sitting-room and two bedrooms.
Each sitting-room had a fireplace with a broad hearth, and an
opening above for a stovepipe in case stoves were preferred.
For convenience the back of the fireplace had an iron door
through which ashes might be started towards the cellar. The
building was ornamented with Venetian blinds. The rooms
were furnished by Mrs. Bartlet.
John Todd, a student in 1823, described his own room in
Bartlet Hall as square and the floor painted yellow. "Here
you will find," he wrote, "my chum and myself each bending
over a comfortable writing-desk laid upon two marble-colored
tables. You see our room ornamented with four pretty chairs,
a beautiful mahogany bureau, large mirror all furnished by
the munificent Mr. Bartlet. All the rooms in this building are
furnished alike. Nothing could add to our convenience if we
had a carpet. But this is of little consequence."
The completion of Brick Row fixed the outward form of
the Seminary for the next forty-five years. The three build-
ings were dignified in their architecture and formed a unit of
equipment sufficient for the needs of the school. Andover
Hill was not a lofty height, but from the windows of the build-
ings it was possible to get a view over the valley through which
the Shawsheen River flows, and to glimpse the higher reaches
to the north. Popularly the hill was called Pisgah or Zion.
The expenses of student life were small. There was no
tuition to pay, rent was only a nominal sum of two to four
dollars a year, and board in Commons was cheap. This was
fortunate because the students had little money, but they were
generous with one another. On one occasion, when an impe-
cunious man appeared with a family of four children and no
visible means of support, the students were ready to share
with the family what little they had. The Faculty reported
to the Trustees at the end of the first ten years that the indigent
state' of most of the students made it advisable not to impose
any fines for damage done to library books. Addison Kings-
bury spent in making himself reasonably comfortable the sum
that he had intended for the purchase of books, and he had to
get his first books on credit, with interest payable after three
months.
Students were responsible in general for heating their own
rooms. Once a year they appointed a committee on wood
whose duty it was to arrange for the necessary fuel. They
aided in the expense of heating the lecture rooms, but at a
time when most meetinghouses were unheated it is not sur-
prising that the dining-room in which they sat thrice a day
was unwarmed for a considerable time. In the winter of 1832
the students voted "to request Squire Farrar to mend the old,
or procure a new stove for the lower lecture room, lest our
mental energies go off in fermo"
' Many common conventions which now are regarded as
necessities were as lacking as they were in the homes from
which the students came. There was no water supply in town
except wells, and students drew water in their own pitchers
out-of-doors, and carried fuel for their wood-stoves upstairs
from the Seminary woodpile. They took care of their own
rooms when attention seemed to be required, made their beds
and trimmed their lamps, as they had done in college. Three
times a day they visited the Commons, which was provided by
the Trustees, and which stood in the rear of the Chapel. The
Trustees had a committee of exigencies, which promptly in
1808 licensed Mrs. Silence Smith "to keep boarders agree-
ably to the rules of the Trustees." About ten years later the
same committee voted that Daniel Cummings "be licensed to
keep boarders provided upon examination it be found that
he prays in his family."
The refectory was a low, brown, two-story house. The fare
was simple, and hardly made more appetizing by the discus-
sions of dour, theological questions. At times it became neces-
sary to economize in the kitchen, and the students were inclined
to rebel at such a substitution as molasses for meat. Indeed,
it is among the legends of Andover that a certain student fell
sick and after the medical practice of the day the physician
resorted to blood-letting. But to the amazement of the prac-
titioner the veins of the theologue oozed nothing but syrup.
The Founders seem to have believed in plain living along
with high thinking, even for the Trustees. Article 33 of the
Constitution ruled that "decent not extravagant entertainment
shall be made for the Trustees while attending the annual
meeting of the Board." Much less was the living of the stu-
dents extravagant. The poverty of the table was aggravated
by the fact that the students ate in a cold dining-room. The
Faculty brought this matter to the attention of the Trustees
after an experience of ten years had shown this infelicity.
Cautiously they said : "You will permit us to mention that . . .
some improvement in regard to diet and convenience at meals
. . . are deserving of consideration. We refer particularly
to the fact that during the whole winter season the students
are accustomed to take their meals in a room without fire-
place or stove. This custom occasions some difficulties which
it is desirable to avoid." The students shivered through hur-
ried meals and preserved few of the amenities. To render
the occasion more endurable warm bread was provided every
morning, which the professors regarded as "very prejudicial
to the health of the students." The students did not complain
directly, but "we have abundant evidence," said the Faculty
report, "that the provision of a warm room would be very
grateful to all, peculiarly so to those who are in feeble health."
The students themselves had doubts about the wholesome-
ness of warm bread, and the records of the Brethren relate
that a committee of three was appointed to interview the stew-
ard regarding the desirability of substituting cold bread for
breakfast. The asceticism of the New England Calvinist
appears again during the same period when the students voted
"that the steward be requested not to place sugar on the table."
After a few months the Brethren appointed a committee of
one "to inquire into the expediency of introducing sugar into
the hall and report thereon." A year later it was voted to re-
quest Squire Farrar to provide sugar for the Commons. Per-
haps it was penury rather than asceticism which made the
students sensitive to the subject of sugar. Two years later
still, about the time when the matter of hot bread was in de-
bate, the sugar discussion seems to have been settled by a vote
of the students, to wit: "At a meeting after the Professors'
Conference in which the importance of retrenchment in things
not necessary to comfort and health was exhibited, Voted,
that [three persons] be a committee to see who were willing
to dispense with the use of sugar in Commons."
On the first of November the students voted a definite bill
of fare : " Resolved, that for breakfast we have milk, prepared
in any method most agreeable to each brother, bread and baked
apples, or a substitute. For dinner one kind of meat, bread,
and a sufficient quantity and variety of vegetables. For supper
milk, bread, and butter." Six weeks later it was resolved "that
those brethren who cannot eat milk in the morning be fur-
nished with butter and water instead of it."
The next year gustatory controversy arose in the Seminary,
as if the air was not blue enough with the smoke of theological
polemics. Two parties developed, one favoring the ascetic
principle that always had its highest exemplification once a
year on Fast Day, the other leaning towards a fair degree of
self-indulgence. Some of the students proposed that the
board be simplified beyond the bill of fare aforementioned.
Others argued that the body was sufficiently subdued in the
interests of the spirit. The tide of feeling rose so high that the
Faculty was constrained to report in the following language
to the Trustees: "The system of retrenchment in Commons,
which was a voluntary arrangement of the students last year,
originating in a laudable spirit of Christian self-denial and
promising important results as to the health of the Seminary
and the economy of its funds, was attended with some diffi-
culties among themselves from the beginning. These difficulties
increased during the last winter, so as to produce feelings of
jealousy and strife to an unhappy extent. . . . We lament the
unfavorable influence which the causes of excitement . . . have
exerted on the piety of the Seminary." The matter was not
ended until one of the students was dismissed from the school.
Before the next Thanksgiving Day a majority of the stu-
dents petitioned the Faculty that they might have tea and
coffee added to the bill of fare. Professor Woods held a con-
ference with seventy-five of them and by inquiries elicited
the information that twenty-five were opposed to the indul-
gence, but except in three cases they would acquiesce if the
Faculty thought it best to make the change. The three opposed
the change on account of the added cost of meals, but when it
was proposed that other students meet the extra expense for
them, they declared that they were able to pay their own board.
The professor then announced that the petition was granted,
and tea and coffee would be served henceforth. Commons was
abolished in 1845.
It is easy to understand that students suffered from indi-
gestion. Summer epidemics were common; on one occasion
so many were ill that classes had to be suspended. A severe
epidemic occurred in the winter of 1826. Frequently students
nursed one another through diseases that in these days would
receive hospital treatment. The Constitution anticipated a
day when the school would have its own private hospital. In
1824 an infirmary actually was built and named Samaritan
House, but it was not erected by the Trustees. The women
of the community in the kindness of their hearts had formed
the Samaritan Female Society of Andover and Vicinity for the
purpose of aiding the poor students of the Academy and the
Seminary who were ill and preparing for them free "rooms,
bedding, furniture, fuel, diet, medicine, nurses, physicians,
necessaries, and comforts, as may be requisite and proper for
their respective cases."
The preamble to the constitution of the Society read
quaintly : " Several females in the vicinity of Phillips Academy
and of the Theological Institution in Andover, having been
frequently called to witness among the students, and especially
the indigent (of which last description there are in both semi-
naries more than a hundred individuals) various and affect-
ing cases of sickness and distress, which with their best exer-
tions it has not been in their power to relieve according to their
wishes, either by receiving the sufferers into their families,
providing them nurses, or supplying them with comforts and
necessaries, as their situation required ; and as it is not in the
power of the guardians of these seminaries, without violation
of their sacred trust, to apply the funds to any other purpose
than those to which they are so wisely appropriated; ... in
view of these and other reasons, too numerous to be named,
after mutual and deliberate consultation, agreed on the fourth
day of April, 1817, to form a society for the purpose, and upon
the principles, contained in the following constitution." Two
officers were charged with specific ministries. The almoner
should "have the charge of keeping in a proper state the rooms,
beds, furniture, clothes, and all other articles, provided and
given for the accommodation and comfort of the sick; of
superintending the use and distribution of the same, and also
the principal care of giving due notice of the particular cases,
wants and necessities of the sick, agreeably to the general or
special order of the directors. The collector will be expected
to use her diligence as well in procuring necessaries and com-
forts for immediate use of the indigent sick, as in collect-
ing subscriptions for the support of this establishment."
"These exertions are made with the pleasing expectation,
that the Honorable and Reverend Trustees of Phillips Acad-
emy will extend the wing of their protection over an institu-
tion, devoted to the relief of their indigent, sick, and helpless
pupils."
The health of the students was a matter of frequent concern.
As early as 1812 the Faculty recommended to the Trustees
the building of a wood-house, for the storing of the students'
supply and as a means of exercise for the students, who could
not swing an axe in the cellar of the hall, because the ceiling
was so low. Before long the professors thought it possible
that some exercise might be devised which would be beneficial
to the student and advantageous to the Seminary at the same
time, and they proposed the erection of a workshop and the
enlargement of the garden of the Commons, and the employ-
ment of a gardener to teach the students agriculture. They
advised that "a garden, abounding in all the succulent roots
and plants which are healthful, would diminish rather than
increase the expenses of living."
Whether the Trustees thought that the Faculty should not
be encouraged to make suggestions, or that the students ought
to understand gardening without special instruction, they con-
tented themselves with suggesting to the Faculty that they
require manual labor from the students for one or two hours
a day on the land of the Seminary. After twelve years had
passed the committee of exigencies was authorized to provide
a workshop. This was a rude, stone structure, equipped with
tools and benches built at the north end of the Commons, and
there the students fashioned coffins, wheelbarrows, and other
useful articles.
The Mechanical Association was organized, which rented
the building from the Trustees, but the students were not per-
mitted to have a fire because it would be "unsafe and inex-
pedient." Making coffins in an unheated room did not prove
popular, though the children of the professors created an
occasional diversion when they played among the shavings.
"Hammered in," says the annalist, "were the Greek and He-
brew, homiletics and ecclesiastical history, election, free grace,
natural depravity, and justification by faith hammered
down tight and the nail clinched on the other side."
The business experiment of the students was not successful
financially. The Association became bankrupt with a debt of
nearly one thousand dollars, and the students who were re-
sponsible for it were scattered. The Trustees refused to
assume any responsibility in the matter, though the Faculty
suggested that the credit of the school was involved. The work-
shop stood vacant until it was remodeled for the home of Pro-
fessor Calvin E. Stowe. There his wife, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, wrote "Dred" and "The Minister's Wooing." The
building was used later as a boarding house, and after the
Mansion House was burned in 1887 it became the Phillips
Inn. The Mansion House had an interesting history. It had
been built on Main Street in 1782 when Judge Phillips wished
to leave his earlier residence on the Abbot estate, where the
Academy had been born and where later Professor Woods
lived, to the principal of the Academy. The new house was
the most pretentious dwelling in town, and, like numerous
other New England houses, was visited at one time by George
Washington. After enjoying its elegance for twenty years
Judge Phillips died, and the Trustees purchased the property,
which from that time was called the Mansion House, and dur-
ing a large part of the century was the hotel of the village. It
was proud of such visitors as Webster, Jackson, and Lafayette.
For exercise the students blasted and cleared away rocks
from the Missionary Field back of the buildings, worked on
the campus grounds, and rambled about the vicinity. Two
students, one of whom became a well-known college professor,
used to race each other around a three-mile triangle on winter
mornings before sunrise to give tone to breakfast and the day's
work. Professor Park, when a student at Andover, arose at
4.30 and walked with another student over Indian Ridge or
through Carlton's Woods, practising elocutionary exercises
in order to develop his oratorical powers. The professors were
so concerned with the health of the students that in 1830 they
proposed that triennially a course of lectures on "Hygeia," or
"the art of preserving health," should be given by a "sober-
minded and eminent physician."
The students do not seem to have been miserable, perhaps
because they were seldom idle. It was the duty of the Faculty
to keep them busy, and they did their duty, for they were con-
scientious men and themselves busy withal. A student at An-
dover in 1819, writing to a lady friend, describes his daily
routine. "We are at present in very small business, that is,
reviewing the Greek grammar. Besides this we have the He-
brew alphabet to learn. But I have quartos around me enough
to frighten a very timid man out of his senses. Our living is
quite as good as I expected. . . . That you may know how
much a slave a man may be at Andover, if he will follow the
rules adopted by the majority, I will give the order of the day.
By rising at the six o'clock bell he will hardly find time to set
his room in order, and attend to his private devotions, before
the bell at seven calls him to prayer in the chapel. From the
chapel he must go immediately to the hall and by the time
breakfast is ended, it is eight o'clock, when study hours com-
mence and continue till twelve. Study hours again from half
past one to three. Then recitation, prayer, and supper, makes
it six in the afternoon. Study hours again from seven to nine
leave just time enough for evening devotion before sleep.
Now, my dear Seraph, if you can tell me if this is consistent
with those means to preserve health, which have been said to
be so abundantly used here, I will confess that your discern-
ment far exceeds mine. For my own part I expect to become an
outlaw ; for I will not be so much confined. Few means are
wanting to enable us to become great men; but the oppor-
tunity to kill oneself with study is rather too good."
Yet life went on then in far more leisurely fashion than it
does now, and there was time for voluntary association among
the students for various purposes. In the absence of organized
athletics they formed their associations along the lines of their
professional or religious interests. They recognized that their
relation was that of brothers in a common cause. It was nat-
ural, therefore, that they should give the name Brethren to
their association, a name which had belonged to the secret
association of missionary students at Williams, originating in
1808 and should resolve to call one another "brethren" in
all public remarks in chapel and the dining hall. About the
same time they resolved that it was improper and unbecoming
for any brother, a member of the institution, to sell pamphlets
or books of any kind for the purpose of making money. Yet
they gave an agent of the student body a commission on the
purchase of books, and charged the students assessments for
the running expenses of the association.
The Brethren in that same year asked the authorities for
fire-fenders in their rooms; when none were forthcoming
they provided their own at the suggestion of Squire Farrar.
They voted to procure pails for carrying ashes to the cellars,
and a week later they showed their versatility and good will
by voting to print ninety catalogues "at the expense of the
College," for distribution to the professors and other gentle-
men, and for use at the next Anniversary. The students voted
to adopt certain study hours when order and silence should
be observed. These were to be from eight to twelve in the fore-
noon, from two to four in the afternoon, and from seven to
nine in the evening. Detailed rules were made regarding con-
duct, forbidding noise, laughter, and loud talking and such
indoor sports as walking about for exercise or amusement,
battledore, and jumping a rope. They insisted that students
who injured property should pay the costs, and if the persons
were unknown that the costs should be met from the treasury
of the association.
On one occasion three members were appointed a committee
of furniture, whether to repair damages or appraise values or
replace with new furniture is not recorded. Presumably axes
were for chopping wood, but one would like to know what
prompted the vote to auction all the axes belonging to the
school and deposit the proceeds in the treasury. Was it be-
cause they were worn out, dull, or rusted? Was it because
some other means of splitting wood had been invented, or
were the axes dangerous to furniture or to life? Unfortu-
nately it was not one of the duties of the recorder to explain
motives. An annual committee was appointed "to regulate the
wood." Apparently there was danger that an absent-minded
individual might act contrary to the common good. That the
Brethren were publicly minded is clear from a vote to spend
money for warming the chapel, and another to clear away
stones from a place intended for a garden.
It seemed good to the members to appoint a recorder to pre-
serve a proper record of the actions taken by the association ;
some of the records are unconsciously humorous. Among the
first items recorded was a vote to establish a post office in the
institution, to provide a letter-box "of convenient dimensions"
for letters and packages destined for the mails, and to keep
the key in one after another of the students' rooms, as an indi-
vidual was responsible for carrying the mail. A little later it
was voted to open a correspondence with theological students
at Yale, and two years afterward with similar students at
Union College.
An early vote of the association was that "no brother carry
a light into the cellar in the evening." Again, one is curious as
to the motive. Was it wood or cider that he might be after, or
was he fond of ways that were dark ? Was it simply a pre-
caution against fire ? An early misfortune was the burning of
one of the buildings on the Hill, and after that the Faculty made
stringent fire laws, forbidding students to carry fire from one
stove or hearth to another ; to leave the room where there was
an open fire for more than five minutes without "taking the
fire down from the andirons and putting it in such a state that
it cannot fall or roll out upon the hearth" ; to carry out ashes
at any time except in the morning and then to the proper re-
ceptacle; to read by the light of a candle in bed, or "set his
candle when he retires to rest where the snuff can come in
contact with any clothing or inflammable matter" ; to "go into
any part of the chapel or lecture rooms with a lighted cigar or
smoke any tobacco in the same, nor shall he on any occasion
smoke any tobacco abroad or near any of the buildings con-
nected with the Seminary." A pail of water was to be kept in
each room through the night. And a committee of safety was
appointed to inspect the rooms at least three times a week. The
students voted to make the Mechanical Association the fire
department of the school.
4391-
CHAPTER III
STUDENTS AND FACULTY
STUDENT activities in any school are divided between
tasks prescribed by the Faculty and enterprises which
they undertake for themselves. Certain common interests
produce group organizations. In the absence at Andover of
baseball and football, tennis and golf and track athletics, physi-
cal exercise was taken individually, but musical, literary, and
missionary societies were soon among the extra-curricula
activities. Practice in music was not far removed from the cur-
riculum, and after a few years the Faculty ruled that "every
student, whose voice and health will permit, shall devote so
much time to study and practice of sacred music, as will enable
him with understanding and spirit to take an active part in
sounding the high praises of God in seasons of public de-
votion."
A voluntary musical association was organized in 1812, and
reorganized five years later, to continue for decades as the
Lockhart Society for Improvement in Sacred Music. "It is
proper for those who are to preside in the assemblies of God's
people," said the organizers of the Society, "to possess them-
selves of so much skill and taste in this sublime art as at least
to distinguish between those solemn movements which are
congenial to pious minds, and those unhallowed, trifling med-
ley pieces which chill devotion; it is expected that serious
attention will be paid to the culture of a true taste for genuine
church music in this Seminary."
The musical association stated that all students in the Semi-
nary who had "tolerable voices" would be instructed in the
theory and practice of "this celestial art," and it was expected
that one of the professors, if it should be within the range of
his abilities, would give the necessary instruction, or that a
special instructor would be provided for that purpose. The
Seminary actually paid the expenses of musical instruction
at times, usually appointing the man who had been elected the
president of the association. It seems rather unreasonable to
have expected any of the professors of those years to have
been sufficiently proficient to become a musical coach, but the
drill of the singing school, so common at that period, lent a
fair presumption to the expectation.
The association at first provided for open membership, but
it was that provision which seems to have brought about reor-
ganization, for then the principle of selective membership was
substituted. Either too many voices were intolerable, or not
all the members took the organization seriously enough. Even
after the reorganization it was necessary occasionally to use
discipline. It is recorded with all seriousness that a certain
brother by the name of Smith was derelict in attendance on
the meetings of the Society, for it was a rule that unless the
student were ill or out of town he must attend, and when the
brother absented himself without permission, and without
giving any reason therefor and failed to mend his ways, he
was summarily "dismembered" by vote of the Society.
The records of the treasurer are sprinkled plentifully with
fines of six and a quarter and twelve and a half cents imposed
for tardiness, and this at a time when pennies were so scarce
among the students that the Faculty was recommending to
the Trustees not to lay any library fines upon them. An assess-
ment of seventy-five cents per member provided the necessary
funds for the purchase of musical collections. In the winter
of 1832 an attempt was made to get Dr. Lowell Mason of
Boston to deliver an address before the Society at the end of
the year, but he declined on the ground that his whole time was
taken up with numerous engagements. Subsequently he
showed his good will by submitting a copy of his Choir for
review by the Society, modestly suggesting that a testimonial
as to its excellence would be appreciated. The book was there-
fore referred to the censors for their judgment, and after
critical examination a resolution was sent to the composer with
the cheerful recommendation of the Society to all lovers of
music and those who esteem it a privilege to aid in so interest-
ing a part of the worship of the sanctuary. "We are enabled
to do this," they said, "not only from a confidence in ye
author's good taste and his complete knowledge of ye science
and art of music, but from our own acquaintance with ye work.
Although its music does not partake of ye grandeur of many
other of ye author's productions, its melody, a quality in music
much overlooked and too often sacrificed to harmony, is of a
high order and we think unequalled in any collection adapted
to ye use of choirs in general." In due time Mason became
an official instructor of music in the Seminary.
The question of musical instruments received prolonged
attention. Instead of the saxophone, the flute was in vogue,
and seems to have been in steady demand. One performer was
excused from attending the meetings of the Society "in con-
sequence of his inability to play the flute so much as a con-
stant attendance would require." The time came when the
students wished to own a double bass viol. They voted to
circulate a subscription through the Seminary in order to raise
money; failing in this they asked for contributions from "the
gentlemen on the hill," and with faith that they would have
one they delegated a committee of two to get a box to keep
the viol in ; but at last they were compelled to resort to the
treasurer of the institution, Samuel Farrar. The committee
that was delegated for the purpose called upon the squire, but
without much success, for it was recorded in the minutes that
the committee "have for some time weekly reported progress
as follows in a beautiful classical hemstitch
'We called upon Samuel Farrar, Esquire,
We went where he was and he wasn't there ! ' "
Whereupon the said committee as often had leave granted
them to sit again.
Not at all daunted by this frustration of their hopes, the
musical brethren ambitiously resolved two years later to have
an organ. They appointed an organ committee. This com-
mittee interviewed the Faculty and obtained its permission.
The next thing was to find the organ and the committee was
instructed to "sit farther on this business," that the "organic
442Y
affection" might be gratified. Squire Farrar of the Founders
had failed them in the matter of a bass viol ; for the organ they
went to William Bartlet of the Associate Founders. One of
the organ committee presently reported that a conversation
with Mr. Bartlet had encouraged them to hope for results.
The Society then voted that the committee be instructed to
bring the matter before Mr. Bartlet as often and in such man-
ner as their sense of propriety should suggest. Whether or
not the suggestion was made once too often is not clear, but the
conclusion of the matter was that "the venerable donor in the
plenitude of his liberality" stated that he should be pleased
to see an organ in the chapel if we could procure one ("what a
kind, generous wish!"), but he could not do everything. De-
mands had recently been made upon him and he felt poor.
Though the musical ambitions of the students were thus
balked, they were free to cultivate their literary talents with-
out wind instruments. This they did through the Porter Rhe-
torical Society. It was a time when oratory was esteemed
highly in the pulpit as on the hustings and in the halls of
Congress. A well-modulated voice, a classical diction, well-
rounded periods, and an irresistible peroration, brought the
preacher to his conclusion as grandly as a skilful sailor handles
his yacht throughout its course and brings it to the dock at
exactly the end of a graceful, sweeping arc.
In the earliest years of the school the students therefore
felt the desirability of organizing a society for the cultivation
of the literary and oratorical art. It was fitting that they should
call it a rhetorical society, since the name of the homiletical
department was that of sacred rhetoric, and it was equally
appropriate that they should style it the Porter Rhetorical
Society in honor of the occupant of that chair. The purpose
of the Society as stated in the preamble to the Constitution
was "to improve themselves in sacred eloquence for the pur-
pose of being useful to mankind." The members believed that
they could gain fluency and effectiveness in speech by engag-
ing in debates and discussions of matters of Seminary interest,
and they wrote and declaimed original orations for practice
in expression and delivery. The Society was large enough to
organize in three divisions, each with its own officers. Under-
graduates were admitted to membership only by vote of the
Society. Literary men of distinction could be elected honorary
members by a three-fourths vote, and all undergraduate mem-
bers became honorary members upon graduation. Each divi-
sion of the Society met once a week on a mid-week evening,
except on the monthly Thursday when a joint session of the
divisions was held. The usual program of exercises included
a fifteen-minute oration, two compositions not more than
eight minutes each in length, with dialogues or debates when
preferred, and extemporaneous discussion by four persons.
The participants were designated by ballot and due notice was
given of their appointments.
Some of the topics that were discussed reveal the subjects
of interest that appealed to the student mind of 1823. "Ought
there to be a new translation of the Scriptures ?" If Professor
Porter could have decided the question he might have agreed
with Professor Stuart that the original Hebrew of the Old
Testament, if not spoken in Paradise, was worthy of that
honor. Why then have any translation? But if one were
deemed necessary, let Professor Stuart supply the orthography
and syntax and Professor Porter the rhetoric. One would
like to know what conclusion was reached.
A question of perennial interest was : " Is the practice of
preaching written sermons better calculated to do good than
extemporaneous?" It required native gifts of oratory for the
average student to do justice to this subject, but he knew that
the unwritten discourse, other things being equal, was more
acceptable. A more academic question was whether a profes-
sor was justifiable in joining in a dance. Since theological pro-
fessors were not accustomed to indulgence, the question might
sound startling, but the phrase was clarified to read a "pro-
fessor of religion," which removed the Faculty from the lime-
light. It was more than an academic question, for in spite of
their soberness of demeanor the students were human.
The members of the Society were treading on rather deli-
cate ground when they asked : " Ought we to direct our efforts
to increase the number of ministers in our country, or to raise
{44V
the standard of ministerial qualifications?" But it was under-
stood that Andover stood for high standards. Two questions
which went somewhat outside the field of Seminary concern,
but were not unpractical, were : "Ought ministers to endeavor
to exert a political influence?" and "Is it the duty of ministers
to become Free Masons ?" Perhaps it was because of the pre-
vailing interest in missions that they discussed: "Has the
influence of the British government in India been beneficial
to the latter?" That they were not oblivious to American
affairs is plain, for they debated : " Whether on the supposi-
tion that the allied powers interfere in relation to South
America, it would be the best policy for this country to unite
with England in opposition?" If they could have known how
prominent a place the Monroe Doctrine would come to have
in the foreign policy of the United States, they would have
thrown the discussion open to the public.
Ten years later the temperance agitation had begun, and the
Porter Rhetorical Society discussed practical methods of pro-
moting sobriety under the topic : "Ought the use of fermented
liquors as a drink to be prohibited by the temperance pledge ? "
Not all promoters of temperance believed in the pledge method,
or even in total abstinence, and a prohibitory amendment to
the Constitution of the United States had not been thought of.
The last meeting in 1832 brought out lively interest in the
question whether the Union should coerce a state that was
determined to secede from it, a subject of keen interest when
South Carolina was threatening nullification of federal law.
But the students must have entered with even more zest into
the question whether it is expedient to settle ministers for life,
and especially: "Is it expedient for a theological student to
enter into matrimonial engagements previously to the com-
mencement of his second year at a seminary, supposing him
to spend three years getting his profession?"
The usefulness of the Society was not limited to the presen-
tation of solutions for these knotty problems. It maintained
a library of hundreds of volumes for the use of its members,
and it became an important adjunct of the Commencement
exercises. An annual celebration of the Society occurred on
the day preceding the Anniversaries, with an oration from
an honorary member, a humbler declamation, and a poem
not less than fifteen minutes in length by members of the
Society. The participants were selected by ballot, and it was
understood that all topics were to be of a religious nature.
It came to be a regular feature of Anniversary week that the
Porter and Lockhart Societies should give a joint exhibition,
and the occasions brought out large audiences.
For the encouragement of literary appreciation the students
organized the Review Association in 1818. Subsequently this
was renamed the Bartlet Athenaeum. It was considered at
first to be an experiment, but it soon showed enough value
to warrant its being made permanent. It was the hope of the
members to cultivate literary taste and enjoyment, as well
as to extend their information by subscribing for a few of the
best periodicals of the time. The literature was kept as a
nucleus of a library. According to the original constitution
the number of members was limited to twelve, six to be from
the junior class and three each from the middle and senior
classes. A certain ratio of membership must be preserved
from different colleges; there must be no academic cliques.
The annual fee was set at two dollars and a half. As soon as
it was possible to find a suitable reading-room it was desirable
that more literature should be obtained, so that the number
of members was enlarged and the annual fee was dropped to
one dollar. Every member of the Association was expected
to solicit donations of books or money, and the donor's name
was placed in the books. After a few years the Association
voted that if any person should be so generous as to give a
present of fifty dollars to the Association it would change its
name to the donor's Athenaeum. When it found permanent
quarters in Bartlet Chapel, it changed its name to the Bartlet
Athenaeum, another reminder of the Newburyport philan-
thropist, even though there was no organ to sound his praises.
In the early days one of the members was chosen librarian,
and it was his duty to be curator of the literature, to keep
open house in his room for two hours at noon to the mem-
bers, and to make loans of periodicals to members in their
-{46}-
alphabetical order for a term not exceeding three days. At
the first annual meeting it was voted to subscribe the next
year for the Edinburgh Review, the London Quarterly Re-
view, and the North American Review. With the new reading-
room available it was decided to keep quarters open whenever
attendance was not required at a Seminary appointment.
The activity of the Association was not limited to main-
taining a library and reading-room. The constitution was
revised in 1819, and a by-law was adopted that senior mem-
bers in the course of the year should each review a single
publication at a meeting of the society. The approval of the
Faculty was asked for the revised constitution, the preamble
of which read grandiloquently: "Desirous of knowing the
present state of the civil, literary, and moral world ; and be-
lieving this knowledge to be acquired with the greatest facility
by the perusal of the best periodical publications; we, the
subscribers, form ourselves into a society." One wonders
if the style of language improved or if the Faculty pruned
the sentence, for when another revision of the constitution
was made ten years later the preamble had shrunk to : " For
the purpose of having access to the current intelligence of
the day, we, the subscribers, form ourselves into a society."
It does not appear that time improved the morals and man-
ners of the students, or else it was unfortunate that the society
had admitted too many honorary members, for it became
advisable to add to the list of officers a sheriff and four con-
stables. Fines had been imposed for taking literature from
the room of the society; now the penalty of expulsion was
affixed to the rules, and the law was evidently to be put into
force. The last of several resolutions adopted in 1829 was that
whenever the president of the Athenaeum should learn that
publications were missing from the reading-room, he should
immediately lock the door and give information to the high
sheriff, who should forthwith make diligent search for them.
These by-products of education were not permitted to ob-
scure the regular obligations of students to their academic
tasks. Much of the reading of the students was under Faculty
direction, and at least once a year the student must report
his reading and pass an examination on the opinions and argu-
ments of the principal writers whom he studied. He was
examined also on his biblical readings in the original languages
of the Old and New Testaments, including the Septuagint.
The main business of the students was transacted with
theological books and teachers. Early Andover had a Faculty
whose prescribed duty it was "to unlock the treasures of di-
vine knowledge, to direct pupils in their inquiries after sacred
truth, to guard them against religious error, and to accelerate
their acquisition of heavenly wisdom." Men who had the self-
confidence to accept places on the Andover Faculty needed to
be endowed generously with the heavenly graces. They were
required to have faith in divine revelation, and hold to "one
living and true God and the Word of God, the only perfect
rule of faith and practice," and they were reminded expressly
"that God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, unchanging, in being,
wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth, and
that the Godhead exists in three persons." And then they
were confronted with the Andover Creed.
The selection of the first Faculty was a serious undertaking,
because the quality of the teaching would set a standard of
scholarship for the institution. It was fortunate that Pearson
and Woods were well-qualified teachers. Eliphalet Pearson
was a learned man, with an extensive knowledge of educa-
tional matters acquired from his connection with Harvard.
It was he who largely determined the range of studies in the
Andover curriculum, and established the high intellectual
standards for which Andover became noted. He had a wide
acquaintance with men and a practical ability to make a project
successful. He was active in founding education, mission, and
temperance societies. He was the first president of the Board
of Trustees after the Seminary was started, and he retained
the position for nineteen years, even during the year when
he was a professor. But the qualities that had made him a
successful principal of the Academy and an acceptable pro-
fessor at Harvard did not fit so well the temper of a theologi-
cal school and he resigned the year after the Seminary opened,
though he lived fifteen years longer.
Leonard Woods was a much younger man than Pearson,
born the year after Pearson graduated from Harvard. After
his graduation from college he studied divinity with Dr.
Charles Backus of Somers, Connecticut. He was attracted to a
teaching position in the new school because of its possibility of
wide influence, though the number of students was quite un-
certain, and his initial salary was only one thousand dollars,
for which he was expected to give some instruction in church
history as well as in theology. Once in the Faculty he recon-
ciled the two schools of thought represented in the Seminary
as far as possible. In the classroom he had the reputation of
being lucid in exposition, thorough in his study, and careful
in the presentation of his thought. He charged his pupils to
keep close to the Bible as the test of doctrine, for he believed
that it was the immediate gift of the Holy Spirit, and so in-
fallible and of divine authority. He was equally sure that
Calvinism was essential to the prosperity of church and nation,
and that a theological school with any other system of doc-
trine would be a curse rather than a blessing. It is symbolic
of Andover's staunch theology that the first book to be drawn
from the Seminary library was a volume of the works of
Jonathan Edwards. That Professor Woods was loyal to the
Hopkinsian principle that one should be willing to be damned
for the glory of God, appears when on the occasion of the
birth of his fifth child he was in doubt whether he ought to
ask God to save all his children.
That the Calvinistic theology did not breed hardness of
heart is plain from the kindness and affection which Woods
showed in his domestic life, and in his patience and sympathy
with his friends and students. But Calvinism was a militant
faith and it bred theological warriors. Andover professors
were expected to train their guns of orthodoxy against error,
whether within or outside the walls of embattled Zion, and
the Andover professor was not strange to theological warfare.
In his Commencement oration at Harvard Woods had eulo-
gized "the brave soldiers who fought against the tyranny of
the schools, conquered the powerful forces of that despot,
prejudice, and established the liberty of reason." But that did
not make him tolerant. In the very same oration he denounced
the Catholic system and the injury that it had done to the
Italians, saying: "The popes, those holy thieves, those pen-
sioners of Satan, have exhausted your wealth and vigor, and
now on their dying beds, bequeath you nothing but sensuality,
superstition and ignorance." Once in the saddle at Andover
he engaged in jousts with the Edwardeans at Yale and the
Unitarians in the old Puritan citadel of Harvard.
He was enjoined by the Andover Constitution to lecture on
divine revelation, on biblical inspiration as proved by miracle
and prophecy, and by internal evidence and historical facts ;
on the great doctrines and duties of religion, and the refuta-
tion of objections, "more particularly on the revered char-
acter of God" ; on the fall of man and human depravity, the
nature of grace and the atonement of Christ ; the Holy Spirit ;
the Scriptural doctrines of regeneration, justification, sancti-
fication, repentance, faith, and obedience ; on the future state ;
on the positive institutions of Christianity ; and on the nature
and interpretation of prophecy.
With the emphasis on dogma and polemics it might seem
unlikely that these doughty theologians would be spiritual
guides as well as warriors, but both Woods and Stuart felt
that it was an important part of their obligation to converse
with individual students on their state of religion. Against
the judgment of Pearson, Woods originated a Wednesday
evening conference for the fostering of personal piety. All
the students were expected to attend, and either Woods or
Stuart met them, and prayed and conversed for an hour in
a practical way on the whole range of Christian doctrine.
Professor Stuart late in life expressed the belief that the
Wednesday evening conferences were the most valuable con-
tribution that he had made to the Seminary. Group prayer
meetings were frequent, and a general prayer meeting of the
whole school was held once a month, at which the students
prayed for the colleges from which they had come. The Semi-
nary conference was transformed later into the prayer meeting
of the Seminary church.
Professor Woods lived until 1854, dying in the full maturity
LEONARD WOODS
MOSES STUART
AUSTIN PHELPS
EDWARDS A. PARK
of his fourscore years. He was mourned universally, as he
was laid to rest in the Chapel Cemetery. That plot of ground
had been set aside by the Trustees in 1810 as a burying ground
for those who were connected with the two schools. It was
east of the campus, and as the years passed the funeral pro-
cessions were many. Students who died before the comple-
tion of their studies, professors and members of their families,
trustees, and members of the Academy, there found their
earthly rest. It has been remarked that there are more brains
to the square foot in Chapel Cemetery at Andover than in any
similar plot of ground in America. In 1872 a Cemetery Asso-
ciation was organized to care for the grounds, and this was
incorporated thirty-five years later.
The third professor to be inducted into office was Edward
Dorr Griffin. Griffin was the leader of his class of 1790 at
Yale, and then studied theology with Jonathan Edwards, Jr.
William Bartlet had made provision for a professorship of
sacred rhetoric as well as of sacred literature, and when the
time came for the choice of an incumbent attention turned to
the man who for eight years had been pastor of the First
Presbyterian Church in Newark, New Jersey. Bartlet again
exercised his power of appointment to the chair, which then
bore the title of Public Eloquence. Griffin was appointed in
1808, but did not come to Andover to begin his duties until
the next year. For a time it was uncertain whether he would
accept. The salary offered was not attractive, and he enjoyed
his ministry in Newark. He liked the inspiration of large
audiences, and Andover did not give much scope for show-
ing his possession of the eloquence which he was expected
to teach. He wrote to Woods that, while the quiet atmosphere
of the New England village might suit the other professors,
for him "it would want those excitements which would be
essential to the professor of pulpit eloquence."
At the same time that Griffin was being sought for the
Seminary, Park Street Church in Boston looked in his direc-
tion. The church on Brimstone Corner was just being launched
as a defence of orthodoxy in a town where all but one among
the old Congregational churches had become Unitarian, and
it needed a brilliant preacher to give it standing in the com-
munity. The Newark minister believed that he could com-
bine his teaching at Andover with his preaching in Boston,
and so overcame his reluctance for the professorship alone.
He was worth having for Andover on any terms, and Bartlet
recognized that fact by building him the best professor's house
in the village. His people "wept a week," so Griffin wrote to
Woods when he left Newark, but he admitted that there were
some sons of Belial among them whose malice was "scarcely
exceeded by that of the lower world."
The new professor was inaugurated with much ceremony
on the twenty-first of June, 1809. Dr. Spring preached a ser-
mon, and Dr. Griffin delivered his inaugural address. After
the services were concluded, "the Trustees, Visitors, pro-
fessors, clergy, musicians, and gentlemen in public office, pre-
ceded by the students of the Theological Institution, walked
in procession from the church to the hall of the Academy,
where with social and cheerful feelings, they partook of the
bounties of Providence."
It was the duty of the Department of Public Eloquence to
see that the students were instructed adequately on the im-
portance of oratory ; on elegance, composition, and dignity of
style ; on pronunciation, voice, and gesture, but withal a preser-
vation of a natural manner. Yet it was regarded as highly
important that a speaker should be a finished pulpit orator.
Methods of putting together a sermon, of the style and char-
acter of the discourses of the most eminent divines which were
used as models, and of strengthening the memory, were taught
faithfully. Above all, the student must be impressed with " the
transcendent simplicity and beauty of the Sacred Writings."
Griffin's reputation as an orator seems not to have been
exaggerated. Dr. Spring felt his competition and the spell of
his superb presence, for Dr. Griffin stood six feet three inches
tall. Spring wrote to Dr. Morse of Charlestown : "Alas ! Alas !
what a mammoth of an orator we had along. . . . I have had
thoughts of holding my own in the pulpit, but if we do not
confine the monster within the four walls of the institution,
all will be up with poor me. ... I can bear tolerably well to
be equalled when I feel good ; but to be so astonishingly out-
done it is too much for flesh and blood and my common
share of humility. What say you, sir, must we not slip our
cables and get out of the harbor as soon as we can?" Daniel
Webster, who went to hear the distinguished preacher, said :
"If you are going the same way with the lightning, it won't
hurt you ; but if not, you had better keep out of its way."
William Bartlet was not in sympathy with the Park Street
arrangement, and tried to make Dr. Griffin contented at An-
dover. Griffin tried to fulfil the obligations of both of his
positions, and he showed unusual adaptability as a professor.
In his class, as he was about to criticise a student sermon, he
would remark in kindly fashion : "Young gentlemen, we have
met to criticise a sermon, and all feelings are to be laid aside
at the seeming severity of remarks which may follow." Then,
says the chronicler, "the poor sermon shrivelled up ... until
its parched remains rustled away upon the adverse gale, and
men saw them no more." The commuting distance to Boston
proved too great in the days of stagecoaches and horse-drawn
chaises, and Griffin reached the conclusion that Boston had
the more attractive claim. In 1811, therefore, he ended his
brief professional career at Andover, and it was necessary to
look for another instructor.
Dr. Griffin did not continue to find full satisfaction in
Boston. His theological outlook as a conservative Presby-
terian did not fully harmonize with Boston orthodoxy, and
the Second Presbyterian Church in Newark was wooing him
back to that city. In 1815 he preached his last sermon at Park
Street from the text: "The return of the dove to the ark,
having no rest elsewhere." Even then he did not remain fixed,
for Williams College called him to its presidency after six
years, and there he remained until a few months before his
death in 1837.
Before Dr. Griffin had severed his connections with the
Seminary, a fourth professor was in the offing. A successor
to Dr. Pearson was needed. For that purpose Dr. Spring
visited New Haven and listened to the preaching of Moses
Stuart, pastor since 1806 of the First Church in that city. At
the age of thirty he was esteemed highly in Connecticut. He
had been born in 1780, had been educated at Yale, and after
three years in the study of law had been admitted to the bar.
But his purpose changed, and after a period of theological
study with President D wight he was ordained in 1806 and be-
came pastor of the First Church in New Haven. When Dr.
Spring inquired tentatively as to Stuart's abilities, Dwight
replied that he was a very able man, but he could not be spared.
Spring replied at once that that was the kind of a man that
Andover wanted.
Stuart came to Andover to lecture on the form, the preser-
vation and the transmission of the Bible ; on the original lan-
guages, including the Septuagint version; on the history,
character, and authority of other versions and manuscripts;
on the authenticity of Scripture ; on the Apocrypha on mod-
ern translations ; on the canons of biblical criticism ; and on
the various readings and difficult passages in the Bible.
It seems odd that a man should have been selected for the
chair of sacred literature who knew neither Hebrew nor Ger-
man. Yet Stuart soon showed ability to make good his de-
ficiencies and to prove himself a fortunate addition to the
Faculty. At the fiftieth anniversary of the Seminary, Leonard
Bacon said of Stuart : " It was his teaching and his influence
that gave celebrity to Andover as a seat of sacred learning."
It was because of this that he became recognized as the prince
of biblical learning in America. It was he who set the stan-
dards and fixed the methods of biblical study for the next
generation, for he remained at his post in Andover for thirty-
eight years until 1848. Men who sat at his feet went to imitate
him in their teaching at other seminaries, not only in the Bible,
but in the classics as well, for his sound philological methods
gained general approval. Elijah Kellogg was professor of
Greek at Williams for nearly thirty years, Nathan W. Fiske
filled a similar chair at Amherst, as did James Torrey at the
University of Vermont, and Samuel P. Newman at Bowdoin.
Irah Chase graduated from Andover in 1817, and went to
Columbian College at Washington, D. C., to be professor of
biblical literature for seven years, and then helped to found
454Y
the Newton Theological Institution and was its first profes-
sor of biblical literature. Newton went to Andover again for
her second professor, Henry J. Ripley, of the class of 1819.
The imprint of Stuart's mind was felt still farther afield, for
Miron Winslow, class of 1818, translated the Bible into the
Tamil tongue of India and compiled a Tamil-English lexicon,
and Samuel A. Worcester, class of 1823, translated parts of
the Bible into the language of the Cherokees in America, set-
ting an example to other missionaries.
Dr. Stuart had the diligence and patience to become a
master of Hebrew, and a commentator who was regarded by
a large circle of ministers as an authoritative interpreter. He
was exact and thorough as a scholar, patient and enthusiastic
as a teacher, believing uncompromisingly in the Scripture
as the divine Word. He was eager to meet the controver-
sialist, vigorously defending his own positions, but he was
open-minded. He improved every opportunity to gain famil-
iarity with German thought and language, even on his jour-
neys, and he became acquainted with German scholarship as
few men of his time could boast. He introduced his students
to modern critical literature in German, to the alarm of cer-
tain conservative brethren, but he was admired and trusted
by his pupils, and he was popular because of his earnestness
and his pleasantries in the classroom. He was a doughty op-
ponent in debate with the Unitarians. He wrote letters to
William Ellery Channing, which, when published, made plain
his orthodox position, and relieved the concern of those who
feared his liking for German literature. He issued an exhaus-
tive statement on the Trinity which seemed to his friends to
answer satisfactorily the criticisms of Channing.
Allen W. Dodge, a pupil of Stuart, testified to his teaching
power. Stuart would say to his students: "Don't be dis-
couraged, young men, don't get mired in the Slough of De-
spond." He made interesting the monotonous task of teaching
the Hebrew grammar, and "the Bible, under his keen and in-
spiring investigations, seemed to glow with new light and
beauty."
Stuart's diligence and intrepidity were the more remarkable
because he suffered much from ill health. Indigestion and
sleeplessness bothered him, but he studied his own deficiencies,
and he did not hesitate to pass on his conclusions to the stu-
dents. He lectured to them at the beginning of the school year,
telling them to go to bed at ten o'clock and rise at five, and
prescribing their diet, exercise, and study, advising them to
make notes of their food and its effects, and so by experiment
to learn what to eat. When he was ill with typhoid fever and
a student was watching with him at night, the professor had
him read aloud a monograph on the disease, and he was espe-
cially interested in the novel idea that the patient might have
all the cold drinks he desired. He had his own notions of
hygiene. He would come into a stuffy classroom warmed by
a stove, and throw cold water on the stove until the room was
filled with steam, on the theory that the moisture would carry
off the superfluous heat through the walls.
Andover was a rural town, and in those days it was not
above a professor's dignity to hoe his garden, milk his cow,
and cut his own hay. More than one of the professors was
glad to use student assistance at haying time. Francis Way-
land, later the well-known president of Brown University,
related how one day Stuart closed his class early with an in-
vitation to the students to join him in the hayfield. They
turned out generously to his aid. The crop was poor, and as
Wayland was raking beside the professor, Stuart berated the
soil, which in spite of his best efforts yielded only mediocre
crops. "Bah!" said he, "was there ever climate and soil like
this ? ... If you plant early, everything is liable to be cut off
by the late frosts of spring. If you plant late, your crop is
destroyed by the early frosts of autumn. If you escape these,
the burning sun of summer scorches your crop, and it perishes
by heat and drought. If none of these evils overtake you,
clouds of insects eat up your crop, and what the caterpillar
leaves the canker-worm destroys." Said Wayland : " Spoken
in his deliberate and solemn utterance, I could compare it to
nothing but the maledictions of one of the old prophets."
Moses Stuart never relaxed in his earnest search for truth.
He was honored for his scholarship abroad as well as at home,
yet he took time for the students. For years he divided the
responsibilities of the Wednesday evening conference with
Dr. Woods. He was the inspiration of nearly forty classes
of students. Year after year he walked back and forth between
his home on Main Street and the buildings of the Seminary,
alone with his thoughts, yet, so writes his daughter in "Old
Andover Days," "in the silence and solitude through which he
walked hearing and recognizing the song of every bird that
carolled on the trees, noting the changes in the elms which he
had loved ever since he had seen the tiny twig planted in the
rough, new ground ; watching through the brief summer days
for the flowers that sometimes dotted his path; overlooking
no slightest thing in earth or sky that God has given." He
lived until 1852.
One other name belongs in the roster of the early professors.
This was Ebenezer Porter. A graduate of Dartmouth in 1792,
he studied divinity with Dr. John Smalley of Berlin, Connecti-
cut. He had been minister of the Congregational church in
Washington, Connecticut, for five years, when he was selected
by the Board of Trustees to succeed Dr. Griffin as professor
of sacred rhetoric. He was inaugurated in 1812. He had a
charming personality attractive to students. He was kindly,
even in his class criticisms, of their crude homiletical achieve-
ments. Slight in frame, he lacked the physique and vigor of
Griffin, and his health was never robust. For that reason the
students cheerfully shoveled snow paths for him in winter,
and mowed his hay in summer. In his study he was method-
ical, and so diligent as to injure his health. He wrote with
careful choice of language, and in his lectures he guarded
against emphasizing doctrine or even biblical lore above the
value of a living faith. He was punctilious in his observance
of the rules of gentlemanly conduct, and he insisted on such
observance from his students when they met in official rela-
tions. He even gave instructions to the members of each junior
class how they should enter his study. Dr. Porter declined
an invitation to the presidency of the University of Vermont
three years after he had come to Andover, and the next year
he refused a similar offer from the University of Georgia. The
following year he was elected professor of divinity at Yale,
and later Hamilton, Middlebury, and Dartmouth all sought
him for the presidency. Perhaps these successive calls decided
the Trustees to create the office of president of the Seminary,
and to elect Dr. Porter to fill the position in 1827. Four years
later he resigned his professorship, but retained the presi-
dency until his death in 1834. The inscription on his monu-
ment in Chapel Cemetery concludes a description of his vir-
tues with the words : " Living he was peculiarly loved and
revered ; Dying, he was universally lamented."
The duties of the professors started early in the day. Morn-
ing chapel service was fixed by the Trustees at seven o'clock for
the beginning of the winter term, with a change of fifteen min-
utes every two weeks as the sun rose earlier, until by the first of
March the hour was to be at six o'clock. The members of the
Faculty found compulsory attendance as early in the day as
that to be irksome, especially those who did not enjoy good
health. Dr. Spring must have known the failings of the
original professors, because when he tried to raise five hun-
dred dollars for a chapel bell, and negotiated with Paul Revere
for it, he remarked humorously that the bell would wake up
"sleepy, lazy professors, who love a morning bed." As early
as 1811 they claimed the right of infrequent attendance upon
morning prayers, saying: "We have habitually attended the
evening devotions of our Seminary in the chapel, but have
not found it practicable, connected as we are with families, to
attend in the morning without neglecting our own households."
One lecture was delivered daily to each class. The morning
lectures came at ten o'clock, the afternoon lectures at half-
past three. There were no lectures Monday forenoon or Sat-
urday afternoon. By 1825 the Faculty asked the Trustees to
be relieved from the responsibility of constant attendance, and
a special committee of the Trustees was appointed on the
matter. The committee presently reported that the statutes
and laws of the school required the professors to attend both
morning and evening chapel, and in their opinion no other duty
in the Seminary ought to have precedence over the chapel serv-
ices. If a professor on account of bodily indisposition should
158Y
find it ordinarily impossible to attend, he should ask the Trus-
tees to be excused by special vote during the indisposition. An-
other committee's report on the same subject was accepted, to
the effect that it was not the imperative duty of all the pro-
fessors to attend morning and evening prayers simultaneously,
but "to increase the reverence due to religious institutions
as well as to give weight to public instruction it is expected
that all the professors frequent the chapel at morning and
evening prayers." Professors Woods, Stuart, and Porter filed
requests to be excused in spite of these injunctions, but while
the Trustees did not refuse they emphasized again the impor-
tance of attending morning as well as evening prayers, and
"expected that the professors will attend morning and evening
prayers whenever the providence of God shall permit," as if
this did not put a good deal of responsibility on divine provi-
dence.
The professors were scrupulous in meeting their class
obligations, which were not heavy. The methods of class in-
struction were conservative. The professor depended on his
lecture to inform the student and to stimulate his thought.
There was freedom of discussion and opportunity for the
student to read various opinions in the library, but the pro-
fessor's own system of thought or teaching was supposed to
be superior to others. It remained an accepted principle of the
Seminary instruction that the main consideration of the first
year should be the study of biblical languages and literature,
that the second year should be devoted almost entirely to
theology, and that the third year should provide training in
homiletics. This arrangement gave to each professor an op-
portunity to monopolize the attention of the student during
his allotted time. During the reign of the triumvirate, Woods,
Stuart, and Porter, this general scheme was modified slightly,
but as late as 1839 the curriculum of the Junior class was :
Stuart's Hebrew Grammar ; Chrestomathy ; written exercises,
including translations from English into Hebrew; study of
the Hebrew Bible; the principles of Hermeneutics ; New
Testament Greek and exegesis of the Four Gospels ; lectures
preparatory to the study of theology ; natural theology ; evi-
dences of Revelation ; inspiration of the Scriptures ; Hebrew
exegesis ; Greek ; Pauline epistles twice a week ; criticism and
exegetical compositions.
The Middle class met five days a week for instruction in
Christian theology. Compositions on the principal topics of
theology were examined in private. Exegesis of the New
Testament was continued once a week, to keep the student in
training, and there was instruction on special topics in sacred
literature. It was natural enough that so much attention should
be given to theology. The Congregational and Presbyterian
churches were indoctrinated in Calvinism to such a degree
that a minister needed to be a master. He was expected to
preach doctrinal sermons, and he must be ready to defend
the faith against all comers. Always there was danger that
the emphasis upon sound doctrine in the Seminary should
divert chief attention from religion itself to the science of
religion. This was counteracted by the religious influence of
the professors and particularly by the Wednesday evening
conferences, by Sunday worship, and by the mutual fellow-
ship of the students.
The Senior class had as the major part of the curriculum
lectures on the philosophy of rhetoric, sermons, and the prepa-
ration of their own, with criticism from the professor of
sacred rhetoric both in public and in private. But lectures on
the history of Christian doctrine kept up the study of theology,
and critical and exegetical lectures on the Hebrew and Greek
Testaments still had a place. For all classes there was public
declamation once a week, and private lessons in elocution.
Lectures on the Apocalypse were given every three years, that
each generation of Seminary students might know how to
interpret that puzzling Scripture.
The climax of the scholastic year came at the Anniversaries,
when every class was examined publicly before the assembled
Trustees, Visitors, and the public, both lay and clerical, who
packed the available space in Bartlet Chapel. Many persons
stood throughout the exercises ; some could not get into the
chapel at all. The crowds were so large that the sheriff and
the constable were requested to aid in preserving order. The
460Y
Junior class was examined in Hebrew and Old Testament
and New Testament Criticism, the Middle class exhibited
essays on theological subjects, the Seniors exhibited similar
essays and were examined in sacred rhetoric. The examina-
tions were thorough. Professor Park's examination in the-
ology is known to have lasted all day. But they did not include
all the subjects that had been discussed during the year. A
student had a chance to distinguish himself before an appre-
ciative audience, or he might get a reputation that injured
him for years to come. The exercises closed with an address
from a member of the Senior class. The written papers that
were submitted were considered worth preserving in the
Library.
CHAPTER IV
THE MIDDLE DECADES
ATER 1830 New England was feeling the ground-
swell of a movement that was making inroads into the
conservative traditions of Puritan days. Changes were
coming politically, socially, economically, and religiously.
With the election of Andrew Jackson as President the com-
mon folk came to a realization of their power. Theoretical
democracy became actual democracy. Federalist traditions
had lingered longest in New England. Until 1833 Congre-
gationalism maintained a place of privilege, but though
social prestige remained, equality of all denominations before
the law was realized in that year. The industrial revolution
had gripped the rising cities of the lower Merrimac valley.
Though the south village of Andover remained unchanged,
the industries of North Andover and the mills of Lawrence
were so near that her citizens could not remain oblivious to
the changes that were taking place. With a rapidly increasing
population, New England was sending her sons to the West
to be pioneers like their colonial ancestors, and home mission
societies were organizing to take care of their religious needs.
The application of steam to railway and river travel facili-
tated the movement of the population, and people became less
provincial as their contacts widened.
New England retained the intellectual leadership of the
country, and deemed it a privilege to teach manners and
morals, politics and religion, to the less favored. This attitude
of superiority was resented at times, but the general accep-
tance of New England's intellectual precedence gave her
schools a prestige that was greatly to their advantage. Har-
vard attracted students from everywhere ; Phillips Academy
had achieved a reputation as a preparatory school; Andover
Seminary enjoyed a growing popularity and received an in-
creasing number of students from the South and the Middle
West. Before 1840 the school reached its maximum of at-
tendance, one hundred and sixty-four.
Imagine Bartlet Chapel in Andover on a Sunday morning
about 1830. Over the community brooded the quiet that was
characteristic of the Puritan Sabbath, but a specially solemn
hush rested upon the Hill. In the homes of the faithful the
preparation began the evening before, even the morning be-
fore, when the school lessons of the professors' children were
taken from the Bible and the Westminster Catechism, and
hymns were taught and sung. The teacher then prayed until
the stroke of twelve. Respite until sunset and to bed by nine
o'clock. Nine o'clock on Sunday morning saw the children
on their way across the Common to Sunday School in the
schoolhouse, where students served an apprenticeship as
teachers. At the tolling of the bell for morning worship the
children were marched back of the Seminary to the chapel,
following the superintendent and accompanied by the teachers,
while their elders were making their way to the same goal.
All moved reverently as they entered the building and took
their places. In the summer soft breezes were wafted through
the open windows, but in the winter the room was chilly. It
was heated by a single wood stove, which the sexton stoked
frequently from the woodbox which was on the other side
of the pulpit. The heat radiated from the long pipes which
ran around the chapel. The bare blue walls and yellowish gal-
leries did not give one the impression of the beauty of holiness.
The stovepipes and the wood crackling in the stove were sug-
gestive of unpleasant thoughts to sensitive souls which were
conscious of faults that deserved eternal punishment, unless
the divine mercy assured one a place among the elect. Bare
floors matched the bare walls. Yellow pews added nothing
attractive to the ensemble.
One can picture to himself the appearance of some of the
professors' pews. The front pew in Professors' Row was occu-
pied by Dr. Porter. He is described as a tall, slight man it
used to be said that no man less than six feet tall could expect
appointment to the Andover Faculty dignified, yet kindly,
with a large head covered with stiff gray hair, and with a pale
face. He was distinguished by a yellow bandana handkerchief
which he wore around his neck. He was not physically strong
and had to husband his strength, but when possible he and his
fragile wife were in their places on Sunday. Next was the
pew of Professor Woods. He had the reputation of being the
best-looking man on the Faculty. Tall and inclining to stout-
ness, with high forehead and rather delicate features and
blue eyes, his whole presence breathed distinction whether he
stood or sat. The children rather feared him because he was
called "Old School," though they did not understand what it
meant. In his relations to the students he was kind and gen-
erous, in his family a model husband to an invalid wife ; he
was considerate even towards the Unitarians, with whom
he was brought into controversy. Because of these qualities
he was respected and admired through the long years of his
active service in the Seminary.
Professor Stuart occupied the third pew. His daughter,
writing of him as he appeared in the chapel, says : "Four-fifths
of the year he carried his long blue cloak on his arm to church.
Spreading it carefully over the back of the pew, and sitting
on it, he was a most attentive but at the same time a most
restless listener. To keep still seemed to be a physical impos-
sibility for him. If the sermon was poor his impatience showed
itself in shrugs, in opening and shutting his large white hands,
in moving in his seat, and in a lengthened face pitiable to see.
If it was good, no one doubted his appreciation, or the social
feeling which made him wish to share his enjoyment. At the
utterance of any especially pertinent remark, he would often
rise in his seat, and turning round upon the young men, his
students, draw his red silk handkerchief across his mouth
several times, expressing in every feature the keenness of
his pleasure. If he differed theologically from the sentiments
uttered, no words could have expressed his dissent more
strongly than did his looks and gestures."
One can imagine the preacher flanked by such appreciative
or critical hearers on one side, and on the other by John Adams,
principal of the Academy, and such substantial citizens as
Samuel Farrar, and wonder if he did not feel trepidation as
he faced his audience, even though his discourse had been
carefully prepared and written. It is unnecessary to remark
that students and Faculty children were respectful in their
attitude, and dutifully and silently wended their way out of
the sacred precincts at the close of worship. It was the custom
for the occupants of each pew to wait their turn, as the con-
gregation retired, beginning with the students nearest the door.
During vacation at the Seminary the families of the Faculty
attended the village church. The children found the change
a welcome novelty. Sitting in the gallery, they could nod
recognition or send a voiceless message to a friend across the
meetinghouse. One service was not deemed respectful enough
to the Almighty or sufficient for the needs of the soul. After
a two-hour intermission, "with a cold dinner and a pious
book" at the noon-house, they gathered again for afternoon
worship.
Although the Seminary and Academy were a part of the
South Parish, and the meetinghouse was used by them on
special occasions, the educational institutions were a unit in
themselves, and it seemed wise to the Trustees as early as 1815
to form a separate church organization with Sunday worship
in Bartlet Chapel on the Hill. The church was to be under the
direction of the Trustees, and the professors of the Seminary
were "colleague pastors" of the church without salary. The
faculties of both schools and their families, together with the
student bodies, made up the regular constituency of the church.
Students might transfer membership to the Seminary church
from their home churches. A number of the residents in the
vicinity liked to attend the services of worship and were ad-
mitted to "occasional communion," as "under the watch of
the church." All persons who became members of the church
subscribed to the confession of faith and covenant which had
been adopted. The confession was not so rigid a document
as the Creed of the Seminary. The first to sign the confession
and the covenant were the three members of the Faculty,
Professors Porter, Woods, and Stuart. Samuel Farrar was
one of the first deacons. 4 65 V
At the outset the church was grounded on the Cambridge
Platform, "in matter, form and discipline," and elders as well
as deacons were chosen to perform the duties as described
in that Platform. The Congregational churches of Massa-
chusetts, however, had moved away from that semi-presby-
terian arrangement, and it was not likely to survive at An-
dover. A disturbance arose in 1832 when a student with a
sensitive conscience expressed dissatisfaction with the exist-
ing order. He affirmed that the polity of the church was not
strictly congregational, and insisted on withdrawing from
membership. The church resented his attitude, but as he
severed his connection there was nothing to do. Twenty-seven
years later the church was reorganized on a more congrega-
tional basis. Since the original church never had been consti-
tuted by act of a council of neighboring Congregational
churches, it was free to dissolve and reconstitute itself by
transferring its members to the new organization. The
Faculty of the Seminary was authorized to give letters of
dismissal. It is rather surprising that a training school for the
Congregational ministry should have been so irregular in its
organization, but it is to be remembered that Presbyterian
students as well as Congregational were in attendance, and
that when Congregationalists went outside New England
they usually joined Presbyterian churches.
When the Seminary church was organized it found accom-
modations for worship in the original chapel in Phillips Hall.
After the erection of Bartlet Chapel the Sunday exercises
naturally were transferred to the new quarters. There they
remained until the new chapel was built in 1875. That build-
ing, erected by general subscription, and costing fifty thou-
sand dollars, was dedicated "for the Sunday worship of the
chapel, church, and congregation."
The great occasion of the Seminary year was Commence-
ment. Coming later in the summer than now, it was no less
the culmination of the school year. With fewer occasions to
command popular interest than at the present time, and with
full appreciation of the splendor and dignity of Commence-
ment Week at Harvard, the people of Andover and the con-
{66Y
stituency of the school made elaborate plans and looked
forward with eager anticipation to the Day of days. As if
Thanksgiving were approaching for the farmer's wife, a bustle
of preparation permeated the homes of those who expected
to keep open house. The country was scoured for provisions,
and additional help was arranged for with those convenient
persons who were willing to accommodate. Gardens were
groomed and lawns were trimmed. Pantries groaned with
good things. All available space was set aside for visitors,
and the boys of the family found a bed in a hay-loft of the
barn. Meantime hopes that had been cherished for months
in rural manses approached fruition. Ministers' families put by
small sums, as one might save for a European voyage, that the
alumnus might visit again his fostering mother, and catch
inspiration enough to carry him through another year of a
long pastorate. Then when the time arrived, watchers along
the road saw the four-horse stagecoaches loaded with human
freight, and looked with eager interest at the one-horse chaises
and the dominie with his saddle-bags urging his horse towards
the goal. Services a-plenty kept the visitors busy. On Monday
evening came the public meeting of the Society of Inquiry.
Tuesday brought the public examinations of the classes, which
served the double purpose of testing the intelligence * of the
students and the skill and orthodoxy of the Faculty. On the
evening of the same day occurred the public speaking of
the members of the Porter Rhetorical Society. All the year
they had given utterance to eloquent orations, engaged in de-
bates, and occasionally invited the muse of poetry. This night
brought the coveted opportunity to display talents which might
command an invitation to an enviable position in a prominent
pulpit. Wednesday the throng crowded into Bartlet Chapel,
shared in the dignified program, and witnessed the conferring
of final honors. A large tea party afterwards gave opportunity
for goodbyes, and then the vehicles, public and private, car-
ried the visitors away in a cloud of dust.
Punctuated by these exercises at seasonable intervals, Semi-
nary life went on from year to year with little excitement.
Carlyle's remark that records are not expansive in time of
167Y
peace seems to have been true at Andover. Classes came and
went. Some of the professors outlasted many student gener-
ations ; for others the terms of office were short.
The annual catalogues serve as an index to the official rela-
tions of the school. The increase in the number of students
was rapid until by 1822 there were one hundred and thirty-two
in attendance, classified as thirty-one seniors, thirty-five mid-
dlers, and sixty-one juniors. In that year the broadside lists
that had served for catalogues were abandoned for an eight-
page catalogue, in which dormitory rooms were listed for the
first time. Slowly the number of pages in the catalogue in-
creased as it became desirable to publish the expenses and
terms of admission. It was announced that the Seminary was
open to all Protestants who were qualified by character, col-
lege education, church membership, and recommendations
from two reliable persons. The catalogue in 1838 contained
a reprint of the annual examinations in sacred literature,
Christian theology, and sacred rhetoric as they had been given
in each of the preceding ten years.
In the catalogue for 1823 appear the names of Professors
Porter, Woods, Murdock, and Stuart, as the Faculty, and a
group of five men as resident licentiates, including Edward
Robinson, assistant instructor in the department of sacred
literature, Leonard Bacon, the later historian, and George
Dana Boardman, prominent as a missionary.
James Murdock was the first incumbent of the chair of
ecclesiastical history, which had been established by Moses
Brown of Newburyport in 1819. His duty, as imposed upon
him by the Trustees, was to inform the students about Jewish
antiquities, the origin and extension of the Church, the various
sects and heresies in the early period, the character and writ-
ings of the Fathers, the rise of popery and Mohammedanism,
the corruptions of the Church of Rome, the Reformation, the
various constitutions, disciplines, and rites of worship of the
Protestant denominations, the state and prevalence of pagan-
ism, and its influence on individual and national character as
compared with that of Mohammedanism and Christianity.
Lacking a regular professorship hitherto, the subject of his-
{68K
tory had been neglected, an omission which had been called
to the attention of the Trustees more than once by the Faculty.
They protested that a fourth professor was needed, because
"God has set the mark of frailty on man," and they were
sensible that they had "a very precarious hold on health and
on life." Even after his appointment he taught sacred rhetoric
for five years before he could give his full attention to church
history.
Murdock was a graduate of Yale and received the degree
of Doctor of Divinity from Harvard in the year of his An-
dover appointment. He was characterized as "a little dry man
with a large elastic brain and nerves like catgut." His fund
of learning was prodigious, and he was an exact scholar. He
commenced the study of Syriac at the age of seventy, and
three years later completed a translation of the Syriac New
Testament. Then he started Arabic. His appointment was
not approved by certain of the watch-dogs of Zion, including
Emmons and Spring, and before he had been at Andover
ten years the machinery was put into operation to remove him,
first the Trustees, then the Visitors, and finally the Supreme
Court of Massachusetts. He had expressed sentiments not
in accordance with the Creed as the Trustees understood it,
and it did not seem to them that he should remain. It was
Murdock's young son who cheered Oliver Wendell Holmes,
when he was a homesick boy in the Academy, and whom he
embalmed in the verses :
"Imp of all mischief, heaven alone knows how
You learned it all are you an angel now?
In those old days the very, very good
Took up more room, a little, than they should ;
The solemn elders saw life's mournful half,
Heaven sent this boy, whose mission was to laugh."
It appears as if the Murdock family had an unconventional
strain.
Reverend Ralph Emerson succeeded Dr. Murdock. He had
graduated from Yale and Andover, and had served a Congre-
gational church in Connecticut for thirteen years. At Andover
he remained for almost a quarter of a century, and for half
that time was chairman of the Faculty. From year to year
the Trustees followed the custom of appointing one of the
professors to be president of the Faculty ; in only two cases,
those of Porter and Edwards, was a man made official presi-
dent of the Seminary during the first hundred years. Stu-
dents are proverbially quick to catch at idioms or mannerisms
of their teachers. Professor Emerson habitually used the
word "touching" when making a special reference. With
this in mind a wag in Commons arose one day from his place
at table and gravely announced : " Touching Professor Emer-
son's lecture today there will be none." The records of the
Seminary do not reveal the punishment meted out for such
lese inajeste.
The catalogue of 1831 printed the name of Edward
Robinson as professor extraordinary of sacred literature.
Robinson had studied and taught at Andover a few years
before and then spent a long term of study abroad. He be-
came renowned as the author of biblical researches in Pales-
tine and as founder of the Bibliotheca Sacra. Reverend Thomas
H. Skinner came to Andover shortly afterward as professor
of sacred rhetoric, but within two years he was followed by
Edwards A. Park, who thus commenced a service of forty-
five years to the Seminary.
In 1839 the catalogue included for the first time the names
of the Trustees and the Visitors, preceded by those of the
Faculty. The course of study was outlined on a single page,
and for a year appeared a statement of an Advanced Class.
Three years later the size of the catalogue had increased to
sixteen pages. Within two years brief notices were given of
the Library, which then contained more than thirteen thou-
sand volumes; to the Porter Rhetorical Society, with its li-
brary of 2,600 books ; and to the Society of Inquiry, which
had accumulated 1,400 publications. Names of instructors
appear and disappear : Beckwith, Talcott and Henry B. Smith,
-{70Y
Russell, Robbins, Dickinson, and Robie. Professors Woods
and Stuart were retired as emeritus. In 1844 the number of
students fell below one hundred and continued in the nineties
most of the time for a number of years.
Both Justin and Bela B. Edwards joined the Faculty during
this period. Justin Edwards was a farmer's son and was
compelled to struggle for an education, but he graduated with
honors from Williams College in 1810. During the second
year of his theological course at Andover he was asked to
become pastor of the South Parish Church, which then in-
cluded members from the Seminary and Academy, and he
remained in that position fifteen years. He was one of the
founders of the American Tract Society, and acted as corre-
sponding secretary and manager. For seven years he was
pastor of the Salem Street Church in Boston, and then for
the same length of time he was secretary of the American
Temperance Society. In 1836 he was elected president of
the Seminary, but after six years he resumed secretarial
duties, this time of the American and Foreign Sabbath Union.
He was devoted to these various causes and wrote Sabbath
and Temperance manuals, besides a commentary on the New
Testament which was published at Andover by the American
Tract Society. He held an unusual relation to the Seminary.
A student within three years of its founding and pastor in
the South Parish for fifteen years, he became president of
the school, was thirty-three years a Trustee, and finally chair-
man of the Board. Thus he saw Seminary life from all its
angles.
Bela B. Edwards had a literary as well as an educational
career. Trained at both Amherst and Williams and a grad-
uate of Andover in 1830, he served as assistant secretary of
the American Education Society for five years and then became
editor of the American Quarterly Register. He held that po-
sition for fourteen years, and part of the time was editor of
the American Quarterly Observer and of the Biblical Reposi-
tory. Later he was on the board of the Bibliotheca Sacra. He
was not ordained until 1837, when he became professor of
the Hebrew language and literature at Andover Seminary,
where he remained until his death fifteen years later. His
spirituality and friendliness earned for him the encomium
"that tender heart, that seraphic spirit." His monument bore
the inscription: "An humble student of the Bible; an admirer
of nature, an enthusiast in the classics and the fine arts ; deli-
cate and practical in his tastes; careful and patient in his
researches ; of multifarious learning, of comprehensive judg-
ment; earnest and sensitive, but gentle and serene; severe
towards himself, charitable to others ; he was a discreet coun-
sellor, a revered friend, a disciple whom Jesus loved."
With the middle of the nineteenth century came changes
which marked the approach of the semi-centennial of the
Seminary. The founders were gone or lingered, like Squire
Farrar, to help celebrate the fifty years. The familiar figures
of many years were seen no more in the classrooms. Pro-
fessors Woods and Stuart had seemed as firmly planted as
the elms on the campus. Yet the time had come when the eye
was dimmed and the natural force abated, and they exchanged
the lectures of the classrooms for the mellowing thoughts of
the fireside. Long had they been neighbors on Main Street,
one in a house that had been built two years after the opening
of the Seminary, the other six years later. But as new occu-
pants took the chairs of instruction, so they replaced the older
men in the professors' houses. Professor Barrows gave a
new oriental atmosphere to the study that for so long had
breathed the flavor of theology. Professor Thayer before long
restored the biblical atmosphere in the Stuart house.
Edwards A. Park was transferred from the chair of sacred
rhetoric, which he had held for eleven years, to the chair of
Christian theology as successor of Woods. Some thought that
his theological coins did not ring true, but he lived to be recog-
nized as the champion of Calvinistic orthodoxy and to fasten
his system of theology upon the thought of a generation of
Congregational ministers. Austin Phelps became Bartlet pro-
fessor of sacred rhetoric, and came to exert an influence over
the preaching of his pupils comparable to that of Park in the-
ology. Calvin E. Stowe was a professor of high standing for
twelve years in his own right, while he enjoyed the reflected
glow of his wife's fame. W. G. T. Shedd, as professor of
church history, brought added reputation to Andover through
his books as well as his classroom instruction. Lowell Mason
and George F. Root at times were instructors in music.
Elijah P. Barrows became professor of the Hebrew lan-
guage and literature in 1853. A graduate of Yale, he had been
at Western Reserve University for fifteen years as professor
of sacred rhetoric. At Andover he taught Hebrew at first,
and was then promoted to a full professorship. He was to
remain at Andover for thirteen years and then to round out
his teaching career at Oberlin. It was usual for Andover
to look with preference to her own alumni as prospective
teachers, but this did not prevent a wider look abroad if there
was a professor of note rising above the horizon somewhere
else. The successor of Barrows was Charles M. Mead, who
had graduated from Middlebury, had been a teacher at
Phillips Academy at Andover, and then had gone to study
at Halle and Berlin. By that time he was prepared for a pro-
fessional career, and the Trustees elected him to the chair of
Hebrew language and literature at Andover, which he occu-
pied for fourteen years until 1882. Later on he put ten years
into literary work in England and Germany and many more
in America, taught at Princeton and Hartford seminaries,
and was one of the American revisers of the Bible. He was
author and editor. He was bespangled with degrees, doctor of
philosophy from Tubingen, doctor of divinity from Middle-
bury and Princeton, and doctor of laws from Middlebury, but
he was human just the same.
The number of students was in the nineties for several
years. There were exactly one hundred in 1854. Three years
later the number had risen to one hundred and twenty-three,
representing the five states of the Old Northwest, Canada,
and England, as well as New England, and fourteen of them
were from institutions other than the Congregational colleges
of New England.
At the middle of the century the earlier alumni were bearing
the burden and heat of the active ministry. They must have
looked back in thought now and then to the old Brick Row
173Y
and the classrooms where they had struggled with Hebrew
roots and Greek stems, waged wordy battle over 'ologies and
'isms, and practised the art of swaying the minds and emo-
tions of congregations. They recalled the friendships that
were cemented as they walked under the green canopy of
Elm Arch or looked out on the "old orthodox green, so very
orthodox that all the paths are at right angles, and no cuts
across." There they had opened their hearts to one another ;
there they had pondered long in the Society of Inquiry whether
their duty lay near at home or farther afield ; there they had
sung lustily on the chorus of the Lockhart Society, or had
declaimed on the platform of the Porter Rhetorical Society.
Or their thought wandered to the staid frolics of the town
church or the professors' homes, or to the long walks across
country to woods and ponds and around the bald hills. They
remembered how they strolled along Indian Ridge and traced
the windings of the Shawsheen River, or loafed on the slope
above Pomp's Pond, or climbed Sunset Rock to get a view of
the sunset.
Sunsets from Andover Hill were frequently eulogized by
those who loved the old town. One speaker at the fiftieth
anniversary declared: "I have looked upon the far-famed
sunsets of Italy, and my sober conviction is that never was
there a display of the beauties and glories of the firmament
more magnificent than that which is often furnished, from
this very spot, to those who here are in training for the Chris-
tian ministry ; as if to them, like the apostle at Patmos, a door
was opened into heaven. Even now after years of absence I
cannot rid myself of the impression, deepened by so many
hours of twilight musings, that the transition from this fav-
ored place to the mansions of the blessed is specially easy and
natural, that the gates of pearl and the stones of sapphire lie
just beyond those gorgeous clouds in the western sky, which
forever are taking and giving glory in the light of the setting
sun."
A student writing from Andover Hill in 1856 thus de-
scribed the school and its environs : " To the north the eye can
travel up to the blue hills of New Hampshire, and only three
miles distant stand and smoke the mammoth factories of the
city of Lawrence. The whole scenery about is dotted with se-
questered villages and snow-white farmhouses. Lowell, Salem,
Haverhill, and Boston, are next-door neighbors. On the south
is a hedge of railroad; on the east we can almost hear the
roaring of the ocean ; on the north flows the devious but busy
Merrimac ; while the west, to say nothing of its home associa-
tions, gives us a never-to-be-forgotten sunset. Thus environed,
overarched by a deep blue sky, and standing upon ground
whose beauty pen and paper cannot paint, Andover is the spot
for a seminary. . . . Nearly every house looks like a country-
seat, and even the old edifices, which were raised, I suppose,
in the last century, have an air of neatness about them, being
clothed in the purest white. It is a very wealthy place ; but the
wealth of the Seminary astonishes me. Nearly every house
within a quarter of a mile is owned by the Trustees."
The Seminary approached its semi-centennial with pride and
confidence. It was no longer an experiment. It had settled
down to steady usefulness decade by decade. Its graduates
had gone hither and yon on various errands bent. They were
pastors in country and city. They were missionaries in the East
and the West. They were in demand for chairs of instruc-
tion and administration in the colleges, in editors' sanctums,
and in secretarial offices. Times were changing. The anti-
slavery agitation was in the air. Anti-masonry and anti-popery
were clamorous for support. The Mormons had been creat-
ing excitement in Missouri, and the Kansas Crusade was on.
But staid old New England was not revolutionary, either with
quack religion or social creed. The Congregational churches
were still orthodox, and the old gospel was the theme of the
pulpit. Those were halcyon days for theological professors,
leisurely days for village ministers. They were not hazed by
committees and disturbed by telephone calls. They were not
vexed, as their brethren were later, by labor unions or the
Ku Klux Klan. They could still take time to drive leisurely
around among their parishioners and listen to the recital of
ills real or imaginary. There were no campaigns of religious
education or social service. Sermons, to be sure, must be
wrought out on the anvil, not tossed together with an assort-
ment of stories; because the people had ideas of their own
about doctrine, and they liked to hear orthodoxy expounded.
And the deacons held their positions for life, while the min-
ister's was more precarious and subject to behavior accordant
with the will of elect laymen. But the minister was held in
honor in his own church and community, and to be an alumnus
of Andover gave prestige.
The year 1858 brought the fiftieth anniversary, and the
semi-centennial was celebrated on Wednesday and Thursday,
August fifth and sixth. Old graduates forgot for the time
their worries over the financial depression that had come the
year before, and their forebodings over the shadow that was
spreading over the nation with its threat of civil war. Not in
a rumbling stagecoach and a cloud of dust over the turnpike
did they return to Andover, as in the olden days, but with
greater comfort, if not cleanliness, over the rails. They came
back to find the old carpenter shop made over into a residence
for Professor Stowe and his family. Very likely they stopped
to pay their respects to the militant wife who had kindled a
conflagration of emotional excitement across the country by
her descriptions of the suffering of the Negro. Uncle Tom's
cabin was away down south in the land of cotton, but his
wrongs were vivid to the conscience of America, because the
wife of a professor gave voice to the heart of a race while
she rocked the cradle of her youngest child.
Seminary customs had not changed much. If the visitors
had grown soft out in the pastorate, they must get up to a
6.15 o'clock chapel service before breakfast. Even in Anni-
versary Week Seminary prayers must not be delayed, and
breakfast must wait. Seminary Commons had been moved
ten years before to the corner of Main and Morton Streets.
Alumni greeted one another and exchanged reminiscences,
and met again in class reunions. They caught" step with the
academic procession, and absorbed the spirit of the anniver-
sary which was so important a landmark in Andover history.
Dr. Leonard Bacon recited the story of progress in an his-
torical address. Memorial addresses were delivered on the
illustrious members of the Faculty who had passed on. The
Library and its collections were thrown open for inspection.
A spirit of decorous gaiety pervaded the campus, and a rosy
future was anticipated for the Seminary.
Scarcely was the celebration over when war broke upon the
country. The community hummed with excitement, and pres-
ently volunteers were drilling in expectation of marching
southward. The students could not escape feeling the emo-
tions of the time. They joined in the exercises that attended
the raising of a flag, which was flung to the breeze at the
Seminary, listened to the prayer of Professor Park, the pres-
entation speech of Professor Phelps, and the address of Pro-
fessor Stowe, and thrilled as they sang Mrs. Stowe's original
hymn written for the occasion. The men of the Seminary
fraternized with the Phillips Guard, the Havelock Grays, and
the Andover Light Infantry, and realized that real war was
at hand. Mrs. Stowe gave a collation to the Havelock Grays.
Interest in the anti-slavery movement had been current in
the years before the war. A small abolition society was or-
ganized in Andover at least fifteen years earlier. The society on
one occasion appointed a student delegate to a convention in
New York. It was necessary to obtain the permission of Pro-
fessor Woods, and this was refused. The student went in
spite of the refusal, expecting to be disciplined on his return,
but he escaped. It was only a few years since the Trustees
had reprimanded the Faculty because its members spent too
much time out of town, and perhaps the Faculty thought it
as well not to press their authority against a student.
A number of students enlisted in the army; others who
would have entered delayed or abandoned their purpose. The
number of students declined from one hundred and thirty-
three in 1860 to sixty-eight in 1864. Andover alumni joined
the army either as chaplains or soldiers until the Seminary was
represented on the roster by sixty-five men. One man was
brevetted a brigadier general. Four were killed or died of
wounds. A chaplain was killed as he was going to the relief
of a wounded comrade.
The Lockhart Society broadened its repertory to include
patriotic songs. They sang the "Star-Spangled Banner" at
the flag raising. At a town celebration on Washington's
Birthday they rendered the same song and added "Hail
Columbia," "America," and the "Russian Hymn." They did
not disdain to assist in a festival of the Female Missionary
Society in the town hall. After the war had progressed, con-
scientious men faced the problem whether country or Semi-
nary had the more immediate claim. It was then that the
Lockhart Society lost both its president and secretary by
enlistment.
Other evidences of the widening scope of the Society ap-
peared even before the war. Its members accepted an invita-
tion to spend the evening at Abbot Academy. The secretary
recorded a minute in the archives that "the Society passed
several hours very pleasantly in the company of the teachers
and their pupils, chatting, partaking of a handsome collation,
singing and listening to music by some of the young ladies,"
after which they took their leave, and like real college boys
sang a couple of pieces as a serenade.
Even more venturesome was an excursion to the neighboring
town of Middleton to give a concert. They went in three con-
veyances over the road, performed their parts creditably, and
then accepted an invitation to a hospitable home for refresh-
ments. In due time they commenced the return journey, be-
guiling the way with various adventures of the road in mid-
Victorian fashion, making merry with "all manner of music,
stories, jokes, and other theological amusements," and arriv-
ing at the Seminary about "2% o'clock A.M., well pleased, in
good order, and sleepy." One wonders whether Dr. Pearson
would have disciplined the boys for such revelry fifty years
before, and whether the student who thought it frivolous to
meet in society at a professor's house would not have been
scandalized. That this was not the only fling engaged in by
the singing society is clear from the record of a visit of nine of
them to the North Andover Church. They rendered " Lovely
Night," the "Miller's Song," and a march "in a proper and
artistic manner," but these were plainly unacceptable to the
audience of young children, so one of the students read to
them "Darius Green and His Flying Machine" amid tre-
mendous applause, and the Society sang "Three Black Crows"
and "Upidee," and adjourned.
Amid these occasional diversions the Society did not forget
its main purpose. It resolved as a result of experience and
observation that theological students should cultivate their
musical capacities sufficiently so that they might start a tune
in social worship, and might exert an influence in guiding the
music of the sanctuary. They resolved also that church wor-
ship should be conducted wholly as a devotional service, and
not as an artistic or operatic performance. And finally they
resolved that it was highly important that churches should
have congregational singing, and that Sunday School children
should be trained to sing such music as they would come to
use in the service of worship in the meetinghouse.
They continued occasionally to go out into the country to
give a concert, and once they sang at an entertainment given
by the Boston School of Oratory in the Old South Church,
the proceeds being turned over to the cause of home missions.
They furnished the music for public meetings of the Porter
Rhetorical Society and the Society of Inquiry. They profited
from the instruction of Lowell Mason. But they were not
without annoyances. On one occasion they attempted an effort
beyond their powers which "but for ye accuracy and efficiency
of President Seymour would have involved ye Lockharts in
un-get-out-able disgrace." The week before that unfortunate
occurrence the members of the Society lost patience with the
second bass, and it was voted to instruct the president to labor
with him and bring him up to a higher standard of attendance
and practice or to ask his resignation.
Years before the Society had asked the Trustees to pro-
vide an instructor in music, and at times such instruction was
given. Not long after the last incidents occurred a musical
director was receiving seventy-five dollars a year, including
the organist, for leading the Glee Club, which the Society
sometimes called itself, providing a choir for the Sunday
evening services and an organist and leader for morning
prayers and the Wednesday evening conference, and giving
a course of twelve lessons in elementary music to the students
through the winter.
Inter- Seminary relations took on a new phase. Back in the
early days of the century, when a few students were cher-
ishing the flame of missionary interest, they were concerned
with the state of mind of different seminaries on that subject,
and branches of the Brethren were organized. But denomi-
national interests divided attention and increased organiza-
tions, and inter-seminary relations lapsed. After 1870 the
idea of closer friendliness led to the organization of a social
union of the theological students at Boston University School
of Theology, the Cambridge Episcopal School, the Newton
Theological Institution and Andover. In the early winter of
1875 the Andover students played host to the Union, receiving
the delegates in the forenoon, holding a public meeting in the
South Parish Church, where Phillips Brooks and other well-
known ministers addressed them, with music by the musical
societies of Andover and Boston University, with class prayer
meetings and a visit to the library, and in the afternoon a
dinner followed by toasts and a God-speed as the visitors left
for Boston on a special train. Similar rallies were held inter-
mittently in subsequent years. Once the students assembled
at Boston University, another time at Cambridge, when Har-
vard and Tufts were represented. Several of the conferences
at Andover were devoted to the subject of missions. The ebb
and flow of interest depended on the leadership of a few men
who from time to time had a larger vision than the ordinary.
Andover felt the competition of other schools as the num-
ber of seminaries increased, and a tendency appeared to
decline in numbers. Once the Civil War was over, the enroll-
ment increased. Young men who had been delayed by the
war entered the school. In 1866 the mark of one hundred was
passed once more, though attendance was to drop off seri-
ously in the next decade. The fluctuation in attendance was
occasioned by a number of factors. A partial cause of the oc-
casional dearth of students was the decrease in the number of
college students entering the ministry. The rise of Hartford
and Yale stiffened competition. Andover was one of the first
4SQY
of the seminaries to experiment with an English course for
men who had not had the advantage of college preparation. A
special professor was appointed for their instruction with
power to decide the courses that the students should take, be-
sides a prescribed course in Historical Studies in the English
Version of the Scriptures. In twelve years eighty students
were enrolled in the department, but the experiment came to
an end with the resignation of Professor Taylor, who had been
in charge. The Advanced Course, which had been tried early
in the history of the Seminary, was tried again, and reached
the number of more than one hundred. Yale had made a suc-
cess of the plan, and its inception at Andover drew Trinitarian
students from Harvard. They liked freedom from lectures,
the opportunity of having special distinguished instructors
from outside to lecture to them, even from Europe, and
they enjoyed doing creative work under the direction of the
Faculty.
Attendance at the Seminary depended many times on
whether a student could obtain pecuniary aid. The founders
of the institution realized that such would be the case and
made provision for scholarships. The Constitution provided
that no student in the school should ever be charged tuition.
Soon there was more demand than could be met, since many
of the men depended solely on their own exertions. Scholar-
ship funds were therefore sought for, and the time came when
a student received two hundred dollars a year from the Semi-
nary and the American Education Society, and additional
assistance for special need.
Eventually it became necessary to raise funds for increased
endowment and new buildings. The Seminary was fortunate
at the beginning in its benefactors. The necessary buildings
were provided and sufficient money was available for the
modest needs of the school. With a professor's salary fixed
at one thousand dollars, or even fifteen hundred, as it was
after 1819, with a residence rent free, the demands upon the
treasury were not heavy. Yet one-third of the benefactions
were unproductive of income, so that the vested funds were
not so large as was popularly supposed. When the large num-
-(8U
her of students required an enlarged faculty, more money
must be forthcoming. The friends of the school were not
grudging, and no serious need went uncared for. For more
than fifty years the three buildings of Brick Row had received
no additions, but the Trustees held a large amount of land, and
professors' houses were added on occasion.
Two years before the semi-centennial there was a school
property valued at four hundred thousand dollars, exclusive
of the library, which numbered about twenty thousand vol-
umes. $117,000 of this amount was in buildings, $228,000 in
investments, drawing an income of six per cent. This pro-
vided an income of $17,000, which the Trustees divided into
six parts. $1,560 was added annually to permanent fund;
$1,020 was assigned to meet the growing needs of the library ;
$3,000 was appropriated for the upkeep of the property;
$2,000 went for all other annual expenses except instruction ;
$7,900 was set aside for the salaries of five professors and
two temporary instructors, and $1,800 went for student aid.
It was felt that the increasing cost of living required larger
salaries for the Faculty, for no change had been made for
thirty-five years. This would require $40,000 in additional
funds, and friends in Boston and vicinity were asked at a
meeting in the Old South Church to supply that need. The
library needed a new building. That would cost $30,000.
The same amount was needed for student aid. Once the war
was over the Trustees undertook a campaign to meet the
accumulating needs. Believing in the returning prosperity of
the Seminary and an increasing number of students, they
planned on a larger scale than ever before. They asked for
endowment for three new professorships. They saw the de-
sirability of bringing distinguished leaders before the students,
and for that purpose proposed five lectureships. If three fel-
lowships should be endowed, it would be possible for excep-
tional scholars among the graduates to enjoy the privilege of
a year or two in European study. They asked for funds to
provide fifty scholarships to aid the undergraduates. The
library needed a separate fund for books and administration
as well as for better housing of its store of literature. They
undertook to increase recent benefactions until the total should
amount to $300,000.
Among the particular needs that were felt was a lectureship
in missions, for Andover had a reputation as a missionary
school. Already it had sent out one hundred and fifty mission-
aries, and a lectureship in missions was the logical consequence.
The Trustees were impressed by the early death of many
missionaries and of pastors in the churches with the urgent
need of scientific lectures on health. A still larger sum than
for these needs should be available for instruction in elocution.
New principles and methods were coming into practice, and
sacred rhetoric needed supplementing. To meet the attacks of
science upon the citadels of orthodox theology, there was need
of lectures on logic and mental philosophy to show the best
methods of defence of the gospel against pantheism and ma-
terialism. And besides these was the new biblical criticism
coming from Europe, and no less than thirty thousand dollars
was needed for a new professorship in that field. One hun-
dred and fifty college presidents and professors had been
trained at Andover. The best students ought not to have to
go elsewhere for the best instruction.
When the needs were published there was a generous re-
sponse. New chairs were endowed, lectureships were pro-
vided, the needs of the library were not forgotten. It is
impressive to read the list of the funds reported in 1867 as
having been added within little more than a decade. The
largest gift was Brechin Hall, given for a library building by
two brothers, John and Peter Smith, and John Dove, natives
of Brechin, Scotland. This was completed in 1866 at an ex-
pense of more than forty thousand dollars. It was constructed
of stone, with a tower ninety-three feet high, giving a wide
prospect over the surrounding country. The main part of the
building was seventy by forty-three feet. Though forty years
more were to crowd its space with books, the new structure
furnished welcome relief from the pressure upon the limited
quarters in Bartlet Chapel.
The recent benefactions included Miss Sophia Smith's
endowment of a new professorship in theology, amounting
to $30,000 ; two Hitchcock donations of $30,000 ; the Boston
Fund for salary increases, raised by subscription, to the amount
of $28,000 ; $27,000 for scholarships ; $20,500 pledged for a
new chapel ; a fund for library maintenance given by the
donors of the building, amounting to $19,000; the Jones en-
dowment of a chair in elocution to the amount of $15,000 ; the
Hyde and Southworth lectureships of $5,000 each ; the Reed
legacy of $5,000 for the library; the same amount for the
Newton Cabinet, and miscellaneous sums to the total of
nearly $40,000.
The next few years brought more benefactions, for the
needs increased as fast as the means could be provided. A
bequest from Frederick H. Taylor of Andover, supplemented
by other Taylor donations, made possible the Taylor profes-
sorship of biblical theology and history. Into this chair John
Phelps Taylor was inducted in 1883. Mr. Daniel P. Stone, a
Boston merchant, left about two million dollars at his death
in 1878, to be distributed by his wife. She contributed a single
gift of fifty thousand dollars to the Seminary, which endowed
the Stone professorship of the relations of Christianity and
science. Subsequently by making provisional gifts she was the
means of bringing into the treasury of the Seminary large addi-
tional funds. Within the eight years from 1873 to 1881 two hun-
dred and fifty thousand dollars were added to the resources.
The result of all these benefactions was greater breadth of
instruction and increased facilities in the buildings. Lectures
began to be given regularly in missions on the Hyde foundation,
including Ruf us Anderson, Julius H. Seelye, Edward A. Law-
rence, John P. Jones, Charles Cuthbert Hall, James L. Barton,
Edward C. Moore, Otis Cary, and John R. Mott. Some of the
lectures on the Southworth foundation, dealing with Congre-
gationalism, revivals, and home evangelization, were by
Henry M. Dexter, Amory H. Bradford, Williston Walker,
Francis G. Peabody, and Arthur C. McGiffert. Soon the new
Taylor, Stone, and Smith professorships were available. It
became possible to secure the services of a skilled librarian,
and Reverend William L. Ropes commenced a service of al-
most forty years to the Seminary. The library was enriched by
large purchases in Germany, and was able to add a thousand
books a year. Professor Churchill came to teach elocution.
The new stone chapel of Gothic architecture with its stained
glass windows and symbolic signs on the front of the building
greatly improved the appearance of the campus and provided
needed accommodations for the Seminary church. The low
walls and high roof gave it dignity, the three aisles and absence
of pillars made an impression of spaciousness, the ash fur-
nishings relieved pulpit and pews and screen from gloominess ;
and the tastefully tinted walls with their soft shades and bands
of deeper color contributed to an atmosphere of restful wor-
ship. The old chapel had had bare white walls, high-backed
pews with doors, and an old-fashioned box pulpit. The old
recitation rooms were dingy and ill-ventilated, and their desks
were defaced by pencils and jackknives in the hands of rest-
less students. Now Bartlet Chapel was renovated to provide
larger and airier rooms, and steam fixtures were installed for
heating. Dormitory rooms were furnished in modern fashion.
A laundry and a bath-house were erected. New professors'
houses were added.
By 1877 eight professors were on the roll; lectures on
Egyptology and on the relations of physiology to religious
experience showed a recognition of the value of many sub-
jects to a theological student; the Faculty was learning to
adjust its instruction to the new demands, yet the old cur-
riculum was changed little. Exegesis was still the normal
grist of the first year, dogmatic theology of the second, and
homiletics or history of the third. And the number of stu-
dents continued to decline in spite of all the improvements.
In 1867 there had been one hundred and fifteen; ten years,
later the number had fallen to seventy-three.
Andover Seminary had reached threescore years and ten.
Was it sufficient to dress itself in new habiliments and to re-
furbish the instruments of its craft? The world of thought
had been changing, but Andover still kept its Hopkinsian the-
ology. Was it time for a new interpretation of religion ? Were
the tides of modernism to undermine the ancient bulwarks ?
Time alone could tell. And time did not wait.
CHAPTER V
ANDOVER MEN IN THE PARISH MINISTRY
A [DOVER was founded for the distinct purpose of pre-
paring men for the parish ministry. At that time the
prestige of the Trinitarian Congregationalists was at
stake. The Unitarians had the advantage of Harvard instruc-
tion and the Harvard reputation. Unless the Trinitarians
could establish a theological school that would attract young
men of ability, and year after year could supply the Congre-
gational churches with orthodox leaders, who were able to
measure swords successfully in doctrinal controversy when
need arose, they would be worsted in the competition of the
two theological parties.
There were in Massachusetts alone nearly three hundred
and fifty Congregational churches about the year 1800. Of
these nearly one hundred withdrew from the evangelical
ranks, depriving orthodoxy of church property valued at more
than $600,000. In Boston the only Trinitarian Congregational
churches were the Old South and the new Park Street. Yet
in spite of these serious losses there were scores of important
churches which were looking to the Seminary for pastors.
It was these men who, often through long pastorates, built
patiently to restore the vigor and strength of earlier days.
Hardly had the Congregational churches begun to recover be-
fore all denominations were placed on an equality before the
law. This threw the material support completely upon the
members of the churches at a time when they were losing so
heavily. But it was in line with the tendency of the period
to destroy privilege and to compel every group and organiza-
tion to stand on its own feet. Baptists were increasing rapidly
with the growth of religious interest which attended the inter-
mittent revivals, attracting many of the townspeople, though
the principle of voluntary support for churches and ministers
required pecuniary sacrifices. Episcopalians were luring away
some who felt the appeal of order and beauty in church wor-
ship. Methodists were planting their chapels on the village
borders or out in the open country. And the Unitarians now
were on the side of those who wanted equal rights in religion.
It was with these handicaps that the youthful graduates of
Andover undertook the task of carrying New England Con-
gregationalism to the old position of leadership once more.
Some of them had meagre resources. Josiah Peet, who grad-
uated in the second class at Andover, found a place of ministry
at Norridgewock, Maine. Because the church was poor he
spent half his time preaching as a home missionary in the out-
lying .communities. But when the people of Norridgewock
found that Unitarianism was making inroads locally, the
church saw that it must exert itself and increased the minis-
ter's salary enough so that it could claim three-quarters of
his time. This new effort resulted in a revival which brought
forty new members into the church, and Peet remained with
the Norridgewock church for a pastorate of thirty-eight years.
Out of the church went four young men to enter the ranks
of the ministry.
It was from such country churches that the Seminary ob-
tained most of its recruits, and to them that most of the
students went upon graduation. Jacob Ide of the third class
went to a pastorate at West Medway in 1814, was made a
trustee of Amherst and was honored with the degree of doctor
of divinity by Brown, but he held only the one rural pastorate
throughout a long life.
Men like these made little noise in the world. They were
content to minister faithfully where farmers toiled in the fields
and artisans in their little backyard shops. They were the first
citizens in the community, respected by the children whom
they had baptized and perhaps married twenty years later.
They grew 'gray among the people to whom they ministered,
the only pastor that many of their parishioners ever knew.
Such men did not need the spur of new scenes, the stimulus
of a better folk. Like Charles Kingsley at Eversley, they
built themselves into the community where they had found
a home, and made the place richer because of their presence.
Now and then a graduate of Andover attained to a place
of large influence because of his personal ability or the dis-
tinction of the church or community. Richard Salter Storrs
was in Andover's first class, going the next year to the church
in Braintree, far enough from Boston then to remain a coun-
try village. Himself the son of a father who was minister in
Longmeadow for a generation, he became the father in his
turn of a still more noteworthy son, Dr. Richard Salter Storrs
of Brooklyn, New York. The church at Braintree kept its
pastor for a lifelong service of sixty-two years, except for
an interim of five years when his chief attention was given to
his duties as secretary of the Home Mission Society in Massa-
chusetts. Men were born, grew up, turned gray, and died
while he was there. Shy maidens stood before him for a
marriage blessing, brought their babies to him for baptism,
and saw those children grow to maturity and become mothers
before his task was done. The name of Storrs is revered still
in the old church in Braintree, with a feeling of pride that the
great Brooklyn preacher was a boy in the Old Colony of
Massachusetts.
When the Seminary at Andover was looking for a professor
to succeed Eliphalet Pearson, it chose Moses Stuart, minister
of the First Church in New Haven. When sixteen years later
that pulpit was vacant again, the church called Leonard Bacon
to its pastorate on recommendation of Professor Stuart.
Under the shadow of Yale College the First Church pulpit
was a platform of power. Bacon had graduated from Andover
a scant two years before, but he proved equal to the exacting
demands of the position. One-fourth of the members voted
against him when the question of the call was before them.
Only twenty-three years old, he was expected to fill the shoes
of Moses Stuart and Nathaniel W. Taylor, the eminent theo-
logian who went from that pulpit into the Yale faculty. Sev-
eral of the prominent members of the church, including a
United States senator, later called upon the youthful pastor
to suggest that his sermons were not up to their level. " Gentle-
men," was his reply, "they shall be made worthy." Within
three years he was preaching with complete acceptance. Be-
fore long he was marked as a man upon whose shoulders
might safely be placed heavy denominational responsibilities,
and he found time to write and to speak on public platforms.
The pulpit was his for fifty-seven years. During that period
he found time to write history, to compose hymns as well as
sermons, to aid in founding and to edit the Independent,
and to fill the position of editor of the New Englander. He
debated on public questions in his own city and elsewhere.
When the Congregationalists experimented with more unified
denominational organization, he was an active leader at the
Albany Convention in 1852, at Boston in 1865, and at Oberlin
when the National Council was organized in 1871. He was
president of the Church Building Society. At the fiftieth
anniversary of the Seminary at Andover he was the one to
recount the history of the half century. With all the rest he
helped to rear a son worthy to rank with himself as a Congre-
gational leader, Leonard Woolsey Bacon, class of 1854 at
Andover, pastor in Brooklyn, Baltimore, and Philadelphia,
compiler of a popular hymn-book, and author of the "History
of American Christianity."
The reputation of Andover drew certain students from a
long distance. Congregationalists had found their home in
New England, and it was not to be expected that their school
would reach many in the West or the South. The settlement
of New Englanders in New York and Ohio resulted in a small
contingent of students from those states, and Presbyterians
from New York and New Jersey found their way eastward.
An interesting case of a southerner is that of George Wash-
ington Kelly, who from Lewisburg, Virginia, caught a vision
of what Andover might do for him, and on the fourteenth of
October, 1830, started from the land of his nativity on the
arduous journey north. Because he kept a diary and an ac-
count of his expenses it is possible to follow him on his way.
Country roads at best were not smooth highways, and in the
South the usual manner of travel was by horseback. Many a
road and a bridge was built by subscription, and tolls were
charged for maintenance. A day's journey was limited to the
condition of the roads and the endurance of the horse, and the
traveler must allow considerable sums for overnight lodging.
Fortunately Kelly found accommodations at country inns for
thirty-seven and a half cents, but frequent tolls cost him
twelve and a half cents each. He delayed his progress at
Baltimore, where he stayed three days and four nights. Balti-
more was a considerable town and his total expenditure of
$5.75 was probably not excessive. It would be interesting to
know what detained him so long when Andover classes had
commenced their fall sessions already, but he did not record
the reasons. Perhaps it took time to sell his horse, for from
that point he traveled by boat to New York. Passage to Phila-
delphia took four dollars from his purse, and it cost him fifty
cents to lodge there. From Philadelphia to New York five
dollars more disappeared. A day in New York cost him one
dollar. The trip from New York to Boston was the most
expensive of all, and the stage fare from Boston to Andover
was $2.25. His total outlay amounted to $35.86, a consider-
able sum at a time when a dollar had far greater purchasing
power than at present.
Kelly's account book throws a sidelight on a student's re-
quirements at the Seminary. Faithfully he records the items.
Books were necessary and expensive. He paid two dollars
for a Hebrew grammar and $5.25 for a Greek and English
lexicon. Thirty cents went for a bucket, twenty-two for a
quart of oil. A razor and hone cost him eighty-two cents, a
box of blacking and soap 18^4 cents, half an ounce of wafers
six cents. To send a letter deprived him of twenty-five cents.
A troublesome flue required an outlay of six cents ; one yard
of green baize cost thirty cents. A cord of wood cost four dol-
lars, but he got along with an apron that took only 12^2 cents
of his rapidly dwindling hoard. Apples at 12^2 cents a peck
and molasses at thirteen cents for three pints made pan dowdy
possible. It cost him twenty cents to get a flannel shirt made,
and 12^ cents for charity to a room sweeper. Literary ma-
terial was as necessary as food for the body. Sixteen cents
went to pay for two sermons, and 37^ cents for a copy of
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Doddridge's "Rise and Progress." He paid two dollars for
instruction in Hebrew, doubtless to make up for his late
arrival, and twenty-five cents was his contribution for mis-
sionaries to the Sandwich Islands.
Andover paid its debts for men like Kelly by sending certain
of her graduates to the South. George Howe, a Massachusetts
boy and a graduate of Andover in 1825, commenced a teaching
career of fifty years in a Presbyterian seminary in Columbia,
South Carolina. Writing in 1845, ne speaks of his attachment
to the region in spite of numerous trials and discouragements,
and a different state of society from that in which he had been
brought up. In the farther perspective he sees faults even in
his own New England. He is fully conscious of the needs of
the South, and he does his best to induce young men of promise
to study for the ministry, because of the serious lack of those
who would take the time to prepare properly. He published
two appeals, conscious of the many difficulties which those
who were educated at the North could not understand rela-
tive to seminary attendance, and he had the satisfaction of
teaching one hundred and eighteen students in fourteen years,
most of whom became active pastors and a few missionaries.
The old custom of students studying with pastors did not
pass with the advent of seminaries, and Andover alumni had
their part in that practice. John Todd of the class of 182.5
had five such apprentices at different times, and it gave him
satisfaction to know that they were all doing well. The report
which he sent to his class at the end of twenty years from
graduation is typical of a large number of Andover alumni.
He wrote freely to his classmates, not boastfully, but with
gratitude to God that he had been able to help in building up
the Kingdom. He had had a part in the erection of three
meetinghouses. His direct influence had brought a thousand
dollars annually from his churches into the treasury of the
American Board. He had attended denominational asso-
ciations and had spoken on their platforms. Habitually he
preached three times on Sunday and led not less than two
meetings during the week. He had failed to accumulate much
money since he had married, but he was about even with the
world. Incidentally he had paid the support of a demented
mother for sixteen years. He thanked Providence for habit-
ual health and for "mercies from heaven far more than I
deserve," and he appreciated a doctor's degree and an election
to the board of trustees of Williams College. His pastorates
included the Edwards Church at Northampton, the First Con-
gregational Church in Philadelphia, and thirty years of active
service at Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Many an Andover man knew hardship both during and after
his years of study. Under the impulse of a sturdy conscience,
stimulated perhaps by the pastor of a rural church, a country
boy dreamed of college and a theological seminary, and was
willing to endure hardness if he might reach his goal. He
might get little but hard knocks, yet the limitless opportunity
for service appealed to him.
Such was John Spaulding of the class of 1828. Growing
up in a country hamlet, he was able in time to get to Phillips
Academy in Andover, "having only thirty dollars, one suit of
clothes, no books, and none but God to look to for aid." He
made his way through ten years of study at the Academy, at
Middlebury College, and at Andover Seminary, and in that
time he spent only $1,427.14. For four months in five succes-
sive winters he taught school, and he received some aid from
the American Education Society, which he repaid, and some
from friends. But it was mainly by keeping his expenses down
to the lowest point that he was able to continue his long years
of preparation. "These hands," he declared, "ministered to
my necessities" with the woodsaw, the sickle, the scythe, the
axe and the hoe. "These legs ministered to my locomotion to
and from college; and seldom through the whole course of
my studies did I feel justified for spending a single hard-
earned shilling for a ride. My arrival at college was amidst
a cold rain storm in September. My room was furnished with,
nothing save an unwoven carpet of mother earth on its floor ;
which a few buckets of water and a broom greatly improved.
A few shillings furnished a bedstead and cord ; and the bundle
containing my whole wardrobe, which had been my traveling
companion all the way from Massachusetts, though wet by
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the storm, furnished a pillow. On that cord, in that wet room,
the almost moneyless, supperless, and cover-less student
stretched himself for his first night in college. But it was en-
tering College ! and that was an acquisition worth more to him
than the conquest of Mexico with all of Texas would be now."
Many a country minister found it necessary to work harder
at manual labor than in his study. Joseph Bennett, of the class
of 1821, could say a quarter of a century later that in the
twenty-four years since he had left Andover he had been able
to preach every Sunday but one, and on an average five times
a week, had made pastoral calls on four hundred families once
a year, had attended one hundred church councils, and had
always attended Commencement at Andover, and the anni-
versaries in Boston ; besides these duties that belonged to his
profession he had exercised three hours a day in the open air,
for twenty years had felled trees in the woods and had cut up
the timber in the yard with the help of his son, enough for
three fires, had mowed, raked, and pitched five tons of hay
every year for his horse and cow, and had taken care of the
animals and of his garden. In that time he had admitted to
the church by profession seven hundred and eighty-two per-
sons, had brought up two children, "both pious," and the son
preparing for the ministry, and had raised twenty thousand
dollars to found an academy and to build meetinghouses.
The country churches depended on revivals for most of their
accessions to membership. Again and again men wrote for
their class report a record of scores and hundreds received
into their churches by these special efforts. They shared in
the special revival seasons of 1837 and 1857, and they had
their own special awakenings locally.
Classes adopted the custom, even in comparatively early
years, of collecting information from each member at the end
of a certain period of years and printing the reports in a
pamphlet for the benefit of all. Certain of the classes were
distinguished by members who had gained eminence. Such
was the class of 1819. Bingham and Thurston were mission-
aries to Hawaii, King to Greece, Byington to the Choctaws.
Smith, Wheeler, and Wayland became college presidents;
Ripley, Torrey, Warner, and Haddock were professors.
Orville Dewey became a prominent Unitarian minister. The
class of 1857 at graduation met in "Uncle Sam's" recitation
room in Phillips Academy for its class supper. After supper
they took one another into their confidence. "Every man be-
trayed himself," runs the record, "told all he knew; whether
he was engaged or not, and to whom ; whether he had a call,
and where, etc., etc. It was a merry time. School days were
over. No more bells to prayers and recitations. Work, waiting,
reward, these were before us. We went out to the first, to wait
for the last, with a vote to meet in ten years."
The class of 1855 numbered thirty-nine. Abbe, Anthony,
Colby, Fay, Foster, Loomis, Patten, Smith, and Webber, were
pastors in Massachusetts. Moore and Ray settled in Vermont,
Pratt in Connecticut, Bates in New York, and Grassie in
Pennsylvania. Two were in the United States army during
the Civil War. One was made consul to Newcastle-on-Tyne
in England by President Lincoln. One became an Episco-
palian. Hurlbut and Shaw had honorable careers as home
missionary pastors, one in Nebraska and the other in Michigan.
Two members of the class became college presidents, Bascom
of the University of Wisconsin, after nearly twenty years as
professor of rhetoric at Williams ; the other, Boardman, who
after a similar professorship at Middlebury and two pastor-
ates, became president of Maryville College, Tennessee. Two
other members occupied professorial chairs, Marsh at the
University of Vermont, and Mooar at the Pacific Theological
Seminary. Aiken, Allen, Barnum, Bliss, Knapp, and Leonard,
were all missionaries of the American Board, the last four for
long terms of service in the Turkish Empire. Strong, after
nineteen years of pastoral service near Boston, served for
more than thirty years as editorial secretary of the American
Board.
It is alumni records like these that gave Andover Seminary
its eminence. The class of 1855 was not especially distin-
guished. It can be duplicated more than once. The class of
1858 presents a wide variety of service. Baldwin was a pastor
of Congregational and Presbyterian churches, chiefly in the
Middle West. Batt was long time chaplain of the Massa-
chusetts Reformatory at Concord. Bliss was secretary of the
New West Education Commission, as Hamilton was of the
American College and Education Society. Chamberlain was in
the Christian Commission of Sherman's Army, and later in
life an editor and chaplain of the Legislature in Iowa. Charles
W. Clark spent thirty years of parish ministry in the Vermont
town where he was born. James F. Clarke was for fifty years
a missionary to Bulgaria, where he became principal of an
institute, translator of textbooks, and an active agent in relief
work for Bulgarian refugees. Anketell, Brown, Cruikshanks,
Dickinson, Emerson, Fellows, were parish ministers. Fenn
was minister of the High Street Church, Portland, Maine, for
thirty-eight years. Goodell, as pastor of the Pilgrim Church
in St. Louis for thirteen years, had a powerful influence in
the Mississippi Valley. Howard was an army chaplain;
McGinley, a member of the Christian Commission at Antietam
and Gettysburg. Meriam was murdered by brigands in Tur-
key. Jameson became supervisor of Emerson College of
Oratory in Boston ; Norton, superintendent of a ladies' college
at Evanston, Illinois ; and Orton, professor of natural history
at Vassar. Parker and Pike were country ministers, and
Plumb had a long pastorate of thirty-five years at the Walnut
Avenue Church in Roxbury, where he saw an attractive sub-
urb become a ward of Boston, in which the people of foreign
ancestry displaced most of the American stock. Perkins tried
being a secretary for the American Tract Society and the
Home Missionary Society for Colorado; Upham was for
eleven years the secretary of the Presbyterian Ministers' Fund
in Philadelphia. Thwing was a professor, Torrey a pastor in
Maine, Twombly went to Honolulu, where he published books.
Todd had an eleven years' pastorate in Boston and then one
of twenty-one years in New Haven. Washburn was president
of the Pasumalai Theological Seminary in India for twenty-
two years, and then was president of the college there for
nineteen years more. Willard was in home mission service.
Young, after an apprenticeship of ten years of college teach-
ing in the Western Reserve University, and a term of army
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service as captain of an Ohio company of volunteers, became a
noted professor of astronomy at Dartmouth and Princeton
for a combined term of nearly forty years.
Some of the ministers specialized in particular departments
of Christian service. A century ago when Sunday schools were
in their infancy, Jacob Little, who graduated from Andover
about the time that the American Sunday School Union was
organized, made Bible classes his chief concern in Granville,
Ohio, where he was minister of the Congregational church
for thirty-seven years. He studied his own lessons by using
a round table on which he laid his Bible, with commentaries
lying on the outer edge. It was a revolving table built for
his convenience, and with its assistance he went through the
New Testament and a part of the Old, taking about a day for
the study of a single chapter. He held sessions of two classes
on alternate Sunday evenings, one in the village and another
on the outskirts. His scholars were over fourteen years old
and were admitted to the classes only as they agreed to attend
for a term of from three to six months. It was no vacation
Bible school, or the experiment of a year. The number of
scholars increased from sixty to two hundred and twelve in
the course of seven years. Two-thirds of them were men and
boys. The educational process resulted in many conversions.
Parents saw to it that their children learned the selections from
Scripture that they were expected to commit to memory, and
in eighteen years "all but a sixth of them became pious."
Alumni of later years have had more opportunities in city
parishes than did the men of an earlier day. Over a long period
of time in a prominent pulpit individual ministers made a mark
for themselves, either because they were able to build up a
strong church or because they identified themselves with a
civic cause. Some of them found special methods useful as
means of advance. Such a man was Frederick A. Noble. Born
in Maine, educated at Phillips Academy and Yale College, im-
bibing theology at Andover and Lane Seminaries, he divided
his ministry between the Presbyterians and the Congregation-
alists. After thirteen years in St. Paul and Pittsburgh and then
four years at New Haven, he reached the climax of his min-
istry in a twenty-two year pastorate of Union Park Church,
Chicago. It was his health that sent him West, but he did the
work of a strong man in all his churches. He was a leader
in the van of such modern movements as the recognition of
young people in the church, the use of the catechetical method
with children as a part of his annual program, the more
efficient organization of the church and the denomination. He
was elected a delegate from Connecticut to a National Council
meeting in Detroit when no one else in his Association was
enthusiastic enough about the Council to go. He believed in
church representation on the foreign field, in the value of dea-
conesses in the local church. He was chaplain of the Minnesota
senate, and he recognized the civic obligation of the church.
He found time to study and write upon Puritan history.
Alexander Mackenzie settled nearer his alma mater and kept
an affectionate interest in it. His personal worth was tested
by his long pastorate of forty-three years in the Shepard
Memorial Church in Cambridge. He could not have remained
there so long under the very shadow of Harvard College had
he not been able to defend a staunch theology of his own or
to harmonize his teaching with the best thought of his day.
In reality he was liberal in his point of view, but he had inner
qualities of spirit that kept him from becoming unevangelical.
He had the mystical temperament, a poetic imagination, a culti-
vated and fluent speech in the pulpit, and he had the reputation
of being one of the great preachers among the Congrega-
tionalists. His good judgment made his services sought as
trustee of several educational institutions, including Andover
Seminary.
Another minister who gained a reputation far beyond his
own parish was Amory H. Bradford. Like Mackenzie, he
had a great church back of him in a community that held high
rank in wealth and culture. Like Noble, he was given prefer-
ment among his ministerial brethren by being elected moder-
ator of the National Council, but these advantages could not
have been his had he not shown a consummate ability which
warranted the confidence of those who knew him. He was a
product of two seminaries, Auburn and Andover, where he
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was at one time Southworth lecturer. He had the advantage
of a period of study at Oxford, which he enjoyed when on
furlough from his church. For seven years he was able to
give part of his time to editorial writing on the Outlook, and
he ventured now and then into authorship, but his main task
was a pastoral one, and his people at Montclair, New Jersey,
kept him as their minister for the major part of half a century.
Long pastorates are no mystery when the man fits the job.
Bradford at Montclair fitted like a glove to the hand.
One minister found Finns in his parish territory, and was
so interested in doing them good that he learned enough of
their language to conduct their baptisms, marriages, and
funerals in their tongue, greatly to their satisfaction. That
made it possible to organize a Sunday School for them, with
occasional preaching services and a night school. A number
of ministers, with the new social consciousness in their hearts
and minds, interested themselves in problems of industry as
others were devoted to temperance or organized charity.
Charles A. Dickinson in Boston made Berkeley Temple one
of the earliest and best known. institutional churches in the
United States. A country minister in New Hampshire found
that the local grange was not a helpful influence, but instead
of denouncing it he organized a guild, which came to number
two hundred and twenty-five members and to prove a real
asset to the community, and in particular it paid the rent of
a house for the minister for several years. A Long Island
minister was among the first to try the method of answering
questions sent in during the week at a Sunday afternoon ves-
per service. Charles M. Sheldon in Topeka, Kansas, wrote
"In His Steps," and read it to his congregation; it sprang
forthwith into fame, and went around the world in sixteen
different languages. Francis E. Clark brought into existence
the Christian Endeavor Society as a local young people's
organization in Williston Church in Portland, Maine. It was
too good an idea to localize, too useful to be limited to a single
denomination or a single country. It too went around the world
to become domesticated everywhere.
Over against this worldwide fame stands this testimonial
after a pastorate of thirteen years in the rural section of west-
ern Massachusetts. "Few families in this scattered country
parish fail to attend church. Seventy-five teams sometimes
jam the horse-sheds of a pleasant summer Sunday. A class of
men in the Sunday School has at times numbered seventy to
eighty, and nearly the entire congregation remains for study.
The pastor has given much help to the library, has done val-
uable work for the literary club, conducts a young people's
society that has been studying China recently, preaches
thoughtful sermons, and has found time to serve as pastor" of
a neighboring church since the death of its minister. This
again is not a unique record, but merely one of many that have
given honor to Andover and confidence in the alumni who
went out from the Hill.
Long pastorates were more often possible in the country
than in the town, though in either case the length of service
depended partly on the man and partly on the people. Some
churches grow restive under the guidance of the best of men,
until like Dives they would not repent if an angel were sent
unto them. Some ministers get restless in the best churches,
and wander from place to place seeking satisfaction and find-
ing none. Occasionally mere lethargy on the part of pastor
and people accounts for a record of pastoral longevity, but
usually a ministry of two or three decades in one church means
real worth in a minister. Andover alumni did not soon exhaust
their sermonic resources or have recourse to the bottom of
the barrel. They knew how to study Scripture and problems
in theology. They became seasoned veterans in the pulpit,
trusted leaders in the churches, respected citizens in the com-
munity. It is not strange that they were sought as chaplains
in legislatures and reformatories, secretaries for philanthropic
and educational organizations, trustees of educational institu-
tions, speakers on public forums. To be an Andover man was
strong recommendation for a candidate at any New England
church, at least before 1880.
It would be possible to make a long list of single pastorates
of unusual length, like Storrs, Bradford, and Robie. Edward
Robie, for example, completed his course at Andover in 1843.
Making his way to Europe at a time when few enjoyed the
privileges of foreign study, he spent three years at the uni-
versities of Halle and Berlin. Returning to his native town
at Gorham, Maine, he taught in the seminary there for two
years, and then was appointed instructor in sacred literature
at Andover, where he remained four years, filling the place
of librarian part of that time. In the year 1852 he went to
Greenland, New Hampshire, to become pastor of the Congre-
gational church. He had found his niche, and there he was
content to remain. It is said of him that he was a reader of
the Youth's Companion for eighty-five years. Though a coun-
try pastor he was given the degree of doctor of divinity by
Dartmouth and Bowdoin. William Salter at Burlington, Iowa,
for more than sixty years, had one of the longest pastorates
in the history of American Congregationalism. At the unveil-
ing of his portrait in the state capitol of Iowa, the Governor
said : " Men of his character and of his class are the men who
have made Iowa what she is a great, noble, peerless, Chris-
tian commonwealth."
Taken at random the annalist notes Darius A. Newton, class
of '82, more than twenty years at Winchester, Massachusetts ;
Stephen M. Newman, class of '71, pastor of the First Congre-
gational Church, Washington, D. C., for twenty-one years;
Charles H. Cutler, class of '86, minister at Bangor for a quar-
ter of a century; Omar W. Folsom, class of '72, serving
twenty-five years at Bath, Maine, and active in the state in
missions and in the Interdenominational Comity Commission ;
George B. Spalding, class of '61, after succeeding Horace
Bushnell at Hartford, went to Syracuse where he built a new
church edifice, remaining twenty-five years ; Cyrus H. Rich-
ardson, class of '69, at Nashua longer still; Charles E. Cool-
edge, class of '70, at Collinsville, Connecticut, for an equal
length of time ; James B. Gregg, class of '74, holding an out-
post of Congregationalism at Colorado Springs, Colorado,
for twenty-seven years, and honored with the degree of doctor
of divinity by Harvard University ; John R. Crane of the first
Andover class of 1810, setting an example of long pastorates
at Middletown, Connecticut, with one of his own which lasted
thirty-five years; Lucius R. Eastman, class of '61, pastor of
Plymouth Church, Framingham, for about forty years, "cul-
tured, devoted, learned" ; Charles L. Hall, class of '74, out on
the northwestern Indian frontier at Fort Berthold, North
Dakota, for approximately forty years ; Joel Haines, class of
1817, minister at Hartford for forty-six years, writing "Lec-
tures to Young Men" and other books ; William R. Campbell,
pastor for fifty changing years at West Roxbury, Massa-
chusetts, and a Visitor of Andover Seminary.
Among city pastors whose influence was deep and abiding
were a number of other alumni who graduated from Andover
in the quarter century between 1868 and 1892. DeWitt C.
Clarke had a distinguished ministry in the Tabernacle Church,
Salem. Charles L. Noyes was pastor in Somerville forty
years, and was actively engaged in civic interests. He edited
the "Pilgrim Hymnal," was a trustee of the Seminary, and
was an active participant in the plans of removal to Cambridge.
Charles F. Carter is remembered at Burlington, Vermont, and
Hartford, Connecticut. He was president of the Andover
Trustees at the time of removal. Nehemiah Boynton of
the same class was the eminent leader of Congregationalism
in Detroit and Brooklyn, and was elected moderator of the
National Council. Carl S. Patton had pastoral service to his
credit before he went to the church in Columbus, Ohio, so long
served by Dr. Washington Gladden. Two subsequent pastor-
ates at Los Angeles were bisected by a professorship in
Chicago Theological Seminary. He, too, has been honored
with an election as moderator of the General Council. Fred-
erick H. Page, after a journalistic career and a ministerial
apprenticeship in Boston, spent many years with churches in
Lawrence and Waltham, and then was promoted to be presi-
dent of the Massachusetts Home Missionary Society. As
president of the Trustees of the Seminary he had a large part
in the planning and achieving of the affiliation of Andover
and Newton.
To name these men is not to make invidious distinctions
in a large body of alumni. They are but samples, a few more
distinguished than the average. They could be duplicated more
11Q1Y
than once from living alumni other than those mentioned. It
is enough to say of an unnumbered multitude : They wrought
well and their works do follow them.
Alumni interest was stimulated by the organization of an
alumni society in 1827, "for the purpose of holding such
meetings and performing such exercises as shall be promotive
of their mutual edification and the prosperity of the Re-
deemer's kingdom." The Society drew up a constitution which
provided for an annual meeting on Anniversary Week at the
Seminary, with an address or a sermon. Dr. Storrs was chosen
the first moderator. Vexations dogged the infant organization.
The moderator was absent when the Society met the next
year, the preacher failed to appear on account of ill health,
and the alternate because he was not given "sufficient season-
able notice." With but a single meeting a year it required some
effort to keep interest in the Society warm. In 1834 a com-
mittee of three was appointed to report a year hence on the
best methods for producing more interest. At another meet-
ing a standing committee was charged with the duty of pre-
paring a necrology of alumni who had died within the year
at the next annual meeting, but it failed to function. Another
committee was named to secure portraits of Professors Woods
and Porter to hang beside that of Stuart in the library, which
students and friends had provided.
Necrologies were prepared after 1880, but the same diffi-
culty of lack of interest prevailed among the alumni. The
Association was reorganized in 1895 on a more definite basis,
with an annual fee of one dollar. All officers of the Seminary,
Trustees and Visitors, were eligible as members besides the
alumni. The presidents of the two boards set the example by
joining. All members were to receive the annual catalogue
of the Seminary, the printed necrology, and the anniversary
program. Two hundred and seventy persons were listed as
members in 1897, an d three hundred and twenty-eight the next
year. Professor Park held the honor of being the oldest living
graduate. The experiment of a social union of the alumni was
held for a second time in Boston. The next year an alumni
fund was proposed, which should be devoted first to a new
issue of the General Catalogue, which had not been revised
for twenty years. The Alumni Association was reorganized
in that same year of 1903.
To the people of the Atlantic seaboard the West spelled
wider opportunity. America had meant that to their fathers
who came from Europe, but the fertile valleys of New England
were few and the Southern plantations were the property
of a privileged aristocracy. With an expanding population
America had to push out to the West. It was not only this
centrifugal compulsion that drove, but an attraction that
pulled. The West called to profit and adventure. Its broad
plains, its lofty mountains, its majestic rivers, its sunset trail,
were a magnet that drew from South and North alike. No
young man could be oblivious to the attraction. Even theo-
logical students at Andover saw opportunity in the West for
both service and adventure.
Attempts had been made by the General Association of
Connecticut to send out local pastors as itinerant evangelists
for a few months. The Connecticut Missionary Society was
the result, followed by the Massachusetts Missionary Society.
Both came into existence before the year 1800. The other New
England states organized similar societies within the next ten
years. In 1801 the Plan of Union was arranged between the
Congregationalists and the Presbyterians by which the two
denominations were to combine forces for missionary effort.
The beginnings of settlement had been made in southern
Ohio, and the Western Reserve along Lake Erie was develop-
ing along with the fertile western part of New York. President
Dwight of Yale regarded the westward movement as highly
significant for the future of the nation, and he felt the Chris-
tian responsibility "to lay out the streets and plant the founda-
tions of literature and religion and to give shape to the insti-
tutions of society." It was this sense of responsibility that led
three Andover students to discuss the plan of a national home
missionary society, as they were riding in a stagecoach to a
funeral at Newburyport, and that evening to talk it over at
the house of Professor Porter. Nathaniel Bouton, who origi-
nated the idea, Aaron Foster, and Hiram Chamberlain were
the students. Not long afterward Foster discussed the matter
before the Porter Rhetorical Society, advocating the settle-
ment of local pastors as well as the itineracy of evangelists.
His appeals were seconded by John Maltby at a special meet-
ing of the Society. He urged "planting in every little com-
munity that is rising up men of learning and influence, to
impress their characters upon those communities a system
that shall gather the resources of philanthropy, patriotism, and
Christian sympathy throughout our country into one vast
reservoir from which a stream shall flow to Georgia and to
Louisiana, to Missouri and to Maine." The result was the
application of six seniors for ordination as home missionaries.
This resulted in the organization of the American Home Mis-
sionary Society in 1826, as the appeal of the earlier Brethren
had brought the American Board into existence.
Foster, Maltby, and Chamberlain were among the first to
be commissioned. Jeremiah Porter, graduating in 1828,
founded the First Presbyterian Church in Chicago in 1838.
Artemas Bullard of the next class eventually became pastor
of the First Church in St. Louis, outpost of civilization in
the Mississippi Valley. Back in 1812-15, Samuel J. Mills,
John F. Schermerhorn, and Daniel Smith, all Andover men,
had made journeys of exploration under the auspices of the
Connecticut and Massachusetts societies from Lake Erie to
New Orleans. They reported only one Congregational or
Presbyterian minister in Indiana and none in Illinois. As a
result Samuel Giddings, Andover, 1814, had been sent as mis-
sionary to Missouri. He made far journeys among the Indians
and founded churches in western Illinois. Howe and Ellis of
Andover settled promptly in Illinois after graduation. Ellis
started a seminary at Jacksonville, and with the help of en-
thusiastic Yale men it became Illinois College. Truman M.
Post, Andover, 1835, became one of its professors. Elihu W.
Baldwin, class of 1817, dedicated Wabash College to Christ
as he knelt in the snow of the primeval forest on a winter day.
It was the temper of such men as these which made such a
brave beginning.
The activity of these home missionary pastors appears in a
-{104}*
letter from Henry Little, Andover, 1829. Writing from his
station in Madison, Indiana, he said : " I hardly know whether
I may be most properly called a pastor (on a large scale),
evangelist, missionary, or agent. In the Presbyterian church
the Lord's Supper is administered once in two or three months,
and at those seasons they have preaching two, three, four or
more days. A large part of my Sabbaths have been spent at
these meetings, and during the season the collection is made
for the Home Missionary Society, and very often there has
been something to be done in building a meetinghouse, remov-
ing an old debt, raising a salary for a pastor, or assistance in
a revival of religion. At other times I have been in the woods
a week introducing a missionary to his field, preaching every
day. Or in gathering a congregation where a church is to be
formed or a missionary sent."
Writing from Bedford, Indiana, about the same time,
Solomon Kittredge, class of 1832, said: "For twelve years
I have occupied a missionary field embracing one entire county
and part of the time two ... a field containing from thirty to
forty thousand inhabitants. . . . When I came here it was a
moral desolation. There were no churches, no Sabbath, nor
Sabbath-keeping people. The Sabbath was known or observed
only as a holiday a day for visiting, hunting, horse-racing,
and the like. Business houses were kept open, and business
transacted as on other days." But when he wrote there were
three churches and a quiet village on Sunday.
Real hardship attended the life of the home missionary.
He left behind him most of the comforts of the East. He took
risks in his journeying. He felt the responsibility of a heavy
task. "I commenced my labors in the ministry in 1830," wrote
Lucian Farnham, who graduated from Andover that summer.
"Late in the autumn of that year I arrived in this state [Illinois]
where I have labored to this time, in season and out of season
in ceiled houses and log cabins, in school houses, in private
dwellings, and in the open air without a house. I have trav-
eled many thousands of miles through heat and cold, storm
and calm, by night and day, in perils in the wilderness, in perils
in the prairie, in perils of waters in hunger and thirst, in
weariness and painfulness, in watchings and fastings I have
made my lodging in the lone prairie without food or fire
with no shelter but heaven's canopy no bed but the open
wagon-box, and no music but the howling of the wolf. . . . By
the grace of God I am what I am. It is wonderful conde-
scension that God should give me a place in his vineyard."
One ever-present handicap was the need of becoming accli-
mated. Malaria haunted the prairies. Farnham's classmate,
Ferris Fitch, found his settlement at Lower Sandusky, Ohio,
forty miles by river from Lake Erie. Fitch described his ex-
periences in vivid language. "During the summer the water
is stagnant, and the land through which the river passes in
its passage to the lake is prairie. When the vegetation begins
to decay and the north wind to blow in the fall of the year, it
rolls up the very quintessence of swamp miasma. In a village
of one thousand people I have counted rising of five hundred
sick at once. I have spent three months in visiting the sick
without asking till Sabbath morning what I should preach.
My hearers of course at such a time few. I have had eighty
die within the bounds of my parish in one year. I have lived
one month without taking off my clothes save for washing,
or without lying down on a bed but once, then only for a few
hours. I would get a little rest at night on a sofa in a sick
room. I was often abroad at midnight, out at all hours. My
family were sick, but amidst it all I enjoyed good health, and
hardly knew what it was to be weary."
These dangers and difficulties did not daunt the men on
Andover Hill. One class after another sent its quota west-
ward. Except once no class failed to be represented until 1858.
The classes of 1825 and 1829 sent twenty-three each. The
classes of 1832 and 1843 eacn had twenty in the field. Nine-
teen men went among the Indians, ten among the Negroes,
ten to work with sailors. Twenty-six different classes sent
no less than ten each into home missionary service. They
went into thirty-three states from Maine to Texas. Nor was
it only in the first part of the century that the interest con-
tinued. Sixty-five representatives went from the Hill between
1873 and 1900.
4W6Y
An interesting experiment was the cooperative work of the
bands of students who graduated at the same time from the
Seminary. In the class of 1843 at Andover twelve men fell
into the custom of meeting in the Library by moonlight for
prayer. The need of the frontier people for spiritual help
weighed upon their hearts. One of the number, Horace
Hutchinson, had spoken a suggestion that was bearing fruit.
"If we and some others," he said to two of his classmates,
"could only go out together, and take possession of some field,
where we could have the ground and work together, what a
grand thing it would be ! " The prayer group in the darkness
was seeking for light on the future. After considering the
possibilities of different sections, they decided to plan for a
cooperative enterprise in Iowa. A farewell service was held
in the South Church in Andover for the eleven young men
who had elected to go. Dr. Leonard Bacon preached the ser-
mon and the Home Missionary Society gave its blessing
through Secretary Badger. Thus graduated into the home
missionary ranks Ephraim and Harvey Adams, Ebenezer
Alden, James F. Hill, Horace Hutchinson, Daniel Lane,
Erastus Ripley, Alden B. Robbins, William Salter, Benjamin
A. Spaulding, and Edwin B. Turner.
The Iowa Band marked the beginning of a new growth of
Congregationalism in the West. Most of the Congregation-
alists who had gone to the prairies, including the ministers,
had adopted Presbyterian church relations. Only fifteen Con-
gregational churches existed in Iowa when the Band arrived,
but its members retained their Congregational polity and
changed the course of denominational history. A Congrega-
tional historian enthusiastically testifies of them : " The West
would be vastly poorer in its religious and educational life
but for that timely renaissance, and chief among the agencies
to which that recovery was due, is this band of Andover pil-
grims, who were directed to the western bank of the Missis-
sippi in 1843 w ^h the Pilgrim polity as well as the Pilgrim
faith glowing in their hearts."
Twenty-three years after the members of the Iowa Band
said goodbye to their friends at the Seminary and the place
where they had knelt in prayer, other men felt the stirring of
events in Kansas and were eager to cast in their lot with those
who were settling there. Two of them, Sylvester D. Storrs
and Grosvenor C. Morse, were New England born. Richard
Cordley and Roswell D. Parker were from the newer State of
Michigan. For a year they met for prayer with others of the
students in one of the dormitory rooms, with the same earnest
purpose which had animated the Iowa Band. They reached
Kansas in time to participate in the struggle to keep the Ter-
ritory free from slavery. They became religious leaders in
the growing centers of population. Storrs in the capacity of
State superintendent of missions organized more than one
hundred Congregational churches in twelve years. Morse
was the means of establishing a State normal college. They
had to contend with barbarities of human conduct in the in-
tense days of the Civil War. For some time the hardships of
a new country were a handicap. Strenuous endeavor was
necessary to keep the wolf from the church door. But they
hung on and grew up with the country, recognized leaders in
church and community.
It seems a bit strange to speak of Maine as home mission
territory, yet the development of some parts of it and the
decline of once thriving communities presented a field of op-
portunity comparable with the Far West when the frontier
was on the point of disappearing. It was a realization of this
fact that prompted the organization in 1892 of the Andover
League for Work in Neglected Places, though it lasted only
two years. Those who joined it agreed to give the early part
of their ministry to the people of such communities. Relation
was established with the secretaries of Maine and New Hamp-
shire, and out of it came the Maine Band, composed of five
men of the class of 1892. The five were ordained together at
Farmington and settled near one another in two rural coun-
ties, Edwin R. Smith at Temple, Oliver D. Sewall at Strong,
William W. Ranney at Phillips, Edward R. Stearns at New
Vineyard, and James C. Gregory at Bingham. They frequently
exchanged pulpits and held joint services with two or more
of their number.
4W8Y
The veterans who had gone West in the early days were in-
clined to be rather scornful of the later alumni. Chauncy
Eddy, who completed his Seminary course at Andover in
1821, was a man who had knocked about the country East
and South, and later in life had settled down in Jackson, Illi-
nois. He had evangelized on an island off the South Carolina
coast until forty-five colored people had organized into a Bap-
tist church, and three "females" had experienced religion.
He had traveled in the frontier country of New York as an
agent of the American Board and of the Western Education
Society. He had raised money and had turned one hundred
young men towards the ministry. For a short time he was
secretary of the New York Colonization Society. Later in
life he found settlement in the pastorate at Jacksonville,
Illinois. He rejoiced in the freedom of the West, where a man
had room to stretch himself, and he closed his letter with a
sly dig at the young fellows. "Now I am not occupying any
place which the young men coming out of the Seminary want,
and so am not in their way. And I have a field of labor here
where I can swing my arms as much as I please without
hitting anybody, which, after abating all that is reasonable
for mud, fleas, etc., etc., is far better than any New England
parish. I have concluded if the Lord will to hold on a while
longer. There is much to be done out in this central part of
creation, which requires something more than such courage
and enterprise as that is which of late comes out of seminaries
to perform. I hope there are other gray heads at the East
who will take their families on their backs and come out to
clear up the country and prepare good parishes for the young
men." These criticisms of the younger men may have been
half in jest, but they were obviously unfair at a time when the
Iowa Band had just entered the Mississippi Valley. Eddy
himself was back in the Berkshire country of New England
a few years later.
It took all kinds of men to make the West. Pioneers there
were among them who liked the rough and tumble life, faith-
ful trail blazers who pushed on regardless of obstacles, and
refined and cultured graduates of the seminaries who became
{109}-
pastors of leading churches and founders of schools and col-
leges. Andover had samples of them all. About two hundred
and fifty men belong on her roll of honor as home missionaries,
and many more who in part belong in that category. They
helped to build that interior empire which has become the
heart of America, saved to Christianity and a cultured civiliza-
tion by the churches and schools that they established. Men
of the Middle Border, men of the plains beyond, a few men
of the Golden West beside the sea, they labored well and
others have entered into their labors.
-mo}-
CHAPTER VI
ANDOVER MEN IN FOREIGN MISSIONS
IT is Andover's pride that her sons were pioneers in the
foreign mission enterprise of the American churches. It
was they who challenged the Congregational ministers of
Massachusetts to find a way to send them as their representa-
tives to the pagan peoples on the other side of the world. Out
of Andover Theological Seminary went some of her firstborn
to plant Christianity in Burma and peninsular India. A few
years later others were making Palestine and Syria their goal,
planting the banner of the Cross where the Crescent held the
right of way. Soon still others were sailing to the heart of
the Pacific and wresting Hawaii from grossness and idolatry.
So splendid was Andover's contribution that the history of
the missions of the American Board for the first quarter of
a century is the story of Andover men and their sacrificial
service. Repeatedly that service was the surrender of life
itself, but as soon as one in the front line fell another was
ready to step into his place. No more compelling is the call
of the South to the waterfowl when the summer wanes, than
was the Macedonian call from heathendom to the dormitories
and classrooms on Andover Hill. They became preachers and
teachers, writers and translators, advisors and administrators.
They entered Asia from the west and from the east and dared
the hostility of Turks and Chinese in the hinterland. They
risked fevers on the tropical west coast of Africa and cholera
in India and Persia. They created civilization in the Sand-
wich Islands, and they saw paganism crumble slowly in Ceylon.
They planted schools for Greeks and Bulgarians, and healed
the wounds of Armenian refugees. They threaded ways that
are dark in China, and tried to penetrate behind the polite
exterior of Japan. They were all things to all men if by any
means they might gain some.
The missionary motive is as old as Christianity. It was
aroused in America by the spiritual awakenings at the turn of
the century. It had come in England through the initiative
of William Carey, but he had been inspired by the revivals
of the middle of the eighteenth century in England and
America. The passion for missionary service for Americans
abroad was in the heart of Samuel J. Mills as a result of the
Evangelical Awakening, and when he went to Williams Col-
lege, he kindled the flame among a few of his college friends.
It is a familiar story how they talked over the needs of the
heathen world, and how they drew up a constitution for their
secret society and adopted it under a haystack, where they
sought shelter from a sudden shower. To look upon those
few paragraphs and the names of the organizers in cipher;
to decode them and to read: "Constitution of a Society of
Brethren, Williams College, September 7, 1808" ; in imagina-
tion to see those humble dreamers storm the walls of con-
servatism until they gained the sanction of their older brethren
in the ministry ; and then to see them sailing the seven seas
on an errand that was to the Greeks a stumbling-block and
to the barbarians foolishness, but that was to prove the power
of God to the breaking down of the strongholds of darkness
this is to thrill with the courage and faith of those resolute
few who in the optimism of youth shrank from no danger
and shirked no task.
The organizers of the Brethren scattered upon graduation
from college, but the Society of the Brethren was transferred
to Andover, where it continued for sixty years until it admitted
to its membership Joseph Neesima and Robert A. Hume, one
to go back presently to Japan and establish Doshisha Univer-
sity, the other to make missionary history in India. At An-
dover the Society was joined by Adoniram Judson from
Brown, Newell from Harvard, and Nott from Union College.
The first record of the Society at Andover is dated Septem-
ber 14, 1810, when the Brethren chose their officers for the
year. Andover became the seed bed of missionary propaganda.
Branches of the organization were formed at other seminaries,
which reported to the parent society at Andover, but only a
very few students were interested. Andover students en-
couraged the others and sent out the largest number of mis-
sionaries. The original records continued to be kept in cipher
until Pliny Fisk decoded them in 1818, with the constitution
and a historical sketch of the Society. These were entered
in a small black book, which served the Society throughout
its existence.
The spirit of the members was deeply devotional. Every
student who joined was required by the constitution to read
and pray in order to determine his duty, whether he should
spend his life among the heathen. Special devotions were
observed on Sunday mornings and Tuesday evenings, and
the second Tuesday in January was kept as a day of fasting
and prayer for the missionary cause.
Samuel J. Mills continued to be the inspirer of the move-
ment. Between his graduation and his going to Andover he
was for a time in New Haven. Under date of December 20,
1809, he wrote to Gordon Hall at Andover, telling him about
Henry Obookiah, the Hawaiian, who had been brought to
America, and when the captain of the ship would no longer
give him aid had been taken in by the big heart of Mills and
made his protege. "Here I intend he shall stay until next
spring," wrote Mills, "if he is contented, and I trust he will
be. Thus you see he is likely to be fairly fixed by my side.
What does this mean, Brother Hall ? Do you understand it ?
Shall he be sent back unsupported to attempt to reclaim his
countrymen? Shall we not rather consider these South Sea
Islands a proper place for the establishment of a mission?
Not that I would give up the heathen tribes to the westward.
I trust that we shall be able to establish more than one mis-
sion in a short time, at least in a few years. I mean that God
will enable us to extend our views and labor further than we
have before contemplated. We ought not to look only to the
heathen on our own continent. We ought to direct our atten-
tion to that place where we may to human appearances do the
most good, and where the difficulties are the least. We are to
look to the climate, established prejudices, the acquirement of
languages, means of subsistence, etc., etc. All these things I
apprehend are to be considered. The field is almost boundless,
for every part of which there ought to be missionaries."
Farther on in the same letter Mills continues : "With regard
to Andover two of the Brethren are there. I think it not likely
I shall go there myself soon, or within four or five weeks. I
had previously heard of Mr. Judson. You say he thinks of
offering himself as a missionary to the London Society for the
East Indies ? What ! is England to support her own mission-
aries and ours likewise? O for shame! If he is prepared I
would fain press him forward with the arm of a Hercules if
I had the strength. But I do not like this dependence upon
another nation, especially when they have done so much, and
we nothing. As far as I am acquainted with his circumstances
(indeed I scarcely know anything about him), I should think
it would be better for him to remain where he is, or preach in
our present field of missions for a time."
For the purpose of getting missionary information so that
they might decide intelligently about their life work, the stu-
dents at Andover organized the "Society of Inquiry on the
Subject of Missions," January 8, 1811. Its expressed pur-
pose was "to inquire into the state of the heathen; the duty
and importance of missionary labors ; the best manner of
conducting missions and the most eligible place for their
establishment ; also to disseminate information relative to these
subjects ; and to incite the attention of Christians to the im-
portance and duty of missions." One of the Brethren who had
entered the Seminary the year before, speaking of the deep
interest in missions, said: "I found that this subject lay with
great weight upon the minds of a number. They were anxious
to know what was their personal duty. The spirit of missions
was there. I thought at the time, and have often thought since,
that God then sent his spirit into the Seminary to convert the
student to the subject of missions." The question of a man's
duty was insistent. Said Dr. DeWitt S. Clark in his Centen-
nial address: "It fronted him on every side in the conver-
sation of his companions, in his study of the Scriptures, in
papers and discussions, in letters of travelers, in addresses,
sermons and ordinations of those who had responded to the
call. . . . That famous haystack at Williamstown was no more
the seat of missionary consecration and outlook than the
round hillock in the thick wood just below this spot, where
Mills and his little band gathered from time to time to renew
their pledges of loyalty and talk together of the great world
beyond, into which they longed to go as soldiers of the Cross."
The missionary enthusiasts were well aware that they must
depend upon the good will of the Congregational churches.
They appealed to the churches for contributions of money to
enable them to buy books, and from various sources they ob-
tained both money and books to the value of three hundred
dollars. Most important was it to interest the ministers in
their enterprise. The General Association of Massachusetts
met in annual session at Bradford, six miles away, in June,
1810. Six of the Andover students were ready to offer them-
selves for missionary service if they could obtain the approval
and support of the Association. At a small conference at the
house of Professor Stuart, Samuel Newell told the professors
and a few others what was in their hearts. The next morning
Dr. Spring of Newburyport and Dr. Worcester of Salem
drove across country musing and talking about what they
had heard, and when four of the six students more might
have been too much of a shock to the Association told their
story, the plan was ready in their minds. By unanimous
action the Association forthwith organized the American
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. This was
composed of nine men, originally all from Massachusetts, but
the next year Connecticut was given four of the representa-
tives and within two years the Presbyterians were welcomed
to a part in the enterprise.
The Board was cautious and hopeful of ways and means,
but it advised the students to continue their studies and wait
for the proper time to come when they might go to the lands
of their hearts' desire. Meanwhile it appointed a prudential
committee and issued an appeal to the public. Judson carried
the appeal of the students to England, hoping to get assistance
there, but the London Missionary Society preferred that the
Americans should respond to the appeal, though the Society
did not refuse assistance for a time. The result was that
Judson, Newell, Hall, and Nott were soon under the appoint-
ment of the American Board to go to Asia, and money for
their support was forthcoming. One may picture to himself
that historic scene when Judson and Newell were ordained
in the Tabernacle Church in Salem, of which Dr. Worcester
was pastor, and their wintry departure with their youthful
wives on the ship Caravan from Salem harbor, and one may
follow in fancy their slow voyage to India. Theirs was the
flagship of a mighty fleet. Five days after the Caravan cleared
from Salem, the Harmony carried out of Philadelphia Nott
and his wife with Hall and Rice.
After long voyages both ships arrived at Calcutta only to
find the way blocked against the missionaries. The East India
Company, which controlled the region, was hostile to mis-
sionaries, and the War of 1812 between Britain and America,
declared the day after the Caravan arrived, made all Ameri-
cans unwelcome. The only opening seemed to be in the island
of Mauritius. Another long voyage sapped the strength of Mrs.
Newell, and she died soon after arrival there. Hall and Nott
escaped deportation to England only by a hurried departure
to Bombay, which became the point of departure for the later
Marathi mission. The indomitable Hall wore himself out
within a few years. Newell, who soon joined them, died still
earlier, and Nott returned to America. Judson, the enthusi-
astic, intrepid leader of the missionary group, found himself
convinced of Baptist principles, and going to Burma became
the representative of the American Baptists. Rice, with the
same change of denominational affiliation, returned to America
to become like Mills a promoter of missions among the
churches of America. Strange must have seemed the fortunes
of this forlorn hope, when the five pioneers were scattered so
soon. Yet the permanent results were incalculable. The Mara-
thi mission meant a foothold for the larger work that was to
follow in the Indian Empire. Judson's transfer of denomi-
national allegiance resulted in the organization of the Ameri-
can Baptists for foreign missions, and in Burma Judson with
heroic struggle prepared the way for the brilliant missionary
4116Y
success among the Karens, first evangelized by George Dana
Boardman, a resident licentiate at Andover in 1824.
The year after the War of 1812 ended saw the first Andover
men enter Ceylon. Newell had stopped there on his way to
join Hall at Bombay and found a favorable situation, so that
the next delegation from America was turned in that direc-
tion. Five more missionaries, Richards and Warren, class
of 1812, Meigs, class of '13, and Bardwell and Poor, class
of '14, all married except Warren, took possession of the
peninsula of Jaffna for Christ. Bardwell soon was sent on
to Bombay to push the work of publication. At Jaffna the
missionaries found quarters in an abandoned Dutch mission,
and following the educational methods adopted at Bombay,
commenced the work of Christian education among 350,000
Tamil-speaking people, whose ancestors had emigrated across
from South India. Preaching added effectiveness to the in-
struction of the schools. Spaulding and Winslow, both of
the class of 1818 at Andover, arrived to reinforce them in
1820, barely in time to be admitted before the Government
shut the door against any more American missionaries in
Ceylon.
The missions were limited in resources and crippled in
personnel, for the climate took fearful toll of missionary lives,
and the attitude of the Government was reluctant if not un-
friendly. More missionaries died than there were natives
baptized. But nothing daunted the students who met under
the auspices of the Society of Inquiry on Andover Hill.
Graves represented the class of 1815 on his departure for
Bombay, where he worked for twenty-six years. Nichols of
the next class also went to Bombay, but he lived only six years.
With all the odds against them the youthful missionaries kept
at work. The care of boarding schools, the preaching and
touring, the patient study of language, the time-consuming
conversations with individuals whom they were trying to
reach, filled their days. The need of trained natives as teachers
warranted the establishment of a theological seminary in
Ceylon, of which Daniel Poor was in charge for twelve years,
an Andover man transplanted to the tropics of the Indian
Ocean. To provide suitable wives for the native men a semi-
nary for girls was started also. Revivals cheered the hearts
of the workers ; defections from the ranks of the native Chris-
tians discouraged them, but there were a few who proved
capable and true. The workers at Bombay explored the in-
terior and selected Ahmednagar one hundred and fifty miles
away as a center there. Persecution added to the troubles of
the missionary, but perseverance always won in time, if the
missionary did not die first. It was pioneering with all the
perils and discouragements that check and seem to baffle, but
with the missionary urge in their hearts the Americans could
not stop.
A third mission of Andover men was to the Sandwich Is-
lands. Obookiah had been at Andover intermittently, and
when he died before he was ready to carry the gospel back
to his own Hawaiian people, it seemed that men from the Hill
must take his place. Asa Thurston, a graduate of Yale and
of the class of 1819 at Andover, and his classmate, Hiram
Bingham from Middlebury, agreed to go together. Ordained
in Connecticut, and in Park Street Church in Boston organized
into a church with others who were going with them, they
sailed in the fall of 1819 on a five months' voyage to the heart
of the Pacific. Bingham labored twenty-five years at Hono-
lulu before he returned to America. Thurston, blessed with a
strong physique, was able to remain forty-eight years in the
islands without visiting America. Doubtfully received at first,
though idolatry had been abolished, the missionaries soon made
themselves welcome. Bingham's good nature and firmness
won over Hawaiian royalty, and he became the friend and ad-
visor of the sovereign. The natives loved him. Like Thurs-
ton he preached and translated the Bible into the language of
the people as soon as he gained command of their tongue. He
itinerated; he superintended native schools; he interpreted
English for kings and chiefs, remaining until pioneer methods
were no longer possible. Then back in America he carried on
missionary propaganda, publishing a history of the mission
as well as preaching and lecturing, until he passed on at the
age of eighty. William Richards was a third Andover alum-
mis, going to Hawaii in 1822. He, too, was a teacher and an
advisor of the chiefs, especially with the new constitution,
which included a bill of rights based on the Bible. Richards
was more than a missionary. For three years he was ambas-
sador of the islands to Great Britain. He was minister of
instruction, counsellor and chaplain to the king. He lectured
on political science, and in his mission at Lahaina he was a
father to the natives. John S. Emerson followed in the foot-
steps of the pioneers, centering his work at Waialua, toiling
faithfully for thirty-five years.
The American Board depended on Andover graduates to
man its fourth mission, that to the Near East. For years it
had been a fond hope that Palestine might be won for Chris-
tianity. In the same year that Thurston and Bingham turned
their faces westward, Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, who had
graduated recently from the Seminary, set sail for the Holy
Land. That country was part of a vast Turkish empire where
the Koran determined the norm of religion. But there were
Jews in Palestine who had not forgotten the God of their
fathers, and the youthful optimists from America hoped to
persuade them of the worth of Christianity. They did not go
at once to Jerusalem. From Smyrna as a base they toured
Asia Minor, and after a year Parsons attempted to settle in
Jerusalem, but political agitation delayed him, and the next
year he was dead. His place was taken promptly by Jonas
King, of the class of 1819 at Andover, who surrendered the
prospect of an Andover professorship to fill temporarily the
gap in the Near East. From Malta King and Fisk toured
Egypt on the way to Palestine, studying languages mean-
while; explored Palestine and Syria to acquaint themselves
with the land and the people ; but before the work could be
established King's time was up, and Fisk followed Parsons
to a better country.
Before Fisk died Goodell and Bird had said goodbye to
the brick halls of the Seminary, and on their arrival in the
eastern Mediterranean had settled at Beirut for a Syrian mis-
sion. Because of its location Beirut proved the best missionary
center for that region, and preparations were made for a varied
-{119V
ministry in many tongues. Arabic and Syriac, Turkish and
Armenian, Italian and English, were in use, and Bible trans-
lations were needed. The usual methods of publication and
education were employed. Within five years six hundred
pupils were in attendance. Persecution visited them, but con-
verts came, and a church was established in Beirut; yet in-
creasing peril drove the missionaries to Malta for a time.
Twenty alumni of Andover Seminary had thus ventured in
ten years' time to carry the seed of the Christian faith and
sow it in pagan lands. They found a stony soil and inhospit-
able people. Alike in India and Syria they met persecution
and fell on death. Followers of the Apostle to the Gentiles
whom they studied in Bartlet Chapel, disciples of the Master
who had the courage to die on a cross, they did not flinch at
hardship or even death. In the roll of honor of Andover men
their names are gold. They fell at the listening post, but the
summons of heathendom found its silent way behind the lines
at home, and when training time was over reinforcements
followed the pioneers.
The story of the missionary fortunes of Andover men is
too long to follow in detail. It is a moving picture, bringing
into view one country after another, introducing the observer
to one and another of those who gave their strength to build
the structure of the missionary enterprise. The panorama
still moves on, and the Society of Inquiry still ponders upon
the need and the message.
The missionary impulse, which had sent so many pioneers
to distant lands, was propagating faith in the enterprise in
America itself. It was the little group of devoted students
who kept it alive at Andover. It was Mills among the Con-
gregationalists and Rice among the Baptists, whose broad
vision embraced home as well as foreign missions. Mills
realized his own limitations as a toiler on the mission field,
but he knew he could promote the cause at home. Touring
the American Southwest, he explored the country as a possible
mission field, and made himself useful organizing Bible soci-
eties and distributing the Scripture. While residing for a time
among Presbyterians in the Middle States, he promoted mis-
sionary and Bible societies there. He took so great an interest
in the negro that he crossed the Atlantic to explore West
Africa for the African Colonization Society, and there his
vigor burned itself out and he died at sea. Rice visited Bap-
tist churches through the Eastern States, stimulated the raising
of money and men, and broadened the scope of the Baptist
missionary organization to include home missions and Chris-
tian education.
The spirit that wooed Samuel J. Mills did not cease to echo
through Andover halls. At the fortieth Commencement of the
Seminary, after addresses from twenty-eight graduates, they
sang these words as a parting hymn :
" I cannot rest ; there comes a sweet and secret whisper to my spirit
Like a dream of night,
That tells me I am on enchanted ground.
The voice of my departed Lord,
Go, teach all nations,
Comes on the night air
And awakes my ear.
Why live I here ? The vows of God are on me,
And I may not stop to play with shadows or pluck earthly
flowers
Till I my weary pilgrimage have done.
And I will go !
I may no longer doubt to give up friends and idle hopes,
And every tie that binds my heart to worldly joys.
Henceforth then it matters not if storm or sunshine be my earthly
lot;
Bitter or sweet my cup,
I only pray God make me holy and my spirit nerve for the stern
hour of strife.
And if one for whom Satan hath struggled as he hath for me
Shall ever reach that blessed shore;
O how this heart will flame with gratitude and love !
Through ages of eternal years,
I'll ne'er regret
That toil and suffering
Once were mine below."
4 121 F
A new era opened for missions in India when the renewed
charter of the East India Company gave them legal standing.
Reinforcements in Ceylon made it possible for Spaulding and
Poor to enter the city of Madura on the mainland, where they
might work in the home country of the Tamils. The city was
the center of a broad agricultural area. Definite progress was
made. Nearly two thousand pupils were gathered into schools,
new stations were opened, and the good will of government
and people was won through the wisdom and moderation of
the men of Andover who founded the mission. Miron Wins-
low, a classmate of Spaulding in the Seminary, was sent out
to Ceylon after his graduation, and in 1836 was transferred
to Madras. That city became the center of a publishing enter-
prise in which other denominations cooperated. Winslow
mastered the language and then gave much of his time to a
revision of the Tamil Bible. When time permitted he toured
through the interior, sometimes ranging far. Such journeys
were both exploratory and evangelistic. In the formative
period of missions it was necessary to make surveys of the
territory to be occupied and to plan carefully for future de-
velopment. To reach the people it was necessary to speak in
their tongue. Yet the educational approach seemed the best
policy because it was gradual and would lead people to ac-
cept the gospel intelligently. The press was of similar value
with the school. The Bombay printing-house grew in size.
A Marathi edition of the Bible was issued there, while
the Tamil edition came from the Madras press. Textbooks
and hymn books were printed for school and church use.
Tracts in large numbers poured from the presses, and even-
tually books for the increasing public who could read. And
when difference of opinion arose among British missionaries
whether it was better to teach the people of India through the
vernacular or the English language, the Andover men were
combining the two in their missions in Madura and Ceylon.
Edward Webb, Andover, 1845, made a contribution that en-
titled him to be called the father of Christian Tamil music,
when in the Madura mission he took the native pagan music
cultivated through the Sanskrit, discovered a native Christian
poet who wrote Christian songs, and married the music and
the poetry. From that time the native Christians enjoyed the
musical part of worship. Out of the experience came the
Madura hymn book with its hundred Christian songs, edited
by Webb.
By the middle of the nineteenth century the missionary work
in India was flourishing and new methods were being tried
out. Central boarding-schools branched out into village
schools, more preaching was undertaken, new churches were
organized, the beginnings of self-support were made, and
more dependence was placed on native leadership. Caste was
a troublesome question, and attempts to check it were liable
to wreck a mission. It required the wisest kind of leadership
to know when and how to attempt radical changes in popular
customs and ideas.
The missionaries who had gone to India early in the century
were feeling the effects of long years of activity in a foreign
country with a trying climate, but they kept steadily at their
task. Winslow was prolific in his literary work for the Tamils,
especially his Tamil-English dictionary. Spaulding passed the
half-century mark in Ceylon, and lived until he saw the mis-
sion the most thoroughly cultivated of any of the Congrega-
tional missions. The greatest gain of the middle decades was
the increasing self-reliance and participation of the Indian
people in the development of Christianity in their country.
By 1880 the Marathi mission was ready to celebrate its
semi-centennial. Eight stations, seventy-six out-stations, and
twenty-four organized churches, with schools and an influ-
ential press, were powerful factors in keeping the Christian
religion before the people. The relief given by the missionaries
during the years of famine created a wave of friendly feeling
from which all the missions benefited. It was a time for con-
structive work, especially through more and better schools.
Andover alumni played no small part in the progress of all
three of the India missions. Three men in particular were
notable leaders of the period Hume, Jones, and Washburn.
George T. Washburn was the oldest of the three. A
Williams man and a graduate of Andover in the class of 1858,
he went out to India in 1860 and became one of the strong
pillars of the Madura mission, remaining to the end of the
century. A novel contribution was the True News. He
founded it in 1870, edited it, and issued it as a semi-monthly
newspaper through the Pasumalai Press. He carried this on
as a part of his duties for twenty-six years. His major work
was educational, as president of the Pasumalai Seminary and
then of the College.
Robert A. Hume was born at Bombay, the son of a mis-
sionary father. After a college course at Yale and two years
in the Divinity School, he completed his theological prepara-
tion at Andover with the class of 1873, and then set sail for
the land of his birth. Locating at Ahmednagar, he made that
city his future home and there he established and built up a
theological seminary. His constructive labors in that school
and the variety of his active leadership made Hume the out-
standing missionary in India. Besides his care of the Semi-
nary he had the superintendence of the Parner district west
of the city for forty years. He sent out more than two hundred
personally trained evangelists and teachers, and many churches
and schools and one thousand conversions were the result.
He was at one time or another principal of boys' and girls'
schools, and editor of an Anglo-Marathi periodical. In
addition to the service of his own denominational mission he
sustained the common cause of Christianity, serving on com-
mittees of various organizations, and frequently as an officer.
He was district secretary of the British and Foreign Bible
Society, president of the All-India Christian Endeavor Union,
and the first moderator of the United Church of Northern
India, of which the Congregationalists were a constituent
member. For his service in his administration of funds for
famine relief in the closing years of the century he received
the Kaiser-i-Hind medal from the British Government. On a
furlough to the United States in 1904-1905 he was invited to
give the Hyde lectures at Andover. These were collected and
published under the title "Missions from the Modern Point
of View," a book that took its place at once in the front rank
of missionary publications. Altogether Hume saw fifty-two
years of service. At the end as at the beginning he was the
same simple, efficient, kindly man, fond of work with his
brother men, and interested in the welfare of India even when
his active ministry was over. He was one of the far-sighted
leaders who helped the missionaries make the transition from
the nineteenth to the twentieth century.
John P. Jones was Welsh-born, only six months younger
than Hume. His college was Western Reserve and he gradu-
ated from Andover in the class of 1878. He found his field
of labor in the Madura mission, remaining there almost forty
years. Soon after he had become acclimated and acquired a
knowledge of the people and their language he was put in
charge of the Madura mission, and from that time he was
fully occupied with the direction of the evangelistic and edu-
cational operations. He kept preaching in the forefront of
activity, and saw that schools were planted when there was
need. He founded the first Christian high school, and for
twenty-two years was principal in Pasumalai. He managed
the mission press. Like Hume he received the Kaiser -i-Hind
medal for his efficiency in relief. He traveled all over India
and Burma as president of the South India Christian Endeavor
Union. He was the author of "India's Problem: Krishna or
Christ," a book widely read.
It was the yeoman service of men like these which built
solidly the Congregational missions of India. Nor was it in
their leadership alone. Other men wrought effectively in less
conspicuous positions, doing their part of the day's work.
Among Andover missionaries during this period or not long
before were James Herrick, who spent nearly forty years in
the Madura district; George H. Gutterson of the same mis-
sion; William A. Ballantine, a medical missionary; Henry
J. Bruce, who served decade after decade in western India,
printing religious books and millions of leaflets ; and Edward
Fairbank and Edward P. Holton, classmates at Andover, who
each found a place for himself on the field.
The pioneer of the American Board in China was Elijah C.
Bridgrnan, Andover 1829. When he arrived in the country
Robert Morrison was his only predecessor. Studying with
-{125V
him when he was not permitted to preach, he prepared himself
for education and translation, and he edited the Chinese Re-
pository, a monthly established to inform English-speaking
people about the Chinese. His later life was spent in Bible
translation at Shanghai. Lyman B. Peet, after seven years on
the threshold in Siam, settled in Foochow after the Opium
War had opened the ports, and remained for a quarter of a
century. Henry Blodget served in Peking and other cities
for forty years, was one of the translators of the New Testa-
ment into Mandarin, and translated books and hymns into
Chinese. Chauncy Goodrich followed after he was through
at Andover, and was in North China from that time. Isaac
Pierson was twenty-one years at Pao-ting-fu. Henry D.
Porter and Arthur H. Smith were both in the class of 1870
at Andover, and both spent long terms of service in the North
China mission. Porter was trained in medicine, and was able
to be of particular service in the famine of 1878. Smith por-
trayed village life in China in his books, and was a leader in
his mission. He lived until 1932. William S. Ament was a
missionary at Peking when the Boxer Uprising occurred. He
knew the need of military defence against those who hated
foreigners and he was well aware that without money it was
difficult to work very efficiently, yet he showed the devoted
spirit of all the missionaries in that trying time when he wrote :
"I would rather ride a little donkey from village to village
and sleep on bricks at night, with the privilege of testifying
of the grace of God and communicating a little hope to the
dull lives of this people than anything else." William P.
Sprague and James H. Roberts at Kalgan, Harlan P. Beach
at Tung-cho, and Charles A. Nelson at Canton, also belong
on the roll of Andover names in China.
The first Andover name in Japan is Daniel C. Greene, An-
dover 1869. He commenced a mission in Kyoto, which be-
came one of the centers of the work of the American Board in
Japan. His is one of the prominent names in the missionary
history of the denomination. The Missionary Herald, sum-
ming up his career, testified: "Founder of the American
Board's mission in Japan, one of the translators of the Scrip-
tures into Japanese, educator, author, advisor to diplomats
and legislators, father in the work to later missionaries, presi-
dent of the Asiatic Society of Japan, and recipient from the
emperor of Japan of the Third Order of the Rising Sun, the
highest honor ever conferred on civilians living in the coun-
try." He was a member of the committee on the translation
of the New Testament, and for several years was professor
of New Testament exegesis in Doshisha College. The Do-
shisha itself is one of the trophies of American education.
Because Joseph Neesima learned what American seminaries,
including Andover, could do for him, he in his turn founded
the college as a Christian university in Japan; and though
for a time it lost its Christian character, it was a powerful in-
fluence in interpreting Western culture to Japan. It was in
1874 that Neesima was at Andover engaged in special studies.
In that decade Marquis L. Gordon commenced a thirty-year
ministry at Osaka and Kyoto, two-thirds of the time a pro-
fessor in Doshisha College; James H. Pettee was stationed
at Okayama; and his classmate, Otis Cary, another of the
makers of the Japanese mission, professor in the Doshisha,
and interpreter of the Japanese Christians to America and
England through his monumental history of Christianity in
Japan. Later names of Andover men include Samuel C.
Bartlet, Sidney L. Gulick, champion of the Japanese in their
differences with the United States over immigration, Henry
J. Bennett, and Enoch F. Bell.
Out in the islands of the Pacific David B. Lyman toiled
faithfully for more than fifty years, and Benjamin W. Parker
for forty-five years, part of the time in the Marquesas Islands
and for the last five years of his life the head of the Hawaiian
Theological Seminary. Mark Ives was in Hawaii fifteen years,
and George B. Rowell exceeded that record by seven years.
Elsewhere than in Hawaii it was dangerous business to explore
and attempt to deal with cannibals. Lyman and Munson were
killed in the Batak country in 1834. George Pearson was
able to devote five years to Micronesia, where the American
Board cooperated with the Hawaiian Evangelical Association
in the farther islands. The savagery of the islanders was
\\2-J \
appalling, the distances were great from island to island. It
was months between mails. But there never was a lack of
those who were willing to make the sacrifice for the sake of
the gospel of Jesus. The construction of the first missionary
ship was a venture, but the contributions of the children of
American churches and Sunday schools amounted to twelve
thousand dollars, sufficient to meet the cost of the Morning
Star; a farewell meeting was held in Park Street Church,
Boston, for Hiram Bingham, Jr., Andover 1857, and his wife,
and the new ship turned its prow to the South Sea. Twenty-
one weeks later the ship arrived at Honolulu, where his father
had wrought mightily for God. Then on to the Gilbert Islands,
where the son took up his own task. Later he cruised among
the islands as captain of Morning Star, No. 2, returned to
Honolulu on account of ill health, but improved the oppor-
tunity to prepare literature for the Gilbert Islanders, trans-
lated the Bible, hymn books and his own commentaries into
Gilbertese, and prepared a Bible dictionary.
Another Hawaiian missionary's son was Oliver P. Emerson,
Andover 1871, who, after pastorates in the United States,
performed secretarial service in Hawaii. Joel F. Whitney
was his classmate, and he spent ten of the early years of his
life in Micronesia.
The South Sea islands and the Far East had the lure of the
far distance and the wide spaces; the Near East provided
a better civilization, but with difficulties almost as great. The
minds of the people were encrusted with the barnacles of their
static formal religions. Ancient speculative dogmas and mean-
ingless rituals had choked the life of the inner spirit. Syrian
and Armenian, Greek and Bulgarian, each believed his own
form of religion superior to the others, and the Turk scoffed
at them all as inferior to his own Mohammedanism. It was
sterile soil for the missionary's seed, but he kept sowing it
even if little sprouted. Andover men had a distinguished part
in the patient cultivation of the nineteenth century. Seventy-
nine names belong to the roll of honor of the Near East in
Andover's one hundred years ; merely to list them is impossible.
Elias Riggs was one of those sturdy pioneers who never can
be overlooked. Leaving the Seminary in 1832, he served an
apprenticeship in Greece and then for fifteen years made his
headquarters at Smyrna, preaching and preparing textbooks
for the Greeks. A visit from two of the American Board at
home awakened an interest among the Armenians, and
changed the direction of missionary activity from the Greeks
to them. In harmony with the new plan Riggs was transferred
to Constantinople. Already he had learned Bulgarian, and
subsequently he translated the whole Bible into that language.
At Constantinople his workshop turned out biblical material,
translations and dictionaries, grammars and commentaries, in
Turkish, Bulgarian, Armenian, and Chaldee. Busy as he was,
he hardly counted the years as sixty-seven of them rolled by
until at last the toll of them was over and he was laid to rest
in 1901. In all that long time he visited America but once,
when his health compelled, and then he superintended the
electrotyping of the Armenian Bible in New York City and
taught Hebrew at Union Theological Seminary. Though ab-
sent he was not forgotten, and American colleges fitly hon-
ored him with academic degrees.
Harrison G. O. Dwight lived for thirty years among the
Armenians before his life was cut short by a railroad accident
in America when he was on furlough. He saw the Armenian
mission grow from one station at Constantinople to twenty-
three stations and eighty-one out-stations scattered through-
out the Armenian country. Forty-two churches had recruited
sixteen hundred members, and almost two hundred pastors
and teachers were at work. So rapid were the gains of thirty
years. Dwight was spiritually minded, kindly, tactful but
resolute, and statesmanlike in his policies. He encouraged
self-support of native institutions. His death left vacant a
place that was hard to fill. It was among the Armenians that
William Goodell spent thirty-four years of his missionary life,
translating the Bible into the Armeno-Turkish language. Dis-
turbances of various kinds compelled him to pack up and move
thirty-three times in twenty-nine years, but he gloried in his
service. Benjamin Schneider left Andover in 1833 an d until
1877 he was busy trying to keep pace with the rapid develop-
-{129V
ment of the Armenian mission, and with all his other activities
he translated books and tracts.
A few references like these to the Armenian mission convey
little impression of the extent or intensity of the missionary
enterprise among the Armenians. Particularly effective was
the educational endeavor carried on at Aintab, Marsovan,
and other centers. Over in Persia where the pioneers had
sought out the Nestorians, Justin Perkins ended his labors of
thirty-six years, which included the whole time from the be-
ginning of the mission until it was transferred to the Presby-
terians. Like so many other of the missionaries he was eminent
in Bible translation. But he had a part also in establishing the
eighty-five Christian centers and twenty-four hundred con-
gregations, and in helping the hundreds of students in Chris-
tian schools. Nor was he the only Andover man to labor in
Persia. The class of 1859 gave Ambrose for a short term and
Labaree and Shedd for long service.
The Syrian mission was in time transferred to the Presby-
terians, but not until Eli Smith had made his translation of
the Bible into Arabic, had used his knowledge of Hebrew,
Turkish, Italian, French, and German to widen the usefulness
of the missionary press, had explored as far as the Nestorian
country, and had helped Robinson in his Palestinian re-
searches. He was Hopkinsian in his theology, and he preached
in Arabic the truths of the gospel as he understood them.
William Bird was in Syria for a half century. Daniel Bliss
went from Andover about the time that Smith died, founded
the Syrian Protestant College at Beirut, and saw it grow in
thirty-six years from sixteen to six hundred students. He
wrote philosophical textbooks in Arabic. Edwin E. Bliss
spent an equal length of time in publication work in Constan-
tinople, including a newspaper issued in three languages,
which circulated among ten thousand readers. In the same
city of Constantinople William G. Schauffler labored among
the Spanish Jews living there, and prepared the Bible, a gram-
mar, and a lexicon in their language. Later he gave his time
to the Mohammedans. C. F. Morse opened the Bulgarian
mission at Adrianople, William W. Meriam worked at
Philippopolis until he was murdered by brigands, and William
Arms was located near by. In Bulgaria James F. Clarke had
one of the records of almost fifty years, which would seem
wonderful if not repeated so many times. In 1872 George D.
Marsh went from Andover to Bulgaria for a long lifetime of
service. Soon after he arrived a more rapid development be-
gan, which brought more participation of native workers, and
an increased number of converts. Henry C. Haskell, Andover
1862, who spent twenty-five years in Bulgaria, wrote to the
Society of Inquiry at the Seminary that in spite of all the tra-
ditions of Christianity that the people had had for a thousand
years their moral and spiritual condition showed the utter
inability of their form of religion to bring the people into fel-
lowship with God. This justified all the efforts of American
Congregationalists in a nominally Christian land.
George F. Herrick had an almost unparalleled record in
Turkey. He graduated from Andover in the class of 1859,
sailed for Constantinople that autumn and was there at inter-
vals until 1893, when he made it his permanent residence. At
one time he was teaching in the theological seminary at Mar-
sovan, at another time was president of Anatolia College.
For five years he served on a committee of three in the revis-
ion of the Bible into the Turkish and Armenian languages,
and he translated theological textbooks and commentaries into
Greek as well as Turkish and Armenian. The disasters that
overcame the Armenian mission after the World War, and
the growing tide of religious skepticism in the lands of the
Near East, cannot dim the glory of these men and women
whose blessed influence brightened and ennobled the life of
their generations for a century.
In Africa the small beginnings that Grout and Champion
made in the Zulu country were reinforced at the middle of the
century. Lewis Grout remained there for sixteen years ; half
of that time the progress was very slow, but before he returned
to America he felt himself rewarded. Thereafter missionaries
found more time to engage in education. William Ireland
went from Andover to spend forty years in the mission.
George R. Ferguson of the class of 1859 became a missionary
4131 Y
of the Dutch Reformed Church and principal of the Mission-
ary Training School at Wellington. Erwin H. Richards was
commissioned by the American Board, and later was under the
direction of the Methodists. The Zulu mission had a self-
propagating power through native evangelists. Herbert D.
Goodenough, arriving in 1881, ministered in education and
administration. The outstanding Andover figure in West
Africa is William Walker, who in the tropical Gaboon terri-
tory remained in service for thirty years, returned to America
in the service of the American Board for five years, and then
went back to Africa under the Presbyterian Board for six
years longer.
A few men from Andover Hill found their posts in Latin
American countries. In an environment of ignorant, super-
stitious Catholics and under governments that were unfriendly
to Protestants, it was exceedingly slow and discouraging work,
but Nathaniel P. Gilbert was in Peru and Chile for a number
of years, and Theodore S. Pond after twenty years in the
Near East commenced an extended period of service in the
northern part of South America, first in Colombia and then
in Venezuela. Mexico claimed more of Andover's sons. James
D. Eaton, Andover 1872, opened the Northern Mexican mis-
sion at Chihuahua in 1882. His experience was typical of other
missionaries in the same country. The Roman Catholic Church
was losing its grip, but was fighting to retain it. The local
Catholic authorities nailed to the church door a notice that
any one who did not boycott the missionary would be excom-
municated, yet in twenty years the local Protestant church
took into membership two hundred and fifty persons, and
fourteen other churches had been organized in the State of
Chihuahua. One of the churches was so inaccessible that it
took thirty days to make the journey there on muleback.
Congregational missionaries to the American Indians in
the early part of the nineteenth century operated under the
American Board, and among them were several Andover men.
Cyrus Kingsbury of the Andover class of 1815 went to the
South and served as Congregational missionary to the Chero-
kees and Choctaws for forty-two years. He went with them
when they removed west to the Indian Territory, and after
1859 was commissioned for eleven years by the Southern
Presbyterian Board, thus completing fifty-three years of mis-
sionary service. Alfred Wright of the next class was with the
Indians for thirty-four years, Cyrus Byington was missionary
to the Choctaws for nearly fifty years. Samuel A. Worcester,
graduating from Andover seven years after Wright, gave
the same length of service to the Cherokees. These men felt
keenly the injustice that Georgia forced upon the United
States Government in its dealings with the Indians, and they
were glad to accompany them when possible on their arduous
journey west. It was the policy of the missionaries to train
the Indians to be useful in the manual arts, and to give them
an education as well as to teach them the truth about religion.
Encouraging progress was made in the South, but the whites
wanted the Indian lands and tried to get rid of the mission-
aries. When Worcester stood by his mission he was thrown
into prison and kept there for fifteen months.
With the scattering of the southern Indians the American
Board pushed out its stations among the northern Indians
also, even as far as the Pacific coast, but small results were
gained. Cutting Marsh, Andover 1829, was sent by the Amer-
ican Board to work among the Stockbridge Indians, who at
that time were in the region of the Great Lakes. Seventy of
these Indians were gathered into church membership. From
Andover Boutwell, Hall, and Wheeler went to the Ojibwas
and settled in Minnesota; Wright, Bliss, Wight, and Ford
sought out the Senecas in New York; Edmund McKinney
found his way to the Choctaws and the Omaha Indians, Willey
to the Cherokees, and Ranney to the Pawnees and Cherokees.
All these were in service before 1850. It was of course impos-
sible to do more than ease the transition to civilization for a
vanishing race, but the missionaries were as earnest in their
work in America as were the workers on foreign fields.
Perhaps in no way did Andover men render more distin-
guished service than in their literary labors. The missionaries
who had known the serviceableness of the Andover Press
valued printing as one of the best means for the propagation
-{133}-
of Christianity, and they emulated Professor Stuart in their
diligence in preparing literary material for the printer. Pa-
tiently studying native tongues, sometimes creating a written
language, and then translating the Bible by laborious process
extending over years, the missionaries made the Scriptures
available in the vernacular for Tamil and Marathi, for Turk
and Armenian, for Greek and barbarian, for Kanaka and
Cherokee, and even for the natives of Africa. The necessary
helps of dictionary and grammar and commentary accom-
panied Bible translation. Textbooks for school use and tracts
to carry the gospel message came from the missionary presses,
and now and then especially useful books in English were
translated for the benefit of the native Christians.
As the nineteenth century drew toward its close the Society
of Inquiry wrote letters to prominent missionaries in the Near
and Far East, asking for first-hand information about their
activities. The replies of the missionaries, busy men as they
were, showed an appreciation of the interest of the students
in writing them. Hume of India, Smith of China and Her-
rick of Turkey, expressed cordial interest in the Seminary
that had mothered them, and hoped that students would not
fail to follow on to the mission field. Every one of them after
long years of experience rejoiced in his task and thought of
nothing more desirable than to carry on as long as God should
give life and strength. William A. Farnsworth, Andover
1852, after forty-six years of service, writing from Cassarea,
told of his care of a territory six times as large as Massa-
chusetts with thirty-four communities that must be visited
at least once a year. He explained to the students at Andover
that the missionary must know how to deal with men, to read
character, to sympathize with every need, and to aid the dis-
tressed; in short, hardly any good quality of head or heart
would fail to be summoned to his help. A missionary in Cey-
lon suggested that, since several of the early members of the
Society of Inquiry had been founders of the Ceylon mission,
it would be fitting for present and future members of the
Society to build several inexpensive schools in the island to
celebrate the centennial of the mission.
of Christianity, and they emulated Professor Stuart in their
diligence in preparing literary material for the printer. Pa-
tiently studying native tongues, sometimes creating a written
language, and then translating the Bible by laborious process
extending over years, the missionaries made the Scriptures
available in the vernacular for Tamil and Marathi, for Turk
and Armenian, for Greek and barbarian, for Kanaka and
Cherokee, and even for the natives of Africa. The necessary
helps of dictionary and grammar and commentary accom-
panied Bible translation. Textbooks for school use and tracts
to carry the gospel message came from the missionary presses,
and now and then especially useful books in English were
translated for the benefit of the native Christians.
As the nineteenth century drew toward its close the Society
of Inquiry wrote letters to prominent missionaries in the Near
and Far East, asking for first-hand information about their
activities. The replies of the missionaries, busy men as they
were, showed an appreciation of the interest of the students
in writing them. Hume of India, Smith of China and Her-
rick of Turkey, expressed cordial interest in the Seminary
that had mothered them, and hoped that students would not
fail to follow on to the mission field. Every one of them after
long years of experience rejoiced in his task and thought of
nothing more desirable than to carry on as long as God should
give life and strength. William A. Farnsworth, Andover
1852. after forty-six years of service, writing from Caesarea,
told of his care of a territory six times as large as Massa-
chusetts with thirty-four communities that must be visited
at least once a year. He explained to the students at Andover
that the missionary must know how to deal with men, to read
character, to sympathize with every need, and to aid the dis-
tressed ; in short, hardly any good quality of head or heart
would fail to be summoned to his help. A missionary in Cey-
lon suggested that, since several of the early members of the
Society of Inquiry had been founders of the Ceylon mission,
it would be fitting for present and future members of the
Society to build several inexpensive schools in the island to
celebrate the centennial of the mission.
The celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the Amer-
ican Board in Boston included a visit to Andover and the
placing of a tablet to the memory of that little company of
Brethren which made the nucleus of the mighty enterprise
which had gone around the world. After a century the Board
was spending a million dollars a year, and was sponsoring six
hundred missionaries. Andover had a brilliant record in mis-
sionary service. In the first ten years every missionary but
one was trained on the Hill. One hundred and twenty went
abroad in the first fifty years. During the century two hun-
dred and forty-eight alumni had answered the Macedonian
call. The five hundred visitors who went to Andover by special
train and wended their way to the Missionary Woods near
the Seminary felt the thrill of it all. The exercises of the hour
of dedication were impressive. The tablet was unveiled and
prayer was offered by relatives of the pioneers, Richards
and Hall. The large company sang the missionary hymn, "The
Morning Light Is Breaking," which was written by Samuel
Francis Smith while a student in Brick Row. The tablet was
affixed to a granite boulder erected by the citizens of Andover,
and bore the impressive inscription :
"In the 'Missionary Woods' once extending to this spot the first
missionary students of Andover Seminary walked and talked one
hundred years ago, and on this secluded knoll met to pray. In
memory of these men
Adoniram Judson Samuel Nott Samuel J. Mills
Samuel Newell Gordon Hall James Richards
Luther Rice
whose consecrated purpose to carry the gospel to the heathen world
led to the formation of the first American society for foreign mis-
sions. In recognition of the 248 missionaries trained in Andover
Seminary and in gratitude to Almighty God, this stone is set up
in the Centennial year of the American Board, 1910."
4135}-
CHAPTER VII
ANDOVER MEN IN EDUCATION AND
LITERATURE
TO study on Andover Hill was to expand the horizons
of thought as well as of sympathy. To pass in review
the centuries of history and think other men's thoughts
after them was like breathing the invigorating atmosphere of
the hills. To muse upon the problems of philosophy and the-
ology was like climbing a mountain range to view a region in
perspective. As was said at the Centennial in 1908: Old
Andover had the spirit of "creative imagination able to dis-
cover the universal in the particular and to make of the
familiar experiences of a New England village a stage broad
enough on which to pass in review the procession of the
eternities."
It was this characteristic which qualified Andover men to
become educators. They did not have the special knowledge
of a modern doctor of philosophy or the pedagogical methods
of the best normal schools of the present day, but at least they
knew how to think and to prod other minds to think. Not
many schools of that time were so well qualified as Andover
to give the intellectual training that was needed for the teach-
ing profession. In the first decade the colleges were seldom
above junior grade and their graduates were not mature. The
three years in the professional school added much to the in-
tellectual equipment. Another reason why theological grad-
uates should be chosen as college presidents was the custom
of selecting a minister and expecting him to teach philosophy,
if not theology. The increasing number of new schools on the
frontier as well as the older New England institutions made
a heavy demand for teachers in college and academy. It is
4136Y
these considerations that make it easier to understand why
so remarkable a succession of educators should be found
among Andover alumni.
It is impressive to call the roll of colleges that invited An-
dover men to be their presidents. In New England they
include Bowdoin and Dartmouth, Middlebury and the Uni-
versity of Vermont in the northern tier of states ; Amherst,
Smith and Brown in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. In
New York were Hamilton, Union, and Vassar. Five were in
Ohio : Antioch, Marietta, Oberlin, Western Reserve, and Ohio
Female College. Moving steadily westward one finds Andover
alumni at Wabash, Indiana, Illinois and Knox in Illinois,
Drury in Missouri, Washburn in Kansas, Colorado among
the Rockies, and Pomona in California. In a more northerly
latitude are Adrian and Olivet in Michigan, Beloit in Wis-
consin, Iowa College in Iowa, and Fargo in North Dakota.
Howard University in Washington, D. C., Atlanta in Georgia,
Rollins in Florida, Fisk in Tennessee, and state colleges in
Alabama and Tennessee, gave wide representation to Andover
in the South. For good measure the universities of Wiscon-
sin and Kansas should be added. And overseas were Robert
College in Constantinople and the Syrian Protestant College
at Beirut. Among the personal names are some of the greatest
presidents in the history of these institutions. It is enough
to name Hyde of Bowdoin, Tucker of Dartmouth, Marsh of
Vermont, Stearns and Harris of Amherst, Seelye of Amherst,
and Wayland of Brown, men illustrious in the ecclesiastical
as well as the educational history of New England.
Names like these connected with the best colleges and uni-
versities of the East give distinction to any school that has
helped to train them, but less known colleges on the frontier
have their heroic leaders whose achievements add lustre to
the schools where they found themselves. Out in the North-
west where the wheat fields reach to the horizon in summer
and blizzards blot out that same horizon in the dead of winter
is a college which does not forget to honor the man who made
it. Joseph Ward graduated from Andover in the class of 1868.
He had been in the army and the Christian Commission during
4137Y
the Civil War and then had completed his course at Brown.
He went to Andover Seminary in the fall of that year and
graduated at the age of thirty, a man ready for the challenge
of a big task. It came to him from South Dakota. For four-
teen years he grew into power in the community and the state
while he served as a home missionary pastor in Yankton. He
had the joy of welcoming the Dakota Band from Yale College,
and helping to place the men in strategic locations. The people
of Yankton made Ward superintendent of the local schools,
then he became a member of the State Board of Education.
In 1883 he was elected a member of the Constitutional Con-
vention of the Territory which was becoming a State. People
trusted his leadership, for they knew his character and ability.
He matched swords with politicians and beat them. Then,
as if he had not spent his life in public service already, he gave
the rest of the time that was his to the creation of a college.
Yankton College is his monument. He rallied the youth of
the region for an education, and went East for the money to
build the college. He assumed the presidency and taught
mental and moral philosophy from the beginning. He selected
the Faculty. Before he was fairly engaged in the enterprise
he lectured at Andover on "The Building of Society in the
New States." He had only a few years left for service but
he filled them full. He belongs among the builders of the West.
With these administrators belong Cecil F. P. Bancroft, who
was the able principal of Phillips Academy at Andover for
twenty-eight years, and his successor, Alfred E. Stearns, who
between 1900 and 1933 reconstructed the Academy into a
modern institution in the front rank of its kind. Samuel H.
Taylor was over an equal period of time an outstanding fig-
ure as a teacher of the classics. At Phillips Academy, Exeter,
Gideon L. Soule spent half a century, including thirty-five
years of administration as principal.
One hundred and fifty professors of colleges were Andover
alumni. The first class contributed a professor of mathe-
matics and natural philosophy to the University of Vermont,
the second another to a similar chair at Yale. The four classes
from 1817 to 1820 sent presidents to Wabash and Western
I138K
Reserve, and professors to institutions as far apart as Bow-
doin, West Point, University of North Carolina, and the
Episcopal Theological Seminary in Virginia. Among the illus-
trious names of later years are George P. Fisher of Yale,
Charles A. Young of Princeton, Jeremiah L. Diman of Brown,
Edward P. Crowell of Amherst, Joseph H. Thayer and George
H. Palmer of Harvard, Moses C. Tyler of Cornell, and Samuel
V. Cole, who made Wheaton Seminary into a woman's college.
Andover's position as a pioneer among seminaries fitted her
to train men to teach in other divinity schools. Yale and Har-
vard profited thereby, as did the Episcopal schools at Cam-
bridge and Alexandria, and Lane Seminary, the Presbyterian
school in Ohio. The first two professors at Newton Theo-
logical Institution, Irah Chase and Henry B. Ripley, were
Andover alumni, and they modeled the Baptist seminary after
Andover. Horatio B. Hackett, renowned as a Greek scholar
in his time, trained theological students at Newton and
Rochester. No less than eleven men went from Andover to
chairs in the seminary at Bangor. George W. Andrews of the
class of 1867 trained ministers among the Negroes for forty
years at Talladega College in Alabama. John W. Buckham
of the class of 1888 went to the Pacific coast. And on the
foreign mission field it was Andover men who taught native
preachers in many of the mission schools.
These men are representatives of scores of others. To list
a catalogue of them is far less impressive than to sit down
and study the record of their lives. Most of them were
teachers of subjects akin to the theological discipline, some
of them famous men in the theological departments. Not
least among their contributions was the number of men who
were chosen to fill places on the Faculty of the institution
itself, Andover alumni for Andover Seminary. Among them
are Park and Phelps, Tucker, Harris, and Hincks, Smyth
and Churchill, and thirteen less known to Andover men of
recent years.
There are other alumni of the Seminary who rendered
unique service in administrative positions, sometimes akin
to an educator but in other cases far removed.
Thomas H. Gallaudet graduated from Andover in 1814 with
bright prospects for success in the ministry, but his interest
in the deaf and dumb turned him aside. Presently he accepted
an appointment to become the head of the Connecticut asylum
for such defectives at Hartford and he established it on firm
foundations. Later in life he was chaplain of a county prison
and then of the Connecticut Retreat for the Insane. He was
prominent in philanthropical societies, a writer, and an ac-
ceptable preacher. Louis Dwight, Andover 1819, gave most
of his life to work for prisoners. He was the wheel-horse of
the Boston Prison Discipline Society for thirty years, and the
inspiration of the daily morning prayer meetings in the Old
South Chapel of Boston. A younger alumnus by forty years,
William J. Batt, was chaplain of the Massachusetts Reform-
atory at Concord, where in twenty-five years sixteen thou-
sand prisoners came under his influence. George Dustan was
chaplain at the Insane Retreat and Superintendent of the
Orphan Asylum at Hartford.
Moses Smith, Alvah L. Frisbie, Asa S. Fisk, and John E.
Goodrich, were among the army chaplains of the Civil War,
and filled places of large usefulness afterwards in church and
college and secretarial chair. Walter Cotton was chaplain
in a military academy, then in the United States Navy. While
stationed on the Pacific coast he was made alcalde, or chief
magistrate, of Monterey, California, during an emergency.
Andover men turned their energies and abilities in many
different directions. One man wrote the Conversation Corner
for the Congregationalist; another, the son of the inventor
of the Fairbanks Scales, became himself an inventor and took
out more than thirty patents; one man became an eminent
microscopist, and another a college lecturer on ornithology.
Henry A. SchaufHer fathered the Slavic department at Ober-
lin and the Cleveland Training School ; Judah Isaac Abraham
was a missionary of the American Society for Ameliorating
the Condition of the Jews ; Samuel W. Dike occupied a unique
place as organizer and for twenty-eight years secretary of
the National Divorce Reform League, working at the same
time to introduce social subjects into educational institutions.
-1140)-
Daniel W. Waldron for forty years was connected with the
City Missionary Society of Boston, and sixteen years its
secretary. Full of energy and devotion, he had oversight of
an agency which visited thirty thousand families in a year,
aided four thousand sick, distributed sixty thousand papers
and tracts, held hundreds of meetings and brought children
into Sunday schools and adults into church membership in
surprising numbers. With the rest of his obligations he was
chaplain of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
It would be idle to attempt to enumerate the men who
served as secretaries of denominational and undenominational
organizations. They commenced their activities very early in
the history of the institution, when new organizations were
coming into existence rapidly, and they continued to direct
such enterprises through the first Andover century, until
more than two hundred and fifty men had occupied such
positions in seventy-two different societies. The American
Tract Society used thirty-two, the American Home Mis-
sionary Society twenty-four, and the American Bible Society
almost as many, while the American Board, the American Mis-
sionary Association, the Congregational Education Society,
and the American Sunday School Union turned again and
again to Andover men for such service.
Andover's influence in the Congregational denomination is
apparent in the records of its organizations. When the Na-
tional Council of the Congregationalists was organized, the
committees on polity and creed, composed of six men, included
five Andover alumni. Alonzo H. Quint, Andover 1852, wrote
the Burial Hill Declaration of 1865. Eleven alumni were on
the commission of twenty-five which drew up the Creed of
1883. Dr. Quint was the first secretary of the Council, con-
tinuing for twelve years. Andover men were the prominent
preachers at the meetings of the Council. Among them were
Storrs, Bacon, Mackenzie, Fisher, and Tucker.
There are times when the pen is mightier than the pulpit,
and Andover editors sometimes have wielded a trenchant pen.
There have been more than seventy of them. Henry M.
Dexter moulded the thought of readers of the Congregation-
{14U
alist. William H. Ward was one of the great editors of the
country from the time he became editor-in-chief of the Inde-
pendent in 1870. He was versatile in his interests and abil-
ities, a poet, an Assyriologist of note, a worker for church
unity, and active in numerous societies and boards with the
single desire to be useful. R. S. Storrs was one of the editors
of the Independent. Joseph P. Thompson, Andover 1841, was
one of the founders of the New Englander and of the Inde-
pendent. Rufus Anderson and Elnathan E. Strong published
many volumes of the Missionary Herald. Charles Parkhurst
found his desk in the office of Zion's Herald of the Methodists.
Amory H. Bradford could take time from his church at
Montclair, New Jersey, to act as associate editor of the Out-
look. The founder of the Boston Recorder, said to be the first
religious newspaper of the world, was an alumnus of Andover,
for Andover antedated even that event. Albert E. Winship
made the Journal of Education a power in the field of secular
education. More than one man found a field of influence in a
country newspaper.
Professors Park and Edwards called a conference at An-
dover in 1850 and planned the organization of the Congrega-
tional Library Association. The Association started the
Congregational Quarterly, with Dexter, Quint, and Joseph S.
Clark as editors. Clark had been secretary of the Massa-
chusetts Home Mission Society and author of "A Histor-
ical Sketch of the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts
from 1620 to 1858."
The name of Joseph Cook, Andover 1868, was a household
word in New England while he was delivering his two hun-
dred and fifty-two Monday noon lectures at Tremont Temple
in Boston.
The authors of books among Andover alumni are legion.
To choose among them would be invidious. They range
through all the fields of literature and learning. They seemed
to agree heartily that of the making of books there is no end.
If you would find their monument, go into the Library and
look around you.
At the very outset the Seminary had the advantage of a
library in the Academy. By vote of the Trustees the theological
students were permitted to use it and to take books as loans.
It was realized that this was only a makeshift, and that the
Seminary must have a library of its own, and gifts came in
promptly for that purpose. Brown and Norris each gave a
thousand dollars. The source materials for theological and
biblical study were in Europe, and Professor Stuart eagerly
purchased there as his acquaintance with Hebrew and Ger-
man literature grew. Dr. Spring and other Hopkinsian leaders
were apprehensive of foreign literature, preferring to make
sure that the books were safe theologically first of all. There
is no evidence that they ever went so far as to suggest an index
expurgatorius, but they had a hearty fear of heresy and criti-
cism. Professor Woods did not share that fear any more
than Professor Stuart, and was willing to accept books from
any source. He spent much of the summer before the open-
ing of the Seminary in trying to get together a respectable
number of books for the beginning of the school, and he hoped
for a fund or a gift of ten thousand dollars for that purpose.
For nearly sixty years the Library was in the care of one
of the Trustees or professors, with one of the students as
acting librarian. The salary in 1810 was fixed at one hundred
and fifty dollars. A large proportion of the books were exe-
getical, a great many of them were in the German language.
In the year 1815 the sum of sixteen hundred dollars was avail-
able for the purchase of books, and the authorities went so
far as to petition Congress for exemption from the payment
of duties on books imported for Seminary use. Edward
Everett, who was professor of Greek at Harvard, generously
gave his services abroad to the selection and shipping of books
for the Seminary. Professor Stuart kept a list of prospective
purchases to be checked off as funds increased. In such a list
biblical titles were the most numerous, and early in its history
the Library became the possessor of a variety of old lexicons ;
its collection of Bibles formed a nucleus for a valuable li-
brary in that department. As early as 1819 there were seven-
teen editions of the Hebrew Bible, omitting duplicates, three
English editions, three Latin, and three polyglot. At one
time or another the Library has obtained such precious vol-
umes as a large folio of Luther's German translation, pub-
lished in Nuremberg in 1736; Genevan Bibles, one a black
letter edition of 1578 and another an edition of 1607; and a
black letter copy of the Authorized King James Version,
dated 1617. Many rare old volumes are in the Library that
have come from French, Dutch, German, and Italian presses,
some in black letter with illuminated initials.
A specially interesting Hebrew Bible bears the autograph
of Increase Mather. It was issued from an Antwerp press
in 1613. There are many Greek texts of the New Testament,
including a copy of the Complutensian Polyglot of Ximenes,
the Spanish scholar. The collection includes old Bibles which
once belonged to Mills and Newell, and letters of the early
missionaries. Most interesting of all the Bibles are two copies
of the Indian Bible, translated so laboriously by John Eliot,
the Indian missionary, and now unintelligible, since all for
whom he prepared the edition have vanished to happier hunt-
ing grounds. The copy of the first edition came into the pos-
session of the Library through the Society of Inquiry, to which
it was given by James Chater, a Baptist missionary at Colombo,
Ceylon, in April, 1818; the second edition was a present to
Dr. Pearson as early as 1800. The title page reads :
Mamusse
Wunneetupanatamwe
Up-Biblum God
Naneeswe
Nukkone Testament
Kah wonk
Wusku Testament
Ne quoshkinnumuk nashpe Wuttinneumoh Christ
noh asoowesit
John Eliot
Cambridge
Printenoop nashpe Samuel Green kah Marmaduke Johnson
1663
-1144}-
On the back are the verses :
By what means may a young man best
His life learn to amend?
If that he make and keep God's word,
And therein his time spend.
Psalm cxix
Ye Indians who receive the word,
Come read it, one and all !
You'll find it in ye Library
In Master Gore his Hall.
Wowaus
alias John Printer
The book bears the inscription : " Printed by the Commis-
sioners of the United Colonies in New England at the charge
and with the consent of the Corporation in England for the
Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Indians in New
England."
Among other treasures are early New England prints, in-
cluding an Old Farmer's Almanac of 1808, the first year of
the Seminary; three pamphlets from the press of Benjamin
Franklin in Philadelphia; and the United States flag made
by Mrs. Stowe and flown from the flagstaff on the Hill during
the Civil War.
After the erection of Bartlet Chapel the Library was in-
stalled on the second floor of that building, which gave it fair
quarters for those days. Then the Faculty requested the Trus-
tees to have the books classified and catalogued, and the Library
opened for student consultation one day in the week. Up
to that time the doors were not open at regular hours, and a
student had to get access as best he could. It was suggested
to the Trustees that in other institutions, better facilities were
enjoyed, but as late as 1830 the Library was kept open only
one hour a day, between one and two o'clock in the afternoon,
so as to save wear and tear. The professors took occasion
to express a protest for themselves that they were allowed
only twelve books at one time, when formerly twice that num-
ber had been allowed.
The request for a catalogue of the books proved effective.
The first catalogue was issued in 1819. The work was done
carefully, and included details of the contents of certain vol-
umes of collections. Students waited nineteen years for a
new edition, which contained certain facts about the authors
as well as their names and the titles of their books. Later the
Trustees sanctioned a scientific catalogue, as proposed by
Edward Robinson when he was librarian. The Trustees al-
lowed him a dollar and a quarter a day for the time employed
at that particular task. A number of gifts came to the Semi-
nary because of Robinson, and his expert knowledge made
it possible for him to buy profitably when he was in Europe.
The Porter Rhetorical Society and the Society of Inquiry
printed catalogues of their libraries in 1830. They knew by
experience the value of a catalogue from the lack of a suitable
one for the Seminary Library. One can imagine the look of
amazement on the face of an Andover Rip Van Winkle if he
should walk into the catalogue room of Andover Hall in
Cambridge today, or the reading room of the Hills Library
at Newton Centre.
In 1820 every student was required to pay a library tax of
three dollars annually. Since there were one hundred stu-
dents in the Seminary at that time the income was consider-
able. The librarian had to give bonds, and it would not have
been surprising if the members of the Faculty had been re-
quired to do the same. Dr. Woods was criticised for per-
mitting some one to carry books out of town without consent
of the librarian. It appears that men who were blameless in
the creed now and then lapsed in library etiquette or were
absent-minded. The Trustees asked the professor to explain,
and he did so in a written communication.
Student faults seem to have existed then as one hundred
years later, for in 1833 three books were taken from the
Library without any record ; the Trustees expressed surprise
that a theological student should have been guilty of such
infraction of the rules, and they ordered the guilty person
to return the books at once. The regular fine for keeping
books overtime was 6% cents for half a week. The borrow-
H46Y
ing privilege was restricted to the Faculty and students of
the Seminary, Trustees, Visitors, Founders, and teachers
in the Academy. The thriftiness of the authorities is evident in
the rule that all books should be covered with paper, and
that the shabbiest copy should be loaned first when there were
duplicates of a book. It is one of the curious rules that only
four students could be in the Library at one time, and that they
could draw books only on Saturday afternoon from two to
four o'clock. While professors enj oyed the privilege of twelve
books a student was limited to three, except for class use ; he
might keep them for three weeks.
A very sensible regulation in harmony with the rules of
hygiene that were taught in class prescribed a thorough airing
of the room once a week, if the weather permitted, and sweep-
ing and dusting once a month. Before the annual inspection
the books on each shelf were to be taken down and carefully
dusted and the shelf well brushed. The maker of the Library
rules must have had a wholesome respect for the ritual of
housecleaning. Two other rules couched in classical diction
were that "a print of some emblematical engraving shall be
pasted in the beginning of every volume belonging to the Li-
brary," and a bookplate was adopted as early as 1825. In
volumes presented to the Library the name of the donor was
to be inserted : "Whereas certain books may be of such value
and nature that they ought not to be taken from the Library,
but always kept for occasional consultation, such as Biblia
Polyglotta, etc., the particular books of this description shall
be determined and marked by the librarian, with the consent
of the committee of the Library."
The Seminary was the recipient from time to time of gifts
of money, books, or pamphlets for the Library. A valuable
collection of books belonging to the Phillips family was pre-
sented to commemorate Lieutenant-Governor Phillips, who
died in 1827. William Phillips of Boston gave $5,000, and
William Reed of Marblehead gave the same amount. James
Dunlop of Scotland made a present to the Library of sixty
volumes on the ecclesiastical history of his country. Reverend
John Codman of the Second Church in Dorchester marked
certain books in his library with the letter A in red ink, and
bequeathed them to the Library. The bequest amounted to
twelve hundred and fifty books.
Dr. Codman was a gentleman of the old school. In "Old
Andover Days," Professor Stuart's daughter describes a
triumphal progress to Commencement : "Up the Boston turn-
pike at about the same hour came John Codman, D.D., with
his stout English horses, his stout English coach, his stout
English coachman, his ruddy, cordial English self, and his
noble little wife. He was one of the cloth, this nature's noble-
man ; yet the white cravat and the clerical air did not sit quite
naturally on his round, portly form. An old English manor-
house . . . would seemingly have formed his natural environ-
ment ; but here he was a meek, working, country minister, rich
in every good word, work, and deed, richer far in these than
in the gold that turned the glebe lands into richest pastures,
and the simple parsonage into a tasteful, old-world home. If
he had been absent, the Anniversary would have lost one of
its brightest ornaments, and Andover one of its warmest
friends."
Among other gifts was a present of 8,376 pamphlets from
Dr. William B. Sprague of Albany, author of "Annals of the
American Pulpit." Eventually the collections of the Porter
Rhetorical Society and the Society of Inquiry were turned
over to the Seminary Library, but not until the Porter Society
had sold a part of its books at auction, an act which the Faculty
promptly declared illegal and countermanded the sale. The
largest purchase made at one time was the library of Dr.
Christian W. Niedner, successor of Professor Neander at the
University of Berlin. This comprised forty-three hundred
volumes, mostly in German and Latin, including rare and
curious books, many of them of great value in the history of
doctrine and philosophy and for source materials in history.
An edition of the Fathers, very superior in paper and print
and issued at Basle, has a remarkable history. It was a
small part of a cartload of books owned by a citizen of Hart-
ford, Connecticut. At his death the books were found piled
in a garret, and were appraised at three dollars and bought
by a bookseller who did not know their value. One day a New
Haven man who had some knowledge of the value of old books
offered twenty dollars for the collection and it was accepted.
The latest owner sold a considerable part of them, gave many
of them to Yale College, kept certain of them for himself, and
sold the remainder for two hundred dollars. In the last lot
was the edition of the Fathers, which dated from 1523. That
single set was priced at five hundred dollars, when it came into
possession of Andover.
In 1834 there were about thirteen thousand volumes in the
Andover Library, rich in "ancient and rabbinic lore." A half
century later they had become forty thousand, with eighteen
thousand pamphlets and a small collection of manuscripts. A
supplement to the catalogue was printed in 1849, and in 1866
Reverend William Ladd Ropes, who had been appointed on
full time, commenced an accession catalogue. At that time
the collections were removed to Brechin Hall, which had been
built expressly for their housing. The three donors of Scotch
ancestry, besides erecting the building, provided also for main-
tenance, with a fund of twenty-five thousand dollars. From
that time the Library was open every weekday in term time.
Brechin Hall provided space for the Museum, which con-
tained three collections. One was the Taylor Palestine Col-
lection, which owed its origin in the main to Dr. Selah Merrill,
from whom it was purchased. A particularly interesting curio
was a model of Jerusalem, which had been obtained by Mrs.
Harriet Beecher Stowe. A second collection was the Fiske
Missionary Collection. For this the Seminary was indebted
to the thoughtful interest of missionaries and alumni who
sent to America those objects which would illustrate the cus-
toms and religions of the Indian peoples in Asia, the Chinese
and Japanese, the races of the Near East, and the natives of
America. The third collection was the Newton Cabinet,
named for Dr. E. H. Newton of the class of 1813, who pre-
sented most of the contents. Mineralogical specimens, Indian
relics, shells, and coins enriched it.
The list of librarians is not a long one, and for a long time
their duties were not arduous. It is not easy to imagine Squire
4149Y
Farrar dusting the books, but he could have the oversight, as
he did for the first twenty-two years, of a library that was
closed most of the time, and could delegate his authority to a
student. Edward Robinson was in charge for three years on
his return from overseas. He had come to Andover in 1821
to publish his edition of the "Iliad," had remained as an in-
structor in sacred literature for three years, and then had gone
abroad. He resumed his teaching during the three years, and
was eminently qualified to guide in the use of books, though
he had not in those days the technical training of a library
school. Rensselaer David Chancerf ord Robbins became libra-
rian in 1844 at the end of three years at Andover as a resident
licentiate. He published a revised edition of Stuart's Com-
mentaries. Edward Robie, well-known for his long pastor-
ate at Greenland, New Hampshire, was his successor for three
years, and then the mantle fell on Samuel H. Taylor, of the
class of 1837. He was principal of the Academy for many
years, and as the pupils of the Academy had the privilege of
using the Seminary Library his oversight was easily explained.
He was the editor of classical textbooks, and one of the men
responsible for the Bibliotheca Sacra.
It is with William Ladd Ropes that the modern history of
the Library really begins. He went to Andover from the
pastorate, but he was a graduate of both Harvard College and
Andover Seminary, and he knew books. It was he who had
the satisfaction of seeing the Library housed in Brechin Hall,
and proceeded at once to modernize the catalogue with author
and title indexes and an accession book. He made reports to the
Trustees, purchased and catalogued new books, and assisted
the students in their search for bibliographical material. He
put in nearly forty years of faithful service before he was re-
tired in 1905. He was followed by Reverend Owen H. Gates,
who had been teaching in the Old Testament department for
three years. It was under his direction that the removal of the
Library was made to Cambridge, and the thousands of books
installed in the ample quarters of Andover Hall. There he
has administered the joint libraries of Andover and the Har-
vard Divinity School. And through the Phillips Fund, which
made possible the circulation of books among the Congrega-
tional ministers free of charge, service was rendered outside
the walls of the institution.
The arrangement that was made with Harvard for the
joining of the two libraries provided for full equality in the
use of books. And the Library was to remain in the full
possession of the Seminary with all the property belonging
to it, its books were to bear the Andover bookplate and be cata-
logued distinctively, but in the same card catalogue. When
the new Andover Hall was completed the two libraries would
be merged. Shelf room was planned for two hundred thou-
sand volumes in a fireproof stack, and a reading room large
enough for fifty readers. The two institutions shared in ex-
penses. For administrative purposes a library council was
to be organized, with two professors from each faculty ap-
pointed by each school to serve as an administrative com-
mittee. The agreement was open to revision by mutual consent
or could be terminated on two years' notice by either institu-
tion. Since the affiliation with Newton the Andover Library
remains in Andover Hall in Cambridge, where the collections
are available for consultation by Andover Newton students
and are of special value for purposes of research.
It is a far cry from the cramped quarters of Phillips Hall
a hundred years ago to the luxurious surroundings of a
modern building equipped with all the devices of library effi-
ciency. Dust still gathers on old tomes that are seldom opened,
for Hebrew and Syriac are not so popular as in Stuart's day.
Strange new titles in social ethics and economics, in rural and
city church methods, and in missionary literature, are called
for more frequently. Periodical literature in abundance
catches the eye of the student in the reading-room. An exten-
sive card catalogue occupying a room by itself invites the
curious investigator. Seminar rooms are set apart for special
consultation, other special rooms for particularly valuable
collections, and a safety vault for the preservation of the
archives. The librarian is no longer fearful of the wear and
tear of books, the student is invited to read or browse. If he
is in doubt, assistance will be given him ; if he is engaged in
research, he may have all the facilities that the Library affords.
Among the riches of the Library are the books written by
the professors. Of old, printing was relatively inexpensive
as compared with the present time, and the members of the
Faculty were glad to avail themselves of the local press to
put their lecture outlines into the hands of the students, and
to write more pretentiously for the general public. The Works
of Dr. Woods were collected into five volumes, the first three
containing his theological lectures, the fourth letters and
essays, and the fifth sermons. Besides these he wrote a volu-
minous account of the founding of the Seminary. Professor
Stuart's writing was naturally in the field of biblical litera-
ture. He published a Hebrew Grammar and another for the
New Testament Greek, and he wrote commentaries and trans-
lated works that he considered of special value. Professor
Porter issued books relating to his own department, includ-
ing lectures on homiletics and elocution, and a rhetorical
reader. His "Analysis of the Principles of Rhetorical De-
livery" passed through several editions.
No books from Andover pens were better known by church
people than Robinson's "Physical Geography of the Holy
Land," and his "Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount
Sinai, and Arabia Petrsea." His harmonies of the gospels in
Greek and English, his "Greek-English Lexicon of the New
Testament," and his translation of Gesenius, were consulted
frequently as they lay on ministers' desks, because they were
useful for sermon making as well as for reference in studies
and classrooms of the Seminary. Murdock's translation of
Mosheim's "Ecclesiastical History" was another useful piece
of work, and he edited Milman's "History of Christianity."
The preparation of student helps was one of the frequent
undertakings of the Andover professors. B. B. Edwards
issued an "Eclectic Reader" and a "Missionary Gazetteer,"
and he wrote "Classical Essays" and a "Biography of Self-
Taught Men." Justin Edwards edited a family Bible and
wrote several temperance essays. Contributions were made
to biblical lore by Professors Skinner, Barrows, and Stowe.
The "Companion to the Bible," written by Barrows, went
through two editions, and he wrote "Sacred Geography and
Antiquities." Skinner was the author of "Religion of the
Bible," and Stowe published an "Introduction to the Criti-
cism and Interpretation of the Bible," and "Origin and His-
tory of the Books of the Bible." If the story of Mrs. Stowe
rocking the cradle while she wrote "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is
true, one wonders how the children fared while she was re-
porting "The Minister's Wooing," and the minister was in
his study wooing the critical muse. Again one may speculate
as to what she might have accomplished if she had had a
garden studio as Elizabeth Stuart Phelps had in Andover
and later on Oak Hill in Newton.
Austin Phelps was a master in the department of homiletics,
and his "Theory of Preaching" was a familiar handbook in
the studies of the Congregational ministers. The structure
and the rhetoric of pulpit discourses were moulded by his
hand for a generation as effectively as if the preachers were
under his instruction in the classroom. His "Still Hour" be-
came a classic ; his hymn book, prepared in consultation with
others and published in 1858, was adopted widely for church
worship; one hundred and twenty thousand were sold in
eight years. Edwards A. Park published less than one would
suppose, considering the widespread acceptance of his theo-
logical leadership. A memoir of Nathaniel Emmons came
from his pen, and essays and translations. He wrote numer-
ous articles for cyclopedias and reviews, but his chief con-
tributions were to the Bibliotheca Sacra.
Professor Shedd's "History of Christian Doctrine" became
a standard work in that field. Since theology played so large
a part in the Seminary discipline and ministers continued to
preach sermons on doctrine, the history of Christian opinion
on the great articles of the Christian faith was in frequent use.
No library in a seminary was complete without a set of
Shedd's "History," and few ministers' libraries lacked it, if
the parson was at all studious. Shedd was also the author of
a three-volume work on dogmatic theology. The word "dog-
matic" is symptomatic of the attitude towards doctrine. The
professor was of course an exponent of Congregational or-
thodoxy, but he ventured to edit Coleridge's Works, which
reflected the German theological thinking of the day. Not
content with these contributions he wrote a commentary on
Romans, published a volume of sermons, and wrote a text-
book on homiletics and pastoral theology, which was reissued
in several editions.
Professor J. H. Thayer's scholarly works of reference in
the biblical field gave him a far-reaching reputation. The later
professors wrote fewer books, but they revealed their the-
ology in the Andover Review and in the little volume entitled
"Progressive Orthodoxy." William Jewett Tucker's Lyman
Beecher Lectures at Yale were among the specially acceptable
discussions on that foundation, and his reminiscences of his
generation brought back to his readers the Andover of his
student and faculty days. George Harris described "A Cen-
tury's Changes in Religion" after he had left Andover, but his
book too was a reminder of the changes that he helped to
make in the Seminary. George Foot Moore's widening circle
of readers came after his transfer to Harvard, and his vol-
umes on the history of religion gave him a reputation second
to none in that field of investigation. Harris and Tucker
fathered "Hymns of the Faith," published in 1887.
Three theological reviews are associated with the history
of Andover. The earliest of them was the Biblical Repository,
originated by Edward Robinson in 1831. The second, with
which the first was merged after a separate career of twenty
years, was the BiUiotheca Sacra. This better known period-
ical was preceded by a volume of essays, edited by Robinson
and written mostly by Stuart and himself, which was given
the title of "Bibliotheca Sacra," and which bore the date of
1843. This was followed the next year by the first number
of the magazine to which the same name was given. Its full
title was the Bibliotheca Sacra and Theological Review. Pro-
fessors B. B. Edwards and Park edited the journal, with
Robinson and Stuart cooperating. Robinson by that time had
gone to Union Seminary. The Review was published at An-
dover for forty years, with Park taking the burden of edi-
torial responsibility. With the prestige of his name Bibliotheca
Sacra held a commanding position in the field of scholarly
journalism. It stood for conservative thought, but it con-
tained articles that kept it abreast of the times in which it
was published. With the retirement of Park from the active
duties of his chair of theology and the onset of the controversy
over more liberal tenets, the magazine was carried to Oberlin,
where, chiefly under the guidance of George Frederick
Wright, it continued to defend the ancient landmarks.
When the Bibliotheca Sacra went to Oberlin in 1884, the
Andover Faculty decided to put another review in the field
as the organ of the newer thought which was under discussion
at Andover. The first number bore the legend : "The Andover
Review: a religious and theological monthly." This was a
recognition of a difference between religion and theology.
Five members of the Faculty, Smyth, Tucker, Churchill,
Harris, and Hincks, assumed the editorial responsibility, with
the others assisting. While the Faculty members were not
unanimous in their attitude towards the questions that were
at issue, they were harmonious among themselves and were
tolerant of minor differences. The reason given for issuing
the new review was the disturbed state of theological opinion
on certain vital questions. It stated frankly that it would
"advocate the principles and represent the method and spirit
of Progressive Orthodoxy." From the beginning it was able
to attract to its columns some of the most prominent religious
writers on both sides of the Atlantic. Principal Fairbairn,
Lyman Abbott, George A. Gordon, George H. Palmer,
William H. Ward, and G. Stanley Hall, were among them.
Professor Egbert C. Smyth wrote the first article, and frankly
declared that the Review aimed at theological development.
The editors did not hesitate to accept the name "New The-
ology" for the more liberal thought that was gaining ground
in the Congregational churches in harmony with a freer and
more scientific age. That the Review would stir up rather
than alleviate controversial discussion did not disturb its
sponsors. The Andover Review performed its function as the
exponent of the liberal movement of the decade, and as soon
as the stress of the conflict was over it was discontinued.
The Andover Press was a decided asset to the Theological
Seminary, though it had little organic connection with it. It
was a small local enterprise which had been established in
1798, when Dr. Pearson enlarged it, and after Professor
Stuart's press work in various languages began to issue from
the Press it became the regular and well-known medium of
publication for the writings of the Faculty. It was intended
to be an educational and religious force as well as a legitimate
line of business, and it served the needs of both Academy and
Seminary and grew prosperous along with their growth. As a
book shop it supplied the boys of the Academy with the books
that they needed for their studies, and the men of the Semi-
nary browsed among its shelves. Flagg and Gould, the
proprietors, were members of the South Church, and were
sympathetic with Christian education, and they felt that they
were doing a Christian service in printing and circulating the
books that flowed from the pens of the professors. One of
the earliest publications was Professor Stuart's "Hebrew
Grammar," for which the professor himself set some of the
type. The facilities for printing in both Greek and Hebrew
were greatest at Andover, and by the gifts of William Bartlet,
Dr. John Codman of Dorchester, and others the Press was
equipped by 1829 with fonts for twelve Oriental languages.
This wealth of equipment gave the Andover Press a distinc-
tion which it did not lose for many years. In those days
country publishing houses were by no means so rare as now,
and though Andover was near Boston it did not suffer from
city competition in the publishing business.
It was especially convenient for the Andover professors to
stroll downtown to the Old Hill Store where the printers
worked on the second floor. It was an inspiration to see their
thoughts put on the printed page when they had no type-
writer to manipulate, and they were at hand to correct proof
that reflected the uncertainties of poor handwriting. In the
course of the years the Faculty of the Seminary wrote over
one hundred volumes which, it is estimated, had a sale of four
hundred thousand copies. There was a market for them wher-
ever religious books were read, and the reputation of the
O56J-
school made them popular as textbooks. Such a book as
Phelps' "Still Hour" was read very widely. Booksellers in
all the cities furnished a medium for public distribution.
In 1832 the Press found new quarters in a two story and a
half brick building on the Hill, where Warren F. Draper, the
proprietor after 1854, put out his sign over the door reading
"Warren F. Draper, Publisher and Bookseller," with a long
signboard over the windows upstairs which read "Printing
House." There the business remained for more than thirty
years, when it was moved to the Draper Block on Main Street.
The Seminary was fortunate to have such a man as Draper
to carry on the business, for like Flagg and Gould he was in-
terested in the business of publishing religious books, and he
was generous with the money which the business brought
him. There the American Tract Society issued its first tracts,
and there was issued the Journal of Humanity, the first tem-
perance newspaper in the United States. The Biblical Reposi-
tory and the Bibliotheca Sacra were printed by the Press as
long as they were edited by the professors of the Seminary.
"Of the forces that made Andover in the last century a world-
renowned center of religious and spiritual life," says Scott
H. Paradise in his historical sketch of the publishing house,
"the Andover Press was no small part. Working in close
cooperation with the theological professors, whom they re-
sembled in their religious enthusiasm, the Andover printers
did their share to spread Christianity to the far corners of the
earth, and to inspire those who were working at home and in
the mission field with fresh vigor."
Among the most interesting and popular books on the cata-
logue of the Press were the writings of several talented mem-
bers of the families of the professors. Mrs. Stowe and the wife
and the daughter of Professor Phelps, and three daughters
of the Stuart and Woods families, found their publishers near
at home. Hundreds of thousands of copies of their books
circulated abroad as well as in America. The public knows of
Harriet Beecher Stowe and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, but it is
not commonly known that Mrs. Phelps was the author of
"Sunnyside," a juvenile book, which had a sale of one hun-
-{157Y
dred thousand copies at home and was translated abroad.
"Old Andover Days" by Elizabeth Stuart Robbins is unas-
suming but charming in its descriptions and reminiscences.
The literary atmosphere at Andover inspired even the stu-
dents to cultivate the muses. It was in Bartlet Hall that Elijah
Kellogg wrote his well-known " Spartacus to the Gladiators,"
and Samuel Francis Smith wrote "America" while an An-
dover student. "Long after the name of Bartlet Hall," says
a newspaper writer, "and even the more famous name of
Andover Seminary are forgotten, these two masterpieces of
oratorical writing will preserve in the Valhalla of literature
a sacred place for the shades of Samuel F. Smith and Elijah
Kellogg."
CHAPTER
THE NEW THEOLOGY
IF a student who graduated from Andover in 1850 had
returned for a class reunion on the thirtieth anniversary,
he would have found the same system of theology taught
at Andover by Professor Park. Science and criticism were
attacking the foundations of authority. Rapidly changing
social conditions were demanding a translation of religion into
social terms. Theology itself was being reinterpreted with a
human rather than a divine emphasis. None of them mattered
at Andover. The New England theology was constructed on
the principle that there are certain truths which abide in the
very nature of things and condition any system of doctrine.
Since these truths do not change, an orthodox system of doc-
trine must not change. The fathers of New England lived
under the stern conviction that life is a battlefield between
divine right and justice on the one hand and human weakness
and sin on the other. The transcendent purity and dignity of
God is offended daily by the sin of man. Benevolent though
he is, he cannot overlook human fault. Powerful as he is he
cannot forgive without satisfaction to his moral nature and
his justice. The death of Christ was the most stupendous
fact in history because it made possible the forgiveness of
sin and the reconciliation of God to man. Original sin, atone-
ment, reconciliation this was the way from darkness to
light, from the power of Satan to fellowship with God. Built
thus on the twin facts of sin and salvation, the New England
theology was the summation of the answer to the problem of
human destiny, an answer which was in the making from
Augustine to Calvin and from Calvin to Park.
The man who embodied this system of theology at Andover
was Edwards A. Park. A graduate of Brown University and
4159]-
of Andover Theological Seminary, with experience as a
teacher and as an associate pastor with Richard S. Storrs,
Park came to Andover to teach sacred rhetoric in 1836. When
Woods completed his long term at the Seminary as professor
of theology, it was appropriate that his understudy should
succeed him.
Park was the "last of the old guard" of the New England
theology. He was essentially an apologist, an advocate for
a great cause. Biblical criticism, German rational philosophy,
and the hypotheses of science passed him by. He challenged
them, but they were not his chief concern. He would main-
tain undimmed the glory of the ancient faith, unbroken the
solid wall of his well-wrought system. The halo that had
gathered around the tenets of Hopkinsianism must not be dis-
sipated. To bring truth into the white light of unrestrained
reason and speculation was to tear away the veil of mystery
that shrouded it. Or, to change the figure, he felt that the
foundations of God stand sure, but it is not well to play with
dynamite. Such figures of speech were not articulate with
him, but they accord with his principles. While others were
modifying their opinions Park held the fort at Andover, and
taught his generation of students to wage war valiantly for
the faith once delivered to the saints.
His classroom did not provide a genial atmosphere for the
growth of revolutionary ideas. It was a place for the recep-
tion of truth, not a laboratory for experimentation. As pa-
tiently as a sculptor Park had perfected the system that he
endorsed. His classroom method was to dictate the substance
of his well-ordered lectures, and then to illustrate and expand
extemporaneously. He was exact in definition, clear in analy-
sis, logical in argument. He stressed the importance of
coherence in a doctrinal system. "Beginning with strictly
self-evident truths," says Joseph Cook, an appreciative and
loyal pupil of Park, "the architecture of his system rises
through anthropology, theism, soteriology and eschatology,
along such a strenuous curve that it is not possible to appre-
ciate it except from some point of view where the student
sees it as a whole and endeavors to transmute it into life."
It was not a system of philosophy, but it was philosophical.
It was not a system of ethics, but it was ethical. It was the-
ology, not religion, yet it was centered in the gospel of the Son
of God. God Himself was revealed through Jesus Christ.
It was this system that he set forth, now with cogent argu-
ment, again with the glowing language of a conviction that
gripped his own soul. With masterly logic he bore down
hostile arguments, and there were not a few of these as the
forces that were moulding modern thought began to affect
the minds of the students. Park had insight into the student
mind, and he was able to impress upon that mind the profound
importance of the subject in hand and to arouse the deep
interest of his pupils. He opened up the vast area to be ex-
plored; pointed out the places where the rich ore of truth
was to be found and the more barren fields of thought ; and
made the men feel that they could not be engaged in any enter-
prise so vital to them as the search for truth and wisdom.
He made them see that they must think hard, as his own mind
unfolded before them. He brought both eloquence and wit
to his assistance. At times his mind scintillated like a brilliant
display of fireworks.
Impressed by his analysis, the clarity of his thought, and
the wealth of proof and illustration, Andover students ac-
cepted his teaching and made it the substance of their thought
and preaching. Men came for the middle year in theology,
convinced that there was no teacher of the subject greater
than he was. It has been charged that, though he was a mas-
terly teacher, he did not edify, and "no set of men need edify-
ing more than theological students." But such a charge means
merely that a logical presentation of a doctrinal system is
not religion. It is the coat of armor that religion wears for
defence but the heart that beats within is religion.
Professor Park had taught the art of preaching before
Phelps came, and he was himself no less outstanding as a
preacher than as a teacher of theology. He crowded the meet-
inghouses where he went to preach, as Phillips Brooks com-
manded great audiences in his day. The same personality
that dominated his classroom was evident in the pulpit. He
towered above his congregation like a prophet. He spoke as
one who had authority, and men listened, "so still that the
buzzing of a fly would have boomed like a cannon." "When
it was all over, and that wonderful man sat down," said one
who heard him, "the people stared at each other, and looked
as wan and wild as if they had seen a spirit, and wondered
they had not died."
Dr. George A. Gordon bore witness that he was a preacher
unequaled in his order, one whose great sermons became tra-
ditions of power in all the denominations, and among people
of all types of belief. Gordon called his sermon, on the The-
ology of Intellect and the Theology of Feeling, preached in
1850 at the Massachusetts Convention of Congregational
ministers, which included the Unitarians, the greatest ser-
mon ever preached in Boston. And he said that if Park "had
allowed his thought in that great discourse to control and
shape his entire teaching, instead of being the last of the
old order of theologians, he would have become the first
of the new." And it is Gordon again who said truly: "If he
had utilized his insight that the content of genuine Christian
feeling is an eternal content, while the theories of the intellect
chase each other, in their discovered inadequacy as philosophy,
like shadows over the summer grass; if he had turned the
intellect upon the deposit of Christian faith laid up in the
Christian heart, stored in the Christian consciousness, treas-
ured in the soul of Christ ; if he had allowed the enlightened
conscience to cleanse the Augean stable of the mediaeval un-
derstanding, Edwards A. Park would have stood for the dawn
of a new day in American theology."
It is difficult for a man to be at the same time a priest and
a prophet. Park mediated the divine to his pupils as a priest
mediates between God and man through his consecration of
the sacraments. He was an interpreter of the past, not a
prophet of the future. In the changing panorama of the years
there were some who felt that it would be better if he faced
the sunrise of a new day in Christian thought, a herald of a
new theology, than that he should look regretfully to the
fading colors of a day that was dying. He realized that the
world of thought was moving away from him, but he could
not accompany it. Whatever may have been his vision, he
continued to represent the conservative position in theological
thought, with the Hopkinsian Creed as its foundation and
his particular system as the superstructure. There was danger
that the New England theology might perish from too much
scholasticism.
The theology which Park hammered out on the anvil was
prepared for homiletical use by Austin Phelps. Coming from
a Boston pastorate to Andover in 1848 to succeed Park when
he was transferred to the Abbot chair of theology, Phelps
remained at Andover thirty-one years, instructing students
how to preach, and through his publications indoctrinating
a whole generation of preachers in their art. His "Theory of
Preaching" became a classic in homiletics. His "English
Style in Public Discourse" was an education in itself in the
use of the mother tongue. Possessed of a purity of style and
with a freshness of thought that intrigued the student mind,
he was able by example as well as precept to show a man
how to preach, and how to preach well enough so that his
parishioners would not tire of him. He brought in the vogue
of the carefully prepared written sermon, wrought out ac-
cording to the rules of rhetoric and with an elegance of dic-
tion that gave it distinction and bearing the marks of the
minister's own experience. His own character was refined
in the furnace of domestic affliction, and his preaching was
mellowed by his experiences. His own physical infirmities
of increasing age and threatening blindness saddened still
more his later years, and he died at his summer home in Bar
Harbor in 1890. Fortunate was it for his peace of mind that
he retired from active service before the storm of theological
controversy broke over the Seminary.
In 1879 when Phelps retired Park had been teaching forty-
three years at Andover. He had reason to feel himself a bul-
wark of the faith for which Andover had stood. A junior in
the Seminary when he was thirty years old, a professor in
the school in two departments for forty-five years, acquainted
with a large majority of its Trustees and Visitors from the
earliest years and all but two of its professors for the seventy
years of Andover history, and related personally to fifty of
its classes, he was entitled to be regarded as a spokesman for
Andover. Recognizing his high position and his personal
ability, the Trustees expressed a wish that he would publish
his system of theology. They would relieve him of active
teaching, give him twenty-five hundred dollars a year and his
residence as long as he lived, if he felt that he could not teach
and write, too. It was with this arrangement that he closed
his long term of teaching in 1881.
The Trustees realized that it would be no easy task to fill
his place. With the master gone differences of theological
opinion would strive for the mastery, but the Trustees knew
that recognition must be given to the modern trends. There
was difference of opinion in Congregational circles as to the
content of true orthodoxy. On the one side of the question
was the ironclad Creed of the Seminary and the New Eng-
land theology of Andover tradition, which had been absorbed
by the students for seventy-five years. And the last of the
old guard was vigorous, though in retirement, and he never
surrendered. On the other hand it was becoming plain that
the theological thought of the past was being affected by
science and philosophy. Hostility to the Unitarian movement
had delayed any other liberal trend inside orthodox circles,
but HoraceJBushnell's novel ideas on certain doctrines were
fermenting in the body ecclesiastical. There were lively dis-
cussions of Bushnell's thesis that a child is not an imp of
Satan and his nature twisted by an imputation of Adam's sin,
but that he should grow up to think of himself as a child of
God. And Bushnell had a fresh interpretation of the atone-
ment. Almost contemporary with Bushnell's modernism was
Darwin's "Origin of Species." It had no such immediate
effect as Bushnell's doctrinal discussions, but the tough sod
of Calvinism already had been undermined by philosophical
and critical scholars in Germany and by scientists in Great
Britain, and seeds of revolutionary ideas planted in the dis-
turbed soil could find lodgment and grow. By 1880 they were
sprouting vigorously.
Differences of opinion could easily develop into controversy
over the choice of a new professor. It seemed as if Andover
had been dogged by the spirit of controversy from the be-
ginning. The circumstances of the founding of the Seminary
stirred up controversy. It could hardly be expected that the
Unitarians would be friendly, for it was well understood that
the existence of Andover was due to the hostility of the or-
thodox Congregationalists to the liberal movement. The An-
thologist referred scornfully to the bigotry of the school, and
after a few years Harvard and Andover professors began
to pummel each other with wordy blows. Channing's Balti-
more sermon of 1819 stirred the Seminary. Stuart contested
forcefully the Unitarian denial of the Trinity and interpre-
tation of the person of Christ, arguing for his deity on
biblical grounds. He wrote in the form of "Letters," which
were published at Andover in the year of the Baltimore dis-
course. Unable to continue with a discussion of other doc-
trines, Stuart urged Woods to dispute Channing's other
positions. Woods had a more irenic disposition and was less
inclined to engage in controversy, but he felt that the attack
upon the orthodox position should be answered ; he therefore
entered the lists with his own "Letters to Unitarians," treat-
ing such subjects as the nature of man and the sovereignty
of God. Professor Ware of Harvard replied promptly with
"Letters to Trinitarians and Calvinists." Then came the
"Answer," "Remarks," and "Postscript." It was a period of
polemics and of minute differences of theological opinion
vigorously debated. As professor of theology in a prominent
seminary Woods could not escape contentions, however peace-
fully inclined.
A second controversy into which he was drawn was with
the Yale professor of theology, Nathaniel W. Taylor. Taylor
represented a position farther removed from Edwards than
was the case with the Hopkinsians. It was by no means liberal
from the Unitarian standpoint, but it was not conservative
enough for the Hopkinsians. Woods therefore entered the
lists in defence of the older point of view. The principal
point of attack was Taylor's doctrine that in a moral system
like that under which man lived with a reasonable freedom
of choice on man's part God could not prevent all sin. In his
"Letters to Taylor" Woods condemned the principles of the
system taught at Yale and drew unjustifiable inferences which
Taylor promptly denied. The extended controversy between
the Hopkinsians and the Taylorites, in which Woods had
only a small part, brought little good, and it resulted in the
withdrawal of the Hopkinsians from any relation with Yale
Divinity School, and the establishment of another Congrega-
tional seminary, which presently found its permanent home
at Hartford. Woods had still another tilt over the doctrine
of perfectionism held by Asa Mahan, a former pupil at An-
dover and in the period of controversy president of Oberlin.
The New Haven theology affected the Seminary, for Woods
and Stuart were not agreed about it. "Professor Stuart,"
says the narrator, "would flash out one set of views on the
lower story ; Dr. Woods would reply with rumbling thunders
in his lecture room in the second story ; and good Professor
Emerson would draw off both lightning and thunder in the
third story, and tell the seniors that there was no real cause
for alarm the brethren evidently did not quite understand
each other."
Dr. Stuart after retiring from the field of Unitarian con-
troversy ventured into the arena of discussion with the Uni-
versalists, writing as a biblical exegete in 1830. Woods no
sooner demolished the ramparts of the Perfectionists than
he criticised the Episcopalians, and he retired from his pro-
fessorship with a parting shot at the Swedenborgians. This
atmosphere of criticism and hostility did not augur peace for
Woods' successor.
The strong emphasis upon the Creed made it inevitable that
the question of subscription to it should arise, and of further
subscription to the Westminster Catechism. Within five years
of the organization of the Seminary it became necessary to
apply to the Legislature for power to hold additional funds.
In granting this request the Legislature added the proviso
that no student should be deprived of any privileges in the
Seminary or subjected to forfeiture of any scholarship aid
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"on the ground that his interpretations of the Scriptures differ
from those which are contained in the articles of faith adopted
by said institution." To compel students to agree with the
Creed was considered an invasion of religious liberty and the
right of free inquiry.
There was no question about the Faculty. In 1826 the
Trustees had voted that both the Creed and Catechism
must be accepted by all the professors, but sixteen years
later that vote was rescinded so far as concerned the pro-
fessors on the Associate Foundation, so that these professors
should only be required to subscribe and repeat the Creed.
The Visitors gave their approval, but the slighting of the
Westminster Catechism and the denial of the Old Calvinist
doctrine of the imputation of sin in the theology of Woods
aroused the antagonism of Dr. Daniel Dana, who originally
had stood out alone in the Board of Trustees against the
compromise with the Hopkinsians. Militant for the Old
Calvinists, Dana stirred up the "Andover Fuss" in 1849 by
addressing a remonstrance to the Board on the state of the
Seminary under its care. Though he had been a Trustee for
forty years, earlier remonstrances had not been heeded. Can-
didates for ordination were not measuring up to the standards
in the matter of total depravity. Worst of all, the new pro-
fessor of theology, Edwards A. Park, was not sound in the
faith. His inaugural left much to be desired, and now it was
clear that there was error in Zion. The professors were
deviating from the Catechism. The release from subscription
to that document was "a wound in the vitals of the Consti-
tution." "Would it not be lamentable if a seminary, reared
at an immense expense, for the express purpose of defending
and diffusing pure gospel truth, should become the instru-
ment of corrupting that truth, and of spreading destructive
error through the churches and the community ? " Four years
later Dana returned to the charge against Park. In a con-
vention sermon and in argument with Professor Hodge of
Princeton, Park had defended his own Hopkinsian position
on sin and human ability, and had even attacked important
articles of the Catechism. The Andover professor main-
H67Y
tained that all sin consists in action. "That position," said
Dana, "would sweep away almost every doctrine of the Bible,"
and "nullifies the cardinal and fundamental doctrine of nat-
ural depravity." An anonymous writer, discussing the case,
concluded that Dr. Dana was losing his memory.
It might be anticipated that the situation in 1881 would
precipitate more trouble. The defenders of the old theology
were aggressive because they felt that important truths would
be lost to the Congregational churches of New England with
the passing of the old traditions. The Faculty suggested to
the Trustees the name of Newman Smyth for the vacant
chair of theology, and the Trustees voted in his favor twice.
The Visitors approved his election from the point of view
of fidelity to the Creed, but by a vote of two to one they
refused to give the necessary sanction to his election on the
ground that Smyth lacked the mental characteristics that were
needed for clear, lucid teaching. It was an unhappy choice of
ground for the opposition, for Smyth possessed conspicu-
ously the quality of clear explication of his opinions. The
real reason for the opposition of two of the Visitors seemed
to be that they did not agree with the theological opinions
that he had recently expressed in print. Newman Smyth had
criticised the New England theology as essentially rationalistic
and mechanical, and preferred a philosophy which should
find room for "the relation of the whole man through the per-
son of Christ to the whole God." Theology should be christo-
centric, and its spirit less static. Experience rather than
reason, a theology resting on biblical criticism rather than on
anybody's logical interpretation, an ethical rather than a
dogmatic emphasis these were the dynamic principles
of his art. Others had been saying the same thing. A writer
in the Boston Advertiser wrote in commendation of the ideas
that Smyth had expressed : "He has taken up the new line of
march in theological constructions with a strength of thought,
with a moral confidence in his convictions, with a breadth
and range of vision, and with an insight into existing needs,
that places him at one bound in the front rank of the men
who are to lead the next generation of religious teachers. His
-[168}*
essay is the new Protestant landmark in religious thought."
It was impossible to change the minds of the two men who
had alone the power to prevent Smyth's election. Apparently
the machinery of the Board of Visitors was a stumbling-block
to any progressive development of the Seminary, particu-
larly since it was their function to maintain the test of the
Creed. The Trustees thought they saw a way around the
obstacle by appointing Smyth a lecturer. That would not
require creedal avowals, but he declined such a subterfuge.
Then money was raised to establish a new and independent
chair of instruction, but before the way was opened Smyth
was called to a commanding position as minister in New
Haven, and the case was closed.
It seemed to the progressive friends of the_Seminary that
a great opportunity had been missed to make Andover a leader
in the way that theology should go. The conservatives
breathed more easily when the line of defence held. The Con-
gregationalist assumed the championship of the old theology,
and particularly deprecated the attitude of Newman Smyth
on the subject of retribution after death. He had suggested
that those who in this world have no opportunity to know
the appeal of Christ might have an opportunity in the life of
the future. This doctrine of second probation, as it was called,
became the center of discussion in the period of controversy
which followed. The discussion of second probation did not
come unheralded. The thought of it was suggested by the
idea of a general atonement which had been maintained by
the Younger Edwards. The Calvinistic dogma of eternal
punishment was being relaxed. At several installation coun-
cils, including that of Smyth at New Haven, the question of
a larger hope was raised, and the weight of opinion was getting
more liberal. Such a discussion easily affected the missionary
organization of the denomination, and the cry was raised
that the acceptance of such a theory would cut the nerve
of missions. The Andover Creed did not deal directly
with the question, but it was plain enough that any relaxa-
tion of the idea of future punishment was contrary to the
spirit of the Creed.
The attitude of the Faculty was vital to the success of either
party to the controversy. At the time there was an almost
entirely new Faculty at Andover. Egbert C. Smyth, the
brother of Newman Smyth, was its senior member, for he
had come to the Seminary in 1863 as the successor of Pro-
fessor Shedd in the department of history. He was president
of the Faculty from 1877 to 1896. He was equipped with
foreign university study, and his scholarship was broad and
accurate. His historical information was supplemented by
his knowledge of philosophy and he was a master in theology.
In his study and teaching of history his chief interest was
the interpretation of the Christian thought of the centuries.
Professor Harris, his colleague for sixteen years, spoke of
him as a teacher who quietly opened the way of a more spir-
itual and ethical theology, and as a lover of nature and art
and literature, as far as he discovered in them an avenue to
the spiritual. Harris called him "a man beloved, a sympa-
thetic friend, a mediator, a hopeful optimist, who taught
men to express themselves, knowing it is better to speak five
words that can be understood than ten thousand words in an
unknown, indistinct tongue."
John Wesley Churchill came five years later than Smyth,
to serve the Seminary as teacher of elocution for thirty-two
years. Sympathetic with a liberal attitude in theology, he had
no hesitation in joining his colleagues in their plans for
broadening the Seminary. Though much of his thought was
conservative, he became one of the leaders of the forward
movement at Andover. Ten years after Churchill came John
P. Gulliver to be the first professor on the recently established
foundation of the relations of Christianity and Science. He
was a man of experience when he came to Andover, includ-
ing twenty-nine years of pastoral service and four as presi-
dent of Knox College. He was a prophet of reform, and
fought many a battle against evil.
The next year brought William Jewett Tucker to the Bartlet
chair of sacred rhetoric. After eight successful years in
Manchester, New Hampshire, he had been pastor of the
Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City
for four years. He brought with him a deep human sym-
pathy which made him popular with students and Faculty
alike. He was among the first to see the social implications
of the .Christian religion, and his pastoral experience had
made him understand and sympathize with the aspirations of
the working folk. He faced the new period that was dawning
with a realization that theological concepts and formulas
must be changed. He was an interpreter of a dynamic Chris-
tian thought, as Park was of a static theology. But it was his
moral leadership which made him a power in pulpit and class-
room. He was much in demand in Congregational pulpits.
In his department of homiletics he taught what he exempli-
fied, that it is the consecrated personality of the preacher which
makes his sermons effective. He joined heartily in the mod-
ernizing process through which the Seminary was passing,
and his courage and strength, .with his ability to make the
Congregational constituency see the reasonableness of the
Faculty, were a bulwark to his colleagues in a time of stress.
In later years at Dartmouth he was to become known more
widely as a great college president, a lecturer on various
foundations in Boston, Cambridge, New Haven, and New
York City, and a frequent contributor to the Atlantic Monthly.
The year 1883 added five new professors. One of these
was Dr. John Phelps Taylor, a minister in New London, son
of a former professor, Dr. John Lord Taylor. The senior
Taylor had been president of the Faculty, and had taught
biblical theology on the Smith foundation to men of the
special course. He saw the importance of a chair devoted to
that special subject, and made provision for it. Reverend
Edward Young Hincks came from Portland, Maine, to teach
the biblical doctrines while Taylor took care of the history
and customs.
A flurry of excitement was caused by the resignation of Pro-
fessors Mead and Thayer because they objected to repeating
the Creed every five years. This repetition of the Creed, it may
be noted, ceased in 1900, by virtue of a ruling of the Visitors
that the provision on this subject in the Statutes was
"directory and not essential." Mead had come four years
after his graduation from the Seminary to teach the He-
brew language and literature. Soon after ward _Thayer had
arrived fresh from Germany and enthusiastic for new thought
and science. His attitude, which was very different from the
dogmatism of Park, lecturing across the hall, is expressed in
his statement to his class: "Gentlemen, it is not for me to
defend the Faith. A true faith will defend itself. It is my duty
to guide you with open mind, humble spirit, and a pure heart
to the Truth, the Truth alone, wherever it may lead you, and be
ye sure that it will always lead you to a fuller knowledge of
Christ, who is the Truth. Hold as for your life to that
attitude of mind. Seek the Truth and the Truth will make
you free." Both Mead and Thayer were too jealous of their
personal liberty to remain under suspicion because they dis-
liked to sign the Creed so often, and their resignation came
soon after nearly twenty years of distinguished service on
their part. They differed from the professors who remained
in that they demanded that the boards of control should
guarantee their freedom, while the others were content with
their right to defend their freedom. The Trustees elected
George Foot Moore to follow Mead. He came from a Pres-
byterian pastorate in Ohio, and remained for nearly twenty
years at Andover. During that time he won a world-wide
reputation as an Old Testament scholar. Then he went to
Harvard as professor of the history of religions, where he
gained renown second to none in that field. Mr. Frank E.
Woodruff was called from a fellowship at Union Seminary
to occupy the New Testament chair, but he retired after four
years to go to Bowdoin.
George Harris was the fifth new professor of the year. The
Trustees were desirous that the discussion of theological
questions in the Seminary should be on a broader platform
than a single issue about the future life, and if Newman Smyth
could not be obtained for the Abbot chair of theology, they
wished to secure a competent, fearless, progressive teacher,
who would treat every question on its merits. The Faculty
was in full sympathy with that purpose. The choice fell upon
Dr. Harris, who at that time was minister to the Central Con-
4172Y
gregational Church in Providence. Harris had graduated
from Andover in the class of 1869, he was known to possess
the desired qualifications, and his coming was not opposed by
the Visitors.
Of the Faculty as a group Harris said at the anniversary
of one hundred years : " It was a company unbroken for years,
knit together in personal love, united in a common interest, in
the service of an institution, in the cause of truth and right-
eousness. In those years a victory was gained for the freedom
of a Christian man."
Since the controversy over Newman Smyth was a theo-
logical issue, interest centered around the inaugurations of the
two men who were to teach theology. The address of Pro-
fessor Harris was very long, but it was printed in full in the
Christian Union, with editorial comment on the theological
disturbances. Dr. Park, now in retirement, but mentally
active and deeply concerned with the new theology, carefully
prepared a brochure of ninety-six pages, and it was published
by a committee of six sympathizers. The pamphlet was con-
troversial, intended to spike the guns of the Faculty, and to
prove their disloyalty to the old Creed. Park had wielded the
instruments of offence for so long that he had absorbed the
atmosphere of conflict. Some years before, while in the midst
of his professional career, he had disagreed with his colleagues
over matters of Faculty administration so far that he had re-
fused to fraternize with them or bear his part in the adminis-
tration. The attack upon the new Faculty could be justified
only on the ground of theological militarism. Newspaper com-
ments criticised the pamphlet as technical, adroitly attempting
to prove from the Creed that the professors were guilty of
holding a doctrine which the Creed did not mention. But Park
was sustained by many of the denominational leaders who felt
that the members of the Faculty were teaching a new and
false theology, and who found in the implications of the Creed,
if not in its text, belief in the present life as the only period
of probation for man.
The Andover Faculty was indeed introducing a new the-
ology, but it was not so radical as the conservatives seemed to
think. The Faculty was handicapped always by the necessity
of adjusting a fixed creed to a dynamic movement. It was
unfortunate that the center of interest should be a doctrine
which was only a corollary of the main principles, because
the main issue was much larger than the doctrine of second
probation. The New England theology had stood foursquare
on the doctrines of the trustworthiness of Scripture, the sin-
fulness of man, the governmental theory of the atonement,
and the certainty of future punishment. The new theology
granted recognition to the modern criticism of the Bible, and
to the doctrine of an immanent God and an evolutionary
principle in nature ; reflected the ideas of Bushnell regarding
the nature of man ; and shifted the emphasis from the atone-
ment to the incarnation. The new emphasis on the incarnation
was a return to the Greek theology, which after the fifth cen-
tury had been overshadowed by the emphasis on sin and the
need of salvation which was characteristic of Latin theology.
It seemed as if the Andover theologians were tearing away
a precious garment of the Christian faith.
The Andover Faculty felt the need of an organ for the ex-
pression of their opinions, and so founded the Andover
Review, which for nine years furnished the medium for the
explanation of the new theology. Five members of the Faculty
constituted the editorial board, and the Andover Review Com-
pany was formed to take care of the business end. A contract
was made with H ought on Mifflin & Company to publish the
Review monthly. There was the more room for it now that the
Bibliotheca Sacra had taken wings to Oberlin. The prospectus
of the new review stated that it would "advocate the principles
and represent the spirit and method of progressive orthodoxy."
The editors hoped to make it representative of the best modern
thought, and particularly to "show the obligations of theology
to the social and religious life of the time." They were less
interested in speculation than in guiding opinion construc-
tively to build a vital faith. The Review rallied the forces
of the liberals, and brought them out into the open to contend
for intellectual freedom and the idea of progress in theology.
The thesis of the new theologians was made the title of a book
1174Y
which appeared shortly as "Progressive Orthodoxy." Its
chapters were an expansion of editorials which had appeared
in the Review, and were an attempt to show the true meaning
of the New Theology. They dealt with the incarnation and
the atonement, with the work of the Holy Spirit, with Chris-
tian missions and eschatology, with the Scriptures and the
universality of Christianity. Later a second series of editorials
was published under the title of "The Divinity of Christ."
The term "Progressive Orthodoxy" was peculiarly expres-
sive of the position held by the Andover Faculty. Instead of
the static system of the past they would have an intellectual
faith that throbbed with life and power. They would put
life into the dry bones of orthodoxy, not destroy it. They
found inspiration in a Bible that was a progressive revelation
of God's dealing with men, in a Spirit patiently wooing hu-
mankind to allegiance to the highest ideals, in a hope that
God's purpose for the world would not be defeated by pagan-
ism, but that in His good way and time He would get His
appeal to them and win their response. They were not skeptics
or Unitarians, but it was difficult for those who held the old
point of view to see anything but heresy in the new. The dis-
cussion was enlivened by Joseph Cook, who in his preludes
before his Monday lectures to thousands in Tremont Temple,
unlimbered his guns against Professor Smyth, and by Profes-
sor Park, who issued anonymously the so-called Worcester
Creed for the orthodox.
It is quite correct to speak of the new theology as more
humane than the old. It was based on the love of God rather
than on the rigors of the law. It envisaged human relations
as well as divine, and saw that Christianity must be applied
to these social relations and their economic and social prob-
lems. It is significant that the social settlement movement
found a sponsor in Professor Tucker, one of the editors of
the Andover Review. It was a long way from a creed that
required the professors to denounce Roman Catholics to a
practice of friendly neighborliness with Irish Americans in
the South End of Boston. And it was certainly a new depart-
ure to think of the heathen as subjects of divine and human
H75Y
compassion both now and hereafter rather than as brands to
be plucked from the burning, trophies of a selective grace.
The doctrine of second probation sponsored by the Andover
Faculty as a part of their broader creed brought them directly
into conflict with the American Board in Boston and with
the Congregationalist, which represented editorially the older
theological position. Personal animosities were inescapable.
Unfriendliness appeared in the meetings of the Board and
at the Anniversaries of the denomination. It was especially
apparent when Andover graduates appeared as candidates
for missionary appointments, and it acted to hinder the return
to the field of so brilliant a missionary as Robert A. Hume.
The Faculty went on with the regular work of the school,
though the controversy was a disturbing element. The wide
interest in theological changes, the new social conditions con-
sequent upon the growth of urban centers, and the new depart-
ments of study at Andover, attracted students to the advanced
courses, which were established about 1880. More than one
hundred students were enrolled in these courses during the
period of controversy. The record of their work was pre-
served in the Seminary Bulletin, which was published monthly.
Eventually the controversy came to a head with charges of
heresy brought against the five members of the editorial board
of the Andover Review. This was in the summer of 1886.
The Visitors had received complaints against the professors
which called upon the Faculty to disprove the charges that
they were disloyal to the Hopkinsian Creed and the West-
minster Catechism, and that they taught doctrines that were
subversive of orthodoxy. The professors replied promptly.
Legal counsel was secured on both sides, and a trial of the
professors under indictment was held in Boston before the
Visitors. In their decision the Visitors singled out Professor
Egbert C. Smyth 'for judgment, condemning him on three
counts: first, "that the Bible is not the only rule of faith and
practice, but is fallible and untrustworthy, even in some of its
religious teaching" ; second, "that no man has power or capac-
ity to repent without knowledge of God in Christ"; third,
"that there is and will be probation after death for all men
1176Y
who do not decisively reject Christ during the earthly life."
With respect to the complaints against the remaining four
professors, the Visitors announced that Reverend William T.
Eustis, the secretary of the Board, had declined to act with
his associates upon the ground that he was not present on
the day when these professors appeared and made their state-
ments in their defence, and that none of the charges against
these professors were sustained by the other members of the
Board. As afterwards developed, the president of the Board,
President Julius Seelye of Amherst College, voted to dis-
miss the, charges against all the professors, whereas Mr.
Joshua Newell Marshall voted to condemn all. Since Dr.
Eustis declined to vote except in the case of Professor Smyth,
the charges against the other professors were not sustained,
although the complainants against them were the same as that
against Professor Smyth, and all were equally responsible for
the utterances complained of.
Professor Smyth appealed from the decision to the Supreme
Judicial Court of Massachusetts, maintaining both that the
action of the Visitors was unwarranted as a matter of law,
and that the decision was tainted with partiality because Dr.
Eustis had so prejudged the case as to disqualify him from
acting judicially. The Trustees made their own investigation
and found the charges ill-founded. They therefore supported
Smyth by legal counsel. They were interested in the question
that was involved, whether the Visitors were exceeding their
powers. The case was argued before the Court in the fall of
"1890, and a year later the Court rendered its decision. The
Court unanimously affirmed the constitutionality and the
original jurisdiction of the Board of Visitors, which had been
questioned by Smyth, but a majority of the Court Chief
Justice Field dissenting set aside the verdict of the Visitors
that Smyth should be removed from his professorship, on the
ground that the Trustees had not been allowed on their appli-
cation to be heard in the case. This did not end the matter,
for a new hearing was held by the Visitors in 1892, at which
the Trustees were represented by a committee. Smyth was
charged by his opponents with pantheism, Universalism, and
4177Y
disreputable morality, because he kept his chair of instruc-
tion. The Board of Visitors, whose composition had mean-
while changed, disposed of the matter by a resolution to the
effect that in view of the lapse of time, the inconsistency in
the former decision, and other special circumstances, the
Visitors could better fulfil their responsibilities by other
methods, and "that without thereby expressing any opinion
upon the merits of the case, the complaint against Professor
Smyth should be dismissed."
The conclusion of the case brought relief to the members
of the Faculty, who with a continual handicap had carried
on their teaching without a break. It was especially a relief
to Professor Smyth, who had borne the brunt of the attack.
He had shown a patience and courage that endeared him to
his friends and won the respect of his enemies. The members
of the Faculty had stood by one another during the storm.
Professor Harris was stalwart in his defence of the new
theology and quick to appreciate its social implications. Pro-
fessor Tucker was equally at home in systematic and practical
theology, and on the platform as well as in the pages of the
Andover Review he won friends for the modern point of view
in religion. Professor Hincks mingled biblical criticism with
a deep spirituality which was a part of his religious nature
and which was reinforced by his vacation communings in his
cabin high up on the northern slope of the White Mountains.
Professor Churchill, the fifth member of the editorial board
of the Review, while not an aggressive disputant, was a be-
liever in Christian freedom, and on that ground he supported
his colleagues.
The net consequence of the controversy was to strengthen
the hands of liberals who were struggling for theological
freedom, as men of previous generations had fought for lib-
erty of conscience. Union Seminary in New York during the
same period strove for the principle of biblical interpretation
according to the canons of criticism. Together Andover and
Union stood in the forefront of the battle that was to divide
denominations from within and to threaten to break them
wide open, the battle between the two principles of a fixed
body of doctrine once delivered to the saints and a growing
understanding of the mind of God on the basis of reason and
experience. Of the Andover Review Frederic Palmer said :
"It has stimulated thought, deepened piety, enlarged the
visible horizon of the kingdom of heaven, set a wonderful
example of Christian courtesy in polemics, and saved the Con-
gregational body from destruction at the hands of the intel-
lectual deadness and narrow ecclesiasticism of its own High
Church party. Its influence is now established. The new
theology ... is preached from many a pulpit and editorial
chair where it is not at all recognized as Andover theology,
but is unconsciously supposed to be Theology itself, the only
normal and proper thing. What greater success can any
scheme of thought desire than to lose its distinctive name and
supersede itself ? "
The Seminary itself did not emerge from the conflict un-
scathed. The wounds of theological wars are slow to heal.
The spirit of the school had been generous in its freedom to
the professors in spite of the ancient standards. In 1868 a
student wrote that the Faculty would let a man have liberty
to think, and there was no objection to the progress of scien-
tific investigation. "Andover does not watch with quaking
the approach of modern science ; for its faith is not grounded
in the letter, but in the spirit of revelation, and it holds no
theory which it is not willing to be submitted to the test of
enlightened reason." And the Trustees did not hamper the
freedom of the classroom. But the Seminary continued to
bear the scars of the acute controversy of the decade. At-
tendance declined, for students did not wish to be involved
in the issues, and to be a graduate of Andover during those
years was to incur the suspicion of heterodoxy. But the
Faculty faced the future with resolution and courage.
An indication of the new outlook of the Seminary was the
attention given to social questions. Professor Tucker supplied
the impetus, arranging a plan for the Andover House in
Boston, so that several residents could have practical experi-
ence there for a period of at least six months in connection
with the work of Berkeley Temple. Because of his interest
4179Y
in the subject Robert A. Woods, who had been a member of
the Advanced Class in 1890 and afterward had resided for a
time at Toynbee Hall in London, became head of Andover
House, and lectured on social questions at the Seminary. The
Porter Rhetorical Society discussed social problems at its
meetings. The alumni gave a day at the Anniversaries in 1896
to the discussion of labor and other social issues, with special
reference to the duty of ministers and churches, led by distin-
guished speakers.
It was a period when conferences were popular. Faculty
and students met for a fortnightly conference under the
direction of a joint committee of professors and students
to discuss freely matters of practical importance connected
with the institutions and problems of modern life. One
of the professors presided and summed up the discussion.
Among the topics discussed were the observance of Sun-
day, religious education in the public schools, the attitude
of the ministers to temperance reform, the reorganization of
Congregational churches, and methods of teaching churches
and Sunday schools the results of the higher criticism. Once
a month the Faculty and graduate students met for a paper
by a student and the discussion of it.
A pastoral conference on Catechetics by those who were
especially interested in the subject brought together repre-
sentative men from everywhere in 1900. They attempted to
evaluate the catechetical method of instruction in religion,
and during the day discussed the church and the home, the
church in the city, parochialization as a substitute for evan-
gelization, Roman Catholic methods of child care, and the
practical use of the catechism.
Back in 1877 the members of the Faculty had enjoyed a
local club, which included their wives and persons of culture
in the community. They called themselves "The Owls."
Meetings were held fortnightly at the houses of the profes-
sors or of the principal of the Academy, when papers on
learned subjects were read and discussed, and individual
readings were reported. The meetings were of a confidential
nature; the members were to be "at once, condignly, igno-
miniously, unanimously, and irrecoverably expelled without
further accusation, arraignment, trial, or conviction, and
without benefit of clergy" if they divulged remarks that were
made in the inner circle. It was optional with the ladies
whether or not they should participate actively in the exer-
cises. Most of the subjects discussed were classical, theologi-
cal, historical, or descriptive ; now and then an original poem
was read or a prominent book reviewed. The club served as
mild recreation and an intellectual stimulus to the professional
people of Andover, and its list of members reads like an in-
tellectual register. But it lasted for only a short time.
The Faculty swung into line with other divinity schools by
suggesting to the Trustees in 1896 the desirability of granting
the degree of Bachelor of Divinity to students who had had
the college training and who completed the full course at
Andover. The Trustees agreed and applied for authority to
the Massachusetts Legislature, which granted the privilege.
The degree was conferred on several graduates of former
years, including Dr. Cole of Wheaton and Professor Ropes
of Harvard.
There were special occasions when Faculty and students
assembled to do special honor to a man or an organization,
and invited speakers from outside the Seminary. In 1897
came the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of Me-
lanchthon, the German reformer and theologian. The stu-
dents sang German and Latin hymns, and listened to an
address on the man and his character. Six years later a more
elaborate celebration marked the two hundredth anniversary
of the birth of Jonathan Edwards. Dr. William R. Richards
of the Brick Church in New York City preached a commemo-
rative sermon. Alumni and other ministers and professors
from Harvard and Boston University gathered with the
students to listen to addresses from Professors Smyth and
Platner of Andover and Professor Woodbridge of Columbia,
and a poem from Dr. Samuel V. Cole of Wheaton Seminary.
Dr. James Orr of the University of Glasgow came with a con-
gratulatory message from the United Free Church College,
and addressed the gathering on the Influence of Edwards.
A reception and collation in Bartlet Chapel added spice to
the exercises.
Another special occasion was a memorial service for Pro-
fessor Smyth, who died in 1904 and was buried in the Chapel
Cemetery. Seminary exercises were omitted on the day when
the town of Andover celebrated its two hundred and fiftieth
anniversary ; on the day when Admiral Dewey came to Boston
after his victory at Manila; and again when the American
Missionary Association held its jubilee meeting in Boston.
Among the improvements of the period were the installa-
tion of electric lights in Bartlet Chapel and the Library, made
possible by the generosity of a friend, and the introduction
of the practice of wearing academic costume at Commence-
ment time.
The Faculty and the Trustees cooperated to enrich the
mental and spiritual life of the students. Among the preachers
who addressed the students were Gordon, Cuthbert Hall,
Harris, Cadman, Speer, Eaton of Beloit, Harry P. Dewey,
and Joseph Neesima. Special lecturers included George Adam
Smith and Cheyne from Great Britain, Bowne and Cuthbert
Hall from America. For periods of a year or two Alexander
Mackenzie, W. H. Hocking, and W. W. Rockwell were ap-
pointed to lecture on pastoral theology, the history of religions,
and the history of the Christian Church.
In the natural course of events changes occurred in the
Faculty. Professor Park, so long emeritus, and Professor
Churchill died. Friends of Churchill fitted up a memorial
room in his honor, which was designed as a center of student
life. Reverend William H. Ryder succeeded Woodruff in
1888, remaining thirty years in the New Testament chair.
He had been soldier, teacher and pastor, and he brought to
Andover not only experience but scholarly qualities coupled
with an inspiring personality. He was modest and considerate
of those who differed from him, open-minded in his attitude
and frank in his speech. The Smyth trial was hardly over
before Ryder was accused of heresy on the doctrines of the
Trinity and the Person of Christ. The Trustees investigated
and exonerated him. The Visitors were not so easily satisfied,
but at length peace was made. The Trustees took the ground
that the Creed was to be interpreted liberally for substance of
doctrine, and the Visitors did not make official objection.
Ryder had such a strong Christian faith and was so charming
a gentleman that it was difficult to hold an unfriendly opinion
against him.
Reverend Theodore C. Pease, a graduate of Harvard and
thirteen years a pastor, was elected to succeed Professor
Tucker in the chair of sacred rhetoric, when Tucker went to
the presidency of Dartmouth in 1893. Sadness and disappoint-
ment came with his death when he had but commenced his
service, but his memory was preserved in his sermons, poems,
and printed inaugural. In 1896 thirty-three students asked
for a special course of instruction in foreign missions, pref-
erably from Dr. C. C. Torrey, a request which the Trustees
granted. Torrey had been an Andover Fellow, had studied
abroad, and at the time was an instructor in Semitic languages
in the Seminary. Later he was the Taylor professor of biblical
history for a year and then went to Yale, as Moore went to
Harvard. The two men were close friends and during their
summer vacations enjoyed roughing it together in and about
their log cabin on the slope of Mount Adams in northern
New Hampshire.
Dr. Owen A. Gates came to the Old Testament department
of instruction, served for years as secretary of the Faculty,
and succeeded Ropes as librarian. William R. Arnold was
inducted into the professorship of the Hebrew language and
literature in 1903, and remained until Seminary exercises
were suspended in 1926. Dr. Charles O. Day became pro-
fessor of practical theology in 1901, and was made president
of the Faculty. He had the difficult task of holding the school
together in a period of decline, and gallantly stayed at his
post when he might have gone to college presidencies else-
where. He was active in denominational affairs, trying to
keep the Seminary in contact with the churches. He was
cherished by his colleagues and was popular among the boys
of the Academy, so that they gave him the rare honor of
stopping at his house for a speech after they had won an
athletic victory. It was Professor Day who in 1902 announced
the beginnings of the conferences with Harvard over the
project of removal to Cambridge. Professor John W. Platner
came from the Harvard Divinity School to teach history in
1901. He made his largest contribution to the Seminary after
the transfer to Cambridge.
Thus the Seminary prepared itself to enter upon the twen-
tieth century, proud of its long past and hoping for an assured
future.
CHAPTER IX
LIBERTY AND UNION
ArAIN it is Commencement Week on Andover Hill. No
longer do the Anniversaries come in late midsummer,
when harvest is ripening to its fruitage, but in June
when the year feels the strength of its youth and faces the
demands of its maturity confident in its virile powers. At
such a time it is well that young men should leave the shelter
of the training school and venture forth to try their strength
and skill. And what more beautiful setting for Commence-
ment than an elm-shaded campus in a New England village,
redolent with historic memories and steeped in an atmosphere
that has been laden with the breath of culture for more than
one hundred years.
The Commencement program in 1905 brought the bacca-
laureate sermon, the public examinations, and the annual
meeting of the Society of Inquiry, with an ordination service
as an extra on Monday evening. The alumni held their busi-
ness session on Wednesday. The alumni of a school have the
advantage over either Faculty or Trustees of viewing a situ-
ation against the background of their undergraduate experi-
ences and in the perspective of years of active ministry. They
are inclined to indulge in criticism, though they mean it to be
constructive. At Andover they were no exception. At their
meeting they discussed the attitude of educated men towards
the ministry, and resolved that the executive committee of
the Alumni Association should send a communication to all the
members, urging them and the churches to see that young
men through the influence of pulpit and prayer meeting
may become sensitive to a spiritual call. The men sat down
together at supper in Bartlet Chapel, and afterward came the
formal exhibition of two collections recently installed in the
<[ 185 Y
Museum. One was the Palestine Collection, obtained through
the activity of Professor John Phelps Taylor and bearing his
name, the other the missionary collection, which was a me-
morial to Dr. Daniel T. Fiske, a president of the Trustees
for a term of years. Appropriate addresses were made and
the rooms were opened for inspection. Thursday brought
the exercises of the graduating class, followed by the alumni
dinner, with nearly one hundred persons sharing in the fel-
lowship and enjoying the postprandial toasts.
The year had brought changes in the Faculty. Professor
Smyth had passed on, and Professor Platner had become
Brown professor of ecclesiastical history, specializing for the
year on the history of doctrine; Reverend William W. Rock-
well was teaching in the same department. Professor Arnold
had fitted into the Old Testament department, and had the
assistance of Dr. Gates. President Day, Professor Hincks,
now senior professor, and Professor Ryder continued their
several responsibilities. New names were among the lecturers
of the year. Dr. William H. Hocking of Harvard presented
the religious aspects of modern philosophy and a second
course on the history of religions. Dr. Robert A. Hume of
India in the Hyde lectures discussed missions from the mod-
ern point of view, and showed their relation to psychology
and sociology. Professor John B. Clark of Columbia delivered
the Southworth lectures on the modern economic problems
of agriculture, industry, and government monopoly. Nor was
the old concern for musical instruction permitted to lapse.
Courses in the theory and practice of church music and prac-
tical instruction in singing stimulated an appreciation in the
students of the part that music properly plays in worship.
Those who had the best interests of the Seminary at heart
were disturbed over the small number of students, and it was
felt that a larger use should be made of the facilities of the
Seminary. It was this in part that had prompted the Easter
Theological School, which had been held in the spring of
1903 and again the next year. Forty-two home missionary
pastors in Massachusetts and other parts of New England
listened to lectures from the Faculty and joined in discussing
the subjects presented, and enjoyed the fellowship of the ten
days' session. For recreation they walked about the town
and country and took trolley rides in the vicinity. They en-
joyed the baseball games of the Academy students on the
new athletic field and admired the new gymnasium, used by
both Academy and Seminary students. They strolled through
the Museum and looked over the most recent displays. In the
evenings they listened to addresses on social and practical
matters, sang with Mr. Burdett and prayed with Dr. Emrich.
Then they went home to put into practice the new ideas which
had been given to them.
The question that was uppermost in the minds of the alumni
and friends of the Seminary as the Commencement of 1906
approached was the future of the school. Since the new cen-
tury opened the conviction had been growing that something
more was necessary than to hope for the rejuvenation of the
old school. The controversy of twenty years earlier had weak-
ened the Seminary seriously. The new temper of the age
which was finding in life rather than in theology the best ex-
pression of religion, was impatient with outworn "creeds and
doubtful of the value of institutions that were based on such
creeds. Particularly were college men shy about connecting
themselves with a school that had a reputation for theological
difficulties and still required its Faculty to give lip service to
ancient symbols. Recovery from the theological depression
had been di scour agingly slow. It began to seem as if the
school might not live much longer unless something radical
was attempted.
The alumni were divided in their opinions as to what should
be done. The more conservatively minded thought that new
life might be injected into the old school with new men on the
Faculty, that more students might be secured now that the
buildings had been modernized, and that more money would
make possible greater expansion. They saw the value of the
quiet surroundings of the Seminary for the studious, and
believed that with improving means of communication the
school was near enough to the urban centers. It was sug-
gested that perhaps the Seminary might widen the scope of
4187}-
its helpfulness by doing more for foreigners in Massachusetts.
Four years before a meeting of alumni in Boston had voted
unanimously that the Seminary should be kept in Andover,
had expressed confidence in the Faculty, had pledged their
efforts to secure money and good will for the institution, and
had appointed a committee to present their resolutions to
the Trustees.
The Trustees were alive to the situation. They saw that
Andover had suffered in competition with seminaries that had
their location in a city or had university connections. They
knew the pull of urban life for modern youth. In spite of
the unfriendly relations of long ago between Andover and
Harvard, the authorities had been in consultation with the
University looking towards a possible affiliation. They
recognized the changes that had taken place in Congregational
thought, and they had no fear that the liberal atmosphere of
the Harvard Divinity School would weaken the confidence
of Andover men in their evangelical faith. President Eliot
and the Harvard Corporation met the Andover Trustees
halfway, and prepared a plan of agreement with which the
Trustees as a whole were in accord. The Trustees passed a
vote to the effect that "the period has arrived when the pros-
perity of the Theological Seminary will be promoted by its
removal from Andover if satisfactory arrangements can be
made for its establishment elsewhere." A special committee
appointed to present a plan for removal reported, however,
that no feasible plan appeared. The attitude of the Alumni
was known to be unfriendly.
Now in 1906 the matter of the removal came to the front
again. In April the Trustees had voted unanimously that the
time had come when it was best to make the affiliation with
Harvard, as soon as the legality of the action could be deter-
mined and the necessary arrangements could be made. It was
important that the Andover professors should be related
officially to the Faculty of the Harvard Divinity School, and
that a new building should be erected. The Alumni Associa-
tion of Andover appointed a committee of conference to obtain
the opinions of the graduates of the school. Commencement
2
O
O
a
X
O
O
n
H
passed before any adjustment was made, but the negotiations
continued. It had been felt for some time in the Seminary
that a board of trustees which should be separate and different
from the governing body of the Academy was very desirable,
especially if the Seminary was to be removed from the vicinity
of the Academy. The permission of the Massachusetts Legis-
lature was necessary, and pending such permission the nego-
tiators marked time.
In 1907 the Trustees petitioned the Legislature for an act
constituting the persons who were then members of the cor-
poration of the Trustees of Phillips Academy a separate cor-
poration under the name of the Trustees of Andover Theo-
logical Seminary, with authority to receive the property
theretofore held by the Trustees of Phillips Academy for the
benefit of the Theological Institution. In April, 1907, the
Legislature accordingly incorporated the persons then consti-
tuting the Trustees of Phillips Academy as the Trustees of
Andover Theological Seminary, to be governed by all the
provisions and regulations as to organization, membership,
etc., by which the Trustees of Phillips Academy were gov-
erned, and to hold all the property then held by the Academy
Trustees for the benefit of the Seminary "subject to all trusts
and conditions upon which the property had been held by the
Trustees of Phillips Academy." Upon the establishment of
the new corporation the Trustees of Phillips Academy trans-
ferred to it the land and buildings occupied by the Seminary,
together with all invested funds held for the benefit of the
Seminary. Most of those who were trustees of Phillips
Academy when the act of 1907 was passed and who under
the act became the first trustees of Andover Theological
Seminary resigned and their places were taken by men who
were primarily interested in the Seminary, thus recognizing
the fact that the Academy and the Seminary had grown apart
and that one governing body was no longer suitable.
Meantime the conference committee reported its findings
regarding the sentiments and opinions of the Andover Alumni.
It was clear that there was a general agreement that some-
thing should be done about the Seminary. The decline in
-{189 Y
attendance had been continuous since the Spanish-American
War. There was now about an equal number of professors
and students. Loyal as the alumni were and grateful for what
the school had done for them, they felt that something was
wrong, and they expressed it in various vigorous phrases. But
they did not want the Seminary to die, and they were fertile
in suggestions.
The general sentiment was against removal. Nearly half of
the three hundred and fifty or more who had voted their
preference believed it best that the Seminary should remain
on Andover Hill. They felt that old associations and the
traditions of a hundred years were too precious to be sacri-
ficed. They believed that the institution was obliged to con-
sider the wishes of the Congregational churches, and that
the funds ought not to be used in a way that would be contrary
to the wishes of the founders. About one-third of the alumni
favored the removal to Cambridge, but the majority while
recognizing the catholic spirit in which the affairs of the
University were administered and the gains to both Andover
and the Harvard Divinity School by a union of forces, felt
that it would be a mistake. It seemed doubtful if the critical,
philosophical spirit would contribute to the making of pastors
and missionaries, yet that had been the ruling purpose of the
Seminary. They feared the possibility of litigation over the re-
moval. They felt that the small number of students at the
Harvard Divinity School over a period of twenty-five years
did not give much encouragement for an increase in attend-
ance near the University. The decline of interest of students
in the colleges regarding the ministry as a profession was
by no means limited to the Andover constituency. One man
said: "An empty seminary is as well off at Andover as at
Cambridge." There were not a few who remembered that until
about 1880 the old suspicion of Harvard was so strong that
few Congregational students for the ministry were enrolled
there. After the Advanced Class was abolished at Andover
in 1894 it seemed more likely that the opportunities for ad-
vanced study at Harvard would make their appeal, but even
then the response was small. Andover alumni doubted, there-
1190Y
fore, whether any particular advantage would come from the
Harvard connection.
Minority proposals favored removal to Boston, where the
school might become a training center for ministers to the
foreign population ; to Worcester, Springfield, or Northfield,
in Massachusetts ; to a union with Amherst or Williams or
Boston University, or with Hartford or Chicago Seminaries.
Some thought it would be best if the Seminary would devote
its attention to training missionaries for foreign service.
Altogether there was a striking lack of unity. The "confer-
ence committee" itself divided three to two, the majority
favoring the Andover location, the minority sympathetic with
the Harvard affiliation. All agreed that the school must
broaden its ministry, and if possible do more for the training
of leaders for New Americans ; the plan for removal sug-
gested such work for the city of Cambridge.
It was thought that the adverse report of the body of the
alumni might check the proceedings of the Trustees, but they
saw advantages in the plan which offset the objections that
were made. It was expected that the Seminary would have
increased facilities, that the Faculty would be given equal
standing with the Faculty of the Harvard Divinity School,
and that Andover would retain its full independence. It
would be possible to have a plant that would house the library
adequately and that would be modern in every way. Most
important of all was the opportunity to acquaint the students
with the values in psychology, sociology, and ethics, and other
sciences of recent development, which could not be provided
at Andover with the limited resources of the Seminary. The
social passion, which had been felt at Andover and had led to
the foundation of Andover House as a social settlement in
Boston, could be fostered and guided in the new environment.
The Trustees recognized in Cambridge the historic shrine
of education in America. The University enjoyed freedom of
thought and discussion. It could furnish the highest type of
intellectual culture along with the theological discipline. And
that was a Congregational tradition.
There were of course difficulties to be surmounted. It would
i 191 Y
cost more to buy land near the University and to construct
such a building as would house all the equipment of the
Seminary. The sale of the old buildings at Andover to the
Academy would not pay the expense. The salaries of pro-
fessors must be raised to the minimum paid to Harvard
professors, if their standing were not to suffer. Harvard
students paid tuition and Andover students must be adjusted
to that situation without transgressing the injunction against
the charging of tuition laid upon the Trustees by some of
the donors. Finally there was the question arising from the
provision in the Constitution of Phillips Academy to the
effect that the Academy and so the Seminary as originally
a department of the Academy should never be removed
from the South Parish in the Town of Andover "unless the
good of mankind shall manifestly require it." It was a de-
batable question whether the good of mankind required an
affiliation with the divinity school of a University which had
alienated the Congregationalists of Massachusetts a hundred
years before. It was a delicate situation.
Before the hundredth anniversary arrived in 1908 the
Trustees adopted definitely the act of affiliation. The Presi-
dent and Fellows of Harvard officially approved and the
Overseers ratified the action. The Trustees of Andover then
voted finally for the removal on the twelfth of March, 1908.
The reasons which they gave for their action were the falling
off in attendance, amounting to practical desertion, the con-
sequent unproductive use of the funds, the narrow field of use-
fulness offered to the professors, the rural location at a time
when students needed city connections, and the lack of re-
sources for the expansion of the curriculum. Under the Act
of Incorporation the Trustees had no power to remove the
Seminary to a place outside of Massachusetts, so that various
proposals for removal to places in other states were imprac-
ticable. Cambridge had the advantage of being near Boston
and the center of Congregationalism, and it was in the same
geographical area as Andover. The affiliation with Harvard
would not require change in charter, constitution, or organiza-
tion of the Seminary. More courses of study would be avail-
H92Y
able. Andover courses were to be accepted for Harvard
degrees, so that the Seminary would have equal standing. It
was believed that the presence of Andover Seminary would
be of religious benefit to Harvard, and that the relation with
Harvard would dignify the calling of the ministry in the eyes
Df educated young men. The Harvard arrangement could be
terminated within two years if desired.
Andover people, as was natural, deeply regretted the deci-
sion. The secular press was generally favorable, but certain of
the religious papers condemned it as a betrayal of the ancient
trust to -make an alliance with the University. The Toledo
Blade in announcing the affiliation said: "Andover will be-
:ome 'afflicted' with the Harvard Divinity School."
The Centennial anniversary was saddened by the threat-
ened change. On Sunday morning the Seminary Church
observed its last communion service in connection with the
regular forenoon worship. At four o'clock in the afternoon
:he baccalaureate sermon was preached to the senior class.
Monday evening brought the ninety-seventh anniversary of
:he Society of Inquiry, the only one of the old student organ-
izations that remained. Mr. Edward C. Carter, Y. M. C. A.
secretary from India, spoke to the assembled company on the
work of the Association in the Far East. The alumni as-
sembled for class reunions at noon, conscious that this was the
ast time that they would return to Andover Hill to walk
igain the old paths and exchange memories of Seminary
experiences. At three o'clock Centennial addresses were given
in honor of the alumni of the hundred years. Dr. Franklin
barter, formerly president of Williams College, recounted
^.ndover's service to education. Reverend George H. Gutter-
son called to mind Andover's contributions to home missions
in America, and Dr. DeWitt S. Clark summarized the mem-
orable work of Andover's sons in the foreign mission field.
Ihe alumni and friends enjoyed a reception and supper in
Bartlet Chapel, and in the evening Professor Platner gave
:he South worth lecture on the "History of Andover Semi-
lary, a Centennial Retrospect." If the Seminary had closed
its doors at the end of its centenary, its future would stand
secure in the achievements of a century. For a hundred years
the Trustees had guided the fortunes of the school according
to the best wisdom that they possessed. The Faculty had in-
terpreted religious truth, as they had vowed to do, according
to the best light that God should give. Class after class of
students had come to drink of the living water of the Gospel,
and had gone out to carry that Gospel to thirsty souls in all
parts of the world. Andover's influence as a religious force
would not cease as long as Christianity survived. But the
Seminary was neither dead nor dying.
President Day presided at the Wednesday celebration of
the whole Seminary. The principal address of the week was
the oration by President George Harris of Amherst. He
recalled the salient features in the history of the Seminary
during the century, spoke appreciatively of the men who had
given the wealth of their learning and Christian sympathy
from the chairs of instruction, and interpreted the changing
thought of changing times. Greetings were brought with
congratulations from representatives of many educational
institutions. Particularly appropriate was it that Professor
Benjamin W. Bacon should speak for Yale, for his grand-
father had made the historical address fifty years before, and
that Professor William Adams Brown should represent Union
Seminary, because three generations of his ancestors had
studied at Andover. Professor Merriam of Hartford de-
clared: "Old Andover challenges New Andover to loftiest
achievement if it would match the past." The venerable Dr.
Alexander Mackenzie commended the ancient institution to
God in prayer. Music was provided by a chorus composed of
Seminary, Phillips Academy, and Abbot Academy students.
It seemed as if the thoughts and interests of the Congre-
gationalists of New England converged on this mother of
seminaries.
Good cheer came with the dinner in the Borden Gymnasium,
to which ladies were invited for the first time in the history
of the school. Andover alumni could not get together in the
Centennial year without making the occasion one of good
cheer. "If there is a profession given to extreme sociability
{194}-
in its interviews it is the ministry," wrote Sarah Stuart
Robbins. "After the saying of grace, always solemn with the
sudden hush of voices and the cessation of the click of china,
a more hearty and cordial abandon could not be found any-
where among any class of people than used for an hour to
fill the various rooms." Dr. Harris, presiding at the Centen-
nial dinner, spoke in humorous vein, saying: "I hope there
will be a chapter written on the one hundred dinners which
have been enjoyed at the anniversaries of the Seminary."
With Thursday came the exercises of the graduating class
in the-Seminary Chapel with an address by Professor Arnold
and the conferring of degrees. Once more a class went forth
to minister by the highways and the byways, perhaps to add
to the honor list of twenty-three college presidents, thirty
college professors, and eighteen seminary professors, who
had graduated since the Semi-centennial. The Centennial
Class that would be its distinction. Would there be a bi-
centennial to celebrate a hundred years hence?
Andover Seminary opened its second century at Cambridge
in the autumn of 1908. The Faculty was short-handed because
President Day had retired after futile efforts to stem the
decline of the school. One or two of the Faculty had moved
from Andover, but others continued to reside there and com-
mute. Professor Platner acted temporarily as chairman of
the Faculty with the title of "dean." Lecturers were ap-
pointed for the year until new professors should be elected.
Temporarily the students shared the lecture rooms and dor-
mitories of the Harvard Divinity School. The Harvard wel-
come was cordial, and the affiliation was marked appropri-
ately by public recognition. Not as strangers or even as guests
were they treated, but as one body working together for a
single end. Andover professors were given the freedom of
the University, and at the opening service of the Divinity
year an Andover professor was invited to make the address.
Andover reciprocated the Harvard courtesies. In the Andover
catalogue Harvard courses were listed as well as those of the
Andover Faculty. The two schools together had only twenty-
four students. Andover was making the new start with two
graduate students, one middler, one junior, and one special,
but she was planning in hope of better days.
In the course of the year the vacancies in the Faculty were
filled. Reverend Albert Parker Fitch, the pastor of the Mount
Vernon Congregational Church in Boston, was chosen as
Bartlet Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and President of the
Faculty. Reverend Daniel Evans, who was pastor at North
Cambridge, was elected Abbot Professor of Christian The-
ology, to succeed Professor Hincks, who had filled that posi-
tion as well as the chair of biblical theology since the resig-
nation of Professor Harris. Professor Fitch had graduated
with high honors from Harvard and Union Theological
Seminary; he was full of energy as well as ability; and he
tried hard to strengthen the Seminary. He believed that there
was a great opportunity to build up in Cambridge a school
which should serve the cause of spiritual freedom and the
development of the free churches. He declared that his pri-
mary interest was that the students should become deeply
religious men. Professor Evans in his inaugural referred to
a new idealism in the field of science and believed that the
currents of thought, converging on Cambridge, promised a
new day for religion. In commenting on the appointments
the Boston Transcript remarked that the new professors were
"not broken down old men in search of a comfortable haven
where they can beach their dismantled ministerial crafts and
rest in peace for the remainder of their days." Both were men
of high standing in their profession and well-known in Greater
Boston. President Fitch was sent to Geneva to represent the
Seminary at the observance of the four hundredth anni-
versary of Calvin's birth. A general catalogue containing
complete alumni records for the century was published, edited
by Reverend C. C. Carpenter.
The eight years of President Fitch's administration were
marked by a growth in student attendance and by plans of
expansion. The Seminary entered upon its second year in
Cambridge with twelve students; in two years the number
doubled, and the next year thirty-four were enrolled. There
was a considerable sprinkling of men from the Near and the
-U96J*
Far East. The seminaries were considering the question of
making Hebrew an elective study and the Andover Faculty
discussed it, finally reaching the conclusion that the newer
tendency was inevitable with the enlarged scope of the theo-
logical curriculum. It was ruled that to qualify for graduation
a student must have studied the History of Israel, Introduc-
tion to the Old and New Testaments, the Theology of the
New Testament, Outlines of Church History, Systematic
Theology, the Office of the Ministry, and the Art of Preaching.
The completion of Andover Hall and its dedication in 1911
provided the physical equipment needed for the school. Archi-
tecturally beautiful and dignified in appearance, with ample
quarters for the joint Andover Harvard library, and with
commodious classrooms, chapel, and dormitory accommoda-
tions, the building seemed well worth the $300,000 that
it cost. It was hoped that funds might be secured to
endow two new chairs of instruction, one in the history
of religion and missions, the other in practical theology,
including religious education. Affiliation was established
with the Episcopal Theological School of Cambridge, which
added the facilities of that school by a reciprocal arrange-
ment similar to that with Harvard. As a gesture of good
will this was matched by a telegram of congratulations to
the new Andover from a group of thirty alumni meeting
with the National Council in Kansas City.
The Society of Inquiry reached its one hundredth anniver-
sary, maintaining its organization in the new environment.
John R. Mott was Hyde lecturer, speaking on "Forces To Be
Used in the World's Evangelization." Professor Platner was
commissioned to visit the mission stations on a projected
vacation tour, carrying the greetings of the Seminary. The
Society of Inquiry, realizing that missionary effort in all parts
of the world was one enterprise, interested itself in the home
missionary problem of New England, and in connection with
a meeting of the Easter Theological School sent out a com-
munication to all its former members calling to prayer for
the mission to immigrants in the cities and for the humble
rural parishes of the hill country.
President Fitch resigned his position in 1917. His coming
had infused new life into the school, had attracted students,
and through his college preaching had enlarged the scope of
Andover's influence. As a Harvard alumnus he was interested
in the affiliation of the two schools. But the future of theo-
logical education at Cambridge was problematical. The World
War was a disturbing element, and applications from new
students diminished. With all the advantages of the new
building, ample library facilities, and the prestige of Harvard,
Andover did not seem to move forward as had been antici-
pated. Only one student graduated in 1918, and the total
enrollment was reduced to thirteen. The decade since the
Centennial had left the number of students at about the same
point as before. Financial stringency was a further handicap.
Professor Plainer became acting president, and Dr.
Raymond Calkins of Cambridge was appointed in Fitch's
place as lecturer on preaching for the year. In 1919 Professor
Platner was elected the permanent head of the Faculty, being
given at his request the title of "dean" rather than that of
"president." Professor Hincks completed thirty-four years on
the Faculty, and retired from active service, and Professor
Ryder died suddenly, so that again the number of the Faculty
was depleted seriously. The Faculty discussed the possibility
of a combination of theological schools of Greater Boston
during the next year for the sake of economy and on account
of the general depletion of numbers, and they gave general
approval to such a plan, recommending it to the Trustees.
The retirement of Professor Hincks and the death of Pro-
fessor Ryder added to the difficulties of the Seminary. Hincks
was the link with the old order of things at Andover. He had
been through the controversy over the New Theology, had
taken part in the publication of the Andover Review, and
had been on trial for his opinions. Through thirty-four years
of service he had helped to carry the administrative burdens
as well as his share of the teaching. His colleagues esteemed
him as "exhibiting in happy combination the free spirit of the
scholar and humanist, and the unobtrusive religious devotion
of the Christian minister." He did not lament the removal
4 my
to Cambridge, though his affection for the old was strong, and
he retained his Andover residence for some time.
Professor Ryder died at Andover after a brief illness in
the seventy-sixth year of his age. Not so conspicuous because
he came to Andover too late to be involved in the conflict of
ideas of the period of greatest disturbance and because of his
native modesty, he enjoyed the confidence of his colleagues
and the affection of the students for almost thirty years. As
a teacher of the New Testament he had to face the problems
of biblical criticism, and he did it frankly and fearlessly, but
with such deep religious appreciation of Scripture and with
such ample scholarship that he was freed from the charge of
heresy which for a time had rested upon him.
To fill the vacancies that had come Reverend Willard L.
Sperry, minister of the Central Congregational Church,
Boston, was invited to become Bartlet Professor of Sacred
Rhetoric, and Professor Henry J. Cadbury of Haverford
College, a graduate of Andover in 1909, was secured as lec-
turer on the New Testament. Since Dr. Sperry retained his
parish duties in Boston for a time, he could give only a limited
amount of service to Andover, but his association with the
school was an element of strength from the beginning. In the
fall of 1920 sixteen students were in attendance. Letters were
received from Australia, asking that arrangements might be
made for granting Andover degrees to students from that part
of the world, an evidence that the fame of Andover was wide
and lasting. The question of admitting women to study in
the school was a subject of discussion, but no action followed.
Death again took its toll of the Faculty in 1921. After pro-
longed ill health Professor Platner passed to his reward. He
was still on the sunny side of sixty, but as Brown professor of
ecclesiastical history, and later as dean, he had rendered worthy
service to the Seminary. Trained thoroughly at home and
abroad, he was equipped in scholarship; he was a preacher
much sought by the churches, and more than once was invited
to assume the pastorate of a church. The Faculty testified of
him that he was as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land
during twenty years of vicissitudes. " The service of his life
-{199}-
was greater than his teaching or administration; his daily
contact with his students and his colleagues revealed the fine
qualities of his character. He was gentle in his manner, un-
selfish in his relation to others, sympathetic with them in their
difficulties, interested in their pursuits, and always at their
service. He lived amongst us as a scholar, a gentleman, and
a Christian."
It was then that Dr. Sperry was brought into full relation
with the educational work in Cambridge. He was made presi-
dent of the Faculty of Andover Theological Seminary, and
the Harvard Corporation announced his election as "Professor
of Homiletics and Dean of the Theological School in Harvard
University." The affiliation between the two institutions had
worked sufficiently well to justify a closer relationship. The
demands of the Government for the use of Divinity Hall dur-
ing the World War had hastened this development. Under a
"Plan of Closer Affiliation" adopted by the Trustees and by
the President and Fellows of Harvard College respectively,
in May, 1922, it was provided that the two corporations should
join to form a non-denominational theological school with
single faculty, roll of students, administration and catalogue,
the name of the school to be "The Theological School in Har-
vard University." Degrees were to be conferred by Harvard
upon students of the school on recommendation of the Faculty,
but the Trustees reserved the right in their discretion to grant
Andover degrees to Andover students, this term including
the holders of Andover scholarships and fellowships and any
other persons qualified and desiring to be such. The Andover
professors Evans, Arnold, and Cadbury were adopted
by the University. But scarcely had the arrangement been
made before it was disrupted by legal proceedings.
The removal to Cambridge had not escaped legal compli-
cations in 1908. Certain alumni unfriendly to the change
preferred objections before the Visitors, but the Visitors de-
clined to hold that the removal was contrary to the intention
of the Founders. Immediately after the Plan of Closer Affilia-
tion was adopted, however, the Visitors, whose personnel
had meanwhile changed, passed a resolution declaring the
plan void. This action raised many legal questions which
were the subject of protracted proceedings in the Supreme
Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Hearings were held be-
fore Fred T. Field, Esquire, (now a Justice of that Court)
as master. His report was to the effect that in view of
the limited income and other circumstances it was imprac-
ticable for Andover to be maintained as an unaffiliated insti-
tution. He further found that for many years prior to the be-
ginning of the proceedings the Visitors, in passing upon the
suitability of men elected by the Trustees to professorships,
had treated the various creedal requirements as satisfied if the
professor-elect was found to stand with respect to his doctrinal
views in the historical succession of New England Trinitarian
Congregationalism and had deemed immaterial an inability
to accept particular propositions in the Creed or in the Cate-
chism. With respect to the Plan of Closer Affiliation the
master's finding was as follows :
"I find that, apart from doctrinal or creedal requirements, the
Plan of Closer Affiliation fulfills, as nearly as is possible under
the existing conditions, the purposes for which Andover Seminary
was founded. I further find that if the purposes for which the
Seminary was founded, so far as such purposes involve doctrinal
or creedal requirements, are fulfilled if instruction in the field of
theological studies in which doctrinal questions are involved is in
the historical succession of New England Trinitarian Congrega-
tionalism, the Plan of Closer Affiliation fulfills with respect to
Andover students as nearly as possible under existing conditions
the purposes for which Andover Seminary was founded."
The Court, however, held that the language of the original
Constitution, Associate Statutes, and other fundamental doc-
uments was so unequivocal that no relaxed interpretation
was permissible, even though, as the master found, it had be-
come impossible for any theological scholar of standing to
subscribe to the Creed if literally interpreted. While the actual
decision (which was rendered in September, 1925) did not go
further than to set aside the Plan of Closer Affiliation, it was
apparent that it was useless, either with or without any affilia-
tion, to attempt to keep the Seminary open, so long as it should
be subject to the creedal requirements as construed by the
Court.
Apparently nothing remained for Andover Seminary but
to close its doors. For the remainder of the academic year
1925-1926 the Seminary was conducted under the original
Plan of Affiliation adopted in 1908, which was not directly
affected by the decision. By concurrent action of the Trustees
and of the Harvard Corporation this plan was then abrogated.
The Faculty resigned, and the Trustees voted that instruction
be suspended.
It was in a chastened frame of mind that friends and alumni
contemplated the future. Must the school that had served so
well the denomination and the Christian world die of strangu-
lation? Was the noble purpose of the founders to educate a
Congregational ministry to be defeated by the dead hand of
outgrown dogma? The Court had suggested a possible
method of liberation. By a decree in accordance with the
liberal principle of cy pres the Court might remove the ancient
restriction and make it possible for the old school to breathe
again. The Trustees immediately entered upon a serious con-
sideration of the feasibility of obtaining relief by this means.
Many important questions, both of law and of policy, had to
be taken into account before the Trustees felt justified in
instituting further proceedings. In November, 1930, however,
the Trustees filed in the Supreme Judicial Court a bill in equity,
representing that it was impossible under existing conditions
to execute in all respects the designs of the founders as in-
terpreted in the previous decision, and that attempted con-
formity to the creedal requirements of the Constitution
and Statutes as so interpreted would altogether defeat the
primary object of the founders and subsequent donors, i.e.,
the providing of learned, able and devout ministers for the
Trinitarian Congregational churches, and would necessitate
the permanent discontinuance of the Seminary. The bill
therefore asked the Court to adjudge that persons whose theo-
logical views were in conformity with those obtaining among
Trinitarian Congregationalists generally should thereafter be
deemed qualified so far as concerned their doctrinal position
{ 202 }-
for professorships in the Seminary and that instruction given
in the Seminary should not thereafter be called in question
because of inconsistency with the creedal requirements of the
Constitution and Statutes. The Board of Visitors (whose
composition had undergone still another change) filed an
answer in substance joining in the request of the Trustees. On
April 10, 1931, the Court entered a decree reciting that it had
become impossible to carry out the purposes of the founders
and subsequent benefactors of the Seminary so long as the
creedal requirements of the Constitution and Statutes were
strictly enforced, and relieving the Trustees and the Visitors
from the necessity of complying with these requirements
except to the extent of seeing to it that the theological views
held by the professors and by the members of the Board of
Visitors are in conformity with those obtaining among Trini-
tarian Congregationalists generally.
While the legal matters were under advisement, the future
course of Andover Theological Seminary was under consider-
ation. The terms of the charter required that the Seminary
should remain in Massachusetts, a provision which eliminated
the possibility of going West or South. The continual objec-
tion to the Harvard affiliation made resumption of the ar-
rangement at Cambridge impracticable. Yet Andover lacked
an endowment sufficient to continue instruction alone, and
since the old buildings at Andover had been disposed of to the
Academy in 1908, and Andover Hall in Cambridge was not
available, the Seminary was in a dilemma.
There was one way out. A cordial invitation from Newton
Theological Institution to join forces in a new affiliation was
extended to the homeless school. It was a novel proposition
to unite seminaries of different denominations. Newton was
Baptist and Andover was Congregational. But interdenomi-
national differences had grown less acute since the first pro-
fessors were obligated to denounce "heresies and errors,
ancient and modern," and there were many likenesses between
the two seminaries. Both were evangelical in temper, having
come into existence in the same period and under the same
impulse. Andover dated from 1807, Newton from 1825.
4203Y
The first Newton professors, Chase and Ripley, were An-
dover men, and they transplanted the ideas and methods of the
older school. Each had a rich missionary heritage. Each had
been represented on the home mission field and in the halls
of educational institutions. Both had the same high standards
of scholarship, the same theological outlook, the same interest
in interpreting religion in terms of present as well as future
life. Both rested on faith in the ultimate spiritual reality as
against the secular spirit of the age. Together they might
hope to become a strong force in the life of the time, and to
show the way towards the closer cooperation of two great and
friendly denominations. In January, 1930, the Trustees of
Newton extended a formal invitation to Andover to enter
into an affiliation. The Andover Trustees thereupon adopted
a resolution declaring their desire to accept the invitation as
soon as practicable. Upon the entry of the decree relaxing
the creedal requirements, the Visitors voted to approve the
Plan of Affiliation with Newton. The Trustees thereupon
voted to remove the Seminary from Cambridge to Newton
to the extent contemplated by the Plan of Affiliation and to
accept the invitation of Newton to enter into that plan. It
was further voted that undergraduate instruction in the Semi-
nary be resumed in Newton at the beginning of the academic
year 1931-32.
The mutual agreement provided resources sufficient for a
strengthened Faculty. Professor Evans, whose resignation
from the Andover Faculty had been held in abeyance by the
Trustees, now withdrew the resignation at their request and
resumed his duties as Abbot Professor of Christian Theology
in coordination with the Newton department. Reverend
Dwight Bradley became lecturer in pastoral problems and
church worship, and Reverend A. Philip Guiles was added to
the Faculty as the director of clinical training. In 1933 Pro-
fessor Amos Niven Wilder of Union College was appointed
to the chair of New Testament Interpretation.
Andover students found their way to another hill than the
old, but no less consecrated by ancient traditions and precious
memories. In the Newton buildings at Newton Centre, An-
1204}-
HILLS LIBRARY AND FARWELL HALL IN NEWTON
dover men studied side by side with Newton men, and in the
classrooms the professors made no distinction between them.
The old Society of Inquiry of Andover was revived and the
long history of the organization was recalled. Andover alumni
fraternized with Newton alumni at Commencement, and
trustees of both schools sat together at the Commencement
dinner. Friendship with Harvard was by no means broken.
Newton had relations of affiliation with Harvard which
facilitated the special studies of advanced students at Cam-
bridge, and Andover arranged with Harvard to continue for
the present the maintenance of the joint library in Andover
Hall. The short distance of seven miles from Newton to Cam-
bridge made it easily accessible in motor days, and the same
distance from Newton to Boston made convenient the cultural
advantages of that city and opportunities for service.
The affiliation of the two schools was not a merger. Mind-
ful of Andover's past experiences and of the possibility of
readjustments, the seminaries adopted the principle of fed-
eration with freedom for either school to abrogate the joint
arrangement, if it should be desired. All the procedure was
carried out in the most cordial spirit and in anticipation of
permanence. The instructors of the two schools under the
Plan of Affiliation hold regular meetings as one body under
the name of the " Faculty of the Andover Newton Theological
School," separate meetings of the faculties of the two schools
being held as occasion may require. The presiding officer
at the joint meetings is the President of Newton, who has
the title of "President of the Andover Newton Theological
School." President Everett Carleton Herrick, D.D., LL.D.,
who had been president of Newton since 1926, thus became
the first holder of the new title. He had added notably to the
endowment of the Institution by tireless efforts, and had
enriched the school with new friends. The attendance was
increasing materially, and the students were loyal to president
and seminary in spirit and conduct. Dr. Herrick made the
affiliation possible by his cordial spirit and patient wisdom.
There was the friendliest feeling for the affiliation among
the Trustees and Faculty of the Institution. To facilitate the
working of the joint arrangement an administrative com-
mittee of five from each board of trustees was appointed.
The Trustees of Andover elected Reverend Vaughan
Dabney, D.D., the minister of the Second Church in Dor-
chester, as Bartlet Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Presi-
dent of the Andover Faculty. The Plan of Affiliation provides
that "The President of the Andover Faculty shall have the title
'Dean of the Andover Newton Theological School,'" so Dr.
Dabney became the first holder of this title. Dr. Dabney was
Kentucky bred and received his theological education at Chi-
cago Theological Seminary and as graduate fellow at Andover
in 1912-14. He had had pastoral experience both East and
West, and his election was hailed as a most suitable one. He
was inaugurated on the seventh of January, 1932, in the First
Church of Newton amid the congratulations of friends of
both institutions and representatives from other schools of
learning. He was inducted into office by Dr. Arthur S. Pease,
President of Amherst College, a trustee of the Seminary and
son of a former Bartlet professor at Andover, and the pro-
gram included addresses by Justice Fred T. Field, president
of the Newton Trustees, President Ernest N. Hopkins of
Dartmouth, and Dr. Albert W. Beaven, president of the
Colgate-Rochester Divinity School. Music was furnished by
the chapel choir of the Seminary, led by an Andover student.
In his inaugural address Dr. Dabney interpreted the alliance
of Andover and Newton as meaning : first, the continuity of
ancient traditions of scholarship, missionary zeal, and spir-
itual fervor ; second, cooperation as the hope of a richer
future ; and third, creative accomplishment in the field of reli-
gion, so as to feed hungry souls and better to interpret the
Master to human society.
Andover students who came to Institution Hill at Newton
Centre in the fall of 1932 found a busy student body of one
hundred and fifty undergraduates, representing thirty differ-
ent states of the Union and twelve foreign countries. Eighty
Baptist and Congregational churches were being served by
students as pastors' assistants. Deputation teams went to the
churches for evangelistic purposes, and city missions were
visited regularly in Boston. The Seminary enjoyed radio
broadcasting privileges for religious messages at a neighboring
station. Herrick House, a new dormitory erected during the
summer, provided modern accommodations for married stu-
dents, and Chase House supplied living quarters for women
who were studying in the department of religious education.
Lectures on the Hyde Foundation were on the point of resump-
tion, and Professor Hocking of Harvard soon set a new pace
with his contribution to re-thinking missions. The Southworth
lectures of Andover supplemented the Greene, Duncan, and
English foundations of Newton. And there on the hilltop of
forty acres men and women took time for spiritual retreat
as well as for intellectual and social activities.
With the approach of Andover's one hundred and twenty-
fifth anniversary faith is strong that the school of the prophets
formed long ago by the alliance of two groups of Congrega-
tionalists will find more abundant life in federation with a
school of similar tradition, though of another denomination.
They are loyal to the same God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
Theirs is the same evangelical faith, the same congregational
polity. Theirs are the same educational ideals, theirs the same
goal of a social order transformed into the Kingdom of God.
The vision of the world's need is glimpsed from Institution
Hill in Newton as it was from Andover Hill. And what
matters it, said Dr. Dabney in his inaugural, "if the ark of
Andover has finally landed on the Ararat of Newton Hill?
Progressive theological schools no longer wear sectarian
labels. What a challenge is ours at Andover Newton to add
a thrilling chapter to the history of the Christian Church,
a history too full of wasteful competition and schism."
On the back of the President's chair in the Convention hall
at Philadelphia in 1787 was painted the picture of a half-
submerged sun. When the Constitution of the new nation
had been adopted, Benjamin Franklin, turning to several per-
sons who stood near him, remarked: "I have often in the
course of this session looked at the sun behind the President
without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting.
But now I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and
not a setting sun." During the vicissitudes of the last quarter
of a century the sons of Andover may have felt a similar
uncertainty, but on this one hundred and twenty-fifth anni-
versary they may feel confident that Andover's glory did not
vanish with the fading glow of a sunset over the Shawsheen
valley, but that the pioneer seminary of New England, with
its windows open toward the east, greets a new and greater
day from Newton Hill.
BV Howe
4070 : Eis ry o f the
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