; ,
 
 A MODEL SUPERINTENDENT 
 
 s 
 
 A SKETCH OF 
 
 THE LIFE, CHARACTER, AND METHODS OF WORK 
 
 or 
 
 HENRY P. HAVEN 
 
 OF THE INTERNATIONAL LESSON COMMITTEE 
 
 II. CLAY TRUMBULL 
 
 KDITOK OF "THE SUNDAY-SCHOOL T1XKS" 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS 
 
 FRANKLIN S Q V A R K 
 
 1880
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
 
 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 No exhibit of a right spirit and of wise methods in 
 any sphere of human activity is so effective as when 
 shown in a life that has been actually lived. There is a 
 temptation to question whether any ideal of a symmet- 
 rical character is practically attainable. It is useless to 
 deny that what a man has been and has done is a possi- 
 bility, in spite of all obstacles. Therefore it is that the 
 best working model for Sunday-school superintendents 
 is a model superintendent. The subject of this sketch 
 furnishes such a model ; not a faultless pattern for exact 
 reproduction, but an illustrative model to work by and 
 to improve on. Mr. Haven might have been presented 
 as a model man of business, as a model citizen, as a 
 model Christian steward ; for his course in each of 
 those spheres was worthy of imitation. But his pre-em- 
 inent success was as a Sunday-school superintendent ; 
 therefore about that department of his varied activities 
 the facts of this story of his life are clustered.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 BEGINNINGS: Page 
 
 Of the Sunday - school System ; of Mr. Haven's Life ; of his Boy- 
 hood's Sunday-school; of his Business Career; of his Christian 
 Course 1 
 
 II. 
 
 A COUNTRY SUNDAY-SCHOOL: 
 
 Its Unlooked-for Beginning ; its Unpromising Field ; its System and 
 Thoroughness; its Advanced Methods; its Faithful Continuance; 
 its Influence and Results ; its Purifying hy Fire ; its Memorial 
 Chapel 12 
 
 III. 
 
 A CITY SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 
 
 Exercises of Worship ; Plans for Punctuality ; Cultivation of Benefi- 
 cence, ; Modes of Bible Study ; Ways of Winniny Souls ; Outside 
 Evangelism 25 
 
 IV. 
 
 METHODS AND HELPS: 
 
 In the Study; with the Teachers; in the Desk; icith the Scholars; 
 among the Records ; at Special Services 39
 
 vi Contents. 
 
 V. 
 
 BUSINESS ACTIVITIES. 
 
 Page 
 
 Religion and Business; M'hale Fisheries; Sea - Elephant Hunting; 
 ( ,'ttano Gathering ; Seal Catching ; Polar Researches ; Railroading 
 and Hanking 91 
 
 VI. 
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 
 
 Outside Sunday-school Work; Lay Preaching; Arranging the Inter- 
 national Lessons; Promoting Common-school Interests; Working 
 n-ith Benevolent Societies; In Denominational Gatherings; A Dele- 
 gate to Great Britain ; Political Services 1 20 
 
 VII. 
 
 BENEFICENCES. 
 
 Christian Stewardship; Systematic Giving; Enjoying Self-denial; 
 Fidelity Tested; Provoking Others to Good Works; Giving by 
 Proxy ; A Providential Donation ; Increasing the Ministry ; Post- 
 humous Charities 137 
 
 VIII. 
 
 CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 Character in Perspective ; Power of Concentration ; Power of Discon- 
 nection; Power of Secretiveness ; Attention to System; Geniality 
 and Humor ; Home Traits; Love of the Bible; Faith in Sorrow ; 
 Faith ia Danger; Readiness to Forgive; Readiness to Depart 152
 
 I. 
 
 BEGINNINGS: 
 
 Of the Sunday -school System ; of Mr. Haven's Life ; of his Boy- 
 hood's Sunday-school ; of his Business Career; of Ids Chris- 
 tian Course. 
 
 WHATEVER may be said of the early origin of 
 church work for children as the germ of the mod- 
 ern Sunday-school, it is an unquestionable truth 
 that the American Sunday-school system is a thing 
 of recent growth. Its beginnings were at the close 
 of the last century ; its foundations were fairly 
 laid in the first third of this. The men who gave 
 it shape have but just passed away. Their num- 
 ber was not large at the best ; and, apart from any 
 interest in the men themselves, their methods of 
 work are worth studying ; for in them are the 
 germs or the patterns of all measures and machin- 
 ery which give highest promise of success in the 
 Sunday-school field of to-day. 
 
 The story of Henry P. Haven is perhaps as well 
 suited to illustrate the beginnings and progress, and 
 
 SKCTION I. 
 Beginnings. 
 
 Recent 
 origin of 
 the' Ameri- 
 can Sun day- 
 school.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 Beginnings. 
 
 A Sunday- 
 school 
 product, 
 am! a Sun- 
 day-school 
 pioneer. 
 
 
 the possibilities and methods, of the American 
 Sunday-school as that of any man who could be 
 named. He was, in a sense, a product of the ear- 
 lier American Sunday-school, and a pioneer in its 
 later advances. He was a poor boy in the Sunday- 
 school; he was an untrained teacher there ; he was a 
 superintendent before there were any such helps as 
 now to a superintendent's work ; he was a pioneer 
 in plans of effort to build up and to conduct a Sun- 
 day-school ; he was in church-school work, in mis- 
 sion-school work, in work in a scattered country 
 neighborhood, and in work in a compact city cen- 
 tre ; he was a rich man, and a busy one, who found 
 time for Sunday-school work ; he was a man of 
 culture and an experienced worker in the Sunday- 
 school ; he was a man of inventive genius, contin- 
 ually trying new plans and appliances in Sunday- 
 school service ; he was a man of sound sense, of 
 good taste, and of reverent Christian spirit in the 
 selection and adaptation of means and methods of 
 wor k ', he was a teacher of teachers, a leader of in- 
 stitutes and normal classes; he was a student of 
 the best literature of this theme from Great Brit- 
 ain as well as from America ; he was a close and 
 thorough Bible student ; he had a wide range of 
 personal observation in Sunday-school methods 
 throughout his own land and abroad ; he had an 
 international prominence, as a member of the first 
 committee appointed to select Bible lessons for the
 
 Parentage and Childhood. 
 
 Sunday-schools of the English-speaking world. In 
 fact, there is no person in the Sunday-school as 
 scholar, teacher, or officer, in any condition of life 
 or in any kind of community, who could not find 
 a lesson for his guidance and ground for his en- 
 couragement in the labors and successes of this 
 faithful and effective toiler. Moreover, if the 
 writer of this sketch were asked to tell how, in 
 his opinion, a Sunday-school teacher or superin- 
 tendent could best discharge all the several duties 
 of such a position, or to say who, so far as his 
 knowledge extended, was, all things considered, 
 the best pattern of personal Sunday-school work 
 in its every department, he could not better an- 
 swer the question than by pointing to Henry P. 
 Haven, and giving the record of the man and his 
 methods. Such a story is surely worth the tell- 
 ing. If rightly told, it is worth the hearing. 
 
 And, first, it is important to look at Mr. Haven's 
 childhood ; for it is in childhood that we find the 
 germs of a man's true character; and commonly 
 it is found that both his character and his course 
 in life are given their supreme direction before he 
 is seven years old. 
 
 HENRY PHILEMON HAVEN was born of substan- 
 tial Xew England stock, in Norwich, Connecticut, 
 February 11, 1815. When he was about four 
 years old his father died. His mother then a 
 
 SKOTION I. 
 Beginnings. 
 
 The worth 
 of a good 
 model. 
 
 Birth and 
 parentage.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION L 
 Beginnings. 
 
 A farm-col- 
 lege course. 
 
 second time widowed was left with five children, 
 and no property beyond her little home, compris- 
 ing an acre of land, from the proceeds of which 
 her annual income did not at any time exceed one 
 hundred dollars. Henry was next to the young- 
 est child ; but, as the only son at home, he was 
 early called to important responsibilities for the 
 household. And for this he had reason to be 
 thankful. "It is good for a man that he bear 
 the yoke in his youth." 
 
 President Porter of Yale has said that the great 
 advantage of a collegiate training to a young man 
 is, that he learns to do what he ought to do at a 
 proper time whether he wants to do it or not. In 
 this sense young Haven had the benefit of a col- 
 lege course very early. From the time he was 
 seven years old, he chopped all the firewood for 
 the household. Being too small to swing an axe, 
 he made a hatchet do double duty. He learned 
 then the important Sunday-school lesson, that it is 
 not so much the tools used as the way of using 
 them that gives success, and that it is better to 
 avail yourself of an instrument yon can handle 
 than to reach after one which is beyond your 
 measure. At the age of eight the lad did nearly 
 all the farm-work on the homestead. Kot until 
 he was fifteen years old did he have his first suit 
 of new clothes. Until then old garments had 
 been made over for him by his frugal mother.
 
 Home and /School Training. 
 
 He was little tempted to pride of dress or of per- 
 sonal display. His pride was an honest pride 
 in caring successfully for his mother and sisters. 
 He "felt like a king," he said, when his mother 
 bought her first cow and it was given to him in 
 charge. And he ruled well in his little kingdom 
 
 o o 
 
 so well that God gave him larger power and 
 greater possessions. 
 
 Beyond attendance at the imperfect public 
 schools of that period, young Haven was for two 
 terms at a select school, where the tuition was 
 five dollars a term. To meet this expense he 
 borrowed the money, which he returned from his 
 earliest subsequent earnings. And from that time 
 forward he had warm sympathy with young men 
 who needed help in their honest struggle for an 
 education. He was sure, from both experience 
 and observation, that it did not destroy a young 
 man's manliness or diminish his prospects of suc- 
 cess in life to give him timely and judicious aid 
 in the line of his noblest endeavors. 
 
 But it was to the Sunday-school the school 
 of the First Congregational Church of Norwich 
 Town that Mr. Haven owed most for the influ- 
 ences which, in conjunction with those at his god- 
 ly New-England home, shaped his character and 
 directed his course for good. He used often to 
 say that it was the Sunday-school which made 
 him. It would be better to sav that he was one 
 
 SECTION I. 
 Beginnings. 
 
 things. 
 
 Wise bor- 
 rowing
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 Beginnings. 
 
 Co-opcra- 
 tiori of fam- 
 ily and Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 Contending 
 with the 
 rabbis. 
 
 of the bright illustrations of the truth that a child 
 trained in a good home and a good Sunday-school 
 fares better, and is likely to do better, than one 
 trained only in a good home ; and that no home is 
 so good that a child ought to be left alone to its 
 influences when he can have in addition thereto 
 the divinely ordained and the divinely directed 
 influences of the Christian church in the church- 
 school the Sunday-school. The school of that 
 first church which Mr. Haven attended had a 
 history so peculiar as to be worthy of special 
 mention just here. 
 
 About the time of Mr. Haven's birth, a little 
 girl about twelve years of age Harriet Lathrop 
 by name living near his fathers house, was 
 brought to a loving trust in Jesus, out of a family 
 where none were yet Christian disciples. Soon 
 after her open confession of faith, she went to 
 New York, and there became acquainted with the 
 Sunday-school work of Divie Bethune. Return- 
 ing to her Norwich home, she gathered a few 
 children to teach them on Sunday noons in the 
 church gallery. The church authorities, unwill- 
 ing to countenance such an innovation, ordered 
 her to leave the church with her little charge. 
 She went, accordingly, to the school -house near 
 by; but she was shut out from that. Then she 
 tried the court-house ; but she was not unmolest- 
 ed there. Determined to persevere in what she
 
 A Fifty Yeans 1 Itecord. 
 
 was sure was a good work, she taught the chil- 
 dren in the church porch until the way was final- 
 ly opened for her to gather them again in the gal- 
 leries. In that little Sunday-school, in its earlier 
 and feebler days, Henry P. Haven received some 
 of his first religious impressions, and learned to 
 love that agency by which he subsequently did so 
 much for the children's Saviour. 
 
 Think of this, you who are beginners in what 
 seems an insignificant and an unappreciated ser- 
 vice ! Are your trials greater than were those of 
 that little girl in Xorwich ? "Would you ask for a 
 greater reward than hers ? Her father and moth- 
 er and every other member of the family followed 
 her into the church fold. She herself toiled as 
 a missionary's wife in Ceylon the wife of the 
 Rev. Dr. Myron "Winslow. At the fiftieth anni- 
 versary of the Sunday-school she organized, and 
 with which she was at first driven from place to 
 place relentlessly, the report was made that twen- 
 ty-six ministers of Christ and hundreds of other 
 Christian workers had already gone out from that 
 nursery of piet} r , that training-school of devotion. 
 Even if no other scholar than Henry P. Haven 
 had been influenced and instructed there, would 
 not the result have amply repaid for all the labor 
 and trials through which that school was finally 
 established ? As its young founder welcomed into 
 the heavenly throng that one scholar out of the 
 
 SECTION I. 
 Beginnings. 
 
 What came 
 of one girl's 
 faithful- 
 ness.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 Beginnings. 
 
 A new 
 
 home, and a 
 new work. 
 
 group of boys and girls who were long ago taught 
 in her Norwich home, as he came up rejoicing on 
 a Lord's -day morning, bringing his sheaves with 
 him, do you doubt that she praised God anew that 
 her light affliction, which was but for a moment, 
 had wrought out for her "a far more exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory?" Let. none of you 
 count your feeblest service unimportant, your 
 weightiest trials in this cause worthy of serious 
 consideration, in the light of such an example. 
 
 When young Haven was only fifteen, his mother 
 moved to New London. There he was indent- 
 ured to Major Thomas W. Williams, a prominent 
 ship-owner and merchant of that seaport. The 
 boy was to have ninety dollars for his first year's 
 wages, one hundred and twenty for each of the 
 next two years, and one hundred and fifty a year 
 for the remaining period of his apprenticeship. 
 Out of this sum he was to pay his board and other 
 living expenses. There was not much temptation 
 to extravagance in the disposition of that income ! 
 It would be easy to get up a labor riot on that 
 scale of wages for the coal-heavers of to-day. But 
 young Haven was less concerned about what he 
 was getting than what he was doing. His anx- 
 iety was to fill his place rather than his pocket. 
 The question with him was never, How little work 
 will answer here ? but always, How much can I 
 here do to advantage? He hoped to have promo-
 
 Working his Way Up. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 Begrimiing*. 
 
 A bitter 
 dteappoint- 
 
 tion. lie was determined to deserve it. As illus- 
 trative of his energy and of his honorable ambi- 
 tion, this incident may be mentioned. While he 
 was youngest clerk, next above him was the book- 
 keeper. When, soon after Haven began work for 
 Major Williams, the book-keeper's time expired 
 and a new engagement was made with him for 
 two years more, Haven was disappointed that he 
 had not been promoted. lie actually went home 
 to his mother in tears, and told her that he could menu 
 now never get above a boy's place ; the one chance 
 of his life was gone. Nor is the boy's grief in 
 this disappointment to be laughed at. Who has 
 not had some such dark hour in his life-struggles 
 over a cause as unimportant as this ? He who 
 cannot be disappointed through failure is not like- 
 ly to make any high attainment in his sphere. 
 But disappointment, however it grieves one, should 
 never deter from new effort. It did not in the 
 case of young Haven. He kept at his work, even 
 though for a time with a heavy heart. Xor did 
 lie persevere in vain. 
 
 Before long the book-keeper gave up his place, Fresh hope, 
 and again there was hope in young Haven's mind. 
 He then asked if he might try his hand at keep- 
 ing the books. He was told that he was quite too 
 young to manage them ; but, on his pressing the 
 point, consent was given to his making the at- 
 tempt. Then it was that all his energies were
 
 10 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SK(!TtON I. 
 
 Beginnings. 
 
 At it day 
 and night. 
 
 Promoted. 
 
 fairly aroused to a great effort, and that he showed 
 some of those qualities which made his life in so 
 large measure a success and a pattern. During 
 his trial at the books he had all his former work 
 in the store to attend to ; for he had not yet been 
 promoted he was only seeking to show that he 
 deserved to be. He worked determinedly, early 
 and late. On at least one occasion he was at the 
 store until two in the morning, and back again 
 for a new day at four. Such work by such a boy 
 told. When the first of January came around, a 
 yearly balance-sheet was drawn off more easily 
 than ever before. Then his position was secure. 
 He was clearly too valuable for the lowest place 
 in such an establishment. 
 
 At nineteen, when he was to have received one 
 hundred and fifty dollars a year, his wages were 
 unexpectedly advanced to four hundred dollars. 
 When his apprenticeship was completed, at his 
 majority, he was employed as a confidential clerk 
 at five hundred dollars. Two years later he be- 
 came a partner in the business establishment, in 
 which he continued until his death. His indus- 
 try, his energy, and his unflinching devotion to 
 duty not his genius, nor yet any remarkable op- 
 portunities gave him a fair start in the business 
 of his life. All that he gained he worked for. 
 And he was willing to work for it. He did not 
 expect to gain anything without work hard work, 
 persevering work.
 
 Reaching Out. 
 
 11 
 
 So much for the boyhood and youth of Mr. 
 Haven the days of his training for efficient 
 Christian service. It was in the latter part of his 
 apprenticeship that he made a public confession 
 of his faith in Jesus by a connection of himself 
 with the Second Congregational Church in New 
 London. He was already in the Sunday-school as 
 a teacher, having been given that position when 
 but fifteen years old ; and he was conscientious in 
 the discharge of its duties ; but now he had it in 
 his heart to do more. He was not contented to 
 sit down in a well-organized city Sunday-school 
 while there were so many neighborhoods yet lack- 
 ing the privileges of that agency which he had 
 first learned to prize in his boyhood's home. 
 
 SEOTION I. 
 Beginnings. 
 
 Work 
 looked for.
 
 12 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 A Country 
 Suiiday- 
 Bchool. 
 
 Work 
 pointed out. 
 
 Work 
 needed. 
 
 II. 
 
 A COUNTRY SUNDAY-SCHOOL: 
 
 Its Unlooked-for Beginning; its Unpromising Field; its System 
 and Thoroughness; its Advanced Methods; its Faithful Con- 
 tinuance; its Influence and Results; its Purifying by Fire; its 
 Memorial Chapel. 
 
 ONE Sunday morning in May, 1836, Mr. Haven, 
 then twenty-one years old, asked his superintend- 
 ent, just before the opening of the school session, 
 if he knew of any place where neighborhood mis- 
 sion work was needed in the country about New 
 London. " Certainly I do," was the superintend- 
 ent's reply. "A man is to call here this very 
 morning from a district in "Waterford to see if he 
 can get some one to start a Sunday-school there. 
 There is the place for you. Go with him." The 
 suddenness of this opening startled Mr. Haven. 
 He was at first disposed to consider the question 
 further. " There's no time like the present," said 
 the good superintendent. " The Lord wants you. 
 Go at once." The young teacher went accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 The district referred to was by no means a 
 promising one for Christian activities. Although
 
 A Noteworthy Service. 
 
 13 
 
 the population there was scanty, rum-selling and 
 drunkenness were common, and there were houses 
 of vilest repute. It had been made a sink of in- 
 iquity by the worst class of evil-doers from the 
 neighboring seaport town. Religious influences 
 had been until then almost unknown there. They 
 were by no means welcomed by a considerable 
 portion of the little community. But a Sunday- 
 school was begun there on the afternoon of that 
 bright May day, with nine scholars and seven 
 teachers, under the lead of the young and inex- 
 perienced but earnest and faith-filled superintend- 
 ent from New London. The work thus initiated 
 was never abandoned. Mr. Haven persevered in 
 it until the end of his earthly course. He was 
 preparing for the fortieth anniversary of that 
 Sunday-school when he finally entered into rest. 
 
 In that little "VVaterford Sunday-school Mr. Ha- 
 ven did perhaps the most noteworthy service of 
 his life certainly the service which best exhib- 
 ited his spirit, illustrated his methods, and evi- 
 denced the results of his labor as a representative 
 Sunday-school worker. From the days of Naa- 
 man down, men have always been readier to un- 
 dertake "some great thing" than to do a simple 
 one as a test of their faith. There is some in- 
 ducement to a young man to take charge of a 
 church- school already established, or to organize 
 a city mission-school where there is a prospect of 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 A Country 
 Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 Work perse- 
 vered in. 
 
 A good work 
 
 unnoticed.
 
 14: 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 A Country 
 Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 A good work 
 well done. 
 
 rapid growth, and the stimulus of an observing 
 multitude. He may even be prompt to start a 
 new school in a country district, and to keep it up 
 so long as it is a novelty and the weather is fair. 
 But to go into a back district where, at the most, 
 only a score or two of people may be gathered, 
 and there to toil on, summer and winter, year 
 after year, comparatively unnoticed, and with but 
 small apparent results of work attainable, is by no 
 means so tempting a service. It requires charac- 
 ter and faith. It demands a spirit of consecration 
 and a degree of earnestness and tenacity of pur- 
 pose found only rarely among Christian disciples. 
 Mr. Haven, however, more than met the fullest 
 requirements of a service like this. 
 
 Had Mr. Haven been in charge of Philadel- 
 phia's Bethany Sunday-school or the school at 
 Akron, he could not have been more systematic 
 and thorough or more quietly enthusiastic in his 
 work than he was at Waterford. If, on the other 
 hand, the best Sunday-school worker of to-day 
 from Chicago, New York, or Plainfield, could look 
 in upon that little school as it was planned and 
 conducted by Mr. Haven forty years ago, he 
 would be compelled to admit that comparatively 
 few of the Sunday-schools of now, in country 
 or city, are up to its standard of then, either in 
 spirit or in wise methods of management and di- 
 rection.
 
 /System and Thoroughness. 
 
 The Waterford school was carefully classified. 
 Scholars who belonged together were put togeth- 
 er. Teachers were assigned to duty according to 
 their special fitness. There was a uniform lesson 
 in the school. All studied the same passage of 
 Scripture. Exercises of worship were an impor- 
 tant part of the school service exercises in which 
 teachers and scholars had a part with the super- 
 intendent. A select number of the Psalms were 
 printed expressly for responsive reading in that 
 school. Appropriate hymns were also printed for 
 use there. Portions of Scripture were memorized 
 and recited by all in unison. A register of the 
 school membership was opened at the start ; also a 
 record of the attendance of each teacher and schol- 
 ar separately ; a running history of the school 
 work and progress ; and a special historical record 
 of each member of the school. A teachers' meet- 
 ing and a normal class were likewise started on 
 the first day of the new Sunday-school. After the 
 ordinary session of the school, the teachers were 
 brought together in a class. The next Sunday's 
 lesson was taken up and studied by them under 
 their superintendent's lead studied with a view 
 to ascertaining both the substance of the lesson 
 and the best methods of its teaching. A judicious 
 system of marks and rewards was introduced into 
 the school. All these plans looked to thorough- 
 ness and permanency. There was a completeness 
 
 SECTION II. 
 A Country 
 Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 How the 
 work was 
 duiie. 
 
 Advanced 
 methods.
 
 .16 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 A Country 
 Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 Originality 
 in plans. 
 
 God honors 
 willingness. 
 
 and symmetry about them which are only too rare 
 in similar work at the present day. 
 
 When it is borne in mind that the methods of 
 Sunday-school work of forty years ago were gen- 
 erally unscientific and primitive ; that the helps 
 to its prosecution were few ; that a worker in this 
 sphere was at that time largely dependent on his 
 own ingenuity and good judgment in devising 
 plans of action and in adapting old ones to new 
 needs ; that the superintendent of this Waterford 
 school was at its start barely twenty -one years 
 old ; that until he was fifteen he had toiled as a 
 farm boy, shut out from intercourse with the ex- 
 perienced Sunday-school workers of that period ; 
 that the school itself was in a country neighbor- 
 hood, some four miles from the superintendent's 
 home, where only three houses were in sight of 
 its little brick school-house when these facts are 
 taken into account, can there be any question that 
 very large credit is due to Henry P. Haven as a 
 man of originality and wisdom in the department 
 of Sunday-school method ? Moreover, in view of 
 his success, notwithstanding his limitations, is not 
 his case an illustration of the truth that a Chris- 
 tian worker need not deem himself dependent on 
 the latest inventions of other laborers in his sphere 
 to enable him to fill his place acceptably wherever 
 God has summoned him to service ? If any man 
 would do God's will, he shall have the opportn-
 
 Faithful Continuance. 
 
 17 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 A Country 
 Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 Winter ees- 
 sious. 
 
 nity. God will honor and make effective the two 
 talents or the ten which he brings with him heart- 
 ily ; and the Holy Spirit will teach him according 
 to his needs and his faith. 
 
 But the Waterford school was quite as remark- 
 able for its continuance as for its founding and 
 its plans. Many a neighborhood Sunday -school 
 which has been bravely started has dwindled away 
 when the novelty of its organization has passed, 
 and finally been wholly abandoned. Many anoth- 
 er which has been flourishing in pleasant weather 
 has been closed on the approach of winter. In- 
 deed, a winter Sunday-school in the country was a 
 rare exception forty years ago. When, however, 
 the first winter of the Waterford Sunday-school 
 came on, Mr. Haven looked the question of a va- 
 cation fairly in the face, as one to be settled on its 
 merits rather than by the fashion of the day. Al- 
 though the ride, or the walk, from his home might 
 be a tedious one in 'mid-winter, he was sure that 
 souls were as precious and Bible study as impor- 
 tant in January as in July, and if a Sunday-school 
 was worth having at one time it was worth having 
 at all times. He therefore quickly settled on this 
 basis of permanent action : So long as one teacher HOW many 
 
 niiiken Sun 
 
 and two scholars would attend, he would keep up day-school, 
 the school without a peradventure. When the 
 number dropped below that, he would reopen the 
 question for further consideration. From this
 
 18 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 A Country 
 Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 A changed 
 neighbor- 
 hood. 
 
 A steady 
 light. 
 
 decision he never wavered. Is not that a fair 
 solution of the vacation question for any Sunday- 
 school ? 
 
 Summer and winter Mr. Haven went back and 
 forth between his home and the Sunday-school. 
 The school grew in interest if not largely in num- 
 bers. It gathered in well-nigh all who could be 
 fairly counted of its proper field. Its influence 
 on the neighborhood was obvious and delightful. 
 Children were made glad, and were well taught in 
 the school. Parents were drawn in as scholars, or 
 drawn towards the teachers who did so much for 
 their little ones. Homes were improved. Oppo- 
 nents of the school were turned into friends. The 
 district gained a new character and a new name. 
 From being one of the most unpromising it be- 
 came one of the most satisfactory neighborhoods 
 in all its region of country. It was after a while 
 
 o / 
 
 as well known for the sobriety, uprightness, and 
 religious standing of its people as it had been for 
 the evil deeds of those who resorted there. That 
 Sunday-school, as a lamp lighted in a dark place, 
 gave a very clear and steady if not a very brilliant 
 light. It cheered the hearts of those on whom its 
 rays beamed constantly, even though it did not 
 dazzle the eyes of a multitude. It was kept al- 
 ways burning, always well trimmed. 
 
 Occasional preaching was provided, together 
 with general services of worship, in connection
 
 Extending Labors. 
 
 19 
 
 with the Sunday-school. An inquiry meeting fol- 
 lowing the Sunday-school was frequently held in 
 a neighboring farm-house kitchen, and this with 
 excellent results in bringing scholars to the point 
 of Christian decision. There on one occasion a 
 young woman in an adjoining room, who heard 
 Mr. Haven, through the thin partition, pointing 
 the way of life to a group of children, and plead- 
 ing with and for them in the name of Christ, was 
 
 O t 
 
 so touched by his words of entreaty that she yield- 
 ed herself to the Saviour and found peace in be- 
 lieving. Young and old were brought into the 
 fold of Jesus from that school, professing their 
 faith by uniting with neighboring churches of one 
 denomination or another. One lad, an Irish Ro- 
 man Catholic, who was at work as a farmer's help- 
 er in the vicinity, was led to trust himself to the 
 Saviour; and then, prompted and helped by Mr. 
 Haven, he studied for the ministry, and became 
 an earnest home missionary in the West. 
 
 Thus the years went by. Mr. Haven's business 
 responsibilities increased. He married, and had a 
 family to look after. He was called to varied and 
 engrossing public duties by his town, his city, and 
 his state. Important private trusts were confided 
 to him. He was chosen superintendent of the 
 Sunday-school of his church in New London. He 
 neglected none of these responsibilities ; but for 
 none of them, nor for all, did he suspend his work 
 
 SECTION II. 
 A Country 
 Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 Spiritual 
 results.
 
 20 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 A Country 
 Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 Persistency. 
 
 Burned out. 
 
 at his "Gilead Sunday-school" in Waterford. In 
 May, 1861, the writer of this sketch attended the 
 twenty-fifth anniversary of that school and listen- 
 ed to the quarter-centennial report of its superin- 
 tendent. Not once a year on an average had the 
 school intermitted a session, including an occa- 
 sional suspension on account of a funeral in the 
 vicinity. On 1099 of the 1279 sessions of the 
 school had Mr. Haven himself been present, not- 
 withstanding his varied private and public labors, 
 which rendered his occasional absence inevitable. 
 Of the 418 persons who had up to that time been 
 members of the school, more than 100 had united 
 with various churches elsewhere ; while four who 
 had come into the school as scholars were already 
 in the gospel ministry or were preparing for it. 
 Yet the entire membership of the school had aver- 
 aged during its twenty-five years only thirty-seven 
 twenty-nine scholars and eight teachers. Soon 
 after that anniversary the old school-house was de- 
 stroyed by fire ; but another and better one was 
 soon built in its place, the Sunday-school mean- 
 while meeting weekly in a private house. The 
 fortieth annual report of the school, which was 
 in preparation when Mr. Haven died, showed that 
 in all 648 persons had been members of the 
 school ; that of the 2086 Sundays in the forty 
 years of its existence, school sessions had been 
 held on 2055 ; and that in nearly nine years no
 
 Improved Methods. 
 
 21 
 
 session had been intermitted for any cause what- 
 ever. 
 
 Improvements in his methods of working at 
 this school were adopted by Mr. Haven as the 
 years went by. Certainly as early as 1860, he had 
 a schedule of uniform lessons for the entire year 
 printed and distributed in advance. A carefully 
 arranged order of service, with responsive and al- 
 ternate readings and united recitations for every 
 Sunday in the year, was printed annually. A mis- 
 sionary association in connection with the school 
 was organized and well worked. Monthly " Sun- 
 day-school concerts" for general exercises of wor- 
 ship and Bible recitations, with addresses to the 
 young, were conducted with variety and good 
 judgment. Special exercises for Christmas and 
 Easter were annually arranged. Skilfully direct- 
 ed quarterly reviews came to be a feature in the 
 school. And so with many another improvement. 
 One custom of the school which indicated its per- 
 manent character was this : At the close of his 
 first year's service the superintendent gave a Bible 
 as a token of regard to each scholar who had been 
 in the school from its beginning. He promised a 
 similar gift to all who should attend for the next 
 seven years. This plan of seven-year gifts he 
 pursued to the last. In 1872 at least one person 
 received his fifth token of that sort ; and four 
 years later, when the school had passed its fortieth 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 A Country 
 Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 Progress. 
 
 Sabbatical 
 years.
 
 22 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 A Country 
 Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 A new chap- 
 el. 
 
 A dedica- 
 tion service. 
 
 anniversary, he was still a member of the school. 
 That system of rewards was certainly as prudent 
 as it was unique. 
 
 It was in Mr. Haven's mind to erect a commo- 
 dious and attractive chapel for the Waterford 
 neighborhood, where he had labored so long and 
 effectively. Only the day before his death he 
 was occupied over the details of a contract for its 
 building. His purposes were subsequently fully 
 carried out by his family in conjunction with the 
 people for whose benefit the chapel was designed ; 
 for it was ever Mr. Haven's habit to stimulate 
 others to beneficent activity rather than to do for 
 them in such a way as to lessen their sense of 
 responsibility and privilege. The son of one of 
 the earliest scholars gave the land for the chapel. 
 The people of the vicinity prepared the ground 
 and laid the stone-work of the foundation. The 
 chapel itself was erected in the name of Mr. Ha- 
 ven by his family. Its furnishing was by the la- 
 dies of the neighborhood. The bell and clock and 
 a memorial window were given by the widow of a 
 former partner of Mr. Haven first a scholar and 
 then a teacher in the Sunday-school there. A 
 handsome wall -tablet in memory of Mr. Haven 
 was the gift of the Sunday-school. 
 
 At the dedication of the new chapel, September 
 24, 1876, the order of service, including responsive 
 readings from Scripture, was, in the main, one
 
 A Memorial Chapel. 
 
 23 
 
 which had been arranged by Mr. Haven for a 
 similar service in a new building not long before 
 erected for his New London school. But there 
 was an impressive addition in the following re- 
 sponsive readings from Chronicles, rendered pe- 
 culiarly appropriate by the circumstances of the 
 chapel building: 
 
 Superintendent. Then David the king stood up upon his feet, 
 and said, Hear me, my brethren, and my people : As for me I had 
 in mine heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant 
 of the Lord, and the footstool of our God, and had made ready for 
 the building. But God said unto me, Thou shalt not build a house 
 for my name. 
 
 School. And it shall come to pass when thy days are expired 
 that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy 
 seed after thee, which . . . shall build me an house. 
 
 Superintendent. Now therefore in the sight of all Israel, the 
 congregation of the Lord, and in the audience of our God, keep 
 and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God: that 
 ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for 
 your children after you forever. 
 
 And now that beautiful chapel stands on the 
 scene of the forty years' faithful labor of Mr. Ha- 
 ven, as a fitting monument to his memory. Its 
 suggestive history shows, incidentally, the evan- 
 gelizing and edifying power of a neighborhood 
 Sunday-school an undenominational gathering 
 for Bible study and worship as a centre of re- 
 ligious influence and activities for an entire com- 
 
 O 
 
 munity, throughout at least the period of a full 
 generation. And it well illustrates what can be 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 A Country 
 
 Snndny- 
 
 schoof. 
 
 A flttine 
 
 monument.
 
 24 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 A Country 
 Sunday- 
 school. 
 
 Patient con- 
 tinuance. 
 
 done in a country Sunday-school, and through a 
 country Sunday-school, by the persevering endeav- 
 ors of one man in a quiet and undemonstrative 
 way. Mr. Haven remarked at one time, that not 
 until after that little school had been more than 
 twenty years in existence did it ever occur to him 
 that his work in it was in any degree remarkable ; 
 and then only because of the repeated comments 
 on it which were made by one who was familiar 
 with all of the Sunday-schools in the state. He 
 added, modestly, that the most that could be said 
 for it, after all, was that it. showed " patient con- 
 tinuance in well-doing." More impartial observ- 
 ers than he will say that it showed a great deal 
 more than that ; but if that, indeed, were all, it 
 should be remembered that " to them who, by pa- 
 tient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and 
 honor and immortality" God will render "eternal 
 life." God is faithful that promised.
 
 A New Charge. 
 
 25 
 
 III. 
 A CITY SUNDAY- SCHOOL. 
 
 Exercises of Worship ; Plans for Punctuality; Cultivation of Benefi- 
 cence ; Modes of Bible Study ; Ways of Winning Souls ; Out- 
 side Evangelism. 
 
 AFTER Mr. Haven had been more than twenty 
 years in charge of the neighborhood Sunday-school 
 at "Waterford, he was urged to become superintend- 
 ent of the Sunday-school of the Second Congrega- 
 tional Church (the church of which he was a mem- 
 ber) in New London. This he consented to do 
 without abandoning the other school the city 
 school holding its session in the morning, and the 
 country school in the afternoon. 
 
 Mr. Haven entered upon his new duties in Jan- 
 uary, 1858. His experience in the country Sun- 
 day-school was of important service to him in his 
 city field. The various methods of work which 
 he had originated or adopted for the smaller school 
 were easily adapted to the requirements of the 
 larger one. Yery soon his city Sunday-school was 
 as good a model in one sphere as his country Sun- 
 day-school had long been in another. The same 
 system and thoroughness prevailed here as there. 
 
 SECTION ITT. 
 A City Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 A new 
 charge. 
 
 A new 
 model.
 
 26 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 A City Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 Worship 
 aiid study. 
 
 Records and 
 printing. 
 
 Supple- 
 mental 
 gatherings. 
 
 And he was as devoted and as persistent in this 
 work as in that. 
 
 The New London school met at 9.15 in the 
 morning, an hour and a quarter before the fore- 
 noon church service. Worship was an important 
 element in its exercises. All had a part in its re- 
 sponsive readings. A uniform lesson was studied 
 by all the classes. There were three departments 
 in the school the primary or the infant class, the 
 intermediate or the main school, and the senior or 
 the Bible classes. During the opening and closing 
 exercises these departments were all within sight 
 and hearing of the superintendent, but during the 
 lesson-hour they were separated. Systematic Chris- 
 tian giving was a part of the school training. A 
 teachers' meeting on a week-day evening for the 
 study of the lesson was deemed essential to the 
 school's efficiency. Close attention to records and 
 statistics was a part of the plan by which the 
 school was enabled to hold its own and to make 
 steady progress. The printing-press was counted 
 an important aid in the school work. Orders of 
 service, certificates of various kinds, blanks for 
 the teachers' use and for the library, cards of no- 
 tification for sending out by the superintendent, 
 plans of special exercises, reports, and other print- 
 ed matter, were freely and wisely used. There 
 were monthly Sunday-school concerts, periodical 
 missionary meetings, Christmas and Easter ser-
 
 A Plan of Exercises. 
 
 27 
 
 vices, week-day evening gatherings for practice in 
 singing, midsummer and midwinter social assem- 
 blings of one sort or another, and various other 
 occasional services and gatherings in conjunction 
 with the school work. 
 
 The plan of exercises adopted soon after the 
 New London school was fairly in Mr. Haven's 
 hands was as follows: Half an hour or so before 
 the school session the superintendent was at the 
 schoolroom. The singing leader was also there. 
 So, ordinarily, was the pastor. If no one else was 
 present, these three would begin the singing of a 
 familiar hymn. Teachers and scholars as they 
 came in would join in the singing. Hymn after 
 hymn would be sung in this way until the time 
 for the school opening. By this means restless- 
 ness and frivolous conversation during the time 
 of assembling were obviated, unity of thought 
 and feeling was gained, a cheerful and reverent 
 spirit was promoted, and the attractiveness of the 
 room was increased to those who were early in at- 
 tendance. At precisely fifteen minutes past nine 
 the superintendent tapped his bell for attention. 
 Having waited until there was perfect silence, he 
 began the exercises by reading distinctly three 
 texts of Scripture the verse for the day in each 
 of the three collections of daily texts used in the 
 different departments of the school. (This, it will 
 be remembered, was before the days of the Inter- 
 
 SKOTION IIL 
 A City Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 Getting a 
 
 start. 
 
 Opening 
 exercises.
 
 28 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION III 
 A City Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 Closing ex- 
 ercises. 
 
 national lessons.) The entire school read unitedly, 
 under his lead, brief selections of Scripture from 
 printed slips. A chant followed ; then a hymn 
 of worship. Brief prayer was offered by the su- 
 perintendent, or by a teacher previously notified 
 of his designation, closing with the Lord's Prayer, 
 in which all joined audibly. A psalm was read re- 
 sponsively by the superintendent and the school. 
 Then came the school announcements for the 
 day. Changes in the classes were mentioned. 
 The names were given of new teachers and schol- 
 ars, and of those who had left the school. All 
 classes which had been present in full member- 
 ship the Sunday previous were named. Notifica- 
 tion was made of special meetings in which the 
 school had an interest. These opening exercises 
 occupied not more than fifteen minutes in all. 
 Three quarters of an hour of uninterrupted Bible 
 teaching followed. Then, at a tap of the superin- 
 tendent's bell, the school once more gave atten- 
 tion to the desk. A few well-considered com- 
 ments on the lesson of the day, enforcing one of 
 its main points, or a few carefully arranged ques- 
 tions from the superintendent, closed the teaching 
 exercise. The day's attendance in the various de- 
 partments of the school was announced. A hymn 
 was sung. The school was closed in season for 
 the morning service in the church above the 
 
 o 
 
 schoolroom. The entire school session was an
 
 Training to Punctuality. 
 
 29 
 
 hour and a quarter long. The Scripture selec- 
 tions read in unison, those chanted, and those read 
 responsively were the same for six months con- 
 secutively. Then a new arrangement was made. 
 By these repeated readings of the same verses for 
 so long a time the school was almost insensibly 
 gaining in the treasure of well-memorized Bible- 
 words. And it was a custom to recite the verses 
 without the use of the printed slips on the Sun- 
 day before one set of selections was displaced by 
 a new one. Special providences affecting the in- 
 terests of the school or of its members were some- 
 times recognized by added readings or recitations 
 of Scripture in the opening school service. For 
 example, after the school was deprived of its 
 home by the burning of its church edifice in 
 March, 1868, and was meeting week by week in 
 rooms generously tendered for the time being by 
 the church of another denomination, there was for 
 several months a recitation, in the opening service 
 each Sunday morning, of the appropriate words, 
 from Isaiah Ixiv, 11, " Our holy and our beautiful 
 house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned 
 up with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid 
 waste." 
 
 Punctuality was made prominent by Mr. Haven 
 as a duty of those who belonged to his Sunday- 
 school. He had little hope of securing a good 
 school without the faithful attendance of its 
 
 SECTION III. 
 A City Hun- 
 day-cchool. 
 
 Scripture 
 readiugs.
 
 30 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 A City Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 A backward 
 boy. 
 
 members. In this particular, as in every other, 
 he sought to cultivate assiduously the habit de- 
 sired. He did not depend on his exhortations to 
 punctuality. He trained both teachers and schol- 
 ars to a sense of its importance and desirableness. 
 A close record of the attendance of each member 
 of the school was preserved, and its leading facts 
 were statedly made public. Lists of those who 
 had been present every Sunday, and, again, of 
 those present at least forty Sundays in the year, 
 were printed annually; and persons who deserved 
 special mention for their fidelity in attendance 
 were sure to receive it, year by year. A class 
 feeling on the subject was fostered by the men- 
 tion, each Sunday morning from the desk, of 
 those classes which had been present in entirety 
 the week before. So strong did this class sense 
 of responsibility become in the school that on at 
 least one occasion four of the boys in a class took 
 their fifth classmate in hand for his frequent non- 
 attendance. They said to him, " The others of 
 us are always here. You stay away so often that 
 you keep our class record down below the aver- 
 age. Now you've got to do one of two things 
 either come regularly to Sunday-school or quit 
 this class. We shall be glad to have you stay with 
 us ; but we can't have you keep us back, if you 
 \vill be always behind." No rewards were offered 
 for punctuality; but the prominence given to well-
 
 Attendance by Letter. 
 
 31 
 
 doing in this line proved the highest stimulus to 
 all. One Sunday morning a letter came to the 
 superintendent from a boy twelve years old, say- 
 ing that he had never missed a Sunday's attend- 
 ance since he joined the school, but now he must 
 stay at home, for he was threatened with scarlet 
 fever. He was sorry for his detention, and he 
 wanted his superintendent to know its reason. 
 Mr. Haven brought this letter before the school, 
 and, in commending its spirit, announced that 
 thenceforward a letter from a scholar giving a 
 good reason for his absence should be accepted 
 as his representative, and the scholar should be 
 counted present by letter, his name being marked 
 L on the school records. Summer and winter to- 
 gether that school came to average in attendance 
 nearly eighty per cent, of its aggregate member- 
 ship, and in favorable weather nearly ninety per 
 cent, of all on its rolls would be present. This was 
 no spurt of enthusiasm for a brief season ; it con- 
 tinued for years together. Before Mr. Haven's 
 death, three scholars were named as present every 
 Sunday for more than ten years, two scholars for 
 more than seven years, one for more than six 
 years, five for more than four years, and three 
 for more than two years. More than one tenth 
 of the school members were among those present 
 every Sunday in the year, and more than half 
 were of those present at least forty Sundays out 
 
 SECTION IIL 
 A City Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 Taking ex- 
 cuses. 
 
 A high av- 
 erage.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 A City Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 Training to 
 beneficence. 
 
 of the fifty-two. It need hardly be said that the 
 idea of a summer or a winter vacation in that 
 Sunday-school was not so much as named while 
 Mr. Haven w r as its superintendent. There was 
 patient continuance in well-doing there as well as 
 at Waterford. 
 
 Beneficence was also cultivated carefully by Mr. 
 Haven. A "Henry Martyn Missionary Associa- 
 tion " was formed, with an organization distinct 
 from the school, yet including the same member- 
 ship. "Weekly contributions to the funds of this 
 association were made by the classes severally. 
 It had its regular quarterly meetings, with reports 
 of receipts and charities. A missionary of the 
 American Sunday-school Union in the West re- 
 ceived a portion of his support from its funds, 
 and corresponded regularly with its members. 
 Occasional special offerings were also made to 
 various objects of benevolence in the home and 
 foreign field. By-and-by there came a new call 
 for giving. The church building was destroyed 
 by fire. A new house of worship must be built, 
 and all needed to bear a part in the work. Mr. 
 Haven promptly secured the organization, in the 
 school, of a "Building Aid Cent Society." Its 
 members were in four classes of givers. The first 
 class were to pay one cent a month, the second 
 class one cent a week, the third class one cent a 
 day, and the fourth class two cents a day. No
 
 Giving better than Iteceiviny. 
 
 33 
 
 member was allowed to give more than the last- 
 named sum. Certificates of membership were is- 
 sued to the donors, and the collections were taken 
 up in the school, Sunday by Sunday. About two 
 hundred and sixty persons entered into this plan, 
 and the aggregate of their donations for the year 
 of its trial was upwards of twelve hundred dollars. 
 This giving did not meanwhile interfere with the 
 contributions to the funds of the Henry Martyn 
 Missionary Association. A little later yet another 
 plan of giving was initiated. In December, 1869, 
 after the work of the Building Aid Cent Society 
 was completed, Mr. Haven proposed that the teach- 
 ers and scholars should, instead of receiving gifts 
 on Christmas, " remember the words of the Lord 
 Jesus, how he said, ' It is more blessed to give than 
 to receive,' " and make an offering for the furnish- 
 ing of the new rooms then preparing for them. 
 The proposition met with favor, and from that 
 time forward a Christmas service of worship, with 
 a Christinas offering to some deserving cause, was 
 a feature in the annual school plans. After a 
 time, Mr. Haven came ta feel that systematic and 
 consecrated giving was better than giving under 
 any pressure of special appeal or of peculiar at- 
 tractiveness in the object of charity ; so he intro- 
 duced the " envelope system " of giving. Weekly 
 class offerings were made, in envelopes, to a com- 
 mon charitv fund, with the understanding that all 
 
 / c/ 
 
 SUCTION III. 
 A City Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 Christmas 
 giving.
 
 34: 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 A City Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 Training in 
 Bible study. 
 
 the money received was to be applied to outside 
 Christian beneficences none of it to be used for 
 school expenses. It was soon found that there 
 was a gain by this plan, both in the aggregate of 
 receipts and in the relative number of regular 
 givers, over that formerly in vogue in the school. 
 So there was progress in the matter of consecrated 
 giving as well as in punctual attendance. 
 
 But no attention to formal worship, to punctu- 
 ality, and to beneficence, no effort at training the 
 young in that school to be always present, to join 
 in responsive exercises, and to give as God pros- 
 pered them, took precedence of the first and great- 
 est work of the school. That was a Bible-school, 
 gathered for the systematic and reverent study of 
 God's word, to the end that those who had a part 
 in it might grow in the knowledge of that word 
 and in the love and likeness of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. The Bible was the text -book of the 
 school. Its study there was systematic and thor- 
 ough, promoted by examinations and reviews in 
 both class and desk. The spirit of worship per- 
 vaded all the exercises. And no effort was spared 
 to impress each scholar with a sense of his indi- 
 vidual responsibility to God and to win him to the 
 step of personal Christian decision. Nor was he 
 neglected when fairly in the church fold. The 
 words of the superintendent at the close of the 
 school hour gave emphasis to the spiritual teach-
 
 Work for Individuals. 
 
 35 
 
 ing of the lesson for the day, or pressed home 
 some pungent thought suggested by the deatli of 
 a scholar or teacher, or other special providence 
 which had prominence for the time in the minds 
 of those present. The teachers were counselled to 
 converse with their scholars individually, at their 
 homes or elsewhere, on the subject of personal re- 
 ligion. On particular occasions the teachers were 
 addressed by the superintendent through a circu- 
 lar letter urging attention to this duty and giving 
 hints as to the methods of its performance. Sun- 
 day-school prayer- meetings on a week-day even- 
 ing were at times held for months together ; and, 
 again, there were inquiry-meetings at the superin- 
 tendent's house for those whose interest in per- 
 sonal religion had been awakened. And there 
 were classes of inquirers and young converts 
 banded together for mutual prayer and conversa- 
 tion. Tracts and other religious reading were 
 often judiciously distributed in the school. Mr. 
 Haven himself, with all the pressure of his varied 
 duties, took time to teach a class in each of the 
 schools which he superintended ; and he was as 
 faithful and zealous in his care for the individual 
 souls thus in his personal charge as if he lived for 
 nothing else. When asked on one occasion how 
 he managed, with all his other work, to meet his 
 scholars on a week-day for religious conversation, 
 as he had mentioned doing, he explained his meth- 
 
 SEOTION III. 
 A City Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 Working 
 >for souls. 
 
 An early 
 call.
 
 36 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SKOTION III. 
 A City Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 Training to 
 church at- 
 teudaune. 
 
 od in this way: "Well, it wasn't an easy matter. 
 I told them, to start with, that my only time for 
 seeing them was before six in the morning, for 
 every hour after that was fully engaged until ten 
 in the evening. But I thought that, if they looked 
 at this thing aright, they'd be willing to get up 
 extra early for one morning to fairly consider it ; 
 and I wasn't mistaken. They came to my house 
 by appointment soon after five. We had a de- 
 lightful hour together." With such work as this 
 doing by superintendent and teachers, it was clear 
 that no attention to machinery and methods in 
 the running of this school hindered the highest 
 devotion to the spiritual welfare of its members. 
 
 This school was a church school, and as such it 
 was as carefully run in conjunction with the other 
 departments of the church work of which it w r as 
 a part as the Waterford school was run indepen- 
 dently. Its regular sessions immediately preceded 
 the forenoon church service, and a large majority 
 of those present went directly from the school- 
 room to the sanctuary. The duty of faithful 
 church attendance was frequently enjoined by 
 the superintendent, and he asked reports from 
 his teachers of the number of their scholars who 
 were regularly in this habit. For years the pas- 
 tor of the church the Rev. Dr. George B. Will- 
 cox was accustomed to attend the school ses- 
 sions ; also to preach to the school on one Sunday
 
 Influence of an Example. 
 
 37 
 
 evening of each month. Once a month, also, the 
 Sunday-school concert, with its general exercises 
 of worship, its topical recitation of Bible texts, 
 and its addresses to the young, occupied a Sunday 
 evening. On the other Sunday evenings of the 
 month the members of the school would gather at 
 the church before the regular service to sing Sun- 
 day-school hymns under an efficient and enthusi- 
 astic leader. The church made ample provision 
 for the school, and counted it an important por- 
 tion of its charge. The school, on the other hand, 
 was a constant feeder to the church, increasing its 
 congregation and gradually swelling its member- 
 ship. 
 
 The influence of such a school as this could 
 hardly fail of extending itself for good far beyond 
 its immediate bounds. It was an illustration of 
 the value of system and thoroughness. Its meth- 
 ods commanded attention and were imitated in 
 other schools. They were reported in Sunday- 
 school periodicals and at conventions and insti- 
 tutes. Its opening and closing exercises were 
 copied far and near. It is, indeed, not too much 
 to say that these did a great deal towards giving 
 larger prominence to the element of w r orship in 
 the Sunday-school and in shaping the general 
 character of the exercises of the superintendent's 
 desk throughout the United States. And other 
 schools mission schools in the city, or neighbor- 
 
 SKOTION III. 
 
 ACitySnii- 
 day-HchK)l. 
 
 Power of a 
 good exam- 
 ple.
 
 38 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 A City Sun- 
 day-school. 
 
 A banian 
 growth. 
 
 hood schools in the country were superintended 
 by those who studied and taught in Mr. Haven's 
 Sunday-school. At one time four members of 
 his school were thus superintending other Sun- 
 day-schools at different hours of the day; while 
 scores of those who had been members were 
 preaching the gospel or were superintending and 
 teaching in the Sunday-school elsewhere. If Mr. 
 Haven had never done anything more for the 
 cause of Christ than he accomplished in and 
 through that church Sunday - school, he would 
 have left a glorious record of Christian service; 
 but that was only a single item in his varied and 
 fruitful labors for the honor of his Master and 
 the welfare of his fellows.
 
 Using Patterns Wisely. 
 
 39 
 
 IY. 
 
 METHODS AND HELPS: 
 
 In the Study ; with the Teachers ; in the Desk ; with the Scholars ; 
 among the Records ; at Special Services. 
 
 WHEN a man has been successful for a series 
 of years in a given line of service, there is always 
 something to be learned from his peculiar meth- 
 ods of work ; for there is no such thing as a per- 
 manent success without a reason for it. Men do 
 not stumble into the right way of overcoming ob- 
 stacles ; nor do they build up an abiding structure 
 without a wise plan. He who has made large at- 
 tainment and steady progress in any department 
 of life has done so through the judicious use of 
 well-chosen instrumentalities. What he did, and 
 how he did it ; what things he used, and how he 
 used them are points worth considering by those 
 who would achieve like results in a similar field. 
 Yet, with all this, every man must finally be him- 
 self, and do his own work in his own way, if he 
 would have success. No other man's methods 
 ought to bind him in his work. The advantage 
 to be gained from a study of the methods and 
 helps of another is *in considering their sugges- 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 .aid Helps. 
 
 Beina; cue's 
 self.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SKOTIOS IV, 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Always on 
 the watch. 
 
 Making 
 ready to 
 
 do. 
 
 tions, not in following them blindly. Mr. Haven 
 was an exceptionally intelligent pioneer in ways 
 of working as a Sunday-school superintendent. 
 Moreover, to the last he was constantly on the 
 watch in every direction for new plans and bet- 
 ter agencies disclosed in the experience of others. 
 Hence, even though he ought not to be accepted 
 as a sure guide, there is much to be learned from 
 the methods he pursued and the helps he adopt- 
 ed in the varied Sunday-school labors of his city 
 and country fields. 
 
 IN THE STUDY. 
 
 Mr. Haven's first care was to prepare himself 
 thoroughly for whatever he had to do. This 
 preparation included the deciding what was to 
 be done and the learning how to do it. All this 
 was attended to before the time came for speech 
 or action. He never went to his Sunday-school 
 without knowing before he left home just what 
 he was to do at every step in the school exercises. 
 He knew r what hymns were to be given out, what 
 Bible selections were to be read, who was to of- 
 fer prayer, what announcements were to be made, 
 what he was to say to the school, and how long 
 he was to be in saying it. He never stood in his 
 desk waiting for one minute to think what should 
 be done or said next ; that had been settled be- 
 forehand. Commonly a memorandum was made
 
 Beginning at the Bottom. 
 
 of all these points. At his home he noted on a 
 slip of paper the order of exercises for the coin- 
 ing Sunday. Even when he used a printed form 
 of service, he noted separately the hymns and spe- 
 cial readings, the notices, the person who was to 
 pray, and the outline of his brief address, or the 
 order of his examining questions, for the day. To 
 all of these things he gave careful and prayerful 
 thought. Whatever of success he had in this line 
 of service was the result of downright study with 
 a consecrated purpose. What superintendent ever 
 won success in any other way? 
 
 It is to be remembered that Mr. Haven began 
 his Sunday-school work without an education, 
 without books, without money, and without lei- 
 sure. He had, at the start, no well-supplied libra- 
 ry, no acquaintance with the contents of books, no 
 time to devote to study if books were available, 
 and no means for the purchase of books. His 
 early circumstances were no more favorable to 
 success than those of the humblest young man 
 who reads this story of his well-doing and wishes 
 he could do as admirably. But Mr. Haven ob- 
 tained first a Bible and a hymn-book, and until 
 he secured other helps to study he made excellent 
 use of these. He would take time when work 
 pressed hardest .take it from eating or sleeping 
 if necessary to study his next Sunday's lesson. 
 Unless he knew that lesson well enough to teach 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Having a 
 plau. 
 
 An humble 
 stun.
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV, 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 A growing 
 library. 
 
 it, he did not consider himself ready to lead the 
 teachers in its study, nor yet to lead the school in 
 timely opening and closing exercises while it was 
 under consideration there. Lesson-study with his 
 limited advantages and the few helps at his dis- 
 posal was no slight undertaking ; but he was pray- 
 erful and persistent in it, and of course he was 
 successful. This method always brings success in 
 Bible study. 
 
 As he gained in means, Mr. Haven added to his 
 stock of books, and all the books which he pur- 
 chased he made intelligent use of. Gradually he 
 accumulated a well - selected library. The more 
 he learned, the more he wanted to learn. His 
 growing experience helped him to better methods 
 of study, not to getting on without study. Each 
 year found him giving more time, week by week, 
 to preliminary work for his Sunday duties. Lat- 
 terly he was a careful reader of the best of the 
 multiplied helps to the study of the International 
 lessons, yet without neglecting the fresh study of 
 the Bible. His opening and closing exercises ; 
 his special plans for review Sundays, for monthly 
 concerts, for school anniversaries, and for Christ- 
 mas and Easter services to the latest year of his 
 life cost him quite as much labor as anything of 
 the sort in the earlier days of his school work. 
 Forty years of experience made him value only 
 the more highly his work at home over what he
 
 Sharpening the Tools. 
 
 43 
 
 was to do in the schoolroom. It in no degree 
 lessened his dependence on careful preliminary 
 study. If more superintendents would give as 
 much time to close and prayerful preparation for 
 their Sunday-school duties as Mr. Haven averaged 
 during all the long years of his faithful service, 
 such success as crowned his labors would not be 
 so rare. The trouble is that, as a rule, the less 
 genius a man has, the less he is willing to work. 
 The man of inferior talent commonly wants to 
 get on as well as the superior one without giving 
 as much time to it. Mr. Haven did have a cer- 
 tain amount of genius ; therefore he worked hard 
 to make himself ready for whatever he had to do. 
 He was methodical to the last degree in study, 
 as in everything else. Every book or paper in his 
 library had its well-known place a place where 
 it would be most available for convenient use in 
 the snatches of time he could give to study. If a 
 book of reference lacked an index, he would care- 
 fully compile one in manuscript, or have it com- 
 piled for him. Not being satisfied with any of the 
 existing collections of hymns for Sunday-schools, 
 he arranged one to his own liking with a great 
 deal of study, and had it printed for private circu- 
 lation. He would select one hymn for each Sun- 
 day, as appropriate to the lesson, for three months, 
 in advance ; and print a list of these on cards to 
 hand to teachers and scholars, that all might com- 
 
 SEOTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Gen ins 
 mean a work 
 
 Everything 
 iu its place.
 
 44: 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 Finding 
 time. 
 
 *h se hj mn s to memory one each week. On 
 and Helps. S p ec j a i occasions, such as the death of a scholar or 
 teacher, or the entering of a new schoolroom, he 
 would compose an appropriate hymn, or secure 
 the composing of one. All this took time. Of 
 course it did. But Mr. Haven always found time 
 for whatever he felt must be done. Every man 
 does this. 
 
 WITH THE TEACHERS. 
 
 No man can carry on a Sunday-school all by 
 himself. Nor can a Sunday-school be carried on 
 with one spirit and one plan unless all who have 
 a part in its direction are agreed as to the work 
 to be done, and as to the proper way of doing it. 
 A superintendent must count much on the help 
 of his teachers ; and he must have his teachers 
 often together for mutual counsel and study, if 
 he would have his school a unit and effective for 
 its best service. Mr. Haven understood this. He 
 knew that a good Sunday-school without a weekly 
 teachers' meeting was not a possibility. He never 
 attempted anything of the sort in all his forty 
 years* experience. 
 
 In his country Sunday-school, where the widely 
 scattered teachers could not well be brought to- 
 gether on a week-day evening, Mr. Haven held 
 his teachers' meeting at the close of the ordinary 
 Sunday-school session ; and at that time the next 
 Sunday's lesson was taken up for preliminary ex- 
 
 The tench- 
 ers' meeting
 
 Tact with the Teacher*. 
 
 45 
 
 animation. In his city school, the teachers' meet- 
 ing was at his house on Saturday evening. No 
 pains on his part were lacking to make it a suc- 
 cess. It was not a teachers' class taught by the 
 superintendent. It was a gathering of teachers 
 led by the superintendent in a mutual examina- 
 tion of the lesson, and in consultation over meth- 
 ods of its teaching. It was largely conducted by 
 questions on the superintendent's part answered 
 freely by the teachers, who sometimes were, and 
 sometimes were not, called on by name. The ef- 
 fort w r as to bring the teachers to help each other 
 to a common understanding and use of the lesson. 
 They were not together to hear what their super- 
 intendent should tell them. What each had gain- 
 ed in separate study was brought there for the 
 benefit of all. The superintendent's work was 
 to draw out the results of their study, and to see 
 to it that any erroneous views were corrected as 
 quietly as was consistent with effectiveness. 
 
 Mr. Haven's good sense and tact were shown to 
 peculiar advantage in the conduct of his teachers' 
 meetings. A single illustration of this will suf- 
 fice with the use of other names than the real 
 ones, for obvious reasons. The lesson for the 
 evening was " The Healing of Blind Bartimeus." 
 " What city had Jesus visited ?" asked Mr. Ha- 
 ven. " Jericho," was the answer. "As he passed 
 out from Jericho, who was sitting by the way- 
 
 SKCTION IV. 
 Mel hods 
 mid Help**. 
 
 All hnving 
 a part. 
 
 Drawing 
 them out.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Ilelps. 
 
 Jericho asy- 
 lums. 
 
 side ?" " Blind Bartimeus, the son of Timeus."- 
 " For what was he sitting there ?" " To beg."- 
 "Mr. White, why do you suppose that Bartimeus 
 sat there and begged instead of going to the Jer- 
 icho blind- asy lum ?" asked Mr. Haven, with the 
 intention of bringing out the truth that there 
 were no blind -asylums until Christianity devel- 
 oped them. Unexpectedly, however, the answer 
 came back, " Well, I suppose he had the feeling 
 that he didn't want to be in an asylum." Instead 
 of hastily correcting this error so as to mortify 
 or embarrass the teacher, Mr. Haven showed no 
 sign of surprise, but quietly turned to one of his 
 more intelligent teachers with the question, "Miss 
 Green, if Bartimeus had overcome any prejudice 
 of this sort which he might have entertained, do 
 you think he would have found any blind-asylum 
 in Jericho to go to ?" " I had not supposed there 
 was anything of that nature there at that time," 
 was the kindly, considerate reply. "Is it your 
 idea, Mrs. Black," asked Mr. Haven of yet another 
 bright teacher, " that blind-asylums were yet start- 
 ed anywhere in the days of which we are study- 
 ing ?" " No, sir," was the response ; " I have un- 
 derstood that such institutions for the care of the 
 blind, and the deaf and dumb, and the insane, 
 were the outgrowth of Christianity." And so the 
 desired truth was gradually brought out, under 
 Mr. Haven's judicious lead, without disturbing the
 
 Spurring his Teachers. 
 
 47 
 
 feelings of the one \vlio had been in error at the 
 
 O 
 
 start. And this was a specimen of his wise meth- 
 ods of helping his teachers to a higher attainment 
 in study. 
 
 After the lesson had been gone over in the 
 teachers' meeting, Mr. Haven would bring out 
 some methods of its teaching by calling on one 
 intelligent teacher or another to say how he or 
 she would use it in the class. " Miss Gray, you 
 have a class of bright boys. What points for 
 them do you find in this lesson ? and how are 
 you going to teach them ?" Or, again, " Your 
 scholars are all church members, Mr. Brown. 
 How are you going to use this lesson for their 
 benefit ?" In this way the teachers' meeting con- 
 joined the best work of the normal class with 
 that of the class for lesson -study, combining the 
 main features of both the preparation class and 
 the practice class of the English workers. 
 
 No teachers' meeting is kept up for a series of 
 years without hard work. Not only must the 
 exercises be made uniformly attractive, but there 
 must be often renewed effort on the superintend- 
 ent's part to stimulate the flagging zeal of teach- 
 ers in sustaining it, and to secure the attendance 
 of all who ought to share its benefits. Mr. Haven 
 did not forget this. At the opening of the new 
 year, a few months before his death, he addressed 
 a circular letter to his teachers on this subject, re- 
 
 SKOTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Show how 
 you do it. 
 
 Urging at- 
 tendance.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Will you 
 come ': 
 
 A lifc-fiml- 
 cleath mat- 
 te i-. 
 
 Let us pray ! 
 
 porting the attendance at the meetings of the year 
 before, and adding this appeal : 
 
 "I am sure that all the teachers desire to prepare themselves 
 before they commence their important duties ; and I do not believe 
 it is possible for them to obtain as much help or assistance in that 
 preparation in the same time in any other way as they can do by 
 meeiing with us for the mutual study and examination of the les- 
 son, for one hour, on Saturday evening, at eight o'clock. Will you 
 not make a special exertion the present year, and encourage your 
 superintendent and fellow - teachers, at least by your presence, if 
 not by your counsel and thoughts, at our weekly meetings?" 
 
 On the first Sunday of his superintendency at 
 the little school in Waterford, in May, 1836, Mr. 
 Haven organized a teachers' meeting and normal 
 class for the benefit of those who were his co- 
 workers there. Forty years later, his last work 
 on earth was in leading the teachers' meeting of 
 his city Sunday-school in !New London. That 
 was a good way of beginning Sunday-school 
 work. That was a good service to close life 
 with. The superintendent who has not started 
 a teachers' meeting in his school has not begun 
 to live as he ought to. The superintendent who 
 has no teachers' meeting to lead is not ready to 
 die. 
 
 In seasons of special religious interest Mr. Ha- 
 ven would gather his teachers at his home for 
 consultation and prayer over the scholars of their 
 charge ; or he would ask them to visit their schol- 
 ars personally to talk and pray with them concern-
 
 Praying for the Scholars. 
 
 ing their spiritual welfare. One of his circular 
 invitations to the teachers reads thus: 
 
 "You are kindly invited to attend a meeting of the teachers, at 
 my house, on Wednesday evening next, at half-past seven o'clock. 
 The meeting will have special reference to the religious interest 
 recently manifested in the school, and each teacher is requested 
 to report 
 
 "The number of scholars in his or her class who are church 
 members. 
 
 "The number who have recently indulged a Christian hope. 
 
 "The number who are thoughtfully considering at this time 
 their own religious state. 
 
 "If you are unavoidably detained from the meeting, please send 
 in your report." 
 
 And again, on the Monday after a Sunday's ses- 
 sion of unusually tender feeling, he wrote thus to 
 each of the teachers who had been present : 
 
 "DEAR FKIEXD, The interest in personal religion now per- 
 vading our dear Sunday-school is of such a deep and tender nat- j 
 ure that I feel warranted in inviting and urging each teacher to 
 special personal effort at this time to gather in the harvest. 
 
 "'He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, 
 shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves 
 with him.' 
 
 "Will you allow me to suggest that during the present week 
 you have personal conversation with your scholars, and, when 
 you can do so, have a religious class-meeting with them at your 
 own house ? 
 
 "Thanking you for your uniformly kind co-operation in our 
 Sunday-school work, and for your sympathy and presence in our 
 school yesterday morning, when the Lord made our hearts so glad, 
 "I remain, yours in the fellowship of Jesus, 
 
 "HENRY P. HAVEN." 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Method* 
 
 and Help-. 
 
 A loving re- 
 minder.
 
 50 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Mnltiplyiug 
 himself. 
 
 The place 
 of power. 
 
 In such ways as this, as also bj his personal con- 
 versations with his teachers according to their in- 
 dividual possibilities and needs, Mr. Haven not 
 only made himself the helper and guide of his 
 co-workers in every department of their Sunday- 
 school service, but through them he multiplied 
 himself in all the school activities. He did most 
 by bringing others to do more. His best work 
 was in so skilfully keeping others at work. That 
 is always the way of the wise leader of men. 
 
 IN THE DESK. 
 
 It is in the desk that the superintendent can 
 make himself felt at his fullest power. It is there 
 that he can use to best advantage all the influence 
 he has gained over teachers and scholars through 
 his personal intercourse with 1 them elsewhere. At 
 that station, if anywhere, he gives shape and di- 
 rection to the character of the school as a school, 
 and evidences and exhibits his own character as 
 a man and as a leader. Whatever he does else- 
 w r here, a man fails as a superintendent if he is 
 not successful in impressing himself upon teach- 
 ers and scholars alike, and in bringing all to unity 
 of thought and feeling for the time being as he 
 stands before them, in the school desk. Hence 
 the measure, the bearing, and the methods of Mr. 
 Haven in the superintendent's desk are \vell worth 
 considering.
 
 Leading the Exercises. 
 
 51 
 
 In no other place was Mr. Haven more thor- 
 oughly characteristic, more completely himself, 
 than just there. Of the very many who knew 
 him in Sunday-school work, more will probably 
 recall him as they remember him in the superin- 
 tendent's desk than in any other way. It was 
 there that he was peculiarly reverent, dignified, 
 earnest, tender, and kindly in personal manner 
 and in spoken words; and it was there that he 
 showed pre-eminently his love of order, his love 
 of the word of God, his love of old forms of de- 
 votion and doctrine, his love of sacred music, his 
 love of Christ, and his love of souls. It was there 
 especially that he was in all things an example of 
 the believers. 
 
 While in the desk, Mr. Haven was over his 
 school without being apart from it. He there 
 led in school exercises rather than conducted ex- 
 ercises of his own, after the fashion of those su- 
 perintendents who read and pray and talk in the 
 desk all by themselves, as if it were now their 
 turn to take up the time, while scholars and teach- 
 ers can have a chance by-and-by, unless they have 
 had it already. He saw to it that all had a part 
 in the general exercises, and that each had a part. 
 The Bible readings were responsive, or alternate, 
 or elliptical. There were text recitations in uni- 
 son, and text recitations by sections, by classes, and 
 by individuals. All were expected to join in the 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Methods 
 
 and Helps. 
 
 As he was. 
 
 All and each.
 
 52 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Desk ques- 
 tions. 
 
 Lord's Prayer at the conclusion of the leader's 
 prayer. Even the hymn was read, verse by 
 verse, in alternation by the superintendent and 
 the school. An added interest on the part of all 
 in the closing service was often secured through 
 a question to the school put by the superintend- 
 ent before the period of lesson-study to be an- 
 swered when he should again take the exercises 
 in hand. For example, after the opening ser- 
 vice of worship, just before the teachers turned 
 to their classes, Mr. Haven would say, " Our les- 
 son to-day tells of three things said and of two 
 things done. In our closing service I shall ask 
 you to tell me what all these were." Or, " There 
 is a prayer in to-day's lesson which all of us ought 
 to offer. I want you to be ready before school 
 closes to repeat it to me in the very words of the 
 Bible." Or, again, " We learn to-day of a good 
 action which we should do well to imitate, and 
 of a bad action which w r e ought to shun. I shall 
 ask you by-and-by what these two actions were." 
 Such questions as these w r ould quicken the dull- 
 est scholar to an interest in the search for an 
 answer; and the time given for looking up the 
 answer would enable all to be ready with it. 
 
 There was a system of training and a process 
 of indoctrination carried on in the general exer- 
 cises of Mr. Haven's school as led by him from 
 the desk. Important portions of Scripture and
 
 Supplemental Lessons. 
 
 53 
 
 uninspired formularies of religious truth were 
 thereby intelligently committed to memory. The 
 successive arrangements of Bible readings and rec- 
 itations in the opening and closing services were 
 made to exhibit the leading doctrines of the evan- 
 gelical churches in the very words of the Bible. 
 At different times these proof texts read or re- 
 cited for months together at the opening of the 
 school session in both New London and Water- 
 ford showed God the Creator ; the sinf ulness of 
 man ; the conditions of forgiveness ; the nature 
 and work of Jesus Christ ; the way of salvation ; 
 the church of Christ ; the resurrection ; the future 
 state of the lost and of the redeemed ; the duties 
 of man ; the joys of Christian service ; and other 
 elementary religious tenets. And there were fre- 
 quent recitations of the Ten Commandments, the 
 Beatitudes, choice psalms, and selections from the 
 Epistles ; together with the Apostles' Creed, the 
 Gloria Patri, the Te Deum Laudamus, and the 
 like. In this way the end now aimed at in \vhat 
 is sometimes called the " supplemental lesson," or 
 a course of systematic instruction in doctrine, in 
 addition to the Bible lessons of the International 
 series, was secured by Mr. Haven in his Sunday- 
 school work for long years before his death. It 
 could not be said that those taught in his school 
 studied only detached portions of Scripture, to 
 the neglect of all training in the fundamentals 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 mid Helps. 
 
 Unconscious 
 indoctrina- 
 tion.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Variety in 
 method. 
 
 Giving no- 
 tice to help- 
 ers. 
 
 of the Christian faith. They were well grounded 
 in the great doctrines, and were lovers of the old 
 forms of truth, while they were progressive stu- 
 dents of the word of God. 
 
 There was variety in Mr. Haven's method of 
 conducting the general exercises of his school, as 
 well as in his plan of Bible selections. At one 
 time he would ask for the "golden text" of the 
 day's lesson from the primary department ; again 
 from the lady teachers in unison, or from the gen- 
 tleman teachers ; again from the classes at the 
 right of his desk, or at the left ; again from the 
 entire school together ; and yet again, first from a 
 section, and then from the whole school. So it 
 would be with the answers to his questions on the 
 facts or teachings of the lesson. And in the re- 
 sponsive readings or recitations one part would 
 be assigned to the assistant superintendent, an- 
 other to the secretary, another to the librarians, 
 as well as portions to the several divisions of the 
 school. There was no one way for always, al- 
 though there was one purpose in all. Mr. Haven 
 knew the difference between the "old paths" and 
 the " old ruts," and, while adhering to the one, he 
 kept out of the other. 
 
 If he .sought assistance in the desk from any 
 person, Mr. Haven wanted his helper or his sub- 
 stitute to be well prepared for the desired service, 
 and he gave him timely notice accordingly. He
 
 An Order of /Service. 
 
 55 
 
 felt that it would not be fair to call on a teacher 
 to even lead the devotions of the school in prayer 
 without any opportunity of preparation, and he 
 did not attempt anything of the sort. Yet he 
 believed that there was an advantage in having 
 the voices of his teachers heard in prayer in the 
 desk from time to time, and he planned wisely to 
 secure this. At the beginning of each quarter 
 he issued cards of notification to those teachers 
 whom he wished to call on during three months, 
 in the following form : 
 
 To 
 
 You are invited to offer prayer in the devotional 
 exercises of the school, Sunday morning, - 
 
 187 
 
 HENRY P. HAVEN, Snpt. 
 
 If necessarily absent, please give previous notice to the 
 superintendent or secretary. 
 
 While no one schedule of his school exercises 
 will give a fair idea of the many varied plans of 
 service arranged by Mr. Haven, there is perhaps 
 no better way of showing their general character- 
 istics than by an illustrative specimen, as follows : 
 
 ORDER AND EXERCISES OF WORSHIP. 
 
 At 9. 14 A.M. a single bell-tap calls to attention. 
 At 9.15 the bell strikes twice, and the school rises. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 .mil Helps. 
 
 A notifying 
 card. 
 
 A plan of 
 exercises.
 
 56 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Methods 
 
 and Helps. 
 
 Opening 
 sentences. 
 
 Chanting. 
 
 The superintendent says : 
 
 [May] grace and peace be multiplied unto you, through the 
 knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord. 2 Pet. i, 2. 
 
 The school responds : 
 
 The Lord that made heaven and earth bless thee out of Zion. 
 Psa. cxxxiv, 3. 
 
 Selections are read from Psa. Ixxxix : 
 Superintendent : 
 
 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, 
 And to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. 
 
 School : 
 
 O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee ? 
 Or to thy faithfulness round about thee? 
 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne : 
 Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. 
 
 Primary class: 
 
 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound : 
 
 They shall walk, O Lord! in the light of thy countenance. 
 
 Superintendent : 
 
 In thy name shall they rejoice all the day ; 
 And in thy righteousness shall they be exalted. 
 For the Lord is our defence, 
 And the Holy One of Israel is our King. 
 
 All in concert : 
 
 Blessed be the Lord for evermore ! 
 Amen, and Amen. 
 
 A selection from Psa. cxlv is chanted : 
 
 I will extol thee, my | God, O | King ; 
 
 And I will bless thy | name for I ever and | ever. 
 
 Every day will I [ bless | thee ; 
 
 And I will praise thy | name for | ever and | ever. 
 
 The Lord is gracious and | full of com- | passion ;
 
 An Order of Service. 
 
 57 
 
 mercy. 
 
 all his 
 ways, 
 
 works. 
 
 Slow to anger, | and of | great 
 
 The Lord is | good to | all ; 
 
 And his tender mercies are | over 
 
 The Lord is righteous in | all his 
 
 z\nd | holy in | all his | works. 
 
 The Lord preserveth all | them that | love him, 
 
 But all the wicked | will | he de- | stroy. 
 
 The school is seated, and the superintendent reads a brief Script- 
 ure selection appropriate to the lesson of the day. 
 
 The school rises for responsive readings from Jeremiah : 
 
 Superintendent : 
 
 Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob ; 
 And all the families of the house of Israel. 
 
 School: 
 
 Thus saith the Lord, 
 
 Stand ye in the ways and see, 
 
 And ask for the old paths, 
 
 Where is the good way, and walk therein, 
 
 And ye shall find rest for your souls. 
 
 Superintendent : 
 
 Return, ye backsliding children, 
 And I will heal your backslidings. 
 
 School : 
 
 Behold, we come unto thee, 
 
 For thou art the Lord our God. 
 
 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, 
 
 And from the multitude of mountains : 
 
 Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. 
 
 Superintendent : 
 
 But this thing commanded I them, saying, 
 
 Obey my voice, 
 
 And I will be your God, 
 
 And ye shall be my people : 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Responsive 
 readings.
 
 58 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Praise aud 
 prayer. 
 
 Doctrinal 
 recitations. 
 
 And walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, 
 That it may be well unto you. 
 School : 
 
 Thus saith the Lord, 
 
 Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, 
 Neither let the mighty man glory in his might ; 
 Let not the rich man glory in his riches. 
 
 Sujierintendent : 
 
 But let him that glorieth glory in this, 
 
 That he understandeth and knoweth me, 
 
 That I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, 
 
 Judgment, and righteousness, in the earth. 
 
 School : 
 
 For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. 
 
 Primary class : 
 
 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, 
 My father ! thou art the guide of my youth. 
 
 A II in concert : 
 
 Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, 
 And shall flow together to the goodness of the Lord. 
 
 A selected hymn is sung, after being read by the superintendent 
 and school in alternate verses. 
 
 The school being seated all with bowed heads prayer is of- 
 fered, closing with the Lord's Prayer, in which all join audibly. 
 
 (Tliis prayer is offered on the first Sunday in each month by the 
 superintendent; on the other Sundays by a teacher who has been 
 notified at the beginning of the quarter.) 
 
 The school rises and recites in concert selections from Scripture, 
 showing the nature and work of Jesus Christ, as the several state- 
 ments are declared in their order by the superintendent : 
 
 JESUS CHRIST IS THE SOX OF GOD. 
 
 I will declare the decree : the Lord hath said unto me, Thou 
 art my Son ; this day have I begotten thee. Psa. ii, 7.
 
 An Order of Service. 
 
 59 
 
 For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when 
 there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is 
 my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 2 Pet. i, 17. 
 
 HE 18 ALSO GOD. 
 
 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
 and the Word was God. John i, 1. 
 
 But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and 
 ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. 
 Heb. i, 8. 
 
 HE BECAME MAN. 
 
 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we 
 beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), 
 full of grace and truth. John i, 14. 
 
 For verily he took not on him the nature of angels ; but he took 
 on him the seed of Abraham. Heb. ii, 16. 
 
 HE IS WILLING TO SAVE SINNERS. 
 
 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that 
 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I Tim. i, 15. 
 
 And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son 
 to be the Saviour of the world. 1 John iv, 14. 
 
 HE DIED FOR THEM. 
 
 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were 
 yet sinners, Christ died for us. Rom. v, 8. 
 
 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, 
 how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. 
 1 Cor. xv, 3. 
 
 HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD. 
 
 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. 
 Acts ii, 32. 
 
 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he 
 might be Lord both of the dead and living. Rom. xiv, 9. 
 
 HE IS OUR MEDIATOR. 
 
 And to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the 
 
 SECTION IV, 
 Method* 
 and Helps. 
 
 Doctrinnl 
 
 recitation.-.
 
 60 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV, 
 
 Methods 
 
 and Helps. 
 
 Doctrinal 
 recitations. 
 
 Lesson 
 study. 
 
 Closing ex- 
 ercises. 
 
 blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel. 
 Heb. xii, L>4. 
 
 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, 
 the man Christ Jesus. 1 Tim. ii, 5. 
 
 HE IS OCR INTERCESSOR. 
 
 Who is he that condemneth ? It is Christ that died, yea rather 
 that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also 
 maketh intercession for us. Kom. viii, 34. 
 
 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that 
 come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession 
 for them. Heb. vii, 25. 
 
 (A hymn is sung, on the first Sunday of the month, by the pri- 
 mary class alone.) 
 
 The school is seated. Announcements and notices for the day 
 and week are made. 
 
 At 9.35 the class exercises begin. Forty minutes are given to 
 these. 
 
 At 10.13 a single tap of the bell gives two minutes' notice of the 
 close of lesson-stud} r . 
 
 At 10.15 a second bell-tap calls to attention. 
 
 The "golden text" is recited by the teachers, by designated 
 classes, or by the entire school, as called for by the superintendent. 
 
 At 10.17 the missionary offerings for the day are gathered, 
 while appropriate passages of Scripture on Christian giving are 
 recited by the superintendent or chanted by the school choir, as, 
 for example : 
 
 Lay up for yourselves | treasures in | heaven, | where neither 
 moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do | not break | 
 through nor | steal. 
 
 Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, | how he | said, | It is 
 more blessed to | give than | to re- | ceive. 
 
 To do good and to communicate, | forget not; | for with such 
 sacrifices | God is | well | pleased. 
 
 He that soweth sparingly shall I reap also | sparingly; | and he 
 that soweth bountifully shall | reap | also | bountifully.
 
 With the Scholars. 
 
 Gl 
 
 At 10.1!) the superintendent reviews the lesson by questions, 
 and adds comments. 
 
 At 10.29 a hymn is sung. 
 
 The attendance for the day is announced. 
 
 The school closes with the Gloria Patri : 
 
 Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost ; 
 As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world with- 
 out end. Amen. 
 
 AVITII THE SCHOLARS. 
 
 The primary object of a Sunday -school is the 
 good of its scholars. Unless they are advantaged, 
 the school is practically a failure. It may be a 
 unit in its organization, superintendent and teach- 
 ers working as one in its management ; it may 
 have completeness of system and beauty of meth- 
 od; its exercises may seem attractive and impres- 
 sive ; its atmosphere may be one of reverence and 
 devotion ; its teachers may be thoroughly instruct- 
 ed ; its attendance may be large and uniform, 
 and yet its scholars may lack that attention to 
 their individual needs which would make profit- 
 able to them personally all that the school offers 
 for their welfare. Unless a superintendent knows 
 how his scholars fare in and through their Sun- 
 day-school, he does not know \vhether his school 
 is a good one or not ; whether it is falling short 
 of or meeting the chief object of its being. 
 
 Mr. Haven was not a superintendent to neglect 
 attention to his scholars. It was not enough for 
 
 Sl'.CTION IV. 
 
 Method* 
 and Helps. 
 
 Gloria Patri. 
 
 The test of a 
 good school.
 
 62 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SHOTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Looking 
 iifier the 
 scholars. 
 
 A home 
 party. 
 
 him to so conduct the school exercises that all the 
 scholars should have an intelligent part in them ; 
 to give such prominence to the matter of punct- 
 ual attendance and systematic giving and lesson 
 recitations as should make every scholar feel a 
 personal pressure to be faithful ; nor yet to en- 
 join it upon his teachers to plead and to pray with 
 their scholars individually, he must look after 
 the scholars himself; he must reach them col- 
 lectively and singly as scholars, apart from their 
 place in the school as a whole. To this end he 
 was untiringly faithful. Although their number 
 was so large in his two schools, he sought to know 
 all his scholars personally. This was far easier in 
 the country than in the city school. From the 
 latter he was accustomed to invite all to his house 
 on a summer evening, arranging for their coming 
 in three divisions, that they might be the better 
 provided for. The primary class would be there 
 from five o'clock to six ; the intermediate depart- 
 ment from six and a half to seven and a half \ the 
 senior department from eight to ten. Refresh- 
 ments were prepared for them ; and there was 
 an opportunity of a closer personal acquaintance 
 than would be possible at the school. Then there 
 would be a summer sail up the river for a picnic 
 gathering in the woods above, and a New-year's 
 assembling in the chapel for pleasant social exer- 
 cises, and other occasional meetings, not distinctly
 
 Enjoying a Laugh. 
 
 63 
 
 religious, whereby the scholars and their teachers 
 might come to know each other and their super- 
 intendent more familiarly. To promote the pur- 
 pose of these gatherings, an " Agreeable Commit- 
 tee" was formed, to see that all w r ere acquainted 
 and had a good time together. There are a good 
 many teachers outside of New London who might 
 gain from a term of service on such a committee 
 as that. 
 
 The genial and heartier side of Mr. Haven's 
 nature showed itself to advantage in these social 
 gatherings. He entered into all the enjoyments 
 of his scholars with unmistakable relish. " I saw 
 him once," says his pastor, " when over fifty years 
 of age, playing ball, with his coat off, at a Sun- 
 day-school picnic, as heartily as any boy on the 
 ground." And he could laugh right merrily when 
 there was a chance for a good laugh. On one oc- 
 casion when he had the scholars at his house of a 
 summer evening to eat strawberries from his own 
 garden, he attempted a moral lesson, which was 
 turned most unexpectedly into a laugh, enjoyed 
 by himself as much as by anybody. Calling the 
 attention of the little folks, who were filling them- 
 selves with the luscious fruit, plentifully supplied 
 with cream and sugar, Mr. Haven said, " Scholars, 
 do you like these strawberries ?" " Yes, sir ; yes, 
 sir," came back in full chorus. " "Well, now, I 
 want to ask you a question. Suppose you had 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 An "Agree- 
 able Com- 
 mittee." 
 
 Eating 
 strawber- 
 ries.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 Sugar 
 cream 
 
 and 
 
 SECTION iv. oeen passing; my house and had seen these straw- 
 Methods i J 
 and Helps, berries on the vines in my garden, and you had 
 
 slipped in through the gate and taken some of 
 them from the vines without asking permission, 
 would they have tasted as well to you as they do 
 now?" "JS"o, sir; no, sir," was the one answer 
 from all. " And why not ?" asked the superintend- 
 ent, intent on pressing home the sure drawbacks of 
 dishonesty. "And why not?" There was a mo- 
 ment's pause, and then there came the unlooked- 
 for reply, " Because, sir, we shouldn't have had 
 any sugar and cream on them." It was evident 
 that that boy appreciated sugar and cream in 
 strawberry time, whatever were his doubts as to 
 honesty being the best policy; and Mr. Haven 
 was content to let the strawberries have the first 
 place in all thoughts for that evening. 
 
 But all this effort to become pleasantly ac- 
 quainted with his scholars was with a purpose to 
 promote their truest welfare. He would ascer- 
 tain their personal circumstances and qualities 
 and their plans or desires, and then give them 
 advice or help accordingly. " It is not only as a 
 teacher here that I rniss Mr. Haven," said a schol- 
 ar of his "Waterford school after the good superin- 
 tendent had entered into rest, " but I've lost the 
 best friend I ever had." And there were very 
 many scholars in both his schools who could have 
 said the same thing sincerely. Mr. Haven was al- 
 
 A sfoo 
 frieud.
 
 Young Communicants. 
 
 05 
 
 ways on the watch to counsel and train his schol- 
 ars religiously. A favorite plan of his was to in- 
 vite them to read the Bible regularly in the same 
 order in which he was reading it. In one year 
 nearly seventy in the ]S r ew London school perse- 
 vered in this plan throughout a designated course 
 of reading. By this means Mr. Haven could know 
 just what passages of Scripture were in their day's 
 reading when he met these scholars during the 
 week ; and he could be more sure of reaching 
 them by any word spoken in the line of that read- 
 ing on Sunday from the desk. So soon as he ob- 
 served any signs of special religious interest in the 
 school, Mr. Haven was sure to look after particu- 
 lar scholars, that he might bring them to a Chris- 
 tian decision or strengthen their new-found faith. 
 To this intent he would have them at his house, 
 evening after evening, singly or in little groups. 
 When they were ready to unite with the church, 
 he had words of suggestion or cheer for them. 
 In June, 1874, for example, he had at his house, 
 on a Saturday evening, twenty-three of his schol- 
 ars who were to make a profession of their faith 
 at the next communion. He gave them advice 
 concerning their duties in and to the church ; he 
 emphasized the responsibility of the step they 
 were about taking ; he prayed with them ; and, 
 in parting, he gave to each a copy of a little book 
 "A Walk to the Communion Table" having 
 
 SKOTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Help*. 
 
 Bible read- 
 ing 
 
 Preparing 
 for coni- 
 muuion.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SEOTION IV, 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 A religions 
 class/ 
 
 in it the scholar's name, with an appropriate text 
 of Scripture. And this is an illustration of his 
 methods in this line. 
 
 Mr. Haven valued organization and co-work for 
 the culturing and developing of Christian graces. 
 As early as 1842 a "Religious Class" was formed 
 in connection with his little Waterford school, 
 "having for its object the religions improvement 
 and growth in grace of the professed followers of 
 Jesus in that vicinity." Its plan was not unlike 
 that of the Methodist " class -meeting," with the 
 added features of the " inquiry -meeting." Its 
 meetings were monthly. Members of the class 
 were expected to attend, if possible, every meet- 
 ing, and " to answer in turn the questions of the 
 superintendent on religious subjects, particularly 
 respecting the state of their own hearts." They 
 were, "if necessarily absent, to remember in secret 
 or silent prayer those who were assembled togeth- 
 er." Each member of the class was at liberty to 
 invite in any friends who were indulging a Chris- 
 tian hope, or who were seeking salvation, with the 
 understanding that the new-comers should be also 
 ready to answer any questions propounded by the 
 superintendent. Twenty-five years later a similar 
 class was formed by Mr. Haven in his New Lon- 
 don school ; from which it may fairly be inferred 
 that he found its workings beneficial in its earlier 
 experiment. There was also in connection with
 
 Among the Records. 
 
 67 
 
 his city school a Young Men's Christian Union, 
 "designed to include all young men of the school 
 and congregation over fifteen years old who were 
 desirous of improving their hearts and minds, that 
 they might become efficient helpers in advancing 
 the kingdom of Christ and promoting the best in- 
 terests of society." And " the young ladies of the 
 school between the ages of fourteen and twenty" 
 were gathered, with those from another school, 
 into the " Schauffler Missionary Society," as auxil- 
 iary to the Woman's Board of Missions at Boston. 
 Thus, by his personal efforts with individual 
 scholars, and by his various plans for their mutual 
 quickening, cultivation, and co-work, Mr. Haven 
 cared for and ministered to the scholars of his 
 charge, while conducting so admirably the school 
 of which he and they were members. He made 
 provision for each as well as for all; and herein 
 was wisdom. 
 
 AMONG THE RECORDS. 
 
 Nothing in the line of method and machinery 
 in Sunday-school work is more important than a 
 thorough system of registration and records. A 
 superintendent's best assistant is a competent sec- 
 retary, and a good superintendent will be sure to 
 have a good secretary; if he does not find one at 
 hand, he will train one to order. Under no cir- 
 cumstances will he try to get on without one, or 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Co-working 
 associa- 
 tions. 
 
 A secreta- 
 ry's impor- 
 tance.
 
 68 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 The use of 
 history. 
 
 without the work of one, even if he has to do it 
 himself. A knowledge of one's possessions, an 
 acquaintance with the material available for use, 
 and a record of all that comes in or goes out, is 
 essential to the wise management of any business, 
 secular or religious. Nowhere is it more indis- 
 pensable than in the Sunday-school. Twenty or 
 two hundred scholars cannot be kept track of and 
 properly cared for unless they are individually 
 known and noted, systematically registered, and 
 their attendance or absence carefully recorded. 
 
 Moreover, for the good of the school as well as 
 of the scholars, there should be preserved the rec- 
 ord of those who have gone out from its member- 
 ship, and the story of the school's circumstances 
 and progress in former years. What has been 
 done in and through a school often settles the 
 question of what may reasonably be expected 
 through its agency. There is no Sunday-school 
 where God's word has been taught faithfully for 
 a series of years whose full record would not 
 show reasons for giving God praise and for trust- 
 ing him confidently, while it supplied incentives 
 to yet greater zeal in the same field for the fut- 
 ure. Every school is entitled to the stimulus and 
 cheer of its own best history. The superintend- 
 ent who fails to secure such help to his school 
 to the extent of his ability is unfaithful in that 
 which is much. And those who have been schol-
 
 A Good /Set of Books. 
 
 69 
 
 ars in a Sunday-school ought not to be wholly neg- 
 lected by it when they are no longer in attendance, 
 if there is a possibility of drawing them back to 
 its influence while they are un cared for elsewhere. 
 Every consideration should impel him who would 
 have a good Sunday-school, and have it do a good 
 work, to have a good secretary, and see that he 
 does his work well. Mr. Haven was no more 
 neglectful in this department than in any other. 
 Had he been, he could not have been spoken of as 
 a model superintendent. 
 
 !No sooner did he begin his Sunday-school at 
 Waterford than he began a system of records. 
 These records were continued during his forty 
 years of service there with such fidelity and com- 
 pleteness that it would be easy at all times to as- 
 certain the main incidents of any given Sunday's 
 session, with the attendance on that Sunday of 
 teachers and scholars ; also the actual membership 
 of the school, and its actual and average attend- 
 ance, year by year; the whole number of Sundays 
 on which any designated teacher or scholar had 
 been present in all the years of his membership ; 
 together with aggregates and averages of attend- 
 ance in particular and in general, and the amount 
 of charities in gross and in detail. Besides this 
 record of the school-life and of attendance, there 
 was a ledger record of members of the school, 
 teachers and scholars alike. This was kept in a 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Write in a 
 book.
 
 70 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Keeping 
 track of old 
 members. 
 
 How to 
 have good 
 helpers. 
 
 volume of ample size, so arranged as to give a fair 
 space on a blank page for the name and growing 
 story of each person entering the school. Under 
 the name various items of interest concerning the 
 scholar or teacher were added from time to time, 
 even though the person had ceased to be a mem- 
 ber of the school. In this way it was easy to 
 track the record of all who had been at any time 
 connected with the school, and to know more than 
 would otherwise be possible of the good results of 
 its instruction and influence as evidenced in the 
 lives of its members. 
 
 It may be said that it would be easy to keep up 
 such a system of records as this for a small school 
 in the country, but that it would be out of the 
 question for a large school in the city. Mr. Ha- 
 ven, however, adopted the same plan for his New 
 London school, with its membership of four hun- 
 dred and more ; and if that school had numbered 
 yet ten times as many, he would have deemed 
 like thoroughness in its records only so much 
 the more important. He was favored in his city 
 school with a secretary of rare efficiency and 
 faithfulness, and he prized the labors of this co- 
 worker at their fullest. There would be more 
 good Sunday-school secretaries if more superin- 
 tendents rightly estimated the services of these 
 assistants. All that was secured by the records 
 of the Waterford school was included in the sys-
 
 An Annual fieport. 
 
 71 
 
 tern maintained at New London. The record 
 ledger for the school membership was of large 
 size. One fourth of a page was allotted to each 
 name. The names were chronologically arranged, 
 and an alphabetical index at the close of the vol- 
 ume facilitated the finding of any name sought 
 for. An illustration of its entries will perhaps 
 explain them better than any description. Thus : 
 
 " OLIVER WOODWORTH : 
 
 Entered February 14, 1858. Appointed teacher September 9, 
 1860. Assistant superintendent in 1868, 1870, 1871. Joined 
 the church by letter in July, 1854. Took a class of young la- 
 dies October 19, 1862. Up to July 1, 1871, it has had forty- 
 eight different members, fourteen of whom were married la- 
 dies. It has furnished eight teachers to the school. Super- 
 intendent of mission-school in 1871." 
 
 At the close of each year a full report of the 
 school- life was made up by the secretary. This 
 was commonly printed. It contained matter val- 
 uable for future reference. For example, the for- 
 tieth report, published the year before Mr. Ha- 
 ven's death, gave, a full list of the officers and 
 teachers, and of the scholars, arranged in classes. 
 It told the school story for the year, including the 
 fluctuations of attendance, the various special ser- 
 vices, the course of study, the plan of devotional 
 exercises, the charities, together with responses re- 
 ceived from particular donations. It gave the 
 names of those members who had been present 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 
 and II',-. 
 
 A specimen 
 story. 
 
 The fortieth 
 report.
 
 72 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV, 
 Methods 
 aud Helps. 
 
 The war 
 record. 
 
 Studying 
 the entries. 
 
 every Sunday, and of classes which were note- 
 worthy for their punctuality. It contained a spe- 
 cial tribute to the memory of teachers and schol- 
 ars who had died during the year. It also gave 
 an outline sketch of the school history for its 
 forty years then completed, and much other mat- 
 ter of interest concerning the school plans and 
 methods. The annual report for 1865 reviewed 
 the connection of the school with the struggle to 
 maintain the national authority, and gave a list of 
 its sixty -six members who were in the army or 
 navy during the war including two colonels, one 
 major, one chaplain, seven captains, seven lieuten- 
 ants, in the army, and ten officers or men in the 
 navy together with a personal sketch of each 
 one who had fallen in defence of his country. It 
 was a source of regret to Mr. Haven that his 
 New London school lacked such a record of its 
 work and membership prior to his assuming its 
 charge. 
 
 Although he confided all the preparation and 
 compilation of the school records to his trusty sec- 
 retary, Mr. Haven felt it to be his duty to become 
 thoroughly familiar with their contents, week by 
 week. The completed record was put into his 
 hands at the close of the school session each Sun- 
 day, and he took it home with him for study. It 
 was his custom to rise an hour earlier on Monday 
 morning than on other days of the week, that he
 
 Cards of Itequest. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Help?. 
 
 might devote the extra time to an examination of 
 the Sunday-school records. He carefully observed 
 the attendance of teachers and scholars individu- 
 ally. If one had been absent the last Sunday, he 
 looked back to see if this were the first absence. 
 In this way he was constantly on the watch to 
 guard against a dropping -out of any from the 
 school membership without due efforts to retain 
 them ; also to secure due attention to those who 
 might be sick or in need. As early as 1858 he 
 had adopted the plan of sending out cards of re- sdu)lar? 
 quest to teachers for information concerning ab- 
 sent scholars. The cards were kept at hand, in 
 blank, for use in his Monday -morning examina- 
 tions of the record. When filled up, they would 
 read as follows the words in italics being those 
 written by him, or by the teacher, in the blank 
 spaces of the printed cards. On the one side : 
 
 Where 
 is your 
 
 f mmfr (CnngrFgntiatinl fimltaij-srjjnnl. 
 
 Miss Mary Brown's Class. 
 
 Charles Thompson 
 Has been absent three Sundays. 
 
 Henry P. Haven, Superintendent. 
 
 This told the story of the need. On the other
 
 74: 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 
 side came the call to meet the want, and to make 
 
 nnd He 'P*- report accordingly. Thus : 
 
 Holding 
 teachers 
 to it. 
 
 Who belong 
 here ? 
 
 The teacher is requested to ascertain the reason 
 of absence (by visiting the scholar, if possible), and 
 return this card next Sunday. 
 
 RE AS OUST. 
 
 Charles Thompson has moved to Norwich with Jm 
 parents. 
 
 Only by some such general oversight as this of 
 the school records can all the teachers in any 
 Sunday-school be kept up uniformly to fidelity 
 in looking after their absent scholars. Mr. Ha- 
 ven was too good a superintendent not to realize 
 this truth. Moreover, a plan of this kind enables 
 a superintendent to ascertain who of his teachers 
 are faithful, and who of them need prompting 
 and training, or to be removed from their places 
 for inefficiency. 
 
 There was another advantage in Mr. Haven's 
 Monday-morning study of the records. It show- 
 ed him who had been in the Sunday-school, but 
 were now out of it ; and, from his familiarity 
 with the congregation, he was also reminded 
 who were not in the Sunday-school, but ought 
 to be. These facts he made practically service- 
 able. For example, here is a form of a circular
 
 Circular to Old Scholars. 
 
 75 
 
 letter sent out by him to former members of 
 the school whom he hoped to win back to its at- 
 tendance : 
 
 " SUNDAY-SCHOOL OF THK SECOND CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH,) 
 "NKW LONDON, December 26, 1874. ) 
 
 " DEAR FRIEND, The records of the secretary of our school 
 show that you were formerly one of our scholars. 
 
 "We have now thirty-eight classes, with more than three hun- 
 dred and fifty enrolled members, whose ages range from four to 
 over seventy years. We meet (as we have done for the last seven- 
 teen years without the omission of a single session) at 9.15 on the 
 morning of each Lord's day. 
 
 " We should be very happy to welcome you back to our school, 
 and I take the liberty of sending you this special invitation to re- 
 new your connection with us. 
 
 "May I not hope to see you in our pleasant chapel on Sunday, 
 January 3, 1875 ; and will you not commence the new year by 
 uniting with us again in the study of God's holy word? 
 
 '" 'Come thou with us, and we will do thee good.' 
 "Truly yours, 
 
 "HENRY P. HAVEN, Superintendent." 
 
 A similar appeal was made at the same time to 
 members of the congregation who had not been 
 members of the Sunday-school, with this opening 
 sentence : " As you are a member of our congre- 
 gation, but are not on our Sunday-school records, 
 I take the liberty of extending to you, on this an- 
 niversary day of the birth of our Lord and Sav- 
 iour Jesus Christ, a kind and cordial invitation to 
 unite with our school and join us on the morning 
 of the Christian Sabbath in our worship and Bible 
 study." 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Come back 
 to us. 
 
 Be one of us.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV, 
 Methods 
 and Help?. 
 
 Admission 
 Certificates. 
 
 Reward 
 Certificates 
 
 With so close attention paid to the school rec- 
 ords, no scholar could enter or leave the school 
 without being noticed without being made to 
 realize that his coming or going was a fact note- 
 worthy to him and to the school. For a series of 
 years, if not always, each scholar, on entering the 
 school as a member, received an "Admission Cer- 
 tificate," with its record of the fact and the date 
 of his admission, and with a series of suggestions 
 concerning his duties as a scholar, including such 
 points as these : 
 
 " I must be at school in good time every Sunday." 
 
 " When I reach the school, I must go directly in, and Avalk soft- 
 ly to my seat." 
 
 "During prayer I must reverently bow my head, close my eyes, 
 fold my arms, and sit perfectly still." 
 
 " If I know of any of my schoolmates who are sick or in desti- 
 tute circumstances, I must at once inform my teacher or the su- 
 perintendent." 
 
 "I must try to persuade my parents and friends to accompany 
 me to church and to the Sunday-evening meetings." 
 
 . These certificates were, in some instances, framed 
 and displayed in the scholars' homes; ordinarily 
 they were carefully preserved ; always they were 
 an evidence that the scholars had been received 
 into the school-membership, and had duties towards 
 the school growing out of their connection with 
 it ; duties also towards God, towards their parents, 
 and towards their companions. 
 
 At the same time a " Keward Certificate " was
 
 At Special /Services. 
 
 77 
 
 issued to each scholar who " introduced to the 
 Christian fellowship of that Sunday-school an out- 
 side companion to be enrolled as a member. And 
 when a scholar left the school he received a " Dis- 
 missal Certificate," as follows : 
 
 THIS CERTIFIES that James Wilson has been for two 
 years a regular member of the Sunday school of the Second 
 Congregational Church; and, desiring a dismission from it, 
 he is cordially recommended by the superintendent, teach- 
 ers, and pupils of said school to the care and kindness of 
 those who love the Shepherd and his lambs. 
 
 Henry P. Haven, Superintendent. 
 
 NEW LONDON, CONN., January 3, 1856. 
 
 There were many other ways in which the rec- 
 ords of the school were made to tell on the prog- 
 ress of the school. Lists were made and printed 
 from time to time of those classes which stood 
 highest in their punctuality of attendance ; of 
 teachers and scholars who deserved honorable 
 mention for being present over forty Sundays 
 in a year; of the class-offerings into the Lord's 
 treasury ; and of the aggregates and averages of 
 the benevolent contributions year by year. In- 
 deed, it can be said confidently that no time was 
 better improved by Mr. Haven for the welfare of 
 his New London Sunday-school than the Monday- 
 morning hour passed by him among its records. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Methods 
 
 and Helps. 
 
 Dismission 
 
 Certificates.
 
 78 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 mid Helps. 
 
 Linking the 
 services. 
 
 Preaching 
 to children. 
 
 AT SPECIAL SERVICES. 
 
 A good Sunday-school will not be limited in 
 its services to its weekly sessions for Bible study. 
 It will rather make those sessions a centre about 
 which shall cluster various services with a com- 
 mon spirit and a common aim. If the Sunday- 
 school had no other services than those of its reg- 
 ular sessions, there might be a danger of its be- 
 coming to its members a substitute for the sanc- 
 tuary services of the congregation. But by well- 
 planned special services the school sessions may 
 be attractively linked with the other church ser- 
 vices, so that those who are in the one will come 
 to want a share in the other. 
 
 Mr. Haven was as wise and felicitous in the 
 arranging and conducting of a system of special 
 services for his Sunday-schools as in any other 
 department of the superintendent's work. For 
 years his city school was gathered one Sunday 
 evening in the month in the church audience- 
 room, to be preached to by the pastor and to 
 have a share in fitting exercises of worship. In 
 this way the scholars came to enjoy hearing a 
 sermon and worshipping with the congregation. 
 They learned, also, to know and love their pastor 
 as a preacher ; and his words of invitation to 
 them to be present and hear him at the other 
 services came with tenfold power in consequence.
 
 The Sunday-school Concert. 
 
 79 
 
 This was a better way of handling the question 
 whether the Sunday-school keeps children away 
 from other church services than by complaining, 
 on the one hand, that the teachers do not insist on 
 their scholars attending those services ; or by de- 
 claring, on the other, that children cannot be made 
 to enjoy pulpit preaching and sanctuary worship. 
 Another link between the Sunday-school ses- 
 sion and the sanctuary service which Mr. Haven 
 valued was the monthly Sunday-school concert. 
 This was originally a concert, or union, of prayer 
 and conference concerning the Sunday-school, 
 fashioned after the monthly concert of prayer 
 for missions ; but gradually it came to be a spe- 
 cial service of the Sunday-school, rather than for 
 the Sunday-school, with exercises of worship in 
 which the children bore a part, with recitations 
 of Scripture by teachers and scholars on a pre- 
 viously assigned topic, and with addresses to the 
 school by the superintendent and others. These 
 concerts were kept up by Mr. Haven for many 
 years, in both his Sunday-schools, with excellent 
 judgment on his part, and in great variety. One 
 of his pastors (the Rev. Dr. Willcox) says of Mr. 
 Haven on this point, " He was not, like many 
 men of methodical habits, dry and monotonous 
 in his modes of thought and action. He had a 
 wonderful power of invention. No two Sunday- 
 school concerts under his direction resembled each 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 aiid Hdps. 
 
 Orijrin of 
 the Sunday- 
 school cou- 
 cert.
 
 80 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV 
 Methods 
 nud Helps. 
 
 No clap- 
 trap. 
 
 Fire ! 
 
 other. Sometimes the teachers would have the 
 chief part in the service, then the older scholars, 
 and again the little ones. Now the rivers of the 
 Bible were to be sought out, and sacred lessons 
 drawn from them ; now the mountains, the build- 
 ings, the gardens; the heroic men, the noble wom- 
 en ; the bad men, the bad women, and so on. With 
 all his variety, however, he never went beyond the 
 Scriptures. He abhorred dialogues and spoken 
 'pieces and solo performances, and all the theatri- 
 cal clap-trap by which a crowd is often drawn to 
 a Sunday-school concert." 
 
 There was a due regard to the timeliness of 
 topics selected by Mr. Haven for the concert rec- 
 itations. Christmas and Easter, and Thanksgiv- 
 ing and New-year's and the Fourth of July, would 
 each be borne in mind in its turn ; and particular 
 events would also have their influence in shaping 
 the character of these special services. For ex- 
 ample, the month after the New London church 
 was destroyed by fire, in 1867. the concert theme 
 was " Fire." Fifteen kinds of fire, or fifteen dif- 
 ferent purposes of fire, were brought out in Bible 
 recitations by thirty of the scholars ; and the uses 
 of fire in purifying and destroying and cheering, 
 and in other operations, were considered by the 
 school. All this had its important place in the 
 training processes of the school, as well as in in- 
 creasino- the school attractiveness. 

 
 Concert Exercises. 
 
 81 
 
 A few illustrations from these concert recita- 
 tions and other special services will show their 
 nature better than any description can. 
 
 There was a simple concert exercise on "Val- 
 leys and Vineyards of the Bible." Each member 
 of the school was asked to be ready with a Bible 
 verse containing a word beginning with the letter 
 V, to recite it as called on. The first Scripture 
 reading was of Psalm civ, read responsively. Then 
 came this series of questions by the superintend- 
 ent on Bible Valleys, answered by classes to which 
 the questions had been previously assigned : 
 
 " 1. What prophet was buried in a valley ? What reference to 
 this burial is made in the New Testament ? 
 
 " 2. Name four valleys in which great battles were fought. 
 
 "3. What valley was laden with very rich fruit? 
 
 " 4. Name a valley in which a man was stoned to death. What 
 prophet alludes to it ? 
 
 "5. In what valley did the sun and moon stand still? 
 
 "6. Who was slain in the valley of Elah? 
 
 "7. Recite a beautiful verse in which departure from life is 
 compared to entering a valley. 
 
 "8. In what valley did Ahaz burn incense? 
 
 "9. What does Solomon say shall come upon him who mock- 
 eth his father and despiseth his mother? 
 
 " 10. Recite a beautiful verse in which the lily of the valley and 
 another flower are mentioned." 
 
 The superintendent read John xv, 1-8, on " The 
 True Vine and its Branches." This was followed 
 by a series of questions and answers on " Bible 
 Vineyards :" 
 
 SFOTTON IV. 
 Methods 
 and Ilelps. 
 
 Bible 
 
 Valleys. 
 
 Bible 
 Vineyards.
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps, j 
 
 Bible words 
 
 about 
 
 prayer. 
 
 " 1. What is the first vineyard mentioned in Scripture? 
 
 "2. Whose vineyard did a king wish to turn into a garden? 
 What sins followed the king's indulgence of his desire? 
 
 "3. Who was forbidden to own any vineyard? 
 
 '' 4. Mention some vineyards pledged to pay for corn ? 
 
 " 5. Name three New Testament parables which refer to vine- 
 yards ? 
 
 "6. Where is a neglected vineyard made an emblem of sloth? 
 
 " 7. Where is a church compared to a vineyard? 
 
 "8. When did an angel stand in the path of a vineyard? 
 
 "9. Who gave vineyards to the poor among the Jews in the time 
 of the Captivity ? 
 
 "10. Who had charge of David's vineyards?" 
 
 Appropriate hymns were sung and prayers of- 
 fered in the progress of this exercise, as in all his 
 services. 
 
 Again, the concert theme was " Bible Teachings 
 on Prayer." There were recitations of assigned 
 texts by designated classes, as called for, under the 
 following heads : 
 
 Private Prayer. 
 Matt, vi, 6. 
 Psa. xxxii, 5. 
 Psa. li, 1. 
 Acts x, 1, 2. 
 Neh. i, 4. 
 
 Family Prayer. 
 
 1 Chron. xvii, 27. 
 Psa. xc, 16. 
 
 2 Sam. vii, 29. 
 Jer. x, 25. 
 
 Social Prayer. 
 Matt, xviii, 19. 
 Zech. viii, 20, 21. 
 Acts i, 14. 
 Acts xii, 5. 
 
 2 Sam. vi, 20 (1 st cl). Acts xvi, 25. 
 
 Public Prayer. 
 I Kings viii, 22. 
 1 Kings viii, 30. 
 Numb, x, 35, 36. 
 1 Cliron. xxix, 20. 
 Acts iii, 1. 
 
 Silent Prayer. 
 Jer. ii, 4. 
 1 Sam. i, 12, 13. 
 Ephes. vi, 18. 
 1 Thess. v, 1 7. 
 Coloss. i, 9.
 
 A Missionary /Service. 
 
 83 
 
 Again, there were arranged concert exercises 
 on Moses, on David, on Elijah, on the Titles of 
 Jesus, on the Sayings of Jesus, on the Sermon 
 on the Mount, on the Companions of St. Paul, on 
 Thanksgiving, on Bible Cities, and on many an- 
 other theme. 
 
 Every anniversary service had its peculiar 
 stamp, with its Scripture selections and hymns 
 and addresses appropriate to that particular oc- 
 casion. Often it pivoted on a Bible text as a 
 motto, such as " Hitherto hath the Lord helped 
 us ;" " The Lord hath been mindful of us ;" 
 " Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings, and 
 the years of thy life shall be many ;" " Thou 
 shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy 
 God led thee these forty years." At each annual 
 meeting of the " Henry Martyn Missionary Asso- 
 ciation" there was a carefully arranged series of 
 responsive readings at the opening, as, for in- 
 stance : 
 
 Leader. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to 
 every creature. 
 
 Congregation. The Lord our God will we serve, and his voice 
 will we obey. 
 
 Leader. Give and it shall be given unto you. 
 
 Congregation. Since the people began to bring the offerings into 
 the house of the Lord, the Lord hath blessed his people. 
 
 Leader. Only they would that we should remember the poor. 
 
 Congregation. The same which I also was forward to do. 
 
 Leader. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of 
 Christ. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Anniversa- 
 ry themes. 
 
 Bible words 
 
 about 
 
 giving.
 
 84 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Christmas 
 offerings. 
 
 Congregation. All that thou commandest us we will do, and 
 whithersoever thou sendest us we will go. 
 
 Leader. There is that scattereth and yet increaseth. 
 
 Congregation. And there is that withholdeth more than is meet, 
 and it tendetli to poverty. 
 
 Leader. The liberal soul shall be made fat. 
 
 Congregation. And he that watereth shall be watered also himself. 
 
 Leader. The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich. 
 
 Congregation. And he addeth no sorrow with it. 
 
 In connection with the Christmas offerings of 
 the Kew London school there were always appro- 
 priate religious services, in order that the giving 
 might be recognized as unto the Lord. For ex- 
 ample, when this was first attempted a full order 
 of service was arranged. It opened with these 
 sentences : 
 
 Superintendent. God so loved the world that he gave his only- 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, 
 but have everlasting life. 
 
 Assistant Superintendent. He that spared not his own Son, but 
 delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely 
 give us all things. 
 
 School. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, 
 and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no 
 variableness, neither shadow of turning. 
 
 The superintendent read, from Mark xii, 41-44, 
 the story of the widow and her two mites, after 
 which the assistant superintendent said to the 
 school : 
 
 Freely ye have received, freely give.
 
 No Gifts to Scholars. 
 
 85 
 
 The school responded : 
 
 He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly ; and he 
 which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. 
 
 Singing and prayer were followed by Bible rec- 
 itations from the several divisions of the school, 
 in response to questions from the superintendent 
 concerning the offerings of God's people from the 
 days of Abel onward. While the collection of 
 offerings was being made, the superintendent re- 
 cited appropriate Bible texts. When the offer- 
 ings were all received, there was a special prayer 
 for their acceptance by God. Then there was a 
 service of praise and thanksgiving, including re- 
 sponsive Bible readings, followed by singing, and 
 concluding with the Gloria Patri. 
 
 After six years' experience of this form of 
 Christmas service, Mr. Haven wrote, not long be- 
 fore his death : " The success of the experiment 
 in our church-school has convinced me that in all 
 ordinary Sunday-schools connected with churches, 
 where a large proportion of the children are pro- 
 vided with Christmas presents at home, something 
 of this kind is a most excellent thing. We usu- 
 ally have, about Xew-year's, a social gathering in 
 our chapel, under the auspices of our Sunday- 
 school, but where all the congregation is invited. 
 We spend the evening socially, and have some re- 
 freshments. Our school some years has a social 
 gathering in the woods in August. We have, 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Giving bet- 
 ter thmi re- 
 ceiving.
 
 86 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Quarterly 
 reviews. 
 
 Review 
 
 questioning. 
 
 however, nothing in the course of the year in the 
 line of gifts to the scholars; and I am fully per- 
 suaded that, in the ordinary church - school, the 
 whole system of presents to scholars is unwise 
 and injurious." 
 
 After the introduction of the International Les- 
 son Series, quarterly review exercises came into 
 new prominence in Mr. Haven's schools. In these 
 an examination of the lessons of the quarter was 
 frequently combined with a service appropriate to 
 the particular season as an Easter service at the 
 close of the first quarter of the year, a Christmas 
 service at the close of the fourth quarter, or a 
 praise service at the close of the second or third 
 quarter. In every instance a carefully arranged 
 programme, or order of service, was announced 
 beforehand, usually printed and distributed to the 
 school as early as a week in advance ; and the 
 same form was never used a second time in these 
 orders of service. 
 
 There was freshness in the plan and style of 
 Mr. Haven's review questioning, as a reference to 
 the exercises of his half-yearly review, in the New 
 London school, of the lessons in St. John's Gospel, 
 at the close of 1875, will illustrate. The superin- 
 tendent in the desk gave, in their order, the dates 
 of the lessons severally. The secretaries and li- 
 brarians followed with the lesson titles, one by . 
 one, as the dates were announced. The teachers,
 
 Methods of Review. 
 
 87 
 
 in unison, recited in the same way the lesson top- 
 ics. The scholars similarly gave the golden texts. 
 Then there were such questions as the following 
 from the desk, each to be answered by the school 
 in concert, in the words of the golden text indi- 
 cated : " Which golden text contains a promise of 
 another life?" "Which includes a prayer of Da- 
 vid ?" " Which refers to the first miracle of Je- 
 sus?" "Which uses a beautiful figure for relig- 
 ion?" A call was made on the classes, one by 
 one, to recite in concert some noteworthy verse, 
 selected beforehand out of the lesson designated. 
 The classes in the first row of seats were to choose 
 from the July lessons ; those in the second row, 
 from August, and so on through the six months. 
 These classes were then to answer, in the same 
 order, questions on the lessons proppunded by the 
 superintendent : as, for example, " Which lesson 
 gives a command of an eminent saint which we 
 should ever remember ?" " In which lesson do 
 you find Jesus asking a favor of a stranger ?" 
 " What brief command that Jesus gave his disci- 
 ples is twice repeated in one lesson ?" Following 
 this review exercise there was a Christmas service 
 of responsive readings and recitations, singing, 
 and chanting, and an offering of Christmas gifts 
 for the benefit of members of the church who 
 were formerly members of the Sunday-school, 
 but, from sickness or other cause, were now in 
 
 SF.OTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Help*. 
 
 Noteworthy 
 
 Christmas 
 service.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION IV, 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 A new 
 building. 
 
 Words of 
 dedication. 
 
 need of assistance. And this was one of many 
 methods in Mr. Haven's review exercises. 
 
 No occasion of importance to his schools was 
 allowed by Mr. Haven to pass unimproved by ap- 
 propriate recognition in the ordinary school ses- 
 sions, or at some special service arranged therefor. 
 When a new building was to be occupied by his 
 New London school, it was not enough that its 
 dedication should be included in that of the 
 church a special service of dedication must be 
 conducted in the chapel and Sunday-school rooms. 
 In conjunction with fitting exercises of prayer 
 and praise, including responsive readings and rec- 
 itations from the Scriptures and the singing of an 
 original dedication -hymn, these words of dedica- 
 tion were employed. The superintendent's decla- 
 ration was : 
 
 " CHRISTIAN FRIENDS, Our Heavenly Father, in all ages of 
 the Church, hath indicated by express command, or by after-ap- 
 proval, his desire that those who love him and fear his name 
 should erect altars and houses of worship, where his people should 
 gather together for the service he hath appointed in his holy word. 
 
 "Forasmuch as he hath put it into the heart of his servants to 
 erect this house, an outer court in the temple of our God, we have 
 assembled together this' afternoon to dedicate it by proper acts of 
 religious devotion to the honor and glory of his name, to his ser- 
 vice and worship, and to the advancement of his kingdom in the 
 earth." 
 
 At this point the entire congregation rose, and 
 all in concert declared :
 
 System and Consecration. 
 
 89 
 
 "With gratitude to thee, Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy 
 Ghost, who didst inspire thy servants with a holy desire to build 
 this house, we now and here dedicate it to thy service; and we 
 pray thee to accept this our free-will offering, which we now bring 
 unto thee, humbly beseeching thee that thou wilt consecrate it as 
 a house of social prayer and holy song, and for the teaching of thy 
 word in Christian schools on the Lord's day. 
 
 "May it please thee to bless with thy loving favor all thy faith- 
 ful servants as they gather here to sing thy praise, to call upon thy 
 name, to talk of thy love, and to teach thy word ; and may thy 
 special blessing rest upon all who here shall study the pages of thy 
 holy truth, that they may grow dp as plants of righteousness in the 
 courts of the house of the Lord. May thine eyes be open to the 
 supplications of thy people, and hearken thou unto them at all 
 times when they here call upon thee. Blessed be the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spir- 
 itual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." 
 
 Those who had part in that service of dedica- 
 tion could not but feel thenceforward that that 
 was the Lord's house, and that reverence was be- 
 fitting all the exercises which should be conduct- 
 ed within its walls. And in such ways Mr. Ha- 
 ven made all the special services in connection 
 with his Sunday-schools tend to promote a love 
 for God's house, God's day, and God's word, on 
 the part of both teachers and scholars. 
 
 And so in all that he did for his Sunday-schools, 
 and in the use of all methods and helps which he 
 employed whether in the study, with his teach- 
 ers, in the desk, with his scholars, among the rec- 
 ords, or at special services Mr. Haven was sys- 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and HelpH. 
 
 Reverence 
 promoted. 
 
 System and 
 consecra- 
 tion.
 
 90 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SUCTION IV. 
 Methods 
 and Helps. 
 
 Straight 
 forward. 
 
 tematic, thorough, and consecrated ; a workman 
 that needed not to be ashamed, rightly dividing 
 the word of truth, doing all heartily as to the 
 Lord, and not unto men. With all the diversity 
 of operations in his school methods, there was 
 " one and the self-same Spirit " guiding and con- 
 trolling the whole. "With all the wheels within 
 wheels in his school machinery, " the spirit of the 
 living creature was in the wheels." And " to the 
 place whither the head looked they followed it ; 
 they turned not as they w r ent." " They went 
 every one straight forward."
 
 Religion and Business. 
 
 91 
 
 V. 
 
 BUSINESS ACTIVITIES. 
 
 Religion and Business; Whale Fisheries; Sea- Elephant Hunting; 
 Guano Gathering ; Seal Catching ; Polar Researches ; Rail- 
 roading and Banking. 
 
 THERE are many, especially among those who 
 take no part in religions activities, who insist that 
 a man cannot be successful in ordinary secular 
 business if he gives any considerable share of his 
 time to strictly religious employments. "He must 
 stick to one thing or the other!" they say; as if it 
 were actually a choice between God and mammon ; 
 as if secular occupations were in necessary conflict 
 with religious devotion ; as if no man could be 
 "fervent in spirit" while "not slothful in busi- 
 ness" "serving the Lord" seven days in the 
 week. 
 
 It would be a sad thing for the Sunday-school 
 if this view of the case were correct ; if only men 
 who do little or nothing week-days or who do 
 their week-day work poorly were eligible to the 
 Sunday-school superintendency ; for a man who 
 fails in one department of his life work is least 
 likely to succeed in another. As a matter of fact, 
 
 7 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 
 Activities. 
 
 Week-day 
 workers 
 needed in 
 the Sunday- 
 school.
 
 92 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Faithful 
 alike in 
 religion and 
 business. 
 
 those Christian men who do most work, and who 
 do it best, six days in the week, are found to be 
 most serviceable in the Sunday-school on the sev- 
 enth day. Peculiarly is it true that administrative 
 and executive abilities of a high order are essential 
 to a model superintendent. R. G. Pardee used to 
 say that a Christian railroad superintendent could 
 usually superintend a Sunday -school satisfactorily; 
 for similar qualifications are needed in the two 
 spheres. It is unmistakably true that in our cities 
 and larger towns throughout the country the most 
 efficient Sunday-school superintendents include 
 in their number some of the leading merchants, 
 manufacturers, bankers, insurance officers, and rail- 
 road men of their several communities. 
 
 Let us see how it was with Mr. Haven. We 
 know he was active in religious employments. 
 Did he neglect his secular business, or show him- 
 self inefficient therein? We saw how he began 
 work as a zealous, ambitious lad in the ship-own- 
 er's office. It may be said with truth that to the 
 day of his death he seemingly never had less in- 
 terest in any secular business to which he had set 
 his hand than he showed as a young clerk while 
 toiling away until after midnight, only to be back 
 at his desk before daylight, to do the utmost pos- 
 sible to him there. Whatsoever he had to do, 
 week-day or Sunday, in one sphere or in another, 
 he did it "with all his might;" he did it as the
 
 Whale Fisheries. 
 
 93 
 
 Lord's servant who must shortly give account to 
 his Master. This kind of doing always brings 
 success it is success. 
 
 The special business of Major Williams's ship- 
 ping-house, where young Haven began life as a 
 clerk, was the whale and seal fishery. This busi- 
 ness combined the elements of adventure and dar- 
 ing with possibilities and uncertainties of result 
 to a greater degree than almost any other pursuit 
 of industry in our early American life. It called 
 for courage and energy on the part of those who 
 braved its dangers, and for sagacity, resoluteness, 
 and enterprise on the part of those who were its 
 directors. This was, perhaps, the first business in 
 which Americans commanded the admiration of 
 the mother country for their enterprising and dar- 
 ing, and gave promise of their present ubiquitous 
 prominence as explorers and pioneers, and as com- 
 petitors for the supremacy in supplying the mar- 
 kets of the world. This industry it was which 
 called forth the splendid tribute of Edmund Burke, 
 in his speech in the British Parliament for the con- 
 ciliation of the American colonies. " Look," he 
 said, "at the manner in which the people of New 
 England have of late carried on the whale fishery. 
 Whilst we follow them among the tumbling moun- 
 tains of ice, and behold them penetrating into the 
 deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and 
 Davis's Strait ; whilst we are looking for them 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Adventure 
 aud daring. 
 
 Edmund 
 Bnrke's 
 
 tribute.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 A century 
 later. 
 
 beneath the Arctic circle, we hear that they have 
 pierced into the opposite region of polar cold; that 
 they are at the antipodes, and engaged under the 
 frozen serpent of the South. Falkland Island, 
 which seemed too remote and romantic an object 
 for the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage 
 and a resting-place in the progress of their victo- 
 rious industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more 
 discouraging to them than the accumulated winter 
 of both the poles. We know that whilst some 
 of them draw the line and strike the harpoon 
 on the coast of Africa, others run the longitude, 
 and pursue their gigantic game along the coast of 
 Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by their fish- 
 eries. No climate that is not witness to their toils. 
 Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the ac- 
 tivity of France, nor the dexterous and firm sagac- 
 ity of English enterprise, ever conceived this most 
 perilous mode of hardy industry to the extent to 
 which it has been pushed by this recent people; a 
 people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, 
 and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood." 
 
 A century after these words of the British states- 
 man, an historian of the American whale fisheries* 
 said of the same industry and its influences: 
 
 "The pioneers of the sea, whalemen, were the ad- 
 vance guard, the forlorn hope, of civilization. Ex- 
 
 * Alexander Starbuck in "Report of the United States Commis- 
 sion of Fish and Fisheries fur 1875-7G."
 
 Whaling Enterprise. 
 
 05 
 
 ploring expeditions followed after to glean where 
 they had reaped. In the frozen seas of the Xorth 
 and the South their keels ploughed to the extreme 
 limit of navigation, and between the tropics they 
 pursued their prey through regions never before 
 traversed by the vessels of a civilized commu- 
 nity. . . . Many a tale of danger and toil and suf- 
 fering, startling, severe, and horrible, has illumined 
 the pages of the history of this pursuit, and scarce 
 any, even the humblest, of these hardy mariners, 
 but can from his own experience narrate truths 
 stranger than fiction. In many ports, among hun- 
 dreds of islands, on many seas, the flag of the 
 country from which they sailed was first displayed 
 from the masthead of a whale-ship. Pursuing their 
 avocation wherever a chance presented, the Ameri- 
 can flag was first unfurled in an English port from 
 the deck of an American whaleman, and the ports 
 of the western coast of South America first beheld 
 the stars and stripes shown as the standard of an- 
 other. It may be safely alleged that, but for them, 
 the western oceans would much longer have been 
 comparatively unknown ; and with equal truth it 
 may be said that whatever of honor or glory the 
 United States may have won in its explorations of 
 these oceans, the necessity for their explorations 
 was a tribute wrung from the government, though 
 not without earnest and continued effort, to the in- 
 terests of our mariners, who for years before had 
 
 SKOTION V. 
 
 liilMlir-- 
 
 Activitief. 
 
 National 
 services.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 
 Activities. 
 
 Missionary 
 openings. 
 
 Discoveries. 
 
 pursued the whale in these uncharted seas, and 
 threaded their way with extremest care among 
 these undescribed islands, reefs, and shoals. Into 
 the field opened by them flowed the trade of the 
 civilized world. In their footsteps followed Chris- 
 tianity. They introduced the missionary to new 
 spheres of usefulness, and made his presence tena- 
 ble. Says a writer in the London Quarterly Re- 
 view: 'The whale fishery first opened to Great 
 Britain a beneficial intercourse with the coast of 
 Spanish America; it led. in the sequel, to the in- 
 dependence of the Spanish colonies. . . . But for 
 our whalers we might never have founded our 
 colonies in Yan Diemen's Land and Australia; or, 
 if we had, we could not have maintained them in 
 their early stages of danger and privation. More- 
 over, our intimacy with the Polynesians must be 
 traced to the same source. The whalers were the 
 first that traded in that quarter; they prepared the 
 field for the missionaries; and the same thing is now 
 in progress in New Ireland, New Britain, and New 
 Zealand.' All that the English fishery has done 
 for Great Britain, the American fishery has done 
 for the L T nited States and more." "Hundreds 
 of islands in the Pacific Ocean were first made 
 known to civilization, and first located upon charts, 
 by whalemen ; and the captains of whale-ships were 
 eagerly consulted when exploring expeditions to 
 those seas were to be undertaken. Wilkes and
 
 Business Partnerships. 
 
 Parry both were indebted to these hardy, adventu- 
 rous mariners, and in the compilation of his great 
 work on ' Ocean Currents,' Maury was in constant 
 communication with them." "No nobler class of 
 men, no more skilful navigators, ever trod any 
 deck than those who have shipped upon our whale- 
 men. Those in command are brave and daring 
 without recklessness, quick to act in emergency, 
 but prudently guarding the lives of their men 
 and the safety of their ships; self-reliant but self- 
 possessed." 
 
 It was during the business life of Mr. Haven that 
 the American whale fishery attained to its greatest 
 prominence and extent ; and not only did the in- 
 citements and demands of that industry have a 
 part in developing and broadening his business en- 
 ergies and capacity, but his originality and bold- 
 ness had no small effect in giving fresh advantage 
 to American enterprise in the competitions and 
 new emergencies of that industry in the years of 
 its greatest rise and of its decadence. 
 
 When he was twenty-three years old, Mr. Haven 
 began business for himself as the head of the firm 
 
 O 
 
 of Haven and Smith ; his former employer, Major 
 Williams, being a silent member of the firm during 
 the terms of his service in Congress. In 1846, Mr. 
 Williams resumed his place in the business, and 
 the firm was Williams and Haven. Other partners 
 came in later, and the firm becameWilliams, Haven, 
 
 SECTION V. 
 BiminesB 
 Aetivitien. 
 
 Rise and 
 decadence 
 of whaling 
 
 Partner-
 
 98 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SKCTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 New 
 
 London 
 
 fisheries. 
 
 and Co. For thirty-five years, however, Mr. Haven 
 was the directing and managing head of the house. 
 In that time he sent out more than two hundred 
 vessels, large and small, in pursuit of whales and 
 seals and sea-elephants. When whales grew scarce 
 in the Southern oceans, he was a fresh pioneer in 
 the Greenland fisheries. He was earliest in sealing 
 and elephanting on South Georgia Island, east of 
 Cape Horn. He was first in the experiment of a 
 steam-whaler ; and, again, of a steam sealing-ves- 
 sel. He was always sagacious and enterprising, 
 and on the watch for new ventures and new meth- 
 ods of winning success in his business. A voyage 
 made by one of his steam-whalers, in 1864-65, 
 is said to have been "the best ever made by an 
 American whaler." The entire cost of the vessel 
 with her outfits was $35,800. She was gone a 
 little more than fifteen months, returning with a 
 cargo of oil and bone valued, at market prices, at 
 $150,060. 
 
 A sketch of the business which Mr. Haven rep- 
 resented, published during his lifetime, from the 
 pen of one familiar with the facts involved, says, 
 in substance, of the Kew London fishing interests : 
 "Vessels fitted out here have scoured the utter- 
 most parts of the earth, and penetrated every nav- 
 igable sea inhabited by the leviathan of the deep. 
 New London whaling men had brought home 
 heavy cargoes of oil and bone from the haunts of
 
 Pushing Beyond. 
 
 99 
 
 the Southern right whale in the old familiar waters 
 off Brazil and Patagonia and the islands of the 
 North Pacific before 1830. They had hunted 
 that most noble of ocean game, the huge-headed 
 sperm cetacean, in the warmer regions of the At- 
 lantic and Pacific, with great success. With the 
 development of the whaling business, they pushed 
 farther and farther to the south and to the north, 
 reaching around to the coast of Japan, the Sea of 
 Okhotsk, and Bearing's Strait. They threw the 
 bomb lance in the Arctic Sea; and in 1868 they 
 went nearer the pole in those icy waters than gov- 
 ernment surveying parties ever did ; going within 
 five miles of the new but as yet unexplored conti- 
 nent in that quarter, of which other navigators had 
 only descried the peaks of the mountains in the 
 dim distance. They harpooned the Northern right 
 whale and the fierce rorqual the fighting charac- 
 ter of the cetacean tribe in the ocean near Nova 
 Zembla. They were the first of Americans to 
 penetrate Davis's Strait, and the first to bring 
 to these shores a cargo from those two desolate 
 islands lying remote and solitary in the extreme 
 South Indian Ocean, known as Kerguelen's Land 
 and Hurd's Island. When the pursuit of the sea- 
 elephant and the seal came into respectable im- 
 portance by the side of that of the whale, they 
 flung themselves into it, and upon every wave- 
 washed shore where that game was found plenti- 
 
 SEOTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Sea- 
 
 elephnnting 
 anil sealing.
 
 100 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SKOTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Huutiug 
 sea- 
 elephants. 
 
 fully they hunted it with unexampled energy. To 
 study where they have gone would require a chart 
 of the world, and no chart would show it all ; for 
 they have often sailed beyond the chart. Their 
 story is a splendid one, and though other ports 
 have sent out larger fleets and justly entitled them- 
 selves to gratitude for their contributions to the 
 national wealth which have resulted from their ef- 
 forts, the whalers of none of them can point to a 
 more brilliant record of bold and daring and gen- 
 erally successful enterprise than that shown by 
 Xew London." 
 
 Of the hunt for sea-elephants, by vessels of Mr. 
 Haven's firm, the same writer tells this story : 
 
 " Kerguelen's Land, or the Island of Desolation, 
 as nautical men now generally call it, in the Indian 
 Ocean, was much resorted to by the English at the 
 beginning of this century. Though wild, moun- 
 tainous, and uninhabited, the island is full of fine 
 harbors where the largest navies can ride in secu- 
 
 O 
 
 rity ; and its smooth ocean-beaches swarm for the 
 greater part of the year witli the sea-elephant. 
 This animal is the largest of the seal tribe, a great, 
 clumsy beast, with a body half as large as a whale, 
 often yielding from si to twelve barrels of oil. 
 The sea-elephants bully each other savagely while 
 on shore, but when attacked by the harpooners 
 show little fight, unless in defence of the females, 
 and are quite easily killed. Their capture was, in
 
 Kerguelerfs Land Fisheries. 
 
 101 
 
 fact, attended with so little difficulty that they 
 were nearly exterminated, and voyages to Ker- 
 guelen ceased to be profitable. The fishery was 
 abandoned for many years. But tidings had just 
 been brought to America by a small vessel that 
 had been there that the coasts of Kerguelen again 
 swarmed with sea-elephants, when Haven and 
 Smith formed their copartnership, in May, 1838, 
 and at once they sent a vessel thither. The bark 
 Chelsea was, with a schooner for her tender, fitted 
 out and placed in charge of Captain Frank Smith, 
 one of the most successful whalemen in the coun- 
 try, and despatched to her destination in June of 
 the same year. Soon after, the ship Columbia,v;\\.\\ 
 a schooner for a tender, was sent to the same spot. 
 Both of them made good catches, returning after 
 they had been out nearly two years, the Chelsea 
 with 3266 barrels of sea-elephant and right-whale 
 oil, mostly of the former, and twenty-seven barrels 
 of sperm ; the Columbia with 4314 barrels. 
 
 " The profitableness of the fishery being thus 
 determined, it was followed up with a great deal 
 of energy, not only by this house, but by others. 
 Vessel after vessel was sent out to the island from 
 New London and other ports, and the fishery be- 
 came in time so flourishing that, by 1858, there 
 were fourteen vessels there from New London 
 alone. Haven and Smith sent out a great many, 
 getting back cargoes at an average rate of two a 
 
 SKOTION V. 
 BUMMCMI 
 Activities. 
 
 A new- 
 open in g. 
 
 Profitable 
 fishery.
 
 102 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Fl actua- 
 tions. 
 
 Gnano 
 trade. 
 
 year. At first, they sent out ships with schooners 
 for tenders, both returning when they had secured 
 a cargo, the voyage lasting about two years. After- 
 wards, to economize time, they changed this plan. 
 Schooners were left at the island to cruise the year 
 round, while the ships brought home their cargoes 
 every two years, taking out on the next trip a new 
 crew to relieve the one on duty, and allow the lat- 
 ter to visit home with the next ship that sailed. 
 Some years the catch was very valuable ; some 
 years it was not. Prices of oil fluctuated very 
 much, and it not unfrequently happened that a 
 large cargo failed to pay, simply because it could 
 not be sold at profitable rates. As far as the catch 
 is concerned, however, the ships of Mr. Haven's 
 house did admirably, bringing in to New London, 
 in the thirty-five years following its formation, oil 
 valued at $3,000,000." 
 
 Another branch of ocean trade prosecuted by 
 Mr. Haven's firm was that of bringing guano from 
 islands near the equator in the western Pacific 
 Ocean. Formerly the world markets were sup- 
 plied with this fertilizer almost exclusively from 
 the Peruvian coast; the deposits there having been 
 worked from a date as early as 1550. It was a 
 little more than thirty years ago that guano was 
 accidentally discovered on Baker's Island, in the 
 western Pacific, through its upturning while a 
 grave was being dug for the burial of a sailor
 
 Shipping Guano. 
 
 103 
 
 from a whale-ship. Subsequently, similar deposits 
 were found on many of the coral islands in that 
 region, trior to this, Mr. Haven had brought 
 some guano from the coast of Patagonia, and 
 again from the coast of Africa. Early in 1859, 
 Mr. C. A. Williams, a partner of Mr. Haven, resi- 
 dent at the Sandwich Islands, landed on one of 
 the islands of the Phoenix Island group, while 
 cruising in search of guano. Finding it abundant 
 there, he at once took steps for bringing it to 
 market. Soon Mr. Haven's firm had a number of 
 vessels in that trade. 
 
 At the opening of the war, in 1861, several of 
 these vessels were on their passage from the isl- 
 ands to southern ports of the United States, where 
 their cargoes had been contracted for. Arriving 
 on this coast, they found the embargo in force, and 
 were ordered to Europe for a market. The guano 
 from those islands was then unknown in Europe, 
 and there was much delay in disposing of the car- 
 goes. Meantime the freight-money amounting to 
 $100.000 must be paid, and Mr. Haven's financial 
 skill was taxed to the utmost to meet the emer- 
 gency. At the time, the affair was a heavy blow 
 to all concerned ; but a European market was 
 opened for the guano, and for some years after 
 .Germany took all that could be shipped. 
 
 The procuring and shipping this guano was no 
 slight undertaking. Those uninhabited coral isl- 
 
 SKOTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 A discov- 
 ery. 
 
 War risks.
 
 104 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Difficulties 
 of loading. 
 
 Enterprise. 
 
 ands in mid-ocean were commonly surrounded by 
 a dangerous double ledge or shelf of coral rock, 
 which rendered the loading of vessels a matter of 
 great difficulty and peril. In other cases, the heavy 
 ocean surf was a barrier. A peculiar method of 
 mooring the vessels by a series of connected an- 
 chors was adopted at some of the islands ; and, 
 again, there were movable surf-wharves on rollers, 
 for use in calmer weather. Yet a sudden change 
 of wind, or a little carelessness on the part of those 
 in command, would cause the swinging round of a 
 vessel on to the ledges, or her beaching in the surf: 
 in either case to be a total loss. There were in 
 all some sixty vessels loading at the Phoenix Isl- 
 and group. The guano shipped by them while 
 Mr. Haven's firm prosecuted this trade was about 
 70,000 tons. A colony of some forty men, mostly 
 Kanakas (Sandwich-Islanders), was commonly kept 
 up at these guano-islands. Everything that they 
 had must be taken to them from Honolulu. Like 
 every other branch of Mr. Haven's ocean business, 
 the guano-trade involved large outlay, great risk, 
 and peculiar administrative ability. 
 
 A good illustration of the alertness and energy 
 of Mr. Haven in business matters was given in his 
 early action with reference to the Alaska seal fish- 
 eries. In consequence of the reckless destruction^ 
 of seals in regions open to all who chose to hunt 
 them, comparatively few of those animals were to
 
 Squatter Sovereignty. 
 
 105 
 
 be found elsewhere than on the coast of Alaska, 
 at the time when that territory was ceded to the 
 United States by Russia. There they had been 
 preserved from extermination, through the care of 
 a company granted the monopoly of their capture 
 by the Russian government. 
 
 When, in 1867, negotiations were in progress for 
 the purchase of Alaska, Mr. Haven corresponded 
 with Secretary Seward to learn if citizens of the 
 United States would be free to hunt seal in that 
 territory when its transfer were completed. Learn- 
 ing that they would have this liberty, he was on 
 the watch to improve the opening. No sooner 
 did he learn by a telegram from Washington that 
 Alaska was ceded, than he was at work to have his 
 vessels on its coast. lie was no such sluggard as 
 to put to sea from New London for a voyage 
 around Cape Horn. Instead of that, he despatched, 
 in a mid-winter snow-storm, his active partner, 
 Mr. R. II. Chapell who had been trained by him 
 from boyhood, and was fully possessed of his plans 
 and spirit together with an experienced and val- 
 ued ship-captain, Captain Ebenezer Morgan who 
 had sailed for many years in his service in com- 
 mand of whaling and sealing vessels and two 
 competent mates to the Pacific coast, by way of 
 Panama ; thence to the Sandwich Islands, where 
 his partner, Mr. C. A. Williams, already referred 
 to, resided. At Honolulu one of his whaling-ships, 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Alnska 
 prospects.
 
 106 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Yankee 
 push. 
 
 which was found there, was promptly fitted for 
 sea, and a schooner was chartered as her tender. 
 Full crews were secured for both vessels, and they 
 were sent with all speed to Alaska. Sitka being 
 the only port of entry, they reported there to 
 Gen. Jefferson C. Davis, in command. With his 
 approval they pushed out to St. Paul's Island, the 
 sealing -ground, 250 miles from the mainland. 
 There they effected the first landing after the 
 purchase, and raised the first American flag. As 
 a result of their venture they soon had 45,000 seal- 
 skins for shipment to England, according to the 
 orders of Mr. Haven. 
 
 So the Connecticut Yankee had his men across 
 the continent, out into mid-ocean, and up towards 
 the north pole, to take advantage of the new seal- 
 ing chances, while the Californians were rubbing 
 their eyes preparatory to looking into the possi- 
 bilities of something in that line. The Hon. Mr. 
 Dawes, of Massachusetts, said of this operation, as 
 it afterwards came under review before a Congres- 
 sional committee, that it was one of the brightest 
 business movements he had ever known, and that 
 he was proud of the New England keenness and 
 enterprise shown in its conception and execution. 
 
 Soon there were Californians on the Alaska 
 sealing-grounds. After a while a combination was 
 formed between the ship-owners East and West, 
 and a lease, dated August 3, 1870, was obtained by
 
 Peculiarities of the Seal. 
 
 107 
 
 them from the United States government, of St. 
 Paul's and St. George's islands, with the exclusive 
 right of seal-catching there, under certain restric- 
 tions. Mr. Haven was active in securing this lease; 
 and he was a leading man in the councils of the 
 new company from its organization until his death. 
 The revenue to the government from this com- 
 pany is more than $300,000 per annum. 
 
 The two islands chartered by this company are 
 quite isolated, being thirty miles apart, and are 
 little more than barren rocks of the Aleutian range, 
 
 O / 
 
 running from the coast of Alaska towards Kam- 
 tchatka. A small population, principally of na- 
 tive Aleutians, a people essentially Esquimaux, oc- 
 cupy these islands and pursue the seal fishery. 
 They are provided by the company with houses 
 and with schools, free of charge, and with all ar- 
 ticles of necessity at San Francisco market rates. 
 They are also protected from the curse of intox- 
 icating liquors by the terms of the company's 
 charter. 
 
 The men work in parties at their seal-killing, 
 being paid according to the number of seals killed. 
 "A skilful Aleut will skin fifty in a day." Not 
 only are young seals and female seals exempt 
 from slaughter, but no seals are killed at their 
 "rookeries," or gathering -places on the coast. 
 They must first be driven or coaxed to the " kill- 
 ing-grounds" in the interior of the islands, out of 
 
 SKOTION V. 
 
 Business 
 
 Activities. 
 
 Seal 
 
 islands. 
 
 Seal-killinj:.
 
 108 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Sensitive- 
 ness of the 
 seal. 
 
 sight and out of scent of the coast. This pre- 
 caution is necessary, because of the peculiar sen- 
 sitiveness and timidity of the seal. "Very strange 
 are these seal," says Dr. Kane, in recording his first 
 killing of one in the polar seas : " a countenance 
 between the dog and the mild African ape an 
 expression so like that of humanity that it makes 
 gun-murderers hesitate." "Have naturalists ever 
 noticed the expression of this animal's phiz?" he 
 asks, as he tells of the dying look given to him by 
 his first victim. " Curiosity, contentment, pain, re- 
 proach, despair, even resignation, I thought I saw 
 on this seal's face." 
 
 Although the male seals will fight manfully in 
 defence of the females, when fairly cornered, the 
 discharge of firearms, the barking of a dog, the 
 tainting: of the water about them with the blood 
 
 O 
 
 of one of their number, or even the smell of light- 
 ed tobacco, is sometimes sufficient to drive seals 
 from their rookeries. And driving them away 
 permanently means their extermination ; for if 
 they cannot come back to the waters where they 
 were born, they cease to increase. An illustration 
 of this truth is found in the story of sealing on 
 Kerguelen's Land, after the seal were newly dis- 
 covered there some years ago. So abundant were 
 the seals at first, that as many as 1,700,000 were 
 killed in a single year by the vessels flocking 
 thither from all quarters. But in the space of
 
 Polar Explorations. 
 
 109 
 
 three years they were practically exterminated, 
 there not being enough left to make their catch- 
 ing remunerative. On the Alaska islands, how- 
 ever, the rigid regulations concerning the taking 
 of seals are enforced not only by the presence of 
 resident government inspectors, but by the obvious 
 interests of those engaged in the work. As a re- 
 sult, more than two thirds of all the seals now 
 taken in the world are from those islands; and 
 there they are on the increase. " At first the fur 
 seal were killed in immense numbers by the Rus- 
 sians. At one time three hundred thousand skins 
 were destroyed, in order that the market might not 
 be overstocked. It was only when their numbers 
 were greatly diminished that the number annually 
 killed was limited, and the other previously men- 
 tioned restrictions imposed." 
 
 Mr. Haven's interest in the Alaska fisheries was 
 a source of large revenue to him; and, of course, 
 it demanded his best business attention and en- 
 deavors. 
 
 With all else that he had to do, Mr. Haven found 
 time to show his hearty sympathy with the various 
 scientific explorations of the Northern seas during 
 the last twenty years of his life, and to render sub- 
 stantial assistance to some of the adventurous spir- 
 its who engaged so chivalrously in the search for 
 remains of Sir John Franklin's expedition. In- 
 
 * See Dall's Alaska and its Resources. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Aiding 
 iu Arctic 
 research.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Startling the 
 Russians. 
 
 deed, it is a noteworthy fact that whaling masters 
 and whaling owners have been prominent in con- 
 nection with polar explorations for centuries. The 
 whale-fishery and the fur-hunting interests received 
 attention before the days of Columbus, and such 
 navigators as Octher and Erik the Red, a thou- 
 
 O ' 
 
 sand years ago, had an eye to the material advan- 
 tages of discoveries in the Arctic regions, rather 
 than to any scientific gain therefrom. Before the 
 beginning of this century American whalers had 
 followed their game nearer to the north pole than 
 any one else had pursued an idea. It was while 
 searching for new fishing and furring grounds, in 
 1821, that Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer, of Ston- 
 ington, a New London County shipmaster, discov- 
 ered the land still bearing his name in the Antarc- 
 tic region. It is in connection with that discovery 
 that the story is told of the Russians' wonder over 
 Yankee enterprise. The story is, that a Russian 
 exploring expedition reached that region soon af- 
 ter Captain Palmer had made his landing there, 
 and while he was scouting from this base in fur- 
 ther explorations. Thinking that the land was 
 until then entirely unknown, the Russians took 
 formal possession of it in the name of the Czar, 
 and followed its shores to locate them intelligent- 
 ly. To their amazement, as they reached a new 
 inlet they saw anchored there a venturesome Con- 
 necticut schooner, and a boat from her pushed off
 
 Scientific Outgrowths of Whaling. 
 
 Ill 
 
 to them to ask if they would like a pilot along the 
 coast. This settled the question of priority of dis- 
 covery, and Russians and Americans agreed in call- 
 ing the new country Palmer's Land. 
 
 It has even been suggested that all the more 
 modern strictly scientific expeditions of polar re- 
 search were, in a certain sense, an outgrowth of 
 the zeal and enterprise in this direction of William 
 Scoresby, an English whaling captain, at the be- 
 ginning of this century. His name, it has been 
 said, " may justly be considered as the connecting- 
 link between the old explorers the adventures 
 made almost solely in the interest of commerce 
 and those more liberal modern enterprises con- 
 ducted in the spirit of the newly dawning scien- 
 tific era." * It was in 1806, while he was on a 
 whaling vo} r age in the Greenland seas, that he first 
 deviated from the ordinary whaleman's track for 
 the express purpose of scientific research in the 
 direction of the Polar Sea. From that time on he 
 combined whaling with scientific exploration, pub- 
 lishing, from time to time, the results of his in- 
 vestigation, and thus stimulating public interest 
 in the subject. " It was out of a correspondence 
 which he held with Sir Joseph Banks, in 1817, 
 that was evolved the combination of events which 
 led to the equipment of those mixed land and 
 water explorations commanded by Parry, Ross, 
 
 * See Blake's Arctic Experiences. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 William 
 Scores by * 
 iufluetice.
 
 112 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Combining 
 whale- 
 fishing with 
 discovery. 
 
 Sympathy 
 
 with 
 
 explorer?. 
 
 and Franklin, and out of these expeditions grew 
 those of De Haven, Kane, Hayes, Hall, and others." 
 It was in that correspondence with Banks that 
 Scoresby said of his long-time desire to devote 
 himself, through a series of voyages, to explora- 
 tions " towards deciding whether or not a naviga- 
 tion into the Pacific, either by a northeast or north- 
 west passage, existed." " By the way of avoiding 
 unnecessary expense, I proposed to combine the 
 object of whale fishery with that of discovery, on 
 every occasion when the situation of the ice was 
 unfavorable for scientific research. Since no one 
 can possibly state, from observation of the ice in 
 any one season, what opportunity may occur on a 
 subsequent occasion, it would be well to have this 
 reserve (whaling) for the reduction of the expen- 
 diture, in the event of the opportunity for discov- 
 ery failing." And in an eminent French memoir 
 of Sir John Franklin, it is declared of Scoresby's 
 part in reviving interest in polar researches: "In 
 spite of previous discoveries, the subject of Arctic 
 explorations was again almost forgotten, when an 
 English whaler, an intelligent and intrepid sailor, 
 who had for many years navigated the Greenland 
 seas, demonstrated the possibility of effecting a 
 per-glacial voyage across to the Pacific." 
 
 In view of such facts as these, it was by no 
 means strange that Mr. Haven's connection with 
 the whaling interests, and with whalers as a class,
 
 Captain C. F. Hall. 
 
 113 
 
 should give to him a peculiar sympathy with Arc- 
 tic explorers and their investigations. Captain C. 
 F. Hall, whose final expedition in the Polaris is 
 more popularly known than his earlier ones, be- 
 cause of its ill-fated ending, but whose previous 
 discoveries in the polar regions were of no mean 
 order, failed for years, through lack of means and 
 of influential friends, to find any avenue to a part 
 in the search for Sir John Franklin's party or its 
 remains, which he ardently longed to share. " It 
 was not until the year 1860," says one of his biog- 
 raphers, " that he was at last enabled to put his 
 long-cherished plans in operation. In pursuit of 
 information among practical men, who knew the 
 modes of life among the Esquimaux, and the re- 
 sources of living on the shores north of Hudson 
 
 O 
 
 Bay, and north and west of Cumberland Sound, 
 Captain Hall visited New London. Here he was 
 fortunately introduced to the firm of Williams and 
 Haven, who generously tendered him a free pas- 
 sage in their bark, the Georg& Henry, to which 
 was attached as tender the famous Rescue, a 
 schooner once known as the Anaret, and which 
 had been consort to the Advance in 1850-51, in 
 the De Have'n Arctic expedition." 
 
 Returning from his first voyage in the autumn 
 of 1862, Captain Hall was only more desirous than 
 before of extending his polar researches, in the 
 light of his new experiences. In March, 1863, he 
 
 SKOTION V. 
 
 Hn-incs-- 
 Activities. 
 
 Cant. Hall 
 at New 
 Lou don. 
 
 Hall's 
 
 second 
 
 expedition.
 
 114 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 
 Activities. 
 
 A new pro- 
 posal for 
 whaling and 
 research. 
 
 The Polaris 
 expedition. 
 
 had a conference with Mr. Henry Grinnell of New 
 York, and Mr. R. H. Chapell of New London, a 
 partner of Mr. Haven, at which he submitted sev- 
 eral plans for a new expedition. One of these 
 plans was called by him " The Combination Re- 
 search and Whaling Expedition." Like Scoresby's 
 project, it included the meeting of all expenses of 
 scientific exploration by "the proceeds of the whal- 
 ing business." "By establishing headquarters at 
 Repulse Bay," and "having there a whale-boat 
 strongly constructed," "also Frobisher Bay Esqui- 
 maux, there need be," as Captain Hall expressed it, 
 "no hindrance to the force employed on the vessel 
 from prosecuting to the fullest extent this branch 
 of the expedition, to wit, whaling." * Various ob- 
 stacles presenting themselves to the carry ing- out 
 of Captain Hall's preferred and more extensive 
 plans chief among these being the difficulty of 
 raising money while capitalists were so embar- 
 rassed with losses in the early part of the war he 
 turned again to his New London friends, and took 
 passage in another vessel of Mr. Haven's, the Mon- 
 ticello. It was from this vessel, just as he was sail- 
 ing, in June, 1864, that Captain Hall dated the 
 Preface to his volume of Arctic Researches, giving 
 an account of his first expedition. 
 
 The Polaris expedition, on which Captain Hall 
 
 * See Narrative of the Second Arctic Expedition made by C. F. 
 Hall, 18G4-69. Government Printing-Office, 1879.
 
 Supplying the Explorers. 
 
 115 
 
 lost his life, which sailed from New London, drew 
 largely for its personnel on men who had seen ser- 
 vice, or been trained to it, in Mr. Haven's whaling 
 vessels. The sailing-master, S. O. Buddington, who 
 succeeded to the command of the Polaris on the 
 death of Captain Hall; the assistant -navigator, 
 George E. Tyson, whose marvellous drift, with a 
 party of nineteen, including women and children, 
 on the ice-float, for six months or more, and over 
 fifteen hundred miles of sea, is one of the great ro- 
 mances of Arctic expeditions; the first mate, Hub- 
 bard C. Chester; and Esquimaux "Joe" (Ebier- 
 bing), on whose skill and fidelity the safety of the 
 ice-float party unquestionably depended, were in- 
 cluded in this category. And the same might be 
 said of the navigators of other Arctic vessels. 
 
 It was a standing order of Williams and Haven 
 to their whaling captains to take up and set down 
 the Arctic explorers at any point desired by them, 
 and to supply them freely with whatever stores 
 they were in need of. As Captain Ebenezer Mor- 
 gan said, in reporting the aid given by him to 
 Captain Hall, when on one occasion he found him 
 in lock at the head of Repulse Baj 7 , " I told him 
 to take anything he wanted. There was nothing 
 in my ship too good for him if he needed it ; for 
 that, I knew, was the way Mr. Haven felt about 
 Captain Hall." To blot out Mr. Haven's share, 
 direct and indirect, in the Arctic explorations 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Furnishing 
 the men. 
 
 Furnishing 
 supplies.
 
 116 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SKOTION V. 
 
 Business 
 Activities?. 
 
 The wide 
 world over. 
 
 would materially deface the record of, perhaps, the 
 most chivalrous and unselfish devotion to the in- 
 terests of pure science which modern days afford. 
 
 A marked feature in Mr. Haven's business en- 
 terprises a feature which had its influence in 
 shaping his character and in expanding his views 
 was their world-wide reach, keeping him in con- 
 stant communication with the ends of the earth. 
 His whaling was in the Indian Ocean, the South 
 Pacific Ocean, and the Arctic Ocean from Baffin's 
 Bay to Behring's Strait. His sealing was both in 
 the Arctic and Antarctic circles at St. Paul's and 
 St. George's islands, off Alaska ; and at the South 
 Shetlands. off Cape Horn. His sea-elephanting 
 was in the far South, at Kerguelen's Land and 
 Ilurd's Island. It is a noteworthy fact just here, 
 as another item in Mr. Haven's contributions to 
 science, that the first trustworthy chart of Kergue- 
 len's Land was made by one of his captains, and 
 that a copy of this was obtained from Mr. Haven 
 by the United States government for use by the 
 scientific party sent to that island to observe the 
 transit of Venus, in 1874. Mr. Haven's guano- 
 trade was with islands near the equator; and one 
 of his partners was resident at the Sandwich Isl- 
 ands. For years he kept up colonies, in one 
 branch or another of his business, at points near 
 the north pole, the south pole, and the equator, 
 besides having his vessels in all waters.
 
 Meeting Losses Bravely. 
 
 117 
 
 Another feature of his business was its large 
 and imminent risks. The remarkable profits of a 
 single whaling voyage have been instanced. On 
 the other hand, an historian already quoted illus- 
 trates the uncertainties of this fishery by this rec- 
 ord : " Of the sixty-eight whalers expected to ar- 
 rive in New Bedford and Fairhaven in 1858, forty- 
 four were calculated as making losing voyages, and 
 the same proportion would apply to other ports. 
 The estimated loss to owners during this year was 
 at least $1,000,000." Often Mr. Haven was disap- 
 pointed in the results of voyages carefully planned 
 by him. "And nothing was more remarkable in 
 him," said one who knew him well, " than his grit 
 in meeting losses. He was used to losing vessels, 
 and he never appeared disturbed by it. All he 
 wanted was to take a new start at once, to make 
 the loss good as soon as possible." And with all 
 his world -wide business, in its demands and its 
 risks, pressing upon him continually, Mr. Haven, 
 amid his greatest anxieties and severest losses, and 
 in the busiest season, went back and forth, week 
 after week, between his home and his country 
 Sunday-school at Waterford, and was also faithful 
 at his post in his city school, as if he had nothing 
 else to live for, or to think of, than the one of 
 those Sunday-schools or the other. 
 
 Nor did Mr. Haven limit his business activities 
 to the great commercial enterprises of his ship- 
 
 SEOTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Disappoint- 
 ments. 
 
 On land 
 as well as 
 at sea.
 
 118 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 Business 
 Activities. 
 
 Railroading 
 and banking. 
 
 ping-house. A man as successful as he was in 
 the conduct of his personal affairs is sure to be 
 urged to administer for the business interests of 
 others. " Unto him that hath shall be given," is 
 as true in worldly responsibilities as in spiritual 
 gifts ; and the man who has most to do is surest 
 to be called on to do more. If a great bankrupt 
 estate in his community demanded exceptional 
 ability, conjoined with unquestioned integrity, to 
 save it in settlement from utter ruin, Mr. Haven 
 was likely to be summoned by the united voice 
 of the creditors to take it in charge ; and he could 
 find time for all the work which this trust entailed. 
 In 1860, he was chosen president of the New Lon- 
 don Northern Railroad Company, at a time when 
 the affairs of that corporation seemed to require 
 the undivided energies of a superior mind. He 
 took the place, and for nearly six years filled it 
 with eminent ability. He was an original corpo- 
 rator of the Mariners' Savings Bank, of the Na- 
 tional Bank of Commerce, and of the Equitable 
 Trust Company of New London, being also a di- 
 rector in each institution, and vice-president of 
 the first-named, from the time of its organization 
 until his death. At the time of his death he was 
 also president of the New London City National 
 Bank. Nor were these all of his outside business 
 activities. 
 
 " I never saw a man," said a prominent fellow-
 
 Doing the Lord's Work. 
 
 119 
 
 citizen of his on the day of Mr. Haven's funeral, 
 " I never saw a man who could do so many things, 
 and do them all so well, as Henry P. Haven." 
 Could more than this have been said of him, if 
 he had not been a devoted and untiring Sunday- 
 school superintendent? On the contrary, it may 
 rather be affirmed that it was because Mr. Haven 
 was so faithful in his Sunday-school work that he 
 was so successful in the other departments of his 
 life-work. The relieving change of mental activity 
 necessitated by the totally different spheres of toil 
 and care in his religious and secular occupations 
 probably enabled him to do more, and to do it 
 better, than if he had confined himself to secular 
 occupations alone. He was the stronger for his 
 own work through not neglecting the Lord's work. 
 In truth, all that he did he looked on as the Lord's 
 work ; and, because he honored the Lord in its 
 doing, the Lord honored him in its results; and 
 "the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his 
 hand." 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Business 
 
 Activities. 
 
 On the 
 
 other 
 
 shoulder.
 
 120 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VI, 
 
 Public 
 Services. 
 
 Outside 
 
 religions 
 
 activities. 
 
 VI. 
 
 PUBLIC SERVICES. 
 
 Outside Sunday-school Work; Lay Preaching ; Arranging the In- 
 ternational Lessons ; Promoting Common-school Interests ; Work- 
 ing with Benevolent Societies; In Denominational Gatherings; 
 A Delegate to Great Britain ; Political Services. 
 
 IT might fairly be supposed that with so large 
 business interests as pressed for his attention, and 
 with two Sunday-schools on his hands, Mr. Haven 
 would not have time or strength for any extended 
 public services ; but his life was only a fresh illus- 
 tration of the truth that it is always the busiest 
 man who can be depended on to do one thing 
 more. In fact, Mr. Haven's outside general work, 
 both secular and religious, was sufficient in extent 
 and variety to occupy the entire talents and ener- 
 gies of any ordinary man. 
 
 He was quick to respond to any call on him in 
 promoting church and Sunday-school interests in 
 the community about him, outside of his own de- 
 nomination. Nor did he always wait to be called 
 to such service. He sometimes proffered it where 
 it was not asked for, but where he thought it was 
 needed. If another country neighborhood than
 
 -Lay Preaching. 
 
 121 
 
 SUCTION VI. 
 
 Public 
 Services. 
 
 the one he already had in charge lacked a Sunday- 
 school, he would urge attention to it. If the man 
 to start a Sunday-school there was not to be found, 
 he would go there himself and put things in mo- 
 tion. Or, if a feeble church seemed in danger of 
 dying out, he was quite likely to take hold and 
 rouse its members to action. In one case, for ex- 
 ample, he found a closed church -build ing in a 
 needy neighborhood, where only three members 
 of the old organization were still living in the 
 vicinity. Trying in vain to get any one else to 
 take hold of the work, he started a Sunday-school 
 there, and for a time superintended it himself. It 
 was soon prosperous and influential. God gave it 
 power. Souls were born anew. After a time 
 something more than the Sunday-school services 
 was called for. As no clergyman was available, 
 Mr. Haven began preaching in the old church, and P ul i )U - 
 for months he supplied its pulpit regularly. To 
 secure to the reorganized church the administra- 
 tion of the sacraments, he occasionally exchanged 
 pulpits with a neighboring pastor. In this way 
 that church was nursed and trained into new life 
 until it was able again to secure a pastor of its 
 ow r n, and thereby release Mr. Plaven for similar 
 service elsewhere. This, it may be mentioned, 
 was a Baptist church, w T hile Mr. Haven was a Con- 
 gregationalist. But the work was the Master's. 
 That was enough for Mr. Haven to know. 
 
 So 
 
 ipplyhi! 
 Baptist 
 
 a Bapti 
 
 Dg
 
 122 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VI 
 
 Public 
 Services. 
 
 Redeeming 
 the time. 
 
 It was a little more than twenty years ago that 
 the writer of this sketch first visited Mr. Haven, 
 to pass a few days with him for the purpose of 
 becoming better acquainted with his Sunday-school 
 work. The incidents of that visit well illustrate 
 the reach and variety of Mr. Haven's ordinary re- 
 ligious activities at home and beyond. On Friday 
 evening he led an institute, or a normal-class con- 
 ference, of nearly two hundred teachers from the 
 various Sunday-schools of New London. On Sat- 
 urday he rode out to a Seventh-day Baptist church 
 in Waterford, where he preached in the forenoon, 
 and at noon addressed the Sunday-school. Re- 
 turning to New London, he led his teachers' meet- 
 ing at his own house in the evening. On Sunday 
 morning he conducted the opening exercises of 
 his church-school, and then left it in the hands 
 of his assistant, that he might ride out several 
 miles to the little Baptist church which he was 
 nursing into life, as before described. There he 
 preached. After this service he attended the Sun- 
 day-school session. Riding thence across the coun- 
 try to his "Gilead" Sunday-school, he led the 
 exercises there, and taught a Bible-class, as usual. 
 Before, sun down he was back at his New London 
 home, ready for the evening service at his church. 
 And all this was but an indication of what he was 
 continually doing in addition to his regular church 
 and Sunday-school work at home.
 
 The International Lessons. 
 
 123 
 
 The demands on him in the Sunday-school 
 sphere for a part in convention and institute ex- 
 ercises multiplied with the passing years; and it 
 was wonderful to see how quietly and easily he re- 
 sponded to so many calls without neglecting any 
 business interests or local religious duties. At one 
 time he would be giving counsel and illustrating 
 methods of work in a local institute in a remote 
 country neighborhood; again he would be pre- 
 siding or making an address at a county conven- 
 tion in one corner of the state or another ; then 
 he would be heard at a gathering of superintend- 
 ents, or at a teachers' association, in New York 
 city; yet again he would be the presiding officer 
 at a Connecticut state convention, or his influence 
 would be recognized in the deliberations of a na- 
 tional Sunday-school gathering. So he came stead- 
 ily into prominence as one of the leading Sunday- 
 school workers of the United States. 
 
 In April, 1872, Mr. Haven was a delegate from 
 Connecticut at the fifth National Sunday-school 
 Convention at Indianapolis. There the chief theme 
 of discussion was the propriety of attempting a 
 plan of uniform Bible lessons for the entire coun- 
 try. Whatever persons or agencies had contrib- 
 uted to the quickening of public interest in this 
 matter, it is clear that God had prepared the hearts 
 of his people for uniformity in the study of his 
 Word. In response to a popular demand in this 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 Public 
 Services. 
 
 Institute 
 and conven- 
 tion work. 
 
 The Indian- 
 apolis con- 
 vention.
 
 124 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VI 
 
 Public 
 Services. 
 
 The uniform- 
 lesson plan. 
 
 The Lesson 
 Committee. 
 
 direction, the leading Sunday-school publishers had 
 agreed on a common schedule of Bible lessons for 
 the year 1872. The experiment thus made was a 
 success beyond the anticipations of those who ar- 
 ranged it. The advantages of uniformity, and 
 the ease of adapting the same portion of Scripture 
 to all classes in the Sunday-school, were soon so 
 apparent that the desire for a full series of com- 
 mon lessons spread rapidly throughout the coun- 
 try; and the Indianapolis convention felt the 
 pressure unmistakably for a plan that should meet 
 the popular want in this regard. 
 
 While the subject was under discussion in the 
 convention, Mr. Haven spoke earnestly in favor 
 of the proposal for a uniform-lesson series. He 
 admitted that at first he had been sceptical on this 
 point ; but his observations during the past few 
 months in schools East and West had removed all 
 doubt as to the desirableness of the plan. More- 
 over, he believed that poring over the same por- 
 tion of God's Word week by week would bring 
 God's people into closer communion ; and it might 
 be that God was to answer most gloriously the 
 prayers of Christians for Christian unity through 
 this uniform-lesson instrumentality. 
 
 When the convention had voted almost unani- 
 mously to designate a committee of " five clergy- 
 men and five laymen to select a course of Bible 
 lessons for a series of years not exceeding seven,"
 
 Work on the Lesson Committee. 
 
 125 
 
 which lessons should, so far as the committee 
 might deem possible, "embrace a general study of 
 the whole Bible, alternating between the Old and 
 New Testaments," Mr. Haven was appointed a 
 member of the committee to nominate the new 
 Lesson Committee. Subsequently, at the request 
 to that nominating committee of leading members 
 of his own denomination, he was put upon the Les- 
 son Committee at its original appointment. This 
 gave to Mr. Haven a place of largest potency and 
 responsibility in connection with the interests, not 
 of the Sunday-school alone, but of the entire Chris- 
 tian church ; for out of the labors of that Lesson 
 Committee have gone forth influences for the im- 
 pressing and uplifting of the membership of the 
 church of Christ such as have resulted from no 
 other single movement since the days of the Ref- 
 ormation. 
 
 Mr. Haven fully realized the magnitude and im- 
 portance of the interests involved in his new ap- 
 pointment. He entered upon its duties prayer- 
 fully and with studiousness. He was not content 
 to go to a meeting of the Lesson Committee mere- 
 ly to give his opinion of a schedule of lessons ar- 
 ranged by one or another of the distinguished 
 divines of that committee. He set himself at 
 preparing a plan of Bible study, and selecting les- 
 sons for each Sunday of the course, as if he alone 
 had it to do. This plan of his had its part, in 
 
 SKCTION VI. 
 
 Public 
 Services. 
 
 A new call 
 to service. 
 
 Faithfulness 
 iu service.
 
 126 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 Services 
 
 Finding 
 time for 
 every duty. 
 
 conjunction with other plans similarly arranged by 
 other members of the committee, in the final ar- 
 rangement of the admirable series of International 
 Lessons for the first seven years' course from 1873 
 to 1879, inclusive. 
 
 It would seem as if Mr. Haven would not have 
 found time for such an elaborate work as this, with 
 his multiplied business interests pressing him on 
 every side; but any man can find time, or can take 
 it, for whatever he feels he must do in this world. 
 If necessary, Mr. Haven would have yielded the 
 cost of a whaling-vessel, or a year's profits of the 
 Alaska seal-fisheries, to prepare himself for a meet- 
 ing of the Lesson Committee. Yet Mr. Haven's 
 business did not suffer from his attention to this 
 w r ork. Duties never conflict. At the time of the 
 tenth meeting of the Lesson Committee, at Chi- 
 cago, in the early summer of 1875, Mr. Haven was 
 in London. He then cabled his greetings to his 
 associates. 
 Atlanta, he was in heaven. 
 
 Before their next and final meeting, at 
 
 Interest 
 in common 
 schools. 
 
 Mr. Haven's public services were, however, by 
 no means restricted to Sunday-school work. In- 
 deed, he never seemed to restrict himself to any 
 single sphere of endeavor; although he worked in 
 each as if he had nothing to do elsewhere. In 
 behalf of secular education he was active both at 
 home and abroad. He was the originator in New
 
 Work in Benevolent Societies. 
 
 127 
 
 London of evening schools, for the benefit of those 
 whose occupations forbade their attendance at the 
 public day schools. He was chairman of the Board 
 of Education of his city, and discharged faithfully 
 the onerous duties of that trust. He was a zeal- 
 ous friend of, and worker for, the State Normal 
 School through its varied vicissitudes. He was, 
 moreover, an active participant in teachers' insti- 
 tutes throughout the state. Together with such 
 men as President Noah Porter, Professor now 
 President Daniel C. Gilman, Professor B. G. 
 Northrop, and other distinguished educators, he 
 assisted in a canvass of his state again and again 
 in the interests of popular education ; and he had 
 no unimportant part in raising the standard of 
 teaching in the public schools, in city and in coun- 
 try, in Connecticut. 
 
 In connection with many of the great benevo- 
 lent societies of the country, Mr. Haven did good 
 service in his local field and in the general one. 
 To hear one of his detailed annual reports as 
 secretary of the New London County Foreign 
 Missionary Association, auxiliary to the American 
 Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, one 
 would think that he had little else to do than to at- 
 tend to the duties of that position. But the Amer- 
 ican Board itself confided in him for counsel, and 
 looked to him for active service, as one of its val- 
 
 SKCTION VI. 
 
 Public 
 Services. 
 
 Promoting 
 educational 
 interests. 
 
 Serving the 
 societies.
 
 128 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SKOTION vi. ue( | an( j gfgyient corporate members, with no un- 
 
 Public 
 Services. 
 
 Official 
 connections. 
 
 In denomi- 
 national 
 councils. 
 
 important place on the committees of its annual 
 sessions. He was a vice-president of the Ameri- 
 can Sunday-school Union, of the American Bible 
 Society, and of the American Tract Society ; and 
 neither of these organizations counted his official 
 connection with it merely a nominal and honorary 
 one. He was ready to give to, and to work for, 
 either of them at its call. He was the very fore- 
 front of the Systematic Beneficence Society. Of 
 the American College and Education Society he 
 was the honored president at the time of his death. 
 And in every such station he recognized the re- 
 sponsibilities rather than the honors of the posi- 
 tion ; valuing it for what it enabled him to do, 
 rather than for what it might do for him. 
 
 In the county, the state, and the national confer- 
 ences and councils of the Congregational churches, 
 Mr. Haven was for years a felt and recognized 
 power; hardly less so in the deliberations of the 
 national gatherings than in those of his own coun- 
 ty. In October, 1875, he was a representative, to- 
 gether with the Rev. Dr. Joseph P. Thompson, of 
 the Xational Council, at the Congregational Union 
 of England and Wales, at its annual meeting in 
 London. His brief and fitting address on that 
 occasion illustrates his spirit and style as a speak- 
 er, and is therefore worthy of reproduction here.
 
 Address in London. 
 
 Speaking for himself and for his associate, he 
 said: 
 
 "More than three thousand churches of the same 
 faith and order send through us to-day, to you, the 
 Congregational Union of England and Wales, their 
 formal Christian greetings. 
 
 "Two hundred and fifty years ago, just at this 
 time of the year, the Mayflower, with her precious 
 freight, crossed the stormy Atlantic and reached 
 the New England coast. That was precious seed 
 she carried those noble men and women, who, 
 voluntary exiles from this land, were permitted to 
 carry out the ideas which they had so long cher- 
 ished on that distant shore. There they planted 'a 
 church without a bishop,' and there they founded 
 'a state without a king.' God blessed and pros- 
 pered them. 
 
 " I claim not that our forty millions of people 
 have all descended from that little band of Pil- 
 grims; but I do claim that the three thousand 
 Congregational churches which my brother, Dr. 
 Thompson, and myself represent before you to- 
 day are all the fruits of that precious seed. I 
 claim that the principles which were imbibed on 
 these shores of Old England, and which were ex- 
 ported, and which lost not in the exportation, have 
 done great things not only for us, but for you and 
 for the world. I claim that the influences of those 
 principles of freedom which were carried with that 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 Public 
 Services. 
 
 Greetings 
 
 from 
 
 America. 
 
 The 
 
 Mayflower. 
 
 Influence 
 of the 
 Piljn-ims.
 
 130 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 Public 
 Services. 
 
 Church 
 extension. 
 
 Contribu- 
 tions to 
 missions. 
 
 Mayflower across the ocean have many of them 
 been reflected back, and England is not now what 
 she was two hundred and fifty years ago. 
 
 "If you should land on our shores, at one of 
 our great eastern cities, and take the swift railway 
 train which runs for three thousand miles to the 
 shores of the Pacific, as you passed over the moun- 
 tains eight thousand feet high, as you crossed those 
 rivers and went through those valleys, in every 
 town where there is any considerable population 
 you would find a Congregational church. We are 
 not obliged to ask any bishop where we shall go. 
 We only seek directions from God's Holy Word; 
 and we believe that we plant in their purity the 
 institutions of the Christian religion. When a 
 place of worship is needed in one of these distant 
 towns, the brethren gather themselves together 
 and contribute what they can. They then send 
 word to our richer eastern churches ; and our peo- 
 ple at Boston always stand ready to give them five 
 hundred dollars to wipe out their debt when they 
 have completed the house of God. 
 
 " Our Congregational churches, three thousand 
 in number, are now contributing annually five 
 millions of dollars to the support of our mission- 
 aries in heathen countries, while more than that 
 amount is raised for our home missions. God has 
 blessed us, and made us to grow, because we have 
 been willing to give ; for we remember that, as
 
 Duties of Citizenship. 
 
 131 
 
 the Old Book says, ' There is that scattereth and 
 yet increaseth ; and there is that withholdeth more 
 than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty.' 
 
 " Having now for the first time the privilege of 
 speaking to a British audience, I cannot sit down 
 without paying an humble tribute to the noble 
 woman who sits in the chair of this state. You 
 are aware that once every four years we choose 
 our chief magistrate ; now, if anything could rec- 
 oncile me to a different state of things, it would 
 that I settled in a country and under a govern- 
 ment where Queen Victoria reigned. 
 
 "I rejoice in the progress that your country has 
 made, especially in the cause of peace. I trust that 
 your great nation will join hands with the Ameri- 
 can nation to work together for the progress of 
 Christianization and of civilization until the whole 
 world shall be brought to acknowledge as the one 
 sovereign Him whose right it is to reign, and who 
 shall reign until all the nations shall be brought to 
 his feet." 
 
 Mr. Haven did not neglect his duties as a citi- 
 zen. He w r as too good a man for that. Living 
 under a government which makes its citizens re- 
 sponsible for its policy, its administration, and its 
 very nature and character, he could never have 
 been a model superintendent if he had ignored or 
 shirked his share in making that government what 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 PuMic 
 Services. 
 
 To the 
 Queen. 
 
 Union and 
 progress. 
 
 As 
 
 citizen.
 
 132 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VI 
 
 Public 
 Services. 
 
 Bearing 
 
 a part 
 
 in politics. 
 
 Holding 
 civil office. 
 
 it ought to be. He not only had political opinions 
 and expressed them, but he was as ready to ren- 
 der unto Caesar all the service which belonged to 
 Caesar as he was to render unto his neighbor, his 
 church, or his God the service which either had a 
 right to demand of him. He counted it his duty 
 to vote at local elections and at general ones; to 
 respond on occasions to the call for jury service ; 
 to contribute of his means for the proper canvass 
 of the community, in behalf of the interests of 
 good government, before any important election; 
 and to accept public office when it was tendered to 
 him. His course in all this was another proof of 
 the falsity of the common assertion, that the best 
 citizens of the United States are not ready to bear 
 a part in politics. No man is entitled to be count- 
 ed among the best citizens if he lacks this readi- 
 ness. 
 
 For a time, Mr. Haven was mayor of his city. 
 Again, he represented his town in the Legislature 
 of his state. In 1873 he was the Republican can- 
 didate for governor of Connecticut. This last- 
 named experience proved no small personal trial 
 to him. It gave him a new disclosure of the se- 
 verity and unfairness of partisan warfare in the 
 average political contest. Questions of locality, 
 and personal differences among leading politicians 
 in his party, had entered into the strife for the 
 gubernatorial nomination, and these continued to
 
 Partisan Unfairness. 
 
 133 
 
 manifest themselves unpleasantly throughout the 
 canvass. Mr. Haven had looked for opposition, 
 but he had not expected to be vilified and slan- 
 dered by any who knew him well, and before 
 whom he had maintained a consistent Christian 
 walk from his boyhood. 
 
 Writing on this subject to a friend just before 
 the election took place, he referred to his troubles 
 of mind, and to the help in bearing them which 
 had come through the notes written by that friend 
 on the Sunday-school lesson for the week, of "Jacob 
 at Bethel." "At my desk studying, with a smart 
 of many malicious lies that came to my knowledge 
 yesterdaj 7 afternoon, I have read your notes on our 
 lesson. They have been very sweet and precious 
 to me; and I feel that I must say so. I have noted 
 especially your words, ' It is just where the night 
 seems darkest, and the stone pillow hardest, that 
 the eye of faith shall see " heaven open, and the 
 angels of God ascending and descending upon the 
 Son of man." It is there that the trusting child of 
 God will rise up out of his sleep to say with Jacob 
 at Bethel, " Surely the Lord is in this place, and I 
 knew it not." ' I suppose it is weak and foolish to 
 regard or care for what is said ; but right here in 
 my own community, where I fain would believe 
 that I have honestly, in the fear of God, tried to 
 serve my generation, to have abominable false- 
 hoods not only circulated (as when a citizen here 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 Public 
 
 Services. 
 
 Com fort 
 
 under 
 
 slanders.
 
 134: A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 Public 
 
 says that he will not vote for a man who sends out 
 
 Services. 
 
 his ships loaded with tracts on deck and mm in 
 
 
 the hold), but to have respectable people believe 
 
 
 them, is to me a trial ; and the name of these lies 
 
 
 is legion. However, I feel stronger for the pre- 
 
 
 cious truths of this lesson ; and with these few 
 
 
 lines I will go back to my studies." 
 
 Beiug 
 weighed 
 
 On the morning of election-day, Monday. April 
 
 in the 
 balances. 
 
 7, Mr. Haven wrote once more to his friend : 
 
 
 "To-day I pass before the one hundred thousand 
 
 
 voters of this state, and each one decides individ- 
 
 
 ually whether he wishes me to be the governor. 
 
 
 Thus my fellow-men to-day weigh me and judge 
 
 
 me. St. Paul says, it is a small thing to be judged 
 
 
 of man's judgment. When the Lord weighs me 
 
 
 in his balances, may I not be found wanting ! I 
 
 
 usually select in the morning before I rise, or soon 
 
 
 after, some verse, or part of a verse, as my motto 
 
 
 for the day. This morning I took 'All things 
 
 
 work together for good to them that love God;' 
 
 
 and, as I love God, I want to take this promise to 
 
 
 my soul and feed on it to-day. My prayer this 
 
 
 morning was, ' Give me grace and strength to per- 
 
 
 form my duties if I am elected, and perfect resig- 
 
 
 nation if I am defeated.' I feel less of interest or 
 
 
 excitement over the result than I expected as the 
 
 
 time comes on, and think sincerely that I have 
 
 
 many friends in the state who will be much more 
 
 
 severely disappointed than I shall be. The severe
 
 Reproached for Christ's Sake. 
 
 135 
 
 things said about me, I think, do not now disturb 
 me. So far as I can judge, I entertain no hard or 
 unkind feelings towards any one who lias tried tc 
 injure me. I enjoyed my Sunday-school work 
 yesterday, speaking in both schools, and had some 
 pleasant thoughts in connection with the lesson, 
 ' Israel, the New Name,' and the words of Jacob, 
 ' I will not let thee go except thou bless me.' " 
 
 Mr. Haven, with all his associates on the state 
 ticket, was defeated. Of course, he bore his defeat 
 manfully. " You need not fear," he wrote to his 
 friend, "that I shall whine or murmur; but I want 
 you to pray that I may have grace enough inward- 
 ly to accept the result with all the cheerfulness 
 that I should have shown had it been reversed." 
 
 One of the prominent objections urged against 
 Mr. Haven in the gubernatorial canvass was his 
 activity in Christian work. His connection with 
 Sunday -schools was at that time the subject of 
 many a sneer on the platform and in the partisan 
 press. But this only brought home more closely to 
 him the words of his Divine Master, " Blessed are 
 ye when men shall revile you, . . . and shall say all 
 manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake." 
 "It is enough for the disciple that he be as his 
 master, and the servant as his lord. If they have 
 called the master of the house Beelzebub, how 
 much more shall they call them of his house- 
 hold?" 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 Public 
 
 Service*. 
 
 Defeated. 
 
 Sneered at
 
 136 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VI 
 
 Public 
 
 Services. 
 
 Approved. 
 
 Sure it is that Mr. Haven's defeat in that can- 
 vass was one of the influences which brought him 
 yet closer to his Saviour in the latest years of his 
 earthly life ; was one of the things which worked 
 together for good to him as a loved child of God. 
 And sure, also, it is that not the least among his 
 many and varied public services was his repre- 
 senting his party as a candidate for the highest 
 office in the gift of his state when he was asked 
 to do so.
 
 Christian Stewardship. 
 
 137 
 
 VII. 
 
 BENEFICENCES. 
 
 Christian Stewardship ; Systematic Giving; Enjoying Self-denial; 
 Fidelity Tested; Provoking Others to Good Works; Giving by 
 Proxy ; A Providential Donation ; Increasing the Ministry ; 
 Posthumous Charities. 
 
 No characteristic of Mr. Haven was more mark- 
 ed in all his Christian life than his counting him- 
 self the Lord's steward, responsible to his Master 
 for the wise use or for the instant surrender of all 
 his possessions, according to the providential calls 
 on him. He was not foolish enough to suppose 
 that he " made money." He knew that the silver 
 and the gold were the Lord's, and that the Lord 
 alone gave " power to get wealth." He knew also 
 that the Lord who gave had the power to take 
 away, and that, at the utmost, riches were but a 
 trust from the Lord to be accounted for strictly 
 and sacredly. Hence, from the beginning of his 
 discipleship, he sought to honor the Lord with his 
 substance, and stood ready to respond to any sum- 
 mons from the Lord for the bestowal of his in- 
 come or of his accrued capital. 
 
 Earlv in his business life Mr. Haven formed a 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 Beneficences. 
 
 Not his 
 own.
 
 138 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 Beneficences 
 
 A plan of 
 giving. 
 
 Avoiding 
 ostentation. 
 
 plan of systematic giving somewhat after the pat- 
 tern of the patriarch Jacob's, although with a slid- 
 ing scale which was an improvement on the ar- 
 rangement promised at Bethel. He resolved to 
 give a certain percentage of his net income until 
 his accumulations should reach a predesignated 
 sum. As his property should increase he was to 
 increase the percentage of his charities. This 
 progress in giving was to go on until not one 
 tenth merely, but one fourth, and then one half, 
 and, finally, the whole of his net income should be 
 devoted to beneficences. All this was resolved on 
 before he had any accumulations w r orthy of men- 
 tion ; and it was adhered to faithfully for a long 
 series of years indeed, until the close of his life, 
 except with such modifications as became neces- 
 sary to enable him the better to carry out the 
 spirit of his resolve, instead of being tied too 
 closely by its letter. 
 
 As he was increasingly prospered in business, he 
 gave more and more largely, until his benefac- 
 tions were so extensive that he felt the necessity 
 of guarding against the appearance of ostentation 
 in giving. To meet this danger, he would some- 
 times subscribe as liberally to a church contribu- 
 tion as would be generally expected of him, and 
 then would send anonymously a much larger sum 
 to the treasury of the cause represented. In this 
 way his influence was not withheld from the ob-
 
 Giving Persistently. 
 
 139 
 
 ject presented, while his gifts called no special at- 
 tention to himself as a giver. 
 
 Because so large a share of his income was de- 
 voted to charities, it came to be very easy for Mr. 
 Haven to give. Indeed it was so easy that, with 
 his sensitive conscience, he began to be troubled 
 because he was not more troubled. He was afraid 
 there was no self-denial in his largest benefactions. 
 On one occasion he came to the writer of this 
 sketch to talk this subject over in seriousness. He 
 said that he found so much enjoyment in giving 
 that it seemed to him there was no grace in his be- 
 nevolence. The delight in the exercise took away 
 all possibility of merit. The writer's response 
 to this complaint was, that if Mr. Haven really 
 thought it was wrong to find satisfaction in doing 
 God service, he had better seek meritorious dis- 
 comfort in refusing obedience ; that, for instance, 
 when he saw a needy widow and children, or be- 
 came acquainted with the wants of struggling stu- 
 dents, and had the means at hand for their relief, 
 he might let the poor ones suffer because it would 
 be such a pleasure to him to give them relief. As 
 Mr. Haven was not ready to adopt this recourse, 
 his friend suggested that possibly he was not called 
 to reject Christ's yoke merely because it proved 
 "easy," nor to throw off Christ's burden because 
 through grace he found it to be " light." 
 
 Mr. Haven's giving became a fixed habit a 
 10 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 Beneficences. 
 
 Enjoying 
 self-denial. 
 
 Seekinjr 
 discomfort.
 
 140 
 
 SKOTION VII. 
 Beneficences. 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 Calls on his 
 ciipital. 
 
 Helping 
 others to 
 help them- 
 selves. 
 
 habit that was not dependent on the consciousness 
 of large means already devoted to charities. When 
 he had been in business twenty years or more, and 
 his accumulated property had reached the limit 
 originally set for it, financial stress reduced his 
 income materially. His annual receipts were for 
 a time insufficient to meet his ordinary expenses. 
 But this was not a sufficient excuse for him to re- 
 frain from giving. Not merely his surplus funds, 
 but all his possessions, were the Lord's. This he 
 recognized. He did not close his hand against the 
 needy, nor his heart against the Giver of all good, 
 while he had anything with which to respond to a 
 call of chanty. He continued to give steadily and 
 liberally, although his benefactions constantly di- 
 minished his already very moderate capital. After 
 a year or two, having apparently thus tested him 
 sufficiently, God gave him renewed and increased 
 prosperity, whereby larger means than ever were 
 at his disposal in his Master's service. 
 
 Mr. Haven's methods of giving were as judi- 
 cious as they were modest. lie recognized the 
 danger of taking off from others a sense of re- 
 sponsibility to help themselves; and he guarded 
 against this danger by encouraging and aiding the 
 objects of his charity to lift any financial burden 
 which they ought to carry, instead of taking that 
 burden absolutely on his own shoulders. Whether 
 it were an individual or a church or Sunday-school
 
 Co-work in Beneficence. 
 
 which he would aid, he took pains to so give as 
 would lead others to give also. By this means the 
 more he gave, the more there was of good giving 
 on the part of those whom he helped. It is too 
 often the case that a generous giver in church col- 
 lections enables those who give little or nothing 
 to boast of the aggregate benefactions of their 
 church, and to soothe their consciences, under a 
 sense of their own stinginess, with the comforting 
 comment, "After all, our church does pretty well 
 in its contributions, considering there are so few 
 rich men in its membership." And, again, there 
 are Sunday-schools or individuals rendered slug- 
 gish, if not actually paralyzed, by outright gifts to 
 the full amount of their immediate needs, when 
 they might have been quickened into new life by a 
 stimulated effort to do something for themselves. 
 Mr. Haven's gifts were never alloyed by these ele- 
 ments of evil. If he gave more than his judicious 
 share to the object of any church collection, he 
 gave the surplus anonymously and outside of the 
 church contribution ; and in every exercise of be- 
 neficence he was as careful not to give too much 
 as he was to give cheerfully; "moreover, he was 
 always seeking to provoke others to well-doing 
 through his timely donations. 
 
 One of his favorite captains, who was successful 
 in business and open-handed in generosity, tells of 
 Mr. Haven's habit of calling on him to aid in be- 
 
 SEOTION VII. 
 Beneficences 
 
 A cover to 
 stinginess. 
 
 Lifting 
 together.
 
 142 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VJI. 
 Beneficences. 
 
 Another 
 lift. 
 
 Giving by 
 proxy. 
 
 nevolent enterprises which had won his sympathy; 
 and, again, of his readiness to respond to any like 
 call on him from the captain. A little mission 
 chapel was to be built in their city. Mr. Haven 
 subscribed to the fund generously, but not so as to 
 monopolize the giving. As the captain referred to 
 was closing up the profits of one of his voyages, 
 Mr. Haven said he wanted some help from him for 
 this chapel. "All right," said the captain, "how 
 much shall it be?" "Well," said Mr. Haven, "I 
 want quite a lift from you. I want two hundred 
 and fifty dollars." Promptly this donation was 
 made. Some months after it was found that the 
 subscription still dragged. "I think you and I 
 must give that chapel another lift," said Mr. Ha- 
 ven. "About how much from me this time?" 
 asked the captain. "I should say a hundred dol- 
 lars would be about right," was the response. And 
 that sum also was cheerfully given. Again, the 
 captain told Mr. Haven of a worthy object of be- 
 nevolence, and asked his aid in it. "By all means," 
 said Mr. Haven, heartily, " I want a timber-head 
 in every ship." And this is only one illustration 
 out of many of the way in which Mr. Haven pro- 
 moted good giving as well as practised it, in evi- 
 dence that his judgment kept watch over his gen- 
 erosity. 
 
 Giving thus carefully as well as extensively, Mr. 
 Haven often sought the aid of friends in applying
 
 Providential Charity. 
 
 143 
 
 his benefactions. No one person knew how much 
 he gave, or in how many directions ; but many 
 persons knew that he was always ready to give 
 through them to charities in which they were 
 specially interested. For years the writer of this 
 sketch had carte-Blanche from Mr. Haven to make 
 any donation for him which the writer supposed 
 Mr. Haven would make if he were present, in an 
 urgent case of charity which could not be laid be- 
 fore him in advance. And if this agent in giving 
 did not call with sufficient frequency on his prin- 
 cipal for donations, he was quite likely to be in- 
 quired of for new objects of beneficence. 
 
 A single illustration will show how this for- 
 wardness of a Christian steward to respond to ev- 
 ery providential call on him for a portion of his 
 substance co-worked with the prayers and needs 
 of God's children elsewhere. A young theological 
 graduate called on the writer for information as to 
 routes to California. In the course of the conver- 
 sation, it came out that the young man was pecul- 
 iarly living a life of faith. Without means for 
 an education, he had, ten years before, consecrated 
 himself to the Christian ministry, and entered on 
 a course of study accordingly. Aided of God, step 
 by step, in answer to the prayer of faith, he had 
 without shiftlessness and without lack passed 
 through the academy, the college, and the theolog- 
 ical seminary, and was now to start for the Pacific 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 Beneficences. 
 
 Answering 
 prayers un- 
 cousciously.
 
 144 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 Looking up 
 charities. 
 
 Beneficences 'I s ^P e ^ or an unattractive home-missionary field in 
 the interior of California. He had not yet the 
 money for his passage, but he had no concern on 
 that point ; for he was sure that the Lord, who had 
 supplied all his need thus far, would not leave him 
 in want to-morrow. He asked no assistance, nor 
 did he even tell his story of want, save as it came 
 out in answer to questions. He was, however, 
 promptly given some assistance by the one who 
 now learned the facts in the case ; and he went on 
 his way rejoicing and trusting. 
 
 Up to this point there was no thought of Mr. 
 Haven in the affair. But just as the writer began 
 to feel that he ought to be the means of doing 
 more for that child of God than his personal pos- 
 sessions warranted, there came to him a friendly 
 note from Mr. Haven, with a postscript of this 
 sort : " Do you know of any young man to whom 
 I ought to give twenty-five dollars just now?" 
 The response to this inquiry was immediate, "Yes, 
 I do know the man you want to help." And the 
 name and' story of the home missionary, just off 
 for his new field, were given. Promptly there 
 came from Mr. Haven a draft for the sum named, 
 and, as the money was to be used in California, the 
 draft was made payable in gold. The donation 
 was forwarded to California, and in acknowledg- 
 ing its receipt the young missionary wrote: 
 
 " The gift was, as you may suppose, entirely un- 
 
 A welcome 
 gift. 
 
 J
 
 Aiding Young Men. 
 
 145 
 
 expected, but none the less welcome, as I will show SKOTION vn - 
 
 1 ' _ ' Beiieflceucea. 
 
 you. I arrived here safely some three weeks ago; 
 but when my bills w r ere all paid, my cash was 
 pretty low. My parish is a widely scattered one, 
 and every one said, 'You must get you a horse.' AH>I>O 
 
 J J wanteti. 
 
 (Everybody rides horseback here, and, as horses 
 are very cheap here, they probably never dreamed 
 but that I could buy one as w r ell as not.) I deter- 
 mined to get one when my first quarter's salary 
 became due ; but meanwhile, for three months, I 
 should have to go afoot, and it is very warm and 
 dusty walking hjere. The very day your letter 
 came, the leading man of the place had been say- 
 ing that I ought to have a horse, and he thought 
 he had just the one for me, a very promising colt, 
 just broken to the saddle, safe, pretty, fast, and 
 good-natured. He would let me have her for 
 twenty-five dollars. When I opened your letter 
 and saw a gold-check for just that amount, you 
 may believe that I thought of the saying, ' The 
 lines of God's providence run double.' The next 
 day I went and tried the pony, and I like her very 
 much." 
 
 Such evidences as this that his giving was with- 
 in the double lines of God's providence were a 
 source of peculiar gratification to Mr. Haven ; and 
 he had no lack of this kind of proof that God rec- 
 ognized and honored his beneficences. 
 
 Aiding young men by counsel and pecuniary as- 
 
 Providc
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SKCTION VII. 
 Beneficences. 
 
 Helping into 
 theniinisti-y. 
 
 Finding the 
 man. 
 
 sistance was a favorite method of well-doino- with 
 
 O 
 
 Mr. Haven. He was always on the lookout for 
 opportunities in this line. Again and again he 
 gave generously to start a young man in some 
 business enterprise in his city or abroad ; and his 
 sympathy and sound advice were often of as much 
 importance at such a time as the funds he fur- 
 nished. But the line of charitable giving and do- 
 ing which Mr. Haven loved best, and along which, 
 perhaps, he did most in an extended series of years, 
 was in the direction of helping young men into the 
 gospel ministry. He had himself been the gainer 
 from ten dollars of borrowed money to meet his 
 early schoolboy bills ; and he realized how valua- 
 ble a little timely aid might be to a poor student. 
 Moreover, if the student could thus be helped tow- 
 ards the ministry, the service \vas, in Mr. Haven's 
 view, of the highest importance. The very first 
 money he ever gave away was in aid of a theolog- 
 ical student. This was while he was still a clerk. 
 From that time forward he continued such giving 
 with discrimination, with freedom, and with heart- 
 iness. 
 
 He would find a young man in his Waterford 
 Sunday-school or at a carpenter's bench or a black- 
 smith's forge, or struggling along in school or at 
 college, who might, in his opinion, be of service in 
 the ministry, but who lacked the means to secure 
 the needful training, or lacked the word of prompt-
 
 Setting Others at Work. 
 
 ins; and of cheer winch is often of much more SECTIONVI1 - 
 
 Beneficence* 
 
 importance than money to induce him to press 
 forward in preparation for that service. Mr. Ha- 
 ven would take that young man by the hand, ques- 
 tion him kindly as to his purposes and desires, 
 and counsel him as to his wiser course. He would 
 promise such aid as, in his judgment, seemed de- 
 sirable to bring the young man where God wanted 
 him ; nor would he desert that case until the at- 
 tempted work was completed. In more than one 
 or two instances he took a young man directly into 
 his family, and gave him a home there until his 
 preparatory studies were completed. He w r as care- 
 ful, however, here, as in all his charities, to do 
 nothing for a young student which the student 
 ought to and could do for himself. He never for- 
 got that he was doing most for others when he 
 was stimulating them to do most for themselves. 
 
 "I remember returning from church one Sun- 
 day noon, in June, 1850," writes a clergyman, who 
 would never have been in the ministry but for the 
 prompting to it of which he thus tells, " and find- 
 ing a note from Mr. Haven, requesting me to call 
 at his house before one o'clock, as at that hour he 
 started for his Waterford Sunday-school. I went 
 up to his house, and was requested to go and gath- 
 er together and then take charge of a mission Sun- 
 day-school in a district three miles off. When I 
 expressed astonishment at the request, inasmuch 
 
 Giving him 
 a houie. 
 
 Calling him 
 by name.
 
 148 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 Beneficences. 
 
 Within one 
 of a failure. 
 
 One arnoiu 
 many. 
 
 as I thought that the superintendent of a Sunday- 
 school should be one of age and experience, he re- 
 plied that ' it required more zeal than knowledge.' 
 Thus encouraged, I decided to go. The next Sun- 
 day Mr. Haven carried me out to my mission field, 
 where we found eight or ten persons assembled. 
 For eight months I walked to that school in all 
 weather. One day, owing to a severe storm, I found 
 no one there except a little boy; but I believe that 
 day's effort was as beneficial to the school as any 
 one day's work I did ; for I heard the remark 
 made that 'Mr. E. must be in earnest.' A new 
 life was infused into the school. The day I closed 
 my labors there the school-house was filled to over- 
 flowing. Eight months before it was unpainted 
 within and without. That day it was painted both 
 without and within, was surrounded by shade trees, 
 and in other respects beautified. One day, again, 
 Mr. Haven called upon me at my place of business, 
 and asked me to take a walk. He then inquired 
 if I had ever thought of studying for the ministry. 
 I told him of many thoughts and desires on the 
 subject. He inquired into my circumstances, and 
 kindly urged me to give myself to the work. I 
 followed his advice. The years of preparatory 
 study are now passed. He has counselled, encour- 
 aged, and assisted me." 
 
 This young man, afterwards a useful pastor in 
 New England and in the far West, was one of
 
 llemsing Charity Plans. 
 
 149 
 
 more than sixty individually aided into the Chris- 
 tian ministry by the benefactions of Mr. Haven. 
 At one time he had twelve such students on his 
 charity list. In some instances he gave more than 
 two thousand dollars towards the education of one 
 young man. His benefactions in this line were, 
 in the aggregate, very large ; and the investment 
 thus made by him was delightfully remunerative. 
 Ills proteges included men in the ministry of the 
 Baptist, Episcopal, and Methodist churches, as well 
 as in the Congregational. As he moved about the 
 country, he was meeting them pleasantly, or hear- 
 ing of their good work. Through their efforts he 
 multiplied himself in the gospel iield. And now 
 that he has entered into rest, a score or two of his 
 representatives are continuing the labor he loved, 
 and at which they were set through his counsel 
 and assistance. 
 
 At the time of his investing in the Alaska en- 
 terprise, Mr. Haven was compelled to look anew 
 at the terms of his original plan of devoting his 
 surplus income to charities, in the light of fresh 
 business demands and uncertainties. It was not 
 so easy as before to settle the question of his " in- 
 come " as that term had been understood by him 
 when he made his first resolve. The Alaska lease 
 was for twenty years. There might be large re- 
 ceipts from it one year, and large demands from 
 it the next. His share in that lease imposed on 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 Beneficence*. 
 
 Christian 
 
 union. 
 
 New light 
 on dutv.
 
 150 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 Beneficences. 
 
 Letter or 
 spirit ? 
 
 An uncheck- 
 ed flow. 
 
 him prospective obligations, of an undetermined 
 amount, which he could not honorably evade. Yet 
 he was anxious to fulfil to the utmost his pledge 
 of Christian beneficence. In his perplexity he 
 consulted, at least, one friend, whose judgment he 
 valued, and by him was counselled not to be dis- 
 turbed by the letter of a mental agreement, when 
 
 O 
 
 another form would better carry out its spirit and 
 real intent. He had already shown, when tested, 
 that he was willing to give more than the letter of 
 his promise called for; and now he might certain- 
 ly rearrange his plan of giving, to conform it to 
 his new circumstances and liabilities. In accept- 
 ing his friend's council, it is evident, as shown 
 by the tenor of his will, that Mr. Haven was not 
 disposed to shirk any obligations of stewardship. 
 Giving freely while he lived, he provided in his 
 will for the retaining of his estate undivided so 
 long as the Alaska lease should run; and, mean- 
 time, for the distribution in charities of a liberal 
 share of its annual income. Moreover, at the ter- 
 mination of that lease, a handsome portion of the 
 entire estate is to go to objects of benevolence. 
 
 Through this fidelity to the spirit of his original 
 pledge of consecration, Mr. Haven continued a lib- 
 eral giver to good causes during his lifetime ; and 
 now that he has passed to his reward, the flow of 
 his beneficence is still unchecked. Tens of thou- 
 sands of dollars have been donated in his name
 
 Aggregate Charities. 
 
 151 
 
 since his decease ; and, for at least ten years more, 
 this giving is to go on according to his carefully 
 arranged plan. His "Waterford Sunday-school, his 
 home church, his New London week-day schools, 
 the various benevolent societies and other objects 
 of beneficence which he was accustomed to aid, 
 still receive evidences of his loving interest in 
 
 CD 
 
 their welfare, and still have reason to bless the 
 memory of his large-hearted, open-handed good- 
 ness. 
 
 To all human appearance, had Mr. Haven chosen 
 to hoard money rather than to distribute it, he 
 might easily have become a millionaire, even while 
 giving generously according to the average rich 
 man's standard. Then, a few large benefactions 
 in his will would have uplifted his name as one of 
 the great givers of his generation. But he pre- 
 ferred to lay up for himself treasures in heaven 
 rather than upon earth. During his lifetime his 
 gifts aggregated an amount rarely reached by a 
 millionaire; and there is little reason for suppos- 
 ing that he now regrets having made this use of 
 " the mammon of unrighteousness." " As it is 
 written, He hath dispersed abroad ; he hath given 
 to the poor: his righteousness remaineth forever." 
 
 SECTION VII. 
 
 Beneflceiicef. 
 
 Still at work. 
 
 Giving 
 better than 
 holding.
 
 152 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VIII, 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 YIIL 
 
 CHARACTER AND CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 Character in Perspective ; Power of Concentration ; Power of Dis- 
 connection ; Power of Secretiveness ; Attention to System; Ge- 
 niality and Humor ; Home Traits ; Love of the Bible ; Faith in 
 Sorrow ; Faith in Danger ; Readiness to Forgive ; Readiness to 
 Depart. 
 
 To know the completeness and symmetry and 
 the true attractiveness of Mr. Haven's character, 
 it is necessary to look at that character in perspec- 
 tive, rather than to consider it in its separate de- 
 tails. It is not enough to observe him as a super- 
 intendent, or as a business man, or as a public ser- 
 vant, or as a Christian steward. He must be view- 
 ed in his entirety, as he was jn himself, and as he 
 appeared with all his distinctive characteristics, 
 and with those various particular traits which gave 
 him power and efficiency in the one sphere or an- 
 other of his principal activities, blended and har- 
 monized in their mutual relations and adaptations; 
 as, in fact, he was best known in his immediate fam- 
 ily circle and among his more intimate friends and 
 acquaintances. Until he is seen in this light he can- 
 not be rightly understood nor fully appreciated.
 
 Power of Disconnection. 
 
 153 
 
 Prominent among Mr. Haven's characteristics 
 were his power of concentrating all his thoughts 
 and energies on the one thing lie had to do for the 
 time being, and his ability to turn absolutely from 
 that which had thus absorbed him and devote him- 
 self to a new object of interest or duty whenever 
 the occasion demanded such a transfer. Many a 
 man has the first of these traits without having 
 the second. Xo man, in fact, can be foremost in 
 any department of life or do anything pre-emi- 
 nently well without giving himself wholly to that 
 thing as if there were nothing else then worth liv- 
 ing for. He must be a whole man to it, and do it 
 with all his might, or it will not be done as well 
 as he could do it, or as well as some one else could 
 do it. But there are those who can attach them- 
 selves to an object of interest easier than they can 
 release themselves from it ; who can devote them- 
 selves to one thing wholly and to one thing only. 
 They have no power of letting things drop ; of 
 turning away from that which has once absorbed 
 their attention. They have power in one direction, 
 and in that alone. The rarer quality is that of 
 being devoted to many things, one at a time; of 
 giving up an object of interest as readily as of tak- 
 ing it up. This commonly marks the man of ex- 
 ceptional versatility in his successful enterprises. 
 This was a distinguishing characteristic of Mr. Ha- 
 ven. He could be twenty different men to twenty 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Chanicter- 
 
 Power of 
 Concentra- 
 tion. 
 
 Letting go 
 easily.
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SKOTION VIII. 
 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 One thing at 
 u time. 
 
 President 
 
 Ch;i))iu'8 
 
 testimony. 
 
 different objects in one day, if necessary. In the 
 household he would seem to have only family in- 
 terests to attend to. Looking over his business 
 correspondence, that would engross his attention 
 wholly. In a personal conference with one of his 
 partners, nothing would appear to divert his rnind 
 from the theme of that conference. At the rail- 
 road company's office or the banking-house, or at 
 a school-board meeting, he would bear himself as 
 if the subject there under consideration had all his 
 waking thoughts year in and year out. When he 
 met a personal friend by appointment, or talked 
 with a young man whom he was aiding in some 
 new enterprise or in his education, he showed no 
 intimation of any business pressure upon him. He 
 was apparently as free for that conversation, and 
 as much interested in it, as if he had been waiting 
 and longing for it for hours, with time hanging 
 heavy on his hands meanwhile. So, also, when he 
 turned his attention to his Sunday-school work, or 
 to his plans of evangelizing, or to one or another 
 of his beneficences, or to a pleasure-trip. The one 
 thing for the hour was the only thing that gave a 
 sign of existence in his thoughts or purposes ; and 
 this while it was but one thing of a score for that 
 single day. One of Mr. Haven's attached friends, 
 President Chapin, of Beloit College, says of this 
 peculiarity of his : 
 
 "Perhaps he was best known (churchwise) as a
 
 A Whole Man to Everything. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Mini 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 with all. 
 
 Sunday-school man ; and one who knew the hours SEOTIONVI1 
 
 Character 
 
 he spent on his plans and papers, as well as in the 
 public exercises of his two schools, might well 
 suppose the Sunday-school his only branch of 
 Christian work. But the young men of strait- 
 
 J 
 
 ened means, hungry for college training, who were 
 cheered and encouraged by him, knew that his 
 heart was in the w r ork of Christian education. 
 The minister on the frontier and his wife, refresh- 
 ed, through his bounty, by a visit to New England, 
 and their son and daughter, finding this and that 
 need of theirs supplied by him, thought of him as 
 living for the home missionaries. Those who saw 
 him on the deck of a whaling-ship, with the com- 
 pany of believers he had gathered to fill her sails 
 with the breath of prayer, as she started on her 
 long voyage, could not doubt that he was the sea- 
 men's friend. To the poor and sick, and to those 
 in prison, he came often as the city missionarj', 
 while his interest in the foreign missionary work 
 was such that he was called to a place among the 
 corporate members of the American Board. And, 
 in noting the time and care and thought he gave 
 to these varied interests, we remember that he was 
 not a man of leisure, but all the while he was 
 actively engaged in extensive business which his 
 talents and industry made very successful ; very 
 much engaged, too, in promoting the common- 
 
 school interests of the state as well as of the town, 
 Ji 
 
 Variety in 
 work. '
 
 156 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SKOTIONVHL 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 Keeping his 
 cnvu counsel. 
 
 and giving a due share of thought and time to 
 political affairs." 
 
 Conjoined with this power of concentrating and 
 transferring his thoughts, there was necessarily a 
 certain secretiveness in Mr. Haven's nature to en- 
 able him thus to refrain from giving a sign to 
 others of any object of interest in his mind or 
 plans aside from the obvious one for the hour. 
 He would chat pleasantly on indifferent topics 
 with a neighbor who called at his office, making 
 never a mention of the fact that he was to start 
 that evening for a trip across the continent, or that 
 he had just learned of the loss of one of his more 
 valuable whale-ships. He w T ould say nothing of 
 the sickness in his family which had kept him 
 awake the night before, as he talked with a church 
 committee about plans of church building or en- 
 largement. There would be no hint of the busi- 
 ness perplexities which had taxed his energies to 
 their utmost in his labor of the past three hours, 
 as he called on one of his Sunday-school co-work- 
 ers to arrange further plans for a midsummer pic- 
 nic. He not only seemed to live in the present 
 moment, but he commonly managed to keep those 
 whom he met from thinking that any other time 
 was different to him from that one. They saw, 
 then, but one side of himself, and but one phase 
 of his life and its labors ; and they knew little or 
 nothing from him of those with whom he had
 
 Geniality and Humor. 
 
 157 
 
 been in conference just before, or whom lie was 
 to meet just after that interview. 
 
 That he was methodical to an extreme degree 
 follows as a matter of course from the many la- 
 bors undertaken and performed by him. Without 
 system and close attention to it, so much and so 
 varied work would have been out of the question. 
 He took hold of things and he let go of them on 
 the minute. He went to bed and he got up when 
 he intended to. He filled all the time needful to 
 do each duty which he attempted, and that was all 
 the time he took for it. Eating, studying, pray- 
 ing, walking, chatting,, all were on time and in 
 their time. His system and thoroughness, his en- 
 terprise and his originality, his courage and his 
 hopefulness, have already been illustrated in the 
 story of his career in business, in Sunday-school 
 work, and in public life. It might seem, from the 
 prominence given to these sturdier and more sub- 
 stantial characteristics of Mr. Haven, that he lacked 
 in the brighter and more attractive traits of free- 
 dom and heartiness and geniality of personal life. 
 But this was by no means the case. Mr. Haven 
 was peculiarly cheerful. Few men loved a laugh 
 more than he. Few men could give themselves 
 up to the delights of social intercourse with more 
 of unrestrained enjoyment when such recreation 
 was in order. 
 
 There are pleasant memories of Mr. Haven in 
 
 SEOTION VIII. 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics'. 
 
 Attention 
 to system. 
 
 Loving a 
 laugh.
 
 158 
 
 A Model ^Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VIII 
 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 Repartees. 
 
 In the 
 wrong coat. 
 
 many a home which he visited. How the little 
 folks did enjoy his chats with them, and their 
 rides upon his knee ! How the older ones remem- 
 ber the echo of his contagious laugh or the bright- 
 ness of some of his keen repartees ! A venerable 
 clergyman* of his county tells of dining at Mr. 
 Haven's one day. "We were scarcely seated at 
 the table," says the clergyman, "when he turned to 
 me, observing, ' I entertain a good many of your 
 cloth.' 'I presume, then,' said the guest, 'you 
 sometimes entertain angels unawares.' ' If I do 
 in this case it will be unawares,'' was the quick 
 rejoinder." 
 
 Illustrations of the playful side of Mr. Haven's 
 nature were frequently given in his friendly corre- 
 spondence. On one occasion a friend from abroad, 
 of much slighter frame than himself, unintention- 
 ally exchanged overcoats with Mr. Haven, on leav- 
 ing his house in New London, but, discovering the 
 mistake soon after, telegraphed a request for a re- 
 exchange of the coats by express. At this Mr. Ha- 
 ven wrote to his friend : 
 
 " The coat was rather small ; still I made out to 
 get into it, and felt almost like a Reverend, cer- 
 tainly like an ex-Chaplain. It was full, I assure 
 you. I have no doubt that if I had had an ap- 
 pointment for a Sunday-school convention to-day, 
 
 * The Rev. T. L. Shipman, in The National Sunday - school 
 Teacher.
 
 Home Traits. 
 
 151) 
 
 I should have been in the spirit as well as in the 
 cloak, and have surprised any audience which I 
 might address by my zeal, tact, and eloquence. 
 
 " I was in blissful ignorance of the exchange, 
 and took the coat to my wife for the purpose of 
 having a few stitches taken in it. After a few 
 minutes she brought it back, saying that it was not 
 mine, and asking if you w r ore an overcoat. The 
 result of examination showed that mine was miss- 
 ing, and then I wondered in what part of my ca- 
 pacious folds your spare tabernacle was hid. 
 
 " On trying the experiment, I was gratified to 
 learn that your mantle would cover me. Mrs. Ha- 
 ven pronounced me greatly improved in personal 
 appearance, and I probably made quite an impres- 
 sion on the natives as I wended my way to the 
 office. Alas for the transitory nature of all these 
 outward adornings ! Your telegraphic summons 
 requires me to give up my graceful outer garment 
 and return to my plain and faded housing. I send 
 your coat, as ordered, by express ; and my heart 
 says, May its owner long abide where the flesh re- 
 quires these surroundings ; and when this mortal 
 shall have put on immortality, then may he be 
 clothed with that 'fine linen, clean and white,' 
 which is ' the righteousness of the saints.' " 
 
 It was in his home life that Mr. Haven was most 
 completely himself, and that he exhibited those 
 qualities and characteristics, and that spirit and 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 Character 
 
 and 
 Chui'acier- 
 
 The be.t 
 covering. 
 
 Household 
 life.
 
 100 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 Character 
 
 arid 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 The home 
 test. 
 
 Marriage. 
 
 Miss Caulk- 
 iiis. 
 
 temper which gave him success in business and 
 efficiency in Sunday-school work, and which won 
 to him the affection and confidence of those who 
 knew him most intimately. No man is really 
 worthy of love and honor outside of his home 
 who is not loved and honored in his home. No 
 man can be a model superintendent who is not a 
 model husband and father if he has a family in 
 which to manifest himself in those relations. A 
 man's life in his home is the true measure and test 
 of both his manhood and his Christian attainment 
 and capacity. 
 
 When he was twenty-five years old, Mr. Haven 
 was married to Miss Elizabeth Lucas Douglas, of 
 Waterford. They had four children, one of whom 
 died in infancy and one in young manhood. But 
 his household was rarely, if ever, limited to wife 
 and children. Others were included in that circle. 
 Two half-sisters of his children of his mother by 
 her first marriage lived with him. One of these 
 sisters, Miss Frances Manwaring Caulkins, was a 
 lady of superior intellectual and moral force, and 
 of refined taste and culture. She had been a pupil 
 of Mrs. Sigourney, when the latter, as Miss Lydia 
 Huntley, had conducted a young ladies' school at 
 Norwich. Afterwards she had herself been at the 
 head of a female academy in New London, and, 
 again, of one at Norwich. She was a good scholar 
 in Latin, French, German, and Italian, arid was a
 
 An Expanding Household. 
 
 Kil 
 
 anil 
 Clmnicter- 
 
 An industri- 
 ous author. 
 
 lover of the best literature in all those tongues. SK " TI<>NVI " 
 
 Cbaracter 
 
 She had some poetic talent. As a popular writer 
 for children she had unusual power. Her "Tract 
 Primer," published by the American Tract Soci- 
 ety, was circulated to the extent of more than a 
 million copies in English, and in large editions in 
 other languages. Other publications of hers by 
 the same society reached a circulation of not less 
 than a million. Moreover, as a local historian 
 she had special prominence, preparing a history 
 of Norwich and a history of New London, and 
 being in familiar correspondence with such histo- 
 rians as George Bancroft, Edward Everett, Rob- 
 ert C. Winthrop ; the Rev. Dr. Sprague, of Al- 
 bany; Judge Savage, of Boston; and Dr. J. Ham- 
 mond Trumbull, of Hartford. The influence and 
 the sympathy of this sister could not but have 
 their share in shaping the tastes and promoting 
 the studies of Mr. Haven, and they certainly were 
 evident in the atmosphere of his household. 
 
 From time to time boys and young men were 
 members of Mr. Haven's family, while training for 
 business or for college. Mr. Richard II. Chapell, 
 who was afterwards his partner, was thus for eigh- 
 teen years in his household. And now and then 
 young lady relatives or protegees were similarly 
 there. A son or a daughter of a deceased friend 
 or of a missionary would be practically adopted 
 into his family, coming, perhaps, at the first for a 
 
 A sister's in- 
 fluence. 
 
 A home f>T 
 others.
 
 162 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VIII, 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 Household 
 system. 
 
 A religions 
 atmosphere. 
 
 few weeks, and continuing there for years. And 
 on more than one occasion a missionary and his 
 family found a home there. In this way the home 
 circle was a large one, but its character was always 
 the same. It had the power of assimilating what- 
 ever for the time being entered into its composi- 
 tion. 
 
 Method and system pervaded that household. 
 A man with all the varied interests and duties on 
 hand which pressed Mr. Haven could never get 
 along with slackness or shiftlessness in his family 
 appointments. There was a time for everything 
 in his home, and everything was on time. But 
 there was cheerfulness in the family intercourse. 
 And, when Mr. Haven turned away from study in 
 his library, or had closed the service of morning 
 worship, he was as ready to listen to the story of 
 little matters which concerned his loved ones, or 
 to chat and laugh with them unrestrainedly, as 
 he had been a minute before to read or write or 
 pray. Religion was in his home atmosphere. That 
 was not a subject for outside consideration or for 
 Sunday prominence only. It was manifest at all 
 times, and was constantly finding appropriate ex- 
 pression. The reciting of favorite texts of Script- 
 ure by every member of the family, including its 
 guests, was a preliminary to the morning meal, af- 
 ter all were gathered at the table. Having asked 
 a blessing on the food before them, Mr. Haven
 
 Dr. John IlaWs Tribute. 
 
 163 
 
 would repeat some Bible verse, his wife would re- 
 peat another, and so on down to the youngest per- 
 son present. It was as if he would say, " I have 
 esteemed the words of IJis mouth more than my 
 necessary food." 
 
 This hearty love for the Bible was a marked 
 characteristic of Mr. Haven. His associates on the 
 Lesson Committee all speak of it as also of his 
 gracefulness in deferring to the will of the major- 
 ity when a decision was against him on a lesson se- 
 lection he had advocated in their varied tributes 
 to his memory. The Rev. Dr. John Hall, of that 
 committee, writes : 
 
 "Through our common membership in the Com- 
 mittee on International Lessons, in connection with 
 one of its meetings when I was a guest at his home 
 in New London, I had the opportunity of know- 
 ing, as one can learn only in a man's home and 
 in his immediate neighborhood, what manner of 
 man Mr. Haven was. 
 
 " In common with his associates on the commit- 
 tee, I had learned to admire and reverence him for 
 his devout regard for inspired truth ; his painstak- 
 ing effort to understand and teach it, and for the 
 constant direction of his thoughts towards the most 
 
 o 
 
 effective methods of presenting the Divine Word 
 to the mind of the young. Nor did I less admire 
 the gentle and modest spirit with which he defer- 
 red to the views of others in a company where, in 
 
 SF.OTION VIII. 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 Love of the 
 Bible. 
 
 Devotion to 
 the truth.
 
 164 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 Childlike- 
 ness. 
 
 A New 
 
 England 
 
 Enirlishinau. 
 
 the nature of the case, many personal preferences 
 had to give way to the general conviction of duty 
 and of the character stamped on the work by the 
 instructions under which we acted. 
 
 " It is no breach of the confidence of that com- 
 mittee to say that Mr. Haven came to it with his 
 carefully selected outlines of lessons and his mind 
 turned to this or that passage, because he had fed 
 on it himself, and had dealt it out to his school 
 with evident advantage. His struggle to forego 
 that which was to him so precious was a study to 
 his associates ; and his joy when we were able to 
 accept his views was, like his general Christian 
 spirit, as that of a little child. I never parted 
 from him without having suggested to me the 
 words 'An Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.' 
 
 "All the impressions I had formed of him were 
 confirmed by the nearer view of the man among 
 his familiar surroundings. Genial, practical, dili- 
 gent, full of respect for the convictions of others, 
 and earnestly bent on giving effect to his own, he 
 was to me a fine type of an Englishman of large 
 and kindly nature, trained and moulded under the 
 influences of J^ew England, and fitted for filling 
 with great usefulness that sphere in which the 
 Christian layman can adorn the doctrine of God 
 his Saviour, and do much of the work of a minis- 
 ter of the Gospel, without the suspicion of being 
 simply engaged officially. I can think of no great-
 
 Words from the West. 
 
 165 
 
 er blessing for a town or a church than the multi- 
 plication of such public-spirited, consistent, warm- 
 hearted Christian gentlemen as Henry P. Haven. 
 I pray God to bless the memorial of him to the 
 diffusion of his principles and to the perpetuation 
 of his moral influence." 
 
 President Chapin, Mr. Haven's denominational 
 associate on the Lesson Committee, says of his 
 work there : 
 
 " He showed great familiarity with the Script- 
 ures, and was especially earnest to have the lessons 
 so adjusted as to bring the different parts of the 
 Bible to support each other ; for he reverenced 
 the whole as the one Word of God. He was wont 
 to urge strongly that the ' golden texts ' from the 
 New Testament lessons should be drawn from the 
 Old Testament, and vice versa, and was himself 
 very happy in pointing out verses appropriate. 
 
 " His broad face beaming with interest, his pleas- 
 ant voice, his enthusiasm in pleading for his favor- 
 ite parts of Bible history, his graceful yielding to 
 the judgment of others when his preferences were 
 overruled, and the sweet spirit of Christian devo- 
 tion which marked his whole bearing left abiding 
 impressions, and will cause his memory to be ever 
 cherished with respect and love by all of his col- 
 leagues on that committee." 
 
 Warm-hearted and zealous B. F. Jacobs says, in 
 a similar strain : 
 
 SKOTION VIII. 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 President 
 Chapiu'H 
 testimony. 
 
 The one 
 Word of 
 God 
 
 Graceful 
 yielding. 
 
 Witness of 
 B.F. Jacobs.
 
 166 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 Bringing 
 sunshine. 
 
 Seeking 
 plains. 
 
 A lover of 
 the Word. 
 
 Dr. Vincent's 
 view. 
 
 " Brother Haven was so good a friend and so 
 lovely a man that I would like to write more than 
 I can with reference to his work on the Lesson 
 Committee. He was a decided help there, in that 
 he gave more sunshine and sweetness than would 
 have been possible without him. And he was a 
 blessing because he was prayer -full at all times. 
 Of his Bible work I may say that he carried out 
 these traits of character : He was always seeking 
 for ' plums' in the Scripture, and any chapter that 
 had one of his favorite verses in he was anxious 
 to have selected, without so much reference to 
 other selections. This led to another desire: to 
 take every verse of a favorite chapter; and, when 
 that could not be done, to take all that the com- 
 mittee would allow. Had his advice been fol- 
 lowed, it would have taken at least twenty -one 
 years, instead of seven, for a course. 
 
 " He was a lover of the Word rather than a stu- 
 dent, but he did love to study it. I am tliankf ul 
 that I knew him. The influence of such a friend 
 is abiding." 
 
 And good Dr. Vincent, the chairman of the com- 
 mittee, sums up the story of Mr. Haven among his 
 associates there thus pleasantly : 
 
 " Henry P. Haven was one of the most gentle- 
 spirited men I ever met. Pie brought sunshine 
 into every meeting of our International Lesson 
 Committee. He made careful preparation in ad-
 
 The Word Memorised. 
 
 107 
 
 vance of our sessions; insisted strenuously upon 
 his preferences when there was a difference of 
 opinion concerning specific selections ; defended 
 his positions with great fervor; but yielded with a 
 generous, hearty laugh when the vote went against 
 him ; in every case, I believe, voting afterwards 
 with the majority when it was desired, according 
 to our custom, to make the choice unanimous. 
 
 " He loved the Word ; he loved the brethren ; 
 he loved the work; he loved the Lord. He has 
 gone to his reward. We miss him at our annual 
 sessions. We hope to join him again in the un- 
 broken fellowships of the life eternal." 
 
 In his love of God's Word, Mr. Haven had fast- 
 ened many passages from it in his memory. His 
 mind was richly stored in this way with accumu- 
 lations more to be desired " than gold, yea, than 
 much fine gold," and to him " sweeter than honey 
 and the honeycomb." He was always ready with 
 an appropriate quotation of Scripture. While re- 
 turning from the Indianapolis Convention, which 
 had planned for the International Lessons, in 1872, 
 Mr. Haven was on a Pullman car, with a party of 
 fellow delegates, for two nights and a day. As 
 the night was shutting in, soon after the train had 
 started from its station, a service of evening wor- 
 ship was proposed, and Mr. Haven was asked to 
 lead it. It was already too dark for him to read 
 the fine print of his pocket Bible with ease, so he 
 
 SECTION VI II. 
 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 Loved and 
 missed. 
 
 Seeing in 
 the dark.
 
 168 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 Favorite 
 truths. 
 
 Looking 
 forward. 
 
 stood up in the car and, in reverent tones, recited 
 the first chapter of Hebrews throughout as a theme 
 for the meditations of the hour. When the natu- 
 ral eye was shaded, the eye of his mind was still 
 clear for those words, the entrance of which giveth 
 light to the soul. 
 
 He had his favorite truths in the Scriptures. 
 Every intelligent disciple has. The Christian who 
 loves no one truth more than another has no very 
 great love for any. We are none of us so judicial- 
 ly poised as to see all truths clearly in their proper 
 relations to one another and to our own needs and 
 longings ; and if we give much thought to the 
 Bible and its teachings, some of its disclosures and 
 promises will have a peculiar attractiveness to us. 
 Prominent in Mr. Haven's thoughts and affections 
 was the truth of the resurrection. He loved to 
 think and to speak of his glorified Lord. There 
 was no comfort to him in a dead Christ. He did 
 not walk towards heaven backwards, with his eyes 
 on Calvary. His point of observation was Beth- 
 any, whence the risen Jesus had been received in 
 a cloud out of the sight of his disciples, while the 
 word of the heavenly messengers was to them, 
 " This same Jesus, which is taken up from you 
 into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye 
 have seen him go into heaven." Yet he did not 
 "stand" "gazing up into heaven." He pressed 
 forward in the path of duty in constant readiness
 
 Falling Shadows. 
 
 169 
 
 for the coming again of his Redeemer, and in the SE "*VIII. 
 
 c , Character 
 
 loyous hope of a glorious resurrection if he should ~ lllld 
 
 ' J L Character- 
 
 fall asleep before his Lord appeared. Easter-Sun- 
 
 day was a delightful day to Mr. Haven ; and one 
 of the very latest Sunday-school exercises .which 
 he prepared was an Easter Service, according to 
 his custom for a series of years. This service was 
 used in his two Sunday-schools just two weeks be- 
 fore his death. 
 
 There came a time when heavy shadows fell 
 across the path of Mr. Haven's life, and he could 
 not but be depressed by them. His eldest son, 
 Thomas Williams Haven, who had grown to years 
 of manhood, and was already taken into partner- 
 ship with his father, died after a very brief illness, 
 in the summer of 1870, at the age of twenty-three. 
 This was a severe blow to Mr. Haven. The loss 
 of the son's companionship, and the unexpected 
 cutting-off of all the bright hopes for his business 
 future, intensified the father's sense of loss. Then 
 the wife of his youth, whose love and sympathy 
 had been so much to him for more than thirty 
 years, failed steadily in health, and, in spite of the 
 tenderest care and of the highest professional skill, 
 sank gradually to rest and passed away in the au- 
 tumn of 1874. Almost at the same time a few 
 months earlier, indeed his valued partner, Mr. 
 Chapell, who had been so many years in Mr. Ha- 
 ven's family, and afterwards by his side in busi- 
 
 Easter ser- 
 vices. 
 
 Bereave- 
 ment*. 
 
 Griefs 
 Mr.
 
 170 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VIII 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 In deep 
 waters. 
 
 A trip to 
 Europe. 
 
 Dr. L.W. Ba- 
 con's story. 
 
 ness, ceased his earthly work. Within a few 
 months from this double blow there came the 
 death of Mr. Haven's son-in-law, Mr. Francis Al- 
 lyn Perkins, the husband of his only daughter; 
 and his senior partner, Major Williams, who had, 
 in fact, first trained him in his business life, was 
 gathered to his fathers at an advanced age. Loved 
 ones, old and young, seemed to be leaving Mr. 
 Haven. His inner circle of friendships was grow- 
 ing sensibly smaller. He was in deep waters of 
 sorrow, and their chill was upon him, even though 
 they could not overflow him nor separate him 
 from the companionship and comfort of his Re- 
 deemer. 
 
 It was from the added pressure of his personal 
 bereavements that necessity was laid on Mr. Ha- 
 ven for a trip to Europe in 1875, in order that 
 he might have temporary relief from his business 
 cares, while securing an entire change of scene and 
 air. His presence, during that trip, at the meet- 
 ing of the Congregational Union of England and 
 Wales, has already been mentioned. He also met, 
 by invitation, the Committee of the London Sun- 
 day-school Union for a conference at the rooms of 
 that society. The incidents of his visit at Geneva 
 are pleasantly sketched by two persons who were 
 with him there. The Rev. Dr. Leonard Woolsey 
 Bacon, then pastor of the American Chapel in the 
 home of Calvin, writes :
 
 A Genevan Sunday. 
 
 171 
 
 "It was a characteristic of our American church 
 at Geneva that the church flourished when the 
 congregations were small. In the summer, when 
 the tide of tourists flowed amain, the little ' Hall 
 of the Reformation' would be filled of a Sunday 
 morning with strange faces, and when public wor- 
 ship was ended there would be multitudinous 
 handshakings and Christian greetings among old 
 friends and new, and our Sunday evening gather- 
 ings were true feasts of charity without blemish, 
 in which believers from all quarters of the world 
 brought together their contributions to the com- 
 
 O o 
 
 mon instruction and pleasure. But with all the 
 'hurrying to and fro' of the summer, the steady 
 work of the little church was much interrupted, 
 and especially the work of the Sunday-school, 
 which never knew on one Sunday what teachers 
 or scholars it could count on for the next. So, as 
 some Sunday -schools freeze up in winter, ours 
 dried up, or rather was flooded out, in summer. 
 
 "But when we learned that two such Sunday- 
 school teachers as Henry P. Haven and John Wan- 
 amaker were in town at once, the mere announce- 
 ment was enough to create a Sunday-school of it- 
 self. We rallied the American children who hap- 
 pened to be in town on the lawn of the pastor's 
 house, a half-hour's walk from Geneva, on the 
 slopes of Petit Sacconex, and organized for the 
 nonce with Mr. "Wanamaker for superintendent 
 12 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 Character 
 
 and 
 Character* 
 
 istics. 
 
 The Hall of 
 the Kefur- 
 mutiuu. 
 
 A rare 
 treat.
 
 172 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VII I 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 A tempting 
 landscape. 
 
 An nttrnc- 
 tive teacher. 
 
 and Mr. Haven for teacher; and we were all in 
 one class. 
 
 ." Of the hundreds of American and English vis- 
 itors who were guests at ' Villa Bellamy' while it 
 was the house of the American pastor, I think 
 there are not many who will forget the exquisite 
 beauty of the view from that lawn. The picture 
 was framed in between fringes of shrubbery and 
 trees that shut out from view the neighboring 
 villas. Off to the right, on its rocky bluff at the 
 outlet of the lake, sat the city of Calvin, crowned 
 with its low, massive cathedral towers. Before us 
 stretched the glassy expanse of 'clear, smiling Le- 
 man,' flecked with broad, double lateen - sails, so 
 curiously like the outstretched wings of some vast 
 water-fowl. And, as a background to this, rose 
 tier above tier of hills and rocks and mountains 
 green, turfy hills and rocks of gray or ruddy stone 
 and, at last, against the eastern sky, the awful 
 snowy forms of Mont Blanc and his attendant 
 procession of jagged and splintered cliffs. It is 
 something of a testimony to the pow r er of the 
 teacher and to the teachableness of his scholars 
 that he was able to hold his own against the at- 
 traction of such surroundings. 
 
 " I need not add, from so distant a recollection, 
 to the illustrations already given of Mr. Haven's 
 method as he unfolded from his own mind and 
 drew forth from his class whatever could throw
 
 Mr. Great-tieart. 
 
 173 
 
 Character 
 
 
 light on the International Lesson for the day. I 
 
 
 
 distinctly remember, however, some very striking 
 illustrations that he brought out of the recollec- 
 tions of his own boyhood and early business life. 
 Such reminiscences of a successful and useful man 
 are among the things that boys most willingly hear 
 and longest remember, and are most inclined to 
 profit by. l Solus est hcec nosse adolescentulis? 
 The little children that were too young to lay to 
 
 How to jog 
 the memory. 
 
 heart the meaning of the talk had their memory 
 of the good man reinforced by tiny fractional Cal- 
 ifornia gold coins, carried in his pocket, I judge. 
 to meet just such emergencies, and now worth, as 
 a memorial of Henry P. Haven, 'more than their 
 weight in gold.' ' : 
 
 This reminiscence of that Genevan Sunday is A word from 
 
 J Mr. waua- 
 
 supplemented by Mr. Wanamaker in a way to maker - 
 show the quiet trustfulness of Mr. Haven, and to 
 bring out young Dr. Bacon in his habit of taking 
 a practical view of things. The Philadelphia su- 
 perintendent writes : 
 
 " The very mention of Mr. Haven's name brings 
 up Bunyan's picture of Mr. Great-heart. I recall 
 his great business capacity, his important public 
 life, his cleanness of record, his commanding influ- 
 ence ; but I find truest satisfaction in the glow of 
 his Christian work. Good and wise as he was, he 
 was ever learning, particularly with reference to 
 his Sunday-school work. And though I spent days
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VIII 
 Character 
 
 aud 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 A memora- 
 ble da}'. 
 
 Under fire. 
 
 in rehearsing to him methods of which I knew, I 
 am sure I received as much from him in return. 
 
 " Perhaps the most memorable day I ever spent 
 with him was in Geneva. As I joined him on his 
 way to the American chapel, we locked arms and 
 walked together to the place of worship, then 
 in charge of the Kev. Leonard "Woolsey Bacon. 
 There were but few worshippers there, in that 
 strange, far-off city ; but we held sweet fellowship 
 with one another and with our Elder Brother. 
 After lunch, by invitation of Mr. Bacon, we went 
 out to the parsonage, and, with a few friends who 
 gathered, held Sunday-school. Dear Mr. Haven as 
 teacher conducted the exercises. The lesson was 
 on God's protection; and we had a most thrilling 
 incident occur, on this wise : 
 
 " We were seated under the trees of the garden, 
 and were in the midst of a most tender and loving 
 lesson, with our Bibles resting on our knees, look- 
 ing into Mr. Haven's face, which seemed radiant 
 with that enthusiasm that ever inspired his teach- 
 ings, when the report of a gun was heard which 
 startled us all, as it seemed close by. The next in- 
 tan t there came pattering from leaf to leaf over 
 our heads the falling shot, proving the narrow es- 
 ape that we had had. As our faces paled from 
 the sense of danger, Mr. Haven, without a ruffle, 
 almly said, 'God will protect us. Surely we can 
 rely on our Father's charge of us on this his holy
 
 Bdow the Surface. 
 
 175 
 
 day, while we are engaged in his blessed service." 
 Not a flutter of nerve nor a doubt of mind seemed 
 to come to him of God's care for his children. 
 This doubly impressed me, as well as what fol- 
 lowed. Mr. Bacon, the pastor, who sat on the steps 
 with his boys, so soon as he heard Mr. Haven say 
 ' God will protect us,' seized his hat, saying, ' I 
 think, however, He wants me to help him,' and 
 started off to find the reckless sportsman, who was 
 so near us, but all unconscious of what he had 
 done, and who promptly retired after the pastor's 
 reprimand. The whole thing was a happy blend- 
 ing of faith and works. 
 
 " I believe I never saw Mr. Haven after this i 
 Genevan Sabbath. I came back to my work, and 
 he went home to his reward ; but the memory of 
 his faith sweetens. The touch of his hand on my 
 Sunday-school work is felt to-day, though he is 
 gone. I never think of him without wanting to 
 be more like him." 
 
 Such tributes as these to the attractiveness and 
 power of Mr. Haven's character show how much 
 there was in it of both strength and beauty. Yet, 
 with all this, he could hardly have been called a 
 popular man ; nor, indeed, was his superior ability 
 so generally recognized as might be inferred from 
 what has been truly said of him. His very devo- 
 tion to the work he had in hand for the hour, and 
 his uniform habit of doin what he deemed his 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Chnracter- 
 ii-tio. 
 
 Faith and 
 works. 
 
 ory. 
 
 Strength 
 and beaut v.
 
 176 
 
 A Model /Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VIII 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 Diffused 
 activities. 
 
 A sketch 
 from Presi- 
 dent Porter. 
 
 Magnanim- 
 ity. 
 
 duty whether it pleased others or not, caused him 
 to seem to many an unsocial man ; and although 
 he enjoyed public recognition and prominence, he 
 would not make the pursuit of these his occupa- 
 tion at any time. No breath of suspicion ever 
 came to bring him into unpleasant notoriety ; and 
 his secular and religious activities were so varied 
 and widely diffused that they gave him less public 
 prominence than would have been his had his la- 
 bors been in a single sphere rather than in mam^. 
 But those who knew him best loved and honored 
 him most ; and a closer acquaintance with him w r as 
 sure to bring to the light added reasons for giving 
 him one's confidence and admiration. This truth 
 is well illustrated by the following appreciative 
 sketch of him from the pen of so discriminating 
 an observer as President Porter, of Yale College : 
 
 ' O 
 
 "I had a pleasant but no specially intimate ac- 
 quaintance with Mr. Haven for several years be- 
 fore I was brought into confidential relations with 
 him by an event which deeply wounded his feel- 
 ings. In the communications which followed I 
 was led to admire his magnanimity in judging of 
 the motives of others, and his readiness to forgive 
 the wrong which had been done to him. He was 
 touched and wounded most deeply; but he did not 
 forget the duties which his Master had enjoined 
 in such cases, nor did he fail to exemplify in an 
 eminent degree the spirit which his Master had
 
 President Porter's Tribute. 
 
 177 
 
 It was must in- S * :OT ">* V III 
 
 Character 
 
 " lld 
 
 Character. 
 
 lHtlc "- 
 
 consecrated by his own example. 
 
 terestmg to see tins naturally high-spirited and 
 
 > 
 
 self-relying man bend himself to the yoke of his 
 
 Master in relations to others whom he had be- 
 friended, but who, as he thought, had wantonly 
 trifled with his rights. 
 
 "After this we were on somewhat intimate 
 terms, and every opportunity which revealed any- 
 thing of his character revealed something new 
 of his eminently Christian temper and pervasive 
 Christian principles. With untiring energy and 
 elastic vivacity, with no little wit and humor, he 
 was always .true to the great law of his life a man 
 
 seeking 
 
 first the kingdom of God and his right- 
 
 eousness' for himself and for others. 
 
 "I was with him for a day or two at his house, 
 on occasion of the dedication of the church edifice 
 in which he took so strong an interest and so laud- 
 able a pride. Seeing him then for the first time 
 within his own home, I saw many new sides of his 
 character his patient and tender affectionateness, 
 his provision for intellectual culture and activity 
 for himself and all the members of his household, 
 his reverent love for the aged, his youthful sym- 
 pathy with the young, his sense of beauty and of 
 humor ; all sustained and quickened by devout and 
 studied habits of family worship, and confirmed 
 and quickened by his untiring zeal for the church 
 and the Sunday-school, for the mission chapel at 
 
 8ided
 
 178 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SKOTIONVIII, 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 Abreast 
 with busi- 
 ness. 
 
 Tenderness 
 and submis- 
 sion. 
 
 home and the mission station on the prairie and 
 across the sea. 
 
 " Some five weeks before his death, he made me 
 a flying visit on an inclement day. The visit had 
 been arranged chiefly for the gratification of an 
 orphan ward, in whom I had a special interest. 
 He spent two or three hours in showing his charge 
 the sights of the town, notwithstanding the per- 
 sonal exposure which this involved. At the din- 
 ner-table he received a telegram, sent from his of- 
 fice, announcing that another telegram had arrived 
 a few minutes before from London, advising the 
 firm of an important sale that morning. Apropos 
 to this, he informed me that it was his habit to 
 cause advices of this sort to follow him whenever 
 he was absent for a day or two, that he might be 
 abreast with his business every hour. I could not 
 but admire, as illustrating the care and grace with 
 which he blended the varied streams of his mani- 
 fold interests, the energy and many-sidedness of 
 the head and heart of this noble-minded and ten- 
 der-hearted man of affairs. 
 
 "How he sympathized with and sustained his 
 invalid wife, but few could know. How Christian- 
 like were his demeanor and submission when she 
 was taken from him, none who knew him could 
 fail to observe. When the son, on whom he had 
 begun to lean, and who was becoming his com- 
 panion and his pride, was taken, the trial, though
 
 An End of Toil. 
 
 179 
 
 sudden, did not find him unprepared. And when 
 he himself was called away, no man could doubt 
 that the blessing was eminently his which meets 
 those who, whether present or absent, labor that 
 they may be accepted of the Great Master of the 
 house not made with hands." 
 
 Although Mr. Haven was by no means an old 
 man, and was still in vigorous health, he recog- 
 nized the fact that the time might come when he 
 could no longer perform all the duties of the va- 
 ried stations now occupied by him ; and he shrank 
 from the thought of possibly being a hindrance 
 where he had once been a leader. In a pleasant 
 address which he made at a Sunday-school conven- 
 tion, not long before his death, on "A Superintend- 
 ent's Duties," he called attention to a superintend- 
 ent's duty of resigning his post seasonably. "It 
 is hard," he said, "for an old superintendent to 
 admit that he can no longer fill his place. It re- 
 quires grace to point to a new and younger work- 
 er and say in a becoming spirit, 'After me cometh 
 a man who is preferred before me.' ' He must in- 
 crease, but I must decrease.' Yet that may be a 
 superintendent's duty ; and he ought to be ready 
 for it when the time comes." 
 
 From that trial Mr. Haven was spared. He died 
 "in his full strength." lie endured in active and 
 efficient service " unto the end." On the evening 
 of Saturday, April 29, 1876, he led his teachers' 
 
 Character 
 
 and 
 Character- 
 
 Growinj* 
 old grace- 
 fully.
 
 180 
 
 A Model Superintendent. 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 Character 
 
 and 
 
 Character- 
 istics. 
 
 The day of 
 rest. 
 
 meeting, as was his wont, in his home library-room. 
 The next morning he was up early, in preparation 
 for the enjoyments and duties of the Lord's day. 
 But his toil on earth was at an end. His day of 
 rest had come. Before the hour of his early Sun- 
 day-school he was asleep in Jesus. After a spasm 
 of pain, his overtaxed heart ceased to beat. " He 
 was not ; for God took him." His death was as 
 fitting as his life. It was just on time. There was 
 no failing of his faculties, no wasting of his pow- 
 ers, no diminishing of his vital energies or of his 
 practical efficiency to the last. It was while he 
 stood ready to take the next step of duty in Chris- 
 tian service that his Master said to him, " Enter 
 thou into the joy of thy Lord" and a cloud re- 
 ceived him out of our sight.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abreast with business, 178. 
 
 Absent scholars followed up, 73, 74. 
 
 Activities, diffused, 17G. 
 
 Address before Congregational 
 Union of England and Wales, 
 129-131. 
 
 Admission certificates, 70. 
 
 Advanced methods, 15. 
 
 Adventure and daring, 93. 
 
 Aggregate of charities, 149. 
 
 "Agreeable Committee," an, 63. 
 
 Aiding in Arctic research, 109, 114. 
 
 Aiding young men, 145-149. 
 
 Alaska seal fisheries, 104-109. 
 
 All and each considered, 51. 
 
 Always true, 177. 
 
 American Bible Society, vice-presi- 
 dent of, 128. 
 
 American Board, corporate member 
 of, 128. 
 
 American College and Education 
 Society, president of, 1 28. 
 
 American Sunday School Union, 
 aiding, 32. 
 
 American Sunday School Union, 
 vice-president of, 128. 
 
 American Tract Societv, vice-presi- 
 dent of, 128. 
 
 Among the records, G7-77. 
 
 Anniversary, fiftieth (Norwich 
 Town), 1. 
 
 Anniversary, fortieth (Waterford), 
 13. 
 
 Anniversary themes, 83. 
 
 Anniversary, twenty -fifth (Water- 
 ford), 20". 
 
 Anonymous giving. 138. 
 
 Another's mantle, 159. 
 
 Answering prayer unconsciously, 
 
 1 43. 
 Appointed to Lesson Committee. 
 
 125. 
 
 Apprenticeship at business, 8. 
 Arranging International Lessons. 
 
 12.->-12<5. 
 
 Asylums, Jericho, 40. 
 At special services, 78-89. 
 Atmosphere, a religious, 102. 
 Attendance by letter, 31. 
 Attention to scholars important, 01. 
 Attractive teacher, an, 172. 
 Author, an industrious, 101. 
 Average attendance, 31. 
 Averages of attendance, class, 30. 
 Avoiding ostentation, 128. 
 
 Bacon's, the Rev. Dr. L. W., tribute, 
 171-173. 
 
 Baker's Island, 102. 
 
 Ball-playing, 03. 
 
 Banian growth, 38. 
 
 Banking and railroading, 118. 
 
 Bartimetis, healing of, 45. 
 
 Beatitudes recited. 53. 
 
 Beginning, an humble, 4, 41. 
 
 Beginning of the American Sunday- 
 school system, 1. 
 
 Beginnings, 1-11. 
 
 Being one's self, 39. 
 
 Bell, use of the, 28. 
 
 Beneficence, training to, 32. 
 
 Beneficences, 137-151. 
 
 Benevolent societies, interest in, 1 27- 
 1 28. 
 
 Bereavements, 169. 
 
 Bethune, Divie, 0.
 
 182 
 
 Index. 
 
 Bible, the, a text-book, 34. 
 
 Bible, love of the, 102, 163, 160. 
 
 Bible reading in course, 65. 
 
 Bible reading, methods of, 51. 
 
 Bible selections arranged, 40. 
 
 Bible study, training to, 34. 
 
 Bible texts at breakfast, 162. 
 
 Bible valleys and vineyards, 81-82. 
 
 Bible words on prayer, 82. 
 
 Birth and parentage, 3. 
 
 Board of Education, chairman of, 
 127. 
 
 Book-keeping, 9. 
 
 Books, selection of, 42. 
 
 Borrowing for a tuition bill, 5. 
 
 Boy, a backward, spurred, 30. 
 
 Bringing sunshine, 166. 
 
 Buddington, S. O., 115. 
 
 Building Aid Cent Society, 32-33. 
 
 Burke's tribute to whalers, 93. 
 
 Burned out (Waterford), 20. 
 
 Burning of church (New London), 
 29, 32. 
 
 Business activities, 91-119. 
 
 Business men valuable in Sunday- 
 school, 92. 
 
 California!! missionary, a, 143-145. 
 Candidacy for office. 132. 
 Capital at God's call, 140. 
 Capital diminishing, 140. 
 Cards, absentee, 73, 74. 
 Cards of notification, 55. 
 Carte-blanche for giving, 143. 
 Catholicity, 121, 122, 149. 
 Caulkins, Miss Frances Manwaring, 
 
 160. 
 
 Certificates, admission, 76. 
 Certificates, dismission, 77. 
 Certificates, reward, 76. 
 Chapel, a new (New London), 32. 
 Chapel, a new (Waterford), 22. 
 Chapell, R. IL, 105, 114, 161, 169. 
 Chapin's, President A. L., tribute, 
 
 154-156, 16.-,. 
 Character and characteristics, 152- 
 
 180. 
 
 Character in perspective, 152-180. 
 Chart of Kerguelen's Land, 1 16. 
 Cheerfulness, 157. 
 Chester, Hubbard C., 115. 
 Childhood, importance of, 3. 
 Childlikeness, 164. 
 Chopping firewood, 4. 
 Christian decision urged, 34, 65. 
 Christmas giving, 33, 84. 
 Christmas offerings, 33, 84. 
 Christmas services, 84-87. 
 Church attendance, training to, 36. 
 Church opposition to the Sunday- 
 
 school, early, 6. 
 Citizenship honored, 131. 
 City Sunday-school, a, 25-38. 
 Clap-trap abhorred, 80. 
 Class feeling promoted, 30. 
 Classification of teachers and schol- 
 ars, 15. 
 
 Closing exercises, 28. 
 Colonies, various, 1 16. 
 Combination Research and Whaling 
 
 Expedition, 1 14. 
 Comfort under slander, 133. 
 Commandments recited, 53. 
 Common-school work, 126-127. 
 Communion, preparation for, 65. 
 Concentration, power of, 153. 
 Concert, Sunday-school, 21, 26, 37, 
 
 79-83. 
 Concert, Sunday-school, methods of, 
 
 79-83. 
 Concert, Sunday-school, origin of, 
 
 79. 
 Concert, Sunday-school, topics of, 81 
 
 -83. 
 
 Confidence essential, 17. 
 Congregational Union of England 
 
 and Wales, delegate to, 128. 
 Congregational Union of England 
 
 and Wales, speech before, 129- 
 
 131. 
 Congregationalism in the United 
 
 States, 130. 
 Connection of whaling with science, 
 
 111.
 
 I/ll/'.l-. 
 
 183 
 
 Conversation, personal, 35. 
 Counsel, keeping, 150. 
 Country Sunday-school, a, 12-24. 
 Covering stingy givers, 141. 
 
 Daily I5ible reading in course, 05. 
 
 Day of rest, the, 180. 
 
 Death of Mr. Haven, 180. 
 
 Death of Mrs. Haven, 109. 
 
 Death of scholars noted, 44. 
 
 Dedication services, 88 89. 
 
 Dedication ("Waterford), 22-23. 
 
 Deep waters, 1 70. 
 
 Defeated at the polls, 1 35. 
 
 Denominational councils, prominent 
 in, 128. 
 
 Desk, announcements arranged for, 
 40. 
 
 Desk, in the, 50-01. 
 
 Desk work, power of, 50. 
 
 Desolation, Island of, 100- 102. 
 
 Devotion to the truth, 103. 
 
 Diffused activities, 170. 
 
 Dignity as a leader, 51. 
 
 Disappointment in the counting- 
 room, 9. 
 
 Disappointments met bravely., 117. 
 
 Disconnection, power of, 154. 
 
 Discoveries by whalers, 90. 
 
 Dismissal certificates, 77. 
 
 Distribution of property, 151. 
 
 Doctrinal recitations, 58-01. 
 
 Doctrines taught, 52-54. 
 
 Doing all tilings well, 119. 
 
 Double lines of Providence. 145. 
 
 Douglas, Miss Elizabeth Lucas, 100. 
 
 Duties of a citizen performed, 131. 
 
 Duties of scholars noted, 70. 
 
 Early home, 4. 
 Early hours, 35. 
 Earnestness as a leader, 51. 
 Easter services, 80, 109. 
 
 Englishman, a New England, 10 1. 
 Enjoying a laugh, 03. 
 Enjoxing self-denial, 139. 
 Entertaining angels unawares, 158. 
 Envelope system, 33. 
 Epistles quoted, 53. 
 Equitable Trust Company, 1 18. 
 European trip, 120, 170. " 
 Example, influence of, 3. 
 Excused absences, 31. 
 Exercises, closing, 2s, 01. 
 Exercises, opening, 27, 28, 55. 
 Exercises, opening and closing, 55- 
 
 01. 
 
 Exercises, order of, prepared, 41. 
 Exercises, specimen order of, 55- 
 
 01. 
 
 Faith and works, 1 75. 
 
 Faith in danger, I 74. 
 
 Falling shadows, 109. 
 
 Family and Sunday-school co-oper- 
 ating, 0. 
 
 Family circle, 100. 
 
 Farm-college course, a, 4. 
 
 Farm-work, 4. 
 
 Favorite truths, 108. 
 
 Feeling like a king. 5. 
 
 Financial stress, 140. 
 
 Finding time for every duty, 120. 
 
 Fire and its lessons, 80. 
 
 First Sunday-school. 5. 
 
 First superintendency, 12-24. 
 
 Fortieth anniversary (Waterford), 
 13. 
 
 Fortieth report (New London), 71. 
 
 Freshness in questioning, 80. 
 
 Friend as well as superintendent, 04. 
 
 Gain in knowing methods. 39. 
 Garments exchanged, 158. 
 Genevan Sunday, a, 171-173. 
 Genevan Sunday-school, 172. 
 
 Education of young men, helping, Genius means work, 43. 
 
 145-14!). 
 Encouraging others to give, 141. 
 End of toil, the, 179. 
 
 Gilead Sunday-school, 20. 
 Gilman, President Daniel C., 127. 
 Giving, a fixed habit. 139-140.
 
 184 
 
 Index. 
 
 Giving better than receiving, 85. 
 Giving, Bible words about, 83. 
 Giving by proxy, 1 42. 
 Giving by will, 151. 
 Giving systematically, 137-151. 
 Giving with others, 141, 142. 
 Gloria Patri recited, 53, Gl. 
 God's protection recognized, 1 74. 
 Golden text, methods of using, 54, 
 
 87. 
 
 Golden text recited, 54, 87. 
 Good work essential, 44. 
 Governor, candidate for, 132. 
 Great-heart recalled, 1 73. 
 Griefs, clustering, 169. 
 Grinnell, Henry, 114. 
 Growing old gracefully, 178. 
 Guano-gathering, 102. 
 
 Hall, C. F., 113-115. 
 
 Hall of the Reformation, 1 71. 
 
 Hall's first voyage, 113. 
 
 Hall's second voyage, 114. 
 
 Hall's, the llev. Dr. John, tribute, 
 163-165. 
 
 Haven and Smith. 97. 
 
 Haven, Mrs., death of, 169. 
 
 Haven, Thomas Williams, 169. 
 
 Helpers, good, how to have them, 
 70. 
 
 Helping into the ministry, 146-149. 
 
 Helping others to help themselves, 
 140-142. 
 
 Helping students. 146-149. 
 
 Henry Martyn Missionary Associa- 
 tion, 32, 83. 
 
 Historian, a local, 161. 
 
 History, influence of, 68. 
 
 Holding civil office, 132. 
 
 Home at last, 180. 
 
 Home for others, a, 161. 
 
 Home given to young men, 147. 
 
 Home parties, 62. 
 
 Home test, the, 160. 
 
 Home traits, 159-162. 
 
 Horse wanted, a, 145. 
 
 Household life, 159-162. 
 
 Household system, 1G2. 
 How to jog the memory, 173. 
 Humble beginning, a, 4, 41. 
 Hunting the sea-elephant and seal, 
 
 100-102. 
 Hymns, appropriateness sought in, 
 
 43. 
 
 Hymns arranged for, 40. 
 Hymns, new collection of, 43. 
 Hvmns, reading in alternate verses, 
 *52. 
 
 Imitation by other schools, 37. 
 
 Improvements adopted, 21. 
 
 In full strength, 179. 
 
 In the desk, 50-61. 
 
 In the study, 40-44. 
 
 In the wrong coat, 158. 
 
 Index of ledger record, 71. 
 
 Indexes made, 43. 
 
 Inquiry meeting, 35. 
 
 Institute work, 122, 123. 
 
 Interest in uniform-lesson plan, 124- 
 126. 
 
 International Lesson Committee, 
 124-126. 
 
 Introduction certificates, 77. 
 
 Invitation to house, 49. 
 
 Invitation to teachers' meeting, 48. 
 
 Invitations to former scholars, 75. 
 
 Invitations to outsiders, 75. 
 I 
 
 Jacobs's, B. F., tribute, 166. 
 I Jericho asylums, 46. 
 
 Joe, Esquimaux, 115. 
 
 flogging the boys' memory, 1 73. 
 
 Joining the church, 11. 
 
 Judicious giving, 141. 
 
 Kane. Dr., on the seal, 108. 
 Keeping his own counsel, 1 56. 
 Keeping others at work, 50. 
 Keeping track of old members, 70. 
 Kerguelen's Land. 100-102, 108, 
 
 109, 1 16. 
 
 Kergnelen's Land, chart of, 116. 
 Kindliness as a leader, 51.
 
 Index. 
 
 185 
 
 Labor in every department, 42. 
 
 Landscape, a tempting, 172. 
 
 Latlirop, Harriet, 0. 
 
 Lay preaching, 121. 
 
 Lease of sealing privileges, 106, 
 
 107. 
 
 Ledger record, 09-72. 
 Legislative service, 132. 
 Length of session, 28. 
 Lesson Committee, 124-120. 
 Lesson Committee's tribute, 1G3- 
 
 167. 
 
 Letter or spirit, 150. 
 Letting things drop, 153. 
 Library, a growing, 42. 
 Library, selection of. 42. 
 Library well arranged, 43. 
 Lifting with others, 141, 142. 
 Linking the services, 78. 
 Lists of punctual members, 77. 
 Living by faith, 143-14"). 
 London Sunday-school Union, 1 70. 
 Looking after the scholars, 02. 
 Looking forward, 1 08. 
 Looking up charities. 144. 
 Lord's Prayer, use of the, 28, 52. 
 Love of the Word, 102, 103, 100. 
 Loved and missed, 107. 
 Loving a laugh, 157. 
 
 Making ready, 40. 
 Manner in the desk, 51. 
 Many-sidedness, 177. 
 Marriage, 100. 
 
 Mayflower, voyage of the, 1 29. 
 Mayor of New London, 1 32. 
 Meeting losses bravely, 117. 
 Memorandum, value of a, 40. 
 Memorized Scripture, 107. 
 Memorizing secured, 53. 
 Methodical in everything, 43. 
 Methods and helps, 39-90. 
 Methods of Bible reading, 51. 
 Methods of recitation, 51. 
 Methods, variety in, 54. 
 Ministry, increase of, 140-149. 
 Missionary families, 101-102. 
 
 Missionary offerings, GO. 
 Missionary openings through whal- 
 ers, 96. 
 
 Morgan, ('apt. Kbenezer, 105, 1 15. 
 Morning sessions, 26. 
 Multiplying one's self, 50. 
 
 National Bank of Commerce, 118. 
 National Council of Congregational 
 
 Churches, delegate from, 128. 
 National services of winders, 95. 
 National Sundav-school Convention, 
 
 fifth, 123. 
 
 Neighborhood changed, a, 18. 
 New home, 8. 
 New light on duty, 149. 
 New London Citv National Bank, 
 
 118. 
 
 New London County Foreign Mis- 
 sionary Association, secretary of, 
 
 127. 
 
 New London fisheries. 98. 
 New London Northern Railroad 
 
 Company, 118. 
 New London Sunday - school. 25- 
 
 38. 
 
 New-year's gatherings, 02. 
 Night work, 10. 
 Normal class, 15. 
 Normal class and teachers' meeting 
 
 combined, 47. 
 
 Normal School (State), aided, 127. 
 Northrop, Professor B. G., 127. 
 Norwich Town Sunday-school, 5. 
 Not afraid, 1 74. 
 'Notification, cards of, 55. 
 Notifying needed helpers, 55. 
 
 Official connection with benevolent 
 
 societies, 127. I2S. 
 One thing at a time. 153, 154. 
 One Word of God, the, 165. 
 Opening exercises, 27, 28. 
 Order of exercises, 41, 55-01. 
 Origin of International Lessons, 123. 
 Origin of Sunday - school concert, 
 
 79.
 
 186 
 
 Index. 
 
 Originality of plans, 16. 
 Originating New London evening 
 
 schools, 127. 
 
 Ostentation avoided, 138. 
 Outside Sunday-school work, 120. 
 
 Palmer. Capt. Nathanael B., 110. 
 
 Palmer's Land, 111. 
 
 Pardee, li. G.,92. 
 
 Partisan unfairness, 132-135. 
 
 Partnerships, 97. 
 
 Pastor's work for scholars, 78. 
 
 Patient continuance, 9. 24, 31. 
 
 Pattern of new methods, a, 3. 
 
 Peculiarities of the seal, 107-109. 
 
 Perkins, Francis Allyn, 1 70. 
 
 Perseverance exhibited, 9, 24, 31. 
 
 Persistency in attendance, 20. 
 
 Perspective of character, 152-180. 
 
 Phoenix Island group, 103. 
 
 Picnics, 62. 
 
 Pilgrim fathers, 129. 
 
 Pioneer in the Sunday-school, a, 2. 
 
 Pioneers of the sea, 94. 
 
 Plan of giving revised, 149. 
 
 Plan of systematic giving revised, 
 
 149. 
 
 Playing ball, 63. 
 Pleasant memory, a. 175. 
 Polar explorations, 109-116. 
 Polaris expedition, 114, 115. 
 Porter, President Noah, 4, 127. 17(5- 
 
 179. 
 
 Posthumous giving, 150. 
 Power of concentration, 153. 
 Power of disconnection, 153, 154. 
 Power of secretiveness, J56. 
 Praise services, 86. 
 Prayer and its lessons, 82. 
 Prayer arranged for, 40. 
 Prayer for the scholars, 48. 
 Prayer, notification of, 55. 
 Prayer with the teachers, 48. 
 Praying for their classes, teachers, 
 
 49. 
 
 Preaching to children, 78. 
 Preparation looked to, 40. 
 
 Preparing for communion, 65. 
 Presentation of books, 65. 
 Primary object of the Sundav-school, 
 
 61. 
 
 Printing-press, help of, 26. 
 Product of the Sunday-school, a, 2. 
 Profitable whaling voyage, a. 98. 
 Profitableness of fisheries, 101. 
 Promoted, 10. 
 Providential giving, 143. 
 Proxy, giving by, 142. 
 Psalms recited, 53. 
 Public services, 120-136. 
 Pullman car, worship on, 167. 
 Punctuality, prominence of, 29, 30. 
 
 Quarterly reviews, 86. 
 
 Queen Victoria, tribute to, 131. 
 
 Questions from the desk, 52. 
 
 Railroading and banking, 118. 
 
 Readiness to depart, 1 79. 
 
 Rebuilding the church (New Lon- 
 don), 32. 
 
 Recitations, methods of, 51. 
 
 Record of contributions, 77. 
 
 Record of fifty years, a, 7. 
 
 Records, among the, 67-77. 
 
 Records and statistics, 26. 
 
 Records made, 67. 
 
 Registration, 67. 
 
 Relief in change of work, 119. 
 
 Heligion and business, 91. 
 
 Religious activities outside, 120-136. 
 
 Religious class, 66. 
 
 Repartee, keenness in, 158. 
 
 Heport, fortieth (New London), 71. 
 
 Representative in Legislature, 132. 
 
 Republican candidate for governor- 
 ship, 132. 
 
 Resigning in good time, 1 79. 
 
 Responsibilities, growing, 19. 
 
 Hesponsive readings, 15, 26. 
 
 Resurrection, prominence of ijie, 
 168. 
 
 Revenue, government, from Alaska, 
 107.
 
 Index. 
 
 187 
 
 Reverence as a leader, 51. 
 Reverence promoted, 89. 
 Review, half-yearly, 86. 
 Review, quarterly, 86. 
 Review questioning, 86. 
 Revised plan of giving, 1 49. 
 Reward certificates, 77. 
 Risks, large and imminent, 1 1 7. 
 Russian wonder at Yankee enter- 
 prise, 1 10. 
 Ruts avoided, 54. 
 
 Sabbatical years, 21. 
 
 Schauffler Missionary Society, 07. 
 
 Schedule of exercises, 55-61. 
 
 Scholars, with the, 61-07. 
 
 Scoresby, William, and polar re- 
 search, 111, 112. 
 
 Scripture lighting Scripture, 105. 
 
 Scripture readings, 29. 
 
 Sea-elephanting, 98. 
 
 Seal fisheries, Alaska, 104-109. 
 
 Sealing, 99. 
 
 Seal-killing, 107. 
 
 Secretary's importance, 07. 
 
 Secretiveness, power of, 156. 
 
 Seeing in the dark, 167. 
 
 Seeking plums, 166. 
 
 Sensitiveness of the seal, 108. 
 
 Sermons to children, 80, 78. 
 
 Service of dedication, 22-23. 
 
 Services, Christmas, 84-87. 
 
 Services, Easter, 80, 109. 
 
 Services, order of, 26, 55-61. 
 
 Services, public. 120-136. 
 
 Serving God all the week, 91,92. 
 
 Seven-year Bibles, 22. 
 
 Sheaves in the harvest, 8. 
 
 Shipman, the Rev. T. L., 158. 
 
 Shipping guano, dangers of, 103, 
 104. 
 
 Simple tilings the harder, the, 13. 
 
 Sister's influence, a, 161. 
 
 Small wages, 8. 
 
 Sneers endured with grace, 135. 
 
 Something for all, 155. 
 
 Souls, working for, 35. 
 13 
 
 Special services, at, 78-89. 
 Special services, importance of, 78. 
 Specimen order of exercises, 55- 
 
 61. 
 
 Spirit, or letter, 150. 
 Spiritual results, 19, 20. 
 St. George's Island, 106, 107. 
 St. Paul's Island, 100, 107. 
 Starbuck's report of whale fisheries, 
 
 94. 
 Starting one into the ministry, 147, 
 
 148. 
 
 Steam whalers, 98. 
 Stewardship, Christian, recognized, 
 
 137-151. 
 
 Straight forward, 90. 
 Straitened circumstances, 4. 
 Strawberries and cream, 63. 
 Strawberries without cream, 64. 
 Strength and beauty, 175. 
 Study, in the, 40-44*. 
 Studying the records, 72. 
 Success through hard work, 41. 
 Summer evening parties, 62. 
 Sunday - school expenses met by 
 
 church, 37. 
 Superintendency, first, 12. 
 Superintendency, second, 25. 
 Superintendent's power in the desk, 
 
 50. 
 
 Supplemental lessons, 53. 
 Supplying a Baptist pulpit, 121. 
 Sympathy with scientific research, 
 
 " 109. 
 
 System and consecration, 89. 
 System, attention to, 157. 
 System of records, 09-72. 
 Systematic Beneficence Society, 
 
 president of, 1 28. 
 Systematic giving, 26, 137, 151. 
 
 Tact shown, 45. 
 
 Te Deum Laudamus used, 53. 
 
 Teachers drawn out, 45. 
 
 Teachers' institutes, participant in, 
 
 127. 
 Teachers' meeting essential, 44.
 
 188 
 
 Index. 
 
 Teachers' meeting illustrated, 45. 
 Teachers' meeting, methods in, 45. 
 Teachers' meeting, perseverance in, 
 
 48. 
 
 Teachers' meeting practicable, 44. 
 Teachers' meetings, 15, 26,44-48. 
 Teachers spurred, 47. 
 Teachers tenderly considered, 45. 
 Teachers urged to pray for their 
 
 scholars, 49. 
 Teachers urged to pray with their 
 
 scholars, 49. 
 
 Teachers, with the, 44-50. 
 Teaching methods illustrated, 47. 
 Tenderness and submission, 178. 
 Tenderness as a leader, 51. 
 Test of a good school, 61. 
 Thomson, the Rev. Dr. Joseph P., 
 
 128. 
 
 Time found, 41. 
 Tracts, use of, 35. 
 Tribute, B. F. Jacobs's, 166. 
 Tribute, John Wanamaker's, 173- 
 
 175. 
 Tribute, Lesson Committee's, 163- 
 
 167. 
 Tribute, President A. L. Chapin's, 
 
 154-156,165. 
 Tribute, President Noah Porter's, 
 
 176-179. 
 Tribute, the Rev. Dr. J. H. Vincent's, 
 
 166,167. 
 Tribute, the Rev. Dr. John Hall's, 
 
 163-165. 
 Tribute, the Rev. Dr. L. W. Bacon's, 
 
 171-173. 
 Tyson, George E., 115. 
 
 Uniform lessons, 15, 21, 123-126. 
 Unpromising district, an, 12. 
 Urging Christian decision, 34, 65. 
 Use of history, 68. 
 
 Vacations, 17, 32. 
 
 Vallevs and vineyards. Bible, 81, 
 82. 
 
 Variety in work, 155. 
 
 Variety secured, 54. 
 
 Venus, transit of, 116. 
 
 Vincent's, the Rev. Dr. J. H., trib- 
 ute, 163-165. 
 
 Vineyards and valleys, Bible, 81, 
 82. 
 
 Wanamaker's, John, tribute, 173- 
 175. 
 
 War record (New London), 71, 72. 
 
 War risks, 103. 
 
 Waterford Sunday-school, 12-24. 
 
 Week-day workers needed in Sun- 
 day-school, 91. 
 
 Weekly class offerings, 33. 
 
 Weighed in the balances, 134. 
 
 Whale fisheries, 93-100. 
 
 Whaling combined with research, 
 111.112,114. 
 
 Whaling, rise and decadence of, 
 97. 
 
 Wheels within wheels. 90. 
 
 Will, its provisions, 151. 
 
 Willcox, the Rev. Dr. George B., 
 36, 79. 
 
 Williams, C. A., 103, 105. 
 I Williams, Thomas W., 8, 93, 97. 
 ! Winslow, Mrs. Myron, 7. 
 1 Winter sessions, 1 7. 
 
 With the scholars, 61-67. 
 i With the teachers, 44-50. 
 
 Wood worth, Oliver, 71. 
 i Words of dedication, 88, 89. 
 
 World-wide enterprise, 1 1 6. 
 
 Worship, importance of, 26. 
 
 Yankee enterprise, 104-106. 
 Yielding gracefully, 164, 165, 167. 
 Young men helped and encouraged, 
 
 145-149.. 
 Young Men's Christian Union, 67.
 
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