Dr. Whitsitt's Writings, Publications, etc.
01. "Position of the Baptists in the History
of American Culture," (no additional information
available on this article's publication)
02. "The History of the Use [Rise?] of Infant Baptism,"
1878
03. "The History of Communion Among Baptists," 1880
04. "Wm. H. Whitsitt's Lecture" (Book of Mormon, baptism,
etc.) Louisville, Western Recorder, Oct. 26, 1882
05. "The Honolulu Manuscript and the Book of Mormon"
(article in the Syracuse New York Independent,
October 1, 1885)
06. "Solomon Spaulding's 'Manuscript Found' -- Editor's Comments"
(unsigned reply in the Syracuse New York Independent,
January 7, 1886)
07. Spencer,
J. H., A History of Kentucky Baptists From 1769
to 1885, Including More Than 800 Biographical
Sketches . . . privately printed, 1886
reprinted: Lafayette, Tennessee, Church History
Research & Archives, 1976
08. Life and times of Judge Caleb Wallace, some
time a justice of the Court of appeals of the
state of Kentucky, Louisville, J. P. Morton &
Company, Printers, 1888 (151 p.)
09. Origin
of the Disciples of Christ (Campbellites); a contribution
to the centennial anniversary of the birth of
Alexander Campbell, New York, A. C. Armstrong,
1888 (112 p.)
10. Sampey, J. R., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary,
1859-1889, Louisville, 1890
11. "Mormonism" (summarizes Whitsitt's theories on Sidney Rigdon)
Jackson, Samuel M. (editor) Concise Dictionary
of Religious Knowledge and Gazetteer, NY, The
Christian Literature Co., 1891
12. "An Article on Baptist History," in Johnson's
Universal Encyclopaedia, NY, 1896.
13. A Question in Baptist History: Whether the Anabaptists
in England Practiced Immersion Before the Year
1641 . . . Louisville, C. T. Dearing, 1896 (164
p.)
reprinted: NY, Arno Press, 1980; Ayer Company
Publishers, [1997?]
14. "Whitsitt, William Heth," in Malone,
Dumas (editor) Dictionary of American Biography,
Vol. X 1896, NY, Charles Scribner's Sons.
15. "Whitsitt, William Heth," in The National Cyclopaedia
of American Biography, NY, James T. White & Co., 1900
16. "Annals of a Scotch-Irish Family -- The Whitsitt's of Nashville, Tenn,"
in American Historical Magazine and Tennessee Historical Society
Quarterly, Jan., July, Oct., 1904
17. Genealogy of Jefferson Davis; address delivered October
9, 1908 . . . Richmond, Everett Waddy Co., Printers,
1908 (16 p.)
18. "William
H. Whitsitt's Obituary," in the Richmond,
VA Times-Dispatch, Jan. 21, 1911.
19. "William H. Whitsitt's Obituary," in the Louisville,
KY Western Recorder, Jan. 23, 1911
20. Who's Who in America, 1910-1911, NY, 1912
21. Nowlin, W. D., Kentucky Baptist History, 1922
22. Patterson, W. Morgan, "William Heth Whitsitt
: the Seminary's Versatile Scholar," (Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary Founders' Day Address),
Louisville, Privately Printed Typescript, February
1, 1994. (24 p.)
|
THE REVIEW
AND EXPOSITOR
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Vol. IX. April, 1912 No. 2.
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THE LIFE AND WORK OF WILLIAM HETH WHITSITT.
By Professor E. B. Pollard, D. D., Chester Theological Seminary,
Chester, Pa.
Human
progress has always moved along the highway of
sacrifice. Persons, not things, individuals and
not institutions must ever bear the brunt of all
social and religious advancement. Progress is
a hard bargainer. She extracts her price in toil
and sweat and blood. The life of William H. Whitsitt
exemplifies these truths. His place will always
be a unique one in the history of Southern Baptists.
In this altogether imperfect sketch of his life
and work, we shall try to be sympathetic, discriminating
and just.
Near the city of Nashville,
in Davidson County, Tennessee, William Heth Whitsitt was born on
November 25, 1841. He was accustomed to speak of himself as "a
strenuous Baptist;" sometimes adding "I have been a Baptist
for three generations." The Whitsitt lineage may be fairly
well traced. The Whitsitt's -- or Whitesides, as they are called
in their home-land -- came into Amherst County, Virginia, from Ireland,
apparently, by way of Pennsylvania, in the year 1741. The family
was of Scotch-Irish blood and in religion was Presbyterian.
William Whitsitt, the immigrant, had a grandson,
James Whitsitt, by name, who, in the great revival
which swept over Virginia in 1785-92, was converted,
and in 1789, connected himself with a little Baptist
church organized in 1788, with a meeting-place
on the Whitsitt farm. * In the following year,
young James Whitsitt, with uncommon zeal as a
Christian, decided to remove from his Virginian
home to Davidson County, Tennessee; and in due
time, became one of the most notable of the Baptist
pioneers in the region of the Cumberland Valley.
† This remarkable man is said to have possessed
unusual native ability, and strong reasoning powers;
as a preacher he took great pains in preparation
and at times manifested deep feeling and pathos.
With all, he was an earnest friend of the early
missionary undertakings of his day. A son of this
sturdy pioneer preacher was Reuben Ewing Whitsitt.
He and Dicey (McFarland) Whitsitt became the parents
of the distinguished subject of this article.
Young William Whitsitt's
father died when he was a lad of eleven years; and his mother became
for a time the chief educative force in his life. The boy's first
experience away from home came in his early 'teens. In Wilson County,
Tennessee, about midway between Nashville and Lebanon, there lay
the quiet little village of Mt. Juliet, the principal attraction
of which was the Mt. Juliet High School, then a flourishing academy
for boys and girls. Thither William Whitsitt was sent, under the
oversight of relatives, the Williamson's, who resided near the village.
Here the future professor began to lay well the foundations of his
life-long habits of study. In the year 1857, he entered tile Union
University of Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Of this modest educational
seat, Doctor Whitsitt later wrote: "It was a small affair,
in the hushes on the outskirts of Murfreesboro, but there was much
good learning and good fellowship in that shabby house of three
stories." From this institution he was graduated with distinction
in 1861 before he had yet reached the age of twenty. A life-long
friend, who knew him in the early school-days, says of him: "He
was the readiest boy I ever knew in the recitation room. I do not
believe he ever made a faulty recitation. I do not remember his
ever failing in anything."
The Civil War having begun in the spring of the year
of graduation, William Whitsitt enlisted as a
private. One of the earliest of his experiences
as a soldier may be given in his own words,... "Early on the morning of November 15,
1862, my colonel sent me an order to saddle up
and report to the General. I groomed the horse
that I considered superior to anything in the
army, and with my shining, morning face and my
new Confederate uniform, I saddled in haste and
galloped up to see what General Forrest might
want of me. I was very proud to receive his commands,
and suspected that my large new parchment in the
degree of Master of Arts at the poor little university
in Murfreesboro may have been the charm that won
his regards. I put spurs to my horse. As I came
in sight of him, in order to make a brave show,
and stopping at the proper distance, I made what
must have been to him a very ridiculous salute.
He replied more slowly and then calling me forward,
inquired my name, and whether I was acquainted
with the region between Nashville and Franklin,
remarking that he desired me to ride with him
in the capacity of a guide. He complimented me
on reporting to him promptly, remarking that if
I had been five minutes later the whole army would
have been delayed by my negligence." The
young private was later promoted to a chaplaincy... Doctor Whitsitt, even till
his death, took a modest though very manifest
pride in his military life, and frequently referred
to it with evident enthusiasm. His confederates
in arms have testified to his valor and fidelity
as a soldier. While on a furlough, it would seem,
he was ordained to the gospel ministry at the
old Mill Creek Church, of which his grandfather
had been pastor; of which he and his people were
members, and which he himself was later to serve
for a brief period, in 1865-66.
After nearly four years of military experience -- about twelve months
of which time were spent in Federal prisons, he having been twice
captured -- young Whitsitt decided to take up again his broken threads
of study. In 1866, he entered the University of Virginia... The next year, Mr. Whitsitt
entered the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, then located
in Greenville, S. C., where he remained two sessions. Here he was
regarded as a most diligent and even brilliant student... The two years from 1869 to 1871 were
spent in study abroad, particularly in Leipzig and in Berlin. ... On the student's return to his native land, he accepted
the care of the Baptist church at Albany, Georgia, in February,
1872. In the fall of that year, however, he entered upon the duties
of professorship in Ecclesiastical History at the Seminary in Greenville,
succeeding Doctor William Williams who had been transferred from
this chair to that of Systematic Theology. Biblical Introduction
was also assigned to the new professor. Later, however, on Dr. Manly's
return to the Seminary in 1879, Dr. Whitsitt exchanged the latter
subject for Polemical Theology. This he taught most successfully,
till succeeded in this department by the distinguished teacher,
Henry Herbert Harris, in the year 1895. Professor Whitsitt's special
classes in the reading of theological works in the German language,
in the History of Doctrine, and in his Historical Seminary, were
popular with the students and highly profitable. It is in the special
department of Church History that Doctor Whitsitt's reputation was
made, and upon this it must chiefly rest. His distinguished abilities
as scholar, teacher and preacher were not slow in being recognized.
Mercer University conferred upon him the Degree of Doctor of Divinity
in the year 1873. Three schools of learning, (William Jewell, Georgetown
and Southwestern) honored him with the degree of Doctor of Laws
in 1888.
...
... It was strange indeed, that one of the most unassertive
and peace-loving of men should have been one of
the greatest of storm-centers in Southern Baptist
life.
... The life and work of William
H. Whitsitt cannot be properly judged, nor even
understood, apart from forces which had been at
work among Southern Baptists for half a century.
It is for this reason that a treatment of Doctor
Whitsitt's life would be altogether incomplete,
even unintelligible, without some reference to
the unfortunate contention which bears his name.
... Doctor Jesse B. Thomas, then Professor
of Church History in Newton Theological Institution,
in the midst of the now famous discussion, wrote:
"The historic question opened by Dr. Whitsitt
seems to me perfectly legitimate and fairly entitled
to candid investigation. I do not sympathize with,
nor can I easily understand the expression of
resentment because of a frank expression of opinion
upon a matter of dry and remote fact, having,
in the opinion of most Baptists no serious present
significance. Baptists, of all people, are pledged
by their own principles to encourage outspoken
loyalty to conviction on all issues touching the
truth of history as well as of Scripture. He who
announces a conclusion which he knows to be novel,
and suspects will be unpalatable, to his immediate
constituents, is entitled to respect, as having
shown the 'courage of his convictions.' He has
virtually challenged criticism, and invoked research
from which no harm can come, except to error.
...
We now turn from historical
causes to the occasion of the controversy. Here, it is necessary
to go back to, the year 1880. In this year Dr. Whitsitt, after months
of careful investigation of English Baptist history from documentary
sources, chiefly in the British Museum and the Bodleian Library,
became deeply impressed with the fact that Baptist history had been
treated most inadequately; and that Baptists themselves were signally
lacking in information as to their own notable history. ...
Knowing that the widely read religious journal, The Independent,
of New York, ... took much
interest in Church History; that the journal had a wide circulation
among scholarly people and was denominationally independent, Dr.
Whitsitt chose to prepare a few articles for that weekly upon some
points in English Baptist History. ... it was maintained that there is no evidence that English
Baptists practiced immersion, prior to the year 1641; and also that
Roger Williams was probably sprinkled, and not immersed in 1630,
as is generally believed. ...
Fifteen years or more elapsed
however, before any notice of the points at issue was taken in the
South. In the year 1895, Dr. Whitsitt prepared for Johnson's Cyclopedia ... Some months later, Doctor Henry M. King, then pastor
of the First Baptist Church of Providence, the church founded by
Williams, ... to make a spirited
reply to Whitsitt's theory concerning the baptism of Roger Williams.
In the discussion which followed, Professor Whitsitt, in justice
to himself, acknowledged the authorship of the Independent editorials;
in this way establishing priority to Henry M. Dexter or to any other,
in presenting the new discoveries in English and American Baptist
history. Some of the Baptist papers of the South took the matter
up, and began to criticize Doctor Whitsitt severely, not only for
his views on these historical subjects, but for his method of promulgating
them. Associations, -- local and state bodies -- as well as numerous
individuals, were drawn into the dispute. Dr. Whitsitt rarely undertook
any reply; but his critics were aggressive. Throughout the Southern
Baptist Convention, leaders took sides, and frequently there was
shown much depth of feeling, and here and there was engendered no
little bitterness.
There were those who
urged that the Seminary's president should resign. ...
There were many who refused to make the issue with President
Whitsitt either upon historical, or upon denominational
grounds, but kept to the front what they regarded
as grievous mistakes of practical judgment on
his part. Some were even willing to remove the
Seminary's president from office for the sake
of peace, disregarding the issues involved. On
the other hand there was a large number of noble
and intelligent men who felt that to yield to
this demand would be an intolerable blow to the
principle of freedom for the teacher. Indeed,
many conceived this to be really the paramount
issue in the contest.
...
For three years the Seminary trustees declined
to remove the president from office. It must be
said to their credit, though strong pressure was
brought to bear, for three years, they refused
to hamper a professor's freedom, so long as he
kept within the teaching of the Scriptures and
the Seminary Articles to which each instructor
assents when he enters upon his duties. It was
Doctor Whitsitt who took the initiative by sending
in his resignation as president and as a professor
-- in the interest of peace. Even then a respectable
minority were in favor of rejecting the resignation,
in the interest of freedom of teaching. But Doctor
Whitsitt was not skilled in the art of popular
appeal. He had no fondness for ecclesiastical
politics and therefore felt a great burden roll
from his shoulders when his resignation was accepted,
and his retirement became a fact in the spring
of 1899.
...
Among Dr. Whitsitt's
other important treatises are "The Rise of Infant Baptism"
(1878), "The History of Communion Among Baptists" (1880),
"The Relation of Baptists to Culture" (Inaugural 1872); Life
and Times of Judge Caleb Wallace (1888), "Annals of a Scotch-Irish
Family -- The Whitsitt's of Nashville, Tenn." * (1904), "Episode
in Immersionist History (Presbyterian Quarterly 10, 1896), "A
Question in Baptist History (1897), "The Genealogy of Jefferson
Davis" (1908). Among his published addresses are that on the
a Fiftieth Anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1895, and that before the Baptist Congress in London on "National
Primary Education," 1905.
Among his unpublished manuscripts was a very extensive
study of the Mormon Church, which he bequeathed
to the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.
He also left in manuscript a valuable discussion
of "Baptist Principles," which, it is
hoped may even yet be published.
After Dr. Whitsitt's retirement from the presidency of the Seminary
in 1899, he spent a year in rest and study, and was elected to be
James Thomas professor of philosophy in Richmond College, Virginia,
succeeding the lamented William D. Thomas, in June, 1901. Dr. Whitsitt
had long loved Virginia. Here had been the home of his ancestors,
and here apart of his training for life had been received. ... It seemed to him therefore
a providential opportunity to continue the use of his gifts as a
teacher and friend of young manhood, when this chair was offered
him in Virginia. He entered upon his work at the College, with the
same scrupulous fidelity that had characterized his life in the
Seminary ... Upon his resignation the students showed
their high regard and affection by the hearty presentation to their
retiring professor, of a handsome loving cup. In Sunday school and
religious work in the Grove Avenue Church, Richmond, Doctor Whitsitt
demonstrated his ardent, though unaffected piety, and endeared himself
to a large circle of his fellow-Christians in Virginia. During his
residence in that State he continued by his active personal influence
and by occasional papers, to contribute to the preservation of Baptist
history in which he had a life-long interest. It was he who has
been credited with first making the suggestion in 1905, which issued
in the Bunyan Memorial Window, lately dedicated in Westminster Abbey.
...
An account
of Doctor Whitsitt's life would surely be incomplete,
were no mention made of his devoted wife whose
helpfulness and loyal comradeship were important
factors in his labors. The woman of his heart
was born, Miss Florence Wallace, of Woodford County,
Kentucky, who became Mrs. Whitsitt on October
4, 1881. Though never of rugged health Mrs. Whitsitt
was thoroughly sympathetic with her husband's
life-tasks, lovingly supported him in all his
labors, and tenderly soothed his last moments
with her devoted care. A beloved son and fond
daughter also survive him.
After
Professor Whitsitt resigned the chair at Richmond
College, in the spring of 1910, he felt, through
failing health, that his work was done. He began
calmly to set his house in order and look for
the end. He planned the disposal of important
historical papers; engaged his biographer, selected
his monument, planned his funeral, left tender
words of love, and yielded up his spirit. On January
20, 1911, he went to be with Him whom he loved
with soulful passion, and whom he served with
unfailing zeal and loyalty.END |
