Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/280

 270 Southern Historical Society Papers.

bear eloquent witness to the fact that Dr. Hoge belonged to the entire community.

The members of his own congregation and choir, the veterans of the Soldiers' Home, Confederate societies, the congregation of Beth Ahaba, the Church of the Covenant and the Old-Market Church presented to Dr. Hoge substantial tokens of their love and admira- tion, and gifts from private sources, telegrams and letters of congrat- ulation poured in upon him from persons of every shade of religious conviction and every class.

The formal celebration of the semi-centennial anniversary closed on the night of February 2jih in a manner that was a fitting finality of the two days' jubilee, and the demonstration passed into the his- tory of Richmond as constituting a tribute to a citizen seldom, if ever, equalled in the experience of a community.

The programme, which was carried out at the Second Presbyterian Church consisted of elaborate music, devotional exercises and a rem- iniscent discourse by Dr. Hoge. There was another vast outpour- ing of the people, but hardly a tithe of those who surged to the church succeeded in gaining admittance.

SOME LUMINOUS DISCOURSES.

Those who have listened to Dr. Hoge during the past thirty years often refer to certain of his luminous discourses when he seemed full of divine afflatus, and certain of his pathetic appeals, when saddest music sounded in the tones of his voice; a discourse, for example, such as he delivered with startling power, many years ago, from the text, "The Kingdom of God is within you;" or a discourse of a different kind, delivered on a dreary, soulless day, from the text, "We have piped unto you and ye have not danced, we have mourned unto you and ye have not lamented," the former strikingly brilliant and animated, the latter a classic a prose poem attuned to a minor key. The solemn warnings to the unconverted, the pro- phetic words of wisdom to the church, and the gracious words of sympathy and consolation that have fallen from his lips, can never, never be forgot.

Notable, too, have been those mournful addresses, like sobbing threnodies, delivered with almost measured cadence, on the occasion of state funerals. The last address of this character was made over the bier of United States Senator Vance, in the Senate chamber. President Cleveland and his Cabinet attended the obsequies, and