METHODIST REVIEW.

MAY, 1887.

ART. I.-JOHN PRICE DURBIN, D.D., LL.D. WHEN one has well and nobly served his generation by the will of God, Christian affection and admiration demand that we gather up the facts that made him illustrious, and thus impress lessons of wisdom upon those who survive.

As no man "liveth to himself," so "no man dieth to himself." The noble acts of our predecessors may lure us from paths of indolence, and awaken a just ambition to receive their spirit and reproduce their deeds. Of such a one we have now to write. Few men in any Church have occupied so many important positions and filled them with such advantage to the cause of Christ as the subject of this article.

JOHN PRICE DURBIN was born in Bourbon County, Ky., October 10, 1800. His parents were Methodists. His grandfather was a pioneer of our Church in Kentucky. The early life of our subject was spent on a farm. When fourteen years old he was apprenticed to a cabinet-maker, with whom he remained three years. He then worked one year at his trade. In his eighteenth year he was converted. While hesitating about joining the Church he was impressed with the duty of preaching. A week after he joined the Church he was licensed. by the Quarterly Conference to preach, and the presiding elder at once sent him to Limestone Circuit. Such action showed remarkable confidence in his character and talent, and also illustrates the practices of the times. From his vehemence in delivery his voice and health failed him. He left his circuit and returned home, and his ministry seemed brought to a close. 21-FIFTH SERIES, VOL. III.

Then, as advised, he visited the cabins of the colored people and talked religion to them. He did so, and in six months his voice could fill the largest house, and soon after he resumed regular work. In 1820 the old Western Conference was divided, and that year he became a member in the Ohio Conference, and was sent to Greenville Circuit. It contained about one hundred and fifty members, and extended two hundred miles through a wil derness where the red man still roved. From August, 1819, to August, 1820, he received a salary of less than fifty dollars. His education was exceedingly limited. He had learned something in a district school, but his real education began when he entered the ministry in Ohio. During the day he pursued his study in the saddle or the forest; at night, in the cabins where he stopped. He read Wesley's and Fletcher's works, and even transcribed much of Clarke's Commentary. While stationed at Lawrenceburg, Ind., in 1821, he undertook the study of English grammar with the help of his associate on the circuit, Rev. James Collard, afterward of the Methodist Book Concern at New York. Of this fact Dr. Durbin often spoke, confessing his great indebtedness to his junior colleague. In a short time, by the direction and aid of Dr. Martin Ruter, he commenced the study of Latin and Greek. In 1822 he was ordained deacon and sent to Hamilton and Rossville. This was about twelve miles from Oxford, the seat of Miami University. Despite the opposition of his official members he entered it as a student. He went on Mondays and returned to his charge on Fridays. In 1823 he was sent to Zanesville, O. In 1824 he was ordained elder and stationed in Lebanon, O. Here again he had the help of the scholarly Ruter. In 1825 he was appointed to Cincinnati and entered the Cincinnati College, where he was encouraged in his course by Gen. William H. Harrison, afterward President of the United States. He completed his studies, and as a special reward of diligence and scholarship received at once the degree of "Master of Arts." Thus amid the toils and cares and changes of the itinerancy he secured a college course, was graduated, and laid the foundation of his future reputation in the department of education.

The richest resources of man are in himself, and their depth and fullness are never so revealed as when, under the pressure of adverse circumstances, he is roused to the most vigorous and

persistent effort. A great soul may show its impatience of restraint, but difficulties do not conquer conviction. There are great possibilities, both of success and failure, in all great natures, and it is for their possessors to determine whether difficulties shall destroy or develop them; whether they shall be as water to extinguish the fires of genius, or as wind to fan them. to a flame. Young Durbin knew that the college would help him in the purposes of a sanctified ambition, and therefore he availed himself of its advantages, in spite of difficulties. We speak of self-made men. None are great who are not so made. No one receives enough from ancestry or environments to make him truly great.

After seven years in the regular ministry, at the age of twentyfive he was elected Professor of Ancient Languages in Augustat College, Ky. Here he continued two years, and when his health failed he accepted the agency for the college, and in that work first came east. This he did also a second time, when his visit revealed the might of his eloquence. Although his early labors were thought by some persons to give no promise of future. usefulness, and one of the fathers went so far as to say, "He may as well go home, as there is not much in the young man," only a short time elapsed before it was seen that there was a great deal in him.

As his ability became known he was requested by the presiding elder to preach at a camp-meeting near Lebanon, O. The occasion was greater than he had supposed. The day came, and the preacher pondered his theme and asked God to prepare his heart. The plan was formed and his mind was filled with the subject. He returned to the preachers' tent, and was "lying upon the straw," as if he had already learned one of the most important lessons in connection with pulpit preparation; namely, to allow the intellect rest before it makes the greatest effort. The elder seeing him at ease said, "John, are you ready to preach to the crowds that are pouring in to hear you?" "This," said he in after life, "gave me the first intimation that any would come twenty miles to hear me," as he was told they were then doing. The result of that sermon is not yet forgotten. Preachers and people were in transports. None came too far, nor did Durbin study too long to prepare, nor rest too long to deliver, that discourse. While yet in the West he was requested to

preach at another camp-meeting. He was impressed to deliver a sermon on the deity of Christ. His mind and heart were full of the subject. It took possession of him. Awed by his theme and stirred by the demands of the occasion, he entered upon his duty with faith in God. There was nothing vague in his thoughts-nothing dubious in his language-nothing indifferent in his manner. His expressions were vigorous, his convictions profound and active. Sentence after sentence shot forth with convincing force, and the strength of every opposing argument was broken. He brought his proofs from two worlds. He showed the infinite attributes of Jehovah, as illustrated by Christ in time, and Christ's own glories as the Son of the Highest, "God manifested in the flesh," and now seated with the Father on his throne, with the redeemed casting their crowns at his feet and saying, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

The reputation then and afterward gained rested upon nothing meretricious or sensational, but upon the wise, the weighty, and the eloquent presentation of essential truth. The people who were so impressed were not strangers to able and popular preaching. It was the West, the country of William Beauchamp, of Russel Bigelow, of William B. Christian, of David Young, and of Samuel Parker. It was the land of James Quinn and James B. Finley and William H. Raper, men of might, among whom John P. Durbin rose and stood the acknowledged prince. And such was the reputation gained in those years that, whenever in after years he visited the West, people of all Churches and conditions flocked to his ministry and sat with rapture under his discourses.

In 1829 he was nominated to the chaplaincy of the United States Senate. There was a tie vote, and John C. Calhoun, President of the Senate, gave the casting vote against him. On receiving additional information he regretted his action, and sent for Mr. Durbin and apologized, and some of the political friends of Calhoun told him he had made the mistake of his life. Mr. Calhoun assured Mr. Durbin he voted for the other candidate only because he was a minister of the same Church to which his mother belonged.

The next year Mr. Durbin was elected to the place. It was in the days of Clay and Webster and Benton, and his ministry was not only commended for the eloquence that obtained for him the chaplaincy, but for its "pungency and power." It made an impression on the people of Washington that many years did not efface. His sermon in the Capitol on the centennial of Washington's birthday was regarded as one of his most successful efforts.

In 1830 he returned to Augusta College as Professor of Languages. In 1832 he was elected Professor of Natural Sciences in the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., which position he declined. Early the same year he was, by the General Conference, elected Editor of The Christian Advocate and Journal. While editor his literary taste, his mental endowments, and his Christian spirit gave a paper worthy the Church that assigned him the place.

In 1834 he was elected to the presidency of Dickinson College, which had just come into Methodist hands from the Presbyterian Church. For a time it had been under the charge of that prince of Presbyterian preachers, Dr. John M. Mason. But despite the erudition, eloquence, and experience of Dr. Mason the college finally failed. Dr. Durbin was by a "unanimous and enthusiastic vote elected" under the Methodist reorganization. He accepted the post as one of duty. It is just to history to say that as editor his salary was only one thousand two hundred dollars, and Dr. Durbin said he was unable to live on it. When complaint is made of the high salaries of some of our most distinguished preachers and officers in the Church, it were well to ask if any in our ministry lose more financially than do those whose talents elsewhere would secure them double the support they receive.

If it is instructive and salutary to watch the progress of mind in its struggle upward to the goal, it should not yield less interest and pleasure to witness its achievements when it has attained the place for the full exhibition of its powers and skill; to know that past efforts are rewarded by the grandeur of present results.

Dr. Durbin was now in a most responsible, not to say critical, position. He was but thirty-four years old. Dickinson was among the earliest of our colleges. With us they had not been