It is commonly said that men are forward to believe whatever is connected with their own interest. This in common cases is true; but it is also true, that when some very great and unexpected good news is brought to us, we find it very difficult to credit it.

By the time he was 21 Alexander was a preacher of the Presbyterian Church. Charles Hodge a famous student and successor of Alexander named his son Archibald Alexander Hodge after his mentor. Family
On April 5 1802 Alexander married Janetta Waddel the daughter of a Presbyterian preacher James Waddel (1739–1805) whose eloquence was described in William Wirt's Letters of a British Spy (1803).

Archibald Alexander (April 17 1772 – October 22 1851) was an American Presbyterian theologian and professor at the Princeton Theological Seminary.