W.H. Green was honored with the Doctor of Divinity by both Princeton University in 1857 and the University of Edinburgh in 1884, to which was added the LL.D. by Rutgers College in 1873. In 1868, he was elected to succeed President Maclean at Princeton University, which he declined, but he did serve the university as a trustee from 1868 until his death.

Two-hundred years ago this month William Henry was born January 27, 1825 to George Smith and Sarah (Kennedy) Green in Groveville, New Jersey. He became a communing member at the age of fifteen of the First Presbyterian Church in Easton, Pennsylvania. His preparatory studies were accomplished in Easton at the academy directed by Presbyterian minister Rev. John Vandeveer. Green graduated Lafayette College when he was but fifteen years old in 1840 but continued there for two years as a tutor. He then entered Princeton Seminary in 1842 to study for the ministry and completed the program in 1846. His seminary studies were postponed for a year because he served as an adjunct professor of mathematics at Lafayette College.

Green was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, February 3, 1846. During his two years as a licentiate he supplied pulpits and was an instructor in Hebrew at the seminary. Following ordination as an evangelist, he continued teaching Hebrew for one more year. During these three years he served both the Presbyterian churches in Princeton as stated supply, after which he was called to be the pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. After serving Central Church for just two years his call was dissolved July 7, 1851, so he could become the Chair of Biblical and Oriental Literature at Princeton Seminary. Dr. Green continued teaching for forty-nine years. As with many of the seminaries of the day, he served double duty because from 1851 to 1871 he was also the seminary librarian. For a number of years Dr. Green suffered from an incurable and debilitating disease that gradually weakened his constitution as time passed, but at times he would rally with a renewed vigor. However, on February 10, 1900, William Henry Green died at the age of seventy five.

The General Assembly of the PCUSA elected Green moderator for the sessions held in Detroit in 1891. It was a particularly challenging assembly because the massive and ornately decorated First Church was packed to overflowing because of issues regarding the teaching of C. A. Briggs of Union Seminary. Briggs’s professorship at Union correlated with Green’s at Princeton. Green’s leadership of the assembly was challenged further by the tragic death of Samuel M. Breckinridge after he collapsed on the podium having just completed reading a committee report. As was sometimes the case, Dr. Green’s illness so weakened him that in 1892 he was unable to attend the General Assembly in Portland to deliver his moderator’s sermon. However, he provided a copy that was read by Stated Clerk William H. Roberts to the assembly. The sermon was published in The Presbyterian Banner, May 25, 1891, and it is an exposition of Isaiah 45:15, “Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.”

Read More