“Life is an arrow; therefore you must know
What mark to aim at and how to use the bow,
Then draw it to the head and let it go.”
These words, as well as the career of the well-known author and
clergyman, the Rev. Dr. Henry Van Dyke, emphasize the fact that he
has successfully pursued his all-absorbing ideal. He was born at
Germantown, Pennsylvania, November 10, 1852, his father being the
Rev. Henry Jackson Van Dyke, who is of Dutch colonial blood. At the
age of sixteen, and after graduating from the Brooklyn Polytechnic
Institute, young Van Dyke entered Princeton college and received the
degree of A.B., with highest honors, in 1873. While an undergraduate
he was awarded the junior oration prize and senior prize in English
literature. He was also reception orator on class day, and on
commencement delivered the salutatory and belles lettres. Upon
graduating in the theological course from Princeton seminary, in
1876, he delivered the master oration. Later he went to Germany to
pursue his studies in divinity at the University of Berlin, and, in
1878, returned to the United States, becoming pastor of the United
Congregational church, Newport, Rhode Island, and remained there for
four years. In 1882 he accepted a call to the Old Brick Presbyterian
church, Fifth avenue and Thirty-seventh street, New York, which was
founded in 1767. At that time the church membership was small and its
financial condition far from satisfactory. But, thanks to the untiring
efforts of the new pastor, it became one of importance, spiritually and
in other ways. Since 1900 he has been professor in English literature
at Princeton university. He is the author of numerous books of wide
circulation.