---
title: 'George H. Ingram on the Threefold Greatness of William Tennent'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2023-01-29
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2023-george-h-ingram-on-the-threefold-greatness-of-william-tennent
---

# George H. Ingram on the Threefold Greatness of William Tennent

“William Tennent did the work of three men. In the first place, he was an earnest evangelist, ever alert to minister to scattered settlements hungry for the Word. In the second place, he was a teacher of the first rank, combining with his instruction a spiritual influence that inspired his students with his own wonderful religious spirit. Had he been an ordinary teacher, the claims of the Old Side Party in their criticism of his school might have been partly true. They did not understand the man. President James A. Garfield was once asked as to his idea of a college. He replied it was having President Mark Hopkins on one end of a log with a student hungry for truth on the other. That was the sort of college that for eighteen years Mr. Tennent maintained at Neshaminy. During that time no less than eighteen young men came under the master’s magic spell; and they went forth to win the Colonies for God. Probably no school of the same size ever turned out in the same as many outstanding ministers as did this school of William Tennent. Great as was his service as a minister of the Word, and great as was his service in raising up preachers of the Word, greater still was the example that he set for others to copy.” — [George H. Ingram](/authors/george-harvey-ingram), *The Story of the Log College* (1927)