I FEAR that I have little fitness for the service I have been so kindly invited to perform, beyond the fact that I had a share in Dr. Hodge’s confidence, that I loved him dearly, and that during the short period of my acquaintance with him I had come to know him well. It has occurred to me more than once since the preparation of this Discourse was undertaken, that some one who had known him longer and whose record of memories reaches back to the years of a common boyhood would have done ampler justice to this occasion. For, when a great man dies, there is a natural, and surely a pardonable, curiosity on the part of all to know something of his early life. We love to study his history in the light of the facts that made up the totality of his career, and to read in stories of his childhood the promise of a greatness attained in later years. In the case of one like Dr. Hodge, whose personality was so unique, so manifold, and so manifestly marked by genius, we naturally suppose that those who have been his companions for a lifetime are in possession of reminiscences that would abundantly gratify this very natural desire. It may yet fall to the lot of one specially qualified, to do what obviously I cannot do. I must content myself with describing what I saw, and representing Dr. Hodge to you as he appeared to me. That we were engaged in kindred pursuits, that we had both taught from the same text-book, and had traversed in frequent conversations the leading topics embraced in Dr. Charles Hodge’s Systematic Theology, may qualify me in a measure for forming a just estimate of his position in the theological world. This estimate I shall at least try to make, not in the form of fulsome eulogy—for a simple statement of the truth will be eulogy enough—but in tender regard for his precious memory and under the restrictions of sober fact.
The death of Dr. Hodge is such a sore bereavement to our entire Church, that a memorial service held in the midst of a larger community than that embraced in the University-town where the last years of his life were spent, seems eminently proper; and I know of no place where that service could be more appropriately held than in this city of his forefathers, the city that he loved above all others, and for which his last and ripest work was done. On this day of the week and at this hour of the day, many of you had hoped to hear his voice not many days hence as you heard it last winter, when he exhibited so clearly, with such aptness of illustration and characteristic affluence of expression, the great doctrines of our faith. How little any one dreamed that death would give such significance to his closing words when for the last time he addressed the large audience that had gathered week by week to hear him! How little did any one suppose that these closing words were to be treasured afterwards as the swan-song of the dying theologian!—“We shall meet together here no more. Let us pledge one another to reassemble in heaven. We part as pilgrims part upon the road. Let us take our way heavenward, for if we do we shall soon, some of us very soon, be at home with the Lord.” His removal is God’s strange work. We can only say: “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth because thou didst it.” We bow submissively to our Father’s will, and are here to-day to thank God for the life of Archibald Alexander Hodge, to read afresh the record of that life, and in its lessons find new inspiration.
Genre: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Religious| Language | Status |
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Portuguese
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Already translated.
Translated by Rute Silva
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Spanish
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Already translated.
Translated by Alfredo Jimenez
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Author review: Great translation. Great to work with. I highly recommend this translator to anyone. |
