The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-10-21

ministry. He was an active pastor fo
 fifty-four years, and lived to the age O
 ninety-ffve.
 The younger Edwards, if he did no
 rise to the level of his father as an orig
 inal thinker, was an acute logician
 He was the one conspicuous represen-
 tative of the New Divinity who was
 not graduated at Yale, his father hay
 ing been recently President at Prince
 ton. But he studied for the ministry
 with Bellamy, and with the school of
 theologians trained at Yale, followers
 of his father, he was, by birth and life
 long association, closely affiliated. To
 him, New England theology was in-
 debted for it's governmental view of the
 Atonement, which had been anticipated
 in the main by the great Arminian jur-
 ist, Hugo Grotius. Thereby the end
 and aim of the sacrifice on the cross
 was so extended as to exclude the objec-
 ton that it was a provision meant for
 only an elect portion of the race. Thus
 although divine sovereignty was pro
 claimed with an almost uneXampled em-
 phasis, no exception could be taken to
 the compass of divine love as related
 to the mission and death of Christ, Were
 1t my object to present a catalogue of
 Yale Worthies who were eminent
 preachers and teachers of the New
 England system, the names of Backus
 and Smalley would have a prominent place.
 The opening of the century which has
 just reached it's end found in the presi-
 dential seat at Yale and in it's Chapel pulpit s.s Professor of Divinity the grandson of President Edwards. An
 instance of his power in the pulpit was the effect of his sermons two years after his accession to the presidency, on the Nature and Danger of Infinite Philosophy, which turned the tide against the imported French Deism, then prevalent in college. He was a man whose catholis temper and intel lectual habit caused him to shun offe- sided formulas in theology and to avoid extreme statements in homiletic dis cource, The system of President Dwight, moreover which was presented in a consecutive series of sermons in the College pulpit, steered clear of the dryness prevalent in the preaching of the day They were en- livened by a rhetorical quality which met an increasing popular demand In his youth he had been a Tutor in Col lege. In this office along with con- temporary Tutor who also became Congregationalist divine, Joseph Buckminster, he had done much to foster literary taste in the 1nstitu- tion. It was the first stage in the graft ing of the renaissance culture on the Puritan type of education Johnsons Addison and other writers of that epoch were read with delight. Through Dwight's Sermons the Edwardean di- vinity shorn of later shibholeths and clad in pleasing dress, was widely diff fused both in this country and in Great Britain, As a type of moderate Calvin ism, while it made no war upon the Westminster symbols, it deviated from hem in certain definitions of doctrine. Many years agt the late Pr >fessor Goodrich told me that no less than 'orty editions of Dwight's system had been published in Scotland and in Eng and. Down to time not far back, pilgrims, not a few from these coun- .iies, not unfrequently preachers of nigh repute, who had learned theology from the writings of Dwight, were led to visit New Haven and to resort to he grave of their revered teacher. I mould add that Edwards himself did lot cease to be read in Great Britain. 1e stamped his impress on the two British theologians in the arly part of the last century, Andrew fuller and Thomas Chalmers. Among he American theolgians who sat at the eet of Dwight was James Murdock of he class of 1797 An accurate and rudite scholar Dr Murdock held for
 number years the chair of Ecclesias- ical History at Andover. He deserves pecial honor for the work done by i'm in promoting this department of earning. In the old Register of the 'ollege Church, find the following ecord in the hand writing of President Dwight: '1798. April 30th, Lyman ,eecher of the Junior Bachelor Glass, aptized at the same time" i. e. at the anne time as Murdock. He lived to at ain to eminenoe in the pulpit, besides eing Professor of Theology. The ame of his children should not be suf- cred to eclipse the merit of the father. )n the list of the class of 1799 is the anne of theologian whose influence l promoting Biblical studies in Ameri- a is unrivaled. I refer to Moses Stu Tt, first Tutor in Yale and a Pastor l New Haven, and then for so many ears a Professor at Andover. There is stimulating instruction in the class ,om excited the enthusiasm of his pu- . ills, while his numerous writings gave i'm celebrity with scholars abroad as , ell as at home. President Dwight had long cherished 2 le design to expand the means of the $ ogical instruction at Yale. When he as consulted by the persons chiefly ,ncerned in founding the Seminary at l ndover and approved of their project. ( , at the same time informed them of I s intention to embrace,the earliest op- z ,rtunity to give effect to what he I 'emed to be the design of the found s of the College. His eldest son, MT { mothy Dwight, following his fathers e lvice, had previously determined to c ovide the fund required to establish i distinct department in Yale for the Il ucation of the ministry For con- e dera ble time, it had been a not un- I euuent practice of candidates for the T inistry to reside for a while in the Q mily of pastor, commonly one of o eh repute, and to be taught by him, " lis was not without it's advantages, 2 It it had come to be regarded as a Ge- f ctiye training, especially as regards |