Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 58:230 (Apr 1901)
Article: Professor Park As Teacher And Preacher
Author: Alvah Hovey

BSac 58:230 (April 1901) p. 338

Professor Park As Teacher And Preacher1

Substance And Manner Of Professor Park’s Teachings

Prof. Alvah Hovey

When asked to make, at this time, a brief address in memory of my friend and fellow-teacher of theology, Dr. Edwards A. Park, I consented to do this without hesitation, yet not without self-distrust.

I consented without hesitation, because I esteemed it a privilege to bear testimony to the surpassing ability and work and worth of the great teacher of Andover in former years;—and also, because I remembered with delight the noble tribute which he paid to my teacher and colleague, Dr. Horatio B. Hackett, at his funeral service in Newton Center. That was a tribute never to be forgotten, when a prince of teachers reviewed in golden words the finished life of one who had been no less a prince of teachers.

Nevertheless, I consented to speak with much self distrust, because I knew that the task of characterizing Dr. Park worthily had been achieved once for all by the pen of his intimate friend, Dr. Richard S. Storrs, whose words were read at the obsequies in Andover. To us who heard them, they were “words fitly spoken, like apples of gold

BSac 58:230 (April 1901) p. 339

in pictures of silver”; and we said in our hearts, It is enough; the man, the author, the preacher, the teacher, the Christian, and the theologian, has been set before us in his strength and beauty; and, looking back on his notable career, we could boldly say: “Thus, it is, one journeys to the stars!” Well, therefore, may I cry out,

“Oh, for the touch of a vanished hand,
And the sound of a voice that is still!”

Yet not all of you listened to that marvelous eulogy of Dr. Storrs; and to those that did not, a very imperfect tribute may be acceptable, if it only serves to recall for a moment certain features of the great personality so long connected with Andover.

Dr. Edwards A. Park was a leader of thinking men in his generation and sphere of action. His bodily presence was commanding. His stature, his bearing, his eye, and his countenance arrested the attention of strangers as well as of friends. Expectation was raised when he entered the pulpit or took the platform. The people were still while he spoke. Students devoured his words as if they were manna to their taste; and educated men were charmed by his piercing insight and cogent reasoning. His voice was clear and penetrating, his utterance distinct and refined, his diction pure and select. But it was his thought the clarity, the coherence, and the beauty of which, more than anything else, held his auditors entranced...