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FEBRUARY.
Miss Frances Power Cobbe, London
Bev. T. R. Elliott, Hunslet......................
Mr. William Whitworth, Newton Moor...
Mr. Robert Till, Hull................................
Rev. Goodwyn Barmby, Wakefield..........
A Lady, Wakefield ................................
Mr. Peter Reed, Wakefield ................. .
Mr. John Till, Fairburn ........................
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HOW TO JOIN THE BAND OF FAITH.
The Band of Faith is a Brotherhood and Sisterhood—a
religious Order of men and women, consisting of two
ranks—Associates and Members. Those who agree in
the statements of its faith and in the missionary objects
and ecclesiastical organization in which it is engaged, can
easily become Associates by sending their names and a
fee of one shilling, which must be renewed every year, to
its office. They will then not only be in the way of
/ assisting a society in the general principles of which they
agree, but of acquiring the knowledge and developing the
gifts which will enable them to become active members.
The rank of Members in the Order is not so easily
attained. We need active members, who will show forth
their faith by their works, preachers who will go readily
where they are sent, men of business who will labour at
our board meetings for the success of the Society,
women who will form sewing societies for its sales of
work, singers and readers who will exercise self-sacrifice
in promoting its services of worship, doorkeepers who
will esteem any menial service in the sanctuary of God,
honourable, and all these not only to be bound together with
each other, but bound also to God, by solemn vow, which
as the exercise of the will in dedication to Him is the
truest initiatory rite of religion. Except by special dis
pensation, the members of the Order must take publicly
on their admission the following Covenant, which is em-
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MESSENGER.
bodied in a service for the purpose, by joining in it or
responding to it, while receiving the right hand of fellow
ship from the officiant. The Covenant thus reads :—
“We covenant to do all in our power for the honour
and worship of the one and only God, and in making
known His absolute Holiness, perfect Wisdom, and Uni
versal Love and Mercy. And may God of His goodness
enable us to keep this covenant, and to live ever for His
service. Amen.”
It is desirable that friends should become first Associ
ates, and remain such for a year at least before consider
ing themselves eligible for Membership.
Associates form the constituencies of local societies,
and by the payment of their annual fee of one shilling
each, and the registration of their names and addresses
in the Index of the Order, are distinguished as avowed
and recognised friends, from the occasional attendants,
who in common with themselves contribute to the offer
tory.
From Covenanted Members, the various degrees of
Superintendents will naturally be appointed (District,
Provincial, and Metropolitan), in the course of the orga
nisation of the Order. Preachers should especially be
come Covenanted Members, not only for their own benefit
through the consecrating act, but that they may set an
example of holy vowing and public confession to the
general brotherhood and sisterhood. From members also
the Board of Trustees, consisting of twenty-four Elders,
will be formed.
The future, however, holds these things, and for the
present we principally ask for Associates. Let scattered
friends and sympathising attendants upon our services,
at once become Associates and definitely strengthen our
forces. The fees of Associates are now due for the pre
sent year, and, where there is a Local Superintendent,
should be now paid to him, or otherwise transmitted
directly to head quarters. Cards of Companionship for
the year will be forwarded on the receipt of these fees.
Organization will gradually show the measure of our
ability. It is at once the secret of success-and the proof
of power. It is only through Organization that the
�FEBRUARY.
H>
Broad Church of the Future can supplant the narrow
churches of the past and present. All efforts for the es
tablishment of Universal Ideas will prove weak and
abortive, unless authority, order and discipline are freely
chosen by their adherents.
FINALITY IN KELIGION.
By Goodwyx Barmby.
There is no finality in religion, as a whole. Ever fresh,
developments spring forth from it-—a constant evolution
goes on beneath its inspiration. But to every special
process there may be allowed an end, in the sense of accom
plishment and consummation ; and such process remains
one of the great factors of the past in the eternal progress
of the future. It is in this sense that the Messianic Idea
is exhausted when it is completely realised, while the
Divine Idea is for ever inexhaustible. While a dispen
sation may be perfected, 'while a mission may be accom
plished, while a special process may be so fully realised
that it may be considered final and need not be attempted
again, there is no finality in religion itself.
The evidences of the divinity of religion lie in the facts
that it produces. The proof of a good field is in its
ability of producing. It was by his 'works that Jesus
showed fulfilment of his Messianic mission. It was He
that should come to make known the Fatherly Spirit of
God, and to show forth in himself, the filial spirit to the
All-Father and the fraternal spirit to his human family.
The imperfect ever gives way to the more perfect. In
the struggle for existence the stronger conquers. In
natural selection the imperfect disappears, while every
beauty and advantage is perpetuated. It is as in a large
curve however that these truths can only be fully recog
nized. Little minds take little methods, and fail as liter
ally as they literally regard things. Except through a
wide sweep of events, we cannot assign its character or
destiny to a dispensation. Things that swiftest grow,
swiftest disappear. Perpetuity is the sign of perfection,
and the noblest name of God is--The Eternal 1
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MESSENGER.
The influence of Jesus has borne the test of experience
and acquired the proof of perpetuity. Corrupt accretions
have gathered around it, misapplying to themselves the
honour of a holy name; but it has thrown them off, and
is still throwing them off. It has not been povertystricken by bare walls, nor smothered by the rich robes
of its ritualists. Beneath all guises it has equally
touched hearts—beneath the leathern coat of George
Fox or the Episcopal cope of St. Augustine. It has
leavened literature, and directed imagination to choicer
types of character, and to sweeter and brighter results,
than Roman poet or Greek tragedian ever chose or found.
It has ennobled benevolence and forgiveness, as the
highest virtue; and it more especially works, by giving
the light of knowledge to the blind in mind, by causing
the deaf to wisdom to hear the word of truth, by raising
the dead in trespasses and sins to a new life of holiness,
by cleansing the leprosy of selfishness from the heart,
and by causing the lame in effort and infirm of faith to
walk cheerfully and courageously upon the road of
righteousness.
Jesus was He then that should come as the fruits
prove the nature of the tree. He was the Ideal Man
and we look not for another. The spirit of his life covers
all that is humanly good-—all that is divinely human.
I will not be bound to the records of his life, either by
believers or unbelievers. The Spirit of Truth frees the
mind from all such slavery to the letter. When two
people cannot give the same account of facts happening
in the next street, we cannot receive details of historical
testimony as things of greatest moment. The general
features of Jesus have been burned by the sun-rays of
Truth upon the glass of Humanity, and this photograph
is a truer likeness than the portraits of special artists.
The universal truth respecting him is all-sufficient for us.
That which all are agreed upon will be the truest
representation of him. All are not agreed upon his
miraculous birth, upon his supernatural character, upon
his personality in the God-head, or even upon his Christhood as the fulfiller of the Jewish Messianic prophecies;
but all are agreed that /. : was the pious son of God and
�FEBRUARY.
21
the loving brother of Man, that in his love and goodness
there was brightest revelation of God’s mercy and holi
ness, and that he showed forth the perfect Human Ideal
in his filial love to God and fraternal benevolence to
human kind. What can be a more perfect human ideal
than that of a devout son of God and loving brother of
man. For the same spirit which makes a good son and
a good brother, a pious worshipper and a beneficent
friend and counsellor, is good for all the relationships of
life. The great duties of human life apply to all its
relationships, and are not bi-sexual but are the common
law for woman and man. The light of the great prin
ciples which Jesus personified casts its ladiance on all
the details of private and social life. Religion and
benevolence are the true crown and robe of our lives.
To be clothed in them is to be clothed in Christ. To
follow out the ideal of Jesus, according to the surround
ings of our own age, is to attain its highest human
standard. Some people, while in their false pride, scorn
ing the idea of the ascent of man from the monkey, would
make monkeys of men. But it is into no mimicry that
we ought to descend. The true imitation of Jesus is the
participation in the same holy spirit which Jesus pos
sessed. His spirit of love to God and of benevolence to
man, is the perfect—the all-sufficient ideal of human
life.
We look not then for another. The Messianic Idea
Bas been ever attended by temptation and danger, as
even in the early career of Jesus. It presents the idea
of self-pre-eminence to the mind—the kingdoms of this
world and the glory of them. It is connected with the
conception of man-worship when God alone ought to be
.adored. Jesus survived all this and rose above it, and
was more glorious in what he became, than in what he
attempted—when instead of the son of man of Daniel’s
prophecy, he grew to the son of God’s own heart. The
spirit of our age is with us, in asking for no new Messiah.
Its tendency is democratic and social. It wants none
head-high above their fellows. It needs measures rather
than men, and values principles above persons. As
knowledge is more generally diffused there is no need of
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MESSENGER.
such preeminent wisdom. As virtue enters into the
moral life of society, there is no excuse for the exceptional
austerity of the anchorite, or plea for the denunciations
of the prophet. It is of more importance that the Many
should become good, than that One should appear who
is extraordinary. The tendancy of our age is to lift up
the many to where the few have stood, to work out the
principles which approve themselves good, to extend the
process of education until all are enlightened ; and not
to encourage personal illusions or expect miraculous
exceptions, but to act upon the methods of common
sense and of a sound rnind.
While there is no finality in religion as a whole then,
there is one process perfect in the religious development
of human kind. Jesus furnishes us with a perfect ideal
of human life. His exceptional personification of holy
principles is all-sufficient for that end. In his spirit we
may discern the love of God for us, and in his character
the true life for men. He has taught us to call no man
Master, but to acknowledge God as our only Lord. And
we want no other Lords to reign over us, and Him alone
will we serve.
We must never forget, however, the great truth, that
in its wholeness, there is no finality in religion. The
personal embodiment of religion in Jesus, is sufficient in
its sphere of example : but as it accomplishes its work
by inspiring the welcoming of a like dwelling of the
Divine Spirit in each human soul, it gives up its kingdom
to the Father, that God may be all in all. The most
perfect human impersonation of religion, is after all, im
perfect. Finite perfection is not infinite perfection. It
is hence that Jesus is represented as teaching, that it
was expedient for him to go away, as if he went not away
the Spirit of Truth would not come to his followers.
Unless he were removed from his disciples personally,
they would not give heed to truth, for its own sake.
Unless they valued truth, not from his own lips only,
but in the entirety of its essence, its holy spirit—the
blessed Paraclete—would not lead them to all truth.
Such, indeed, is the true progress of religion—from the
authority of the teacher, to its own authority in the
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23
soul—from its reception as a personal teaching, to life in
it as an essential principle. The teacher of truth, perfect
as he may be in his special mission, is succeeded by the
Spirit of Truth, which leads unto all truth. There is
then, no religious finality. As occasion arises, there will
ever be further development in Divine Knowledge, and
new forms of religious life in which it will be embodied.
The Divine Idea is universal and everlasting, and every
acquirement in science will augment our knowledge of it,
will raise our veneration for it, and give us fresh inspiration to lead wise, and holy, and loving lives.
As the different religious dispensations, also, move
onward in their conceptions of the true human life, they
will attain to the Ideal of Humanity which was set forth
by Jesus, and converging together will form that Divine
Universal Church which shall be the glory of human
kind and the salvation of society. We must each of us
realize this divine drama of history, in our own personal
experience, in the life of our own souls, by living after
the human ideal of Jesus, and going on as the Spirit of
Truth leads us to all truth—adding to our faith, know
ledge, and all excellent things, and acquiring from the
revelations of thought and science, ever greater love and
devouter reverence for God. By promoting this, the
Band of Faith would prepare for the practical establish
ment of the Universal Church of God, which is the body
of which true Universalism is the inspiring soul.
NEW LECTIONABY.
Chap. I.—From the Vedic Writings.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ?
He who gives life, He who gives strength ; whose com
mands the highest revere j whose light is immortality,
whose shadow is death.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ?
He who through his power is the one king of the
breathing and awakening world j he who governs all,
man and beast.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ?
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MESSENGER.
He whose greatness the mountains, whose greatness
the sea proclaims ; He whose regions they are.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ?
He through whom the sky is bright and the earth firm ;
He through whom the heaven was stablished—nay, the
highest heaven ; He who measured out the light in the air.
Who is the God to whom we shall offer our sacrifice ?
He to whom heaven and earth standing firm by his
will, look up trembling inwardly.
Leave us not to ourselves, 0 God. Let us not yet enter
into the house of clay.
Have mercy, Almighty—have mercy.
If we go along trembling like clouds driven by the
wind.
Have mercy, Almighty—have mercy.
Through want of strength and light, 0 God, Thou all
strong and all bright Being, have we alone gone wrong.
Have mercy, Almighty—have mercy.
Let not one sin after another, difficult to be conquered,
overcome us; may it depart together with the desire for it.
Create the light which we long for.
May we find for ourselves offspring, food, and a dwell
ing with running waters.
Speak out for ever with thy voice to praise the Lord,
of prayer, who is like a friend—the Bright One.
Fashion a hymn in thy mouth ! Expand like a cloud !
Sing a song of praise !
Chap. II.—From, the Brahmin Scriptures.
Whatsoever hath been made, God made. Whatsoever
is to be made, God will make. Whatsoever is, God maketh. Then why do any of you afflict yourselves ?
Thou, 0 God, art the Author of all things which have
been made, and from Thee will come all things which are
to be made. Thou art the Maker and the Cause of all
things made. There is none other but Thee.
He is my God who maketh all things perfect. Medi
tate upon Him, in whose hands are life and death.
I believe that God made man and that he maketh
everything. He is my friend.
Let faith in God characterise all your thoughts, words,
�FEBRUARY.
25
and actions. He who serveth God places confidence in
nothing else.
If the remembrance of God be in your hearts ye will
be able to accomplish that which would be else imprac
ticable.
0 foolish one ! God is not far from you : He is near
you. You are ignorant, but He knoweth everything.
Care can avail nothing; it devoureth life: for those
things shall happen which God shall direct.
Remember God, for he endued your body with life:
remember that Beloved One, who placed you in the womb,
reared and nourished you.
Preserve God in your hearts, and put faith in your
minds, so that by God’s power your expectations may be
realized.
In order that He may spread happiness God becometh
the servant of all; and although the knowledge of this
is in the hearts of the foolish, yet will they not praise
His Name.
0 God, Thou art, indeed, exceeding riches; thy laws
are without compare; Thou art the Chief of every world
yet remainest invisible.
He that partaketh of but one grain of the Love of God,
shall be released from the sinfulness of all his doubts and
actions.
What hope can those have elsewhere, even if they wan
dered over the whole earth, who abandon God ?
All things are exceeding sweet to those who love God:
they would never call them bitter.
Adversity is good, if on account of God ; but it is use
less to pain the body. Without God the comforts of
wealth are unprofitable.
Whatever is to be, will be ; therefore long not for grief
nor for joy ; because in seeking the one, you may find the
other. Forget not to praise God.
Do unto me 0 God, as thou thinkest best: I am obe
dient to Thee. Behold no other God; go nowhere but
to Him.
Condemn none of those things which the Creator hath
made. Those are his holy servants, who are satisfied
with them.
■>
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MESSENGER.
God is my clothing and my dwelling : He is my ruler,
my body and my soul.
God ever fostereth his creatures, even as a mother
cares for her child and keepeth it from harm.
0 God, Thou who art the Truth, grant me content
ment, love, devotion, and faith. Thy servant prayeth
for true patience, and that he may be devoted, to Thee.
He, that formed the mind, made it a temple for Him
self to dwell in; for God liveth in the mind and none
other but God.
0 my friend, recognize that Being with whom thou art
so intimately connected ; think not that God is distant,
but believe that like thy own shadow, He is ever near
thee.
Receive that which is perfect into your hearts, and shut
out all besides ; abandon all things for the love of God,
for this is the true devotion.
If you call upon God you can subdue your imperfec
tions and the evil inclinations of your mind will depart
from you, but they will return to you again, if you cease
to call upon him.
Chap. III.—From, the Buddhist Writings.
He who is your friend in meaning and not in word
alone is he who prevents you from taking life, or doing
any other evil; he urges you to almsgiving and other
good deeds; he informs you of that which you did not
previously know; and he tells you what is to be done in
order that you may enter the true paths.
As the bee, without destroying the colour or perfume
of the flower, gathers the sweetness with its mouth and
wings, so the riches of the true friend gradually accu
mulate ; and the increase will be regularly continued,
like the constant additions which are made to the hill
formed by the white ant.
Our parents, who have assisted us in our infancy, are
to be regarded as the east • our teachers, as being worthy
to receive assistance, are to be regarded as the south;
our children, as those by whom we are afterwards to be
assisted, are to be regarded as the west; our servants
and retainers, as being under our authority, are to be as
�FEBRUARY.
27
the underside; and our religious advisers, as assisting us
to put away that which is evil, are to be regarded as the
upperside.
As the wise man whose head is on fire tries to put the
flame out quickly, so the wise man seeing the shortness
of life, hastens to secure the destruction of evil desire.
As the jessamine is the chief among flowers and as the
rice is the chief amid all descriptions of grain, so is he
who is free from evil desire the chief among the wise.
The waggoner who leaves the right path and enters
into the untrodden wilderness, will bring about the des
truction of his waggons and endure much sorrow; so also
will he who leaves the appointed path and enters upon a
course of evil, come to destruction and sorrow.
The unwise man cannot discover the difference between
that which is evil and that which is good, as a childknows not the value of a coin that is placed before it.
■ As the man who has only one son is careful of that
son, as he who has only one eye takes great pains to pre
serve that eye ; so ought the wise man continually to
exercise thought, lest he break any of the precepts.
When acts are done under the influence of favor, envy,
ignorance, or the fear of those having authority, he who
performs them will be like the waning moon; but he who
is free from these influences, or avoids them, will be like
the moon approaching to its fulness.
When the seed of any species of fruit that is bitter is
sown in moist ground, it gathers to itself the virtue of
the water and the earth, but because of the nature of the
original seed, all this virtue is turned into bitterness, as
will be seen in the fruit of the tree which it produces;
and in like manner all that the unwise man does is an
increase to his misery, because of his ignorance.
On the other hand, when the sugar cane, or rice, or
the vine, is set in proper ground, it gathers to itself the
virtue of the water and the earth, and all is converted
into sweetness, because of the sweetness of the original;
and in like manner all the acts of the wise man tend to
his happiness and prosperity, because of his wisdom.
The door of the eye must be kept shut. When the
outer gates of the city are left open, though the door of every
�28
MESSENGER.
separate house or store be closed, the robber will enter
the city and steal the goods; and in like manner though
all the observances be kept, if the eye be permitted to
wander, evil desire will be produced.
This advice was given by Budha: He who would
attain Nirwana must not trust to others, but exercise
heroically and perseveringly his own judgment.
Chap. IV.—From the Druid Proverbs.
There is no seeing but in reflection; there is no reflec
tion but in fortitude—fortitude is only where the object
is clear.
There is no perspicuity but in light; there is no light
but in the understanding; there is no understanding but
of conscience; conscience is none other than the eye of
God in the soul of man.
There is none good but the godly ; there is none godly
but the religious ; there is no religion but in believing ;
there must be no belief but in truth; there is no truth
but in being manifest. Nothing is manifest but light.
Nothing is light but God; therefore there is no good
but of light, no godliness but of light, no religion but of
light; there is no light but in seeing God.
A word expresses—expression shows—showing reflects
—reflection instructs—instruction causes to think—
thought reasons—reason understands—understanding
proceeds to know—knowledge will exert—exertion will
be able to effect; ability will effect desire; desire will
act—action will attain the end.
The end of everything is the right; right is everything
in life ; right life is life eternal; life eternal is to be in
perfection ; to be in perfection is to be in God.
The weapon of the wise is reason ; the weapon of the
fool is steel; the weapon of the wise is in his heart.
He that loves fame, let him love what deserves it! He
that sows thistles will not reap wheat.
He that imparts his wish to every one will be late be
fore he obtains it. He that shall be far from his good
shall be near to his harm.
He that knows more than is necessary of another,
�FEBRUARY.
29
knows less than he ought of himself. He that would
have a good word let him not give a bad one.
The abundance of a miser is poverty to him. He that
loves will correct.
Noble descent is the least thing in the world in the
court of wisdom. Little is the seed of the contentious
and less the wisdom that sows it.
It is early with every one when he rises. He that has
one eye is a king among the blind. A small, injury to
another is a great one to thyself.
Hated will be he that importunes. Remembrance of
the good will excite goodness.
Profound is the expression of the heart. Good is every
country that produces wise men.
Every fool is wise while he holds his tongue. Better
is one that takes care than ten who contrive.
The best gold mine is a dunghill. The best dancing tune
is the song of the lark. The best shield is righteousness.
The best revenge is to show the injury and forgive it.
Three things will not be had without every one its
companion : day without night; idleness without hunger;
and wisdom without respect.
Three things which are not easily counted : the parti
cles of light, the words of a talkative woman, and the de
vices of a miser.
The three charities to the age which follows-—planting
of trees, improvement of science, and the education of
children in virtue.
Three persons who ought to have pity shown them__
the stranger, the widow and the orphan.
The three ornaments of a country—a barn, the shop of
an artist, and a -school.
There is no Druid but in name. None can be a Druid,
but God.
PROGRESSIVENESS OF RELIGION.
Religion is a progressive work, inwardly in the soul—
outwardly m society. Goodness is development—onward
and upward—is pure progression.
“Nature,” says
Goethe, “ has attached a curse to /wzse.”
�30
MESSENGER.
To have Life, we must have growth; not the growth
of the fungus, which springs up in a morning and attains
to no further development than mere increase of sizej
not the growth of the ephemeris, hatched by a warm sun
beam and perishing in the evening dew ; not the growth
of the parasite, established upon the existence of a life as
dependent as its own—but rather the growth of the tree |
not swift and evanescent, but steady and enduring; its
roots firmly fixed in nature—each year developing a new
ring in its trunk, an increase in its girth ; each year see
ing it constantly, and therefore apparently unconsciously
aspire higher and higher toward the skies.
See that sapling oak ! Its sap’s blood freely courses
through the fibrous pores of its green young heart.
Spring shines on its clear brown bark, and its fresh glazy
leaves. Autumn comes and its leaves fall. But it is not
dead. It only sleeps, as true men sleep, to gather new
growth and increased strength for the waking hour.
Another spring and its leaves are green again. Another
autumn and it sheds its acorns. Other springs and.
autumns revolve over it, and year by year it puts forth
new leaves, new twigs, new branches, and more benefi
cently showers around upon its mother earth—the har
vest of its seeds. Year by year its bole is bigger; and
within its girth is calendered by a fresh ring, like a con
scious mark of progress in the soul. Year by year its
umbrage is more shady and more generously offers its
green coolness for the nests and songs of birds, for the
shelter of cattle, or for the solace of the children in the
summer heat. Year by year its leafy branches spread
about its bole—its trunk increased in girth, ascends also
in height—spiring upward to the sky, and on its topmost
twig, gilt by a sunray, we see and hear a sweet songbird
carolling its hymn to heaven.
Such then is the growth of life we want—a growth
steady and enduring—a growth implanted like a living
principle rooted deeply in our natures; a growth fixed
in the ground of things—not parasitic—not depen
dent upon the degree of vitality manifested by others,
but derived from the spiritual soil and fostered by the
immediate agencies of the Author of life and Giver of
�FEBRUARY.
31
growth himself. Such is the growth of life we want—a
growth not of a day, but one of perennial progress ; a
growth not niggardly, but a generous growth, increasing
not only in circumference, but in elevation; generously
distributing around it the fruits of each harvest, and at
the same time continually ascending and constantly de
veloping itself towards the higher—the nobler—the purer
—the more heavenly.
“ The new birth into righteousness,” is a development
of the divine—a growth of grace ! It is a winter of
decay and suspended animation passed over, and it is a
spring of new vitality, new vigour and new increase
arisen. But this growth must be continuous, this grace
should be constant—not the flower of a season but a
perennial plant. The progress to perfection is a per
petual path. It is ever before us, and we are ever to
attain it. On every morning we find that a new sun has
arisen—that new dews have been distilled. In each new
morning of every soul, we should see anew the golden
sunshine and the crystal dews of the spirit.
It is not only one new birth, but many new births,
that we require.
It is not only one new life, but many
new lives, that we must have. Daily, we should become
dead to some sin, we should relinquish some selfishness,
we should leave off some bad habit, we should abandon
some vice, we should strive and clear our minds of some
error—we should thus endeavour to die daily. Daily.,
we should become alive to some virtue, we should develope some loving sentiment, we should perform some
good action, we should endeavour to attain to the per
ception of some truth—we should strive to live a new
life, daily—to daily grow in grace.
All goodness is in the soul. The human spirit is
created good by God. Its fall—its error, is to be attri
buted to the accidents of its development in the outward,
serving it for experience and trial, but it is in itself
good—it has all goodness as the basis of its growth, and.
perpetual progress to perfection as its destiny. The
growth of grace is thus developed from within. It is a,
spiritual process of progression. As the soul grows
greater in goodness, as the spiritual increases in power,.
�32
MESSENGER.
as the development towards the divine is higher, stronger,
more inward and central in the spirit: the accidents of
the outward, the external circumstances of existence,
have less influence over it, are subordinated to it, and
the Human Being takes its right place as the Crown of
Creation—the overseer of the universe !
In relation to the attributes of goodness, the growth of
grace is the soul’s sum of addition. We should add to a
new birth of belief in those first principles which are the
oracles of God—a new birth of power over evil, a new
birth of disinterested action—a new life of sincerity, a
new life of love—a new ability of innocence, a new power
of purity. Such are some of the ascensive additions of
the soul!
In fact all grace is a growth, all goodness is a growth,
all practical Divinity consists in the process of develop
ment—piety should be ever progressive. We can never
be too good. That which does not progress, ceases to be
good. That which is right to-day, if not improved upon
to-morrow, becomes vice, not virtue. Stand-still religion,
is no religion at all. The human spirit is not like an
animal form, which grows to a certain age, and then
ceases; but goodness and grace are eternal growths,
and piety an infinite progress.
THE MANCHESTER FRIEND—We read in th®
Manchester Friend, 11 The Band of Faith Tracts and
Messenger, issued by Goodwyn Barmby, of Wakefield,
often touch a very true chord.” The Manchester Friend
is the monthly organ of the liberal portion of the Society
of Friends. It contains articles of great literary ability,
which put forth those broad views of religion which are
akin to the Theism of Jesus, and will help to constitute
the Universal Church of the Future.
BAND OF FAITH BAZAAR.—Our Annual Bazaar
will be held at Wakefield, probably in Easter week.
Contributions of work or goods will be thankfully received.
BARNSLEY.—We hope soon to announce that-W
have a new sanctuary in this town.
�MESSENGER.
159
appointments, by which they could fill the widening
openings of official service in civil or military ranks ; and
as a result the social leaders of the people are intensely
prejudiced and opposed to change or improvement. None
are more so than the Mahomedan Nawabs. By having
a Turkish officer of high rank at our seats of Government,
a man entering into our progressive ideas, wearing as they
do European dress, eating freely with us at our tables,
joining as they would in many acts of social life, and,
above all, representing in a palpable living form the prin
ciple of our friendship with the head of their faith in
distant Roum, we think a new political force might be
set at work, and much good might result.
Turkey to-day can supply dozens of such men in her
civil and military service, many of them fairly accom
plished and wide in their grasp of religious views. Why
not have them amongst us ? Our interests as nations
are identical in the East, and a great moral influence
would affect the bigotted population ; above all it would
show that the Sultan was our friend—and how many
Indian Mahomedans know that to-day, probably not a
hundred? A second phase of the subject is with refer
ence to the action of oui- missionary societies. It is
matter of surprise that the Unitarian organizations in
England have never bethought themselves of work
amongst the “ Unitarians ” of the East, as the Mahome
dans would fain call themselves. No reason exists why
men teaching such doctrines should not act with good
effect upon the Mussulman people. To-day the one-God
principle is so strongly implanted in the Mahomedan
heart, that the mere mention of plurality excites him
to frenzy. The narrow prejudices, too, of half-educated
missionaries who refuse to see in Mahomed a great re
former and one of the ablest statesmen, offends them to
a great degree. But every Mahomedan draws close to
those whose views are Unitarian ; and as a creed Islam
is quite capable of having a new church party developed
in its midst, for no creed has less officialism, less sacer
dotal tyranny in it, or a simpler code of church economy
than it has.
�BAND OF FAITH
160
A body of Christian teachers who would measure Ma
homed at his true worth and join on modem civilized
views to the ancient dogmatic basis of the creed, would
be a well-spring of good to our rule in India. No doubt
the truncheon and the bayonet can keep these warlike Mus
sulman races of India in subjection, and force them to
sullen obedience ; but an empire founded by the sword,
and trusting solely to it will perish in the end by the
means that gave it birth.
At the tomb of Ali, around whose gilded sepulchre
many thousand Indian Mahomedans dwell, a traveller
recently met a well-taught, indeed thoroughly educated
Indian Mussulman, well read and widely informed. He
was a pilgrim from India. He saw around him the ill
effects of an administration, whose aim is not always
the public good. He made flattering allusion to what
we have done in this country for the people, but in his
praises there lay a sting. “ Yes,” said he, “ I know all
you have done for India—good roads, perfect order, a
rule fairly just and striving to be more so. But what is
all that ? Whoever governs us—Russians or whoever
else—they would be better than you ; they would give us
sympathy. It is sympathy we need. You English are
a hard race.” He may, must have thought wrongly ; but
so he and probably many of his class do think. It is a
pity when such men brood over thoughts like this. We
trust too much to perfect codes and elaborate procedures;
and neglect the little things which all can see and
appreciate. The two proposals we mention above might
tend to some great improvements.
J. E. SMITH AND HIS WRITINGS.
The Coming Man, by the Rev. James Smith, M.A. 2 vols.
London: Strahan & Co., 1873.
This is a posthumous publication—the work of a very
wonderful mind. Its author is James Elishama SmithJames by baptism and Elishama by circumcision, although
in his later literary works the Israelitish prenomen is
dispensed with from the title-page. He was bom at
�MESSENGER.
161
Glasgow, 22 November, 1801, and died in the same
place, at the house of his friend, Dr. Herle, '-?9 January,
1857. He was a licentiate of the Kirk of Scotland, but
relinquished its duties a few years after his ordination.
In youth he was a companion of Robert Pollock, and
claimed the suggestion of an eminent line in his poem
“ The Course of Time.” It is to be regretted that so few
biographical particulars are given of him in the admirable
preface to his posthumous work. His outward was, how
ever, of less moment than his inward life. As an Organ
izer he was weak. As a Speculator alone was he strong.
There was a romance of a peculiar kind in connection
with his early life. On leaving the Scotch Kirk, he
joined for a while that branch of Southcottians, called
Christian Israelites, who were under thesupposedprophetic
leadership of John Wroe. When these people had their
New Jerusalem, at Ashton-under-Lyne, he lived with them
as their Hebrew Schoolmaster, and many interesting par
ticulars of the Christian Israelitish Community, which
are given in the pages of “ The Coming Man,” would be
derived from this singular experience. For Joanna
Southcott and the Church of the Woman, as he termed
the believers in her supernatural mission, he ever pro
fessed to entertain much respect and sympathy. He
knew all their prophets and visited women, and especially
entertained a high opinion of Mrs. Marshall, who has
comparatively lately assumed the further office of a
Spiritist medium. His connection in early life with the
Southcottians, must not, however, mislead in the opinion
of him. One of the most universal of men, at least in
the spheres of critical and analytic speculation, he
came in contact also with Rationalists of the Richard
Carlisle school, with mystics of the James Pierrepoint
Greaves school, with disciples of Robert Owen, and more
importantly still, with the writings of St. Simon and his
followers, which contained the germs of many of the
ideas which he afterwards elaborated or counterparted by
analogical developments of his own, in those more im
portant studies of his later life, which will yet make him
eminent as thinker and writer. In fact to St. Simon, his
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BAND OF FAITH
successor Father Enfantin and others of his school, was
due the initiation of the great Socialist Movement of our
days, which must end in the inauguration of a new
general societary state, the heir and successor of an im
perfect civilization ; and which includes more or less in
its ranks, all who recognize the divineness of humanity,
and who regard religion as a practical thing, and look
upon it as the renewer of society, and who consider
history as the revelation of Providence, as J. E. Smith
has done throughout his writings, and especially in his
interpretation of the coming Fifth Act of the Divine
Drama of society.
The development of his views was gradual. He shed
every drop of his intellectual blood, and gave all his life
for them. At first, their appearance was crude. The
acid, according to the order of nature, was developed
before the sweet. After leaving Ashton-un der-Lyne, he
delivered in London, a course of extraordinary lectures,
very negative, but containing the germs of his subse
quent positive views. These lectures he published in the
year 1833, under the following title : “ The Antichrist,
or Christianity Reformed: in which is demonstrated from
the Scriptures, in opposition to the Prevailing Opinion of
the Whole Religious World, that Evil and Good are from
One Source ; Devil and God One Spirit; and that the
one is merely manifested to make perfect the other, by
the Rev. J. E. Smith, A.M.” The sub-title of this re
markable book is “ The Antichrist or Christianity Re
formed : its morals preserved, and its doctrines cast into
its own furnace. He sets the sheep on his right hand and
the goats on his left.” The literary work of this production
is rough and rude. Its parodoxes approach blasphemy.
Not very long after its production it was suppressed by
the author and the remainder of the copies destroyed.
It is now a very rare book.
A more important publication followed—“ The Shep
herd” ; a London weekly periodical, illustrating the prin
ciples of Universal Science, Edited by the Rev. J. E.
Smith, A.M. It reached 3 volumes, and was published
in 1834-5. In this work he produced a system of nature.
�MESSENGER.
163
and developed his love of analogical illustration. It was
a great improvement upon the Antichrist—in various
ways, better written, far more affirmative, containing
choice extracts, collecting around it interesting contri
butors. Among the contributors to the Shepherd, were
Oxenford, the dramatist and critic, Charles Lane, a deep
mystic and editor of the Price Courant, Etienne Vieusseaux, author of the New Sanctuary of Thought and.
Science, and a Dr. de Prati, the exponent of some mag
netical system of Pantheism. As the editor of this pub
lication, J. E. Smith is more generally known in
London as Shepherd Smith. Disgusted at the stupidity
with which the public regarded his teachings, he con
cluded it by threatening to bring out The Swineherd.
A translation of St. Simon’s “ New Christianity a
collection of “ Legends and Miracles”; a strange essay
at prophetical calculation, called “ The Little Book, or
Momentous Crisis of 1840” ; a small work, named “ The
World Within,” setting forth the proposition that the
interior of the globe was inhabited; “ Pope’s Essay on
Man,” with an admirable introductory commentary, and
“ The Universal Chart, containing the Elements of
Universal Faith, Universal Analogy and Moral Govern
ment, 1840,” appeared in quick succession.
By his next publication, he was destined to become
very popular, although remaining unknown personally.
He was the originator and editor of the famous Family
Herald, a periodical known to all, a particular pet of
Leigh Hunt, and a literary organ which, although selling
only for a penny, and largely filled with tales, has exercised,
a pure influence upon a very extensive scale. It was first
published by B. D. Cousins, of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, who
passed it over to John Biggs, of the Strand, whose facili
ties in the publishing system were greater, who made it
a, lucrative investment, and who at his death, bequeathed
liberally to those who had started the periodical, and
been the means of his connection with it. In the Family
Herald, J. E. Smith largely improved his literary style,
and prepared his mind for the production of very far
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BAND OF FAITH
more important works than he had yet issued—“The
Divine Drama ” and “ The Coming Man.” His Family
Herald articles would make several volumes of important
essays, on a large multiplicity of subjects. They deserve
to be published in that form. In his notices to corres
pondents also, he established a kind of confessional upon
a rational system. It is astonishing to notice the infini
tude of subjects upon which he was consulted, and to
which he returned admirable answers, and not less so
to remark the delicate nature of the confidences which
were made to him. No one person, it was held at that
time, could possibly be the author of all these answers.
Whether they were written by man or woman, was a sub
ject also of frequent controversy. J. E. Smith really did
it all, and a wonderful work it was. It was certainly
“ unique in popular literature.” He edited the Family
TZera/cZ,'at least from December 17, 1842, to February 14,
1857,—that is to say after his death—the papers he left
behind him being used as the leading articles. Little did
his readers know of the quiet student life and deeply phi
losophical mind, which week by week had ministered to
their instruction and amusement.
“The Divine Drama of History and Civilization” was
published in 1854, about two years before its authors
death. It was his great work of art—the crowning effort
of his genius. At its appearance, it met with but scant
notice, but yet with an audience, not unworthy from a
few. It is now a rare book, and will become acknow
ledged as a great work, of a period in which great
works are not scarce. It is a great work in its leading
idea, and in the general principles applied to its illustra
tion. Its details cannot all be endorsed. He had the
scientific spirit, but was deficient in scientific method.
He was paradoxical, and gloried in it, and has thus ob
tained a niche in De Morgan’s book of Paradoxes. The
moment he got a glimpse of an analogy, he hunted it to
the remotest nooks and corners, and ran it to the death.
His analogies, however, are superior to Swedenborg’s
correspondencies. They are broader, and have more of
natural foundation in them. Of present advances in
�MESSENGER.
165
biblical criticism, he appears to have had little knowledge.
He explored more ancient mines of theology. Any text
which he could twist into harmony with his thought at
the time was acceptable to him. He used the same kind
of alchemy with regard to the doctrines of obscure sects,
ancient and modern. He found some truth in them all.
All was fish which came to his net. His scriptural inter
pretation is largely vicious and worthless; his religious
expression, although often true and beautiful, descends at
length into the obscure, but his general idea of development
in history, and of the direction under Divine Providence of
the whole social life of man, is fine and noble, and adds
a grand contribution to the systematic study of the sub
ject on which he treats. The leading idea of his Divine
Drama, is the development of human history in analogy
with the providential character and five-fold aspect of the
ordinary Drama. Under the terms of divisional and
unitary, he recognizes throughout it the critical and or
ganic epochs of St. Simon. His specialty indeed, is the
five-fold analogy. With him, history is a pentalogue—a
play in five acts, of which the Supreme Being is the ma
nager. While his setting forth of history is arbitrary,
and does not begin at the beginning, and while other
analogies might be found for its illustration in the course
of its progress, and the various social states in their logi
cal sequences be held to be true stages, and more real
factors in the development of the human race than the
national missions which arise among them, the five-fold
theory of our author is interesting and suggestive, and is
certainly a part of the universal system in which all
numbers have their relative functions. His first act of
the Divine Drama is the Hebrew Mission; the second
act, the Greek Mission; the third act, the Roman Mis
sion. These three acts comprise the Mediterranean Mis
sion. There the Pontifex Maximus—the great bridge
maker is obtained. The Atlantic Mission follows with
the next two acts. Act four shows the Mission of the
North-Western Nations, and is analytical. Act five is the
Universal Mission, in which the leading part is played by
the British Islands, and which is organic and final. We
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BAND OF FAITH
have already sufficiently criticized this theory of histori
cal evolution. It is put forth with much power. It is
adorned with many passages of striking eloquence and
beauty. Its author has grown to be a proficient with
the pen. There is fine word-painting in the scenery he
gives to each act of his historical drama. It is his great
work—the work by which he will be known—the Bible
of his system.
Whether intended to do so or not, “The Coming Man”
may serve as a commentary to the Divine Drama. It
commences in the form of a novel, and continues in this
style for several interesting chapters, but the thread of
the tale becomes at length lost in disquisitions. The
founder is confounded with his own image. His subject
reveals itself too largely for his art. That which gave
promise of being a love-tale concludes with an argument
in favour of astrology, and with tables of prophetical
arithmetic. The work indeed, is a small edition of nature
in its dramatic grandeur and comic absurdities. It is
more generally readable on this very account. Where a
hundred read the Divine Drama, a thousand will read
“ The Coming Man.” Some of the first scenes are equal
to any of the novel-writing of the day, and that is sayingvery much for them. The leading idea of the work, com
mencing with the contention that the ten tribes of Israel
are scattered but not lost, being incorporated with the
Gentiles, is that “ The Coming Man” is purified humanity,
which in the fifth act of the Divine Providential Drama,
will become perfected, and truly reign upon the earth.
Incidentally, a vast variety of subjects are treated. The
sketches of character interspersed are cleverly drawn, and
the disquisitions on morals and manners admirable. A
light is cast upon many obscure sects, and a word said for
many abstruse subjects. A very beautiful robe of charity
is the garb of the author’s thought, which, as of old,
covers a multitude of sins. The two volumes are as
amusing as they are instructive, and show a variety of
power and an encyclopaedic mind, very rarely equalled .in
literature.
A very excellent photographic portrait of J. E. Smith
�MESSENGER.
167
is prefixed to the “ Coming Man.” He was a man of
middle size, with fine broad brows, deep set eyes, and
pale student face, and in society, although of retiring
habits, quite capable of fun and humour.
During the later years of his life, his residence was in
New Palace Road, Lambeth, and there he had collected
around him a library of most unique and extraordinary
works, which were dispersed after his death. The es
sence of his library is preserved in his own writings. His
knowledge was encyclopaedic, and his genius will yet be
acknowledged. Although the exact path he indicated
may not be taken by humanity, his labours will have
tended to prepare it to take that path which Divine Pro
vidence itself shall counsel and control.
HYMN.
BY SIR JOHN BOWRING.
One ! One ! One I art Thou,
Judge and King and God alone :
Thee we worship, and allow
None to share Thy glory—none !
Great, great, great art Thou,
Undivided greatness Thine :
Other gods we disavow ;
None but Thee we own divine.
Wise, wise, wise art Thou ;
Wise beyond our highest thought:
Naught when at Thy throne we bow,
Shall distract our praises—naught!
. Good, good, good art Thou ;
Thou our God that reign’st alone ;
Consecrate Thy servant’s vow,
All-transcendent Gracious One.
�BAND OF FAITH
THE UNIVERSAL LAW.
BT JAMES WALKER, OF CARLISLE.
Onward, onward, ever onward,
Progress is the law of all;
Nothing with us, great or lowly,
But some higher motives call.
Daily to more perfect being,
Daily into greater light,
’Till at last in perfect beauty,
Great and lowly greet the sight.
In the wondrous world of Nature,
Ever since her work began,
Slowly, surely, and completely,
Has been aye her rule and plan ;
Nothing suddenly upspringing,
Perfect to the light of day,
All the end by gradual stages,
Gaining of their destined way.
In the greater world of spirit,
Doth this law as firmly hold,
Only by unswerving labour
Shall the good and true unfold
All their balm and all their wisdom
Unto oui’ repining hearts,
Sinfully in sloth repining,
’Till their energy departs.
If my earthly state is lowly,
Shall I lull my soul asleep,
Shall I fold my hands in quiet,
Or shall I sit down and weep
That the work I would be doing,
Seems to scorn all human strength,
That the road I am pursuing
Seems of hopeless, endless length ?
�MESSINGER.
0, my brother ! 0, my sister 1
Struggling with this evil thought,
Struggling, sinking, and despairing,
Listen to what God hath taught,
On the wondrous face of Nature,
On each part and on the whole—
“ Courage, faith, and perseverance,
Ever shall attain the goal.”
From the genesis of being,
Unto this imperfect day,
Has He shown how their endeavours
Clear all obstacles away ;
Be the worker poor and lowly,
Yet if poor in thought and deed,
H e, the Master worker, aids him,
Gives to him that he succeed.
Action, action, heavenly action
Ever is man’s wisest part,
Laws of God and laws of being,
Ignorance, sloth, and error thwart,
Paralyse, benumb the spirit,
Molehills into mountains raise,
And with misery, pain and error
Hedge us round in all our ways.
Whose example is unheeded ?
Whose good deeds are wholly lost ?
Stalwart warriors are they ever,
Each with an important post,
In the warfare waged with evil,
And, with all arch-angel might,
Win they ever in the contest,
Souls from darkness unto light.
As the ripple from the pebble,
Coming from a child’s weak hand,
Spreadeth o’er the sea’s wide surface,
Unto some far distant land;
�ITO
BAND OF FAITH
So thine efforts, humble worker,
Have an Influence far and wide,
Though to thee, for wisest purpose,
This to see may be denied.
Heed not what despair would teach thee,
Mark not the extent of ill,
Think not thou aid poor and lowly,
On with firmest heart and will;
In the smiling sky above thee—
This fair earth thou livest on,
See the auguries of conquest !
See the destiny of man !
Listen to the past’s deep teachings,
Telling all that has been done,
How by humble, patient labour,
Has our better age been won ;
And if on thou strivest ever,
Strivest as they did of yore,
Thou dost live, thou art God’s servant,
Thou art blessed for evermore.
WHICH OUGHT WE TO BELIEVE,—THAT WHICH
MEN SAY ABOUT JESUS, OR,
THAT WHICH JESUS SAID ABOUT HIMSELF?
BY
T.
R.
MASON.
Men tell us that Jesus is the second person in the God
head, and equal with “the Father;” but Jesus said,
distinctly, and without any qualification whatever, “ My
Father is greater than I.” (John xiv. 28).
Men affirm that Jesus was almighty, but he candidly
acknowledged that he could of himself do nothing.
(John v. 30).
Men teach that Jesus knew all things : but he stated
positively that he knew not when the day of judgment
would come. (Mark xiii. 32).
Men say that Jesus was and is from eternity to eter
�MESSENGER.
171
nity, the all-wise God : yet he actually mistook John the
Baptist for Elias, and said of him, “ This is Elias which
was to come.” (Matthew si. 14). Whereas, when John
was asked, “ Art thou Elias 1” he said, emphatically, “ I
am not.” (John i. 21). Again, Jesus went seeking figs
on a tree before the proper season, and showed his wis
dom (?) by cursing the tree because it had not done that
which was utterly impossible under the circumstances.
Men assure us that Jesus was the all-merciful and
impartial God, notwithstanding that Jesus said to his
disciples, “To you it is given to know the mystery of the
kingdom of God; but unto them that are without, all
these things are done in parables, that seeing, they may
see and not perceive : and hearing, they may hear and
not understand: lest at any time they should be converted
and their sins should be forgiven them. (Mark iv. 11.12.)
Men declare that the miracles which are recorded of
Jesus prove that he was a divine being; but three im
portant considerations conclusively show that Jesus
neither held nor taught such a thing:—1st, Jesus ad
mitted that even his opponents could work miracles :
“ If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your
sons cast them out? (Luke xi. 19.) 2nd. Jesus pro
mised that his disciples should do still greater works than
those he had done ; and 3rd.—The miracles of Jesus
depended largely upon the faith of the people who were
the subjects of them: “ And he could do there no mighty
work, save that he laid his hands on a few sick folk and
healed them. And he marvelled because of their un
belief.” (Matt. vi. 5. 6.) “ And he did not many mighty
works there, because of their unbelief.” (Matt. xiii. 58.)
Men assert that Jesus claimed equality with God when
he said “ I and my Father are one.” But the oneness
here spoken of was that to which all men may attain who
seek not to do their own will, but the will of God. It
was the oneness that the raindrop has in its relations to
the ocean, or that the perfect instrument has with the
worker, in relation to the work performed. It was the oneness
of derived nature and power; of likeness,, not of absolute
identity, and it was this oneness with God, or the assi
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BAND OF FAITH
milation of the human to the Divine Nature, that Jesus
besought his Father that his disciples might possess,
“ That they all may be one as Thou Father in me and I
in Thee, that they may be one in us.” (John xviii. 21.)
In conclusion, let every man be fully persuaded in his
own mind, and decide for himself, carefully and wisely
the important question, “ Jesus or God ? The Finite or
the Infinite ?”
NEW LECTIONARY.
Chap. XV.—William, Blake’s Proverbs.
The pride of the peacock is the glory of God : the lust
of the goat is the bounty of God : the wrath of the lion
is the wisdom of God.
The fox condemns the trap, not himself.
Joys impregnate : sorrows bring forth.
The bird a nest, the spider a web, man—friendship.
What is now proved was once only imagined.
The rat, the mouse, the fox, the rabbit watch the roots ;
the lion, the tiger, the horse, the elephant, watch the
fruits.
The cistern contains : the fountain overflows.
One thought fills immensity.
Always be ready to speak your mind, and a base man
will avoid you.
The eagle never lost so much time as when he sub
mitted to learn of the crow.
If the lion was advised by the fox he would be cunning.
Folly is the cloak of knavery : shame is pride’s cloak.
As the plough follows words, so God rewards prayers.
He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.
If our footsteps slide in clay, how can we do otherwise
than fear and tremble ?
Think in the morning, act in the noon, eat in the
evening, sleep in the night.
Energy is eternal delight.
�MESSENGER.
173
fHnfe. XVI.—William Blake’s Song of Liberty.
The Eternal Female groaned ! It was heard over all
the earth.
Albion’s coast is sick—silent; the American meadows
faint.
Shadows of prophecy shiver along by the lakes and the
rivers and mutter across the ocean.
France rend down thy dungeon ; golden Spain burst
the barriers of old Rome.
Cast thy keys, 0 Rome, into the deep down falling,
even to eternity down falling ; and weep.
In her trembling hands she took the new-born Terror,
howling.
On those infinite mountains of light now barred out
by the Atlantic sea, the new-born fire stood before the
starry King!
Flagged with grey-browed snow and thunderous visages
the jealous wings waved over the deep.
The speary hand burned aloft, unbuckled was the
shield, forth went the hand of jealousy among the flaming
hair, and hurled the new-born wonder through the starry
night.
The fire I the fire ! is falling.
Look up, look up, 0 citizen of London ; enlarge thy
countenance !
0 Jew, leave counting gold : return to thy oil and
wine.
. 0 African, black African, come winged thought, widen
has forehead.
The fiery limbs, the flaming hair, shot like the sinking
sun into the western sea : waked from his eternal sleep,
the hoary element roaring fled away.
Down rushed beating his wings in vain, the jealous
king ; his grey-browed councillors, thunderous warriors,
curled veterans, among helms aud shields and chariots,
horses, elephants, castles, banners, slings and rocks;
falling—rushing—running—buried in the ruins in Urthona’s dens.
All night beneath the ruins, the sullen flames emerge
ground the gloomy King.
�174
BAND OF FAITH
With thunder and fire leading his starry host through
the waste wilderness, he promulgates his ten commands,
glancing his beaming eyelids over the deep in dark
dismay.
Then the Son of Fire in his eastern cloud, while the
morning plumes her golden breast, spurning the clouds
written with curses, stamps the stony law to dust, loosing
the- eternal horses from the dens of night, crying Empire
is no more ! and now the lion and the wolf shall cease.
Let the priests of the raven of dawn, no longer in
deadly black, with hoarse notes curse the sons of joy;
nor his accepted brethren, whom he calls free, lay the
bound or build the roof.
Every thing that lives is Holy.
SERIOUS AFFECTION.
BY RICHARD BEDINGFIELD.
0 love divine ! 0 perfect love !
0 smiting Hand Eternal !
We will not own Thy Orb above
Can shine on worlds infernal!
Yet, even here, the woe is long—
The pain makes mortals tearful !
O Spirit in my heart grow strong ;
And never weak and fearful !
I pluck a flower of life serene ;—
When plucked, it soon must languish ;
The amaranth, friend ! is all unseen ;
We feel it—to our anguish.
0 crown of thornes for every son
Of God ! 0 cross and passion !
Whatever we have lost or won,
Thank God in blessed fashion 1
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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The band of faith messenger
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Barmby, John Goodwin (ed)
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [Wakefield]
Collation: p. 17-32 and 159-174 ; 19 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Editor, publisher and date taken from KVK.
Publisher
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[George Horridge]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[c.1870s]
Identifier
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G5720
Subject
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Unitarianism
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The band of faith messenger), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Unitarianism
-
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1f4e83b72db45fa16e3ad1bf523b3cfc
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Text
��*
A PIONEER CHURCH—A Sermon preached in Pioneer Hall, February 7, 1869, by REV. H.
W. BROWN, Minister of the First Unitarian Church of Sacramento.
Let us congratulate one another, friends, upon a new year of
our church. Let us be thankful that the “ lines are fallen unto ”
us in such “pleasant places?’ We may feel at home in Pioneer
Hall, for we are a Pioneer Church.
We are organized upon a principle which is in advance of the
practice of churches in general; the principle of union in the
spirit of religion without any formal expression of belief. We
are a church without a creed. The principle itself is not a new
one. We are not the first church to organize upon this basis,
but we are among the first; we are of those who have caught
the sound of the evangel before the main body, and who go
forward to prepare the way. It is pioneer work to remove ob
structions, to prepare the way for others. We remove the creed
from the threshold of the temple of worship, where we feel that
it has too long been an obstruction to fellowship in the spirit.
This will be called negative work. Is it negative work when
the pioneer cuts down and digs away, that there may be free
entrance to fair fields and broad rivers, so that willing multi
tudes may settle in the rich domain? Here are the “green
pastures” and “still waters” of Beligion—of reverent adora
tion and trust and communion, of kindly sympathy and humane
activity—-and many are kept from entering in and dwelling
joyously in company with their brethren and friends, by the re
quirement of assent to doctrinal statements of belief. Por our
selves, and for others so far as they choose to avail themselves
of our efforts, we do away with the obstacle. We found our
church on the basis of the religious purpose. We say to all : Do
you wish to unite with men and women to worship God and to
serve men ? we welcome you to our fellowship; to full fellow
ship, with all the privileges which any of us enjoy. We do not
ask what your beliefs are. We shall try to have the truth
preached among us from week to week, and we think you will
�believe that when you hear it; will very likely find it just what
you already believe, though you may not have admitted it to
yourself, or acted upon it.
Be it understood, however, that in doing away with creed we
are not doing away with belief. We are not saying that we
have no belief as individuals or as a church; we are not saying
that we think belief of no consequence. We think the belief of
the individual of so much consequence that we will not ask him
to surrender it, to limit it, to trim it in any manner, in order to
avail himself of the benefit of our fellowship or to give us the
advantage of his company. We thus recognize, we thus help
men to feel, the importance and the responsibility of individual
conviction. And as a church we have beliefs, beliefs implied in
the very purpose on which we are founded. We are united for
the Worship of God and the Service of Men. The worship of
God implies belief in God. And although it is impossible for
any one to express his whole thought about God, and none can
give satisfactory expression to the thought of others, it would
not be difficult, probably, to make some general statement about
the Divine Being and Character in which we should all agree.
That God is One, with various manifestations in nature and in
humanity; that His Spirit is in our minds and consciences and
hearts, and may be communed with there so as to be the strength
and joy of our lives; that He is good, too good to create any
being that shall by any possibility come to suffer eternal tor
ment; that the best names we can give him are Light, and Life,
and Truth, and Righteousness, and Love, and Father—I sup
pose all of us believe this about God. Why should we not say
so in a formal statement, and make it a platform on which all
who join us shall stand ? Because the platform is already under
us and does not require to be laid down; and because the laying
it down would give to belief a prominence which we wish, in a
religious organization, to give to religious purpose. We want
to emphasize the religious purpose as the main thing in a church.'
A belief may be a dead thing, but a purpose is a live thing. And
so we ask not Do you believe in God ? but Do you want to
worship Him ? If you do, we know you believe in him.
And the purpose to serve Men implies belief in men; belief
that men are worth serving. We believe in men as spiritual
beings; and we want to serve them as such by ministering to
�[3]
their spiritual nature. To that end we have prayer, and sing
ing, and preaching, and try to have it of a spiritual sort, such
as will do spiritual service to those who join in it. We believe
in men as moral beings; and we try to serve them as such by
moral education, by appealing to the sense of Eight in them, by
urging them to cultivate the conscience, by applying the laws
of Justice to practical affairs, and by pointing out the way of
Duty. We believe in men as social beings, and we try to serve
them as such by cherishing the social sentiment, in its deeper
and its lighter forms; by proclaiming Brotherhood and acting it
out as far as we can, by sympathy and help for one another and
for all within our range, and even by providing amusement and
entertainment of an innocent kind. And wTe believe in men as
rational beings, and we try to serve them as such by addressing
their reason, not endeavoring to exercise religious dominion
over them or authority upon them, which would be like the
princes of the Gentiles, though done by those who would be
great among the Christians. We believe in men after this fash
ion j that they are not so good but they need to be better, and
not so bad but they'may become good by the help of God and
men. But we have no dogma about their “ Fall,” or about their
rise and progress, which one must agree to before he can take
hold with us to keep them up and on. And so we enquire not
Do you believe in the Depravity of men, or their Regeneration
but do you want to serve them ? If you do, you believe enough,
at least to begin with.
We apply no test of character as a condition of membership
in our church, but we do not thereby imply that character is of
little consequence. If there is anything we are agreed on, I
suppose it is that character is of first consequence; that it is
more than belief, more than action. Belief is what a man thinks?
action what a man does, character what a man is. One may be
saved by “faith,” if his faith be such as to transform his char
acter ; one may be saved by “ works,” if his works induce in
him the righteousness of heart which did not spring up till he
forsook his bad ways and began to do right ; faith or works may
thus lead to salvation, but character is salvation. We do not
make it a condition of fellowship in our church, however, be
cause of the impossibility of our judging it accurately. We
can’t undertake to divide men into saints and sinners. We
�[4]
think if men are very bad they will not feel much at home with
us until they change for the better; and we are very sure that
if they resolve to do that, and try to do it, we can put up with
them if they can put up with us; for we all need that change*
As an organization we stand simply on the ground of the reli
gious purpose. That is the thread on which we are all strung;
not for us to say who of us are precious stones, who only beads
of glass; not to be determined by any profession of faith or
performance of ceremonial, but by the Lord of the hosts of
men, in the day when He makes up His jewels.
What makes us a pioneer church is that we organize the re
ligious spirit in its two-fold relation toward God and toward
men, without the ordinary obstacles of fellowship. We believe
a great deal—a great deal more than we could put into any
creed; but if people want to know what it is, we ask them to
come and hear oui’ preaching, or to talk with us as individuals.
We lay great stress on character, but whether our character is
good or not, people will judge for themselves.
We feel that we are really organizing religion by the method
we adopt. It seems to us that to lay down tests such as are
employed in most of the churches is, as has been well said, to
organize not religion but the negation of religion, viz -: “ exclu
siveness, limitation, privilege.” The profession of belief in cer
tain doctrines unites those, doubtless, who agree in those doc
trines and in professing them, but it separates them from others;
marks them off as distinct: and' all that “ union” can mean in
a Church which insists on belief in these doctrines as a condi
tion of fellowship is a union of those who thus believe, with
separation from those who believe differently. And the inevi
table differences of opinion must forever prevent the union
which Christians are so much desiring to secure. Opinion is
divisive; theological opinion as much as any. It makes sects,
that is, portions cut off from a main body. Religion means
“binding together.” The religious spirit would bind together
all who share it, and the church which would organize that
spirit should welcome all in w'hom that spirit moves. It is true
that, practically, differences of theological opinion, when they
are great, will prevent men from working together in a religious
organization; that, in fact, the members of any church will
agree in the main, and those who do not believe as they do will
�[5]
remain apart from them. But this very fact makes it unneces
sary to enact any exclusion. The centrifugal force of opinion
is strong enough without our pushing one another away in the
name of religion. Differences of political opinion often prevent
men from worshipping together, but would it be wise to make
a man’s politics a test of church membership ? Is that a very
different matter? Not so different, when the fact is that what
is called political opinion is sometimes a moral judgment, far
more intimately connected with religion than a question of
mere speculative theology or religious history. So also differ
ences of social position, of wealth, or of general culture, will
work in religious bodies, and people will be brought in or kept
out more or less by facts of this nature; but would it be the
part of religion to insist on any special degree or rank in such
matters ? It cannot be said that these are unimportant; they
are of more consequence than theological notions ovei’ which
churches have sometimes quarreled to the death. There are
circumstances in which it is of far more consequence to us what
a man’s tastes, habits, manners arc, than what arc his religious
professions. It is for those who would organize religion not to
encourage any of these divisive-tendencies, but to unite in the
central purpose of religion. This holds them together and does
not cut them off from others. Others may not come to them,
but the door is not shut against any, and none will be or will
feel excluded. The Church likes to be figured as an ark, in
which alone is safety in the flood of divine retribution that
sweeps over the earth. Is it for those who see men struggling
in the waters to say to them : “ Come in hither I This is your
only chance; but before you can be taken aboard you must
believe as we do; must believe that this ark was made by a
different process from anything else in the world, and out of
different timber, grown by miracle and put together by miracle.’’
And if those in the ark do act thus, is it strange, that the strong
swimmers say irreverently : “Go along with your old ark;
there won’t be much of a shower I”—while the weak and
struggling feel that such offers have very little “ grace” in them.
Is it not the part of the Church to say, Welcome to such shelter
as we can give ! we will do all we can to save you. You want
to .come—that is enough. Such a church is not exclusive, but
reaches out its hands to all with a free invitation. It is not in
�[6]
an attitude of separation from other churches, on the one hand,
or from the multitude who are outside the churches on the
other. We may feel that we are with the other churches in
this city, not- against them; we stand for religion, as they do,
against irreligion; for morality, as they do, against vice and.
iniquity. If they shut us out by any test of belief, we do not
put up any barrier against them; there will never be more than
one wall between us—the one they erect. And, on the other
hand, we are with the multitudes of people who do not belong
to the churches. We are with ^those who do not and cannot
assent to creeds and ceremonies which have no truth or interest
for them, but who desire a fresh interpretation of the everlasting
gospel of Truth and Righteousness, of the Divine in Humanity,
of the Kingdom of God on Earth. We know, indeed, that
there are many outside the churches who do not care for this
gospel or any other; who are utterly indifferent to spiritual
growth and health, given over to sensual and wicked living.
We are with these, not to encourage them in their wrong but to
help them to the right; we are for them, to help and rescue
them, and we wish we could make them feel that if they have
any earnest desire to forsake evil courses, and to lead a better
life, they may find with us tender reception and sympathy,
encouragement and aid. Peace and Good Will to churched and
unchurched 1 these are in the principle of our organization. If
we Will live up to the principle we shall get religious union
embodied in our Church.
Is it a cold intellectualism, this religion we are undertaking to
organize? It means a piety so genuine that it can employ no
forms which are not the natural expression and furtherance of
its own spirit of devotion; it means a sympathy so deep and
tender that it will reach out after the lowly, though in order to
save them it must let go the hand and lose the company of the
high. It means devout aspiration, consecration, holiness of
heart and life; it means kindly feeling and helpful deed. It
means Love to God and to Man; it means “doing justly, and
loving mercy, and walking humbly with God;” it means “visit*
ing the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keeping one’s
self unspotted from the world.”
Is it not Christian ? Then so much the worse for Christianity,
For this is the divinest religion yet revealed to man. But we
�[7]
think it is the very sum and substance of the religion of Jesus of
glazareth, as it is also of the Hebrew Law and the Prophets.
Some may question the need of a church like ours, on the
ground that the free thought and the liberal opinions which are
recognized and entertained by us make their way of themselves,
without the aid of special organizations to promote them. There
would be force in this if free thought and liberal opinion were
the chief need of society, and the only or the main purpose of
our union. Society wants freedom of thought, will have it;
and does not ask any church to give it, having learned to get it
in spite of the Church and to regard the Church as an adversary
of it. But society needs also religious impulse and inspiration,
needs moral instruction and education, needs humane develop
ment. It is the office of a church to give these, but the churches
in general give them in connection with a creed and a discipline
which repel free-thinkers, liberal minds. Hence the need of a
church which will do its religious work without limiting freedom
of thought. And it is for the lack of such a church that many
people are outside of all religious and moral influence whatever,
and others, who will have these in some shape for themselves
and their children, feel their common sense, and their inalien
able right to liberty of thought, attacked Sunday after Sunday,
and see their children taught doctrines which will be a burden to
them in mature years. We are not undertaking to organize
freedom of thought; we believe that might do very well without
a church, might get along by itself, or by the agency of the
press, or by a system of lecturing. We are trying to organize
Religion, allowing freedom. We want to impart vigor to the
sense of the Divine in men; to educate the conscience, and to
stimulate the sentiment of humanity; and to dok it without
infringing in the least upon the natural and sacred rights of the
mind, and we feel that the need of doing this is great. There is
a demand for the religious pioneering which we propose to do.
People might get along somehow in the ways of the spirit, but
with stumbling and delay; we want to make the road easy and
inviting, to bring low the mountains and hills and to bring up
the valleys; “ to make straight in the desert a highway ” for
religious progress.
Some will tell us that we cannot succeed, that we cannot hold
together without a common profession, of belief, and distinctions
�[8]
between godly and ungodly among us. But jve think that a
union in the religious spirit will bind us more firmly than a
profession of faith, by as much as sympathy is more than agree
ment. There is no need of laying down a platform of theolog
ical opinion. A platform does not hold together the people who
are standing on it. What holds them together is the purpose
with which they stepped upon it. And as to distinction between
“ converted” and “ unconverted,” they are no more essential in
a religious society than the distinctions of noble and commoner,
patrician and plebeian, in civil society. Our forefathers were
told that their community would go to pieces because they left
out these things. But they thought not; they thought these
divisions were divisive, that partitions kept people apart, and
that the best hope of union was in having no upstairs and down
stairs, no parlor and kitchen, built into the national mansion,
but in living on the same floor and meeting in a common room.
Differences would come, no doubt; the less need of enforcing
them; better keep as clear of them as possible. Is there less
union, less strength of cohesion, in the United States than in
governments that recognize and sanction differences of rank and
quality ? Differences will exist in a church ; noble and villain ;
no criterion of professed religious experience will avail to
prevent them; the spiritual peerage is not pure in any of the
churches about us, and among those not admittted to it there
are many nobly born ; but a stronger union is probable where
no artificial division is wrought into the ecclesiastical constitu
tion.
Of course there is question of every experiment so long as
it is an experiment. Pioneering is work that calls for trust and
energy and endurance. The main question of our success is
whether we have it in us. There is going to be outward
growth enough in this city to ensure the stability of our organ
ization, if we can answer for its inward growth. We must
not be easily discouraged. We are trying to raise the religious
grade of this city, which some think is as low as the natural
level of the soil. We are a corporation to effect just that. We
want to to make healthful and clean and convenient the ways of
social and moral life for this community; to get rid of theo
logical sloughs, and to lift men out of the mud of sensuality.
It will cost us money and labor, and it will be hard to get all
♦
�[9]
we want of both, and it will take time. And to make a good
road we may have to be put to inconvenience, and the new way
for a while way seem not so pleasant as the old; and it may
have a bad odor, as of tar and asphaltum in the nostrils of some
of the community; and some of the work may be poorly done
and need to be done over again ; and those for whom we work
may be dissatisfied with our survey and our plans, and our
execution of them, and we rnay sometimes be dissatisfied
ourselves. But we are doing a good work and one which
the city will yet bless us for.
It is work we are put
into the world, into our generation, for.If we can realize
that, we shall do it cheerfully; shall not be surprised that
it grows upon us, but shall expect it to make more and
more demand upon us, and only desire that our ability and
our will may increase with our opportunities. We need some
thing more than belief in the ends we propose ; we need devo
tion to them; as in order to be a California Pioneei’ it was not
enough to believe in California, but to go there, and to go early.
If we are content to forget our own comfort and convenience
in consecration to the common good, we shall not be discour
aged, and we shall succeed.
When I say we are a pioneel’ church, I do not claim that we
are discoverers of any new or unknown country of the spirit.
We are merely taking possession of the region of religious
faith and humane work which has been heard of from the
earliest times, and where the great leaders of religion have al
ways pitched their tents. There may be truth which we have
not yet come up with even in our belief, to say nothing of our
practice. Let us always keep an open ear for that! But we
propose to camp on what seems to us the most advanced
ground; to settle down here into some sort of orderly living—to
become a religious community. There is a respectable number
of us already; we are not scattered so much as to be out of
hail of one another’s homes, and we want to make society. We
want to concentrate and organize our religious sentiment and
conviction, that they may be more efficient, may make better
way. And we invite and welcome the fellowship and assistance
of all, though we depend mainly on ourselves—on the Div ine
Spirit in us which leads into all Truth and Right if we only
follow.
��
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
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Title
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A pioneer church: a sermon preached in Pioneer Hall, February 7 1869
Creator
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Brown, H.W.
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: Sacramento
Collation: 9 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. By Rev. H.W. Brown, minister of the First Unitarian Church of Sacramento. Printed by request.
Publisher
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H.S. Crocker & Co.
Date
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1869
Identifier
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G5264
Subject
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Unitarianism
Sermons
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (A pioneer church: a sermon preached in Pioneer Hall, February 7 1869), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Unitarianism
-
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d4737e15aa5abde43c6919e023769afa
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Text
222
TALKS ABOUT LIFE.
JMar^B
TALKS ABOUT LIFE.
BY ROBERT COLLYER.
II.
REFERRING BACK.
WANT in this paper to tell what
one of my children used to call
“a truly story.”
It came to me one day when I went
on a pilgrimage to a huge old factory
in the valley of the Washburne, in
Yorkshire, in the summer of 1865. I
wandered about the place in a kind
of dream. The handful of people
left there then were at work among
the wheels and spindles, watching me
between whiles—for strangers seldom
come to that remote place, and I was
clearly a stranger; and then my dress
was not what they were used to/ espe
cially my American “wide-awake.”
They were as strange to me as I was
to them. There was not a face that I
knew — not one. And yet this was
where I was once as well known to
everybody as the child is to its own
mother, and where I knew everybody
as I knew my own kinsfolk. For it
was here that I began my life and
lived it for a space that now seems a
life-time all to itself. And that brings
me to my dream.
I saw, in one of the great dusty rooms
of the factory, a little fellow about
eight years old, but big enough to
pass for ten, working away from six
o’clock in the morning till eight at
night, —tired sometimes almost to
death, and then again not tired at
all, — rushing out when work was
over, and, if it was winter, home
to some treasure of a book. There
were “Robinson Crusoe,” and Bun
yan’s “Pilgrim,” and Goldsmith’s
Histories of England and of Rome,
the first volume of Sandford and Mer
ton, and one or two more that had
something to do with theology,—but
I
it must have been meat for strong
men, for not one of the brood of
children that read the stories, and
the Goldsmith that was just as good
as stories, would ever touch thes$
others after one or two trials.
One of these books that used to lead
all boys captive in those good old days,
this boy I saw in my dream would hug
up close to his bowl of porridge, and
eat and read; and then he would read
after he had done eating, while ever
the careful housemother would allow a
candle or a coal. But if it was sum
mer, the books would be neglected,
and the rush would be out into the
fields and lanes,—hunting in the early
summer for bird’s-nests that the tender
and holy home canon would never
permit to be robbed, and it was always
obeyed; or in the later summer, see
ing whether the sloes were turning
ever so little from green to black, or
whether the crabs — of the wood, not
the water—were vulnerable to a boy’s
sharp and resolute teeth, and when
the hazel-nuts would be out of that
milky state at which it would be of
any use to pluck them, and what was
the prospect for hips and haws.
The men who profess to know just
how we are made, as a watchmaker
knows a watch, tell us that once in
seven years we get a brand-new body
— that the old things pass away in
that time, and all things become new.
I wonder sometimes whether it is not
so with our life. Is not that new, as
well as the frame ? There I was that
day — a gray-haired minister from a
city that had been born and had come
to its great place since that small lad
began to work in the old mill, ag| I
�1870.]
TALKS ABOUT LIFE.
saw him at the end of a vista of four
jESlWiirty years.
I watched him with a most pathetic interest. “Dear little chap,” I
said, “ you had a hard time; but then
it was a good time, too,—wasn’t it,
now? How good bread-and-butter
did taste, to be sure, when half a
pound of butter a week had to be divided among eight of us, and the
white wheaten bread saved for SunKay ! Did ever a flower in this world
beside smell as good as the primrose,
or prima donna sing like the sky
lark and throstle? Money cannot
buy such a Christmas pudding, or
tears or prayers such a Christmas tide,
as the Mother made and the Lord
gave when you and the world were
young! Seven years you stuck to the
old mill — and then you were only
fifteen ; and then, just as they were
(frowning the Queen, you know you
had to give it up, and to give the home
up with it, to go out and never return
to stay. And so I lost you out of that
bad but blessed old life in and out of
the factory, and have never set eyes
on you until to-day,—you dear little
other me, that was dead and is alive
again, and was lost and is found! ”
That was how I came to think of
my story, and that I might tell it as
a word of encouragement to many
that may need such a word—about
that way of life which I have travelled
many miles, since I set out, not know
ing whither I went, to the pulpit and
pastorate of Unity Church.
But I cannot tell the story I want
to tell, if I let myself drift away
just here from that boy in the mill on
the Washburne, and say no more
about him. I like him well enough,
after all these years, to stay beside
him a little longer; and, besides that,
he had a good deal to do with the mak
ing of as much of a man as is now at
the other end of this pen.
I notice in Bunyan’s “Pilgrim,”
that all the characters that great
dreamer creates are so far hard
ened in the mould before he lets us
223
see them, that we feel all the time it
is a foregone conclusion. Obstinate,
Pliable, Ignorance, and the rest on
that side, are bound to come to grief;
while Christian, Hopeful, and Faith
ful, are sure to reach the Shining City,
no matter what may befall. Some
thing like this is true of our common
life. Before we begin to live to much
purpose either way, the things are
gathered and laid up that are to make
or mar us. We are not aware of it,
any more than the young birds, as
they flutter out of the nest to do for
themselves, are aware how they will
be sure to find out when to go north
or south, and how to build and line
their own nests, and where and what
to seek for their callow brood. But it
is all there. Nature has taken care
of that; and Nature and Providence
do together for the fledgling child
what Nature alone does for the bird.
I have heard that the nuns who teach
in convent schools say, “ Let us have
the Protestant child until it is seven
years old, and then we have no fear
for the future; it is sure to come at
last into the Church.” I imagine
that as a rule this is true; and usually
when Protestant parents pay for the
education of their children in those
schools, they pay for an item that is
not in the bill—their conversion to
Romanism. It has been noticed, too,
that when German children come here
from the Fatherland, and eagerly turn
to the English tongue, giving up their
native speech, it is no matter how
long they live in that habit, if the old
man who has not spoken a word of
German since he was a child loses
himself in his last moments, he then
goes back to that other self—the fellow
of the one I saw in the old mill—and
talks German again. So the poor old
knight, whose life as a man had been
one great gluttonous sin, forgot for a
moment on his death-bed his own
awful remorse and the blasting of his
hopes by the breath of the King, and
babbled of green fields where he had
wandered, no doubt, as an unfallen
�224
TALKS AB OUS' LIFE^
child, to gather kingcups and daisies,
and chase the rabbit to his burrow.
That grand and hearty Englishman,
Sydney Smith, used to laugh at ances
tral pride, and to say that the Smith
crest, with which all their letters were
sealed, was the Smith thumb. I can
not laugh with that lord of laughter
there. I would be glad to know that
I came of a great line, if it had been
God’s will.
About a year ago there was a para
graph in the papers, of a murder in
San Francisco, that I read, and read
again, with a wonderful interest.
Colonel Fairfax, so the papers said,
had been stabbed in the streets of .
that city, by some wretch, for a fancied
injury. The murdered man had
strength enough left to draw his re
volver and cover his • assassin, who
then begged abjectly for mercy; when
the dying victim said, quietly: “You
have killed me, and I can kill you;
but I spare you, villain and coward as
you are, for the sake of your wife and
little children.”
If I were not myself, I would love
to be the Fairfax that should succeed
that noble fellow, — not alone for that
splendid piece of chivhlry of which
there was never more need in this land
than there is now, the grace I mean
of forbearance unto death in the face
of the worst injury one man can in
flict on another; — not for that alone,
but because that man was the last of
a mighty line whose name was the
pride of all the boys of my compan
ionship, and whose great mansion
once nestled on the southern and
sunny side of the high land that gave1
us only its northern shoulder. We
were proud of that Fairfax line. It
had disappeared from the country
many a year before I was born; but
the tradition was strong still of the
great Sir Thomas, who fought with
Cromwell for the people against the
King. And we preserved one tradi
tion of him that has never appeared
in print; — how his arm was so long
that when he stood stretched to his
[March,
full height the palm of the hand
rested on the cap of the knee; andjn
some skirmish, also unrecordga^vh^n
our hero was met alone in one of our
narrow lanes by eight or ten of the
enemy, and it was one down and an
other come on, Sir Thomas, by favor
of his long arm and stout heart, cut
down about half the number, and thej
rest galloped away. That Fairfax was
a great figure in our juvenile Valhalla®
He was one of a line of noble men,
with a few exceptions, that had housed
itself there at Denton for many hunt
dreds of years. It saw good reason
finally for settling in Virginia, gave a
great friend to Washington, but not to
the infant Republic; and so came
down to that man murdered the other
day on the Pacific coast.
Pride in an ancestry like that, it
must be good to feel. I think thafe
man remembered he was a Fair®x*
and must not stain his name with
murder for murder, and that had
something to do with his noble fora
bearance. He must die like a Fair!
fax. Such persons bring with them
into the world a vast advantage over
the common run of us. Their organ
ism is like the organ of a great maker
— something unique for its sweetness^
or strength; and their soul, like a greal
organist, makes a music that is all his
own. I think we would all, please
God, belong to a line like that. It is
something still in our life, like the,
separate line of David, by which
should be born in the fulness of tifflfl
the greatest of all the figures in humdn
history.
But when that cannot be, what we
may all be glad and proud of is a line!
that is good as far as it goes. That is
the way I feel about that little man
who was to worry out of that factory I
somehow into a pulpit. The line!
began with the father and motherJ
There was a grandfather who fought
under Nelson and went overboard one
black night in a storm ; he was on the
father’s side. And then on the mother’s
side there was another sailor who went
�i87°-1
TALKS ABOUT LIFE.
down the sea in a ship that never came
up again. Then there were two
widows who fought the wolf while
they were able, and died presently of
the fight. Then, as the century was
Homing in, Yorkshire, with its great
mills, began to be to the South of En
gland what the West has been to the
Bast here in our day—the land of
promise to all who wanted to better
themselves. So a bright orphan lad
in London and a lass in Norwich
beard of it, and were caught by that
impulse to get out of the land of their
kindred which caught their son many
a year after and swept him over the
Atlantic; and I have no doubt, from
what I have heard them say, they
were after that quite of the mind of
the old ballad:
“York, York, for my monie;
Of all the places I ever did see
This is the best for good companie
Except the City of London.”
So what the boy saw when he began
to notice was a woman, tall and deep"chested, with shining flaxen hair and
laughing blue eyes, a damask rose
bloom on her cheek — as is the way
with the women of her nation; — a
laugh that was music, too, and a contagion of laughter you could not escape was at the heart of it; — a step
like a deer for lightness, and an activ
ity that could carry its possessor twenty
miles a day over the rough northern
hills, and land her safe home in the
[evening, no more tired than one
of our fashionable ladies in Chicago
Would be in going from cellar to garret
in their own house. Woman’s rights,
as a natural truth, must have come to
me by that mother. I believe, as I sit
and think of her wonderful genius for
doing whatever she took in hand, that
if she had been told to do it by her
sense of duty, and then the way had
opened, she would have led an army
like the old queens, or governed a
kingdom. What she did govern was
a houseful of great, growing, hungry,
outbreaking bairns,—keeping us all
well in hand, smiting all hinderance
225
out of our way, keeping us fed and
clad bravely, and paying for school,
as long as we could be spared to go,
out of the eighteen shillings a week
the quiet manful father made at his
anvil. The kindest heart that ever
beat in a man’s breast, I think,was his.
It stopped beating in a moment, one
hot July day; and before any hand
could touch him he was in “the rest
that remains.”
But in those brave old days, while
the first fifteen years were passing that
do so much for us all, there we were,
altogether, in one of the sweetest cot
tage homes that ever nestled under
green leaves in a green valley. There
was a plum tree and a rose tree and
wealth of ivy and a bit of greensward
outside; and inside, one room on the
floor and two above; a floor of flags
scoured white so that you might eat
your dinner on it and no harm be
done except to the floor; walls white
washed to look like driven snow, with
pictures of great Bible figures hung
where there was room, and in their
own places kept so bright as to be so
many dusky mirrors; the great ma
hogany chest of drawers and highcased clock; polished elm chairs, and
corner cupboard for the china that was
only got out at high festivals; a bright
open sea-coal fire always alight, winter
and summer; with all sorts of common
things for common use stowed snug
and tight in their own corners, like the
goods and chattels of Ed’ard Cuttie,
mariner. That was the home in the
day of small things; matched then
and still by ten thousand cottages in.
the good old shire, but never surpassed
there or anywhere, when you count
what was done and what there was
to do on.
This must be about all The West
Monthly will print in this num
ber, with wealth of better things at her
command; so I must stop now, and
leave the reader inside that cottage.
If I have a feeling that I have got to.
go on and make a clean breast of it,
ern
�226
LEGEND OF THE CASTLE OF NUREMBERG,
in some such way as Hugh Miller has
done in “ My Schools and Schoolmas
ters,” I shall have to linger about the
cottage I know not how long; for feel
ing, as I have said, how much is done
by the time the boyhood is over and
the youth begins — if such a distinction
can be made — I can see now how
[March,
many things must have been inti
mately at work beside that sweet, good
home, and what was there. Manners
and customs, traditions, stories, reli
gion, superstition, scene, and incident,
all had their place in the lad’s life, and
must have their place in the man’s
story — if it is ever told.
LEGEND OF THE CASTLE OF NUREMBERG.
{From the German. )
BY MRS. E. E. EVANS.
MONGST the many legends and suffered terribly from the ravages of
historical traditions attached to wolves, until, in desperation, the in
the old castle of Nuremberg, is a habitants assembled in force and
curious story of an event which took drove them out of their haunts, kill-,
place about the middle of the thir ing meantime as many as possible.
teenth century. The castle was at Those that escaped, to the number of
that time governed by Count Frederic several hundred, retreated to the moun
III. of Hohenzollern, who lived there tains, and from thence made frequent
in princely state with his wife, the descents upon the scattered farms in
Countess Elizabeth, and their six the valleys, so that scarcely a day
children. It was a happy family. The elapsed without some person having
wedded pair lovecj each other tenderly, been destroyed.
The most horrible event of this
and took pride in the strength and
bravery of their sons and the modest kind occurred three days before Mich
beauty of their daughters. Their re aelmas* In the forests of St. Sebald
tainers were faithful, the citizens of ’ and St. Lawrence (so named from the
the already famous city of Nuremberg two cathedrals of Nuremberg) lived a
held them in honor, the land was no class of peasants who made it their
longer disturbed by war, and through sole business to raise bees and collect
the vigilance and courage of the honey, which was in great demand,
Nurembergers the once dreaded inva as foreign sugars had not yet begun
sions of banded robbers had been to be imported. To such an extent was
the pursuit carried, that the great forest
brought to an end.
Thus peaceful and prosperous was tract was spoken of in the legal in
the existence of this noble family in struments of that period as “ the impe
the year 1264. At that period, John, rial bee-garden,” and the bee-farmers
the elder son, was eighteen and his were allowed to pay their government
brother Sigmund sixteen years old,. taxes in honey. For some reason, the
They were skilled in every knightly magistrate having charge of such
accomplishment, and had already won matters issued an order for the tax to
distinction by their exertions in cer be paid three days before Michaelmas,
tain fierce encounters with the rob instead of on the day itself, when it
would really become due; and in
bers.
In the autumn of that year the vil obedience to the command, a certain
lages in the vicinity of Nuremberg bee-farmer, living on the northern
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Talks about life
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Collyer, Robert
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [California]
Collation: 222-226 p. ; 24 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Publication information from KVK.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[s.n.]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
1870
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5737
Subject
The topic of the resource
Unitarianism
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br /><span>This work (Talks about life), identified by </span><span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk">Humanist Library and Archives</a></span><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Conway Tracts
-
https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/25778/archive/files/ca43854c747cb628c42688f0803e1eed.pdf?Expires=1776902400&Signature=lRI5xfy1QaYEoKk1sl6ihXfGqi9MpKXOxIQ7lt95wBBRiwd9TpPlG3cwP0xWVMwox-3Oj7IifqQ%7EGpD6BHQx7O%7EHoArn7WMFCbdzv-nuWllNuYHEN46rIrwARefQLytcP3Qm8sxhXbpk84GN6UX1p0nI5IfI3IqjBIPfUshVaHV2MgotVVOtx30vObALk2f5OdqwdcnUKJKUGVCZ%7EyGRzNP9o775qHGYQ1IHgvx1APsBQTCGKq765Apj1udfpaagPT2dnC9LBG8dHy9I63fZQJbjcskr3Onj3MJ7Pn3P4iYVGpvWShag60myPjk8DhpA5h5jVqaJwU9fOQ%7Exu3t0lA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM
f0afe30778a343ad77c78a180e25bdf6
PDF Text
Text
CONSEQUENCES.
BY
MONCURE. D. CONWAY, M.A.
“ The destroyer of all successes is ill-timed apprehension of danger. ”
Hitopadesa.
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS SCOTT,
NO. 11, THE TERRACE, FARQUHAR ROAD,
UPPER NORWOOD, LONDON, S.E.
Price Threepence.
��CONSEQUENCES.
N eminent writer has lately caused some agitation
by warning the country that there are certain
“ rocks ahead ” on the track of its present course. He
sees danger to the wealth, the greatness, and even the
stability of the nation in every direction. The rocks
concerning which he is most apprehensive are, first,
that the coal will give out, and with it all the manu
facturing and railway enterprises which make the com
mercial supremacy of England ; and secondly, that the
intelligence of the country is alienated from its religion,
which renders it certain that the masses of the people
will presently be also alienated from it; and since they
will be without the restraints of culture, the downfall
of creeds will involve the downfall of social and politi
cal institutions which have grown up along with the
creeds. It will require, he thinks, a culture and refined
thought, which the masses do not possess, to detach
the social organism from the dogmatic parasite which
has grown around it; and when the scepticism of the
educated has filtered down into them, they will make
a rude, indiscriminate sweep of good and evil alike.
It is not within the scope of this essay to consider
the particular “ rocks ahead ” pointed out by our
“ Cassandra.” I merely refer to his warnings as illus
trative of apprehensions felt by many in another direc
tion, namely, the effect of religious inquiry on human
happiness and character. And I do so because his
apprehensions appear to me to rest upon fallacies quite
A
�4
Consequences.
similar to those treacherous fears of the results of free
inquiry which I propose to consider. His main fallacy
is the fear that the same intelligence which has adapted
man to his present condition is to remain standing still
while everything else changes. Our coal mines, it may
be, are gradually to diminish, possibly to fail; but wifi,
that intellect which has invented steam engines, and
other machinery, lose its power of invention, and for
the first time show itself inadequate to meet emer
gencies as they arise ? Is the future to have all our
problems, and to be without brains of its own ? So
also in the case of the violent revolution apprehended,
when the masses share the scepticism of the educated.
Our prophet of evil forgets, apparently, that such a
change as that cannot be an isolated one. He forgets
that in the same length of time a thousand other
changes will also occur; that, for instance, the masses
must acquire some of the calmness and self-control of
the cultivated along with their scepticism; and, on the
other hand, that the social fabric will improve, that the
state will become nobler, and all classes possess too
much interest in both to handle rashly any real and
healthy institution.
This whole method of apprehension is treacherous.
When Jesus said, “ Sufficient unto the day is the evil
thereof; to-morrow will take care of to-morrow’s
affairs,” he uttered a thought as pregnant with philo
sophy as with faith. The plan of prognosticating prac
tical evil has now become a favourite method of trying
to intimidate free thought and free speech. This plan
has been carried to its extreme by the Bishop of Peter
borough, who lately said that he would not stop to
inquire whether the tidings of science were true or not;
he only asked whether they were glad tidings. Not
finding them glad tidings—and they certainly are not
promising for bishops — his lordship unhesitatingly
rejects them, irrespective of their truth or untruth.
This Bishop only caricatures a way of dealing with new
�Consequences.
5
truth which is being more plausibly used by many
others than by this bishop, who has so well merited
the thanks of scientific men by his naive utterance.
Most of us, whose memories run back towards the
beginning of this generation, must recognise a marked
change in the tone of orthodoxy towards rationalism.
In place of the old intolerance, we now find a tone of
apology, and meet with numbers of people who are
eager to persuade us that they are not so orthodox as
they seem. Again, we are as often appealed to to
exercise charity as we have had, in earlier times, to
appeal for it ourselves. It is to be hoped we shall all
cultivate that virtue, but heretics cannot shut their
eyes to the novelty of the situation. When cremation
was lately proposed, and was bitterly denounced by the
Catholic clergy in Belgium, a paper in that country
remarked that it was a pity the Church which so
opposed burning the bodies of the dead had not always
manifested an equal repugnance to burn the bodies
of the living ; similarly, it is an instance of the irony of
history that the religionists who so long ruled England
by reign of terror should now appeal for charity. Even
Protestantism, when it succeeded Romanism in power,
did not break its terrible weapons; it used them until
they became dull. Reduced at last to battle in an
Age of Reason, and to answer argument with argu
ment instead of with prisons and persecutions, it calls
for the toleration it so long denied. Very well, let
us have it,—charity for all! We may doubt whether
we should have heard so much about it had Supersti
tion continued as strong as of old,—but still the high
rule of reason is to speak the truth in love.
At the same time, long experience should make us
prudent. The more valuable a coin is the more dan
gerous is its counterfeit, and the more attractive a
virtue the more necessary is it that its garb shall not
be conceded to its opposite. Charity is due to every
sincere man, but not to proven error. If a man be in
�6
Consequences.
error, the more I love him the more will I hate the
falsity that misleads him. When the wolf pleaded for
compassion, the shepherd replied, “ Mercy to you were
cruelty to the lamb.” It is difficult to see how it can
be consistent with love to our fellow-beings that we
should be tender to the errors that afflict them, or the
superstition that devours them. Clemency becomes
cruelty when it parts from common sense.
All this is too plain to require argument. But of
late its force has been escaped by another plea. We
are now told that in the progress of the world the old
beliefs have lost their darker features. The old talons
of persecution have been pared away; fanaticism has
become unfashionable; hell has been spiritualised;
and creeds that once roused agony, fear, and consequent
intolerance are now softened into unrealised words or
mystical meanings. Superstitions may remain, but
they are now pretty superstitions, like a child’s belief
in fairies. And we are asked, Is it not unnecessary, nay
cruel, to take away such sweet illusions, when they are
so harmless ? A gentleman who takes his family to
church regularly, said to me, “ I know as well as any
one that the clergyman preaches fables, but I do not
care to worry my children by telling them so. When
I take them to the pantomime, I don’t tell them, All
that scenery is only daubed pasteboard, the fairy there
is merely a painted woman, and her jewels only glass,
bought for a penny. Whether at church or theatre I
prefer to humour their pleasant illusions, and let them
remain happy in them as long as they can.” It ap
peared to me strange that this gentleman should not
see the great difference between transient illusion and
permanent delusion. He humours the illusions of the
pantomime, because he knows very well that his child
will outgrow them. It would distress him very much
if he thought that, when his child grew to be twenty
years of age, it would still believe in the reality of
fairies. But, in encouraging the pulpit fables, he is
�Consequences.
7
fostering things that, from being the illusions of child
hood, harden into the delusions of the whole life.
Mr Tennyson has put this common notion into
rhyme, and his verses are the favourite quotation of the
school we are considering. They were recently offered
by the Athenaeum as a rebuke to Mr Morley for his
excellent work “ On Compromise,” and again by a
plausible writer in censure of the plain-speaking of
certain pulpits. The verses run thus :
“ 0 thou that after toil and storm
May’st seem to have reach’d a purer air,
Whose faith has centre everywhere,
Nor cares to fix itself to form,
Leave thou thy sister, when she prays,
Her early heaven, her happy views,
Nor thou with shadow’d hint confuse
A life that leads melodious days.”
These verses are nearly the only ones which the poet
and his friends might wish obliterated from his fair
pages, as representing (one must believe) his first
timorous and unsteady step on a path which we may
hope has since lead to heights that shame their faithless
fears. Passing their undertone of contempt for the
female intellect, of which the poet was probably uncon
scious, let us consider what our duty is to that praying
sister, or brother either, whose illusions we are called
upon to spare. If our sister is praying in earnest, if
doubt has not crept into her heart—we must not call it
her intellect, I suppose—then her faith does not merely
include
“ Her early heaven, her happy views,”
but also her early hell, and some most unhappy views.
If her prayer be not a mere attitude, she is probably
imploring an angry God not to send her children,
brothers, or friends into everlasting anguish and despair.
If that be her creed, she can hardly be leading such
melodious days that it should be cruel to hint that her
apprehensions may be unfounded.
�8
Consequences.
But the poet might remind us that he asks us to
leave her the pleasing side of her creed only—to
remove her fears, hut humour her hopes though they
be false. Our sister must be feeble indeed if this be
possible; her powers must be very weak if she does
not perceive that her Bible and her Prayer-book tell
her as much of God’s wrath as of his love, corre
late hell and heaven, and that she has no better
authority for her hopes than for her fears. But grant
ing that the process be possible, and that we find her
living in an atmosphere of rosy delusions, the question
arises, ought we to avoid disturbing them ? Do not
let us confuse that question with any other. It is not
whether we should obtrude our opinions on others, but
whether we should sanction their opinions when we
believe them false; it is not whether we should be
rude, but whether we should be sincere. One who
loves truth will not need exhortation to try and make
it attractive instead of repulsive. The danger is the
other way, that truth will be so smooth and polite as
not to be recognized for what it really is. The real
question is whether truth should be concealed and
suppressed out of consideration for any one’s pleasant
prejudices.
It is perfectly easy to show on general principles
that such tampering with truth is disloyal and more
dangerous than honest error itself. It is easy to show
that to suppress truth is to suggest falsehood; that it
is to foster a malarious atmosphere which brings forth
not only pretty superstitions but ugly ones, and leaves
the mind to be overgrown not only with gay weeds but
rank poisons; that where a pleasant fiction finds
shelter a dangerous error may nestle at its side; and
that if the great souls of history had smoothed over
falsehood because it was agreeable, and remained silent
before the pet prejudices of weak minds, we should all
be worshipping to-day the painted fetish dolls of the
world’s infancy.
�Consequences.
9
But I propose at present to look at the matter from
another and somewhat lower point of view. This
theory of suppression is not only immoral, hut rests
upon an essential delusion. That delusion is that
truth is hard, cold, unlovely, and that all the beauty
rests with the illusions. The prevalence of this notion
is easily explained. It is the natural tendency of an
existing dogmatic system, when it finds some of its
points coming into collision with common sentiment,
to smooth and explain them away, cover them with
velvet, so as to make itself as attractive as possible; and
one of the oldest tricks of dogmatic art is to paint the
opposing view in as dark colours as possible to make
itself more pleasing by the contrast. The early Chris
tians painted their own saints with beautiful tints on
church windows, but the saints of other religions they
painted as demons with terrible horns and flaming
eyes; and the descendants of those early Christians
have not lost their art. We know their skill in paint
ing the infidel on his death-bed surrounded with
horrors, the materialist given up to sensuality, the man
of science living in an Arctic sea of negation, perishing
without hope. It is no wonder that with these for
bidding pictures in the distance so many are frightened
back from the search for truth, and beg that the realm
of delusions may be spared.
But there is one suspicious circumstance about all
these pictures of the results of beliefs so invested with
horrors; they are depicted by those who have never
held those beliefs, who have no experience of their real
bearings, and who must therefore have drawn upon
their imagination for their facts. We do not hear the
actual materialists complaining that their belief is hope
less, nor the real heretic crying out that he is in icy
despair. They seem about as hearty and cheerful as
other people. In one of our popular dramas, a rigidly
righteous old lady is troubled because a certain blind
youth is constantly cheerful; regarding blindness as
�io
Consequences.
sent by an afflicting providence she shakes her head at
the young man’s happiness, and says that when tribu
lation is sent to us we ought to tribulate. This old
lady, who, never having been blind knew nothing of
its resources, seems to have written a good deal of
modern theology. I do not deny that there is a
certain naturalness about her inferences concerning
things she knows nothing about. When she appears
in the guise of a popular preacher or a doctor of
divinity, he sits down to consider what he would be
and do if he (otherwise, of course, retaining his present
views) were a materialist, or a sceptic, and how Paine
and Voltaire must have died—if they died logically.
But having never tried it, he is compelled to evolve
each result out of his inner consciousness. The image
so evolved must sooner or later be brought face to face
with the fact, and the contrast between the two is
sometimes astonishing. Let us review a few examples.
In former times, theologians could not (imagine that
any man could have an actual and conscientious dis
belief of their dogmas. They attributed all scepticism
to an evil heart, or to a desire to forget and hide the
truth lest it might check their evil propensities. This
being their premiss, it was but a natural inference that
all sceptics must be wicked men. Thus Thomas Paine
was branded as a drunkard—a pure fabrication—and
Voltaire stigmatised for immoralities of which he was
innocent. But there was another inference. These
men being only pretended unbelievers, it was but
natural that when the hour of death arrived, the dis
guise should fall, the truth come out, and the terrors
it was impossible really to disbelieve then come so
close that they would cry for mercy and die in the
agonies of remorse. To suit that theory, fictitious
scenes were invented for the deathbed of Paine, who
died most peacefully, and that of Voltaire, whose only
trouble in his closing hours was that the priests hung
about him like vultures.
�Consequences.
11
But that old theory broke down. The upright lives
of such men as Hume, and Herbert, and Bolingbroke,
and Franklin, and their peaceful deaths, reduced it to
absurdity. There has succeeded to it another, which
is, that unless a man believe in immortality, his life
must be selfish, and he must have an excessive horror
of death. While, on the other hand, the believer
in heaven sacrifices present for future happiness,
and dies with joyful hope. But this theory breaks
down under the facts just like the other. The scep
tical philosophers around us are apparently no more
selfish than other people. If they were devoted to
self, they would take care first of all not to express
their scepticism. There are eminent men of science
around us, disbelievers in Animism, whose abilities
might have made them bishops, but whose self-sacri
ficing devotion to what they believe true, causes them
to live in poverty, and under the denunciation of the
comfortable souls who find godliness to be great gain.
Nor do we find that heretics have any greater dread of
death than believers in a future life. The orthodox
man for whom the grave is a gate to Paradise, sends
for the doctor just as fast as the sceptic, and never
seems in any hurry to enjoy his future bliss. On the
other hand, no martyrs have ever marched more fear
lessly to death than the revolutionists of France and
Germany, who, in nine cases out of ten were unbe
lievers in any future life. The unbeliever in a future
life has not, indeed, much reason for the gloom com
monly ascribed to him. If he has lost expectation of
future joys, he has equally lost all apprehension of
future woes; and, so far as the natural desire for con
tinued existence is concerned, he knows that, if it is to
be, he will attain it just as much as any believer in it,
with the advantage that it will not have for a part of
it the torture of some of his friends.
Let us take another case,—the common idea of what
it is to be a fatalist or necessitarian. The believer in
�12
Consequences.
Free-Will sits down and evolves from his inner con
sciousness, the typical believer in necessity. As the
fatalist believes that what will be will be; that nothing
can be altered by the will of man; so, he must assuredly
be a man who sits passive and allows things to take
their own course. If he be a Calvinist, and believes
that God has predestined from before the foundation
of the world those who are to be saved and those who
are to be lost, he will not fail to give himself up to
sensual pleasures, knowing well that if he is one of the
elect, self-indulgence cannot harm him, and if not, he
will at least enjoy this life while it lasts. But when
our speculative believer in free-will comes to examine
the facts, he finds that the most active figures in his
tory have been those same believers in fate. They
are such men as the heroes of Greece; as Paul and
Mahomet; Luther, Calvin, and John Knox; as Crom
well and his soldiers ; as the Puritans who founded
the American Commonwealth ; men, aggressive, power
ful, irresistible, who have left their impress on the
world in epochs; men, too, who, instead of finding in
their election to divine favour, a reason for self-indul
gence, felt in it an inspiration to surrender their every
power to what they conceived to be the will of God.
As a final example, we have before us the ordinary
conception of a materialist. Very few people are com
petent to pursue those philosophical studies which
underlie the various conclusions called nominalism,
realism, intuitionalism, utilitarianism, idealism, material
ism. But the latter word has a familiar sound:
materialism is related to matter, and matter plainly
means the earth, and flesh and blood,.food and drink;
consequently a materialist must mean a gross, fleshly
character, a man who believes in nothing he cannot
bite, and, as opposed to the idealist, he must be a man
without ideas. This popular notion of a materialist
recalls the sad fate of one of our artists, who made a
sea-side picture, and among the common objects of the
�Consequences.
13
sea-side which, he painted on the sands was a blood-red
lobster. He had never seen a lobster, except as boiled
for the table, and he supposed it had the same colour
when washed up from the sea. He painted in accord
ance with his experience; and his surprising work so
added to his experience, that he is now, I believe, a
respectable merchant. And so the average orthodox
man bestows on the materialist his own experience of
matter, and boils him in the hot water of his theologic
consciousness very red. But when we come to consider
the materialists as they are, we find them quite the
reverse. It would be difficult—I might almost say
impossible—to find in the long list of eminent material
ists a single gross or sensual character. English
materialists have been known to us as men especially
consecrated to ideas. They have been such men as
Shelley, in whose poems of Mature Robert Browning
found a high correspondency with the divine; or
Robert Owen, and his fellow-socialists, giving up life
and fortune in the pursuit of an ideal society; and
such men are fairly followed to-day by the men of
science, and the positivists, and the secularists—men
of plain living and high thinking, almost ascetic in
their self-denial, and ever dreaming of higher education,
of co-operation, and of other schemes for the moral,
intellectual, or social advancement of mankind. Such
are the men for whom Christians in their palaces sigh,
deploring, amid their luxury, the gross materialism of
the times!
Now, let me not be misunderstood. The fact that
believers in these several doctrines have contradicted
by their lives and characters the d, priori theories
formed about them, does not prove their doctrines
true. The fact that Paine, when the American Con
gress voted him money for his writings, refused to take
it, poor as he was, but devoted it to the cause of liberty,
refutes the idea that an infidel must be selfish; but it
does not prove Paine’s belief to be true. Nor does the
�14
Consequences.
life of Paul prove the truth of predestination, nor that
of Shelley the truth of materialism. As little do such
facts show that there is no connection between intellec
tual convictions and practical life. What such facts do
show, is just this : that the implied method of dealing
with questions is treacherous. Truth is not to be
tested by anyone’s speculative apprehensions as to its
results. It is as if a painter should sit down at the
base of a hill he has never ascended to sketch the
landscape which he supposes to be seen from its
summit. The height may command out-looks he can
not imagine until he has climbed it. If the orthodox
believer really occupied the point of view reached by
the thinker seen only from his own, he might find
him surrounded by prospects, forces, influences, which
alter the case materially. Every liberal thinker’s ex
perience must confirm this. The free-thinker knows
well that it is the sign of an embryonic phase of in
quiry, to dread its consequences upon the character or
happiness of any man, woman, or child. It has not
brought gloom to himself, nor demoralization; he does
not find his life a discord in contrast with any
“melodious days” when he believed in a jealous God
and a yawning hell; he knows that truthfulness is the
sustaining thing, and the ardent pursuit of truth able
to fill heart and brain with enthusiasm and hope.
Why should he imagine that what has brought to
himself liberation and light should bring a shadow on
the life of his “ praying sister,” whom he can only re
gard as a victim on whom Superstition, like a ghoul, is
preying 1
The free inquirer will discover full soon that the
only “ saving faith ” is a perfect trust in truth, and
that the only real infidelity is the belief that a lie can
do better work than truth. He will take to heart
Montaigne’s advice, and fear only Fear. No alarms
about the consequences of the diffusion of truth can
shake his nerves or cause the balance to tremble in his
�Consequences.
15
hand. Truth has ever justified herself. She can look
back to fair results, to the noblest triumphs, and in
their light see the chains that bind all the lions on her
path. We pursue our inquiries, not without experience,
not in the infancy of the world, but amid the mighty
shades of heroic forerunners; amid a cloud of brave
witnesses, who knew that the children of Truth have
nothing to fear, living or dying ; whose fidelities have
built up the temples of Science and Civilization amid
the clamours of cowards; and they all cry shame on
the fears that would betray our reason and sap our
strength; they cry Onward ! to the heart that aban
dons the flesh-pots of falsehood, even for a wilder
ness where leads the pillar of truth—be it fire, be it
cloud.
TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS. EDINBURGH.
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Consequences
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Notes: Part of Morris Miscellaneous Tracts 4 and the NSS pamphlet collection. Publisher's list on unnumbered pages at the end. Tentative date of publication from British Library catalogue. Printed by Turnbull and Spears, Edinburgh.
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[1875?]
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Unitarianism
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Morris Tracts
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Unitarianism
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DELIVERED BEFORE THE
SUNDAY
LECTURE SOCIETY,
ST. GEORGE’S HALL, LANGHAM PLACE,
ON
SUNDAY AFTERNOON, 6th APRIL, 1879,
By H. MAUDSLEY, M.D.,
Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, University Colleye, London.
[Reprinted from the “ Fortnightly Review,” by kind permission of the
Editor.]
Honbon:
PUBLISHED BY THE SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY.
1879.'
PRICE THEEPENCE.
�SYLLABUS.
The doctrines of Materialism and Spiritualism.
Why Materialism is looked upon as inferior and degrading.
Every function of mind dependent upon organization.
Milton an avowed Materialist.
Materialism not inconsistent with the belief of a future life, but incon
sistent with the doctrine of a contempt of the body.
The human body the last and greatest product of organic development.
Differences of size and development between the brain of the lowest savage
and that of an ordinary European.
Corresponding differences of intellectual and moral capacities.
The reign of law in human evolution.
The reign of law in human degeneracy.
Morality the essential condition of complex social development.
Intellectual and moral lessons of Materialism.
�LESSONS OF MATERIALISM.
is well known that from an early period of speculative thought
two doctrines have been held with regard to the sort of
connection which exists between a man’s mind and his body. On
the one hand, there are those who maintain that mind is an
outcome and function of matter in a certain state of organization,
coming with it, growing with it, decaying with it, inseparable
from it: they are the so-called materialists. On the other hand,
there are those who hold that mind is an independent spiritual
essence which has entered into the body as its dwelling-place for
a time, which makes use of it as its mortal instrument, and which
will take on its independent life when the body, worn out by the
operation of natural decay, returns to the earth of which it is made:
they are the spiritualists. Without entering into a discussion as
to which is the true doctrfrie, it will be sufficient in this lecture to
accept, and proceed from the basis of, the generally admitted fact
that all the manifestations of mind which we have to do with in
this wprld are connected with organization, dependent upon it,
whether as cause or instrument; that they are never met with
apart from it any more than electricity or any other natural force
is met with apart from matter ; that higher organization must
go along with higher mental function. What is the state of things
in another world—whether the disembodied or celestially embodied
spirits of the countless myriads of the human race that have come
and gone through countless ages are now living higher lives—I do
not venture to inquire. One hope and one certitude in the matter
every one may be allowed to have and to express—the hope that
if they are living now, it is a higher life than they lived upon
earth ; the certitude that if they are living the higher life, most of
them must have had a vast deal to unlearn.
Many persons who readily admit in general terms the depend
ence of mental function on cerebral structure are inclined, when
brought to the particular test, to make an exception in favour of
the moral feeling or conscience. They are content to rest in the
uncertain position which satisfied Dr. Abercrombie, the dis
tinguished author of the well-known Inquiry concerning the In
tellectual Powers, who, having pointed out plainly the dependence
of mental function on organization, and, as a matter of fact which
t
I
�4
Lessons of Materialism.
cannot be denied, that there are individuals in whom every correct
feeling in regard to moral relations is obliterated, while the
judgment is unimpaired in all other relations, stops there, without
attempting to prosecute inquiry into the cause of‘ the remarkable
fact which he justly emphasises. “ That this power,” he says,
“ should so completely lose its sway, while reason remains un
impaired, is a point in the moral constitution of man which it does
not belong to the physician to investigate. The fact is unquestion
able ; the solution is to be sought in the records of eternal truth.”
And with this lame and somewhat melancholy conclusion he leaves
his readers impotent before a problem, which is not only of deep
scientific interest, but of momentous practical importance. The
observation which makes plain the fact does not, however,
leave us entirely without information concerning the cause of it,
when we pursue it faithfully, since it reveals as distinct a depen
dence of moral faculty upon organization as of any other faculty.
Many instructive examples of the pervading mental effects of
physical injury of the brain might be quoted, but two or three,
recently recorded, will suffice. An American medical man was
called one day to see a youth, aged eighteen, who had been struck
down insensible by the kick of a horse. There was a depressed
fracture of the skull a little above the left temple. The skull was
trephined, and the loose fragments of bone that pressed upon the
brain were removed, whereupon the patient came to his senses.
The doctor thought it a good opportunity to make an experiment,
as there was a hole in the skull through which he could easily
make pressure upon the brain. He asked the boy a question, and
before there was time to answer it he pressed firmly with his finger
upon the exposed brain. As long as the pressure was kept up the
boy was mute, but the instant it was removed he made a reply,
never suspecting that he had not answered at once. The experi
ment was repeated several times with precisely the same result,
the boy’s thoughts being stopped and started again on each
occasion as easily and certainly as the engineer stops and starts
his locomotive.
On another occasion the same doctor was called to see a groom
who had been kicked on the head by a mare called Dolly, and
whom he found quite insensible. There was a fracture of the
skull, with depression of bone at the upper part of the forehead.
As soon as the portion of bone which was pressing upon the brain
was removed the patient called out with great energy, “Whoa,
Dolly 1 ” and then stared about him in blank amazement, asking,
I
I
�Lessons of Materialism.
5
“Where am I?”
Three hours had
“Where is the mare?”
hw-8<-£fi passed since the accident, during which the words which he was
just going to utter when it happened had remained locked up, as
they might have been locked up in the phonograph, to be let go
it
mi' eiw the moment the obstructing pressure was removed. The patient
pa'bin did not remember, when he came to himself, that the mare had
kicked him ; the last thing before he was insensible which he did
ijjeirr^i remember was, that she wheeled her heels round and laid back her
:v OTBe ears viciously.
Cases of this kind show how entirely dependent every function
of mind is upon a sound state of the mechanism of the brain.
r/tewl Just as we can, by pressing firmly upon the sensory nerve of the
[ .nna arm, prevent an impression made upon the finger being carried to
the brain and felt there, so by pressing upon the brain we can as
rrirhe’i certainly stop a thought or a volition.
In both cases a good
tyri&w recovery presently followed the removal of the pressure upon the
rwfi<d brain; but it would be of no little medical interest to have the
after-histories of the persons, since it happens sometimes after a
>W0W<W serious injury to the head that, despite an immediate recovery,
h -v/ofc slow degenerative changes are set up in the brain months or years
jrwJtf: afterwards, which go on to cause a gradual weakening, and perhaps
LJtiIOV«| eventual destruction, of mind.
Now the instructive matter in this
case is that the moral character is usually impaired first, and some
■-asinrJ times is completely perverted, without a corresponding deterior
jtuoiM ation of the understanding; the person is a thoroughly changed
affl-Sflf) character for the worse. The injury has produced disorder in the
jKom most delicate part of the mental organization, that which is
iiusti-a® separated from actual contact with the skull only by the thin
ifewni investing membranes of the brain: and, once damaged, it is
miuied seldom that it is ever restored completely to its former state of
folium soundness. However, happy recoveries are now and then made
: .jGihoai from mental derangement caused by physical injury of the brain.
eiacb Some years ago a miner was sent to the Ayrshire District Asylum
F. ,ofi/w who, four years before, had been struck to the ground insensible
i 'li' vd by a mass of falling coal, which fractured his skull. He lay
miqqcw unconscious for four days after the accident, then came gradually
niiiloi to himself, and was able in four weeks to resume his work in the
F“ .fiq pit. But his wife noticed a steadily increasing change for the
fo&TOW worse in his character and habits ; whereas he had formerly been
idresiid cheerful, sociable, and good-natured, always kind and affectionate
•serf oJ to her and his children, he now became irritable, moody, surly,
mq&jja suspicious, shunning the company of his fellow-workmen, and
�6
Lessons of Materialism.
impatient with her and the children. This bad state increased;
he was often excited, used threats of violence to his wife and
others, finally became quite maniacal, attempted to kill them, had
a succession of epileptic fits, and was sent to the asylum as a
dangerous lunatic. There he showed himself extremely suspicious
and surly, entertained a fixed delusion that he was the victim of a
conspiracy on the part of his wife and others, and displayed bitter
and resentful feelings. At the place where the skull had been
fractured there was a well-marked depression of bone, and the
depressed portion was eventually removed by the trephine. From
that time an improvement took place in his disposition, his old self
coming gradually back; he became cheerful again, active and
obliging, regained and displayed all his former affection for his
wife and children, and was at last discharged recovered. No
plainer example could be wished to show the direct connection
of cause and effect—the great deterioration of moral character
produced by the physical injury of the supreme nerve-centres of
the brain: when the cause was taken away the effect went also.
Going a step further, let me point out that disease will some
times do as plain and positive damage to moral character as any
which direct injury of the brain will do. A fever has sometimes
deranged it as deeply as a blow on the head; a child’s conscience
has been clean effaced by a succession of epileptic convulsions, just
as the memory is sometimes effaced; and those who see much of
epilepsy know well the extreme but passing moral transformations,
which occur in connection with its seizures. The person may be
as unlike himself as possible when he is threatened with a fit;
although naturally cheerful, good-tempered, sociable and obliging,
he becomes irritable, surly, and morose, very suspicious, takes
offence at the most innocent remark or act, and is apt to resent
imaginary offences with great violence. The change might be
compared well with that which happens when a clear and cloudless
sky is overcast suddenly with dark and threatening thunder-clouds;
and just as the darkly clouded sky is cleared by the thunderstorm
which it portends, so the gloomy moral perturbation is discharged
and the mental atmosphere cleared by an epileptic fit or a succes
sion of such fits. In a few remarkable cases, however, the patient
does not come to himself immediately after the fit, but is left by it
in a peculiar state of quasi-somnambulism, during which he acts
like an automaton, doing strange, absurd, and sometimes even
criminal things, without knowing apparently at the time what he
is doing, and certainly without remembering in the least what he
�Lessons of Materialism.
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7
hag done when he comes to himself. Of excellent moral characterhabitually, he may turn thief in one of these states, or perpetrate
some other criminal offence by which he gets himself into trouble
with the police.
There are other diseases which, in like manner, play havoc with
moral feeling. Almost every sort of mental derangement begins
with a moral alienation, slight, perhaps, at the outset, but soon so
great that a prudent, temperate, chaste, and truthful person shall
be changed to exactly the opposite of what he was. This alienation
of character continues throughout the course of the disease, and
is frequently found to last for a while after all disorder of intelli
gence has gone. Indeed, the experienced physician never feels
confident that the recovery is stable and sure, until the person is
restored to his natural sentiments and affections. Thus it appears
that when mind undergoes decadence, the moral feeling is the first
to suffer ; the highest acquisition of mental evolution, it is the first
to witness to mental degeneracy. One form of mental disease,
known as general paralysis, is usually accompanied with a singu
larly complete paralysis of the moral sense from the outset; and a
not uncommon feature of it, very striking in some cases, is a
persistent tendency to steal, the person stealing in a weak-minded
manner what he has no particular need of, and makes no use of
when he has stolen it.
The victim of this fatal disease is
frequently sent to prison and treated as a common criminal in the
first instance, notwithstanding that a medical man who knows his
business might be able to say with entire certitude that the
supposed criminal was suffering from organic disease of the brain,
which had destroyed moral sense at the outset, which would go on
to destroy all the other faculties of his mind in succession, and
which in the end would destroy life itself. There is no question in
such case of moral guilt; it is not sin but disease that we are con
fronted with: and after the victim’s death we find the plainest
evidence of disease of brain which has gone along with the decay
of mind. Had the holiest saint in the calendar been afflicted as he
was, he could not have helped doing as he did.
I need not dwell any longer upon the morality-sapping effects of
particular diseases, but shall simply call to mind the profound
deterioration of moral sense and will which is produced by the
long-continued and excessive use of alcohol and opium. There is
nowhere a more miserable specimen of degradation of moral feeling
and of impotence of will, than the debauchee who has made
himself the abject slave of either of these pernicious excesses.
�8
Lessons of Materialism.
Insensible to the interests of his family, to his personal responsi
bilities, to the obligations of duty, he is utterly untruthful and
untrustworthy, and in the worst end there is not a meanness of
pretence or of conduct that he will not descend to, not a lie he will
not tell, in order to gain the means to gratify his overruling
craving. It is not merely that passion is strengthened and will
weakened by indulgence as a moral effect, but the alcohol or opium
which is absorbed into his blood is carried by it to the brain and
acts injuriously upon its tissues : the chemist will, indeed, extract
alcohol from the besotted brain of the worst drunkard, as he will
detect morphia in the secretions of a person who is taking large
doses of opium. Seldom, therefore, is it of the least use to
preach reformation to these people, until they have been restrained
forcibly from their besetting indulgence for a long enough period
to allow the brain to get rid of the poison, and its tissues to regain
a healthier tone. Too often it is of little use then ; the tissues
have been damaged beyond the possibility of complete restoration.
Moreover, observation has shown that the drink-craving is oftentihies hereditary, so that a taste for the poison is ingrained in the
tissues, and is quickly kindled by gratification into uncontrollable
desire.
Thus far it appears, then, that moral feeling may be impaired or
destroyed by direct injury of the brain, by the disorganizing action
of disease, and by the chemical action of certain substances which,
when taken in excess, are poisons to the nervous system. When
we look sincerely at the facts, we cannot help perceiving that it is
just as closely dependent upon organization as is the meanest
function of mind; that there is not an argument to prove the
so-called materialism of one part of mind which does not apply
with equal force to the whole mind. Seeing that we know
no more essentially what matter is than what mind is, being
unable in either case to go beyond the phenomena of which we
have experience, it is of interest to ask why the spiritualist
considers his theory to be of so much higher and intellectual and
moral order than materialism, and looks down with undisguised
pity and contempt on the latter as inferior, degrading, and even
dangerous ; why the materialist should be deemed guilty, not of
intellectual error only, but of something like moral guilt. His
philosophy has been lately denounced as a “ philosophy of dirt.”
An eminent prelate of the English Church, in an outburst of moral
indignation, once described him as possibly “ the most odious and
ridiculous being in all the multiform creation; ” and a recent writer
�. Lessons of Materialism.
9
in a French philosophical journal uses still stronger language of
abhorrance—“ I abhor them,” he says, “ with all the force of my
soul. ... I detest and abominate them from the bottom of
my heart, and I feel an invincible repugnance and horror when
they dare to reduce psychology and ethics to their bestial phy
siology—that is, in short, to make of man a brute, of the brute a
plant, of the plant a machine. . . . This school is a living
and crying negation of humanity.” The question is, what there is
in materialism to warrant the sincere feeling and earnest expression
of so great a horror of it. Is the abhorrence well founded, or is
it, perhaps, that the doctrine is hated, as the individual oftentimes
is, because misunderstood ?
This must certainly be allowed to be a fair inquiry by those who
reflect that no less eminent a person and good a Christian than
Milton was a decided materialist. Several scattered passages in
Paradise Lost plainly betray his opinions ; but it is not necessary
to lay any stress upon them, because in his Treatise on Christian
Doctrine he sets them forth in the most plain and uncompromising
way, and supports them "with an elaborate detail of argument. He
is particularly earnest to prove that the common doctrine that the
spirit of man should be separate from the body, so as to have a
perfect and intelligent existence independently of it, is nowhere
said in Scripture, and is at variance both with nature and reason ;
and he declares that “ man is a living being, intrinsically and
properly one and individual, not compound and separable, not,
according to the common opinion, made up and framed of two
distinct parts, as of soul and body.” Another illustrious instance
of a good Christian who, for a great part of his life, avowed his
belief that “ the nature of man is simple and uniform, and that the
thinking power and faculties are the result of a certain organization
of matter,” was the eloquent preacher and writer, Robert Hall.
It is true that he abandoned this opinion at a later period of his
life; indeed, his biographer tells us with much satisfaction that
“ he buried materialism in his father’s grave ; ” and a theological
professor in American college has in a recent article exultantly
claimed this fact as triumphant proof that the materialist’s “ gloomy
and unnatural creed ” cannot stand before such a sad feeling as
grief at a father’s death. One may be excused, perhaps, for not
seeing quite so clearly as these gentlemen the soundness of the
logic of the connection. On the whole, logic is usually sounder
and stronger when it is not under the pressure of great feeling.
The truth is that a great many people have the deeply-rooted
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feeling that materialism is destructive of the hope of immortality,
and dread and detest it for that reason. When they watch the
body decay and die, considering furthermore that after its death it
is surely resolved into the simple elements from which all matter is
formed, and know that these released elements go in turn to build
up other bodies, so that the material is used over and over again,
being compounded and decompounded incessantly in the long
stream of life, they cannot realise the possibility of a resurrection
of the individual body. They cannot conceive how matter which
has thus been used over and over again can remake so many
distinct bodies, and they think that to uphold a bodily resurrection
is to give up practically the doctrine of a future life. It is a
natural, but not a necessary conclusion, as the examples of Milton
and Robert Hall prove, since they, though materialists, were
devout believers in a resurrection of the dead. Moreover, there
are many vehement antagonists of materialism who readily admit
that it is not inconsistent with the belief in a life after death.
Indeed, they could not well do otherwise, when they recollect
what the Apostle Paul said in his very energetic way, addressing
the objector to a bodily resurrection as “ Thou fool,” and what
happened to the rich man who died and was buried; for it is told
of him that “ in hell he lifted up his eyes, and cried and said,
Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he
may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I
am tormented in this flame.” Now if he had eyes to lift up and a
tongue to be cooled, it is plain that he had a body of some kind in
hell; and if Lazarus, who was in another place, had a finger to dip
in water, he also must have had a body of some kind there.
Leaving this matter, however, without attempting to explain the
mystery of the body celestial, I go on to mention a second reason
why materialism is considered to be bad doctrine. It is this : that
with the rise and growth of Christianity there came in the fashion
of looking down on the body with contempt as the vile and
despicable part of man, the seat of those fleshly lusts which warred
against the higher aspirations of the soul. It was held to be the
favourite province of the devil, who, having intrenched himself
there, lay in wait to entice or to betray to sin ; the wiles of Satan
and the lusts of the flesh were spoken of in the same breath, as in
the service of the English Church prayer is made for “ whatsoever
has been decayed by the fraud and malice of the devil, or by his
own carnal will and frailness ; ” and all men are taught to look
forward to the time when “ he shall change this vile body and make
�Lessons of Materialism.
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it like unto his glorious body.” It was the extreme but logical
outcome of this manner of despising the body to subject it to all
the penances, and to treat it with all the rigour, of the most rigid
asceticism—to neglect it, to starve it, to scourge it, to mortify it in
every possible way. One holy ascetic would never wash himself,
or cut his toe-nails, or wipe his nose; another suffered maggots
to burrow unchecked into the neglected ulcers of his emaciated
body; others, like St. Francis, stripped themselves naked and
appeared in public without clothes. St. Macarius threw away his
clothes and remained naked for six months in a marsh, exposed to
the bite of every insect; St. Simeon Stylites spent thirty years on
the top of a column which had been gradually raised to a height of
sixty feet, passing a great part of his time in bending his
meagre body successively with his head towards his feet, and so
industriously that a curious spectator, after counting one thousand
two hundred and forty-four repetitions, desisted counting from
weariness. And for these things—these insanities of conduct may
we not call them—they were accounted most holy, and received
the honours of saintship.' Contrast this unworthy view of the
body with that which the ancient Greeks took of it. They found
no other object in nature which satisfied so well their sensejof
proportion and manly strength, of attractive grace and beauty; and
their reproductions of it in marble we preserve now as priceless
treasures of art, albeit we still babble the despicable doctrine of
contempt of it. The more strange, since it is a matter of sober
scientific truth that the human body is the highest and most
wonderful work in nature, the last and best achievement of her
creative skill; it is a most complex and admirably constructed
organism, “ fearfully and wonderfully made,” which contains, as it
were in a microcosm, all the ingenuity and harmony and beauty
of the macrocosm. And it is this supreme product of evolution
that fanatics have gained the honour of saintship by disfiguring
and torturing!
These, then, are two great reasons of the repugnance which is
felt to materialism, namely, the notion that it is destructive of the
hope of a resurrection, and the contempt of the body which has
been inculcated as a religious duty. And yet on these very points
materialism seems fitted to teach the spiritualist lessons of humility
and reverence, for it teaches him, in the first place, not to despise
and call unclean the last and best work of his Creator’s hand; and,.
secondly, not impiously to circumscribe supernatural power by the
narrow limits of his understanding, but to bethink himself that it
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Lessons of Materialism.
were just as easy in the beginning, or now, or at any time, for the
omnipotent Creator of matter and its properties to make it think
as to make mind think.
Passing from these incidental lessons of humility and reverence,
I go now to show that materialism has it moral lessons, and that
these, rightly apprehended, are not at all of a low intellectual and
moral order, but, on the contrary, in some respects more elevating
than the moral lessons of spiritualism. I shall content myself
with two or three of these lessons, not because there are not more
of them, but because they will be enough to occupy the time at my
disposal.
It is a pretty well accepted scientific doctrine that our fardistant prehistoric ancestors were a very much lower order of
beings than we are, even if they did not inherit directly from the
monkey; that they were very much like, in conformation, habits,
intelligence, and moral feeling, the lowest existing savages ; and
that we have risen to our present level of being by a slow process
of evolution which has been going on gradually through untold
generations. Whether or not “ through the ages one increasing
purpose runs,” as the poet has it, it is certainly true that “ the
.thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.” Now
when we examine the brain of the lowest savage, whom we need
not be too proud to look upon as our ancestor in the flesh—say a
native Australian or a Bushman—we find it to be considerably
smaller than an ordinary European brain ; its convolutions, which
are the highest nerve-centres of mind, are decidedly fewer in
number, more simple in character, and more symmetrical in
arrangement. These are marks of inferiority, for in those things
in which it differs from the ordinary European brain it gets nearer
in structure to the still much inferior brain of the monkey; it
represents, we may say, a stage of development in the long dis
tance which has been traversed between the two. A comparison
of the relative brain-weights will give a rude notion of the
differences : the brain-weight of an average European male is
49 oz.; that of a Bushman is, I believe, about 33 oz.; and that of
a Negro, who comes between them in brain-size, as in intelligence,
is 44 oz. The small brain-weight of the Bushman is indeed
equaled among civilised nations by that of a small-headed or socalled microcephalic idiot. There can be no doubt, then, of a
great difference of development between the highest and the lowest
existing human brain.
There can be no doubt, furthermore, that the gross differences
�Lessons of Materialism.
13
which there are between the size and development of the brain of
a low savage and of an average European, go along with as great
differences of intellectual and moral capacities—that lower mental
function answers to lower cerebral structure. It is a well-known
fact that many savages cannot count beyond five, and that they
have no words in their vocabulary for the higher qualities of
human nature, such as virtue, justice, humanity, and their
opposites, vice, injustice, and cruelty, or for the more abstract
ideas. The native Australian, for example, who is in this case,
having no words for justice, love, mercy, and the like, would not
in the least know what remorse meant; if any one showed it in
his presence, he would think probably that he had got a bad
bellyache. He has no words to express the higher sentiments and
thoughts because he has never felt and thought them, and has
never had, therefore, the need to express them ; he has not in his
inferior brain the nervous substrata which should minister to such
sentiments and thoughts, and cannot have them in his present
state of social evolution, any more than he could make a particular
movement of his body if the proper muscles were wanting. Nor
could any amount of training in the world, we may be sure, ever
make him equal in this respect to the average European, any more
than it could add substance to the brain of a small-headed idiot
and raise it to the ordinary level. Were any one, indeed, to make
the experiment of taking the young child of an Australian savage
and of bringing it up side by side with an average European child,
taking great pains to give them exactly the same education in
every respect, he would certainly have widely different results in
the end: in the one case he would have to do with a well-organized
instrument, ready to give out good intellectual notes and a fine
harmony of moral feeling when properly handled; in the other
case, an imperfectly organized instrument, from which it would be
out of the power of the most patient and skilful touch to elicit more
than a few feeble intellectual notes and a very rude and primitive
sort of moral feeling. A little better feeling, certainly, than that
of its fathers, but still most primitive ; for many savages regard as
virtues most of the big vices and crimes, such as theft, rape,
murder, at any rate when they are practised at the expense of
neighbouring tribes. Their moral feeling, such as it is, is extremely
circumscribed, being limited in application to the tribe. In Europe
we have happily got further than that, since we are not, as savages
are and our forefathers probably were, divided into a multitude of
tribes eager to injure and even extirpate one another from motives
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Lessons of Materialism.
of tribal patriotism; but mankind seems to be far off the goal of
its high calling so long as, divided into jealous and hostile nations,
it suffers national divisions to limit the application of moral feeling,
counts it a high virtue to violate it under the profaned name of
patriotism, and uses the words “ humanitarianism ” and cosmo
politanism ” as crushing names of reproach. There is plainly room
yet for a wider expansion of moral feeling.
Now what do the discoveries of science warrant us to conclude
respecting the larger and more complex brain of the civilised man
and its higher capacities of thought and feeling ? They teach us
this : that it has reached its higher level not by any sudden and
big creative act, nor by a succession of small creative acts, but by
the slow and gradual operation of processes of natural evolution
going on through countless ages. Each new insight into natural
phenomena on the part of man, each act of wiser doing founded
on truer insight, each bettered feeling which has been developed
from wiser conduct, has tended to determine by degrees a corre
sponding structual change of the brain, which has been transmitted
as an innate endowment to succeeding generations, just as the
acquired habit of a parent animal becomes sometimes the instinct
of its offspring; and the accumulated results of these slow and
minute gains, transmitted by hereditary action, have culminated in
the higher cerebral organization, in which they are now, as it
were, capitalised. Thus the added structure embodies in itself the
superior intellectual and moral capacities of abstract reasoning and
moral feeling which have been the slow acquisitions of the ages,
and it gives them out again in its functions when it discharges its
functions rightly. If we were to have a person born in this
country with a brain of no higher development than that of the
low savage—destitute, that is, of the higher nervous substrata of
thought and feeling—if, in fact, our far remote prehistoric ancestor
were to come to life among us now—we should have more or
less of an imbecile, who could not compete on equal terms with
other persons, but must perish, unless charitably cared for, just as
the native Australian perishes when he comes into contact and
competition with the white man. The only way in which the
native Australian could be raised to the level of civilised feeling
and thought would be by cultivation continued through many
generations—by a process of evolution similar to that which lies
back between our savage ancestors and us.
That is one aspect of the operation of natural law in human
events—the operation of the law of heredity in development, in
�Lessons oj Materialism.
15
carrying mankind forward, that is, to a higher level of being. It
teaches us plainly enough that the highest qualities of mind bear
witness to the reign of law in nature as certainly as do the lowest
properties of matter, and that if we are to go on progressing in
time to come it must be by observation of, and obedience to, the
laws of development. But there is another vastly important
aspect of the law of heredity which it concerns us to bear sincerely
in mind—its operation in working out human degeneracy, in
carrying mankind downwards, that is, to a lower level of being.
It is certain that man may degenerate as well as develop; that he
has been doing so both as nation and individual ever since we have
records of his doings on earth. There is a broad and easy way of
dissolution, national, social, or individual, which is the opposite of
the steep and narrow way of evolution. Now what it behoves us
to realise distinctly is that there is not anything more miraculous
about the degeneracy and extinction of a nation or of a family
than there is about its rise and development; that both are the
work of natural law. A nation does not sink into decadence, I
presume, so long as it keeps fresh those virtues of character
through which it became great among nations ; it is when it suffers
them to be eaten away by luxury, corruption, and other enervating
vices, that it undergoes that degeneration of character which
prepares and makes easy its over-throw. In like manner a family,
reckless of the laws of physical and moral hygiene, may go through
a process of degeneracy until it becomes extinct. It was no mere
dream of prophetic frenzy that when the fathers have eaten
sour grapes, the children’s teeth are set on edge, nor was it a
meaningless menace that the sins of the fathers shall be visited
upon the children unto the third and fourth generations; it was
an actual insight into the natural law by which degeneracy increases
through generations—by which one generation reaps the wrong
which its fathers have sown, as its children in turn will reap the
wrong which it has sown. What we call insanity or mental
derangement is truly, in most cases, a form of human degeneracy,
a phase in the working out of it; and if we were to suffer this
degeneracy to take it course unchecked through generations, the
natural termination would be sterile idiocy and extinction of the
family. A curious despot would find it impossible, were he to
make the experiment, to breed and propagate a race of insane
people; nature, unwilling to continue a morbid variety of the
human kind, would bring his experiment to an end by the
production of sterile idiocy. If man will but make himself the
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Lessons of Materialism.
subject of serious scientific study, he shall find that this working
out of degeneracy through generations affords him a rational
explanation of most of those evil impulses of the heart which he
has been content to attribute to the wiles and instigations of the
devil; that the evil spirit which has taken possession of the
wicked man is often the legacy of parental or ancestral error,
misfortune, or wrong-doing. It will be made plain to him that
insanity, idiocy, and every other form of human degeneracy is not
casualty, but defect which comes by cause ; that it is just as much
the definite consequent of definite antecedents as any other event
in nature; and that these antecedents many times are within human
controul, being the palpable outcome of ignorance or of neglect of
the laws of moral and physical hygiene. Let me illustrate by an
example the nature and bearing of this scientific study.
I will take for this purpose a case which every physician who
has had much experience must have been asked some time or
other to consider and advise about: a quite young child, which is
causing its parents alarm and distress by the precocious display
of vicious desires and tendencies of all sorts, that are quite out of
keeping with its tender years, and by the utter failure of either
precept, or example, or punishment to imbue it with good feeling
and with the desire to do right. It may not be notably deficient
in intelligence; on the contrary, it may be capable of learning
quickly when it likes, and extremely cunning in lying, in stealing,
in gratifying other perverse inclinations; and it cannot be said
not to know right from wrong, since it invariably eschews the
right and chooses the wrong, showing an amazing acuteness in
escaping detection and the punishment which follows detection.
It is, in truth, congenitally conscienceless, by nature destitute of
moral sense and actively imbued with an immoral sense. Now
this unfortunate creature is of so tender an age that the theory of
Satanic agency is not thought to offer an adequate explanation of
its evil impulses ; in the end everybody who has to do with it feels
that it is not responsible for its vicious conduct, perceives that
punishment does not and cannot in the least reform it, and is
persuaded that there is some native defect of mind which renders
it a proper case for medical advice. Where, then, is the fault that
a human being is born into the world who will go wrong, nay, who
must go wrong, in virtue of a bad organization ? The fault lies
somewhere in its hereditary antecedents. We can seldom find
the exact cause and trace definitely the mode of its operation—the
study is much too complex and difficult for such exactness at
�Lessons of Materialism.
17
present—but we shall not fail to discover the broad fact of the
frequency of insanity or other mental degeneracy in the direct line
of the child’s inheritance. The experienced physician seldom feels
any doubt of that when he meets with a case of the kind. It is
indeed most certain that men are not bred well or ill by accident
any more than the animals are; but while most persons are ready
to acknowledge this fact in a general way, very few pursue the
admission to its exact and 'rigorous consequences, and fewer still
suffer it to influence their conduct.
It may be set down, then, as a fact of observation that mental
degeneracy in one generation is sometimes the evident cause of an
innate deficiency or absence of moral sense in the next generation.
The child bears the burden of its ancestral infirmities or wrong
doings. Here then and in this relation may be noted the in
structive fact, that just as moral feeling was the first function to
be affected at the beginning of mental derangement in the
individual, so now the defect or absence of it is seen to mark the
way of degeneracy through generations. It was the latest
acquisition of mental evolution; it is the first to go in mental
dissolution.
A second fact of observation may be set down as worthy of con
sideration, if not of immediate acceptation, namely, that an absence
of moral feeling in one generation, as shown by a mean, selfish,
and persistent disregard of moral action in the conduct of life, may
be the cause of mental derangement in the next generation. In
fact, a person may succeed in manufacturing insanity in his
progeny by a persistent disuse of moral feeling, and a persistent
exercise, throughout his life, of those selfish, mean, and anti-social
tendencies which are a negation of the highest moral relations of
mankind. He does not ever exercise the nervous substrata which
minister to moral functions, wherefore they undergo atrophy in
him, and he runs the risk of transmitting them to his progeny in
so imperfect a state, that they are incapable of full development of
function in them ; just as the instinct of the animal which is not
exercised for many generations on account of changed conditions
of life, becomes less distinct by degrees and in the end, perhaps,
extinct. People are apt to talk as if they believed that insanity
might be got rid of were only sufficient care taken to prevent its
direct propagation by the marriages of those who had suffered it
or were like to do so. A vain imagination assuredly I Were all the
insanity in the world at the present time clean sweptaway to-morrow,
men would breed it afresh before to-morrow’s to-morrow by their
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errors, their excesses, their wrong-doings of all sorts. Rightly,
then, may the scientific inquirer echo the words of the preacher,
that however prosperous a man may have seemed in his life, judge
him not blessed before his death: for he shall be known in his
children: they shall not have the confidence of their good descent.
In sober truth, the lessons of morality which were proclaimed by
the prophets of old, as indispensable to the stability and well-being
of families and nations, were not mere visions of vague fancy;
founded upon actual observation and intuition of the laws of
nature working in human events, they were insights into the
eternal truths of human evolution.
Whether, then, man goes upwards or downwards, undergoes
development or degeneration, we have equally to do with matters
of stern law. Provision has been made for both ways ; it has been
left to him to find out and determine which way he shall take. And
it is plain that he must find the right path of evolution, and avoid the
wrong path of degeneracy, by observation and experience, pursuing
the same method of positive inquiry which has served him so well
in the different sciences. Being pre-eminently and essentially a
social being, each one the member of one body—the unit, that is,
in a social organism—the laws which he has to observe and obey
are not the physical laws of nature only, but also those higher laws
which govern the relations of individuals in the social state. If
he make his observations sincerely and adequately in this way, he
cannot fail to perceive that the laws of morality were not really
miraculous revelations from heaven any more than was the
discovery of the law of gravitation, but that they were the essential
conditions of social evolution, and were learned practically by the
stern lessons of experience. He has learnt his duty to his
neighbour as he has learnt his duty to nature; it is implicit in
the constitution of a complex society of men dwelling together in
peace and unity, and has been revealed explicitly by the intuition
of a few extraordinary men of sublime moral genius.
As it is not a true, it cannot be a useful, notion to foster, that
morality was the special gift to man, or is the special property, of
any theological system, and that its vitality is in the least bound
up with the life of any such creed. Whether men believed in
Heaven and Hell or not, in Jupiter or in Jehovah, in Buddha or in
Jesus, they could not fail to find out that some obedience to moral
law is essential to social evolution. The golden rule of morals
itself—“ Do unto others as ye would have others do unto you”—
was perceived and proclaimed long before it received its highest
�Lessons of Materialism.
19
Christian expression.* We ought to be just and to confess
the truth: there were good Christians in the world before
Christ. It is not, indeed, religious creed which has invented
and been the basis of morality, but morality which has been the
bulwark of religions. And as a matter of fact it is too true that
morality has suffered many times not a little from its connection
with theological creeds ; I that its truths have been laid hands on
and used to support demoralising super sitions which were no part
of it; that doctrines essentially immoral have been even taught in
the name of religion; and that religious systems in their struggles
to establish their supremacy have oftentimes shown small respect
to the claims of morality. Had religion been true to its nature and
function, had it been as wide as morality and humanity, it should have
been the bond of unity to hold mankind together in one brother
hood, linking them in good feeling, good-will, and good work
towards one another; but it has in reality been that which has most
divided men, and the cause of more hatreds, more disorders, more
persecutions, more bloodshed, more cruelties than most other
causes put together. In order to maintain peace and order, there
fore, the State in modern times has been compelled to hold itself
practically aloof from religion, and to leave to each hostile sect
liberty to do as it likes so long as it meddles not by its tenets and
ceremonials with the interests of civil government. That is the
present outcome of a religion of peace on earth and goodwill
among men 1 On the whole it may be thought to be fortunate for
the interests of morality that it is not bound up essentially with
any form of religious creed, but that it survives when creeds die,
having its more secure foundations in the hard-won experience of
mankind.
The inquiry which, taking a sincere survey of the facts, finds
the basis and sanction of morality in experience, by no means
* There appears to be no doubt that Confucius, among others, has the
clearest apprehension of it and expressly taught it; and the Buddhist
religion of perfectron is certainly founded upon self-conquest and self
sacrifice. They are its very corner-stone: the purification of the mind
from unholy desires and passions, and a devotion to the good of others,
which rises to an enthusiasm for humanity, in order to escape from the
miseries of this life and to attain to a perfect moral repose. “ Let all the
sins that have been committed fall upon me, in order that the world may
be delivered,” Buddha says. And of the son or disciple of Buddha it is
said, “ When reviled he revileth not again; when smitten he bears the
blow without resentment; when treated with anger and passion he returns
love and good-will; when threatened with death he bears no malice.”
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Lessons of Materialism.
arrives in the end at easy lessons of self-indulgence for the
individual and the race, but, on the contrary, at the hardest
lessons of self-renunciation. Disclosing to man the stern and
uniform reign of law in nature, even in the evolution and
degeneracy of his own nature, it takes from him the comfortable
but demoralising doctrine that he or others can escape the penalty
of his ignorance, error, or wrong-doings either by penitence or
prayer, and holds him to the strictest account for them. Dis
carding the notion that the observed uniformity of nature is but a
uniformity of sequence at will which may be interrupted whenever
its interruption is earnestly enough asked for—a notion which,
were it more than lip-doctrine, must necessarily deprive him of his
most urgent motive to study patiently the laws of nature in order
to conform to them—it enforces a stern feeling of responsibility
to search out painfully the right path of obedience and to follow it,
inexorably laying upon man the responsibility of the future of his
race. If it be most certain, as it is, that all disobedience of natural
law, whether physical or moral, is avenged inexorably in its conse
quences on earth, either upon the individual himself, or more often,
perhaps, upon others—that the violated law cannot be bribed to
stay its arm by burnt-offerings nor placated by prayers—it is a
harmful doctrine, as tending directly to undermine understanding
and to weaken will, to teach that either prayer or sacrifice will
obviate the consequences of want of foresight or want of self
discipline, or that reliance on supernatural aid will make amends
for lack of intelligent will. We still pray half-heartedly in our
churches, as our forefathers prayed with their whole hearts, when
we are afflicted with a plague or pestilence, that God will “ accept
of an atonement and command the destroying angel to cease from
punishing; ” and when we are suffering from too much rain we
ask him to send fine weather “ although we for our iniquities have
worthily deserved a plague of rain and water.” Is there a person
of sincere understanding who, uttering that prayer, now believes
it in his heart to be the successful way to stay a fever, plague, or
pestilence ? He knows well that, if it is to be answered, he must
clean away dirt, purify drains, disinfect houses, and put in force
those other sanitary measures which experience has proved to be
efficacious, and that the aid vouchsafed to the prayer will only be
given when, these being by themselves successful, the prayer is
superfluous. Had men gone on believing, as they once believed,
that prayer would stay disease, they would never have learned and
adopted sanitary measures, any more than the savage of Africa,
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21
■who prays to his fetish to cure disease, does now. To get rid of
the notion of supernatural interposition was the essential condition
of true knowledge and self-help in that matter.
. Looking at the matter in the light of scientific knowledge, it is
•hard to see how any one can think otherwise. However, one may
•easily overrate the depth to which such knowledge goes in the
general mind: at best it is but a thin surface-dressing. Only a
few days ago, on opening a book at random, I hit on the following
extract from a sermon on the Miracles of Prayer, by a well-known
clergyman :—
“ But we have prayed, and not been heard, at least in the present visita
tion. Have we deserved to be heard? In former visitations it was
observed commonly how the cholera lessened from the day of public
humiliation. When we dreaded famine from a long-continued drought,
on the morning of our prayers the heaven over our head was of brass; the
clear burning sky showed no. token of change. Men looked with awe on
its unmitigated clearness. In the evening was a cloud like a man’s hand;
the relief was come.”
This is from a sermon preached by no mean citizen of no mean
city; it was preached at Oxford, in 1866, and the preacher was
Dr. Pusey, who goes on to say that it describes what he himself
saw on the Sunday morning in Oxford, on returning from the
early communion at St. Mary’s, at eight. The change occurred in
the evening. A good instance, one would be apt to say, of a very
common fallacy of observation and reasoning—the fallacy that an
event which happens after another necessarily happens in conse
quence of it! But what I would point out is, that if Dr. Pusey’s
interpretation of the matter be true, all our scientific knowledge of
the order of nature has no stable foundation; it is no better than
a baseless fabric, which has come like wind and like wind may go.
And most certain it is that if such views were universal, the result
would be to carry us back straight to the ignorance and barbarism
which prevailed in Europe before the Reformation and the dawn
of modern science. Consider how much it means, that a man of
Dr. Pusey’s culture and eminence should so little apprehend the
fundamental principles of modern science, should be so blind to
the conception of the reign of law in nature ; consider again how
the great majority of the people are in his case, and that the torch
of modern science is after all really carried by some hundred men
or so in Europe and America, and would be pretty nigh extin
guished by their simultaneous deaths ; and consider, lastly, that
we have everywhere in our midst a most complete and powerful
organisation which, holding that all truth has been given into
�22
Lessons of Materialism.
the keeping of the church from the beginning, and cannot be
either added to or taken from, is truly a gigantic and unsleeping
conspiracy against the human intellect;—consider these things
fairly, I say, and then ask yourselves soberly whether modern pro
gress is so stable and assured a thing as we are apt to take it for
granted it is. For my part, I would not give much for it if the
Homan Catholic Church had its way for fifty or a hundred years.
In all ages of the world, I make no doubt, there have been a few
persons with too much insight to accept the fables which have
satisfied the vulgar, but who dared not utter their thoughts, or,
uttering them, were quickly extinguished; the torch of knowledge
has been again and again lit and again and again put out; and
truth never will be made secure until it has been driven down
into the hearts of the masses of the people by a right method of
education from generation to generation.
Many persons who could not confidently express their belief in
the power of prayer to stop a plague or a deluge of rain, or who
actually disbelieve it, still have a sincere hold of the belief of its
miraculous power in the moral or spiritual world. Nevertheless, if
the matter be made one simply of scientific observation, it must be
confessed that all the evidence goes to prove that the events of
the moral world are matters of law and order equally with those
of the physical world, and that supernatural interpositions have no
more place in the one than in the other; that he who prays for
the creation of a clean heart and the renewal of a right spirit
within him, if he gets at last what he prays for, gets it by the
operation of the ordinary laws of moral growth and development,
in consequence of painstaking watchfulness over himself and the
continual exercise of good resolves. Only when he gets it in that
way will he get the benefit of supernatural aid; and if it rests in
the belief of supernatural aid, without taking pains to get it
entirely in that way, he will do himself moral harm; for if he
cannot rely upon special interpositions in the moral any more than
in the physical world, if he has to do entirely with those
secondary laws of nature through which alone the supernatural is
made natural, the invisible visible, it needs no demonstration that
the opposite belief cannot strengthen, but must weaken, the under
standing and will. It is plain that true moral hygiene is as
impossible to the person who reEes upon his fetish to change his
heart in answer to prayer, as sanitary science is impossible to the
savage who relies upon his fetish to stay a pestilence in answer to
prayer.
�Lessons of Materialism.
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23
So far from materialism being a menace to morality, when it is
properly understood, it not only sets before man a higher intellec
tual aim than he is ever likely to reach by spiritual paths, but it
even raises a more self-sacrificing moral standard. For when all
has been said, it is not the most elevated or the most healthy
business for a person to be occupied continually with anxieties and
apprehensions and cares about the salvation of his own soul, and
to be earnest to do well in this life in order that he may escape
eternal suffering and gain eternal happiness in a life to come. The
disbeliever might find room to argue that here was an instance
showing how theology has taken possession of the moral instinct and
vitiated it. Having set before man a selfish instead of an altruistic
end as the prime motive of well-doing—his own good rather than the
good of others—it is in no little danger of taking away his strongest
motive to do uprightly, if so be the dead rise not. Indeed, it
makes the question of the apostle a most natural one : “ If, after
the manner of man, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what
advantageth it me if the dead rise not ? ” Materialism cannot
hesitate in the least to declare that it is best for a man’s self and
best for his kind to have fought with the beasts of unrighteousness,
at Ephesus or elsewhere, even if the dead rise not. Perceiving
and teaching that he is essentially a social being, that all the
mental faculties by which he so much excels the animals below
him, and even the language in which he expresses his mental func
tions, have been progressive developments of his social relations,
it enforces the plain and inevitable conclusion that it is the true
scientific function, and at the same time the highest development,
of the individual, to promote the well-being of the social organiza
tion—that is, to make his life subserve the good of his kind. It
is no new morality, indeed, which it teaches ; it simply brings men
back to that which has been the central lesson and the real stay
of the great religions of the world, and which is implicit in the
constitution of society; but it does this by a way which promises
to bring the understanding into entire harmony with moral
feeling, and so to promote by a close and consistent interaction
their accordant growth and development; and it strips morality
of the livery of superstition in which theological creeds have
dressed and disfigured it, presenting it to the adoration of mankind
in its natural purity and strength.
�“ The Pathology of Mind.” By H. M AUDSLEY, M.D. Being the Third
Edition of the Second Part of the “Physiology and Pathology of
Mind,” recast, much enlarged and re-written. In 8vo, price 18s.
liy the same Author.
“ The Physiology of Mind.” Being the First Part of a Third Edition
revised, enlarged, and re-written, of “ The Physiology and Pathology
of Mind.” Crown 8vo, 10s. 6d.
“Body and MindAn Inquiry into their Connection and Mutual Influ
ence, specially with reference to Mental Disorders. Second Edition,
enlarged and revised, with Psychological Essays added. Crown 8vo.,
6s. 6d.
Macmillan & Co., London.
SUNDAY LECTURE SOCIETY.
To provide for the delivery on Sundays in the Metropolis, and to encourage
the delivery elsewhere, of Lectures on Science, —physical,^intellectual,
and moral,—History, Literature, and Art; especially in their bearing
upon the improvement and social well-being of mankind.
President.—W. B. Carpenter, C.B., LL.D., M.D., F.R.S., &c.
Vice-Pre sidents.
Professor Alexander Bain.
Sir Arthur Hobhouse, K.C.S.I.
James Booth, Esq., C.B.
Thomas Henry Huxley, Esq., LL.D.,
Charles Darwin, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S.
F.R.S., F.L.S.
Edward Frankland, Esq., D.C.L., Herbert Spencer, Esq.
Ph. D., F.R.S.
W. Spottiswoode, Esq., LL.D., P.R.S.
James Heywood, Esq., F.R.S., F.S.A. John Tyndall, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S.
THE SOCIETY’S LECTURES
ARE DELIVERED AT
ST. GEORGE’S HALL, LANGHAM PLAGE,.
On SUNDAY Afternoons, at FOUR o'clock precisely.
(Annually—from November to May).
Twenty-four Lectures (in three series), commencing Sunday, the 2nd
of November, 1879, will be given.
Members’ -£1 subscription entitles them to an annual ticket, transferable
(and admitting to the reserved seats), and to eight single reserved-seat
tickets, available for any lecture.
For tickets, and for the Lectures published by the Society, of which lists
can be obtained on application, apply (by letter enclosing cheques, post
office orders or postage stamps) to the Hon. Treasurer, Wm. Henry
Domville, Esq., 15, Gloucester Crescent, Hyde Park, W. The Lectures
can also be obtained of Mr. J. Bumpus, Bookseller, 158, Oxford Street, W.
Payment at the door:—One Penny; — Sixpence;—and (Reserved
Seats) One Shilling.
Kenny & Co., Printers, 25, Camden Road, London, N.W.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The first love again : a discourse delivered in the Church of the Redeemer, Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 28,1875, on the occasion of the re-union of the two Societies, which had divided fifteen years previously, chiefly on the issue of supernaturalism
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CONWAY, Moncure Daniel [1832-1907]
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Place of publication: [s.l.]
Collation: 21 p. ; 15 cm.
Notes: Part of Morris Miscellaneous Tracts 1. Reprinted from the Cincinnati Daily Commercial (revised by the author). With a preface about the doctrinal differences between the first Congregational Church and the Church of the Redeemer in Cincinnati.
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[s.n.]
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[1875]
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G3342
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Unitarianism
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English
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (The first love again : a discourse delivered in the Church of the Redeemer, Cincinnati, Ohio, Nov. 28,1875, on the occasion of the re-union of the two Societies, which had divided fifteen years previously, chiefly on the issue of supernaturalism), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
Doctrines
Dogma
Liberalism (Religion)
Morris Tracts
Rationalism
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Text
Tl'.RM, Igga
WILLIAM WISWBLL against WILLIAM GREENE, et al.
Reply to the Argument of II. C. Whitman, Esq., Counsel for the
Church of 4m Redeemer.
Counsel for tlie defen dmtsBffimt treiwif those memllrs who
went off because of their “ widelyWfferin|H’ with the pastor in
his religious views, are secederslthey lose all legal right to the
Church property. But he .says they are not seceders, because
they did not go off of “ their own motion.” Here he has mis-'
taken the facts. Let us see how they are. When this suit was '
brought, there was no agreement to divide and separate. There
was no second or independent organization formed, but Messrs
Hosea and associates, refused to attend the preaching of the
pastor, and kept up a constant clamor for a sale and division
or the unconditional deposition of the pastor. After this suit
was brought, they organized another religious society, called
the Church of the Redeemer. Notwithstanding the injunction
herein granted, and the pendency of this suit, they continued
to agitate in the Church until they succeeded in getting the
resolutions of 23d of May passed.
. Did they go off with the consent of those who remained?
Was it intended that they should Constitute a branch of the f
First Congregational Church, Averned by its Trustees, the A.
funds to be invested-by them and the new oiBanization con- ,
trolled by them? Was it a society organized Unfhin the juris
diction and under the control of those trustees y Was the Firs®P*'
�V
Congregational Ohtirch to control and mafiago it in any way
whatever ? The record answers all these questions in the neg
ative ? Again: those members went off before there was any
division, some before the litigation and some after it was com
menced. No sale could be had until the Court sanctioned it,
and yet long before they filed their answer in this case, the
Church of the Redeemer was organized, an antagonism of the
old ChurchHand to all intents and purposes they ceased to be
members of the First Congregational Church. They were not
driven out of the Church, but left of “ their own motion.”
They voluntarily withdrew, organized another, and independ
ent society, without respect to the one they withdrew from,
proclaimed a new covenant or creed and completely ignored
the First Congregational Church, the doctrines therein taught
having become heresies Po them. If this is not seceding, it is
difficult to understand what state of case will make it out.
II. Counsel for the Church of the Redeemer admits that if
this is a case of a division of the Church property among
individual members, it would not be valid, but he denies that
it is such a case. Let us see.
• 1st. When this suit was brought to restrain the sale of the
property, there was no separate organization. 2d. When the
resolution of the 11th of April was adopted there was no such
organization. The demand on the part of these gentlemen,
who went off, that Mr. Conway should be dismissed, because
they could not accord to his religious views, coupled with the
threat, which they instantly executed, that they would no
longer worship under his administration, all took place before
they procured the passage of the resolutions of the 23d of May.
These were steps taken by them, as individuals, as pew-owners,
and predicated of what they called their personal rights as
such, viz.: their ownership in the Church property as pewowners. They desired to retire from the First Congregational
Church, and to take with them their respective shares of the
property as measured by the value of their pews.
They did nothing afterwards that was not predicated of this
claim. Counsel speaks of an equitable rule of division, i. e.,
that the property should be equally divided. That rule was
�[ 3 ]
*
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i
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,
proposed by these dissatisfied gentlemen because they claimed
their pews in value represented about one-half of the value of
the whole church property.
III. I am not able to perceive Hie force of the counsel’s
proposition, that the cause of religion in this Church will be
promoted by granting the prayer of his clients to divide this
property, Ho speaks of the impossibility of his clients longer
remaining in that Church, because if they do it will be filled
with “ discord and strife.” To avoid this, he eloquently appeals
to the Court to let them take one-half of the property and
“ depart in peace.” How far this condition of things accords
with what the counsel says al*n«r place in his brief, when
speaking to the proposition of secession, it is not worth while
here to speak : nor do I stop to inquire who is responsible for
this 11 discord and strife.” I may remark that this state of
things is not exactly consistent wit»S|laiouM tMmngs. It
may be inquired if a division is made, how the First Congrega
tional Church is to be benefitted, or the cause of religion, in that
Church, promoted, by giving these gentlemen, who will, counsel
fears, “agitate” if they stay, one-half of the property to go away.
The resolutions do not contemplate,. nor do the parties
expect, that they are in any way to be held awountable by the
First Congregational Church, for the disposiwn they may make
of the funds so to be paid over to them. TItom ch^^tc^md they
will take the money, by force of their ownership as pewowners, and will do wit™ it whatever they may choose, which
may be to build up another Church, or divide it among them
selves, and use it for any other purpose. The moment the
Church property is divided, the tHu^Bcontemplated by the
Charter and the founders of thoMiurch ceases to control such
of it as is given to these scceders.
IV. Counsel claims that it would promoffl the interest of the
First Congregation® Church, to give these dissaj^^ed pew
owners one-half of the property, and let them go off and form
another Society. Not being able to see that, ^raqui™whether
it can seriously be claimed that this Church can divide up its
property, and give one-half of it to establish another Society,
for the promulgation of different religious tenets and doctrines
�than those taught in the Church? Nay, more: is it claimed
that this property can be used to establish another Society,
outside of this one, beyond its control, having no connection
with it? Counsel is not very explicit in this; occurrent nubes;
and yet the case shows that these gentlemen want the property
to set up an independent Society, beyond the jurisdiction of
and having no connection whatever with, the First Congre
gational Church. I know he claims that unless it is done,
there will be “ bitter feelings,” and a wreck of the Church.
How can that be ? These malcontents have left it, have formed
another Society, and, it is to be hoped, are in the full fruition
of that peace and calm which they could not find with their
late co-worshipers in the old Church. Of course they would
not return to “stir up the strife,”.which drove them from it.
How, then, can such dreadful things befall the “ old church.”
“ Peace and concord^ reign there now. I will not say it is
because these gentlemen have left the “ old church.” However
that may be, I am not prepared to believe that they will
voluntarily return there, if they apprehend a renewal of the
terrible scenes which the counsel so elegantly depicts and so
mournfully deplores.
I have examined the cases cited by counsel for the Church
of the Redeemer.
The case in 21 Conn, does not sustain the point for which it
is citedw
There is no such case as that of Uckerly v. Leyer, cited as
being in 2 Serg. & Rawle, 38.
The case referred to in 2 Wendell has no bearing whatever
on the proposition for which it is designed to use it; and the
paragraph particularly referred to is wholly outside of the
case, and the mere obiter dictum of the judge who drafted the
opinion.
The case in 23 Barb, is directly adverse to the proposition
for which counsel cites it. So, too, of the case of the Methodist,
Church v. Remington, 1 Watts, 227; and, also, the case in 1
Watts & Serg.
�[ 5 ]
,
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4
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MOTION TO DISMISS.
I call the attention of the Court to the motion to dismiss
this suit. It will be observed that the suit was instituted to
prevent a sale of the Church property as was contemplated
by the resolutions of the 11th of April and the 23d of May,
1859.
It will also be observed that the Church has repealed those
resolutions, and all others, which were designed to provide for
a sale of the Church and a division of its property. It like
wise appears that the trustees who filed an answei’ in the
case, in the Common Pleas, by their counsel, Messrs. Taft and
Perry, have requested their answer to be withdrawn, as they
no longer desire to sell the Church property. I, also, file the
letter of Messrs. Taft and Perry, requesting the answer to be
withdrawn; also the notice served on the counsel of the Church
of the .Redeemer, and Taft and Perryjadvertising them that
this motion would be made by the plaintiff. Copies of the
Church resolutions and the order of the Trustees, were served
«n the counsel of defendants. This motion is made, because
there now remains no necessity for pursuing this suit fur
ther. The object being to restrain the sale of the Church
property, now that there will be no sale, the further prosecu
tion of this suit is rendered superfluous. The right to dismiss
a pending suit, before final action, I suppose will not be ques
tioned, unless new rights have supervened, and that will not be
seriously contended in this case. In the first place, supposing
the resolutions to divide the property had been legally passed,
and gave any of the parties a right which they did not enjoy
before this suit was brought, having been passed “lis pendens,”
they can claim nothing through these resolutions. In the second
place, the power of the Church which passed the resolutions,
to elect to repeal them, and to decline to sell the property, can
not be questioned. That power is reposed in them, to be exer
cised only within the Charter. Supposing that the Chureh
may sell and divide, they may elect to sell or not sell, at a par
ticular time, according to their discretion. But if it can be
�done at all, it can be done only by the sanction of the Court.
2 Kents Com. 314; 3 Barb. Ch. 122. At common law it
could not be done at all, and it is by no means clear that it can
be done in Ohio, except upon the precedent consent of all the
members, under the statute of March 11th, 1853, Swan, 247,
which must be strictly pursued. It is very clear that the
Court will not require the corporation to sell its property.
16 Barb. 241; also, 23 Barb. 335. ,
If these gentlemen, who claiifi to be participants in the
fund, acquired any new rights by the resolutions of the 23d of
May, it was to enjoy them when the property is sold, but they
can not compel a sale against the judgment of the Church and
the Trustees. The sale is one thing and the division of the
proceeds another and very different thing.
There is no decree or judgment in this case. The one ren
dered by the common pleas was vacated by the appeal, and the
case comes into the court by reservation. It is, as if this suit
was now to be heard for the first time.
The case of Wyatt v. Benson, 23 Barb. Sup. C. II., 339, de
cides that no intervening or precedent action of the Church or
the Board of Trustees can impair the plaintiff’s right to ques*
tion the validity and legality of any order of sale made by
them. The order’ of sale and the declaration as to the dispos
ition of the proceeds, are yet in fieri, not having been, exe
cuted, and no rights having been acquired under th pm, it is
not only in the power of the corporation to rescind such order
of sale, etc., but the Court will refuse to act when the Trustees
ask to withdraw their application for a sale. The application
can be made by none but the Society itself, or by some one
authorized by them. Swan, 248. The supplemental answer
now filed by the Trustees takes away from the Court all power
to order a sale.
R. M. CORWINE,
*
Attorney for the Plaintiff and the Trustees.
�SUPREME COURT OF OHIO.
WILLIAM WISWELL against WILLIAM GREENE, et al.
Reply to some of the Points made by Mlsrsl Whitman & Collins, in
their Oral Argument.
1st. Counsel for defendants say that the opinion of the
lawyers given to the Trustees, (Printed Record, page 3G), was
followed inEMJpassage of the resolutions of the 23d of May*
Thisd® a mistake. An examination of that paper will show
that they advised that the division should be made in such a
way as that thcTcharter should be complied with: that is, that
no second organization could be made, except it was a part of
the First Congregation®. Church. That is the fair interpreta
tion of it. See the last paragraph in that opinion, and note its
guarded language.
2nd. On the application to withdraw the answer of the
Trustees, counsel say that the court should not entertain it,
because thewesolutions of the 2Gth May, 1862, were not passed
by a legal body, and because they were passed after this case
was reserved. I answer if that is true, it does not help the
resolutions of the 23d of May, 1859, since they weHpast after
this suit was brought. The one is no bettei’ than the other, so
far as this objection is concerned.
3d. The resolutions of the 23d of May do not pretend to
dispose of the question, but leave the whole matter to 'the
Court, to whom it is referred for “Judicial /Sanction.” How
could those membersBwho withdrew, after their adoption,
claim that they gave them any rights, or conferred upon them
�any privileges until the court
them? ^he whole
question was purposely left in abeyance. They could have
taken no steps in the purchase of property predicated of these
resolutions. It is not, therefore, a case of vested rights, as the
counsel suppose. No legal rights could intervene by reason
of what these resolutions contain. The Corporation could do
nothing in the way of disposing of the property, or dividing
the proceeds without the sanction of the Court. So that the
whole thing was immature—was in fieri.
CORWINE.
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Pamphlet
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Title
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William Wiswell against William Greene et al: reply to the argument of H.C. Whitman, Esq., Counsel for the Church of the Redeemer
Creator
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Corwine, R.M.
Ohio. Supreme Court
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [Cincinatti]
Collation: 8 p. ; 21 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Hearing held December term, 1862. The case concerned a schism in the First Congregational Church, part of the congregation disapproved of Conway and left; questions arose of dividing church property. Compare 'Ohio. Supreme Court of Ohio. William Wiswell v William Greene, William Goodman, and others' in Conway Tracts 10.
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[s.n.]
Date
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[1862?]
Identifier
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G5614
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Unitarianism
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (William Wiswell against William Greene et al: reply to the argument of H.C. Whitman, Esq., Counsel for the Church of the Redeemer), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Court cases
First Unitarian Church
Moncure Conway
-
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311a91f4f5fc47c9561049f9b91ec013
PDF Text
Text
SHALL WE NOT GO FORWARD?
A DISCOURSE
DELIVERED IN
THE UNITARIAN CHAPEL, BRIDGEWATER.
BY
WILLIAM
CHATTERTON COUPLAND, B.A., B.Sc.
LONDON:
TRÜBNER AND CO., 60, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1 8 6 5.
�“ Behold,
the former things are come to pass, and new things do
I DECLARE : BEFORE THEY SPRING FORTH I TELL YOU OF THEM.”
�A DISCOURSE.
I
it a privilege to live in this age, when
temporal and spiritual empires which have done
good service in their time, but now cumber the
earth, totter towards their grave; when ancient
systems of thought which have outlasted the cen
turies, refusing to adapt their garb to the altered
circumstances of the time, are fading peacefully
away; when old Jerusalems are melting into the
mist of memory; and new temples rising out of the
deep. A few years ago many must have thought
that all was over with this terrestrial sphere; all
the great men were dead and buried, the highest
minds were given up to restoring and criticising the
works of their predecessors, building “ the tombs of
the prophets” and garnishing “ the sepulchres of the
righteous;” for the world had entered on its dotage,
but a few hours more and the archangel would sound
his trumpet, and Past and Present would cease to be.
But the world was mistaken, and that not for the
first time in its biography. Amidst' all that slum
count
�4
berous period a few lamps were burning brightly,
and 11 while their companions slept” some “were
toiling upward in the night,” sowing new seed and
planting fresh trees, which are even now beginning
to sprout, and yet shall grow into stout trunks and
leafy branches.
The Head-Master of Rugby School declares at
Whitehall that the beginning, as the end, of the
Bible is poetry, not fact; and the Dean of West
minster, not without a merry twinkle one may
fancy, preaches in the venerable Abbey from the
text of Ezekiel, “The hand of the Lord was upon
me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and
set me down in the midst of the valley, which was
full of bones, and caused me to pass by them round
about; and behold, there were very many in the
open valley, and lo, they were very dry. And he
said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live?
And I answered, 0 Lord God, thou knowest.”
Dean Stanley knows very well that the bones are
very dry, and is doubtful whether even a divine
breath can re-enliven them. But yet, somehow or
other, people do like the dry bones; and there is
something to be said for them ; for is not a bone a
relic ? and whatever has once been holy surely never
can lose its virtue ? To hang up a prophet’s bone
over your mantle-piece, for instance, what an in
fusion of spiritual vigour would not that afford ?
Why, your room would be a shrine of divinity,
�5
whither a thirsting and weary people might crowd
to inhale inspiration for the loftiest battles of lifeI
So the Catholic Church lives by its bones, and he
must be a bold man who denies the Catholic Church
to be still living. The Protestant Church yet not
less thrives upon its bones, though unfortunately the
vessel in which it holds them is so very fragile that
it is in constant danger of spilling them.
But Ezekiel was doubtful as Stanley whether the
bones could ever live again. It is the essential dis
tinction of the prophet to have no faith in dry bones ;
for I define a prophet to be the living voice of a nation.
He is that organ raised up by God to keep alive a
spirit of hope in the age. Lose your prophet, or kill
him, and you destroy the heart of your nation. That
was the function of the Hebrew prophets through
out the long period of the reign of the kings, and
the Babylonian exile. From Elijah to Malachi it
was the never-sleeping prophet who kept the
Hebrew nation breathing; and when Judaism cruci
fied its last prophet, it sounded its own knell. Is
not that the word which our great English seer,
Thomas Carlyle, has been thundering in our ears,
that the great prophetic man, the hero, is the
desideratum of every age—a man who shall be
shackled by no routine of predecessors, who shall
start the world afresh on its journey, and point its
eyes to the future,—the man who shall dare to
think and do, as if no one had ever thought and
�6
done before; a new creation; no puny dependent
child who ever leans on his grandsire’s arm ? And
Thomas Carlyle has not spoken in vain; I fancy all
the life which this English generation possesses
comes from Carlyle. The burning torch was taken
up by Emerson, and from Emerson passed to Parker,
and kindled an undying flame on the other side of
the Atlantic. So in France, Ernest Renan has lately
revivified the theologic dry bones by publishing
that glowing life of Jesus which has electrified this
time—a work full of errors, doubtless, but which
must be measured by its life-breathing spirit.
Strauss is far sounder, but Strauss gives no life.
The English Unitarians have never been very wake
ful, they have nursed their dry bones from the
beginning; but the Church of England is now
warming a little, and if it were not for its narcotic
of a prayer-book, and that sleep-giving ritual, would
soon wake up into a living life. Politics are
slumberous enough, but when our present leaders
die, having served their term, we may expect a
regeneration there.
I hope great things when
Gladstone is prime minister. He will shake the
dry bones, or I am much mistaken.
We live, therefore, in a favoured age, but I do
not think we make the most of it; nor can we,
until we unreservedly place ourselves in the pro
phetic rank. We must discard all traditions, set no
store by precedent, work out anew for ourselves.
�7
So we go through the routine of all the sects, though
we have no affinity with them. We are not a more
liberal branch of the Church of England, or the
Congregationalists, or the Methodists, but we are a
new Church, whose rock is human nature, and
whose temple is the personal soul. In affirming
this, we by no means cut our connection with the
past—that were impossible : as surely as we are the
descendants of our parents, are we the offspring of
the past; the organic bond no power in earth or
heaven can sever; but we must not look to our sires
to show us the way our feet should tread in the
future. All our sires can teach us is what they
have experienced, but their experience only corre
lates their circumstances; but our circumstances
have never pre-existed, therefore our experiences
have to be shaped anew by ourselves. Popes and
Bibles were indispensable and valuable under the
then conditions of society; but now those conditions
are changed, Popes and Bibles rather hinder than
help us. It is only the Absolute which endures.
And when we say Popes and Bibles have done their
work, we by no means intend to affirm there is
nothing valuable even for us in Popes and Bibles.
The essential truth in the Papal function is, that
every organism must have a head; thus a “minister”
is a Pope—but the idea of a Pope is something more
than that, viz., that one man has the authority and
power to make declarations, which others have only
�8
implicitly to receive, possessing no right to test or
question. That the “ Bible ” is a collection of facts,
truths, ethics, and religious sentiment, is indis
putable ; but that is not what Protestantism means
by a “Bible.” Protestantism means thereby a docu
ment containing a set of divine commands, necessary
for all time, and a set of beliefs which it is abso
lutely incumbent upon us to believe, whether our
reasons say “ aye”, or “no.” Protestantism repudi
ates all homage to a Catholic Pope, and we repudiate
all homage to a Protestant Bible • but neither Pro
testantism surrenders its episcopal establishment,
nor do we refuse to work up into our thought and
life all the good things we find in Jewish-Christian
literature.
It is curious how reliant man yet is. We like to
follow our fathers’ steps as long as we can, and I
verily believe would hold our mothers’ dresses to
this day if we might. Man is naturally a timid
animal. But great deeds were never achieved by
fearful men. What enabled Napoleon to accom
plish his main victories was that he had no fear.
But the many are easily panic-stricken. A sentence
of excommunication uttered amidst blue lights and
ghostly intonations will scare many hearts; and to
fling “infidel” in a man’s face is as effective as to
stab him in the side. Fear is the real “ dweller of
the threshold,” and we must conquer fear before
we can make a step in advance. “Yes, but if we
�9
turn over a new leaf, what will Mr. and Mrs.------?
say?” Are you afraid of the opinion of Mr. and
Mrs.------ ? Then you will never leave the Valley
of Destruction and set out on the way towards the
Eternal City.
Thus, I would have our Sunday
services utterly remodelled myself, permit a greater
elasticity in the arrangement, abolish the stereotyped
monotony of hymn, prayer, biblical chapter, hymn,
prayer, sermon, etc. time after time. I would have
absolute liberty here as in the thought; but do I not
know that if I were to advocate such a change I should
bring down on my devoted head all the tumultuous
shriekings and anathemas of a hundred congrega
tions and the religious newspapers. I suppose
there would be a rain-shower of 11 Iconoclast” and
“Atheist,” “Desecrator of the Pulpit,” and what
not!
But this is only applying on a small scale what
occurs on the large. The world has to fight against
that base tendency in its nature to stand still and
be contented. Contentment is false. You ought
not to be contented: everything is imperfect, and
will be so for many a long day,—I had almost said
for ever. And as the infant when it can run alone
puts off its long clothes, and the child when it be
comes a man exchanges the school-boy jacket for the
coat; so, as the world becomes maturer, must it
leave on one side the apparel of its youth, and take
to itself better-fitting raiment. And if any one
�10
blames this procedure as iconoclastic and revolu
tionary, he is only blaming the baby for growing to
be a boy, and the boy for maturing into a man.
“But,” say some, “what a harassing time you are
making for us ! Are we never to have any rest and
peace, but always to be reforming ?” No, I answer,
you are never to have rest and peace in the sense of
being permitted to sleep half your time, and turn
your tramp-mill the other half, but you are to move
on as Time moves, imperceptibly but surely; and
as it does not harass you to change your skin through
every seven years, and to pass through the stages
of birth, marriage, and death ; so, if you are liberal
at the very core, you will naturally doff the out
grown garments and array yourselves in the bright
robes of the Present. One sees therefore I have
little sympathy with our Conservative gentlemen.
I abhor Conservatism; it is to stop short at animal
existence, it being the great characteristic of brute
as differentiated from man. But of course there is
always the response, “but the time is not ripe.’’
And when, pray, in your wisdom, will the time be
ripe? When will the time be ripe to say, “We
have no need of Popes,” and “ a Bible is a hindrance
to human life” ? Who does not see that each
generation puts up the same plea, and will put it
up as long as the world lasts; but it is evident that
if the plea had never been disregarded, we should
have had no Christianism, no Protestantism, and no
�13
and social imperfection. When we have such a
“Church” as that, I think the nations will flock
thereto as to the prophetic 11 Hill of the Lord,” and
malice and uncharitableness will die away. In such
a community the spirit of God must be permitted to
blow where it listeth; yes, even though it be doubted
to be a spirit of God at all, and through every story
of earth and heaven shall the human mind press,
proving and questioning. In such a society, nought
shall be secular and nought be sacred, the triumphal
march holy as the hymn, and the silent meditation
grateful as a prayer. Chiefest of all, shall the
thoughts of great men of all time and every clime
be spread before a hungering people, and whoever in
India or Arabia, England or Syria, have stood closest
to the skies shall be esteemed venerable, and be
listened to as a heavenly seer.
You smile perchance at this dream, but is it to
be ever a dream ? and must the world wait another
millennial cycle till the thought become a deed?
Who knows ? I think we should not wait long if
some amongst us were more earnest. When the
idea does become an act, it needs no very prophetic
eye to scan the consequences.
Instead of the
ghastly hymn which makes our flesh creep, or the
lugubrious psalm which compels us to think our
selves in a funeral vault instead of a sun-lit hall; I
imagine a melody of inspiration, and a multitude
with beaming faces and joyous hearts, shining like
�14
the teachers of righteousness transplanted to the
skies, feeling at last one with man, and all the
universe.
The tendency of man to seek his paradise in the
past is of old standing—a dream more oriental, how
ever, than western; a thought, too, which could
only be very vivid where trust in an immortal
future was weak. Besides, the problem of evil
seemed to necessitate such a conception: there must
have been a time when sin was not, when man
stood still a erect as a sunbeam,’’ and as yet no
lawless passion had darkened the fair face of nature.
Although we may not have advanced much beyond
those early theories in solving that great problem,
still we have no longer any doubt at which end to
place the true Paradise. Seeing by the light of
Darwin and Lyell, no naturalist may place his
Eden-garden at the dawn of human history. How
ever fair nature might then have been, man could
not have been very lovely. I have never hesitated
to avow the conviction that the only conceivable
explanation of man’s creation lies in regarding him
as the progressive child of the highest Catarhine
primates; I cannot conceive for a moment of any
other origin, corroborated as it is, too, by his whole
physical structure. But, even if that be not con
ceded, evidence is slowly accumulating of the
barbaric beginnings of human history, and our Eden
vanishes more and more into the mist. The growth
�15
of man has been upward from the commencement—
incredibly slow, but ever to a better from a worse.
After much toil we are come at length to a highlyimproved link in the chain, but we have by no
means entered upon Paradise. Our Paradise still
lies before us, the El Dorado of our hopes lies far
beyond the furthest mountain-peaks, and probably
each pilgrim, as he attains a new height, will descry
yet stretching beyond glorious snow-clad summits.
The end is far distant, the way is long, but the sky
is not dark. That consolation we have to sustain
us. The sun is still shining overhead, and will
shine; the birds will still sing gladdening hymns;
and though humanity will reel many times back
ward and forward with passionate folly and mad
ness, beyond the blood-stained battle-field, and the
fierce strifes of parties, lies the chosen country, the
milk-and-honey-flowing Land of Promise. This is
our faith, firm and rooted. But if this be our belief,
does it not shape our duties ? does it not summon
us away from the tombs to the busy throbs of instant
life; from laudation of departed saints, to live out our
lives, and leave our footprints on the temporal sands?
Does it not tell us how futile it were to grow up
under the shadow of any by-gone heroic or holy
soul, there being as great souls now, and greater
probably to come ? The Eden of Adam, naturally
fair as it is deemed; the Eden of Moses, morally
fair as it appears; the Eden of Jesus, radiantly
�16
beautiful as it unquestionably was,—are but Edens
whose memory will never utterly perish, but which
by no means exhaust all natural and divine creation.
We do not add to our capabilities, we only quench
our own powers, by breathing in the atmosphere of
a foreign community. I do not stand one inch
taller for walking always at the heels of some by
gone chief. A superinduced righteousness is no
righteousness worth having; and to put on “the
garment of Christ,” I must put off the “garment” of
personality. I do not want to walk thus masqueraded.
Truly none will be so foolish as to refuse assistance;
the entire human race is mutually dependent for
much, but we only seek the disciple’s stool to receive
suggestions which we must work forward in our own
way. A man forfeits his personality when he be.
comes an echo. And the more intimately we know
any great man the less shall we be disposed to call
him “master.” We see that he can be no autocrat
of our soul. And what is true of a man or series of
men is true of countries and ages. Palestine is
no norm for England, nor St. Paul for Western
Republicans. Paul may have fancied he laid down
the law for all time, but only impersonal minds will
credit him.
What, then, is the moral of this argument ?
That we are to speak our speech, think our
thought, do our deeds, as being our own speech,
thoughts, and deeds, and without ceaselessly affirm
�17
ing it is somebody else’s thoughts, speech, and deeds
that we are to think, speak, and do. They may be
Christian, they may be Brahminic, they may be
Confucian, they may be Hellenic, or what not; that
is not our concern: are they true, right to us ?
Are they the best realization we can give to the
floating ideals of our minds ? That is all we have
to ask, and all that we need be concerned in the
world’s knowing. Before the bar of inner con
sciousness each man must be brought to trial, his
own consciousness and not another’s.
Drop then the skirts of by-gone prophets, and
become yourselves prophets. Be in your generation
the kindling fuel which shall keep alive the dull
embers of earthly love, hope, and truthfulness. Men
walk as in a strange stupor; they know not the joy
they might possess were they only content to trust
themselves to the swaying waters. Have no Fear;
exorcise that phantom, the direst that ever infested
the human heart. Why should we fear? The
stars will not fall from the skies and crush us; the
old destroyer of earnest pilgrims has no longer any
teeth to devour, and can only mock. Let her mock;
her heaven, her hell, does not invite nor terrify us.
The Diabolus of the legends may go about still
“ like a roaring lion,” but his fangs are powerless.
The only Devil, and an ugly one sometimes he is,
who has any power, is Public Opinion, and he who
is not prepared to brave public opinion may as well
�18
at once withdraw from our communion; he has no
part with us, nor have we aught to do with him;
he has yet to learn the first lesson in the alphabet
of Right.
Nor turn your gaze too regretfully towards the
fair cities of the plain which duty orders you to
quit. Bright they were, I know; beautiful those
fretted arches, and venerable those long-used rites.
Many a good man knelt upon this pavement, and
pious lips kissed that book. Yet, beautiful as it all
was, to us it is but a memory; it speaks no longer
our faith, it rolls no longer our anthem; our eyes
gleam on another world, and the past is a corpse no
more to be awakened. “Must I leave thee, Para
dise?” Yes, for even “Paradise” does not endure
for ever; nay, it will be no Paradise to a new
world, who sees with other eyes, and beats with
other throbs. The vows which no longer bind we
do not snap, and it is a puerile thing to mourn when
the destiny is inevitable. Vain is it to put back
the dial. Pleasant it was, doubtless, to sail on that
shining water, glorious to be the sharer of a mar
tyr’s agony; the Olive Mount is ever sacred, and
storied Nazareth fair with verdant glades.
But
well-nigh nineteen hundred years stand between us
and that halcyon time; the sun has gone down
upon that fairy land, and has arisen upon a world
whose aims, thoughts, and aspirations were then
undreamed. Awake, 0 monk! from that childish
�19
trance; here is thy work-day world, here thy Olive
mountain, and Golgotha hath still its counterpart.
Nor, had we trod that fairy-land, should we pro
bably have found it so fairy-like as we imagine.
Gazed at through the mists of time all scenes look
brighter than they actually were; our minds tinge
them with colours which they may never have
possessed, mingling with the actual ideal beauties
flung from the absolute, and lighting with a glory
what then was human, but what we fain would have
divine. Fair and best; yes, if, once for all, the
superhuman flood of light suffused the earth, and
never reappeared. But it is not so: I can see
already a future grander than was ever hoped, which
shall dwarf the splendour of any single age, and
inaugurate a Paradise on earth. There is a Gospel
for us as there was a Gospel for the Jewish-Roman
world; a Gospel, too, born of hours of prophetic
vision, and nights of solemn wonder; a Gospel
which also tells of a kingdom of heaven, or, may
be, kingdom of earth; and which, if we have only
faith, shall not disappoint us.
“ Not where long past ages sleep
Seek we Eden’s golden trees ;
In the future, folded deep,
Are its mystic harmonies.
“ Eden with its angels bold,
Trees, and flowers, and cooling sea,
No less ancient story told,
Than a glowing prophecy,
�20
“ In tlie spirit’s perfect air,
In the passions tame and kind,
Innocence from selfish care,
The true Eden shall we find.
“ It is coming, it shall come.
To the patient and the striving ;
To the quiet heart at home,
Thinking, wise, and faithful living.
“ When all error is worked out
From the heart and from the life,
When the sensuous is laid low
By the spirit’s holy strife.
“ When tlie soul to sin hath died.
True, and beautiful, and sound :
Then all earth is sanctified,
Up springs Paradise around.
“ Then shall come the Eden days,
Guardian watch from seraph eyes,
Angels on the slanting rays,
Voices from the opening skies.
“From that spirit-land afar,
All disturbing force shall floc.
Sth nor toil, nor hope shall mar
Its immortal unity.”
STEPHEN AUSTIN, PRINTER, HERTFORD.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Shall we not go forward?: a discourse delivered in the Unitarian Chapel, Bridgewater
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Coupland, William Chatterton
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 20 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by Stephen Austin, Hertford.
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Trubner and Co.
Date
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1865
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G5263
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Unitarianism
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Shall we not go forward?: a discourse delivered in the Unitarian Chapel, Bridgewater), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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English
Conway Tracts
Unitarianism
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��MEMORIALS
OF THE
OF THE
First Congregational Church
OF
CINCINNATI, OHIO,
JANUARY 21st, 1880.
PRINTED FOR
THE
UNITY
CLUB.
��D
* OTe^
^IDWDU£TORY
The Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Congregational
Church of Cincinnati was observed by a special service of com
memoration in the church building, corner Plum and Eighth
streets. The altar had been beautifully decorated with green
garlands and flowers. A large company was in the pews and
participated in the printed order of service. The historical
review, communications, and letters read are included in this
memorial volume. At the conclusion of the very interest
ing and impressive exercises, the congregation repaired to the
parlors below, where a collation had been spread by the ladies
of the society, the older members occupying a table together
at the upper end of the room. The walls and tables were
decorated with evergreens and flowers. There was also
exhibited a collection of portraits of former ministers and mem
bers of the church, which included an excellent pencil sketch
of the first church edifice of the society on the corner of
Fourth and Race streets (since demolished), drawn by Mrs.
Ephraim Peabody in 1832, and kindly loaned by her for this
occasion. Brief addresses were made during the evening by
the pastor, who presided over the feast; by John Kebler,
Esq., who made tender reference to various deceased mem
bers of the church, and spoke enthusiastically of its prospects
for the future ; by Capt. Robert Hosea on “The Unitarian
Outlook”; by Judge Manning F. Force, who paid a warm
tribute to the laborsand sacrifices of the women of the church ;
Hon. Alphonso Taft, who affirmed that a free and rational
religion was a necessity for a free state; by Mr. Edward
Goepper, on behalf of the younger members of the society;
Rev. T. M. Johnson, who extended a greeting from the Universalist connection; Michael Tempest, Esq., Dr. Seth Salt
marsh, and other friends. At a late hour the meeting broke
up with the hearty singing of “Auld Lang Sync. "
�1880.
1830.
^ordcr*of*cxcr<ji$c$^
I.
II.
HI.
Organ Voluntary,
by
Theodore Stanwood, Esq.
Rev. C. W. Wendte.
Prayer by the Pastor,
Hymn,
by
Rev. A. A. Livermore.
1.
A Holy air is breathing round,
A fragrance from above ;
Be every soul from sense unbound,
Be every spirit love.
2.
O God, unite us heart to heart,
In sympathy divine,
That we be never drawn apart,
And love not thee'nor thine.
3.
But by the cross of Jesus taught,
And all thy gracious word,
Be nearer to each other brought,
And nearer to the Lord.
IV. A Historical Review of The First Congregational Church,
by
V.
VI.
Reading
of
John D. Caldwell, Esq.
Communications from former Pastors and Members.
Hymn,................................................... by Rev. Jas. H. Perkins.
1.
It is a beautiful belief,
When ended our career,
That it will be our ministry,
To watch o’er others here.
2.
To lend a moral to the flower:
Breathe wisdom on the wind ;
To hold commune, al night’s pure noon,
With the imprisoned mind ;
'
�5
3.
To bid the mourners cease to mourn.
The trembling be forgiven;
To bear away from ills of clay
The infant, to its heaven.
4.
Oh! when delight was found in life,
And joy in every breath,
I cannot tell how terrible
The mystery of death.
5.
But now the past is bright to me,
And all the future clear;
For ’tis my faith that after death
I still shall linger here.
VII. Religious Poems written by Rev. John Pierpont, D.D.,
Rev. C. G. Fenner,
VIII.
IX.
.
read by
and
Miss Clara E. Nourse.
Congratulatory Letters.
Original Hymn—Tune, “Fair Harvard.”
1. They are gone, the first laborers, earnest in toil
Who tilled for the Master the field;
Through their furrows we tread as we cast o’er the soil
The seed that rich harvests shall yield.
Refrain.
•
Rejoicing, not weeping, we fare through the land,
And scatter our handful of seed :
Of each earnest effort, of each ready hand,
The Lord of the Harvest hath need.
z
2.
We sow as we go what we stay not to reap,
“God giveth the increase” alone.
Will His harvest ungarnered be, e’en though we sleep
When the ripe golden grain shall be grown ?
Refrain.—Rejoicing, etc.
3.
The night cometh swiftly—then work while we may
At this task we are trusted to do:
With light hearts at sunset we’ll lay it away
If our toil has been faithful and true.
Refrain.—Rejoicing, etc.
Alice Williams Brotherton.
X.
The Benediction.
A Social Re-Union and Collation in the Church Parlors immediately after
the conclusion of the Exercises.
�6
->-Li$T+OF+çommiTTees^
On Invitations.
Edward P. Cranch,
Robert Hosea,
Ai.phonso Taft,
John W. Hartwell,
John Kebler,
George H. Hivl,
John K. Coolidge,
Rowland Ellis,
Manning F. Force,
Fayette Smith,
Richard B. Field,
Michael Tempest,
John D. Caldwell,
Charles W. Wendte.
On Exercises.
The Pastor,
Mrs. George Hoadly,
Miss Sallie Ellis,
W. H. Venable,
On Social Re-Union.
Mrs. Anne Ryland,
Mrs. H. C. Whitman,
Mrs. Caleb Allen,
Mrs. Josiah Bridge,
Mrs. William H. Sampson,
Mrs. Jeremiah Peters,
Mrs. Theodore Stanwood,
Mrs. Elihu Green,
Mrs. Seth Evans,
Mrs. Mary Russell,
Mrs. Chas. Truesdale,
Mrs. A. O. Tyler,
Mrs. E. G. Leonard,
Mrs. J. O. Eaton.
On Decorations.
Wm. Bellows.
�RISTCWAL SK6TCR
OF THE
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
OF CINCINNATI.
�THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH,
N. E. Cor. Plum and Eighth Sts.
�T513CORKZAL SKCCCB
OF
THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF CINCINNATI
Bv JOHN D. CALDWELL.
‘Aready it is history—
We may tell what, our fathers did.’
Three generations have arisen in Cincinnati since the organization here of the First Congregational Church. But a
few survivors of that pioneer band remain to unite with us in
the felicitations which the attainment of its Semi-Centennial
evokes. It is from their reminiscences and the somewhat
scanty memorials contained in the written records of the
^society, that the following brief account of its destinies for
half a century has been prepared. One of the founders of
the First Congregational Church in Cincinnati, Hon. Wm.
Greene, late Lieut. Governor of Rhode Island, who was, in a
peculiar sen^e, the Father of the Church, and who is—thank
Heaven—still spared to add his testimony and congratulations
to our festival of commemoration, writes us:
“ The first decisive step in the Unitarian movement in Cincinnati, more
than half century ago, was the assembling at the City Council Chamberpot a
large number of citizens in favor of the establishment of a Unitarian Society
in Cincinnati. This meeting was held in response to an invitation published
in the Cincinnati Gazette, at the instance of several gentlemen who were
prominently favourable to the object. At the meeting thus assembled, a conv
mittee was appointed to take the necessary steps for the procurement of a charter.
This was obtained at the next subsequent meeting of the Legislature of Ohio,
and bore the date of January 21 st, 1830. The corporators and first trustees
named in said charter were Elisha Brigham, Jesse Smith, Nathan Guilford,
George Carlisle and Wm. Greene.
“For some time previous to their action at the Council Chamber, those
favourable to and interested in the undertaking had been kindly favoured with
�IO
professional visits by distinguished Unitarian clergymen from New England.
This kindly interest was long continued after the establishment of the church.
I cannot speak too strongly of the great value and constantly encouraging in
fluence of the generous services of our Eastern Brethren.”
Among these Eastern brethren, thus gratefully referred to,
were the Rev. Charles Briggs, of Lexington, Mass., the agent
of the American Unitarian Association, and the Rev. John
Pierpont, D.D., both of whom were deeply interested in the
New West as a field for missionary operations in behalf of
Liberal Christian principles. Mr. Pierpont, at that time pasitor of the Hollis Street Church, in Boston, made a report to
the Association in June, 1828, of his.five weeks’ stay in Cin
cinnati, in which he says, “You ask me what judgment I
formed of that city. I shall tell you as briefly as possible.
It is one of the most flourishing and rapidly increasing cities
of our country. The material for building up a Unitarian
Society in this place I believe to be abundant and of good
quality. The most enlightened among the different sects are
fast becoming at odds with the exclusive and horrible systems
of Calvin and his would-be followers. And if a Unitarian
Church could be built and a pastor settled, there is all good
*
reason to believe that the society woûld soon be, to say the
least, as numerous and respectable as any in the city.
In every place there seemed to be a growing dissatisfaction
with the religious sentiments generally preached. The people
. .. are getting tired of hearing changes rung on *he sublime
t
mysteries of the Westminster Catechism. They want some
thing more simple and practical ; something whose tendency
is bodi to enlighten the understanding and to purify the heart,
and we believe that the doctrines of Unitarianism, which are
those of pure Christianity, are every way calculated to supply
this want and to effect those all important purposes for which
they were designed by the Author and Finisher of our Faith. ”
Mr. Pierpont spoke wisely and truly. At Cincinnati
clustered a cultured few of New England blood, who were the
active movers in initiating Common Schools and educational
institutions in the city and State, and were notably efficient
also in benevolent enterprises. It is not invidious to mention
�I I
here the names of Nathan Guilford, Micajah J. Williams,
Charles Stetson, Timothy Flint, George Carlisle, John C.
Vaughan, William Goodman, James H. Perkins and William
Greene, early members of the Unitarian Church, who were
eminently devoted to such works of culture and philanthropy.
Carrying this spirit of enlightenment and good will into the
realm of religious thought and feeling they speedily became
dissatisfied with the popular theology and preaching of their
day, and for a time met on Sundays at each other’s houses for
conversation and discussion of ethical and religious topics.
These private gatherings led in turn to public meetings at the
City Hall and elsewhere, and finally resulted, as Mr. Greene
has concisely stated, in the organization of the First Congre
gational Church and its subsequent incorporation. During a
part of the year 1830, the Rev. Charles Briggs, who had been
sent out by the American Unitarian Association, officiated as
pastor to the young society, which was‘ under obligations to
thè Universalist and New Church or Swedenborgian societies
for the use of their rooms for its public worship. In the
meantime, a lot of land had been purchased, at a liberal rate,
»¿from Elisha Brigham, on the south-west corner of Race and
Fourth streets, and on the 23d of May, 1830, the society,
with thankfulness and joy, dedicated its newly built temple to
the worship of the One God. The sermon for the occasion
was preached by the Rev. Bernard Whitman, of Waltham,
Mass. An ode had been written by Rev. John Pierpont (see
appendix), and an original hymn by Timothy Flint, Esq.
The young society flourished abundantly. In September,
1830, the Rev. E. B. Hall (later stationed at Providence, R,
I.), became its first regular pastor. Concerning his vigorous
and hopeful ministry, but few memorials are found in the
church records, but his son contributes a genial word to our
Semi-Centennial festival, which will be found in the pages fol
lowing. Mr. Hall also formulated a declaration of principles
which held its own in the church for some years, and was
signed by a number of the members.
On the 20th of May, 1832, the Rev. Ephraim Peabody, a
man of singular purity and loveableness of character, a scholar
�12
and a poet, was installed as minister. Rev. James Walker,
D.D., preached the sermon, and Rev. Francis Parkman, of
Boston, gave the Charge and the Address to the People. In
the course of his discourse Mr. Walker said: *‘I believe that
Unitarianism will prevail in the West. Not that I expect its
spread here or elsewhere will depend wholly or chiefly on the
abilities or exertions of Unitarians themselves. Its spread,
like that of the truth generally, must depend on the progress
of civilization, the diffusion of useful knowledge among the
people, and the general assertion and application of the great
principles of religious liberty and free inquiry.”
The original hymns sung on this occasion, and which were
doubtless written by Mr. Peabody himself, are preserved in
the appendix. Among the activities in which the newly-set
tled minister was engaged was the publication, in 1835 and
following, of “The Western Messenger,” a monthly which
contained valuable contributions, especially those from the pen
of James H. Perkins. Soon, however, this fresh tie was sev
ered by the ill health of Mr. Peabody, and the beloved pastor
was transferred to another field. The tender word his son
gives in another place in this memorial volume, fitly describes
the sentiment still felt towards his gracious memory by all
who came within the circle of his influence. For some time
coming the church had to content itself with pulpit supplies
mainly from the East. Among others, the veteran Rev.
Aaron Bancroft; father of the historian, preached here in
1836. For some six and nine months respectively, the Revs.
C. A. Bartol and Samuel Osgood ministered to the shepherd
less flock. Revs. James Freeman Clarke, Wm. Silsbee and
Christopher P. Cranch (now the poet-painter of Cambridge),
preached before the society during a part of 1837, until, in
August of that year, Rev. B. Huntoon was settled as pastor.
But it was only to resign his post again in the year 1838,
when the Rev. Henry W. Bellows, of New York, filled the
pulpit for six weeks and was succeeded by others. In March,
1839, a call was extended to Rev. Wm. H. Channing, who
had preached with great acceptance during the previous win
ter, and on May 10th his ordination took place; the sermon
�i3
being preached by Rev. F. A. Farley, of Providence, R. L,
the Charge and Address given by Rev. W. G. Eliot, of St.
Louis, and the Right Hand of Fellowship by Rev. J. Free
man Clarke, of Louisville. The hymns were written by James
H. Perkins, and are reprinted in the appendix. Of Mr. Chan
ning’s bénéficient ministry hè has sent a too modest account,
which is given in its proper place. His resignation in Febru
ary, 1844, from conscientious motives, though honorable to
himself, was a severe blow to the society. For some time
after the pulpit was occupied by James H. Perkins, a mem
ber of the society, and a man of brilliant gifts and lofty char
acter. The Rev. C. J. Fenner, a talented and poetic mind,
returning from a southern trip, was invited to the pastorate,
and, although in very precarious health, accccpted the call,
serving the society faithfully from June to November, 1846,
when he relapsed, and a few months later died. In 1847 we
find Mr. Perkins again occupying the pulpit of the society,
this time as its regular pastor, a position he held with the
unbroken respect and love of his people until his too early
death in December, 1849. During his ministry the society
became noted for it$ benevolent activities, and rendered good
service in the many noble causes of which he was the inspirer,
and for which his previous experience as a minister
among the poor had so admirably qualified him. Thus, on
the first of January, 1848, a meeting of citizens was held, at
his call, in the City Council Chamber, and the Cincinnati Re
lief Union inaugurated, of which noble charity he was the first
president and efficient manager. He may also be considered
the father of the House of Refuge for children (in which
enterprise he was greatly aided by the labors of a good
woman, Mrs. R. B. Field, a member of the Unitarian Church),
as well as of other good institutions. His last sermon was an
appeal for the poor, and although eminent as a lawyer, editor,
teacher, essayist, poet, lecturer and preacher, it is this sanc
tified labor for the unfortunate and destitute that best keeps
his memory green among his parishioners and fellow-towns
men in Cincinnati to-day.
In 1850, Rev. A. A. Livermore accepted the pastorate
�T4
and began a useful and beneficent work among us. Thank
God, he is yet spared to gladden us from time to time with
his apostolic presence. Under Mr. Livermore the society was
thoroughly organized for efficient service and made liberal
donations of time, labor and money to good causes. The
various city charities and missionary enterprises of the denom
ination were recipients of its bounty. In 1852 the Western
Unitarian Conference was „organized at Cincinnati. Mr. Liv
ermore felt constrained, however, in 1856, to resign his charge
on account of ill health, and the society chose as his successor
in November of the same year, the Rev. Moncure D. Conway,,
of Washington, D. C. Mr. Conway’s ministry began most
auspiciously. His vigorous, fearless style of preaching, the
literary finish and freshness of his discourses attracted a large
following. In 1859, however, the increasing radicalism of
his utterances from the pulpit sorely troubled some of his par
ishioners of more conservative opinion, and a difference arose,
which, although causing a deal of unpleasant feeling at the
time and for long years after, there is no occasion to dwell
upon here, since it has been quite, if not entirely, out
lived on both sides, and a cordial unity of feeling restored.
The immediate result of this difference of opinion in the
church was the withdrawal of a minority of its members, who
soon after organized a second Unitarian society under the
name of the Church of the Redeemer.
The new congregation purchased from the Second Universalist Society the edifice on the south-west corner of Mound
and Sixth streets (since demolished). Disappointed in their
efforts to secure as pastor the Rev. Thos. Starr King, which
at first seemed likely to be successful, their pulpit was filled
for some time by various Unitarian notables, among whom
were Revs. Dr. H. W. Bellows, Dr. A. P. Peabody, Dr.
Oliver Stearns, Dr. Wm. -G. Eliot, Dr. Thomas Hill, J. H.
Heywood and Horace Mann, Esq. In January, 1863, the Rev.
A. D. Mayo was settled over the society and remained in Cincin,nati for ten years, a hard-working pastor, a gifted preacher, and
rendering great services to the community as a member of the
Public School Board. In 1872 he accepted a call to Spring
�i5
field, Mass., and was succeeded on January 5th, 1873, by Rew
‘Charles Noyes, whose ministry was marked by great fidelity to
his trust, while his catholicity of spirit and geniality of nature
did much to bring about a better understanding between the
two branches of Unitarianism in Cincinnati, and prepared the
way for the coming re-union.
Returning from this necessary digression to the history of
the parent church, we find Mr. Conway continuing his ser
vices as pastor until his resignation in November, 1862, to
accept a charge elsewhere. A call wa% extended to Rev. C.
G. Ames,-who occupied the pulpit during the greater portion
of the year 1863. In February, 1864, the church building
was sold, and the site is now covered by a huge block of
stores. An excellent representation of this simple, but his
toric, structure, in which R. W. Emerson, Theodore Parker,
Orville Dewey and so many other eminent men first uttered
their radical thought in our city, is given as a frontispiece to
this volume. It has been prepared from a pencil sketch made
in 1832 by Mrs. Ephraim Peabody, and kindly loaned by her
for this purpose. The society now migrated to Library Hall
on Vine street. As Mr. Ames was not able to remain per
manently with them, a number of preachers distinguished for
their progressive and radical views, as well as for their pulpit
ability, ministered for longer or shorter periods to the church.
Among them were Revs. Sidney H. Morse, David A. Was
son, Edward C. Towne and H. W. Brown. On the 19th of
September, 1865, the trustees were authorized to purchase
the lot and dwelling on the north-east corner of Plum and
Eighth streets, the site of the present church. January 26th,
1866, a call was extended to Rev. Thomas Vickers, then
studying at Heidelberg, Germany. Pending his acceptance,
the pulpit was occupied by A. Bronson Alcott, Revs. Samuel
Johnson, John Weiss, D. A. Wasson, Robert Collyer and
others. On the 6th of January, 1867, Rev. Mr. Vickers
preached his first sermon and began his pastoral relation.
Services were held for some years thereafter in Hopkins Hall,
on the south-west corner of Elm and West Fourth streets, but
it was now determined to erect a suitable house of worship,
�16
and on the 6th of November, 1870, the present building, on
the corner of Plum and Eighth streets, was dedicated, Rev.
Robert Collyer, of Chicago, preaching the sermon, and the
dedicatory prayer being from the lips of Rabbi Dr. Max Lilienthal. Mr. Vickers remained with the society until he
accepted the post of Public Librarian of the city, and on
Easter Sunday, April 5th, 1874, preached his farewell ser
mon. A man of scholarship and radical opinion, he also took
a prominent part in civil affairs, leading the opposition to the
retention of the Bible in the Public Schools, and conducting
a controversy with the Catholic Archbishop of this diocese
with signal ability and success. For some months during the
year 1874 the pulpit was filled by Revs. A. W. Stevens and
J. S. Thomson, after which services were, in a measure, sus
pended.
In the meantime, the pulpit of the Church of the Redeemer
had also become vacant, Rev. Charles Noyes having resigned.
With considerable differences of theological opinion, there yet
existed a very kindly feeling and pleasant social relations
between the members of the two societies. Both flocks
were pastorless, both burdened with a heavy indebted
ness. Under these circumstances their consolidation into
one society seemed in every way advisable, and was a
subject of discussion. In November, 1875, Rev. C. W.
Wendte, of Chicago, having received a call from the Church
of the Redeemer, and an informal invitation also from the
First Congregational Society, the opportunity for the union
seemed to have arrived. At his suggestion, which was
cordially seconded by Mess. John Kebler, Robert Hosea,
M. F. Force, Seth Evans and J. W. Harper, trustees of the
Church of the Redeemer, and Alphonso Taft, Thomas Vick
ers, Wm. Wiswell, John D. Caldwell and John F. Dair, trus
tees of the parent society, several consultations were held to
consider the consolidation of the two churches, and on
the 29th of December, 1875, a plan of union was unan
imously adopted by the two corporations under the original
name, “The First Congregational Church of Cincinnati.”
Trustees were chosen equally from each of the societies, and
�17
Rev. C. W. Wendte was called as pastor, preaching his first
sermon before the re united flock in the Church of the Re
deemer on the 9th of January, 1876, following. By a happy
coincidence, Rev. M. D. Conway, being in Cincinnati on a
visit, had occupied the pulpit for one Sunday by invitation of
the Church of the Redeemer, and expressed his felicitations at
the re-union. The formal installation of Mr. Wendte took
place on the 19th of January, 1876. Rev. Robert Collyer, of
Chicago, preached the sermon, Rew J. H. Heywood, of Louis
ville, Ky., offered the prayer, Rev. Chas. Ames, of Bos
ton, gave the Right Hand of Fellowship, and Rev. Thomas
Vickers the Address to the People. For two years or more
the society continued to worship in the Mound street temple,
but this edifice having been disposed of, the church on the
corner of Plum and Eighth streets was refitted and refurnished,
and on Easter Sunday, April 13th, 1879, was re-dedicated
with appropriate services in the presence of a crowded con
gregation.
The re-united society has already reaped the goodly fruits
of its forbearance and catholicity. During the past year,
1879, two-thirds of its indebtedness has been paid off, and
extensive repairs made in its church edifice, a new organ
purchased, and liberal contributions made toward good causes.
Notwithstanding considerable difference of opinion on points
of theology, there is a remarkable unity of religious spirit in
the membership. It is not claiming too much to say that the
latter day of the First Congregational Church of Cincinnati
is worthy of that brave beginning and notable history of
which we have given this fragmentary account, and of which
the communications and letters that follow in this volume are
the commentary and elucidation. May we be worthy of our
trust, and another half century find this church still a power
unto salvation to its members and the larger community.
3
�Congregational Unitarian Ctynrcl),
cusroinsrisr^LTT.
CHAS. W. WENDTE, Minister.
1 S'T'S-SO.
Regular Sunday Morning Services
I
Special Sunday Evening Services
at ii o’clock.
|
at
o’clock.
Sunday School at 9^ o’clock a. m.
TRUSTEES.
Fayette Smith,
Theodore Stanwood,
M. E. Ingalls,
Zeph. Brown.
Michael Tempest,
John D. Caldwell,
4-CRG+UnirWLllB-F
A society for self-culture, social entertainment and helpfulness, holds its meet
ings at the church parlors, North-east corner Plum aud Eighth
streets, on alternate Wednesday evenings, at 8 o’clock.
*
OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES FOR 1879-80.
Edward Goepper, President,
W. H. Taft, 1st Vice-President,
J. B. Stanwood, 2d Vice-President,
Stephen Wilder, Secretary,
W. H. Williamson, Treasurer,
Miss Annie Sampson,
\
j
f
Executive
/committee.
\
/
^CBe+LADieS’+AID+ASSOPIACIOD^
Mrs. Henry C. Whitman,
.
•
.
.
Mrs. Mary Russell,
.....
Miss Lizzie Allen,
.....
President.
Vice-President.
Secretary and Treasurer.
Meets every Wednesday afternoon, at 3 o’clock, in’ the vestry of the church.
All ladies attending services at this church are invited to join this society.
*CR6+mmiODARY*$O(UeCY*
Manning F.. Force,
.....
Alphonso Taft and George Thornton,
.
Miss Sallif. Ellis, ......
President.
Vice-Presidents.
Secretary and Treasurer.
�(jommunitfÄTions
FROM FORMER
Pastors and Early Members of the Society
��FROM REV. WM. H. CHANNING.
Accept my hearty thanks for your welcome to the SemiCentennial Festival of the “First Congregational (Unitarian)
Church of Cincinnati.” It would be a high gratification to
be one of. your guests on so encouraging an occasion. For,
although it has never been my happiness to re-visit the
“Queen City” since the resignation of my ministry in 1841,
yet all associations with Cincinnati are brightly beautiful, and
their freshness will never fade. But, as it will be out of my
power to be present in person, let me avail myself of your
invitation—as one of the Early Ministers of your Society—to
speak a few words of Good Cheer through the medium of
this note.
And in beginning my pastoral leisure, the memory can
not but move me, that nearly forty years have swept by since
the publication of a “Farewell Letter” to your congregation
explaining the motive for withdrawing my ministry, and ex
pressing deep regret that a sense of honour had compelled
me to loose so dear a tie. That printed “Letter” now lies
open before me, and it would please me to learn that copies
of it are still kept among your elder members and in the
archives of your Society. For that “Confession of Faith”
was written in heart’s blood—to use the common symbol of
emotion—and the purest life of my spirit was infused through
its pages; so truly, indeed, did it express convictions, which
have been growing ever more vivid, that it i^my hope, ere
closing, to re affirm them in a slightly altered form.
But how few of the Elders to whom that “Farewell” was
addressed, survive among you. Other generations have entered
into their labors, to garner rich harvests from fields which their
toils reclaimed, and to pluck ripe clusters from vineyards which
their hands planted. Your people and you are co-heirs in a
�22
domain bequeathed by a noble band of pioneers. And to
some representatives among these prime missionaries of Lib
eral Christianity, it would gladden me, if time allowed, to pay
a transient tribute.
First, however, let me bear a brief testimony of personal
regard to the two friends whose advice brought me to Cincin
nati—one a predecessor, the other my immediate successor in
the ministry - of your congregation—Ephraim Peabody and
*
James H. Perkins. Both were highly endowed, most earnest
and widely useful men, and their images yet remain undimmed
in the records of your Society. Ephraim Peabody was, at
that time, a poet in character and conduct, even more than in
his fervid eloquence and literary compositions. He fold thrown
his ardent sympathies into the heroic life of ’ the vigorous
West, and his imagination was all aglow with visions of the
giant young commonwealths, which, with hands interlinked,
and shoulder to shoulder, were bearing triumphantly onward
Christian civilization beyond the broad prairies and across the
Rocky Mountains to the shores of the Pacific. Most justly
did it appear to him t’hat the generous form of religion called
“Liberal Christian” was the very inspiration fitted to purify,
enlarge and elevate this conquering host of Pilgrims of Hope.
And most lucidly did he expound the Affirmative Doctrine
and Practical Principles of this large type of Christian Faith
and Life, till he not only won the loving reverence of his own
people, but also of the Orthodox Communions, who honoured
his cheerful humanity and lofty trust, while rejecting what
they deemed his heresies. He confided to me, afterwards,
that, according to his own estimate, his tone of thought at
this era was too ideal, and his style of address too strictly intel
lectual. But this self-criticism sprang from his own modes.ty.
For, though aeach year of spiritual struggle, doubtless, served
to refine his religious character, yet from the first shone forth
the devout enthusiasm, luminous wisdom and hallowed serenity
which overspead with softened lustre his sunset years.
Of my cousin, James Perkins, who from childhood was
like a twin brother, as we were of the same age and bred in
close intimacy, it would be delightful to write at length, but
�2$
your ciders, and, let me hope, some of your younger mem
bers, have probably read the Memoir which it was my privi
lege to prepare after his lamented departure; and to that let
me refer as the truest portrait in my power to paint of his
genius and virtues. Like Ephraim Peabody, James Ferkins’
soul was kindled with anticipations of the magnificent future
opening before the people of the West, and being, like Pea
body, also a fervent Liberal Christian, he was pre-eminently
qualified to spread a quickening influence through the city and
State of his adoption. Already distinguished as a sagacious
and well-read lawyer, an effective speaker and a brilliant his
torical and critical essayist, many friends were expecting a
high career for him as a statesman. But, though ambitious
to bear a patriot’s part in enlightening the minds and mould
ing the wills of the young around him, his fine-toned con
science and scrupulous sense of personal dignity repelled him
from the sphere of partisan politics. And at the time of my
arrival in Cincinnati he had made arrangements to settle him
self on the soil as a nursery gardener in the neighborhood of
the city. It is one of my happiest Western remembrances,
that very much through my urgent encouragement, my cousin
was diverted from pursuits, which, however honourable, would
have too much have absorbed his rare intellectual and moral
powers, and was impelled to consecrate them to the ministry
among the poor, for which he became so tenderly loved and
trusted. It was his admirable usefulness in these disinterested
services that led your congregation so unanimously to elect
him as my successor. And then it was that he first became
conscious of his wonderful gift as a pulpit orator. As a lec
turer before literary societies and in platform addresses, indeed,
he had often held large audiences spell-bound by the charm
of his clear, terse, energetic and commanding speech. But
it was only when under the sway of religious emotion, he
sought to reveal to tried and tempted, struggling, yet aspiring,
fellow beings, the Spiritual Laws of which he had caught a
glimpse, that he disclosed that penetrating reason, soaring
imagination, wide-embracing mercy and awe-struck reverence
which lay hid, even from the eye of friends, beneath his
�24
stoical reserve. They, whoever listened to one of these effu
sions, will bear witness with me that there were seasons when
the poet in James Perkins wore the prophet’s robe.
From these slight notices of two esteemed associates, my
impulse is to make mention, next, of the crowd of affection
ately remembered friends, whose images throng round me as
the happy years of ministerial intercourse are recalled. But
discriminating sketches of the chief of these even would carry
me too far, while to omit any would be ungrateful. No
doubt, Brother Wendte, you and our fellow-ministers as
sembled at your festival, would echo my words in regard to
your own Societies, when I say that my old congregation in
the “Unitarian Church of Cincinnati,” appear, on looking
back, like a company of the “Elect,” so unaffectedly devout
were they, so free-thoughted to receive the newest truth, so
closely knit together iri kindly fellowship, and so ready for
good works.
Turning then, though reluctlantly, from the persons and
families who re-appear in that Palingenesia of memory, which
is the pledge of immortal Re union, let me note a few of the
specially bright remembrances of our Congregational Life.
And first rises the recollection of our well ordered Sunday
School. How radiantly from the past shine forth the expect
ant faces of the Bible Class which each Sunday morning con
versed with me and one another on the lesson for the day;
and of the eagerly attentive congregation of little ones who
listened so responsively to my familiar talks. Those refresh
ing half hours of communion with the young come back to
me like a breath of Spring over an orchard in bloom. Your
seed plot of blossoming Trees of Life thrives richly, let us
trust.
Next seem tore-gather our weekly Conferences for study
ing the solution of Theological problems, discussing the prin
ciples of Christian Ethics, and planning methods for applying
these to the needs of the community. Your Committees, it
gratifies me to observe, are admirably organized and doubtless
they are efficient workers. But, believe me, the essays, de
bates and consultations of your predecessors, in our time,
�would not have been unworthy of the notice of this genera
tion, accomplished as it is, for the depth of philosophic thought,
fervent religious feeling, frank sincerity of criticism, openmindedness to the last result of scientific inquiry, earnestness
in reform, and undaunted hopefulness which characterized
them. In a word, our Conference was a company of fellow
seekers after truth and righteousness, wherein every honest
conviction was hospitably welcomed, and whence intolerance
alone was expelled as intolerable.
My next cheerful memory is that the brotherly kindness
kept alive by. our conference and social meetings prompted
a successful effort to clear off an accumulated load of debt
which had long burdened the energies of the Congregation.
The sacrifices, gladly borne, and the genuine sympathies thus
awakened, not only revived the religious life of the society
within, but attracted members from other communions and
newly-come strangers to join us, until, with well filled pews,
we felt that exhilarating consciousness of vigorous growth
which is- the sure sign of spiritual health in a society.
Indeed, we were bound together in perfect harmony, ex
cept in regard to the two practical reforms of Temperance and
Anti-Slavery. As to the first of these, a passing reference
alone is needed. For, although not a few in those days re
garded my principle of Total Abstinence as ascetic to the
verge of fanaticism, yet no attempt was made to check my
most earnest advocacy of the Temperance Cause. But in re
gard to Anti-Slavery, any one who will recall the temper of
Public Opinion as to the constitutional relations between the
Free States and the Slave States all along the Ohio Valley at
that critical period, will readily comprehend how difficult Was
the position of a minister in Cincinnati who uncompromisingly
avowed himself an Abolitionist. It gave proof of the remark
able liberality of the “First Congregational Church,” and of
the genuine friendship between them and their preacher, that
no remonstrance was made against the emphatic declaration
from the pulpit, that the law of Christian Brotherhood com
manded “Immediate PLmancipation. ” But when their pastor
proceeded to read announcements of Anti-Slavery Meetings—
4
�26
when, claiming his right as a pew-holder, he voted in a small
minority that the use of the church should be granted for Anti
Slavery lectures —when, in company with Rev. Wm. H. Bris
bane, from South Carolina, and Rev. Mr. Blanchard, of the Or
thodox Congregationalists, he addressed crowded assemblies,
and finally, when, with the far-famed Editor of the “Philanthro
pist,” Dr. Bailey, he took a stand-on the platform beside
Salmon P. Chase, when that great-hearted Statesman devoted
his whole political influence to the cause of Liberty for all
men—the indignation of not a few waxed warm. And the
crisis came when, amidst the impassioned excitements of the
Presidential Election, when nearly all of my best friends voted
for General Harrison, my ballot was cast for James G. Bir
ney. Then, for a few days, it did look probable that, for the
sake of peace, it might be wise to resign my post. But before
the week was out it was candidly recognized that my course
as a Citizen had been guided by the conscience of a Christian
Freeman, and my hold on the confidence of the society grew
firmer than ever. My chief reason, indeed, for re-awakeriing
these long buried trials is, first, to encourage your young
people to follow the Flag of Duty at all risks, and next, to
place distinctly on record this Fact in the history of the ‘ ‘First
Congregational Unitarian Church of Cincinnati,” that a score
of years before the era of our Nation’s redemption from the
crime and curse of Slavery, its pulpit stood before Ohio as
the representative of impartial Equity, Mercy and Brotherly
Kindness, and as the advocate of Universal P'reedom within
the United States.
And now it may well be asked, “How could you bear to
break a fraternal bond which such trials had only served to
seal?” My answer will be found in the “Farewell Letter”
already referred to. From its’pages it may be learned, how,
under the lead of Transcendental Philosophy then prevalent
in New England, and the ultra-rationalistic criticism imported
from Germany nearly forty years ago, I had become what is
now called a “Theist,” and how, having assumed aground
widely different from that held by the Unitarian denomination
which had ordained me, and from that avowed by myself,
�when the “First Congregational Unitarian Church” had en
trusted their pulpit to my charge, I felt it to be right to resign
my ministry, and with “a sad heart, though a clear con
science,” to bid my Cincinnati friends “Farewell.” But, from
the “Confession of Faith” contained in that “Letter,” it will
also appear how prolonged studies, conference with wise
scholars, calm thought and devout aspiration had brought me
up into a purer, spiritual atmosphere, and into a bright Faith
in Jesus as the Son of Man, transfigured into the Son of
God, which was like the dawn of a new day. Half a life
time has rolled by since that turning point in my ascending
path. And now, at the age of three score and ten, thanks to
“The Father of Lights,” I re-affirm the main doctrine of that
“Credo” with all my heart, and mind, and soul, and strength.
So nearly, indeed, does that Declaration embody my present
convictions in regard to the Character and Life of the Beloved
Son, his Central Relation to the Heavenly Father and to Hu
manity, and his Providential Function in evolving the destiny
of our Race, that I should rejoice to reprint it, with a few
modifications, and place it in the hands of every member of
your society. The chief difference between the views declared
in that “Letter, and to which exhaustive study of Comparative
Religion, Philosophy and History have enabled me to attain,
is that now from serener heights, with vision commanding a
wider horizon, and as in noon-day splendour, I behold
realities which in my early progress were discerned from
afar, half-veiled in morning clouds beneath the flush of sunrise.
[Note by the Editor of the Memorial Volume.—Mr. Channing con
cludes his admirable letter with a philosophic and brilliant exposition of Spir
itual Christianity as the one, universal, world-redeeming religion of humanity.
It is impossible, from want of space, to include in this pamphlet the balance of
his communication, which, however, appeared in the Christian Register for
February 21st, 1880. We have room only for its closing sentences.]
* * *
And now, Brethern and Sisters, Co-citizens
of our Freed and United Republic, could you but behold the
unequaled privileges and possibilities of our people as they
appear to an exile, who follows with longing eyes the descending
sun as he sinks to shed noon-tide on the lands of the west,
�28
you would rejoice and take courage. Receive, then, my Ben
ediction across the seas. Be worthy of your heritage of hope.
There is coming, swiftly coming, to repeat my refrain, a New
Era of Christendom, the celestial signs of which will be the
Revival of Real Christian Life. Henceforth, the United
Christian Church Universal can be content with nothing less
than Living Communion with the Father, through the Son,
in the Spirit of Holy, Heavenly Human Love. Consecrate
your whole being to receive this influx of the Real God with
us. Give your best energies heartily up to the currents of
Charity pulsating through our communities. But clearly
comprehend that this blessed Beneficence, beautiful as it is,
serves but as a John the Baptist to proclaim the advent of the
Real Christ. Does there not flow through you, like a cleansing
fire, the consciousness that the Son of Man, in His Perfect
Manhood, made glorious as Son of God by the Father’s In
dwelling Presence was the Adam of a New-born Race? That
one Transfigured Man was the ideal prophecy and pledge of
a Transfigured Humanity! Brethern, Sisters! Co-sovereign
children of God! Our Nation of United Freemen may be, if
only wise enough to will it, the elect People to realize that
Divine Ideal, and so fulfill the “desire of all Nations" by or
ganizing in every township of our Christian Commonwealth
perfect Societies as Heavens on Earth.
With Christmas and New Year’s Greeting,
Yours, in Good Hope,
William Henry Channing.
Harrogate, England, December ioth, 1879.
�29
FROM REV. CYRUS A. BARTOL, D.D.
I am so over-pressed with cares, I can but send to your
church God-speed for the future, with congratulations for the
past.
I had a happy six months’ work in the dear old temple
on the corner, hard by where Lyman Beecher preached, and
where he was tried for heresy by the Presbytery.
My heart has lost none of its warmth for the friends of
nearly forty-four years ago, but runs deep and steady as the
Ohio River, and never to be frozen as that was, so that I crossed
into Covington, Kentucky, on the ice. But I bear in mind,
too, the flowers I picked with beloved companions—one of
whom at least, ever precious to my heart, still lives—on the
the 1st day of January, 1836.
There is something in a memory—there is a hope in it.
A great and good one may there be in your commemoration,
prays,
Your cordial friend,
C. A. Bartol.
Boston, January ist, 1880.
FROM REV. SAMUEL OSGOOD, D.D.
Your Committee on Invitations have kindly remembered
me in your arrangements for your Church Semi-Centennial,
and it would be to me a most interesting festival could I be
present. Great would be the satisfaction of meeting the few
members of the congregation whom I remember and who
remember me/ Equally great would be the surprise at noting
the new faces in the assembly, and the marvellous growth of
your noble city, and all its good institutions, and beautiful arts.
I have a very humble claim to a place on your list of
preachers, for I occupied your pulpit from May 1st, 1836, till
the end of November, and again from February 5th, 1837, to
the middle of March. I did what I could in the pulpit, the
�Sunday School, and in parish work, but I was conscious of
being too green in experience and too crude in culture to meet
the demands of so important a post. There was great kind
ness on the part of many of the people, whilst I was aware
that the need of a popular preacher who could build them up
at once by mingled wisdom and eloquence, was not met by
the raw youth who went West from the Cambridge Divinity
School.
I am sorry to find so few names that are familiar to me
on your list of representative parishioners. E. P. Cranch,
Rowland Ellis, Ryland, Hartwell and Fayette Smith are all
that I am sure of recalling, but there may be others. * *
Mrs. Charles Stetson, to whom, with her husband, I owed so
much for their great kindness, I saw a few days ago in the
repose of death in All Souls’ Church—the same delicacy and
peace in her features as in her hospitable home forty-four
years ago. So the years pass.
God’s blessing be with your church and with you all.
Your friend,
Sam’l Osgood.
New York, January 19th, 1880.
FROM REV. A. A. LIVERMORE.
I thank the committee of the First Congregational Church
of Cincinnati for its kind invitation to attend the Semi-Cen
tennial Re-union of the church on the 21st inst. My duties
here, however, will necessarily prevent me from enjoying that
very great pleasure. But I am glad to send my word of
greeting, and to respond, with all my heart, to your invitation.
It will be thirty years—one whole generation, as time is
reckoned—on the 15th of next May, when my dear wife and
I, having descended the Ohio from Pittsburg, in the Keystone
State, Capt. Stone, landed in Cincinnati and were welcomed
by brother Kebler and wife to their ever hospitable home.
�3i
We were both wholly strangers to the West, as it was then
called. I had b6en settled in a quiet £Jew England town,
Keene, New Hampshire, for thirteen years arid a half. But
chronic bronchitis required a change of climate, and a spon
taneous call from your society brought us to the Queen
City. It was a great change for us, greater than we knew
then. Eloquent and devoted pastors had preceded me, among
whom were the apostolic Peabody, the enthusiastic Channing,
and the philanthropic Perkins. The fermentation of many
new opinions was going on here, both in politics and religion
Different national elements entered into the composition of
society. It was the eventful era of the Anti-Slavery discus
sion, of the rise of Spiritualism, of radical and free religious
opinions, and. of the first mutterings of the thunder cloud
which soon broke forth in civil war.
Th'e old church, at the corner of Race and Fourth, now
occupied by a splendid dry goods store, was a dear place to
our hearts. Home is home, however homely, and that was
our religious home. It was ancient and dingy, but it was
clothed over, within and without, with hallowed associations.
There noble men had lifted up their voices—Emerson, Walk
er, Bellows, Dewey, Parker, Gannett, Hosmer, Mann, and
others of the great liberal household. Th'e only sketch of
■the building, I believe, in existence, is one made by Mrs.
Ephraim Peabody, and now in her possession. I wish I had
it to send you.
The first summer was a cholera season, less fatal than 1849,
but sweeping off thousands. I attended five furierals of those
who died of this disease—Mr. Pollard, Mr. Bates and child,
Mrs. Dr. Price, and Mrs. Lemaire. But we and our people
staid in the city all through the hot weather, and had three
services every Sunday—Sunday school at nine o’clock and
preaching in the forenoon and evening. Unitarians were stal
wart in those days, and minded not wind or weather. And I
am glad to see that of the Committee of Invitation, on your
card sent me, twelve are active still, who belonged to the
society in my day. Happy men, who, after dwelling in tent
and tabernacle, and the wanderings in the wilderness, have
�32
lived to enter the promised land, and even-to behold this fair
temple on Mount Zion.
We did what we could in those days of transition and crisis.
We kept the fire lighted on the altar. We drew as near
Christ and His Father—and our Father—as we could, feeling
that for a working principle and every day religion, lofty prin
ciples and ideals, plus these mighty personalities, were better
for us than the grandest truths, if they were merely abstract
and unsymbolized. In 1852 we organized here the Western
Conference, which has flourished since and become a power
in the land. We reached out a helping hand to Antioch Col
lege and over to Meadville Theological School, when those
institutions were getting under way. We did something in
the book business and circulated several hundred volumes of
Channing’s works and memoirs, and other liberal books in this
community and through the West. More or less of us
worked for the anti-slavery cause, and united in those charm
ing re-unions at the annual spring time in the hospitable
Ernst mansion at Spring Garden, where we met such historic
characters as Garrison, Mrs. Stowe, May, Phillips, Adin
Ballou, and others. The Ladies’ Art Association, the Relief
Union for charity, and the Kossuth frenzy came in for a
share of attention and work. Hearts that are dust now,
spirits that burn pure in heaven now, kindled then with sacred
fire for the cause of God and man. If the fuel of the fire
was not always free from earthliness and grossness, the fire
itself flamed pure to heaven, transforming all to its own
celestial essence.
So we worked, and so dreamed, as the years rolled by. It
was a sweet and happy society, that old Cincinnati brother
hood and sisterhood. There was the old Book Club Sociable.
There was the great hospitable Stetson mansion , and other
hospitable mansions. There were lectures from Parker and
Emerson and Mann. There was Madame D’Arusmont, whose,
funeral I afterward attended, insisting on woman’s rights and
wrongs. There were many eccentrics in Western society at
that time, and the race is not yet wholly extinct, but they
added interest and piquancy to what otherwise might have
proved tame and prosaic.
�33
But at last the work grew heavy. Illness of a sad type
invaded the household. There must be another change, and
on July 6, 1856, I performed the last service as the pastor of
your church, after a ministry here of six years and two
months, and removed to Yellow Springs, O., and the same
fall to New York to take charge of the Christian Inquirer, and
the parish at Yonkers for seven years, and thence removed to
Meadville, in 1863, where my duties are still in the Theolog
ical School.
It was a rupture of many tender and endeared ties to break
away from Cincinnati; but short ministries have been the
customary rule there. I received always from your church
and society the most kindly consideration and generous treat
ment, and not a word or act, so far as I know, ever broke the
charm of a perfect friendship. And whenever, from time to
time, I have visited Cincinnati, I have always met friends
and only friends, and have been made glad with the old love
and the ancient friendly greeting. I wish I could say this
face to face, but as that cannot be done, the next best thing
is to write it.
And now that a great blow has fallen upon me that stuns
me to the earth, I find a sweet, sad pleasure in recalling those
past days, when we, who are now parted, labored together
here and had such blessed communion in duties, anxieties and
trials as must fall to the lot of all who are engaged in the
ministry of Christ.
And now, to bring these desultory reminiscences to a close,
may your re-union be a happy and encouraging one ; gain
say it who will, the work which this church has done in your
city and in the larger community of the State and the Ohio
Valley has not been in vain. It has sowed many a good seed
and reaped many a golden harvest. Noble men and sainted
women have been in your household of faith. The record is
on high and it is one we need not be ashamed of. In how
many things we might have done better is not the thought
for this evening of commemoration, but it- is fervent gratitude
to God that His grace has enabled us to do as we have and as
much as -we have. So we will thank God and take courage.
5
�May your history for the next fifty years round out the
century with still better service to God and man and still
nobler achievements than any you have yet seen or realized.
Your position is a glorious one—to act on the heart and cen
ter of a great and growing nation. Let the heart and soul of
every young man and every young woman of this church, or
at this re-union, catch the fire of a holy resolution to unite to
do something worthy and substantial to help on the Christian
culture and civilization of the great coming nation that is here
to exceed all the other nations of the earth. But to give
solidity and incisiveness to this resolution they need to re
member that only on these eternal paths of righteousness can our
beloved America hold her way in safety, and not go down, as
so many kingdoms and empires before her have done, in irre
trievable ruin. * * * All earthly interests, all worldly
ambitions are but as the small dust of the balance compared
with the eternal truths and the heavenly aims of which your
church stands as the representative, and which will still rise
and shine bright as ever when a thousand ages are past.
Peace and love be with you all!
Ever, most affectionately,
Your old pastor and constant friend and brother,
A. A. Livermore.
Meadville, January 17, 1880.
FROM REV. MONCURE D. CONWAY.
Hearty thanks for your good kind letter and your remen?brance of me in connection with the Semi-Centennial of the
First Congregational Church of Cincinnati. But it astonishes
me! I never had a notion that the church was such a young
thing. I thought it belonged to the pre-historic bronze age
of Cincinnati, or at least sprang up along with the first
catawba vine planted by Nicholas Longworth. I knew it was
very much evolved when I went to it, and, some may add,
�35
considerably involved when I left it. At any rate, I am sure
its present prosperity is an example of the survival of the
fittest. When I come to think of it, there is a good long
stretch of years since the first Sunday I entered the pulpit at
the corner of Fourth and Race streets. I have on my wall
now a photograph of that pulpit with an evergreen arch in
front of it and large lilies each side. Dear Mr. Hoffner sent
them. If my memory does not deceive me, it was on the
occasion of the minister’s marriage, a ceremony in which I
participated. How well I remember the old days!
Now and then, when I meet the eminent London composer
and conductor, Danreuther, I wonder if he recalls my end of
the old church as vividly as I do his thin, small form at the
other end, struggling with the organ keys, which he mastered,
and the pedals which almost mastered him. There were some
happy years at the old corner. No misunderstandings, or
differences which followed them, and no changes since have
ever made me forget any of the brave, earnest, and able men
and women who used to gather with me there, most of whom
I am glad to hear of standing by you now. Goethe says:
“All things would be done so nice,
Could we only do them twice,”
and I sometimes think that if I had my life and ministry at
Cincinnati to live over again, with as many gray hairs as I
have now, I should be able to make it a pleasanter page in
the history of the First Congregational Church. * * * *
I have seen by the papers that your minister has been sug
gesting to the chimneys how they may burn their own smoke,
and trust that the Orthodox steeples will learn the same les
son. The smoke of their torment ought not to ascend up for
ever and ever. I hope that beautiful Cincinnati will become
clean of both coal and dogmatic soot, and as fair as the Queen
of the West should be. My heart will be with you at the
banquet of your year of jubilee, and I shall think of it as a
golden wedding, the fiftieth anniversary of a union of faithful
hearts, based on a profounder union of reason and religion in
earnest minds. May you still be present when the diamond
�5
*
3
wedding arrives to lay on the society’s brow the crown of a
higher success, shining with brilliants yet to be won from the
mines of truth and freedom 1 And, if I may be allowed to
change the similitude, may our children and our children’s
children remember this Semi-Centennial festival as but a vig
orous leaf on a flourishing stem when they gather around the
century blossom whose glory will surely crown our cause.
Across sea and land I pledge the old First Congregational
with the bumper of a full heart.
Ever yours faithfully,
Moncure D. Conway.
London, Christmas-time., 1879.
FROM REV. C. G. AMES.
* * * I was prevented by a sudden call out of the city
and to the sick chamber of one very dear to me from answer
ing your kind note of invitation. The impulse was strong to
send you a telegram merely to say, “The communion of the
Holy Ghost be with you all,” but I had a little fear that by
the time it got to your meeting it would sound canting. But
it is just what I want to say to the dear folks and to you, my
friend and fellow servant.
Charles G. Ames.
Philadelphia, Penn., January 24, 1880.
FROM REV. A. D. MAYO.
My Dear Friends:
When I read your kind invitation to be present at the
anniversary of the First Congregational Church, I was sorry
that in spite of telegraphs and telephones a thousand miles
�37
are not yet as one mile, that I might be with you. It is true
I was never settled over your church, but was pastor of our
dear buried Church of the Redeemer. But in the Christian
faith, in which I rejoice, there is no death or burial, but what
seems to be the going out of one good thing is only the birth
of another. Whatever of the true church of love to God
and man was formed in those eventful years in the breasts of
the men and women and children who used to assemble in
that plain tabernacle at the corner of Sixth and Mound
streets, still abides, and has passed over into the new congre
gation, which gathers about the new minister and approves
itself by its work.
#
<<
^4
^4
^4
jj;
My best wishes are with you, however. I have not forgot
ten one of my old parishioners and I wish I could become
acquainted with all your parish I have not seen.
I have never wavered from my conviction, always expressed
while in Cincinnati, that your city is one of the few strategic
points for Christian work in America. In no American city
are the elements of our nationality so evenly mated and so in
want of a final moulding into a true American type. No
where does the community suffer so much from the violence,
on the one hand, of an intolerant conservatism, and on the
other, from an implacable antipathy to all forms of organized
Christianity. So far the Protestant church in Cincinnati
seems to have failed to reconcile these warring elements and
lead this new metropolis as it should be led in the highway
of public purity and private and social morality. The present
condition of your city is the reproach of the Protestant church
that for a hundred years has stood at the sources of its spirit
ual and moral life. Whether from a theology too scholastic and
impractical, or a want of spiritual tact to seize upon decisive
moments in the life of the city, or from want of courage to
face the insolent Romanism and blatant Atheism that have
filled your streets with a strange clamor of discordant voices,
or from all these combined, the Protestant church of Cincinnati
has not yet come up to the full measure of her responsibility.
I believe nothing but a truly Liberal Christianity can save
�óur American cities, East and West, from a more dangerous
than Roman or Asiatic corruption. Much as I rejoice over
your growth in wealth, in social refinement, in music and art,
*
and highly as I esteem your admirable system of free educa
tion, I have no faith that any or all of these can make of Cin
cinnati the city any truly wise and virtuous citizen desires her
to become. Religion always was and always wilt be the root
of every great and beneficent community, as of every great
and beneficent life. And the religion that seems to me given
by God especially for the healing of a distracted nation is that
absolute, universal faith in a God of infinite love ; a humanity
cradled, trained and disciplined in God’s love. This religion
I find set forth best in the words and person of Jesus of NazHFCtll
I hope there are plenty of men and women in your congre
gation who believe this and that you are working in that faith.
That your counsels may prevail, and your broad and beautiful
hope for man may be realized, in the life of the present church,,
is the fervent prayer of,
Your friend,
A. D. Mayo.
Springfield, Mas&, January 18th, 1880.
FROM REV. CHARLEIS NOYES.
We rejoice with you that the Semi-Centennial comes to find
Unitarian Christians of Cincinnati of one mind and one heart,
one spirit and one purpose, and that the favorable auspices for
their future are the result of their mutual toils and sacrifices.
You are to be congratulated that the debt which was so heavy
an incubus has been so nearly paid, and that young and old,
forgetting the things that are behind, are looking forward with
so much confidence and courage to the things that are before.
May pure religion and undefiled lead you from victory to vic
tory ! Let us hope you may solve the question, so difficult of
i
�39
practical solution, how to bring the many elements of liberal
.strength that are now with you, but in a certain indefinite and
hazy sympathy, to join their forces with yours in an aggressive
warfare against sin, and keeping each to absolute individual
liberty, work together, each with each, and all together with
'God. Could this result be reached, no building in your goodly
city could hold the thousands who are to-day theoretically with
you, but, for various reasons, have not put their hands with
you to the plough of reform.
Shall it continue ever to be true that Unitarian laborers are
few, or that they stand all the day idle ? The divine voice
should be heard all along the line. Skirmishing enough has been
done; the nature of the ground and the position of the enemy
is known. The battle should begin in faith in our principles
strong to move mountains, and victories manifest in works
■ought to be the result
Remember me to all the friends gathered together on the
21 st for council and rejoicing. One body may they ever be,
■“joined together and compacted by that which every joint
supplieth.”
Truly your friend,
Charles NoyesClinton Mass., January i6th, 1880.
FROM HON. WILLIAM GREENE.
The valued favor of your committee is duly received. I beg
to thank you and all my old friends of the First Congregational
Church that I am so kindly remembered. I would most gladly
accept your invitation to join you in your proposed Semi-Cen
tennial celebration did my advanced years admit of it. All
that I can say is that my heart is as warmly interested in your
church as ever, that I rejoice in the present prosperous con
dition of an organization of which I still consider myself a
�40
member, and that you have my cordial best wishes for its con
tinued success and usefulness. Appended you will find a
short statement, as desired by you, of the first steps taken
toward the formation of a Liberal church in Cincinnati.
Very truly yours,
W. Greene.
East Greenwich, R. I., January 15th, 1880.
FROM JOHN ROGERS, ESQ.
I thank you for your kind invitation to be present at the
celebration of the half-century anniversary of the First Con
gregational Church in Cincinnati, on the 21 st inst., which I
would gladly accept, and be present, did circumstances favor.
Be assured, I still feel much interest in the little church under
whose “droppings” I was said to live, (my house being next
door) and where I listened to Whitman, and Clarke, and Hall,
and Peabody, so many years ago.
But half a century!—what changes does it make? How
few, probably, are left of those I remember among the wor
shipers of 1830 to 1835. I should be a stranger there and feel
the awkwardness of one, should I come to your meeting. In
spirit, however, I will be there, and assuring you of my sym
pathy, and rejoicing in the prosperity of the old church,
I am very truly yours,
John Rogers.
Boston, January 17, 1880.
�4i
FROM MRS. ANNE RYLAND.
I received your note of invitation, a few days ago, to the
Semi-Centennial celebration of the church, and should have
answered it sooner had I not hoped that my health would
have permitted me to join your circle in that happy hour, but
as that cannot be, allow me to send you my most sincere
sympathy and congratulations on this occasion, with wishes
that the church and all its members may continue to increase
in prosperity and well-doing.
Being the oldest participant, in this city, in its first organ
ization, and a regular attendant till ill health and weakness
prevented, I have watched its growth with the greatest inter
est and love as each year has rolled round, and can hardly
realize that fifty of them have passed. As I cannot be with
you in bodily presence, rest assured that my heart is there, as
warm towards you, as sincere as ever. That your meeting
may be one of joy and happiness to all is the earnest prayer of,
Yours truly,
Anne Ryland.
Cincinnati, January 21, 1880.
FROM EDW. P. CRANCH, ESQ.
I am prevented by indisposition from attending the jubilee
at the church this evening. I wanted to come, for I was a
nursling of the church myself, and was married in it. Pea
body, Channing, Perkins, Silsbee, Osgood, Bulfinch, Eliot
and I were young men together, friends and companions, and
I owe it to them and the charm of their society, that as a
youth I was kept away from many things. But as for me, I
do but count one out of thousands who have to thank God
for the splendid influence of such men and many others like
them. My grandfather, my father and myself have been, in
our time, which covers about a century and a half, avowed
6
�42
and active Unitarians; and, looking back simply to my own
humble experience, I can form a pretty correct judgment of
what must have been the experience of thousands of Amer
ican youth who have been, during that long period, and are
still, cast loose in the whirling current of life, and who have
found in the companionship of some Unitarian pastor, per
haps as young and untried as themselves (some spiritual
friend, perhaps, like James H. Perkins or Ephraim Peabody),
that which removed their deepest doubts and kept alive in
them a spark of honest religious conviction. I do not hes
itate to say, from what I know, that the influence of the
Unitarian clergy upon the minds of young men of education
has been an important factor in the progress of civilization
during the last hundred years.
When our little congregation first came together it was
predicted by our orthodox friends that it would not hold
together for ten years, but our fiftieth anniversary finds it
flourishing, and healthy and influential, and it has become a
necessity to our city. As an old member, I delight to add
my heartfelt congratulations, and to express my belief that
there is in its present organization the germ of still greater
things.
Very sincerely yours,
Edw. P. Cranch.
Cincinnati, January 21, 1880.
�(JOHGRÄTULÄTORY LETTERS.
��FROM REV. JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE, D.D.
I heartily wish I could be with you at your celebration of
the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of your society. I
did not know that when I first saw it in 1833, it was only an
infant three years old. It seemed already hardened into the
sinew of manhood. The society to which I went at Louisville
was founded in the same year, but was not so strong. The
Cincinnati church, at that time, had Ephraim Peabody for its
minister, who was surrounded by a noble body of men and
women—among whom how well I remember Mr. and Mrs.
Chas. Stetson, Mr. and Mrs. William Greene, Timothy Walk
er, the Pomeroys, James H. Perkins, and a multitude of other
bright men and women, of whom the greater part have fallen
asleep. What brilliant meetings were held at the houses of
Mr. Foote, Mr. Stetson and Mr. Greene, which stood side by
side on a lofty terrace overlooking the city, the river, and the
hills of Kentucky! There met the famous “Semi-Colon,”
where so many witty men and bright women made a focus of
literature in the midst of the business life of the young city !
There are some still left among you who can remember and
describe those meetings. There, too, originated our famous
monthly, “The Western Messenger,” edited by Peabody, Per
kins, Cranch, Gallagher and others—until our dear brother
Peabody was obliged to go away from impaired health. The
spirit of the Unitarian Society in those days was full of life.
How glad I was, once or twice a year, to come to Cincinnati
and have the satisfaction of meeting all these generous and
noble souls. And, though years and distance have separated
us, I have never forgotten your society nor lost my interest in
its welfare. I have sorrowed with it in its trial's and rejoiced
in its prosperity. My good wishes and prayers will be with
you on your anniversary, and my congratulations on the
present prospects which open before you. May the next
fifty years see fifty more societies around you, and you the
�46
Mother-Church of the valley, the most active and useful of
all. The church in Pittsburgh was, I think, older, but I fear
that its work has, for the present, ceased ; and the Meadville
(Penn.) Church, founded in 1825, can hardly be considered as
in the Ohio Valley.
When I went down the Ohio, for the first time, in 1833,
the Unitarian churches west of the Alleghanies were only
five—being those in Meadville, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Cincinnati
and Louisville. There was then no society in St. Louis nor
in Chicago. Now the number of the churches given in the
Year Book is 57, of which 47 have settled preachers. And yet,
during all this time, we have been told that Unitarianism was
“dying out!” Let us hope that it it may long continue to
die out in the same way.
Very sincerely yours,
James Freeman Clarke.
Jamaica Plain, Mass., January 17, 1880.
FROM REV. H. W. BELLOWS, D.D.
Your letter, announcing the coming celebration of the
fiftieth anniversary of the Unitarian Society in Cincinnati,
arouses a multitude of pleasant memories in my mind. In
my early life the Cincinnati church was the very out-post of
our cause, and a sort of a Mecca for Western bound folk who
left the East and never felt at home until they had made the
acquaintance of the delightful little circle that gathered about
that “live coal” that had been taken from the Eastern altar to
kindle the flame of our Unitarian culture and piety in what
was then a wilderness. A venerable uncle of mine—who
died, ninety-six years old, some ten years ago—told me that he
saw Cincinnati when it was a village of 3,000 people, and
when the first experiment to conquer the Ohio by steam
power was being tried at the river’s shore. Even in my recol
�47
lection it was a town of gardens, with outlooks from many
places quite inland to the Kentucky shores and hills. Coal
smoke had not then enveloped it. But, besides its charms as
a beautiful rural town of irregular and varied surface, and all
beflowered with shrubs, it had then a circle of choice spirits
—hospitable, touched with a culture then rare, in music, and
art, and literature—hungry for the sight of faces that came
from the East, which was then “the home" of all Western
hearts. You have, doubtless, fifty times the number of liter
ary and public spirited persons of the same type now—but
“familiarity breeds contempt.” People do not go through a
wilderness now to get to Cincinnati, nor come upon its little
circle as upon a spring in a dry land, an oasis in the desert, as
they did then. Nor was that little circle one that can be copied
or repeated. It had the mingled charm of exile, of pioneer
life, of rarity in tastes, of domestic familiarity, and of a relig
ious bond. These things no longer enter into any life in
America since railroads and telegraphs have put an omnipres
ence, or home-i-ness, everywhere, into all persons at all points.
It meant something to find yourself in Cincinnati after a week’s
travel over the Alleghanies, an upset in the stage, and two
days on a sandbar in the Ohio! And then, to get a welcome
into that charmed circle, small but so kind, intelligent and
hospitable, of which your church was the one center, was one
of the most delightful of surprises, and the most memorable
of experiences. I recollect thinking the dozen families I knew,
all eminently cultivated, and humane and progressive, were
only a sample of the population. Really, they were the
cream, and I found it out by noticing that they rose to the
top every time. At intervals of a year or two, I visited the
place, and always the some clot. There are advantages in not
having too many people to admire. You have the time to ad
mire the few, and appreciatively and at leisure.
I arrived in Cincinnati the first time in the year 1834. My
principal recollection is that I was traveling at twenty years of
age, and had spent more money than I ought, in the cities then
new to me—New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washing
ton—in which I had lingered. A few years later, 1838, I re
�48
member that I arrived at Cincinnati in early May, I think, just
in time to hear Rev. Mr. Huntoon preach his farewell sermon
on Sunday morning. I was asked to preach in the evening
and I filled the vacant pulpit for six weeks. They were among
the most delightful weeks of my life, for I was the guest of
Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Stetson, whose house was then almost
the public hotel of the Unitarian stragglers, in black coats or
black gowns, who wandered into the city. Childless them
selves, they became father and mother to all, with or without
a claim, who needed furtherance or shelter. How delightful
that hill, vheie the Stetsons, the Footes, the Greenes so long
lived side by side in a sort of garden! I shall never be young
again in this world, and so I shall never bring the sauce of
youth to the viands that society spreads before me. And who
can tell whether the sauce or the fish makes the feast? And
so I cannot tell how much my recollections of the Cincinnati
circle owe to the period of life they recall.
I knew very little of the man of genius and lofty humanity,
whose memory is still precious among you, James H. Perkins.
But of your saintly minister, Ephraim Peabody, I am not
likely to forget much, now that his daughter cultivates his
memory at my own hearth! He preached my ordination ser
mon in New York. His portrait looks down upon me as I
wiitc. What a charm of countenance, of speech, of charactei and piesence he had ! The wisdom of this world was never
more completely blended with the wisdom that.is from on high.
He was a wondrous judge of character, and his slow, delayed
and sententious wisdom usually ended with a snap like the
sound of a whip. He had a genius for morals and religion.
He looked, and he was, saintly. His memory is cherished
by his old flock in New Bedford, in King’s Chapel, Boston,
and by the \ ery few who remain who knew him in Cincinnati
and in Meadville, still earlier scenes of his fascinating and
always elevating influence.
My v ife s kinsman, Rev. A. A. Eivermore, I have known
foi nearly fifty years, and always to love and honor. Thank
God, he still remains to receive the respect and love of all the
people who were ever blessed with his transparent purity' of
�49
heart and his calm wisdom of head in Keene, in Cincinnati,
and in Meadville. I rejoice to hear such excellent and en
couraging accounts of the parish health and prospects. Your
church has never wanted hard-working ministers, or devoted
people in the pews. Rev. Mr. Mayo will always be remem
bered for,the unflagging zeal he brought to every one of his
various spheres of ministry. If I should name the good men
and women who have adorned and blessed your church—and
whose connection with the parish is as old as my first knowledge
of it—I should be afraid of injuring the modesty of those I
recall, and wounding the pride of those I should be sure to for
get and omit. . In such a case silence is golden. But when I
speak of noble men and lovely and faithful women in your
church whom I have known these------ ? years—I mean—well,
they know and I know—and that is enough—and I won’t say
I mean—and I really mean everybody who honestly thinks
he is meant or that she is thus delicately referred to !
How I wish I could be with you, but I can't! A great
company of our ministers will be in spirit with you, for how
many have enjoyed your hearty semi-Southern hospitality!
Commend me to any old friends who Will care to hear that I
still remember them, and believe me,
Very affectionately and fraternally yours,
Henry W. Bellows.
New York, January i, 1880.
FROM REV. GEO. W. HOSMER, D.D.
With all my heart I rejoice with you.
I remember the
establishment of the society. It was the spring-time of our
hope for the spread of Liberal Christianity in the West. We
were looking for great things, and we young theological stu
dents were girding ourselves to go into the fields ripe for the
■harvest.
7
�50
At that time Dr. Walker was in Cincinnati, and some man
who had heard him once was invited to go and hear him again.
“No,’ said he, “why, I will not be a Unitarian, and if I hear
that man again I shall .be obliged to be one.”
Five years from the beginning of the society I was in Cin
cinnati, the beautiful, terraced garden city, as it then was—
and how the names and faces of the dear old friends come up
to me now; Ephraim Peabody, my classmate, the pastor, so
wise and loving, the Stetsons, the Greenes—but I must not
write all their names, nor attempt to tell what a charming,
earnest, happy society it was; so young, bright and hopeful.
There were many remarkable persons among them. I have
known much of the Unitarians of Cincinnati from that day to
this, and the memories are bright spots in my life. While at
Antioch College, Cincinnati was one of my homes, and those
good friends there—God bless them!—were always ready to
give help and cheer out of their generous hearts and pleasant
homes. Your society has been very rich in fine characters
and noble lives. What a line of ministers, the living and the
dead! Perkins and Peabody, so unlike, but in each what con
secrated genius,—prophet and saint. Your society has much
to think of and to rejoice in. I am glad you arc all one again
and can rejoice together, and as your second half-century is
knocking at your door, in one mind and heart may you wel
come it, and with reverent, prayerful aspiration try to make
even a better half-century than the last has been.
With earnest congratulation and God-speed, I am with you.
Geo. W. Hosmer.
Salem, January 19, 1880.
FROM REV. WM. SIESBEE.
In the spring of 1837 I first turned my steps Westward.
I he circlet of hills which graced the Queen City was green
then and no pervading smoke soiled her fair robes. The
�51
society was the most charming, take it all in all, that I had
ever known. And the dear church sent out an influence to
gladden and elevate the whole place. It is enough to recall
the memory of one who ministered to them, now long since
passed away, in that remarkable man and preacher, James H.
Perkins, whom I should in vain attempt to describe to those
who never heard him. I cannot refrain from adding my
hearty congratulations to your church on its present bright
prospects. I have great confidence that you will prove not
unworthy of the founders. Such, at least, is the earnest
prayer of,
Your sincere friend,
Wm. Silsbee.
Trenton, N. Y., January 19, 1880.
FROM REV. ROBERT COLLYER.
Your circular came at breakfast this morning, and I make
haste to send congratulations and good wishes to the golden
wedding to be celebrated by your church on Wednesday. It
is an event of the most genuine interest in the history of our
faith in the West. Only our church in Louisville runs back
to 1830, and if you are not twins—also as twins have never
been the good fortune of our Unitarian household, so far as I
know—your happy advent in January of that year will make
you the oldest church of our order in the West. I wish I
could be with you to witness your joy, to hear the story of
the day of small things and see the nobler promise with mine
own eyes, and to wish for you the great career you are sure
to carve out by God’s blessing and your own faithful striving
in the Athens of the West. In France, they say there is a rose
rooted down in sacred ground, they can trace backward for 400
years, abloom still, with no sign of decay about it, but every
year roses foaming over the old walls, covering them with
beauty and making the whole neighborhood fragrant.
�52
So may it be with the fair rose the fathers and mothers
planted in Cincinnati. May the centuries endow it with an
enduring beauty and fragrance from God, is the prayer of,
Your ever loving brother,
Robert Collyer.
New York, January 19, 1880.
FROM REV. E. H. HALL.
I have been delaying my answer to your note, trying to
delude myself into the idea that I might accept your very
cordial and attractive invitation. Unfortunately, I must de
cline, as it is impossible tor me to leave home at this season,
for so long a time ; but, nothing could have given me greater
pleasure than to have celebrated with you an anniversary that
has almost as great an interest for me as for you.
As I left Cincinnati at the early age. of two months, I can
not retain many personal recollections of the town or parish
in those days; but I remember well my father’s continued
affection for the little church which he helped to found, and I
can imagine the vivid interest he would have taken, if he were
still living, in your, commemoration. In a letter, which lies
on my table, written by him to Rev. E. S. Gannett, and dated
Cincinnati, February 21st, 1831, he speaks in the strongest
language, of the importance and promise of thè new move
ment, and of his regret at abandoning it, as his health com
pelled him to do. “A more important, place-than this,” he
says, there is not,-1 believe, in the land. This is often said
of many places, by those who live in them ; but I do think
it may be said pre-eminently of this. This society and its
pastor are to give the character of Unitarianism in the whole
wide and growing West.”
I congratulate you that during the half century which has
passed since these words were written, thè Liberal cause has
been bravely maintained in Cincinnati, and that you can cele-
�53
brate your anniversary with such' bright and cheering pros
pects before you.
With many regrets that I can not be with you, and with
sincerest good-wishes for the future, I am,
Yours, with great regard.
Edward H. Hall.
W orcester, Mass., January 7, 1880.
FROM REV. FRANCIS G. PEABODY.
I am too late to use your very kind hospitality offered to
my father’s son at your Love Feast. Thank you none the
less for thinking of it, and may you begin to-morrow another
long term of prosperity and power.
When I was in Cincinnati, a few years ago, I was much
struck by the lesson which the reminiscences of my father
contained. All who had known him spoke of him to me;
but when I recalled this series of conversations, I discovered
that not one had said a word of his preaching, so absorbed
were they all in the memory of his character and personal
holiness.
This was wl'at was left after forty years, and it was a living
force still; the sermons, which seemed to him, no doubt, his
central work, were dead long ago.
I suppose human nature and needs are much the same still.
Faithfully yours,
Francis G. Peabody.
• Santa Barbara, California, January 20, 1880
�54
FROM REV. HENRY W. FOOTE.
* * * To one who is looking forward to keeping the
two hundredth anniversary of his church before long, your
Semi-Centennial seems to cover but a brief span; but it has
been long enough to give a goodly show of souls who have
made a record for your church in Cincinnati whereof it may
be proud. King’s Chapel shares with you one of the holiest
and purest memories that either church can have in all their
history. As the successor of Ephraim Peabody here, I send
this belated greeting to his successor in his early parish. May
his spirit, purpose and reward be ours.
Truly your friend,
Henry W. Foote.
Boston, January 23, 1880.
FROM H. P. KIDDER, ESQ.,
President of the American Unitarian Association.
* * * Let mc congratulate you and your society on
your present prosperous condition, adding the hope that it
may never be less.
Yours most truly,
H. P. Kidder.
Boston, January 17, 1880.
�appgiídix.
�F
,1
•I
là
�in memoRiAm
MRS. CHARLES STETSON.
This beloved and venerated woman—so long the centre of hospitality to
Unitarian visitors in Cincinnati—died on the evening of January 6, 1880, in
New York, where for ten years past she had resided. She had been declining
for two or three years, but her death was very sudden, as she had been at the
family tea-table at 6 p. M., and died of a paralytic stroke before 9 P. M. Being
at or about eighty, her departure may be regarded as not untimely, and her
state of health did not make life sufficiently desirable to allow her friends any
other regrets than those awakened by the memory of her useful and benevolent
life, and the thought that her gentle face and lovely smile can no more be
seen! She has gone to a great reward, if heaven gives the heartiest welcome
to those who have rendered the law of kindness most honor and obedience
here on earth.
To those who never experienced the charm of the Stetson home—open
for nearly half a century with almost boundless hospitality to all homeless vis
itors with the shadow of a claim on the attention of Mr. Charles Stetson and
his wife—it is difficult to tell the emotions awakened in the hearts of the few
who survive among the hundreds who once knew the loving kindness and care
and delicacy of that noble pair, as they hear that the last of them has
gone heavenward! Rich, childless, unpretending, public-spirited, simple in
personal tastes, refined and cultivated, lovers of music and the arts, fond of
good people and admirers of genius and worth, the Stetsons made their
beautiful and generous home the centre of a copious, yet simple hospitality,
which has rarely been exceeded, either in sum or quality, by any house
known to the somewhat wide experience of the writer. One in feeling and
action, agreeing in a curious fondness for promoting the comfort and pleasure
of those neglected by others, they made it the main business of their lives to
do good as they had opportunity, and to do it, not at arms length, but by per
sonal service. Their house was always full of guests; they welcomed our
Unitarian clergy, artists, philanthropists, strangers from abroad, and rising
aspirants at home, besides doing their full part towards the general society of
Cincinnati. Their horses and carriages were always carrying round others to
see the beautiful country about their city ; and to many Eastern folk the Stet
sons’ home was the largest part of Cincinnati.
�58
How many of our ministers, young forty years ago, must be thrilled with
tender gratitude as they hear of Mrs. Stetson’s departure, and recall the thought
fulness, heartiness, and simplicity of her hospitality to them, when they were
unknown and without any claim except that of their profession and their soli
tude ! We should, perhaps, never have had a Unitarian society in Cincinnati
but for their interest, liberality and hospitality to our ministers. At any rate,
the fiftieth anniversary of our church there, celebrated on the coming 21st of
January, will date back to a time when the Stetsons were better known in
connection with our cause than any household in the West.
Mr. Stetson died about five years ago. He was very unfortunate during the
last decade of his life, and earned his living, after a long career of prosperity,
by the performance of a clerk’s duties in the New York Custom House. But
his sweetness, his wit, his love of children, his pride of character, his charm
of sympathy, his childlikeness of heart never left him ; and he bore his crush
ing misfortunes with manly courage, broken and infirm as his body was, and
wounded and sick as his heart must have been.
Mrs. Stetson, just gone, was a woman who united a sort of Quaker sim
plicity of face and costume with a decided originality of thought and a very
marked individuality. Strength and self-respect were beautifully blent with
modesty, genuineness and unworldliness of nature. She lived in the world and
enjoyed and used it, but she never allowed it to use her. She had not a particle
of cant or sanctimoniousness about her, but she was spiritually-minded in the
truest sense, and religious to the core. Free, and without dogmatic fetters,
she was Christian in spirit and faith. For a woman who had so little love of
change, and so little intellectual ambition, she was singularly courageous and
independent in her opinions. Though childless, she carried an atmosphere
of universal motherliness about her, and a purity and sympathetic ardor that
mixed affection and simplicity with insight and freshness of judgment. She
loved many and much, and was greatly beloved by many who must associate
the happiest years of life with her image.
The beloved sister, who shared her home and became at last the watchful
guardian of her decline, is worthy of the respect and honor she now inherits
as the sole survivor of all the memories of the Stetson household. May every
consolation wait upon her loneliness, and faith and patience attend her remain
ing days!
H. W. B.
�59
5Ymn ujRiTTen for trg dcdioatiod
OF THE
JANUARY 18TH, 1880.
By W. H. Venable.
Our Father, we would consecrate
This organ to Thy righteous name ;
The conscious reeds expectant wait,
Thy solemn praises to proclaim.
Oft may these sacred keys prolong
Devotion’s calm, celestial mood ;
Oft lead the glad thanksgiving song,
And melt the soul to gratitude.
Long may returning Sabbaths greet
Our choral joy in things divine,
Prelusive to the doctrines sweet,
Of him who taught in Palestine.
Yea, let the organ’s solemn breath
Resound Thy praises, Holy One !
Thy grace surviveth sin and death,
Forevermore thy will be done.
The venerable Western poet, Wm. D. Gallagher, whose name is identified
with the early history of the society, also sent to the festival a poem, entitled
“In Exaltis,” whose length, unfortunately, precludes the insertion here of
more than the following fragment:
“And I cried out, O man to the House of Prayer,
Made with hands—go up, for Thy God is there ;
And, in the days of thy beautiful youth,
Bow down, and worship in spirit and truth ;
In the mightier years of thy ripening age,
There still against Sin in the battle engage;
But say not of him who goes out and stands
In that grand old Temple noi made with hands,
And hungers and thirsts, and worships and waits,
And for righteousness strives and supplicates.
1'hat he errs: for Christ and his Cross are there,
And God’s angels come to him unaware.”
�6o
ODE FOR TFjG DCDICATIOD
TO THE
O UNTIE
ALMIC3-HTY
GOD,
COMPOSED FOR THE OCCASION,
By Rev. John Pierpont, of Boston.
I.
To Gon, to God alone,
This temple have we reared ;
To God, who holds a throne
Unshaken and unshared.
Sole King of Heaven
Who’st heard our prayers
And blessed our cares,
To thee ’tis given.
II-
< > thou, whose bounty fills
This plain so rich and wide,
And makes its guardian hills
Rejoice on every side,
With shady tree
And growing grain,
This decent fane
We give to thee.
III.
Thou, who hast ever stooped
To load our land with good,
Whose hand this vale hath scooped,
And rolleth down its flood
To the far sea—
This home we raise,
And now, with praise,
Devote to thee.
IV.
To all, O God of love,
Dost thou thy footsteps show—
The white and blue above,
The green and gold below,
The grove, the breeze,
The morning’s beam,
The star, the stream,—
They’re seen in these.
V.
Where now, in goodly show,
Thy domes of art are piled.
Thy paths, not long ago,
Dropped fatness on a wild.
O let us see
Thy goings here
Where now we rear
A house for thee.
VI.
Nursed by the blessed dew,
And light of Bethlehem’s star,
A vine on Calvary grew
And cast its shade afar.
A storm went by—
One blooming bough
Torn off, buds now
Beneath our sky.
�61
VII.
O let no drought or blight,
This plant of thine come nigh ;
But may the dew, all night,
Upon its branches lie ;
Till towards this vine
All flesh shall press,
And taste and bless
Its fruit and wine.
VIII.
Because, O Lord ! thy grace
Hath visited the West,
And given our hearts a place
Of worship and of rest;
Old age and youth,
The weak, the strong,
Shall praise in song
Thy grace and truth.
May 23rd, 1830.
IX.
The grace and truth that came
By thine Anointed Son,
H ere let such lips proclaim
As fire hath fallen upon
From out the high
And holy place
Where dwells in grace
Thy Deity.
X,
To thee, to thee alone,
This temple have we reared,To thee—before whose throne
Unshaken and unshared,
Sole King of Heaven,
With thanks we bow-^
This temple now
For praise is given.
�62
ORIGIRAL BYIRRS
WRITTEN FOR THE
Ordination
of
As Pastor of
the
Rev. Ephraim Peabody
First Congregational Church,
IN CINCINNATI, MAY 2Oth, 1832.
I.
Oh ! Thou before whose glorious brow,
With veiling wings Archangels bow, •
May our deep, trembling prayer
To mercy’s ear accepted rise,
Through the rich music of the skies,
And blend harmonious there.
Thou wert not in the earthquake’s crash,
Nor in the bannered lightning’s flash
That flamed o’er mount and grove ;
But in the low, soft breath that stirr’d
The conscious leaves, Thy voice was heard
In mercy and in love.
Lord! let that sweet and holy strain
Breathe through this dedicated fane,
Thy bessing here descend,
While praise and incense heavenward roll,
Fill with thy glory every soul,
Our Father and our friend!
May he whose pastoral hand shall guide
This flock where living waters glide,
Here, angel-strengthened be;
With unpolluted lips impart
Immortal truths, and lift each heart
Adoring unto Thee.
�63
II.
That voice which bade the dead arise,
And gave back vision to the blind.
Is hushed but when he sought the skies,
Our master left his word behind.
’Twas not to bid the ocean roll,—
’Twas not to bid the hill be riven;
No,—’twas to lift the fainting soul,
And lead the erring mind to heaven.
To heave a mountain from the heart,—
To bid those inner springs be stirred :
Lord, to thy servant here impart
The more than wisdom of that word.
Dwell, Father, ’round this earthly Fane.
And when its feeble walls decay,
Be with us as we meet again,
Within thy halls of endless day.
Note.— These hymns were presumably written by Mr. Peabody.
�64
ORIGIDAL RYmnS
WRITTEN BY JAS. H. PERKINS FOR THE
Ordination
of
William H. Channing,
AS
Pastor of the First Congregational Society,
CIXTCIXTXT-a.T’T.
IML AY
IO, 1839.
I.
Almighty God ! with hearts of flesh,
Into thy presence we have come,
To breathe our filial vows afresh,
And make thy house once more our home.
We know that thou art ever nigh ;
We know that thou art with us here;
That every action meets thine e.ye,
And every secret thought thine ear.
But grant us God, this truth to feel,
As well as know ; grant us the grace,
Somewhat as Adam knew thee, still
To know and see thee, face to face.
Here, while we breathe again our vows,
Appointing one to minister
In holy things within this house,
Grant us to feel that thou art here.
�65
II.
The storm-shaken winter
Has passed from earth’s bosom,
And spring to our borders,
Brings back bird and blossom—
Through all her sweet life-strings,
Through all her glad voices,
In daylight and darkness,
Old Nature rejoices.
And we have known winter,
The dark storm hath swept us ;
But God, our preserver,
Hath graciously kept us ;
The winter is passing,
The spring bursts around us,
And he has with new bands
Of brotherhood bound us.
To thank him, our Father,
As brethren we come here ;
Our hopes and our wishes—
Henceforth be their home here !
Almighty Redeemer,
We ask not to fear thee,—
But, like our Great Teacher,
To know, love, revere thee.
�CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Introductory Note,
-------
3
Order of Exercises,
......
4
.......
6
List
of
Committees,
Historical Sketch
Communications
of the
Congratulatory Letters,
9
First Congregational Church, -
from former
Pastors and Members,
-•
-
21
45
------
Appendix, ---------
55
« In Memoriam, Mrs. Charles Stetson,
b Hymns
for
Various Oc casions, -
-
-
-
-
*
T( ;
�
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Memorials of the celebration of the First Congregational Church of Cincinnati, Ohio, January 21st, 1880
Creator
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First Congregational Church of Cincinnati
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [Cincinnati]
Collation: 65 p. : ill. ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed for the Unity Club. Contents listed on back page. Includes a letter from Moncure Conway p. 34-26 dated 'Christmas-time, 1879'. Appendix I: In Memoriam, Mrs Charles Stetson. II. Hymns for Various Occasions.
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[s.n.]
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[1880?]
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G5615
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Unitarianism
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Memorials of the celebration of the First Congregational Church of Cincinnati, Ohio, January 21st, 1880), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
Church history
Conway Tracts
First Unitarian Church
Memorials
Unitarianism
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Text
��M !■ ETI N Ci; O F
■ JoCRETY
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January 12, 1876,
1E
F'MlRTHSft VfSM VMM BISCOVRstt DKLITKRKI) fJY
REV
W. IL EURNES^ D.D
Sunday, Jan. 1O, 1876,
i*M the ^tension el %
! /•>'
nOrbinaihm.
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January 12, 1823.
it Pi XHELPHIA:
■^■i ' 4<J
A 0O„ PRINTERS.
£
��AT THE
MEETING
OF
THE
CoDgregat/w
(Unitarian Society,
January 12, 1875,
TOGETHER WITH THE DISCOURSE DELIVERED BY
REV. W. H. FURNESS, B.D.,
Sunday, Jan. IO, 1875,
©n I Ije ©tension of fIje ^iftieflj ^rniifrersnrg of |jis ©rbinntion,
January 12, 1825.
PHILADELPHIA:
SHERMAN & CO., PRINTERS.
1875.
��On November 3d, 1874, the Trusted of the First Congiegational Unitarian Church of Philadelphia issued the
following notice to the members of the parish :
First Congregational Society of Unitarian Christians.
Philadelphia, November 3d, 1874.
A meeting of the members of this Society will be held at the
Church on Monday, the 9th inst., at 8 p. m., to devise an appro
priate plan for celebrating the completion of the fiftieth year of
Dr. Furness’ pastorate.
As his half century of faithful and distinguished service calls
for fitting commemoration, and as the members of this Church
must rejoice at an opportunity of giving expression to their
love, admiration, and respect for him, a meeting that concerns
such an object will commend itself, and prove of interest to
every one, so that the bare announcement of it, it is deemed,
will be sufficient to insure a full attendance of the parishioners.
By direction of the Trustees,
, Charles H. Coxe,
'
Secretary.
�4
In pursuance of this notice, the members of the Societyheld a meeting in the Church on the evening of Novem
ber 9th, 1874, to consider the subject proposed.
The meeting was organized with Mr. B. H. Bartol as
Chairman, and Mr. Charles H. Coxe as Secretary.
After stating the object of the meeting, the Chairman
called for the opinion of the Society. It was voted that
a committee of nine be appointed, who should, together
with the Trustees of the Church, constitute a committee
to take entire charge of the celebration of Dr. Furness’
Fiftieth Anniversary as Pastor of the Church; should
have full power to add to their number, and make such
arrangements as might seem to them suitable to the
occasion.
The Chair appointed on this Committee,
Mrs. R. S. Sturgis,
Mrs. J. E. Raymond.
Miss Clark,
Miss Roberts,
Miss Duhring,
Mr. John Sartain,
Mr. B. H. Moore,
Mr. David Brewer,
And at the request of the meeting, Mr. B. H. Bartol, the
Chairman, was added.
On November 14th, 1874, at 8 o’clock p. m., the Com
mittee appointed by the Society held a meeting at the
residence of Mr. B. H. Bartol, to make arrangements for
the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Furness’ pastorate.
The Committee consisted of the following persons :
Trustees.
Mr. Henry Winsor,
Mr. John Sellers, Jr.,
Mr. Enoch Lewis,
Mr. Charles
Mr. Lucius H. Warren,
Mr. Joseph E. Raymond,
Mr. D. E. Eurness,
H. Coxe.
/
�5
Appointed by the Society.
Mbs.
Mrs.
Miss
Miss
R. S. Sturgis,
J. E. Raymond,
Miss Duhring,
Mr. John Sartain,
Clark,
Mr. B. H. Moore,
Roberts,
Mr. David Brewer,
Mr. B. H. Bartol.
Mr. Winsor was chosen Chairman, and Mr. Charles
H. Coxe, Secretary.
It was voted, that on the evening of January 12th,
1875, there should be a commemorative service in the
Church, and ministers from other cities should be invited
to be present.
The Chair appointed as the Committee on Invitations,
Mr. L. H. Warren,
Mr. Enoch Lewis,
Mr. B. H. Bartol,
Mr. David Brewer,
Mr. B. H. Moore,
And at the request of the Committee
Mr. Henry Winsor.
It was also voted, that the Church should be hand
somely and appropriately decorated on that occasion.
The Chair appointed as the Committee on Decora
tions,
Mr. Joseph E. Raymond,
Mr. L. H. Warren,
Miss Roberts,
Mrs. R. S. Sturgis,
Miss Clark,
Miss Duhring.
It was also voted, that the Choir on that occasion
should be increased, if it should be deemed expedient
by the Musical Committee of the Church.
It was further voted, that a marble bust of Dr. Furness
should be obtained, and placed in the Church.
�6
Also, that gold and bronze medals should be struck
off, commemorative of the fiftieth anniversary of the
pastorate of Dr. Furness,
And also, that a suitable and handsome present should
be given to Dr. Furness, in the name of the Society, as
a token of their affection and gratitude.
Also, that photographs of the Church should be taken
as it appeared on the day of the anniversary.
The Chair appointed as the Committee on Fine Arts,
Mr. John Sartain,
Mr. B. H. Moore,
Mr. Henry Winsor.
It was also voted, that the exercises at the ordination
of Dr. Furness should be reprinted, and that the anni
versary sermon and the exercises at the commemorative
service should be printed in pamphlet form.
The Chair appointed as the Committee on Publication,
Mr. Dawes E. Furness.
And as the Committee on Finance,
Mr. B. H. Bartol,
Mr. Enoch Lewis,
Mr. Charles H. Coxe.
�7
On Sunday, January 10th„ 1875, Rev. Dr. Furness
preached his fiftieth anniversary sermon.
The following account is taken from the Christian
Register of that week:
“Yesterday was as perfect a winter day as can he
imagined, cool, clear, and bright. The Unitarian church
was filled before the hour of worship with an eager and
deeply interested throng. All the pews were occupied,
and the aisles and the space around the pulpit were filled
with chairs. The church was beautifully decorated with
laurel wreaths, and in front of the pulpit the floral array
was very rich yet very chaste. On the wall in the rear
of the pulpit was an exquisite ivy cross. Among the
festoons which overhung the pulpit were the figures
‘ 1825 ’ and ‘ 1875 ’ in white and red flowers.
“ Dr. Furness seemed to be in excellent health, and
took his part in the rare and touching semi-centennial
service without any apparent ^jh^mSoiM After a brief
recital and paraph rase^^tpprtWiate passages of Scrip
ture, he read with great beauty and tenderness the hymn
beginning, ‘While Thee I seek, protecting Power,’ and
after a prayer full of love, trust, and gratitude, he read
from the twentieth chapter of the Book of Acts, begin
ning at the seventeenth verse. Then the congregation
sang Lyte’s beautiful hymn, ‘Abide with me! fast falls
the eventide,’ etc. The discourse had no text, excepting
the impressive occasion itself. There was less of narra
tion of interesting incidents than in previous anniversary
sermons, yet the half century was reviewed in a simple
and masterly way. The preacheil mannfi was quite
subdued until he reached his studies of the life of Jesus,
�8
when his face became radiant, his tones fuller and
firmer, and his gestures frequent. The allusions to
other denominations and to the anti-slavery struggle
were exceedingly fair and magnanimous. The people
gave rapt attention, and there was evident regret when
the sermon closed.
“ The singing by a double quartette choir was highly
creditable. Mr. Ames’ church at Germantown was closed,
and pastor and people came to express their sympathy
with Dr. Furness’ society, and to enjoy the uplifting
service. Dr. Martineau’s new hymn-book was used, Dr.
Furness having presented his parishioners with a suffi
cient number of copies to supply all the pews.”
�4
e
j
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�J
��DISCOURSE
DELIVERED
SUNDAY JANUARY io, ^875,
ON THE OCCASION OF THE
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
OF HIS
ORDINATION, JANUARY 12, 1825, AS THE PASTOR
OF THE
-frirst Congregational Mnitarian Cljnrct)
BY
W. H. FURNESS D.D.
��DISCOURSE
It is in vain, dear friends, that I have tried to set in
order the thoughts that come crowding upon me as the
fiftieth year of my service in this place draws to a close.
I cannot tell what direction they will take. But for the
uncertainty of life, I might have reserved for this occa
sion the Recollections in which I indulged on the last two
anniversaries of my Ordination. All I told you then and
countless other memories come vividly to mind and heart
now. They almost hush me into silence, so hopeless is
the endeavor to give them utterance. I must needs talk
about myself. How can it be avoided on an occasion like
this ? I trust in the kind indulgence on your part which
has never failed me in all these years. If I should prove
only garrulous, you will not forget that I have passed the
allotted boundary and am now one of the borrowers from
eternity; although it hardly becomes me to make claim
to the privileges of age in a community where dwells
one, known and revered of all, who has entered his ninety
sixth year, and is not yet old.
First of all, most humbly and heartily do I acknowledge
and adore the good Providence that, for no deserving of
mine, has blest me so bountifully and so long, and given
me such a dear home among you. What friends, kith
and kin to me, have always surrounded me! At the first
here were my fathers—I have followed them all to the
grave. And now, behold! my brothers, my sisters, my
�12
children. What a gift of God the filial, the fraternal,
the parental trust which I have been encouraged to
cherish! It has been my chiefest treasure, the dearest
sign of Heaven’s grace, my support, my well-spring of life.
During my ministry I have received from you, from
time to time, not a few unlooked-for, substantial tokens
of your kind thoughts for me. They shall never be for
gotten. But it is not the remembrance of any special
proofs of your regard that now moves me, but the hearty
faith in your good-will upon which you have always given
me reason to rely. This has been my crowning privilege.
Even when differences have arisen between us, my trust
in your personal regard has never been allowed to be
shaken. Were there exceptions, they are as good as for
gotten now. Even those who have taken such offence at
my words that they withdrew from the church, still gave
me assurance of their friendship. There used to be times
of painful excitement among us, you remember, when I
was helpless to resist the impulse to plead for the op
pressed. I can never forget how cheered I was by one
friend, still living, but not now dwelling in this city, who
came to me and said that he had at the first disapproved
of my course, but that he was then in full sympathy with
me, and that, as to the church’s being broken up, as was
predicted, if I persisted in speaking for the slave, that
should not be, if a contribution to its support from him
(and he named a most liberal sum), could prevent it. Of
course I never thought of availing myself of his generous
aid, or of permitting the contingency to occur that would
make it needful. If it had come to that pass I should
have felt myself bound to withdraw.
You will not think that I offend against propriety in
mentioning such a private experience when you consider
what an encouragement it was, what a joy to know that
I had such friends.
�13
Indeed, I would not refer now to those painful times at
all, could I not in all honesty say that I look back upon
them with pride, not on my own account, oh no! but on
yours, dear friends, on yours. How I feared and trembled,
and with what a faltering voice did I deliver the mes
sages of truth that came to me! You resisted them too.
I tried to hold my tongue and you to shut your ears. I
would fain have run away and hid myself from the sum
mons of Humanity* But I could not do that. I could
not resign my position without putting you in a false one,
in a position which I did not believe you were willing to
take. And you were not willing. This church, I say it
proudly, never committed itself to the WrongB You never
took any action on Sat side. On the contrary, when, in
the midst of that agitation, I was honored with an invi
tation elsewhere, and you had the opportunity of relief
by my being transferred to another church, you asserted,
at a very full meeting, wW decisive unanimity, your
fidelity to the freedom of the pulpit. And now it may
be written in the annals of this Church that in that try
ing time, it stood fast on the ground of Christian Liberty,
and its minister had the honor of being its representative.
While I gratefullS^.cknowledge the friendship which
has been my special blessing for half a century, I gladly
repeat what I have said on former anniversaries of my
ministry, that the kindness I have received has not come
from you alone. How little has there been in all this
time to remind me that we of this Church bear an obnox
ious name! How many are there who are not of this
little fold, but of other denominations, who have made
me feel that they belonged to me! O friends, it is not all
bearing the same religious name, but all bearing different
religious names and yet each respecting in others the
right of every one to think for himself,—this it is that
�14
illustrates most impressively the broad spirit of our com
mon Christianity. I had rather see this fact manifest
than a hundred churches agreeing exactly with me in
opinion.
I preached my first sermon in the fall of 1823, in Water
town, Massachusetts. And then, for a few months, I
preached as a candidate for settlement in Churches in
Boston and its vicinity needing pastors. Kind and flat
tering things were said to me of my ministrations, but I
put little faith in them, as they came from the many rela
tives and friends that I and mine had in that quarter, and
their judgment was biased by regard for me and mine.
I was strengthened in my distrust when friends, fellow
students, and fellow-candidates, were preferred before me.
I never envied them their success. I felt not the slightest
mortification, such a hearty dread had I of being settled
in Boston, whose church-goers had in those days the repu
tation of being terribly critical, and rhetoric then and
there was almost a religion. I felt myself utterly unequal
to that position. All my day-dreams had been of the
country, of some village church.
In May, 1824, I gladly availed myself of the oppor
tunity that was offered me of spending three months in
Baltimore as an assistant of Mr Greenwood, afterwards
pastor of the Stone Chapel, Boston. Before I left Bal
timore, the last of July of that year, I received a letter
from this city, inviting me to stop on my way home
and preach a few Sundays in the little church here. I
accepted the invitation as in duty bound, but rather re
luctantly, as I had never before been so long and so far
away from home, and I was homesick. I spent the
month of August here. I do not recollect that I had any
thought of being a candidate for this pulpit. Such had
been my experience, my ill success,—I do not wonder at
�15
it now,—that I was surprised and gratified when, upon the
eve of my departure, I was waited upon by a committee of
four or five,—I have had a suspicion since, so few were
the members of this Church then, that this committee
comprised nearly the whole Church meeting from which
they came,—and they cordially invited me to return and
become their pastor. As I had come here a perfect
stranger, and there were no prepossessions in my favor, I
could not but have at the very first a gratifying confi
dence in this invitation. Although I asked time for con
sideration, I responded at once in my heart to the kind
ness shown to me. Thus the aspirant to a country parish
was led to this great city.
The three hundred miles and more that separate Phila
delphia from my native Boston were a great deal longer
then than they are now. It took then at least two days
and a half to go from one to the other. A minister of our
denomination in Boston and its neighborhood had then a
great help in the custom then and there prevalent of a
frequent exchange of pulpits. One seldom occupied his
own pulpit more than half of the time. But this church
in Philadelphia was an outpost, and the lightening of
the labor by exchanges was not to be looked for. There
was no one to exchange with nearer than William Ware,
pastor of the church in New York. The place to be
filled here looked lonely and formidable. I accepted,
however, the lead of circumstances, moved by the confi
dence with which the hospitable members of this church
inspired me. I was drawn to this part of the vineyard
by their readiness to welcome me.
My ordination was delayed some months by the diffi
culty of obtaining ministers to come and take part in it.
It was a journey then. The days had only just gone by
when our pious New England fathers who made it had
prayers offered up in their churches for the protection of
�16
Heaven (or rather in their meeting-houses, as all places
of worship except the Catholic and Episcopal were called;
we never talked of going to church, we went to meeting).
Ordinations have ceased to be the solemn occasions they
were then. Then they were sacramental in their signifi
cation, like marriage. As our liberal faith was then
everywhere spoken against, it was thought necessary that
my ordination should be conducted as impressively as
possible. It is pleasant now to remember that with the
two Wares, Henry Ware, Jr, and William, and Dr
Gannett, came one of the fathers, far advanced in years,
the venerable Dr Bancroft, of Worcester, Mass., the
honored father of a distinguished son, to partake in the
exercises of the occasion. They are all gone now.
This Church had its beginning in 1796, when seven
persons, nearly all from the old country, shortly increased
to fourteen, with their families, agreed, at the suggestion
of Dr Priestley, who came to this country in 1794, to
meet every Sunday and take turns as readers of printed
sermons and prayers of the Liberal Faith. These meet
ings were occasionally interrupted by the yellow fever,
by which Philadelphia was then visited almost every
year, but they were never wholly given up.
In 1813 the small brick building was built in which I
first preached, and which stood on the southwest corner
of the present lot? directly on the street. A charter was
then obtained under the title of “ The First Society of
Unitarian Christians.” So obnoxious then was the Uni
tarian name that the most advanced men of our faith in
Boston, the fountain-head of American Unitarianism,
remonstrated with the fathers of this church, and coun
selled them to abstain from the use of so unpopular a des
ignation. But our founders, being Unitarians from Old
England and not from New, and consequently warm ad
�17
mirers, and some of them personal friends, of Dr Priestley,
whose autograph was on their records as one of their
members, felt themselves only honored in bearing with
him the opprobrium of the Unitarian name. The title
of our Church was afterwards changed to its present de
nomination, to bring it nominally into accord with our
brethren in New England. In 1828 this building took
the place of the first.
It was about ten years before I came here that the
Trinitarian and Unitarian controversy began. One of its
earliest forms appeared in published letters in 1815 be
tween Dr Channing, the pastor of the Federal Street
Church in Boston,- and Dr Samuel Worcester,! An able
orthodox minister of Salem, Mass. In 1819 Dr Chan
ning preached a sermon at the ordination of Mr Sparks
in Baltimore, which was then and ever will be regarded
as an eloquent and felicitous statemenwof the views of
the liberally disposed of that day. It commanded great
attention far and wide, and gave occasion ma very able,
learned, and courteous controversy between Dr Woods
and Mr Stuart, professors in the Orthodox Theological
School in Andover, Mass., on the one side, and Pro
fessors Henry Ware, Sr, and Andrews Norton, of the Cam
bridge Theological School on the other. The controversy
spread mostly in Massachusetts. In the^mall towns
where there had been only one church, there speedily ap
peared two. Families were divided, not without heats
and coolnesses, to the hurt of Christian fellowship. As
a general rule, fathers took the liberal side, mothers the
orthodox.
When I came here in 1825, the first excitement of the
controversy had somewhat subsided. It had lost its first
keen interest. It was growing rather wearisome. It had
snowed tracts, Trinitarian and Unitarian, over the land.
Accordingly, although I was a warm partisan, full of con3
�18
fidence in the rational and scriptural superiority of the
Unitarian faith, I did not feel moved to preach doctrinal
sermons. And, furthermore, as I was on my way hither
in the mail coach, in company with my friends, ministers
and delegates from Boston and New York, I was greatly
impressed by a remark made by one of my elders to the
effect that people were bound to their several churches,
not by the force of reason and the results of religious in
quiry, but by mere use and wont and affection.
Of the truth of this remark, by the way, I had a
striking instance some years ago. One of our fellow
citizens, now deceased, an intelligent, respectable man, a
devoted member of one of our Presbyterian churches,
used to come to me to borrow Theodore Parker’s writings,
in which he took great pleasure. But he said he never
dreamed of withdrawing from his Church. As Richter
says, his Church was his mother. You could not have
weaned him from her by telling him how many better
mothers there were in the world. This truth impressed
me greatly, and was a comfort to me in my younger days.
Although I have rarely preached an outright doctrinal
discourse, yet I had many interesting experiences in ref
erence to the spread of liberal ideas. I regret that I
have not done in my small way what that eminent man,
John Quincy Adams, as his Memoirs now in course of
publication show he did in his wonderfully thorough way,
—kept a diary. Very frequently has it occurred that per
sons have come to me who had chanced to hear a Unita
rian sermon, or read a Unitarian book for the first time,
and they declared that it expressed their views precisely,
and they did not know before that there was anybody in
the world of that way of thinking.
Once, many years ago, I received a letter from a
stranger in Virginia, bearing a well-known Virginia
name. She wrote to tell me that a year before, she was
�19
in Philadelphia, and, much against her conscience, had
been induced by her husband to enter this church. Although there was nothing of a doctrinal character in the
sermon, the effect was to move her when she returned
home to study the Scriptures for herself with new care.
The result was that she now believed upon their au
thority that there was only one God, the Father, and
that Jesus Christ was a dependent being. There were
some texts, however, that she wished to have explained,
and therefore she wrote to me. The texts she specified
showed that she could not have met with any of our
publications, for, had she done so, she would certainly
have found the explanations she desired. Of course I
did what I could to supply her wants.
I think this incident would have passed away from
my mind or been only dimly remembered if, twenty-five
years afterwards, and after the war of the Rebellion, I
had not received another letter from the same person.
In it she referred to our Correspondence of five-andtwenty years before, and said that she wrote now in be
half of some suffering people, formerly her servants
(slaves, I presume). Through the kindness of Mr John
Welsh, chairman of a committee that had been chosen
by our fellow-citizens for the relief of the Southern people,
I was enabled to send her a sum of money. A quantity
of clothing was also procured for her from the Freed
men’s Relief Association. My Southern friend returned,
with her thanks, a very minute account of the disposi
tion she had made of the supplies sent to her. She ap
peared to have accepted with a Christian grace the
changed condition of things in the South. May we not
give something of the credit of this gracious behavior to
the liberal faith which she had learned to cherish?
It was cases like this that caused me to feel less and
less interest in doctrines and religious controversies. I
�20
have been learning every day that, much as men differ
in religion and numberless other things, they are, after
all, more alike than different, and that in our intercourse
with our fellow-men it is best to ignore those differences
as much as possible, and take for granted that we and
they are all of one kind.
And furthermore, in free conversation with educated
and intelligent persons of this city, with whom I have
become acquainted, I long ago found out that it was not
orthodoxy that prevailed; it was not the doctrines of
Calvin and the Thirty-nine Articles that were rampant,
but that there was a wide-spread scepticism as to the
simplest facts of historical Christianity. To persons of
this class, numerous, years ago, and not less numerous
now, it mattered little whether the Bible taught the
Trinity or the Unity of the Divine Nature. The ques
tion with them is, whether it be not all a fable.
It was this state of mind that I was continually meet
ing with that qarly gave to my humble studies a very
definite and positive direction. It was high time, I
thought, to look to the very foundations of Christianity,
and see to it, not whether the Christian Records, upon
which we are all resting^, favor the Trinitarian or the
Unitarian interpretation of their contents, but whether
they have any basis in Fact, and to what that basis
amounts. As this feemed to be the fundamental inquiry,
so, of all inquiries, it became to me the most interesting.
In studying this question I could not satisfy myself
that any external, historical argument, however power
ful, in favor of the genuineness and authenticity of the
Christian Records, could prove decisive. For even if it
were thus proved to demonstration that we have in the
Four Gospels the very works, word for word, of the
writers whose names they bear, there would still remain
untouched the question: How, after all, do we know
�21
that these writers, honest and intelligent as they may
have been, were not mistaken?
There was only one thing to be done: To examine these
writings themselves, and to find out what they really are.
With the one single desire to ascertain their true char
acter, that is, whether they be narratives of facts or of
fables, or a mingle of both, they were to be studied, and
the principles of reason, truth, and probability were to be
applied to them just as if they were anonymous frag
ments recently discovered in some monaster^ of the East,
or dug up from under some ancient ruins.
On the face of them, they are very artlessly constructed.
Here was one good reason for believing that, though it
might be difficult, it could not be impossible to determine
what they are. Since Science can discoveife^T^inv com
pound the simples of which it is composed, although
present in infinitesimal quantities, surely then it can be
ascertained of what these artless works of human hands
are made: whether they be the creations of fancy or the
productions of truth.
Then, again, as obviously, these primitive Records
abound in allusions to times, places, and persons. Here
was another ground of hope that the inquiry into their
real character would not be in vain. When one is tell
ing a story not founded in fact, he takes good care how
he refers to times, and persons, and places, since every
such reference is virtually summoning a witness to testify
to his credibility.
Encouraged by these considerations, I have now, for
forty years and^wre, given myselr to this fundamental
inquiry. It has been said that only scholars, far more
learned men than I pretend to be, can settle the his
torical claims of the Four Gospels. But the fact is, the
theologians in Germany and elsewhere, profound as their
learning is, have busied themselves about the external
�22
historical arguments for the truth of the Gospels. They
have been given, it has seemed to me, to a quibbling
sort of criticism about jots and tittles. But it is not
microscopes, but an eye to see with, that is the one thing
needed for the elucidation of these Writings.
When we first occupied this building, I read courses
of Expository Lectures every Tuesday evening, in a
room which was fitted up as a vestry, under the church,
for some four or five months in the year, for five seasons.
The attendance was never large; some thirty persons
perhaps gave me their presence. But my interest in the
study came not from my hearers, but from the subject,
in which, from that time to this, I have found an in
creasing delight. Continually new and inimitable marks
of truth have been disclosed. Unable to keep to myself
what I found so convincing, I have from time to time
published the discoveries, or what appeared to me dis
coveries, that I made. The editions of my little pub
lished volumes have never been large. Many persons
tell me they have read them. I can reconcile the fact
that they have been so much read with their very limited
sale only by supposing that the few copies sold have been
loaned very extensively s Do not think, friends, that I
am making any complaint. As I have just said, my in
terest in the subject has not depended upon others, either
hearers or readers. The subject itself has been my abun
dant compensation.
To many of my brothers in the ministry I have ap
peared, I suppose,*4o be the dupe of my own fancies.
What I have offered as sparkling gems of fact have been
regarded as made, not found. Some time ago I came
across an old letter from my venerated friend, the late
Henry Ware, Jr, in which he expostulated with me for
wasting myself upon such a barren study as he appears to
have regarded the endeavor to ascertain whether this
�23
great Christendom be founded on a fable or on the ada
mant of Fact.
So dependent are we all upon the sympathy of others,
that I believe my interest in this pursuit would have
abated long ago had it not been that the subject had an
overpowering charm in itself, and that one great result
of the inquiry, becoming more and more significant at
every step, was to bring out in ever clearer light the
Godlike Character of the Man of Nazareth. As he
has gradually emerged from the thick mists of super
stition and theological speculation in which he had so
long been hidden from my sight, his Person, as profoundly
natural as it was profoundly original, has broken upon
me at times as “ the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God.” Not in any alleged miracle, not in any nor
in all His works, wonderful and unprecedented as some
of them were, not in His words, immortal as is the wis
dom that he uttered, but in that reserved fulness of per
sonal power of which His works and words,—His whole
overt life gives only a hint, significant, indeed, but only
a hint—there, in himself, in what He was, in the native,
original power of the Man, the secret of His mighty in
fluence has been laid bare to me. That it is that ex
plains the existence of the wondrous stories of His life.
They had to be, and to be just what they are, with all
their discrepancies, mistakes, and somewhat of the fabu
lous that is found in them, born as they were of the irre
sistible force of His personal truth. And that it is, also,
which is the inexhaustible fountain of Inspiration, of
Faith, and Love, and Hope, which the Infinite Mercy has
opened in the world, and of which men, fainting and per
ishing in their sins, shall drink, and from within them
shall flow rivers of healing and of health.
As I have intimated, friends, there have been times
when I have felt somewhat lonely in this study. But
�24
some ten years ago a marked change came over the
course of religious thought occasioned by the appearance
of a Life of Jesus, by an eloquent and learned man in
France, who, belonging to the sceptical school, scarcely
believing that such a person as Jesus ever had an exist
ence, went to Syria upon a scientific errand, and when
there was struck by the evidences that he beheld of the
geographical truth of the New Testament. So strong a
conviction was born in him of the reality of Jesus that
he was moved to write his life. It is true there is little
else in the book of Ernest Renan recognized as fact, be
yond the actual existence and the great sayings of Jesus.
This was something, coming from the quarter it did.
And, moreover, with all the doubts which it suggests as
to particular incidents in the Gospel histories, its publi
cation has been justified by the effect it had in turning
attention to the human side of that great life. It has
created a new interest in the Man.
And further, Science, becoming popular, is impressing
the general mind so deeply with the idea of the inviolable
order of Nature, that it is not to be believed that men
will look much longer for the credentials of any person,
or of any fact, in his or its departure from that order.
Nothing can be recognized as truth that violates the laws
of Nature, or rather that does not harmonize with them
fully. Deeply impressed with the entire naturalness of
Jesus, I believe that the time is at hand when the evi
dences of His truth, of His divinity, will be sought, not
in any preternatural events or theories, but in His full
accord with the natural truth of things. As the one Fact,
or Person, in whom the highest or deepest in Nature is
revealed, He is the central fact, harmonizing all nature.
Never, never, from the first, has it been more important
that the personality of Jesus should be appreciated than
at the present time. The Darwinian law of Natural
�25
Selection and the Survival of the Fittest is in all men’s
minds, and in the material, organized world of plants and
animals, we are all coming to consider it demonstrated.
As an animal, man must be concluded under that law.
In the physical world, as Professor Tyndall tells us, “ the
weakest must go to the wall.”
But man is something, a great deal more than an ani
mal. He has an immaterial, moral, intellectual being,
for which he has the irresistible testimony of his own
consciousness; and as an immaterial being, it is not at
the cost of the weak, but it is by helping the weak to
live that any individual becomes strong. This, this is
the great law of our spiritual nature^ The highest, the
elect, they whom Nature selects, the fittest to live, are
those who are ready to die for others, sacrificing their
mortal existence, if need be, to lift up the weakest to
their immortal fellowship. In the unchangeable order
of things, not only is it not possible for a moral and in
tellectual being to become great by sacrificing others to
his own advancement, his greatness can be secured only
by giving himself for them.
Let Science, then, go on pouring light upon the laws
and order of the material Universe. But let it stand by
its admission that the connection between that and the
immaterial world, however intimate, is not only inscru
table, but unthinkable; and reverently recognize, stand
ing there on the threshold of the immaterial world, one
Godlike Figure, surrounded by the patriots and martyrs,
the great and good of every age and country, holy angels,
but high above them all in the perfectness of his Selfabnegation. No one took His life from him; He gave it
up freely of himself. And thus is He a special revelation
of the law that reigns in the moral world, as surely as
the law of natural selection reigns in the physical.
4
�26
What renders the character of Jesus of still greater
interest at this present time is the fact that there are
thoughtful and enlightened men who aver that they
would fain be rid of Him, since He has been and still is
the occasion of so much enslaving error. They might
as well, for the same reason, join with Porson and “damn
the nature of things,” for what has occasioned greater
error than the nature of things? It can be got rid of
as easily as the Person of Jesus.
For some twenty years or more before the war of the
Rebellion, the question which that war settled interested
me deeply. But on the last anniversary of my ministry
I dwelt chiefly upon the experiences of that period. I
need not repeat what I said then. It was a season of
severe discipline to us all, to the whole people of our
country.
I will only say here, that so far from diverting my
interest from the great subject of which I have been
speaking, it harmonized with it and increased it. As I
read the events and signs of that trying time, they be
came to me a living commentary upon the words of the
Lord Jesus. Precepts of His, that had before seemed
trite, began glowing and burning like revelations fresh
from the Invisible. The parable of the Good Samaritan
seemed to be made expressly for that hour. That scene
in the synagogue at Nazareth, when all there were filled
with wrath at what Jesus said,—how real was it, read by
the light of the flames that consumed Pennsylvania Hall I
As the truths of the New Testament, simple and divine,
rose like suns and poured their light upon that long
conflict, so did those days in return disclose a new and
pointed significance in those simple pages, giving life to
our Christian faith.
�27
What a time, friends, has this been, the latter half of
our first national century! It was a great day in history
which gave the world the Printing-Press and the Protest
ant Reformation. But does not the last half century
rival it? The railroad and the telegraph, mountains
levelled, oceans and continents united, time and space
vanishing, the huge sun made our submissive artist,
the establishment of universal liberty over this broad
land,—are not these things responding with literal obedi
ence to the command of the ancient prophet: “ Prepare
ye the way of the Lord; make his path straight?”
It is a wonderful day, a great day of the Lord. We
are stocks and stones if we do not catch the spirit, the
generous spirit, of the Almighty breathif^and brooding
in countless unacknowledged ways over this mysterious
human race. All things, like a host of prophets, are point
ing us to an unimaginable destiny. The authority of the
human soul over the visible Universe is becoming every
hour more assured. We are not here to walk in a vain
show, to live only for the lust of the eye, so soon to be
quenched in dust, or for the pride which feeds on what
withers almost at the touch. Our nature bears the in
eradicable likeness of the Highest. The mystery of it is
hidden in the mystery of
being, and the laws of oui’
minds are revealed in the laws which hold the whole Cre
ation together. We are not servants, we are sons, heirs
of God; joint heirs with Jesus and all the good and
great. And all is ours, ours to raise and enlarge our
thoughts, to set us free from the corrupting bondage of the
senses, to deepen our hunger and thirst for the only Liv
ing and the True, for the beauty of Holiness, the im
mortal life of God. And all our private experience; all
our conflicts, our victories and our defeats; all the joys
and sorrows which we have shared together,—the sacred
�28
memories that come to us to-day of parents, sons, daugh
ters, and dear ones departed,—do they not throng around
us now, and kindle our hearts with unutterable prayers
for ourselves, for our children, and for one another ?
NOTE
On the last anniversary of my ordination (the forty
ninth) I was led to dwell upon the Anti-slavery period
of thirty years before the war of the rebellion. It was a
period of intense interest, a great chapter in the history
of our country.
There was one incident of those times to which I par
ticularly referred a year ago, which I wish to recoid here,
not on account of any great part that I had in it, but for
the interesting character of the whole affair; and be
cause, thinking it of some historical value, I am not
aware that it has ever been recorded save in the daily
press of the time. From a MS. record made some time
ago of “ Reminiscences,” the following extract is tran
scribed :
�29
“ The most memorable occasion in my Anti-slavery ex
perience was the annual meeting of the American Anti
slavery Society held in the ‘ Tabernacle,’ as it was called,
in New York, in May, 1850,1 believe it was. I accepted
an invitation to speak on that occasion, holding myself
greatly honored thereby.
Having no gift of extemporaneous speech, I prepared
myself with the utmost pains. I went to New York
the day before the meeting; saw Mr Garrison and Wendell Phillips. Mr Garrison said there would be a riot,
as the Press had been doing its utmost to inflame the
public mind against the Abolitionists.
“ When the meeting was opened, the large hall, said
to be the largest then in New York, capable of holding
some thousands, was apparently full. The vast majority
of the audience were doubtless friendly to the object of
the meeting.
“Mr Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Edmund Quincy,
Isaac Hopper, Francis Jackson, Frederick Douglass, and
other faithful servants of the cause, were present on the
platform.
“ I saw friends here and there among the audience. I
was surprised to recognize there a son of Judge Kane of
this city (afterwards Col. T. Kane). I had some previous
acquaintance with him, and knew him to be a young man
of ardent temperament, open to generous ideas. I sup
posed then, and still suppose, that he was drawn there
accidentally by curiosity. After a prayer by the Bev.
Henry Grew, Mr Garrison made the opening speech,
strong, bold, and characteristic.
“ He had spoken only a few moments when he was in
terrupted by what sounded like a burst of applause; but
as there was nothing special to call it forth, and as it
proceeded from one little portion of the audience, I asked
Wendell Phillips, who sat next to me, what it meant.
�30
1 It means/ he said, ‘ that there is to he a row.’ The
interruption was repeated again and again. A voice
shouted some rude questions to Mr Garrison.
“Mr Garrison bore himself with the serenity of a
summer’s evening, answering: ‘ My friend, if you will
wait till I get through, I will give you the information
you ask for.’ He succeeded in finishing his speech. I
was to speak next. But the instant Mr Garrison ended,
there came down upon the platform from the gallery
which was connected with it, an individual, with a com
pany of roughs at his back, who proved to be no less a
person than the then well-known Isaiah Rynders. He
began shouting and raving.
“ I was not aware of being under any apprehension of
personal violence. We were all like General Jackson’s
cotton-bales at New Orleans. Our demeanor made it
impossible for the rioters to use any physical force against
us. Young Kane, however, leaped upon the platform,
and, pressing through to me, in a tone of great excite
ment, exclaimed » ‘ They shall not touch a hair of your
head!’ Mr Garrison said to Rynders in the quietest
manner conceivable, | You ought not to interrupt us. We
go upon th^principle of hearing everybody. If you wish
to speak, I will keep ordei|and you shall be heard.’ But
Rynders was not in a state of mind to listen to reason. He
had not come there for that, but to break up the meeting.
“ The Hutchinsons, who were wont to sing at the Anti
slavery meetings, were in the gallery, and they attempted
to raise a song, to soothe the savages with music. But it
was of no avail. Rynders drowned their fine voices with
noise and shouting. The chief of the police came upon
the platform, and asked Mr Garrison whether he desired
him to arrest and remove Rynders & Co. Mr Garrison
answered: ‘We desire nothing of you. We can take
care of ourselves. You probably know your duty.’ The
�31
officer did' nothing. In this scene of confusion, young
Kane became intensely excited. He rushed up to
Rynders, and shook his fist in his face. He said to me
with the deepest emphasis : f If he touches Mr Garrison,
I’ll kill him!’ But Mr Garrison’s composure was more
than a coat of mail. Rynders, indisposed to speak him
self, brought forward a man to speak for him and. his
party. Mr Francis Jacksonjiand I were, the while, hold
ing young Kane down in his seat to keep him from
breaking out into some act of violence. He was the most
dangerous element on our side. Rynders’s substitute
professed a willingness that I should speak first (I was
down on the placards to follow Mr Garrison), provided
I did not make a long speech.
“ Accordingly, I spoke iM little, anxiously prepared
word. I never recall that hour without blessing myself
that I was called to speak precisely at that moment. At
any other stage of the proceedings, it would have been
wretchedly out of place.
“ As it was, my speech fitted in almost ttWell as if it
had been impromptu, although a shamm^e might easily
have discovered that I was speaking mewm’ier. Rynders
interrupted me again and again, exclaiming that I lied,
that I was personal, but he ended with applauding me!
Rynders’s man then came forward, rath® dull and tire
some in speech. It was his own friends who interrupted
him occasionally, Mr Garrison calling them to order.
“ His argument was^hat the blacks are not human
beings. Mr Garrison whispered to me while he was
speaking, that the speaker had formerly been a com
positor in the office of the Liberator.
“ He ended at last, and then Frederick Douglass was
loudly called for. Mr Douglass came forward, exqui
sitely neat in his dress.
“ ‘ The gentleman who has just spoken,’ he began, ‘ has
�32
undertaken to prove that the blacks are n'ot human
beings. He has examined our whole conformation, from
top to toe. I cannot follow him in his argument. I will
assist him in it, however. I offer myself for your exami
nation. Am I a man ? ’ To this interrogatory instantly
there came from the audience a thunderous affirma
tive. Rynders was standing right by the side of Mr
Douglass, and when the response died away, he exclaimed
in a hesitating way: ‘But you’re not a black man!’
‘ Then,’ retorted Douglass, ‘ I’m your brother.’ ‘ Ah,—
ah,’ said Rynders, hesitatingly, ‘ only half brother.’ The
effect upon the audience need not be described; it may
readily be imagined. Mr Douglass then went on, com
plaining of Horace Greeley, who had recently said in his
paper that the blacks did nothing for themselves. ‘ When
I first came North,’ said Mr Douglass, ‘ I went to the
most decided Anti-slavery merchant in the North, and
sought employment on a ship he was building, and he told
me that if he were to give me work, every white opera
tive would quit, and yet Mr Greeley finds fault with us
that we do not help ourselves!’ This criticism of Greeley
pleased Rynders, who bore that gentleman no good will,
and he added a word to Douglass’s against Greeley. ‘ I
am happy,’ said Douglass, ‘ to have the assent of my half
brother here,’ pointing to Rynders, and convulsing the
audience with laughter. After this, Rynders, finding how
he was played with, took care to hold his peace; but some
one of Rynders’s company in the gallery undertook to in
terrupt the speaker. ‘ It’s of no use,’ said Mr Douglass ;
‘ I’ve Captain Rynders here to back me.’ ‘ We were born
here,’ he went on to say, ‘ we have made the clothes that
you wear, and the sugar that you put into your tea, and we
mean to stay here and do all we can for you.’ ‘ Yes!’ cried
a voice from the gallery, ‘ and you’ll cut our throats!’
‘ No,’ said the speaker, ‘ we’ll only cut your hair.’ When
�33
the laughter ceased, Mr Douglass proceeded to say:
‘ We mean to stay here, and do all we can for every one,
be he a man, or be he a monkey,’ accompanying these
last words with a wave of his hand towards the quarter
whence the interruption had come. He concluded with
saying that he saw his friend, Samuel Ward, present, and
he would ask him to step forward. All eyes were instantly
turned to the back of the platform, or stage rather, so
dramatic was the scene, and there, amidst a group, stood
a large man, so black that, as Wendell Phillips said,
when he shut his eyes, you could not see him. Had I
observed him before, I should have wondered what
brought him there, accounting him as fresh from Africa.
He belonged to the political wing of the Abolition party
(Gerritt Smith’s), * and had wandered into the meeting,
never expecting to be called upon to speak. At the call
of Frederick Douglass, he came to the front, and, as he
approached, Rynders exclaimed: ‘ Well, this is the origi
nal nigger!’ ‘ I’ve heard of the magnanimity of Captain
Rynders,’ said Ward, ‘ but the half has not been told me I’
And then he went on with a noble voice, and his speech
was such a strain of eloquence as I never heard excelled
before or since.
“‘There are more than fifty people here,’ said he,
‘ who may remember me as a little black boy running
about the streets of New York. I have always been
called nigger, and the only consolation that has been
offered me for being called nigger was, that, when I die
and go to heaven, I shall be white. If’—and here, with
an earnestness of tone and manner that thrilled one to
the very marrow, he continued—‘ If I cannot go to heav
en as black as God made me, let me go down to hell, and
dwell with the devils forever!’
“ The effect was beyond description.
“ ‘ This gentleman,’ he said, ‘ who denies our humanity,
5
�34
has examined us scientifically, but I know something of
anatomy. I have kept school, and I have had pupils,
from the jet black up to the soft dissolving views, and
I’ve seen white boys with retreating foreheads and pro
jecting jaws, and, as Dickens says, in Nicholas Nickleby,
of Smike, you might knock here all day,’ tapping his
forehead, ‘ and find nobody at home.’ In this strain, he
went on, ruling the large audience with Napoleonic power.
Coal-black as he was, he was an emperor, pro tempore.
“ When he ceased speaking, the time had expired for
which the Tabernacle was engaged, and we had to ad
journ. Never was there a grander triumph of intelli
gence, of mind, over brute force. Two colored men, whose
claim to be considered human was denied, had, by mere
force of intellect, overwhelmed their maligners with con
fusion. As the audience was thinning out, I went down
on the floor to see some friends there. Rynders came
by. I could not help saying to him, ‘How shall we
thank you for what you have done for us to-day ? ’ ‘ Well,’
said he, ‘ I do not like to hear my country abused, but
that last thing that you said, that’s the truth.’ That last
thing was, I believe, a simple assertion of the right of the
people to think and speak freely.
“Judging by his physiognomy and his scriptural name
Isaiah, I took Captain Rynders to be of Yankee descent.
Notwithstanding his violent behavior, he yet seemed to
be a man accessible to the force of truth. I found that
Lucretia Mott had the same impressions of him. She
saw him a day or two afterwards in a restaurant on
Broadway, and she sat down at his table, and entered
into conversation with him. As he passed out of the
restaurant, h^ asked Mr McKim, who was standing there,
waiting for Mrs Mott, whether Mrs Mott were his mother.
Mr McKim replied in the negative. ‘ She’s a good sen
sible woman,’ said Rynders.
�35
“Never before or since have I been so deeply moved
as on that occasion. Depths were stirred in me never
before reached. For days afterwards, when I under
took to tell the story, my head instantly began to ache.
Mr Garrison said, if the papers would only faithfully
report the scene, it would revolutionize public senti
ment. As it was, they heaped all sorts of ridicule upon
us. I cheerfully accepted my share, entirely willing to
pass for a fool in the eyes of the world. It was a cheap
price to pay for the privilege of witnessing such a triumph.
I was taken quite out of myself. I came home, stepping
like Malvolio. I had shared in the smile of Freedom,
the belle and beauty of the world.
“ A day or two after my return home, I met one of my
parishioners in the street, and stopped and told him all
about my New York visitJ He listened to me with a
forced smile, and told me that there had been some
thought of calling an indignation meeting of the church
to express the mortification felt at my going and mixing
myself up with such people. I had hardly given a
thought to the effect at home, so full was I of the interest
and glory of the occasion. I ought to have preached on
the Sunday following from the words: ‘ He has gone to be
a guest with a man who is a sinner !’ ”
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�MEETING
OF THE
Staig M fflmtmn CJ^nstians,
IN PHILADELPHIA,
HELD IN THE CHURCH, TENTH AND LOCUST STREETS,
JANUARY 1 2, 187 5,
IN commemoration' on the
FIFTIETH
ANNIVERSARY
OF
Rev. W. H. FURNESS, D.D.,
AS PASTOR OF THEIR CHURCH.
��39
On the evening of January 12th, 1875, the meeting
of the First Unitarian Society, in commemoration of the
fiftieth anniversary of the pastorate of the Rev. Dr. Fur
ness, was held in the church.
The following ministers were present:
Rev. Dr. John H. Morison,
Rev. R. R. Shippen,
Rev. Dr. S. K. Lothrop,
Rev. Wm. O. White,
Rev Dr. James Freeman Clarke,Rev. J. F. W. Ware,
Rev. Dr. James T. Thompson,
Rev. Wm. C. Gannett,
Rev. Dr. C. A. Bartol,
Rev. E. H. Hall,
Rev. Dr. H. W. Bellows,
Rev. J. W. Chadwick,
Rev. Dr. A. P. Putnam,
Rev. Thos. J. Mumford,
Rev. F. Israel,
RevMBS G. Ames.
The church was profusely but tastefully hung with
festoons of evergreen; on the wall, behind the pulpit,
was a large cross; among the festoons which overhung it
were the figures “ 1825 ” and ‘L{1875” in white and green
flowers; while in front of the pulpit, covering the com
munion table and all the approaches to it, were growing
tropical plants, amid which was a profusion of vases,
baskets, and bouquets of natural flowers, with smilax
distributed here and there in delicate fringes or festoons.
�40
The regular quartette choir of the church, consisting
of
Mrs. W. D. Dutton,
Mrs. Isaac Ashmead,
Mr. E. Dillingham,
Mr. F. G-. Caupeman,
....
Jr., .
.
.
....
....
Soprano,
Contralto,
Tenor,
Bass,
was on this occasion assisted by
Miss Cassidy,
Miss Cooper,
Mr. A. H. Eosewig,
Miss Jennie Cassidy,
Mrs. Roberts,
Mr. W. W. Gilchrist.
under the direction of Mr. W. D. Dutton, organist of the
church.
�PROCEEDINGS.
At half-past seven o’clock the exercises of the evening
commenced, as follows:
Music.
Tenor solo and chorus, ....
. Mendelssohn.
“ Oh, come, let us worship,” from 95th Psalm.
Mr. Henry Winsor, Chairman of the Committee of
Arrangements, in opening the meeting made the follow
ing remarks:
The occasion of our meeting here this evening is so
well known to all present that there is no need of any
formal announcement of it. We thought some time ago
that this anniversary of our pastor’s ordination, when
the half century of his ministration here is complete,
ought to be in some way marked and commemorated;
and as one of the things for that purpose,—as the best
means perhaps to that end, we invited friends in New
England and elsewhere to be with us here, to-night^ and
I am glad to say that some of them have come; as many
perhaps as we had reason to expect at this inclement
season.
6
�42
And now, speaking for this Society, I want to say to
them that their presence is a special joy to us ; a greater
joy than it could be on a similar occasion to any society
in New England; for there Unitarians are at home, and
each society has many neighbors with whom it can com
mune, and to whom it can look for sympathy, and, if
need be, for assistance. But this Society of Unitarian
Christians has long been alone in this great city, having
no connection with any religious society here and com
muning with none. And so, as I said, your presence on
this occasion is a real joy to us, and, on behalf of the
Society, I heartily thank you for it. But we are here—
we of the congregation are here—not to speak but to
listen; and I will now ask Dr. Morison, of Massachusetts,
to pray for us.
Prayer by Rev. Dr. John H. Morison.
Almighty and most merciful Father, we beseech Thee
to open our hearts to all the gracious and hallowed asso
ciations of this hour. Help us so to enter into the spirit
of this hour, that all holy influences may be around us, that
our hearts may be touched anew, that we may be brought
together more tenderly, and lifted up, with a deeper grati
tude and reverence, to Thee, the Fountain of all good, the
Giver of every good and perfect gift. We thank Thee,
most merciful Father; for the ministry which has been mod
estly carrying on its beneficent work here through these
fifty years. We thank Thee for all the lives which have
been helped by it to see and to do Thy will, and which
have been made more beautiful and holy by being brought
into quicker sympathies with whatever is beautiful in the
world without, and whatever is lovely in the world within.
We thank Thee for the inspiring words which have been
here spoken, brought home to the consciences of this con
�43
gregation by the life which stood behind them, to make
men more earnest to search after what is true and to do
what is right. We thank Thee, our Father in heaven, for
all the sweet and tender and far-reaching hopes, too vast
for this world, which have been opening here, begun upon
the earth and fulfilled in other worlds, in more imme
diate union with the spirits of the just made perfect; and
we thank Thee for all the solemn memories here, through
which the dear and honored forms of those to whom we
who are aged now looked up once as to our fathers and
teachers rise again transfigured and alive before us. We
thank Thee for all those who have been with us in the
ministry of Christ, and under the ministry of Christ,
gracious souls, rejoicing with us in the work which they
and we have been permitted to do, and now, as our trust
is, numbered among Thy saints in glory gverlasting. And
while we here render thanks to Thee for the ministry so
long and so faithfully fulfilled in this place, so allying
itself to all that is sweet in our human affections, to all
that is beautiful in the world of nature and of art, to all
that is holy in the domestic relations, to all that is strong
and true in the defence of human rights, to the deepest
human interests and to thy love, uniting in grateful rev
erence for the past, we would also ask Thy holy Spirit to
dwell with Thy servant, to inspire him still with thoughts
which shall keep his soul always young, his spirit always
fresh, for long years yet to come, with increasing ripe
ness and increasing devotedness; and that he may long
continue to walk in and out here amid the silent benedic
tions of those who have learned to love and honor him.
Our Father in heaven, help us that whatever may be
said at this time may be in harmony with the occasion.
While we here rise up in prayer and thanksgiving to
Thee, grant that Thy heavenly benediction may rest on
pastor and people, that Thy loving spirit may turn our
�44
human wishes into heavenly blessings, and that the words
and example of Him who came into the world, not to
do his own will but the will of Him that sent him, may
comfort and strengthen us; and that the life which has
been such an inspiration and joy and quickening power
to our friend may be to all of us still an incentive to
holiness, and an inspiration to all pure and heavenly
thoughts.
And now, most merciful Father, grant to us all, that
it may be good for us to be here—so gracious and so
hallowed is the time—and Thine, through Jesus Christ
our Lord, be the kingdom and the power and the glory
forever and ever. Amen.’":
Music.
Soprano solo and chorus, .... Spohk.
“ How lovely are thy dwellings fair !”
Mr. Winsor then spoke as follows:
At the ordination of Dr. Furness, fifty years ago, the
sermon was delivered by one eminent among Unitarian
Christians, ^^gtom&is memory will be long cherished
and honored, Henry Ware, Jr., and for this reason I ask
to speak first of all here to-night his son, Rev. John F.
W. Ware, of Boston, Mass.
Address of Rev. John F. W. Ware.
Friends of this Christian Society: I have no
other claim to be standing here to-night and participating
in your service than the one just mentioned—that I am
the son of the man who, fifty years ago this day, preached
the sermon at the ordination of his friend, William
�45
Henry Furness, and what may seem to you my fitness is
indeed my unfitness. Proud as I am in being the son of
a man so much honored, loved, and remembered, I never
feel it quite right in any way to try to represent him, and
had I known that this was to be a part of the conse
quences of my journey I think I should have stayed at
home.
But during the hours that I have been on the way my
thoughts have been busy with that fifty yea® ago, think
ing of the goodly company who, “in the winter wild,”
came down here from New England that they might
plant this vine in the vineyard of the Lord. And none
of them who came at that time to plant are permitted
to be here to-night to help us gather the rich and Opened
clusters. It showed, I thinaMwe love that these men
had for, and the confidence that they had in, their young
friend, that they should have come, in that inclement
time, this long journey by stage, taking them days and
nights of discomfort as it did. IBSik that there was
no sweeter household word in that dear old home of mine
than “ Brother Furness ”—the old-fashioned way in which
ministers used to talk of one anotheAwhich we of to
day have forgotten. In those times it meant something;
to-day we don’t feel as if it did, so we have dropped it.
I think there was no‘name so sweet outside of the closest
family ties as that name, and we children grew—my sis
ter and myself—to have always the deepest love for the
man that our father loved; and as time went by, and
young manhood came, I looked forward to the hearing
of the tones of that voice, and the seeing of that smile,
and the touching of that hand, as among the bright and
pleasant things—a sort of condescending, it always seemed
to me to be, of one who was in a sphere higher up than I
ever hoped to climb to. Then, as I grew older, I re
member the audacity with which I offered him “a labor
�46
of love ” in this church, and I remember I trembled after
I had done it; and I remember how he thanked me, and
how he criticized me, and the criticizing was a great deal
better than the thanking. It was very deep; it meant a
good deal, and it has not been forgotten.
Fortunate man! he who came into this city fifty years
ago; fortunate in the place, and the time of his birth :
fortunate in the education he had had and the faith he had
imbibed; fortunate in the place he had gone to, not to be
coddled among friends, emasculated by being surrounded
by those who thought just as he did, but thrown out by
God’s will into this outpost, where he could grow, as we
cannot where we are surrounded by those of our own
preference and method of thinking; fortunate in the
bent of his study, iii the opportunity to unfold the beau
tiful life of Jesus; fortunate in being of those who
stood up for the slave; fortunate in having lived to see
the issue of the work that his heart was engaged in; for
tunate in being now crowned by the love and benediction
of his people, and retiring calmly and sweetly from the
work of life, still to dwell among those who have loved
him these years long. Oh, fortunate man! God bless
him, and continue him here many years yet, your joy,
your companion, your guide, and your friend.
Not many of us shall see our fiftieth anniversary, for
more and more this profession of ours becomes a thing
of yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow alone. Very few oc
casions there will be again to meet together to celebrate
the fiftieth anniversary of a minister’s settlement.
Let us treasure the memory of this occasion. Let it
go with us who are here to our homes and our works,
and may it remain here with you a thought and memory
and a help; and as, in the beginning, this church drew
its life and its first impulse through a little band of
sturdy and steady and upright laymen, so in the time
�4
47
that lies before you, lay friends of this Society, remem
ber that it is not the past upon which you can lean—the
work that has been done by the servant who retires. It
is the future in which you are to hope, and the charac
ter of that future must be largely your work. With
this simple word, knowing that there are many gentle
men here who are to speak, and will speak more wisely
and properly than I, I ask Mr. Gannett to follow me.
Rev. Dr. Furness then came forward, and said:
My dear Friends : I am very doubtful about the
propriety of my being present on this occasion, not be
cause any deserts of mine would call forth any extrava
gant eulogium, but because I know the kind hearts of my
friends. They would say things which would make me
very uncomfortable! But just before I came from home
I got a letter from our friend, Mr. Weld, minister of the
church in Baltimore. He has sent us from the church in
Baltimore two communion cups—silver cups—as a token
of kind fellowship and recognition of this anniversary
from the church in Baltimore. They wished to have an
inscription placed on them, but they had no time; in
dicating that they were gifts from the church in Balti
more. So I thought I would bring them down without
delay, and put them upon the table, if there was any room
for them.
In all the kind words which my brethren say about
me, I think there is a good deal put in. Just like the old
man who took notes of his minister’s sermons, and when
he read them over to the minister, the ministei said,
“ Stop ! stop ! I did not say that.” “ I know you didn’t,”
he said; “ but I put it in to make sense of it.
So, I
think, on this occasion, there will be a good deal put
�1
48
in. If you will allow me, I will go and sit down at
the other end of the room, and if they get a little too
strong I can run out. I was entreated to come here
and show myself. I am very grateful to you for your
kind attention.
Address
of
William C. Gannett.
Like Mr. Ware, I only speak as the son of the right
man. The right man stood by Dr. Furness’ side fifty
years ago, and gave him the right hand of fellowship. I
know not whether there are any here that saw the sight
or heard the words; perhaps of all he only. The air
seems full, to me, at least, of the memories of the other
one. And to you who sit and listen, the air must seem
full of the very spirit of communion that these cups just
given symbolize. There ought to have been a white head
here; there ought to have been dark eyes; there ought
to have been a ringing voice; there ought to have been
a voice that would have been full of tenderness as he
stood at this side of the fifty years,—as he then stood at
the other side,—and said the words of an old man’s fel
lowship. He would to-day, as then, have been just six
months Dr. Furness’ senior in the work. I suppose
one can imagine anybody, any old person, as young,
easier than he can his own father or his own mother. I
cannot conceive the one whom I call father standing here,
or in the place which this church represents, as a young
man of twenty-four speaking to a young man of twentythree, and bidding him welcome into the work which he
called partaking in the work of heaven; bidding him
welcome into its pleasures; bidding him welcome into
its pains,—for he had been six months a minister, and
in those first six months of a minister’s life he knows a
<
�49
great deal of the pains that accompany it. It so hap
pened that just after I got your kind invitation to come,
I happened to lay my hand upon the manuscript of that
right hand of fellowship, and not having time to read it
then, I brought it with me in the cars; and only three or
four hours ago I was reading the very words, and read
ing from the very paper which, fifty years ago, was held
and read from, and to which Dr. Furness listened. It
does seem to me as if the reader were here now to say,
“ God bless you, old friend, for having stood ever faithful
to the end.” I almost think he is saying it; and if he
is, I know it comes with just that feeling: “God bless
you, old friend, for having stood faithful to the end ; for
having fulfilled all and more than all the words that then
I said to you.” And that is all I have to say. I was
asked to pass the word along to another boy of the old
men. Your father and my father and Dr. Hall were
classmates. Will Edward Hall speak for his father ?
Address of Rev. Edward H. Hall, of
Worcester, Mass.
I hardly know to what I owe this pleasure, for it is a
great one to me, of joining my thoughts with others to
night, at so early a point of our gathering. I believe
my claim is a double one, and I am willing and anxious
to make it as large as possible, both as the successor of
one who, fifty years ago, was present to give the charge
to the people, and, still tenderer to me, the claim which
has just been presented by the friend who preceded me.
In that class, which I suppose stands eminent among the
graduating classes of Cambridge for the number of men
it has sent into our ministry, to say nothing of their
quality, were the three whose names have just been
7
�50
brought together, who had no greater pride, I believe,
than to have their names in common. And it is for me
one of the pleasantest memories which this hour brings
that they were not only classmates—my father and our
father to-night—but that for so long a time, through their
college course, they were in closest intimacy as room
mates. And yet I should be sorry to think that this was
my only connection with this occasion. It was said, I
remember, of one of the finest and noblest of our officers
killed in the war, that of the many who had met him,
each one seemed to feel that he had made a special dis
covery of that man’s noble character and fine traits, so
did the discovery overpower him, and so sure was he that
to no one else had it come as it did to him; and I am in
clined to think that there is no one of these ministers
here to-night who does not feel as if his connection with
him whom we meet to-night to honor was something
special, as if the inspiration which he had drawn from
that source was one which no one but himself had got.
No qualification for our profession, I suppose, is higher
than the power of historic intuition; the power of seeing
things as they were; of reading the words and seeing be
hind them; the power that reproduces the past. Our
great historians are those who read the past in that way;
our great theologians are those who read the past as if
it were present, and feel a personal intercourse with those
who walked and fspoke in those early days. They are
the holy men and apostles of to-day; they will always
be the apostles to the end of time, and I am glad to feel
that out of our numbers has come one whose power of
divining the past has shown itself so fine and true.
I can hardly help speaking about another feeling.
I am impressed to-night by the difference, the vast dif
ference, between our fathers of a generation ago and
us who are upon the stage to-day. We look back rev
�51
erently to them; perhaps children always do to their
fathers. It is barely possible that our children may look
upon us in the same way. We look upon them as a
group of men set apart by themselves—a kind of priest
hood, conscious of the sanctity of their work. A sort of
moral halo encircles their heads as we think of them, and
we group them in just that affectionate way to which our
friend before me has alluded, as a band of brothers. Will
this generation of ministers ever look to their successors
as they appear to us ? I cannot believe it. That will not
be our claim upon their honor or their regard. Happy
for us if we can have any claim upon it; if men shall
see that the second generation of ministers took bravely
up the work that was half done, uttered the words that
were still unspoken, continued in the path which the
fathers cannot longer tread, and proved that it takes
more than one generation to do the work which Unitarianism is born to accomplish.
But I have no more claim upon your time, and close
by introducing to you, as I have been asked, the Rev.
Dr. Lothrop, of Boston.
• .
Rev. Dr. S. K. Lothrop spoke as follows:
My Christian Friends : I have but a few words to
say, and I rise to say these simply that I may more
fully express what my presence here implies, my deep
sympathy and interest in this occasion.
There are scenes and events in life which, from their
simplicity and beauty, and the moral grandeur which
always mingles more or less with everything simple and
beautiful, can gain nothing from human lips. Eloquence
can coin no words that shall impress them upon the heart
and conscience more deeply than they impress themselves.
This occasion is one of these events. We meet here to-
*
�52
5
night—this company, the members of this church, these
brethren from distant and different parts of the country
—to commemorate fifty years of faithful and devoted ser
vice in the Christian ministry, and rhetoric can add
nothing to the moral dignity and grandeur of this fact,
that is not contained in the simplest statement or expres
sion of it. We meet to do honor and reverence to one,
who, from the earliest aspirations of his youth to the later
aspirations and ever enlarging service of his manhood,
has known no object but truth, no law but duty, no
master but conscience, and who, under the inspiration and
guidance of these has wrought a noble work in this city,
made full proof of his ministry, and given a glorious
illustration of the power of that faith, “ which is the vic
tory that overcometh the world.”
The Unitarian Congregationalists recognize a large
personal freedom and individuality. Among the brethren
present and all called by our name who are absent, there
are wide differences of theological thought and opinion;
and some of us may not entirely concur in all the con
clusions—the result of Christian thought and study—
which our honored brother, the pastor of this church, in
his fifty years of noble service, may have presented in
this pulpit or given to the public through the press. But
however he may differ from him on some points, no one
who has read what he has published, can fail to perceive
or refuse to acknowledge the spirit of devout reverence,
love, faith, the large and glorious humanity that every
where breathe in his words; while every one familiar
with his long life-work in this city, every one who has
known him intimately, had opportunity to study and ob
serve his character, to mark its mingled firmness and
gentleness, sweetness and strength, its martyr spirit ad
hering to conscientious convictions and carrying them
out at whatever cost or sacrifice, its loyal spirit, faithful
�53
to Christ and truth according to honest and sincere con
viction, every one who knows and has witnessed how
these things have pervaded and animated his life, char
acter, work, cannot fail to cherish toward him a senti
ment of reverence and honor; and amid all differences of
opinion there may be between us, I yield to no one in
the strength and sincerity with which I cherish this sen
timent in my own heart. When I visited him at his
house to-day, I could not but feel that while years had
not abated one jot of the vigor of his intellect or the
warmth of his heart, they had added largely to that
something, I know not what to call it, that indescribable
charm, which has given him a place in every heart that
has ever known him, and made us his brethren (I am
only uttering what they will all acknowledge) always
disposed to sit at his feet in love and admiration.
I am oue of the oldest, probably the oldest of our min
isters present. Dr. Furness’ ordination antedates mine,
which occurred in February, 1829, only by four years
and a month. As regards term of service my name is
close to his on our list of living clergymen, and I remem
ber, as if it were but yesterday, his ordination fifty years
ago to-day, and can distinctly recall the deep interest
with which it was spoken of that evening in the family
circle of the late Dr. Kirkland at Cambridge, of which I
was then a member. I had but slight personal acquaint
ance with Dr. Furness, however, till thirteen years after
this, in 1838, when suffering from ill health he was unable
for several months to discharge his duties. His pulpit
was supplied by clergymen from Boston and the neigh
borhood, and as he had many loving friends and warm
admirers in Brattle Square Society, they were very will
ing to release me for six weeks, that I might come to
Philadelphia and preach for him. This visit and service
brought me into more intimate acquaintance with him and
�54
this Society. The pleasant memories of that period, fresh
in my heart to this day, were prominent among the mani
fold recollections that prompted, nay, constrained me to
come and unite my sympathies with yours on this occasion.
It is a glad occasion, yet there is something solemn and
sad about it. Like all anniversaries, it has a double
meaning, makes a double appeal to us. It gives a tongue
to memory, calls up the shadows of the past, brings be
fore us the forms of those we have loved and lost; we see
their smiles; we hear their voices; and as I stand here
to-night, and look back upon those fifty years, and call
to mind the venerable fathers of our faith, whom I knew
and loved and honored in the early days of my profes
sional life, Drs. Bancroft, Ripley, Thayer, Harris, Pierce,
Nichols of Portland, Parker of Portsmouth, Flint of
Salem, and bring before me the Boston Association when
it numbered among its members Channing, Lowell, Parkman, Ware, Greenwood, Frothingham, Pierpont, Young,
and last, though not least, that great apostle who has
just departed, Dr. Walker, I feel as if I had lived a
century, and was a very old man. I feel, however, that
life is not to be measured by years, and I hope, mean al
ways to try to keep as young, bright, joyous, and buoyant
as Dr. Furness seemed this morning when I greeted him
in his own house.
I sympathize in all that has been said here this even
ing, especially in all that has been said in relation to the
future of this Society and its honored and beloved pas
tor. It is no longer a secret, I believe, that he intends
to ask a release from further service. I am sure, my
friends, that all the brethren present will leave with you
their loving benediction, and the hope that something of
his mantle may fall upon whoever comes to try to fill his
place. The whole of that mantle, in all its beauty,
grandeur, and simplicity, you cannot expect any man to
�55
have or wear; if you find a successor wearing a goodly
portion of it you will have great reason to rejoice, to
thank God and be of good courage. As for Dr. Furness
himself, we leave with him our gratitude and reverence,
and our devout wish that the sweetest serenity and peace
and moral glory may mark his remaining years; and for
ourselves, who have come from far and near to hold this
jubilee with him, we all hope to gather here to-night
and carry away with us on the morrow memories, in
spirations, influences that shall quicken us to fresh zeal
and effort in our several spheres of work, determined to
be faithful and persevere unto the end, whether that end
cover twenty, thirty or forty, or, as may be the case with
some of us, fifty years of professional service.
Rev. Dr. James Freeman Clarke, of Boston, being
called upon to read a poem written for the occasion,
spoke as follows:
A great many years ago I was journeying from Ken
tucky to Boston, and passing through Philadelphia, I
could not deny myself the pleasure of going to see our
dear friend, Mr. Furness, and he was then full of the
thoughts which were afterward published in his first
book, concerning Jesus of Nazareth. I spent the whole
morning talking with him, and when the morning was
through, said he, “ Stay a little longerand I said, “ I
will wait till night before I go;” and I spent the after
noon talking with him, and when the night came, he had
not finished speaking, and I had not finished listening.
So I spent another day. We talked in the morning, we
talked in the afternoon, and we talked in the evening. I
still had not heard all I wanted to, and so I stayed the
third day, and, of course, Brother Furness is very much
associated in my mind with his studies on this subject,
�56
which has led me to take the tone which you will find in
these lines:
Where is the man to comprehend the Master,
The living human Jesus—He who came
To follow truth through triumph or disaster,
And glorify the gallows and its shame?
No passive Christ, yielding and soft as water ;
Sweet, but not strong; with languid lip and eye ;
A patient lamb, led silent to the slaughter;
A monkish Saviour, only sent to die.
Nor that result of Metaphysic Ages;
Christ claiming to be God, yet man indeed—
Christ dried to dust in theologic pages;
Our human brother frozen in a creed !
But that all-loving one, whose heart befriended
The humblest sufferer under God’s great throne ;
While, in his life, humanity ascended
To loftier heights than earth had ever known.
All whose great gifts were natural and human ;
Loving and helping all; the great, the mean ;
The friend of rich and poor, of man and woman ;
And calling no one common or unclean.
Most lofty truth in household stories telling,
Which to the souls of wise and simple go ;
Forever in the Father’s bosom dwelling—
Forever one with human hearts below.
Not in the cloister, or professor’s study
God sets the teacher for this work apart,—
But where the life-drops, vigorous and ruddy,
Flow from the heart to hand, from hand to heart.
�57
He only rightly understands this Saviour,
Who walks himself the same highway of truth ;
Unfolding, with like frank and bold behavior,
Such earnest manhood from such spotless youth.
■ ' -«
Whose widening sympathy avoids extremes,
Who loves all lovely things, afar, anear—
Who still respects in age his youthful dreams,
Untouched by skeptic-doubt or cynic-sneer.
Who, growing older, yet grows young again,
Keeping his youth of heart;—whose spirit brave
Follows with Jesus, breaking every chain,
And bringing liberty to every slave.
To him, to-night, who, during fifty years,
For truths unrecognized has dared the strife,
In spite of fashion’s law or wisdom’s fears,
We come to thank him for a noble life.
He needs no thanks, but will accept that love,
The grateful love, inevitably given
To those who waken faith in things above,
And mingle with our days a light from heaven.
And most of all, who shows us how to find
The Great Physician for all earthly ill—
The true Reformer, calm and bold and kind,
Who came not to destroy but to fulfil.
And thus this church grows into holy ground
So full of Jesus that our souls infer
That we, like Bunyan’s Pilgrim, must have found
At last “ The House of the Interpreter.”
Dr. Clarke called upon Rev. Dr. Bartol to speak, who
said:
My Friends : I certainly ought in all sincerity, and I
certainly do in all humility, thank the committee for in8
�58
viting one, so devoid of all conventional virtue, with no
place in any conference, standing for the desert—yet not
quite, I think, belonging to the tribe of Ishmael, for my
hand is against no man, and no man’s hand, I think, is
against me,—to say even one word. But let me tell you
there is good ecclesiastical blood in the family. I throw
myself on one who is worthy, I am sure, and popular in
this church, a cousin by blood. I think there is a good
deal of vicarious atonement in him; and I hope his
righteousness will be imputed to me, though I do not
mean to make him a scapegoat for my sins.
Notwithstanding what my brother has said, I shall call
him not only brother but John Ware; and because of what
he said we shall all be convinced that this is a real
brotherhood in spirit as in name after all. I call it a
very goodly fellowship, not only of the prophets but of
the people to-night. And that is the thought that comes
into my mind in regard to it. Here our brother and
father Furness, your minister, has brought all these
brethren together who stand in thought so wide apart.
Is it not a real fellowship? I need not mention the
names to show you how wide a space of thought they
measure, and the beauty and power of a man’s fellow
ship. It is not to be determined by the number of his
disciples or followers, by the largeness of the congrega
tion he can gather, or the crowds that hang on his lips;
but by the measure which all those men, be they more or
fewer, make in the world of ideas, which is also the world
of love; for a man’s parallax, that twenty friends may
make for him, is a larger parallax than a million friends
may make. And I think it is, in spite of our dear friend’s
utter modesty, an occasion of joy with him. It should
be an occasion of joy that he reaches so far out on either
hand, and gathers such a company together. It is a real
fellowship, a real brotherhood, a real fatherhood; and while
�59
these young men have been speaking—and we have not
begun with the eldest, even to the last, but have begun
the other way—it seemed to me as if the almond blossoms
from the old heads which we remember, as well as see,
have been dropping upon some of our heads, and that
they have shed them upon us. We are glad for that fel
lowship. It is rich beyond measure.
I had a letter from our dear Brother Dewey. He says
in this letter, speaking of the death of Dr. Walker, “ He
seems to say to me, ‘ Your turn next.’ ” Ah, “ sad !” Did
I hear that word? No, not sadtj Death is not sad;
departure is not sad; ascending is not sad. Death is
nothing. But what is meant by our thought? I said to
my dear friend, Dr. Bellows, last night as we were talking,
“ How strange it would be, when we came each one of us
to die, to find that death, which we have thought so much
of, is nothing to think of! Death at last and for the
first time takes everlasting leave of us. Death will just
so surely depart from us as we come to die. And in the
article of dying, it will depart.”
It is well that I should close with this single thought
of fellowship. Providence has been working very won
derfully and very mightily, with all these great causes
which have had great sway in the modern world, through
this gospel of free thought. I call it a gospel,—a gospel
of humanity, this loving gospel to bring people together.
I do not like the word fellowship as an active verb. I
never could speak of fellowshipping one. Fellowship is
the result of being true to our own conviction one to
another; coming and sitting in the circle that takes in
the heaven as well as the earth,—and I will finish my
little talk with what perhaps is as yet an unedited fact
or story, of one of those other elders, not so very old, who
have gone to the majority. Samuel Joseph May illus
trated this bond of fellowship ; how God will have it, that
�60
we must be brethren and fellows, whether we will or not.
He told me that one day, a great many years ago, it must
now be between thirty or forty years, he was returning
from an anti-slavery meeting, on a steamer, when a theo
logical conversation arose between some parties, and one
man was pleased to denounce Unitarians very severely;
and perhaps some of you remember what that denuncia
tion was of the Unitarian Doctrine. It was infidel, it
was atheistic, it was all that was bad. Mr. May listened
quietly until the man got through, who had the sym
pathy of others, and then frankly, like himself, said, “ I
must tell you, sir, that I am myself one of those dreadful
Unitarians.” “ Indeed, indeed,” said the man. “ I have
listened to you with great pleasure at the anti-slavery
meeting; would you allow me to have a little conversa
tion with you at the other end of the boat, privately?”
“ With the utmost pleasure,” said Mr. May. They took
their departure from the little circle to the bow of the
boat. As the man was about to open his converting
speech, Mr. May said : “ Now before we proceed to our
little controversygl wish to ask you one question. Do
you believe it is possible in this matter of theology, I
after all may be right and you may be wrong ?” “ No,
I don’t believe it^s possible,^* said the man. “Then,
then,” said Mr. May, “ I think there is no advantage in
our having any further conversation.” Mr. May had
his place nevertheless in that man’s heart: for we do not
choose our fellows. God chooses our fellows for us. A
man said one day: “ I heard that transcendental lecturer
speak. He got his thought into my mind, and the worst
of it is, I can’t get it out.” Be true to your conviction;
for that is the charm, the beauty, the holiness! And
then—I must say it, yes, I must say it in spite of Dr.
Furness’ presence—not your thought alone, but you will
get into the heart of every man or woman who has the
�61
slightest knowledge of you. And the man and the woman
will love you, and the time will come when they will
not want to get you out of their mind.
Rev. Dr. Thompson, of Jamaica Plain, Mass., then
addressed the meeting as follows:
My Friends : I feel a good deal of embarrassment in
taking my place on the platform, having received no
hint that any word would be expected of me.
If I were as old and gray as some of the brethren who
have preceded me, I might perhaps follow in their
severely sober strain, but you will have to take me as I
am. Before touching on what more immediately con
cerns the occasion, let me frankly confess to having
brought with me a slight pique againsttithe venerated
pastor of this church, and you shall know how it hap
pened. About ten years ago—it will be ten in April—the
Sunday after the first National Conference in New York,
I was seated in this church. Three or four of us ministers
had come on to attend the worship ; by what attraction
you can well imagine. Robert Collyer preached the
sermon, one of the best he ever preached, that on “Hurting
and Healing Shadows.” Now you all know Dr. Furness’
great fondness for conferences and such like, only he
never goes to them ! Well, I think he must have been
a little uneasy while Collyer was preaching from having
heard of the great enthusiasm which prevailed in the
recent conference, and from regretting, though he did
not say so, that circumstances, or something, had pre
vented his being there to share it. While he sat in the
pulpit under this “hurting shadow” he was thinking very
likely—but I do not assert it as a fact—how he could
extemporize something here that would bear a resemblance
to what we had been doing and enjoying in New York;
and he hit on a plan. So, immediately after Brother
�62
Collyer had finished, our excellent friend arose, looking
exactly as he does to-night, and, with that peculiar
twinkle under his spectacles and expression about the
mouth which none of you will ever forget, said, that it
had occurred to him that, as a number of ministers were
present who had attended the New York conference, it
might be interesting to the congregation to hear an ac
count of it from their lips ; and without further ceremony
he would call upon them. When it came my turn he
introduced me in this fashion; (and here comes in the
pique of which I am going to free my mind). “ This
gentleman,” said he (giving my name), “some of the
older members of the society may perhaps remember to
have heard preach here, I will not undertake to say
precisely when, but it was some time within the present
centuryI” Do you wonder that I have had a feeling
about this insinuation ? It was true that I had preached
for him while yet a young man, and he about as old to
my appreciation as he is now. It is also true that in the
abundance of his kindness he wanted to say a pleasant
thing about the sermon ; and he did say it. And what
do you think it was ? I hope it is not too flattering for
me to repeat after having carried it so long in my memory.
He said : “ Thompson, there was one capital word in your
sermon, a capital word.” “ What was it ?” I asked,
surprised. “ It was the word intenerated; where did
you get it ?” “ From the dictionary,” I meekly replied ;
“ and you will find it there.” And now I wish to say
that if at any time within the last forty years you have
heard that word “intenerated” from the lips of your
minister you may know where it came from.
Dr. Furness: I have never used it once. (Laughter.)
What delightful reminiscences of my connection with
this church!
And now let me come to the matter of the jubilee.
�63
It happened to me less than a week ago to walk into the
sanctum of our Brother Mumford, the accomplished
editor of the Christian Register. I entered expecting to
see my welcome in the generous smile with which he
usually meets his friends. But instead of this, his face
wore a most solemn expression, and he seemed to find it
hard even to look at me. “ What now ?” thought I;
“ what have I been doing ?” After a minute or two of
suspense, I was relieved by his lifting his eyes pleas
antly and saying: “ I am doing up Dr. Furness,” or
words to that effect. I instantly remonstrated, say
ing it would spoil every man’s speech who goes to
Philadelphia, for they are all doing just what you are.
They are all searching the volumes of the Christian
Register and Christian Examiner, and other newspapers
and periodicals to find out all they can in relation to the
man and the ordination fifty years ago. But he was in
flexible, saying that - he didn’t mean that the Christian
Register should be behind any of them.” So he went on,
and the result was the excellent notice of our friend which
appeared last Saturday.
However, he did not give quite all the facts that link
themselves in my mind with the ordination of Dr. Fur
ness. It was a very remarkable year of ordinations in
our Unitarian body, remarkable as to the number of
them, and as to the character and future eminence of the
men ordained, and the reputation of the ministers who
ordained them. Let me refer to a few of them. Six
months before the ordination here, June 30th, 1824, our
beloved Brother Gannett had been ordained as the col
league of Dr. Channing; and, on the same day, his lifelong
friend in the closest intimacy, the Rev. Calvin Lincoln,
was ordained at Fitchburg. Then came this ordination ;
and in just a week after, January 19th, followed that of
the Rev. Alexander Young, over the New South Church
�64
in Boston. Such highly distinguished ministers as Pier
pont, Palfrey, Ware Sr., Channing, Upham, and Harris,
took the several parts. Of these, two only survive, Dr.
Palfrey, whom several of us here remember as our teacher
in the Theological School, and, remembering, have be
fore us the image of a man as remarkable for method,
industry, learning, and accuracy as a teacher, as he was
for a conscientious fidelity in the discharge of every duty,
the least as well as the greatest; and Charles W. Upham,
who had been ordained but a month before, over the First
Church in Salem. Mr. Upham, after twenty years in the
ministry, retired and became for a time a servant of the
country in the National House of Representatives. In
his advanced age he has pursued his favorite historical
studies, and has, as you know, recently published a Life
of Timothy Pickering in four volumes, which has been
received with great favor by the public.
The week following the ordination of Dr. Young, came
that of the Rev. Edmund Q. Sewall, at Amherst, New
Hampshire, a man of rare abilities and virtues; no longer
living. At this ordination we find our friend Palfrey
taking part with Pierpont, Lowell, and Thayer of
Lancaster. This was followed the next week, February
2d, by the ordination of Rev. John Flagg, of West
Roxbury, in the exercises of which we find the names of
Palfrey again, the lately deceased Dr. Walker, and Drs.
Pierce, Lowell, Gray, and Lamson, all well known by
those of us who are far advanced in the journey of life,
and all, but the first, now gone on out of sight but not
beyond the reach of our affections. The week following
Mr. Flagg’s, came the ordination of that true man and
faithful servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Rev.
Samuel Barrett over the Chambers Street Church in
Boston; a man of clear, strong mind, devoted to his
work, exercising his ministry in great patience, in great
I
�65
cheerfulness, with great joy in God and great love for the
brotherhood. Then followed in the very next week,
February 16th, the installation of the Rev. Henry Cole
man in the Barton Square Church, of Salem, at which,
among others, Messrs. Frothingham, Pierpont, and Brazer
officiated. I ought to mention that at the beginning of
the same year, 1825, if not a little earlier, our eminent
brother, the Rev. E. B. Hall, a particular friend of Dr.
Furness, received a call to the then new parish in North
hampton, which the state of his health did not permit
him at once to accept. But tima parish would not give
him up; and in the August ensuing, his health being
partially restored, he became their minister; the venerable
Dr. Ware preaching the sermon, and Pierpont! Willard,
Lincoln, and Brazer, assisting in otl^P exercises.
Said I not truly that the year which gave Dr. Fur
ness to Philadelphia, was memorablafor its*rdinations
in our denomination ? Certainly no other has been so
fruitful. And all these eminent brothers ordained, with
two or three exceptions, were the coevals and intimate
personal friends of him whom we have come here to
night to honor with the outpourings of our respect,
gratitude, and affection.
Now there is one other event relating to our good
friend, which I hope it will not seem improper for me to
refer to, having been for twenty-seven years of my life a
minister in the city where it occurred ; a very important
event in the history of his singularly happy life. It
occurred in the year following his ordination; and it has
probably had quite as much to do with his comfort and
happiness here as your unfailing kindness and sympathy.
The event was of so much importance that it was chron
icled in the Salem Gazette in this wise:
“ In Salem, August 29th, 1825, by Rev. Mr. Emerson,
Rev. William Henry Furness, Philadelphia, to Miss
9
�66
Annis Pulling Jenks, daughter of the late Mr. John
Jenks.”
I don’t dare to tell all I have heard about the bride,
though I think from what you now see, you would find
no difficulty in believing it. I refer to the event because
of its influence and its long-continued charm ; and I hope
the few lines from Rogers’ “ Human Life,” with which I
close, if I can join them to what I have been saying, will
not inappropriately relieve your attention.
“ Across the threshold led,
And every tear kissed off as soon as shed,
His house she enters there to he a light
Shining within when all without is night;
A guardian angel o’er his life presiding,
Doubling his pleasures and his cares dividing;
Winning him back when mingling with the throng,
Back from a world we love, alas, too long,
To fireside happiness, to hours of ease,
Blest with that charm—the certainty to please.”
I am requested to introduce our Brother Chadwick, of
Brooklyn.
Rev. John W. Chadwick, of Brooklyn, N. Y., spoke
as follows:
Dear Friends : It seems to be the order of the
evening for each speaker to justify in some way his
presence on this sacred and beautiful occasion, and I,
knowing that my turn was coming, have been not a little
troubled as to what I should say for myself. But Dr.
Thompson has helped me out. In the accounts of
various ordinations which he has read to you, you
must have noticed how few old men had anything to do
with them, from which it would appear that, whether
there is or is not less respect for age now than formerly,
there was formerly much more respect for young men
than at present. Nowadays we never take up with any
�67
young men at ordinations and such times, till there are
no more old men to be had. I suspect, therefore, that I
have been invited to speak here this evening as a sign
that respect for young men has not entirely died out.
Dear friends, I saw this occasion while it was yet a
great way off. When Robert Collyer said to me up at
Saratoga last September, “John, we must all go to
Philadelphia next January,” I answered, I have been
meaning to this three years.” After your invitation
came, thinking it might possibly mean that I should say
something, I began to think what I would say, and all at
once I found my thought was going to a sort of tune. I
couldn’t account for it except by the fancy that my
thought was sympathizing with the music of Dr. Furness’
life, which has been a sort of symphony—a “Pastoral
Symphony ”—for has not the thought of the Good Shep
herd been the central thought and inspiration of it all
from the beginning until now ?
Here is what came to me.
W. H. F.
January 12th, 1825. January \2th, 1875.
Standing upon the summit of thy years,
Dear elder brother, what dost thou behold,
Along the way thy tireless feet have come
From that far day, when young and fresh and bold,
Hearing a voice that called thee from on high,
Thou answeredst, quickly, “ Father, here am I.”
Fain would we see all that thine eyes behold,
And yet not all, for there is secret store
Of joy and sorrow in each private heart,
To which no stranger openeth the door.
But thou can st speak of many things beside,
While we a little space with thee abide.
�68
Tell us of those who fifty years ago
Started thee forth upon thy sacred quest,
Who all have gone before thee, each alone,
To seek and find the Islands of the Blest.
To-day, methinks that there as well as here
Is kept all-tenderly thy golden year.
Tell us, for thou didst know and love him well,
Of Channing’s face,—of those dilating eyes
That seemed to^eatch, while he was with us here,
Glimpses of things beyond the upper skies.
Tell us of th®t weak voice, which was so strong
To cleave asunder every form of wrong.
Thou hast had good companions on thy way ;
Gannett was ®rith thee in his ardent prime,
And with thee still when outward feebleness
But made his spirit seem the more sublime,
Till, like another prophetj&mmoned higher,
He found, like him, a chariot of fire.
And that beloved disciple was thy friend,
Whose heart was blither than the name he bore,
Who yet could hide the tenderness of May,
And bleaker than December, downward pour
The tempest of his’Wrath on slavery’s lie,
And all that takes from man’s humanity.
And thou hast walked with our Saint Theodore,
Our warrior-saint, well-named the gift of God,
Whose manful hate of every hateful thing,
Blossomed with pity, e’en as Aaron’s rod,
And lips that cursed the priest and Pharisee
Gathered more honey than the wilding bee.
All these are gone, and Sumner’s heart beneath
Should make more pure the yet untainted snow ;
Our one great statesman of these latter days,
Happy wert thou his other side to know,
To call him friend, whom ages yet unborn
Shall love tenfold for every breath of scorn.
�69
All these are gone, but one is with us still,
So frail that half we deem she will not die,
But slow exhale her earthly part away,
And wear e’en here the vesture of the sky.
Lucretia, blessed among women she,
Dear friend of Truth, and Peace, and Liberty.
And one, whose form is as the Son of man,
Has been with thee through all these busy years,
Holden our eyes, and He to us has seemed
As one seen dimly through a mist of tears Bl
But thou hast seen him clearly face to face,
And told us of his sweetness and his grace.
Standing upon the summit of thy years,
Dear elder brother, tbou canst see the day
When slavery’s curse had sway in all the land,
And thou art here, and that has passed away.
We give thee joy that in its hour of pride,
Thy voice and hand were on the weak® side.
But from thy clear and lofty eminence
Let not thine eyes be ever backward turned,
For thou canst see before as cannot we
Who have'^ot yet thy point of ’vantage earned.
Tell us of what thou seest in the years
That look so strange, seen through our hopes and fears.
Nothing we know to shake thy steadfast mind
Nothing to quench thy heart with doubt or fear ;
But higher truth and holier love revealed,
And justice growing to man’s heart more dear.
And everywhere beneath high heaven’®3ope,
A deeper trust, a larger, better hope.
There are some here that shall not taste of death
Till they have seen the kingdom come, with power.
O brave forerunner, wheresoe’®| thou art,
Thou wilt be glad with us in that glad hour.
Farewell! Until we somewhere meet again.
We know in whom we have believed. Amen.
�70
Rev. Mr. Chadwick, in turn, introduced the Rev.
R. R. Shippen, of Boston, Mass., who said:
My dear Friends : Amid these memorials of your
Christmas rejoicing, and these fresh flowers and ever
greens of tropical luxuriance with which you would
symbolize the fragrance of the memories that cluster
round this aniversary, and your desire to keep them
green, it is my pleasant privilege to speak for the
Unitarian Association a word of greeting, giving you
congratulations on this your golden wedding, with best
wishes for the coming years. Yet as I speak for the
Association, I remember that some of our noblest and
best, from Channing through the list, have been some
what fearful of ecclesiastical entanglements, and of
hard, dry machinery, and have deemed the truest and
best work in life that wrought by character and personal
influence; even as Jesus himself did his work, not by
organizations, but by his own personality. Permit me
then to touch two or three lines of personal influence
flowing forth from this pulpit, that are but representatives
of many more. Let me speak for one in your city, now
in her ninety-third year, kept from this meeting only by
the feebleness of old age, who this afternoon told me of
her fresh remembrance of the occasion of fifty years ago,
vivid as if but yesterday, who has been a lifelong friend
of our cause, a generous worker in this church and bene
factor of the Meadville Church and. Theological School,
who recognizes this pulpit as the source of some of the
choicest inspirations of her life. Shall I speak for one
who in a large home-circle of many brothers has been a
loving, sisterly influence of sweetness and light ? who in
her youth was here a worshiper, and caught the inspira
tion of this place, and in her greeting sent me to-day
writes that she is with us here in spirit to-night; that no
one present can join in these services with a more deep
�71
and tender gratitude, and no human thought can fully
know what her life owes to the ministry we now com
memorate ? Shall I speak for another, a younger
brother, the brightest of the seven, whose youth and
early manhood were spent in this city in study and
practice of law ? who Sunday by Sunday learned here
that blessed faith that, when in the full promise of his
manly prime his last hour came, enabled him to go
bravely to death full of a cheerful hope of immortality ?
As to-night he makes heaven more real and more attrac
tive to my thought, in his name I-pay the tribute of
thanks for the inspirations of this pulpit. Shall I speak
for myself ? In my early home I remember your pastor’s
familiar volume of “Family Prayer” as a household
word. At the outset of my ministryf at the Portland
Convention, just twenty-five years ago, I first heard the
genial, charming, gracious word of your minister in his
prime. And as in Boston one may, day by day, correct
his own timepiece by Cambridge observations of the sky,
whose electric communications give us every passing hour
the celestial time true to the second, so in my young
ministry at Chicago,—a lonelier frontier post then than
now,—when the barbarous Fugitive Slave Law passed
through Congress, and the Northwest Territories were
opened for slavery, and the dark days came upon the
nation, if, as I tried, I bore any worthy testimony for
freedom, I rejoice that I was aided in setting my con
science true to the celestial time by this observatory in
Philadelphia. The blessed influences of your pulpit have
run their lines through our land and through the world.
And, friends, what does our Association seek but to
extend and multiply these lines of personal influence, to
enable Boston and Philadelphia to join hands in the
same noble work ? When I asked your pastor for the
last book of Whittier, that I might quote a forgotten
�72
line, he replied, “ All good books have feet and wings
and will find their way at last.” But our Association
only desires to quicken their speed, and by the people’s
generosity to enlarge their wings; that as we are now
sending Channing through the land, we should gladly
send the noble words of Dewey and Furness flying on
the wings of the wind.
And what do our Association and Conferences stand
for but for fellowship ? for the good-will and helpfulness
of brotherly greetings ? Pennsylvanian as I am by birth
and ancestry, with you I rejoice that these Boston
brethren have been brought to Philadelphia. It will do
us all good to know more of each other. This meeting
to-night is just like our Conferences, where our hearts
are warmed by words of brotherly kindness. As I recall
your minister’s inspiring word at the Portland Conven
tion, it has been one of the regrets of my life that we have
not heard him oftener among us. But it is never too late
to mend. On behalf of the Association and the Confer
ence I invite our Brother Furness and all of you to at
tend our meetings henceforth every time.
And now, my friends, when Brother Mumford wrote
that editorial last week, I said, “You are a generous
fellow; why didn’tl^ou keep that to make a speech
from ?” I am sure I don’t know what he is going to say.
I am requested to ask him to speak.
Rev. Thomas J. Mumford. Dear Friends: On account
of the lateness of the hour I will only say that that was
my speech. The next speaker will be Brother White,
and when I say Brother White, I mean brother just as
much as they did in the days of Henry Ware.
Rev. William O. White, of Keene, N. H., then ad
dressed the meeting as follows:
�73
There is one comfort, dear friends, as I thank you at
this late hour, for giving me the pleasure of being with
you, and that is, that Philadelphia time is a little more
generous than the time which I carry in my pocket; but
I will not abuse even Philadelphia time. The word that
Brother Mumford just mentioned brings up very dear
and tender associations with men so closely united in my
memory with our friend and brother, Dr. Furness. But
I will not carry out the thought that comes to me. I
would gladly help along one or two strains that vibrate
in our hearts, as the words are spoken, that “the time
will come when we shall take a last farewell of death,”
and that other word of a younger speaker who almost
felt, and almost knew that one of the long-departed
friends of our Brother Furness was here./'
I am glad to feel that I am here, just as some of my
younger friends were, because I am the son of a friend
of Dr. Furness, a layman whose tastes led him to the
study of theology, and who, I think, was more attached
to the studies of the ministry than many of us ministers
are. I say this, because as soon as I saw Dr. Furness
this morning I was greeted as my father’s son.
And I would not hava spoken here at all at this late
hour, but to try to fasten to those one Im two sweet
thoughts that have been uttered to-night, to which I
have alluded, a line of the poet-sculptor “Michael
Angelo.’^ He is contemplating theyvasting block of
marble upon which he is working; the block lessens ;
lessens, lessens, continually in size; and so the years of
our friend’s sweet, earnest ministry here, are fast pass
ing away before our eyes. But the great lesson that I
have found, as I go back to the time when I remember
to have heard Dr. Furness’ voice in my father’s house,
and in the old pulpit in Salem, and as I remember the
week that I spent with him more than a score of years
10
�74
ago, and as I recall the tenderness of his voice, in his
supplications and his preaching, only last October, the
great lesson I have taken with me about him fastens
itself to the line which I am now to quote of “ Michael
Angelo.” As the poet and sculptor contemplated the
wasting marble, he said:
“ The more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows.”
So, with our friend, the years are passing away ; pass
ing away, soon they must be gone; but the statue grows
with tenderness of heart deeper than ever; that sweet
voice, rich with varied experience of the joys and sorrows
of those friends of his in his flock, year after year, has
acquired an added tenderness; and we feel
“The more the marble wastes, the more the statue grows,”
and we can welcome the time when he, or any of us, who
try to live in a like spirit of devotion to the Master, shall
“take an everlasting farewell of death.”
I am requested to call on our friend Brother Putnam,
of Brooklyn, New York.
Rev. Dr. A. P. Putnam made the following address:
My dear Friends : I think it must have been for a
larger number of years than Brother Chadwick said for
himself, that I have been looking forward to this occasion,
meaning to be here not with a set speech, as you will very
soon see, but because I wished to come and to say from
my heart, I thank you, Dr. Furness.
I remember when I was a bookkeeper in Boston, how
my elder brother, who was in the divinity school at that
time, used to bring me the volumes of Channing, Buck
minster, and Ware, and also various pamphlet sermons of
Dr. Furness. I recollect well the delight with which I read
Dr. Furness’ pages, and the gospel of liberty they taught
me, and the new revelation they seemed to give me of
�75
the Christ. I have been a disciple following far off. Yet
I know I have not lost during all these years the strong
conviction I had then. It has deepened and deepened
from that time until now. I have gathered his pamphlets
wherever I could find them, and with not a little zeal
I have searched for all his books, many of which are out
of print and are not easily to be found, until, some years
ago, I completed the whole list, and I cherish them as
among the most precious treasures in my library. The
argument which he draws from the naturalness, the
simplicity and artlessness of the gospel records for their
truth, and the uplifting of the curtain so that the Christ
may be seen in his higher spiritual beauty! what a
debt do we owe him for that. Does he know ? can he
know ? can we tell him how much the members of our
churches feel of gratitude and love to him for all that
he has done for us in this way ? Perhaps in some far off
time he may know it more fully; but it is right, dear
friends, that we should come together thus and say these
words which are uttered here to-night, and before he
has gone away tell him how much we do love and
honor him, and why it is we do love and honor him, and
why it is that yve shall always revere and bless him.
When I have thought what words have gone forth from
that desk in behalf of liberty and right in this land, I
have wished that the church might remain just as it is
to-night, and that pulpit just as it is for years and
generations to come. It speaks a lesson for all; those
words abide with us still; they have come home to our
hearts, and kindled in our souls new zeal for the truth
as it is in Jesus. How many chains they have broken,
and oh ! what a welcome, in comparison with which these
congratulations of the hour are small indeed, is reserved
for our venerable father and friend, from the spirits of
�76
the ransomed freedmen who have ascended to heaven,
and who will greet him there.
Let me say that forty years ago it was, that Dr.
Furness preached the installation sermon of the first
minister of the church which I represent here ; the first
society of our faith in Brooklyn. It seems a long, long
while indeed. I have been over ten years there myself.
Dr. Farley preceded me, and he was there twenty years
or more. Mr. Holland was there several years before
him; Mr. Barlow several years before Mr. Holland. Dr.
Furness preached the installation sermon of Rev. Mr.
Barlow, who was the first minister of our faith in
Brooklyn, forty years ago the 17th of last September.
Of the ministersjwho took part in the services of that
occasion, all except your pastor and my immediate pre
decessor, who was then of Providence, R. I., have passed
away,—William Ware, John Pierpont, Caleb Stetson,
E. B. Hall, and others^ Nearly ten years later, Dr.
Furness was present at a| convention held there at the
time of the dedication of our church, and preached the
closing communion sermon. His is a familiar name with
my people, who are all with you here in the spirit, and
would join me, I know, in heartily saying, “God bless
him and you, and the cause of humanity and righteous
ness, which is so dear to you.”
I am requested to call upon Rev. Mr. Ames to address
you.
Rev. C. G. Ames, of Germantown, Pa., said:
As I am one of the younger brethren, and very much
at home, I feel that I should deny myself, and take up
my cross, and introduce a brother from a distance, espe
cially as you have met to hear from these patriarchal
ministers who can offer things which I cannot. But I
may boast one advantage; they cannot see Dr. Furness
�77
every day. Nor can I speak freely of what I feel; it is
too much like being one of the family. I live too near,
and can easily be excused. My voice is very frequently
heard in this house. With a heart brimming full, I
have the painful pleasure, therefore, of holding it down,
knowing it will keep.
I will introduce Rev. Dr. Bellows, of New York.
Rev. Dr. Bellows made the following remarks:
I am sure both modesty and discretion would suggest
the wisdom of my being taught by my junior and friend,
and in releasing you from any further attendance on this
interesting service. As for myself, I feel tired as a child
with the pleasures of the evening; and I can conceive that
you all must be so tired that you would welcome as your best
friend him who would permit you to go home and think
over all the kind things you have heard here. And yet
I think it is a kind of duty to say 1 word in behalf of my
own people and city, and all that great community which
I am privileged to represent here. New York speaks
to Philadelphia; and to a good many of us in New York,
Brother Furness is more than half of Philadelphia.
When we think of Philadelphia we think rather of him
than of anything else, and it is not for anything he has done
either; not for all that great service to freedom, not for
all that valuable contribution to theological speculation
or criticism, but for being what he cannot possibly help,
and that is, himself. It is so much more to be than to
say, or even to do, that I have not always a great deal
of praise for the bright things he does, or the bright
things he says,—only because he is what he is and can’t
help it, and deserves very little thanks for it; for God is
the being we must thank, not him. It is, therefore, that
I am by force compelled to thank God for him, and not
thank him.
�78
Good fellow! he has had it all himself. God gave
him all his precious gifts; he gave him his broad and
generous humanity; made him a harp for all the winds
of heaven and earth to play on, not a fife, to be stopped ;
gave him that benignant smile which he doesn’t know
anything about himself; and gave him that delicious
voice which is in itself a harmony of all his sweetest
powers, an expression of the depth and clearness of his
spirit.
Poor fellow! he cannot help it; he has carried it with
him all these seventy-two years. And, surely, the first
time I ever saw him his voice was the thing that spoke
to me. I didn’t care what it said; there it was, and I
have often thought if a soft voice be an excellent thing
in woman, such a voice as his is, is one of the most
magnificent and significant gifts that God ever gives to
man. Well, let us thank God for him, and then let us
thank him for using those talents so well. Now let me
thank you in behalf of the denomination, dear brethren,
for not being able to be otherwise than so generous, so
kind and faithful to a man who, for all I know, never
used one particle of machinery to keep you together, has
taken no particular pains to keep you together, but just
stood like a kind of magnet, and drawn you to his
heart. We don’t understand it all, but God does; and
we see how with a witchery he has done more than most
of us are able to do by getting every sort of instru
mentality at work that we can possibly use to supple
ment the defects of our natural constitution. I wish I
could work just as Dr. Furness does, and have that same
influence and power, without seeking any. If I could
stand up in naked simplicity and majesty, and then win
the people without using all this painful labor, this
fatiguing desperately drudging machinery, I should be
very glad indeed ; but for most of us poor fellows, it is a
�79
necessity to resort to these matters, to supplement the
defects of our natural constitution and faculties; but I
think Brother Furness can do without it. One thing
further I will say of Dr. Furness. It is a subject of
special congratulation that he has been always himself;
that no theological or critical studies have given an
ecclesiastical tinge or twist to his character, or prevented
the people from seeing him in his native outline. He
has been a preacher and minister, but still more, a man,
and although no man less deserves, in the depreciating
sense, the name of a man of the world, yet in a noble
sense he has been a man of the world; for he has made
the world tributary to his growth; drawn in its widest
culture, enjoyed its largest freedom, entered into its every
day feelings and joys, and made it his own by his great
enjoyment of it, and insight into its meaning. Neither
ecclesiasticism nor dogmatism has been able to quench
his native originality, and that is one of his chief charms
to-day.
Dear brethren, let me congratulate you at the close of
this half century of your minister’s labors, upon what we
n ow behold in the magnificent development of th e theologi
cal ideas and religious temper for which our branch of the
church has meanwhile stood. We expected great things,
but we have seen larger ones, although of a different
kind. We looked for a multiplication of our churches,
which we have not seen, but how vast has been the spread
of our ideas and principles? We expected to be the
chief instruments in the work of liberalizing Christian
thought and feeling, but Divine providence took up the
work with larger methods and new agencies, and made
us rather sharers than leaders in theological reform. We
happened to be the first wave of what turned out to be
an incoming tide, which has swept the whole church on.
I think Luther did not see in his day a greater, a more
�80
important reformation in theological ideas than we have
realized in the last half century.
Whether there be one Unitarian church in Phila
delphia or more, or whether our churches in New York
and Brooklyn, Baltimore and Washington, New Eng
land and the West have multiplied as fast as we hoped or
not, there is more liberal Christianity preached in this
country to-day, than the boldest prophets could have
foreseen when our enterprise started. It has advanced,
and it has triumphed, by whatever way. God has taken
it up, and brought the aid of a broad science, a broad
philosophy, a broad reformatory influence in society,
during all these last years, to bear powerfully upon it.
We have seen results which may cause many of us to
say, “Mine eyes have seen thy salvation; let now thy
servant depart in peace.” I feel no further anxiety
about the spread of liberal Christianity. It now spreads
by a necessity. It is a glorious privilege to work in it
and for it. But the business is essentially done. The
leaven is at work, and it is working everywhere, just as
much in the orthodox churches, so-called, as in our own.
And very little free thinking is done in our denomination
which is not just as fully represented in the old ortho
doxy. We are no longer the sole officers in that great
army. I thank God that the business of fighting is
pretty much over’, and that we are now beginning to
think more of cultivating religiously the area which has
been left for us specially to take care of. Let us now
look to it, as churches and ministers and parishes, and
see that we produce workmen, and, finally, spiritual
fruit, in the particular area over which we are set as
husbandmen and gardeners. That you may succeed
in cultivating your own soil, and in making the vine
yard a nobler and grander one, and in bringing forth
more clusters of grapes of the particular vine from which
�81
you are set, is my earnest prayer. And that we may all
return from these services bearing your blessings and
Brother Furness’ blessing with us into our own several
fields of labor, and that we may be abler and nobler and
more careful shepherds, and more faithful husbandmen,
is the best thing I can ask, that we may be permitted to
carry away from this hour and this blessed assembly of
Unitarian Christians and friends.
Music.
Duet for Two Sopranos and Chorus,
.
. Mendelssohn.
“I waited for the Lord,” from “Hymn of Praise.”
Chorus, .
..........................................................Spohr.
“ Happy who in Thy House Reside.”
Dr. Furness then addressed the meeting.
Dear Friends : While I am very glad to meet here
my brothers in the ministry, and am not at all insensible
to their kind words, I call you all to witness that they
are not here by my invitation. I never invited them
to come here and talk about me. But as long as they
have done so, I congratulate you all, and all who are in
terested in the success of the good cause. It is, you see,
in the hands of young men. Although some of your
guests here show gray on their heads, they are very
young men evidently, fond, especially brother Bellows,
of romancing. I use the words that Dr. Bancroft used
at my ordination: “ It was a comfort to him to feel that
as he was going away the cause would be left in hands
that would carry it on a great deal better than he could.”
Some of my friends told me I had better not come here
to-night; but brother Bellows intimated to me that by
staying away I might seem to be bidding for praise. So
I thought I would come and see whether some restraint
11
�82
could not be put upon the speakers by my presence. But
I don’t think I have availed much.
The day that I was ordained—but I am not going to
tire you with old time stories,—when an old minister
begins telling his experiences we never know when he
will stop—we were all invited,—the gentlemen of the
clergy, and the delegates from Boston and New York,—
to dine at Mr. Thomas Astley’s, who lived at the corner
of Ninth and Walnut Streets, a wealthy Englishman of
our persuasion. While we were sitting waiting for dinnoy,
the report came that the kitchen chimney was on fire!
One of the gentlemen suggested that the fire could be
put out very readily by putting a blanket before the
chimney, and throwing some sulphur into the fire-place.
After dinner, when the wine was passed around and the
toasts were given, one of the gentlemen proposed “ the
Furnace that had been kindled in Philadelphia.” And
another added, “May it never be put out with brim
stone.”
The meeting was closed by a benediction pronounced
by Dr. FurnessJfc
�*
LETTERS.
�THE FOLLOWING LETTERS WERE RECEIVED BY
THE COMMITTEE FROM PERSONS WHO
WERE UNABLE TO BE PRESENT.
�Sheffield, January 4th, 1875.
To the Committee of the First Congregational Society
of Unitarians.
Gentlemen : I am obliged and gratified by the invitation.
I wish that I could comply with it. It would have been a
great pleasure to me, to join the friends of your honored pastor,
in commemorating a ministry, not only so long, but otherwise
equally remarkable. I should like to be in your church on
that interesting evening of the 12th, to hear the pleasant things
that will be said, and to say some, perhaps, myself.
But I cannot, that is, I cannot take so long a winter journey.
I am not sure enough of my health and strength to venture
upon it. Will you give my love to Dr. Furness and his family,
and accept for yourselves and the society, the congratulations
with which I am,
Very truly yours,
Orville Dewey.
Hazelwood, Cambridge, January 6th, 1875.
Gentlemen : I feel very much honored and gratified by
your invitation to be present at the commemoration of Dr.
Furness’ settlement in the ministry in Philadelphia, but the
state of my health forbids me to accept the invitation. My
interest in your society dates from a still earlier period.
I have listened in your old Octagon Church to the preaching
of Mr. Taylor, and I believe of Mr. Vaughan, as well as
preached there repeatedly myself. For more than fifty years
I have been your pastor’s admirer and warm friend.
I heartily wish him future happy years of earthly life, and I
pray God that after his retirement from your service another
pastor may serve you with an ability and zeal not too inferior
to his.
I am, gentlemen,
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
John G. Palfrey.
�86
Cambridge, January 1st, 1875.
Gentlemen : I regret very sincerely that college duties
render it impossible for me to accept your invitation. Regard
ing your pastor with equal reverence and affection, I should
deem it a great privilege to he present at the commemorative
services, from which imperative necessity alone would detain
me.
I am, gentlemen,
Very truly yours,
A. P. Peabody.
Hingham, January 4th, 1875.
Gentlemen : I thank my dear friend, Dr. Furness, and the
committee for thinking of me at this time. I should he so very
happy to be with you, and join in all the expressions of respect
and love for one whose long and faithful ministry has earned
the esteem and confidence of all who know him. Beside this,
Dr. Furness and I alone continue in the ministry, of those who
were classmates in th® Divinity School and, I think, in College.
Give my love to your pastor. I need not wish him a happy
old age. That blessing is assured to him by his fidelity to his
convictions of truth and duty through life.
Very respectfully,
Calvin Lincoln.
Cambridge, January 5th, 1875.
Gentlemen : I received your invitation to be present at the
observance of •the fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of your
pastor, Dr. Furness* It would give me great pleasure to attend.
But I do not feel at liberty to be absent from my regular duty
so long as would be required.
No occasion of the kind so significant has occurred for many
years. For fifty years Dr. Furness has stood at his post, and
manfully defended the cause of what he deemed Divine Truth
and Divine Right. He has never failed to hold up the highest
standard of private and public duty. He has made no abate
ment from the truth in his utterance of it, nor deformed it by
an immoral spirit. For fifty years he has been an untiring
student of the life of Jesus Christ in the four gospels, seeking
�87
to bring to light the reality of that life, the internal evidence
of the truthfulness of the original record of it, and the moral
grandeur and spiritual beauty of the life itself. He has followed
in no servile spirit, but with original force of thought, his great
teacher, Mr. Norton, from whom, differing in many things, he
caught the impulse to this line of inquiry, this work of love, in
which his merit has been unique, his service one never to be
forgotten. To this it may be added, with Bini versal consent,
that his living example has been in harmony with the great
subject of his studies, and has done as much as that of any
minister to show the worth of the officwaf spiritual instructor
to a generation too ready to distrust those whoMbxercise it.
Though not many years younger, I have the habit of looking
up to him, and he is one of tho^ntjrgn whom inspiration and
strength have flowed into my soul
needed.
I am, brethren, yours in Christian fellowships with thanks
for your kind invitation, and MilEannatMbwith you in all
that belongs to a most memorable occasion.
Oliver Stearns.
Roxbur^j Mass., January 7th, 1875.
Dear Sirs : I very much regret that the state of my health
forbids my being pres e® at the commemoration, not of the
close, thank God! but of the close of the first fifty years of the
ministry of Dr. Durness. I regret it not only on account of my
personal affection for the minister, but because it has been a
ministry eminently after my own heart, one th®I admire ex
ceedingly. What I know of it is derived onlv from glimpses
and intuitions, and will be filled out and corrected by the fuller
face-to-face knowledge of the
It has looked to me
at this distance as a ministry of a mild and quiet type, as of one
that doth not strive nor cry, neither doth any man hear his
voice in the streets. Other ministries have been more effective
as the multitude measures efficiency, dealing with larger crowds,
using more complex agencies, and touching society at more
numerous points of interest and with intenser action; but within
its own sphere St has dealt with a profoundness, and fidelity not
elsewhere surpassed with the soul’s greatest interests, uncom
promising in its absolute loyalty to truth and right, always
taking the highest ground, always elevated and elevating,
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always searching, quickening, soothing, sanctifying to heart
and conscience, a lifelong dispensary of Sermons from the
Mount.
The specialty of this ministry, it seems to me, has been the
unfolding of the personality and character of Jesus of Nazareth.
I do not believe there is a pulpit in Christendom that has done
so much to penetrate the heart and life of the Master to its
inmost depths, and open its riches to the sympathies and ac
ceptance of men, as that Philadelphia pulpit for the last fifty'
years. Every shade and turn of thought, every gleam of
emotion heavenward and earthward, all the sweet humanity
and grand divinity of that wonderful soul, have been discerned
and delineated there as never elsewhere, I think, and dwelt on
with all the earnest zeal and affectionate faith of a disciple, and
all the enthusiastic appreciation of an artist—dwelt on almost
too exclusively one might think, were it not done by one who
knew how to draw all living waters from that one well, and
bring up all the gold and gems of the moral and spiritual uni
verse from that one mine. I have no doubt this has been done
in this case, so far as any single mind can be comprehensive
and all-sided enough to do it.
The ministry which you commemorate has been singularly
self-conta^ed, that is, has been carried on apart from all official
and organic connection with other ministries, without denomina
tional bonds, with no outside ties except those of a fraternal and
genial spirit. I sympathize with the characteristics of Dr.
Furness’ ministry; my own has been conducted on a similar
plan, though I fear with less fixedness of principle, and less
consistency»©f action. Most of our brethren will call this our
fault, our limitation. Well, they are the majority, and must
decide that point; only I am sure they will have the charity to
own that we, being such as we are, could do no otherwise.
You of Philadelphia do not need reminding; but I want to
express my own appreciation of the manner in which the ministry
you celebrate has all along been adorned, refined, deepened, and
broadened by literary studies and artistic taste and culture,
bringing to that ministry contributions, or rather an aroma
and innumerable subtle and sweet influences from all realms of
spiritual beauty and fragrance and sunshine.
Shall I dare in such a letter as this to make allusion to the
way that looks to me so felicitous, in which the church in the
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sanctuary has been supplemented by “the church in the house?”
To my eye and my remembrance the home in Pine Street, and
the church on Locust and Tenth, in the hospitable, genial, cheer
ful, affectionate, and ever gracious spirit that pervaded them
both, were always the counterparts and archetypes of one an
other, each reflecting what was best and brightest and holiest
in the other.
Though this long ministry has been characteristically so quiet
and even and suave, it has had epochs and aspects, or one at
least, of the kind, in presence of which the earth is shaken, and
principalities and powers are prostrated. We may have doubted
the wisdom and necessity of the course taken by our brother;
but we cannot fail to recognize the sublime moral grandeur of
clear and strong conviction® adhered to and acted on, with im
movable persistence, at all risks and at all cost, and though the
heavens fall. We should be blind B>t to discern there the stuff
of which martyrs were made, and the spirit that bore the meek
and gentle Jesus to his cross.
Perhaps my mind has dwelt more on the jubilee from the
fact that if all had gone well with me, I should have been the
next among the liberal ministers, so far as I know, to have been
entitled to such an occasion for myself. I have had my nine
lustra, and if the tenth fail why should I complain ? I can still
rejoice with all my heart in the well-earned honors and happi
ness of my well-beloved friend and brother in Philadelphia.
Very truly yours,
George Putnam.
106 Marlborough Street,
Boston, January 4th, 1875.
Dear Sirs : I am deeply indebted to you for the very kind
invitation to be present at the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Fur
ness’ settlement. I regret to say that I cannot leave my work
at that time.
I am sure that you have reason to thank God and take courage
as you look back upon the half century. Dr. Furness has served
nobly both in Church and State, and has done much to show
that the two are indeed one.^ My warmest wishes accompany
him as he enters upon his green old age, which surely lacks
nothing that should go along with it. May he have the out12
�90
ward strength, as he is sure to have the inward desire, to speak
to you and for you these many years.
Gratefully and sincerely yours,
Rufus Ellis.
Portland, Maine, January 4th, 1875.
It is with great regret that I find myself unable to accept
your kind invitation to be present at the fiftieth anniversary of
the settlement of the Rev. Dr. Furness.
During the whole of that fifty years, and it embraces all my
life excepting the seven years of infancy, I have had near rela
tions and friends among the parishioners and lovers of Dr. Fur
ness, so that my interest in the occasion is almost personal.
But I am obliged to be in Philadelphia a fortnight later, and
cannot possibly spare the time for both journeys.
With the most cordial congratulations for both pastor and
people, and the hope of many happy returns of the season, I
remain,
Very respectfully and truly yours,
Thomas Hill.
Cambridge, Mass., January 2d, 1875.
Gentlemen : I am very sorry that I cannot accept your kind
invitation to be present at the fiftieth anniversary of the settle
ment of Dr. Furness as your minister.
The fact of so long a pastorship is itself noteworthy in these
days of change; but, in this case, we have all a special right to
be sharers in your joy, since we have received our part in the
fruit of your minister’s labors during these fifty years. Dr.
Furness has set an example, rare in these days of divided and
superficial work, not only by his devotion to a single parish
during so long a period, but also by his consecration to one
chosen line of thought. He selected the noblest theme and
gave his life to it, and made us all his debtors. With thanks
for your kind invitation, and congratulations for minister and
people,
I am, yours very truly,
C. C. Everett.
�91
Boston, January 9th, 1875.
Gentlemen : Since I heard that your jubilee was proposed I
have hoped to be able to be present, but I am, at the last moment,
disappointed. I think our friends in Philadelphia must under
stand that they are only a very small part of the multitude of
people who are grateful to Dr. Furness for the labors and the
love of his wonderful life. So soon as we who were then
youngsters found out how he preached, we used to say we would
walk fifty miles barefoot to hear him, if there were no other
way to enjoy that privilege. But even more than the preaching,
it was the reading of the books, and the living picture which
they gave us of the Saviour’s life, that set us on a track of
preaching and of thought wholly new.
Let me congratulate the congregation on his health and
strength, and pray express for a multitude of us our love and
gratitude to him.
' Truly yours,
Edward E. Hale.
Dorchester, Mass., January 10th, 1875.
Gentlemen : I have delayed replying to your letter of in
vitation to be present with you on the 12th instant, because,
while my very earnest desire was to accept it, and my heart
spontaneously said “yes,” there were circumstances making it
questionable whether I could. Those circumstances, I am sorry
to have now to say, have decided for me that I must deny my
self the hoped-for pleasure.
I can do no less, gentlemen, than express to you, and those
for whom you act, my sincere thanks for this thought of me in
such connection, and for including me among the friends of
your minister who were considered worthy to be gathered
around him on such an occasion.
Though I can hardly believe that my presence would add
anything to the enjoyment of it, I think no one will enter more
heartily than I should into all that belongs to it for memory
and sentiment and affection and benediction.
Your minister seems very near to me as he is very dear. My
acquaintance with him dates back to his boyhood. He is most
intimately associated in memory, as he was in fact, with those
nearest to me of my early home, whose love for him I shared;
�92
a love joined with admiration for his dispositions and gifts.
They are all gone to whom I allude; and the more tenderly for
that does my heart, as if hearing their love with its own, em
brace him and this occasion.
And the feelings inspired by those earlier memories towards
him whom in this occasion you so deservedly honor have been,
I hardly need say, continually deepening, as I have followed
him through his life since, and seen the promise our hearts
cherished in him unfold towards a-fulfilment so beautiful and
rich.
Most heartily do I congratulate the members of his society in
the privilege they have enjoyed in him whose very presence has
been a benediction, and whose life, in its simplicity and sanctity
and humble heroism and self-devoting fidelity, has given such
empowerment to his words, and won for them such place in
many hearts beyond those who have been the immediate re
cipients of them.
Much more is in my heart to say; less I could not, in justice
to myself, and as a fitting response (the most so in my power to
make) to your very kind invitation.
If I may be allowed to add what is so wholly personal to my
self, I would say that the memories which connect myself with
your church as being the first I ever preached in, forty-one
years ago, and the memories of those of it who so kindly re
ceived me (so many of whom have passed away), have deepened
my desire towards an occasion of such varied and touching
interest. With the prayer that heaven’s blessing may rest upon
minister and people,
I am, respectfully yours,
Nathaniel Hall.
Baltimore, Md., January 5th, 1875.
Very many thanks for your kind invitation. I havea wedding
on the night of January 12th, which I fear, as I have not, so far,
been able to postpone or advance, will prevent my going to Phila
delphia. I have not given up all hope yet. I wish to assure
you of the great pleasure I would take in witnessing the celebra
tion of an event, so marked in our common history, and so full
of inspiration to a young man like myself, and I hope that
beautiful life which has so blessed you through these years,
�93
may be spared to repeat, in your midst, that old story, which
he has made so living, of God’s great mercy and love made real
in the divine life on earth. With greetings and congratulations,
I am most truly,
C. R. Weld.
St. Louis, January 4th, 1875.
Dear Sirs : Your kind invitation to be present at the com
memoration of the fiftieth anniversary of Dr. Furness’ settle
ment in Philadelphia was to-day received, and I wish for my
own sake that I could accept it. But my engagements here
are such as to make it impossible for me to leave St. Louis, and
I must be content to stay at home. Dr. Furness was one of my
earliest friends and guides, to whom I have always looked up
with sincere affection and respect. He officiated at my mar
riage with the best woman that ever lived, and I associate him
with all the purest happiness and success of my own life.
William Henry Furness : For fifty years of faithful service,
the brave and consistent advocate, in good report and evil re
port, of Freedom, Truth, and Righteousness : May his last days
still be his best days.
I remain, very truly yours,
W. G. Eliot.
Chicago, January 26th, 1875.
Gentlemen : When you sent me an invitation to be present
at the fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of my dear friend
and yours, I felt sure I should be able to come. My youngest
boy had been sick then for some weeks, so that I could only
leave him a few hours at a time, and for the most imperious
reasons. But on the Saturday he was so much worse that I
had to telegraph I feared I could not leave him at that time.
There can be but few reasons in a man’s whole lifetime so
strong as mine was then for coming to Philadelphia, but the
poor little fellow begged I would be with him through a very
dangerous operation the surgeons had to perform on the day I
should have been with you, from which we were not sure he
could rally.
Pardon me for touching with this private sorrow your ex
�94
ceeding joy, and accept this for my reason why I have not
written sooner.
I did not want to intrude these things at all even into the
blessed after-taste of your festival. But as it seems to me no
man on the earth could be so strongly drawn to that festival as
I was, from any distance, I cannot say another word until you
know the whole reason why I was not with you.
For my debt of gratitude to Dr. Furness takes precedence of
my love for him asone of the truest friends a man ever had,
and as my peerless preacher of “ the truth as it is in Jesus,”
some years before I emigrated to America, my soul clove to
him as I sat one day in a little thatched cottage in the heart of
Yorkshire and read “ The Journal of a Poor Vicar.”
I never expected to see him in the flesh then, but I remember
how I cherished that exquisite little thing among my choicest
treasures ; read it over and over again; spoke of it to other lads
of a like mind with my own, and got a worth out of it I had
not then begun to get out of sermons.
I knew also, when I got to Philadelphia, that I could hear
my man preach if I wanted to, and made out where the church
was; but I had been taught from my childhood to give such
churches a wide berth, and had not the sense to see that the
well, out of which I had drawn such sweet waters in England,
must still be flowing with some such blessing in America. So
that mighty movement that ended in breaking the fetters from
the slave, had to break mine, and then it was not very long before
I stole into theltdjhurch one dismal Sunday night, when being
good Unitarians, all but about a dozen of you, you had your
feet in slippers on the fender.
It was not a sermon, but a talk about Jesus; and how he
washed their feet, and what they saw, and what he said, and
how it all came home to the preacher; but as I went home I
thought, as so many have done time and time again, if that is
Unitarianism I am a Unitarian.
When again I met my author and preacher at the house of my
friend, Edward M. Davis, it did not take long for my gratitude
to grow into love. He was positively the first minister of the
sort we call “ ministers in good standing,” except Mrs. Lu
cretia Mott, who had not tried to patronize me, and put up the
bars of a superior social station.
If I had been his younger brother, he could not have been
�95
more frank and tender and free of heart and hand. I suppose
he never thought of it for an instant, and that was where he
had me, or I should have put up my bars. For, in those days,
I guess I was about as proud as Lucifer. So, it was a great
pride and joy in 1857, to be invited to preach in his pulpit,
while he went off to marry another son in the faith, Moncure
D. Conway, to be the guest, for that day, of your minister’s
family, to have Mrs. Furness and the children treat me like
a prince and a preacher all in one, and to have a glorious good
time altogether, as any man ever had in this world.
Being good Unitarians again in those days, at least half of
you ran off to hear Brother Chapin in the morning, who was
preaching somewhere round the corner, just as my people run
now to hear Brother Swing when I am away, and have to sup
ply with some man they never heard of. I have never quite
forgiven Chapin for preaching there that Sunday.
But Annie Morrison was there, and the very elect, who are
always there, and on the next Sunday, when I preached again,
the rest were there, and the glory of the Lord seemed to me to
fill the house, and so your church is to me one of the most
precious places on earth. I came to it as the men of Israel
went to Zion, and all these years have but deepened and purified
my love for the good old place. Where I first heard the truth
which met at once my reason and my faith, and where, within
a church, for the first time I felt I was perfectly free.
And so it is, that I dare not write down the sum of my love
for my friend and his family, as 1 could not have told it if I
had come down. I feel I am under bonds not to do it; I can
only hint at it.
He got used to blame in the old sad days, when he could not
count such hosts of lovers and friends outside his own church
as he can now, but he will never get used to praise. Some men
don’t. I must say, however, that I do not see how I should
ever have made my way into our blessed faith, had he not opened
the door for me; or found my way to Chicago but for his faith
that I was the man they wanted here ; or done anything I have
ever been able to do half so well, but for his generous encour
agement, or found my life at all so full of sunshine, as it has
been so many years, had he not given me of his store.
Now and then, the ways of God do visibly strike great har
monies in life and history, and this perfecting of the circle of
�96
fifty years in the ministry of my dear friend, is one of the har
monies of life. He has seen the travail of his soul for the slave,
and is satisfied.
He has lived through the days when the majority of Uni
tarians were content with being not very unlike the Orthodox,
into the days when the Orthodox are not content, if they are
not very like Unitarians, and he has done one of the heaviest
strokes of work in bringing this resolution about.
And he has lived to prove to those of us who may wonder
sometimes, what is coming when we have preached to our
people a few more years; and it gets to be an old story, how a
man may preach right along, just as long as he can stand, and
then sit down to it as Jesus did on the Mount; grow better all
the time; win a wider and truer hearing at the end of fifty
years than he has at the end of twenty-five ; and then, when he
is “ quite worn out with age,” may cry, “ Lord, now lettest thy
servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes
have seen thy salvation.”
Surely yours,
Robert Collyer.
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The following extracts are taken from the Liberal
Christian and Christian Register :
“ On Tuesday of next week, January 12th, there will be a
very simple celebration of a deeply interesting occasion. It
will then be fifty years since Rev. Dr. Furness was installed as
pastor of the First Congregational Unitarian Church in Phila
delphia. Next Sunday the venerable pastor will deliver an
appropriate discourse. Tuesday he will receive callers at his
house, and in the evening therecwill be a meeting at the church.
Brief addresses are expected from friends, whose homes are in
Missouri, Illinois, Maryland, NeiB, Yor^j, and New England.
“ At the installation^^; the 12th of January, 1825, Rev. Wil
liam Ware, of New Yo^, aged tflfent^fevayyears, offered the
introductory prayer and read from the Scriptures ; Rev. Henry
Ware, Jr., of Boston, aged thirty years, prfegghed the sermon,
mostofwhich we intend torepringpext week; Rev. Dr. Bancroft,
of Worcester, in his seventieth year, offered the ordaining prayer
and gave the charge ; and Rev^Ezra’jj'. Gannett, aged twentythree years, gave the fellowship of the chUBches and offered the
concluding prayer. Dr. Furness himself wasBisiffigaty-two years
old, having been graduated at Harvard College when he was
only eighteen. None of those who took the prominent parts in
the service are now living pH^Kirth. Dr. Gannett and the
Wares, though then in all the strength and promise of their
early manhood, have followed good old Dr. Bancroft to the
heavenly home.
“ Dr. Furness was installed a few weeks before the ordinations
of Rev. Drs. Alexander Young and Samuel Barrett. Th<aservices were reported in the first numb^ of thdjpecond volume of
the Christian Examiner, and in the fourth volume of the Chris
tian Register. It was four months before the organization of
the American Unitarian Association. James Monroe was Pres
ident of the United States. Boston had been a city only three
years, and had about fifty thousand inhabitants ; New York had
about a hundred and sixty thousand, and Philadelphia about a
hundred and forty thousand. It was the same year in which
the first public railway in England was opened, the passengers
being drawn by horse-power, although locomotives were soon
introduced. It was five years before Dr. Putnam’s settlement
13
�98
in Roxbury, nine years before Dr. Lothropwas called to Brattle
Square, ten years before Rev. N. Hall became junior pastor of
the Dorchester First Parish, and twelve years before Dr. Bartol
became Dr. Lowell’s colleague. Dr. Bellows, aged ten years,
and James Beeman Clarke, fourteen, were school-boys. Rev.
E. E. Hale was scarcely old enough to go to school, and Prof.
C. C. Everett had not been born. It was less than half a century
since the battles Lexington and Concord, and Thomas Jeffer
son and John Adams did not die until eighteen months after
wards. President Grant was then two years old.
“ During the whole of the last half century Dr. Furness has
remained faithfully at his lonely post. He has had no colleague
and no very long vacation, we believe. In addition to his pul
pit work he has written some admirable books, besides trans
lating others. Great changes have occurred in public opinion.
Eight years after the beginning of his ministry in Philadelphia
the American Antislavery Society was formed in that city.
He did not join it immediately, but before long he enlisted in
the ranks of the abolitionists, and neither blandishments nor
threats ever caused him to desert from the forlorn hope of free
dom. For many years, when almost every other pulpit of that
great town., so near the borders of Slave States, was dumb
concerning the national sin, Dr. Furness’ silver trumpet gave
no uncertain sound. Whoever might come, and whoever might
go, he was resolved to be |aithful to the slave. The despised
and rejected champion®of liberty were always sure of his sup
port. When Charles Sumner, struck down by the bludgeon of
the slave power, needed rest and healing, he sought them in the
neighborhood and society of Dr. Furness. Together they visited
the hill country, and mingled their congenial spirits in high
discourse of truth and righteousness. We are glad that at last,
with grateful ears, our venerated brother heard liberty pro
claimed throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof.
To know that he contributed to this blessed result must be the
grand satisfaction of his life, more precious than any pride of
authorship or professional success. His whole soul must respond
to Whittier’s declaration that he set a higher value to his name
as appended to an early antislavery declaration than on the
title-page of any book. ‘ I cannot be sufficiently thankful to
the Divine Providence which turned me so early away from
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what Roger Williams calls “ the world’s great trinity, pleasure,
profit and honor,” to take side with the poor and oppressed.
Looking over a life marked by many errors and shortcomings,
I rejoice that
“ ‘ My voice, though not the loudest, has been heard
Wherever Freedom raised her cry of pain?
“ But while Dr. Furness must look back with profoundest
gratitude upon the great triumph of justice which he helped to
secure, he cannot be indifferent to the theological progress which
has led to wide and cordial acceptance of many of his dearest
opinions. Once he was one of a small number of Humanitarians
associated with a great majority of Arians. Now the Arians
are nearly extinct, and the divine humanity of Jesus is almost
orthodox Unitarianism. No other individual has done more
to bring this about than the Philadelphia pastor who has made
it the study of his life to understand the spirit and to portray,
in glowing yet truthful tints, the matchless character of the Son
of man. He has been well entitled ‘the Fifth Evangelist.’
None of the ancient narrators ever lingered so fondly over
every trait of him who was touched with a feeling of our in
firmities, and made perfect through suffering. He has rendered
the sympathy of Christ so actual and available that it is a
familiar help to thousands of tried and lonely human souls, to
whom traditional dogmas could give no comfort or strength.
“ We have heard that Dr. Furness is about to retire from the
professional responsibilities which he has borne so long and so
well. It will be a richly earned repose, and yet we cannot
endure the thought that he is to desist wholly from preaching
while his eye is undimmed and his natural vigor scarcely
abated. We heard him last summer with rare satisfaction and
delight, and we wish he could be induced to speak oftener at
our general gatherings. We have thought a great many times,
and perhaps we have said so before, in these columns, that,
owing largely to force of circumstances, Dr. Furness has borne
too close a resemblance to Wordsworth’s Milton whose ‘soul
was like a star, and dwelt apart.’ It is too late now for him
to be in the slightest danger of becoming too social or gregarious.
We wish, most heartily, that he would sometimes meet with
the thousands of our laymen and the hundreds of our ministers
�100
to whom he is personally a stranger, never seen, and never
heard, and yet they regard him with affectionate gratitude and
veneration which it would do them good to express, and not
harm him in the least to receive. Let us fondly hope, then, that
at the semi-centennial celebration of the American Unitarian
Association, or at the next National Conference, we may hear
from this beloved father in our Israel some of those words of
wisdom, truth, and beauty which it is still his mission to speak.”
—Christian Register.
'
“ Philadelphia, January 12th, 1875.
“ It is safe to predict that not even the powerful attractions
of the National Centennial Exposition will call to this city as
many of our UnitaSwn clergy as gathered here to-night to cele
brate the semi-centennial of the settlement of Dr. William H.
Furness. It is an went to which for some time past many of
his absent friends have looked eagerly forward in anticipation
of its peculiar interestA«gnifi<^nce. Pastorates of fifty years
can never be common, and have rarely furnished the necessary materials for the heartiest and sincerest sort of congratulation.
But here was an occasion of which the anticipations were all of
the pleasantest and most unclouded kind, where everybody felt
that it would be a personal privilege to say a congratulatory
Amen with everybody else, and to say it heartily and sincerely.
Dr. Furness' quiet but intensely individual ministry in
this city of Brotherly Love is too widely known among Uni
tarians to m®ke any merq mention of the fact at all necessary,
but to speak of
and justly would be to write a vol
ume; ample materials Hr which, however, are, we are glad to
say, not wanting. But our word must be only of the event of
to-day.
“ The celebration began, we hear, early in the morning at the
pastor’s house, where he^g® delightwlly surprised by the sweet
carols of children’s voices. In the afternoon a large concourse
of friends went to greet him at his home, where beautiful flow
ers scented the air and smiling faces vied with each other in the
expression of sincere respect and love.
“ This evening the old church is beautifully and richly dressed
with evergreens. Below the pulpit is a solid mass of rare trop
ical plants most tastefully arranged, the whole surmounted by
�101
baskets of the choicest flowers. The most conspicuous features
of the decorations are the significant numbers 1825-1875, worked
in small white flowers on either side of the pulpit.
“The old church is full of the Doctor’s parishioners and
friends, the front seats beingpccupied by the invited guests from
abroad. Among the clergy present we Noticed Drs. Lothrop,
Morison, Clarke, Bartol, Bellows, Thompson, A. P. Putnam,
and Rev. Messrs. White, E. H. Hall, Shippen, Ware, Ames,
Israel, Mumford, Gannett, Chadwick, a®t’.®®s®ral others.
“ Dr. Furness had protested against hispersfljnal participation
in this elaborate and deliberate feasit of Prai,s^,. bisfrl the timely
suggestion that his absence might be^|nterprS$ed as a quiet ‘ bid ’
for unlimited adulation proved too atiMSging lferthe equanimity
of even his modesty, so he came and occupied a retired seat near
the door.
“The proceedings were of the^^^^>lesit'^ttd most informal
kind—a genuine love-feast, with more fullness of heart than of
utterance. Yet there was nrf ladfflaf pleasant, hearty words.
After an anthem, with soloi by the accomplished ^hoir, which
seemed to have been augmented and specially drilled for the
occasion, the Chairman of the C®amittee of Arrangements wel
comed the guests and assembled company, and asked Dr. Mor
ison to offer prayer. After a sopfafto solo, the first speech of
the evening was made by Rev. J. F. W. Ware|(whose father,
Henry Ware, had preached Dr. Fu3FBessM®rdination Sermon.
Dr. Furness then came forward^ bearing two communion cups
which had just been recededasa token .^•'remembrance from
our church in Baltimore. He expressed his pleasure at this
expression of affectionate sym|fet'hy, psfetring, incidentally, to
the peculiar method of celebrating the communioffifin his church,
bread and wine not being partaken of, but being placed on the
table only as symbols of the preci«0&things they stand for.
“ William Gannett, whose father gave the right hand of fel
lowship at Dr. Furness’ ordination, said that this was the
principal reason for his presence here to-night. His modest,
cordial words were followed by others, from Rev. E. H. Hall
and Dr. Lothrop. Dr. J. F. Clarfe thqnWead an original
poem, in which, in strong and eloquent words, he commended
Dr. Furness’ earnest and persistent efforts to present more
clearly to the world the living Jesus as distinguished from the
�102
theological or sentimental Christ. Dr. Bartol and Dr. Thomp
son then added their cordial testimony of appreciation. Mr.
Chadwick read a lovely original poem, full of appreciative
references to some of Dr. Durness’ more distinguished cotem
poraries. Messrs. Shippen, Mumford, White, and Ames, each
said a few words, and Dr. Bellows finished the sweet symphony
of praise with a genial portraiture of Dr. Furness, thanking
the Lord that no amount of culture had in any respect weak
ened the vigorous manhood of his friend, and that God made
him just what he is.
“ After music, and a benediction by Dr. Furness, the large
company separated, evidently deeply pleased by the many
hearty testimonies of the evening.”—Liberal Christian.
“Yesterday morning, at seven o’clock, the pupils of Madame
Seiler, an accomplished teacher of music, and author of several
excellent text-books '(gave a serenade to Dr. Furness and his
household. It must have been a delightful surprise to the
awakened family when the sweet sounds began to ascend from
the hall below, where the singers, according to the RwWe&n,
stood 1 candle in hand,’ and paid this delicate and welcome
complimenMin the good old German style. Between the hours
of twelve and six, hundreds of parishioners and friends called
to congratulate the honored pastor upon the successful comple
tion of his half century of service. Most of the time the rooms
were thronged, and such an array of bright and happy faces is
seldom seen. Anfc®fi?he guests who were present during our
brief stay we noticed the Doctor’s children and grandchildren,
Prof. Goodwin, of Harvard University, and Mrs. Eustis,
daughter of Rev. Dr. W. E. Channing.
“ Last evening there was a driving storm of sleet and rain, hut
the church was packed again. The floral display was equal to
that of Sunday. Among the changes we observed that the
large figures ‘1825’ and ‘1875,’ above the pulpit, were made
of pure white flowers instead of white and red as before. After
prayer by Rev. Dr. Morison, Mr. Henry Winsor, Chairman of
the Committee of Arrangements, made a felicitous welcoming
and introductory speech.
“The first clerical speaker was Rev. J. F. W. Ware, son and
nephew of the young Wares who, fifty years before, had taken
�103
prominent parts at the installation service. His remarks were
full of the warmest affection for Dr. Furness, and the tenderest
allusions to the love cherished for his Philadelphia ‘ brother ’
by Henry Ware, Jr. Agreeably to the request of the com
mittee, Mr. Ware asked Rev. W. C. Gannett to follow him.
Mr. Gannett’s father gave Dr. Furness the right hand of fellow
ship, and Mr. Gannett had just been reading the manuscript
copy of that earnest address, on his way to Philadelphia in the
'cars. His speech was eminently appropriate and impressive.
He was followed by Rev. E. H. Hallflof Worcester, suc
cessor of Rev. Dr. Bancroft, who gave the charge at the in
stallation half a century before, and son of Rev. Dr. E. B. Hall,
who was Dr. Furness’ townsman friend, classmate, and room
mate. After most appreciative mention of the noble labors of
our fathers, Mr. Hall spoke eloquently*<of the peculiar work
which each generation has to do for ’jtSelf and the world. Rev.
Drs. Lothrop, Clarke, Bartolj Thompson, A. P. Putnam, and
Bellows, and Messrs. ChaAwick, ShippenMWhite, Mumford,
and Ames were called upon, and the most of them responded;
but we have no space w*tl®H remarks this week. Next week
wTe hope to find rooni for a report, but now we must content
ourselves with copying from the Bulletin the poems which
were read.
“ Before quoting them, however, we must not forget to say
that Dr. Furness spoke twice in the course of the evening, the
first time acknowledging the gift ®f some communion cups
from the church in Baltimore to the church in Philadelphia.
It was hard to believe that thif graceful and happy speaker,
with as fresh a voice as that of the youngest man heard that
evening, and saying the brightest and merriest things of the
hour, could be the venerMfflpastog whose semi-centennial we
were celebrating ; but we presume that there is not the slightest
doubt of the fact. And we must also remember to state that
among the gifts from parishioners and friends were some elegant
mantel ornaments, and the complete and original manuscript
of Charles Lamb’s 1 Dissertation on Roast Pig.* The Bulletin
says that this unique and interesting present was ‘ secured as a
Christmas gift at a recent sale in London, and handsomely
mounted and bound in large folio form.’
Christian Register.
�104
W. H. F.
“ THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY.”
BY WM. C. GANNETT.
Fifty times the years have turned
Since the heart within him burned,
With its wistfulness to be
An apostle sent of Thee.
Closely in his Master’s tread
Still to follow, till he read,
Tone of voice and look of face,
Print of wound and sign of grace.
Beading there for fifty years,
Pressing after, till the tears
And the smiles would come and go
At the self-same joy and woe-^
Sharing with him shouts of Mad ! ”
When the bold front to the bad
Bent to pluck the “ little ones ”
From the feet of fellow-sons—
Sharing in his inner peace,
But not sharing the release,
He is with us while thglchimes
Ring his “ Well done” fifty times.
Listening boys across the field
Pledge a hope they may not yield :
Are they listening from the air —
Boys who started with him there ?
�REV. DR. FURNESS’ RESIGNATION.
14
�On Thursday, January. 14th, 1875, Dr. Furness sent the fol
lowing letter/<to the Society, resigning the charge of the pulpit
into their hands—
�107
TO THE MEMBERS OF THE FIRST CONGREGA
TIONAL CHURCH.
My very dear Friends : While the measure of health and
strength still granted me demands my most thankful acknowl
edgments, and while I ^jgaMinexpressib wwat.efnl for the re
cent manifestations of your affectionate regMkll
admon
ished by the ending of fifty years of service as your minister,
and by the time of life that I have
only a little
while remains to me at the longest. I am moved, therefore,
to resign the charge of the pulpit into your hands. How could
I have borne it Mog bwM|r your fetjj^^^ManidBsteadfast
friendship ? I recogniz® a salutary discipline in the necessity
which I have been^nde® al 1 EgSaSpars of ^^MjmBIpsaat.ion
for the Sunday sHg|age. It is good, as I have learned, for a
man to bear the yoJke in
and even in middle age ;
but now, when only a fragment of lim^remafes.^jte^^pyould
fain be released from thl^fe Jwhwi neither timp^or custom
has rendered any ligMbdpnan Mm v
With the surrender of the pulpit you will understand of
course that I decline all farther pecuniary support. I beg leave
respectfully to suggest thatjiMsome time«ome the pulpit be
supplied by settled ministers, so that nothing shall be done
hastily in the matter of deciding upon my successor. More
over, for all other pastoral offices, I shall be at your service,
remaining always your devoted friend, and in undying affec
tion,
Your pastor, :
W. H. ^Furness.
January 14th, 1875.
�108
At a meeting of the Society held in the church Saturday
evening®January 23dSjl871Wt was voted that the following
letter should be sent to Dr. Furness, accepting his resignation,
andiffigBthe Trustees should sign the same oh behalf of the
Society.
�109
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITARIAN CHURCH.
Philadelphia, January 25th, 1875.
Dear Dr. Furness : The members of this Society have re
ceived with sorrow your letter of the 14th inst., in which you
resign the charge of the pulpit which you have filled so long,
with so much ability and so much to their satisfaction.
Although we deeply regret the existence of the circumstances,
which in your opinion have made the step necessary, we ac
knowledge the justice of permitting you to judge freely of the
force of the reasons in its favor, which have governed you in
coming to your decision; and though we feel it would be a
great privilege to us to have the pastoral relation continued
through the coming years, during which we fondly hope you
may be spared to us, yet we acquiesce in the propriety of promptly
acceding to the wish for relief which you have so decidedly ex
pressed both in your letter and verbally to the committee ap
pointed at our meeting on the 19th inst., to ask you to recon
sider your action and to withdraw your resignation. It would
he ungrateful for us to do otherwise, and would show on our
part a want of proper appreciation of the value of your longcontinued labors thus to make what must be to you in itself a
painful act still more painful.
We cannot fully express in words our thankfulness that the
relation between us has remained unbroken through so many
years, and that, though the formal tie may now be severed,
we are yet permitted to see you face to face, to hear your voice,
to press your hand, and to know that you are among us.
For the reasons which you have presented, and because you
so earnestly desire it, because it is our wish to do, at whatever
loss to ourselves, that which will bo most grateful to you, and
thus to manifest in the strongest way wo can our appreciation
of our privileges in the past, and with the hope that for years
�110
to come you may be with us and of us, we regretfully accept
your resignation, and remain, on behalf of the Society,
Your affectionate friends,
Henry Winsor,
Lucius H. Warren,
Dawes E. Furness,
Joseph E. Raymond,
John Sellers, Jr.,
Enoch Lewis,
Charles H. Coxe,
Trustees.
This letter was read at the meeting of the congregation, held
on Saturday evening, January 23d, 1875, was approved, and
the Trustees were instructed to sign it on behalf of the Society
and forward it to Dr. Furness.
Charles H. Coxe,
Secretary.
�INDEX.
PAGE
Preliminary Meetings, .
Dr. Furness’ Fiftieth Anniversary Discourse,
Extract from Forty-ninth Anniversary Discourse,
Commemorative Meeting,....................................... .
Prayer of Rev. John H. Morison, D.D.,
Remarks of Rev. J. F. W. WarM
“
“ Rev. W. C. Gannett,
.
“ Rev. E. H. Hall, flHH
“
“ Rev. S. K. Lothrop, D.D.,
“
“ Rev. J. F. Charlie, D.D.,
“
“ Rev. C. A. Bartol, D.D.,
“
“ Rev. J. F. Thompson, D.D.,
“
“ Rev. J. W. Chadwick, .
“
“ Rev. R. R. Shippen,
.
“
“ Rev. T. J. Mumfor^^JI
“
“ Rev. W. O. Whitey .
“
11 Rev. A. P. Putnam, D.D.,
“ Rev. C. G. Ames, .
.
“
“ Rev. H. W. Bellows, D.D.I
“
“ Rev. W. H. Furness, D.D.,
Letters,
Extracts from the “ Liberal Christian ”
“ Christian Register,” .
.
Poem, by W. C. Gannett,
Resignation of Rev. W. H. Furness, D.D.,
Letter of the Trustees,
,
3
9
28
41
42
44
48
49
51
55
57
61
66
70
72
72
74
76
77
81
83
AND
97
104
105
109
�I
�
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Exercises at the meeting of the First Congregational Unitarian Society, January 12,1875, together with the discourse delivered by Rev. W.H. Furness, Sunday, Jan. 10, 1875 on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination, January 12, 1825
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Furness, W.H.
First Congregational Society of Unitarian Christians in the City of Philadelphia
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Place of publication: Philadelphia
Collation: 110, [1] p. : ill. (with tissue guards) ; 23 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Contains index. Includes poem by W.C. Gannett and resignation of Rev. W.H. Furness.
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Sherman & Co., printers
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1875
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Unitarianism
Sermons
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Exercises at the meeting of the First Congregational Unitarian Society, January 12,1875, together with the discourse delivered by Rev. W.H. Furness, Sunday, Jan. 10, 1875 on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination, January 12, 1825), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Conway Tracts
First Congregational Society of Unitarian Christians in the City of Philadelphia
Sermons
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ROBERT COLLYER AND HIS CHURCH
'* " ’'
'
A
DISCOURSE
DELIVERED IN THE
FIRST CONGREGATIONAL UNITARIAN CHURCH
IN PHILADELPHIA
if 0 V E M B ER 12 1 8 71
BY
■wliHI. ZFTTZRzJSTZESS
MINISTER
King & Baird,
[printed
not published.]
Printers.
��DISCOURSE
I take for my text what thJ3|g|.h elders said to
Jesus when they went, to him in behalf of the Roman
centurion.
He
is worthy for, whom thou shouldst do this.
.
Luke vii. 4.
My Friends:
The religious societies of our denomination have all »
been invited tel aid flniBBflwQBv Church in
Chicago for our dearly ^»veMm?iend and brother?
Robert Collyer, whose' ^^utiSlOlle^ of worship was
burned down in the grS^o^i^gBOH
It is proposed to
fifty thousand dollars for the
purpose. I have no doubt this sum will be raised.
Apart from Robert Collyer’s peculiar personal claims,
there is in the Unitarian E»omirH®n as in all reli
gious denominations, as irf :all»EM^gociated for com
mon objects, what the French call, a spirit of the body,
which prompts the members of the body to liberal
giving, and causes every proposal n^e in its name to
be greeted with favor for the mere |pme’s|sake, letting
alone the intrinsic merit^jof the proposal.
Political
parties as well as religious sects illustrate this spirit.
�4
Even the greatest outrages upon liberty and common
honesty are more than pardoned—they are accounted
honorable and sacred, when perpetrated in the name
of the party or the church.
But, thank Heaven ! we have as striking instances,
and most cheewig instances are they, of the same
spirit in the interest of good 'objects. Witness the
great Rebellion, when, in the name of Our Country,
which makes this multitudinous and diversified popu
lation one body, acts of the noblest heroism were
done, and self-sacrifice became a luxury. Witness
also the generoutftutpOuring >f effective sympathy in
behalf of thejiffering hosts of the West, in the name
of the common humility which makes all mankind
one.
Seeing that this spirit is so strong, I have no doubt,
I say, that attachment to the name, loyalty to the
denomination, will be powerful enough among liberal
Christians to rebuild Robert Collyer’s church in Chi
cago.
I am very ^BrnlSBi desirous, friends and brothers,
that we of this church should take a prompt and
generous share in thi^mgost worthy enterprise. But
for the fulfilment of my ardent desire, I do not rely
upon your zeal for the denomination.
If there is any one Church in our denomination in
which there is less of a denominational spirit than in
�5
others, it is this Church. I do not believe there is
any associated numb® of Unitarian Christians less
disposed than we are (to use a vulgar but expressive
phrase), toBgdJm a? merely denominational
object. I ha^^^H attempted—I should most cer
tainly have wle|H||Oj^Epo use the Unitarian name
to conjure money out of your pockets. I regard it as
a very good thing that it is st^na^tn^^ ^among you
so little of
IWm onoBteMSRnil^^MII whatever
solicits youriw^^^^Mw must stand or fall upon its
merits.
For thB state of things amongst us of this Church,
there are* tb< best of reasons. For a feflg^ime we
were, and we are still, gecBaph^m^fpe|jkihg, on the
outskirtsW^ifffwitfe’^Uni^^^a coSSmrWB n nl in the
closest and most vital connection with it. When I first
became the pastor of this church, nearly half a century
ago, scarcely a si^^^^Orbassfed *ffiaB some one of my
brothers in the ministry from Boston or its vicinity—
the headquarters of the T^taWay
—did
not stand in this pulpit, and thus keep up a living con
nection with the Ka' ’lbfawners and
brothers have, one after aiWthe^ nearly all disap
peared. Their voices are heard B^WwrlM A new
generationJdfel sprung up. W:JWfcKfee^^bft more
and more alone.
Then again the advocacy of the caute of the slave,
�6
which I was “ driven of the spirit ” some thirty years
ago, in a humble way to undertake, tended still further
to isolate us. I was regarded as endangering the
interests of Unitarian Christianity, which it was
pleaded, had as much as it could do to bear the odium
of the Unitarian name without having the added bur
then of Abolitionism. It was impossible that this plea
should increase our zeal for nominal Unitarianism.
What churchlwhat religious wganization on earth
was not bound to go
members could not
feel and speak for the4 oppressed as oppressed with
them 1 What? doctrines,. howeve^pure and simple,
were of any galue if they could not Sustain the cause
of Humanity, howeveilobnoxious that cause might
be'?
Is it any twonder that we grew lukewarm in
the interest of .mere 3Jnitarian Christianity ? Dr.
Channing said a little while before his death that
he cared little for Unitarianism, and this it was that
gave occasion to a re^rt ^abat he had become a
Trinitarian. The’ truth was that he cared less and
less for a denomination, as he was growing to care
more and more for Justice and Humanity.
In addition to the subject once so dangerous and
hateful, the so-wled theological opinions in which I
have been interested, my views of the nature and
miracles of Jesus, have also helped, perhaps, to set our
little church here in Philadelphia apart by itself. We
�7
live to see' both of the great bugbears shorn of their
terrors.
Once more. We hav^feeifl 1S| to wsjtand by our
selves by the origin of ouSSoiwty and by the materials
of which it is composed. Almost all the Unitarian
churches out of New England, with the solitary excep
tion of ours, were, and, I suspect, still are, almost exclu
sively, madeiup of people of New England birth, New
England colonists. Long after two Unitarian churches
had been gathered a^icp^^ro'New York, I was told
by a leading member of one of them, that he did not
believe that they had had a- single accession from
among the nathW of that city. O ur ’ehurch, on the
other hand, had its beginning, gnl five and seventy
years ago, with ^rs@ns exclusively from Old England,
followers and admirers of Dr. Priesfcy, when the name
of that eminent man was regwddd with distrust by
some of the most advanced mS9 in New England.
In fact the autographed f Dr. Prwtley appears on the
records of ou^fcMurch, enaBWi with the names of our
earliest members.
And furthermore, while, from time to time, individ
uals and families from New England have joined us,
many of thos^whom we have had thl happiness of
welcoming to our commfion have come from the'
denomination of Friends|| and if dhey wereQiot here,
they would be, if any where, in Quaker Meeting.
�8
*
All their associations are with Quaker ways, and they
have been moulded by the influence of that eminently
Christian denomination. It is not any attraction of
Unitarian formularies; whether of doctrine or observ
ance, but the liberal spirit of our mode of faith that
has drawn them to us. The Friends are not a prose
lytizing people. According!yu those of you who have
come to us fromghem have no special interest in the
methods adopted for the diffusion of liberal views, in
spreading L»tarianisgfi popularly so termed. You
put faith rath® in the spirit than in collecting
money and building churches, Rooking for moral and
religious results, not to be manufactured by costly
machinery, but to flow from iwlivictual effort prompted
by the inner light, He spirit of Tteuth.
On all these account^* frien®, there is no strong
denominational feeling among us, no burning zeal for
what are termed Unitarian movements, such as, for
instance, the plan recegjly proposed by our Unitarian
brethren of building a so-styled Rational Unitarian
Church in Washington &
We are all learning, I trust, to put less and less faith
in mere organizational and the mechanism of sects, in
measures rather than in men, in making religion by
'the collection of money and the distribution of the
written word; not that money and tracts may not be
serviceable to the good cause, but the man-made letter
�9
is not the God-inspired spirit, although it is constantly
mistaken for it.
In soliciting, therefore, y^ur pecuniary aid to the
rebuilding of Robert Collyer’s churchjC am not dis
posed to lay any stress upofflthe^adwiitage it will be
to Unitarian Christianity. The object proposed stands
before you upon grourgl Inroad and strong of its own.
lie is most
we should do this, most ,
worthy of the specialmMmfi church. This was
the first liberal churcMI^^^B^^E Robert Collyer
ever entered. It was the first certainly in which he
preached. As a minister of a liberal faith, here was
where he first* drew breath. ’ Here was he born into
our sphere, our son, our brother.
Somewhere about fourteen years ago, I met one
evening at the house of a friend, some seven or eight
miles from the city, a young ^Englishman, W workman
in a neighboring hammotfactory, and a Methodist class
leader, accustomed to exhort in the HRigapus meetings
of his denomination. |^*was imprip^M b^hiljthought-
ful air and by his acquaintance with the litellectual
topics of the day. "He- was - evidently a man who was subsisting on food which his fellow-workmen knew
not of, constantly growing, taking into his blood what
ever nourishment books afforded him. He was a
reader, they said, of the Encyclopaedia Brittannica.
Through the influence of Lucretia Mott he had
•
�10
become interested in the Anti-slavery cause; and, as
was almost always the case with orthodox men in
those days, when they touched that great living Cause,
Robert Collyer’s orthodoxy began to slough off like
a dead skin, and he became interested in liberal
religious views.
It was not long after, that he came one evening to
, this church. The weather was .stormy, and there were
so few present that, contrary to my wont, for the first
and only tim% I spoke that evening entirely without
notes. I sujg)oseithis being in accordance with the
custom of the Methodist church may have increased
whatever of interest the services of that evening had
for him.
Shortly afte^fards I went to| Cincinnati to the
marriage of my brilliant friend, Moncure Conway, now
and for some year? settled in London. He too had
been a few yearlW^fore at,<ihe early age of nineteen a
Methodist preacher, in Virginia, his native State, and
although we were then personally strangers to each
other, he had at that time communicated to me the
story of the painful douhtl through which he was
gasping for a freer air. The letter which I received
from him then, -appealing to me for spiritual help,
breathed great distress of mind, and touched me very
deeply. When, after withdrawing from the Methodist
communion, he took charge of the Unitarian church
�11
in Cincinnati, I accepted his urgent invitation to go
thither, and take what part in marrying him the laws
of Ohio might permitti Of ^course this pulpit was to
be provide(|fcfo^g I invited Robert Collyer to take my
place for theh@®e Sunday I was to be absent. Upon
arriving in Cincinnati I desired to prolong my visit
another week. I telegraphed home in reference to a
supply for the second Sunday, and received for answer
that you weii^wellK.onjtwitlaiiilCT mml than satisfied
with my substitute. It is now more than. thirteen
years ago, and Iuloi|®rnot that many of you remem
ber with pleasui^Rqfc^^jOollyer’sfctr^^&ig at that
time. It wannd^gM^^o^mMblfeten.
Upon my return home^v^hing to sh^re in- your
pleasure, I iagited ot® friend to preach for me. He
came again from hisw|l>aG©,oh wm^|to give me a labor
of love. I wait takenjill, and sW'ar fom being able
to come to chuwh, I was^not ajfele todleay mv room.
I had a day or two before received a letter from
Chicago, where van^aitarian Church ^as already es
tablished (now uaafet the charge of Robert Laird
Collyer), inquiring about a remarkable blacksmith, of
whose rare gift^ m,yjE)rre*(|hdeighl understood that I
had had much to tell, and asking whether he would
not make, what they greatly needed in Chicago, a
good “ minister at large,’[/to go among the poor, and
preach to them.
i
The* letter, if I thought him the
�12
right man, invited him to that city, offering him
twelve hundred dollars a year. Of course there could
be but one answer. When Robert Collyer came up
into my room on that Sunday morning, before going
to Church, I handed him the letter, merely hinting at
its purport. He refused to read it then, and put it in
his pocket. In the afternoon he came up into my
room again to see me, and handed me back the letter.
I told him to take it home with him and let me know
his decision. He replied that he had already decided.
He should go to Chicago. He had mentioned to me in
the morning that he had received the evening before
his month’s wages, thirty-nine dollars and some cents.
In a few daysfhe quitted the hammer factory forever,
and moved with ^s little family to Chicago.
There he ministered to the poor, rising so rapidly in
the respect of the community that when the terrible
Iowa tornado occurred, Robert Collyer was chosen by
acclamation at a publid meeting of his fellow citizens
to go to the scene of that calamity and distribute their
benefactions there. He soon gathered so flourishing
a church in Chicago that a few years ago a large edifice
was built for him and his congregation. I suppose
it was quite impossible for our friends in Chicago
to resist the genius of the place which could tolerate
only the big and the costly. A city, whose growth
was hardly outdone by the most extravagant stories of
�13
California vegetation, expanding so rapidly to giant
dimensions, must have a Unitarian Church in propor
tion. Consequently; Robert Collyer’s Church, Unity
Church as it wajHBOTjfed, was buiB- at ancost of nearly
two hundred thoi&n^ OyLlars. including an organ
that cost ten thousand dollars.
Although o® the day of its Dedication,
members
of the Church subscribed with a graadtiliberality to
wards the payment offiHffif,|jgft.
perched, what
the flames could not consume, a debt of sixty-five
thousand dollars. So
was the at
traction of the pa^chwLi that people flocked to the
church, so lo^hpis
sioutlv bore the
burthen.
But the terrible Fire came. And ltrwhen,B writes
Robert Collyer, in his account of the burning of
his church we®!® fought rifefairly as it came on us
from below, and beaten the infernal beasifcso that it
could never burn^s^umbli^Bw^mdltliat it had set its
fiery teeth away up in the roof out of our reach, and
I knew that all was over, I crept up stairs alone to my
pulpit, where I had
K»igW before and spoken
to nearly a th^gfffiid men ancwvK^W^; I took one last
long look at iijphe church and the dea^ sweeji noble
organ, then Xstook the Bible as it lay when| I had left
it, got out at last and-flocked the door and put the
key in my pocket and went away, for by that time the
�I
14
roof was ablaze, and I thought my heart was broken.
That Unity has gone up, like Elijah, in a chariot of
fire, she is not dead to me,—she never will be dead,—
or to those who loved her as I did, my hope and joy and
crown of rejoicing, for I held her for God and Christ,
God knows.”
The church was insured. And it is expected that
the insurance will cover the whole or nearly the whole
debt. Whatever ofWthe debt shall remain, Robert
Collyer says muf t be paid, if they all have to go to
work and earn the money. Not a dollar of debt is to
rest upon the church that is to be built. Taught by
this most severe experience, our friends in Chicago
have no desire now but for “ a plain, simple build
ing,”—not a dollar for ornament, except, as Robert
Collyer writes, where use is ornament.
Now, dear friends, in praying l^ou, as T do most
earnestly, to unite with all the churches of our faith
in building a Church for our rarely gifted friend and
brother, I do not introduce him to you as a mendi
cant who must perish miserably if we do not give him
this assistance. Do I need to tell you of his rich gifts,
his winning graces ? Is not his praise in all our
churches, nay, is it not sounded everywhere at home
and abroad? Can he preach anywhere where the
English language is spoken, where people do not flock
�15
to hear him, whether he speak from the pulpit or
in the lecture room 1
How well, by the way, does he tffend the trial of
his great popularity ! It is no feeblejfest to be put to,
to be so suddenly raised from the anvil to the pulpit,
to pass from the MM®e drudgery of hard manual
labor to a position, commanding the admiring attention
of multitudes, and^Hong them
mostBnlightened in
the land. It has been finely said that, wrhile “ the
prospect of the applause of ^ostgri^ is like the sound
of the distant diSnl which elevates the mini present
applause, flung] <M^etly in one’s face, is W® the spray
of the same ocean wluppn th^^E^rand^geq uiring
a rock to bear it.” > jKat RoberWCollyeruhas been
animated, elatHM iBjVom will, by his great and well
merited success, I do not d®E| It would argue an
insensibility in him if he were not. He is no rock in
this respect.. But notwithstanding the seductive trial,
he stands like a rock by his flock and his work in
Chicago.
Shortly aftelf the great calamity, I wrote to him and
told him that, he, Roberlr Collar, could rebuild the
city, to say nothing of his church. And is it not by
“the Orpheus-like musa^of the wisdom” to which such
as he give utterance that cities are built end nations
led up the loftiest heights of humanity'll You have all
read the words which he spoke the Sunday after the
�16
fire, standing upon the ruins of his clear church. A
Chicago paper tells us that his voice had cheered not
only his own flock, but all the people of the city, thus
justifying my assurance to him.
He has not, he cannot have, any anxiety on his own
account. As he himself says—and I suppose he is
prouder of the fact than of any sermon he ever
preached—that, if the worst come to the worst, he can
make as good a horseshoe as any blacksmith in Chi
cago. I do not know about his horseshoes. I am
no judge of the article. But I do know what
good hammers the young blacksmith was wont to
make by scores every week. They sent the nail
home, even as their maker sends home the truth,
only he does not, like a hammer, break in pieces the
hard and stony heart; by his rare pathetic power he
melts it into smiles of hope, into tears of penitence,
and sympathy and aspiration. But the worst will not
come to the worst with him. There is no likelihood
that he will ever be reduced to the necessity of manual
labor,-although it is no wonder if amidst that wide
ruin he felt for a moment that it might come to that.
What church is there, what community, that would
not gladly welcome him'? He has not the slightest
concern for his bread.
This then must command for him our warmest ap
probation and respect, and insure our bountiful aid,
�37
*
that while he may choose his place, sure of a lucrative
position wherever he may go, the thought of leaving
his flock and the desolated city, heems never to have
occurred to him. After the death of Theodore Par
ker, he was invited^o be the successor of that able
man, and preach in the Music Hall in Boston. But,
while, for obvious reasons,the invitation was very
tempting, he chose <o remain in Chicago. And now
he has no though^utjbf devoting himself and all that
he is to the building up again of all good interests in
that most afflicted ciwl
Believe me, dear friends, I am not using the empty
language of eulogy, nor ong| giving utterance to the
promptings .of personal g'iendship. You all know
that Robert Collyer is a man of peculiar gifts. Cole
ridge seems to be describing just such a man as our
friend, when he says that “ to find no contradiction in
the union of old and new, to contemplate the Ancient
of Days with feelings as fresh as if they then sprung
forth at his own fiat—this characterizes the minds that
feel the riddle of the world, and may help to unravel
it. To carry on jhe feelings of childhood into the
powers of manhood, to combine the child’s sense of
wonder and novelty with the appearances which every
day, for perhaps forty years, has rendered familiar,
With Sun, and Moon, and Stars, throughout the year
And Man and Woman—
�this is the character and privilege of genius. And so
to present familiar objects as to awaken the minds of
others to a like freshness of sensation concerning
them—this is the prime merit of genius and its most
unequivocal mode of manifestation.”
When a man thus endowed with “ the vision and 1
the faculty divine ” gives’ all that he is with generous
ardor to the service of the highest truth, shall we not
give of what we have, and uphold him with our hearts
and hands ? Shall any loss befal him that we are not
eager to repair ? You are sending food and clothing
and money in boundless quantities to the devastated
West. But, believe me, you can render the people
there no more solid and enduring service than to do
and to give allfthat you are able, even to the stinting
of yourselves, for such a creaM^fl centre of beneficent
influence as our friend/ that* he may have a place
where he may stand, and, with the arm of the spirit
stronger than the arm of flesh, which made the
anvil ring again, lift the thoughts and aims of men
above the material interests to which they cling
as all in all—lift them up into communion with the
Invisible and Everlasting, and with the blessed spirit
of the Lord Jesus. For his oWn dear sake, for the
sake of the gracious influence which he has, and for
the sake of Religion, pure and undefiled, of which he is
so powerful an advocate, I pray you, dear friends, let
�19
us all help, and help generously this good object,—to
build him a church.
It has been proposed by the American Unitarian
Association, which has its centre in Boston, that col
lections be taken up in all our churches for this purpose
on this the second Sunday in November. I do not,
however, suggest a collection to-day. There is no
pressing need of haste. I wish to commend the mat
ter to your-most thoughtful Consideration. You may
think it advisable to take up a collection shortly. In
the meanwhile, I shall be happy and proud, as I
always am, to receive for my friend whatever you may
be prompted to give. The appeals, recently made to
you, first in behalf of our brother from Paris, and then
for the sufferers of the West, to whom there are few
who have not given more than once, have been so
cheerfully and liberally met that they create the faith
that, so far from accounting it a burthen, you regard
it as a privilege, as it assuredly is, to give for a good
purpose, and that you are grateful to the Bountiful
Giver for the means that he has blest you with, and
for every new opportunity. By giving, you receive
more and better things than you give, and thus become
rich before God.
In conclusion, let me say that I trust I have not
offended against propriety in speaking so freely in
�I
A.
.20
praise of our friend, as is customary to speak only of
the dead. But I have spoken thus not to flatter him,
but for the simple truth’s sake. And if I have failed
in regard to the truth, it is not in going beyond it, but
in falling short of it. If there is any alloy in the
sense of truth which moves me to speak of him as I
have done, it comes from the fact that he has, more
than once, as I have been told, allowed the kindness of
his heart and the warmth of his friendship to carry
him away and alluded in his pulpit to his old friend,
the pastor of this church, in such terms as have been, I
confess, not without weight among the reasons moving
me to decline his repeated and most urgent invitations
to visit him and preach for him in Chicago. I own to
the weakness of not caring that his people should find
out, as they surely would if I went there, how far
beyond the truth their minister had been carried in the
ardor of his personal regard. Let me confess to you,
dear friends, between ourselves, that I am not without
a feeling of satisfaction in having this opportunity of
speaking of him in a way that necessarily squares a
private account of mine with him.
�
Dublin Core
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Robert Collyer and his church: a discourse delivered at the First Congregational Unitarian Church in Philadelphia November 12, 1871
Creator
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Furness, W.H.
Description
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Place of publication: Philadelphia
Collation: 20 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Text taken from Lukje Vii. 4 "He is worthy for whom thou shouldest do this".
Publisher
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King & Baird, printers
Date
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[1871]
Identifier
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G5367
Subject
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Unitarianism
Sermons
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Robert Collyer and his church: a discourse delivered at the First Congregational Unitarian Church in Philadelphia November 12, 1871), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
Type
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
Robert Collyer
Sermons
Unitarianism
United States-Religion