The Good Teacher

The Good Teacher

A truly great teacher lives on in the lives of his students.

EVERY STORE closed and all business was suspended on June 22, 1878, in Princeton, New Jersey. The occasion was a funeral—but not for a war hero or for a famous statesman, as one might presume. It was the funeral of Charles Hodge, the leading American theologian of the nineteenth century.

Born in Philadelphia in 1797, the son of an army surgeon, Hodge attended Princeton College and while there made a public profession of faith in Christ in a revival that spread through the college in the winter of 1814–1815. After graduating, he went across the street to attend Princeton Seminary, receiving his degree in 1819. One year later Hodge became an instructor at the seminary at the age of twenty-three. He remained there for the rest of his life.

During his lifetime he taught more than three thousand students. His influence was spread further because thousands heard his sermons and tens of thousands read his writings. Hodge wrote over five thousand pages in The Biblical Repertory, later named The Princeton Review, a theological journal that he founded. In addition, he wrote a similar amount in articles published elsewhere and in his books. His three-volume Systematic Theology is still a standard today. Yet Hodge’s greatest legacy was not his writings but the three thousand students he taught through the years. Most of them became pastors, missionaries, and church leaders.

Perhaps the best illustration of Hodge’s impact on his students was the graduation tradition at the seminary that began about 1868 and continued every year until Hodge’s death. After the benediction was pronounced, the graduating class made a circle around Charles Hodge at the middle of the front campus. They sang several verses of the hymn “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.” Then, making a tighter circle with each graduate crossing his arms across his chest and grasping the hands of the students on either side, they sang together “Blest Be the Tie That Binds,” followed by the doxology. After Hodge pronounced a benediction, he shook hands with each student, and all went their separate ways to minister the gospel.

When Charles Hodge died, the entire town of Princeton closed down to honor its most beloved son at his funeral on June 22, 1878. A former student who gave the funeral address said, “When due allowance is made for his intellect and his learning, . . . his chief power was in his goodness. Christ enshrined in his heart was the center of his theology and life. The world shall write upon his monument GREAT; but we, his students, will write upon it GOOD.”

The funeral procession moved slowly down Witherspoon Street to the cemetery, where his sons laid him in the grave next to the wife of his youth. They read once more the inscription that Hodge, as a grieving husband years before, had placed on his wife’s tombstone: “We lay you gently here, our best beloved, to gather strength and beauty for the coming of the Lord.”

Reflection

Charles Hodge invested his life in his students. In so doing, he was following Jesus’ example of investing his life in his disciples. Think of the people who are in your daily sphere of influence—your children, coworkers, neighbors and friends. Whom do you believe God has given to you in whom you can invest your life?

You have heard me teach many things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Teach these great truths to trustworthy people who are able to pass them on to others.

2 Timothy 2:2