The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-01-11

as perhaps as vigorous a MIND as was
in the whole South, and, for aught we
know, in the entire country. We felt
that he was endowed not oniy with a
very high understanding, but thai al
his powers were IN excellent balance
and under great command. We have
cherished the opinion that IL ne had
given his time to il, that with his ex-
t-aordinary powers and wide attain
ments and great logical force, he could
not only have written a defence Of the
south nat would ave been Of super
lative interest and ability, but would
have been overwhelming in conclusion
and forever unanswerabie. You see
something Of his skill and vigor
in his Defence of Virginia." What
a noble, masculine history Of the
War Between the States he could
have written. In the war he served on
General Jackson's staff, with the rank
Of major, until failing health compelled
him to retire. DR.. Dabney and Rev.
Dr. Albert Taylor Bledsoe, another
native of Virginia, we believe to have
been the two ablest men and most
dangerous disputants to tackle Of all
V~irginians Of the last half century.
They were masters Of reasoning and
d1alectics generality, They had capa-
cious, extremely strong, acute, meta
physical, syntaetical and logical under
standings. 1t has sometimes occurred
to us that DR.. Dabney and DR.. Thorn
we'll, of South Carolina, were, AXE
them all in all, the greatest divines of
Southern Presbyterianism in all of its
history. OF these two Singularly able
men We know not which was the great
er or the more learned, but both were
great and most admirably equipped.
We are not dogmatizing in opinion, be-
cause we write from too narrow a
view, from too little an acquaintance
with their profound, scholarly and even
monumental works. The eloquent and
elegant Rev. DR.. Moses D. Hcge, the
almost -octogenarian, so full of good
deeds and p~rotracted services and
rich results of his memorable ministry,
knew DR.. Dabney intimately and long.
He recently said of HIM:
He vas the most versatile and accu-
rate scholar i'm the south. AS a theo-
logical teacher he had no superior in
the United States. His Life of Stone
wall Jackson is known to all the read
ers of history His published works on
philosophical, secular, and religious
S1IhipptS mako CaI-a1-a1 xrn111noac oplJ
will give him enduring fame"
No one could know him better or
make a more just appraisement of his
powers and acquisition. We never saw
this great an-on of the century
men. It would have been am exceeding
pleasure to have sat under his lectures
or ministrations from the pulpit. The
Richmond Presbyterian, edited by a
capital writer, says this:
"He was a man of rare and vigorous
intellectual ability, logical, active, in
dependent, honest, conservative. In all
his life he was observant, inquisitive,
versatile, indOmita1ble. He was me
chanic, farmer, manufacturer, lawyer,
statesman, patriot, philosopher, stu
dent and, more than all, t~heOlogian-
an humble, loyal student of the Bible.
In the seminary we Thought his
force was in the Hebrew langTu age, un-
til he taught us Greek eXegesis; We
Thought his greatest in Church His
tory until we heard him teach Tneolo-
gy; n then We did not know the halt
until we read his papers and books on
Philosophy"
His recent lectures at Davidson Col
lege, N. c., and afterwards at Column
bia, IS. c., were ON the great founda-
tions cf s~alvation-the- great central
truth of the Gospel-the Alpha and
the Omega of all the Bible-the Atone
.ment Of the Lord Jesus Christ, perfect
ed, finished ON the Cross upon Calvary.
This great scholar and thinker and
~theologian, as if led by God as he was
so near to the close of 1ife's journey,
brought his 9oble faculties OF mind and
e n soul and gathered and cen
tered them pom the highest of all
truths, the greatest of all faots-the
sacrificial offering of the Son of God
upon the tragic Cross to save a lost
world, and, to open up a way of holi-
ness for the sinner redeemed by grace
to the portals of everlasting Joy and
felicity. When such a man, after liv-
ing such a noble, exalted, laborious
life, passes from earth into the eternity
beyond, it is right that men should
stop and contemplate this life, so use
full, so pure, so masterful, and yet so
humble and adoring before Almighty
God. DR.. Dabney's remains rest ait
Hampden-Sidney, where he toiled and
taught, while his immortal part has
gone to the abode of the blessed.
Let us write briefly of a notable