Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 26.djvu/300

 290 Southern Histori<-<il Six-it'///

exterior, would in the estimation of any other, hardly have been held warranted.

" Dr. Hoge's life was a prodigiously busy one. He never seemed to be in a hurry; but he was never idle. He was at work all the time." A year or two ago in deference to pressing request, he promised friends to commit to writing the so-appealing incidents of his blessedly protracted life.

It is feared that he had found the time to prepare but little of his " Reminiscences" which would have proven so delightful, so help- ful.

A distinguished divine in pithy review of the life of Dr. Hoge, recently urged that he had been kept so busy in the Master's Cause and in helpful deeds to his fellow-man that he had not taken the time to secure personal reward, or for any aggrandizement of his reputa- tion and, in cogent summary, said: " He never wrote a book, he did not own a house! "

Dr. Hoge's accustomed mode of address was extempore. Although no one exceeded him in the study of printed sources of information and in power to apply illustration, he but seldom committed to paper more than a' skeleton of his line of exegis, and often made a jotting, simply, of illustrative points.

Consequently, of his wealth of itellect, but little tangible for print survives.

This is truly lamentable. It has been stated that his nephew, who is happily competent, the Rev. Peyton H. Hoge, D. D., has under- taken the preparation of Memoirs of his distinguished relative.

A GRACIOUS DEED.

A lady, a resident of Richmond, returning from a visit northward, during which she was at Morristown, New Jersey, attended divine worship there, on the 8th of January, on which day the pastor of the church, Rev. Dr. Erdman, announced feelingly to the congregation the death of Dr. Hoge.

In referring to the ability and excellences of character of Dr. Hoge, he stated in illustration, the following signal incident, which is in due evidence of Dr. Hoge's attributes:

Shortly after the war, that period of vital grapple, which held the world in awe, Dr. Hoge visited Morristown and preached in the church of Dr. Erdman, then just erected, and heavily in debt, and struggling with all the difficulties which beset the exigencies of a new church.