THE LATE PROFESSOR FLINT, D.D., LL.D.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1026, 16 January 1911, Page 6

THE LATE PROFESSOR FLINT, D.D., LL.D.

Si r —Prrhaps you will permit a pupil, of the late Professor I'linf—one of the few resident in New Zealand—to correct certain'errors of fact, and to draw attention' to what lie regards as decided mistakes of judgment in the notice which appeared in Saturday's Dominion? Dr. Flint was in every way a much greater man than that notice gives any conception of. Ho was undoubtedly the most learned of Scottish theologians; in extent of knowledge and breadth of interest, as well as critical •power and balance of judgment, perhaps not surpassed by any of his contemporaries in any country, and the equal of any scholar that tho Scottish Church has ever had. "Ho was a great preacher, abstruse neither in thought nor in language, arresting attention and retaining interest like Newman, for example, without any oratorical device, by tho mere power of his. spiritual-intensity. Ho was universally regarded as a great preacher, when tho Scottish pulpit was manned bv giauts liko Guthrie, Ker, Caird, Tulloch, Macleotl, At twenty-two

ho was minister of a churcli with a communion roll of well over two thousand— something like twicc as many as the largest church in Australasia—and he was abundantly successful, lii recent years he preachcd but seldom, always, however, to thronged pews and eager listeners. Though of a retiring disposition, and little at homo on a platform, ho was keenly interested in every pulsation of present-dav life and thought. He was, for example, a convinced and enthusiastic Imperialist, and an eager student of contemporary social and political conditions. In all things, he "thought imperially." His reputation was, as you say, worldwide. Perhaps no Scottish theologian has enjoved eo ' extensive a refutation as a scholar and thinker, since, in the middle of the seventeenth century, Dr. John Forbes, of Corse, vindicated tho Reformed Faith against Catholicism, on the basis of the most thoroughgoing study of the history of doctrine made, so far, by any Protestant devine. But that reputation Dr. Flint owed, I think, less to his ivritiugs on Theism than to the great unfinished history of HistoricarPhilosophy. No more comprehensive research-work has been undertaken in our day than that which Dr. Flint bestowed upon "Historical Philosophy in France and French Switzerland."'

Dr. Flint went to Edinburgh in 1876 (not 1874). "His Theistic Books had their, origin" in Baird and Croall lectures. His Giliord lectures were never delivered. I am not aware that' ho was ever elected to the Princeton Stone Lectureship. I do not' think that he ever delivered Stone Lectures. I am quite sure that none sucli were published by him. He was the greatest scholar I have ever known. Judged by the reverenpo he inspired in his pupils, he was likewise the greatest teacher. He Temains for all who knew him a glorious inspiring memory, of consecrated earnestness; of untiring "zeal in.the pursuit of knowledge and truth; of splendid gifts humbly laid on God's altar. I am, etc., JOHN DICKIE, . Professor of Systematic Theology in the Divinity School of the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand. Wellington, lith January, 1811.