C. A. Briggs.

n.
THE INAUGURATION.
Tuesday Evening, Jan. 20, 1891.
President Charles Butler, LL.D. presided. After devo- tional exercises, at the request of Mr. Butler, the President of the Faculty made a brief preliminary statement, as follows :
"As has been announced, last May the President of the Board of Directors of the Union Theological Seminary, Charles Butler, LL.D., provided for the endowment of a new Chair in the sum of $100,000.
" On the basis of this munificent gift, at the recent meet- ing of the Board, the new Professorship was formally estab- lished, to be known, in accordance with the request of Pres- ident Butler, as The Edward Robinson Professorship of Biblical Tneology. This was designed by Mr. Butler to be a memorial of his long-time friend, the late Edward Robinson, D.D., LL.D., the first Professor of Sacred Literature in this insti- tution, who honored that Chair and this Seminary by his long and distinguished service from 1837 to 1863.
" The President of the Board suggested that it would be in accord with his own wishes and with those of his friend, the late President Roswell D. Hitchcock, D.D., LL.D., if the Board should transfer the Rev. Professor Charles A. Briggs^
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D.D., to the new Chair just established. By a unanimous Tote the Board at once adopted the suggestion of their Pres- ident, and transferred Professor Briggs from the ' Davenport Chair of Hebrew and the Cognate Languages ' to the ' Edward Robinson Chair of Biblical Theology.' Dr. Briggs, having sig- nified his acceptance of this transfer, his inauguration will now take place."
President Butler addressed Professor Briggs as follows :
" On behalf of the Board of Directors, and in accordance with the Constitution of the ' Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York,' I call upon you to * make and subscribe ' the * declaration ' required of each member of the Faculty of this institution."
Thereupon Professor Briggs made the 'declaration' as follows :
"I believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, the only infallible rule of faith and practice ; and I do now, in the presence of God and the Directors of this Seminary, solemnly and sincerely receive and adopt the Westmin- ster Confession of Faith, as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures. I do also, in like manner, ap- prove of the Presbyterian Form of Government ; and I do sol- emnly promise that I will not teach or inculcate anything which shall appear to me to be subversive of the said system of doctrines, or of the principles of said Form of Government, so long as 1 shall continue to be a Professor in the Seminary."
Thereupon President Butler said :
" In the name of the Board of Directors, I declare that Professor Charles A. Briggs, D.D., is inaugurated as the Incumbent of the Edward Robinson Chair of Biblical The- ology.
" On behalf of the Board of Directors, the Charge to Pro- fessor Briggs will now be delivered by the member of the Board duly appointed for this service, — the Kev. David E. Frazer, D.D., the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Newark, N. J."
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the charge.
My dear Brother Briggs :
Before attempting to discharge the duty which, by your kind consideration, has been devolved upon me, permit me to tender my heartfelt congratulations : First, upon the estab- lishment of the Edward Robinson Chair of Biblical Theol- ogy ; a consummation so devoutly wished for alike by your- self and by our revered Hitchcock. We all share in your joy, and recognize the new departure as a long and a right step in advance in the history of our Institution.
In the orderings of God's providence every age has its own peculiar problem to solve, the solution being wrought out from the standpoint of its own pressing needs. It is a marked characteristic of our day that the Bible is now studied as never before in the world's history, and the establishment of this new department is in the line of this development, and is answerable to this modern demand. For, if I understand aright the function of Biblical Theology, it does not conduct a simple, grammatical exercise ; it does not discuss the vari- ous textual readings ; it does not study the opinions of the Fathers or the deliverances of the Church ; it does not for- mulate a body of systematic divinity grouped about some chosen central principle. These are important and legiti- mate topics of study, hence are properly cared for in our curriculum. They will doubtless be very helpful as external aids in the prosecution of the work of this Chair, but the peculiar province of Biblical Theology is to study the Word ; to determine what God intends to say in His Word, and then to formulate these hallowed teachings.
Such being its province, I need not pause to show that Biblical Theology is the normal response to that modern critical spirit which refuses to accept anything upon the basis of authority, and insists upon tracing everything back to its genetic principle and its efficient cause. Neither need I tarry to discriminate sharply and accurately between the
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functions of Biblical and Systematic Theology. If you, my dear brother, have any especial interest in or desire for in- formation on this general subject, I would respectfully refer you to a work on " Biblical Study," which is published by the Scribners, and was written by one who has served long and well in, and has just been transferred from, "the Dav- enport Professorship of Hebrew and the Cognate Languages " in this Institution ; and, if you are not acquainted with the work, I can assure you that the time spent in its perusal will not be wasted, for you will find therein an admirable and exhaustive discussion of the subject.
But I want to congratulate you, secondly, upon the fact that you are to be the incumbent of the new Chair, a position for which you are pre-eminently qualified by reason of the peculiar character of your past studies. I am very well aware that you would much prefer to have me discuss the general topic of Biblical Theology, and to dwell upon the claims it has to a place in our curriculum, rather than to hint the name of, or make any reference to the Professor who is to occupy the new Chair. But if anything of a personal character should be said, please remember, my brother, you have no one to blame save yourself, since, passing by abler men, you have kindly insisted that your old friend and class- mate should deliver the Charge, as you enter upon the awful responsibilities of your new position. And as the class spirit asserts itself, I will say, despite your unspoken protest, that the class of '64 is proud of its representative ; that it rejoices in your well-deserved success, and that it appropriates to it- self a peculiar glory by virtue of the events of this hour. Little did we dream, when we sat at the feet of that honored man whose name gives dignity to your new Chair, as also at the feet of those other scholarly and godly men, Henry B. Smith, Thomas H. Skinner, Boswell D. Hitchcock, and Henry H. Hadley, men whose presence was a benediction, whose instruction was an inspiration, whose memories are revered and hallowed, that there was among us, going in and out
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just as we went in and out, one who was destined to sit in Gamaliel's seat and to honor the exalted position by his scholarly attainments. Yet such was the fact, and although you wish I would not say it, still, as your classmate and on behalf of the class thus signally honored, I tender you our warmest and heartiest congratulations.
And I propose saying still further, since I betray no confi- dence by the declaration, that it would have greatly rejoiced your heart and would have wonderfully inspirited you for your work could you have heard the cordial, tender, and ap- preciative words with which our venerable and venerated President of the Board of Directors (who is also the kind and generous patron through whose munificence the new Chair has been endowed, " Serus in coelum redeas"), placed your name, the only name placed in nomination for the position.
And I am sure you would have been more than pleased could you have witnessed the unanimity with which the Directors ratified the nomination and transferred you from the Davenport Chair of Hebrew to the Edward Eobinson Chair of Biblical Theology. I congratulate you that the honored and revered Founder of the department wanted you in the department which he founded, and also upon the fact that you enter upon your new work in the enjoyment of the fullest confidence, respect, and love of the Directors of this Seminary.
But I may not forget that this is your hour. Inasmuch as I cannot hope to impart any instruction respecting the peculiar and practical duties of your new position, I would be content to let these congratulatory words take the place of the more formal charge. In order, however, to meet the requirements of my appointment, and to stir up your pure mind by way of remembrance, I charge you :
First. To have clear, well-settled, and accurately defined views of the nature, the scope, and the design of the Holy Scriptures.
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The Bible is to be your text-book, and the Bible claims to be the book of God. If this high claim cannot be main- tained ; if the Bible be not the book of God, as verily as Jesus Christ is the Son of God, then is it unworthy of our confidence. That Word which was in the beginning with God and was God, and which in the fulness of time began to be flesh, was, as the Incarnate Word, the God-man, very God and very Man. We do not understand this " great mys- tery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh." We do not attempt to explain it, but we accept it, we believe it, we rest our hopes of life, here and hereafter, upon it. And upon this same basis we can accept the Word written. It also is an incarnation. Great is the mystery of Eevelation, God manifesting His thought in the forms of human speech. Since holy men of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, the Divine and human elements are co-ordinated in the Word written as well as in the Word Incarnated. We must recognize the Divine and human factors in the Scrip- tures, and assign a legitimate place to each and to both, but I need not charge you, my dear brother, to bear in ceaseless remembrance the fact, that just in the proportion that the Divine element is eliminated or is abnormally subordinated to the human, is the authority of the Bible circumscribed and the power of the Bible abridged. You will never forget that you have God's Word for your text-book, and you will never fail to teach it as the very Word of God.
The scope of Biblical instruction is clearly set forth on the sacred page. Great mischief is often wrought by the notion that the Bible aims to cover the whole sphere of human knowledge, and that its authority is lessened by the conces- sion that there are some things which can be comprehended without its aid. We surely do not need the Bible to teach us that two and two make four, or that the whole is greater than any of its parts. The Holy Word has a distinct mission and a definite aim. It does not come to us as a teacher of physics or of metaphysics, but as a revelation : as a revela-
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tion of God : as a revelation of God to man : as a revelation of God to man concerning the highest and the dearest moral interests of man, alike for time and for eternity. It comes to man, not primarily to reason, but to reveal, and to reveal those high themes, which, by necessity of being, transcend the ordinary processes of human thought. While pervaded with an air of simplicity and honesty and truthfulness, it comes not primarily to persuade, but to command, and to command, not in view of the deductions of human reason, or in the light of conclusions reached by the processes of a speculative philosophy, but upon that simple, yet sublime, basis, " Thus saith the Lord God."
The design of Revelation is summed up essentially in the Johannean statement, "these things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that be- lieving ye might have life through His name." As all roads led to Home, so all Scripture leads to Christ. The poetry, the prophecy, the precepts, the biography, the history of the Bible, find their true centrality in Him who was at once dust and Divinity, the Workman of Nazareth, the Prophet of Galilee, ' The Lamb of G6d which taketh away the sin of the world/ The final end and ultimate design of the Holy Scriptures are " to make wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus "; hence it is your business, my dear brother, from the Word written to educe the Word Incarnate, and I beg you to so present Jesus Christ to all who come to you for instruction, that they may go from your class-room to their great life-work, not only impressed with an abiding sense of the matchless beauty and the mighty power of that Divine Saviour concerning whom the Scriptures so abun- dantly testify, but also, and as the normal outcome of your teachings, with a fixed determination "to know nothing among men save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
But Paul forewarns " of things hard to be understood," of problems which must perplex the most acute mind and defy the grasp of the most profound intellect. Furthermore, in
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the interpretation of the Word, conflicting views respecting the exact significance of the revelation will arise. Who shall decide when learned doctors disagree ? To whom shall the ultimate appeal be taken ? Manifestly to the Spirit of the Living God by whom the declaration was prompted, and to whom the meaning is clear ; hence, I charge you,
Secondly, Seek the aid of the Holy Ghost in your arduous and responsible work.
I attempt no solution of the mooted question as to whether our Lord's promise that the Holy Ghost should lead believers in "the way of all truth," was restricted to the Apostolic College, and was literally fulfilled in the written revelation, or whether it pertains to believers in all time.
But the Scriptures most clearly require that all believers should "live in the Spirit," " walk in the Spirit," "be filled with the Spirit." Christian consciousness bears witness that the abiding presence of the Spirit begets deep and vital spirituality, and Christian experience abundantly confirms the assertion that vital spirituality ensures a large insight of that truth which must be spiritually discerned. A willing- ness to do God's will must precede the knowledge of the doctrine, and this willingness of mind and heart must be be- gotten by the Holy Ghost. Pat peculiar honor upon the Divine Spirit and He will put peculiar honor upon you and your work. He will open your eyes to behold the wondrous things in God's law ; He will give you the witness of His presence in your own soul, and will enable you, in all meek- ness and humility, yet with the highest Christian positiveness, to say : I know whom and what and why I have believed, and am persuaded that my confidence rests not upon the wisdom of man, but upon the wisdom of God.
And as you thus teach the Word of God under the guid- ance of the Spirit of God ; as day by day you present the truth as it is in Jesus to those who are to preach a cruci- fied Redeemer to dying men, may the Lord bless you and keep you ; may He equip you for duty, help you in the dis-
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charge of it, and when your great work is finished may His " Well done " be pronounced upon His " good and faithful servant."
in.
RESOLUTIONS OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS SUSTAINING DR. BRIGGS, AS PASSED UNANIMOUSLY MAY 19, 1891.
Resolved, That this Board has listened with satisfaction to the categorical replies rendered by Dr. Briggs to the questions submitted to him, and that it trusts that the manner in which he has therein dealt with the points that are in dispute will operate to correct the misapprehensions that are so widely current, and to quiet the disturbed condition of mind in which, as a communion, we are so unhappily involved.
Resolved, The Directors of the Union Theological Seminary desire to express to Professor Briggs their high appreciation of his Christian courtesy in the consultations which he has had with the Committee of Inquiry in reference to the trying questions now under consideration.
They will stand by him heartily on the ground of this re- port, and affectionately commend him to the leading of a common Master, having perfect confidence in his honesty of purpose.
E. M. Kingsley, John Crosby Brown,
Recorder. Vice-President.
New York, May 19, 1891.
rv.
STATEMENT OF THE FACULTY OF UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
In view of the general comment and discussion called forth by the recent Inaugural Address of Professor Charles^ A. Briggs, D.D., the undersigned, members of the Faculty of Union Theological Seminary, deem it their duty to make the following statement :
"With the conviction that Christian courtesy, modesty, and mutual respect for difference of opinion should characterize
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theological controversy, we distinctly recognize and depre- cate the dogmatic and irritating character of certain of Dr. Briggs' utterances in his Inaugural and in others of his writings : while, on the other hand, we do not recognize, even in these, any warrant for persistent misrepresentations of his views, and for the style and temper in which he has in many cases been assailed.