Abraham Lincoln: Three Addresses By Melancthon Woolsey Stryker (1917)
(Originally published in 1917. This volume from the Cornel...)
Originally published in 1917. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
Baccalaureate Sermons: President M. Woolsey Stryker to the Graduating Classes of Hamilton College, 1893-1905 1905
(Originally published in 1905. This volume from the Cornel...)
Originally published in 1905. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies. All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks notations and other marginalia present in the original volume.
Melancthon Woolsey Stryker was an American clergyman, was Pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago and President of Hamilton College in upstate New York from 1892-1917.
Background
Melancthon was born on January 7, 1851 in Vernon, New York, United States. He descended from Jan Strycker who came to New Amsterdam in 1652, was the son of the Rev. Isaac Pierson Stryker, a Presbyterian clergyman, and his wife, Alida Livingston Woolsey.
Education
He had his schooling near by, at Rome. He spent three years in Hamilton College, and after a year's work in the New York City Y. M. C. A. , returned to college and graduated in 1872. He studied for a year in Auburn Theological Seminary, preached the next year in Bergen, New York, then returned to Auburn, where he graduated in 1876.
Career
On May 30 of 1876 Stryker was ordained and installed as pastor of Calvary Presbyterian Church, Auburn. Thence two years later he went to the First Presbyterian Church of Ithaca, New York, where he ministered until 1883. After two years in the Second Congregational Church of Holyoke, Massachussets, in 1885 he became pastor of the Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago. In his seven years there he attracted attention by his eloquent preaching.
Called to the presidency of Hamilton College in 1892, he held that office for twenty-five years. In addition to performing his administrative work, he was pastor of the college church and taught classes in Biblical subjects and ethics. The college was in a precarious position when Stryker became its head, but his inspiring personality provided the needed leadership. He won influential friends for the institution and procured large additions to its funds. During his presidency important buildings were erected, so that the college was better equipped for instruction and living.
The faculty was enlarged and strengthened. While intellectually progressive, Stryker stood for college education of the traditional type, aiming at general culture, in a time when different tendencies were strong. With his energetic nature, his broad culture, and his telling speech he affected all parts of the life of the college, leaving it better in every way than he found it, and relatively secure for the future.
He wrote and translated many hymns, none of which, however, have come into general use. He edited several hymnals: Christian Chorals (1885), Church Song (1889), Choral Song (1891), College Hymnal (1897, 1913), Christian Praise (1920). His own hymns are included in these collections. All his life he wrote verse, which was uneven and often labored and obscure, but contained passages of real beauty. He was much in demand as a preacher and public speaker.
After his retirement from the presidency of Hamilton in 1917, he lived at Rome, New York, until his death, serving as trustee of the college. Stryker's adventurous, warm-hearted character and handsome appearance made him an impressive presence everywhere, and an enduring memory.
He died in Clinton in 1929, and was buried in the Hamilton College cemetery.
(Originally published in 1905. This volume from the Cornel...)
Politics
A strong Republican, he frequently made campaign speeches.
Views
Stryker was much interested in hymnology and church music. In his pastorates he strove to improve congregational singing, and in Hamilton College he trained the choir.
He also became known for his individualism and disdain for mob choices, although he vehemently disapproved of President Theodore Roosevelt, whom he greatly resembled.
Quotations:
A liberal, Rev. Stryker spoke out against prejudice against Jews, basing "his argument on the fact that our spiritual and religious perceptions have been first taught by Jews, and that the Old as well as the New Testament we owe entirely to men of that race. "
"Some minds are eager for change, and some are angry at any".
Connections
He was married on September 27, 1876, to Clara Elizabeth Goss of Auburn, New York, who survived him with two sons and three daughters. The couple's children included: Goss Livingston Stryker (1877–1971), Alida Livingston Stryker (1881–1951) (married Elihu Root, Jr. , son of Hamilton alum and trustee Elihu Root), Robert McBurney Stryker (1883-1883), Lloyd Paul Stryker (1885–1955), Evelyn Stryker (1888–1976) and Elizabeth Woolsey Stryker (1896-?).