Fifty Notable Years

Dr. Williamson, through most of his life, was afflicted with asthma in its severest form, but his vigorous will enabled him, in spite of it, to perform much labor. He delivered nearly 4,000 sermons, published nine volumes, beside many pamphlets, and for forty years was connected with our periodicals. He once crossed the Atlantic, and preached the Gospel of Impartial Grace in Great Britain. He took seven voyages of 2,000 miles coastwise by sea on the same errand. In his voyage to Europe, one of his fellow passengers was Washington Irving, then on his way to Spain. Mr. Williamson conducted the religious services on board the vessel, one Sunday morning, discoursing on the Paternal character, purposes and requirements of God, in accordance with Christian Universalism. After the service, Mr. Irving, who had been an attentive listener, cordially thanked the preacher for his sermon, adding emphatically, "These, sir, are my views, and I am trying to live in agreement with them."

Mr. Williamson was a prominent and highly respected member of the Society of Odd Fellows, lectured far and wide in exposition and defence of their principles, and went to England mainly in their service. He was for many years Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of the United States, and the ritual now in use by the Order was largely from his pen. He received the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Norwich, Vt., University, in 1850. The writer of this sketch first heard Dr. Williamson preach at the session of the Universalist General Convention held in Strafford, Vt., in 1832. The subject was "Lukewarmness rebuked;" the text, Rev. iii. 15: "I would thou wert cold or hot." No noisy, declamatory appeal was it, no clap-trap effort reminding the audience of the "smartness" of the one to whom they are listening; but a clear, strong, earnest statement of the greatness of the Truth of God and of its pre-eminent claims upon the attention, love, and consecrated zeal of every believer in its unsearchable riches. In illustration (not profuse), in persuasiveness and application, it could not have been improved. The large old church was filled, the audience were in closest attention to the end, and many were the silent, sympathetic "amens" in response when his words were ended. The discourse afterwards appeared in the "Gospel Preacher," a monthly publication issued at Augusta, Me.

The "Rudiments of Theological and Moral Science" may be considered the summing up of Mr. Williamson's theological thinking during his ministry. It is a notable vindication of the Divine Sovereignty, a sovereignty infinitely glorified in the Divine Paternity. Although some of its reasonings savor too much of what is called fatalism to be accepted as practically healthful when men are called upon to "work out their own salvation with fear and trembling," it is in the highest degree helpful and hopeful to all of weak faith who need to realize that God has will and purpose of his own, and works within his children "to will and to do of his own good pleasure." God's beneficent sovereignty was to him the adamantine foundation of the Gospel. As strong and effective by voice and pen as the ministry of this good man has been, there were those at the beginning of it who were inclined to wonder at his attempt to enter this profession. Light-minded critics uttered their innocent witticisms, and sober well-wishers of our denomination very plainly hinted to him that he might possibly do quite as much service to it in some other line of effort than that of preaching! But all this to the pure-minded young soldier of the Cross was but an incentive to renewed exertion. They who doubted knew not that the Lord had called him, and had purposed for him a life of honorable labor in his holy service. Father Ballou used to say, "When the Lord undertakes to make a minister, he always makes a good one." Dr. Williamson was thus made. He has given "full proof" of his ministry, and now having gone "up higher," his works will follow him.

One of the ministers of a long pastorate in Vermont was Rev. Kittredge Haven. He was of a family of nine sons and two daughters, and was born in Framingham, Mass., Feb. 24, 1793, and died in Shoreham, Vt., May 4, 1877, aged 84. His father removed in 1802 to Cambridge, and in 1810 to Boston, where he established himself in a crockery store. The subject of this notice was providentially drawn to attend the ministry of Rev. Paul Dean, under whose preaching he was converted to Universalism, sang in his choir at his installation as colleague with Rev. John Murray in 1813, studied for the ministry with Mr. Dean, and in his pulpit preached his first sermon in July, 1819. In the spring of 1820 Mr. Haven made a preaching tour into Maine, spending one Sabbath in each of the towns of Waterville, Brunswick, Livermore, Winthrop and Turner, and in Portland three Sundays. After returning to Boston he received a letter from Turner, inviting him to become a pastor there, but he declined the call. Soon afterwards he took a journey into Vermont, and in Dec. 1820 settled in Bethel, on a salary of $5 per Sunday, which was the customary pay of a young preacher in those days. He was ordained at Kingsbury, N. Y., Oct. 14, 1821, by the Northern Association, embracing Vermont, a part of Canada, and all that part of New York which bordered on Lake Champlain. Two ministers only besides himself were present on that occasion, Rev. S. C. Loveland and Rev. Robert Bartlett. In 1829 Mr. Haven moved to Shoreham, and there he remained until death, preaching there regularly thirty-seven years, and occasionally, every year, from Jan. 1, 1825, to Jan. 1, 1870, – in all forty-five years.

Mr. Haven was an earnest and effective preacher. He was not especially noted for learning or eloquence, but was a plain, vigorous, and scriptural advocate of the Gospel. His preaching was a continuous stream of truth flowing forth in a strong and fervent delivery from the beginning to the close of his discourse. He possessed excellent judgment, sterling integrity, an amiable and Christian spirit, and unostentatious piety. He won and secured the respect of all men by his kindness of heart, his gentlemanly manners, and pure life. He made Universalism respected wherever he was known. Congregational ministers even called him evangelical. He left an honored name to his children and to the church which he had faithfully served for fifty years. He was uncle of the late Bishop Gilbert Haven of the M. E. Church.

The ministry of Rev. John Boyden was one of the most useful and honored of any in our churches. He was born in Sturbridge, Mass., May 14, 1809, and died in Woonsocket, R. I., Sept. 28, 1869. He attended the public schools in his native town during his youth, and engaged in teaching schools winters before he reached his twentieth year. In 1829 he resolved to enter upon the calling to which he had for some time felt drawn, and began his studies for the Christian ministry under the direction of the elder Rev. Hosea Ballou. His first sermon was preached in Annisquam, near Gloucester, Mass. In the following year (1830), he was ordained at Berlin, Conn. It was his first settlement, and he remained there four years. He next located at Dudley, Mass., where he continued as pastor until 1840, when he removed to Woonsocket, where he had before preached occasionally, and became the first pastor of the new society in that place, which had just erected a church. His pastorate here reached nearly the limit of thirty years.

As a preacher, he was plain, sound, and forcible. He never attempted great things in the way of sensational effort. He had too much good sense, and too refined notions of propriety to do that. His eloquence was in the sincerity, truthfulness, and earnestness of his statements and appeals. He was a clear and strong reasoner, and had always good illustrations of his subject at hand. Incidents from his own experience were often made most timely and impressive in his discourses. He was pointedly doctrinal and thoroughly practical in his sermons, generally using great simplicity and plainness of speech, but always giving evidence of a deep heart interest in the message he was delivering.

As a minister of Christian consolation he seemed pre-eminent. In this respect no preacher perhaps was more acceptable to our people. His calls to attend funerals, sometimes at long distances out of his own parish, were many. Old friends, who had long known him, when bereaved and afflicted were thankful to hear his voice speaking to them the comforting words of divine truth.

He was a true Christian reformer. All through his ministry this had been his character. Clear in his perceptions, sound in his judgments, consistent in his positions, and with an adamantine firmness in his adherence to principle, he was always ready to give his word and influence in aid of the reforms of the times. As an advocate of temperance and human freedom, he was surpassed by none in his faithfulness.

How his own people loved him! and how long and closely and happily were they united! That silver wedding celebration of the pastoral union in 1864; what evidence it gave of that unity of the spirit which can bind a good pastor and an appreciative people for so long a time with interest deepening as years increase, and which is such a reproof of the many injudicious calls and frequent resignations which afflict too many churches! What a golden halo is set around this long settlement of the faithful pastor and his loving people.

Rev. John Moore was another of the worthy and beloved of this ministerial company. He was born in Strafford, Vt., Feb. 5, 1797, and was early nurtured in the Puritanic theology of New England. Soon after he had passed out of his teens he became acquainted with the faith of the Universalist church. It answered to the true call of the manliness that was in him, and soon became an inspiration to his spiritual powers. He grew in its light, and his soul expanded in its genial atmosphere. Reading, meditation, and the culture of his mental powers soon opened the way for him into the ministry, the work of which he entered upon with hesitancy, not from lack of zeal in its interest, but from modesty as to his qualifications for the great calling. The counsellings of friends encouraged him, and his first messages were received with favor, and he became one of the most acceptable ministers and missionaries in Northern New England. Of noble personal appearance and gentlemanly demeanor, full of plainness and common sense in his discoursing, a clear expositor to the inquirer after Christian truth, and a son of consolation to those who sought its hopes in their sorrows, he was welcome wherever he appeared as a representative of our faith. His pastorates, nine in number (viz. in Lebanon, N. H.; Danvers, Lynn, and Lowell, Mass.; Hartford, Conn.; Troy, N. Y.; Strafford, Vt.; and Concord, N. H.), all gave evidence of his fidelity. As a moral reformer, he stood well without the church as well as in it, and as a man he was esteemed and loved wherever known. Even the politicians conferred upon him the nomination for the gubernatorial chair of New Hampshire; not so much because of his service to them as a partisan, as from the fact of the excellences in him that were above all mere party considerations, and which gave them the assurance that his honest and sturdy manliness would prove an honor in any position he might be called to fill. It afterwards appearing that his residence in the State had not been quite long enough to render him eligible to the office, another nomination was necessarily made. His death was sudden. He fell, of heart disease, near his home in the city where he had his last pastorate, lamented wherever his name and ministry were known. A public journal wrote of him, after his departure, "As a man, he was the very one that Diogenes with his lamp was looking for."

Rev. Henry Bacon. – How shall we write of that minister of all work, of versatile genius, nervous temperament, indomitable will, constantly alive in his love of Universalism, rooted and grounded in its theology, and full of its healthful and hopeful spiritualism as the sea is of water! He was a Boston boy, of the old North End, born June 12, 1813; a hearer of Dean and Streeter and Ballou in his youth, and taught at home by precept and example in the excellency of the knowledge of the Gospel of limitless grace. He was a born minister, for it was as natural for him to think and speak and write Universalism as it was to breathe God's air. He entered the ministry early in life (1834), and was successively pastor of the societies in East Cambridge, Haverhill, and Marblehead, Mass; Providence, R. I.; and Philadelphia, Pa. He was for many years editor of the "Ladies' Repository," a monthly publication issued at Boston by Mr. Abel Tompkins; and his prolific pen often sent out sermons, tracts, and pamphlets in advocacy of the faith of which his soul was so full. As another (Rev. John Boyden) said of him: "He was a living encyclopædia of current facts, and a living philosopher to arrange and expound them." The Universalist Reform Association appointed him their Corresponding Secretary, and an annual report on the topics usually embraced in their discussions was expected from him, because, as one remarked, "He got hold of everything."

He consecrated himself to his labors, and in them he was abundant. The poet Quarles describes him: —

"Thy life's a warfare, thou a soldier art,Satan's thy foeman, and a faithful heartThy two-edged weapon, patience thy shield,Heaven is thy chieftain, and the world thy field."

His preaching gave evidence of his consecration to his work. It seemed as though he could never tire of the pulpit service. He was always ready to speak for God's truth. His words were earnest, full, and strong; his illustrations inexhaustible; and there was an unction in all he said which gained the sympathy of every hearer susceptible of religious emotion. Up to the last of his working he loved the pulpit, and stood up in it until exhausted nature would allow him to remain there no longer. And when he withdrew with reluctance from that sacred place, it was to finish his work in the retirement of his home, to give his dying testimony to a life full of the beauty and strength of divine truth. He departed this life in Philadelphia, March 19, 1856. A biography of him by his wife has been given to the public.

Another of the saintly ministers of our church was Rev. Day Kellog Lee. He entered the Christian ministry early in life, and, although his educational advantages in the beginning were not many, he was so close and constant a student as to become an expert in literature and science, as well as an able expounder of the Christian faith. He was one of those who felt that he was called upon to preach, and that he must not be kept too long from entering upon his work. The text of his first sermon indicates his anxiety in this regard: "Let me go, for the day breaketh." Gen. xxii. 36. And he went out into the fields of the Lord to be his faithful and profitable servant. Astronomy was a favorite study with him. His sermons were often illustrated and beautified by his presentation of its facts, and he came to be a most acceptable lecturer on the science itself. He had seven pastorates in New York and Massachusetts, and in them all was deeply loved for his admirable character and intense interest in his calling. He was a son of song, and put his soul into his verse. What can be sweeter than his tribute to the beloved poet and author, Mrs. Scott, inserted in her "Memoir"?

"To say I'd pressed her hand, 't was not for me —To share her friendship, it was not my gladness;'T was ne'er the blessing of these eyes to seeThe form whose slumber wakes this note of sadness.But O! I weep for those who yet remain,To know so bright a spirit hath ascended!Fond of that lyre, enraptured of its strain,I weep to hear its melodies are ended!"Short years ago, in boyhood's rosy morn,When Aspiration seemed its measure brimming,Longing for joys that crown the spirit-born,I heard the lays of life that she was hymning.Who that hath drunk those melodies that roseSweet as the murmur of celestial fountains,Hath not in fancy pictured her with thoseWhose feet are beautiful upon the mountains!"The seraphs all had joy in fuller streams,When her pure lips their symphonies were swelling;They'll want her there, while God's own glory beams,And while the ransomed keep their starry dwelling,To hymn the beauty of immortal mind, —For, of that world, mind is the greatest splendor, —Lift holier anthems as new bliss they findAnd drink new life as loftier praise they render."

He was a writer of attractive volumes containing Tales of Labor; "Summerfield, or Life on a Farm," "The Master Builder, or Life at a Trade," and "Merrimac, or Life in a Factory;" works of merit, which have been extensively read. His modesty, conscientiousness, devotion to duty, and religious spirit, all serve to make blessed his memory, a memory that can never be dwelt upon but with affection by those who knew most of him in life. In 1868 St. Lawrence University conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He passed suddenly but peacefully away from the earth, in New York city, June 2, 1869, aged 53. His son, Rev. Charles F. Lee, is at present pastor of the Universalist church in Charlestown, Mass.

CHAPTER XIII.

SKETCHES OF MINISTERS —continued

"There be of them that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported… Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth evermore. The people will tell of their wisdom, and the congregation will show forth their praise." – Ecclesiasticus, xliv. 8, 14, 15.

REV. GEORGE BATES, one of the faithful ministers of Maine, was born there in the town of Fayette, in 1798. In early life he was a mechanic, but in due time, as Rev. W. A. Drew wrote of him, "He laid down the sledge of Vulcan, and put on the Gospel harness." He was a student for a time in the family of Rev. Hosea Ballou, at Boston. He was pastor in Livermore, and afterwards for twenty-five years in Turner, Me. It is worthy of note that after a suit at law, in which the town recovered the ministerial fund against the Congregational society, the people of Turner, by legal votes, dismissed the clergyman of that church, Rev. Allen Greeley, and settled Mr. Bates as the town's minister. With true liberality, on acquiring possession of this fund, the town parish made a per capita distribution of it to all the societies in Turner, that each might enjoy its proportional share of support from the same fund.

Mr. Bates was one of the best of country pastors. He was at home everywhere, and a welcome visitor in most homes where he went. He was clear and scriptural in his expositions, and in his discourses "a workman that needed not to be ashamed." He was a minister of consolation far and near, and had many calls to officiate on funeral occasions. No clergyman in Maine was more respected and honored than he. His departure took place at his home in Lewiston, Me., Jan. 24, 1875, at the age of 77.

Ezekiel Vose. A small, lame, modest, but wide-awake-looking man was this minister, as the writer remembers his first meeting him in Northern New Hampshire. He came from the First Universalist Society in Boston, and settled in St. Johnsbury, Vt., preaching there and in many other places in Vermont and New Hampshire for some years. He had enjoyed only common educational advantages, but was a studious man and a strong and clear thinker. He wrote but little. His preaching was usually extemporaneous, not always very methodical in plan, but usually successful, especially in making his subject plain. He could say a great many things in one of his missionary discourses, and would bring them in quite miscellaneously. But they were usually things which proved interesting to his hearers, especially to those who had seldom, if ever, listened to ministers of our faith. Long remembered will be a discourse which he gave in the writer's hearing one winter evening in Dorchester, N. H. A large corner school-house was packed full, and the speaker stood in one corner with his little Bible in hand. His text was, "Prove all things;" and so wide was his range in topics, and so many things did he undertake to prove, and so long, and rapidly and earnestly did he talk to that attentive audience, that it seemed as though no man in the same time could come nearer than he to a compliance literally with the direction of the text! He was a sincere, humble, warm-hearted Christian. Every one who knew him thought and spoke well of him. From St. Johnsbury he moved to Orleans, Mass., and afterwards to North Turner, Me., where, after a busy and useful life, he died in 1861, aged 67.

Rev. Lemuel Willis of Windham, Vt., was born April 24, 1802. His father was a convert to Universalism as taught by Rev. Elhanan Winchester, and the son was educated in the same faith. At an early age he became the student of Rev. S. C. Loveland, of Reading, Vt., and in July, 1822, preached his first sermon. His first professional labors were in Washington, Stoddard, Marlow and Acworth, N. H. His subsequent pastorates were at Troy, N. Y. from 1826 to 1828; then in Salem, and afterwards in Lynn and Cambridgeport, Mass. and Portsmouth, N. H. At the time of his death, Dr. G. H. Emerson wrote of him justly: —

"He always preached well. There was in his preaching a good basis of thought, with a practical application, and a tone of fervent piety. But he had and has no 'earthquake' gifts. The city did not run mad because Lemuel Willis preached. We have heard one of his supporters say that he does not remember one sermon that would be called poor; but in all his Salem ministry he never once startled his hearers. His manner is best described by the word impressive. Steady work, steady power, and ever-increasing influence, and the radiation more than the example of a good life, made him successful in the purest sense of this much abused word. But not alone in Salem, but everywhere, Mr. Willis did good in his character of minister. Literally he was all minister. He cared to know only Christ and Him crucified. And to this end all personal interests were subordinate. Not alone in the pulpit, but on the street, in the house, at the private gathering, he was the minister. But as he never put the minister off so he never put the minister on. It was his nature to be a minister and he could never seem to be otherwise."

Mr. Willis seemed the embodiment of a dignity, not offensive but agreeable. It is said that on one occasion he was in company at a store in Salem with one of the orthodox pastors of that city, who was a very animated and cheerful man in conversation. After they had left the store, a gentleman who had quietly listened to them both, on asking the proprietor what clergymen they were, was told, and was asked to "guess" which one was the Orthodox and which the Universalist. His decision was directly contrary to the facts. Mr. Willis departed this life at his home in Warner, N. H., July 23, 1878.

A younger brother of Lemuel, Rev. John H. Willis, was born in Windham, Vt., March 6, 1807. At the age of eleven he became deeply interested in a Calvinistic Baptist revival, and was immersed in the Connecticut River in very cold weather, when the ice, a foot thick, had to be cut away for the purpose, and soon afterwards joined the Baptist church in Chesterfield. By reading and reflection he became an intelligent and zealous Universalist. He was a good scholar, and taught school successfully when quite young. He worked as a mechanic for some years, and in 1830 went to Salem, Mass., where his brother Lemuel was then settled, and after studying a year under his direction he began to preach, speaking in several places in Worcester County, to the acceptance of the people. He was ordained at Greenwich, Mass., Nov. 23, 1831. He was pastor for varying periods at Dana, Greenwich, Petersham, West Boylston, Annisquam, Wakefield, Irving, Orange and Warwick, Mass., in Brattleboro', Cavendish and Chester, Vt., and in Stafford, Conn. In 1850 he was elected to the Mass. Legislature, and was for several years station-agent at Irving on the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad. Yet amid his secular labors and cares he still preached and lectured often, especially in behalf of the Temperance reform. He was noted to the end of his days for his spiritual fervor and religious enthusiasm. He died Oct. 9, 1877, at the house of his daughter, Mrs. W. R. Shipman, at College Hill, Mass., aged seventy years.

There went out from New England a talented advocate of the Universalist faith in the person of Rev. Theodore Clapp, a native of Easthampton, Mass., and a graduate of Williams College, in the same class with William C. Bryant. His theological studies were pursued at Andover, Mass., and he was licensed as a minister of the Presbyterian church in 1817. He became pastor of the First Presbyterian church in New Orleans, succeeding the brilliant Sylvester Larned, whose fame as a pulpit orator was far extended. Mr. Clapp proved a fitting successor of him, and achieved great celebrity for his pulpit gifts. Henry Clay pronounced him the most natural pulpit orator he had ever heard. His church in New Orleans was usually crowded.