Fifty Notable Years

Rev. Charles W. Mellen was a worthy minister and pastor in Massachusetts for twenty-seven years. Simple and unostentatious in his manners, he was thoroughly consecrated to his work. A clear and strong writer and impressive speaker, his discourses were characterized by sound sense and earnestness. He worked from love of his calling. He was hopeful and active in the temperance and anti-slavery reforms, and was a son of consolation in his ministries with the sorrowing, afflicted, and bereaved, who looked to him for sympathy. He passed from this life in Taunton, Mass., while pastor there, in 1866, aged forty-eight.

Rev. Henry A. Eaton came into the ministry after having been a devoted and faithful member of the Universalist Sunday-school in Malden, Mass., during the pastorate of Rev. J. G. Adams. He was born in South Reading (now Wakefield), Mass., Nov. 27, 1825, the youngest of seven children, and lost his mother at an early age. He was an apt scholar, but at sixteen was compelled to earn his livelihood, which he did by serving in a store for two years, and afterwards by setting up for himself in Newburyport. Resolving to enter the ministry, he left his secular employment, and spent some time in Dr. T. J. Sawyer's Theological Class in Clinton, N. Y., and studied also with his brother, Rev. E. A. Eaton, until he preached his first sermon. He first settled in Hanson, Mass., afterwards at East Bridgewater, Milford, East Cambridge, and Waltham, Mass., and in Meriden, Conn. Overworking and injured health compelled most of these changes, for in each place he was much esteemed for his labors and beloved by many friends. The illness and decease of his worthy wife, at East Cambridge, and his devoted attention to her night and day, exhausted his vital powers, and bronchitis, followed by hæmorrhage from the lungs, finally compelled him to abandon the ministry. He retired to Worcester, and engaged in business for the support of himself and children, struggling manfully with various difficulties. Having provided for his children, and arranged all his affairs, he calmly met death, cheered and strengthened by the unfailing hope of the Gospel, May 26, 1861, in the thirty-sixth year of his age. He was a man of deep consecration, of most attractive social qualities, whose memory will be sacredly cherished by those who best knew him. His only son, Rev. Charles H. Eaton, is the successor of Rev. Dr. Chapin in the ministry of the Fourth Universalist Church in New York city.

Rev. W. A. P. Dillingham was a son of Maine, and a graduate of the Harvard Divinity School. He had pastoral settlements in Augusta, Waterville, Dover, and Norridgewock, Me., and Portsmouth, N. H. For a time he became interested in the Swedenborgian Church, and entered its ministry, but without changing his views as to the final destiny of men. While in this connection, he writes: "I never preached the eternity of the hells, nor any doctrine inconsistent with the divine benevolence, and I never heard Universalism or Universalists attacked or spoken of in derogatory terms as to their moral influence by some church people, without putting in a square defence of those whom I knew only to respect, and who had treated me with a consideration beyond my deserts." In due time he returned to his own church, with the honest confession that he had found no better, more conscientious, spiritual, intellectual, or tolerant people than those he had left. While in Waterville, he represented the town for two years, and was chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives the second year. Other positions of public trust were held by him, all of which he honored. He was active in business, "fervent in spirit," and devoutly religious. Few men had better qualities for a public speaker. With a tall, dignified, imposing presence, and a voice of extraordinary compass, richness, and power, his speech was impressive and effective. He was suddenly stricken down with acute pneumonia, and died in 1871, aged forty-six.

A comparatively brief but very active ministry was that of John Glass Bartholomew, D. D. He was born in Pompey, Onondaga Co., N. Y., Feb. 28, 1834. He had the benefit of a good common school and academical education, was a lover of books and of intellectual effort. His parents being Universalists, he was sent to the Clinton Liberal Institute, and after a time prepared himself for the ministry. He first preached in his native town in 1853 to great acceptance, those who heard him being quite convinced that he had not mistaken his calling. After preaching for a few years in Upper Lisle, Broome Co., in Oxford, Chenango Co., N. Y., and in the city of Aurora, Ill., he became pastor of the Universalist Society in Roxbury, Mass., where his ministry continued from July, 1860, to January, 1866. During this pastorate the parish was carried prosperously through a season of peculiar trial, and the membership of both the church and society considerably increased. In the year last named he accepted the invitation of the Greene Avenue Church, Brooklyn, N. Y., to become their minister. The expectations of those who had called him were high, and his pulpit efforts fully met them, but adverse circumstances prevented that prosperity all were desiring. The church building was inadequate to the occasion, and a failure to unite with a remnant of the old "Church of the Restoration" so disheartened the minister that he turned to a new field of work to which he had been invited in Auburn, N. Y. His ministry here was highly successful. His influence reached beyond the city in which he labored, rendering his work peculiarly attractive. He subsequently removed to Syracuse, where for some months he highly enjoyed his pastorate. His biographer, Dr. I. M. Atwood, writes of him: "Crowds flocked to his ministrations, and he seemed animated by extraordinary energies. But gradually he became aware of some insidious malady repeating its attacks on his vigorous constitution." He sought various means to master it, but in vain. Once or twice he rallied, under new treatment and diet, and came up surprisingly. He made a visit of two weeks to his old friends in Roxbury and Boston, but was all the time failing, and with difficulty reached his home in Newark, N. J., where he departed for the better life, April 14, 1874. His mind was on his work to the last, but the unfailing hope cheered and sustained him. He was a preacher of remarkably magnetic power.

One of the most noted of Christian ministers in the present century was Rev. Edwin Hubbell Chapin, D. D., LL. D., of the Universalist Church. He was born in Union Village, Washington County, N. Y., Dec. 29, 1814, and died Dec. 26, 1880, in the city of New York. In his childhood he became a resident, with his parents, of Vermont, where he received his academic course of studies in Bennington. His father, a rigid Calvinist, trained his son in the traditional theology of their ancestors; but the creed proved too narrow for him to be satisfied with it. In 1836, while with his father (an artist), who was on a professional visit to Utica, N. Y., he first had access to a collection of books teaching a more consistent interpretation of the Scriptures, which he read with avidity. He attended the church of our larger faith there, and in due time became convinced that Christian Universalism was the Gospel of the New Testament. After attending to the study of the law for a short time, he gave it up, and accepted the position of associate editor of the "Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate." His powers as a speaker and thinker soon becoming evident, he was urged to enter the ministry, which after much serious and anxious reflection he concluded to do, and began his preparation accordingly. His first sermon was delivered in a barn at Litchfield, and he continued preaching in the vicinity until his ordination in 1837. In May, 1838, he became pastor of the "Independent Christian Church," composed of Universalists and Unitarians, in Richmond, Va.

In 1839, on his way to the meeting of the General Convention, Mr. Chapin attended the funeral of Rev. Thomas F. King, at the Universalist Church in Charlestown, Mass., where Mr. King had been pastor. Complying with an invitation to preach in the church in the evening, the result was an invitation for him to supply the pulpit for three months. In December, 1840, he was installed as pastor there. He was next invited to become colleague of the venerable Hosea Ballou, in the School Street Church, Boston, and was installed there Nov. 28, 1845. Finally, he became pastor of the Fourth New York Society, and remained so until his death. He first occupied the pulpit of the Murray Street Church, but this proving too small, the society moved to All Souls Church in Broadway, where it grew to such proportions that a new and costly edifice was erected at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Forty-fifth Street, dedicated Dec. 2, 1866, and named the "Church of the Divine Paternity." During the years of his matured strength he ministered to his people, while thousands of every name and creed came from near and far to listen to his eloquent words. Here on Palm Sunday, March 21, 1880, he preached the last time on earth. And here on December 30 was gathered the most august assembly that ever sought to honor the memory of an American clergyman, every Christian sect of the city being represented at the altar by its ablest divines, while great numbers of men and women of all denominations turned away unable to gain admittance to his obsequies. In the other churches where he had been pastor, memorial services were held.

The public life of Dr. Chapin was one of incessant action. He was not merely a church preacher. As another has written of him: —

"His was a divided throne between the pulpit and the platform. For many years he was active in the temperance and other reforms, and his magnetic eloquence made him sought by all associations of the kind that desired the presence of a crowd and a stirring and persuasive appeal. Then for five-and-twenty years he was one of the most prominent of a long catalogue of lecturers whom every lyceum must hear."46

In his memorial address in Boston, Dr. Miner thus alluded to the aptness and force of his appeals: —

"I remember on one occasion, in the suburbs of Boston, when, after discussing in a somewhat general way the great waste occasioned by intemperance, he asked his auditory to reflect upon the waste that would be involved in gathering up the cereals of the Commonwealth, converting them into whiskey, taking the whiskey down to the end of Long Wharf, knocking in the heads of the barrels, and spilling the whole into the dock; and, said he, 'would it be any less a waste if you were to strain that whiskey through human stomachs, and spoil the strainer?' What more telling exhibition of the vital diabolism of the whole business of making and drinking whiskey than is involved in that simple illustration."

The address of Dr. Chapin before the Peace Congress at Frankfort-on-the-Main, in 1850, surpassing every other of the occasion in eloquence and power, made his name known through Europe, and placed him among the greatest orators in the world. His religious character was deep and strong, an embodiment of consecration to Christian principle.

The volumes containing Dr. Chapin's sermons, orations, and addresses are so many, and their character in substance and style so uniformly attractive, that we hardly dare venture on quotations from them, even if space were allowed us. As a specimen, however, we present his strong and glowing words in conclusion of his Fourth of July oration, in 1854, at the Crystal Palace, in New York city.

"Men constitute eras. Washington himself was the embodiment of the Revolution, and may fitly personate to other men and other ages the principles of that movement. But let not even the greatness of Washington overshadow the merits of the least of those who labored and sacrificed in that early struggle. Come up before us to-day from many a battle-ground, from many a post of duty; from the perilous enterprise and the lonely night-watch! The pageant of this hour sinks from my sight. This temple of industry, with all its emblems of civilization, dissolves into thin air. These tokens of a great and prosperous people pass away. This magnificent city dwindles to a provincial town. I am standing now upon some village green, on an early summer morning, when the dew is on the grass, and the sun just tips the hills. I see before me a little band clothed in the garb that is now so venerable. There are the cocked hat, the continental coat, the well-worn musket. They have turned away from their homes; they have turned from the fields of their toil; they have heard the great call of freedom and of duty, and before God and man they are ready. Hark! it is the tap of a drum, and they move forward to the tremendous issue. That drum-beat echoes around the world! That movement was the march of an irresistible Idea – the Idea of the spiritual worth and the inalienable rights of every man; out of which grow the stability of nations, and the unity of the world."

A more positive and thorough expositor of the doctrine of Universalism could not be heard from the pulpit than Dr. Chapin. This has been acknowledged on all hands by those who were most constant and attentive listeners to him. But the great aim of his ministry was to make men know and feel the power of the inner life of the Gospel. He distinctly states this in the first published volume of his discourses: —

"The great end of preaching is to reform the life, to reconcile man to duty and to God. The great principle to be propagated and established in the souls of men is not this or that particular ism, but the spirit of Christ. Without this no denomination can be right, no society can flourish, no soul can live."

Mr. Chapin was a poet as well as an orator. Some of his hymns, long used in our church services, are of great merit, having the beauty of Moore with the spiritual fervor of Charles Wesley. The writer takes pleasure in transcribing one of them for these pages, which was written from a sense of duty, and at the close of a very hot day in July, when we had been very diligently at work on the new Hymn Book, compiled by us jointly for Mr. Abel Tompkins, publisher, in 1845. We were about to make up the last package of matter for the press. The writer had prepared one or two hymns expressly for the book, while such of Mr. Chapin's as had a place in it, were selected from papers and church service programmes of the time. He was urged to write one then wanted for the miscellaneous department of the book, the subject to be, "During or After a Destructive Storm." Wearied as he was, he consented, and standing at the desk, wholly absorbed in his theme, soon brought out the following, which speaks for itself: —

Amid surrounding gloom and waste,From nature's face we flee,And in our fear and wonder haste,O nature's Life, to thee!Thy ways are in the mighty deep,In tempests as they blow;In floods that o'er our treasures sweep;The lightning and the snow."Though earth upon its axis reels,And heaven is veiled in wrath,Not one of nature's million wheelsBreaks its appointed path.Fixed in thy grasp, the sources meetOf beauty and of awe;In storm or calm, all pulses beatTrue to the central law."Thou art that law, whose will thus done,In seeming wreck and blight,Sends the calm planets round the sun,And pours the moon's soft light.We trust thy love; thou best dost knowThe universal peace,How long the stormy force should blow,And when the flood should cease."And though around our path some formOf mystery ever lies,And life is like the calm and stormThat checker earth and skies, —Through all its mingling joy and dread,Permit us, Holy One,By faith to see the golden threadOf thy great purpose run."

The closing of the life of this eminent man was in accordance with his whole ministry. At his funeral services in the Church of the Divine Paternity, Rev. Dr. Armitage, of New York city, in a most impressive address to the congregation, took occasion to speak of an interview with him in his extreme weakness: —

"'Doctor, do you realize now the sweetness of the promise of Christ in your broken condition?' He looked at me with the simplicity of a babe; but I saw a tear moisten his eye and a little tremulousness mingled with his voice, and he said, 'My dear brother, what should I do without Christ. Christ is everything to me now.' So he spoke of the loving Redeemer. I said, 'Well, then, may I have this consolation, Doctor, of knowing that you, who have been in the ministry so long, labored so hard, done so much to lift up other minds and pour consolation into disconsolate hearts, that you to-day realize the same breadth and fulness and sweetness of consolation in Christ that you have ministered to others?' He simply made this answer: 'Doctor, Christ to me is all in all.'

"I asked him if it would be pleasant to have a word of prayer. He made an effort to rise, as if he greeted the proposition with great joy. I said, 'No, Doctor, you can't rise; do nothing; lie quietly, and I will kneel at your side with my hands in yours. Let us give each other to God our Father to-day.' He said, 'Well, we will.' I bent at his side, and with such simplicity and brotherly love and confidence in God as I could summon, sought the blessing of heaven upon him. He joined in the prayer; he buried his brow in one hand, and held my hand with the other. He seemed to glow with love. I asked the Lord to give him strength, and, if possible, to spare him to the church, and presented those wishes at the Throne of Grace which any of your hearts would prompt under similar circumstances. At the close of a brief prayer, as I said, 'Lord, Lord, grant these things to thy servant, for Jesus Christ's sake,' holding my hand with a firm grip, and lifting up his eyes towards heaven, in the same ringing, fervent, strong voice that you have heard so often from his lips, his whole nature said, 'Amen.'"

In 1856 Harvard College conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity, and Tufts College that of Doctor of Laws in 1878.47

During twenty-five years Rev. Joseph D. Pierce was pastor of the Universalist Church in North Attleboro, Mass. He was born in North Scituate, Mass., Nov. 15, 1815, and died in North Attleboro, Nov. 16, 1880. During his minority his educational advantages were limited to the public schools. After serving an apprenticeship as a carpenter, he entered the Derby Academy in Hingham. He taught in the public schools, devoting his leisure to reading and study. Resolved on entering the ministry, he began his preparatory studies with Rev. Hosea Ballou, 2d, in Medford, Mass. His first sermon was preached in East Boston, in 1839. He then supplied the pulpits in South Dedham and East Boston for a year, and was ordained in 1841. He was first settled at Hartland, Vt., where he also taught school, remaining until May, 1845, when he was called to North Attleboro. After a pastorate here of one year, failing health induced him to abandon regular preaching and engage in teaching. He became principal of the Attleboro Academy, continuing to some extent his pastoral work, and occasionally supplying at West Wrentham. In 1850 he took charge of the Universalist parish in Claremont, N. H., where he preached, teaching school also most of the time for five years. He also served as a member of the school committee in that town, and discharged the duties of his office with such marked ability and benefit to the schools that, upon hearing of his intent to remove to Massachusetts, a deacon of the Baptist Church said, "We cannot get along without him." By a unanimous invitation from the parish in North Attleboro, he was again settled there in 1855, where he remained until his death. He was representative of Attleboro in the State Legislature for 1868, and served his constituents with credit. He was an untiring student, logical in thought and method, and an effective preacher. He had great modesty, and never sought for oratorical display. His heart and hand were given to every good work. He was feeble in health, and endured much physical suffering. He once said that he had not known a waking hour free from pain for fifteen years, yet his religious trust and unsubdued spirit sustained him through a life of unremitting toil.

Rev. Thomas J. Carney, of Dresden, Me., was a minister of varied experiences, and a useful laborer in the Gospel field. He was taught the gospel of universal grace and salvation in the home of his childhood. He travelled over the States extensively in youth, and visited the West Indies, and afterwards studied for the ministry. The last years of his life were spent as pastor and missionary in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois. He extended his journeyings and missionary work to Missouri and Kansas, and visited New Mexico. He was a man of strong convictions, and an earnest advocate of the doctrine which he loved. He made many friends, and well deserved them. Four church edifices are standing as monuments of his faithfulness. He was fatally injured by a fall from his horse, and died at Buffalo, Ill., in 1871. His wife was, before her marriage, Miss Julia A. Fletcher, a well known and very acceptable writer in our church and to the public.

Rev. James Munroe Cook was born in Marcellus, Onondaga County, N. Y., Nov. 24, 1818. He was a favorite in the family circle, and kindly regarded by his schoolmates and teachers. At an early age he was a diligent student of the Scriptures, and before he was fifteen years of age was not unfrequently engaged in defending the doctrine which he afterwards preached, and laboring to show to unbelievers its consistency and attractiveness.

In 1837 he came to Rochester, N. Y., and commenced his studies for the ministry with Rev. George Sanderson. He was a diligent student, and had a remarkably retentive memory. His first sermon was preached in Gates, near Rochester, in October, 1837. He had pastorates in Chili, Churchville, Perrinton, and Victor, N. Y. In November, 1845, he entered upon his duties as pastor of the Second Universalist Society in Providence, R. I. Through discouraging circumstances in the beginning of his work here, he went forward with great faith and earnestness, and realized a successful ministry. His pastorate in Providence continued four years, when, in November, 1849, he took charge of the Universalist Society in Baltimore, Md. His good reputation in Providence had preceded him, and he was warmly welcomed by his new friends. They were highly pleased with his pulpit ministries, and the services in the church were well attended, and his popularity in the city was increasing. But the society had a heavy debt upon it, and looked to Mr. Cook as the chief instrumentality in the removal of it. He saw what was before him, and realized the discouraging magnitude of the work. But he would not shrink from what was expected of him, and entered upon the effort with a bravery that overcame all obstacles, and secured the end desired, – the removal of the debt. But, alas! the strain had been too great; his strength gave way, and in the midst of his usefulness he was called to the higher life. He died in calm resignation, and in strongest hope of entering his final and immortal home.

Of his ministry, Rev. Dr. Thomas Whittemore, at the time of his death, in 1850, wrote: —

"As a preacher he excelled in certain respects. He was a man to move the masses. He spoke without writing, and delivered his message of divine truth with great power. He aimed not at elegant words and polished sentences, but to speak the truth in demonstration of the spirit. He aimed to reach the heart. He would keep the attention of a thousand people fixed intently upon his theme through a long discourse. His sermon, delivered in the Warren Street Church, during the session of the United States Convention in Boston, in 1845, is an illustration of the truth of what we say. There an immense auditory listened to him with the greatest interest for a long time, for they were unconscious of its rapid flight. They caught his feelings, they rejoiced with him, they wept with him, and at the close the general expression of the people was, 'that was the Gospel, that came from the preacher's heart and reached our hearts.'"

Cut off in the midst of his years, his memory is a blessing for what he was enabled during his short life to accomplish.

CHAPTER XVII.

SKETCHES OF MINISTERS —continued

"As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand." – Jesus.

A FERVENT and devoted servant of the Christian Master was Rev. A. W. Bruce. Born in Bennington, Vt., he was taught the Methodist faith, and held it until his nineteenth year, when by his own diligent investigations he became a believer in Universalism. After practising as a physician for a short time, he entered the ministry, and became an indefatigable and successful worker therein. He was ordained in 1843, had settlements in New England and in three of the Western States, and died in Lafayette, Ind. in 1871, leaving a good name in the churches and with all who knew of his work for human reform, and were co-operators with him.