The Vedder Lectureship was founded by Mr. Nicholas F. Vedder, of Utica, who gave a fund of $10,000, in 1873, on this among other conditions, that the General Synod should "every year elect some member of the Reformed Church in America to deliver to the students of the seminary and of Rutgers College at least five lectures on the" present aspects of modern infidelity, including its cause and cure." The following courses of lectures have been delivered upon this foundation : 1874, by Isaac S. Hartley, D.D., of Utica, on Prayer and Mod- ern Criticism; 1875, by Tayler Lewis, LL.D.. of Union College, on Nature and the Scriptures; 1876, by Talbot W. Chambers, D.D., of New York, on The Psalter, a Witness to the Divine Origin of the Bible; 1877, by William R. Gordon, D.D., of Schraalenbcrg, N. J., on
The Science of Revealed Truth Impregnable, as shown by the A rgumeututice Failures of Infidt It'/// and Theoret- ical Geology. All of these lectures have been published under the general title of The Vedder Lectures.
" Hope College," located at the city of Holland. Mich., was chartered in 1866, and grew out of a flourishing academy which was started as a civil and parochial school in the infancy of the colony of Hollanders, founded by the Rev. Dr. Albertus C. Van Raalte, on Black 1 liver and lake, in that state, in the year 1846-47. This insti- tution embraces a preparatory school, collegiate, scien- tific, and theological departments, under the ecclesiasti- cal supervision of the General Synod, and in the imme- diate charge of its council and faculty. It possesses am- ple college grounds, good buildings, an endowment of funds which are augmenting yearly, a tract of land called •• the James Suydam farm of Hope College," after a great benefactor, and many appliances for a liberal training. The course of instruction is thorough, and will be expanded with the demands of the times. The faculty consists of a president and five professors, with subordinate teachers. The whole number of pupils in June, 1878, was 98, of whom 65 were in the preparatory department, and 33 in the academic course.
2. Theological Seminaries. — A professor of theology, Dr. John H. Livingston, was chosen in 1784, and at the same time Dr. Hermanus Meyer was appointed profess- or of languages, and two years later, also, as lector in theology. In 1792 Drs. Solomon Froeligh and Dirck Romeyn were appointed additional professors of didac- tic theology. Other appointments were subsequently made — Rev. Drs. John Bassett, Jeremiah Romeyn, and John M. Van Harlingen. All of these professors and lectors originally taught their students at their own places of residence. The seminary proper, under Dr. Livingston, was located in 1796 at Flatbush, L. I., and in 1804 was transferred to New York, where it remain- ed until its final location, in 1810, at New Brunswick, N.J.
These facts substantiate the claim that the Reformed Dutch Church in America was the first if all her Prot- estant sisters to reduce theological education in a system, the first to demand that it be in charge of a professional instructor, and the first to appoint a theological profess- or. But for the outbreak of the Revolutionary war, her theological seminary would have been started in the year of American independence, 1776. Dr. Liv- ingston occupied the professorial chair from 1784 to 1825; and previous to the removal to New Bruns- wick he and his colleagues sent forth 91 students into the ministry. After various ineffectual efforts to secure a proper endowment, the professorship was merged in Queen's College by a covenant between the synod and the trustees of that institution. In the year 1825, the seminary had three resident theological pro- fessors, and was fully organized. Additional articles of agreement were now entered into with the trustees, by which a theological college was organized, and the name changed from Queen's to Rutgers. Three years later, a Board of Education was established to care for beneficiaries. In 1865 another theological professorship was added, and the covenant between the synod and the trustees of Rutgers College formally annulled. The fol- lowing year, Hope College was organized in Holland, Mich., and in a twelvemonth more a theological depart- ment in the same place. In the year 1856, Mrs. Anna Hertzog, of Philadelphia, donated $30,000 for the erec- tion of a suitable edifice for the use of the seminary, upon the condition that it should bear the honored name of her deceased husband, "the Peter Hertzog Theological Hall." The building was speedily erected — three stories in height, 120 feet long — and contains a small chapel, double rooms for sleeping and study purposes, to accom- modate about sixty students; lecture-rooms for the pro- fessors, rector's residence, and refectory. It stands in the midst of seven acres of land, which were also donated for the purpose by Messrs. James Neilson, David Bishop, and
REFORMED (DUTCH) CHURCH 1004 REFORMED (DUTCH) CHURCH
Charles P. Dayton, and Francis and Wessell Wcssclls. The site is commanding. Three professors' booses have been buill upon it. and another one, directly opposite, has been bought ami presented to the < ieneral Synod by Messrs. James Suydarn and Gardner A. Sage, of New York, at a cost of $18,000. Mrs. Hertzog also left by will $10,000 i" be invested, the interest of which is to keep the ball in repair. By the munificence of its friends the building has been thoroughly refitted and furnished in the best manner to make it a pleasant Christian home for the students. In 1*7:; the James Suydarn Hall was opened for use. This large, substan- tial, and costly building, containing a chapel, lecture- rooms, museum, and gymnasium, was the gift of the late James Suydarn of New York, who laid its corner- stone hiu did not live to sec it completed. Mr. Suydarn also endowed the professorship of didactic and polemic theology which bears his name, in the sum of $60,000; and these, with various gifts and legacies to the theo- logical seminary and other specific Church purposes, amount to more than £:Jf>(i,ui)(i. This was in addition to other bequests to the American Bible and Tract societies; and the seminary and the Bible Socii \\ were also made his equal residuary legatees. A bronze statue of Mr. Suydarn, somewhat larger than life size, the gift of friends, was unveiled on the day of dedica- tion of the hall. The Gardner A. Sage library build- ing is the gift of the generous founder whose name