---
title: 'Advice to Lennie from Charles Hodge'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2021-08-24
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2021-advice-to-lennie-from-charles-hodge
---

# Advice to Lennie from Charles Hodge

[Hugh Lenox Scott](/authors/hugh-lenox-scott) — son [William McKendree Scott](/authors/william-mckendree-scott), and grandson of [Charles Hodge](/authors/charles-hodge) — who became a famed U.S. military officer, once wrote that

> I was brought up a Presbyterian of the Presbyterians in Princeton within a stone’s throw of Princeton Seminary, the very essence of Presbyterianism in America.

When he graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1876, his grandfather gave him a Bible inscribed with the following message:

Dear Lennie,

- Never pass a day without reading the Bible and calling upon God in prayer.
- Learn to pray always. The Lord Jesus is ever near you. It does not take long to pray: “Lord preserve me: Lord help me; Lord keep me from sin.” We need to say this a hundred times a day.
- Never gamble.
- Never drink intoxicating liquor.
- Never use profane language.
- Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth.
- Never incur debt.
- Live peaceable with all men.
- Never be afraid to confess Christ.
- Let your last words every night be: “I take Jesus Christ to be my God and Saviour.”
- May the blessing of God be upon always and everywhere.

Your loving grandfather,
Charles Hodge
Princeton, Sept. 15, 1876

Source: [Paul C. Gutjahr, *Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Orthodoxy*, p. 320](/tags/secondary-source)