they always were. For in a department that
is so full of activity as that of New Testament literature, it is only
by incessant study that one can do much original work.

A great teacher cannot always be an author, and a great author is not
always the best teacher. Dr. Purves, as all his students will testify,
was a great teacher, and by common consent he held, and is recognized
as having held, a foremost place in the American pulpit. He was not a
controversial preacher. He was not a theological preacher. He was not a
literary preacher, though he had command of a finished style.
Philosophy had little place in his sermons, and he made no use of the
sensational topics of the day. He was eloquent rather than brilliant.
His sermons were always spiritual. They were compactly, systematically
organized, with no parade of logic. Of no one could it be more truly
said than of him, that his coming among you was not with the wisdom of
enticing words of man's pleasing, but in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power, and that he determined to know nothing among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. He was not ashamed of the Gospel of
Christ, believing it to be the power of God and the wisdom of God unto
salvation.

I have spoken of Dr. Purves as I knew him. I have spoken of him in
reference to his wide relations, because I believe that he belongs to
the church at large, but I do not forget that the special grief of this
occasion falls upon this bereaved congregation. He was a great
preacher, but he was more than that, he was a great pastor. How
comforting he was to the bereaved; how prompt he was to visit the sick;
how uplifting and tender his prayers; how precious the communion
seasons which you and I and others in Princeton and elsewhere have
enjoyed under his ministrations!

There are men who are great in the pulpit, but who find the obligations
of the pulpit are such that they leave them no time for pastoral
visitation. There are men who are great in other spheres who give their
best efforts to the reviews and journals, and give what time is left to
the pulpit. Dr. Purves gave his best to his congregation--heart and
soul and spirit he gave to them.

And now that he is gone, it is with a full consciousness of our loss
that we mourn him. The loss is ours, not his. Our hearts bleed for
those who are left behind. We raise anxious questions, when men like
him are called away, as to who shall fill the vacant place. But we do
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