The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-10-20

knew what his initials represent
el. He was a native Of Virginia,
: teacher OF marked excellence and sue
cess. most popular. highly beloved. and
greatly esteemed. The old Seminary has
been removed 70 Richmond, Va, and WIN
much more OF pretention and imposing
e6Ifccs. At the old school there were
some very uncommon men-protount
scholars. very able thinkers. most usefri
and eminent minister's. ! wonder i al
the Few school and the new place there
are any really greater men and scholars
today than were DTs- Dabn@y, Smith, and
Peck? ! believe that these three men
were hard TO equal and but rarely
e@clipsed, if ever, IN any school OF the
prophets. I am reminded OF Dr.. SrAth,
with whom l had no acquaintance, by d
very entertaining and long c~onmunica-
ton upon him that appeared lately IN
the Charlotte Presbyterian Standard by
Rev. Parker 2. Flournoy. D. D., an able
Virgina Presbyterian. 1t engaged ny
interest much. I was taken back into the
epochal past when l read this:
In the hard times Just after the wal
when the resources Ct the Seminary were
destroyed or unproductlye, and there vas
little o. no salary, especially during he
summer OF 1865. Dr.. Smith, like Or. Dab
ney, could Dc seen daily going forth to,
or returning from, the fields IN which,
with his own hands he titled the land TO
secure food for his household
There IS q lesson for the New England
Yankees IN that. What q picture. Whas
an inspiration, What & lesson for all.
and particularly for latteT-day ministers.
Two really learned and great ecc3esiastics
OF very high Intellectually digging the
earth for bread for themselves and Their
wives and childrcn. What a scene tor
men and angels, What poverty, what
necessity. And the Eandals caused It all.
DIT. Smith was born in Powhatan county
Goth June, 1911. He was graduated at
Hampden-Sidrey College. Prince Edward,
in 1929. He was trained IN the Seminary
in which he SO long taught afterwards.
He also attended the theological De
partEent n the University OF Halle, Ger
many. He was elected q Professor IN
Union Theological Seminary in 1854. At
Halle he was taught IL part by the cele-
brated and most wonderful professor
ThoIuck. That fact explains the fact
that he came away from Germany IN
scathed. and unsullied by the prevailing
heterodox 4 dangerous doctrines that
ramifed Germany and its literary and
theological institutions, and for thirty
or forty years later. DR.. Flournoy writes
Of Dr.. Smiths experiences:
His sojourn IN German had on him
an effect the very opposite CT that which
1t has had on many American students.
Instead of being carried away with the
theological theories so prevalent there, he
seems only to have been impressed with
the extreme danger Of rationalistic prin-
ciples, and thereby the better prepared
for warning Others against them. His
robust understanding and firm faith
stood steadfast amid the currents OF ten
denotes that have swept so many feebleT
men from the mooring Of faith into the
swirling CULTS Of skepticism, while his
knowledge Of them enabled him to station
warning signals for those who came IN
der his instruction in later years
any one Informed Of German conditions
then, and it's sad departures from the
doctrines OF the Reformation under Mar
tin Luther, and the marvellous power and
influence of one man alone-and he not
Of the greatest by any means, but OF the
most religious and consecrated and faitn-
full to Christ and His eachings-the
eminent Aug. Gotheau Friedr Tholuck-
can understand why the young Southern
student escaped the destructive German
theological and infdel miasma. ThoIucl
vas able to lead many hundreds OF stu
dents, nay thousands, to Christ by h:s
blessed example and holy teaching durina
his long and most benignant career. Hs
was intensely Scrlptural and evangelical
and a ~tireless worker among the young
men. He was indeed one Of the mos,
remarkable men ii Christian history, and
quite the equal of Luther in the good nc
did. l can not follow DIR. FlOurnoy il
his interesting sketch. [ am particularly
entertained with what Is said Of the
bread-winning acts OF the two very aole
divines. The biographer says, and very
entertaingly:
Some wonder how DR.. Smith and Dr.
Dabney. gentlemen and scholars as they
were, could bring themselves to the per.
formance of such arduous tasks as thell
farming, which has been mentioned, II
yClyed.
zone answer is IN the word, necessity
The other is that they were real men a:
we'll as gentlemen, and where duty calleJ
they went. Hoeing corn, pulling fodder
and similar occupations were the duty o
the hour for them IN 1860 when the labor
system had been suddenly broken up, an;
there was little money III their purse
with which they could have employed /
Il 1t had been available.
Two students of Theology viii Away
remember recitations to DR.. Dabney il
the waning light of the evenings OF tha
summer, when, after his days work IL
the field, he would sit with them on hi
bO4 l1No anu jill (4C1il, " LiC bObh
on what they had learned during the ia.
in Hills Divinity, which he had givel
them as the textbook for the time
though Turretin was the regular text
book studied in the Seminary IN connec
tion with his lectures and referenc
books. Though his hands had been weld
Ing the hoe all day, he could not let then
be idle now; and while examining HI
students he was generally engaged ]
plating straw with which to make
hat"
1t is we'll to call UP the past som.
times, although Longfellow caution
against it in saying Look not upon tn
past" There is often good schooling +
past events and personal experiences
There were heroes in the crucial time
of the war and after, and they were no
confined to the army or tho civic life
Those men who lived through the va
know of the shifts made to get along.