The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1877-12-12
FoR THE CENTRAL PREssYTERIAN.
"REMINISCENCES OF PRESBYTERIAN
MINISTERS.
BY AN oCToGENARIAN.
No. %.
REV. DIR. FILM.

REV. DIX. fLINNs
Possibly the reader may ask, what benefit
viii arise from recalling the memory of SO
many ministers, who are sleeping quietly in
their graves. Much benefit every way,
chiefly because to these men, in their day,
'wsre committed the orscles of God" The
business of their lives was to expound, illus,
trate, and enforce sll the teachings Of the
Scriptures. 1t is important for US to know
what and how, they taught, giving to each
his portion in due season. If held in vivid
remembrance, they become examples to the
Aocks of young men by whom they are to be
succeeded until ell time shall end If biOg-
rsphies, memoirs, and even incidents we're
all stricken out, what vacuum would be
created in the Presbyterian Church. How
much Sabbath reading and freside entertain
ments would be lost to their personal de-
scendsnts-their congregations and the pub
lie. The life of every minister is marked out
in heaven. How pleasant to trace out the
ways in which they were led. Surely God
led Chalmers from Kilmany to Glasgow
Erskine from KirkintillOch to Edna, and
Witherspoon from Paisley to America.
DR.. Finn, from Charleston, S. c., spent
part of summer in Princeton. He mani
tested so much srdOr of feeling, that we took
him to be of Irish extraction. If right in
my suspicion he would not have been less
agreeable on that account, for there are some
things in the Emerald Isle about which we
love to chat. Not its peat bOgs-shilalebs
fights, duels, Instructions, incendiarisms
wells called holy, the margins of which are
strewn with the rags of superstitious de-
votees. No; but its green surface laid
down like carpet by the hand of spring,
hawthorn, its clover, halls of Tara, Killar-
ney Lakes, Csusewsys, the vale of Wicklow
in which Grsttan lived, its ivy pillars, cas-
ties, and above all its Protestant kinks, W.
can never forget that Francis Mskemie, from
Ulster, volunteered to plant the ,esrlies
germs of Presbyterisnism on the soil of Ma
ryland. His mild blue eye watched the vine
till it began to send out its bOughs to tht
sea, and its branches far beyond the river o
Pocomoke. Bears out of the wood woulc
have deVoured it; but his prayer was "Le
thy hand be upon the man of thy right han,
and upon the son of man whom thou mades
strong for thyself; and so will We not g
back from Thee, oh Shepherd of Israel"
We return to DR.. Finn. The octogens
risn was anxious to make his sequaintanc
for the following reason Several years be
fore, met with gentleman, in whose judg
ment and taste the most implicit cOnfdeuc
was felt. He was not of our denomination
but he had heard the subject of this paper
the city of Philsdelphis. 1t was thought 6
the time that the eulOgium of the Msrylan
critic on the South Carolina divine, had rstl
or bordered on extravaganza. He spoke I
his noble appearance in the pulpit, his prs..
ers, the reading of the hymns, his tones an
the mental power with which he managed b
subject. DR.. Sprsgue once went into exist
cies, when speaking to DR.. Dwight of Sc
mon he had heard as the greatest producti'
of the human mind. "Ah, said the Do
tor, "there have been multitudes of So
sermons preached in our world within t
last eighteen hundred years" The Anusl
of the American Pulpit told me himself