MARTIN, Alexander - Putnam

Source: Greencastle Banner-Times 22 Dec 1893 p 1

About 3 o’clock a.m. Saturday, Alexander Martin breathed his last, surrounded by his family and a few of his nearest friends. On Thursday Dec 7 Dr. Martin went to Greenfield to officiate at the wedding of two of his former pupils, and while there he contracted a very severe cold. As soon as he reached home he was taken sick with pneumonia and gradually grew worse until his death Saturday morning. Probably no one man in Greencastle was so universally respected and loved as Dr. Alexander Martin. He has led a life of purity and righteousness and has set a glorious example to the students of the university by his meek and lowly spirit and his simple trust in God.  

Dr. Martin was born in Naira, Scotland in 1822. He received a part of his education in Scotland but graduated from Allegheny college in 1847. In 1846 he was principal of Kinswood Academy in Virginia. For 10 years he was a professor of Greek language and literature in Allegheny College. In 1868 he organized the West Virginia University and was for 8 years its president. In 1875 he was elected to the chair of Mental and Moral  Science in Indiana Asbury (now DePauw) university and at the same time its presidency remaining at the head of the university until June 1889 when he resigned and Dr. John was elected to fill his place.  While president of Asbury and DePauw he had signal (sic – single?) success in building up the university. The buildings and ground were enlarge during his administration and at the time of his resignation everything was in a state of prosperity. During the war, Dr. Martin did good service in attending to the sick and wounded soldiers both on the field and in the hospitals and many a soldier died easier by Dr. Martin’s prayers.  Dr. Martin has been highly honored by his associates in the church, being elected delegate to four general conferences and the Ecumenical conference which … He was also a delegate to the Centennial conference which met in Baltimore. The degree of DD was conferred upon him  by the Ohio Wesleyan University and the degree of LLD by his alma mater.

In June 1853 he was united in marriage with Caroline C. Hursey of Clarksburg, West Virginia and to them were born five children.  James V; John E; Chas. A; Edwin L and Anna Martin Whitted. James V. Martin and Anna Martin Whitted have preceded Dr. Martin to their rest. The remainder of the family are now in the city…

It was a sad and grief-stricken assembly present at the funeral services of Alexander Martin. At two o’clock the seating capacity of the church was exhausted and people stood in the gallery. The large number of mourners was composed of not only the cultured and relined, but also of the laboring people showing that Dr. Martin by his good works had touched the hearts of all classes.

Previous to the exercises at the church a brief service was held at the house for the benefit of Mrs. Dr. Martin and Mr. Charles Martin who were unable to attend the church services. Only the members of the family and a few friends heard Dr. Poucher read selections  from the 14th chapter of John, and Dr. Gobin’s strong and earnest prayer.  At the conclusion of this service the body was taken to the church.   The organist played in an impressive manner Chopin’s funeral dirge as the casket was carried to the altar.  Dean Goben read the burial service of the Methodist Ritual.  The choir sang, “O thou in whose presence my soul’ takes delight.  After the singing the congregation bowed their heads while Rev. RR Bryan, the pastor, led an appropriate prayer.  Dr. A. Hurlstone read portions of the 90th Psalm and 15th Chapter of Corinthians. The preachers of Indianapolis met in the morning and adopted resolutions concerning the death of Dr. Martin and appointed a committee consisting of Revs. Ketcham, Dashiell and Tevis to represent them at the funeral. After the scriptural reading these resolutions were read by Dr. Gobin.  Miss  Jennie Post sang “My Ain Countree.”  As her rich and clear voice breathed forth the plaintive Scotch melody the vast assembly was moved to tears.  Dr. John then rose to give his address to the congregation.  It was expected that Bishop Bowman would preach the sermon but in the morning word was received that he was unable to attend. Dr. John said that the previous year one of the missionaries had been compelled bury his own daughter and he felt as the missionary must have felt for in preaching the sermon it were as if it was his own father or his own brother for he had loved the doctor as a father or brother. Dr. John’s sermon was sound and full of thought and was delivered in such powerful words as only the eloquence of Dr. John can speak  His address is full as given as follows:

This address, hastily prepared amid the distractions of the past few hours, must be inadequate to the occasion. It does not profess to give a comprehensive or exhaustive analysis of the massive life and character of the departed saint.  This is not a time for many words or for a formal oration Pubic memorial exercises are in contemplation to be held at a suitable time in the future. Until then, let these few words suffice.

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I have a difficult duty to perform. The difficulty lies in withholding the expression of my deepest sentiments of admiration and love, an expression which, to those who do not know the facts, would seem extravagant and vain. I am to speak of a great and good man, who during his lifetime gave no uncertain expression of his conviction that a funeral occasion should not be one of eulogy but one of quiet and holy command in  with God he would say, “Et the life speak for itself, and let no effort of oratory or fulsome praise be paraded before surviving loved ones as they sit in the hallowed shadow of grief.”  And yet, how can one speak of a great and good man without uncovering the fact that he is great and good?

How can one speak of the lily and forget its fragrance, or of the rainbow and forget its beauty or of the sea and sky and forget their grandeur?  A great man says: “There is something grander than the sea; it is the sky. There is something grander than the sky; it is speak of a good and great soul, a soul already good and great, without thinking of its goodness and greatness?  

And how can I speak of Alexander Martin and yet now show you the man?  After all, I cannot think that he would object that a loving tribute should be brought to those who love him.  If this company of people were a gaping crowd, drawn hither by idle curiosity or the hope of the spectacular, my lips would not be sealed and my tribute would be unspoken. But this is a company of his friends. The hush of grief is upon you all. It is a large family of grief -stricken ones gathered here, not only to weep with the widow and the fatherless, but to shed tears for your own loss.  You are the companions who for many a year have stood shoulder to shoulder with him in the faculty room and the college platform. You are the students who have lived under the benediction of his presence. You are neighbors and fellow citizens, attached to him by the ties of philanthropy and Christian affection.  You claim him as your own, and I can speak to you almost as freely and op…. hold.  It is not unworthy of us that we love him, and therefore claim im, in a sense, as our own; for how could it be otherwise? Can the flower keep back its petals from the sunshine or the needle swing away from the pole?  Love begets love and love attracts love, and for one not to have been attracted .. him was to .. kept wholly without the sphere of his influence.  I cannot, then, think that he would disapprove this modest and unpretended attempt to hold him up for a moment to the view of those who loved him.  If we may look at his portrait and be removed of him, much more may we  not look at him.  But where shall I begin to draw the picture?  Shall it be within the sacred circle of the home? This  is holy ground and whoever enters there must go with unsandaled feet. And yet some of us have been so fortunate as to catch glimpses of the beauty, tranquility and – I had almost said – Christian perfect of the home over which, or rather in which he and his beloved wife presided with almost unequalled skill, dignity and affection. It was heaven begun on earth.  As a father, he ruled, and yet his government was patterned after that of the heavenly father. His children rendered him the obedience that the sons and daughters of God render to their father in heaven – an obedience, not of fear but of love; or it of fear, it was a fear begotten of love; a fear lest they might come short of the high standard which their own love had set up. One such Christian home is a prophecy of heaven and it is the same time the fulfillment of its own phophecy.  If heaven began amid the cares, toils, anxieties, tears and bereavements of this earthly environment be so beautiful and glorious what must be its beauty and glory when care shall fall from our shoulders, and toil itself shall be rest and anxiety shall only be the prelude and accompaniment to unceasing victory and tears shall be wiped away by the father’s hand and death shall be only a reminiscence?  We sing: “I am far far my hame,” but we are not so far as we think, for have we not a home in heaven when we have heaven in the home?   Is not God the same whether yonder or here? Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, but he has not deserted us. While he has gone to prepare the place for us, he still remains to prepare us for the place. I think God for the Christian home on earth the earnest of the heavenly home, and that such was the home established and perpetuated for more than 40  years by the departed loved one; and I thank God that the home that has been partly transferred to the heavenly world, by the translation of the first-born, then of the youngest and now of the head, shall be reestablished in the city of God to be broken no more forever.

But Dr. Martin did not hide himself within the sacred sphere of home life, he was a member of the community. He was a part of the people. He clearly saw that he owed a duty to his neighbor as well as to those within the home circle.  His neighbor was not only the one who lived next door, but also he lived beyond the seas.  His neighbor was the man of wealth and influence, but no less the man of obscurity and poverty. His neighbor was the man of culture and refinement but no more so than the rude and the ignorant. He was a philanthropist, he had his preferences, but his heart went out to all men.  He could not brook rudeness or willful ignorance but the man, himself, was his brother and his philanthropy included him. He abhorred sin, but like his master, his heart went after the sinner.

His philanthropy made him a prominent and active factor in the community and state. As a citizen, he met the responsibilities of citizenship.  He was foremost in all forms. Was there a movement for the suppression of gambling and drunkenness?  He was among the leaders. Was there an organization for the relief of suffering?  He was one of the impelling forces. Was there any public enterprise looking towards the material prosperity of the city or state? His clarion voice rang out upon the platform and his limited purse opened wide to the call. Did the brave defenders of their country in the civil war languish and die far from home and friends?  He was there to minister to their bodily comfort and to point them to the Lamb of God … of the world.  He was a public man in the community and state and he responded cheerfully and patriotically to public calls of duty, although at the time burdened and oppressed by cares and labors in themselves sufficient to appal the stoutest heart. But the most beautiful instances of his intense philanthropy were not open to the gaze of the public and he would not wish me to unveil them, even in the presence of these, his friends. His left hand was not permitted to know what his right hand was doing but he has already heard the sweet benediction of the King: “Come thou blessed one of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for three from the foundation of the world; for I was a hungered and thou gavest me meat; I was thirsty and thou gavest me to drink; I was a stranger and thou tookest me in ; naked and thou didst cloth me; I was sick and thou dist visit me; I wa sin prison and thou didst come unto me. And he has asked the trembling question, “When, dear Lord, when?”  And the King has said, “Verily I say unto thee, inasmuch as thou hast done it unto thousands of the least of these my brethren, thou has done it unto me.”  Shall we turn for a moment from the philanthropist at large and view him in one of the phases of philanthropy, viz, as a christian educator? Let us pass from the home and the community and entere the Christian school. Here was his throne. Here he devoted the strong years of his active life. Here he achieved fame; although in itself little valued by him. Here he made his deepest impress on the world. Here he set forces in motion that shall multiply for eternity.  How high the calling and how tremendous the responsibility of the Christian educator!  He stands at the beginnings of great things. He strikes the keynote for eternal ages. God pity him if he pitch it in unison with earthly discords!  He thrusts in his chisel for all the future. God have mercy on him if he leave a disfiguring sear for the eternities!  Dr. Martin pitched his key to the harmonies of the heavely world and he thrust his skillful and consecrated chisel into the immortal essence of the soul, striking off sins and bringing forth virtues and putting into the hands of his living statuary the self-directing chisel for a development through all the coming ages. He believed in the fullest education of the man – not of body alone, not of intellect, sensibility and will alone, not yet alone of the spiritual side of his being; but of the entire man. He believed that education of the physical to the exclusion of the intellectual and spiritual, brings men toward the level of the brute creation; tha tht education of the intellect and spirit to the neglect of the body is an insult to God who has made the human body to be the temple of the  Holy Ghost; and that the education of the body and the intellect to the neglect of the spirit defeats the ultimate purpose of our being, believing thus, he left his impression the triple nature of the thousands and tens of thousands of youth that came to him for instruction. He had no patience with shams. He believed in the truth, the wide-open truth, and expected his pupils not only to learn the truth but to be the truth. Dr. Martin wielded a powerful influence on the educational systems of his generation. He was not content merely to follow, but he was a leader in many educational reforms.  He was foremost in the councils of the church on all great educational questions, and his wise direction is seen in much of the chief educational legislation of many successive general conferences. Christian education was his life work, and a few paragraphs cannot adequately set forth his influence and power in his chosen field. And especially shall a brief address be inadequate to show how great a factor he has been in the development, growth and achievements of DePauw university. This theme must be reserved for a fuller discussion in connection with our proposed public memorial service, but I cannot now forbear to say that I regard him as one of the greatest educators of our church, and one of the greatest faces ever present in our beloved university. But there was something which Dr. Martin loved more than his native Scotland; more than the mere community in which he lived; more than the great commonwealth of which he was an illustrious citizen’ more than the college or the university; more even than the wide nation of which he was a loyal subject; it was the church of the Living God; one ohis favorite hymns was “My country tis of thee…but he struck a higher strain when he sang, “I love thy Kingdom Lord …he loved the general church of Christ but had a peculiar affection for the church of his choice. He was not narrow in his church loyalty but he was intense. He unchristianized no one for not belonging to his particular communion but he had a specially warm place in his heart for those of his own church name. He believed in the policy of his church and earnestly contended that it was better to follow its existing rules than to go off in a vain search for doubtful improvements. Nevertheless, he was in the very van of real progress… favored such new modification as would be better adapted to the environment.

He gave his life to the church; I think I may say that he gave his life for the church;’ for scarcely by night or by day did he relax his efforts in its behalf from that period of his boyhood when he made it his choice down to the very week of his death. I must not tell you why he loved it so fervently or the peculiar circumstances that caused him to cling to it so tenanciously. I dare not lift the veil and show you the sacrifices he made for it even in his boyhood days; but I wonder how many of us would have refused an urgent offer of a college education free of cost to us,lest there might come with it some appearance of obligation to another communion, and instead would have cheerfully and heroically chosen to work our own way through with all the privation and mortification that such a necessity generally implies.

He loved his church and his church poured out its honors upon him. He occupied some of the most distinguished positions with its gift and could easily have occupied still higher ones, if he has consented to use the ordinary means for preferment. As a private member of the church he was faithful in the discharge of the most humble duties. Th eprayer room and other social religious places were vocal with his thanksgivings and petitions; when not himself preaching to the people, he was a devout and interested bearer of the Word; and when sinners were inquiring for Christ, who so well as he could point the way? But his glory was the pulpit. He was a tower of strength to the walls of Zion. His trumpet gave no uncertain sound. He did not resort to the tricks or oratory. He did not tread the flowery paths of rhetoric, although his language was chaste and his thought as clear as the sunbeam and as beautiful as the truth itself.  HE had convictions. They were deep, overmasting abiding. He believed the plain teachings of Christ and he preached no adulterated gospel. He believed to heaven and hell; in repetenace, justification, regeneration and sanctification. He believed that sin is a terrible fact and not a mere fiction; that it is more than an impropriety; more than inutility; more than a mere lack of culture. He believed that is rebellion against God and an insult of infinite love. But he believe din the atonement and an atonement that paints the outward surface, but an atonement that reaches to the very roofs of sin.  He was a sturdy preacher, both of faith and righteousness, and skepticism qualed before his might convictions and sin trembled of the blast of his trumpet. Oh, for more such preachers of the whole Gospel of Christ; preachers burning with love for souls and flaming with body wrath against sin. Young men, let his mantle fall upon you. Your Elijah has gone home in a chariot of fire; but his mantle hovers in the air above you. Reverently bow your heads and make ready your shoulders to receive the heavenly gift; for it through the favor of God it should be multiplied and should rest upon you, the waters of Jordan shall divide before you and the walls of sin shall fall down at your word. Upon conclusion of Dr. John’s sermon the choir sang, “There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,” and the asket was opened for the friends to take a final farewell view. In the coffin it appeared as if Dr. Martin had calmly fallen asleep and indeed he had fallen asleep in Jesus. At the cemetery Dr. Gobin read the burial service and Dr. John pronounced the benediction.

Notes: Pall bearers were: Dr. Baker; Col. Weaver and Dr. Poucher representing the college and GC Moore, D. Langdon and TC Hammond representing the city. The faculty and senior class attended the funeral in a body and each of the other college classes sent repreentatives.  The faculty, senior and freshman classes sent beautiful floral tributes and a beautiful tribute was received from Cincinnati. The inscription of “Father” was engraved upon the lid of the plain cloth-covered casket. It is expected in the future to have a memorial service at which a fuller discussion of Dr. Martin’s virtues may be presented.  

Transcribed by Karen Zach

Same man?  THINK SO