Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/276

 266 Xinithern Historical Society Papers.

A ripe scholar, he enriched his discourses with treasures gathered in every field of knowledge, but whatever passed through the mint of his mind came out impressed with the stamp of his genius. His unerring judgment and taste enabled him to select for his quotations the best thoughts of the best authors, and his illustrations beautified while they illuminated his subject. He kept fully abreast of the times, and invariably recognize and attacked the multiform foes of a pure Christianity, whether open or covert.

HIS POWER OF DESCRIPTION.

Dr. Hoge excelled in his powers of description. With a few bold strokes, and with the hand of an artist, he could bring out his pictures with wonderful distinctness and power, and added the shading with a delicacy of touch which bespoke the master. He usually spoke without a manuscript, and this gave full play to a voice and action which were exactly suited to be vehicles of his eloquent thoughts. His preaching satisfied both the intellect and the heart, however en- larged they might be.

No more conclusive evidence of his power as an orator could be given than the eagerness with which the people among whom he had always ministered crowded to hear him. They never tired of his preaching, and no stranger who might occupy his pulpit, however great his reputation, could draw the extraordinary congregations of the pastor.

IN POSITIONS OF HONOR.

Dr. Hoge had often been appointed to positions of honor and re- sponsibility by the Southern General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. In 1875 he was unanimously elected to the moderator's chair in the assembly, which met in St. Louis. In 1876, when the assembly convened in Savannah, Ga., he advocated and carried by overwhelming majorities two measurers, greatly opposed at that time by some of the most distinguished members. These were the estab- lishment of "fraternal relations" not "organic union" with the Northern Presbyterian Church, and the sending of commissioners to represent the Southern Church in alliance of the reformed churches of the world. In 1877 he was a delegate to the Pan- Presbyterian Council, which met in Edinburgh.

His paternal ancestor fleeing from persecution for his religious faith, was of that worthy strain which has entered so influentially