In memoriam, Charles Joseph Little , born September 21, 1840, died March 11, 1911

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CHARLES JOSEPH LITTLE

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GARRETT Biblical Institute originated through forces that have beeen shaping Methodism since the days of Susanna Wesley; — the generous intelligence of pious women, the zeal of Christian preachers hungry for the power of knowledge, and the energy of devoted laymen, wise to perceive that light must temper fire to render it a means of life.

Eliza Garrett, to judge from her portrait and from the scanty records of her that we cherish sacredly, was a woman of rare simplicity and intelligence and piety. Brought to Chicago by her adventurous husband, when Chicago was only a frontier village, she braved with him the difficulties and discomforts of pioneer success and added to his rude strength that of her finer and gentler nature.

She became a Christian and a Methodist, through the preaching of a young man too little known to our present generation'; — a young preacher from Tennessee to whom Chicago Christianity and Chicago Methodism are greatly indebted. The story of his conversion when a boy is thrilling and inspiring; but the native fibre of the lad was also quite remarkable. He possessed that glorious endowment, a prompt, intrepid, indomitable will. This made it easy for him to prefer the reproach of Christ to his father's roof, and when he became obedient to the vision that called him to preach, this carried him through the trials of his school life, made bitter by extreme poverty. This, too, made his eloquence effective. For it never occurred to Peter Borein to think the sermon ended until the listener was saved. To him the tears of his hearers were not a tribute to his powers but an invitation to engage in personal entreaty, to seek out contrite hearts in their homes and stores and workshops so that he might win them permanently for Jesus Christ.

It was Peter Borein's persuasive pleadings that led Eliza Garrett to her Saviour; and the expression of his regret that poverty had denied him an adequate preparation for the ministry, created and fostered in her generous mind the vision of a school in which such men might be trained to the utmost efficiency.

John Dempster, like Peter Borein, lacked the associations and the discipline of the college ; he, too, was a man mighty in speech and in deed, though his eloquence was wholly different in type from that of Mrs. Garrett's young pastor. The son of a Scotch father, a Presbyterian minister, who had been once a Methodist itinerant, John Dempster united in himself the four qualities of the Caledonian with the romantic traits of the American pioneer. Bereft of his father in his childhood, the orphan early became a wanderer and this romantic impulse shaped his whole career. It led him from New York to Canada, from North to South America, from Buenos Ayres to New York City, from the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire to the shores of Lake Michigan. And he died with visions of theological schools on the hither side of the Eocky Mountains and on the Pacific slopes of the great hills still lingering in his mind. For the wanderer was suddenly called to larger activities, although not before he had left upon this region imperishable traces of his power. Pathetic and significant, indeed, is the craving of men like Peter Borein and John Dempster for the strength of knowledge. Neither of them lacked spirituality, both knew the value of strong feeling, each of them recognized the importance of a consecrated will. Dempster especially was a vigorous thinker, who wrestled with the fundamental problems of life; he certainly never imagined that erudition however minute, or learning however extensive, could be a substitute for an intelligence obedient to the word of Christ. But with a preternatural insight and foresight he measured the needs of the American empire that he saw in the making. And although he deemed divine illumination the transfiguring and essential element in the preparation of men for the Christian ministry, it was clear as revelation to him that the coming multitudes of the western world would not submit permanently to the spiritual guidance of preachers ignorant of science, of history, of human society and of divine revelation. Yet his plans were bitterly opposed.

His Biblical Institutes were not erected easily. On the contrary, his determination to found them exposed him to distrust and ridicule, and even obloquy. From the beginning of the itinerancy there has been resistance both active and passive to the educational system which owes its origin to John Wesley. That illustrious teacher was compelled to tell his helpers that if they would not study their books they must return to their homes; the heroic efforts of Adam Clarke to become a great scholar were seconded by very few of his ministerial brethren, and his boldness in exegesis provoked an enmity which pursued him even beyond the grave. And as in England, so in America. The plan for district or conference schools, quite as remarkable as anything in early Methodism, the plan set forth in detail in the early minutes of Asbury's Council elicited from James O'Kelly deliverances so bitter that they might be termed vituperation. And yet no part of our history is more wonderful, when it is studied locally, than the history of our American Methodist schools; schools established by a few resolute men, and of which it is no exaggeration to say that the foundation stones were cemented with blood.

It would be unjust to our pioneers, however, to belittle their reasons for this opposition. They were men, many of them, of great natural gifts. They were compelled to meet the opposition of a professedly learned clergy. In some cases, to be sure, they found sympathy, but in most they were treated with reserve and ridiculed for their want of college training.

They read their Bibles in the light that streamed from human faces and from the countenance of God. They trusted more to the beatings of their own converted hearts and to the joys of their own experience than to the refinements of Hebrew syntax or Greek etymology. Their theology was simple, easy to state and easy to apply. "All men are sinners, all men can be saved in Jesus Christ, and there is full salvation to all whose faith apprehends the living Christ in his power to save now and to save completely." They drew the proofs of it both from the Holy Scriptures and from the writings of God upon their own souls. It was natural, therefore, for such men to dread the influences of schools established avowedly to obtain a more learned ministry. They feared that such schools would decoy into the work some whom God had not called, who were seeking a livelihood for themselves rather than eternal life for their fellow-men. They feared also that even for those who were called of God to the ministry, the atmosphere of the schools might be too frigid, that it would chill if it did not kill their ardor. And finally they feared the substitution of elaborate preparation for that inspiration of love which they knew to be the preacher's chief power in public and in private ministries. In a word, they feared, and they feared rightly, a professional clergy.

Fortunately for us John Dempster and not a few of our early leaders, although themselves without scholastic training, were clearsighted enough to perceive that the mission of Methodism required it to be more than an awakening agency. They saw, as Wesley had seen, that without training the fruits of evangelism would perish. The ravages of Millerism and Mormonism soon taught them that their converts must be established in the truth; that denunciation of popular error only advertises and propagates the contagious hallucination. The gospel seed must be kept unmixed from baleful folly, and sown on ground tilled thoroughly. John Dempster moreover was among the first to perceive that our colleges and universities would be ultimately and quite rapidly secularized. Harvard College was originally a school for ministers. Its motto remains to this day "Pro Christo et Ecclesiae," but it required all Mr. Lowell's wit and ingenuity to stretch that motto into anything like correspondence with present conditions at Cambridge. The rapid development of physical science, its numerous contributions to material wealth, the startling developments in the fields of geology and biology, extreme specialization in every department of investigation have extinguished schools of the earliest type. Such a teacher as Alexander von Humboldt would create as much astonishment in the modern class room as a living mastodon ; and be regarded not only as a specimen of an extinct but of an inferior species.

It was, I repeat, an almost intuitive forecast of this transformation of the college that guided the founders of our theological schools. They saw that however valuable the college of liberal arts might remain as a preparation for life in general, it would soon cease to be sufficient as a preparation for the Christian minister of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Indeed it might easily become a hostile force, difficult to encounter and more difficult to conquer; and therefore the minister of the future would require a preparation in which he would be furnished for every good word and work; a preparation that would fit him to cope with science falsely so-called, and with the superstitions that perpetually arise to plague and to destroy the multitude. And their breadth of view was quite as notable as their foresight. They sought to prepare men for missionary enterprise in distant lands, and for work upon our own frontiers where the Ten Commandments are frequently suspended, and "the Sermon on the Mount dwindles to a memory. They recognized that it would be alike difficult to hold the rural community and the great city; that into the former would penetrate inevitably the teachings of modern literature and of modern science, while the latter with its material prosperity and its polyglot populations would force upon the Protestant minister problems difficult enough to challenge the strongest intelligence trained by the wisest masters.

The two forces already mentioned, the generosity of a pious woman and the resolute zeal of preachers hungry for the power of knowledge, were rendered most beneficent and efficient by a third energy, that of a group of laymen as noteworthy as any known to our American Methodism, Grant Goodrich, John Evans, Orrington Lunt. Each of these strong characters differed strikingly from the others, yet all of them united easily in a common fourth as to the value of knowledge and the power of the Gospel. Each of them was a notable instance of the pioneer spirit, each a splendid trophy of Methodist victory. All three were shrewd men of the world but as generous as they were prosperous. They believed in success in that larger sense which glorifies the word — success shared with the community in which they lived, success that enriched the church through, which they had been saved, success not merely for the children of their households, but for the new generation that they hoped and planned to make divinely strong and beautiful.

Grant Goodrich gave Mrs. Garrett his counsel without money or price. He furthered her plans. He, with his friends, rallied to the support of Dr. Dempster with their influences and their means. Judge Goodrich passed away before the others, but his name is inseparable from the history of our school. Governor Evans removed from the beautiful village that still bears his name to become the informing soul of Colorado, while Orrington Lunt was spared to us for many years to be our sagacity and safeguard, to give us the joy of his presence, the support of his character, the fruits of his beneficent affection. To give us, too, the priceless boon of his daily prayers, for seldom indeed did he fail to mention the Institute and University, when he talked with the God in whom he trusted.

It is no injustice to the strong men who have taught in Garrett Biblical Institute to say that John Dempster has been from the beginning the informing spirit of the school. Deeply rooted in the love of God, his vigorous nature branched out boldly into a love of truth, a love of men, and a love of effects. One of two converts in an apparently unsuccessful meeting he had passed from awful darkness, or to use his own words, from "the blackness of a terrible night," to the glory of a divinely splendid sunrise. He never forgot the agony and he never forgot the vision. But his mind was eager and penetrating; his conscience pure and courageous; he knew that his experience involved essential problems which he must not evade but encounter bravely, and if possible, conquer. I am quite ready to accept Dr. Hemenway's statement that there was nothing impressive in his stature or his features, but I cannot read his sermons or addresses without feeling the glow of two very searching eyes, or without detecting the vibrations of a very earnest voice. There is nothing trivial in his topics or in his treatment of them. This man who appeals to me is a wrestling Jacob, a Jacob after the wrestle though, an Israel crippled in the desperate struggle but a prince who has had power with God and prevailed. Such themes as "Providence/' and "^rutn," and "The Authority of the Supernatural/' and "The Supernatural Characteristics of Christ/' attracted him by their grandeur and baffled him by their mystery. Baffled but did not conquer him, for his utterances commanded the respect of the chief writers of Methodism (and there were giants in those days), which was ample compensation for the stings of supercilious criticism, and the charges of Pantheism and sceptical tendencies flung at him by self-appointed champions of doctrines that they were incompetent even to understand, much less to defend. Dr. Dempster's love of truth, however, never deteriorated to a love of paradox or a love of novelty. It vindicated itself by thoroughness and coherence of thinking ; by patience of investigation and caution of expression. It was comprehensive and catholic, open-minded yet firm, while sturdily intolerant of the flippant and the trivial and the unessential.

He loved men. I do not say humanity, but men. This made him from the hour of his own conversion untiring in his personal efforts for their salvation. It destroyed for him all distinctions of rank, or class, or complexion. It led him to endure patiently and cheerfully the hardships of his early ministry. It stirred him to missionary enterprise and carried him to South America, it inspired him to plead with Mr. Lincoln for speedy emancipation, and it won for him in spite of his austerities and peculiarities the admiration and affection of his colleagues and his pupils.

But more than this he had that passion for genuine effects which is the glory of Methodist history, the world over. I do not mean a passion for advertisement and spurious success, the splash of motion without progress, the shouts of transient victories turning to permanent defeat. But I mean a passion for results that are realities, that have both pith and permanence, for fruit that needs no cunning covering of gauze to give it color and to hide decay. Here was a man who achieved and who believed in achievement, a man who insisted upon prompt as well as permanent achievement, yet "a man never decoyed into sympathy with methods that merely counterfeit efficiency. These characteristics of Dr. Dempster are traceable through every period of our history. Garrett Biblical Institute, rooted and grounded like its first great teacher in the love of God, has stood for fifty years, bearing upon its branches the same precious fruit — the love of truth, the love of men, and the love of prompt and permanent effects.

Before I speak of Dr. Dempster's colleagues or of his successors, and before I make mention of their pupils, I must glance at one impressive figure that rises from our early records — the form of Matthew Simpson. In 1859, writes Dr. Hemenway to a friend, the village was excited by the news that Bishop Simpson intended to make Evanston his home. He was then in the fulness of his strength, and already famous for his thrilling eloquence. He came. He accepted the presidency of the school. Magnanimous, far-sighted statesman that he was, he gave it the weight of his influence, in the period of his greatest power. In after years I came to know him personally, and to receive from him not only inspiration but priceless instruction. And I can well imagine that his presence in this community, and his advice to this early faculty were highly prized. For there were in Matthew Simpson springs of intelligence and spiritual magic that were full of surprises. He had no attractions of person or of voice to the superficial observer when seen at rest, yet there was something startling even in his private conversation when his mind was stung into activity by some sudden thought, just as there was something overwhelming in the public revelations of him when audience and subject combined to urge him to his utmost effort.

But what I desire to note here is the breadth and range and candor of his mind. He, too, loved the truth, not in any pretentious spirit, not in the vanity of men who decorate themselves with novelties, but in the spirit of the Apostle who would prove all things and hold fast that which is good. He was the most progressive bishop of his time, and his ideas of progress have been incorporated into the constitution of American Methodism. Greater, however, has been the influence of his catholic spirit, which he breathed into the students of Indiana Asbury University, and which, I have no doubt, whenever they heard him, enlarged and ennobled the students of Garrett Biblical Institute. The original faculties of our Methodist institutions were rich in personal power. The names of Fisk and Olin, of Thomson and Merrick, of Durbin, McClintock, Emory and Allen, of Hunter and Simpson make our annals splendid. And the first faculty of this Institute though small in numbers was strong in courage, intelligence and piety. Dr. Bannister, like Dr. Dempster, was deeply interested in the larger problems, ready at any time to match conclusions with his vigorous colleague. Dr. Kidder, courteous, systematic, self-possessed, industrious, taught by precept and example the value of method in multiplying one's efficiency. Dr. Bannister, though better trained than Dempster, was less intense in thought, serener in feeling, more facile yet far less powerful in speech. Differing from both outwardly and inwardly, Francis Hemenway exercised a peculiar charm. Like them he loved truth and men and permanent results; but he was more sensitive than they to the music of poetry and of fine diction, to the delights of literature and to the beauties of nature.

It was indeed a rare company of teachers; happy the scholars that enjoyed their instruction !

Equally notable have been their successors. Ninde and Ridgaway resembled Hemenway rather than Dempster; Raymond and Bennett were of the other mould. The former were examples of sweetness and light; the latter of intellectual power environed by intense feeling. Ninde and Ridgaway loved the beauty of holiness; truth attracted them because it glorified the world and blessed the community that felt its radiance. Each of them delighted in John Wesley's "warming of the heart;" each was eager to make it the experience of those to whom he preached.

Miner Eaymond was an original thinker rather than a scholar, a man deeply interested in fundamental problems. Mistrustful of the verbal cloud-land that careless observers mistake for mountain ranges, rich in hidden mines of wisdom, he uttered the thoughts of the wise in the language of the people. Like Dr. Dempster, he did not escape sharp criticism ; indeed he was compelled to defend himself in words of precious substance and thrilling eloquence. And in that suitable declaration he recognized, with every great thinker in the history of theology, that the prime question after all is this: How shall we conceive of God? there is the central mystery around which all other problems resolve.

Dr. Bennett united the vigorous thinker with the thorough scholar; so eager for knowledge that he invested all that he had in order to acquire it; yet never the slave of books or the idolater of erudite authority. He added to an unusual breadth of learning the minute investigations of a specialist; and exhibited to his pupils a mind of unusual vigor, thoroughly trained and thoroughly furnished. Yet like Dr. Dempster he loved men, and truth for men's sake, and he, too, had that craving for results that makes the strenuous American so great a wonder to less impatient races. He craved a nobler Methodism, a nobler Protestantism, a nobler Christianity, a nobler world; and he longed and worked for their speedy coming.

The vines here planted soon bore fruit. Before many years had elapsed the graduates of Garrett were known throughout Methodism and beyond, for their courage, their intellectual independence, their missionary zeal, their practical sense and their spiritual power. It is for one of their own number to speak of them more adequately. It is enough for me to say that in them the whole church is honored. It would be easy for me to name those who have been prominent in ecclesiastical administration, in educational labors, in pastoral activities, and in missionary enterprises, but it would not be easy to name those who have been most useful in the service of the Master, for our measurements are at best inadequate. Only the Lord of the harvest can be trusted to determine which of his servants has brought in the largest and richest sheaves.

Of the missionary Bishops of the Church two are graduates of the Institute and their names are often heard. But a third of these missionary Bishops was led to Christ by one whose name is seldom mentioned here in America, one who is known in India as Dear Old Fox. And I take it that like things are true of our alumni as a body. We may indeed rejoice in those that reach distinction and renown, and yet if we knew everything, we might be more touched and more thrilled with the achievements of those who have been only eager to preach the truth, who have been wholly absorbed in their love of men, and wholly employed in gathering and preserving the results of their personal ministry.

The Institute in these fifty years has passed through more than one season of financial trouble. There was a time quite early in its history when it looked as though its doors must be closed. It was carried successfully through that period of distress by the fidelity of teachers, the courage and the sagacity of friends, and the helpful spirit of Methodist preachers and Methodist laymen in this Northwestern country. In 1866 Methodist women, among whom Frances Willard was conspicuous, animated by the spirit of Eliza Garrett and the traditions of early Methodism, united together to erect a building to the memory of Barbara Heck. At a later period Mrs. Cornelia Miller generously endowed the chair of Practical Theology. We should gladly have welcomed her to this jubilee, and offered her our grateful thanks. It was not to be. Even so, Eliza Garrett passed away before the transfer could be made of the Dempster school to the Institute that bears her name. But these generous women found it blessed to give, and one of the last contributions to the school came from another like them out upon the Pacific Coast whose grateful heart desired to perpetuate the influences to which indirectly she owed many blessings.

The Chicago fire that brought calamity to thousands spared not our school. It would have perished, perhaps, but for the generous sympathy of Methodist people throughout the country, and for the liberality of its immediate friends. On the other hand, the Institute has shared in the prosperity of Chicago and of Evanston, so that the value of its original endowment has been greatly enhanced, its buildings increased and improved, and its equipment, especially its library, greatly enlarged. The grounds upon which its buildings stand were granted to the Institute in perpetual leasehold by the trustees of Northwestern University, and from the beginning the relations of the two schools have been amicable, intimate, and mutually helpful. Indeed the early catalogues of both institutions display a closeness of co-operation which gave to the students of either Institution all the advantages of a beautiful co-operation. It was indeed a happy situation for the students that came here to Evanston, who might listen to Randolph Foster and John Dempster, to Henry Bannister and Francis Hemenway, to Matthew Simpson and to Oliver Marcy, and to another who, though among the living, I do not hesitate to name, to our honored Dr. Bonbright. (Applause.)

It is, therefore, a pleasant duty on this occasion to recall this co-operation of the past and to return thanks to the trustees of the university for their inestimable kindness. Throughout this entire period the majority of our own trustees have been also trustees of Northwestern University. Yet our interests have been guarded with loving care, and nothing has been done to prevent our free activity, and our harmonious co-operation with other Methodist colleges. We remain today what we have been from the beginning, a school for the entire church, one of a group that originated in the mind of John Dempster, and by him intended to train the ministry of the entire Methodist Episcopal Church.