Moses Drury Hoge, D. D., Ll.D.
‘And now abideth faith, hope, Charity, these three; but the greatest of these is Charity!’ —1 Corinthians, XIII, 13.[In this hastily put-together and crude offering, free use has been made of current relevant publications in the Richmond Dispatch. It is humbly felt, that in the exemplication adduced, the premises are inherently sustained.—Ed.] The dawn of Friday, January 6th, 1899, brought with it to the people of Richmond, Va., the knowledge of an event, which in the heart of every one, was as a public calamity; and the occasion of grief to all. The animating spark of the so-endeared citizen and minister ‘Doctor Hoge,’ had passed gently to God who gave it, at twenty minutes past two o'clock. His death was not unexpected, but, it was not the less sorrowful. ,Scarce ever, has the rubric gem—‘Faith, Hope, Charity,’ been more impressively and touchingly exemplified in man, and in not another, have the elementary virtues, it is felt, more abounded. Indeed, words seem at fault, and inadequate to depict a life so benignant, so beneficent. It was one, in its purity, devotion and absence of thought of self not often realized in such harmonious grandeur of simple blessedness. His adoration of, and his humble submission to every dispensation of The Omnipotent was sublime—as the trust of a little child. He was upheld in every visitation of seeming calamity; and there was no cloud in life to him, that had not its silver lining, whate'er the gloom of its cast. His tender and expansive heart was eager in its response to every cry of woe, to all knowledge of want, and suffering, was, to him, as an atoning mantle for human fraility. Still, he desired not that the world know of what was his paramount enjoyment. Constant was his succor of the needy, and the effects of his benefactions may never be measured. [256] A countless multitude have successively rejoiced, in his blessedly protracted ministrations, in his unheralded bounties. Whilst the current subtle influence of a character so nearly unique cannot be calculated, it, as assurdly, was not bounded. Truly, it permeated ducts of thought broadly, and its influence, contagiously impelled action in others, whilst the personal medium, never cared to reckon its inspiring potency. Dr. Hoge was of us, he could not tear himself from us whatever the dazzling offer, the attractive advantage to allure. Nothing, it seemed, could make him forgetful of endeared association, of cherished and familiar objects, of the heart-flood of reciprocative affection incidentally attendant upon a loving ministration, so sweetly and so evenly protracted. It is transparent that there were no restricting lines with him in heart or hand; in gracious ministration, in succoring benefaction. As a citizen, whilst it is palpable there could have been no expectancy of personal profit (certainly this is clear to the world now), there was never a call upon him, and his physical ability permitted, for furtherance of any proper object; of devotion, of honored rite, of intellectual advancement, of public good, nay, of innocent enjoyment, to which he did not contribute by his honored presence and by invocation and words of cheer. It is simply true that every one who knew him, or who ever came within the radiance of his remarkable personality, was attracted to him. Every man, woman and child here in the compass of his immediate labors, loved him and revered his virtues. Comprehensive of country of birth, of sectarian tenet, of diversity of avocation, of condition in life; because all felt his influence. This charm, as well as his intellectual gifts, swayed whithersoever he went, however distant; thus two continents delighted in honoring him. All this came not by endowment alone. It is held that virtuous ancestry will constrain in successive generations, and there could scarcely be inheritance more worthy than that of our loved minister. Constant still is the publication of tribute to his memory, of his useful offices in comprehensive offering, and in expressions of sorrow from distant points. Rev. Dr. Moses Drury Hoge was born at Hampden-Sidney College, Prince Edward county, Virginia, September 18th, 1818. He was descended on his father's side from ancestors who emigrated [257] from Scotland and settled in Frederick county, Va., in 1736, on the domain of Thomas Lord Fairfax, of Colonial memory. His grandfather was Dr. Moses Hoge, President of Hampden-Sidney College, one of the most eminent among great and good ministers, who have so richly blessed the Presbyterian Church in Virginia. John Ranpolph says in one of his letters that the Doctor was the most eloquent man he ever heard in the pulpit or out of it. Three of his sons became ministers of the Gospel—Dr. James Hoge, of Columbus, O.; John Blair Hoge, of Richmond, Va.; and Samuel Davies Hoge, Professor of Natural Sciences in the Ohio University, at Athens. The last named died early in life, leaving two sons, who became ministers of the Gospel, the younger of whom was the late Rev. W. J. Hoge, D. D., and the elder the late Rev. Moses D. Hoge, D. D., of this city. The youngest son of Dr. Moses Hoge, of Hampden-Sidney College, was Dr. Thomas P. Hoge, the only one of his four sons who did not become a minister of the Gospel. He was a popular physician, and at one time a large planter in Halifax county and an elder in the Presbyterian Church. He had two sons—one of them captain of an artillery company—and both of whom were killed in the same battle during the war. When Dr. Hoge's uncle, Dr. James Hoge, was a young man, he removed to Ohio, then a frontier State. He went as a domestic or home missionary, and settled at Franklinton, where there had been a fort for protection against the Indians. He purchased a farm on the opposite side of the Scioto river, and built the first house where the city of Columbus now stands. It was through his influence that the asylum for the deaf and dumb and other philanthropic institutions were built in Columbus. He induced Dr. Hoge's father, soon after he had been licensed to preach, to remove to Ohio. He was a man of such studious habits, of such conciliating manners and ability as a preacher and a college professor, that he would have attained great distinction but for his death at thirty-three years of age. After his death all of his family returned to the South. On the maternal side Dr. Hoge was descended from the Lacy family, which emigrated from England to Virginia in early Colonial times. His grandfather was the Rev. Drury Lacy, D. D., President of Hampden-Sidney College, a minister of great eminence and worth. Two of his sons became ministers—the Rev. William S. Lacy, of Louisiana, and Rev. Drury Lacy, D. D., formerly President of Davidson College, and late of Raleigh, N. C. Many of the 17 [258] descendants of both Dr. Hoge and Dr. Lacy also entered the office of the ministry. On both sides, therefore, Dr. Hoge was undoubtedly of the annointed of the Lord. Dr. Hoge was educated at Hampden-Sidney College. When he graduated there Dr. Wm. Maxwell, (whose widow died in this city a few weeks ago, of venerable years) was the president of the institution, and he was a man of fine attainments, and an ornate and finished speaker. Among his classmates were Colonel Charles S. Carrington, a whole-souled, splendid man; Judge F. D. Irving, whom the lawyers called ‘the grand old man;’ Dr. William T. Richardson, afterward editor of the Central Presbyterian, and Dr. R. L. Dabney, one of the profoundest thinkers of the day. Out of all these distinguished men Dr. Hoge won the first honor, and was the valedictorian. While at college he gained a widespread reputation as an orator. Members of his society used to say that his speeches in debate were brilliant and powerful.
