first The Unitarian, but afterwards Religion. The paid circulation was
about 1,000 copies, but it was largely used as a tract for free
distribution. In 1897 this magazine was merged into a popular religious
monthly called Rikugo-Zasshi or Cosmos, which has a large circulation. It
is published at the headquarters of the Japanese Unitarian Association, and
is the organ of the liberalizing work carried on by that institution. The
Association has translated thirty or forty American and English
tracts,--some have been added by native writers; and these were distributed
to the number of 100,000 in 1900. A number of important liberal books,
including Bixby's Crisis in Morals, Clarke's Steps in Belief, and Fiske's
Idea of God, have been translated into Japanese, and obtain a ready sale.
An extensive work of education, is carried on through the press, nearly all
the leading journals having been freely open to the Unitarians since the
beginning of the mission.
The direct work of education has been the most important of all the phases
of the mission's activities. A library of several thousand volumes,
representing all phases of modern thought, has been collected in Unity
Hall; and it is of great value to the teaching carried on there. Lectures
are given every Sunday in Unity Hall, and listened to by large audiences.
Much has been done in various parts of Tokyo, as well as elsewhere, to
reach the student class, and educated persons in all classes of society;
and many persons have thus been brought to an acceptance of Unitarianism.
In 1890 were begun systematic courses of lectures, with a view to giving
educated Japanese inquirers a thorough knowledge of modern religious ideas;
and these grew into the Senshin Gakuin, or School of Advanced Learning, a
theological school with seven professors, and an annual attendance of
thirty or forty students, nearly all of whom have been graduates of
colleges and universities. Unhappily, the failure of financial support
compelled the abandonment of this school in 1898. The chief educational
work, however, has been done in the colleges and universities, through the
general diffusion of liberal religious principles, and by the free spirit
of inquiry characteristic of all educated Japanese.
The success of the Japanese mission is chiefly due to Rev. Clay MacCauley,
who gave it the wise direction and the organizing skill necessary to its
permanent growth. It is a noble monument to his devotion, and to his
untiring efforts for its advancement. His little book on Christianity in
History is very popular, both in its English and Japanese versions; and
thousands of copies are annually distributed.
The results of the Japanese mission are especially evident in a general
liberalizing of religious thought throughout the country in both the
Buddhist and Christian communions, and in the wide-spread approval shown
towards its methods and principles among the upper and student classes. Its
chief gain, however, consists of the scholarly and influential men who have
accepted the Unitarian faith, and given it their zealous support. Among
these men are the late Hajime Onishi, president of the College of
Literature in the new Imperial University at Kyoto; Nobuta Kishimoto,
professor of ethics in the Imperial Normal School; Tomoyoshi Murai,
professor of English in the Foreign Languages School of Japan; Iso Abe,
professor in the Doshisha University; Kinza Hirai, professor in the
Imperial Normal School; Yoshiwo Ogasawara, who is leading an extensive work
of social and moral reform in Wakayama; Saburo Shimada, proprietor of the
Mainichi, one of the largest daily newspapers of the empire; and Zennosuki
Toyosaki, professor in the Kokumin Eigakukwai, and associate editor of the
Rikugo Zasshi.[6] These men are educating the Japanese people to know
Christianity in its rational forms; and their influence is being rapidly
extended throughout the country. In their hands the future of liberal
religion in Japan is safe; and what they do for their own people is more
certain of permanent results than anything that can be accomplished by
foreigners. The real significance of the Japanese Unitarian mission is that
it has inaugurated a new era in religious propagandism; that it has been
for the followers of the religions traditional to Japan, as well as for
those of the Christian missions, eminently a means for presenting them with
the world's most advanced thought in religion, and that it has been a
stimulus to a purer faith and a larger fellowship.
[1] First Report of the Executive Committee of the American Unitarian
Association, 16. "The thoughts of the committee have been turned to
their brethren in other lands. A correspondence has been opened with
Unitarians in England, and the coincidence is worthy of notice, that
the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, and the American
Unitarian Association were organized on the same day, for the same
objects, and without the least previous concert. Our good wishes have
been reciprocated by the directors of the British Society. Letters
received from gentlemen who have recently visited England speak of
the interest which our brethren in that country feel for us, and of
their desire to strengthen the bonds of union. A constant
communication will be preserved between the two Associations and your
committee believe it will have a beneficial effect, by making us
better acquainted with one another, by introducing the publications
of each country into the other, by the influence which we shall
mutually exert, and by the strength which will be given to our
separate, or it may be, to our united efforts for the spread of the
glorious gospel of our Lord and Saviour."
[2] Correspondence relative to the Prospects of Christianity and the
Means of Promoting its Reception in India. Cambridge: Billiard &
Metcalfe. 1824. 138 pp.
[3] Christian Examiner, LXIII 36, India's Appeal to Christian Unitarians,
by Rev. C.T. Brooks.
[4] Some Gospel Principles, in Ten Lectures, by C.H.A. Dall, Calcutta,
1856. Also see The Mission to India instituted by the American
Unitarian Association. Boston: Office of the Quarterly Journal.
1857.
[5] See Out Indian Mission and Our First Missionary, by Rev. John H.
Heywood, Boston, 1887.
[6] The Unitarian Movement in Japan: Sketches of the Lives and Religious
Work of Ten Representative Japanese. Tokyo, 1900.
XIV.
THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL.
In a few years after the movement began for the organization of churches
west of the Hudson River, the needs of theological instruction for
residents of that region were being discussed. In 1827 the younger Henry
Ware was interested in a plan of uniting Unitarians and "the Christian
connection" in the establishment of a theological school, to be located in
the eastern part of the state of New York. In July of that year he wrote to
a friend: "We have had; no little talk here within a few days respecting a
new theological school. Many of us think favorably of the plan, and are
disposed to patronize it, if feasible, but are a little fearful that it is
not. Others start strong objections to it _in toto_. Something must be done
to gain us an increase of ministers."[1] This proposition came from the
Christians, and their plan was to locate the school on the Hudson.
Although this project came to nothing for the time being, it was revived a
decade later. When the Unitarian Association had entered upon its active
missionary efforts west of the Alleghanies, the new impulse to
denominational life manifested itself in a wide-spread desire for an
increase in the number of workers available for the western field. The
establishment of a liberal theological school in that region was felt to be
almost a necessity, if the opportunities everywhere opening there for the
dissemination of a purer faith were not to be neglected. Plans were
therefore formed about 1836 for the founding of a theological school at
Buffalo under the direction of Rev. George W. Hosmer, then the minister in
that city; but, business becoming greatly depressed the following year, the
project was abandoned. In 1840 the importance of such a school was again
causing the western workers to plan for its establishment, this time in
Cincinnati or Louisville; but this expectation also failed of realization.
Then Rev. William G. Eliot, of St. Louis, undertook to provide a
theological education for such young men as might apply to him. But the
response to his offer was so slight as to indicate that there was little
demand for such instruction.
[Sidenote: The Beginnings in Meadville.]
The demand for a school had steadily grown since the year 1827, and the fit
occasion only was awaited for its establishment. It was found at Meadville,
Penn., in the autumn of 1844. In order to understand why it should have
been founded in this country village instead of one of the growing and
prosperous cities of the west, it is necessary to give a brief account of
the origin and growth of the Meadville church. The first Unitarian church
organized west of the Alleghanies was that in Meadville, and it had its
origin in the religious experiences of one man. The founder of this church,
Harm Jan Huidekoper, was born in the district of Drenthe, Holland, at the
village of Hogeveen, in 1776. At the age of twenty he came to the United
States; and in 1804 he became the agent of the Holland Land Company in the
north-western counties of Pennsylvania, and established himself at
Meadville, then a small village. He was successful in his land operations,
and was largely influential in the development of that part of the state.
When his children were of an age to need religious instruction, he began to
study the Bible with a view to deciding what he could conscientiously teach
them. He had become a member of the Reformed Church in his native land, and
he had attended the Presbyterian church in Meadville; but he now desired to
form convictions based on his own inquiries. "When I had become a father,"
he wrote, "and saw the time approaching when I should have to give
religious instruction to my children, I felt it to be my duty to give this
subject a thorough examination. I accordingly commenced studying the
Scriptures, as being the only safe rule of the Christian's faith; and the
result was, that I soon acquired clear, and definite views as to the
leading doctrines of the Christian religion. But the good I derived from
these studies has not been confined to giving me clear ideas as to the
Christian doctrines. They created in me a strong and constantly increasing
interest in religion itself, not as mere theory, but as a practical rule of
life."[2] As the result of this study, he arrived at the conclusion that
the Bible does not teach the doctrines of the Trinity, the total depravity
of man, and the vicarious atonement of Christ. Solely from the careful
reading of the Bible with reference to each of the leading doctrines he had
been taught, he became a Unitarian.
With the zeal of a new convert Mr. Huidekoper began to talk about his new
faith, and he brought it to the attention of others with the enthusiasm of
a propagandist. In conversation, by means of the distribution of tracts,
and with the aid of the press he extended the liberal faith. He could not
send his children to the church he had attended, and he therefore secured
tutors for them from Harvard College who were preparing for the ministry;
and in October, 1825, one of these tutors began holding Unitarian services
in Meadville.[3] In May, 1829, a church was organized, and a goodly
number of thoughtful men and women connected themselves with it. But this
movement met with persistent opposition, and a vigorous controversy was
carried on in the local papers and by means of pamphlets. This was
increased when, in 1830, Ephraim Peabody, afterwards settled in Cincinnati,
New Bedford, and at King's Chapel in Boston, became the minister, and
entered upon an active effort for the extension of Unitarianism. With the
first of January, 1831, he began the publication of the Unitarian Essayist,
a small monthly pamphlet, in which the leading theological questions were
discussed. In a few months Mr. Peabody went to Cincinnati; and the Essayist
was continued by Mr. Huidekoper, who wrote with vigor and directness on the
subjects he had carefully studied.
In 1831 the church for the first time secured an ordained minister, and
three years later one who gave his whole time to its service.[4] A church
building was erected in 1836, and the prosperity of the congregation was
thereby much increased. In 1843 a minister of the Christian connection,
Rev. E.G. Holland, became the pastor for a brief period. At this time
Frederic Huidekoper, a son of the founder of the Unitarian church in
Meadville, had returned from his studies in the Harvard Divinity School and
in Europe, and was ordained in Meadville, October 12, 1843. It was his
purpose to become a Unitarian evangelist in the region about Meadville, but
his attention was soon directed by Rev. George W. Hosmer to the importance
of furnishing theological instruction to young men preparing for the
Unitarian ministry. He was encouraged in this undertaking by Mr. Holland,
who pointed out to him the large patronage that might be expected from the
Christian body. It was at first intended that Mr. Huidekoper should give
the principal instruction, and that he should be assisted by the pastor of
the Independent Congregational Church (Unitarian) and by Mr. Hosmer, who
was to come from Buffalo for a few weeks each year, exchanging pulpits with
the Meadville minister. When the opening of the school was fixed for the
autumn of 1844, the prospective number of applicants was so large as to
necessitate a modification of the proposed plan; and it was deemed wise to
secure a competent person to preside over the school and to become the
minister of the church. Through the active co-operation of the American
Unitarian Association, Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins, then settled at Leominster,
Mass., was secured for this double service.
The students present at the opening of the school on the first day of
October, 1844, were but five; but this number was increased to nine during
the year. The next year the number was twenty-three, nine of them from New
England. For several years the Christian connection furnished a
considerable proportion of the students, and took a lively interest in the
establishment and growth of the school, although contributing little or
nothing to its pecuniary support. It was also represented on the board of
instruction by a non-resident lecturer. At this time the Christian body had
no theological school of its own, and many of its members even looked with
disfavor upon all ministerial education. What brought them into some degree
of sympathy with Unitarians of that day was their rejection of binding
creeds and their acceptance of Christian character as the only test of
Christian fellowship, together with their recognition of the Bible,
interpreted by every man for himself, as the authoritative standard of
religious truth. The churches of this denomination in the northern states
were also pronounced in their rejection of the doctrines of the Trinity and
predestination. Unitarians themselves have not been more strenuous in the
defence of the principle of religious liberty than were the leaders among
the Christians of the last generation. The two bodies also joined in the
management of Antioch College, in southern Ohio; and when Horace Mann
became its president in 1852, he was made a minister of the Christian
connection, in order that he might work more effectually in the promotion
of its interests.
The Meadville school began its work in a simple way, with few instructors
and a limited course of study. Mr. Stebbins taught the Old Testament,
Hebrew, Biblical antiquities, natural and revealed religion, mental and
moral philosophy, systematic theology, and pulpit eloquence. Mr. Huidekoper
gave instruction in the New Testament, hermeneutics, ecclesiastical
history, Latin, Greek, and German. Mr. Hosmer lectured on pastoral care for
a brief period during each year. A building for the school was provided by
the generosity of the elder Huidekoper; and the expenses of board,
instruction, rent, fuel, etc., were reduced to $30 per annum. Many of the
students had received little education, and they needed a preliminary
training in the most primary studies. Nevertheless, the school at once
justified its establishment, and sent out many capable men, even from among
those who came to it with the least preparation.
Dr. Stebbins was president of the school for ten years. During his term of
service the school was incorporated by the legislature of Pennsylvania in
the spring of 1846. The charter was carefully drawn with a view to securing
freedom in its administration. No denominational name appeared in the act
of incorporation, and the original board of trustees included Christians as
well as Unitarians. Dr. Stebbins was an admirable man to whom to intrust
the organization of the school, for he was a born teacher and a masterful
administrator. He was prompt, decisive, a great worker, a powerful
preacher, an inspirer of others, and his students warmly admired and
praised him.
[Sidenote: The Growth of the School.]
The next president of the school was Oliver Stearns, who held the office
from 1856 to 1863. He was a student, a true and just thinker, of great
moral earnestness, fine discrimination, and with a gift for academic
organization. He was a man of a strong and deep personality, and his
spiritual influence was profound. He had been settled at Northampton and
over the third parish in Hingham before entering upon his work at
Meadville. In 1863 he went to the Harvard Divinity School as the professor
of pulpit eloquence and pastoral care until 1869, when he became the
professor of theology; and from 1870 to 1878 he was the dean of the school.
He was a preacher who "held and deserved a reputation among the foremost,"
for his preaching was "pre-eminently spiritual." "In his relations to the
divinity schools that enjoyed his services, it is impossible to
over-estimate the extent, accuracy, and thoroughness of his scholarship,
and his unwearying devotion to his work."[5]
During Dr. Stearns' administration the small building originally occupied
by the school was outgrown; and Divinity Hall was built on land east of the
town, donated by Professor Frederic Huidekoper, and first occupied in 1861.
In 1857 began a movement to elevate, the standard of admission to the
school, in order that its work might be of a more advanced character. To
meet the needs of those not able to accept this higher standard, a
preparatory department was established in 1858, which was continued until
1867.
Rev. Abiel A. Livermore became the president of the school in 1863, and he
remained in that position until 1890. He had been settled in Keene,
Cincinnati, and Yonkers before going to Meadville. He was a Christian of
the finest type, a true gentleman, and a noble friend. Under his direction
the school grew in all directions, the course of study being largely
enriched by the addition of new departments. In 1863 church polity and
administration, including a study of the sects of Christendom, was made a
special department. In 1868 the school opened its doors to women, and it
has received about thirty women for a longer or shorter term of study. In
1872 the academic degree of Bachelor of Divinity was offered for the first
time to those completing the full course. In 1879 the philosophy of
religion, and also the comparative study of religions, received the
recognition they deserve. The same year ecclesiastical jurisprudence became
a special department. In 1882 Rev. E.E. Hale lectured on charities, and
from that time this subject has been systematically treated in connection
with philanthropies. A movement was begun in 1889 to endow a professorship
in memory of Dr. James Freeman Clarke, which was successful. These
successive steps indicate the progress made under the faithful
administration of Dr. Livermore. He became widely known to Unitarians by
his commentaries on the books of the New Testament, as well as by his other
writings, including volumes of sermons and lectures.
In 1890 George L. Cary, who had been for many years the professor of New
Testament literature, became the president of the school, a position he
held for ten years. Under his leadership the school has largely advanced
its standard of scholarship, outgrown studies have been discarded, while
new ones have been added. New professorships and lectureships have been
established, and the endowment of the school has been greatly increased.
Huidekoper Hall, for the use of the library, was erected in 1890, and other
important improvements have been added to the equipment of the school. In
1892 the Adin Ballou lectureship of practical Christian sociology was
established, and in 1895 the Hackley professorship of sociology and ethics.
From the time of its establishment the Huidekoper family have been devoted
friends and benefactors of the Theological School.[6] Frederic Huidekoper
occupied the chair of New Testament literature from 1844 to 1855, and from
1863 to 1877 that of ecclesiastical history. His services were given wholly
without remuneration, and his benefactions to the school were numerous. He
also added largely to the Brookes Fund for the distribution of Unitarian
books. His historical writings made him widely known to scholars, and added
to the reputation of the school. His Belief of the First Three Centuries
concerning Christ's Mission to the Underworld appeared in 1853; Judaism at
Rome, 1876; and Indirect Testimony of History to the Genuineness of the
Gospels, 1879. He also republished at his own expense many valuable works
that were out of print.
Among the other professors have been Rev. Nathanial S. Folsom, who was in
charge of the department of Biblical literature from 1848 to 1861. Of the
regular lecturers have been Rev. Charles H. Brigham, Rev. Amory D. Mayo,
and Dr. Thomas Hill. There has been an intimate relation between the
Meadville church and the Theological School, and several of the pastors
have been instructors and lecturers in the Theological School, including
Rev. J.C. Zachos, Rev. James T. Bixby, and Rev. James M. Whiton. The
Christian denomination has been represented among the lecturers by Rev.
David Millard and Rev. Austin Craig.
The whole number of graduates of the Meadville Theological School up to
April, 1902, has been 267; and eighty other students have entered the
ministry. At the present time 156 of its students are on the roll of
Unitarian ministers. Thirty-two of its students served in the civil war,
twenty per cent of its graduates previous to the close of the war being
engaged in it as privates, chaplains, or in some other capacity. The
endowment of the school has steadily increased until it now is somewhat
more than $600,000.
[1] Memoir of Henry Ware, Jr. 202.