Fifty Notable Years

Rev. Henry C. Leonard came into the ministry at Haverhill, Mass., where he had studied under the direction of Rev. Henry Bacon. He was born in Northwood, N. H., April 25, 1818, and died at Pigeon Cove, Mass., March 7, 1880. His earliest labors were on Cape Ann, at Gloucester and in other neighboring places. He was afterwards settled four years in East Thomastown (now Rockland), Me. He then removed to Orono in 1847, where he remained about eight years, and then went to Waterville, in 1854. At the breaking out of the war, in 1861, he closed his labors in Waterville, and accepted the position of chaplain in the Third Maine Infantry. He was afterwards transferred to the Maine Eighteenth Infantry, and then to the First Maine Regiment of Heavy Artillery, where he remained, greatly beloved by officers and soldiers, till his term of service expired in 1864. He was publicly pronounced by Gen. Howard the most faithful chaplain he ever saw.

In 1865 he took charge of the Universalist Society in Albany, N. Y., where he remained three years. He moved to Philadelphia in 1869, and was pastor of the Lombard St. Church two years. He then returned to his home at Pigeon Cove, Mass., intending to remain there permanently. But he was called to be pastor at Deering, Me., and was Professor of Belles-lettres at Westbrook Seminary at the same time. His last pastorate, at Annisquam, Mass., began in December, 1875. He preached for the last time Sept. 28, 1879. He was for a time editor of the "Gospel Banner" and of the "Universalist." He published a volume of sermons entitled "A Sheaf from a Pastor's Field;" also a little work called "Pigeon Cove and Vicinity."

Mr. Leonard was a writer of rare accomplishments. Had he chosen literature for a profession, and cultivated more fully his rare poetic gifts, his name might have been prominent among the writers of the country.

He was an enthusiastic lover of nature, and delighted to dwell in her outer temple. He had a sunny nature, and wherever he lived, won hosts of friends by his geniality and radiant joyousness of heart. The truest, most cultivated and intelligent of all denominations welcomed him to their companionship, and recognized the purity of his life, the elevation of his thought, and his rare intellectual endowments.

Rev. Abraham Norwood began preaching in Annisquam, Mass., and was ordained in 1833. He had been a student with Rev. Sylvanus Cobb, in Malden. He was a member of the Congregationalist Church in early life; but, finding himself dissatisfied and troubled with his theology, he gave much attention to the study of the Bible, and became thereby a firm believer in Christian Universalism. He had a clear and vigorous intellect, and great aptness in setting forth his opinions. He was settled in South Dennis and Marblehead, Mass., in Fiskville, R. I., in Canton, Mass., and in Salisbury, from 1845 to 1855. He then went to Meriden, Conn., and acted as State missionary, with rare fidelity, for six years. He was widely known in Connecticut, and, after the close of his regular ministerial labors, served the town of Meriden in several positions of trust. He was warmly interested in education, and a faithful and devoted laborer in the Temperance cause. Besides his work as a preacher and pastor, he wrote and published two books, – "The Book of Abraham," and "The Pilgrimage of a Pilgrim." While marked with the quaintness of the author, they are direct and telling in their setting forth of Christian truth.

Rev. Charles Spear was a remarkable man; a printer by trade, a philanthropist by nature, a self-sacrificing Christian by divine grace. He was quiet and unostentatious, but persistent as fate in his work. He was a Massachusetts man. He commenced life in humble condition, and his constant liberality to every object and form of distress kept him poor. His high religious zeal and strong philanthropy forced him into the ministry, and into ministrations especially connected with human degradation and suffering: the abandoned, the outcast, the down-trodden, the intemperate, and especially the prisoner, were his parishioners. His absence of mind, forgetfulness of self, and disregard of (if not inability in) pecuniary matters, often subjected him to painful embarrassments when from home; but that Providence on which he relied for aid as for guidance, always provided friends and means to deliver him. Mr. Spear's work on Capital Punishment, and his larger one on the "Titles of Jesus," are readable and valuable books. Besides these, his literary labors produced "Voices from Prison," and a periodical called (like himself) "The Prisoner's Friend," extended through several years. Had he belonged to almost any other denomination than the Universalist, he would have been much more widely known and more highly praised during life, and his death would have been announced and his funeral attended with greater eulogy and higher honors. Previous to his death he had been chaplain in the St. Elizabeth Hospital in Washington, D. C., where he died in April, 1863. His wife was a faithful helper in his hospital work. His funeral services in Washington were attended by a Presbyterian (Dr. Sunderland). The body was removed to Boston for burial.

Rev. James W. Putnam, who died in Danvers, Mass., where he had been a beloved and successful pastor, was a man of admirable qualities. He was just past forty when he departed. Rev. Dr. Miner said of him, in an address on the funeral occasion, that he had known the deceased twenty-four years before, when a pupil in New Hampshire, – a boy in years, but a man in character: —

"As a pastor for sixteen years in one parish, where he constantly grew in strength, in the affections of his people, in the opportunities for public usefulness, serving not only his parish, but the town, the sure test of his worth is to be seen. His character was so well rounded, so complete, so efficient in all particulars, that no one trait seemed to predominate over another. He was very modest and unassuming. When Tufts College conferred an honorary degree upon him, it was so unexpected that, though he saw the statement in the papers, – saw his own name, – he did not suspect that it meant himself, but some other person! He had given the highest evidence of his hold upon his people. Twice he represented the town in the legislature, an experience which often breaks the pastoral relation and sows the seed of disaffection. But he came back from that official service to a united parish."

His settlement in Danvers was his only one. Calls to other parishes with strong financial inducements were declined. He felt that the pastoral relation should be broken as seldom as possible, a consideration which, if more generally regarded, would be of great blessing to many churches.

Rev. James W. Dennis was pastor in Stoughton, Mass., for ten years. He was justly and highly esteemed. Much afflicted with a painful and fatal disease, he had great conflict of mind because of his inability to meet all his duties as he desired; the sympathies of his people were strongly enlisted in his behalf, and they shared with him in some measure his trials. He died in the triumphs of the unfailing hope of the Gospel, and was buried by his friends of the church in the cemetery which his own words had helped to consecrate. "It was an affecting sight," writes one, speaking of his funeral obsequies, "and a sure testimony of the profound esteem in which he was held. Little children, tearful women, and strong men were bowed in deepest grief. I shall never forget the appearance of one old patriarch who approached the coffin with tottering steps, laid his hand upon the head of the deceased, and then placing it upon his own forehead, turned away with an expression of the deepest sadness, as though he had lost a treasure never to be replaced in this world. I saw him again at the cemetery, standing at the door of the sepulchre, with eyes suffused, his gray hairs fluttering in the wind, and his head bowed in the attitude of prayer." Mr. Dennis died in 1863, aged thirty-eight.

Rev. Henry B. Soule was of Dover, Duchess Co., N. Y. He was another instance of "the pursuit of knowledge under difficulties" in his youthful days. He was determined to educate himself, and through much anxiousness and privation and toiling he found his way in 1835 to Clinton Liberal Institute in New York, where he was afterwards a tutor. The next year he was encouraged to prepare for the ministry by his kind and honored friend, Rev. S. R. Smith. His first work as a pastor was at Fort Plain, N. Y. He was subsequently at Troy, Utica, and in 1844 removed to Boston and became assistant pastor with Rev. Hosea Ballou. Here he proved himself adequate to his position. His sermons were forcible, well arranged, and calculated to convince the understanding and enlist the affections. A year's pastorate in Gloucester was a happy one. Then he was minister in Hartford, Conn., where his first sermon was preached to forty-one, his second to sixty-four hearers, and his last to a crowded house. In 1852 his ministry in Lyons, N. Y., commenced. At the end of its first month he had suddenly departed, – a victim of that fearful disease, small-pox. But his bright life shed its radiance back upon many souls who had been blest by his ministries, and his name has since been an honored one in our churches. His widow, who survived him, has won an honorable reputation in our church by her literary publications, and by her devotion to our missionary interests under the auspices of the Woman's Centenary Association, of which she was the first president, and in whose employ she has for three years labored faithfully as a missionary in Scotland. An interesting biography of her husband was prepared by her and given to the public in 1852.

Rev. Obadiah H. Tillotson, of New Hampshire, was an active worker in the ministry; a successful pastor in Worcester, Mass., Hartford, Conn., Northfield, Vt., and in other places. He departed this life in 1863. He was a ready speaker, and was ardent and resolute in his ministerial work. "His ability," writes a friend, "as a public debater was signally shown in a protracted discussion (in Worcester) with a religious opposer who was put forward to defeat him if possible. Four nights the contest went on, and the result was a complete success. He more than met the expectations of his friends, and the opponent afterwards acknowledged that of all his contests (and he was a gladiator) Mr. Tillotson was the strongest opponent he had ever met. There was much of sunshine in his soul, and it beamed out upon others in his social life. For a time he studied and practised law, but his old love for the ministry returning, he entered it again with renewed zeal, and continued earnest and faithful in its work unto the end."

CHAPTER XV.

SKETCHES OF MINISTERS —continued

"Thus bravely live heroic men,A consecrated band;Life is to them a battle-field,Their hearts a holy-land."Tuckerman.

A HIGHLY-esteemed minister of our faith, and a vigorous and stirring advocate of Christian reform, was Rev. Elhanan W. Reynolds. Although his career as minister and author was not long, the most valuable years of his life were given to the work of promulgating the Gospel. He was settled as pastor in Java, Sherman, Buffalo, Jamestown, Watertown, and Lockport, N. Y.; in Norwich, Conn.; and Lynn, Mass. He was a highly acceptable preacher, and wielded a fruitful and facile pen. His little volume, "The Records of Bubbleton Parish," is one of much interest in showing as it does the trials of Christian ministers and parishes because of the discordant elements in them, and in the vividness with which some of the characters in the particular parish at Bubbleton are drawn. But his best work, and one that evinces unmistakably the strong qualities of the writer's intellect and the soundness of his orthodoxy in morals, is his volume entitled "The True Story of the Barons of the South; or, the Rationale of the American Conflict," issued in 1862. It is a compact but lively presentation of the origin and growth of American slavery, from its inception with the Virginian colonists to the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion. It is an unequivocal statement of facts, and an irresistible appeal to Americans for the overthrow of the gigantic abomination of slavery, and the defence and maintenance of that freedom signified in the immortal Declaration sent out by our Revolutionary fathers from this nation, to all the other nations of the earth. It is one of the trumpet-calls to duty among the many that gave inspiration and life to that desperate strife which sent American slavery to "the receptacle of things lost on earth." Mr. Reynolds is worthy of honorable remembrance as one of the heroes of that strife. A discriminating writer has said of him: "As a preacher he was strong and often brilliant; as a scholar his explorations were extensive, and his acquisitions the gold refined from innumerable heaps of dross, patiently searched out; and as a writer he was master of a style which would have been his passport to the first literary circles of America." He died at Milwaukee, Wis., August 31, 1868, aged thirty-nine years.

Rev. Nathaniel Gunnison, a native of New Hampshire, was ordained to the ministry in 1837. He had entered it through much painstaking, and was thoroughly in earnest in his work. He was pastor in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine, and for eight years in Halifax, N. S., in which place he met with marked success. At one time the bishop of the Episcopalian church assailed him, and, not having a correct knowledge of our doctrines, laid himself open to a searching review from Mr. Gunnison. The controversy was a prolonged one, both oral and written, and the result was that the Episcopal church lost ground and members, and the Universalist church realized a corresponding increase. The civil war in our country broke out towards the close of Mr. Gunnison's pastorate. Halifax being in strong sympathy with the South, he stood almost alone in his defence of the North, and gave offence to some of the leading members of the society by his zealous exertions for the North while acting as Deputy Consul of the United States. He subsequently removed to Maine, where he died of paralysis in 1871, while in the midst of his active labors. His son, Rev. A. Gunnison, of Brooklyn, N. Y., pays this touching tribute to his honored parent: —

"At the age of fifty-seven, the pastor of whom we speak was paralyzed. Upon the early morning of the Sabbath, the secret blow fell upon him, but yet he went to his work, and with half his body dead went through his Sabbath service. Then came the weary months of battling with death. Disease was stayed by the vigor of an unconquerable will, and dragging his heavy limb, with right arm lifeless at his side, he took up again the burden of his work… The other day, in the lumber of a storage room, we found the old trunk which contained the sermons of this veteran preacher, and there upon the top a package of huge MSS. written in rude fashion, unlike the singularly clear penmanship of the remaining mass. These were the sermons written after the fell shock came to him, for at fifty-eight years of age, finding that never again could the accustomed hand hold the pen, the old man had with his left hand learned to write, and until the last, week by week, the fresh sermon came quick and vital from a brain which would not cease to work."

His busy ministry of thirty-four years was a Christian success.

Rev. John Mather Austin was, on his mother's side, a descendant of the Mathers distinguished in early colonial times, of which Cotton Mather is best known in history. He was born in Redfield, Oswego Co., N. Y., Sept. 26, 1805, and died in Rochester, Dec. 20, 1880. The first fifteen years of his life were spent in Watertown, N. Y., to which place his parents moved during his infancy. He learned the art of printing in early life, and while employed in it in Troy, N. Y., he became a member of the Universalist society in that place. His interest in religious truth became here stimulated to activity, so that he studied for the ministry, and received fellowship at the Hudson River Association in 1832. His first pastorate was in Montpelier, Vt., his next in South Danvers (now Peabody), Mass., when, after a pastorate there of nine years, he was settled in Auburn, N. Y., in 1844. In 1851 he resigned his pastorate in Auburn, and took the editorship of the "Christian Ambassador," then published at that place.

In 1861 Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State during the administration of President Lincoln, and a firm friend of Mr. Austin, tendered him the consulship of the West Indies, which was declined. The consulship of Prince Edward's Island was afterwards offered him, which was also declined. In 1863 a commission was sent him, signed by Secretary of War Stanton, by which he was appointed paymaster in the army with the rank of major. Mr. Austin was reluctant to relinquish his work in the ministry, but after much persuasion he entered the governmental service and remained until 1866, when he was mustered out. After leaving the army he resumed his labors in the ministry, preaching occasionally until 1875, when the disease began to develop which ultimately caused his death.

For many years Mr. Austin was probably the most prominent preacher in Central New York. He was a profound theologian, and a preacher and debater of great power. His theological discussion at Genoa with Rev. Mr. Holmes of the Methodist church gave him a wide notoriety. So ably conducted was it on the part of Mr. Austin that, it was said, many who heard him were converted to his views.

Secretary Seward at one time began to write a life of John Quincy Adams, which was neglected and finally abandoned for want of time to complete it. At the request of Mr. Seward, Mr. Austin undertook and finished the work. He was the author of several books of merit; among them, "A Voice to the Young," "Austin on the Attributes," "Golden Steps for the Young," and "A Voice to the Married." Mr. Austin had excellent traits of character. His mind was keenly logical, his emotional nature was deep and strong, and his social qualities were eminently attractive.

Rev. Tobias H. Miller. A rare man was he, of clear intellect, unfailing memory, tenderest sympathies, always thinking, always ready to talk, and always talking well. He was deeply religious, but his religion was of the cheerful, hopeful kind. He was born and had his early rearing in "the old town by the sea"45 – Portsmouth, N. H., and was blessed with the watchful care of a pious and faithful mother. He was early instructed in the Puritanic orthodoxy of New England, and grew up to be an approved expounder of it. For a time he was editor of the "Observer," the Orthodox weekly journal of New Hampshire, and was a kind of active adjutant-general of the forces of that division of the church militant in his native State. He was always to be trusted in his work, and was held in high esteem by all his brethren as by all who best knew him. In later life his Scriptural investigations led him to accept the doctrine of Universalism as the truth of God, in which doctrine he continued as an acceptable preacher to the end of his days. His espousal of Universalism did not lessen the respect of his former brethren for him. They never seemed to doubt the purity of his motives nor the excellency of his Christian character. He stood in their pulpits from time to time during his later years.

He was a devoted Christian reformer. He became interested in the "Washingtonian" temperance movement in Portsmouth in 1841, and whenever opportunity offered gave his word and work to promote the cause of total abstinence from all intoxicants. In the anti-slavery agitation his voice was raised for freedom, and soon after the Proclamation of Emancipation made by President Lincoln he repeated, in the Universalist pulpit in Portsmouth, an address which he wrote and delivered nearly thirty years before on the subject of slavery, which showed how accurately he had forecast the future and how his early auguries had been fulfilled.

Being a practical printer, soon after his arrival at manhood, while in Newburyport in the office of the "Herald," he formed the acquaintance of John G. Whittier and William Lloyd Garrison. With the latter he stood side by side at the printer's case, and a strong life-long friendship grew up between them. Mr. Garrison says of him: —

"He was a very Benjamin Franklin for good sense and axiomatic speech, in spirit always as fresh and pure as a new-blown rose. His nature was large, generous, sympathetic, self-denying, reverent. From his example I drew moral inspiration, and was signally aided in my endeavors after ideal perfection and practical goodness. He was as true to his highest convictions of duty as the needle to the pole."

Mr. Miller was a terse and ready writer. A journalist speaks of him as one "who with a stroke of his pen would illumine dark themes and confound vain philosophers, and who blended the clear vision of a Franklin with the modesty of a child." He was born Aug. 10, 1801, and died in Portsmouth, March 30, 1870.

Rev. Martin J. Steere was originally from Rhode Island. He was for nearly twenty years a minister of marked ability and excellent reputation in the Free Baptist Church, and for some time the editor of its weekly journal, "The Morning Star." Given to scriptural investigation, he anxiously, but slowly and cautiously, reasoned himself into Universalism. Convinced that this was the New Testament Gospel, it was his desire to make known the pre-eminent faith to others who might be seeking religious truth. He soon issued his "Footprints Heavenward; or, Universalism the More Excellent Way;" a volume in the form of letters, addressed to his former brethren in the ministry, relating his travail of mind in search of Christian truth, and stating some of the evidences which led him to see "the truth as it is in Jesus." The work has been read with interest and profit by many. In 1859 Mr. Steere received the fellowship of the Universalist Church, and subsequently had pastorates in Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. He was a vigorous thinker, plain, direct, and impressive in his discoursing, and deeply devotional in spirit. One who knew him has written: "The continued tone of his spirit was restorative to the perplexed and desponding; his piety was cheerful, his deportment humble. His religion was his life." His death, in the triumph of Christian faith, occurred at Athol, Mass., in January, 1877.

Rev. Franklin S. Bliss was born Sept. 30, 1828, in Cheshire, Mass., and died March 23, 1873, in Greensboro, N. C., whither he had gone for the benefit of his health. At the age of ten he removed with his family to Lanesboro, Mass., where two years afterwards his mother died. At the age of eight an illness so affected his eyes that he became nearly blind, and when he began to regain his sight his hearing became impaired. At the age of sixteen, finding he could see by using very powerful glasses, he applied himself to close study. Being soon prostrated, twice by fever, the foundation was laid for infirmities which attended him ever after. He became a believer in Universalism while on a sick bed, but did not avow his sentiments until some time afterward, when he resolved to enter the ministry. His family were at first strongly opposed to this course on his part, but they all afterwards became pleased with his success and reputation as a Gospel minister. After some time spent in school-teaching, in 1853 he entered the Liberal Institute at South Woodstock, Vt. (then under the charge of Rev. J. S. Lee), at which time he was described as a pale-faced, feeble-looking young man, but with a firm will and settled purpose to do the most and the best that was possible under the circumstances. His decision of character, concentration of purpose, and love for the work of his chosen profession, overcame all impediments, compensated for lack of health, and rendered him eminently successful and useful as a Gospel minister. He was ordained at Enfield, N. H., in 1855, in which place he ministered for two years. Subsequently he removed to Barre, Vt., where he labored for fifteen years, with exemplary fidelity and abundant success. In him we have a striking instance of the inward force of Christian character to overcome bodily infirmities and accomplish wonders in that ministry whose most eminent apostle said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me."

In the winter of 1871, Mr. Bliss sought release from pastoral labor and care, and for some time tried a southern climate for aid. But the hope proved illusory. His earthly work was done, and well done. A friend with him at the departure writes: "I wish you could have witnessed his last days – and his beautiful death. It was glorious."