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VOL. 111. RICH
The Old Guai
by
As we sat in Synod in Charleston, on a day
hack in the 'nineties, my companion, a Northern
man, said to me, "Who is that speaking?"
"That's Dr. llenry White, of -Winchester
Presbytery," 1 answered.
"That's a fine face," my friend continued.
"That's a very fine face. Look at that profile!"
I did, and a thought came into my mind; and
I got up and went over to Dr. White, who had
now taken his seat.
"Look here," I said, or words like
that, "I want you to do me a favor."
"Well, what is it?"
"1 want you and Dr. Graham and
Dr Hopkins to go round to the photographer's
with me, and have your picture
taken." v..
And they did. The three of thenx got
up then and there, and went with me
us smilingly as n i mui asked them to
dinner. The picture here on this page
was the result, and is, in the original
photograph, a group it would be ex- ?10
eeedingly difficult to match. I have al-Si
ways intended to have it published, and
only regret that I ha*.j delayed until
one of the three has put on the "heaven- |cjfl
ly likeness."
These three men, perhaps i may be
allowed to say, have always been to me . c
the "lirst three" of Winchester Presbytery's
"mighty men." They were
not the only three. At the time when,
fresh from my theological course, I came
into the Presbytery, and, indeed, for a
long term of years after, here was gath- Rev.
ered a body of men that have rarely
been equaled in any Presbytery. In addition
to the group here pictured, were the other
White, Woodworth, Scott, Finley, Johnson, F.
M. Woods, Fleming, and others, to say nothing
of several unusually active and useful ruling
elders. Judge Armstrong, of Romney, W. Va.,
for example, was a debater no man not thoroughly
furnished could venture to engage. No
where have I seen intellectual fencing swifter
and keener, or truth set forward with more mo"P*
mentum, than in the days gone by in old Win<ft0\
Chester Presbytery. We who were youngsters
in that body, soon came to feel that a question
a thoroughly threshed out on the floor of Presbyy/
^ tery was rarely lighted by subsequent discus^
sion in Synod, or elsewhere. The strength of
00 oO tli f? PfPshvWv lav in flin nnnoiinllir . ?
. .V.?v vv.j *< nivy ..imnudil V l?lf<r 1111111"
ber of men of first-rate ability, and not in the
presence of any one man of pre-eminent powers.
fgjjfffiyT'i
^outh
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V
IMOND, NEW ORLEANS. ATLANTA. JL
rd of Winchestt
Rev. William Hervy Woods, E
There was no man among them who was always
the equal ol' Thorn well, or Palmer, or Dabney,
it is true. But when there are in the same body
a dozen men, more or less, any one of whom
may be, on his great occasion, as good as the
best. big things, and interesting tilings, are
likely to happen every day. There was no one
among us who could preach six of Palmer's sermons.
or rage through six of Dabney's debates;
luil wo had men who could do cither of those
" V;
wr.
U'W
AML .'
Rev. A. ( . Hopkins, 1). I).
J. R. Graham, 1). I>. Rev. II. M. White
things one time, or may be, two or three times,
and our rejoicing was accordingly.
How clearly some of these old discussions, and
the manners of the men who made them, come
hack to mind! Who that ever knew does not
remember Brother Woodworth's snapping eyes
and nodding head, as he made his point? Or
Dr. Ilenry White's inimitable turkey-story,
when, after a hot debate, we had outvoted him?
" Well, old fellow." said he. in the words of
hunter to the broken-wingod gobbler, running
away from him in the brush, "I didn't get you;
but you'll have to roost mighty low all the rest
of your life." That was Dr. White to at. If
he was occasionally worsted in debate?as who
is not??be never betrayed the slightest knowledge
of the fact himself. Other men, too, linger
pleasantly in the memory. John Johnson, for
instance, with the hint of a delicious brogue in
1
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JNE 21. 1911. NO. 25.
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Iiis speech, and a still more delicious Irish wit,
the class-mate of a far more famous, hut scarcely
more able, man, Dr. John Hall, of Fifth Avenue
church; Dr. George White, stateliest of
men, and most genial of gentlemen, and Dr. Finley,
some time lieutenant C. !S. A., as fair a man
in an argument, and as knightly and chivalrous
;i soul everywhere, as ever stood in a pulpit,
or carried a sword. These men, and their
companions, it wn? u ...m >
J ..?? ? UVllgUI/ UUU Or pllVHUgC to
know; and that the hands of such inen
set one apart to the ministry, is matter
ot pride tor which 110 preacher need ever
repent. One man, at any rate, who was
thus ordained, 1 know; and he is not
only proud oi it, but proud of his pride.
The meetings of Presbytery in those
tlays were of a leisurely length now not
oiten allowed; and we had time for
plenty of preaching, and a mind for
abundant good cheer. The coming of
the body 1? the chosen place of meeting
(that happy town, Moorcfield, for
instance,) was an event everybody in
the community made ready for beforehand,
and every man in Presbytery renu
inhered after. We had our pleasures,
too. coming not unseemly between our
K- piayers. We had them on the floor of
Presbytery. When Brother Saugster,
the Stephens City elder, took the floor,
for example, we were sure of a good
time, doubly sure of it in his ease he.
cause to the mingled shrewdness and
simplicity of his own opinions, he was
certain to add his wife's, as well. And,
, 1). I), moreover, there was always that most
agreeable of all companionship, that
which grows out of community of interests, sympathies
and activities. It is this that makes any
church court, or gathering of ministers, a pleasant
place; and Winchester Presbytery, as I used
to know it, lacked the little hidden acerbities
that sometimes spoils even a meeting of brethren.
"Moss-backs" these men have been called by
an irreverent man of my own generation. Perhaps
they were "moss-backs." F am not. sum
it is a had name. 1 have seen the moss growing
on hig old boulders in the woods, and could
never see that it made them anything else or less
than stones. 1 have seen it creeping above the
marble that covered a sleeping dust infinitely
more precious than dust of gold. T have seen
it circling with its emerald fringes the crystal
pool of some tiny limestone spring, on the hillsides
of Kentucky. But T never saw it in the