Page:A Memoir of Thomas C. James, M. D. - Hodge.djvu/5

 influence; a victory this, more difficult of achievement than those which have conferred celebrity on many of the heroes of the world.

This self-command was the result of high moral and Christian principles. As a young man, when his feelings and passions were ardent, he is believed to have been uniformly correct in his conduct and moral principles. Subsequently there can be no doubt that he was governed by the high principles of Christianity. To this important subject he devoted much attention. He studied the Bible as the source of all correct knowledge on religious subjects, not only in his native language, but in the original Hebrew and Greek, and in the Latin, French, and German versions. He examined the various readings, the commentaries of different authors, and the creeds of different sects of Christians. He ventured even within the perplexed mazes of theology, and endeavoured to elicit information and sound doctrine from the obscurities of theological metaphysics. His mind, however, was too strong to become confused by sophisms, and his heart too sincere in the love and pursuit of truth, to be lost in this extensive investigation. He returned from these excursions ladened with good fruit; and, after much inquiry among the living and the dead, he rested with child-like confidence, his hopes of immortal happiness on the simple declarations of the Bible. Frequently in the confidence of friendship has he confessed to the writer his great and overwhelming sense of the depravity of human nature; that he had no confidence in his good intentions, feelings, or actions; and that all his hope of pardon and happiness rested on the merits and sacrifice of an Almighty Saviour. This solemn declaration was reiterated in the most impressive manner to his family and physicians, a short time previous to his dissolution, and was almost the last effort of that excellent man, whose life in the eyes of his fellow-men was irreproachable, but who regarded himself as vile in the sight of a Holy God.

His life was governed by these principles. In conjunction with the diffidence and modesty of his character, they gradually separated him from the general intercourse of society. Although naturally of warm feelings, of ardent attachments, devoted to his friends, disposed to be social, and happily gifted with convivial talents, abounding with anecdote and information, Dr. James, in the latter periods of his life, studiously avoided all social meetings. The collisions of sentiment, the scintillations of wit, as well as the ruder shocks which occasionally result from opposition of