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.
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.
[Illustration: Fraternally Yours, E. G. Brooks.]
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."
[Illustration: Ebenʳ Fisher.
H. W. Smith.]
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.