Basil Manly, Jr.
Early Baptist Minister and Educator
Virginia Baptist Ministers, Fourth Series
By George B. Taylor, 1913
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Some family names have been household words among Southern Baptists for nearly a century. Manly is one of these names. Dr. Basil Manly, Sr., was a scholarly preacher and distinguished educator, regarded, by one well able to judge, as in many respects the equal of the famous Dr. Francis Wayland. While Dr. Basil Manly, Sr., was pastor in Edgefield District, South Carolina, on December 19, 1825, his son, Basil, was born. While his father was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Charleston, young Manly attended a preparatory school in that city and later became a student in the University of Alabama, at Tuscaloosa, of which institution his father was president. A classmate thus speaks of him as a student: "I entered the freshman class at the University of Alabama in December, 1839. Basil Manly was a member of it and here began a friendship that extended through life. At our first meeting he impressed me as being quite delicate. He bore strongly the marks of the student, and in this his appearance did not deceive me. His father had spared no pains in his training, and by close application he maintained his place at the head of a class that was at least respectable in point of ability. For four years he was constantly in my sight and no one had better opportunities than I for studying his proportions. His character came out by slow degrees, for he had no irregularities. Immersed in study, he was punctilious in the discharge of every duty, and, if tempted, was never led to swerve. Others were prone to indulge in mischief; he did not seem to know the meaning of the word. Others caught promotion by a shorter way; he knew no way except to work for it. Others dared to do wrong in the assertion of a false manhood; he was content to plod along in the old prosy path of right. The son of the president, it might be supposed that he would become an object of distrust and jealousy, but no one was found so unjust as to visit upon him that he bore the name of his revered father, or to connect him unfavorably with the head of the institution. In times of rebellion (and in those old fire-eating days insubordination was often rife), suspicion challenged every possible informer, and woe be to the 'suspect' that fell under its ban. Basil was so unobtrusive, so guileless, so little given to partisan-ship, that he was free to come and go at will without the shadow of a smirch upon his immaculate skirts. I should do Basil's memory deep injustice, however, if I should produce the impression that he was reserved or sour. No one had a keener appreciation of genuine humor than he, or knew how to make himself more companionable. For myself, I learned to love and respect him as a brother."Gentleness, which became one of his distinguishing characteristics, as is seen from this quotation, was conspicuous in him at this early period. Perhaps we are in danger of thinking that people who are gentle never have any struggle
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for this blessed boon. It is recorded, however, of Basil Manly, Jr., that in his earlier life he had to struggle with a violent temper. He broke several umbrellas over the head of his horse that was hard to control, but finally realized that unless he curbed his own temper it would bring him to ruin.
Upon his graduation at the University of Alabama, having decided to give himself to the gospel ministry, the question arose as to where he should pursue his theological studies. In this matter he had the advice not only of his father, but also of Rev: Dr. John L. Dagg, who was professor of theology in Mercer University and whose "Manual of Theology" is remarkable for its clear statements of religious doctrines. Manly, who was inclined to choose Mercer, that he might sit at the feet of him who had already been a great help to him in his religious life, thus described years afterwards this stage in his life: "But he [Dr. Dagg] advised with characteristic earnestness and fidelity that I should not content myself with that, but should seek at once the best advantages and the fullest course that could be procured. These, it was agreed, could be found then at Newton Theological Institution, near Boston, Mass. When the disruption of 1845 occurred between Northern and Southern Baptists in their voluntary missionary organizations, ... it led to the withdrawal from Newton of the four Southern students who were there - S. C. Clopton, E. T. Winkler, J. W. M. Williams, and myself. The other three went directly into ministerial work, while I determined, as I was younger, to prosecute further preparatory study, and went, under the advice of my father, of Dr. Dagg, of Dr. Francis Wayland, and other friends, to Princeton Theological Seminary."Upon leaving Princeton, having been ordained at Tuscaloosa, Ala., he became pastor of several country churches. His poor health, however, led him, after a short while, to resign this charge and for a year to take up the saw-mill business, hoping that such a life in the open air might restore his strength. In 1849 the Southern Baptist Convention met in Nashville, Tenn. An alarm as to cholera kept many away, but among those who did attend, not a few were deeply interested in the proposition then being discussed, to establish a theological seminary for Southern Baptists. Mr. Manly was one of this number. At this meeting he met for the first time R. B. C. Howell and J.R. Graves. These brethren thought the time had come for the establishment of such an institution, but he did not. Graves challenged him to debate the question before the Convention. He tells why he declined this invitation: "I did not want to be put into the false position of antagonizing the progressive movement for theological education, which I earnestly favored; and I am not ashamed to say I dreaded to cope with so vigorous and able an opponent as Brother Graves in an extempore debate."
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The Convention at Nashville adjourned to meet a few weeks later, on May 23, at Charleston. At this time and place, when a special educational meeting was held, he spoke on the matter of the proposed seminary. In his address he stated that there were seven theological professors in as many Southern Baptist institutions, having in all about thirty theological students. He advanced many reasons for the proposed seminary and suggested three possible ways for bringing it into being. While from year to year the question of establishing a seminary was discussed among the brethren, no definite action seems to have been taken until 1854, when in the Virginia Baptist General Association a call was made for a special meeting to consider the proposition. This meeting, which was held in Montgomery, with Mr. Manly as its secretary, called another meeting for the following year. Of this gathering, which was held in Augusta, Ga., 1856, Dr. Basil Manly, Sr., was president. This led to another special meeting in Louisville in May, 1857. Here it was finally agreed that the desired theological seminary be established at Greenville, S. C., provided that certain conditions could be met. In announcing the committee on Plan of Organization, the president, Dr. B. Manly, Sr., said apologetically that he had appointed comparatively young men "because it was proposed to form a new institution suited to the wants of our own ministry, and young men were more likely to be successful in devising new plans." Here was the committed: J. P. Boyce, J. A. Broadus, B. Manly, Jr., E. T. Winkler, and William Williams. The last of this series of special educational conventions was held at Greenville, S. C., May 1, 1858, and upon the report of a committee of leading men the following men were elected as professors for the new seminary: J. P. Boyce, J. A. Broadus, B. Manly, Jr., and E. T. Winkler. Of these four, at first only two, Boyce and Manly, accepted the positions to which they had been elected.
In order to bring into one paragraph the story of Manly's connection with the establishment of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, other events in his life have been passed over. In November, 1850, he became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia. At this time "his form and voice and manner were rather suggestive of womanly gentleness and grace than of robust and vigorous manhood. . . . He always bore himself in the pulpit and out of it with becoming dignity and was able by quiet but effective means to influence, guide and control others. His gentle, soft and engaging manners, growing out of his sincere and affectionate heart, full of true Christian love and sympathy, made his pastoral visits most welcome and salutary to his flock."Rev. Dr. Robert Ryland, after Dr. Manly's death, wrote as follows concerning this Richmond pastorate: "It soon became evident that his bodily strength was not equal to the mental and physical energy required by the position. The large and scattered
[p. 102]congregation worshiped in a spacious house. Three sermons a week and numerous visits were too much for a youth of delicate frame and no experience. Still he made a most favorable impression on his people. His thorough course of preparation and study, his diligent habits, his prudent and refined manners, his genial and loving spirit and his sincere piety soon gained the hearts of all. Nothing but a holy enthusiasm could have sustained him for the short space of four years."As Richmond was practically his only pastorate, just here a few things should be said about him as a preacher. Dr. Jno. A. Broadus said, that while his voice was not strong, he had the other elements of a great preacher. Once after he had preached in Greenville, Dr. Boyce remarked to Dr. Broadus as they left the church: "If Richard Fuller had preached that sermon people would have called it one of the greatest sermons they ever heard, and they would have been right." Dr. Manly resigned the care of the First Church to become the first president of the Richmond Female Institute. The Baptists of Richmond were fortunate to secure for this new enterprise one so able. Dr. Ryland says: "He gave a start to the school which has doubtless contributed to its distinguished success. One of the girls made a pun on the subject which voiced the feelings of all her associates and the general public. She 'liked the Institute because it had a gentlemanly president.' During his connection with the institution he gave his Lord's Days to the Walnut Grove Church - a small and select body that lived in the Sydnor neighborhood several miles distant."As has been seen already, Dr. Manly was elected one of the four original professors in the Seminary at Greenville. Undoubtedly the greatest work of his life was done in this sphere. For twenty-one years he occupied a chair in the Seminary, the larger part of the time having Old Testament Interpretation and Biblical Introduction, and for a season Biblical Introduction, Homiletics, and Polemics. He had drawn up the Plan of Organization and the Articles of Belief which each professor was required to sign, and he was associated with Boyce, Broadus, and Williams as teacher. He was a man of scholarly aptitudes and attainments. He was familiar with a number of languages and was possessed of a vast fund of information on a wide range of subjects. His heart glowed with tenderness as he taught his class the Bible, his eyes often overflowing with tears. In those early days in Greenville his work was not measured by the lecture-room only. He came in close contact with the students. Dr. C. H. Ryland, who was a student the first session at Greenville, says: "He was our pastor - the one who drew us by his sympathy, gentleness and winning piety closer to duty and to God." The students held prayer meetings from house to house, and he frequently attended and always took part. From the very first it
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has been the custom in the seminary for each lecture to be opened with prayer, and Dr. W.H. Williams, a student of those early days, wrote afterwards that while he had forgotten many things of his Seminary life, Dr. Manly's prayers in the classroom were vividly remembered. "Not infrequently," he writes, "when the 'Amen' was said we had to brush away the tears before we could see our notebooks." The students saw him in his home as well as at the desk. One says: "Among my pleasantest memories of him are evenings spent at his house in Greenville, where the table was always en-livened by his genial, artistic nature. His brightness and wit were always kindly." Another tells of seeing him at the family altar, saying:"It was my privilege once only to meet with him and his family at their morning devotions, and his earnest and fervent pleadings for his family and the seminary students captivated me and deeply impressed me with his generous, loving spirit and the serious importance he seemed to set upon family worship."Scarcely had the Seminary started before war came down upon the land and compelling the closing of its doors in 1862. Dr. Manly preached to a country church, and it was hard to get even the necessities of life. During this time a Sunday School Board was established at Greenville, chiefly through the efforts of Drs. Broadus and Manly. The publications were on the poorest Confederate paper, but they had a ready sale. Several catechisms were written by Dr. Manly, and Kind Words, a children's paper, started in 1866, had for one of its contributors Dr. Manly, who wrote as "Henry Hunter" and "Junior." When the War was over, the question as to reopening the Seminary came up. Dr. Boyce offered to go into business to help the situation. Dr. Manly wrote at length to Dr. Broadus discussing what was to be done. In this letter he says he can not come to Siloam to help Dr. Broadus because he had to go after his wife, and as he did not have money to go on the cars he had to "take the dirt road, and that takes time." The Seminary went on, yet surely those were hard years for the heroic men at its head.
In 1871 Dr. Manly was elected president of Georgetown College, Kentucky. The trustees elected Dr. J. L. M. Curry as president, but fearing that he would not accept, and in order to save the trouble of another meeting, they elected Dr. Manly in case Dr. Curry declined. Dr. Manly at first declined, but the Board asking for a personal interview and offering to pay his expenses, he visited Georgetown and finally accepted the position. It would be easier for him to educate his children at Georgetown and the salary there was larger. These were among the reasons that led to his acceptance, and Dr. Broadus, while hating greatly to lose him from the Seminary faculty, could not, all things considered, but approve his decision. When Dr. Manly went to Georgetown it was his hope and ambition to see the college greatly enlarged and strengthened; but, by
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reason of circumstances which he could not control, these hopes were not realized. Indeed, shrinkage of the income of the college made it necessary to contract the work. Dr. Manly left, however, a deep and lasting impression upon the college and the community. While at Georgetown he went over to Midway twice each month to preach, thus enabling F. H. Kerfoot, the pastor, to preach in the country and carry on certain linguistic studies. Thus, as co-pastors, these two men worked for over a year. Dr. Manly said: "Brother Kerfoot is pastor and I am his assistant." Dr. Kerfoot counted himself highly fortunate in this arrangement, since besides delightful association, it gave him in his work Dr. Manly's "conservative, far-seeing, wise counsels."
When, in 1879, Dr. C. H. Toy, because of change of doctrinal views, resigned his professorship in the seminary, which was now in Louisville, Ky., Dr. Manly was elected to the vacant chair. His return to the Seminary, especially at this juncture, greatly pleased and reassured the Southern brotherhood. Upon his return to the Seminary, Dr. Manly took charge of the "Students' Fund," which he had looked after before going to Georgetown. This "Fund" was to help students in the matter of their board and was dependent on the voluntary contributions of brethren. This work and the Seminary Missionary Society, with its several mission Sunday schools, were very near to Dr. Manly's heart, and his pleas for these objects were usually successful. Once, in describing an appeal for a mission school, he said: "I came very near getting $100 the other evening. I asked a man in the city here for that much and if he had only said 'Yes' I would have had it." Dr. Manly, besides looking most carefully after the financial side of this society, thus carrying on Sunday schools, many of which have grown into churches, provided the program and presided once a month at the meetings.
The throb of Dr. Manly's gentle and loving heart was a blessing in the Seminary circle as well as in his own home. Among the students and faculty he was called the "Beloved Disciple." His kind words, warm sympathy and heavenly smile were a benediction indeed. To record all his deeds of love and thoughtfulness would take pages. One day he saw a little girl crying bitterly on the street. He sought to comfort her, but she was lost and could not tell him where she lived. He asked her if she knew some place from which she could find her way home. Brightening up, she said that she went to the Walnut Street Baptist Sunday school and could find her way home from there. He accompanied the child to the Sunday school and thence saw her safe at home.
Once at a funeral "in Georgetown the ground was covered with snow, and Dr. Manly was seen treading down the deep snow, and when some one would come he would step aside from the well-trodden place and, yielding it to another, would prepare another place to do likewise if another presented himself." Just two weeks before his death "he was wading through the slush of
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a melting snow to a mission in the Highlands. He led a little girl with his left hand, in his right he carried his Bible." Once at the ordination of a young minister, upon request, Dr. J. R. Graves and he wrote in the Bible presented a word of advice. Dr. Manly's pen traced these words: "Speak the truth in love"; Dr. Graves added: "And speak it boldly as you ought to speak." A Louisville lady on one occasion told Dr. Manly that the doctrine of election gave her much trouble. His answer was that while she was in the lower class she must not grapple with such a difficult question; when she was promoted to heaven's class she could understand such things. It is scarcely necessary to say that such a man was lovely and gentle in his home. He was extremely solicitous for the happiness and highest well-being of his children. He received their earliest confidences and was glad to help in their games. Next to their religious training he set their education. He often remarked: "I wish to spare no pains nor expense to give my children a good education, and that is about all I shall be able to do for them. They will then be able to do for themselves." Once during a revival in Greenville, when Dr. Williams had preached a powerful sermon, Dr. Manly, upon reaching home, found one of his children sitting at a table studying. He said:"I am very glad to see your interest in your studies, but I do not wish you to forget that there is something far more important. I wish you had heard that sermon to-night."Dr. Manly was a most versatile man. He did many things well. Besides his teaching and his preaching, his deep scholarship and fund of general information, there was his executive and business capacity. He wrote well, and, besides many fugitive pieces, left a book, "The Bible Doctrine of Inspiration," which is "the calmest, fairest, clearest and most satisfactory discussion of the subject to be found anywhere in the same compass." He wrote some forty hymns, with his father edited The Baptist Psalmody, and himself brought out two other hymn books, "The Baptist Choral" and "The Choice." Dr. Manly had a good voice and sang well. Dr. Broadus regarded Dr. Manly as the most versatile man he ever met and said that had he "devoted himself exclusively to some one of several things he might have stood out famous among the men of the age."
In the autumn of 1887 Dr. Manly and his family broke up their city home and in pursuit of country air boarded on the edge of the city with Mr. Walker. On December 15 Mr. Walker and Dr. Manly, in the gathering twilight, with their arms full of bundles, were walking homeward from the railroad station. Suddenly they were attacked and robbed. Each received a single blow over the eye which rendered them unconscious. Dr. Manly never recovered from this blow, which probably shortened his life many years. He went on with his work, but under a heavy physical handicap, and finally, on Sunday, January
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31, 1892, his earthly pilgrimage came to an end. Charles H. Spurgeon, the great English preacher, being called to his reward the same day. At the funeral, held at Walnut Street Baptist Church, a large number of ministers, not only Baptist, but of other denominations as well, were present. The sermon was preached by the pastor, Dr. T. T. Eaton, and addresses were made by Dr. W. H. Whitsitt; Dr. E. L. Powell, Pastor of the Fourth and Walnut Christian Church; Dr. R. H. Rivers, of the Methodist Church; Dr. C. R. Hemphill, of the Presbyterian Church, and Dr. Jno. A. Broadus.=================== [From George B. Taylor, Virginia Baptist Ministers, Fourth Series, 1913. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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