Fifty Notable Years

Some twelve years after his settlement in New Orleans changes occurred in his theological opinions, which led to the dissolution of his relations with the Presbyterian Church. He was deposed from his ministerial office for heresy, and was afterwards known as an independent minister, cherishing Universalist and Unitarian opinions. This change of relations however did not alienate his parish from him. The church building at an earlier date had passed into the hands of the well-known Hebrew millionnaire, Judah Truro, and by his liberality Mr. Clapp occupied the church and preached to his old hearers. His services will long be tenderly remembered in New Orleans. During twenty seasons of epidemic cholera and yellow fever, Mr. Clapp was at his post of duty, and by his ministry of consolation carried comfort to the great multitudes stricken by the pestilence. His "Autobiographical Recollections" is largely devoted to these memorable seasons, and is one of the most interesting volumes ever published. In later years of his life he felt compelled by failing health to relinquish the work of the ministry, and in 1866 departed this life in Louisville, Ky., aged 74. Of him it was said by Dr. Alexander Campbell that he could not believe the doctrine of endless misery if he tried: "You have too much benevolence," added the Doctor. He read this in the face of Mr. Clapp, in the soft lines, and in the warm and benignant glow, that told of a heart full of sympathy and pity.

A stirring and industrious laborer in the propagation of the Universalist faith was Rev. John A. Gurley, of Connecticut. At the early age of twenty he was preaching in Maine, and after a short settlement in Methuen, Mass., he purchased a denominational paper, the "Star in the West," and went to reside in Cincinnati, Ohio. He became pastor and editor in that city. He did much missionary work, journeying into distant States and Territories, holding discussions and preaching wherever he had opportunity, the circulation of his paper constantly increasing. His bodily powers becoming weakened by over-exertion, he deemed it advisable to change his mode of life somewhat, and disposed of his paper and ceased to preach. He subsequently became an active politician, served two terms as representative in Congress from Ohio, and was at the time of his death the appointed Governor of Arizona. Although apparently a frail man, he was capable of great endurance, and few of his years have put more diligent work into a life. He was emphatically an executive man, and had the faculty of making all his plans and movements tell to advantage. He was fond of theological debate, and during the presidency of the elder Dr. Beecher at Lane Seminary, he sought to draw out that noted man in a statement of his arguments against Universalism. He received promises more than once from the doctor that his request should be answered to his entire satisfaction, but the fulfilment of them was never realized. Mr. Gurley was a genial man and an attractive companion. He made many friends in his life, and will not be forgotten by the Universalists in Ohio, who regretted that he could not have devoted the last of his life solely to the interests of the church.

Rev. Enoch M. Pingree was by birth a New Englander, born in Littleton, N. H., but through some of the most important years of his ministry a laborer in the West. He was one of the born ministers, and had good opportunities for study at the Methodist Seminary in Newbury, Vt. At this school he was an earnest advocate of the Universalist faith, which rendered him unpopular with most of the students and teachers. He distinguished himself in the lyceum and debating society, and exerted such an influence as to call out the professors to defend their cause against the arguments and bold positions of this ardent youth. After preaching a little in New England, he started for the West, in 1837. He was pastor in Cincinnati and Louisville, and a missionary in various places in the Western States. Here he became developed from a quiet and diffident man into a bold and confident advocate of his sentiments. He became a public debater, and "waxed valiant in fight" in many controversies. His published discussion with Dr. Rice, an able and distinguished Presbyterian divine, does him great honor. He was a busy, sympathetic, and faithful pastor, also a ready thinker, fluent speaker, and rapid writer. His industry was untiring, and it wore him out at last. In discussion he was candid as well as strong, never descending to any low or unmanly reference to his opponent, no matter how much abused, nor attempting to take advantage of the prejudices of the people. Religious discussions were matters of purest conscience with him. His ministry was brief, but one of intense vigor and action. Greatly beloved by multitudes of friends, he departed this life in 1849, at the early age of thirty-three.

Rev. Thomas J. Greenwood, before his entrance upon the work of the ministry, held the position of overseer in one of the mills in Lowell, at the beginning of the growth of that city. He was born in Newton, Mass., and was a fairly-educated, strong-minded, and trustworthy man. An attempt had been made to establish a Universalist Society in Lowell, and Mr. Greenwood was deeply interested in it. The mill authorities were opposed to the movement, and intimated to this their employee that his heresy could not be favorably regarded by them, and that if he continued to be its active supporter, they and he must part company. His conscience was true to principle as the needle to the pole, and he readily accepted their terms, and turned away from their service to enter and honor another, to which he afterwards gave the most of his life. He had profitable pastorates in New England, his last three having been in Dover, N. H., and Malden and Saugus, Mass. His good reputation was in all our churches, as a ready and vigorous writer, an eloquent preacher, a loving and industrious pastor, and, more than all, a royal man. A faithful biographer (Rev. A. J. Patterson, D. D.) has written of him: —

"He was the central figure in the entire community where he dwelt. His manly, dignified presence, his genial manners, his willing, helpful hand in every worthy cause, his charity towards other sects, his kindness to the poor, his pity for the erring, his sympathy in chambers of sickness and towards all kinds of suffering, his words of more than human comfort at the open grave, and withal his rare good judgment and solid common sense in everything, caused him to be respected and consulted far beyond the circle of the church. He was devoted to all public interests, served several terms in the Legislature of Massachusetts, and was once nominated for the National Congress from his district."

He departed this life in Malden, Sept. 12, 1874.

Rev. Elbridge Gerry Brooks, D. D., was born in Dover, N. H., July 29, 1816, and died in Philadelphia, Pa., April 8, 1878. During his infancy his parents removed to Portsmouth, where he passed the years of his boyhood. He was a strong, healthful youth, and was blessed with parents who were devoted to his highest welfare, and whose exemplary religious characters made a deep impress upon his after life. Just previous to his ninth birthday, a sad accident occurred, by which his leg was so severely injured that amputation became necessary. He bore the painful operation with manly fortitude, and during the consequent confinement saw many of the pleasing visions of his coming life dispelled. When he recovered, however, his brave nature did not brood over his misfortune, but his heart was made more tender by it, and as he grew older was filled with a strong religious interest, and he early decided to devote himself to the Christian ministry. His pious parents, rejoicing in the zeal and enthusiasm of their crippled boy, did all in their power to encourage his aspirations and to have him suitably fitted for his chosen calling.

At that time, Rev. T. F. King was settled in Portsmouth, and, discerning the rare promise of his young friend, gave him hearty and effective encouragement. After acquiring such knowledge as the Portsmouth schools could give him, he was aided by his faithful pastor in the further pursuit of his studies, and at the early age of nineteen he began to preach. His first sermon was delivered in Portsmouth, and gave great satisfaction to those who heard it. He was first settled in Exeter, N. H.; then in Amesbury, Mass., where he was ordained, Oct. 19, 1837; then in East Cambridge, Mass.; then in Lowell, and, in 1846, took charge of the parish in Bath, Me. In 1850 he returned to Massachusetts and settled in Lynn, where he remained nine years. In 1859 he was called to the Sixth Church in New York, where he remained eight years, and until he was chosen, in 1867, General Secretary of the United States Convention. His duty in this new capacity was to direct and take the lead of the missionary enterprises and to visit all sections of the country. His labors were manifold and arduous, but very efficient and successful, until his health became impaired, and he was obliged to resign his office and return to his family. After resting a few months, and partially recovering his strength, he accepted, in November, 1869, an invitation to the Church of the Messiah in Philadelphia, to which he gave the last years of his useful life, and where he joyfully resigned that life April 8, 1878.

As a preacher, Dr. Brooks was in the front rank of our ministers. As another has written: —

"He was entirely consecrated to his work, and in the pulpit he spoke as one having authority. His sonorous voice and majestic bearing were in perfect harmony with his clear and forcible presentation of his thought, and emphasized his urgent appeals to the conscience of his hearer. He was by nature an ardent reformer, and was always true to his convictions. He could not keep back the smallest fragment of what he believed to be God's truth. He early threw himself, heart and soul, into the anti-slavery cause, and during the war of the rebellion his clarion voice gave no uncertain sound."

He was a clear and vigorous writer. His two volumes, "Universalism in Life and Doctrine," and "Our New Departure," evince this. They are valuable additions to our church literature. He was one of our best organizers. Seldom absent from our conventions, and nearly always serving on executive boards and important committees, nearly every department of our church work received an impression from his hand. In 1867 Tufts College conferred on him the degree of D. D.

It has been truly said of him: —

"He was born into Universalism. He was cradled in its arms. He was taught it at his mother's knee. He believed it from his earliest conscious years. He never was influenced by any other faith. What he was it made him. Let no man say it is not the power of God unto salvation, while we can point to such examples of its influence in life and death. He has gone to that home which his faith made so real to many souls."

Rev. Ebenezer Fisher, D. D., has won honorable distinction in the Universalist Church. He was born in Charlotte, Me., Feb. 6, 1815, and died in Canton, N. Y., Feb. 21, 1879. His father was one of the pioneers of Eastern Maine, and the son passed his early years in a new country, in the midst of hardships incident to such a condition. With the exception of a single term at the Readfield Seminary, he had no advantages beyond what were afforded by the common schools of his native town. His early religious training was in the Orthodox church, against whose gloomy doctrines his whole soul revolted. When about sixteen years old a few Universalist books and papers were put into his hands, the perusal of which, in connection with the Bible, brought him "out of darkness into marvellous light," and he gradually formed the purpose to fit himself for the Christian ministry. He sought and obtained fellowship of the Maine Convention in 1840, and in 1841 settled at Addison Point, Me., until in April, 1847, he accepted a call to Salem, Mass., where his pastorate was eminently successful. In November, 1853, he removed to South Dedham (now Norwood), where he remained until 1858, when he was appointed President of the Theological School at Canton, N. Y., and thenceforth he gave his time, labor, thought, and strength to a work for which he proved himself peculiarly fitted. For more than twenty years he was the honored head of the first Universalist Theological School, and during that time one hundred and three students were graduated, who are now scattered over the country, and bearing testimony to his faithful teaching, his rare devotion to duty, his profound scholarship, and his eminence in all Christian virtues. However marked may have been the results of his labors in other fields, his work in the Theological School was the most important and conspicuous, and will be his most enduring monument. The degree of D. D. was conferred upon him in 1862 by Lombard University. Rev. I. M. Atwood, D. D., his successor as President in the Canton Theological School, thus truly and graphically presents him to us: —

"A grand man, made up in a large and noble fashion, with paternal benignity in his face and a note of sonorous warning in his voice, able, acute, aggressive, unmovable, the sturdy strength and wintry rigor of his nature relieved by a certain charm of tenderness which affected one like the scent of sweet flowers amid the majesty of the primeval woods; in his preaching a strain of deep sincerity which made the hearer feel the solemn reality of those things about which there is so much superficial prattle, – a great, brave, patient spirit, loyal to the truth, trustworthy as a star, and of such a breadth and strength of moral build as made him an imposing Christian force in the community, – such to our thought was Ebenezer Fisher, who fell asleep Friday morning, Feb. 21, 1879, having just passed his sixty-fourth birthday.

A well-remembered elder of apostolic aspect and spirit was the Rev. Seth Stetson, born in Kingston, Mass., in 1776, and dying at the age of ninety-one in Brunswick, Me. He was reared in the faith of the Puritan fathers, near the old Plymouth rock; learned the trade of a ship-carpenter, emigrated to Maine, gave himself to much study, entered the Congregationalist ministry, and was pastor in Maine and Massachusetts for some years. When the Unitarian controversy arose in New England, he became deeply interested in it, accepted Unitarianism as the truth of God, preached it as a missionary, and soon saw clearly the doctrine of the salvation of all men as a revelation of the Scriptures. He was minister of this faith in Charlestown and Salem, Mass., and afterwards had several pastorates in Maine. His heart and life were full of the spirit of the great Christian Master. Universalism to him was not only a divine word, but a regenerative power. The love which it inculcated he possessed and exercised. His heavenly spirit beaming from his pleasant countenance and pervading his sweet conversation made him welcome everywhere. What the New Testament says of another was applicable to him: "A good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith."

Rev. William Bell, son of a Calvinistic clergyman, was for many years an active advocate of the Universalist faith. The rigid theology of his father had the tendency to push him into Deism, until the light of the greater Gospel broke upon his mind. After years spent in mechanical pursuits, with a moderate education, under the instruction of the senior Rev. Hosea Ballou, he began to preach, obtained fellowship, and spent the first ten years of his ministry in New Hampshire and Vermont. Subsequently he became editor of the "Watchman and Christian Repository," at Woodstock, Vt., and in after years of the "Star of Bethlehem," in Lowell, Mass. He preached much up to his seventy-eighth year, retaining his vigor of body and mind. He was plain and direct in his style as a preacher, keen in his expositions of what he deemed error, a good logician, strongly doctrinal in his discourses, and deeply religious in feeling. One of the last occasions of his speaking in public was at the Centennial Convention in Gloucester in 1870. Near the close of his life he wrote a strong and searching letter to Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in review of a sermon on future punishment published by him. He died in Boston in 1871.

"An able minister of the New Testament" was Rev. Calvin Gardner, a native of Hingham, Mass., and pastor in Charlestown, Duxbury, Lowell, and Provincetown, Mass., and for twenty years in Waterville, Me. In early life he wrought at his trade in one of the mechanic arts. Becoming interested in the doctrine of Universal Salvation, he entered the ministry in 1825. He was a reader and thinker, a sound theologian, and forcible preacher. He was always welcomed at associations and conventions, and listened to with interest by those who came to be fed with the plain and wholesome food of the Gospel. He was a genial companion and high-minded man. He passed suddenly away by death while seated in a store which he had entered but a little while before.

CHAPTER XIV.

SKETCHES OF MINISTERS —continued

The weapons which your hands have foundAre those which Heaven itself has wrought,Light, Truth and Love; – your battle-groundThe free, broad field of thought.Whittier.

REV. JOSIAH GILMAN was another of the sturdy mechanics who came from the forge, and after his best endeavors to gain a tolerable preparation for the ministry, entered it, if not with much mental culture, yet with a heart full of love of the new faith into which he had grown out of that theology which one of the Beecher sisters has said evinces "an awful mistake somewhere." He was always alive with his theme. His work in the pulpit was as strong and as faithfully done as any which he had wrought out upon the anvil. He was a useful missionary. No one could have been more conscientious than he respecting the religious qualifications of a Christian minister. His own character was the best illustration he could give of his ideal. That was above reproach.

Mr. Gilman had a stentorian voice when excited in speaking, but was often slow in speech, and to some hearers might seem at times wanting in animation. It is related that while preaching in a country place in New Hampshire one hot summer afternoon, a part of his audience being hard-working haymakers, his discourse became somewhat quiet in its manner, so that an evident drowsiness had taken hold of some of the listeners. The speaker, perceiving it, suddenly paused for some seconds, and then bringing his clenched hand down quite loudly upon the desk before him, exclaimed good naturedly, "Come brethren, wake up! and let us take another view of this subject." The call was effective, and both speaker and hearers were in sympathetic wakefulness to the end. The good man departed this life in Lynn, Mass., in 1858, aged 67.

Another comer from the anvil, a strong, cheery, blunt, warm-hearted man, deeply in love with the truth of the Gospel, and running over with zeal in his advocacy of it, was Rev. Emmons Partridge. He was superintendent of the Sunday school in the First Universalist church in Providence, R. I., while Rev. David Pickering was its pastor. He entered the ministry with but little scholarly preparation for it; but somehow, by divine grace, he did quite an acceptable work as a missionary and as pastor of a number of societies. God chooses his own instruments in his work, and this minister was one. Without the graces of oratory, he was a plain and often instructive preacher, because he was usually highly charged with his subject and eager to declare it to his hearers. If his illustrations were sometimes homely, they were usually to the point, and if they excited a smile carried a conviction. He was ready in expedients, if these were necessary, to win the good will of his neighbors who might be strongly prejudiced against his theology. "I had hard work," said he, "to get the kind attention of one man. I tried many ways: but at last, as we were both very much interested in raising rare kinds of poultry, I opened his heart towards me by occasional exchanges of choice eggs with him!" He could meet pulpit embarrassments coolly and more successfully than others might have done. Lecturing one evening in his pulpit at Watertown, Mass., he came to a place in his manuscript where the matter was confusedly mixed. The leaves had been wrongly stitched together, and he vainly tried to put them in order. Despairing of this, he quietly and quaintly remarked, "Well, this is strange. I thought I put these leaves in as they ought to be, but they are so mixed that I can't make anything out of them. I think I will say the rest without the notes!" and he did, to the satisfaction as well as amusement of the audience. He died somewhat advanced in years, highly esteemed by all who knew him.

Rev. William I. Reese began to preach in Central New York, in Onondaga County, and was ordained at the session of the Cayuga Universalist Association in 1824. For a few years he was the minister of the Universalist societies in East and North Bloomfield, and then of the church in Portland, Me. He went to Buffalo on call of the church there in the early spring of 1834, and there in the succeeding summer his earthly ministry suddenly came to a close. It was the second year of that terrible visitation, the Asiatic cholera, and the city to which he had only just removed was awfully ravaged by the sweep of the dark-winged pestilence. Unfalteringly at his post of duty in all those dark days, devoting himself to loving ministries among sick and suffering and dying people, showing himself everywhere an angel of mercy and consolation, he fell a victim at last to the desolating scourge, and in the prime of his grand manhood, the good fight fought, the faith kept, the course finished, he passed on to receive his crown, and to be enrolled among the brightest and most faithful of ministering spirits.

Rev. Albert A. Folsom, an active and devoted minister, was born in Exeter, and passed his early life in Portsmouth, N. H. He had settlements in Maine and Massachusetts, and departed this life, aged 39, at Springfield, Mass., in 1849, after a ministry there of five years. He was very acceptable to his congregations, in all his pastorates. He had a rich voice, subject to a wise control, was a ready speaker, and could acquit himself in a most happy manner. He often had texts handed him when entering the church, which he discussed to the evident satisfaction of his hearers. He was social and companionable, and his views of life and Providence were very hopeful. In his home he was a light and blessing. No minister ever had warmer friends than he.

William Cutter Hanscom, a sincere and zealous young man, a clerk in a prominent dry goods store in Portsmouth, N. H., left his secular pursuits to prepare himself for the ministry in the study of the Rev. T. F. King of that town. He was soon known as an acceptable preacher, and, receiving ordination, was called to two pastorates, the first at Newmarket (Lamprey River village) N. H., the second at Waltham, Mass. He had much mental ability, was a vigorous and rapid writer, and an energetic and enthusiastic speaker. He was greatly beloved by a large number of friends, and his pastorates were a joy to him and of much profit to the churches. He was an evangelist in the true sense of the word. His career was short, as he was cut off by consumption, at Cambridgeport, and was buried at Waltham, in 1838. But his pathway was an illuminated one, and its light lingers in many memories. He departed at the early age of twenty-three.

Rev. Merritt Sanford, born in Readsboro, Vt., and religiously educated in the Methodist church, became by attentive reading and much anxious thinking a believer in that divine goodness which will bring all souls at last in conformity to its will. With but ordinary means of education in country schools, he grew, by close mental application to study, to be a scholar of very considerable acquirements, and entered the ministry at the age of twenty-three. He was minister in New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. He was a quiet but forcible preacher, because of the soundness, strength, and aptness of his discourses. He was continually growing mentally and spiritually, was deeply conscientious and devout, and left a fragrant memory wherever he sought to do his work. He closed his earthly life after a short illness, in Warren, Mass., in May 1849, aged 37.

Rev. Alexander R. Abbott, who was somewhat advanced in life when he gave himself to the ministry, was a native of East Livermore, Me. His early life was that of a hard toiler, his advantages for obtaining an education were limited, but his thirst for knowledge overcame his early deficiencies. With little if any aid from others, he became proficient in French and Latin and the mathematics, and for many years was successfully employed in teaching. His first sermon was preached while residing in Lowell, Mass., in 1844, and his ordination took place in the following year. His first settlement was in Bath, N. H. For a time he was employed as a missionary, to preach in destitute places within the limits of the Boston Association. Afterwards he was settled successively in Newburyport, Mass., Pawtucket, R. I., Gardiner, Me., South Dedham, Mass., Hudson, N. Y., and Rockland, Me. He was an indefatigable student, and a clear, strong preacher. No useless verbiage encumbered his discourses. He grappled with the hardest questions in theology, and brought light out of them. His last sermon before the Maine Convention is remembered as a clear and masterly treatment of one of the problems which has greatly occupied the religious thought of the day. He stirred the consciences of his hearers. He was outspoken as an anti-slavery man, when to be so was to incur the hostility of men of both political parties, and endanger his success in the places of his settlement. The temperance cause always found in him a firm, consistent, and able advocate. And while he was thus efficient in performing the more rugged duties of his calling, he was equally well-fitted, by the tenderness of his heart, for the more sympathetic offices of the ministry. The death of Mr. Abbott, at Rockland, Me., in 1869, was occasioned by disease of the heart, aggravated by the fracture of a limb. He was conscious and composed to the last.