Rev. John William McGarvey Part One
Rev. John William McGarvey - An Introduction
John William (J.W.) McGarvey was born on March 1, 1829 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, the son of John and Sarah Ann Thompson McGarvey. John's father passed away when he was only four years old. His mother would then marry Gurdon Flower Saltonstall, a doctor and hemp farmer.
The family moved to Illinois in 1839. While there, J.W. attended a private school. His religious upbringing was significant. His mother had been a student of the Restoration Movement. His Stepfather left a portion of his inheritance to Bethany College with the interest to go toward the tuition of any of his sons that may attend. But even still, J.W. was unsure of his salvation and questioned the teaching on the subject that he heard from local preachers.
J.W. ended up attending Bethany College from 1847 to 1850 where he was taught by Alexander Campbell, W.K. Pendleton, and Robert Richardson. In 1848 J.W. was baptized by Pendleton.
J.W. began his preaching career in Dover, Missouri in 1853. He quickly rose among the rankss as a minister, author, and educator in the Restoration Movement.
J.W. would eventually land a job at the College of the Bible (now known as the Lexington Theological Seminary.) He would remain there for the remainder of his life.
He would also publish many literary works for various publications. However his most known work was "Lands of The Bible."
McGarvey passed away in Lexington, KY on October 6, 1911.
From here, we will let the College of The Bible Quarterly Bulletin pick up the story. This was published after his death. There are two parts. One was published immediately following his death. The other the following Spring.
Since the one that published the following Spring included some biographical information, I have chosen to start with it. Then Part Two , which I will release later, will include the one that was published immediately after his death.
The following biography was taken from "The College of The Bible Quarterly Bulletin" March 1912 .
IN MEMORIAM
AN APPRECIATION OF THE LATE PRESIDENT JOHN WILLIAM McGARVEY.
By Professor Benjamin C, Deweese, at the memorial chapel service of The College of the Bible and Transylvania University, on March 1, 1912, the eighty-third anniversary of the birth of President McGarvey. This service to estimate this great man’s character and services takes the form of a testimonial by the Faculty of The College of the Bible on this first day of March, which commemorates his birth in 1829.
The life of this exceptionally useful man is rich in lessons which are fitted to inspire us to most worthy endeavor. It merits careful study. Hundreds of leaders in the Church of Christ received their training in large measure at his feet. To them a sketch of his life cannot fail to be of interest, if in any fairly adequate way it does justice to his merits. Moreover, there are multiplied thousands who held him in the highest esteem for threescore years. He stood before their mind as one of the ablest of teachers and staunchest defenders of the Holy Scriptures.
Thousands of years ago these true words, “The righteous shall be held in everlasting remembrance,’’ went to record. There can be no reasonable ground for doubting that these words of the Bible express our faith with respect to the permanent place the name of President McGarvey will hold in the memory of the church. What do we know then of his family line, of the surroundings of his long life, and what of his own individual traits? Of some men family stock molds the life. From some families we expect little. From others it is a matter of disgrace to son or daughter to bring reproach upon the good name the family has borne for generations. The almost fatal handicap of an evil environment is proverbially expressed in Nathaniel’s reply to Philip’s invitation to come and see Jesus: ‘‘Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?’’ The home of our Lord’s first thirty years became the name by which his foes sought to destroy his church. To call it ‘‘the sect of the Nazarenes” was sufficient to prejudice multitudes so that they did not ally themselves with his followers nor investigate his claims. Circumstances are usually potent to enable or degrade a man. Happily for the world, some men have such splendid personality that in spite of bad stock and in spite of harmful environment, they reach the greatest eminence. They triumph over all obstacles. President McGarvey exhibits the union of good blood, excellent environment, and striking personality. This awakens interest in a study of his life, to which we turn with eager expectation for ample reward for the time and patience required.
Family and Early School Days.
John McGarvey, his father, emigrated from Ireland in early life. His wife was a Miss Thomson, of a good Bluegrass family, of Virginia stock. The McGarveys located in Christian County, Kentucky, where the husband followed mercantile pursuits until an early death left his wife a widow and his children fatherless. John William McGarvey, the subject of this memorial, was the second of the four children by this marriage. His mother’s sister married Dr. G. F. Saltenstall and bore him nine children. Later he married Mrs. McGarvey, and of this union six children were born. This was a unique situation under one roof of brothers and sisters, step-brothers and step-sisters, with half-brothers and half-sisters, and all first cousins—nineteen in all. Here, indeed, was a puzzle for children who wished to learn their own kinship to other members of the household. Doubtless, husband and wife often used the words, “‘your children,”’ ‘my children,’ and “our children.” It is a pleasure to record that unselfishness, mutual affection and mutual consideration reigned in this large circle in which President McGarvey grew to manhood. Dr. Saltenstall and his wife decided that they would be unable to sustain their united families in good social station in Kentucky for lack of funds. The stigma was placed by Society on manual labor by white men, because of the existence of slavery. The parents decided to go to Tazewell ‘County, Illinois, in 1839, near Peoria, where every child could have good farmland, and where all could labor without loss of social prestige. Here exceptional instruction was secured for the children. Professor Kellogg, an Englishman and a graduate of a British university, conducted a private school of good standing. President McGarvey writes in his story of his early life a most appreciative estimate of the superiority of Professor Kellogg’s work and emphasizes the fact that by it he was thoroughly grounded in the elements of a e909 education. Farm labor developed a strong body and boyish sports supplied recreation. On his own showing the future president was active, agile, had temper and to spare, was mischievous and was a favorite in the home group.
College Days.
Tt will be fitting to say something of Dr. Saltenstall, the lad’s stepfather, who, as became the good man, wisely planned for the young man’s future and ably carried out his program. In the spring of 1847, he took the young step-son at eighteen and one of his own sons to a steamboat on the Illinois River and set out by way of that river and the Mississippi and Ohio for Bethany College in Virginia (now West Virginia). Stopping at Cincinnati he fitted out his charge with books for his entire college course, clothes for daily use, and a full-dress suit and silk hat for special social and academic occasions. Professor John Henry Neville, the companion of his boyhood, and a life-long friend, and for years a colleague in Kentucky University, had preceded him to Bethany. On the morning of his friend’s graduation, he came to young McGarvey’s room and was in elegant dress. Mr. McGarvey brought out his own silk hat and presented it to his friend. Just before his own death he wrote that he thought Professor Neville at that time was the most splendid specimen of physical - manhood, properly dressed, he ever saw. He highly rated his friend’s natural gifts and solid learning.
As a student, Mr. McGarvey was painstaking, diligent, striving for knowledge, and, July 4, 1850, graduated with first honors and delivered the Greek speech. He took great interest in the chapel lectures on the Bible delivered by Alexander Campbell. After an excellent examination by Mr. Campbell, he received a New Testament with his name inscribed, and with the words, “‘For proficiency in the sacred scriptures,” and signed A. Campbell. This would doubtless be today the prized treasure of his preacher son, had not the disastrous fire of years ago destroyed the library of his father which contained this book. Who knows but that this token of appreciation, shown by Mr. Campbell’s act, may have given direction to the young man’s career and was a sign of promise of his future eminence in the study and defense of the one book?
His estimate of the great value of regular work in the college literary society was shown by active participation in a college society, and his frequent appeals to his own students in later years to make the most of its privileges.
While at college he entered the social circle on principle. He records that comradeship with refined young women, if not carried to such extremes that if becomes a detriment to first-rate work as a student, is highly beneficial. Throughout his entire life he enjoyed the society of worthy Christian women. He respected them, gave them honor, and derived both pleasure and profit from this source.
In 1848, he confessed his faith in Christ and was baptized by Professor Pendleton. He was thenceforth committed to a life of service in the Kingdom of God. This also he rendered with all good fidelity for more than sixty-three years. There is neither record nor oral tradition that his zeal ever grew cold till the chill of death claimed him—a life pre- eminently worthy of imitation by his every student.
It may be worthy of note here that Robert Graham was his first teacher in Greek, and they became life-long yokemates—co-workers for the ennobling of thousands of faithful young people.
Further Preparation in Missouri.
Let us enter upon a most interesting study of the life of a young man well equipped for a man’s work in the world. During the twelve years immediately following his graduation he made his home in Missouri. Dr. Saltenstall, the worthy step-father, had removed from Illinois to Fayette, Missouri, during the college days of Mr. McGarvey. In 1852, that zoo man, while on his way to the commencement exercises of Bethany College, died of cholera at Marietta, Ohio. He was fully interested in the work done by Bethany College under the able leadership of Alexander Campbell. He gave $2,500 to its funds while he lived and bequeathed to it a child’s portion of his estate. He was always esteemed as a father by his distinguished step-son, who cherished his memory.
Mr. McGarvey, immediately after graduating, established a private Mr. McGarvey, immediately after graduating, established a private school for boys at Fayette, which he continued for one year. This year in Fayette was the beginning of a thorough course of preparation for what became his chief life task, and was continued twelve years in Fayette and in Dover, Missouri. In Fayette he met Miss Otway Anna Hicks, whom he married in 1853, and who followed him to the home eternal within a few weeks after his death. Early in this period he conscientiously decided that he would find his greatest happiness and usefulness in devoting himself for life to the service of the church. His ordination to the ministry followed in 1851. He served the Fayette church as minister until 1858. He organized at Dover a school which was continued with marked success for years. Here he devoted large portions of his time to teaching. These were years of great activity. .He purchased the best commentaries on the Scriptures then within reach and used them with great zeal and profit. For years this was his chief task. Little did he or his friends see that this was divinely guided preparation for the magnificent service he rendered to Biblical learning. Evangelistic services, public discussions, of which he held five, gave him full command of himself and raised very high expectations. We see clearly that when he had fairly entered his thirties his life justified the reputation accorded him by his brethren.
Lexington Career: Ministerial Labors.
In 1862, the old Main Street Christian Church, of this city, called him to its pulpit. From that date till October 6, 1911, he resided in Lexington. For this Lexington career of more than forty-nine years he came well fitted by natural gifts, good college training, and years of special study. Here he met his opportunity. He found his orbit. As true as is the needle to the pole he loyally and royally pursued his long and great life work. 'To this I must now direct your special attention.
He entered service in Lexington as a minister of Christ. Fittingly then does Mr. McGarvey’s ministerial life receive its tribute. His services as minister in Lexington fell into two periods. He continued with the Main Street Church from 1862 to 1869, when the Broadway Christian Church was organized. Of this congregation he was chosen minister and remained in its service until 1881. The congregation had become so large by that date that his double duty as minister and full professor in The College of the Bible justified him in resigning the pulpit. For seventeen years longer he continued regular preaching, but labored for large country churches, where shepherding the flock was not so exacting as it had become in the larger city church.
His sermons were always carefully prepared. As a minister he was a favorite in Lexington. His congregations were attentive. He understood how to make good sermons. They were always biblical, practical, and so varied that his people learned the vital truth in Christ. His outlines of their thought were remarkably clear, logical, forcibly spoken, and closed with well-considered appeals to his hearers for full submission to Jesus as Lord, and for fidelity in his service. Many hearers were convinced by his presentation of the claims of Christ and “‘were baptized both men and women.” Seldom were his Sunday services closed without visible proof of their efficiency.
As a leader in church life he ranked high. He filled the pulpit of leading churches. His congregations were always large and liberal and loyal. Both of his Lexington charges soon outgrew the capacity of their church homes. His care of his church flock was notably successful. The sick were visited, the indifferent warned and exhorted, and the erring faithfully rebuked with all long-suffering and teaching. His warm heart and genial nature closely attached his people to him. His friends were numerous, and any man could well be thankful for friends of such high character.
When he became a hearer regularly, under the ministry of others, even after increasing deafness made it next to impossible for him to follow the speaker, he would give his cordial approval by the closest attention. He was never listless, and his preacher was always conscious that he had President McGarvey’s confidence and support. What a help this was to his minister!
Executive Abilities
As an executive officer in great enterprises, he was quite successful. For more than forty years he was a member of the Kentucky Christian Missionary Board. For many years he was its chairman. The great success of this interest and the eminence it has attained among our state organizations are largely due to his special interest, wise counsel, and constant and liberal financial support. For most of his college life he was an officer of the Kentucky Christian Education Society, which by its financial help has made possible the education of hundreds of men for the Christian ministry. He became convinced that far too large a sum of the society’s income was expended for the salaries of officers. His efforts abolished this abuse, and for many years he personally conducted the financial management of its affairs gratuitously.
His protracted membership on the Board of Hocker College. now Hamilton College, proved beneficial because of his customary zeal, sound judgment, punctual attention, and influence of his name as a managing official, with Disciples who had daughters to be trained. That Brother McGarvey was on its board was sufficient reason to settle the choice of Hamilton as the school home of their daughters for people far and near Next to the good presidents, who directed the literary destinies of the college, President McGarvey received marked tokens of welcome about the college. His presence was a benediction.
About a year before his death, he ceased his active services as professor. He said to us in Milligan Chapel in The College of the Bible, where his coming was ever a delight to us all, “You must expect to see me about the college as long as I live.”’ Most of our college community and other citizens living on North Broadway have seen his pathetic figure leaning against a telephone pole to secure the needed rest that he might reach his beloved college. In coming days, when people ask for reminiscences of the old soldier of Christ, this proof of his undying interest in the pride of his life will not be forgotten.
His assistance in the financial direction of the congregations which he served, by his liberal contributions, his sermons aimed to lay upon the hearts of the members of his flock their Christian duty in the support of the Gospel, enforced ‘by earnest exhortation and entreaty, did much to give to those churches their enviable reputation for liberality.
The success of our organized National Missionary interests was very near his heart. He was well informed respecting these large and varied enterprises. His interest and approval greatly cheered the presidents and secretaries of these societies. In later years his occasional appearances on programs at our National Church Conventions were highly appreciated. He was a conspicuous figure at our Centennial Convention at Pittsburg in 1909. It was also one of his happiest experiences. In the love and esteem of his brethren he came to his own on this occasion. At fourscore then, the ripened sheaf was the best symbol of his life.
His presidency of the Claude Garth Educational Society was the last in the order of time of his executive services. He was the personal friend and trusted advisor of that man who so splendidly endowed that society, which will do so much for a higher education of the ministry. To act as president of this society was to him a labor of love.
By far his greatest success in executive skill was his part with able associates in the management of The College of the Bible. Robert Milligan, the first president of Kentucky University after its organization at Harrodsburg, came to Lexington in 1865. Transylvania was merged with Kentucky University because of the signs of premise for a great future given by this new institution, which has just been organized on the older foundation, Bacon College. Mr. McGarvey had been three years as minister at the Main Street Church. His excellent reputation before coming to Lexington, and his notable success for three years in his pulpit here, led President Milligan to associate himself with the young minister, and with Professor Joseph Desha Pickett in a faculty for The College of the Bible, which was organized after the university was re-established in its new home. After several years of successful work, difference about the management of the affairs of the university led to strife and strong feeling. This might have been adjusted peacefully, but an indiscreet partisan of the other group made in print the serious charge that Professor McGarvey was the leader of a conspiracy to rid the university of its Regent. This precipitated open strife and the Executive Committee of the university dismissed President McGarvey. On his appeal to the Curators, they sustained the action of the Executive Committee. Professor I. B. Grubbs was then minister of the Chestnut and Floyd ‘Street Church in Louisville. He addressed an open letter to our churches in Kentucky, which was published in the Courier-Journal. He called upon them to send to the Curators of the University a strong protest against Professor McGarvey’s dismissal, a demand for his immediate reinstatement, and the abolishing of the regency of the University. Scores of leading churches in the State took prompt action. The unwisdom of his dismissal became so apparent that the Curators resolved to ask the Kentucky Christian Education Society to nominate a man for his vacant chair. The officials of the society met and acted at once. They nominated him for his old place. The University ratified the nomination, and, within less than a year, Professor McGarvey was back in the place where he had so fully established himself as an able, safe, and conscientious teacher of God’s word. Students who left when he was dismissed returned, and The College of the Bible began a new career of prosperity. Within a rather brief period the University suspended the College on the plea that the income was no longer adequate to meet the burden of its support. So ended the story of the first College of the Bible.
With Robert Graham, who had succeeded the lamented Robert Milligan, and Professor I. B. Grubbs, now the sole survivor of that group, he planned at once the organization of a new College of the Bible, independent of the University. In the autumn of the same year its classes were taught in the basement of the old Main Street Church. The professors served for a pittance but made heroic efforts to secure money for buildings and endowment. This was a time for testing men. Time, money, and personal sacrifice went into the new enterprise. Professor McGarvey gave his best energies to this task. How great was his influence present conditions fully show. After the first year, in a church basement, the Curators in fine Christian spirit gratuitously offered classrooms and other buildings to the new college. In grateful recognition of this courtesy, the two institutions did their work on this campus. Harmony, co-operation, and zeal in training the young characterized their joint labor. In this way was closed forever a period of alienation which is now a memory, but it is an exhortation to study the things which make for peace.
In 1895, Professor McGarvey succeeded Robert Graham as President, and filled that office until October 6, 1911. His executive labors were discharged with remarkable promptness, wisdom, zeal, and tact. In the nomination of members for the faculty, he consulted his colleagues, made special efforts to see that the man had good character, was intellectually trained, was intelligently loyal to the teachings of the Scriptures, and open-minded to the discovery of new truth. We would have none of that craze for novelty which is the bane of so many minds in this age of mental fermentation. When the new man was installed, he treated him with most inspiring confidence. Not once in the sixteen years of his presidency did alienation of feeling, criticism that hurt, or any other thing arise to mar the peace of our fellowship. He decided that his faculty was worthy and urged every member to work out the problems of his department as his best judgment dictated. Life-long observation of college men justifies me, I think, in saying that-I have never known a president whose faculty enjoyed a larger independence. This is academic freedom. I venture to add for my colleagues, that I have never known another faculty where personal independence was more marked. They buy the truth and are free indeed. Pleasant, affable, approachable, courteous and sympathetic, we always found our President to be. He took us at our best and helped us to reach higher things. The memory of his fellowship is to us delightful and will always be cherished as a most enjoyable and inspiring experience.
His Writings.
Let us consider his literary output. He was editor with able associates, Robert Graham, M.E. Lard, L. B. Wilkes, and Dr. W. Hopson, of the Apostolic Times, published for years in this city. His colleagues rated his editorial work as very valuable, and he was a leading spirit in furthering the interests of the paper by what he wrote and by remarkably good advice in its business management.
He wrote constantly for our periodical literature. He wrote seven valuable discussions of important themes within two years for the quarterly edited by the distinguished Moses E. Lard. Helps for Sunday Schools he prepared regularly with great care and delight. For eighteen years he conducted for our most widely read religious journal a department every week on “Biblical Criticism," which he and many others thought rendered invaluable service in the defense of the Bible against a pretentious, but unwarranted, method of attack. To this long continued task he devoted careful and exacting labor. Selections from this department constitute his last published volume, Biblical Criticism.
His books, of which there were many, were, without exception, devoted to the explanation and defense of the Scriptures. When he became professor in The College of the Bible, he prepared four volumes of ‘‘Class Notes,’’ embracing all the historical materials contained in the Bible. As soon as written he began the careful revision of these text-books. Volume one was revised within one year, and then followed a revision of volumes two, three, and four, giving a year to each. Then he took up volume one again. This process he continued for twenty-eight years, till every volume had passed seven times under his closest critical scrutiny. These manuscript volumes were then printed. Here is a lesson which ought to cure indolent habits in any student. His success as a Master teacher was won by his wise use of his “Class Notes.’ Further, he always went before his classes after careful preparation, because he thought it unworthy in him to ask pupils to drink from a stagnant pool.
In 1864, his Commentary on Acts appeared, after years devoted to the study of the history of the Apostolic Church. Twenty-nine years later he rewrote the book. Its sale has been continuous for forty-eight years— a very long life for a commentary in our day. James Hastings, editor of great religious encyclopedias, in a personal review said that he should keep it on his study table for constant reference. A “Commentary on Matthew and Mark,” the first volume of a series projected by the Disciples of Christ, but never finished, was written for the popular exposition of the books assigned to him. It has not attained the great favor accorded to his work on Acts of the Apostles, but has been esteemed by many. A volume of sermons preached in Louisville, Kentucky, and stenographically reported, contains a variety of subjects of vital interest on which he had long reflected. Their value is high.
His most popular work was “Lands of the Bible,’" which John A. Broadus, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Ky., and a specially competent judge, pronounced ‘‘the best single volume in print on Palestine.” Its first edition was of ten thousand copies, the second of five thousand, and the third of three thousand. Information about later editions is not at hand.
In the field of biblical criticism President McGarvey held that his greatest work was done. For more than forty years he toiled constantly to fully study this subject as set out in the writings of the ablest expounders of the later views. In reply recently to a direct question about what he considered his greatest intellectual labor, he replied: “The mystery of the critical attacks on the truthfulness of the Old Testament.” He then confessed his conviction that he had fully refuted the efforts to discredit the historical fidelity of the Bible record of God’s dealings with Israel. On a few points of minor importance he said he could wish for more data to put these issues also beyond debate.
Under the title “Jesus and Jonah," he published a small volume in which he reviewed a symposium by a few representative champions of new fashions in advanced Biblical criticism. Advanced critics have the time of their critical lives to make good their claims to reverence the attitude of Jesus toward the Old Testament, and yet reconcile his views with their critical speculations. The great plain people think Jesus knew the facts about Jonah, and they do not willingly accept the critical contention that the book of Jonah is not true to fact. They think it contains ‘‘a true and faithful narrative of what actually happened." President McGarvey thought the common people were right, and this little volume shows his mastery of the art of refutation.
All students in the literature of Old Testament historical criticism know that the hardest battle must be fought on the trustworthiness of the report respecting the finding of the book of the law in the temple by Hilkiah. If these chapters tell the truth, radical critics freely admit that the foundations are removed from beneath most of their contentions that the Old Testament history must be rewritten. President McGarvey girded his loins for this conflict. Forty years of careful study of the pages of the Bible, a full mastery of the critical attacks, an unwavering conviction that the critical position was wrong, a marvelously clear statement of his argument and an acknowledged high degree of fairness (always quoting the strongest statement he could find of the positions of his foes), he wrote his "Authorship of Deuteronomy.” Hastings, who secured the advanced scholars to present the critical views which seek to revolutionize the belief of eighteen centuries respecting the Bible, wrote that these views could not lay claim to a good title to acceptance until the refutation of Professor McGarvey’s arguments had been achieved. This confession makes us proud of President McGarvey.
As a Controversialist.
Permit here a few words about President McGarvey as a controversialist. His critics and some of his friends thought that his method was often most exasperating. I once asked him what he thought of omitting the names of those whose errors he was exposing. His reply reveals the reason for his course. He said: “It is the personal feature which lends piquancy and interest to a discussion.” ‘Besides this, when a man brings error into the arena in propagating his views, those who oppose him have the inalienable right and the paramount duty to expose and refute these errors.” He thought it is morally right to make a man in error responsible for propagating error, and that defenders of truth. fail of their duty if they remain silent when truth is in peril. A peculiarity of style in writing sometimes so belies President McGarvey’s real feelings that he was unjustly accused of personal bitterness. Antagonists who heard him speak, or met him socially and in his home, and who were large enough to accept gracefully an exposure of their ignorance and bad logic, came to esteem him highly. ‘Sometimes, it should be frankly admitted, he was misled by unfair reports of the positions of men whom he reviewed. His openhearted sincerity and freedom from duplicity made him the victim of unworthy men who used him to punish their foes. Sometimes his indignation was profoundly stirred and most forcibly expressed when his confidence had been unworthily obtained 'and wickedly used. He always carefully studied controverted questions, and had an Irishman’s love of contest—so much so, that he never consciously misstated an opponent’s position so as to make his reply plausible and easy. No one who knew him could accuse him of that folly. His mastery of the Scriptures was such, and his thorough acquaintance with the attacks on them, that he earned the reputation among fully qualified judges outside his own religious circle that he was, in the field of Biblical learning, one of the ablest of controversialists.
The Teacher.
One paragraph must be devoted to a brief statement of his career as a teacher. Here he came to the sphere of his greatest influence and usefulness. His exceptional clearness of statement of subjects saved so much time that long drawn-out discussions were not needed to put his students in possession of the coveted knowledge. In lectures he had the credit for giving twice the amount of information given by the average lecturer. They were full of accurately verified facts, clearly arranged and expressed in the plainest words. He often, in the familiarity of the classroom, used the vocabulary of colloquial speech. ‘There was no excuse for not getting his meaning. (His students always had the conviction that their teacher
accepted any statement of the Bible as the final word on any subject of which it treats. He had no compromise to make with speculative guesses. He resolutely rejected them. He never stopped an investigation until he thought he had gone to the bottom of the subject. The greatest debt the Brotherhood owes to him is his great influence through his instruction in his four classes in Sacred History. For forty-five years he enthusiastically labored at this task. He was a master spirit with probably no superior.
His Religious Life.
His religious life was beautiful, childlike in its faith, enriched by constant devotional study of the Bible and of Christian hymns. In his study of these his good taste, sane judgment, and full appreciation were very manifest, as his selections, continued for many years for chapel services and recorded on many pages in his chapel notebooks, attest. He never bubbled over in an effervescing enthusiasm for popular hymns, which lacked poetic merit, scriptural sentiment or adaptability for edification. He knew by heart a splendid list of our classic English hymns and they fed ‘his soul. His prayers were the talks of a child to the Father whom he loved and who would gladly grant his requests. Many a man came to a full ‘belief in President McGarvey’s conscious fellowship with God by noting his prayers. ‘Prayer made the darkened clouds withdraw when great burdens rested on his heart. For these aids to spiritual culture his attendance on ‘prayer services was continuous. No great success ever attends minister or church if prayer does not have the first claim on the heart. In fact, the secret of this man’s life lies revealed in the strength of his faith and the child-like simplicity with which he met all the obligations that a very long career laid upon him.
Future of The College of the Bible.
With respect to the future of The College of the Bible he talked much, thought profoundly, and prayed constantly. His ideal for the College is so admirably stated by him in a recent annual report to its Trustees that I quote liberal extracts.
‘He said: “I have on several occasions within the last year publicly announced as my hope and expectation that The College of the Bible shall eventually become the greatest seat of Biblical learning in the world. This may appear to some like an idle dream, but some institution is destined to occupy that high position, and why not ours? The institution which shall occupy this rank shall do so, not as a result of accident, but as the result of strenuous effort wisely directed. It will be the result of ample financial resources supporting a succession of teachers endowed with brains, heart, and industry in no ordinary degree.
“T have had a conference with my junior colleagues on this subject and have charged them each to select a branch of Biblical learning in which to make himself a specialist and a master, so that in this no man anywhere shall be his superior. They are all young enough, if a goodly length of life shall be granted them; they all have sufficient preparation in a general knowledge of the Bible; and they all have brains enough to accomplish this grand purpose. They have pledged themselves to it and have selected their lines of study. In order that progress toward the final goal may continue after their decease, they are to keep watch for young men in their classes, from year to year, who shall be capable of pushing this high aim still higher, to incite them to it, and to see that all needed aid and encouragement shall be given them.
“The part which the Board of Trustees will take in pursuit of this great purpose will be to avoid overloading the professors with work in the class-room; to free their minds from distraction in reference to their financial affairs; to assist, when need be, the young men whom they may select for advanced studies; to elect these to suitable chairs in the college, some of which are yet to be created; and to keep guard incessantly lest any incompetent or unsafe man shall be selected as professor.
“Tn pursuing this high purpose, no attention is to be paid by either the professors or the governing board to the clamor, often heard, that the age demands this and forbids that. For, within the limits of its work, the college task shall be to teach the age what it ought to demand—to teach the leading minds among the faithful what is the true and right way of the Lord. Certain seats of learning have assumed this task heretofore and have often misled the world. In the coming time, let ours assume it, so that what it demands the age shall demand. Shall not Apostolic Christianity finally triumph in the world? Then, why may not the institution of learning which shall most truly represent and uphold it maintain preeminence among its advocates?
“In other words, the purpose is that, in the good days of our future, whatever is known or can be known ‘by mortals about the Bible, its contents, and its history, shall be known and taught by the faculty of The College of the Bible; that skepticism, in its present forms and all the protean forms which it will yet assume, shall be here encountered and overthrown; and that students of the Bible from every quarter who wish to add to the Biblical knowledge imparted elsewhere, shall flock to this College for the most thorough information.
“Tt seems to me that this aim is sufficiently great and lofty to inspire us with enthusiasm, and to keep the flame burning in our successors until the goal shall be reached. I would not venture to place it before you if I did not believe it is also attainable. We have for more than forty years been building on a solid foundation, which has proved itself to be so by results in the lives of many hundreds of ministers trained in the College. The foundation is not to be removed or changed. It is the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. We have only to go forward in the ascending way which we have thus far followed, in order to reach the eminence to which I am pointing. My own part in the feeble beginning of this effort will soon terminate, but I trust that, like the patriarchs of old, though I shall not receive the promises, my dying eyes, like theirs, shall see them and greet them from afar. How this appeals to his colleagues as an inspiration to so labor that this ideal may be proximated as the years come.
