Part 11 (1/2)
An important work in the distribution of books was inaugurated in 1859 in connection with the Meadville Theological School, by means of the Fund for Liberal Christianity established at that time by Joshua Brooks of New York.
He appointed as trustee of the fund Professor Frederick Huidekoper, who gave his services gratuitously to its care, and to the direction of the distribution of books for which it provided. The sum given to this purpose was $20,000, which was increased by favorable investments to $23,000. The original purpose was to aid in any way that seemed desirable the cause of liberal Christianity, and a part of the income was devoted to helping struggling societies. In time the whole income, with the approval of the donor, was centred upon the distribution of books to settled ministers, irrespective of denomination. In 1877 the whole number of books that had been distributed was 40,000. At the present time about $1,000 yearly are devoted to this work, the recipients being graduates of the Meadville Theological School, and the ministers of any denomination who may ask for them, provided they are settled west of the Hudson River. The demands upon the funds have increased so rapidly that it has become necessary to reduce the amount of each gift.
[Sidenote: Missionary Efforts.]
The missionary activities of the a.s.sociation did not actually cease even in these dark days. In May, 1855, Rev. Ephraim Nute was sent to Kansas, which was then the battle-ground between the pro-slavery and the anti-slavery forces of the nation. He established himself at Lawrence, and was the first settled pastor in the state. With the aid of the a.s.sociation a church was built at Lawrence in 1859, which was the first in the state to receive dedication and to be used as a permanent house of wors.h.i.+p. Mr. Nute went through all the trying scenes preceding the opening of the civil war, and did his part in maintaining the cause of liberty. He was succeeded by Rev.
John S. Brown in 1859, who labored in this difficult field for several years.
A church was organized in San Francisco in 1849, without the aid of a minister; and there was gathered a large and prosperous congregation. In 1850 Rev. Charles A. Farley took up the work; and he was succeeded by Rev.
Joseph Harrington, Rev. Frederick T. Gray, and Rev. Rufus P. Cutler. Thomas Starr King preached his first sermon in the church April 28, 1860; and he spoke to crowded congregations until his death, March 4, 1864. On January 10, 1864, a new church was dedicated, in the morning to the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d, and in the afternoon to the service of man.
Among those who carried forward the Unitarian cause in the middle west was Rev. Nahor A. Staples, a brilliant preacher and a zealous worker, who was settled in Milwaukee at the end of 1856, and who made his influence widely felt around him. In 1859 Rev. Robert Collyer began his work in Chicago as a city Missionary; and the next year Unity Church was organized, with him as the pastor. In 1859 Rev. Charles G. Ames began his connection with the Unitarians at Minneapolis, and he subsequently labored at Bloomington.
After a short pastorate in Albany he began general missionary labors on the Pacific coast. A characteristic type of the western Unitarian was Rev.
Ichabod Codding, who preached at Bloomington, Keokuk, and Baraboo, but who had no formal settlement. He was a breezy, radical, and ardent preacher, bold in statement and picturesque in style, a zealous advocate of freedom for the slave, and warmly devoted to other reforms. He was fitted admirably for the pioneer preaching to which he largely devoted himself; and his strong, vigorous, and aggressive ideas were acceptable to those who heard him.
[Sidenote: The Western Unitarian Conference.]
There was organized in the church at Cincinnati, May 7, 1852, the Annual Conference of Western Unitarian Churches. At this meeting delegates were present from the churches in Buffalo, Meadville, Pittsburg, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Cannelton, Quincy, Geneva, Chicago, and Detroit. Much enthusiasm was expressed in antic.i.p.ation of this meeting, many letters were written, approving of the proposed organization, and large expectations were manifested as to its promised work. In harmony with these large and generous antic.i.p.ations of the influence of the conference was its statement of purposes, as presented in its const.i.tution. It was organized for ”the promotion of the Christian spirit in the several churches which compose it, and the increase of vital, practical religion; the diffusion of Gospel truth and the accomplishment of such works of Christian benevolence as may be agreed upon; the support of domestic or home missionaries, the publication of tracts, the distribution of religious books, the promotion of theological education, and extending aid to such societies as may need it.”
When the conference organized, Rev. William G. Eliot was elected the president, Mr. Charles Harlow and Rev. A.A. Livermore the recording and corresponding secretaries. During the year $994.22 were raised for missionary purposes, and three missionaries--Boyer, Conant, and Bradley--were kept in the field, mainly in Illinois and Michigan. The reports of these men, given at the second meeting of the conference, held in St. Louis, were full of enthusiasm and courage. At this meeting the const.i.tuency numbered nineteen churches, located in eleven states. Several struggling societies had been aided, a.s.sistance given to young men preparing for the ministry, and many tracts and books had been distributed.
A book depositary was opened in Cincinnati, and it was proposed to establish one in every large city in the west. The call was for a much larger number of preachers, it being rightly maintained that only the living man can reach the people in such a region. ”The Unitarian minister is _per se_ a bookseller and colporter also, and he can thus preach to mult.i.tudes who never hear his voice.”
The early antic.i.p.ations of a rapid advance of Unitarianism in the west were not realized, partly owing to the want of ministers of energy and the necessary staying qualities, and partly to the fact that tradition is always far more powerful with the ma.s.ses of men and women than reason.
Before the organization of the conference new churches appeared at infrequent intervals, though, if those that have ceased to exist were counted, they would not be so remote from each other in time.[9] From the first there was in the west a distinctive att.i.tude of freedom, which was the result in large, measure of its fluctuating conditions, and the absence of fixed habits and traditions. In 1853 the missionaries of the conference were instructed that ”in spirit and in aim the Conference would be Christian, not sectarian, and it does not, therefore, require of them subscription to any human creed, the wearing of any distinctive name, or the doing of any merely sectarian work. All that it requires is, that they should be Christians and do Christian work, that they should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as one who spake with authority and whose religion is the divinely appointed means for the regeneration of man individually and collectively, and that they should labor earnestly, intelligently, affectionately, and perseveringly to enthrone this religion in the hearts and make it, effective over the lives of men.” Such a statement as this, indeed, was quite as conservative as anything put forth by Unitarians in New England; but behind it was an att.i.tude of free inquiry that gave to western Unitarianism distinctive characteristics.
In 1854 a committee reported on the doctrinal basis of the conference, in the form of a little book of sixty-five pages, bearing the t.i.tle of Unitarian Views of Christ.[10] It was widely circulated, and served an excellent missionary purpose. When the conference accepted the report, in which it was declared that Jesus is the Son of G.o.d and the miracles of the New Testament facts on which the gospel is based, a resolution was unanimously pa.s.sed, a.s.serting that ”we have no right to adopt any statement of belief as authoritative or as a declaration of the Unitarian faith, other than the New Testament.” In 1858 it was the opinion of the conference that ”all who wish to take upon themselves the Christian name should be so recognized.” The next year the conservatives and radicals came face to face, the one party asking for the old faith according to Channing, while one or more of the other party a.s.serted their disbelief in the miracles and in the resurrection of Christ. In 1860 the conference declared itself willing to ”welcome as fellow laborers all who are seeking to learn and to do the will of the Father and work righteousness, and recommend that in all places, with or without preaching, they organize for religious wors.h.i.+p and culture--the work of faith and the labor of love.”
The meeting at Quincy in 1860 was one of great interest and enthusiasm. The missionary spirit rose high; and it was proposed to put into the field an aggressive worker, and to give him the necessary financial support. To this end a missionary a.s.sociation was organized, with Rev. Robert Collyer as the president, and Artemas Carter, a successful business man of Chicago, as the treasurer. Before the result desired could be realized, the war gave a very different direction to all the interests of the western churches. Of the twenty-nine ministers in the west at this time, sixteen went into the army,--twelve as chaplains, two as officers, and two as privates,--while several others devoted themselves to hospital work for longer or shorter periods. Rev. Augustus H. Conant, Rev. Leonard Whitney, Rev. Frederick R.
Newell, and Rev. L.B. Mason answered with their lives to their country's call.
The period immediately following the close of the civil war was one of generous giving and of great activity on the part of the western churches.
From 1864 to 1866 the field was occupied by twenty-one new laborers, several new societies were organized, four old ones were resuscitated, seven new churches were built, and fifteen missionary stations were opened.
The churches during these two years contributed $5,000 to missionary purposes and $13,000 to Antioch College. The degree of success met with in the efforts of the Western Conference depended in large degree upon the interest and activity of the western churches themselves. When they devoted themselves earnestly to missionary work, they contributed to it with a fair degree of liberality, and that work prospered. When the conference was asked to withdraw from the direction of that work by Rev. Charles Lowe, in order to secure greater unity of missionary effort by bringing all work of this kind under the direction of the a.s.sociation, the contributions of the churches diminished, and the missionary activities in the west languished.
However valuable the aid of the Unitarian a.s.sociation,--and there can be no question that it was of the greatest importance,--local interest and co-operation were also essential to permanent success. Local activity and general oversight were alike necessary.
[Sidenote: The Autumnal Conventions.]
For more than twenty years Autumnal Conventions, as they were called, were held in the larger cities, beginning at Worcester in 1842. These meetings originated in the Worcester a.s.sociation of Ministers at a meeting held July 11, 1842, when the a.s.sociation considered the ”desirableness of a meeting of Unitarians in the autumn for the purpose of awakening mutual sympathy and considering the wants of the Unitarian body.”[11]
At the invitation thereafter issued by the Worcester a.s.sociation of ministers a convention was held in the church of the Second Congregational Parish in Worcester, October 18-20, 1842. On the first evening a sermon was preached by Dr. Ezra S. Gannett, and a committee of business was subsequently chosen. The next morning the convention organized, with Dr.
Francis Parkman as president and Rev. Cazneau Palfrey as secretary. A series of resolutions were discussed,[12] and on the second evening a sermon was preached by Dr. A.P. Peabody. No essays were read, and nothing but the sermons were prepared beforehand. The Christian Register closed its report by saying that it could ”give but a faint impression of the feeling which pervaded the meeting. The discussions were characterized by great earnestness and seriousness, and were conducted, at the same time, with entire freedom and with candor and liberality toward the differences of opinion which, amidst a general unanimity upon great principles, were occasionally elicited respecting details and methods. The expectations of those who called the convention were abundantly realized.”
The second of the Autumnal Conventions was held in Providence, October 2-4, 1843. On the first evening the theme of the sermon preached by Dr. Dewey was the spiritual ministry of Dr. Channing, and it produced a great and deep impression. The resolutions discussed related to the duty, on the part of Unitarians, of making an explicit statement of their convictions, and an earnest application of them to life, and the need on the part of the denomination for a more united and vigorous action as a religious body. At the third meeting held in Albany, a statement was made by Dr. Dewey that exactly defined these gatherings, in their methods and purposes, when he said: ”This and other conventions like it that are held in our body, I am inclined to think, have never been held before in the world. There is nothing like them to be found in the records of ecclesiastical history. We meet as distinct churches, on the pure democratic basis, which we believe to be the true basis of the church of Christ. We meet, without any formalities--to inst.i.tute, or correct no canons--without the slightest system whatever. We come to meditate, to a.s.sist each other in experience, by unfolding our own experience, by declaring our convictions.”
The subjects introduced at these meetings were practical, such as commanded the interest of both ministers and laymen of the churches. The method adopted allowed a free interchange of opinions, and the partic.i.p.ation of all in the discussions. So great was the interest awakened that these meetings were largely attended, and they were to a considerable degree helpful in bringing the churches into vital relations with each other.[13]
At the session held in Brooklyn in 1862, great interest was manifested in the vespers, then a novelty, that were arranged by Samuel Longfellow. This meeting was marked by its glowing patriotism, that rose to a white heat. A sermon of great power was preached by Dr. Bellows, interpreting the duty of the hour and the destiny of America. The resolutions and the discussions were almost wholly along the lines of patriotic duty and devotion suggested by the sermon. At the last of the Autumnal Conventions, held in Springfield, Ma.s.s., October 13-15, 1863, the sermons were preached by Rev.
Edward Everett Hale and Rev. Octavius B. Frothingham, while the essays were by Professor Charles Eliot Norton and Rev. James Freeman Clarke.
The Autumnal Conventions came to an end, probably in part because the civil war was more and more absorbing the energies of the people both in and out of the churches, and partly because the desire for a more efficient organization had begun to make itself felt. In the spring of 1865 was held the meeting in New York that resulted in the organization of the National Conference, the legitimate successor to the Autumnal Conventions.
[Sidenote: Influence of the Civil War.]