September 28. Charles Hodge. As a boy, Charles dutifully memorized Scripture and the Westminster Catechism. Then the revival of 1815 “led Charles into an intense season of spiritual searching, and he found that God had made his boyhood beliefs both sincere and heartfelt.”
He entered Princeton Theological Seminary, where they required him to memorize the Catechism again—in Latin—and on this date in 1819, he graduated. Within the year, Charles began to teach at the seminary.
And he kept on teaching, “representing the faith,” for 56 years. And he trained up more than 3,000 seminary students, more graduate students than “any other professor of any kind in the 19th century.”
Although Charles’s teaching and the books he wrote caused him to be popularly known as “the pope of Presbyterianism,” he trusted Christ alone.
Point people to Jesus. You can’t give what you don’t have. Get to know God’s empowering grace; then share it.
Charles stared at the blank stationery on his desk. Thought of Sarah. Wondered why their letters had become superficial—that is when there were any letters at all.
When he had first noticed her back home in Philadelphia, he had only been fifteen. And now that they were old enough to court, she had agreed to correspond while he studied at Princeton Seminary. He imagined her large, searching blue-gray eyes. What had happened between Sarah and him?
Most likely he was to blame. Sarah had trusted him with her private struggles with God and faith. His response had not satisfied her questions. Was it his inability to help her through those painful emotions that had created this distance?
Yesterday his beloved professor had encouraged the class to “look unto Jesus!” Until a person looked to Jesus, he was left struggling in his own strength. When he looked to Jesus, the battle became God’s. Charles prayed for wisdom. He couldn’t give Sarah what he didn’t have. But as he experienced the grace of God, he could share it with her.
Sarah tried so hard to be good. Charles was learning that to be good before believing Jesus was the One who made you good was like trying to start a fire with no wood. The direct reverse of what God prescribed!
He put the fountain pen upon the paper. “My dear Sarah, the reason why persons truly pious make so little progress … is because they do not carry on the conflict in the right way.” Trying to change inner motivation never worked. You couldn’t force holiness. Jesus promised to deliver from faults, and He never failed!
“Use Christ as though He were your own,” wrote Charles. “Employ His strength, His merit, and His grace in all your trials. This is the way to honor Him. Fear not that He will be offended at the liberty.” Charles prayerfully re-read the letter and wrote the year—1818—across the bottom.
As Charles continued his studies, his thoughts were not far from Sarah. How would she receive his letter?
When Sarah wrote back, the tone encouraged him. Soon they corresponded with more intimacy.
What joy to share the love of Christ with his wife-to-be! Paul wrote that a husband should love his wife as if she were a part of himself. Charles would love Sarah as God loved him, sharing with her God’s patient grace. Together, grounded in Christ, they would build a strong, godly relationship.
“In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself” (Ephesians 5:28 NIV).
As Charles finished seminary, preached, and then received an appointment to teach at Princeton, he continued to share with Sarah what he was learning—to look to God, not oneself. Don’t wait until “your heart becomes penitent and humble,” he wrote. “Go with a proud heart for Him to change … He alone can give you what you need.”
For roughly two years, the correspondence continued. One day Charles eagerly opened another letter from Sarah, written on August 4, 1820. “I love to feel myself bound to you by … ties that not even the grave can change,” he read. Sarah wrote that she felt cherished. Guided by his words. Grateful that he was the instrument God had used to draw her closer to Himself. Moisture pricked Charles’s eyes. God gave him grace. And God gave grace to Sarah through him.
How do you love others as you love yourself? Point people to Jesus. You can’t give what you don’t have. Get to know God’s empowering grace; then share it.
Hodge, Archibald Alexander. The Life of Charles Hodge, D.D. LL.D: Professor in the Theological Seminary, Princeton, N.J. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1880.
Taylor, Justin. “The Remarkable Legacy of Charles Hodge.” TGC. Posted on December 27, 2016.
Story read by: Joel Carpenter
Introduction read by: Daniel Carpenter
Audio production: Joel Carpenter
Story written by: Toni M Babcock, https://www.facebook.com/toni.babcock.1
Editor: Teresa Crumpton, https://authorspark.org/
Project manager: Blake Mattocks
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