December 21 Today in OPC History

On December 21, 1954, Christian Reformed theologian Louis Berkhof sent the following letter to the Orthodox Presbyterian theologian Ned B. Stonehouse regarding the publication of Stonehouse’s book on J. Gresham Machen. Berkhof wrote,

My dear Dr. Stonehouse,

Permit me to congratulate you with the writing and the publication of your magnificent Biographical Memoir of Dr. J. Gresham Machen. It testifies to a great deal of hard and painstaking work. I found your book not only very interesting reading, but also highly informative. In a beautiful style, characterized by great clarity, you have produced a well documented work, which gives the readers a true insight in the intimate relationship between Dr. Machen and his immediate family, especially his mother, and have contributed to a better understanding of your hero and predecessor. I rejoice in the fact that Dr. Machen found in you such a worthy successor, and such a loyal biographer. May your work prove to be a real blessing and give the world a greater appreciation of our lamented brother and friend.

I have become somewhat better acquainted with Dr. Machen during the later years of his life. When I began my postgraduate work at Princeton in 1902 Machen was a junior in the Seminary, and frequently saw him walking alone, but did not see any of his social life in the Benham club. The fact that he was known at the time as a graduate of the John Hopkins University already (gave) me due respect for him. This naturally increased when I read about his appointment as an associate professor at Princeton, but I knew little or nothing about the intervening years, nor of the spiritual struggles through which he passed . . . He informed me that he had at one time said to Dr. Warfield, and that latter had replied, “No, Mr. Machen, you cannot split rotten wood.” This means that the latter had an even more pessimistic view of the situation. It is only through the reading of your book that I acquired a fully adequate conception of Dr. Machen’s full stature. Your book greatly helped me to see him as a man of broad scholarship, as a highly successful teacher, and as a fighter “valiant for truth.” He certainly appreciated the work of Armstrong and Patton and Warfield. It surprised me somewhat that he said so little about the importance of the work of Dr. Vos, of whom Dr. Warfield once said to me that he was probably the greatest exegete Princeton ever had.

I thank you from the heart for having written this book, and I hope that it may cause some to see the error (of) their way. May God bless you richly in your work at Westminster Seminary, and grant you and yours a blessed Christmas and new year.

Yours fraternally,
Louis Berkhof

Picture: Louis Berkhof (left) and Ned Stonehouse