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 GIFT OF 
 
 SEELEY W. MUDD 
 
 and 
 
 GEORGE I. COCHRAN MEYER ELSASSER 
 
 DR.JOHNR. HAYNES WILLIAM L. HONNOLD 
 
 JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. JOSEPH F. SARTOR! 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SOUTHERN BRANCH 
 
 JOHN FISKE
 
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 ^Hmerican 0cligiou^ Ucabcr^ 
 
 WILBUR nSK 
 
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 GEORGE PRENTICE, D. D. 
 
 PROFESSOR IN WESLETAN UNIVERSITT 
 
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 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 1890 
 
 
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 900
 
 Copyright, 1889, 
 By GEORGE PRENTICE. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 • « • 
 
 
 TAe Riverxiile Press, Cambriri^e, Mass., U. S. A. 
 Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Compiiny.
 
 6X 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Methodist I>"vasion. of New England .... 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Youth of Wilbur Fisk 13 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 -,-' Ecclesiastical and Theological IT 
 
 ^' CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Itinerant Minister 40 
 
 -^ CHAPTER V. 
 
 IT"* The Educator. — Weslevan Academy 64 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 Theological Controversies Ill 
 
 CHAPTER VIT. 
 The Educator. — Wesleyan University 1.38 
 
 CHAPTER ^^II 
 The Temperance Reformer 180 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Slavery 194
 
 IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 Manifold Activity .• 222 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 The Preacher 232 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 European Travel 239 
 
 CHAPTER Xin. 
 The Renewal and the End of Labor 252 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Finai, Lessons 276
 
 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 THE METHODIST INVASION OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 Up to the year 1789 no minister of the Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church had made more than a brief 
 visit to New England ; but at the New York Con- 
 ference convened that year on May 28th in New 
 York, Bishop Asbury gratified a well-known long- 
 ing of Jesse Lee by sending him to New England 
 as a missionary. Mr. Lee had a colleague, but he 
 was left to undertake the mission alone. He be- 
 lieved that the Methodist Episcopal Church had 
 a great part to play, by the overthrow of formal 
 and unspiritual religion wherever it had become 
 rooted in pastors and churches, by assailing and 
 putting to shame Calvinistic errors which were 
 alike dishonorable to God and ruinous to souls, 
 and by gathering churches after the model of the 
 Wesleyan societies, with an Arminian theology 
 and a regenerate and sanctified membership. 
 
 After three months of untiring labor, Mr. Lee 
 organized a class of three members, and after three 
 months more a class of two members. On the 26th
 
 2 WJLBUR FISK. 
 
 of September, 1789, the first Methodist Episcopal 
 Church in New England was organized at Strat- 
 field, Conn. In February, 1790, Jacob Brush, 
 George Roberts, and Daniel Smith were sent to 
 assist Mr. Lee. Leaving Mr. Brush in charge of 
 the circuit he had formed, Mr. Lee and Mr. Smith 
 laid out the New Haven circuit, extending as far 
 as Hartford. Two churches were built and two 
 hundi'ed members were gathered into the societies 
 within the first sixteen months of Mr. Lee's mis- 
 sion. This small beginning did not dishearten the 
 souls of the wide-wandering itinerants themselves, 
 nor mislead the keen-sighted Asbury as to the im- 
 portance of the new work. Within the first decade 
 of New England Methodism, three and a half pre- 
 siding elders' districts were established, thirty cir- 
 cuits formed, forty-one ministers were on their 
 rounds, while ninety -five preachers in all had taken 
 part in this Methodistic invasion of the Eastern 
 States. Converts had been won at the rate of five 
 hundred a year. At the end of the second decade, 
 the total membership of the Methodist churches in 
 New England was 14,488, and at the end of the 
 third decade, the year after Wilbur Fisk joined 
 the New England Conference, the total was 21,365. 
 How shall we account for such remarkable suc- 
 cess ? First, the men who won it were remarkable 
 men. Yet should we print the names of the 
 ninety-five itinerants who were in New England 
 within the first decade, very few of them would be 
 known to the American public. Nay, many of
 
 METHODIST INVASION OF NEW ENGLAND. 6 
 
 these names would have an unfamiliar sound to 
 New England Methodists. The reason is not far 
 to seek. Most of them were not New Englanders 
 by birth, lived but a few years in the Eastern 
 States, and returned to their earlier residences to 
 spend the strength of their manhood far away from 
 New England. It is no marvel if their names are 
 largely forgotten by the present generation. Were 
 the names of a hundred average lawyers, clergy- 
 men, or physicians, their contemporaries in the 
 Eastern States, printed here, how few of them 
 woidd call up any distinct image or recollection 
 to the American public ! The itinerants' success 
 in New England is itseK the resistless evidence 
 of their remarkable qualities. Dr. Stevens has 
 sketched them in a volume called " Memorials of 
 the Introduction of Methodism into the Eastern 
 States." 
 
 Bishop Asbury's part in the movement was that 
 of official superintendence. His unrivaled ac- 
 quaintance with the preachers who were to be dis- 
 patched on this mission enabled him to select men 
 who woidd be sure to win success. First, they 
 were men of good personal appearance, whose 
 dress was unique, whose manners were familiar and 
 accessible, whose outdoor habits of life made them 
 at ease with all sorts and conditions of men. The 
 fact that, like Henry Clay, George Washington, 
 and Abraham Lincoln, they were not coUege- 
 bred but self-made men made it easier for them 
 to comprehend and take advantage of currents of
 
 4 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 feeling amongst the "plain people," whom only 
 such men can fully comprehend and readily influ- 
 ence. 
 
 Then they were men of extraordinary spiritual- 
 ity and devotion, whose every-day life was a denial 
 of the world, the flesh, and the devil. To forsake 
 home and kindred and all worldly ambitions and 
 selfish modes of living, to be always in the saddle, 
 always on the march like soldiers, to go amongst 
 strangers on religious errands which would bring 
 them into collision with the settled convictions of 
 all New England, to be counted and to be the off- 
 scouring of all things for Christ's sake, was a 
 spiritual discipline compared with which those of 
 Jesuit and Trappist were slight and ineffectual. 
 And they did all that on an allowance of sixty 
 dollars a year, subject to every appeal which the 
 greater needs of some men always make to gen- 
 erous minds. And all this was done, not in a 
 spirit of submission, but of exidtation that they 
 were permitted to win souls from sin to holiness at 
 any possible expense of effort and self-sacrifice. 
 Nobody could accuse them of worldly and secular 
 motives in their ministry of love. 
 
 Then the intensity of their convictions gave a 
 dread or happy accent of reality to all their say- 
 ings and doings. They believed in every article of 
 a Christian's faith with all their minds and hearts. 
 Every motive that has its roots in the awfulness of 
 sin, the brevity, swiftness, and solemnity of life, 
 tlic danger of delay in religious duties, the possi-
 
 METBODIST INVASION OF NEW ENGLAND. 5 
 
 bility of saving soiils from death who might other- 
 wise persist in impenitence and incur eternal per- 
 dition, tokl ^^ith unabated energy upon their minds. 
 What cheered and comforted them was that they 
 had a salvation to offer which was adequate for 
 the relief of every lost soid around them. Not one 
 of them was there who was not ready to testify 
 that he had himseK received that regenerate life 
 which he commended to others, by the direct oper- 
 ation of the Holy Spirit, and that entire sanctifica- 
 tion was a conscious possession. In spite of all the 
 hardships of their lives and the obstacles their mis- 
 sion encountered, they were the only ministers in 
 New England who seemed fully to have the apos- 
 tolic spirit, the apostolic faith, and the true fruits 
 of apostleship. 
 
 At first they would gladly have steered clear of 
 controverted points, insisting merely on the neces- 
 sity of regeneration, of a holy life, and of saving 
 other men from sin and death. But their adver- 
 saries soon taught them better by maintaining that 
 the only reason for their reticence was the badness 
 of their principles. Hence they set before the 
 people who were gathered in their assemblies the 
 dogmas of universal redemption ; that the call of 
 the gospel comes to all men alike ; that all may be 
 saved on the same terms ; that none are eternal 
 reprobates by God's decree, but only by their 
 own avoidable misdoing ; that all are so equally 
 free agents that any one may sin against any light 
 forever, when obedience to that same Hght would
 
 6 WILBUR FJSK. 
 
 have saved him ; and that even the holiest saint 
 can stand fast in the faith and hope of the gospel 
 only by incessant watchfulness. 
 
 Then ensued a persistent effort to spread these 
 doctrines all over New England. Since the invad- 
 ino- party had no newspapers, no schools or col- 
 leges of their own, they could not assail their foes 
 in newspapers, in the teacher's seat, or the pro- 
 fessor's chair. They were wandering evangelists 
 who made use of such chances as came into their 
 hands for doing their work. In private conversa- 
 tion, in class-meetings, in prayer-meetings, in love- 
 feasts, in quarterly meetings, in the home pulpit, 
 at camp-meetings, and conferences, an incessant 
 war was kept up against Calvinism. One minister 
 was baptizing a child in church; he lifted up 
 the sweet face, smiling under the baptismal drops, 
 for the congregation to see, asking, " Does this 
 look like an eternal reprobate?" When the pre- 
 siding: elder came on his rounds, one of his sermons 
 was pretty sure to aim at developing the higher 
 Christian character, and the other to arraign the 
 mysterious and awful dogmas of the popular creed. 
 At camp-meetings one or two sermons were de- 
 voted to a systematic exposure of Calvinistic errors. 
 This polemic against Augustinianism was rarely 
 metaphysical, but kept to the jDlain, obvious decla- 
 rations of Scripture. The preachers had studied 
 with care all the arguments by which their oppo- 
 nents undertook to vindicate the consistency of 
 their own views with Scripture, and could and did
 
 METHODIST INVASION OF NEW ENGLAND. 7 
 
 expose them with great precision. Jesse Lee used 
 to wind up some of his detailed discussions of 
 these controverted texts and points with " God's 
 oath that he was no Calvinist." " For I have no 
 pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the 
 Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves and live." 
 (Ezek. xviii. 32.) 
 
 When Whitefield met Wesley's first mission- 
 aries, Boardman and Pilmoor, in Philadelphia, he 
 said to them, "If you were only Calvinists you 
 would carry the country before you." Were 
 Whitefield to return to earth, what would be his 
 surprise to find that the Wesleyan itinerants had 
 carried the country with them as he never did or 
 could ! When Whitefield came to New England, 
 he found the Congregational churches secularized 
 by the effects of the law, enacted in 1631 and re- 
 pealed in 1688, that only church members should 
 vote or hold office. Under that law the rule was 
 to admit everybody into the church whose life 
 stopped short of public scandal. Ileal Christians 
 soon became a small minority in most of the 
 churches, and lost the general direction of the 
 church. A secidarized church membership soon 
 desired pastors after its own heart, and had 
 them, too. The natural consequence of creating a 
 church membership without spirituality was, that 
 the doctrine was stoutly maintained that piety was 
 not necessary in the pastors of the church. Wick- 
 edness in the pews did not care to put holiness into 
 the pulpit.
 
 8 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 This condition of things resulted naturally in 
 the adoption of the Halfway Covenant. The in- 
 tent of this measure was to treat common morality 
 in parents who had been baptized in infancy or 
 afterwards, but were not members of the church, 
 as though they were Christians, and to give their 
 children baptism on condition of a pledge to train 
 them in the moralities rather than the spiritualities 
 of the gospel. Thus baptism opened the way to 
 office and honor. So rapid was this ill-omened 
 change that on his first visit to New England, 
 Whitefield found himself compelled stoutly to de- 
 mand the signs of regenerate life in his own con- 
 verts. He also denounced the practice of admit- 
 ting imspiritual persons to the sacraments or to 
 the ministry. Yet so general was this habit that 
 more than twenty ministers near Boston, who were 
 converted through Whitefield's faithful rebukes, 
 had become ministers without conversion. It was 
 devotion to the Halfway Covenant which silenced 
 Edwards, and embittered Whitefield's later visit 
 to New England. Kevivals ceased. Many con- 
 gregations of unbelievers had unconverted pastors. 
 The result did not fail to justify the wisdom of 
 the divine saying, "If the blind lead the blind, 
 they shaU both fall into the ditch." Yet not 
 a few "kept their garments unspotted from the 
 world." 
 
 For fifty years there had been no great religious 
 revival. The Revolutionary War had largely 
 demoralized public morals, and popularized the
 
 METHODIST INVASION OF NEW ENGLAND. 9 
 
 Frencli and the Tom Paine styles of infidelity. 
 There was no sign of a revival in the churches. 
 
 But suddenly, two by two, Asbury's itinerant 
 evangelists begin to traverse New England. They 
 preach in town-houses, churches, school-houses, in 
 orchards, on commons. They act as their own 
 sextons, ring the bell, light the candles and fires. 
 They preach three or four times on Sundays, and 
 once or twice every week-day. Here and there 
 they find little knots of prayerful and expectant 
 souls, whom they form into classes and speedily 
 gather into churches. They accept no halfway 
 covenants, tolerate no unconverted members in 
 their societies : they build up churches rich in 
 every Chiistian virtue. For some reason the 
 movement does not, any move than St. Paul's re- 
 vival, lay hold of " many noble " or " many wise ; " 
 yet, hke his, it made many noble and many wise. 
 
 They made great use of the Wesleyan hymns 
 in the effort to diffuse their theology amongst the 
 masses. Nearly all of them were good singers, 
 and knew how to catch and hold the public ear by 
 their songs. These hymns themselves embody the 
 system of thought, the burning emotions of one of 
 the greatest religious revivals the world has ever 
 seen. They were sung at public worship, in 
 prayer-meetings, class-meetings, love-feasts, camp- 
 meetings, and in the home churches, all over New 
 England. It is ten times as easy to learn and 
 repeat a hymn as a sermon. Then the new hymns 
 were set to music, which lingered on the ear in
 
 10 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 such a way as to tempt their frequent repetition. 
 There is no telling how far a single hymn may 
 fly ; and when a whole mass of such winged mes- 
 sengers are at the command and on the tongues' 
 end of multitudes, they become a very potent 
 evangelizing force, not only in the transformation 
 of individual character, but also of public opinion. 
 Charles Wesley's hymns have had quite as much 
 to do with the popularizing of the Wesleyan doc- 
 trines as John Wesley's sermons. One has no 
 difficulty in seeing how such doctrines, proclaimed 
 in such a spirit and by such men, should have 
 made a great impression on the public mind in 
 New England. Puritanism had lost out of its 
 doctrine, out of its pulpit, out of its religious life, 
 that joyous element which Christianity always had 
 on the lips of Jesus and of Paul, since it is good 
 tidings of great joy for all people, and especially 
 to men of goodwill. This spontaneous joy in 
 God and his salvation, the joy of forgiveness and 
 the raptures of holiness of heart, were instantly 
 felt to be the restoration of something that was a 
 real part of the gospel. Hence, in spite of all the 
 social disadvantages under which Methodism was 
 propagated in New England, it carried into the 
 public feeling and consciousness the clear percep- 
 tion that to be, and to be sure that one was, a 
 child of God was such a change in spiritual con- 
 dition as ought to give birth to a deep and per- 
 manent religious exhilaration. The early New 
 England Methodists carried this atmosphere of
 
 METHODIST INVASION OF NEW ENGLAND. 11 
 
 religious exliilaration with them everywhere. This 
 made their private intercourse serenely happy, and 
 their public worship electric with spiritual life and 
 love. 
 
 Before this movement had been fifteen years in 
 New England, it had reached the Fisk household. 
 The mother of Wilbur, descendant of a Puritan 
 minister though she was, had somewhere listened 
 to the preaching of the Methodist preachers, and 
 she gave ear to their word as the very word of 
 God. She invited the itinerants to her house, 
 joined a religious class, became a member of the 
 church, and presently had the happiness of seeing 
 all her family members of the same body. She 
 effected this change in the religious relations of 
 the household because the docti-ines and life of the 
 new church seemed to her more scriptural, more 
 reasonable, and more helpful than those of the 
 church to which her family had been devoted for 
 eioht srenerations. 
 
 In this way Methodism gave substance and shape 
 to Wilbur Fisk's first serious religious development. 
 It is wonderful to reflect how largely this stripling 
 was destined to give it a new and higher direction. 
 If there was any one point where the leadership of 
 Asbury, Lee, and men of their stamp was at fault, 
 it was in their failure to appreciate the immense 
 and indispensable importance of having educa- 
 tional institutions under their patronage and con- 
 trol. Had Wesley led the American Methodist 
 societies, instead of Asbury and Coke, he would
 
 12 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 never have submitted to defeat at Cokesbury on 
 the collegiate education question. The very fact 
 that they had lost 150,000 by the successive con- 
 flagrations which visited the institution (nearly 
 half as much as Wesleyan University was worth 
 in Wilbur Fisk's day) is a striking evidence of 
 the depth and sincerity of the interest of early 
 Methodists in educational work. One of the 
 questions most often put to Lee and his associates 
 was, whether they were college-bred men. Nor 
 did Lee quite realize how insufficient was his usual 
 answer, "that he made no great pretension, yet 
 thought he knew enough to get through the 
 country."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE YOUTH OF WILBUR FISK. 
 
 Wilbur Fisk was born at Brattleborough, Vt, 
 August 31, 1792. He was the son of Isaiah and 
 Hannah Fisk, and was descended on both sides 
 from ancestors who were amongst the early set- 
 tlers of Massachusetts. 
 
 The family life was of the sort so felicitously 
 described by Dr. Bushnell in " The Age of Home- 
 spun." It was a life in which the farm and the 
 shop and the church had far more to do with the 
 training of the people than school and college. So 
 true was this of young Fisk that until his sixteenth 
 year he had not been to school more than two or 
 three years. Then he attended a sort of acad- 
 emy at Peacham. Not much is known about the 
 school, but the ambitious Fisk carried his studies 
 so far there that he was admitted on examination 
 to the sophomore class in the University of Ver- j 
 mont, in July, 1812. He continued a student at 
 Burlington until the suspension of the work of the 
 university in consequence of the buildings being 
 turned over to General Macomb for the use of the 
 American army. We know that the course of 
 study was not very different from that at Union
 
 14 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 and Dartmouth in those days. The course of study 
 may still be seen, and Fisk's certificate of admis- 
 sion shows the president's name. In Fisk's letters 
 to his friends, the names of a few student friends 
 are given ; and a few compositions, orations, and a 
 poem, called " Vermont," may be seen by the curi- 
 ous. But the letters do not show what his associ- 
 ates and superiors thought of him, or what kind 
 of impression his educators made upon him. Of 
 them there is neither criticism nor laudation. 
 
 In the spring term of 1814, Mr. Fisk was ad- 
 mitted to the junior class of Brown University. 
 Of this institution the Rev. Asa Messer, D. D., 
 was then the president, with four professors and 
 two tutors to assist him in the work of instruc- 
 tion. There Mr. Fisk would naturally have to do 
 only with the president and professors. Here, 
 again, we hear no criticism on his new instructors 
 or the course of study, no comparisons with any- 
 thing at the University of Vermont, no hint of 
 the personal impressions made upon him by any 
 instructor. Nor is there any trace of any impres- 
 sion he made on his instructors. One of his class- 
 mates ranks him as their best scholar. One might 
 excel him in the mathematics, another in the 
 classics, but none in helles lettres or in general 
 scholarship. He won a high reputation for skill 
 in debate at the jjreparatory school and in both 
 universities. He won friends everywhere, whose 
 friendship was of the warmest and most enduring 
 character. The appointments assigned Fisk for
 
 THE YOUTH OF WILBUR FISK. 15 
 
 public exercises show a high opinion of his abili- 
 ties. In both universities he was chosen by the 
 under-graduates to speak before the college of the 
 death of one of their number. He read much of 
 the best English literature while an under-grad- 
 uate. He took special pains with his elocution, and 
 in Providence he managed to hear the leaders of 
 the Rhode Island bar whenever possible. Though 
 a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he 
 was not knoAvn in school or college as a religious "^ 
 man. He was graduated in the summer of 1815. 
 
 Soon after his return home, he began to study w' 
 law in the office of Isaac Fletcher, of Lyndon. But 
 he had not been long about it before he saw that 
 the legal profession woidd be fatal to his religious 
 character. Hence he resolved to study for the 
 ministry, and wrote to liis classmate, the Rev. 
 George Taft, upon the whole subject. Meanwhile 
 he had become private tutor in a family near Bal- 
 timore. But his residence there was suddenly ter- 
 minated by such severe hemorrhages of the lungs 
 that his physician told him he must not hope to use 
 his voice much in his professional labors. He had 
 more than once suffered in this way at Burlington 
 and at Providence. On reaching home in June, \ 
 1817, he found Lyndon the scene of a profound ^ 
 religious revival. Here his earlier religiou>.^t55ii- 
 victions resimied their sway so fidly that, before he 
 had any chance to confess his backslidings, he had 
 recovered the favor of God, and the witness of the 
 Spirit to his sonship. Instantly he resolved to
 
 y. 
 
 16 WILBUR FI8K. 
 
 become a minister. His classmate, David Gould, 
 corresponded with him on the points in debate be- 
 tween Calvinism and Arminianism, after a distinct 
 avowal o£ Fisk's purpose to preach Calvinism in 
 case he was convinced of the truth of that system. 
 These letters would show us whether Fisk's repudi- 
 ation of Calvinism, that was the motive which kept 
 him out of the Congregational Church, also barred 
 him out of the service of the Episcopal Church. 
 Some things would have led him with gentle force 
 to that church. The lady to whom he was engaged 
 was an Episcopalian. His classmate, Taft, set be- 
 fore him such motives as he thought would influ- 
 ence Fisk's mind. Another classmate repeated 
 Taft's arguments, and denounced with rude energy 
 the faults and errors of the Methodist Church. It 
 is probable that the main reason which kept Mr. 
 Fisk from entering the Episcopal ministry was its 
 toleration of Calvinistic dogmas, though he may 
 have been influenced further by his keen sympathy 
 with the intense religious activity of the Methodist 
 Church. 
 
 March 14, 1818, Wilbur Fisk was licensed a 
 local preacher at Lyndon, Vt. He joined the 
 New England Conference on probation in June, 
 1818.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 
 
 Should Wilbur Fisk revisit the glimpses of the 
 moon to inquire into the condition of the church 
 of his choice in New England, instead of the 
 21,365 church members then served by 122 minis- 
 ters reported in 1819, he would now (1888) find 
 155,413 members served by 1,250 ministers. He 
 would find the territory occupied by the confer- 
 ence he joined partitioned into six annual confer- 
 ences, the least of which is larger than the body 
 he joined, while the conference with the old name 
 is almost thrice as large as the one he entered. 
 Shoidd he ask after Vermont Methodism, — a very 
 natural question for him, — he would learn that the 
 state now numbers more Methodists than his old 
 conference had in 1819. Should he ask after the 
 present rate of growth, he would hear that more new 
 members had joined the church within the bounds 
 of the old New England Conference last year than 
 it had, all told, the day he joined it, Shoidd he de- 
 mand — another very natural question for him — 
 what the church is doing in the educational work 
 that was so dear to his heart when on earth, he 
 would be informed that there were eight semina-
 
 18 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 ries under the patronage of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, the poorest of which was richer, and 
 better equipped with buildings, teachers, libraries, 
 and scientific apparatus, than Wesleyan Academy 
 ever was in his time, and the richest of them far 
 stronger in all these particulars than Wesleyan 
 University ever was when under his care ; that 
 Wesleyan University had in real estate, buildings, 
 and other college property, with its invested funds, 
 $1,270,000 ; that a new Methodist University had 
 sprung up at Boston, with a property valued at 
 $1,252,580, having, besides the college work, flour- 
 ishing law, medical, and theological schools, with 
 120 instructors of all grades and 775 students. 
 
 Such is the change which has come to pass in the 
 standing and work of New England Methodism in 
 less than seventy years. It used to be held by all 
 the theological and ecclesiastical critics of Meth- 
 odism, that the Eastern States would prove inacces- 
 sible to Wesleyan ideas, and unsuited to Methodis- 
 tic methods. On the surface of things, there was 
 much to jvistify the notion. The itinerant system 
 was in complete antagonism to the pastoral ideals 
 cherished there by all ecclesiastical parties. The 
 Baptist, Congregationalist, Catholic, and Protes- 
 tant Episcopal churches had many points of mu- 
 tual jar and conflict ; but they had one point of 
 agreement, their common rejection of the itinerant 
 system as unsuited to New England. They prob- 
 ably still cling to their old ideas on this point, 
 though with less confidence since the judgment of
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 19 
 
 events has gone so strongly against them. If there 
 still are many in the Eastern States who deem the 
 itinerant system a soui-ce of strength, they are 
 probably chiefly Methodists. The idea is held by 
 some that the growth of Methodism has been largely 
 due to weariness of Congregationalist forms of 
 church government and life. There may be such a 
 weariness in the ecclesiastical temper of New Eng- 
 land ; but if this has really operated to any gTeat 
 extent, it has helped the Protestant Episcopal rather 
 than the Methodist Episcopal Church. Methodist 
 ministers become Congregationalists, Baptists, 
 Churchmen, or, like the two Colliers, Unitarians. 
 Ilarely do clergymen from other churches seek a 
 place in our conferences on account of our church 
 government. The reason of this is, doubtless, that 
 we have no faith at all in the dogma of apostol- 
 ical succession, and all its kindred ideas and prac- 
 tices. Hence the ecclesiastical unrest of the New 
 England mind never turns its victims to a church 
 which drew its apostolical succession from John 
 Wesley and Thomas Coke. 
 
 But the Protestant Episcopal Church, notwith- 
 standing all the advantages which have accrued to 
 it, from its episcopal form of government, from its 
 more aesthetic and liturgical forms of worship, and 
 from its welcoming with impartial warmth Calvin- 
 ists and Arminians to its fold, has failed to make 
 anything like such an advance as the younger 
 church has secured. Though organized and at 
 work in New England far earlier than the younger
 
 20 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 denomination, she counts here only 61,314 church 
 members, served by 522 clergy; while the Meth- 
 odist conferences, as we have just seen, number 
 155,413 church members, served by 1,250 minis- 
 ters of the gospel. Certain extravagant reasoners 
 affirm that the Methodist body has outstripped her 
 competitors because they have always found some 
 of their most efficient preachers in men who have 
 never seen a college or a theological seminary. 
 Such visionaries quite forget that the more fully 
 educated a man is, the warmer is his welcome in 
 our conferences, while well-educated ministers suc- 
 ceed at a far nobler rate than any of their less in- 
 structed predecessors ; and, finally, that the Eastern 
 States are the most unlikely places in the world for 
 uneducated ministers to succeed in. The main 
 cause of our success has not been in our peculiar 
 organization, or in our itinerant ministry, or in our 
 imperfectly educated clergy, but is mainly found 
 in the theological doctrines we have proclaimed. 
 While this is no place for any careful and detailed 
 exhibition of all the elements of the Arminian 
 creed, and especially of its points of agreement and 
 of collision with Calvinistic dogmas, a brief sketch 
 will be necessary in order to render Wilbur Fisk's 
 career intelligible. 
 
 His mother had somewhere listened to the 
 preaching of the early Methodist preachers in her 
 adopted state, and had been drawn to their doc- 
 tx'ines in preference to the Calvinistic ones she 
 had been wont to hear. To her it seemed like the
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 21 
 
 dawning: on her mind of a new and better doctri- 
 nal system. She was prompt to invite these new 
 preachers to her home in Lyndon. In the original 
 Methodist class of Lyndon her name found a place, 
 and that class was the root out of which grew, all 
 in good time, the Methodist society of the town. 
 Her home was often the home of the itinerant 
 preacher on his rounds through his circiut, and so 
 it had grown to be the head centre of Methodist 
 influence and activities. It is said expressly that 
 this descendant of a Puritan minister made this 
 change in the religious relations of the family be- 
 cause she thought this system a more rational and 
 more scriptural theology than tlie Calvinism she 
 had been bred in. Through all the joyful begin- 
 nings of his early Christian life, through his long 
 seasons of backsliding at school and college, her 
 prayers had pursued her son as fervently and as 
 unwaveringly as the prayers of St. Monica had 
 gone up, centuries earlier, for her gifted son, Au- 
 gustine ; for she seems to have had an almost 
 prophetic foresight of the future usefulness and 
 greatness of her Wilbur. She once told her son's 
 widow : " All tlu'ough the period when my son 
 was planning to become a great lawyer, and study- 
 ing to render himself a great statesman, my fer- 
 vent petitions went up incessantly that God would 
 make him a herald of the cross, and God heard 
 and answered my prayers." Hence her memory 
 should be sacred to all who honor the work of her 
 son.
 
 22 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 But we are confronted by the statement of a 
 brilliant essayist that the Methodist system, from 
 the very nature of the case, cannot be a good one. 
 Matthew Arnold, who always had the courage of 
 his opinions, and whose courage was sometimes 
 stoutest just where his ignorance was greatest, 
 holds the Dissenters of England in profound con- 
 tempt because in religion they are tyj^ical British 
 Philistines ; and he regards the Methodist vari- 
 ety as the most discouraging species of the reli- 
 gious Philistines. In " A Word about America " 
 he says : — 
 
 " In that universally religious countiy, the religious 
 denomination which has by much the largest number of 
 adherents is that, I believe, of Methodism, originating 
 in John Wesley, and which we know in this country as 
 having for its standard of doctrine Mr. Wesley's fifty- 
 three semions and notes on the New Testament. I have 
 a sincere admiration for Wesley, and a sincere esteem for 
 the Wesleyan Methodist body in this country, for I hav^e 
 seen much of it, and for many of its members my esteem 
 is not only sincere but also affectionate. I know how 
 one's religious connections and religious attachments are 
 determined by the circumstances of one's birth and 
 bringing up ; and probably, if I had been brought up 
 among the Wesleyans, I should never have left their 
 body. But certainly I should have wished my children 
 to leave it ; because to live with one's mind, in regard 
 to a thing of absorbing importance, as Wesleyans believe 
 religion to be, — to live with one's mind, as to a matter 
 of this sort, fixed upon a mind of the third order, such 
 as was Mr. Wesley's, seems to me extremely trying and
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 23 
 
 injurious for the minds of men in general. And people 
 whose minds, in what is the chief concern of their lives, 
 are thus constantly fixed upon a mind of the third order, 
 are the staple of the population of the United States, in 
 the small towns and country districts ahove all." 
 
 If Mr. Arnold had suffered his " affectionate 
 respect " for his clerical Wesley an Methodist 
 acquaintances so far to overcome his inborn and 
 inbred contempt for all forms of English dissent 
 as to have asked for the theological manual from 
 which they had learned their systematic theology, 
 he would have had the " Theological Institutes " of 
 Richard Watson put into his hands, of which so 
 competent and impartial a judge as Professor J. 
 W. Alexander, of Princeton College, says : " Tur- 
 retine is, in theology, instar omnium ; that is, so 
 far as Blackstone is in law. Making due allow- 
 ance for the difference of age, Watson, the Meth- 
 odist, is the only systematizer within my know- 
 ledge who approaches the same eminence ; of whom 
 I use Addison's words : ' He reasons like Paley 
 and descants like Hall.' " 
 
 Not only would he have found this account of 
 Watson fuUy justified, but he w^ould have learned 
 that Wesley's pet ideas about assurance, the witness 
 of the Spirit, and Cliristian perfection occupy a 
 very subordinate, though not unimportant, place 
 in the work. Mr. Arnold's idea that Wesley an 
 boys and girls are brought up on Wesley's sermons 
 and notes on the New Testament, that they repeat 
 them as other boys repeat hymns and catechisms,
 
 24 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 and that the more of Wesley a boy's retentive 
 memory enables him to cram, the surer he will be 
 to win the approval of good Methodists, is as ab- 
 surd as any other grotesque fiction. It may hoax 
 ignorant Churchmen like himself, in England or 
 America ; but it will move no intelligent Metho- 
 dist to return to the Church of England, lest his 
 sons and daughters should find " sweetness and 
 light " impossible achievements. It has been said 
 of the English Church that it possesses Calvinis- 
 tic articles, an Arminian clergy, and a Romanist 
 liturgy. Yet Mr. Arnold is never tired of repeat- 
 ing that the one infallible panacea for curing all 
 the religious Philistines who are known as Wesley- 
 ans. Baptists, Independents, and Congregational- 
 ists, (including even Mr. Miall and Mr. Winter- 
 botham) is to go back to the Church of England. 
 If we are to believe him there is for them salva- 
 tion in no other course ; and, indeed, in the sense 
 of Jesus and of Paul, they are plain schismatics as 
 things now stand. Are there any good reasons for 
 supposing, as the Episcopal House of Bishops evi- 
 dently thinks, that there are ministers who have 
 a right to address to us the same arguments, and 
 remonstrances, and denunciations that Mr. Arnold 
 flings at the Philistine hordes of English Dissent- 
 ers ? To an Episcopal clergj^man who once urged 
 upon me the propriety of putting an end to our 
 anomalous condition by joining the Episcopal 
 Church (he could not say " returning to," as Mr. 
 Arnold does, for we never belonged to them), I
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 25 
 
 made this candid response : There are two ways in 
 which Methodist clergymen and laymen may join 
 the Protestant Episcojjal Church. One is, by con- 
 vincing individuals of the justice of the claims of 
 the " Historic Episcopate." This is done some- 
 times, and then they go over to the Episcopal 
 Church, as two of my old friends, the Rev. B. F. 
 De Costa, D. D., of New York, and the Rev. J. E. 
 Heald, of the diocese of Connecticut, have done. 
 We wish them Godspeed in their new fields of 
 labor. How fast this process is going forward, 
 they probably know better than we, but it makes 
 little difference with us. 
 
 The other way would be to have the two churches 
 united under some such plan of union as Tillotson's 
 Proposals of Comprehension drawn up in 1689. 
 In case the Methodist Episcopal Church should 
 ever feel the same longing after union which the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church shows, they might ac- 
 cept two of these proposals, modified as follows : — 
 
 1. "That for the futiire those who have been 
 ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church be not 
 required to be reordained to render them capable 
 of preferment in the Church. 
 
 2. That for the future none be capable of eccle- 
 siastical preferment in the Church of America that 
 shall be ordained in America otherwise than by 
 bishops ; and that those who have been ordained 
 only by presbyters, or bishops deriving their ordi- 
 nation from presbyters only, shall not be compelled 
 to renounce their former ordination. But because
 
 26 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 many have and still do doubt the validity of such 
 ordination, where episcopal ordination may be had, 
 it shall be sufficient for such persons to receive 
 ordination from a bishop in this or the like form : 
 ' If thou art not ordained, I ordain thee,' " etc. 
 
 There would have to be the like provision that 
 bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church should 
 not be required to renounce their former ordina- 
 tion, and the like contingent ordination to remove 
 the scruples of any who question the value of 
 the prior ordination. Some such general plan as 
 this might be taken up in case the desire of union 
 with the Protestant Episcopal Church should 
 ever become general in the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church. Of this there are no present signs. But 
 suppose such a union effected, the next day the 
 " Protestant Methodist Episcopal Church " would 
 have five members and five ministers with Meth- 
 odist training, views, modes of worship, methods 
 of special activity (like love -feasts, class - meet- 
 ings, revival services, and camp-meetings), which 
 must suddenly become church institutions. Do 
 our Protestant Episcopal friends desire such a 
 revolution ? It does not seem to me to be at the 
 doors ; but I am not a prophet, nor the son of 
 a prophet, that I should prophesy. Hence the 
 chances are that we shall have to go on mere 
 Methodists, notwithstanding that still leaves us 
 under the control, in the profound matter of 
 theology, " of a mind of the third order," trusting 
 that Wesley's great distinctive gift, "his genius
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 27 
 
 for practical godliness," may somehow make us 
 amends. 
 
 But it is time to say that Mr. Arnold makes a 
 profound and disgraceful mistake in assuming that 
 Mr. Wesley has put into the creed of the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church his pet notions about as- 
 surance, the witness of the Spirit, instantaneous 
 conversion, and instantaneous and complete sanc- 
 tification, and the possibility of losing grace. He 
 trusted all his peculiar views, which he always 
 affirmed to be the teaching of the English Church 
 itself, to their own intrinsic reasonableness and 
 scripturalness ; yet this confidence has always been 
 justified by results. Doctor Stevens says: — 
 
 " Wesley provided the theology of American Method- 
 ism in a symbol called the ' Articles of Religion,' and 
 these articles were taken from the ' Thirty-nine Articles ' 
 of the Anglican Church. They are abridged and some- 
 times slightly amended, but they convey no tenet which 
 is not received by the Church of England, and they are 
 the only officially recognized standard of Methodist doc- 
 trine in America. Wesley's emendations chiefly guard 
 them against interpretations favorable to sacramental 
 regeneration and other Romish errors. He eliminated 
 the supposed Anglican Calvinism, but he does not intro- 
 duce his own Arminianism, except in the thirty - first 
 Anglican article on the Oblation of Christ, which is 
 Arminian as to the extent of tho atonement." ^ 
 
 Mr. Arnold makes much of the obstinacy where- 
 with the English bishops struggled to keep Cal- 
 ^ Stevens, Centenary of American Methodism.
 
 28 WILBUR FfSK. 
 
 vinism out of the formularies of the Anglican 
 Church. Had they been able to keep it out alto- 
 gether, that would have been a more illustrious 
 achievement, and Mr. Arnold evidently regrets 
 that they did not succeed in the effort. From the 
 creed of the Methodist Episcopal Church Wes- 
 ley's hand struck out Calvinism root and branch. 
 No member of the Methodist Church is forbidden 
 to hold the Calvinistic dogmas, but he must not 
 disturb the church by disseminating them. No 
 preacher can find room in Methodist conferences 
 who teaches Calvinism. No legislation from the 
 hand of the founder of Methodism has ever had a 
 more unanimous acceptance than this exclusion of 
 Augustinianism ; for the two schemes are irrecon- 
 cilable. Thus does Doctor Wliedon smnmarize 
 their antagonisms : — 
 
 " THE ISSUE BETWEEN ARMINIANISM AND CALVINISM. 
 
 " The essential and universal issue which Wesley an 
 Arminianism has taken against Calvinism may mostly be 
 stated in a single proposition. We deny and they affirm 
 the GENETIC PRINCIPLE that the divine government 
 may inalternatively secure the sin of any being, and 
 then justly damn him eternally for the sin so secured. 
 We deny, and they affirm or assume, that a being can 
 be justly damned for sin he never had the adequate 
 power of avoiding. We affirm that adequate, unneu- 
 tralized power to a volition is necessary to responsi- 
 bility ; unless, always, that power has been responsibly 
 forfeited. 
 
 " Calvinism affirms, or assumes, that God may damn
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 29 
 
 beings for sin which they had no adequate power to 
 avoid, in at least the following seven cases : — 
 
 " 1. Original Sin and Ability. — The whole human 
 race, as fallen in Adam, might justly be damned with 
 an absolutely universal damnation, without any Saviour 
 being interposed, or any adequate j^ower of avoidance. 
 At such a view we stand aghast with abhorrence. Ar- 
 minians hold that a ' gracious abihty ' is necessary to 
 the responsibihty of fallen man ; Taylorism holds that 
 fallen man has still natural ability to repent, — his de- 
 pravity consisting in the free uniformity of voluntary 
 sinning. 
 
 " 2. Eternal Reprobation. — From the above first Cal- 
 vinistic point it follows, (i fortiori., that God might pass 
 by as reprobate, and leave in eternal damnation, those 
 who, without any adequate volitional power of their 
 own, are involved in the guilt of Adam's sin, so that the 
 reprobates are damned for what they never could avoid. 
 About the most appalling of dogmas ! 
 
 " 3. Infant Damnation. — A fortiori, it is equally 
 just for God to pass by and leave in reprobation and 
 eternal death any or aU infants, as they are merely, like 
 all others, damned for what they cannot help. Our 
 Arminianism teaches universal infant salvation. 
 
 "4. Will Power. — A fortiori, again, no adequate 
 volitional ability, or power of choice, is requisite in 
 order to make any choice, or course of choices and 
 actions, justly worthy of eternal damnation ; so that, 
 again, any man may be justly and eternally damned for 
 what he cannot help. Taylorism teaches that the agent 
 must possess adequate power of choice contrary to the 
 strongest motive, though it is certain he will never exert 
 it ; Arminianism, such power of counter-choice, unbound 
 by any such certainty.
 
 30 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 " 5. Foreordained Damnation. — By an act of irre- 
 spective, unforeknowing foreordination, predetermining 
 what shall come to pass, the reprobates passed by, and 
 intrinsically incapable of repentance, are decretively 
 consigned to perpetual sin and eternal death. So that 
 reprobates are again damned for what they cannot 
 help. 
 
 " 6. Pagan Damnation. — All pagans and other 
 persons who never heard of Christ, and never had any 
 means of salvation, are justly damned eternally for that 
 want of faith in Christ which they cannot help. 
 
 " 7. Imputation. — Sin may be justly and literally 
 imputed to the innocent, whether the innocent could 
 avoid it or not ; so that Adam's personal sin may with 
 strict justice be imputed as guilt in his innocent pos- 
 terity, and the sins of men may be literally imputed in 
 their guilt to Christ, and he suffer infinite punishment 
 in strict justice ; so that a man may, by intrinsic justice, 
 be held responsible for what he did not do and could 
 not help. Arminianism denies the transferability of 
 guilt or literal punishment. The sin of Adam is not 
 imputed to his posterity, nor the sin of man imputed 
 to Christ. Taylorism here is rather Arminian. 
 
 " Now, whoever holds any one of these seven points 
 must hold it on the generic principle that a man may be 
 justly damned for what he cannot help; and, having 
 once conceded this principle, he has no defense against 
 either of the others. He must, in strict logic, accept or 
 reject the whole. He can reject any one only by sum- 
 marily rejecting the generic principle on which the whole 
 are based." 
 
 There has never been a controversy carried on 
 against this general system of religious thought in
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 31 
 
 any of the relig-ious bodies which trace their origin 
 back to the Wesleys. I cannot recall that any 
 clergyman has ever left our church and joined 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church because he was 
 weary of his Arminian theological principles, and 
 desired to adopt and teach the characteristic dog- 
 mas of Calvin. Several Methodist clergymen 
 known to me have become pastors of Congrega- 
 tional churches, with a clear and avowed under- 
 standing on aU sides, that they are to preach their 
 old views with absolute unconstraint. 
 
 How great the influence of these anti-Calvinis- 
 tic views has been in dramng the minds and the 
 hearts of men to the Methodist commimion is not 
 easy to say with more than proximate exactness ; 
 but the best judges, with the best and widest means 
 of information, agree that it has been a very influ- 
 ential motive. In replying to one of his opponents 
 of the Calvinistic school. Dr. Fisk incidentally 
 testifies to the large share of these doctrines in 
 extending Methodist principles : — 
 
 " Does not the reverend gentleman know that a great 
 portion of our members in New England are those who 
 were once members of Calvinistic congregations ? Does 
 he not know that they were trained up in these doctrines 
 from their infancy, and have heard them explained and 
 defended from their earliest recollections ? Does he 
 not know that Methodism has made its way against the 
 impressions of the nursei-y, the catechetical instruction 
 of the priest and the schoolmaster, the influence of the 
 pulpit and the press, and in maturer age against the still
 
 32 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 stronger influence of academies and colleges ? And 
 does he not know, also, that all this has been done in 
 this generation ? And shall we now be told that Meth- 
 odists examine but one side of a question ? How aston- 
 ishing such a charge from a man who can make any pre- 
 tensions to a knowledge of ecclesiastical matters in this 
 country ! " ^ 
 
 In speaking of the causes which have modified 
 New England Calvinism, Dr. Fisk proceeds : — 
 
 " I allude to the introduction of Unitarianism and 
 Universalism : The proximate causes of the introduc- 
 tion of these sentiments were, among others, probably 
 the following : The Antinomian features of old Calvin- 
 ism had introduced into the churches a heartless Chris- 
 tianity and a very lax discipline. It was natural, there- 
 fore, when religion had come in point of fact to consist 
 chiefly in external performances, for its votaries to seek 
 a theory that would accord with their practice. Unita- 
 rianism was precisely such a theory. It is also to be no- 
 ticed that the state of formality and spiritual death that 
 prevailed, was greatly increased by the withering alli- 
 ance which then existed between the church and the 
 civil government. This revolution was undoubtedly 
 hastened also by the ultraism, on the one part, and the 
 technical inconsistencies on the other, of the Hopkinsian 
 theory. The elements had long been in motion, and at 
 length they united in an array of numbers and influence 
 that wrested the fairest portions of their ecclesiastical 
 domain from the orthodox churches of Massachusetts, 
 and turned them over, together with the richly endowed 
 university of the State, into the hands of the Unitarians. 
 
 ^ Calvinistic Controversy, p. 74.
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 33 
 
 " In Connecticut, Unitarianism, as that term is com- 
 monly understood among us, has not prevailed. There 
 is but one Unitarian pastor, properly so called, in the 
 State. Tliis sentiment, however, prevails very exten- 
 sively, in this and all the other New England States, 
 under the name of Universalism ; a sentiment which 
 differs but little from Socinianism, and has its origin 
 doubtless from the same source. About a half a century 
 since, a Calvinistic clergyman, as he was supposed to be 
 up to the day of his death, left a posthumous work, which 
 was published, entitled ' Calvmism Improved.' It was 
 merely an extension of unconditional election and irre- 
 sistible grace to all, instead of a part. From the pre- 
 mises the reasoning seemed fair, and the conclusions 
 legitimate. This made many converts. And this idea 
 of universal salvation, when once it is embraced, can 
 easily be moulded into any shape, provided its main 
 feature be retained. It has finally pretty generally run 
 into the semi-infidel sentiments of no atonement, no 
 divine Saviour, no Holy Ghost, and no supernatural 
 change of heart, as well as no ' hell, no Devil, no angry 
 God.' 
 
 " It may be a matter of some surprise, perhaps, to a 
 superficial observer, or to one not well acquainted with 
 the circumstances of the case, why, in leaving Calvin- 
 ism, these men should go so far beyond the line of 
 truth. But in this we see the known tendency of the 
 human mind to run into extremes. The repulsive fea- 
 tures of the old system drove them far the other way. It 
 ought to be remembered, also, that there were few, if 
 any, who were stationed on the middle line, to arrest 
 and delay the public mind in its fearful recoil from the 
 ' horrible decree.' Had Methodism been as well known
 
 34 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 in New England fifty years ago as it is now, it is doubt- 
 ful if Universalism or Unitarianism would have gained 
 much influence in this country. Late as it was intro- 
 duced and much as it was opposed, it is believed to have 
 done much towards checking the progress of those senti- 
 ments. And perhaps it is in part owing to the earlier in- 
 troduction and wider spread of Methodism in Connecti- 
 cut, that Unitarianism has not gained more influence in 
 the State. This is undoubtedly the fact in the States of 
 Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, where Methodism 
 was introduced nearly as early as those other doctrinal 
 views. The result has shown that the foregoing suppo- 
 sition is corroborated by facts in those cases where the 
 experiment has been tried. These remarks may not 
 now be credited, but the time will come, when the preju- 
 dices of the day are worn out, that the candid historian 
 wiU do the subject justice." ^ 
 
 If this view of the relations between the domi- 
 nant Calvinistic systems of New England and the 
 reactions against the Genevan dogmas which have 
 found their embodiment in Universalism and Uni- 
 tarianism are correct, it will at once appear how 
 indispensable was the appearance of some body of 
 believers who should combine, with an utter and 
 systematic rejection of the dogmatic and metaphys- 
 ical errors of the popular creed, faith in the author- 
 itative revelations of the Bible, faith in a reasona- 
 ble theory of human depravity, faith in the possi- 
 ble salvation of every hearer of the gospel message, 
 and faith that no soul can ever be lost forever un- 
 less it has wilfully closed its eyes upon the light of 
 * Calvinistic Controversy, p. 85.
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 35 
 
 the gospel, and spurned the very grace by which all 
 souls are saved. The Protestant Episcopal Church 
 was so handicapped by its traditional toleration of 
 Calvinism that it would have been illogical for her 
 to lead a crusade against New England Calvinism. 
 The Methodist Episcopal Church alone was able to 
 put her whole heart into her challenge of those fatal 
 dogmas. That she was in a position to make this 
 protest effectual she owed to the far-sighted sagac- 
 ity with which John Wesley purged her articles of 
 relio'ion from the last traces of sacerdotalism and 
 Calvinism. Let Matthew Arnold prate as he will 
 of John Wesley as a mind of the third order, 
 Methodists in all the world will gratefully remem- 
 ber that, in his unique position as their providen- 
 tial legislator, he gave them in substance that no- 
 ble Greek theology before which a great future is 
 so visibly opening. Nor was this a slight benedic- 
 tion, since there are to-day, in all branches of the 
 Methodist Church, 5,500,000 members. 
 
 Of course, distrust of Calvinistic dogma was not 
 the only motive which drew so many thousands of 
 people from the other New England churches to 
 the Methodist fold. The belief in instantaneous 
 conversion, of the witness of the Spirit of God to 
 his own work in renewing the sinner, and the pos- 
 sibility of constant and unbroken communion with 
 God, have very widely commended themselves to 
 popular favor. The doctrine of Christian Perfec- 
 tion has always and everywhere commended itself 
 to not a few of the most pious and devout souls in
 
 36 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 all churches. This experience was the joy and the 
 crown of Wilbur Fisk's life. 
 
 Whoever compares the development of Methodist 
 theology as it has been shaped by Wesley, Watson, 
 Fletcher, Pope, Summers, and Raymond, and con- 
 troversialists like Fisk, Hodgson, and Whedon, 
 with the works of the English Platonists, or those 
 of Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Atliana- 
 sius, will see that the Methodist leaders have not 
 yet fully reshaped that theology for modern uses 
 and necessities. That theology taught that God is 
 immanent in the universe ; that humanity has its 
 life and being in Christ ; that the divine mercy cov- 
 ers the whole race of man in its promises and gifts ; 
 that the ethical transformation of human charac- 
 ter is the grand proof of the Christian religion ; 
 that Christ dwells both in nature and the human 
 soul ; that for the soul, by virtue of its original con- 
 stitution in the image of God, it " becomes the law 
 of its being to fulfill its possibilities, and to rise 
 to full resemblance to God ; " that Greek philoso- 
 phy as well as Jewish prophecy was a preparation 
 for Christ ; that the most essential quality in God 
 is love, and freedom the fundamental trait of man ; 
 that ignorance and an impaired will are the chief 
 obstructions to salvation ; that life is a probation 
 for all, but may be made foi" any a divine educa- 
 tion for eternal bliss ; that in enlightened human 
 reason the best guide is found to the understand- 
 ing of the Bible ; that all ecclesiastical institutions 
 are to be treated with honor and respect, but
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 37 
 
 apostolical succession, or the necessity of recogniz- 
 ing the authority of the local bishop to become a 
 genuine Christian, or to enjoy valid sacraments, are 
 not essential elements in the system of the Chi'is- 
 tian Church. 
 
 The two great truths to which Wesleyan theol- 
 ogy has everywhere appealed are, the freedom of 
 the human will, and the indweUing of Chi-ist in 
 the redeemed soul. This latter doctrine lies at the 
 root of the Wesleyan doctrine of the witness of the 
 spirit. This indwelling of Christ in the redeemed 
 soul is a return to the primal constitution of man 
 before he had ever known sin at all, and so is 
 a natural condition supernaturally restored in re- 
 demj3tion. Hence the exalted joy which peals out 
 in every portrayal of this experience of salvation 
 from the beginning until this hour. 
 
 The probable reason why these points have had 
 a larger share than other elements of that noble 
 system in the thought and teaching of the Wesley- 
 ans is the fact that its teachers have been rather 
 leaders in a great religious revival than leisurely 
 students and professors of theology. Such men 
 naturally seize, and urge upon the attention of the 
 public, those religious and philosophical truths 
 which speak most impressively to the conscience 
 and intellect of men. Such men may be a little 
 slow to make out that the conception of God which 
 has ruled and inspired that theology is an even 
 greater advance upon the conception of God enter- 
 tained and advocated by Augustine and Calvin 
 
 90900
 
 38 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 than the Whecloniau conception of freedom is over 
 the Edwardean. 
 
 The immanence of God in nature and in the hu- 
 man mind, the natural relationship of humanity to 
 Christ, the sacredness of the act of personal voli- 
 tion in which every redeemed spirit renounces self- 
 rule and puts itself into the hands of its divine in- 
 structor, and the fact that these critical choices are 
 nowise connected with the sacraments, are points 
 which show the structural sympathy of that system 
 with Wesleyanism. The Wesleyan theology will 
 not attain its full coherence and significance until 
 all these elements have fully resumed their proper 
 place and vitality. 
 
 It is along this line of living growth in the 
 churches which derive their theology from John 
 Wesley that this noble and comprehensive theolog- 
 ical system will find the requisite conditions for its 
 rapid and perfect growth. Here the revelations of 
 the New Testament ^\^ll always be regarded as the 
 enlightening and renewing power that shall yet 
 make all things new, which are still alien to its 
 sj)irit in the church and the world. 
 
 How urgent the call for such a broad and nor- 
 mal development of that theology is, may be seen 
 from the distortions that theology has undergone 
 in the hands of Schleiermacher. He assigns to the 
 " Christian consciousness " not only power to add 
 to the teachings of the New Testament, but also to 
 revise and correct them. This he proceeds to do 
 by denying personality to God and immortality to
 
 ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 39 
 
 the soul, thus making freedom a dream, morality 
 impossible, and any permanent and personal rela^ 
 tion between Christ and the hmnan soul a delusion 
 and a snare. In the Greek theology, Christ is 
 always the master and the instructor of the human 
 soul, but here Christ himself is corrected by the 
 "Christian consciousness" of later times, in respect 
 to all the essential features of his theology, in the 
 most remorseless manner. It is an absolute re- 
 versal of the main idea of the Greek theology 
 that we Nvitness here. This reversal of roles be- 
 tween the gTcat instructor of souls and the souls 
 he instructs is fatal to all Christianity. This 
 folly Methodist theology has never committed, and 
 doubtless never will commit. Here lies its safety 
 and its promise. 
 
 Incomparably the best discussion of this subject 
 for the general reader is Doctor A. V. G. Allen's 
 " The Continuity of Christian Thought," a broad- 
 minded, impartial, and scholarly work. Of church 
 histoi-ians, Pressense's account is best. Absolutely 
 fascinating is John Tulloch's " Rational Theology 
 and Christian Philosophy in England in the Seven- 
 teenth Century," as a picture of the English school 
 from which the Wesleys drew their theology.
 
 J 
 
 J 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 
 
 In tlie brief space at our command, we cannot 
 follow Wilbur Fisk in any detailed exhibition of 
 his ministerial labors. We shall try only to show 
 in what spirit and with what success he performed 
 the ordinary work of the ministry, and how these 
 soon conducted him to the special educational ac- 
 tivity of his subsequent career. 
 
 The pastoral life of Mr. Fisk was very brief, 
 covering less than three years in all, since he be- 
 came the presiding elder of the Vermont district 
 at the conclusion of his stay in Charlestown. 
 Three years he was a presiding elder, and then 
 besran the educational work which was to fill all 
 his remaining years. As he had no foresight of 
 the brevity of his pastoral career, he set about it 
 with such earnestness and care as would have be- 
 come a life set apart solely to such duties. 
 
 His first appointment, in 1818, was to Crafts- 
 bury circuit in Vermont, about thirty miles from 
 his home. His first preaching-place there was in 
 a private house. The population then was small 
 and scattered, and at first his message seemed to 
 make no impression. This bred in him great
 
 THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 41 
 
 searchlngs of heart. He thought that where so 
 much careful and painstaking labor had been put 
 forth by his predecessors, he might properly look 
 for speedy results of his labors. As Father Tay- 
 lor once said of another, " He carried both seed- 
 basket and sickle to the field together." But so 
 faithful was he in visiting his flock, in house-to- 
 house conversation with all classes of his hearers, 
 and so plain and impressive were his sermons, that 
 his expectation of finding a chance to use his sickle 
 proved well founded. A removal of the public ser- 
 vices to the court-house became necessary ; a revival 
 of religion spread far and wide, and drew in many 
 of the best citizens as converts. A church was 
 built for the rapidly growing society, so that the 
 pastorate of Wilbur Fisk marked a new era in the 
 life of the Methodist Church there, for he admit- 
 ted eighty -four converts into the church. Not- 
 withstanding his frail health and the severity of 
 the climate, he went through all the routine duties 
 of an itinerant minister. He kept a full list of 
 the persons converted to Christ during his stay at 
 Craf tsbury, — a list that may still be seen among 
 his papers. It is said that Mr. Fisk used to read 
 over the list sometimes, and pray earnestly that 
 God would fill them with his grace and heavenly 
 benediction. They were, indeed, noticeable for the 
 strength and purity of their religious character. 
 
 At the Lynn Conference in 1819, Mr. Fisk 
 was appointed pastor of the Methodist Church at 
 Charlestown, Mass. Here the church was small.
 
 42 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 feeble, and in debt. There was little on the face 
 of things to encourage the hope for a successful 
 pastorate ; but he turned toward the new work with 
 obedience and hope. The first sermon preached 
 there shows how well he knew that God alone 
 could help him, and how f idly he thought the Lord 
 could render his ministry fruitful. Here are the 
 resolutions which he fixed on to aid him in making 
 the best use of liis time : — 
 
 1. To retire at nine and rise at five. 
 
 2. To appropriate one hour to my morning de- 
 votions. 
 
 3. Allow one hour for breakfast, family devo- 
 tion, and such incidental circumstances as may de- 
 mand my attention. 
 
 4. Will write two hours each day. 
 
 5. Will spend two hours in some regidar scien- 
 tific or literary study. 
 
 6. Will spend one hour in miscellaneous reading. 
 
 7. One hour for my devotions at noon. 
 
 8. One hour for dinner. 
 
 9. One hour each day in preparing my discourses 
 for the Sabbath. 
 
 10. The remainder of the day will generally be 
 devoted to visiting. 
 
 11. Whenever constrained to break in upon my 
 regular course, I will endeavor to prevent loss of 
 time by returning to it as soon as may be, and 
 then attend to those branches which my judgment 
 dictates it will be most improper to neglect; at all
 
 THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 43 
 
 times remembering not to curtail my devotions, or 
 my preparations for the Sabbath. 
 
 12. When, in the course of my employments, a 
 passage of Scripture occurs to my mind, or a strik- 
 ing thought occurs to me, I will take the fii'st op- 
 portunity to commit it to writing. 
 
 13. In my devotions it shall be my particular 
 duty to pray for a deepening of the work of grace 
 in my heart, and for a revival of the work of God 
 in the town where I labor. 
 
 14. I must not dine out on the Sabbath. 
 
 The criticism which one ought to make upon 
 such a scheme of daily labor is, that there is no 
 provision for recreation in it. At five o'clock 
 every day he was to begin his morning programme 
 of varied mental and devotional employments, 
 and, his dinner once down, the rest of the day 
 was to be devoted to pastoral visiting. With his 
 make-up, his intense convictions of duty, his notion 
 that his devotions and his visiting alike should be 
 directed towards a revival of religion in his new 
 charge, he ought to have secured two or three hours 
 of exercise in the open air. Probably he fancied 
 that he shoidd get, in his visits to his people, as 
 much air and exercise as he really needed. But 
 true pastoral visiting, such as he was certain to 
 devote himself to, is quite as heavy a draft on one's 
 nervous vigor as any study. Such an unbroken 
 round of labors would be certain beforehand to 
 bring on broken health. But he set about his new
 
 44 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 life with the firmest purpose to do his best for 
 his people, at whatever risk to himself. From the 
 veiy beginning his preaching made a decided im- 
 pression, so that the little congregation was greatly 
 enlarged. With his characteristic hmnility, he ex- 
 plained this growth by the existence of an ugly 
 quarrel in the churches whose attendants sought his 
 church. He noted various topics down for care- 
 ful study and inquiry, some so wide-ranging they 
 would have demanded years for a full investiga- 
 tion, and others relating to Christian exjierience. 
 He asks : — 
 
 " How far may those bodily exercises, which many 
 religiously affected persons are influenced by, proceed 
 from the operation of a good spirit, and how far from 
 that of a bad spirit ? How may we be able to distin- 
 guish between them ? " 
 
 With such theological and practical questions stir- 
 ring in his mind, he kept about the routine duties of 
 his calling, until he attended a camp-meeting held 
 at Wellfleet, Cape Cod, the 10th of August, 1819. 
 To interpret what happened to Mr. Fisk there, 
 one shoidd bear in mind the Wesleyan doctrine of 
 entire sanctification, Christian perfection, or perfect 
 love. This doctrine Wilbur Fisk held so strongly 
 that he had given this belief to his betrothed. Miss 
 Peck, as one of the reasons why he felt compelled 
 to enter the Methodist ministry. From the ques- 
 tions noted down above, it is evident that the " bod- 
 ily exercises " that had been reported to him as
 
 THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 45 
 
 happening in certain cases, were objects of special 
 susj^icion to his mind. These questions were all 
 settled for him at that meeting. In a record made 
 August 19th he tells his experiences there. He 
 had been earnestly longing for more of God, yet 
 went to the meeting without any special impression. 
 Tuesday he rather looked on than joined in the wor- 
 ship. As he was passing one of the Boston tents, a 
 lady asked him to stay in that tent. She then told 
 him that, on the way down, an assurance had been 
 given her that Mr. Fisk would receive the blessing of 
 a holy heart at that meeting. " Her words tlu-illed 
 thi'ough me in an indescribable manner. I wept a 
 few moments, I trembled, I fell. But Satan drew 
 a veil of unbelief over my mind. They prayed for 
 me, but all was dark, — my heart was harder than 
 ever." And so the struggle went on, growing in its 
 intensity and depth, until fearfulness and anguish 
 laid hold upon him. He was beset with a sudden 
 fear that he should never possess that most price- 
 less pearl, a clean heart, but certain passages of 
 Scripture seemed to break the force of such fears. 
 
 " Thursday morning we had a familiar conversation 
 concerning heart-holiness. Some of the holy women 
 prayed for me again, but without a sensible answer. I 
 preached that day with considerable liberty, felt my 
 mind more and move given up to the work, but thought, 
 if I had been through such struggles and had not ob- 
 tained what I was seeking, much viore remained to 
 be endured. And I felt willing to endure anything. 
 About the setting of the sun, word came that souls were
 
 46 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 begging for prayers in Bi'other Taylor's tent. I went 
 immediately in, and, behold, God was there. We 
 united in prayer, when one after the other, to the num- 
 ber of four or live, were converted. AVe rose to sing. 
 I looked up to God, and thanked him for hearing 
 prayer, and cried, ' Lord, why not hear prayer for my 
 soul ? ' My strength began to fail me while I looked in 
 faith. ' Come, Lord, and come now. Thou wilt come. 
 Heaven opens, my Saviour smiles, — glory, glory I Oh, 
 glory to God ! Help me, my brethren, to praise the 
 Lord.' The scene that was now opened to my view I 
 can never describe. I could say, ' Lord, thou knowest 
 that I love thee ! I love thee above everything.' I was 
 humbled in the dust, that God should so bless such an 
 undeserving soul. I could look back upon my past life, 
 and see how he had led me even while I was in disobe- 
 dience ; how he had supported me even in the midst 
 of temptation. And now nothing was wanting but to 
 snap life's tender thread to let the soul fly away to 
 heaven. I sang, I shouted, and methinks the spectators 
 must have thought me filled with new wine. my God, 
 how dost thou bring to naught the wisdom of the woiM ! 
 When we would be wise, we must become fools that we 
 may be wise. Then we shall have the wisdom that is 
 from above. What shall I render unto the Lord for all 
 his benefits ? how shall I praise him for all his mercies ? 
 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me 
 praise his holy name." 
 
 This wonderful event is described in a letter un- 
 der date of 1839, written by a sympathetic spec- 
 tator, Rev. Jotham Horton, on whose mind an in- 
 delible impression was left. We cite so much as 
 concerns Wilbur Fisk : —
 
 THE ITISERAyr MINISTER. 47 
 
 " But for nothing was the meeting more remarkable 
 than the work of holiness among believers. The atten- 
 tion of the church had been directed to that subject by 
 the Rev. T. Merritt and the seniors in the mmistry. 
 Many sought and found the pearl of great price. An 
 awful but delightful serenity marked the countenances 
 of believers. Our beloved Brother Fisk was among the 
 preachers present. Like others, his mind was deeply 
 wrought upon for holiness. But the habits of philo- 
 sophical investigation, which his previous education had 
 induced, made him exceedingly careful lest the fruits of 
 imagination under high devotional feeling, or the effer- 
 vescence of strong religious excitement, should be substi- 
 tuted for the sanctifymg influence of the Holy Ghost. 
 Hence the extraordinary exercises, which in some cases 
 were exhibited, were observed by him with a jealous 
 scrutiny. 
 
 " In one of the larger tents, where a number of those 
 most deeply experienced in the things of God united in 
 earnest supplication, Mr. Fisk was present, and so over- 
 whelming were the manifestations of the power of God 
 that he sank to the ground. This was as unexpected 
 to others as to himself. He had just been engaged in 
 vocal prayer, and one sentiment which he had most de- 
 voutly expressed was that no influence, save that of the 
 Holy Spirit might give character to the devotion In 
 which they were engaged. He was in the very act of 
 guarding against strange fires, and supplicating a holy 
 baptism, when nature sank under the power of God. 
 The meeting progressed in great power and glory. I 
 saw Brother Merritt but a few moments after, and men- 
 tioned to him what was doing in the company. . . . He 
 repaired to the place, and. after standing a few mo-
 
 48 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 ments gazing with wonder and admiration upon a work 
 which bore such evident marks of the finger of God, he 
 remai'ked to several standing by, ' I never saw the 
 power of God so displayed on earth.' 
 
 " When Wilbur Fisk had so far recovered his physical 
 strength as to be able to be taken to his own tent, there 
 was held another season of holy communion. Being un- 
 able to stand, he was sujiported by ministerial brethren. 
 His language and whole appearance had something in 
 them more than human, indicating that his soul then 
 glowed with ardors of love allied to those of angels. 
 From this period, Mr. Fisk dated his experience of per- 
 fect love." 
 
 It was truly characteristic of this honest and 
 conscientious man that he should give such critical 
 study to all the elements and phases of his own 
 spiritual life, and those of the company around 
 him at Wellfleet. He was eager to learn the exact 
 truth from the study of the word of God, from 
 the experience of mature Christians, and through 
 intercession with Christ, that he might be able to 
 offer a pure offering in his approaches to God. 
 It is certain that the marvelous scenes at Wellfleet 
 made a permanent change in Wilbur Fisk's reli- 
 gious life. Before that, he had passed through sea- 
 sons when he doubted the fact of his acceptance 
 with God, his personal interest in Christ, and even 
 the truth of Christianity itself. When a young 
 minister consulted him at one of the sessions of 
 the New England Conference concerning just such 
 a series of difficulties as Mr. Fisk had passed
 
 THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 49 
 
 through himself, he told him that he had been de- 
 livered from such things forever at the Wellfleet 
 meeting. But, of course, the removal of such sj^ir- 
 itual obstructions is only one of the indispensable 
 prerequisites to the full development of the life of 
 perfect purity, perfect faith, perfect love, perfect 
 humility, and meekness. We have further light 
 in respect to his spiritual condition and views in a 
 letter 
 
 TO HIS SISTER MARY. 
 
 Charlestown, November 20, 1819. 
 
 I think my confinement has proved a blessing to me. 
 I find every gi-ace must be tried. I had been previously 
 sorely tempted in many ways. And because the infii-m- 
 ities of the body sometimes weighed down the soul, Sa- 
 tan would say, ' You have lost the blessing you received 
 at Wellfleet' (for he was not permitted to say I received 
 none). However, in the midst of these and various 
 other temptations, which caused me to be in heaviness, 
 my faith was not moved from its object. But this 
 seemed to be my state. In the work of sanctification 
 upon the heart, there appear to be two distinct opera- 
 tions : one is, to empty the soul of sin and everything 
 offensive ; and another is, to fill it with love. 1. The 
 strong man armed is bound and cast out ; 2. The 
 stronger takes possession. God was pleased, however, 
 in my case, to empty and fill in the same moment. But 
 to try my faith, or for some other purpose, that full- 
 ness was, after a time, occasionally withdrawn. Still 
 I could not discover that there was anything in my 
 heart contrary to the will of God. In this situation, 
 Satan assailed me. Then I had reason to thank God
 
 50 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 for fathers and mothers in the church that could both 
 instruct me and pray for me, but more especially that 
 Jesus is my friend ; for I felt him so. I prayed the 
 Lord to fill me and sink me into his will before I left 
 the chamber. The Lord heard. O my sister, what a 
 blessed Saviour we have ! He saves his peojjle from their 
 sins. He fills them with his fullness. It was not that 
 ecstasy of animation which I have sometimes felt, but it 
 was a holy sinking into the will of God. Often, ever 
 since that time, while I am sitting in my chamber, look- 
 ing at what the Saviour has done for me and for the 
 world, ' my heart is dissolved in thankfulness, and my 
 eyes are melted to tears.' My best hours are in retire- 
 ment, holding communion with my Saviour. At these 
 times I think of you, in your seclusion from the world, 
 and think what blessings you may enjoy, if you seek and 
 obtain all that is your privilege. Every day I bear your 
 case to our heavenly Father. O sister ! be in earnest. 
 You must be holy ; but it will cost you a struggle. 
 Though you have not wandered as far as I did, yet you 
 continued too long ' a slain witness.' But perhaps the 
 Lord will bring you in a way you have not known. 
 Leave with him entirely the manner how, and the 
 means by which, you are to be brought there. Ask the 
 Lord for just what you want, — a victory over inbred 
 corruption, a fullness of love, an abiding witness of the 
 Spirit. Stop not to debate with the enemy the question 
 whether you ever were converted. The question is. 
 What do I want ? And, when you have discovered your 
 wants, carry them to him in whom all fullness dwells, — 
 ^ to Jesus. The very name, sinful and unworthy as you 
 may feel yourself, will afford you encouragement. 
 What says the angel ? ' Thou shalt call his name Jesus.'
 
 THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 51 
 
 Why, heavenly messenger, why call his name Jesus ? 
 ' Because he shall save his jJeople from their siiis.'' " 
 
 From this time forth, Wilbur Fisk never 
 changed his estimate of the nature of the work of 
 grace wrought in his soul at the Wellfleet camp- 
 meeting ; nor was there anything in his spirit, or 
 speech, or conduct, public or private, which ever led 
 men associated with him to think his conception 
 of that work a mistaken one. On the contrary, the 
 testimony of all his associates in the various posi- 
 tions he filled was uniform and outspoken that he 
 did live up even to the high standard he professed. 
 
 Dr. Holdich, whose long association with Dr. 
 risk at Wesleyan University renders him well 
 informed, says : — 
 
 " From this time he has been heard to say that he 
 never laid his head upon his pillow at night without feel- 
 ing that, if he never waked in this world, all would be 
 well. Prior to this, he was often subject to desponding, 
 gloomy seasons : we heard him say long afterwards that 
 he knew no gloomy hours ; his mind was always serene 
 and happy." 
 
 This wonderful baptism of the Holy Spirit made 
 certain permanent changes in his theological views. 
 He had learned, in those hours of passionate yearn- 
 ing after God, the profound lesson of his utter de- 
 pendence on Christ for salvation. Nothing that 
 he was, nothing that he had done or could do, 
 nothing that he had suffered, and nothing that any 
 creature could do for him, was of any avail before 
 God as a ground for pardon or sanctification. This
 
 52 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 he had learned, not from books or human teachers, 
 but in the mysterious and awful struggle after the 
 perfect submission of his o-vvn will to the will of a 
 holy God, and his passionate pleadings with God 
 that even in this life the almighty Saviour would 
 bestow on him the utmost grace of possible sal- 
 vation from sin. After such an experience, any 
 man's conception of his utter sinfidness, and of the 
 sole sufficiency of Christ's blood to cleanse, must 
 remain forever changed. The incarnation of Christ 
 was regarded as a necessary means of revealing the 
 nature and especially the love of God to mankind. 
 The Gospels must be studied and understood as the 
 records of the life of God incarnate on earth. But 
 the culminating act of this manifestation of the 
 love of God the Father for lost men was the sac- 
 rificial, the atoning, death of Jesus Christ on the 
 cross. Contrasted with the worthlessness and help- 
 lessness of all human merit, strength, and interces- 
 sion was the omnipotence of the gracious interces- 
 sion of Christ. That had availed, had brought 
 him pardon for sin, peace with God, and purity of 
 heart. Of him he gratefully sang : — 
 
 " Thy offering still continues new, 
 Thy vesture keeps its bloody hue, 
 Thou stand' st the ever-slaughtered Lamb, 
 Thy priesthood still remains the same." 
 
 What Christ had done for him upon the cross 
 he believed was done equally for all men, so that 
 all men were called to the same grace and might 
 be partakers of the same salvation he had found.
 
 THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 53 
 
 He did not believe that God had given any man 
 that dehisive freedom which woidd make men 
 justly responsible for a life of universal obedience 
 to the will of God, and yet witliheld from them 
 that special and gracious call (always given to the 
 elect) witliout which they wovdd not, even though 
 they could be, saved. From him we hear no 
 dreadful phrases about God " saving all he wisely 
 can." He thinks God would not be love to such 
 lost soids. Writing to Miss Peck, he states these 
 views at some length : — 
 
 " Love to God is something that can be felt in the 
 soul, something that Satan himself cannot counterfeit. 
 If you have this genuine love, you know it. Do not, 
 my dear, suffer the enemy to harass and disturb you on 
 account of your motives in loving God. None but a 
 good motive can induce you to love God in his true 
 character. Any motive, then, that leads to this, lay 
 hold of. Is your soul melted into tenderness and love 
 while contemplating what the Saviour has done for you ? 
 Is your soul transported with delight from a view, by 
 faith, of an expected paradise ? Let these be motives 
 to draw you on to love and obedience. This will bring 
 you nearer to God. . . . 
 
 " On the subject of loving God ' for what he is in 
 and of himself,' you have quoted a passage which seems 
 to convey the idea that we ought to and can love God 
 even if he does not love us. According to my view, I 
 could no more love a God that did not love me than 
 reconcile the widest contradictions." 
 
 In writing to another friend he tells her : —
 
 64 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 " The Tempter would make you believe, if he could, 
 that yours is a partial God ; that he has a few choice 
 blessings, which he bestows upon individuals, — pi"each- 
 ers, perhaps, and a few others, — but they cannot be 
 obtained by all. Believe him not ; he is dishonoring 
 your God by such a suggestion." 
 
 To his Aunt Palmer lie wrote : — 
 
 " Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, to 
 professor or non-professor ; those who have been once 
 renewed and those who never were renewed ; Jew or 
 Gentile, barbarian or Scythian ; worthy in their own 
 estimation, or unworthy ; rich or poor, sick or well : all 
 must come to Christ in the same manner, and as to 
 their rights are on an equality, only with this excep- 
 tion: those that see themselves the most wretched, their 
 case the most difficult, themselves the most unworthy, 
 their wants the most pressing, have the best claim, and 
 are the fittest vessels for the Saviour to show his mercy 
 in. Dear aunt, let me exhort you to take Christ for 
 your alV 
 
 It can easily be understood tliat a ministry be- 
 gun under such auspices as marked the beginning 
 of Mr. Fisk's at Charlestown must of necessity 
 be a fruitful ministry. Such diligence in gen- 
 eral study, such careful preparation for preaching, 
 such unsparing pastoral visitation, such a sense of 
 the priceless value of souls, such a feeling of the 
 shortness of time and the solemnity of its due em- 
 ployment, and such rich and living experience of 
 Christ's salvation, must have given that ministry 
 a unique character. And so it really was. His
 
 THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 65 
 
 congregations grew steadily larger; there were 
 many conversions, and some inquirers after the 
 hio-hest life, whom he trained with the most con- 
 scientious fidelity. A single sermon in a strange 
 pulpit was sometimes made instrumental in the 
 conversion of souls ; for he was diligent in aiding 
 other pastors in revival services, or in holiness 
 meetings. On Charlestown bridge he one day fell 
 in with a boyish fish-seller. Mr. Fisk bowed to 
 him, asked his name, and kept his eye upon him, 
 until the two had become acquainted. Learning 
 that the boy was neglecting to go to church, 
 notwithstanding his mother's advice and exam- 
 ple, he invited the lad to come to his church in 
 Charlesto\^ii. For this bright-eyed boy, whether 
 on the bridge or in church, Mr. Fisk always had 
 a bow, a smile, or a pleasant and earnest word. 
 So began the fascination of Isaac Rich for Wilbur 
 Fisk, and so it came that Mr. Rich left nearly all 
 his great estate to educational objects in the Meth- 
 odist Church. There was a universal demand for 
 Mr. Fisk's return to Charlestown the second year, 
 and he was accordingly returned. 
 
 He attended the commencement exercises of 
 Brown University, and received the degTee of 
 A. M. in 1820. 
 
 Under all circumstances, Wilbur Fisk labored 
 bravely on, seeking to make full proof of his min- 
 istry. He had gone quite beyond the bounds of 
 reasonable prudence in his untiring exertions in 
 doing good. He preached three times a Sunday
 
 66 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 and two or three times a week. Every night he 
 was at some religious meeting, and his afternoons 
 were devoted to pastoral calls. This was sinning 
 against light, too, since he had already suffered 
 from a cough, from severe catarrhs and hem- 
 orrhages. In November, 1820, he had, what he 
 should have expected, a severe hemorrhage of the 
 lungs. Instead of preaching, he was laid up from 
 work all winter; he had five hemorrhages, and 
 kept his chamber until March. The i^hysicians 
 gave him up to die, his father came to see him 
 depart to a better world, and all chance of life 
 had failed. 
 
 " But on the very night when his friends were gath- 
 ered around his bed expecting every moment to be his 
 last, his church, with the churches in Boston, including 
 some of other denominations, were engaged in solemn 
 and importunate prayer for his recovery. The meet- 
 ings were called with special reference to his case ; and 
 He who said the prayer o£ faith shall save the sick, re- 
 buked the disorder. His symptoms began to improve 
 from that night. Mr. Fisk always believed that he was 
 raised up in answer to prayer." 
 
 Let us trust and hope so, with good Dr. Holdich. 
 But the Lord was sore displeased with Wilbur 
 risk for the cruel and irreligious way in which he 
 treated his own body. Had he or anybody else 
 treated a beast with half the severity with which 
 this educated, devout, and sanctified person treated 
 his own body, temple of the Holy Gliost though 
 it was, he might have been brought to trial for
 
 THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 67 
 
 habitual cruelty, and convicted he certainly would 
 have been. It is evident that the Lord had set his 
 face sternly against the sin of Wilbur Fisk in the 
 matter, as we may see from the fact that he was 
 just barely suffered to escape alive. If the Lord 
 did, in the crisis of threatened death, turn back the 
 power of disease, one should not forget that the 
 cure stopped at a point where the patient's condi- 
 tion was a sort of standing warning against any 
 more such desperate madness of zeal for the fu- 
 ture. Had it pleased Him, His power might have 
 strenjrthened the enfeebled frame so that Wilbur 
 risk might have gone back to his delightful em- 
 ployment at once. But He visibly meant to utter 
 a vehement protest against any more such sins 
 against one's physical frame. First, notice the 
 fact that this eloquent preacher, this gifted and 
 sanctified spirit, was not allowed for two years to 
 speak a word from the pulpit. He was obliged to 
 go home, to give up reading, and to keep in the 
 open air, to ride on horseback up and down his 
 native mountains, to diet carefully, to swallow ob- 
 noxious drugs, to feel many a fear that he never 
 shoidd get weU, or that his future condition would 
 never aUow him to preach again. Of course, Mr. 
 Fisk was not conscious that he was setting his face 
 against the wiU of God by his excesses in labor, 
 and so he did not have the pangs of a guilty con- 
 science to endure. In fact, he seems a little more 
 at ease about his conduct than was desirable. Thus 
 he writes to Mrs. Goodwin, one of his Charlestown 
 friends : —
 
 58 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 "You recollect, in our Minutes of Conference, we 
 have, among others, this question : ' Who have died this 
 year ? ' Then follow the names of our deceased breth- 
 ren. In this catalogue, if you are careful to read it 
 over year after year, you will find, ere long, the name 
 of your much-obliged friend, Wilbur Fisk. To the 
 short account that may there be given, you may add 
 with your pencil this : His early departure excited in 
 his breast but one regret, which was, that he had to 
 leave the war before the cause of truth obtained a sig- 
 nal triumph." 
 
 It was not until May, 1822, that Mr. Fisk re- 
 sumed preaching. Yet he dared not assume the 
 burdens of the pastoral office that year. After the 
 next September, there was such a sudden and 
 marked improvement in his health, that he took 
 up the cares and duties of the pastor's calling in 
 room of a preacher who had been compelled to 
 drop his work. Finding by actual trial that he 
 was now fully equal to the duties of his vocation, 
 he thought best to marry the lady to whom he had 
 been engaged, through good health and through 
 poor health, for seven years. This was Miss Ruth 
 Peck, of Provddence. Prior to the marriage, he 
 seems to have known her chiefly by correspondence, 
 and possibly that mode of procedure was somewhat 
 discredited by its results in this instance. This 
 event in his personal history was entered upon in 
 a sensible and religious spirit, for he wrote to his 
 betrothed a few days before their marriage : ^ — 
 
 1 The marriage occurred June 9, 1823.
 
 THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 59 
 
 " It is my ardent prayer that Christ would unite us 
 to Himself, as the branch is united to the vine ; that, 
 while we may love each other with pure hearts fervently 
 we may love Him supremely ; and have, above all 
 things, an experimental knowledge of that mystical union 
 that exists between Christ and His church, so that here- 
 after, when Christ shall come to take home His weary 
 bride, you may go into the marriage supper of the Lamb, 
 and there be met by your unworthy but truly affectionate 
 
 "W. FiSK." 
 
 The belief is a deeply rooted one, both at "VVil- 
 braliam, where the Eisks resided five years, and at 
 Middletown, where they lived nine years, that this 
 was not the happiest of marriages. Wilbur Fisk 
 won everybody's approval as a son, brother, son-in- 
 law, friend, and counselor ; so that there can be 
 no doubt that he would be strictly and even gener- 
 ously attentive to all his conjugal duties. Indeed, 
 no suspicion of fault or defect in his conduct in 
 that sacred relation has ever gone abroad ; and 
 if there had been, Mrs. Fisk constantly speaks in 
 her letters of his faultless and chivalrous devotion 
 to her as compared wdth that of ordinary husbands. 
 For the forty-five years of her widowhood she told 
 the same story. Was this unhappy tradition true 
 or false ? One who has heard it from his boyhood 
 up is rather apt to read their correspondence with 
 the aim of getting at the truth. There are passages 
 in Mrs. Fisk's letters to her husband that might 
 be construed as illustrations of its verity. Eleven 
 months after the marriage, he was absent five or
 
 60 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 six weeks, attending the General Conference at 
 Baltimore, when Mrs, Fisk writes from Lyndon, 
 May 29th, saying : — 
 
 " The belief that you sincerely love me, even though 
 now far separated, gives a zest to all my duties, and 
 lightens all my trials. But, AVilbur, I often feel that I 
 am unworthy of it ; and when supplicating my Heavenly 
 Father to grant me the qualifications I need to deserve 
 it, with streaming eyes do I beseech Him to grant you 
 all that patience you need to bear with me. Could tears 
 wash my infirmities, weaknesses, and errors from mem- 
 ory, they would be obliterated." 
 
 There are people to whom such language will 
 seem confirmation strong as Holy Writ of the 
 suspicions entertained against Mrs. Fisk. If the 
 habit of accepting petitions at the throne of grace 
 in room of affidavits should spread among biog- 
 raphers, it would add a new terror to communion 
 with God, and be an effective persuasion to irreli- 
 gion. And, besides this, the lady's letters to other 
 people, even when dealing with less weighty sub- 
 jects than personal faults, are rather apt to be 
 lachrymose and pyrotechnical in their rhetoric, 
 without any great provocation. If these jealous 
 suspicions had any justification in fact, certainly 
 the conduct of Wilbur Fisk deserves our admira- 
 tion. He made nobody a confidant of his troubles, 
 made no complaint to others, sought no sympathy 
 from others ; and when his wife carelessly made 
 friends or strangers eye-witnesses or ear-witnesses 
 of her vexation, treated all such facts as non-
 
 THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 61 
 
 existent. In all his intercourse with her, in all his 
 references to her, in all his letters to her, he made 
 much of her virtues and nothing of her faults. In 
 all the letters I have read, not one personal defect 
 is mentioned, while this or that good quality is 
 generously lauded. It is only when one reflects on 
 the things and virtues which are not praised by a 
 husband so ready to commend, that one realizes how 
 truthful as well as generous this correspondence 
 is. Had Ruth Fisk been like Lyman Beecher's 
 heavenly - minded Roxana, her husband's praises 
 would have been as unstinted and comprehensive 
 as Beecher's. What love letters such a lover as 
 Wilbur Fisk might have been would have left be- 
 hind for our wonder ! 
 
 In his last intercourse with her on earth, there 
 was the like generous appreciation of his wife's vir- 
 tues, merits, and exceptional exposure to trouble. 
 She was overwhelmed with sorrow when told that 
 his death was at hand. In taking his final leave 
 of the professors of Wesleyan University, among 
 other things it is said : — 
 
 " He commended his afflicted wife to their care and 
 sympathy, observing, ' I believe she has added years to 
 my life by her constant care and nursing. You will love 
 her for my sake when I am gone.' The wife of one of 
 the professors assured hira they had done so, and would 
 do so still." 
 
 The way in which this promise was kept to Dr. 
 Fisk's widow is a signal instance of his power to
 
 62 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 influence others. The decease of her husband 
 left Mrs. risk with only her venerable mother 
 and an adopted daughter, Martha. Presently they 
 both had followed Dr. Fisk to the grave. There 
 were visits paid by Mrs. Fisk to the parents and 
 sister of her departed husband, at Lyndon ; but as 
 the elder Fisks soon became too much broken in 
 health to travel much themselves, and too depen- 
 dent upon the care of their only surviving child to 
 admit of her leaving them to themselves on such 
 journeys, there were few and infrequent visits at 
 first; and soon none at all were possible. For 
 some reason, the Peck kinsmen were never known 
 to visit Mrs. Fisk after her widowhood ; so that 
 she was thrown very greatly upon the kindness 
 and sympathy of her Middletown friends for so- 
 ciety and aid. It became one of the unwritten 
 laws of the Wesleyan University faculty that they 
 must aU have a part in taking care of Mrs. Fisk. 
 A son of one of those families once said : " I was 
 brought up at home, so that I always felt that I 
 must always look out for our family and Mrs. 
 Fisk. It was so with every boy or girl that be- 
 lons'ed to that set of households. She was the 
 common care of them all." 
 
 Of course, it was natural for people who had 
 been linked together so long and so pleasantly as 
 the professors of Wesleyan University had been 
 with Wilbur Fisk, to show personal kindness to 
 his widow ; but they did something far better than 
 that, since they made it such a point of honor and
 
 THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 63 
 
 pride to show her kindness that, when the last as- 
 sociate in the faculty of Dr. Fisk had disappeared 
 from Middletown, she was just as faithfully re- 
 garded as ever. As she grew older, she either 
 would not have or could not keep any servant with 
 her long. She grew too feeble to attend to her 
 own wants, but was reluctant to abandon the little 
 house, at a corner of the college grounds, which 
 had become her home on her husband's death. 
 There some member of the faculty families daily 
 saw that she had her food for meals ; her errands 
 about town done ; her coal, wood, and water abun- 
 dantly at hand. Sometimes students made it their 
 daily care to do anything she wished done, all 
 through their college life. In some respects she 
 was a spoiled child to the last ; for nobody could 
 be certain of satisfying her in such humble offices 
 and services. The affecting part of her situation 
 was, that she lived only in and to her husband's 
 memory. She knew little about the strange world 
 which had grown up around her, and had no in- 
 terest in later generations save as they were some- 
 how related to her husband's career.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 
 
 When Wilbur Fisk was invited to become prin- 
 cipal of Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Mass., 
 his pious mother urged him for the sake of his own 
 soul not to accept the new work. She appealed 
 to his own experience in such matters. Had he 
 not declined in his interest in rehgious truth and 
 spirituality of life while he was a student in 
 Peacham Academy, and continued in a backslid- 
 den condition during all his successive connections 
 with the University of Vermont and Brown Uni- 
 versity? He could not challenge the truth of her 
 assertions, but he did deny that he had been under 
 any compulsion to backslide at school or college, 
 and affirmed that schools and colleges coidd be so 
 organized and managed as to make them intensify 
 instead of deadening the piety of the students. 
 This was one of his most serious purposes in all 
 his career as an educator. Nay, he maintained 
 that such schools and colleges might be made hot- 
 beds of revival influence. 
 
 In this opinion, Mrs. Fisk represented the pre- 
 vailing \'iew in the churches of all orders. How 
 did the churches of that period come to have so
 
 THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEY AN ACADEMY. 65 
 
 poor an opinion of tlie colleges of the country ? In 
 these times, such an idea could only be founded on 
 ignorance of the actual condition of the coUeges, 
 and could be refuted with an overwhelming array 
 of argument and illustration. At that period, not 
 only did pious and intelligent people in all the 
 churches cherish such ideas about coUeges, but 
 spiritually-minded clergymen of all denominations 
 shared this notion. We know how powerfid were 
 the influences of unbelief and secularity at Har- 
 vard, since they at last swept her wholly away 
 from her moorings to the faith of the fathers, and 
 made her the disseminator of Unitarianism. We 
 know that at Brown University the same leaven 
 of unbelief was at work. 
 
 In his essay on " Prayer for Colleges," Profes- 
 sor Tyler, of Amherst CoUege, has shown that this 
 state of things was not peculiar to this college or 
 that, but was universal. We quote some details as 
 to the condition of Yale CoUege : — 
 
 '» 
 
 " It was a period of declension in the churches also, 
 and of infidelity and immorality in the country, when 
 the disastrous effects of our own Revolutionary War 
 (we mean, of course, the moral and religious effects), 
 and still more of the French Revolution, infected, like 
 a plague, all classes of the people. ... In 1795 only 
 eleven undergraduates are known to have been profes- 
 sors of religion ; about four years after, the number 
 was reduced to four or five ; and at one communion only 
 a single undergraduate was present, the others being 
 out of town. A survlvins: member of the class of 1783
 
 66 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 remembers only three professors of religion in the class 
 
 of 1782, and only three or fom- each in several of the 
 y preceding classes. In his own class, which was blessed 
 
 with a revival, there were eleven. In the dai'kest time, 
 ^ just at the close of the century, there was only about 
 
 one professor of religion to a class. The state of things 
 
 was even worse in the churches." 
 
 When Lyman Beeclier, wlio belonged to the 
 class of 1797, speaks of the religious state of the 
 college, we get the graphic touches of an ear and 
 eye witness : — 
 
 " Before Dr. Dwight came, college was in a most un- 
 godly state. The college church was almost extinct. 
 Most of the students were skeptical, and rowdies were 
 plenty. Wine and liquors were kept in many rooms ; in- 
 temperance, profanity, gambling, and licentiousness were 
 common. I hardly know how I escaped. Was invited 
 to play, once, in a class-mate's room. I did so and won. 
 Next day I won again, then lost, and ended in debt. I 
 saw immediately whereunto that would grow ; obtained 
 leave of absence, went home for a week, till cured 
 of that mania, and never touched a card afterward. 
 That was the day of the infidelity of the Tom Paine 
 school. Boys that dressed flax in the barn, as I used to, 
 read Tom Paine, and believed him ; I read and fought 
 him all the way. Never had any propensity to infidel- 
 ity. But most of the class before me were infidels, and 
 called each other Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert." 
 
 Hence there can be no doubt that the religious 
 condition of the American colleges themselves, in 
 the disheartening period between the acknowledg-
 
 THE EDUCATOR — WESLKYAN ACADEMY. 67 
 
 ment of our independence and 1820, was such as 
 to justify the fear that they fostered impiety and 
 irrehgion. This evident fact was enough to make 
 many Methodists reluctant to send their sons to 
 be educated where they would be in danger of los- 
 ing their spirituality. There was another source 
 of danger for Methodist students in the colleges of 
 the land, since, even if they did retain their piety, 
 they would be likely to lose their antipathy to Cal- 
 vinism and enter the ministry of other churches. 
 Wilbur risk's chum at Brown University thought 
 Methodists fanatics, and in this he represented the 
 universal sentiment of New England. Still the 
 Methodists could not well hesitate about founding 
 schools of their owti, since they saw the best and 
 ablest of their youth entering the schools and col- 
 leo:es of other churches. 
 
 As all the colleges of the land were under the 
 direction of their theological foes, the need became 
 very urgent that they should establish colleges of 
 their own for the school - training of those who 
 would have such training somewhere. Nay, it was 
 plain that no church could perform its proper work 
 for the country which should leave the education 
 of its young people in the hands of its theological 
 adversaries. Still it was only the clearest-sighted 
 who coidd adequately realize how great would be 
 the advantages of making Methodist colleges the 
 peers of the best in endowments and opportuni- 
 ties, while keeping them full of revival influences. 
 Yet these few had been able to impress their senti-
 
 68 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 ments on tlie New England Conference so deeply 
 that, in 1816, action was taken by that body to se- 
 cure the establishment of a literary institution in 
 New England. 
 
 The New Market Academy was founded at this 
 time by the New England Annual Conference. 
 It was after much previous discussion that a 
 preachers' club, which met at New Market, N. H., 
 resolved to secure the establishment of a Meth- 
 odist Academy at once. New Market was a pleas- 
 ant, healthy, and moral place. Besides, it was the 
 residence of Rev. John Brodhead, a man of mark in 
 New England Methodist circles, a good preacher, 
 a wise counselor, a man who more than once had 
 represented his party in the State Senate, and his 
 district in the House of Representatives at Wash- 
 ington. His great influence made him a pioneer 
 in the establishment of the New Market Academy. 
 But the local pledges of the New Market people 
 to the school never were fully redeemed, so that a 
 general subscription was made mainly by the min- 
 isters. Thus was raised $755. The largest smn 
 was paid by Rev. Martin Ruter, $80. 
 
 A small building was erected for school use. 
 The conference was to provide a preceptor for five 
 years ; the receipts were to be at its disposal ; the 
 salary was not to exceed $500. There was some 
 opposition to the plan in the body ; but the lead- 
 ers, like Soule, Hedding, Brodhead, Merritt, and 
 Pickering, overbore all resistance. The scheme 
 was adopted at the session of 1817.
 
 THE EDUCATOR — WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 69 
 
 The first teacher was Mr. Moses White, a Meth- 
 odist, a graduate of the University of Vermont, 
 pious and able. Ten pupils were on hand the first 
 day, and seventeen more before the term ended. 
 They were largely day scholars, like any country 
 academy, with a conference attachment. From the 
 start, both sexes were educated together. The 
 tuition paid Mr. White's salary of $400. 
 
 A board of trustees was incorporated by the 
 New Hampshire legislature in Jmie, 1818. On 
 Jrdy 10 the first trustee meeting was held. Amos 
 Binney was chosen president, and Daniel Filmore 
 secretary. The board of trustees was to lay the 
 whole situation of the school before the conference 
 at every session, and annual visitors were sent to 
 examine the school, and report on all its concerns 
 to the conference. The following course of study 
 was adopted: Class I., Keading, Writing, and 
 English Grammar ; Class XL, Geography and 
 Astronomy ; Class III., Latin, Greek, and French ; 
 Class IV., Mathematics and the Rudiments of 
 Natural Philosophy ; Class V., The Hebrew and 
 Chaldee of the Old Testament, and the Greek of 
 the New; Class VL, Divinity, Logic, Rhetoric, 
 and Moral Philosophy. 
 
 This ambitious course of study was quite be- 
 yond the range of Mr. White's scholarship, and 
 pointed to a new leader to execute this broad but 
 ill-digested scheme of study. Accordingly, Mar- 
 tin Ruter, pastor of St. George's Church in Phila- 
 delphia, a self-made man like Asbury and Lee,
 
 70 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 was chosen president. He was a man who had de- 
 voted himself to extended lines of study. Mr. Ru- 
 ler was a very popular and very influential pastor. 
 His election was thought to be certain to be very 
 advantageous to the school. It not only drew 
 the attention of Mr. Ruter's personal friends, but 
 also that of the church, to an institution until then 
 comparatively unknown to the public. It did 
 look like new life for the school to see eighty stu- 
 dents enrolled the first day. Many had come 
 from States outside New England, for the first time 
 in the history of the institution, attracted by the 
 fame of Ruter for learning and eloquence. And 
 he deserved his fame. The first revival of reli- 
 gion visited the school soon after the new princi- 
 pal came. There was a great deal of talk about 
 profound scholarship, high ideals were urged, and 
 every man began to look as though he knew twice 
 as much as he did know. Not even Theodore 
 Parker in his palmiest days could swallow dowTi a 
 whole language and literature more expeditiously 
 and crudely than they. 
 
 Mr. Ruter was a dreamer of dreams. Soon he 
 hoped to create full-fledged preparatory schools, 
 — a full-grown coUege, with law schools, theologi- 
 cal schools, and medical schools. What has been 
 the work of seventy years, he hoped to achieve in 
 ten. Such plans were doomed to failure. As a 
 teacher his success was only moderate, and that 
 must have been a sore personal disajipointment 
 after his brilliant career in the pastorate. At the
 
 TEE EDUCATOIi.— WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 71 
 
 General Conference of 1820, Dr. Ruter was elected 
 book agent. The fact that he accepted this of- 
 fice shows that the sense of his own defects as 
 an educator and of the visionary character of his 
 dreams, had been brought home to him in his 
 brief service at New Market. For with his in- 
 tense conviction of the necessity of education and 
 of educational institutions, Mr. Ruter would have 
 had every motive for remaining in the educational 
 work which moved Wilbur Fisk twice to decline a 
 bishopric that he might devote his life to a higher 
 work. Mr. Ruter was seK-denying and unworldly 
 enough to have clung to so noble a work, had not 
 the conviction come over him that tliis high honor 
 was held in reserve for another brow. 
 
 With Mr. Ruter's resignation vanished all the 
 high hopes of many preparatory schools, a full- 
 bloAvn college, and professional schools. Discour- 
 agement set in, numbers fell off, and the trustees 
 had only a plain little academy on their hands 
 where poor Moses White and an assistant had 
 been doing what little true educational work had 
 been going on at New Market Academy. From 
 that date deficits grew larger and students grew 
 fewer, until the only w^ay to keep things alive was 
 to raise money in the churches. The finishing- 
 stroke was given when the conference refused to 
 open the pulpits of that body to the agents of the 
 Academy. Various expedients were resorted to 
 in the vain hope of infusing fresh vigor into the 
 school. The last two terms, but twenty students
 
 72 ' WILBUR FISK. 
 
 were in attendance. Wilbur Fisk was asked to 
 do something for the school, but refused to do so 
 while the institution stayed at New Market. 
 
 To Wilbraham it was finally determined to re- 
 move the institution, notwithstanding efforts had 
 been made in favor of Rochester, N. H., Lynn, 
 Mass., and Ellington, Conn. The chief reasons 
 urged for the removal were these : in the former 
 location the school was surrounded by the best 
 and largest schools in the country, while at Wil- 
 braham it would find no near competitors, as this 
 was long before the founding of the schools at 
 Easthampton, Northfield, and South Hadley. As 
 this was a school where both sexes were to be 
 educated together, there was good reason for ex- 
 pecting a larger patronage from the vicinage than 
 at New Market. It was hoped that the school at 
 Wilbraham might be attended by students fi-om 
 the Middle States much more largely than would 
 be the case at the former site. 
 
 In Sherman's "History of Wesleyan Academy" 
 we read : — 
 
 " Rev. J. A. Merrill was the occasion of the selection 
 of Wilbraham as the site of the Academy. As Presid- 
 ing Elder of the New London District, in which Wil- 
 braham was included, he was at the house of Rev. 
 Calvin Brewer, a local 2)reacher of the charge, in the 
 summer or early autumn of 1823, in company with the 
 Rev. Phineas Peck, who resided at Wilbraham and 
 supplied the pulpit. Attention was drawn to the Acad- 
 emy at New Market, which led Mr. Merrill, himself a
 
 THE EDUCATOR. -WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 73 
 
 trustee, to observe tliat the conference at its last session 
 had taken action in favor of its removal to a locality 
 adapted to secure a larger attendance of students. Mr. 
 Brewer asked what he thought of Wilbraham. Mr. 
 Merrill replied that he could say nothing officially, but 
 if the inhabitants wished it, and would make the proper 
 exertions for it, he thought the matter covdd be accom- 
 plished." 
 
 After the Wilbraham people had communicated 
 with the New Market trustees, and learned their 
 views through the Rev. Mr. Peek, things took 
 a new start amongst them. They were greatly 
 pleased with the prospect of a literary institution 
 in their village ; and arrangements were at once 
 made to enlarge the amount of their subscriptions. 
 To secure this desirable end, twelve subscription 
 papers were prepared and put in circulation in 
 the town and immediate vicinity by various hands. 
 The chief solicitor, however, was the Rev. Calvin 
 Brewer, who had begun the work prior to the ac- 
 tion of the trustees in regard to location ; but the 
 work was taken up and nobly seconded by other 
 parties interested in the success of the enterprise. 
 On the twelve papers, as reported to the trustees 
 in January, 1825, the round sum of $2,693 was 
 pledged for the erection of the new building or 
 buildings. This was thought to be a liberal sum, 
 and was, in fact, much more than they at first an- 
 ticipated obtaining. The people, though not always 
 able to give large sums, were found quite ready 
 to respond to this unusual call ; and this was true
 
 74 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 as well of many members of the Congregational 
 Church as of those of the Methodist, evincing 
 their deep interest in education, and the breadth 
 of their charity in aiding a sect with which, in 
 earUer years, they had not always maintained the 
 pleasantest relations. Nor were the contributions 
 confined to members or attendants of the churches ; 
 many added their mites who were connected with 
 no church. 
 
 The Rev. John Lindsay, then a resident of Bos- 
 ton, had procured the passage of an act of incor- 
 poration for the new institution by the legislature 
 of Massachusetts, which received the governor's ap- 
 proval, February 7, 1824. The first trustees were 
 Amos Binney, Abel Bliss, Abraham Avery, Calvin 
 Brewer, Enoch Mudge, Jr., Wilbur Fisk, Joshua 
 Crowell, William Rice, and John Lindsay. The 
 first meeting of the new board was held at Mr. 
 Lindsay's house in Boston, February 19, 1824. 
 Colonel Binney was made the first president and 
 Abel Bliss the first secretary of the board of trus- 
 tees. 
 
 Rev. John Lindsay, as financial agent, had raised 
 $3,511.67 ; Rev. Wilbur Fisk had obtained 1303 ; 
 Rev. George Pickering $780 ; making, with the 
 $1,000 received from the New Market trustees and 
 $2,693 subscribed at Wilbraham, $8,287.67. 
 
 These subscriptions were far from what would 
 have been needed to meet the expenses for erect- 
 ing a suitable series of buildings ; for a properly 
 organized school would require a school building
 
 THE ED UCA TOR. — WESLE TAN A CA DEM Y. 75 
 
 proper, a boarding-house, a residence for the prin- 
 cipal, besides two or three special structures for 
 carrying out the plans of some of the trustees. 
 
 The local committee certainly did select the very 
 best spot for the academy on all the long Wilbra- 
 ham street, as anybody can see who surveys it with 
 a critical eye. The first building is thus described 
 by Dr. Sherman : — 
 
 " The Board decided to build of brick, sixty-five feet 
 by thirty-five, two stories high, ten and twelve feet each 
 high, divided into one large and two small rooms, one 
 large hall, forty-one by thirty-five feet, and four draw- 
 ing rooms, above, with two flights of stairs, the basement 
 story to be eight feet deep with stairway at each end, 
 for wood, with the necessary doors and windows. At a 
 later date the committee were instructed to erect a suit- 
 able cupola, and to ' use their discretion ' in grading the 
 grounds about the new building." 
 
 It was intended to have the Academy building 
 done, and ready for school operations in Septem- 
 ber, 1825 ; but this was not the case until Novem- 
 ber. Meanwhile they elected Wilbur Fisk Prin- 
 cipal of the Academy, on the 28th of September 
 1825, with power to appoint such instructors as 
 he may deem expedient, and that he be requested 
 to give notice that the Academy w^ill be opened 
 for the reception of pupils on or before the first 
 Monday in November next, and that he prepare a 
 proper code of rules and regulations, and a proper 
 course of studies to be pursued by the scholars, fix 
 the price of quarterage, and the price of board
 
 76 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 with the inhabitants, until the boarding-house is 
 provided and opened, and that he write advising 
 with the steward, and direct and provide the fur- 
 niture necessary for the boarding-house. 
 
 It will be seen that there was not only a great 
 deal of work to be done in connection with the es- 
 tablishment and organization of the new institu- 
 tion, but a large confidence in the executive ability 
 of Mr. risk, since otherwise they would not have 
 given him such unlimited control. This action 
 shows that the board of trustees had not yet learned 
 how to do its own work. But this reliance upon 
 Mr. risk's discretion and practical skill gave him 
 a chance to show his high abiHty in this untried 
 field. On his advice, the trustees procured the 
 services of Mr. Nathaniel Dunn, Jr., a graduate 
 of Bowdoin College, as teacher. Mr. Dunn was a 
 member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
 was anxious to enter the new institution. He had 
 excellent testimonials both to his scholarship and 
 character. He was to teach the classics and other 
 branches. As Principal Fisk could not yet give 
 his undivided attention to his duties at Wilbra- 
 ham, the chief direction of the school would de- 
 volve upon Mr. Dunn until the ensuing session of 
 the New England Conference, when the presiding 
 eldership of the Vermont district could be trans- 
 ferred to other hands. 
 
 The trustees determined to signalize the open- 
 ing day of the school by public exercises, whose 
 chief feature should be an address by Principal
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEY AN ACADEMY. 77 
 
 risk. Presiding Elder Fisk was so busy on his 
 official rounds of duty that he could only spare 
 Principal Fisk the odd moments which could be 
 picked up while in a chaise on his journeys. Then 
 Mrs. Fisk would officiate as driver, and her hus- 
 band would turn his hat into a writing-desk for 
 the penning down of his well-considered inaugural. 
 What did he say ? This : that the lecture-mon- 
 gers, who pretended to teach some of the broadest 
 and most diversified branches in a few fleetins; 
 hours, were simply a delusion and a snare. They 
 gave their patrons only the vaguest and most su- 
 j)erficial ideas of subjects which could be mastered 
 only by diligent and protracted study. This part 
 of the speech would not be without its striking ap- 
 plications to our own times. 
 
 In reply to the allegation that the method and 
 system of the scholar in the distribution of time 
 are artificial and ill-adapted to the contingent pur- 
 suits of life, he says : — 
 
 " The merchant has his regular mode of doing busi- 
 ness, notwithstanding the variations of the market, and 
 his different successes and losses. The mariner has his 
 regular course, and his fixed system of making his cal- 
 culations, and established rules by which he turns to 
 the best possible advantage all the contrary winds and 
 shifting currents In his voyage. Indeed, the changes 
 and adversities to which he is subject make it the more 
 necessary that he should proceed by rule. Without this 
 he would be the sport of every wind, and be driven from 
 his course by every current. So without system in the
 
 78 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 voyage of life, the mind of man will be driven out of 
 its course and away from its object by all the various 
 changes of time. Instead, therefore, of excusing ourselves 
 from a systematic employment of time, on the ground of 
 the varieties of life, this should be the very motive to 
 incite us to a close adherence to rule and method, that 
 we may make the most of a short and changing life." 
 
 A somewhat detailed discussion of the relation 
 of atliletic sports to the health and happiness of 
 students follows, setting forth their great impor- 
 tance to a well-rounded education. But even such 
 things should be "guarded and regulated with 
 care by the instructor ; who, like a father, should 
 watch over his charge, in season and out of sea- 
 son, regulating their recreations as well as their 
 studies." 
 
 To the objection that education unfitted people 
 for the practical duties of life, he made answer, 
 " That the experience of our common schools con- 
 victed this plea of error. Such education as was 
 there given fitted men for a better discharge of 
 e very-day duty. Why should not more education 
 still produce the like effect on the same persons 
 that it did before ? " 
 
 Finally, the orator of the day approached the 
 most serious difficulty of all, the alleged immoral- 
 ity and irreligion of the schools. There the stu- 
 dent " Meets the filthy conversation of the wicked, 
 and learns to blaspheme. He meets the debauchee, 
 and learns incontinency ; he meets the jovial com- 
 panion, and indulges the social glass ; he meets
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEY AN ACADEMY. 79 
 
 with the caviling infidel, and learns to sneer at 
 religion. In short, he leaves the university more 
 learned, but frequently more corrupted, if not 
 wholly ruined." 
 
 Is there any way to prevent this ? Can we 
 guard scholars with securities equal to those they 
 enjoy at home? Doubtless we can. Nay, it is 
 believed that a public seminary may be governed 
 and regulated upon a plan such as will better 
 g-uard the habits and morals of scholars than they 
 are usually guarded in our common schools, where 
 the children are a part of the time under the pa- 
 rental roof. They should be under the immediate 
 control of the instructors, who will be able to guard 
 their morals out of school as well as during hours 
 of instruction. 
 
 " Not only should the pupil be guarded from expos- 
 ure to temptation ; but morality and religion should be 
 made a part of liis instruction. The youth sent from 
 home to a literary institution usually has much less re- 
 ligious instruction than before. When in his father's 
 house, in common with the rest of the family he enjoyed 
 the means of grace and the pastoral ser\dces of the 
 minister. Now, if he mingles in the congregation of the 
 place, he goes as a stranger and returns as a stranger. 
 Unless, therefore, he is taught morality and religion by 
 his instructors. It may be said, no one cares for his soul. 
 How important, then, that he should be taught these 
 by those to whose immediate care his education is in- 
 trusted. 
 
 " By religious instruction is not meant teaching the 
 peculiar tenets of a party. Literary institutions should
 
 80 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 not be prostituted to the low purposes of proselytism. 
 This wouhl not be to make Christians, but bigots. But 
 those leading principles of religion should be inculcated 
 which are calculated to make the heart better ; and 
 those practical precepts which regulate the life. Nor 
 should these be impressed on the young mind in an 
 arbitrary and austere manner. The ground and pro- 
 priety of what is enjoined should be explained. Our 
 religion is a reasonable service, and this, its true char- 
 acter, should be exhibited to the young as soon as their 
 reason begins to dawn ; and in this way, through all the 
 succeeding stages of religious instruction, should the re- 
 quirements and sanctions of the divine government be 
 illustrated until they commend themselves to the under- 
 standing and conscience." 
 
 After defining in this wise and catholic spirit 
 the scope of the new academy, Mr. Fisk left the 
 school in the hands of Mr. Dunn, while he re- 
 turned to the duties of his presiding eldership of 
 the Vermont district. The full term only lasted 
 four weeks, and only seven students were present 
 in all. During the winter term the attendance, 
 drawn from the place and its vicinity, ran uj) to 
 forty-four, while during the year one hundred and 
 four students belonged to the school. Tuition was 
 low : the charge for English studies was i3 ; 
 for astronomy and higher mathematics, $3.50 ; for 
 Latin and Greek, 14; for ornamental branches, 
 !|5. The price of board was 11.25 per week. 
 We are again reminded of the three chief aims of 
 the trustees, — first, to make their education good ; 
 second, to make it cheap ; and third, to make it
 
 THE EDUCATOR— WESLETAN ACADEMY. 81 
 
 religious. Here it miglit be thought that the 
 second aim had been carried out so effectively as 
 to render the first impossible. For a time, Wilbur 
 risk only accepted the ordinary meagre salary of 
 a Methodist preacher while performing the duties 
 of his principalship, and a part of the time he 
 acted as pastor of the local church, when he drew 
 no pay from the funds of the academy. Mr. 
 Dunn's salary was |400 a year and board. Yet 
 these small salaries did not necessarily mean very 
 great hardship. Fifteen years earlier (in 1810) 
 Lyman Beecher asked the presbytery for a dis- 
 mission from East Hampton, Long Island, on 
 account of insufficient support. The presbytery 
 wished Mr. Beecher to look the matter over, and 
 report to them upon what sum he could projaerly 
 support his family of seven persons. He replied 
 that if all arrearages were once paid, he could 
 live on -1500 a year. Such things must be borne 
 in mind in estimating the scale of prices at Wil- 
 braham. 
 
 They had four terms a year, beginning on the 
 first Monday of September, December, March, 
 and June, There were six weeks of vacation in 
 summer. Among the text-books used were Ad- 
 ams's Latin Grammar, Goodrich's Greek Gram- 
 mar, Liber Primus and Jacob's Greek Reader, 
 Stoughton's Virgil, Clark's Introduction to Mak- 
 ing Latin, Blake's Natural Philosophy, Com- 
 stock's Chemistry, Day's Algebra, Blair's Rhet- 
 oric, Hedge's Logic, IngersoU's English Gram-
 
 82 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 mar, Walker's Dictionary, and Scott's Lessons for 
 Reading. 
 
 Wilbur risk was appointed to the position of 
 principal at Wilbraham at the Conference of 1826, 
 and henceforth could give his undivided attention 
 to that task. He removed his family to Wilbra- 
 ham in May, 1826. This one work was, however, 
 in reality a manifold one. He was everybody's 
 adviser who had responsible connection with the 
 work of the school. He filled his projDer office of 
 principal with painstaking fidelity and skill. This 
 alone would have overtaxed the powers of an ordi- 
 nary man. Colonel Binney was the only member 
 of the board of trustees who had ever filled such 
 an office. His skill and his money gifts made his 
 services invaluable. But his residence was about 
 a hundred miles away from Wilbraham, so that he 
 could not be consulted, even if his private business 
 would have yielded time, for guiding school affairs. 
 Hence upon the new principal fell the full burden 
 of planning the business to be presented to the 
 board, getting it into the wisest shape for adoption, 
 arguing the case so as to carry the body with him, 
 and then executing the work assigned him with 
 such tact and spirit as to compel approval. He 
 always had the unflagging assistance of the board 
 of trustees in all his work. Gradually he trained 
 them to perform their duties with such spirit and 
 self-devotion that when he ceased to be active in 
 their affairs, their courage and wisdom and gen- 
 erosity constantly opened the way to a higher use- 
 fulness for the honored academy.
 
 THE EDUCATOR. —WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 83 
 
 The steward was as new to his duties as the 
 other officers of the institution. Mr. Fisk was 
 very careful in the selection of the best persons 
 within reach for all such positions, and then he 
 was accessible to them at all times when a word 
 of counsel, of direction, or of encouragement was 
 wanted. He was so fully convinced that the su- 
 preme test of any school was the quality of the 
 instruction imparted that he took every possible 
 safeguard to procure the best possible instruction. 
 He was fortunate in securing, in most cases, very 
 competent persons for this work. He corresponded 
 with Stephen Olin, then a rising young man in the 
 church, and afterward Dr. Fisk's most eminent 
 successor at Middletown. Had not Mr. Olin been 
 under engagement, he would have begun his teach- 
 ing at Wilbraham, Mr. Dunn, the first classical 
 teacher at Wilbraham, was from the start a very 
 successful instructor. He gave the most of his life 
 to teaching, and always justified the high reputa- 
 tion he gained at Wilbraham. The first precep- 
 tress, in charge of the girl's department, was Miss 
 Caroline Tillinghast, of Providence, R. I. She was 
 a lady of very superior-education, quiet and refined 
 manners, of a profoundly religious temper, whose 
 graces had been exercised and developed by a re- 
 markably diversified career. She evidently had 
 
 ' ' A heart at leisure from itself 
 To soothe and sympathize." 
 
 Mr. Fisk not only took indefatigable pains to 
 obtain the most competent men for teachers, but
 
 84 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 he had the most remarkable skill for getting out 
 of every man liis best work. This was partly the 
 natural effect of his own example. Nobody could 
 be more unwearied than he in his endeavors to 
 do his very best. Whether he was preaching a 
 sermon, hearing a class, advising a teacher, stu- 
 dent, or the steward, his whole heart and soul 
 went into the work on hand. Such an example 
 in a principal is contagious, and sure to breed a 
 like spirit in others. How much pains he would 
 sometimes take is shown in the following incident 
 narrated by Dr. Holdich : — 
 
 *' At a certain time when the school was in need of an 
 additional teacher, and one just suited could not be found, 
 he selected a young minister, but indifferently qualified, 
 and that he might appear before his classes with credit 
 regularly heard him, in his own hours of relaxation, 
 through every lesson." ^ 
 
 Then he breathed an atmosphere of hopefulness 
 about him wherever he went. This was partly the 
 natural fruit of his temperament, but not wholly 
 so. His friends in college days, like Goidd and 
 Taft, agree that there was always a vein of sadness 
 and melancholy about his mind ; and Fisk himself 
 says that these characteristics did not leave him 
 wholly and forever until that notable blessing at 
 the Wellfleet camp-meeting. Then Giant Despair 
 and he parted forever. But no matter when or 
 how he won it, he had a heart of sunshine in him, 
 and a hopeful face always. 
 
 1 Life of Wilbur Fisk, p. 180.
 
 THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEY AN ACADEMY. 85 
 " His summer" did " last all the year." 
 
 Such undecaying hopefulness of temper made it 
 easy for others to work with him and enjoy the 
 most difficult w^ork. For surely this Methodist 
 parson-saint could say as Tennyson's Sir Galahad 
 
 " My strength is as the strength of ten 
 Because my heart is pure." 
 
 It would be comparatively easy for a person 
 like Mr. Fisk to govern a large school such as 
 Wilbraham Academy soon grew to be under the 
 new auspices. The basis of -all good government 
 in such a school must be respect for the regulations 
 of the school and a deferential obedience to the 
 officers thereof. In Mr. Fisk's time there was no 
 lack of the usual arrangements for good and even 
 strict discipline. For the more difficult cases they 
 had a prison, and for the worst, the utterly incor- 
 rigible, there was a dungeon. The prison was a 
 room furnished only with a hard bed, a single chair, 
 and a naked table ; the dungeon was a room with 
 clean straw scattered over the floor. The fare of 
 these prisoners was not such as to tempt them to 
 intemperance. A brief seclusion in these cheer- 
 less rooms usually broke the resolution of the most 
 rebellious. On some occasions public whipping 
 was resorted to. This whipping was, as Arnold of 
 Rugby would always have it, severe enough to do 
 its work effectually. At Wilbraham, it was rather 
 the publicity than the severity of the castigation 
 that was found effectual. Wilbur Fisk usually 
 inflicted these whippings himself ; for his sincere
 
 86 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 kindness and strict self-control made it safer not 
 to intrust such disagreeable duties to subordinates. 
 Hence lie sometimes found himself in circumstances 
 where it required all his coolness to face success- 
 fully a ridiculous situation. Once, when his pa- 
 tience had been tried beyond all endurance, he 
 told the offender to be ready for a whipping after 
 prayers the next morning. The victim prepared 
 himself accordingly, and the first blows of the rat- 
 tan fell ineffectually upon the student's shoulders. 
 Then the principal ordered the removal of the 
 overcoat. A smaller overcoat was found under the 
 first. That, too, was ordered off. Then the whip- 
 ping was resumed, to no purpose, for the crafty 
 youngster had concealed under his waistcoat a 
 thick pasteboard atlas, on which the blows rained 
 harmlessly. " What on earth did you get your- 
 self up that way for ? " asked the smiling master. 
 " You told me to come prepared for a whipping, 
 sir, and I thought I had better." By this time 
 the school was in a roar, and the whipping was 
 very brief. 
 
 However, punishment was not often resorted to 
 in the school management. Mr. Fisk was a manly 
 man, and he aroused a like spirit in others, and 
 his bearing tended to call out manliness in stu- 
 dents. His appeals were always addressed to the 
 nobler side of the young people. He sought al- 
 ways to get them to recognize the principles of 
 self-respect, high-mindedness, and personal honor 
 in their relations to each other and the authorities
 
 THE EDUCATOR.- WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 87 
 
 of the sehool. All his influence was thrown pow- 
 erfully against those practices lay which students 
 are encoviraged in loose and low views of their 
 duties to each other. That was before the days 
 of the temperance reformation, so that one of the 
 things against which he had constantly to guard 
 was the opening of places where wine, beer, and 
 ardent spirits could be purchased. Under such a 
 state of things any school principal who keeps his 
 eyes open to what men are doing around him, and 
 who can command the respect and assistance of 
 the town opinion, becomes a wall of defense to his 
 school. This, Mr. Fisk rarely failed to do and 
 to be. To one hardened offender, whose avarice 
 had tempted him to induce certain students to 
 run up forbidden and unreasonable bills at his 
 store, he wrote, " Sir, I never shall pay such bills, 
 and the parents wiU never pay them if I can hin- 
 der it." 
 
 One of the pecuhar features of Wilbraham 
 school-life was the " Social Interview." As the 
 school was made up of young people of both sexes, 
 Mr. Fisk thought it desirable that they should be 
 trained to social life under wisely regidated princi- 
 ples. Hence all the officers of the school used to 
 meet with all the students in a large room. Here, 
 after tea had been served, they were expected to 
 engage in conversation on whatever topics they 
 pleased ; though de\dces were resorted to from 
 time to time to prevent the same persons from 
 monopolizing each other's company. The object
 
 88 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 of the Interview was to break up shyness and self- 
 absorption, and induce easy and refined manners 
 in social life. 
 
 One point of great practical importance in the 
 plans was the securing good and cheap board. It 
 was thought that for a while board might be ob- 
 tained in the families of the village at such low 
 rates as to protect the interests of the students. 
 Such families as had boarders entered into an agree- 
 ment not to charge more than il.25 a week for it. 
 But it was obvious to all that this resource could 
 not safely be depended upon. The place was not a 
 large one, so that trouble might easily arise either 
 by some families asking too high a rate, or by some 
 declining to offer board at all. In either case 
 there would have been perplexity. Should the 
 school increase according to the hopes of its foun- 
 ders, there would some time be hundreds in attend- 
 ance. Then it was thought that the gathering of a 
 large number of students of both sexes in one large 
 boarding hall, under the direction of the steward 
 and teachers, would tend in many ways to the devel- 
 opment of a unified school-life and the production 
 of a home atmosphere. Hence the trustees pur- 
 chased Warriner's Hotel of its owners, directly 
 across the road from the school-buildings. In this 
 way, after the hotel had been considerably remod- 
 eled and enlarged, they were always able to afford 
 astonishingly cheap rates of board in view of its 
 quality ; so that when three hundred and fifty 
 students resorted to the school, board was as good
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 89 
 
 and cheap as ever. The large dining-room after- 
 wards became the scene of the week-day prayer- 
 meeetings, over which the principal always pre- 
 sided, and where many a soul was won to Christ. 
 
 At a later date the trustees built a house for the 
 use of the principal, and a plain structure for the 
 use of students interested in the mechanic-arts de- 
 partment. After a while the boarding-house proved 
 too strait to accommodate all the students who de- 
 sired entertainment there, and so it became needful 
 to enlaro-e it and to make the most of all the room 
 they had. Such an advance" in numbers of neces- 
 sity compelled the employment of more teachers. 
 William Magoun, an alumnus of Brown Univer- 
 sity, was associated with jVIr. Dunn in the work of 
 instruction. At times the services of Joel Knight 
 and of David Patten, Jr., were secured for some 
 of the more elementary branches of study. When 
 the first preceptress. Miss Charlotte L. Tilhnghast, 
 gave up her duties, in consequence of her mar- 
 riage to her associate in teaching, Mr. Dunn, the 
 position was taken by Miss Susan Brewer, a sister 
 of the Rev. Calvin Brewer of Wilbraham, a lady 
 of high character and various accomplishments. 
 These names complete the roll of the members of 
 the academy faculty in Dr. Fisk's day. 
 
 Somewhat perplexing to the trustees was this 
 remarkable growth of their institution in numbers 
 and popularity. For they were compelled to re- 
 spond to these indications of prosperity by a bold 
 and liberal policy. With them it was the day of
 
 90 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 financial small things ; one man, Colonel Binney, 
 gave 110,000 ; but the next largest gift was |175 
 by Abel Bliss, and from $150, the next largest 
 subscription, the gifts ran all the way clown to ten 
 cents. The chief collector was the Rev. John Lind- 
 say, and at times Wilbur Fisk and Rev. George 
 Pickering also acted as collectors. The conference 
 passed resolutions opening every pulpit within their 
 bounds to the agents of the trustees, and sometimes 
 they appointed special collectors besides. The 
 ministers preached sermons on the subject. They 
 circulated subscription paj^ers intended to reach 
 all their people, high and low, rich and poor ; 
 not a child was unsolicited. Gifts from without 
 were welcome, and sometimes such outside gifts- 
 enabled the principal to make a very effective ap- 
 peal to the careless or niggardly in the Methodist 
 congregations, as we see from his article in " Zion's 
 Herald " : — 
 
 EKA OF GOOD FEELING. 
 
 " A cii'cumstance occurred, during a late tour in Ver- 
 mont and New Hampshire to solicit donations for Wes- 
 leyan Academy, which I deem worthy of public notice. 
 I had a letter of introduction to Colonel B. of Hanover 
 (Dartmouth College), N. H. ; and as I hardly supposed 
 the peojile of that villlage would be disposed to do much 
 towards the object of my mission, I had designed to 
 call on the colonel, and then go on my journey. In 
 conversation with the Rev. William W., Congregational 
 minister in N., I mentioned my design, and he sug- 
 gested the propriety of my calling upon other citizens in
 
 THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 91 
 
 Hanover, and especially upon the officers of the college, 
 and kindly offered to be my company, and introduce me 
 to such gentlemen as he thought would be favorable to 
 my object. This vpas accordingly agreed upon, and in 
 the course of a few hours, the next day, we received 
 subscriptions in that small village to the amount of 
 seventy-five dollars. Most of the officei-s of the college, 
 including the president, became subscribers, and seemed 
 to wish success to the institution. The donations them- 
 selves were not more gratifying than the spirit in which 
 they were given. No captious questions were asked, no 
 long complaints were made by those who gave ; though 
 complaints might have been made with propriety at that 
 time, if ever, by the good people of Hanover. They 
 had but a little before completed a fund of $10,000 for 
 their own college, of which a generous part had been 
 subscribed in that village, and but just before about 
 $1,000 had been collected in that place for a religious 
 charity by Mr. C. of S., and, in addition, they had just 
 undertaken to raise a fund of $50,000 for their own col- 
 lege, $5,000 of which had been subscribed, or would be 
 subscribed, in Hanover. In the midst of this almost un- 
 paralleled levy of public benevolences, they gave $75 to 
 an institution one hundred and thirty miles from them, 
 under the patronage of another denomination, and of 
 which, until that day, they had probably had but little 
 knowledge. 
 
 " I call this at least one good proof that the present 
 is an era of good feeling. When men of different de- 
 nominations and of different local interests in literary 
 seminaries unite their valuable efforts with the men of 
 other denominations and other local interests to aid the 
 common cause of religion and of science, we may expect
 
 92 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 such a holy alliance will drive sin and error from the 
 field : an alliance this, which can only exist among men 
 of enlarged and noble minds. 
 
 " Another reflection grows out of the above facts, 
 viz. : that men are not the less willing to give because 
 they are often solicited and have been in the habit of 
 giving. As in Hanover, so I believe it will be found 
 in other places, that where the objects for public charity 
 are the oftenest presented, there their importance is most 
 considered, and the duty of giving is best understood. 
 The yoke of benevolent duties, where it is taken and 
 worn, is easy, and the burden thereof becomes light. It 
 is the man who seldom gives that chafes and complains 
 most when requested to give. It has been intimated by 
 some of our ministerial brethren that, unless we cease 
 our public and private solicitations for charity, we shall 
 sour our people, and drive them from us. This, how- 
 ever, I believe, is a mistake. If we are careful to solicit 
 only for worthy objects, and if we prudently expend the 
 public charities intrusted to us, we need not fear. AVe 
 have been too fearful of calling upon our people to aid 
 in the great works of benevolence of the present day, and 
 this is why we are so doubtful of their willingness to give. 
 Are Methodist Christians different from other Christians 
 in their dispositions and feelings ? If they are, Method- 
 ism has made them to differ, for it has selected its ad- 
 herents from the same mass of jiojjulation with the other 
 denominations. Are we prepared to acknowledge that 
 that modification of Christianity which maintains a uni- 
 versal atonement, and offers a free salvation to the whole 
 human family, has a tendency to lock up the soul of him 
 who believes it within the narrow walls of self ? Shall 
 those who believe in perfect love to God and man, in com-
 
 THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 93 
 
 plete deadness to the world, in the entire subjugation 
 of the unholy and earthly passions, be accounted less ac- 
 cessible to the pleas of benevolence and to the claims of 
 charity than other Christians ? It cannot be. Method- 
 ism is a benevolent religion. It makes high professions 
 of consistency, as well as of that charity which ' seeketh 
 not its own.' Frequent appeals for laudable charities to 
 men under the influence of such a religion cannot drive 
 them from us, but draw them to us by the strongest 
 cords of attachment. We may, indeed, irritate the feel- 
 ings of those who have connected themselves with us, 
 not because they have any peculiar attachment for us, 
 but because they think ours a cheap religion., and that 
 they can live with us without paying for it. Such men 
 ought to be disturbed. They have hung upon us like 
 dead weights, and been sponging around our ecclesias- 
 tical gates long enough. If they will not reform, it is 
 no matter how soon they leave us. and it is to be hoped 
 no one else will receive them. The least we ought to 
 do to such narrow, covetous minds is to make them 
 uneasy everywhere. Such souls will never be admitted 
 to the heavenly feast in their present state, for there will 
 not be found a wedding-garment in the vestiy of heaven 
 to fit them — they are all too large ; and they ought to 
 have no seat at the table of the church below. But, thank 
 God, the great body of the IMethodists are not such. If 
 they are deficient in their public charities, it is chiefly 
 because their attention has not been often enough called 
 to these subjects, and their importance and necessity 
 have not been sufficiently set before them. 
 
 " But I will close this article by adding that the 
 seminary at Wilbraham, for which the above-mentioned 
 subscriptions were received, will succeed and prosper,
 
 94 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 unless its more immediate patrons are greatly want- 
 ing to themselves. With the best wishes of other de- 
 nominations, and even with their pecuniary aid in its 
 favor ; with a large and increasing number of students 
 and a prosperous beginning, all that is now wanted is a 
 united effort at this time to relieve it of its present em- 
 barrassments, and a steady perseverance in its support. 
 But if a few be left to groan and toil under the burden 
 till they faint and give over, it shall be to our shame 
 and confusion, if not to our overthrow. Let us, then, 
 urged on by the good example and encouraging aid of 
 others, show by our works that we are what we profess 
 to be, the supporters of a liberal and enlightened system 
 of truth. W. FiSK. 
 
 "WiLBRAHAM, March 21, 1827." 
 
 Let US look at the religious side of life at the 
 Wesleyan Academy. The students were required 
 to attend morning and evening prayers in the school, 
 and attendance at one of the village churches was 
 expected on Sundays. If a student were disposed, 
 he might attend the Tuesday evening sermon or 
 lecture in the dining-hall ; there was a general 
 prayer-meeting on Thursday evening, and a reli- 
 gious class-meeting to which those needing religious 
 counsel and direction could resort. Attendance 
 on these week-day meetings was strictly voluntary. 
 In Dr. Fisk's day the Tuesday evening lecture 
 or sermon was well attended ; for the principal 
 used to discourse upon some theme announced be- 
 forehand, so that those who liked might study the 
 topic for themselves. These discourses were so
 
 THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEY AN ACADEMY. 95 
 
 impressive tliat the seats were usually all full. 
 Dr. Fisk was very urgent that these regular means 
 of grace should be so spiritual that believers might 
 steadily grow in grace, and sinners be turned to 
 the wisdom of the just. So fully was he sustained 
 in these soimd views by the efforts of his faithful 
 associates that no entire term ever went past with- 
 out some conversions, and thus the tone of the 
 school was always religious. But he was also con- 
 vinced that such schools ought to be, even more 
 frequently than ordinary churches, scenes of reli- 
 gious revival. 
 
 On the 7th of June, directly after Mr. Fisk had 
 gone to Wilbraham, the New England Conference 
 held its annual session in that place. Bishop 
 George was the presiding bishop, a man of the 
 most devout piety, and a preacher of fervid and 
 melting eloquence. As the official and formal 
 business in those times was not so extensive as 
 now, it was the custom to devote no small part of 
 the session to religious, and even revival, services. 
 Nothing suited them better than to leave a blaze 
 of revival influences behind them. There were 
 revivalists of no mean power in the body itself. 
 Such were Jotham Horton, Orange Scott, Abra- 
 ham D. Merrill, Leroy Sunderland, and Wilbur 
 Fisk himself. Abo^ all these eminently success- 
 ful revivalists towered the fame of John Newland 
 Maffitt. ]\Iaffitt took the front rank among such 
 honored names as easily and undeniably as Mr. 
 Moody would do in our time. I remember ex-
 
 96 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 pressing my doubts to the Rev. Ralph W. Allen, 
 of the New England Conference, of the justice of 
 Maffitt's fame. Instantly his face lit up : " Well, 
 then, you never heard him preach. Nobody who 
 ever heard him preach could doubt that." Still 
 that did happen sometimes, for I remember the 
 late Mr. James T. Fields of Boston gave me a 
 most vivid description of the effect of Maffitt's 
 preaching on him when a boy. " But," said Mr. 
 Fields, " I was a boy then. I wonder how it 
 would seem if I could hear him now." Ex-Gov- 
 ernor Claflin of Massachusetts once gave the best 
 grounded and argued statement of Maffitt's supe- 
 riority to all subsequent and recent revivalists, 
 like Moody and Pentecost, I have ever heard. 
 He had certain external points of distinction over 
 them which gave a charm to everything he said. 
 He was a handsome, well-formed man, of dignified 
 bearing, dressed with exquisite taste and natural- 
 ness. His elocution was exceedingly easy and re- 
 fined, and his enunciation of words whose pronun- 
 ciation is disputed always followed the best au- 
 thorities. Yet, unlike many, all these matters of 
 petty distinction were so thoroughly spontaneous 
 to him that they seemed to operate of themselves, 
 with the easy gracefulness of a bird's pinions. 
 Then came the more important matter. His 
 preaching was thoroughly orthodox. He preached 
 all the great doctrines of the gospel with unspar- 
 ing earnestness and devotion. He had a study 
 where he used to pass the intervals between one
 
 THE EDUCATOR. —WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 97 
 
 service and another. There he used to employ all 
 his time and thought in preparation for the next 
 service. lie made out his points in a clear and 
 convincing manner from the express teachings of 
 Scripture or the experience of holy men. Much 
 of his time was spent in prayer, so that he carried 
 with him that heavenly influence which sways all 
 hearts. 
 
 This was the revivalist, just then in the full 
 flush of his power, whose participation in the pro- 
 ceedings of the conference, and whose preaching 
 during and after the session, rendered the coming 
 of the first great revival in the academy a marked 
 and memorable event. After the conference 
 closed, Maffitt was induced to remain to take ad- 
 vantage of the general interest in religion which 
 had been aroused. His preaching was made in- 
 strumental in extending and deepening the work 
 of grace through the school and throughout the 
 town. 
 
 Maffitt showed his unusual readiness of retort. 
 Somebody asked, " Brother Maffitt, why do you 
 always say wind in reading your hymns ? " Like 
 a flash came the answer, " Because I cannot find 
 it in my mind to say wind." In this revival 
 at Wilbraham the Congregationalist pastor com- 
 plained that there was too much noise. "My 
 brother, this is the stillest world you will ever be 
 in," was the quick and genial reply of the great 
 evangelist. Dr. Fisk sent an account of the re- 
 vival to " Zion's Herald."
 
 J 
 
 98 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 REVIVAL AT THE WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 
 
 " WiLBRAHAM, July 7, 1826. 
 
 " Dear Brother, — Through the columns of the 
 ' Herald ' we would give a short notice of the prosper- 
 ity of our rising seminary, and of the dealings of God 
 with us in this place. The students are generally well- 
 behaved, diligent, and easily governed. This is undoubt- 
 edly in part owing to that which rejoices us more than 
 anytliing else — a revival of religion among us. There 
 were several instances of conversion and some good 
 symptoms of a work of grace among the people previ- 
 ously to the sitting of the conference in this place ; but 
 now a number profess to have found forgiveness through 
 Christ, and numbers more are inquiring after salvation, 
 insomuch that present appearances indicate a general 
 shower of divine mercy, not only in this parish, but 
 in the South parish and in other neighboring parishes. 
 The labors of our brethren during the conference have 
 doubtless contributed to this ; and the work has been 
 especially forwarded, under God, by the instrumentality 
 of Brother Maffitt, who tarried more than a fortnight 
 after the conference rose, and labored with much suc- 
 cess among the people. Of this work our interesting 
 family at the boarding house have shared a good propor- 
 tion. I will not name the number who have professed to 
 experience justifying grace, because among such young 
 persons, in times of great excitement, there cannot al- 
 ways be a strong assurance that the work will in every 
 case prove genuine. A number, however, give good evi- 
 dence of a change of heart ; and I know some of our 
 preachers will rejoice when they learn that some of their 
 children are among the number. I cannot express the 
 feelings of my heart when I returned from a journey
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 99 
 
 which I took immediately after conference, to find that 
 a number of these dear youths who have been intrusted 
 to our care are rejoicing in the Lord. We rejoice over 
 them, however, with trembhng ; we shall watch for their 
 confirmation in the Divine life with affectionate anxiety ; 
 and constantly pray, ' O Lord, strengthen what thou 
 hast wrought for us ! ' Oh, that all our brethren would 
 join with us in this prayer ! We are the more encour- 
 aged to hope the work will prove permanent, because a 
 number of the scholars were confirmed in experience 
 before they came here, whose example and conversa- 
 tion are very helpful to the converts. W. FiSK." 
 
 Lyman Beecher says that usually he liad pre- 
 monitions in his own spiritual condition or in his 
 work as a pastor of the advent of his revivals, but 
 that one revival of great power broke out in his 
 church without any heralding sign whatever. Thus 
 was it with the coming of the greatest revival of 
 religion ever known at Wesleyan Academy in Dr. 
 risk's day. At such seasons an unwonted effi- 
 ciency is given to the ordinary means of grace by 
 the direct influence of the Spirit of God. We 
 have seen how anxious Mr. Fisk had all along 
 been not only that the divine blessing might at- 
 tend all the religious instruction and admonition 
 given there, so that the devout might rise to a 
 higher ty])e of devotion and sinners be won from 
 their waywardness by godly Christian example, 
 but also special seasons of refreshing from the 
 presence of the Lord might be vouchsafed the 
 school. His feeling was profound that such wide-
 
 100 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 spread awakenings ought to be not only feasible, 
 but more feasible in such Christian schools than 
 elsewhere ; that a revival amongst such excellent 
 young people would redound far more widely to the 
 glory of God than an ordinary awakening could ; 
 and that such school revivals would arouse more 
 symj3athy for the work of Christian education in 
 the church than anything else. That was an era 
 of widespread revivals in the American churches, 
 so that their occurrence would be promptly noted 
 and widely reported. Hence the ardor and per- 
 sistence of Dr. Fisk's labors to secure a revival 
 year by year. We quote Rev. Stephen Cushing's 
 account of the result. 
 
 " On the morning of that ever memorable day, 
 (March 9th, 1828), a young man of sixteen said to an- 
 other whom he chanced to meet, ' Edward, will you seek 
 religion, if I will ? ' 'I desire to think of it, and will 
 give you an answer in an hour,' was the reply. At the 
 expiration of the hour he consented to join him. They 
 walked together to church and in the evening another 
 joined them in a prayer-meeting. Together they fre- 
 quently read the Bible and prayed imtil Wednesday 
 evening, when, after a sermon by Dr. Fisk on the text 
 ' Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth.' they with one 
 more rose for prayers, signifying that they intended to 
 make religion the business of life. A prayer-meeting in 
 the students' room followed, and at a late hour three of 
 the number were converted. 
 
 " The next evening they all testified at the usual fam- 
 ily prayer-meeting that they had found the Saviour, and 
 six others desired prayers, most of whom were before
 
 THE EDUCATOR. —WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 101 
 
 midnight rejoicing in the forgiveness of their sins. 
 Through the next day and evening there were many 
 small prayer-meetings. On Saturday the school exer- 
 cises were suspended and the time devoted to prayer 
 and Christian conference. During the week as many 
 as thirty had heen converted. At the close of the sec- 
 ond week hut five remained in the boarding-house un- 
 converted. Meantime between fifty and sixty had given 
 their hearts to God, and of these six became ministers. 
 Osmon C. Baker, David Patten, and Morris HiU were 
 of the number. . . . 
 
 " One incident I well remember. A backslider, after- 
 wards a well-known and beloved teacher in the institu- 
 tion (William G. Mitchell), was concerned for his soul 
 and sought a retired place for prayer. Entering a room 
 in the boarding-house, he knelt and began to pray in 
 earnest. Another student coming to his room saw him, 
 and called in two others to pray with him. Unaware 
 of their presence the seeker prayed aloud, and as he 
 ceased another prayed for him, when he suddenly fell 
 to the floor and remained apparently unconscious for 
 nearly an hour. On reviving, his joy was unspeakable 
 and full of glory. 
 
 " At class-meeting in the evening, as J. B. Merwin, 
 now a Presiding Elder in the New York Conference, 
 arose and expressed a desire to be a Christian, Mitchell 
 seized Merwin, a large and strongly built man, and car- 
 ried him the length of the boarding-hall to Dr. Fisk, 
 and asked him to pray for the seeker. For weeks the 
 joy of young Mitchell continued full and overflowing. . . . 
 
 " One characteristic of this revival way the promi- 
 nence given to the subject of sanctification or Christian 
 perfection as the duty and privilege of all believers.
 
 102 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 Were this more frequently done, the results of revivals 
 would be far more satisfactory. In this instance the 
 converts were urged to go on to perfection, and to de- 
 vote themselves fully to God. In a short time after his 
 conversion Baker [afterwards Bishop Baker] professed 
 entire sanctification, and exhibited the spirit of it in all 
 his after life. Other converts profited by these exhor- 
 tations, and many of them soon received this fullness of 
 the blessing of the gospel of Christ." 
 
 On this account, Dr. Sherman, who knows the 
 religious history of Wesleyan Academy by heart, 
 comments : — 
 
 "Among the many revivals which have gladdened 
 the student life at Wilbraham, none has equaled in 
 depth, and power, and ascertained results, that of 1828. 
 During its progress. Dr. Fisk remarked that he had 
 never before seen the power of God so marvelously dis- 
 played in the conversion of souls. The work began with- 
 out observation, and apparently without human instru- 
 mentality, and, once under way, the flow of the stream 
 was quick, steady, broad, and deep. It was the Lord's 
 doing, and it was marvelous in the eyes of all who wit- 
 nessed it. By this surprising uplift, nearly all the mem- 
 bers of the school were brought into the Kingdom of 
 God. So overpowering was the movement that for an 
 entire week the usual duties of the school were put aside, 
 and the attention of students and citizens was given to 
 the subject of personal religion." 
 
 Three young men, who intended to enter the min- 
 istry, had associated themselves together in 1827, 
 partly for united study in theology, and partly for
 
 THE EDUCATOR. -WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 103 
 
 gaining information as to the best lines of study 
 for young ministers and the best books to help them 
 in their work. These men were Charles Adams, 
 John W. Merrill, and Edward Otheman. They 
 were soon joined by Selah Stocking, Joel Knight, 
 Horace Moidton, Jefferson Hascall, Jefferson Ham- 
 ilton, and others. They appointed a committee to 
 ask the suo-o-estious of Dr. Fisk, and found, to their 
 delight, that they had anticipated him in a favor- 
 ite plan for the advantage of the school. Under 
 these delightful auspices the class soon rose to 
 thirty members. Henceforth Mr. Fisk met the 
 class on an appointed evening every week. This 
 arrangement was very helpful to its members, but 
 the enthusiastic writer who calls such a weeldy 
 meeting with Wilbur Fisk a " a theological edu- 
 cation " is wide astray. A former member of the 
 class. Rev. John W. Merrill, D. D., of Concord, 
 N. H., has kindly furnished notes of this famous 
 class : — 
 
 " We then thought no one could take the lead of it so 
 well as our revered principal. It was doubtful, with his 
 feeble health, with his many cares, whether he could as- 
 sume this new work ; yet we could think of no one else 
 so genial, so competent. We imparted our plan and our 
 wishes to Dr. Fisk, who with a radiance of joy on his face 
 not only consented to be our president, but expressed his 
 conviction that it was a providential event. . . . He ap- 
 pointed one evening a week to sit with us as our teacher, 
 critic, director, and president. These appointments, 
 when in town, he uniformly kept ; and at our meetings
 
 104 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 he would fervently pray for us that we might he sancti- 
 fied by the Holy Spirit, and prepared for our great 
 work. With what fervor he poured out his soul for us, 
 those only can know who have seen and heard him. 
 
 " At these meetings he would give out some of the 
 principles of constructing sermons, assign us our texts, 
 or let us choose them. At the next meeting we would 
 present our plans. He would show wherein they were 
 faulty, and note what was most happy with singular 
 aptness. Hard questions in theology he would often 
 propose for us to tliink of and then discuss. Topics in 
 theology were given us on which we were expected to 
 write. He would look these productions over, and at 
 the next time give the suggestions needed. His conver- 
 sations at these times were feasts to our hungry souls. 
 Clerical visitors were often invited to spend the evening 
 with us, and never was the face of Wilbur Fisk more 
 radiant than when, like the Master, he sat with his 
 disciples. Under Christ he was our Master, a master- 
 spirit." 
 
 Of course, this was no small addition to the cares 
 of an overtasked man ; but notice " the radiance 
 of joy on his face " with which Wilbur Fisk con- 
 fronts this burden of unremunerated labor. With 
 such a heavenly glow from the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness on his face, one is surely safe in concluding 
 that the sanctification he won at Wellfleet camp- 
 meeting was still a living possession. 
 
 While the academy was thus making its way 
 into public confidence and favor by its high stand- 
 ards in all the ordinary branches taught in such 
 institutions, certain members of the board of trust
 
 THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEY AN ACADEMY. 105 
 
 showed a restless eagerness to connect with it 
 experiments in the manual labor line. A build- 
 ing was erected where, it was thought, instruction 
 might be given in chair-making or shoe-making to 
 any who might be disposed to devote to these oc- 
 cupations the time usually spent in diversion and 
 conversation. But somehow the zeal for such ex- 
 periments seems to have flamed more hotly and 
 perseveringiy in the wishes o£ some of the trustees 
 than anywhere else. For several years they kept 
 at it, passing resolutions, appointing committees to 
 carry out their ideas, and turning from one project 
 to another with singular zeal. Yet there was al- 
 ways some hitch about the business at the last mo- 
 ment, and real instruction in these mechanic arts 
 was never given, so that the hopes of such things 
 gradually showed their visionary and impracticable 
 character. Once they set up a country store to be 
 run under the charge of a committee of the board. 
 It is pretty evident that the fundamental trouble 
 in all such experiments is, that a full tale of regu- 
 lar and systematic intellectual labor is a sufficient 
 tax upon the physical endurance of ordinary men. 
 Only now and then a person of exceptional phys- 
 ical vigor can take up this double task long with- 
 out breaking down. The attitvxde of the teachers, 
 including Dr. Fisk, toward these experimental ma- 
 nias is not clear. Apparently matters were in such 
 a condition in the trustee board that they saw noth- 
 ing else to be done but to expose such dreams by 
 earnest attempts to realize them.
 
 106 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 There was only one kind of experiment in man- 
 ual labor which any large number of students took 
 any interest in, — the attempt at a sort of coopera- 
 tive or communistic farming. Farming is a pur- 
 suit with which quite a number of young men in 
 any large school in New England are pretty sure 
 to have some practical acquaintance. Hence it 
 would be easy to make them take an interest in 
 learning to be scientific agriculturists, and so put- 
 ting the old folks at home to the blush over their 
 inferior methods of farm management. If actual 
 farm boys would be the last to be persuaded that 
 a man can be at the same time a successful stu- 
 dent and a successful farmer, still many of them 
 might be tempted into making the experiment. 
 Hence the agricultural craze was once widespread 
 in the school at Wilbraham. Mr. Dunn tells the 
 story : — 
 
 " The trustees braced themselves up for the occasion, 
 and decided to try a larger experiment at amateur 
 farming. Accordingly the large field back of the board- 
 ing-house was put into prime order for the production 
 of crops ; and a good number of students took plots 
 to cultivate during the season. The several lots were 
 staked off, and a shallow trench dug between them as a 
 clear distinction between meum and tuum. In due 
 time the seed was committed to the bosom of Mother 
 Earth ; and with the requisite skill, the hills or drills, as 
 the case might be, were nicely patted down with the 
 hoe. So far all was well. That was a sample of stu- 
 dent planting. Who, after that, could doubt that stu-
 
 THE EDUCATOR. —WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 107 
 
 dents could work at farming as well as wi-ite poor Latin 
 and Greek, or run through idioms, or master mathemat- 
 ics ? Please examine the field ; note each plot contain- 
 ing the seed awaiting sun and rain and the willing hand 
 of toil, to yield a return of a hundred-fold. The blade 
 soon apjjears and affords early jjromise of a future and 
 abundant harvest. The workmen are on the spot with 
 rake, hoe, trowel, to cultivate the soil. At first the en- 
 thusiam was too great to be expressed with pen and ink. 
 It was a furor for agriculture, resembling that at a later 
 date for the moms mulicaulis. But such intensity of 
 interest never continues long at white heat. Even love 
 at too high a temperature is subject to decline. And so 
 the fervor of our young men for geoponics lessened with 
 each day. Each week their visits to this Eldorado be- 
 came less frequent, until the steward made complaint 
 to Dr. Fisk that something must be done to stir the 
 amateur agriculturists to greater zeal and constancy in 
 the performance of their duties. He gave me an in- 
 vitation to walk out with him and view the Promised 
 Land. We went, we saw. We saw weeds of the most 
 approved kinds and the most luxuriant growth. The 
 soil was rich and productive, — indeed, too much so to 
 allow any chance for the grain. The doctor smiled and 
 looked wisely over the profuse growth. I need not say 
 that this was the last experiment at student farming at 
 Wesleyan Academy." 
 
 Such was the career of successful educational 
 work on which Wesleyan Academy was launched 
 under the auspicious care of Wilbur Fisk. The 
 managers had learned in the remorseless school of 
 experience what parts of their plans were really
 
 108 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 valuable, and responded to public necessities. The 
 scbool at A^ ilbraham, and in a lesser degree that 
 at Kent's Hill, Maine, became models on whicli 
 other schools in New England and all over the 
 country were planned. We shall be able to see 
 the work done and the change wrought by these 
 schools if we present a statistical exhibit of the 
 Methodist schools which are now doing the kind 
 of work in New England done by Wilbraham 
 Academy in Dr. Fisk's day. All these schools, 
 except that at Auburndale, educate the two sexes 
 together. They have done an immense and price- 
 less work in making education good, cheap, and 
 religious. They have made Methodism honorable 
 in the eyes of all their students. These statistics 
 are from official sources. It is not until the tabu- 
 lar statement given hereafter is read that we can 
 realize how truly the conference schools founded 
 first under Wilbur Fisk at Wilbraham responded 
 to a widely felt need. For the sake of clearnesss 
 and definite impression, we limit our statistics to 
 New England, though the movement has spread 
 through the entire Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 It will be seen that such schools are only at the 
 beginning of their career of usefulness. 
 
 There are eight such schools to-day, served by 
 ninety-nine teachers, with 1,715 students in attend- 
 ance, whose endowments and other property of all 
 sorts amount to 11,000,000, whose yearly income 
 from all sources is 1:90,190, while but one school has 
 a debt of 112,500. No less than 85,203 different
 
 THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 109 
 
 persons have been members of these schools. This 
 last statement rests in part on estimates. Where 
 estimates differ, the mean estimate between highest 
 and lowest has been followed : — 
 
 NAME. 
 
 GRADE. 
 
 LOCATION. 
 
 1. 
 
 2. 
 
 3. 
 
 4. 
 6. 
 
 6. 
 
 7. 
 8. 
 
 East Greenwich Academy 
 New Hampshire Conference 
 Seminary and Female Col- 
 lege 
 Vermont Methodist Semi- 
 nary and Female College 
 Troy Conference Academy 
 Maine Wesleyan Seminary 
 
 and Female College 
 East Maine Conference Sem- 
 inary 
 Wesleyan Academy 
 Lasell Seminary for Young 
 Women 
 
 Academic .... 
 Shown by name 
 
 Shown by name. 
 
 Academic .... 
 Shown by name 
 
 Academic and col- 
 lege preparatory 
 
 Shown by name 
 
 East Greenwich, R. I. 
 Tilton, N. H. 
 
 Montpelier, Vt. 
 
 Poultney, Vt. 
 Kent's HUl, Me. 
 
 Bucksport, Me. 
 
 Wilbraham, Mass. 
 Auburndale, Mass. 
 
 PRINCIPAL. 
 
 1. Rev. F. D. Blakeslee,M. A. 
 
 2. D. C. Kiiowles, D. D. . . . 
 
 3. Rev. E. .\. Bishop, M. A. 
 
 4. Rev. E. H. Dunton, D. D. . 
 
 5. E. M. Smith, D. D 
 
 6. Rev. A. F. Chase, A. M., Ph. D. 
 
 7. Rev. 6. M. Steele, LL. D. . 
 
 8. C. C. Bragdon, A. M. . . . 
 
 12 
 8 
 10 
 11 
 15 
 
 1.3 
 
 30 
 
 a 
 
 t 
 
 M . 
 
 H 
 
 
 » n 
 
 
 
 gu 
 
 a H 
 
 S !0 
 
 o 
 
 U H 
 
 is 
 
 ^ 
 
 H 
 
 M 
 
 1841* 
 
 211 
 
 6,875 
 
 1843 
 
 209 
 
 7,000 
 
 1834 
 
 215 
 
 14,000 
 
 1836 
 
 lyy 
 
 5,500 
 
 1821 
 
 220 
 
 25.000 
 
 1850 
 
 180 
 
 10,828 
 
 1824 
 
 230 
 
 16,000 
 
 1851 
 
 151 
 
 
 ENDOWMENT. 
 
 $30,000 
 48,000 
 40,000 
 30,000 
 
 iii.ono 
 
 25,000 
 14,000 
 
 * Bought in.
 
 110 
 
 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 i 
 
 
 VLCE OF APPA- 
 EATOS. 
 
 i 
 
 INCOME 
 
 INCOME 
 
 
 "1 
 
 " 1" 
 
 3" 
 
 BINET S 
 MENS. 
 
 FROM 
 TUITION. 
 
 FROM OTHER 
 SOURCES. 
 
 DEBT. 
 
 
 o 
 > 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 
 
 1. $70,000 
 
 2,000 
 
 $1,000 
 
 1,050 
 
 $6,176.19 
 
 $1,184.75 
 
 
 2. 75,000 
 
 600 
 
 500 
 
 2,500 
 
 3,500.00 
 
 2,000.00 
 
 
 3. 80,000 
 
 1,400 
 
 125 
 
 2,000 
 
 8,500.00 
 
 3,000.00 
 
 
 4. 50,000 
 
 1,800 
 
 600 
 
 1,500 
 
 7,728.54 
 
 14,000.00 
 
 
 5. 121,000 
 
 5,500 
 
 5,000 
 
 2,500 
 
 6,036.70 
 
 3,314.24 
 
 
 6. 30,000 
 
 1,300 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 7. 160,000 
 
 5,000 
 
 3,200 
 
 2,000 
 
 12,750.00 
 
 8,000.00 
 
 
 8. 115,000 
 
 1,300 
 
 2,000 
 
 750 
 
 13,000.00 
 
 
 $12,500
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 
 
 Besides his addresses and articles upon educa- 
 tional subjects, Dr. Fisk was the author of two 
 sermons on the errors of Universalism. The first 
 was the sermon delivered before the New England 
 conference during its session at Providence in 
 1823, and published at the joint request of the 
 conference and the students of BroMTi University ; 
 the second was a sermon delivered in the Metho- 
 dist Church at Springfield, Mass., and published 
 in a little volume, " Anti-Universalism," of which 
 Dr. Fisk and Rev. T. Merritt were the authors. 
 The first sermon was arraigned by a Universalist 
 clergyman at Providence, Pickering by name. The 
 second was answered by Mr. Paige, a Springfield 
 Universalist minister. It has been impossible to 
 find in print the Universalist share in this contro- 
 versy ; and although Dr. Fisk was honor itself in 
 the statement of an adversary's views, it would, 
 perhaps, be better to pass this debate by with 
 the general remark that Dr. Fisk shows here his 
 wonted keenness of argument. 
 
 Under the signature, " A Friend of Mankind," 
 Mr. Fisk published, in " Zion's Herald," " Stric-
 
 112 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 tures on a Unitarian Tract, by Rev. John Pierpont, 
 entitled 'Jesus Christ not a Literal Sacrifice,' 
 printed for the American Unitarian Association." 
 These " Strictures " were reprinted without date, 
 and widely circulated in tract form. This has all 
 the qualities of a good tract ; it is brief, pointed, 
 logical, sprightly, never rails, or misses the point. 
 It probably served its author's purpose in its own 
 day. Unlike his other controversial papers, it 
 called out no reply. 
 
 The most important as well as most considera- 
 ble of these controversial papers is still known 
 to readers as the " Calvinistic Controversy." This 
 book is important, because it shows the reasons 
 which determined the ecclesiastical relations and 
 the theological system of Dr. Fisk. Here are -the 
 motives which retained him in the Methodist Epis- 
 coj^al Church, notwithstanding the reasonings by 
 which David Gould would have won him for the 
 Congregational Church, and led him to reject even 
 the mitigated Calvinism of the Protestant Episco- 
 pal Church, which his friend Taft, and especially 
 Simon Wright, commended to his acceptance by 
 every conceivable plea. It will be needless to more 
 than epitomize Dr. Fisk's views in the various 
 phases of the debate, since he had the single aim 
 to show the essence and results of Calvinism, with- 
 out impeaching anybody's motives, or pretending 
 that any or all Calvinists admitted the logical con- 
 sequences which he arrayed against their system. 
 He never confounded his inferences with their be- 
 liefs.
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 113 
 
 Tlie small town of Greenwich, Mass., was mainly 
 made up of Calvinists and Methodists, and Dr. 
 Fisk had preached with his usual acceptability to 
 both parties. He was requested by both sides to 
 preach on the points in dispute between Calvinists 
 and Arminians. The sermon was so effective that 
 some of his hearers renounced their former views. 
 A committee of Greenwich people requested him 
 to publish it. It went through two editions with- 
 out making much stir, but when it was stereo- 
 typed, and issued from the book room as a tract, 
 attacks began from various quarters. To these at- 
 tacks Dr. risk rephed, and so the book grew to its 
 present shape in about 1835. It is still on sale at 
 the book-room. I have thought best merely to 
 epitomize the book because the latter portions are 
 replies to the criticisms of the Rev. Dr. Fitch, of 
 the New Haven Divinity School, the Rev. David 
 Metcalf, and others. Mr. David Metcalf was, in 
 his old age, my neighbor when I was pastor of the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church at Oxford, Mass. He 
 gave me the first copy of President Fisk's " Cal- 
 vinistic Controversy " I ever saw. I read it with 
 care, and as Mr. Metcalf was fond of discussion, 
 we debated it point by point. The book itself is 
 black with my old friend's annotations. He re- 
 tained a profound respect for Dr. Fisk, notwith- 
 standins: their keen discussions. 
 
 The text of Dr. Fisk's discourse was : —
 
 114 WILBUR F18K. 
 
 PREDESTESrATION AND ELECTION. 
 
 " According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation 
 of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before 
 him in love. 
 
 " Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, by 
 Jesus Christ, to himself, according to the good pleasure of his 
 will." — Ephesians, i. 4, 5. 
 
 " The ground of controversy is the unlimited extent 
 to which some have carried the idea of predestination- 
 Calvin says, ' Every action and motion of every creature 
 is governed hy the hidden counsel of God, so that noth- 
 ing can come to pass but was ordained by him.' The 
 Assembly Catechism is similar : ' God did, from all 
 eternity, unchangeably ordain whatever comes to pass.' 
 But ' we believe that the character and acts of intelligent 
 beings, so far at least as their moral accountability is 
 concerned, are not definitely fixed and efiiciently pro- 
 duced by the unalterable purpose and efiicient decree of 
 God.' Here, therefore, we are at issue. 
 
 " The more common and jDlausible argument for fore- 
 oi'dination is, that the 'foreknowledge of God neces- 
 sarily implies predestination. For how can an action 
 that is really to come to pass be foreseen if it be not 
 determined ? God foreknew everything from eternity ; 
 but this he could not have known if he had not so 
 determined it. God's decree precedes his knowledge.' 
 Fibk objects: 'Prescience is an essential quality of the 
 divine nature. But a determination to do this or that 
 is not essential to the divine nature. . . . But to know 
 is so essential to him that the moment he ceases to 
 know all that is, or will be, or might be, under any pos- 
 sible contingency, he ceases to be God. Is it not absurd 
 to make an essential attribute of Deity depend upon the
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 115 
 
 exercise of his attributes ? ... If God must predeter- 
 mine events in order to know them, then, as the cause is 
 in no case dependent on the effect, the decrees of God 
 must be passed and his plan contrived independently of 
 his knowledge, which only had an existence as the effect 
 of these decrees.' It is better to say ' that the plan of 
 the Ahnighty is the result of his infinite knowledge.' 
 So runs Scripture : ' For whom he did foreknow, he 
 also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of 
 his Son ; ' ' Elect according to the foreknowledge of God 
 the Father.' In these passages predestination and elec- 
 tion are most clearly founded on foreknowledge. 
 
 " But, pleads Calvinism : ' The foreknowledge of God 
 is tantamount to a decree, since God cannot be in a 
 mistake : whatever he foreknows must take place ; his 
 knowledge makes it certain.' This is shifting the argu- 
 ment ; for if God's knowledge makes an event certain, 
 of course it is not his predetermination. ' Does the 
 event take place because it is foreknown, or is it fore- 
 known because it will take place ? ' He would be con- 
 sidered a fool or madman who should seriously assert 
 that the knowledge of a certainty produced that cer- 
 tainty. 
 
 " To deny Calvinian predestination is not to deny 
 that God has a perfect plan. God, whose eye surveys 
 immensity and eternity at a glance, and who knows all 
 possibilities and contingencies, all that is or will be, can 
 perfectly arrange his plan, and preclude the possibility 
 of a disappointment, though he does not, by a decree of 
 predestination, fix all the volitions and acts of his sub- 
 jects. . . . Nor does it follow, because God hath pre- 
 destinated some things, that he hath decreed all things. 
 Those passages, then, which are so frequently quoted as
 
 116 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 proof of this doctrine, which only prove that God hath 
 predetermined certain events, are not proof in point. 
 We know of many passages which say of certain 
 events which have come to pass, that God did not com- 
 mand them nor will them, but forbade them. 
 
 " All the stock quotations from Scripture to prove 
 this dogma are shown not to prove it. We give an 
 example or two : ' He hath blinded their minds and 
 hardened their hearts.' ' Him, being delivered up by 
 the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye 
 have taken, and by wicked hands ye have crucified and 
 slain.' . . . God blinds men and hardens their hearts 
 judicially, as a just punishment for abuse of their free 
 agency. For his blinding and hardening them, he does 
 not make them responsible. He holds them responsible 
 for that degree of wickedness which made it just and 
 necessary to give them over to this hardness of heart 
 and blindness of mind. 
 
 "Calvinism makes God the author of sin. Calvin 
 says, ' I will not scruple to own that the will of God 
 lays a necessity on all things, and that everything he 
 wills necessarily comes to pass.' Yet they deny that 
 God is the author of sin, because they say, ' God neces- 
 sitates them to the act, and not to the deformity of sin ; ' 
 or ' God does not sin when he makes men sin, because 
 he is under no law and cannot sin.' But these are mis- 
 erable shifts. Has not the defovniitu of sin come to 
 pass ? Then God has decreed that deformity. 
 
 " This doctrine of predestination destroys human free 
 agency and accountability. By ample quotations from 
 Southey's ' Life of Wesley ' it is shown that Mr. Wesley 
 and Mr, Fletcher were roundly abused by the Calvinists 
 of their time because they taught the freedom of the
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 117 
 
 human will. He cites these words from Calvin : * Every 
 motion and action of every creature is governed by the 
 hidden counsel of God.' Hence man ' wills as he is 
 made to will, — he chooses as he must choose, for the 
 immutable decree of Jehovah is upon him.' But such 
 volition cannot involve moral responsibility. It is ar- 
 gued that man is responsible because he feels that he 
 acts freely. This is a good argument, upon our princi- 
 ples, to prove that men are free ; on Calvinistic ground 
 it proves that God has deceived us. He has made us 
 feel that we miaht do otherwise, but he knows we can- 
 not, — he has determined that we shall not. 
 
 " This doctrine arrays God's secret decrees against 
 his revealed word. God commands men not to sin, 
 and yet ordains that they shall sin. His rule of action 
 is in direct opposition to our rule of duty. Is God at 
 war with himself, or is he sporting and trifling with his 
 creatures ? We are told, to relieve the difficulty, that 
 this seeming contradiction is one of the mysteries of 
 God's incomprehensible nature. But it is not a seeming 
 contradiction, it is a real one. 
 
 "This dogma takes from God his goodness. Hence 
 it breeds Universalism. 
 
 " Calvinism teaches that, ' By the decree of God for 
 the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are 
 predestinated unto everlasting life, and others foreor- 
 dained to everlasting death. Those of mankind that 
 are predestinated unto life God, before the foundation 
 of the world, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting 
 glory, ^vitlwut any foresight of faith or good works,' 
 "We hold that God did decree, from the beginning, to 
 elect, or choose in Christ, all that should believe unto 
 salvation, and this decree proceeds from his own good-
 
 118 WILBUR FJSK. 
 
 ness, and is not built on any goodness in the creature ; 
 and that God did decree to reprobate all who should 
 finally and obstinately continue in unbelief. Ours is 
 an election of character, theirs ignores character in the 
 elect. With the latter go, as natural concomitants, ' Ir- 
 resistible grace, effectual calling, and infallible perse- 
 verance.' . . . We assert that election to eternal life 
 i^ conditional, they unconditional. ' Election to salva- 
 tion, in Scripture, is founded on the divine prescience.' 
 * Elect according to the foreknowledge of God, through 
 sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprink- 
 ling of the blood of Jesus Christ.' ' Whom he did fore- 
 know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the 
 image of his Son.' These Scriptures seem decisive that 
 the decree of election rests on foreknowledge, and that 
 this election is made, not according to the arbitrary act 
 of God, but on the ground of sanctification and obedi- 
 ence. 
 
 "Such an election annihilates human free agency and 
 moral resjionsibility in man, doctrines of which the Holy 
 Scriptures and the human conscience are full. With 
 the Calvinistic election to life eternal all those Scrip- 
 tures are inconsistent which warn believers against fall- 
 ing and apostasy. Calvinists will not allow that there 
 is any danger of counteracting or frustrating the plan 
 of the Almighty. Hence there is no danger of the elect 
 coming short of salvation. All the exhortations, cau- 
 tions, and warnings, therefore, recorded in the Scrip- 
 tures, are false colors and deceptive motives. They are 
 like the attempts of some weak parents to frighten their 
 children into obedience by superstitious tales and ground- 
 less fears. God knows, when he is giving out these 
 intimations of danger, that there is no such danger;
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 119 
 
 his own eternal, unchangeable decree had secured their 
 salvation before the means were planned, — if election 
 is unconditional. But far be this from a God of truth. 
 When God warns, there is real danger. 
 
 " The Scriptures teach a conditional election. ' For 
 many are called, but few chosen.' This passage, with 
 the parable of the wedding that precedes it, teaches that 
 the choice was made subsequently to the call, and was 
 grounded upon the fact that those chosen had actually 
 and fully complied with the invitation, and come to the 
 wedding duly prepared. 
 
 " ' He hath chosen us from the foundation of the 
 world, that we should be holy, having predestinated us 
 unto the adoption of sons.' (Eph. i. 4, 5.) ' For whom 
 he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be con- 
 formed to the image of his Son,' and 'whom he did 
 predestinate, he called, justified, glorified.' (Rom. viii. 
 29.) The argument is, that predestination could not be 
 founded on their faith or holiness, because they were 
 predestinated to become holy ; predestination had their 
 holiness for its object and end. But if these passages 
 had an allusion to a personal election to eternal life, 
 they would not prove unconditional election, ' because,' 
 to use the language of another, ' it would admit of being 
 questioned whether the choosing here mentioned was a 
 choice of certain persons as men merely, or as believ- 
 ing men, which is the most rational.' But this exposi- 
 tion must be given to the passage from Romans, since 
 they who were subjects of predestination were first fore- 
 known, — foreknown, not merely as existing, since all 
 were so foreknown, but foreknown as i^ossessing some- 
 thing which operated as a reason why they should be 
 elected rather than others. The ninth chapter of
 
 120 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 Romans is shown to deal, not with the personal election 
 of individuals, but the making the Gentiles ' heirs of the 
 promises.' Along with these differences of lot and 
 nationality goes tlie maxim, ' It is required of a man 
 according to what he hath, and not according to what 
 he hath not.' 
 
 " ' Unconditional election implies unconditional repro- 
 bation. To the reprobates there is no grace or mercy 
 extended. Their very existence, connected as it neces- 
 sarily is with eternal damnation, is an infinite curse.' 
 This theory makes God partial and a resjDecter of per- 
 sons. . . . Had God nothing to do with man until his 
 prescient eye beheld the whole race in a ruined state? 
 How came man in that state ? He was plunged there 
 by the sin of his federal head. But how came he to 
 sin ? ' Adam sinned,' Calvin says, ' because God so 
 ordained.' Taking all the links together, they stand 
 thus : God decreed to create intelligent creatures ; he 
 decreed that they should all become sinners and children 
 of wrath : and it was so. He then decreed that part of 
 those whom he had constituted children of wrath should 
 be taken, and washed, and saved, and the others left to 
 perish ; and then we are told that there is no unjust 
 partiality in God, since they all deserve to be damned. 
 What a sinfjular evasion is this ! This doe:ma limits 
 the atonement, which the Scriptures make universal." 
 
 Of the reviews called out in Calvinistieal jour- 
 nals by Dr. Fisk's sermon, perhaps the most re- 
 markable appeared in the " Boston Telegraph." 
 The writer agreed with Dr. Fisk in saying of the 
 dogma of Calvinism concerning sin, " The fiat of 
 God brought forth sin as directly as it made the
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 121 
 
 world." The criticisms of Rev. David Metcalf and 
 of Dr. Fitch are made from a stand-point essen- 
 tially Arminian. " Let me say once for all, I do 
 not consider these gentlemen, nor anj'^ who think 
 with them, responsible for the doctrine of predesti- 
 nation as stated and opposed in the sermon." He 
 explains his failure to except them from liis criti- 
 cisms by saying : " The views of Dr. Taylor and 
 'those who think with him,' on this particular 
 point, were unknown to me at the time. It is but 
 lately that those views have been developed, never 
 so fully before as in Dr. Fitch's review of my ser- 
 mon. That any set of men, holding on the article 
 of predestination the doctrine of James Arminius, 
 John Wesley, and the whole body of Methodists, 
 would call themselves Calvinists, never occurred to 
 me. This is all the apology I have to offer, and 
 whether or not it is sufficient the public must 
 judge." This position Dr. Fisk proves clearly. 
 One of the facts which went far to justify this as- 
 sertion was, that men like Drs. AVoods, Griffin, 
 Tyler, and Green also charged the New Haven di- 
 vines with rank Arminianism. While two classes 
 of Calvinists thus agreed with Dr. Fisk's state- 
 ments respecting these Calvinistic dogmas and 
 their logical consequences, " a third deny my defi- 
 nition of their doctrine. They say they are not 
 chargeable with such a doctrine, either directly or 
 by implication." This is the next issue. These 
 persons " deny that the responsible acts of moral 
 agents are definitely fixed and efficiently produced
 
 122 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 by the purpose and decree of God ; " that these 
 acts " are the residt of an overruling and control- 
 lino- power ; " " that the will, in all its operations, 
 is governed and irresistibly controlled by some 
 secret impulse, some fixed and all-controlling ar- 
 rangement." The aim is to prove that these are 
 the real traits of Calvinism. First, there is a uni- 
 versal consensus that such are the Calvinistic doc- 
 trines amongst anti - predestinarians. But many 
 predestinarians also ascribe these characteristics to 
 the system. This was openly done by the " Bos- 
 ton Telegraph " and the New Haven party. The 
 terms the Calvinists use are "decree," "predes- 
 tination," " f oreordination," "predetermination," 
 " purpose." The adjectives that commonly modify 
 these nouns are, " sovereign," " eternal," " immut- 
 able." " They are the secret counsels of his own 
 wiU; and so far from being law that often, per- 
 haps oftener than otherwise, in the moral world, 
 they are in direct opposition to the precepts of the 
 law. When these decrees come in conflict with the 
 law they supersede it. Laws may sometimes be 
 broken ; these decrees, never. God commits his 
 laws to subordinate moral agents, who may keep or 
 break them. But his decrees he executes himself." 
 In a controversy with Dr. Taylor, these persons 
 " strenuously maintain that sin, wherever it occurs, 
 is preferable to holiness in its stead, and is the 
 necessary means of the greatest good." 
 
 Dr. Chalmers, in a sermon on predestination, 
 says : —
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 123 
 
 " Every step of every incHvidual's character receives 
 as determinate a character from the hand of God as 
 every mile of a planet's orbit, or every gust of the wind, 
 or every wave of the sea, or every particle of flying 
 dust, or every rivulet of flowing water. This power of 
 God knows no exceptions : it is absolute and unlimited. 
 And while it embraces the vast, it carries its resistless 
 influence to all the minute and unnoticed diversities of 
 existence. It reigns and operates through all the secre- 
 cies of the inner man. It gives birth to every purpose, it 
 gives impulse to every desire, it gives color and shape to 
 every conception. It wields an entire ascendency over 
 every attribute of the mind : and the will, the fancy, and 
 the understanding, with all the countless variety of their 
 hidden and fugitive operations, are submitted to it. It 
 gives movement and direction through every one point 
 of our pilgrimage. At no moment of time does it aban- 
 don us. It follows us to the hour of death, and it car- 
 ries us to our place and to our everlasting destiny in the 
 region beyond it." 
 
 Calvinists uniformly use the same terms, " de- 
 cree," " predestination," etc., in the same sense in 
 regard to all necessary events. They say God's 
 decrees extend to all events, physical and moral, 
 good and evil. 
 
 To tell us a thousand times, without any distinc- 
 tion or discrimination, that all things are equally 
 the result of the divine decree, and then tell us 
 that the relation between God's decree and sin is 
 essentially different from the relation existing be- 
 tween his decree and holiness, would certainly be a 
 very singular and unwarrantable use of language.
 
 124 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 How, then, does God produce holy volitions ? Why, 
 say the Calvinists, by a direct, positive, and effi- 
 cient influence upon the will. Well, how does God 
 execute his decrees respecting unholy volitions? 
 Consistency requires the same reply. But, says the 
 Calvinist, he need not exert the same influence to 
 produce unholy volitions, because it is in accord- 
 ance with the nature of sinful men to sin. Indeed, 
 and is not this nature the result of a decree ? It 
 would seem that God approaches the work of exe- 
 cuting his decree respecting sin either more re- 
 luctantly or with greater difficulty, so that it re- 
 quires two steps to execute this, but only one the 
 other. It is, however, in both cases equally his 
 work. This wiE. be more clearly seen if we turn 
 our attention to the first sin ; for it is certainly as 
 much against a perfectly holy nature to commit 
 sin as it is against an unholy nature to have a 
 holy volition. Hence the one as much requires a 
 direct, positive influence as tlie other. 
 
 The theory of motives as related to volition runs, 
 " The power of volition is never excited, nor can 
 be, except in the presence and from the excitement 
 of motives. Hence the strongest motive rules the 
 will (see ' Views in Theology ').... Since God 
 creates both the mind and the motives, and brings 
 them together for the express purpose that the for- 
 mer should be swayed by the latter, it follows con- 
 clusively that God efficiently controls the will, and 
 produces all its volitions. It is stated in ' Views 
 in Theology ' that ' God is the determiner of per-
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 125 
 
 ceptions, and perceptions are the determiner of 
 clioiees.' Hence the inference, God is the deter- 
 miner of choices. 
 
 But it is urged, " ' We know that we are free and 
 responsible, because we are conscious of it.' If 
 this doctrine is true, I am not sure that I am free 
 and responsible because I feel that I am. I am 
 quite as conscious that I ought not to be held re- 
 sponsible for what is unavoidable as I am that I 
 am possessed of moral liberty." 
 
 What " constitutes man a free moral agent ? It 
 is the power of choice, connected with the liberty 
 to choose either good or e\'il. Both the power and 
 the liberty to choose either good or evil are requi- 
 site to constitute the free agency of a probationer." 
 " When asked, ' How can you reconcile with free 
 agency that kind of divine efficiency necessary to 
 secure the execution of the decrees, and that kind 
 of dejDendence of moral agents which this efficiency 
 implies ? ' the answer is, ' We cannot tell, — the 
 how in the case we cannot explain.' " 
 
 To this Dr. Fisk demurs : " When you say, ' God 
 executes his decrees by controlling the will of man,' 
 and also, ' The mind of man is free,' both these 
 propositions are clear ; there is nothing mysterious 
 about them. But you say, perhaps, ' The mystery 
 is, in want of light to see the agreement of the 
 two : ' we cannot see their agreement, but we should 
 not therefore infer that they do not agree. ' What 
 is light in this case but a clear perception of the 
 propositions ? ' This we have, and we see that they
 
 126 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 are in their nature incompatible ; and the more 
 light you pour upon them, the more clearly must 
 this incomjjatibility appear. If you say, ' Perhaps 
 neither you nor I fully understand these proposi- 
 tions,' I reply, ' We have no business to use them.' 
 ' Who is this that darkens counsel by words with- 
 out knowledge ? ' 
 
 " It is presumed, if the question came to this, 
 that they must either give up human liberty or 
 predestination, candid Calvinists themselves would 
 not hesitate ; they would say the former must 
 stand, whatever becomes of the latter. Hence, pre- 
 destinarians themselves being judges, the doctrine 
 of predestination is not so clear as some moral 
 truths. Hence man is not responsible for the inev- 
 itable, the divinely controlled elements of his life. 
 
 " Only one further theory needs to be particu- 
 larly noticed, because it is the most plausible of 
 all, so that, if this will not bear the test, it is prob- 
 able no other will ; and, second, because this is 
 the theory pretty generally, and perhaps almost 
 universally, adopted by Calvinists: I mean the 
 Calvinistic doctrine of motives. It is in substance 
 this : the power of choice is that power which the 
 mind has of acting in view of motives, and of de- 
 ciding according to the strongest motive. And 
 this relation between mind and motives is fixed by 
 the very constitution of our natures, so that it may 
 be said to be a constitutional necessity that the 
 mind should be controlled by motives. 
 
 " But all the arguments pleaded in favor of this
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 127 
 
 absolute subjection of one class of minds to the 
 absolute control of motives, hold equally well in 
 respect to all minds, hence, to the Divine Mind. 
 Here Edwards and Spinoza are absolutely in agree- 
 ment. Professor Upham states the doctrine in 
 these words : — 
 
 " ' Our condition in this respect seems to be essentially 
 the same with that of the Creator himself, — he is inev- 
 itably governed in all his doings by what is wisest and 
 best. It is believed there is no avoiding this conclusion ; 
 and what then ? Why, then, the doctrine makes God a 
 necessary agent, and leads to atheism. Of what use is 
 such a Deity ? Might we not as weU have none ? ' " 
 
 " This doctrine tends to materialism. Leibnitz 
 illustrates it in this way : 'It is as if a needle 
 touched with a loadstone were sensible of, and 
 pleased with, its turning to the north ; for it would 
 believe that it turned itself, independent of any 
 other cause, not perceiving the insensible motions 
 of the magnetic power.' This quotation is impor- 
 tant because it shows that one of the most philo- 
 sophical defenders of this doctrine considered the 
 law of motive influence similar to magnetic attrac- 
 tion, differing only in being accompanied by sen- 
 sation and a deceptive consciousness." As the 
 choices of the human mind obey their motives 
 as assuredly as physical effects come from their 
 causes, this doctrine delights in illustration drawn 
 from the realm of physics, — a realm where all 
 shadow of freedom has visibly disappeared. Hence 
 Edwards " compares our volitions to the vibrations
 
 128 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 of a scale beam, the different ends of whicli are 
 respectively elevated or de23ressed as the weights 
 vary." 
 
 A further objection is, that this theory destroys 
 the very existence of self-originated action. And 
 yet another trouble is, " it leads to the notion of 
 conversion by moral suasion merely. If motives 
 govern the wdll absolutely, all you need to convert 
 a sinner is to bring a motive strong enough to 
 make him choose God as his chief good, and he is 
 converted. Well might a divine of this cast, whom 
 I heard preach not long since, say of regeneration, 
 ' There is nothing supernatural or miraculous in 
 it.' For surely it is one of the most natural things 
 in the world to be converted. It is only to be op- 
 erated upon by motive, according to the law of his 
 natural constitution, and the man is converted." 
 
 Over against all these favorite theoi-ies of a nat- 
 ural ability or a gracious ability in unregenerate 
 man to obey God and gain heaven, which were in- 
 vented by their aiithors to save their theories from 
 fatal embarrassment, though the theories are as 
 incajjable of salvation as reprobate souls. Dr. Fisk 
 set up the Methodist article, " The condition of 
 man after the fall of Adam is such that he can- 
 not turn and prepare himself, by his own natural 
 strength and works, to faith and calling upon 
 God : wherefore we have no power to do good 
 works, pleasant and acceptable unto God, without 
 the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we 
 may have a good will, and working with us when
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 129 
 
 we have that good will," With this view Dr. Fisk 
 has no trouble in showing that the older Calvin- 
 ists, like the Synod of Dort and Calvin, agreed. 
 The Synod says of man after the fall, " Man is 
 but a slave to sin, and has nothing of himself, un- 
 less it is given him from heaven." " They be- 
 lieved that whenever this grace was imparted to an 
 extent to restore to the mind the power of choos- 
 ing good, it was regenerating grace ; while the Ar- 
 minians believe that grace may and does restore 
 the power to choose good before regeneration." 
 
 Then we find " that God actually gives grace to 
 those who finally perish. It is said even of the 
 unregenerate that they grieve, resist, and quench 
 the spirit of grace. God gives grace to the repro- 
 bates that their condemnation may be the more 
 affofravated." The aro-ument stands thus : " God 
 gives grace to the reprobates for some important 
 purpose. He does not give it that salvation may 
 be possible to them ; without it they can be saved. 
 He does not give it to make salvation certain, for 
 this it does not effect ; nevertheless he gives them 
 grace, the invariable effect of which is to increase 
 their condemnation." 
 
 To assume that reprobates have ability, whether 
 natural or moral, to obey God, leaves it possible 
 that some reprobate may use his powers so as to 
 gain eternal life. So, too, an elect soul may use 
 its natural power of obedience long before grace 
 has visited it, — a new kind of salvation by the 
 works of the law. The Scriptures abundantly
 
 130 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 teach this doctrine of human inability : " Without 
 me ye can do nothing ; " "no man caii come unto 
 me except the Father draw him." All the other 
 schools of Calvinists agree in calling Dr. Taylor's 
 theory, that a man can regenerate himself, Pelagian 
 error. 
 
 Some make God the sole agent, and man purely 
 passive, in regeneration. The Pelagian error leaves 
 man free from any perilous defect until his own 
 choice should make him sinful. With such a 
 view of the nature of conversion, infants who die 
 before the age of responsible action must face 
 another life with no character whatever. As the 
 whole work of regeneration lies in a change of 
 volitions, man is in no absolute dependence on the 
 Holy Ghost. He becomes his own Saviour. 
 
 Methodists " say ' the saving grace of God hath 
 appeared unto all men ; ' and that this grace so 
 enlightens, strengthens, and aids the human mind 
 that it is thereby enabled to make that choice 
 which is the turning-point, conditionally, of the 
 soul's salvation ; and that it is by this same gra- 
 cious aid that the man, when he has this good will, 
 is enabled to work out his salvation to the end. 
 
 "We believe that the merits of the atonement 
 are so available in behalf of the human family that 
 the guilt of depravity is not imputed to the subject 
 of it until, by intelligent volitions, he makes the 
 guilt his own by resisting and rejecting the grace 
 of the gospel ; and that, being thus by grace in a 
 justified state, the dying infant is entitled to all 
 the blessings of the new covenant."
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 131 
 
 Dr. Fisk closes a long discussion of the various 
 views of natural and moral ability with the fol- 
 lowing summary, with which we shall have to be 
 content, instead of giving the details of his reason- 
 ing : " 1. Adam did not render himself incapable 
 of sinning by the fall, but rather rendered him- 
 self and his posterity incapable of any other moral 
 exercise but what was sinful ; and it was on this 
 account that a gracious ability was necessary in 
 order to a second probation. 2. Sin, since the 
 fall, has not been the result of supernatural grace, 
 but the natural fruit of the fall ; and supernatural 
 grace is all that has counteracted sin. 3. Man 
 needed the grace of God, both because he was 
 wicked and because he was weak. 4. The moral 
 difference between one man and another is to be 
 ascribed to God and not themselves. We say the 
 sinful nature of man is changed in regeneration 
 by the power of the Holy Ghost. 5. The posterity 
 of Adam did need a Saviour to atone for actual 
 sin. For actual sin is the result, not of gracious 
 power, as some think, but of a sinful nature vol- 
 untarily retained and indulged. 6. This opinion 
 is perfectly consistent with the doctrine of grace. 
 7. There is constant guilt in the present rebellion 
 of the infernal regions. 8. This grace is a greater 
 blessing to our race than the fall of Adam was a 
 calamity, for where sin abounded grace did much 
 more abound. 
 
 To clear the ground for his own discussion of 
 the doctrine of regeneration, the erroneous views
 
 132 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 are first examined by Dr. Fislc. Tlie first is the 
 theory that man is entirely passive in regeneration, 
 or, if active, active only in opposition. The sec- 
 ond is the theory of self - conversion. Here the 
 spirit " acts in some indefinable way through the 
 truth as an instrument. The truth acts on the 
 mind in the way of moral suasion, and the sinner, 
 in the view and by the influence of truth, resolves 
 to give himself to God and to his service, and this 
 is regeneration. 
 
 These views of regeneration are carefully tested, 
 and shown to be inconsistent with the dictates of 
 common sense and with the declarations of Scrip- 
 ture. Dr. Fisk thinks these views exhaust the 
 possibilities of the Calvinistical system. " There 
 can be but two alternatives: either God must 
 renew the heart, independent of all cooperation on 
 the part of the subject of this change, — and this 
 is the old doctrine of unconditional divine effi- 
 ciency, — or the first acceptable act of the will 
 must be regeneration ; and this is the new doctrine 
 of self-conversion." 
 
 At last Dr. risk states the Scripture doctrine of 
 regeneration as follows : — 
 
 1. The work of regeneration is performed by the 
 direct and efficient operation of the Holy Spirit 
 upon the heart. 
 
 2. The Holy Spirit exerts this regenerating 
 power only on conditions to be complied with by 
 the subject of the change. The first statement 
 would be denied only by Socinians (whose \'iews
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 133 
 
 are not debated), and the persons whose views he 
 has just subjected to such a critical discussion as 
 entitled hiui to leave them in order to discuss the 
 conditionality of the work of the Holy Ghost in 
 the resreneration of men. 
 
 " If I were called on to give a general definition 
 of Calvinism that would include all the species that 
 claim the name, I would say, Calvinists are those 
 who believe in unconditional regeneration. For 
 the moment this point is given up by any one, all 
 ao'ree that he is not a Calvinist." 
 
 The Scriptures themselves do not condemn a 
 conditional new birth. The difficulties raised are 
 mainly of a metaphysical nature : such are, a de- 
 praved sinner cannot perform an acceptable condi- 
 tion until he is regenerated ; God cannot consist- 
 ently accept any act short of that which constitutes 
 regeneration ; that the idea of conditional regener- 
 ation implies salvation by works, in part at least, 
 and not wholly by grace. 
 
 Neglecting a present response to these objec- 
 tions, an account is given of those characteristics 
 of the mind which are the basis of the ability to 
 perform conditions acceptable to God. 1. Con- 
 science lays the foundation of the notions of right 
 and wrong, so that we feel approval or disapproval 
 of our conduct, . . . and even in an unregenerate 
 state this susceptibility often operates in accord- 
 ance with its original design, and therefore agree- 
 ably to the Divine Will. 
 
 The intellect may, in an unregenerate state, be
 
 134 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 SO enlightened and informed on the subject of 
 divine truth as to perceive right and wrong, and 
 to perceive, to some extent, the way of salvation 
 pointed out in the gospel. 
 
 That the affections (often called the heart) are 
 the principal seat of depravity, and that these are 
 often arrayed in direct opposition to the convic- 
 tions of the judgment, and the feelings of moral 
 obligation. 
 
 That the will, or volitional power, while it is 
 more or less, directly or indirectly, influenced by 
 the judgment, the conscience, and the affections, 
 is designed to give unity and direction to the 
 whole mental action. And it always accomplishes 
 this where there is a proper harmony in the men- 
 tal powers. The unholy affections have gained 
 an undue ascendency, so that in the unregenerate, 
 in all questions of preference between God and 
 the world, despite conscience, judgment, will, the 
 world is loved and God is hated. 
 
 That in those cases where we cannot control our 
 affections by a direct volition, we may, under the 
 promptings of conscience and in the light of the 
 judgment, resolve against sin ; but these resolutions 
 will be carried away and overruled by the strength 
 of the carnal mind. This shows us our weakness 
 and drives us to self-despair, until, under the en- 
 lightening influence of grace, and the drawings of 
 the Spirit, the soul is led to prayer and to an abdi- 
 cation of itself into the hands of the Divine Mercy 
 through Christ ; and then^ and on these conditions^
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 136 
 
 the Holy Spirit changes the character and current 
 of the unholy affections : and this is regeneration. 
 
 " It is objected that the action of the mind 
 under such motives is purely selfish. . . . This 
 objection to a mental act, merely because it is 
 prompted by self-love, has always been to me a 
 matter of wonder. All alike condemn selfishness. 
 But that self-love which leads us to seek our own 
 highest interests, and especially our eternal inter- 
 ests, without injury to others, and in accordance 
 with the Divine Will, is never thought criminal, 
 except where one has a particular system to serve 
 by such a notion." 
 
 To this enslavement of the will by sin it is ob- 
 jected that it destroys accountability, since no man 
 is to blame for what he cannot avoid. " But I 
 have not said they cannot avoid it ; I assert di- 
 rectly the contrary. Every probationer decides 
 ■whether he will be holy." This enthrallment of 
 the will to sin is strongly depicted in the last part 
 of the seventh and the first part of the eighth 
 chapters of the Epistle to the Romans. " I see 
 another law in my members, warring against the 
 law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity 
 to the law of sin in my members." ..." For the 
 good that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I 
 woidd not, that I do." The same appears in Gal. 
 V. 17 : " For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, 
 and the Spirit against the flesh ; and these are con- 
 trary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the 
 things ye would." After setting aside various ob-
 
 136 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 jections to his views, Dr. Fisk sums up the condi- 
 tional aspects of regeneration as follows : — 
 
 " Faith seems to be the exclusive channel through 
 which every gracious effect is produced on the mind. 
 The sinner cannot be awakened without faith, for it 
 precedes every judgment in favor of truth, and every 
 motion of moral feeUng, and of course every favorable 
 concurrence of the will. The sinner never could throw 
 himself upon the Divine mercy, never would embrace 
 Christ as his Saviour, until he believed. Hence the 
 Scriptures lay such great stress upon faith, and make 
 it the grand, and indeed the only immediate, condition 
 of the work of grace upon the heart. Repentance is a 
 condition only remotely in order to a justifying faith, 
 agreeably to the teaching of Christ : ' And ye, when ye 
 had heard, afterward repented not, that ye might be- 
 lieve on him.' But faith is necessary immediately, as 
 that mental state directly antecedent to the giving up 
 the soul into the hands of the Divine mercy. And shall 
 we still be told that faith is not the condition of regener- 
 ation ? The order of the work seems to be : 1. A degree 
 of faith in order to repentance ; 2. Repentance, in or- 
 der to such an increase of faith as will lead the soul to 
 throw itself upon Christ ; 3. The giving up the soul 
 to Christ as the only ground of hope ; 4. The change 
 of heart by the efficient operation of the Holy Spirit. 
 Now, on whichever of these four stages of the process, 
 except the first, the objector lays his finger and says, 
 That is not a condition of regeneration, for it is regen- 
 eration itself, it will be seen that that very part, call it 
 regeneration or what you will, is conditional. If, for 
 instance, he fix on the second stage, and contend that
 
 THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 137 
 
 that is regeneration, which I call repentance in order to 
 regenerating faith, — even that would be conditional, for 
 this repentance is preceded by faith ; and so of all that 
 follow. And surely no one will contend that what I call 
 the first stage, the faith which precedes awakening and 
 remorse of conscience, and the exciting alternations of 
 hope and fear in the anxious and inquiring sinnei*, is 
 regeneration."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 
 
 The report of the Committee on Education to 
 the General Conference in 1828 was a long; and 
 able document drawn by Wilbur Fisk. It begins 
 with a statement of the efforts already made in 
 different conferences to comply with the instruc- 
 tions of the Conference of 1820, that classical 
 schools should be established within the bounds 
 and under the patronage of the annual confer- 
 ences. The work is summarized as follows : — 
 
 " In review of the whole, we find the successful efforts 
 in the different conferences to promote the cause of liter- 
 ature and science have increased very considerably since 
 the last General Conference. There are six or seven 
 promising institutions in successful operation, two of 
 them having college charters, namely, Madison College 
 and Augusta College, which are already prepared to take 
 students through a regular course, and confer upon them 
 the ordinary degrees and literary honors of such insti- 
 tutions, and hold forth encouragements and assurances 
 that authorize us to commend them to the jmtronage of 
 our friends. Other institutions are advancing to the 
 same standing, and several more are contemplated and 
 will soon be in operation. It is a matter that calls for 
 special gratitude to God that revivals of religion are so
 
 THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 139 
 
 frequent in our colleges. This ought to encourage and 
 stimulate our people to patronize these institutions. . . . 
 " The subject of education ought to be considered of 
 special importance and of special interest to Methodist 
 ministers, both as it respects their own usefulness and 
 that of their families. A cultivated church will have a 
 cultivated ministry." 
 
 The report ends with these resokitions : — 
 
 " 1. Our people are not sufficiently awake as yet to 
 establish a university for the whole connection. 
 
 " 2. Not half the conferences are yet provided with 
 academies under their own patronage, and we think it 
 more congenial with our religion, our civil government, 
 and the good of society to make provision for the com- 
 mon instruction of the many before we exert ourselves 
 to endow and establish a university for the/ew. 
 
 *' It is still questionable whether, even for the most 
 liberal course of education, one university for the whole 
 connection would, on the whole, be so well patronized 
 and attended as two or three. 
 
 " Single conferences, or groups of two or three con- 
 ferences, should establish seminaries that shall promote 
 literature, morality, industry, and a practical knowledge 
 of the arts of useful life. . . . God will give success to 
 their labors, so that not only their own children but 
 future generations will rise up and call them blessed." 
 
 In Cazenovia, New York, and Kent's Hill, 
 Maine, academies had been established like that 
 at Wilbraham. Here young men were prepared 
 for college, but when they were ready no Metho- 
 dist college could readily be found to take the 
 further charge of their education. It was obvious
 
 140 WILBUR FJSK. 
 
 that such a condition of things could not continue 
 with safety. There was much talk of expanding 
 the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham into a col- 
 lege. The people of Bridgeport, Conn., and of 
 Troy, N. Y., put forth efforts to secure the estab- 
 lishment of the i^roposed college amongst them- 
 selves. The " American Literary, Scientific, and 
 Military Academy " had been opened at Middle- 
 town, Conn., in 1825, by Captain Alden Partridge, 
 the fu-st superintendent of the United States Mili- 
 tary Academy at West Point. Failure to obtain 
 a charter in Connecticut ultimately led Captain 
 Partridge to remove his institution to Norwich, 
 Vt. 
 
 Thus the two solid and spacious stone buildings 
 erected for the use of the military school, with the 
 grounds and other property, were left unoccupied. 
 This entire propei'ty, valued at f 30,000, was of- 
 fered to a joint committee of the New York and 
 the New England Conferences on two conditions : 
 first, that it should always be used as a university; 
 and, second, that $40,000 should be raised for an 
 endowment fund. This fund was soon raised, a 
 board of trustees appointed, and the college was 
 established under the name of " The Wesleyan 
 University." 
 
 At the first meeting of the Joint Board of 
 Trustees and Visitors of the infant college. Dr. 
 Fisk was elected President of Wesleyan Univer- 
 sity. After some hesitation, an answer was sent 
 in these terms : — •
 
 THE EDUCATOR.— WESLETAN UNIVERSITY. 141 
 
 "To the Joint Board of Trustees and Visitors of the 
 Wesleyan U)iiversity now in session at Middletown, 
 Conn. 
 
 " Gentlemen, — With a high seuse of the confidence 
 reposed in me by a majority of your board, in electing 
 me president of your proposed university, I tender you 
 my sincere and grateful acknowledgments. I have a 
 deep conviction of my own inability to perform the im- 
 portant and responsible duties connected with this ap- 
 pointment. In accordance, however, with the judgment 
 of my friends, and in reliance upon the cordial and 
 united aid of the board, and of the colleagues who have 
 been or may be appointed, and especially in a humble 
 reliance upon Almighty God, without whose assistance 
 the most gifted labor in vain, I will engage to the ex- 
 tent of my ability in the service of the board, in the 
 discharge of the duties assigned me, as soon as I can, in 
 honor and justice, disengage myself from my present 
 relation to another institution. 
 
 " W. FiSK." 
 
 It was not until the ensuing spring tliat Dr. 
 risk removed his family from AVilbrahani to 
 Middletown. Had Dr. Fisk had his o\\ti way, 
 the opening of the college would have been de- 
 ferred until the fall of 1832, that the intervening 
 time miglit be devoted to the work of making the 
 best possible arrangements for svich an enterprise. 
 The halls of the University were thrown open for 
 the admission of students the 21st of September, 
 1831, with appropriate ceremonies. From the 
 Inaugural Address of Dr. Fisk we gather the 
 scope, peculiarities, and the prospects of the new
 
 142 WILBUR F/SK. 
 
 institution. His theme was, "The Science of 
 Education." 
 
 Education aims at two things, — the good of the 
 educated man, and the good of the world. Omit- 
 ting the first point as too evident to be debated, 
 attention is drawn to arguments to show that edu- 
 cation should look steadily at the improvement of 
 the world. The greater ease of travel and commu- 
 nication these days renders mutual interest and 
 mutual acquaintance most natural and desirable. 
 " The general interests of learning, and the mutual 
 alliance of the friends of literature, also greatly 
 increase this general union. These, though scat- 
 tered over the world, form a republic of them- 
 selves, and are drawn together by cords that no 
 distance can attenuate, and bound by connections 
 that no vanities can sever. They all drink from 
 the same fountains without jealousy, and climb 
 up the same intellectual elevations without envy ; 
 for the attainments of each are the property of 
 all." The Christianity of the age sees in every 
 man a brother, and in every land a fresh realm of 
 Christ. The same spirit has free sweep in the 
 political world. 
 
 Under these circumstance the function of Chris- 
 tian education becomes very sei'ious: "Ministers 
 and merchants, lawyers and physicians, teachers 
 and statesmen, farmers and mechanics, authors and 
 artists, all are wanted in this work, and wanted 
 in greater abundance than can be supplied." He 
 would have men of all professions alike serve God
 
 TEE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 143 
 
 in their professional careers, and will have it that 
 any lower view is base and pernicious. He thinks 
 that nowhere else are there so many or such good 
 materials for such an education as here in New 
 England. 
 
 " A young man thus educated is prepared for active 
 life. He is prepared to rely upon himself ; his habits 
 of industry and economy are formed ; and he, of all 
 others, is the man for the great interests of the world." 
 
 Next he asks what tone and character should be 
 given to the minds of the pupils, what knowledge 
 imparted to secure these great purposes. 
 
 Education should procure the physical, the in- 
 tellectual, and moral perfection of its recipients. 
 If a man cannot combine great knowledge with 
 great usefulness, let him prefer usefulness. " The 
 great object which we propose to ourselves in the 
 work of education is to supply, as far as we may, 
 men who will be both wnlling and competent to 
 effect the political, intellectual, and spiritual regen- 
 eration of the world." 
 
 With the best mental training should go very 
 careful attention to bodily health. Dr. Fisk was 
 still, though not without some misgiving, inclined 
 to rate the physical exertion of farming or of 
 working in shops, the best form of physical exer- 
 cise. " The mind should be cultivated with direct 
 reference to the object of making the pupil a man 
 of enterprise and acti^dty. Everything that is 
 calculated to call forth such a spirit should be
 
 144 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 cherished, and everything which discourages it 
 should be discountenanced." Independence, self- 
 dependence, intellectual alertness, and enlightened 
 and universal benevolence, are traits which educa- 
 tion ought to bring out into rich and effective 
 operation. 
 
 " Modern literature, the natural and exact sciences, 
 and the application of the sciences to the useful arts, 
 are first in importance in a useful education. Next in 
 order I would place mental and moral philosophy, and 
 the kindred sciences ; last, and least in consequence for 
 the great portion of students, I would place ancient 
 literature, the graces of learning, and the fine arts. . . . 
 If a knowledge of the ancient languages were of no 
 other importance than to preserve the purity of the 
 Holy Scriptures, and secure a correct translation of 
 them into other languages, this of itself would keep 
 them in credit, and make a critical study of them neces- 
 sary. . . . 
 
 " It may be proper that most students, who have an 
 opportunity of commencing their education early and 
 of pursuing it without embarrassment, should obtain 
 some general knowledge of the Greek and Latin lan- 
 guages ; especially as there is an age in the development 
 of the youthful mind in which language can be pursued 
 to greater advantage than any other study. And if, at 
 that age, a good foundation can be laid for a knowledge 
 of etymology, of philology in general, and for a more 
 ready attainment of the modern languages, this might 
 be advantageous to the pu2)il." 
 
 After touching upon the whole material side of 
 education with breadth and liberality, Dr. Fisk 
 says : —
 
 THE EDUCATOR.- WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 145 
 
 " The proper organization of the board of instruction 
 is a matter of great moment and of difficult attainment. 
 All agree that they should be united among themselves ; 
 that they should be men of learning, apt to teach, in- 
 dustrious in their habits, energetic and enterprising in 
 their character, interested in their work, and faithful in 
 the performance of their duties. But how to obtain 
 such men, how to keep them after they are put in place, 
 and how to get rid of them if they do not prove such, 
 are questions that have never been satisfactorily settled. 
 After the greatest precautions, improper persons may be 
 introduced into the board of instruction." 
 
 To hinder such dangers Dr. Fisk would have 
 the faculty partners in filling every vacancy in 
 their board, have the salary rise with the growing 
 success of each officer, and have incompetent in- 
 structors removed from office. 
 
 " A college corporation should have a committee to 
 examine into the standing of their officers of instruction, 
 as regularly as one to audit the accounts of their treas- 
 urer. And to do this it is not necessary to examine 
 these officers. Their official character will be written 
 on the mind of their pupils, and may be known and read 
 of all men. It has been well said, that ' he who cannot 
 put his mark upon a student is not fit to have one.' ^ 
 Let it be a condition of office, that when a teacher's 
 pupils are deficient, he must give place to another." 
 
 As to government, he would have it proceed 
 wholly from the faculty. 
 
 " A code of statute laws for the officers to execute 
 among the students will never be respected. . . . The 
 1 Dr. F. Wayland.
 
 146 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 intercourse between the student and the president and 
 professors should be of an affectionate and familiar char- 
 acter. I cannot close these remarks on the subject of 
 government without giving my decided testimony in fa- 
 vor of a moral and religious influence to aid in the gov- 
 ernment of youth. This is of paramount importance. 
 Several years' experience in the government of a liter- 
 ary institution has convinced me that there is nothing 
 like it. With such an influuence, government is easy; 
 without it, good government is impossible." 
 
 In reference to the classification and gradua- 
 tion of students, Dr. Fisk would have had the old 
 method of arranging them by years given up, in 
 order that they might be distributed in all the 
 departments in which they were studying any 
 given year. In this way class distinctions based 
 on time would be done away, and you could only 
 learn by the college catalogues in how many de- 
 partments a man was at work, and how far ad- 
 vanced he was in each. By this method it was 
 thought that the less faithful or less able students 
 might be retained in college until they could pass 
 a satisfactory examination in all their work, while 
 the abler men might be graduated on the actual 
 completion of their course ; while weak and shiftless 
 students would not obtain their diplomas merely 
 because they had been four years in college, and 
 had taken in as much scholarship as would just 
 pass them uji at the end of each year. The uned- 
 ucated graduate ought to disappear. 
 
 It is certain that Dr. Fisk overestimated the
 
 THE EDUCATOR. —WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 147 
 
 efficiency of his measures to suppress the uned- 
 ucated graduate. It is also certain that the new 
 mode of classification did not attract a large num- 
 ber of students, whose circumstances or age com- 
 pelled them to forego a classical education, to the 
 Scientific Course he had blocked out for them with 
 the appropriate degree of Bachelor of Science. Of 
 the one hundred and fifteen who graduated under 
 the presidency of Dr. Fisk only five took the sci- 
 ence degree, while all the rest took the regular 
 classical degrees. In 1836 the students were first 
 classified by their year in college and not by de- 
 partments, an innovation which has proved per- 
 manent. After a year or two the salaries of the 
 professors were equalized. Thus two features of 
 the institution upon which Dr. Fisk laid great 
 stress disappeared forever. The scheme of turn- 
 ing the daily exercise of the students into profita- 
 ble farm-work or shop-work remained a dream, in 
 spite of much talking and some vigorous resolving 
 on its behalf. So, one after another, the vision- 
 ary elements of the new scheme were detected and 
 thrown aside. The Classical Course has main- 
 tained itself to this day. The English and Scien- 
 tific Course is represented by two courses, the Sci- 
 entific and Latin - Scientific Courses. It was not 
 until the other courses were made nearly equal to 
 the Classical in the preparation required for enter- 
 ing them, and the time and labor demanded for 
 successfully executing them, that the non-classical 
 or half-classical students felt their position respect-
 
 148 WILBUR FJSK. 
 
 able and respected. But while these varying plans 
 were being tested thus by actual experiment, and 
 the administration was shaped in harmony with the 
 logic of actual results, Dr. Fisk was creating a new 
 colleo:e under circumstances which showed the hand 
 of a master builder. We have already seen how 
 difficult and how important he deemed the obtain- 
 ing and retaining of a proper faculty. If we con- 
 sider with due care all the conditions under which 
 the first faculty was collected and organized, we 
 shall see how wise the mind that planned and how 
 skillful the brain which pondered the conditions of 
 the development of this facvdty. The first charter 
 of Wesleyan University provided that men of any 
 religious creed might become students in Wesleyan 
 University, and that no religious test should be 
 exacted of any person elected to any office in the 
 institution. At first, this principle was carried 
 out by the election of certain officers who were 
 not members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. 
 Certain facts must be borne in mind if we would 
 understand how difficult this especial task, the 
 creation of a proper faculty, was. First, the sala- 
 ries offered were not such as would attract able 
 men from the service of other colleges ; and there 
 were no other Methodist colleges from which 
 trained men could be di-awn. The only places 
 where men were to be found who had obtained 
 any experience in teaching were the seminaries at 
 Wilbraham, Cazenovia, White Plains, and Kent's 
 Hill. It was even more important than it was
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. 149 
 
 difficult to obtain the best man for each place from 
 such stinted sources of supply ; for the fame of the 
 wrong man in any place travels swifter and further 
 than the countervailing success of his colleagues 
 can. Then the removal of an unfit man is slow 
 and painful and harmful. Let us look at the 
 names of the men who were members of the faculty 
 of Wesleyan University in Dr. Fisk's days. They 
 were, Rev. John Mott Smith, the Rev. John Price 
 Durbin, Mr. Augustus W. Smith, the Rev. Jacob 
 r. Huber, Lieut. W. W. Mather, Rev. D. D. 
 Whedon, the Rev. Joseph Holdich, Mr. John 
 Johnston, Mr. William Magoun, Mr. Willard M. 
 Rice, the Rev. William M. Willitt, Mr. Loren L. 
 Knox, Oliver P. Hubbard, and D. H. Chase. 
 
 Li Methodist circles it would be lost pains to 
 praise John Price Durbin, the famous pulpit 
 orator, chaplain to the United States Senate, and 
 known world-wide for his brilliant career as mis- 
 sionary secretary. Mr. Augustus W. Smith, 
 LL. D., after a brilliant career as Professor of 
 Mathematics in the Wesleyan University, was 
 elected the fourth president of the college in 1852, 
 which office he filled acceptably until 1857. Rev. 
 Daniel D. AVhedon, after a promising career as 
 head of classical studies in Wesleyan University, 
 entered the ministry for a few years, when he be- 
 came a professor in the University of Michigan, 
 where he continued until driven away, by growing 
 deafness and political management, from the work 
 of teaching. In 1856 Dr. Whedon was elected
 
 150 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 editor of the " Methodist Quarterly Review," an 
 office in which he was continued, by successive 
 quadrennial reelections, twenty-eight years. Dr. 
 Whedon was one of the most brilliant and pains- 
 taking of American editors. His work on the 
 " Freedom of the Will," his " Commentary on the 
 New Testament," intended for popular use, and 
 two volumes of Essays, show powers of the high- 
 est range and capacity. Mr. John Johnston was 
 for forty-two years Professor of Natural Science 
 in Wesleyan University. Rev. Joseph Holdich, 
 though not a college graduate, was a capable, indus- 
 trious, and useful college officer, until he was made 
 one of the secretaries of the American Bible Society, 
 an office in which he served the church with great 
 fidelity, until the failure of his sight compelled his 
 retirement. The other professor of those days, 
 the Rev, John Mott Smith, was a graduate of Co- 
 lumbia College, who had been engaged in teach- 
 ing several years before he was made Professor 
 of Ancient Languages at the organization of the 
 new faculty. Mr. Smith was cut off suddenly ere 
 his work at the college had gone beyond its begin- 
 ning's. Those who had the best means for know- 
 ing him and his work felt that his career, had his 
 life been spared, would have been as brilliant and 
 useful as that of any other member of this remark- 
 able faculty. The office of tutor in that early 
 time was held by Mr. William Magoun, Oliver P. 
 Hubbard, Daniel H. Chase, Mr. Willard M. Rice, 
 Rev. W. M. Willitt, and Mr. Loren L. Knox.
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. 151 
 
 Lieutenant W. W. Mather was acting-Professor of 
 Natural Science at Wesleyan University for the 
 year 1833-34. The same faultless judgment which 
 found the right man for every professorship that 
 was established, was apparent also in the selections 
 for the minor positions in the board of instruction. 
 Lieutenant Mather was a graduate of the Military 
 Academy at "West Point, who had been an assist- 
 ant there in the same studies which he was em- 
 ployed to teach at Wesleyan University. His 
 subsequent military and scientific career shows his 
 fitness for services of a high order in his favorite 
 lines of study. Mr. Oliver P. Hubbard, a graduate 
 of Yale College, gave sure token as tutor in Wes- 
 leyan University of fitness for advancement to a 
 college professorship, which he won at Dartmouth. 
 Mr. Daniel H. Chase, the first graduate of Wes- 
 leyan University, here opened brilliantly his career 
 of life-lonof service in the cause of education. Mr. 
 W. M. Rice has had an honorable and useful 
 career in the pastoral service of the Presbyterian 
 Church; while Mr. Knox and Mr. Willitt have 
 been quite as distinguished pastors in the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church. Mr. William Magoun, 
 a graduate of Brown University in the year 1823, 
 ran a somewhat peculiar career, but one of such 
 hiffh distinction as to show that he was a man of 
 marked endowments and eminent culture. He 
 taught in Brooklyn and New York after leaving 
 MiddletowTi ; then practiced law awhile in New 
 York, when he became private secretary and tutor
 
 152 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 in the family of Hon. Nathan Niles, United States 
 charge cVajfaires at Turin, Italy. In this and 
 similar positions he continued to act until 1871. 
 In 1867-68 he was consular agent of the United 
 States for Turin and the provinces. He taught 
 Italian and English in Turin, and was once Eng- 
 lish tutor to the royal family at Turin. He died 
 there in 1871. He was a gentleman of courtly 
 manners, varied and elegant accomplishments, and 
 greatly loved and trusted by his acquaintances. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact that none of the men 
 appointed to different positions on the board of in- 
 struction in Dr. Fisk's days was removed from it 
 on account of dissatisfaction with the quality of 
 his work. Death and calls to better positions else- 
 where were the sole ground of the only changes 
 made in the first faculty of the Wesleyan Univer- 
 sity, with a single exception, Professor Huber, the 
 first Professor of Modern Languages. Mr. Huber 
 had studied in the Gymnasium of Basle, his native 
 place, so that German was his mother tongue, 
 while his knowledge of French, Spanish and Ital- 
 ian was broad and accurate. He had already 
 served five years as instructor in modern languages 
 in Dickinson College, when he came to Wesleyan. 
 Mr. Huber's department was one about which Dr. 
 Fisk had no personal ability to decide, and was 
 one where he was compelled to trust to recommen- 
 dations from others. Such commendations Mr. 
 Huber must have been able to present. The only 
 fault ever charged to Mr. Huber was a want of 
 self-control.
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 153 
 
 This simple story is enough to reveal the re- 
 markable gift for organization and administration 
 of Wilbur Fisk. As we see this set of seminary 
 teachers gradually transformed into a college fac- 
 ulty which so far commanded public respect and 
 confidence as to collect a body of one hundred and 
 fifty students around them long before Wilbur 
 risk's death, we are involuntarily reminded of the 
 story of the artist's apprentice, who was employed 
 merely to aid his master in such j)arts of the work 
 of fashioning a gorgeous cathedral window into a 
 splendid artistic masterpiece as could be wrought 
 by rude and untaught hands, but whose untutored 
 hands wrought the broken and rejected fragments, 
 which had been flung aside as worthless, into such 
 a matcliless creation of peerless art as far outshone 
 his own master's masterpiece. If there was a bet- 
 ter or wiser administration in the early days of any 
 other New England college than this, it has not 
 come to my knowledge. 
 
 In his relations with the other members of the 
 faculty, Dr. Fisk was as nearly a model as we may 
 well hope to see. He took a very friendly attitude 
 towards every associate in the board of instruction, 
 for he felt profoundly the importance of prompt- 
 ing every man to the greatest exertion in the im- 
 provement of his powers of mind and opportunities 
 for usefulness. He knew everything about them 
 in their relation to the coUege and the public by 
 observation, by inquiry, by conversation. When 
 he was absent for any time, a frank and detailed
 
 154 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 correspondence kept him informed as to the turn 
 things were taking during his absence. Thus was 
 such an atmosphere of vitality, of hopefulness, and 
 of mutual affection created as would readily bring 
 the college instruction to a high degree of effi- 
 ciency. If the income of the college was not al- 
 ways sufficient to pay all the salaries of the offi- 
 cers, the only salary which was ever suffered to go 
 unpaid was President Fisk's. This was probably 
 the result of the president's natural thoughtfulness 
 for others, though it was also the dictate of the 
 soundest business principles. 
 
 Of the instruction of President Fisk, Dr. Hol- 
 dich says : — 
 
 " He generally heard only one daily recitation, and at- 
 tended to the weekly exei'cises in composition and decla- 
 mation. The subjects included in his course of instruc- 
 tion were such as are common in most American colleges 
 in the junior and senior years, embracing Rhetoric, 
 Evidences of Christianity, Logic, Ethics, Mental Philos- 
 ophy, with Political Economy, and the Elements of 
 Constitutional Law. His recitations were always con- 
 ducted from a text-book, but without a servile adherence 
 to the author ; and his mode of questioning was adapted 
 to ascertain both how closely the students had studied 
 the lesson, and how far they understood the subject. He 
 allowed, and even encouraged, the utmost freedom on 
 the part of the class ; took pains to awaken interest ; 
 patiently listened to what any member had to say ; and 
 satisfied, as far as possible, all inquirers. Frequently he 
 would illustrate the lesson by some stroke of humor or 
 a pleasant anecdote ; always taking care, however, to
 
 THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 155 
 
 maintain a proper dignity while thus ministering at once 
 to instruction and entertainment. In short his inter- 
 course with his chisses had more the air of familiar con- 
 verse than of formal recitations. He seemed to address 
 them ex animo rather than ex cathedra. Thus he not 
 only kept the mind of the student constantly on the alert, 
 but also united in a good degree the advantages both 
 of recitations and lectures. Courses of lectures he did 
 not deliver, either because he preferred the other mode 
 of teaching, or because his various engagements did not 
 allow him to prepare them. But he delivered lectures 
 occasionally, either on such portions of the subject as he 
 thought not clearly or satisfactorily treated in the text- 
 books, or on such topics as he desired to expand or en- 
 force. These lectures were sometimes before the whole 
 college." ^ 
 
 It was in his relations with the stiidents that the 
 peculiar charm and force of Dr. Fisk's system lay. 
 He thought it so important that he should have 
 ample opportunities for this work that he curtailed 
 his class-room work in its favor, and he gave him- 
 self to it with the most unsparing zeal and affec- 
 tion. He was much occupied by calls from all his 
 associates in order to obtain the advice, sympathy, 
 and impulse of his practical and experienced mind. 
 But, however busy he might be in any of these 
 ways, he always had time enough for full, careful, 
 and earnest conversation with any student who felt 
 the need or made an occasion for a free conversa- 
 tion with him. In this way he came to know very 
 thoroughly the make-up, the circumstances and pos- 
 1 Holdich, Life of Wilbur Fisk, p. 322.
 
 156 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 sibilities of the whole body of the students under 
 his care. Hence any advice he gave them in regard 
 to their college duties, or their personal pursuits 
 after graduation, was uniformly marked by good 
 sense, by insight into their wants and needs, and 
 by a generous faith in their devotion to the highest 
 interests of mankind. They felt that he had a pro- 
 found personal interest in their honorable charac- 
 ter and their usefulness in life. They felt it an 
 honor and privilege that such a man as he w^as 
 should be their friend and adviser. One of the 
 most common remarks made by the men who stud- 
 ied under Dr. Fisk is this : " Whenever I find my- 
 self in a situation of difficulty and delicacy, I usu- 
 ally ask myself how Dr. Fisk would have acted in 
 my situation, and when I have found a reasonable 
 answer to that question, I know what to do my- 
 self." Like all good and wise advisers, this coun- 
 selor's special helpfulness lay in his fidelity in 
 pointing out the true course to be taken. Advis- 
 ers there are who are spoken of as wise, sympa- 
 thetic, and helpful, — whose sole wisdom lies in 
 catching the secret bias of those who consult them, 
 and telling them to obey that. Dr. Fisk was no 
 such silly echo of other men's wishes and hopes. 
 He showed the wisdom of taking the hard rather 
 than the easy path, the true rather than the pop- 
 ular course, the religious rather than the godless 
 life. He not only made men see that these were 
 the best paths for men to walk in, but he made 
 them feel that no other course must be thought of
 
 TUE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 157 
 
 for a moment, because the high and honorable line 
 of conduct was possible for them all. Dr. Fisk 
 was himself such an example of all the virtues he 
 commended to others, that his words came home to 
 men's hearts with great impressiveness. It is mar- 
 velous how a right example reinforces the might 
 of right words. A man whose preaching has not 
 persuaded himself, whose life exhibits all the weak- 
 nesses and vices he censures in others, who wants 
 the supreme wisdom he would commend to others, 
 can never be a successful teacher or preacher in 
 the way of influencing character. Dr. Fisk's su- 
 preme appeal to his students came from the per- 
 fect blending in his own life and character of all 
 the \'irtues and characteristics he commended to 
 them. He was himself in a rare degree all that he 
 would lead them to be. And he was so, not by the 
 accident of a hajjpy constitution, a singular career, 
 or special gifts of divine gi-ace, but by fidelity to 
 homely and lowly duties, by using forces offered to 
 all alike, and by obedience to light which shines 
 alike for all. 
 
 Nor did he fail to point, to any who doubted of 
 the possibility of their attaining the traits of char- 
 acter he recommended, that the divine Saviour's 
 ears are open to the cries of the humblest and 
 worst. Hence the possession of the highest char- 
 acter was the duty and the privilege of all. The 
 religious side of the students was thus appealed to 
 in the noblest and most sjiiritual way. Low charac- 
 ter, unspirituality of soul, living for any but the
 
 158 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 highest ends, all assumed in his presence their nat- 
 ural shame and deformity. They were crimes in 
 the sight of God, and marks of shameful degrada- 
 tion in bearers of the divine image. It was the 
 vivid impression of the reality and transforming 
 power of these truths in the hands of Wilbur Fisk 
 which made his personal intercourse with the stu- 
 dents so beneficial. They loved him so greatly 
 that all difficult things seemed easy under his lead- 
 ership. 
 
 Out of this strong personal hold upon the stu- 
 dents grew the strength and security of his govern- 
 ment of the college. It rather often happened that 
 he did not favor some of the schemes and measures 
 of the students. On such occasions his view of 
 things was pretty sure to prevail, but never merely 
 because it was his view. Dr. Fisk wovdd examine 
 the arguments presented against his own view 
 candidly, appreciate them at their fvdl value, and 
 then array against them the reasons which ought 
 to be decisive so impressively that he usually con- 
 vinced his opponents that they were wrong. He 
 favored the organization of a temperance society 
 among the undergraduates, and so that society had 
 a flourishing career. But once, when there was a 
 very active movement in college in favor of the 
 establishment of another society, which he thought 
 improper, he prevented its success. It was proba- 
 bly an abolition society. Committee after commit- 
 tee waited upon the president to secure permission 
 for putting such a society into operation. They
 
 THE ED UCA TOR. — WESLE YAN UNI VERS I TY. 159 
 
 stated their case in detail to the president, but so 
 candid and cogent and public-spirited was his op- 
 position to the proposal that he convinced the com- 
 mittee of the propriety of his views. The com- 
 mittee reported the result of their interview with 
 the president to the college, whereupon a new com- 
 mittee was raised to wait upon the president. They 
 also were converted to the propriety of this view, 
 and so reported. As there was some excitement 
 amongst the students on the matter, an attempt 
 was made to send another committee with instruc- 
 tions to insist on the college view ; but the persons 
 appointed members of the committee declined ser- 
 vice, on the ground that President Fisk was just 
 as likely to convince them of the correctness of his 
 position as the gentlemen who had already waited 
 on him. 
 
 Like all other college presidents. Dr. Fisk some- 
 times had to deal with men who put his patience 
 and forbearance to their sharpest test. We have 
 no accounts from such persons of President Fisk's 
 conduct towards them, nor copies of any letters ad- 
 dressed by him to themselves or their friends, for 
 they naturally kept all such documents under the 
 seal of silence and secrecy. A few letters written 
 by such offenders to Dr. Fisk give us our only 
 glimpse of his administration in such cases. 
 
 One of the peculiar features of these letters is 
 the uniformity and the bitterness with which the 
 writers confess that they have forfeited all claims 
 to President Fisk's respect and affection, and the
 
 IGO WILBUR FISK. 
 
 palpable sincerity with whicli they protest that 
 this is the severest punishment they have to bear. 
 There is almost always a humble hope expressed 
 that they may yet be able to regain the esteem of 
 their honored friend. It is easy to see, in the po- 
 sition of these transgressors, both the restraining 
 influence exerted by such character upon young 
 men in circumstances of special temptation, and 
 the fact that their eager longing for his full respect 
 was one of the strongest motives to renew their 
 struoofles for res-ainins^ their standino^. It took a 
 pretty bad man to break away from him. Few 
 gave him the slightest solicitude. He never spoke 
 of the student's misdoings to his family or other 
 friends, so that his self-respect might lead him to 
 break off faults before they became notorious. 
 
 Among the questions which Dr. Fisk had to 
 give early attention to was that of establishing 
 schools of law, medicine, and theology, as the Uni- 
 versity was by its charter fully authorized to do. 
 The best judges whom he confidentially consulted 
 on these subjects advised him that the proper 
 place for a medical school was a large city, while 
 a law school was hardly advisable in an institu- 
 tion where so much needed to be done in the de- 
 velopment of a college fit to take its place beside 
 the most advanced colleges of the country. This 
 advice has been substantially followed at Middle- 
 town to the present day. There has been until 
 recently no necessity felt for the creation of a 
 law school or a medical school under Methodist
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. 161 
 
 auspices. With regard to theological schools the 
 case stood differently ; for why should Methodist 
 colleges oidy conduct the education of their young 
 ministers up to the point where their education 
 should be directed wholly to those branches of 
 study and science which are to be the themes 
 of all their special study and exposition? These 
 questions were put to Dr. Fisk by his associates in 
 the work of education, and by the early graduates 
 of Wesleyan University. He did not deem it wise 
 for Methodist students to put themselves into the 
 ranks of the students of non-Methodist theological 
 seminaries. He proposed that the same course 
 should be pursued at Wesleyan University that 
 had been pursued at Harvard College and Yale 
 College long before any theological course was 
 thought of at either. Some of the studies of spe- 
 cial importance to ministers were grouped together 
 in the last year of the college course, so that the 
 senior year was often called " divinity year." Then 
 graduates might remain at college a year after 
 graduation. Here are Dr. Fisk's reasons : — 
 
 " 1. It will be a great saving of expense. In our lit- 
 erary institutions we have the buildings, the libraries, 
 the teachers, already 2)repared. To get up and support 
 separate establishments would almost double the expense. 
 The attempt, therefore, in the present condition of these 
 seminaries, would be likely to ruin both. 
 
 " 2. By having an experienced and well - educated 
 minister in these seminaries, this work can be accom- 
 plished to all needful extent.
 
 162 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 "3. It will be a saving of time to the young men, who 
 can thus mingle the study of theology with their other 
 pursuits. It will become a part of their miscellaneous 
 reading, and, in hours of relaxation, of their conversar 
 tion ; mind acting upon mind will elicit truth almost in- 
 cidentally, and there will always be one to whom they 
 can appeal to settle all doubtful questions. 
 
 " 4. In this way we shall not be so much in danger of 
 carrying speculation too far, so as to make the instruc- 
 tion end in dogmatism, or lead to the spinning out of 
 new theories, as is the case sometimes in theological sem- 
 inaries. 
 
 " 5. In this way we should throw a greater amount 
 of salt into our literary fountains, and thus get new and 
 promising candidates for the ministry converted. What 
 I have here proposed is not mere theory. I have acted 
 upon this principle ever since I entered upon the business 
 of education, and I have now a class of from twenty to 
 thirty promising young men under this kind of training. 
 ... I ought, however, to say that the theological in- 
 struction which we impart is not made a part of the col- 
 lege course ; it is extra and voluntary on their part and 
 gratuitous on ours." 
 
 It is evident tliat the crowning" objection to the 
 establishment of theological schools in the Metho- 
 dist Episcopal Church, in Dr. Fisk's mind, was the 
 financial one. A man of so much experience in 
 teaching or study as Dr. Fisk could have looked 
 upon such provisions for the instruction of young 
 ministers as merely a temporary makeshift, only to 
 be tolerated until the conference seminaries and 
 university had become fully equipped \\\i\\ all the
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. 163 
 
 necessary facilities and funds for doing their work 
 in the best possible manner. It was the keen 
 sense of the fact that none of these institutions had 
 yet come anywhere near such complete readiness 
 to do its work in the most efficient manner, and 
 that the vigorous pushing of any scheme for sepa- 
 rate theological seminaries would prolong too far 
 the deficiency of abundant resources in such insti- 
 tutions, which gave emphasis to Dr. Fisk's recom- 
 mendations. At such a time nobody would have 
 rejoiced more warmly than Dr. Fisk in the estab- 
 lishment of theological seminaries endowed with 
 the amplest resources to render them successful. 
 AMien the writer was a student in the first Meth- 
 odist theological school in New England, three of 
 the four professors, Bishop Baker, Dr. John W. 
 Merrill, and Dr. David Patten, had been trained 
 in Dr. Fisk's theoloo-ical class both at Wilbraham 
 Academy and at Wesleyan University. They then 
 thought themselves following out lines of work in 
 which Wilbur Fisk woidd have been proud to have 
 borne a vigorous share. 
 
 In 1833 Mr. Fisk introduced a resolution at the 
 New Eno-land Conference in favor of the establish- 
 ment of education societies. While this subject 
 was under consideration, it became evident that 
 the question could not be weighed with proper care 
 and settled to universal acceptance unless it was 
 examined in connection with the foreign mission- 
 ary work of the church, for the missionary is nec- 
 essarily an educator. Hence, at the session of the
 
 164 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 New England Conference in 1834, the Missions 
 Committee, of which Rev. John Lindsay was 
 chairman, and the Education Committee, of which 
 Wilbvir Fisk was chairman, united in preparing 
 their work, and the following rej^tort drawn by Dr. 
 Fisk was presented as the report of both commit- 
 tees, and adopted by the conference : — 
 
 *' It is evident from the signs of the times that the 
 only embarrassment to the missionary cause, which 
 threatens seriously to impede its progress amongst us, 
 consists in the want of suitable men to carry it on. The 
 mission work Is peculiar in requiring an education for 
 the particular work to which the misslonaiy is called. 
 We have already commenced tbe foreign missionary 
 work, and calls are made upon us for the enlargement of 
 these operations, in places where an acquaintance with 
 other languages, and with some of the sciences, and with 
 other professions, especially medicine. Is indispensable. 
 To suit these peculiarities, It Is necessary that an educa- 
 tion should be given of an appropriate character. 
 
 " Then another peculiarity of the missionary work 
 is its identity with the cause of education. Education 
 and the Christian rehgion always have been and always 
 should be closely connected. A minister of the gospel 
 that is not interested in the cause of education is an 
 anomaly, and has forgotten an important part of his call- 
 ing. But this applies with peculiar emphasis to the mis- 
 sionary work. Here not only must the missionary aid 
 the cause collaterally and indirectly, but he must make 
 it a part of his business, or, at least, he must superin- 
 tend this work as performed by others, associated with 
 him for that express purpose. Hence the missionary
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 165 
 
 must himself be prepared for the work of instruction, 
 and in many cases must have associated with him mis- 
 sionary teachers, all of whom need to be educated for 
 the pur^jose. Where shall we find the men qualified for 
 this work ? We find young people of both sexes ar- 
 dent in piety, glowing in love to God and men, burning 
 with a commendable zeal for missionary enterprise, but 
 altogether unprepared to prosecute this work successfully. 
 ... It is also known that a great portion of these per- 
 sons are poor, and unable to secure an education without 
 aid. The committee have therefore agreed to report a 
 plan, the general features of which, they are confident, 
 will meet the exigencies of the church in this matter, if 
 the members of the conference will enter into it with 
 unanimity and zeal ; and until some ])lan of this kind 
 be adopted, the intellectual resources of the church will 
 never be fully developed, and rendered, to the full ex- 
 tent, eflBcient and useful in the great cause of evangeliz- 
 ing the world. The youth of our church are diverted 
 from the purposes of the church, either Into business 
 purely secular, or into the service and under the control 
 of others, who offer them advantages for intellectual im- 
 provement and subsequent employment which they have 
 sought for in vain among us. . . . 
 
 " Wesleyan University has strong claims upon the 
 conference for patronage and support. But paying 
 students are as profitable for the time being as money. 
 If, therefore, the conference would provide funds for the 
 purpose of education at the University, they will so far 
 strengthen and aid the institution ; and if they do this 
 in connection with the missionary work, they will so far 
 aid the cause of the church directly, and hence the cause 
 of education and of religion will by the same operation 
 be promoted."
 
 166 WILBUR FIISK. 
 
 To this argument was appended a resolution 
 that a society should be formed whose purpose was 
 to be, " to look up and bi-ing forward such young 
 persons as may be judged suitable for home or 
 foreign missions, either as teachers or as preach- 
 ers, and to furnish them with the means of an edu- 
 cation suited to the pecidiar duties to which they 
 may be respectively called." 
 
 This report was at once adopted by the confer- 
 ence, and an agent was appointed to give an imme- 
 diate and constant impulse to the work of the new 
 society. So the new plan went into instant opera- 
 tion, and with such effect that at the ensuing ses- 
 sion of the conference there were eight benefici- 
 aries of the organization, — three at Middletown, 
 and the others at Wilbraham Academy, — who 
 were helped to the amount of from f85 to $100 
 each yearly. 
 
 This was the first of the education societies es- 
 tablished by an annual conference in the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church, — an example which was 
 widely imitated by the other conferences, until in 
 1872 the entire church was directed to organize 
 such societies by the action of the General Con- 
 ference. Of this whole system Wilbur Fisk was 
 the unquestioned originator, as he was its most 
 effective advocate before the church. In 1888 
 these societies raised |>47,000. 
 
 But while the students in attendance at Wes- 
 leyan University gathered rapidly around its rap- 
 idly growing faculty to the number of one hundred
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 167 
 
 and fifty-two, vigorous exertions were made to pro- 
 vide books and other facilities for successful and 
 effective study, and for broad and efficient instruc- 
 tion. As early as 1837, it was the pleasure and 
 honor of the authorities to say : — 
 
 "The philosophical and astronomical apparatus has 
 been greatly enlarged the past year by an expenditure 
 of about i$4,000, and an increase of about one hundred 
 instruments. Among them are a fine telescope, with a 
 six-inch object-glass ; a splendid plate electrical machine, 
 with two plates of thirty-six inches in diameter ; a mag- 
 nificent altitude and azimuth instrument, so constructed 
 as to be used also for meridian transits ; an astronomical 
 clock, and various others of the latest construction and 
 the best quality. The entire apparatus is believed to be 
 as good and useful, for the purposes of instruction, as 
 any in the country. 
 
 " The advantages of the Department of Chemistry 
 have been increased by a new laboratory and lecture- 
 room." 
 
 Through gifts and purchases, the books in the 
 libraries amounted to 10,000 well-selected volumes. 
 
 We have reserved to the last the discussion of 
 the financial administration of Wesleyan Univer- 
 sity under Dr. Fisk's presidency. The valuation 
 of the property of the institution, when it was 
 opened for the reception of students, was $70,000 ; 
 when Dr. Fisk died it was about $100,000; so 
 that the funds of the institution grew by just 
 $30,000 during the eight years of Dr. Fisk's pres- 
 idency. The first charter of Wesleyan Univer-
 
 168 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 sity authorized it " to possess estate not exceeding 
 $200,000, excluding college buildings, library, and 
 apparatus." In his private letters, and in his ad- 
 dresses on the subject. Dr. Fisk always speaks of 
 this sum as the one which ought to be in the pos- 
 session of the board of trustees, to enable them to 
 respond fully to the claims made upon them in 
 their work. Now, as it would have taken just a 
 quarter of a century for the college to have gained 
 that amount of endowment, it does not look as 
 though the new institution was effectively solving 
 the financial problem under the Fisk administra- 
 tion. But the truth is that almost all the addi- 
 tions to the college funds made between the begin- 
 ning and the close of Fisk's career at Middle town 
 were raised before he sailed for Europe in Sep- 
 tember, 1835, so that up to that date about 18,000 
 a year were added to the college property. Of 
 course, this rate would have completed the full 
 endowment of the college in about twenty -five 
 years. It is probable that the latter estimate is 
 the one to be used in any just estimate of the Fisk 
 presidency. Of the justice of this we shall be 
 convinced when we remember that, within six 
 months of Dr. Fisk's return to America, the finan- 
 cial crisis of 1837 was in full blast. Says Mr. 
 Schurz : — 
 
 " The first installment of the treasiuy surplus, amount- 
 ing to $9,367,000, due on January 1, 1837, was taken 
 from the deposit banks amid great agony, and trans- 
 ferred to the several states ; also the second, about
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. 169 
 
 April 1. But before the third fell due the general 
 collapse came. First, the influx of capital from England 
 ceased. The speculation, which had prevailed there 
 during the same period, was brought to an end by finan- 
 cial embarrassment in the autumn of 1836. Discounts 
 went 1141 and prices down. Some banks were compelled 
 to wind up, and three large business houses, which had 
 been heavily engaged with America, failed. English 
 creditors called in their dues. The manufacturing' in- 
 dustries, which, carried along by the general whirl, had 
 produced beyond demand, had to reduce their opera- 
 tions, and the price of cotton fell more rapidly than it 
 had risen. In August, 1836, it had been from 15 to 20 
 cents a pound ; in May, 1837, it was from 8 to 12. 
 The cotton houses in the South went down. Nine 
 tenths of the merchants of Mobile suspended. New 
 Orleans was in a state of financial anarchy. Tobacco 
 shared the fate of cotton. The whole South was bank- 
 rupt. . . . Fortunes in city lots disappeared overnight. 
 The accumulated masses of imported merchandise 
 shrank more than one third in their value. Stocks of all 
 kinds dropped with a tliump. Manufacturing establish- 
 ments stopped. Tens of thousands of workingmen were 
 thrown on the street. Bankruptcies were announced 
 by scores, — by hundreds. Everybody was deeply in 
 debt ; and there was a terrible scarcity of available 
 assets. The banks, being crippled by the difficulty in 
 collecting their dues, and by the depreciation of the se- 
 curities they held, could afford very little if any help. 
 In May, 1837, while the preparatory steps for the distri- 
 bution of the third surplus installment were in progi-ess, 
 the Dry Dock Bank of New York, one of the deposit 
 banks, failed. Runs on other institutions followed ;
 
 170 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 and on May 10th the New York banks in a body sus- 
 pended specie payment, — the effect of the surplus dis- 
 tribution act, and the heavy drafts for specie, being given 
 as the principal causes. All the banks throughout the 
 country then adopted the same course." ^ 
 
 It was no discredit to Dr. Fisk, or anjt other 
 college president, if he was not able to make large 
 additions to the funds of an educational institution 
 during such a national crisis of panic and bank- 
 ruptcy. The storm was still raging in its full 
 intensity when Wilbur Fisk went to his grave in 
 1839. So small had been the accumulation of en- 
 dowment funds at that period that Wilbur Fisk 
 may be said to have carried out of the world the 
 clear conviction that, if the church had a full per- 
 ception of the urgent needs of the work of the 
 college in the church and the world, not less than 
 $200,000 would have found its way into the treas- 
 ury of the University, and that very few of the 
 members of the church were alive to this duty. 
 It was one of the earthly anxieties that clung to 
 the mind of the saintly Fisk most tenaciously in 
 the parting scenes of earth, this noble and unself- 
 ish thoughtfulness about the necessities of the 
 institutions of learning he had so dearly loved. 
 The sharp strain of financial calamity was so in- 
 tense as to render the last hours of Dr. Fisk 
 gloomy and foreboding, but for a faith which no 
 darkness could daunt. No unseen, angelic hands 
 lifted the veil of uncertainty from the coming good 
 ^ Henry Clay, vol. ii. p. 126.
 
 THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 171 
 
 or evil fortunes of these institutions to comfort the 
 dying eye of the noble president. He could only 
 commit their fortunes as well as his own salvation 
 into the loving hands of a faithful God. As he 
 said himself in his last days : — 
 
 " Education must go hand in hand with religion, or 
 the world will never be converted without a direct mira- 
 cle from God. Our people will take good care of our 
 other institutions, but I fear they are not sufficiently 
 awake to the cause of education. Oh, if I could feel 
 that our people — our brethren in tlie ministry — were 
 alive to the interests of the University, how it would 
 cheer my departure ! But I leave it in the hands of a 
 good God, who has blessed it beyond our most sanguine 
 expectations, and I trust will continue to bless it for the 
 good of the chm-ch and for his own glory." ^ 
 
 It was not until the year 1868 that the Univer- 
 sity funds were raised quite beyond the amount 
 which the original charter authorized the trustees 
 to hold, by the sudden subscription of 1200,000 by 
 Isaac Rich, of Boston, and Daniel Drew, of New 
 York. It is necessary to go back a little in the 
 history of Isaac Rich, in order to trace the influ- 
 ence of Wilbur Fisk in the great benefactions 
 which at once lifted Wesleyan University to a 
 broader and a richer existence. Isaac Rich was 
 the young fish-peddler on Charlestown Bridge with 
 whom the gifted preacher had made friends, had 
 attracted to his own church, and had led into those 
 paths of piety which were his own delight. In the 
 1 Holdich's Life, p. 448.
 
 172 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 phrase of the Old Testament Wilbur Fisk spoke 
 to the heart of Isaac Rich. Soou this young man 
 felt an intense desire to become a minister of the 
 gospel, that he might turn sinners to holiness of 
 life. Yet no prayer and no readiness to give up 
 all other interests or pursuits for this purpose, ever 
 brought him any conviction of a real vocation to 
 the ministry. He felt dimly that his real calling 
 was to business and commerce. It is more than 
 probable that Rich was among those who attended 
 the prayer-meetings held in the Methodist churches 
 of Boston and Chai4estown, to pray for young 
 Fisk's restoration, to which Mr. Fisk liimseK at- 
 tributed his recovery. Rich saw in ^Vilbur Fisk 
 the kind of minister he would gladly have been 
 had God so ordered it. Hence, when an untimely 
 death cut short the career of Dr. Fisk, by nobody 
 was his memory more warmly cherished than by 
 Isaac Rich. He studied his life as described by 
 Dr. Holdich ; he read all that appeared in the j3ub- 
 lic press concerning his favorite ; he had many an 
 anecdote to tell of Dr. Fisk to any comer ; the por- 
 trait of Dr. Fisk, now in the library of Wesleyan 
 University, was copied for Mr. Rich, and was the 
 picture which greeted all eyes as they entered Mr. 
 Rich's dwelling, and anything new about the great 
 preacher was always welcome to his admirer down 
 to the last day of his life. When child after child 
 was taken away, and money accumulated in his 
 hands beyond the boldest dreams of his boyhood, 
 Mr. Rich felt a longing to connect his own name
 
 THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. 173 
 
 with the work of Dr. Fisk, by gifts that should put 
 the Academy and the University into a position to 
 do under the best conditions the work which they 
 had been doing under such embarrassing circum- 
 stances. If solicited to give to other objects, he 
 would sometimes excuse himself a little curtly, be- 
 cause he wished to make as large gifts as possible 
 for educational purposes. Once such a refusal so 
 pained and shocked a saintly old lady, who had 
 made application to him for help, that she could not 
 believe she was talking with the real Isaac Rich, 
 
 " I was looking for Isaac Rich's office, sir." 
 
 " I am Isaac Rich." 
 
 " But there must be some mistake about it : you 
 can't be the Mr. Rich I am looking for ; he is a 
 gentleman." 
 
 Her visible distress and her unintended sarcasm 
 so cut Mr. Rich to the heart that the visitor got 
 her money. This, then, was the man who in 1868 
 not only gave $100,000 himself to the college, but 
 induced Daniel Drew to give a like sum. To 
 Wesleyan University Mr. Rich gave in aU about 
 $150,000 ; to Wesleyan Academy about $50,000 ; 
 and to Boston University what remained from an 
 estate which was appi-aised at $1,600,000 at Mr. 
 Rich's death, but had been shrunken by losses in 
 the great fire, and by the rapid depreciation of real 
 estate. 
 
 What a wonderful comfort would have attended 
 the last days of Wilbur Fisk could he have fore- 
 seen that the total property held in trust for edu-
 
 174 WILBUR FJSK. 
 
 cational purposes In New England by Methodists 
 would in the year 1887 amount to $3,520,000, and 
 that the sum raised by the education societies, of 
 which he was the first founder, should that same 
 year amount to $47,000 ! It may be doubted 
 whether he would regard the establishment of two 
 universities with favor, but we cannot doubt that 
 he would be charmed with the great work they 
 have already accomplished, and yet more with the 
 greater and better work they promise. 
 
 We have seen how careful Wilbur Fisk always 
 was, both at Wilbraham and at Middletown, in all 
 his personal intercourse with his students, to set an 
 example of high devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and to turn as many of them as he could into 
 active Christians. How much he achieved in these 
 ways can only be fully known " when men are 
 judged out of the things written in the book." An 
 early graduate of the college has told me this inci- 
 dent as an illustration of his fidelity and success in 
 such wayside labors. He was in attendance on a 
 prayer-meeting at the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 at Middletown, where Dr. Fisk spoke briefly and 
 affectingly of his personal trust in the Lord Jesus 
 as a Saviour, when he closed with a sudden appeal 
 to the manliness of the young peoj)le present to re- 
 nounce the sins they confessed and deplored, and 
 lead new lives. One student arose and said, " By 
 the grace of God I will ; " and he did. 
 
 But it was a sore grief to Dr. Fisk that he had 
 been able to affect so little the spiritual condition
 
 THE EDUCATOR.- WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. 175 
 
 of the college. There was an intense longing in 
 his devout soul that a revival of pure and undeliled 
 relio-ion mioht break out, and transform the reli- 
 gious condition of the college. There were plausi- 
 ble ways enough in which the thing might be ex- 
 plained by a cold and unbelieving heart. For one 
 thino-. Dr. Fisk himself was in an over-worked and 
 jaded condition, so that any extra work he might 
 undertake would make severe demands upon his 
 time and strength. Yet when the pastor of the 
 church. Rev. B. Creagh, in the spring of 1834, an- 
 nounced that a protracted meeting was to be held 
 there, the announcement at once awakened the 
 deepest interest in Dr. Fisk. The evening when 
 the meeting was to begin he gathered his family 
 about him for their customary devotions : his mind 
 was full of the subject ; he read an appropriate 
 passage of the Scriptures, and spoke of his own 
 spiritual condition, and the need of devotion to the 
 new efforts to be put forth in the local church. He 
 said : " I have never labored so long anywhere as 
 here without special evidence that God owned my 
 labors by the outpouring of his Holy Spirit. Can 
 it be that by this God means to indicate that I am 
 not in the path of duty ? I do not feel that my 
 own soul has lost any of its fervor ; but the Uni- 
 versity, — the souls in the University ! " 
 
 Then he poured forth such a prayer as only 
 such a soul can pour forth when deeply moved 
 and melted under the gracious breath of the Holy 
 Comforter. Fearing lest the All-seeing Eye might
 
 176 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 find some taint of unhallowed motive in his pro- 
 found earnestness for the salvation of souls, he was 
 heard to say : " I ask not to be made the honored 
 instrument ; only give me a token that thou dost 
 own the University." He gave himself up freely 
 to the needful labors of a great spiritual harvest 
 season. Then, God who knew the purity of his 
 servant's heart and the integrity of his motives, 
 gave him his heart's desire. The following is Dr. 
 risk's account of the revival, in the " Christian 
 Advocate and Journal : " — 
 
 ' ' Wesleyan University, March 12, 1834. 
 
 " Dear Brethren, — I have the inexpressible hap- 
 piness of communicating to you the cheermg intelligence 
 of a blessed work of grace in Wesleyan University. 
 This is the first general revival we have had since the 
 institution was ojjened. Although we have had a great 
 projjortion of pious students from the beginning, still 
 those who entered in an unconverted state have gener- 
 ally continued so, and in some instances the piety of the 
 professing students had evidently declined. This was to 
 us a matter of great grief and of special solicitude. The 
 University was established for the good of the world by 
 the church, and especially for the advancement of the 
 Redeemer's cause ; and to experience no spiritual re- 
 freshing for more than two years, seemed peculiarly in- 
 auspicious. The young men were moral, regular in 
 their habits, remarkably correct in their general deport- 
 ment, active in the- cause of temperance, of missions, 
 and of other benevolent enterprises ; but all this, com- 
 mendable as it was, did not come up to the imjiortant 
 standard, personal holiness of heart and life. But God
 
 THE EDUCATOR. —WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. VJI 
 
 had not forgotten us. He has at length visited us in 
 great mercy. A few students are absent. Of those that 
 are present, but very few, perhaps but three or four, can 
 be found who jDrofess not to have found peace in behev- 
 ing, or are not earnestly pressing after it. The work 
 in most cases seems to be thorough and deep. So great 
 has been the interest for the past two weeks, we have 
 been obliged partially, and some days almost wholly, to 
 suspend our regular college duties, and our college edi- 
 fices have resounded with the voice of prayer and 
 praise. 
 
 " Although all that are acquainted with our literary in- 
 stitutions know that here, as elsewhere, there are snares 
 and temptations for inexperienced youth, — so that we 
 rejoice with trembling, — yet I cannot but believe that 
 a goodly number of young men have here, within a few 
 days, been brought to a state of feeling and a course of 
 action that will be productive of lasting advantage to 
 themselves, and through them to others. What an in- 
 teresting consideration is this ! and how strongly does it 
 recommend our literary institutions to the care of the 
 church ! This is a point to which I strongly suspect the 
 attention of the church has not been sufficiently di- 
 rected. Let one fact speak on that subject. To say 
 nothing of the advantages of our seminaries for those 
 who are already pious, and of the moral and religious 
 influence that has been thrown over others, I have the 
 means of knowing that about three sevenths of all the 
 students of the University have become pious, either here 
 or at one of our academies, before they entered hei'e. 
 Thus religion and literature have met together — in 
 which there is the greatest hope for the cause of God — 
 in young men who are training and girding themselves
 
 178 WILBUR FJSK. 
 
 for the great enterprise of subduing the world to Christ. 
 And will our friends look on and see our institutions 
 languish for want of the necessary funds, when God is 
 showering salvation upon them ? And will our pious 
 members hesitate to send their children here for fear of 
 injury to their souls ? Brethren, inquire what is duty 
 in this matter. 
 
 " The work in the University has been in connection 
 with a gracious revival in the town. W. FiSK." 
 
 That this was no transient mood with him ap- 
 pears from Dr. Holdich's words : — 
 
 " In the spring of 1837 the Methodist congregation 
 in Middletown, under the pastoral care of Rev. C. K. 
 True, was favored with a blessed work of grace in which 
 the University largely participated. In this work Dr. 
 Fisk was deeply interested, and seldom appeared to 
 greater advantage. He labored diligently and efficiently. 
 It was delightful to see him. as the students came for- 
 ward for prayers, singing, praying, and conversing with 
 them, solely intent on leading them to the ' Lamb of God 
 who taketh away the sins of the world.' 
 
 " The character of his preaching was remarkably ap- 
 propriate and evangelical. Divested of the stately forms 
 of art, it was delivered with all that ' simplicity, dignity, 
 and directness ' that indicate a pure solicitude for the 
 triumph of truth. But then, conscious of the high im- 
 port of his message, he threw into his sermons all his 
 mental power and resources. He selected for his themes 
 the more familiar points of the evangelic plan, and 
 with evident painstaking labored to bring them home to 
 the understanding and the heart. Two very common 
 faults of the pulpit he thus avoided : one is, the selection
 
 THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 179 
 
 o£ topics so remotely connected with personal piety as 
 to leave the conscience of the hearer untouched, and his 
 feelings unstirred ; the other is, discussing more familiar 
 themes in a manner so indifferent, and with such little 
 effort of mind, and variety of thought and illustration, 
 as to create an impression that the speaker is not inter- 
 ested in his own peculiar business. If he treated of the 
 doctrine of repentance, or faith, or regeneration, it was 
 with a clearness of statement, an amplitude of scriptural 
 illustration, that exhibited at once the experienced Chris- 
 tian and the able theologian." ^ 
 
 At some points the educational work of Dr. 
 risk was noteworthy. It was remarkable that 
 there should have been no religious test imposed 
 on any officer of the college. The unusual stress 
 put upon the acquisition of the modern langiiages, 
 as an important element in the highest culture, 
 showed breadth and independence of judgment. 
 As long as he lived, modern languages held almost 
 as great a place in the course of study as the an- 
 cient. Yet Professor Whedon, the teacher of the 
 ancient languages under Dr. Fisk, declares that he 
 prized the ancient languages so highly that he 
 would gladly, had circumstances permitted, have 
 been their devotee. 
 
 The slight esteem for the fine arts exhibited in 
 Dr. risk's Inaugural is its weakest point. But 
 how should a man of his circumstances and train- 
 ing find the path to broader views ? In this re- 
 spect, Dr. risk's European tour disposed forever 
 of all such narrow ideas. 
 
 1 Holdich'3 Life of Wilbur Fisk, p. 393.
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 
 
 How great room there was for the Temperance 
 Eeformation may be shown in a hundred ways, but 
 perhaps nowhere better or more vividly than in 
 Lyman Beecher's Autobiograjihy : — 
 
 " Soon after my arrival at Litchfield, I was called to 
 attend the ordination at Plymouth of Mr. Heart. . . . 
 Well, at the ordination at Plymouth, the preparation for 
 our creature comforts, in the sitting-room of Mr. Heart's 
 house, besides food, was a broad side-board covered with 
 decanters and bottles, and sugar, besides pitchers of 
 water. There we found all the various kinds of liquor 
 then in vogue. The drinking was apparently univex-sal. 
 This preparation was made by the society as a matter 
 of course. When the Consociation arrived, they always 
 took something to drink round ; also before public ser- 
 vices, and always on their return. As they could not aU 
 drink at once, they were obliged to stand and wait, as 
 people do at a mill. 
 
 " There was a decanter of spirits, also, on the dining- 
 table, to help digestion, and gentlemen partook of it 
 through the afternoon and evening as they felt the need, 
 some more, some less ; and the side-board, with the spill- 
 ings of water, and sugar, and liquor, looked and smelled 
 like the bar of a very active grogshop. None of the
 
 THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 181 
 
 Consociation were drunk ; but that there was not, at 
 times, a considerable amount of exhilaration, I cannot 
 affirm. 
 
 " When they had all done drinking, and had pipes 
 and tobacco, in less than fifteen minutes there was such 
 a smoke j'ou could not see. And the noise I cannot de- 
 scribe ; it was the maximum of hilarity. They told 
 their stories, and were at the height of jocose talk. . . . 
 I think I remember some animadversions were made at 
 that time on the amount of liquor drunk, for the tide 
 was swelling in the drinking habits of society. 
 
 " The next ordination was that of Mr. Harvey, in 
 Goshen, and there was the same preparation and the 
 same scenes acted over, and then afterward still louder 
 murmurs from the society at the quantity and expense 
 of liquor consumed." 
 
 Tills was the beginning of the temperance re- 
 form in the righteous and indignant soul of Ly- 
 man Beecher, and marked a new era in the mor- 
 als of New England. These revolting spectacles 
 stirred up his pure mind to secure, first, a moral 
 revolution in the drinking habits of the clergy and 
 church members. It was his manly and resolute 
 protest against the convivial habits of those days 
 which gave the first great impulse to the temper- 
 ance reform. Mr. Beecher has himself recorded 
 the painful circumstances which led him to prepare 
 the famous "• Six Sermons on Intemperance." His 
 first male convert after he went to Litchfield had 
 gradually been ensnared in the vice of drunken- 
 ness. And to make the matter as bad as possible, 
 the young man's father was entangled in the same
 
 182 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 corrupting habit. It was in the agony of a true 
 and loving pastor's heart under these disheartening 
 discoveries that that stern and remorseless indict- 
 ment of the rum-drinking habits of New England 
 was written. The so-called '' standing order " had 
 no monopoly of such weaknesses, wickedness, and 
 misery. The other churches had the same cease- 
 less fight to wage against the same unsleeping foe. 
 They, too, saw all their Christian zeal and love ex- 
 erted in vain to save the brightest and noblest of 
 their converts from a drunkard's grave. These 
 painful incidents were sure to affect most deeply 
 the Christian ministry as a body, and especially 
 those ministers whose faith in the renovating and 
 transforming power of the Gospel of Christ was 
 most vivid and potent. As Wilbur Fisk had be- 
 come better acquainted with the moral condition of 
 the country at large, he must have realized keenly 
 how great an obstacle the habit of using ardent 
 spirits as a beverage, and as a special promoter of 
 hospitality, everywhere opposed to keeping public 
 morals up to any point once attained, not to men- 
 tion its paralyzing effect on efforts to raise them 
 to a purer, nobler plane. When he asked himself 
 honestly about the actual moral standard of the 
 Methodist Church, the answer was an apparently 
 comfortable one. Wesley's faithful words of warn- 
 ing and rebuke were still proclaimed, still gave in- 
 spiration to the public action of the conferences, 
 whether general or annual, which had any occasion 
 to deal with the subject, and enforced, with all the
 
 THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 183 
 
 weight of his apostolic authority, the faithful teach- 
 ings of the itinerant clergy. But when faithful 
 pastors asked themselves how safe their folds in 
 reality were from the devouring wolves of intem- 
 perance, the truth was sometimes startling enough. 
 For gradually had custom won a sort of implied 
 toleration for all the most abhorred features of the 
 trade in ardent spirits, not only in the public mind, 
 but even in the bosom of the churches. The mem- 
 ber or minister of any church, who fancied his own 
 body especially secure against the invasion of such 
 vices, was sure to be startled out of his unreal 
 safety by the sudden fall and irretrievable ruin of 
 some dearly loved Christian friend. This experi- 
 ence soon befell Mr. Fisk. One of the members 
 of the Wilbraham Methodist Church, a trustee of 
 Wesleyan Academy, a cordial friend, owned a dis- 
 tillery. He carried on a large business in the pro- 
 ducts of the dis-tillery, and used them so freely him- 
 self as greatly to alarm his dearest friends. But 
 as the discipline of the church, relaxing its former 
 stringency, only prohibited "drunkenness, or drink- 
 ing spirituous liquors, unless in cases of necessity," 
 it was not a clearly defined case of violation of 
 church law. And as every man had to be his 
 own judge, at first, how far his own indulgences 
 were " cases of necessity," it often happened that 
 church members were in danger of getting irre- 
 trievably involved in intemperate habits before 
 any courageous warning had been sounded. For 
 years this had been the most frequent cause of
 
 184 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 backslidings, compelling excision from the church. 
 From careful investigations, Mr. Fisk had learned 
 that this dreadful sin and peril, not confined to 
 New England Methodism, were especially notori- 
 ous in the West and South. He soon saw that 
 the only possible safety for the Methodist Church 
 was to make all her legislation and administration 
 conform to the highest standards of the Bible. It 
 was fortunate in this case that the first legislation 
 of the church needed only to be amended by pro- 
 hibiting also the manufacture of ardent spirits, to 
 bring it up to the scriptural standard. To bring 
 about this new order of things. Dr. Fisk began by 
 preaching and lecturing on temperance wherever 
 he had an opj)ortunity. To the full extent of his 
 strength he accepted invitations to speak out the 
 full and earnest convictions to which he had come. 
 He aided in the organization of local temperance 
 societies, helped to obtain and circulate temper- 
 ance information, and sent letters to newspapers to 
 heljD on the great movement. 
 
 To the surjjrise and sorrow of Mr. Fisk, he 
 sometimes found sharp opposition, where he least 
 expected it, in the very bosom of the church itself. 
 When on his way to lecture in a Connecticut town, 
 he encountered a member of the church who tried 
 to persuade him to throw up the engagement to 
 lecture, because the local church was not in favor 
 of temperance, because some of its members traded 
 in liquor, and because the Methodist society there 
 would be divided if the lecturer persisted. Said
 
 THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 185 
 
 the inflexible advocate of gospel temperance, 'SS'ir, 
 if the church stands on rum., let it go ! " The 
 fidelity and wisdom with which the new reform 
 was carried forward, under such skillful and brave 
 leadership, were such that the New England con- 
 ferences were speedily enlisted almost to a man in 
 the good cause. Mr. Fisk was ready at all times 
 to use his pen to recommend the reform to all 
 Methodists. His sagacious leadership was recog- 
 nized far and near, so that suggestions, informa- 
 tion, and congratulations flowed in to him from all 
 quarters in the church. There were some who 
 challeno-ed his views, and some did not fear to im- 
 pugn his motives in stirring up this temperance 
 crusade. He showed his gift for real leadership 
 in the skillful way wherewith he won over to the 
 movement those who could most effectively help it. 
 He knew that the " Christian Advocate," under 
 the care of the Rev. Nathan Bangs, D. D., could 
 reach the most influential minds in the church ; 
 for it had fifteen thousand subscribers. Hence he 
 endeavored to commit Mr. Bangs to the new re- 
 form. But at first, to the keen disappointment and 
 grief of Dr. Fisk, the paper pronounced against the 
 temperance movement and societies as not called 
 for, and possibly mischievous. A camp - meeting 
 held at Somers, Conn., adopted a series of resolu- 
 tions recommending the formation of temperance 
 societies, which was forwarded to the " Christian 
 Advocate " for publication. The resolutions were 
 explained and enforced by remarks from Dr. Fisk.
 
 186 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 The " Advocate " retained a hostile attitude f or 
 some months longer. But meanwhile it happily 
 turned out that Dr. Bangs had failed to convince 
 himself of the rightfulness of his own ideas, and 
 while men were planning to obtain a hearing for 
 conferences which had been refused individual 
 members thereof, the veteran leader not only car- 
 ried his own conference, the New York, into the 
 temperance ranks, but made the newspaper which 
 he controlled a great help to the reformers. This 
 conversion was very largely due to Wilbur Fisk, 
 and his recognition of the value of Dr. Bangs's 
 help was very prompt and generous. Finding those 
 opposed to these new views somewhat reluctant to 
 yield. Dr. Fisk issued in 1832 an " Address to the 
 Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church on 
 the Subject of Temperance." 
 
 This begins with the declaration that " many in 
 the visible church are actually standing in the 
 way of sinners, and are hindrances to the work of 
 God." He thinks it an urgent duty of the church 
 to remove her stumbling-blocks of all sorts from 
 the paths of sinners. While there are many such 
 stumbling-stones to be taken away, he for this oc- 
 casion confines himself to one, "the use and sale 
 of ardent spirits by the members of the Church of 
 Christ." He renounces declamation on this topic, 
 but tells us tliat ardent spirits then cost the nation, 
 directly or indirectly, ninety-four millions of dol- 
 lars yearly. He says it is admitted that three 
 fourths the crime and three fourths the pauper-
 
 THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 187 
 
 ism of the nation come from this cause. He does 
 not describe the wretchedness caused by rum in 
 the homes of men, because " you have seen the 
 drunkard, and you have seen his family ^ 
 
 The really grave point is, that " the same train 
 of means and causes that have produced the in- 
 temperate of the past and present are still in oper- 
 ation to produce an equal or greater proportion 
 in the next generation, and so on forever." Then 
 comes a solemn declaration that the church was 
 aiding and abetting this dreadful work of death. 
 " Do not many of her members use ardent spirits ? 
 Do they not traffic in the accursed thing? Do 
 they not hold out on their signs invitations to all 
 that pass by to come and purchase of them the 
 dreadful poison ? " What makes rum-drinking tol- 
 erated at all in general society is the example of 
 the good and pious men who use strong drink with 
 moderation. To the plea that temperate drinking 
 only sanctions the temperate, not the intemperate, 
 use of rum, he responds : " It is the certain cause, 
 and will be the certain cause as long as moderate 
 drinking and the sale of strong drink are toler- 
 ated." He pleads : " Do not pass over this conclu- 
 sion lightly. Look at it, pray over it ; go to your 
 closet, and with your eyes raised to heaven, and 
 your finger on Rom. xiv. 21 [' It is good nei- 
 ther to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor an5i;hing 
 whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended, or 
 is made weak'], justify yourself before God if you 
 can. Do not say it does you good, and there-
 
 188 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 fore you must use it. God knows, and you might 
 know, that it does you no good. I say you might 
 know ; for the experiment is easily made. Just 
 leave off the use for one year, and try it for your- 
 self. Thousands have done so, and have found that 
 they were better without than with it. Do you 
 hesitate? then you already love it. Yes, reluctant 
 as you may be to own it even to yourself, you love 
 rum. And you have need to leave it off for your 
 own safety ; for there is but a step between you 
 and ruin. Oh, my brother, put down that cup 
 quickly ! It will burn up thy life, and Idndle up 
 in thy soul the fire that is never qvienched." His 
 words kindle into a flame of anger over any petty, 
 personal advantage of comfort or of gain to the 
 ruin of human souls. 
 
 " The man who makes a common use of ardent 
 spirits, if he has received grace, becomes thereby stu- 
 pid and undevout, and if he is unregenerate he is al- 
 most impervious to the shafts of truth. ' Rum,' said a 
 brother in the ministry, ' is a non-conductor to religious 
 truth ; ' and he then added, in an emphasis that caused 
 his words to thrill through my whole frame like the 
 death chime of souls, ' Drinking rum and going to hell 
 are synonymous terms^ " 
 
 He strikes dead with one indignant thrust of 
 his blade the pleas of those who cry out " priest- 
 craft," " union of church and state," sectarianism, 
 the boasters of their own independence, the time- 
 server, and the indolent. All such are found 
 among the opponents of total abstinence as the only
 
 THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 189 
 
 sure and effectual cure for all the woes and inju- 
 ries of intemperance. The only real obstruction 
 the good cause has so far met has been the refusal 
 to make total abstinence the rallying cry of aU 
 temperance men. Were that once done, success 
 would be swift and complete. In this eventful 
 moment of the conflict with the evil, Dr. Fisk 
 described it in these solemn words : — 
 
 " The chief cause of all this obstruction is to be traced 
 to the church. We expected infidels, and rumsellers, 
 and selfish men would scoff and oppose ; but against 
 them we expected to array the enlightened statesman, 
 the philanthropic citizen, and, above all, the great body 
 of the church. But it has not been so. Christians of 
 various denominations are strengthening the hands of 
 the wicked. And is our own church clear ? Let the 
 truth be told to our shame : in spite of our excellent 
 rules on the subject ; in spite of the writings of Mr. 
 Wesley ; in spite of the worthy example of the greater 
 portion of our members, — in almost every place I visit 
 or hear from, and I have made much inquiry on this 
 point, some Methodists are found who drink and deal 
 in ardent spirits ! Now all this they do in the full 
 blaze of the light that has been poured upon this subject. 
 It is this, therefore, that has led me to say the woe, the 
 curse of the Almighty, is out against such. The respon- 
 sibility of the church on this subject is great. If church 
 members drink and sell, and the church countenances 
 them in it, in vain may we look for victory ; the refor- 
 mation is effectually stayed. AVlien was it ever known 
 that the community at large carried a question of morals 
 beyond the church ? . . . Nay, I ain not sure that this
 
 190 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 question does not now depend mainly on the Methodist 
 Church." 
 
 In this critical hour in the fortunes of the re- 
 form and the destinies of the church, Dr. Fisk 
 urges every Methodist to give up the use of strong 
 drink. "Let the waving banner of our church 
 have inscribed on it, in large capitals, Entire Ab- 
 stinence ! and to this principle let every member 
 pledge perpetual fidelity." Secondly, he would 
 have them abandon altogether the traffic in liquor 
 in all its branches : — 
 
 " My Christian brother, if you saw this trade as God 
 sees it, you would sooner beg your bread from door to 
 door than gain money by such a traffic. The Christian's 
 dram-shop ! Sound it to yourself. How does it strike 
 your ear ? It is doubtless a choice gem in the phrase- 
 book of Satan. But how paradoxical ! How shocking 
 to the ear of the Christian ! How offensive to the ear 
 of Deity. Why, the dram-shop is the recruiting ren- 
 dezvous of hell ! And shall a Christian be the recruit- 
 ing officer ? Above all things should no Methodist 
 manufacture ardent spirits, since these are the main- 
 springs of the terrible traffic, ' poisoners-general ' of the 
 public." 
 
 Should any refuse, after the most loving and 
 painstaking instruction and warning, he would 
 have them all excluded, with the formal discipli- 
 nary processes, from membership in the church. 
 For he does not regard practices such as he has 
 been denouncing as legally screened by the ex- 
 empting clause, " except in cases of necessity."
 
 THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 191 
 
 The original rule of Mr. Wesley, lately published 
 in the " Advocate," would be better ; but, until we 
 can get that, let us come up to the fair construc- 
 tion of our present rule. 
 
 He urges Methodist preachers to enlighten the 
 church and the world by frequent sermons, and 
 through private conversation to persuade any that 
 are slow to yield. He is sure, that if they all 
 work in unison, they will bring about a universal 
 triumph in America. To people who say: "I 
 have been a member of a temperance society ever 
 since I was a member of the Methodist Church. 
 Why should I join another?" Dr. Fisk gives the 
 cogent reason : — 
 
 " First, then, if you are already a member of a tem- 
 perance society, embracing all that is embraced in these 
 societies, you can have no objection certainly to joining 
 another. It is no matter to how many such societies 
 you belong, if you do good thereby. Again, however 
 gratified we might be, as Methodists, to have others 
 come up and join our church, and thus cooperate with 
 us in the temperance cause, and all other objects that 
 we, as a church, may wish to accomplish, yet we know 
 that many will not do this ; but if we will relax a little 
 from the pride of our ecclesiastical caste, and combine 
 with them in opposition to intemperance, we may in this 
 way unite moral men of all religions, and of no particu- 
 lar religion, in this enterprise. Thus we shall strengthen 
 and encourage them in a good cause, and they will aid 
 us in establishing principles which you say you have 
 long since espoused and vindicated."
 
 192 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 To the end of his life Dr. Fisk retained the 
 keenest interest in this good cause, so that he was 
 ready to travel, to lecture on every phase of the 
 measure, to encourage the formation of local tem- 
 perance societies made up of all who would join 
 them, conference temperance societies, and organi- 
 zations to prepare and put into circulation tem- 
 perance literature covering every side of the ques- 
 tion. In May, 1833, he made an address, which 
 made a very marked impression, which was his 
 first formal publication on the topic. Dr. Holdich 
 says : — 
 
 " In May, 1833, he delivered his celebrated address 
 on the nature of the traffic in ardent spirits. This 
 branch of the subject was almost new. The consumers 
 of the article were the principal objects of attack, while 
 the manufacturers and venders were but little disturbed. 
 An inquiry into the morality of the trade, therefore, was 
 not only novel, it was bold, evincing no slight share of 
 moral courasre. It was fortunate for him and the cause 
 that his mode of presenting the subject was so clear and 
 dispassionate. He selected his ground with great skill, 
 laid down his premises fairly and distinctly, and deduced 
 his conclusions so justly that few would be likely to con- 
 trovert them. This done, his close, searching, powerful 
 appeals carried home with them a mighty force, and yet 
 they could scarcely give offense." 
 
 So effective was Mr. Fisk's agitation in behalf 
 of a vigorous administration of the existing law, 
 and so scriptural and overwhelming were the argu- 
 ments adduced in behalf of a change in the law 
 
 'o^
 
 THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 193 
 
 itseK, that he had not been three months in his 
 grave when the General Conference shaped its 
 legislation on temperance as follows : — 
 
 " Question. What directions shall he given concern- 
 ing the sale and use of spirituous liquors ? 
 
 ^'■Answer. If any memher of our society retail or 
 give s})iriLuous liquors, and anything disorderly be trans- 
 acted under his roof on this account, the preacher who 
 has the oversight of the circuit shall proceed against him 
 as in the case of other immoralities, and the person ac- 
 cused shall be cleared, censured, suspended, or excluded, 
 according to his conduct, as on other charges of im- 
 morality." 
 
 To Wilbur Fisk more than to any other man is 
 due the credit of this change in the letter of the 
 law, and the far greater change in the spirit in 
 which the rule was administered, which has since 
 pervaded the whole church.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SLAVERY. 
 
 In January, 1835, Dr. Fisk was Informed by 
 the editor of " Zion's Herald " that the paper was 
 to be opened for the discussion of the slavery ques- 
 tion, and he was invited to bear a part in the de- 
 bate. So far Mr. Fisk had held aloof from the 
 contention, because he thought the ultra doctrines 
 of the new movement likely to have pernicious con- 
 sequences in church and state. He saw that the 
 partisans of the new measures hoped to create a 
 popular effervescence which would be unfavora- 
 ble to the judicial and fraternal spirit essential to 
 the wisest settlement of so grave a question, with 
 all its complicated social and political relations. 
 Hence he meant to keep silent. 
 
 Meanwhile the Rev. George Storrs, a leading 
 Methodist anti- slavery agitator, took Dr. Fisk's 
 address on temperance, and changed it into an 
 anti-slavery document by putting in brackets after 
 the words used by the author others necessary to 
 give the document an anti-slavery squint. Against 
 this " unauthorized transformation " Mr. Fisk 
 printed a spirited protest in " Zion's Herald ; " but 
 finding neither Mi*. Storrs nor his friends disposed
 
 SLAVERY. 195 
 
 to apologize, he embodied his views in the follow- 
 ing cool, keen, but Christian letter to the " Her- 
 ald:"— 
 
 " Mr. Editor, — I am sorry to notice that both 
 Brother Storrs and his friends for him persist in main- 
 taining the propriety of his course in respect to the met- 
 anior2)hosis of my temperance address. If Brother Storrs 
 really feels, after a fair review of the subject, that he is 
 justified in that course, and if he also justifies the per- 
 sonal reflections which have been thrown out in the paper 
 of which he is a principal proprietor, in reference to my 
 disclaimer, I can only say he does not view the subject 
 as I view it, or as most of those whose opinions I have 
 heard and read on the subject. Brother Storrs may 
 rest assured, however, that my Christian regards toward 
 him are the same as ever, because I believe the error 
 the effect of an honest zeal, which is not according to 
 knoicledge. 
 
 " Brother Storrs is hereby further assured that I do 
 not consider the offense of so high a character as seems 
 to have been attributed to it by some of the public peri- 
 odicals. He did not say the abolition sentiments were 
 mine. It is true, those who did not know my senti- 
 timents on abolition would, if I had not disclaimed it, 
 naturally have supposed that I consented to such a use 
 of my composition, especially as Brother Storrs did not 
 inform the public that I had not consented to it, nor yet 
 that I was not a modern abolitionist. I do not, how- 
 ever, in my reply, accuse him of designing to represent 
 me as an abolitionist, and I regret to see that design at- 
 tributed to him. I know him too well to believe he 
 would knowingly misrepresent the opinions of another,
 
 196 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 or take what he believed to be improper means to pro- 
 pagate his own opinions ; and I thought I knew him well 
 enough to believe that, when his attention was recalled 
 to a step improper in itself, he would see it and retract. 
 But if I was mistaken in this, I have nothing more to 
 say on that point : the public have my views. 
 
 "W. FiSK." 
 
 This was one of those subjects that was not to 
 be kept back by any amount of self-restraint, can- 
 dor, or tact on the part of the conservatives. De- 
 spite himself, there were few subjects that occu- 
 pied Dr. Fisk's thoughts more largely than this ; 
 and rarely has he been worse misunderstood than 
 on this question. While he was yet alive he com- 
 plained sadly that he was called a pro-slavery man, 
 an apologist for slavery, and a champion of oppres- 
 sion. This evil fame he bears to-day, so that his 
 conduct must be discriminatingly weighed. 
 
 On December 19, 1834, "An Appeal to the 
 Members of the New England and New Hamp- 
 shire Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church " was published in Boston, signed by Ship- 
 ley W. Willson, Abram D. Merrill, Le Eoy Sun- 
 derland, George Storrs, and Jared Perkins. The 
 subject of the appeal was slavery. The aim of 
 the document was not only to speak of the wrongs 
 of the needy and helpless slave, but also for the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church. " We feel that we 
 should prove ourselves utterly unfit for the rela- 
 tion we sustain to the church, eitlier as members 
 or ministers, were we longer to keep silence and
 
 SLAVERY. 197 
 
 do nothins: to avert the dreadful evils with which 
 slavery threatens so evidently her peace and pros- 
 perity. We cannot look on with indifference and 
 see some of the plainest rules of her discipline out- 
 ra2.ed and set at defiance." After a summary view 
 of the evils of slavery they say : — 
 
 " Hence we say the system is wrong, it is cruel and 
 unjust in all its parts and princi])les, and that no Chris- 
 tian can consistently lend his influence or example for 
 one moment in support of it, and consequently it should 
 be abandoned now and forever." 
 
 But so far is this from being so that — 
 
 " Hundreds of her ministers and thousands of her 
 members are enslavers of their fellow-men, as they have 
 been for years. Tliey hold the bodies and souls of men, 
 women, and children — many of whom are members 
 of the same church with themselves — in abject slavery, 
 and still retain their standing without any censure on 
 tbis account. Nay, the ' Christian Advocate and Jour- 
 nal,' the official organ of the church, apologizes for the 
 crimes of the enslaver of the human species, and at- 
 tempts to justify the system." 
 
 Against this course they quote these Scrip- 
 tures : — 
 
 " And he tbat stealeth a man and selleth him, or if 
 he be found in his band, he shall surely be put to death " 
 (Exodus xxi. 16). " If a man be found stealing any of 
 his bretliren of the children of Israel, and maketh mer- 
 chandise of him, or selleth him, then that thief shall 
 die ; and thou shalt put evil away from among you " 
 (Deut. xxiv. 7). " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy-
 
 198 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 self" (Matt. xxii. 39). "Therefore all things whatso- 
 ever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even 
 so unto them " (Matt. vii. 12). " Masters, give unto 
 your servants that which is just and equal, knowing 
 that ye also have a Master in heaven " (Col. iv. 1). 
 "Let every man abide in the calling wherein he was 
 called. Art thou called, being a servant ? care not for 
 it : but if thou mayest be free, use it rather. For he 
 that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's 
 free man. Likev»^ise also he that is called, being free, is 
 Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price ; be not 
 ye the servants of men " (1 Cor. vii. 20-23). 
 
 Various comments are made on these passages 
 of the Bible, of which the essential ones, as bearing 
 on the duty of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
 are, first, " that a certain kind of servitude was 
 permitted by the Jewish economy ; " and, second, 
 " that two things are apparent : first, that Chris- 
 tianity does not alter the civil connection which 
 one man may sustain to another, merely by his em- 
 bracing it. Secondly, slavery is here condemned, 
 inasmuch as the apostle commands such as were 
 slaves to use the first opportunity which might be 
 afforded them for obtaining their liberty." 
 
 The address analyzes the rules of the Methodist 
 Episcopal Church on slavery as follows : — 
 
 " 1. Slavery is ' a great evil,' and we declare that we 
 are ' as much as ever convinced of it.' 
 
 " 2. No ' enslaver of men, women, or children ' is 
 'truly awakened,' and hence he cannot have a sincere 
 ' desire to flee from the wrath to come ' (Dis. ch. xi. 
 sec. 1).
 
 SLAVERY. 199 
 
 " 3. No * enslaver of men, women, or children ' can be 
 received or continued a member of the Methodist Epis- 
 coi)al Church (Dis., ch. xi. sec. 1). 
 
 " 4. Traveling preachers in the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church may become enslavers of men, women, or chil- 
 dren in those States where the laws will not admit of 
 their giving their slaves theu* freedom after they have 
 bought them." 
 
 Quoting provisions made in the General Confer- 
 ence of 1804 to protect the purity of the church 
 by requiring the ministry to converse freely and 
 faithfully with slave-holders desiring to become 
 members of the church about the sinfulness of 
 slavery, and compellhig manumission when the 
 laws would permit, a great point is made over the 
 words: "Nevertheless the members of our socie- 
 ties in the States of North Carolina, South Car- 
 olina, Georgia, and Tennessee shall be exempted 
 from the operation of the above rules." 
 
 " But what changed the nature of this ' fjreat evil 
 in the States of North and South Carolina. Georgia, 
 and Tennessee ? Yearly the church is becoming more 
 deeply involved, for ' the general minutes of our annual 
 conferences announce eighty thousand colored members 
 in our church ; . . . but what proportion of these and 
 others are enslaved by the Methodist members and 
 preachers, we have no means of determining." 
 
 The address asks what are the opinions of 
 Wesley, Adam Clarke, and Richard Watson, and 
 the English Weslej'an Conference, on such a state 
 of things in the Methodist Episcopal Church.
 
 200 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 Then comes a long and impressive citation from 
 Wesley's "Thoughts on Slavery," which fails to 
 show either that Wesley did think that slave- 
 holders were never admitted to the fellowship of 
 the apostolic churches, or that he had ever made 
 slave-holding a ground of exclusion from the sacra- 
 ment when he was pastor of a church at Savannah 
 in a slave-holding community, or in the discij)line 
 of his societies in slave-holding countries, like the 
 West Indies or the Southern States. 
 
 From Adam Clarke they produce this declara- 
 tion : " In heathen countries slavery is in some 
 sense excusable ; among Christians it is an enor- 
 mity and a crime for which perdition hardly is 
 an adequate state of punishment," — a statement 
 whose white heat is no less manifest than its failure 
 to cover the point at issue. 
 
 From Richard Watson they cite resolutions 
 presented by him at the English Wesleyan Con- 
 ference, when the cause of West Indian emancipa- 
 tion was on the verge of its complete victory in 
 the British Parliament. The resolutions are a 
 solemn and impressive statement of the moral and 
 religious grounds on which the conference desired 
 to see West Indian slavery abolished, ending with 
 the recommendation that Wesleyan petitions and 
 votes should be used for the overthrow of slavery. 
 These are all the authorities. The address con- 
 cludes with three recommendations : — 
 
 " 1. These evils have come upon us while we have 
 been sleeping and dreaming of prosperity ; and so we
 
 SLAVERY. 201 
 
 have been resting unconscious of any danger, until the 
 horrid monster has insinuated himself into the church 
 of God, and blighted her fairest prospects with his pes- 
 tiferous breath. And how can we be faithful to our 
 solemn trust without informing ourselves upon this mo- 
 mentous subject ? 
 
 " 2. God himself commands us to ' remember them 
 that are in bonds, as bound with them ; and them which 
 suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body ' 
 (Heb. xiii. 3). 
 
 " 3. If, as we trust it has been made fully to appear, 
 slavery is one general system of violence, robbery, injus- 
 tice, vice, and oppression, then it is a sin in the sight of 
 Heaven, and ought to cease at once, now and forever. 
 But mark us here. We would have their situation one 
 which would secure to them, by adequate and impartially 
 administered laws, the right of enjoying the fruit of 
 their own labor, and the right of obtaining secular and 
 religious education." 
 
 The reason why the signers o£ this document 
 resorted to this j)ublication was because the papers 
 of the church were not open to them. 
 
 On the 27th of March, 1835, was issued a 
 " Counter Appeal," addressed to the same parties, 
 signed by AV. Fisk, John Lindsey, Bartholomew 
 Otheman, Hezekiah S. Ramsdell, Edward T. Tay- 
 lor, Abel Stevens, Jacob Sanborn, and E. H. 
 White. 
 
 It is evident enough that this document, not- 
 withstanding the number of names signed to it, 
 proceeds from the pen of Dr. Fisk, so that we
 
 202 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 shall analyze it as the embodiment of his personal 
 views. Of the " Appeal " it is asserted : — 
 
 " Against that publication, fraught as it is with doc- 
 trines radically erroneous ; arraigning as it does the fa- 
 thers, the discipline, and the institutions of our church; 
 and productive, as we fear it must be, of consequences 
 deeply injurious to the holy cause in which the affec- 
 tions and powers of our souls are engaged, — we firmly 
 declare our dissent, and earnestly enter our protest." 
 
 After an earnest appeal to all parties engaged 
 in the discussion to exhibit candor, fair-minded- 
 ness, and a truth-loving spirit, the paper contin- 
 ues : — 
 
 " With regard to their theoretic view of slavery, the 
 following sentence appears to convey the most concise 
 and explicit expression : ' We say the system is wrong, 
 it is cruel and unjust in all its parts and principles, and 
 that no Christian can consistently lend his influence or 
 example for one moment in support of it, and conse- 
 quently it should be abandoned now and forever.' This 
 general proposition has, like many other of the broad 
 maxims used by the advocates of our brethren's views, 
 the merit at once of a simple conciseness and sweeping 
 comprehensiveness, which, however convenient for splen- 
 did declamation, even the authors find somewhat embar- 
 rassing when they are to be applied to practical opera- 
 tions. . . . We understand it as declaring that no part 
 of the system is just or humane, that no Christian can 
 consistently support any part of it, and that the whole 
 should be this moment abandoned. From other parts 
 of the ' Appeal ' we also undei'stand them to maintain
 
 SLAVERY. 203 
 
 that they consider the doctrine of our disciplinary Gen- 
 eral Rule, to wliich they have as Methodists given their 
 consent, is, that no slave-holder is truly awakened, and 
 that therefore no slave-holder can rightly be permitted 
 a place in the Christian church. On this issue appeal 
 is made to Scripture, the discipline of the church, the 
 authorities brought forward in the ' Ajjpeal' itself, a crit- 
 icism of the measures presented is offered, and a better 
 method heralded. 
 
 " The argument of the ' Appeal ' founded on Old Tes- 
 tament usages is neglected, because the New Testament 
 is such an immense advance on the Old that no thought- 
 ful Christian would wish to accept any other than New 
 Testament grounds for his behavior on such important 
 matters. How the spirit of the gospel bears upon the 
 relations of men to each other may be seen in the com- 
 mands : 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' and 
 'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do 
 unto you, do ye even so unto them.' 
 
 " From these two simple texts results the rule : No- 
 body has the right to remove any providential evil upon 
 himself by imposing a still greater evil upon another. 
 Whatever be the nature of any evil imposed by Provi- 
 dence upon me, — loss of health, of liberty, or of life, — 
 if I love my neighbor as myself, I shall continue that 
 endurance rather than relieve myself by the infliction of a 
 greater evil upon another. If any class of men to which 
 I belong, by any dispensation of God, by birth or other- 
 wise, shall be placed in any circumstances of unhappi- 
 ness, of wliatever kind, they are bound by the author- 
 ity of the Golden Rule to continue that state of unhap- 
 piness, so long as it can be removed only by imposing 
 a still greater amount of unhappiness upon society at 
 large. . . .
 
 204 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 " Applying this same i-easoning to the specific case of 
 slavery, we should not be justified in revolutionizing its 
 position unless we had rational grounds to believe that 
 such a process would add to the sum of happiness. . . . 
 The results may be stated thus : 1. The authority of 
 the master should terminate so soon as its termination 
 would not produce more evils than would its longer 
 continuance ; and, second, this authority should be dimin- 
 ished in amount and severity when such diminution would 
 not produce more evil than it would subtract. . . . 
 
 " And it may be well here to remark the fallacy 
 which both our brethren and others use when arguing 
 the morality of this question ; in founding their reason- 
 ing, not upon the relation itself, nor upon what that rela- 
 tion would be in the hands of a truly Christian master, 
 but upon extreme cases of licentiousness and cruel abuse 
 of that relation in the hands of a tyrant. Supposing 
 the case of a Christian necessitated to hold men in the 
 relation of slaves, such would be the proper influence of 
 religion that, though the form of slavery might remain, 
 its infamies and its miseries would cease. When, there- 
 fore, our brethren and others portray the hoiTors of 
 cruelty and abomination exercised by tyrannical and cruel 
 masters, carrying out the specific statements with all the 
 exactness of physical detail, and ask us if those barbari- 
 ties are for a moment exercisable by a Christian, or jus- 
 tifiable by Scripture, we readily answer, certainly not. 
 It is as certain that abuses of the master's authority are 
 not for a moment justifiable as that its existence in some 
 cii'cumstances is. 
 
 " Our brethren favor us with an exegesis upon two 
 texts which appear in our view somewhat unmanageable 
 in their hands. Between text and commentary there
 
 SLA VER Y. 205 
 
 appears to be a fair combat ; and as they come to no 
 compromise, it is unnecessary to say whicli comes off 
 witli the mastery. To illustrate the justice of our stric- 
 tures, we shall give tlieir entire exegesis of the first, pre- 
 fixing, however, to the verse they quote, the four preced- 
 ing verses, which they choose to omit. We include their 
 text and commentary in quotations. 
 
 " ' Servants [slaves] obey in all things your masters 
 according to the flesh ; not with eye-service, as men- 
 pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And 
 whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not 
 unto men ; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive 
 the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord 
 Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the 
 wrong which he hath done : and there is no respect of 
 persons' (Col. iii. 22-25). 'Masters, give unto your 
 servants that which is just and equal ; knowing that ye 
 also have a Master in heaven ' (Col. iv. 1). ' This text 
 alone, were it properly obeyed, would annihilate the sys- 
 tem of slavery from the church and nation. And is it 
 just and equal when the poor slaves are compelled, often 
 by the stroke of the club or cowhide, to toil in weariness 
 and' want as long as they live, till they finally drop into 
 the grave without their ever being paid a penny ? ' 
 
 "The question asks, with the most ingenuous simplicity, 
 whether the most tyrannic cruelty be equity and justice ? 
 We as ingenuously answer, we opine not, just as two 
 and two are not five. 
 
 " ' Let every man abide in the same calling Avherein 
 he was called. Art thou called, being a servant ? Care 
 not for it : but if thou mayest be free, use it rather. 
 For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is 
 the Lord's freeman : likewise also he that is called,
 
 206 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a 
 price; be not ye the servants o£ men' (1 Cor. vii. 
 20-23). 
 
 " Our brethren say, ' From this, two things are ap- 
 parent : first, that Christianity does not alter the civil 
 connection which one man may sustain to another merely 
 by his embracing it.' The writer in this simple sen- 
 tence concedes the whole question, and gives up the 
 whole point. Is not the relation of a master to a slave 
 a ' civil connection,' and will not Christianity, ' merely 
 upon his embracing it,' dissolve that connection ? If 
 not, then religion and slavery can exist together, and 
 the dispute is at an end. Our brethren grant more 
 than we can accept. If embracing Chi-istianity alters 
 no civil relation, slavery, for aught religion does, may 
 become perpetual ; and thus the whole is conceded 
 which the most inveterate slave-holder can desire. From 
 such a liberality of concession we beg to be excused." 
 
 In favor of his view of the subject, Dr. Fisk 
 cites passages which the " Appeal " neglects to 
 quote, as though they " were given up in honest 
 despair as impregnable to assault, and inflexible 
 to j)er version." 
 
 " ' Servants, be obedient to those who are your masters 
 according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sin- 
 gleness of heart as unto Christ. Not with eye-service 
 as men - pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the 
 will of God from the heart ; with good will doing ser- 
 vice, as to tlie Lord and not to man ; knowing that what- 
 soever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he 
 receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And, 
 ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing
 
 BL AVERY. 207 
 
 threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven ; 
 neither is there respect of persons with him ' (Epli. vi. 
 6-9). 
 
 " ' Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, 
 not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to 
 the f roward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for con- 
 science towards God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. 
 For what glory is it if, when ye be buffeted [boxed or 
 cuffed on the ear] for your faults, ye take it patiently ? ' 
 (1 Pet. ii. 18, 19.) 
 
 " * Let as many servants [slaves] as are under the 
 yoke count their masters worthy of all honor, that 
 the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. 
 And they that have believing masters, let them not 
 despise them because they are brethren, but rather do 
 them service because they are faithful, and beloved, and 
 partakers of the benefit. These things exhort and 
 teach. If any man think otherwise ... he is proud, 
 knowing nothing ' (1 Tim. vi. 1, 2, etc.). 
 
 " These passages are brought to show that in the 
 primitive church, under the apostolic eye, and with 
 apostolic sanction, the relation of master and slave was 
 permitted to subsist." 
 
 Dr. risk sums up the discussion of the attitude 
 o£ the New Testament to slavery in these state- 
 ments : — 
 
 " 1. The relation of master and slave was a tolerated 
 relation. 
 
 " 2. Christianity pronounces all men alike immortal, 
 responsible, and precious in God's eyes. Hence it does 
 attest the innate ascendency of his nature, by which he 
 must inevitably rise above this fictitious and unnatural
 
 208 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 position of a mere chattel into an elevation worthy of 
 his true character. 
 
 " 3. The letter of the golden rule and the spirit of 
 the gospel operate with an irresistible tendency to the 
 amelioration, diminution, and destruction of slavery as 
 a system ; holding forth its perpetuation as an abomi- 
 nation ; and its continuance, by the authors of legisla- 
 tion, beyond the time of its practical removal, a sin." 
 
 After showing that Christianity was diffused 
 under the influence of political institutions which 
 recognized slavery as a normal part of the civil 
 order, Dr. Fisk shows that its attitude to existing 
 evils was a guarded one : — 
 
 " It is thus historically evident, that the apostles 
 preached the gospel to every creature under heaven, — 
 in the palace of the master, if accessible ; in the hovel 
 of the slave, if permitted ; nor did they permit them- 
 selves to endanger the lives and safety of society by a 
 reckless carelessness of results : nor did they preclude 
 the possibility of preaching to the slave by uncompro- 
 mising injunctions of emancipation upon the master." 
 
 Upon this model, the discipline and the admin- 
 istration of the church of our fathers have been 
 modeled in respect to slavery. Instead of excus- 
 ing that course, he exults in it ; for he says : — 
 
 " The spirit of our ministering brethren in the South 
 has borne the impress of the primitive type. They, like 
 the early apostles, are a small minority, beneath a gov- 
 ernment (though nominally Christian) which has slav 
 ery constructed into its fabric, and is held by rulers who
 
 SLAVERY. 209 
 
 have the will and the power to pass oppressive laws, 
 which mercy does indeed weep to see inflicted. It is 
 no more necessary to defend that wicked system of leg- 
 ishation, in order to justify the cause of our brethren, 
 than it is necessary to vindicate the Roman govern- 
 ment in order to justify the course adopted by the apos- 
 tles." 
 
 The plan of operations against slavery sketched 
 in the " Appeal " seems to Dr. Fisk not suited to 
 be effective. Plis criticism goes straight to the 
 mark : — 
 
 " Some glimpse our brethren do afford us of a plan 
 of emancipation, which we may briefly notice in order 
 to show how they refute in practice what they assert as 
 abstract theory. Tliey say : ' We do not mean by this 
 that all the slaves should be thrust out loose upon the 
 nation, like a herd of cattle, nor that they should be 
 immediately invested with all political privileges and 
 rights, nor yet that they should be banished from their 
 native land to a distant clime. But we mean that the 
 slaves should immediately be brought under the protec- 
 tion of suitable laws, by placing them under such a su- 
 pervision as might be adapted to their condition.' Our 
 brethren here specify three essential parts of slavery to 
 be retained : 1. The slaves are not to be ' loose, like a 
 herd of cattle.' 2. They are not to have all their polit- 
 ical rights. And, 3. They are to be under special laws. 
 How our bi-ethren can assert ' that the system is cruel 
 and unjust in all its parts,' and yet that these essential 
 parts are right, that ' no Christian can lend his influence 
 one moment to its support,' yet coolly advise that these 
 unjust parts should be supported ; that the entire sys-
 
 210 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 tern ' should be abandoned now and forever,' and yet be 
 retained indefinitely for years, — is to us a ' harmony 
 not understood.' " 
 
 As to the authority and example of Wesley, it 
 is said : — 
 
 " Yet, as it happens, on this subject it would be very 
 difficult for the sudden devotees of Mr. Wesley's author- 
 ity to show very tangible opposition in principle between 
 Mr. Wesley and ourselves. Mr. Wesley begins by de- 
 fining a slavery such as no one can for a moment sup- 
 port from the Bible, and describes such a slavery as we 
 have repeatedly affirmed no Christian can perpetrate ; 
 and he concludes with exhortations to emancipation, 
 without prescribing the mode or measures : but we may 
 infer from his approving letter to Mr. Wilberforce that, 
 like Wilberforce and the Methodist Conference, Wesley 
 was a gradualist." 
 
 Dr. Fisk doubts whether Wesley himself would 
 have used the same language or followed the same 
 course here that he did in England, or that he 
 " would have considered it likely to forward the 
 cause of Southern emancipation." Thus he paints 
 " the contrariety of the cases : " — 
 
 " The chains which bound the slaves in the West In- 
 dies were held by the hands of the English Parliament, 
 assembled in London, and elected by the people of Brit- 
 ain. The path to emancipation, then, was plain and 
 direct. Rouse with thrilling peals the public efferves- 
 cence, rear a ' system of agitation ' through the land, 
 swell up the surging tide of popular commotion, and 
 Parliament must soon yield. This was perfectly safe,
 
 SLAVERY. 211 
 
 for those islands were too petty to revolt and separate ; 
 it was perfectly sure, for every syllable that touched the 
 national nerve sent its electric thrill into the soul of 
 the Parliament ; it was perfectly right, for with Britain, 
 people and Parliament, was the power of liberation, and 
 therefore the responsibility of the oppression. In all 
 these three respects we are precisely and diametrically 
 the reverse. With us, it would not be safe ; for the 
 Southern States, near half the nation in fii-m phalanx, 
 would be perfectly able and willing to form themselves 
 into an independent, perpetual slave empire ; it could 
 not be sure, for every impulse we could give would only 
 reanimate the spirit and renerve the arm of that cruel 
 legislation which now oppresses them ; it would not be 
 right, for we could not be morally justifiable in adopt- 
 ing measui-es rationally certain of resulting in increased 
 cruelty, disunion, and confirmed slavery." 
 
 The " Address " is criticised because its tone 
 and spirit are such as to obstruct the further exe- 
 cution of the only really effective measures for the 
 removal of slavery : — 
 
 " Many a keen-eyed slave-holder, upon principle, is 
 secretly pleased with the over-doing violence which dis- 
 gusts and assails the friends of practicable emancipation 
 in the South ; which affords a pretext of stronger laws 
 and tighter fetters ; Avhich cools the hopes and silences 
 the voice of the friends of liberty around him." 
 
 Further agitation would be sure to remove the 
 question from its status as a moral and ecclesias- 
 tical question, and make it a political issue. 
 " Methodism has been evangelically powerful be- 
 cause she has been politically neutral. Let her
 
 212 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 become proud of her influence and impregnated 
 with the spirit of politics, and her beams are 
 dimmed, her strength departed, and her ruin nigh." 
 No deliverance can come to the slaves from politi- 
 cal agitation. It is only those who do not like this 
 course who can expect a hearing from Southern 
 men. It was merely because Wilbur Fisk and his 
 friends had kept aloof from such proceedings that 
 they could hope for a kindly hearing : — 
 
 *' We have not — we know not that in the nature of 
 the case we can have — demonstration that our brethren 
 of the South have never, while laboring for the salvation 
 of the slave, omitted any opportunity of effecting their 
 emancipation. Of this, from their more intimate knowl- 
 edge, they are best able to decide ; and we have confi- 
 dence in their piety that they will make, upon a subject 
 so momentous, a conscientious decision. Yet to our 
 brethren of the South, if our feeble voice may not be 
 wholly unheard by them, in language which we are sure 
 they will recognize as the general tone of Christian 
 brotherly kindness, we would address our most intense 
 entreaty that, unless It be at the expense of higher. Im- 
 mortal Interests, thsy would now, in this day of light and 
 peace and of moral power, emulate the noble stand of 
 our bretlnen of England, and, with the name of Wes- 
 ley on their banners, and his spirit in their hearts, would 
 seize the timely honor of leading out the foremost van 
 of the greatest Christian movements which, In some of 
 our states, are directing their onward march towards the 
 ultimate achievement of universal emancipation." 
 
 With his usual energy in forwai'ding any views
 
 SLAVERY. 213 
 
 he had adopted, Dr. Fisk aided in the format'on 
 of colonization societies (thongh he would not join 
 an anti-slavery society). He kept himself informed 
 as to their methods of operation, he treasured up 
 documents and letters setting- forth their work, 
 and delighted greatly when one was formed at 
 Middletown. 
 
 In an address before this body delivered on July 
 4, 1835, he states and argues the reasons for his 
 special devotion to colonization. He says that 
 there is no natural reason why a colonization ist 
 should not belong to an anti-slavery society also, 
 save that the partisans of the latter have waged un- 
 relenting war upon the former. 
 
 " 1. The anti-slavery society has no good chance to 
 improve the condition of the slaves. 
 
 " Nay, some of their lecturers have publicly said that 
 one of the greatest difficulties in the progress of their 
 principles was the fact that some of the slave-owners 
 treated the slaves with kindness. A meliorated condi- 
 tion of slavery would be to them one of the most unde- 
 sirable events that could occur. 
 
 " The members of that society are none of them 
 slave-holders, — their constitution excludes such, — hence 
 they cannot liberate slaves themselves in a private way. 
 Can they do it in a public way by legislation ? It would 
 seem not. The great theatre of this society's opera- 
 tions is In the non-slave-holding states. Now, what have 
 these states, in their legislative capacity, to do with the 
 question of slavery In the slave-holding states ? Noth- 
 ing. "What has the national legislature to do with it? 
 Nothing."
 
 214 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 Colonizationlsts have at various times emanci- 
 pated slaves by the hundreds : — 
 
 " We are sometimes taunted with the demand, by 
 what rule of arithmetic we can calculate the final extinc- 
 tion of slavery by colonization, if, in nineteen years, this 
 plan has removed but a small proportion of the net in- 
 crease of one year. We will solve this arithmetical 
 question when our opponents will solve the following : 
 If, in three or four years of modern abolitionism, not 
 one slave has been liberated by the society or any of its 
 membei's, how long will it take them to emancipate all 
 the slaves of the United States ? " 
 
 Dr. Fisk next argues that the education of the 
 free blacks in the Northern States has been quite 
 as much in the hands of colonizationists as of those 
 of abolitionists. He argues that the social standing 
 of free blacks at the North has been rather injured 
 than improved by the anti-slavery societies. He 
 says that the agents of the colonization society 
 have improved the condition and prospects of the 
 slave, since they labor where labor may suc- 
 ceed : — 
 
 " The voice of a Bascom, and a Finley, and of a 
 Breckenridge, and others have been heard through the 
 entire South, pleading for the elevation of these victims 
 of prejudice and oppression. Nor were they heard in 
 vain : a general interest was beginning to be felt, and 
 the work of alleviation was gi'adually advancing, until 
 an ill-timed, preci])itate benevolence began to urge foi^ 
 ward its high-pressure system of agitation and excite- 
 ment. This has increased the severity of slave legisla-
 
 SLAVERY. 215 
 
 tion ; it has silenced tlie voice of discnssion in the slave 
 states, and has checked and retarded, perhaps for years, 
 the progress and final consummation of slave meliora- 
 tion and emancipation." 
 
 The triumph of such principles would mean the 
 removal of the question to the political arena, 
 where its victory would mean a dissolution of the 
 Union : — 
 
 "A political anti-slavery party will doubtless soon be 
 organized, and when once this is made a question at the 
 polls, its moral bearings will be lost sight of. If such a 
 political party should succeed, nothing short of a disso- 
 lution of the Union would follow. . . . There is nothing 
 the South ' would be more inclined to do than to sep- 
 arate herself from the Northern States, whenever they 
 assume a political attitude in opposition to her social 
 and political rights, — rights guaranteed to her by the 
 solemnities of constitutional provisions and publicly 
 plighted faith.' 
 
 " At a late protracted anti-slavery meeting it was 
 moved and carried with acclamation, without a dissent- 
 ing voice, that all ministers and church-members who 
 are the owners of slaves ought to be excluded from our 
 pulpits and from our communion. Let this doctrine be 
 carried out, and what would be the consequence ? The 
 most ruinous to the peace of our churches. The con- 
 gregational churches, from the independent character 
 of each church or association, would feel it least. The 
 Baptists would feel it more. But these could not feel it 
 like the Protestant Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, and 
 the Methodist Episcojial churches. It would be an en- 
 tire dismemberment of those churches, not merely a
 
 216 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 grand division into Northern and Southern ; but here in 
 the North we should be divided among ourselves, brother 
 against brother, and society against society : and the 
 work of God would be neglected and the spirit of devo- 
 tion lost in the schisms and contentions which would 
 ensue. . . . No church would suffer like ours. We are 
 not only bound together by a common faith, a common 
 discipline, and common ecclesiastical judicatories, but we 
 are united also by a common pastoral charge, by which 
 the whole flock is, in a manner, the property of each 
 and every pastor, and each and every pastor the prop- 
 erty of the whole flock. Throw this spirit of disfellow- 
 ship and schism into a religious community thus consti- 
 tuted, and what would be the result ? . . . Even infidels 
 would weep at the consequences, political, social, and 
 domestic, that would follow such a schism." 
 
 Once, when Dr. Fisk was returning from New 
 York to his home by steamboat, he had as fellow- 
 passengers several earnest abolitionists, one of 
 whom was the Hon. James G. Birney. They be- 
 came involved in a discussion of slavery. Shortly 
 after Dr. Fisk received a request to correct a par- 
 tial and garbled account of their debate, that Mr. 
 Birney might publish it. This elicited the follow- 
 ing response : — 
 
 " Hon. James G. Birney : — 
 
 " Dear Sir, — I was not a little surprised at the 
 reception of your note of the fourth instant, announcing 
 your i)urpose to publish a sketch of the discussion we 
 held on Saturday last, while on our way from New 
 York to New Haven.
 
 SLAVERY. 217 
 
 "To this I have many objections. Among others, 
 before I choose to have my sentiments spread before 
 the public, I prefer to do it myself, in my own words, 
 and in my own way. In these times of public calunmy 
 and misrepresentation, I would not have a familiar 
 friend publish my sentiments for me, much less an 
 interested opponent. 
 
 " I object, also, to the sketch given in your letter, as 
 one-sided, deficient, and unfair. I do not accuse you 
 of designing to misrepresent the conversation ; I only 
 state the fact, as a reason for objecting to your proposed 
 course. If you should publish your sketch as it is given 
 in your letter to me, one of two things must follow : I 
 must be silent and suffer the public to be deceived, or I 
 must enter into a public controversy with you. For the 
 latter alternative I have neither time nor inclination. 
 The public, sir, do not pay me a salary to spend my 
 time writing upon this subject. I am engaged in other 
 and important duties ; and if I appear befoi-e the pub- 
 lic, I must choose my own time and manner of doing 
 it, so as not to interfere with other paramount engage- 
 ments. 
 
 " It is in accordance with the practice of many abo- 
 litionists, I know, to draw others before the public when 
 and as they will, without reference to the proprieties 
 and courtesies of life. That you, sir, are of this char- 
 acter, I have yet to learn. If, however, you attempt it 
 with me in this case, and in the manner proposed, you 
 will have learned beforehand that I consider it ttnfair, 
 ungentlemanly, and unchristian. 
 
 " Most respectfully yours, 
 
 " W. FisK."
 
 218 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 Yet Mr. Birney published liis sketch, with the 
 accompanying correspondence. 
 
 By this time Dr. Fisk had come to the settled 
 conviction that some of the leaders in the agitation 
 meant to divide the church, unless they could 
 force their views upon the whole body. This view 
 he announced to various ministerial friends both 
 at the North and in the South. So strong were 
 his fears that he kept a keen watch on the contes- 
 tants to hinder any such efforts. In certain arti- 
 cles in the " Christian Advocate " he denounced 
 the Rev. George Storrs for having committed him- 
 self to schismatic principles. In the same articles 
 he gave such offense to La Roy Sunderland, the 
 editor of " Zion's "Watchman," that he sent Dr. 
 Fisk formal notice that charges would be presented 
 against him of defamation and slander at the 
 Conference of 1838. Dr. Fisk's outline of his 
 defense exists in his own hand, showing that, even 
 with Sunderland's own statement of the facts, 
 there was no defamation, no slander. But the 
 testimony of the Rev. Dr. Luckey and another 
 witness, both from New York, proved the truth of 
 Dr. Fisk's allegations so directly that the prosecu- 
 tion broke down. 
 
 The course events did take, both in the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church and in the nation at large, 
 was such as to vindicate the soundness of Mr. 
 Fisk's judgment. These new movements had got 
 such full possession of the conference that he 
 thought this the controlling influence in the elee-
 
 SLAVERY. 219 
 
 tion of delegates to the General Conference of 
 1836, and he protested against this change by re- 
 siffninir his own seat in the General Conference, 
 and having his reasons for the step entered on the 
 journal. The organization of a new church, under 
 the leadership of Orange Scott, showed how true 
 was Dr. risk's much denounced assertion, that 
 some of the abolition leaders would rather divide 
 the church than wholly fail in their enterprise. 
 The division of the parent body into two sectional 
 bodies, the Methodist Episcopal Church and the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church South, in 1844, sent 
 ecclesiastical discord and contention into every 
 Methodist conference, society, class - meeting, or 
 home. The election of Mr. Lincoln, even on a 
 platform which foreboded no attacks upon the 
 institution of slavery in the states where it existed 
 under constitutional protection, was the signal for 
 the secession of the Southern States from the 
 Union. 
 
 One may fairly doubt the feasibility of the plan 
 of action in reference to slavery proposed by Dr. 
 Eisk and his associates, but how can anybody 
 wonder that the scheme appealed to his confidence 
 as a Christian and his hopes as a patriot ? Can 
 any one doubt but that the proper effect of the 
 Christian religion operating upon the minds of 
 Christian masters and slaves would be to rob that 
 awful system of its infamy and cruelty? Why 
 could not such cases be reproduced, by high and 
 holy and constant endeavor, so widely as to render
 
 220 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 community after community, and state after state 
 the abodes of the most enlightened opposition to 
 human bondage ? Such a faith might seem hope- 
 less, and such a task impossible ; but nothing is 
 impossible to Christian wisdom and love. 
 
 Had such a conquest of human reason and Chris- 
 tian love banished American slavery off the face 
 of the earth, that would have been one of the no- 
 blest victories our Christian civilization has ever 
 won. We should have had no schisms in the local 
 or national churches. Slavery would have been 
 gradually abolished by the voluntary action of 
 enlightened slave-holders, by the careful legislation 
 of wise and well-informed statesmen, suj^ported by 
 the sympathy and cooperation of all who bear the 
 Christian name. 
 
 There would have been no rebellion, with its 
 immense drafts upon the life and the treasury of 
 our nation. Death in battle and camp would not 
 have scattered consternation, sorrow, and bereave- 
 ment through all the homes of our fair land. No 
 jealousy of North and South, no Ku-klux Klans, 
 no frauds on the ballot-box, no military govern- 
 ments, no mutual jealousies and rivalries in the 
 good work of enlightening and educating the col- 
 ored people, and no direful race prejudices to ob- 
 struct the spirit of American political and social 
 advancement. 
 
 An([ how easy to turn the self-denial and self- 
 control won in such a triumphant struggle against 
 such an enormous evil system against other evils
 
 SLAV EH Y. 221 
 
 which still infest and curse our country ! To win 
 the whole world to the side of Jesus Christ would 
 have seemed easy to the veterans who had with 
 their combined efforts put away slavery, root and 
 branch, from our country.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 MANIFOLD ACTIVITY. 
 
 De. Fisk, notwithstanding his manifold labors, 
 was always deeply interested in missionary toil. 
 He gave freely of his means, time, and efforts to 
 diffuse the missionary spirit throughout the entire 
 church of God. He preached, lectured, sent com- 
 munications to the newspapers, in order to diffuse 
 useful knowledge concerning this work, and to re- 
 kindle apostolic zeal for the conversion of souls. 
 He induced the Young Men's Missionary Society 
 of New York to support a missionary to Liberia. 
 He, whose devotion to the negro race was disi^uted 
 by men who hated the Colonization Society, whose 
 cause was advocated by Dr. Fisk with such ability 
 and effect, offered his own services for the Liberian 
 Mission, and would have actually gone to labor 
 and lay down his life on that dangerous coast, but 
 for the irresistible protests that came from the 
 friends of Wesleyan University. He rejoiced in 
 the appointment of Rev. Melville B. Cox to the 
 perilous field which he had coveted for himself, 
 and visited New York and other i)laces to raise 
 money for that noble work. 
 
 The missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church
 
 MANIFOLD ACTIVITY. 223 
 
 amongst the Canadian Indians had been so suc- 
 cessful that numerous and flourishing stations were 
 established amongst them. Few of these converts 
 could read English, and, as there was no transla- 
 tion of the Scriptures into their language, the 
 progress of the native churches was slow and pain- 
 ful. Dr. Fisk, in seconding a speech by the Rev. 
 W. Case in behalf of this work, induced the Young 
 Men's Bible Society to secure three thousand dol- 
 lars for printing the entire New Testament in the 
 Mohawk tongue. This proposal was made in 1831, 
 and Dr. Fisk did his utmost to carry out this be- 
 nevolent work until the translation was completed 
 in 1839. A well of salvation to those tribes has 
 that precious book become. 
 
 In 1833 four Indians of the Flathead tribe had 
 made their appearance at St. Louis to inquire into 
 the Christian religion. Two of the four messen- 
 gers who brought this novel report had visited one 
 of the Catholic mission schools in Canada, and so 
 their interest had been excited. But the imme- 
 diate occasion of this singular embassy was the fact 
 that some visitor of their idolatrous feasts had told 
 them that their methods of worshiping the Great 
 Spirit were entirely wrong and deeply displeasing 
 to him, and that the white people far to the east- 
 ward had a book which would tell them how to 
 worship God with acceptance in his sight. So much 
 were they moved by this statement that they called 
 a council to deliberate on the subject, and four 
 chiefs were dispatched to the East in quest of infor-
 
 224 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 mation. These chiefs had heard of General Clarke, 
 the companion of Lewis on his travels through 
 the Oregon Territory, and turned their steps to 
 St. Louis, where Clarke then resided as Indian 
 commissioner ; for they thought he must be able to 
 give them information about the white man's God 
 and his religion. General Clarke kindly gave 
 these ignorant but noble men the main facts of 
 the history of the Bible, the great central truths 
 concerning the nature of God, the incarnation, 
 and the redemptive death of the Son of God, 
 and the doctrines and precepts of the CJmstian 
 faith. The facts here set forth were sent to G. P. 
 Disosway, Esq., in a letter from Mr. William 
 Walker, the exploring agent of the Wyandots, 
 and appeared in the " Christian Advocate and 
 Journal," March 1, 1833. Though burdened with 
 work at the university. Dr. Fisk's eye caught sight 
 of the wonderful tidings of the quest of heathen 
 tribes for a knowledge of the true God. He at 
 once read the article aloud to Mi's. Fisk and said, 
 " We will have a mission there." 
 
 " It would be a noble enterprise, but where 
 will you get the man ? " 
 
 " I know of but one in the world every way 
 qualified for such an undertaking, and you know 
 who that is." 
 
 " Yes, but you are too late for him. You know 
 Mr. Jason Lee is about to apply for admission to 
 the British Conference." 
 
 Mr. Fisk wrote a letter, before sitting down, to
 
 MANIFOLD ACTIVITY. 225 
 
 Mr. Lee, and thus by his promptness and decision 
 secured the most available man in the world for 
 the Oregon mission. Then he sounded the follovv- 
 ins: buole - call in the " Christian Advocate and 
 Journal : " — 
 
 " HEAR ! HEAR ! WHO WILL RESPOND TO THE CALL 
 BEYOND THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS? 
 
 " Messrs. Editors, — The communication of Brother 
 G. P. Disosway, inclosing one from the Wyandot agent 
 on the subject of the deputation of the Flathead Indians 
 to General Clarke, has excited in many in this section 
 intense interest. And, to be short about it, we are for 
 having a mission established there at once. I have pro- 
 posed the following plan : Let two suitable men, unin- 
 cumbered with families, and possessing the spirit of mar- 
 tyrs, throw themselves into the nation ; live with them ; 
 learn their language ; jjreach Clu'ist to them ; and, as 
 the way opens, introduce schools, agriculture, and the 
 arts of civiHzed life. The means for these improvements 
 can be furnished through the fur-traders, and by the 
 reinforcements with which we can from time to time 
 strengthen the mission. Money shall be forthcoming. 
 I will be bondsman for the church. All we want is the 
 men. Who will go ? Who ? I know one young man 
 who I think Avill go, and of whonr I can say I know 
 none like him for the enterprise. If he will go (and we 
 have written to him on the subject), we only want an- 
 other, and the mission will be commenced the coming 
 season. Were I young and healthy and unincumbered, 
 how gladly would I go ! But this honor is reserved for 
 another. Bright will be his crown, glorious his reward. 
 " Affectionately yours, W. FiSK. 
 
 '* Wesleyan Univeksitv. March 9, 1833."
 
 226 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 This spirited appeal brought offers from quite a 
 number of devoted ministers of the Gospel of 
 Christ, who would readily have foregone all the ad- 
 vantages of civihzed existence, and confronted the 
 dangers of barbarian life, with the probability of a 
 premature death, if only they might lead the sav- 
 ages of the Oregon region to the true faith and a 
 godly life. But before these offers reached Dr. 
 Fisk by mail, he had already obtained the Rev. 
 Jason Lee and his nephew. Rev. Daniel Lee, and 
 Mr. Cyrus Shepherd, who went out as a school- 
 teacher. By the ensuing November, these three 
 were accepted by the Missionary Society, and ap- 
 pointed by Bishop Hedding to their remote scene 
 of labor and sufferings. While they were still 
 lingering in New York, uncertain what sort of 
 preparation would be most useful to them in their 
 work, news reached Dr. Fisk that a Captain Wyeth 
 had returned to Boston from a trading expedition 
 to Oregon. Says Dr. Holdich : — 
 
 " This seemed like an opening of Providence. By the 
 advice of the board they turned their course to Boston. 
 On this journey Dr. Fisk accompanied them, aiding 
 them by his counsel, and holding public meetings with 
 them. He preached on Friday and on Sunday evenings 
 in the Bronifield Street Church, and on the former oc- 
 casion Captain Wyeth answered, in the presence of the 
 congregation, sundiy questions touching the prospects of 
 a mission to Oregon, and gave much information highly 
 valuable to the missionaries. . . . Early in the sjjring 
 the missionaries proceeded to St. Louis, holding public
 
 MANIFOLD ACTIVITY. 227 
 
 meetings at every important town, and everywhere 
 quickening the church to effort. The latter part of 
 April they started from St. Louis on horseback for the 
 place appointed to meet the trading companies, and 
 thence over the Rocky Mountains, three thousand miles 
 away from the abodes of civilization." 
 
 The financial response to this appeal was very 
 prompt and general. Societies and individual 
 members of other churches, as well as in the Meth- 
 odist Episcopal Church, hurried on their contribu- 
 tions. Here is a specimen of these outside con- 
 tributions : — 
 
 « Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D. D. : 
 
 •' Sir, — I was interested in the account recently given 
 in some of the public journals of the solicitude of the 
 Flathead Indians to know the true God, and how to 
 worsliip him. 
 
 "The appeal made by you in their behalf derived 
 weight from the assurance given by you that, if you 
 were younger, you would yourself carry the gospel to 
 them. While I rejoice that you have taken up the sub- 
 ject with so much zeal, I still more rejoice that devoted 
 men of ardent piety have consecrated themselves to this 
 holy employment. Let them endeavor to possess the 
 prudence of Schwarz, the humility of Brainard, the 
 learning of Martyn, the devotedness of Fisk, the self- 
 denial of Judson, the untiring ardor of Gutzlaff, and, 
 with the blessing of the God of missions on their labors, 
 they may soon hope to see these children of the forest 
 becoming sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty. 
 
 " Funds will be required to accomplish your benev- 
 olent undertaking, and the enclosed SoO will not, I
 
 228 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 trust, be less acceptable from tbe circumstance that it is 
 presented by one not of your denomination. 
 
 "X. X. 
 
 "New London, July 19." 
 
 So numerous were these offerinsrs that Dr. Fisk 
 was obh'gecl to publish a public request that this 
 special mission might be left to the generosity 
 of the churches in New Haven, Hartford, and 
 Middletown.i 
 
 Thus Dr. risk had the intense satisfaction of 
 founding one of the most interesting and useful of 
 modern missions by his personal leadership and 
 Christian courage. He kept himself acquainted 
 with all the details of the growth of a mission in 
 which he had the double interest of a founder's 
 love, and of watching the j)ersonal success and 
 usefulness of missionaries who were " his own sons 
 in the gospel." 
 
 It is doubtful whether any other man ever 
 possessed so much influence in the New England 
 Conference as Wilbur Fisk. Hence he was the 
 adviser to whom aU looked on critical occasions. 
 Timothy Merritt was thoroughly familiar with all 
 the localities and distances involved in the charge 
 of murder brought against the Rev. E. K. Avery, 
 a member of that body. But though he was one 
 of the wisest, ablest, and noblest ministers of the 
 conference, he did not think he had done his duty 
 
 ^ For a full account of this sing-ular Indian embassy and its 
 results, see Oregon : The Struggle for Possession. By William 
 Barrows (American Commonwealth Series).
 
 MANIFOLD ACTIVITY. 229 
 
 by a brother minister under such awful charj^es 
 until he had by private correspondence made Dr. 
 Fisk thoroughly familiar with these facts. Dr. 
 Fish's mind and pen gave shape to the action 
 taken before that body in that intricate and per- 
 plexing case. Such influence quite as often 
 brought him personal criticism as commendation 
 from the various parties interested. But all such 
 letters reveal the utmost confidence in his integ- 
 rity. 
 
 In the Anti-masonic excitement which followed 
 the tragedy at Batavia, the intensest sentiment 
 was gradually aroused against clergymen in all 
 denominations who were Masons. Many excellent 
 people would not hear Masons preach or pray. 
 Here and there a man of great force of character, 
 or remarkable originality, stood out, bold and 
 defiant, against this storm of obloquy and distrust. 
 Father Taylor never bent for an hour to these 
 blinding and perverting influences. He marched 
 in all Masonic processions in his fidl regalia as 
 a Masonic chaplain, and shot out his irresistible 
 arrows of wit upon all and any who challenged 
 him. On one ceremonial occasion, he was to make 
 the public prayer. It was one of his most com- 
 prehensive prayers. This was one petition : '^ O 
 Lord, we beseech thee to bless all the enemies of 
 the noble and ancient order of Free Masons. 
 Gracious Lord, make their hearts as soft as their 
 heads are." 
 
 Notwithstanding some such examples of inde-
 
 230 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 penclence, it looked as though the usefulness of 
 many a minister would be greatly imperilled, if 
 not utterly destroyed. Here, again. Dr. Fisk drew 
 up the report which was adopted by all parties as 
 an adjustment of these difficulties. So wise and 
 prudent was it that in a few years the agitation 
 wholly vanished. 
 
 He also was the person who represented the 
 New England Conference whenever its adminis- 
 tration was challenged. The impression made by 
 Dr. Fisk on the other members of the General 
 Conferences of which he was a member is told by 
 Rev. George Peck, D. D. : — 
 
 "When Dr. Fisk took the stand, whether as a preach- 
 er, or as a platform orator, he was always well-prepared 
 and perfectly self-possessed. He had a sufficiency of 
 self-reliance to overcome all timidity, yet his modesty 
 and delicacy were as evident as his manly dignity. He 
 usually conquered in debate, though he never triiunphed 
 over an adversary. It was so evident that he contended 
 for truth not victory, and he bore his success with so 
 much meekness and grace, that his opponents were 
 saved much of the mortification of defeat. When he 
 assailed the vice of intemperance, he conciliated even 
 the rum-drinker and the rum seller by contrasting the 
 right and the wrong so strikingly that both avarice and 
 appetite were struck dumb. He would sometimes plant 
 his batteries on some such generalization as this : ' To 
 him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it 
 is sin.' He preached a most effective sermon on this 
 text, in the city of Philadelphia, during the session of
 
 MANIFOLD ACTIVITY. 231 
 
 the General Conference in 1832, in which he demon- 
 strated, in a most triiunpliant manner, the moral obliga- 
 tion to help forward the great temperance movement 
 by all proper means. The justice and truth of his 
 statements, in connection with his peculiarly felicitous 
 manner, left upon all minds the impression of fitness ; 
 and the intelligent hearer spontaneously exclaimed, 
 ' How forcible are right words ! ' "
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE PREACHER. 
 
 Dr. Whedon gives this account of the preach- 
 ing of Dr. Fisk : — 
 
 " The simplicity we have mentioned was the basis of 
 his manners as a gentleman. If conversation he an art 
 susceptible, as some think, of systematic and improving 
 cultivation, the unstudied spontaneity of Dr. Fisk's col- 
 loquial remarks betrayed very little indeed of such delib- 
 erate elaboration. Unprepared appropriateness was its 
 prevailing characteristic. He affected no polished points, 
 no quick-sprung antitheses. There were no previously 
 adjusted plans, no conversational ambushes, no prepared 
 accidents, no premeditated impromptus. You carried 
 from his intercourse an impress of interest, as if you 
 had experienced a sense of diffusive fascination ; but re- 
 tained no one outstanding gem of surpassing brilliancy, 
 flinging a shade over the surrounding lustre, and itself 
 endowed with diamond indestructlbleness. He seldom 
 flung out the elastic jen d" esprit, to be rebounded around 
 the circle, reverberated into publicity, and stereotyped 
 into a proverb. He was not of the Johnsonian school, 
 a professed converser, nor needed to borrow from the 
 Boswell school a colloquial reporter. He never found 
 it necessary to assert his social dignity by arrogating 
 the whole conversation ; he dealt forth no elbow-chair
 
 THE PREACHER. 233 
 
 orations, as if the sound of his own voice were the sweet- 
 est music to his ear, transforming the parlor into a lec- 
 ture-room, the social circle into auditory, and the dia- 
 logue into soliloquy. Bland, cordial, animate, recollected, 
 and dignified ; flexible to all the varieties of rank and 
 character ; symi^athizing with the humblest and courteous 
 to the dignitary ; dextrous in every difficulty, felicitous 
 in every exigency, and self-possessed in every surprise, 
 — he diffused around his daily presence and converse 
 the atmosphere of his own pure, gentle, and high-toned 
 sjiirit ; ever ready with the judicious counsel, the lucid 
 illustration, or the even-handed discussion ; now bright- 
 ening up the scene with a cheery yet chastened humor ; 
 now sobering it with recollective monition, checking the 
 rising impropriety by the powers of severely silent re- 
 buke, or, when it v/ould surge up in rebellion, capable of 
 rising into a subduing mastery over the rampant ele- 
 ments : these are the traits which, it is conceived, should 
 all the memories qualified by near acquaintance to deline- 
 ate the original, would be found visible in every picture. 
 " From the fact that Dr. Fisk did not indulge in col- 
 loquial harangue, it is not to be inferred that, in assum- 
 ing the public speaker, the transition was a transforma- 
 tion. On the contrary, the man in public was just the 
 unchanged man of private life, in both states approjjri- 
 ate to the situation. As a public speaker, his style was 
 the natural and spontaneous product of his personal 
 qualities, flowing out of his true individuality and not 
 artificially assumed upon it. A more extended audience 
 required of course a more elevated elocution, a wider 
 range of thought, and a loftier personal bearing. He 
 usually began wilh a clear enunciation of his starting- 
 points ; then ranged through a train of consecutive logic,
 
 234 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 so accurate as generally to evince its own justice, yet so 
 relieved by fancy, or illustrated by analogies, or impreg- 
 nated w\i\\ a feeling glow, as to secure attention ; and as 
 he passed through the process, gathering fervor from its 
 rapidity and gathering intenser rapidity from its fervor, 
 he generally rose to flights of surpassing grandeur, or 
 wound off with periods of tluilling appeal. And this 
 style of thought was accompanied with its corresponding 
 appropriate delivery. First, rising with a simple, col- 
 lected, saint-like presence (preceded, however, usually by 
 the almost convulsive cough, which commonly awakened 
 for the moment a painful sympathy from the unaccus- 
 tomed part of the audience), his manner was for the 
 time easy and equable ; but as he warmed with his sub- 
 ject, the feeling flowed out in the natural gesture, the 
 eye lighted up with new animation, the countenance 
 beamed with a glowing expression, the frame dilated 
 into a loftier bearing, and the whole man impregnate 
 and luminous with the subject. 
 
 "The description which we have here given is of 
 course more particularly true to the successful order of 
 Dr. Fisk's pulpit oratory. In the efforts of his latter 
 days, especially those exhibited in the chapel of the 
 University, either from the state of his heallh or from 
 views of practical usefulness, he seemed to adopt a style 
 of less sustained and more colloquial character. With 
 his pupils and associate officers, as in a family coterie, 
 he seemed to indulge the privilege of a more easy and 
 familiar style, less prepared and elaborate than his pub- 
 lic efforts, following very much the incidentally sug- 
 gested trains and transitions that seemed to arise in his 
 mind. These efforts were not particularly calculated for 
 sermonizing models ; they, of course, presented occa-
 
 THE PREACHER. 235 
 
 sional crudenesses of thouj^ht and improprieties of ex- 
 pression ; they were somewhat irregular in their arrange- 
 ment, and disproportionate and digressive in form : but 
 they possessed high interest as the apparently spontane- 
 ous discoursings of a superior mind ; and they abounded 
 with many a lesson of divine wisdom, many a passage of 
 impassioned eloquence. 
 
 " The common-sense substratum which we have as- 
 signed as the basis of Dr. P'isk's character may be pro- 
 nounced preeminently the basis of his mode of thought 
 as an orator. A prominent fault, we have often thought, 
 of pulpit ministry is, that its modes of reasoning and 
 expression are too professional, too unnatural. They 
 are the thinking of the trained theologian, with his 
 own vocabulary, his own logic ; indulging which all 
 the more freely because he feels sure of his audience, 
 and secure from audible contradiction, he goes along 
 disregarding the unspoken difficulties, and exulting in 
 conventional demonstrations, which prove just nothing 
 to the ordinary thinker. Dr. Fisk was the common- 
 sense preacher. He was at bottom — and without educa- 
 tion would have been — a direct, practical, clear-headed, 
 common-sense man ; and with such minds, comprehend- 
 ing the world's great average, he had a natural power 
 of sympathy and self - identification. This quality — 
 his perfect self-adaptation to the popular mind — consti- 
 tuted one main secret of his great power over it. He 
 knew that in every breast there are the germs of good 
 sense ; that there are elementary starting-points, — the 
 mental sprouts of all sound thought. Into these he 
 transfused his own soul ; he impregnated the germ with 
 the quickening spirit; he brought it out into new yet 
 natural developments, and he elevated it into lofty
 
 286 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 and glorious expansions. And so natural and sponta- 
 neous was the process, that the hearer thought the rea- 
 sonings pretty much his own. They were lus own sort 
 of thoughts ; at any rate, lie was sure they were just 
 what he could and should have thought ; only it was 
 thinking a little harder, a little farther, a little more 
 clearly, and a great deal more nobly. And thus the 
 woihlly and the shrewd were forced to feel the grapple 
 of his mind, while they appreciated the purity of his 
 character, and to doubt whether, after all, there was not 
 some common sense in theology and religion somewhere 
 else than in books. Through his life he thus drew un- 
 der his moral influence secular men of thought and char- 
 acter, and in his life presented to them a not ineffective 
 lesson. To one of these he exclaimed, ' You behold me, 
 sir, hovering between two worlds ! ' ' And fit for either,' 
 was the beautiful reply. 
 
 " It was uncongenial with the manly simplicity of Dr. 
 Fisk's mind carefully to hoard his oratorical reputation. 
 The arts of rhetorical keeping he knew not. When 
 once advised, upon the assumption of the college presi- 
 dency, to preach seldom, and reserve himself only for 
 great occasional displays, he shrunk at the thought. He 
 had no fear, by constant pouring forth, to exhaust the 
 fountain ; and he was not too proud to waste the most 
 masterly exertions of his mind upon the smallest and 
 humblest audience. Strains of oratory, that might richly 
 have filled the city cathedral, were freely lavished ujjon 
 the country school-house ! It was not his object to make 
 a grand oration, but to gain a more ultimate and business 
 purpose. He aimed to be the faithful Christian minister, 
 not the splendid pnlpit-orator. He forgot not his subject 
 in himself ; he forgot himself in his subject. And when
 
 THE PREACHER. 237 
 
 he came forth to his ministerial performance, it was not 
 after a period of solicitous, intensive, verbal, memorlter 
 premeditation. He did not, then, involve his plain 
 thouglits in folds of wordy gorgeousness ; nor did he 
 invest them with that intensive glare of diction which, 
 however entrancing to the fancy, renders the thought it- 
 self too dazzlingly painful to the mental gaze to be intel- 
 ligible to the mental perception, !No : his oratory was 
 the natural and animate glow of the mind, effervescing 
 with the subject ; or rather, it was the spontaneous effer- 
 vescence of the min 1 itself. For the subject that ani- 
 mated his periods animated his soul. In the days of 
 what was his health, but what to others would have been 
 disease, he esteemed it as his high delight to preach with 
 unremitting frequency; when the sympathy of all oth- 
 ers for his illness would have spared his service, he 
 could not spare himself. So long as he could stand in 
 the pulpit, he proclaimed the mission of iiis Master ; and 
 when he could no longer stand up to proclaim it, he pro- 
 claimed it still. It were a picture worthy a nobler hand 
 than mine to portray this minister of Christ, as his 
 friends watched his successive yieldings to the attacks 
 of the destroyer ; a feeble yet resolute figure, visited by 
 successive shocks of disease, and losing at each shock 
 that which he did not recover ; preaching so long as he 
 could stand in the desk ; when he was never again to 
 stand up in tliat desk, preaching from his seat, — in his 
 sick and dying chamber preaching, it was said, as he 
 never preached before ; so long as the crumbling ele- 
 ments of his body could frame a voice, sending forth the 
 dying articulations of his faithful ministry. 
 
 " There was a kind of public exercise which we must 
 not omit to mention, which, the farthest possible re-
 
 238 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 moved from artificial rhetoric, presented, as Dr. Fisk 
 performed it, a specimen of eloquence most genuine and 
 pure : we mean the eloquence of prayer. If eloquence 
 be the natural utterance of the simplest and most spon- 
 taneous breathing of the highest and holiest sentiments 
 with which our nature is susceptible of being inspired, 
 then were Dr. Fisk's addresses to the Deity specimens 
 of the truest eloquence. Devoid of artificial pomp, and 
 devoid of affectation, and especially devoid of that most 
 subtile of all affectation, the affectation of simplicity, 
 they possessed a real simplicity, variety, and pertinency 
 which we have never seen equaled. They were simple, 
 for they expressed in direct and unambitious words the 
 natural mind of the speaker ; they were varied, for he 
 had no stereotyped phrases, and the persons most famil- 
 iar with his daily devotions remember not his ever twice 
 using the same form of expression ; they were pertinent, 
 suiting with happy and instantaneous yet dignified ap- 
 plicableness the peculiar exigencies of specific circum- 
 stances and characters. Persons of intellectual character 
 of other denominations, or of worldly views, have ex- 
 pressed their surprise and pleasure at the unstudied, ex- 
 tempore beauty of his occasional, instantaneous prayers. 
 Among the most hallowed recollections of our departed 
 friend are the soft and soothing tones of his voice, as 
 they melted along the current of fervid devotion with 
 which he loved, at the close of an evening social as- 
 semblage, to consecrate the hour of interview."
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EUROPEAN TRAVEL. 
 
 In the year 1834 Dr. Fisk laid a severe strain 
 upon his physical strength by his unwearied labors 
 in that season of religious revival which has been 
 already described. Never after that did his gen- 
 eral health appear so good as it had usually been 
 up to that date. If he wrote in the latter part of 
 the day, after he had gone through the usual rou- 
 tine of labor, his handwriting was a]3t to be poor 
 and indistinct, so that he took up the habit of 
 writino- as much as he could in the morning hours. 
 What veiled from many eyes the serious condition 
 of his health was the amount and variety of the 
 work he contrived to pei'form, and the sweet and 
 sunny disposition which was as fully manifest in 
 his worst seasons as in his most vigorous health. 
 Such unvaried cheerfulness and unabated hope- 
 fulness kept many of his friends from any keen 
 sense of his danger. 
 
 His best medical advisers, and especially his 
 most trusted adviser, Dr. Sewall, of Washington, 
 D. C, advised him to try the effect of a sea voyage 
 and the European tour. But Dr. Sewall urged 
 him to make everything else subservient to the
 
 240 WILBUR FI8K. 
 
 recovery of his health, and to take Mrs. Fisk with 
 him. Then large additions to the philosophical 
 and chemical apparatus would be requisite to put 
 Wesleyan University in the front rank of New 
 England colleges in its equipment for teaching nat- 
 ural science. Books, also, were needed in various 
 departments, to give the students and instructors 
 the best facilities for doing good work. 
 
 Hence the Joint Board of Wesleyan University 
 authorized Dr. Fisk to visit Europe, to afford him 
 a long respite from care and duty, in order that he 
 might regain his usual health, and that he might 
 make purchases of books and apparatiis while 
 abroad. Even before his departure he was taken 
 ill, and seemed far advanced in pulmonary disease. 
 But he rallied quickly from his worst symptoms, 
 and set about some of his most urgent business 
 while unable to be about the house more than a 
 part of the time. 
 
 By these means his departure was delayed until 
 September 8, 1835. Besides Mrs. Fisk he had as 
 a traveling companion Mr. Harvey B. Lane, after- 
 wards for more than twenty years a Professor of 
 Mathematics or Greek in Wesleyan University. 
 He was fui-nished with a good store of letters of 
 introduction to such persons as could be helpful to 
 him in his official business. He was requested by 
 various missionary societies to inspect and report 
 concerning the operations of missionary societies 
 in Europe. He was also invited to represent the 
 American Bible Society at certain meetings to be
 
 EUROPEAN TRAVEL. 241 
 
 held while Dr. Fislc would be in Europe. The 
 General Conference of 1836 requested Dr. Fisk to 
 represent the Methodist Episcopal Church at the 
 ensuinjr meetino- of the British Conference. 
 
 It would be a long and largely unprofitable task 
 to follow these travelers through their protracted 
 wanderings in Europe, for not only does Dr. Hol- 
 dieh give a full account of them, but Dr. Fisk 
 himself published at the press of the Harpers a 
 volume of some 688 pages covering the whole 
 range of this journey. The volume evidently ap- 
 pealed to a wide circle of readers, since $2,700 was 
 paid over to Dr. Fisk as the author's honorarium. 
 Here this massive volume will be used simply to 
 cast lioht on the character of its author. A trav- 
 eler who records a long series of observations on 
 foreign countries is pretty sure to throw not a 
 little light on himself, whether he does upon the 
 countries visited or not. 
 
 We have already had occasion to criticise the 
 somewhat narrow and illiberal views taken by Dr. 
 Fisk, in his introductory address at Wesleyan Uni- 
 versity, of the relation of the fine arts to educa- 
 tion. This Euroj)ean journey corrected these ideas 
 with respect to music, architecture, and painting, 
 though the masterpieces of sculpture left him cold. 
 We have space only to insei't his account of the 
 effect of Italian music upon his mind : —
 
 242 WILBUR FJSK. 
 
 " TENEBR^ A2^D MISERERE. 
 
 " On Wednesday, p. M., there was the finest music by 
 the pope's choir that I ever heard. The function is 
 called Tenebrce, or darkness, and seems to be designed 
 to commemorate the darkness and gloom of the church 
 at the hour of betrayal, or perhaps the scene in the 
 garden. The origin and design of this performance, 
 however, seem not to be fully settled by the Catholics 
 themselves, nor is it of any gi'eat consequence to deter- 
 mine it. It is enough for me that it was, on the whole, 
 one of the most interesting occasions I have enjoyed at 
 Rome. The pope attends in the Sistine Chapel, and 
 thither, of course, the multitude resorted ; but as there 
 was to be the same music at St. Peter's, we proposed 
 hearing it there, rather than endure the crowd at the 
 chapel. The exercise was long, and consisted, in the 
 fore part, of lessons sung and chanted from the Psalms, 
 the Lamentations, and from that part of the Epistle to 
 the Corinthians describing the institution of the sacra- 
 ment. The whole was interspersed with antiphonies, 
 and all performed with admirable skill. Indeed, it is 
 said that none but those trained in this school can per- 
 form this music. The French, when they were in 
 power here, carried this music to France ; but it availed 
 them not, for none of their performers could sing it. 
 But this choir perform it to imiversal admiration. The 
 great concentration of excellence, however, and of 
 course of interest, is in the closing piece, called the 
 Miserere, which is the 51st Psalm set to music by 
 Allegri. It has its name from the first word in the 
 Psalm, which commences in Latin, Miserere mei, deus. 
 All who have read this Psalm have noticed what hum-
 
 EUROPEAN TRAVEL. 243 
 
 ble confession, what deep contrition, run through the 
 whole of this beautiful composition. But what the 
 psalmist has expressed so inimitably in words, seems, if 
 possible, to be still more forcibly expressed in sounds ; 
 at least, putting the two together, they were overwhelm- 
 ing. Such wailing, such lamentation and woe, such 
 tender, melting, agonizing strains of penitential grief 
 and contrition ! They came over my soul like a dissolv- 
 ing charm, melting my heart, and opening the very 
 fountains of grief. Every emotion of my heart chimed 
 in with the sentiments and the music, and I felt myself 
 entirely carried away and transported by the inspira- 
 tions of the occasion. It is worthy of notice that there 
 were no females in the choir, and yet there were some 
 of the finest treble voices I ever heard. I have heard 
 before a counterfeit treble from a man, but it was not 
 natural ; here, however, it was the most perfect, and 
 the strains fell in, one after another, from the finest fal- 
 setto to the gravest bass, and all so skillfully arranged 
 and modified as to produce but one effect ; it was like 
 a multitude of old men and maidens, young men and 
 children, pouring forth their united, concordant strains 
 of chastened grief in all the bitterness and reverence of 
 supplication and adoring penitence. 
 
 "As usual, in all cases of Catholic worship, numerous 
 candles were burning, but they were extinguished one 
 after another, until only one was left, and that was par- 
 tially concealed behind the altar. Of the meaning of 
 this there is not an agreement : some say it is the grad- 
 ual extinction of the prophetic lights before the coming 
 of Christ ; others say it is designed to represent the 
 fact that, when Christ was apprehended, all his disci- 
 ples forsook him and fled. The concealing of the only
 
 244 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 remaining light represents Christ in the tomb, whose 
 light was suspended but not extinguished." 
 
 How corrupt the papal church was, in the judg- 
 ment of Dr. Fisk, appears from a letter to Dr. 
 Bunting, of London, dated February 12, 1836 : — 
 
 " Next to the * mystery of godliness,' the ' mystery 
 of iniquity ' is most marvelous ! Whence had Satan 
 such wisdom ? Whence had iniquity such venom ? How 
 is it possible that all the combined cunning and sin of 
 earth and hell could have succeeded, not merely in 
 measurably corrupting the gospel, but in filling the very 
 channels of salvation with the waters of death ? " 
 
 With this striking statement of the fallen con- 
 dition of the Roman Church, everything which 
 Dr. Fisk says about the religious condition of the 
 various Catholic countries visited by him coin- 
 cides. He saw nothing else to do but to plant 
 new churches, Methodist churches if possible, but 
 Protestant churches anyhow, and commit to them 
 the immense but disheartening mission of trans- 
 forming the unbelieving world and a corrupted 
 church. This is one of the points where Dr. 
 Fisk seems to have accej)ted without reserve the 
 opinions of the English and Protestant mission- 
 aries whom he met at various points in Europe. 
 As he understood neither French nor Italian, he 
 was not able, by hearing with his own ears nor by 
 reading with his own eyes, to learn what was actu- 
 ally going on in the society about him. Had he 
 been able to do this, he would, with his impartial
 
 EUROPEAN TRAVEL. 245 
 
 habit of observation and judgment, have gathered 
 many signs which might justify the faith that the 
 Roman Catholic Church is possibly nowhere so 
 utterly corrupt and fallen away from God as to 
 make her incapable of revival and renovation. 
 For the Catholic Church in France was already 
 far advanced on that movement of quickening 
 through which she has had so great and honorable 
 a share in what Guizot, in liis " Meditations on the 
 Actual State of Christendom," describes as " The 
 Awakening of Christianity in France in the Nine- 
 teenth Century." Here Guizot is able to speak 
 with a fullness of detail, and with the authority of 
 an eye-witness of, and personal participant in, this 
 great awakening. Had Dr. Fisk been fully cog- 
 nizant of the condition of Catholic France in his 
 day, not only would his sojourn in France have 
 been much more cheerful and healthful than it 
 was, but he might have seen, in the revived Chris- 
 tianity of Catholic France, good reasons for the 
 hope that the revival would spread until many an- 
 other nation of the Catholic world would yet come 
 under the quickening breath of spiritual transfor- 
 mation, and so the hope arise that all Christen- 
 dom should yet be brought back to newness of 
 life. Here and there in Dr. Fisk's " Travels " 
 come misleading passages like this : — 
 
 " And here it may be remarked that the fasts and 
 penances of the papists are admirably contrived for 
 sensual enjoyment. No man who wished to enjoy the 
 most sensual gratification possible in this life would, if
 
 246 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 he adapted the end to the means, pamper the senses to 
 the full continually. He would have his changes and re- 
 straints at intervals, by which he would court the ap- 
 petite, and keep alive and invigorate his desire and zest 
 for pleasure. It is thus artfully that Romanism has min- 
 gled her cup, and meted out her indulgences and pro- 
 hibitions ; and when to this are joined her ecclesiastical 
 pageantry and splendid ritual, a system of religion is 
 formed the best possible to gratify the pleasure-seeking 
 man of the world. In short, Romanism is practically 
 — I will not say a religion merely, but emphatically — 
 the religion of the natural heart." 
 
 It is such passages as these that mar our pleas- 
 ure in reading Dr. Fisk's " Travels." It is true 
 that, with his ignorance of the Italian and French 
 languages, he was of necessity left to draw his in- 
 formation from English missionaries and other 
 English-speaking persons whom he encovmtered in 
 Europe. Nor was this a venial error merely, but 
 one of great practical importance to himself and 
 the world ; since all the advice he gave to the va- 
 rious missionary and other societies which he rep- 
 resented was xdtiated throughout by this error of 
 vision. He did it ignorantly, but the very enor- 
 mity of such conclusions should have warned him of 
 his danger. At that day, Dr. Fisk represented the 
 educated mind of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 in a greater degree than any one man has done 
 since, and the very highest function of education 
 should be to broaden the intellectual sympathies of 
 a man. Of course Dr. Fisk had been too busy to
 
 EUROPEAN TRAVEL. 24il 
 
 learn modern languages and literatures, so that he 
 lies under no blame on that score ; but since he 
 knew the traditional narrowness of some of those 
 whose counsel was to guide him so absolutely, it 
 woidd have been weU, when the policy of great 
 Christian societies was to be shaped, to have spo- 
 ken with more modesty, and with a clearer per- 
 ception of the doubtful elements in his knowledge. 
 The policy of some of the societies he advised has 
 never whoUy escaped from these narrow views for 
 which Dr. Fisk was partly responsible. 
 
 Of Dr. Fisk's appearance before the British 
 Conference, as delegate of the Methodist Episco- 
 pal Church, Dr. Holdich says : — 
 
 " On the 19th of July, 1836, Dr. Fisk left London, 
 with Mrs. Fisk, for Birmingham, the seat of the con- 
 ference. During this journey, a disagreeable mcident 
 convinced him that his sojourn in England was destined 
 to be disturbed by unkind offices growing out of a mis- 
 apprehension of his views on the slavery question. A 
 stranger informed him, while on the road, of a public 
 meeting held the night before in Birmingham, at which 
 it was announced to the audience that ' a Methodist 
 hlshop was expected at Birmingham in a few days, as 
 a delegate to the Wesleyan Conference ; that he was 
 sent by a pro-slavery party in the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, and was himself an advocate of slavery ; and as 
 the informant understood it, and as one of the journals 
 afterward reported, it was also added that this bishop 
 was a slave-holder. Tlie name of the gentleman was 
 called for by some in the assembly, that he might be 
 known and treated accordingly when he shoidd arrive.'
 
 248 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 ' Bishop Fisk ! ' was the rei:>ly. The stranger also ' inti- 
 mated that it would be very unpleasant, if not unsafe, 
 for the American bishop to show himself in Birming- 
 ham, as he would meet with rough treatment.' Dr. Fisk 
 remarked that he 'did not claim to be a bishop (be- 
 ing only bishop-elect, and unordained) ; yet as he was 
 the delegate from the Methodist Episcopal Church to the 
 Wesleyan Conference about to be held at Birmingham, 
 he supposed he must be the person alluded to ; that he 
 should not take any pains to hide himself from the good 
 people of Birmingham, and, therefore they should have 
 fuU opportunity of doing aU their pleasure in the 
 case.' . . . 
 
 " But all this was by no means so trying to his feelings 
 as a memorial sent by some members of some American 
 conferences to the British Conference on this painful 
 subject. It was signed by eighty-five names. This doc- 
 ument, though, as is claimed by the signers, it was not 
 so intended, was yet precisely adapted to create a preju- 
 dice against Dr. Fisk, and prevent his cordial reception 
 by his brethren and the British public. He felt this 
 the more keenly because many of the signers were those 
 with whom he had long been on the most intimate terms, 
 and some of whom he had laid under particular obliga- 
 tions. Perhaps, in the whole course of his life, nothing 
 ever affected him so painfully as this transaction. Yet, 
 while under the lash of lacerated feeling, his prayer was, 
 ' Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' 
 
 " But, whatever influence this document may have 
 had with individuals, the conference was too high-minded 
 and honorable a body to listen to or entertain it ; they 
 decided that it would be improper for them officially to 
 receive communications from single conferences or por-
 
 EUROPEAN TRAVEL. 249 
 
 tions of conferences while in regular correspondence 
 with the whole body. The document, therefore, was not 
 allowed to be read. This decision was made spontane- 
 ously, when Dr. Fisk was absent, to whom afterward 
 the paper was handed by the ])resident. 
 
 " A touching proof of Christian virtue follows. On 
 the day of this painful transaction, the family whose 
 hospitality Dr. and Mrs. Fisk enjoyed had invited com- 
 pany to dinner. Dr. Bunting was among the guests. 
 With his usual cheerfulness and self-command, Dr. P""isk 
 appeared in the drawing-room and at the table. Dr. 
 Buntincf mentioned the oifensive document, and ex- 
 pressed his disapprobation of the measure. ' Dr. Fisk,' 
 says Mrs. Fisk, ' with his peculiar sweetness replied : 
 ' I know those bretlu-en, doctor. They are good men. 
 They have doubtless meant well, though their zeal for 
 the slave seems, with them, to be the sundering of all 
 other ties, and the all-absorbing principle of goodness.' 
 To the same purport was his communication concerning 
 it in the ' Christian Advocate ; ' but that was for the 
 public eye, and this in pivate intercourse, while the 
 wound in his feelings was just inflicted. 
 
 " Notwithstanding these efforts. Dr. Fisk was re- 
 ceived with very gratifying cordiality and respect. For 
 this he was no doubt, in part at least, indebted to the 
 characteristic magnanimity of their president. On his 
 introduction to the body in his official character, which 
 had taken place before the arrival of the aforesaid me- 
 morial, in the course of his remarks he explained the 
 attitude of the American church with reference to slav- 
 ery, and explained its administration of discipline on 
 this subject. On his conclusion, the conference expressed 
 themselves satisfied, admitting that, so far as ecclesias-
 
 250 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 tical action was concerned, the Methodist Church in 
 America had done more than the Wesleyans in Eng- 
 land, since the instructions given to their missionaries in 
 the West Indies were to preach the gospel to all, and not 
 intermeddle with their civil relations. To these views 
 Dr. Bunting assented ; adding, however, a wish that the 
 General Conference of 1836 had reiterated its disappro- 
 bation of the system of slavery, but admitted neverthe- 
 less that it did not become the British ' to interfere and 
 dictate in this matter, and especially to send agents to 
 the United States to agitate the public mind.' " 
 
 As a preacher Dr. Fisk met with an appreciative 
 liearing whenever he was liimseK, and he was fully 
 himself whenever the ventilation of the buildings in 
 which he spoke was such as to give him that fresh 
 air which his delicate lungs demanded in order to 
 enable him to speak with any effectiveness. There 
 were one or two occasions when it was all he could 
 do, with extreme exertion, to get through the ser- 
 mon. But so impressive was he in his happier 
 efforts that he preached twenty-eight sermons dur- 
 ing his stay in England, besides giving several 
 other public addresses. Among these was a charge 
 delivered on the ordination of certain young mis- 
 sionaries for the foreign service. The " London 
 Watchman " published this in full, saying : " Both 
 from its intrinsic excellence, and the most impres- 
 sive manner in which it was delivered, it is likely 
 long to live in the remembrance of those who had 
 the pleasure of hearing it." 
 
 By this time Dr. Fisk had completely accom-
 
 EUROPEAN TRAVEL. 251 
 
 plishecl the official purposes of his European tour. 
 The English part of his journey, while much the 
 pleasantest for him and the occasion of his form- 
 ing friendships of the tenderest nature, was unfa- 
 vorable to his health. The humidity of the cli- 
 mate, the exertion of so much public speaking, and 
 the demands of social life, wearied him so much 
 that he gladly embarked at Liverpool on the ship 
 Koscoe, late in October, for New York and home.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE EENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 
 
 Dr. Fisk arrived in New York November 23, 
 1836. The next Sunday lie preaclied to a large 
 and delighted congregation on the felicitous text, 
 " Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of 
 my pilgrimage" (Ps. cxix. 54). On the invita- 
 tion of the Board of Managers of the Young 
 Men's Missionary Society, he gave an account of 
 his tour of observation and study in Europe. 
 The delighted audience requested him to jDublish 
 a volume of travels. 
 
 On returning to Middletown, Dr. Eisk found a 
 hearty and universal welcome. Despite his ab- 
 sence, Wesleyan University had gone on prosper- 
 ing. The fact that he was absent to add, by the 
 expenditure of |7,000, to the jDhilosophical, physi- 
 cal, and astronomical apparatus, and to the library, 
 made his absence less felt than it woidd otherwise 
 have been. Professor A. W. Smith had sho^\^l 
 himself a skillful and prudent administrator of the 
 internal affairs of the University during the inter- 
 regnum ; but it was due only to the tact and firm- 
 ness of President Fisk that this skillful and tactful 
 navigator was at the helm. A proposal had been
 
 THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 253 
 
 made to invite the Rev. Nathan Bangs, D. D., to 
 a professorship in Wesleyan University. Some- 
 how Dr. Bangs got the notion that he was to be 
 acting president whenever Dr. Fisk was absent 
 from college, an offer which Dr. Fisk had been 
 extremely careful not to make. Had Dr. Bangs 
 been presiding officer during this period, he would 
 doubtless have shown the same inefficiency he did 
 show when elected president a few years later. 
 When Dr. Fisk was dying, somebody asked him 
 who would be the best man to succeed him. He 
 responded, " Dr. Olin," thus repeating his earlier 
 verdict on Dr. Bangs. 
 
 Yet this very success of the youthful college 
 made the erection of new buildings for their ac- 
 commodation a necessity. But under the terrible 
 financial depression of those days, there was only 
 one way open for obtaining the money needed for 
 these enlargements, — an appeal to the Connecticut 
 legislature. In the fall of 1838, Dr. Fisk jjrinted 
 an appeal for circulation amongst the members of 
 the legislature, setting forth the needs of Wesleyan 
 University, and the strict justice and propriety of 
 state aid. This appeal is a masterly paper, setting 
 forth every argument that could be urged with 
 propriety, anticipating and skillfidly exploding 
 every objection that could be raised. It had the 
 rare merit in such papers of not setting up any 
 excessive or unreal claim, but keeping to reasons 
 which appealed to every man's sense of justice. 
 This appeal was so impressive that a gTant of
 
 254 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 $10,000 was made by the legislature. Dr. Charles 
 Woodward, then a representative of Middletown 
 in the Assembly, a devoted friend of Dr. Fisk, was 
 very useful in helping this bill through the legis- 
 lature. Dr. Fisk also wrote private and public let- 
 ters not a few, respecting the general interests of 
 education or the special needs of Wesleyan Uni- 
 versity, though none of them of such importance 
 as to need further remark here. Busy as he was 
 in all these various ways, he set about the work of 
 preparing his " Travels " for the press. One mo- 
 tive for doing this was the fact that, although 
 President Fisk offei*ed to bear the whole expense 
 of his journey to Europe, the trustees generously 
 and wisely refused his offer. He then offered, if 
 they would build a house for the president, to turn 
 over the proceeds of the sales of his " Travels " 
 towards the house, to remain without interest so 
 long as he occupied the house, but to pay six per 
 cent, interest in any other case. In 1838 the 
 " Travels " went forth to encounter the usual 
 fortunes of such publications. It speedily ran 
 through seven editions, and eight thousand copies 
 were sold. Thus Dr. Fisk had the satisfaction of 
 turning over $2,700 towards the erection of the 
 president's house on the conditions named. 
 
 In 1838, Dr. Fisk attended the New England 
 Conference for the last time. It was on many 
 accounts a painful and sad occasion for him ; for 
 he was to be brought to trial before that body on 
 charges of slandering the fair name and defaming
 
 THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 255 
 
 the honorable reputation of La Roy Sunderland. 
 The correspondence between Sunderland and Fisk 
 on this painful subject exists in their own hand- 
 writing-. Also, the defense of Dr. Fisk against 
 these charges, in his own well-known hand, exhibits 
 the skill of a legal expert, the nobleness of a great 
 character, and the humility of a saint. There 
 was only one point where any doubt could arise, — 
 a private conversation between Fisk and Sunder- 
 land was reported one way by Fisk, and a very 
 different way by Sunderland. If the conference 
 believed Sunderland, they would condemn Fisk; 
 if they believed Fisk, they must condemn Sunder- 
 land. Under ordinary circumstances a conference 
 would have no trouble in deciding between a Sun- 
 derland and a Fisk. But the circumstances were 
 not ordinary. Sunderland was an ardent anti- 
 slavery man, — one of the sort who had denounced 
 Fisk as pro-slavery, an advocate of slavery because 
 of his colonization principles. Fisk knew that 
 the conference favored Sunderland's views rather 
 than his own, and that not a few of the men whose 
 votes were to decide the issue had signed the 
 memorial addressed to the British conference 
 which had so embarrassed him at Birmingham. 
 Rev. Dr. Luckey, then editor of the " Christian 
 Advocate" at New York, and another equally 
 reliable witness, made deposition that La Roy 
 Sunderland had willfully and repeatedly lied about 
 the action of the New England Conference respect- 
 ing Sunderland's case. These witnesses threw Sun-
 
 256 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 derland's case so completely out of court that noth- 
 ing was left for him to do but voluntarily and 
 unqualifiedly to withdraw his charge. It was char- 
 acteristic of Fisk's magnanimity that, though Sun- 
 derland had charged him with having left his char- 
 acter to suffer under defamation and slander while 
 he was taking his ease and pleasure abroad, Dr. 
 risk did not wish extreme measures taken against 
 his disarmed antagonist. 
 
 On the first of August, 1838, Wilbur Fisk pre- 
 sided for the last time at the Commencement of 
 Wesley an University. There was some apprehen- 
 sion on the part of many personal friends of Presi- 
 dent Fisk that this might prove his last appearance 
 on such ceremonial occasions, but this fear was 
 apparently not shared by the president's immediate 
 family. Hence nothing presaging such a change 
 appeared in his remarks on that day, nor in any 
 of the addresses spoken on the commencement 
 stage by the youthfid orators or essayists. Yet he 
 was so feeble that many doubted his ability to 
 endure the fatigues of the occasion. He was so 
 anxious to participate in those pleasant scenes, 
 that he laid down on his bed until the moment 
 came for joining the procession. He bore the exer- 
 tion better than he had expected to. That evening 
 he held his commencement reception, and received 
 the guests in his usual cordial and affectionate 
 way. As sixty candidates for admission were ex- 
 amined, the whole aspect of college affairs was 
 bright and encouraging.
 
 THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 257 
 
 The first token tliat Dr. Fisk was overcloinj:: 
 came to him in ascending the famous leaning tower 
 at Pisa. His companions carried him doAvn in 
 part. " But possibly it was owing in part to this 
 that my legs were for months afterwards subject 
 to a peculiar numbness and dull sensation of in- 
 ternal pain, which complaint was not a little em- 
 barrassing in my subsequent sight-seeing." This 
 trouble recurred in 1838, attended with swelling 
 and stiffness of the knee. Yet he went on with 
 almost all his engagements. He had now come to 
 such facility in the use of his pen that he planned 
 three new books, — one on Mental Philosophy, one 
 on Moral Philosophy, and one on the Philosophy 
 of Theology. Meanwhile his correspondence grew 
 every year wider and wider. He never lost an old 
 correspondent. He readily took up new ones, and 
 even the humblest, who coidd not spell even, much 
 less tell coherently what they wished, were sure of 
 a careful and detailed answer from him. After his 
 death seven hundred and twenty-five letters were 
 found filed away, all received and answered after 
 his return from Europe. Yet was there no com- 
 plete file kept. 
 
 The approach of winter renewed and intensified 
 the pains in his limbs, so that he consulted a doctor 
 and used some local applications. The old longing 
 for preaching took fresh hold of him, and he gave 
 two or three moving sermons from his chair. He 
 Aasited New York in the interest of his dear Ore- 
 gon Mission. He also attended the farewell ser-
 
 258 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 vices for several missionaries to Liberia. He was 
 not to speak, but being asked to do so, Dr. Fisk 
 arose, and delivered one of his most splendid and 
 stirring appeals. "For vivacity and power it 
 equaled, if it did not exceed, any former effort. 
 It completely thrilled his audience, and ' drew tears 
 from eyes unused to weep.' He was then so feeble 
 that he had to sustain himself on his cane, to which 
 he affectingly alluded in his remarks." He made 
 appeals to the Methodist Episcopal Church for a 
 celebration of the Centennial of Universal Method- 
 ism, and gave needed counsels for doing it in the 
 wisest manner. 
 
 At a watch-night service, the last night of the 
 year. Dr. Fisk preached the first sermon, on the 
 text, " Few and evil have the days of the years of 
 my life been, and have not attained unto the days 
 of the years of my fathers " (Gen. xlvii. 9). Una- 
 ble to stand, he spoke from a raised seat. Thus he 
 discoursed of life, death, and immortality. "As 
 he compared man, in the current of life, to a vessel 
 in a whirlpool, borne round and round by the mad 
 current, offering feeble resistance, until it reached 
 the vortex and disappeared;" the thought startled 
 many that he was thus describing his own peculiar 
 situation. The next day being New Year's Day, 
 he devoted the whole of it to making calls on 
 friends whom his duties had compelled him to 
 neglect through the year, sapng : " I must exert 
 myseK to meet the caUs of friendship, or I never 
 shall have time to meet them. My duties only 
 seem to increase with my years."
 
 THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 259 
 
 The last time Wilbur Fisk visited an earthly 
 sanctuary it was in the company of the Rev. Jason 
 Lee, of the Oregon Mission, with three little 
 native boys to be educated at the East in the 
 Christian religion. Dr. Fisk was greatly pleased 
 to see them, and they to see the " Father of the 
 Mission." These noble men conversed on this 
 work as only two such men can. There and then 
 Dr. Fisk drew a plan for the employment and 
 location of about thirty additional laborers. The 
 next September they sailed for Oregon. Then 
 he took part in a service at the church held in 
 behalf of this work. 
 
 Notwithstanding the swelling of his feet, Dr. 
 Fisk went on with his work. He preached his 
 last sermon the 13th of January, 1839. The next 
 day he spent in sketching plans for a new boarding 
 hall. On pleasant days he took walks or drives 
 in the open air. His last excursion of this sort 
 was to visit a graduate of the University who was 
 seriously ill a couple of miles away. On the 31st 
 of January he for the first time kept his room, yet 
 he kept the business of the college in his feeble 
 hands until a fortnight before his death. As late 
 as February 5th, he sent off thirty letters written 
 in the interest of the college. 
 
 As all his bad symptoms had grown steadily 
 worse, — constant pain in the limbs, the unabating 
 swelling of his feet, his expectoration less, but his 
 breathing growing steadily more obstructed and 
 difficult, — a council of physicians was called to
 
 260 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 examine his condition. Their report was that no 
 improvement could occur, and that the end was 
 not far off. This report was a great surprise to 
 him. His physical condition during the last fort- 
 night was like this : — 
 
 " A constant struggle for breath, ahnost to suffoca- 
 tion, and a most excruciating pain in his chest and 
 bowels. Though it was cold, he could bear but little 
 fire, — at times none at all. The doors were kept open 
 all the time, and sometimes the windows ; and yet he 
 required some one to fan him almost constantly, to 
 increase the circulation of air around him to assist his 
 respiration. Those around him had to wear cloaks and 
 shawls." 
 
 Lying down usually had the effect of greatly in- 
 creasing the difficulty of his breathing, so that he 
 commonly spent twenty-three hours of each day in 
 his chair, and only one on his bed. 
 
 As to his spiritual condition he answered all in- 
 quirers substantially as follows : " Death has no 
 terrors ; but I have not that open vision of heaven 
 I could desire. Pray for me, that the prospect 
 may brighten. I have a fixed peace." Yet this 
 settled peace was once for a brief time disturbed. 
 To the Rev. Horace Bartlett he said : " The enemy 
 is thrusting at me sore. If you have any faith, 
 pray." The prayer of faith broke and terminated 
 the evil spells of unbelief. 
 
 As to the ground of his confidence, it was the 
 sacrifice and intercession of the Saviour. Ho would 
 not tolerate any reference to his Christian useful-
 
 THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 261 
 
 ness in the church and world, as a ground of spe- 
 cial gladness or hope in his dying hours : — 
 
 " Oh how little have I done ! Oh the many defi- 
 ciencies ! I feel constrained to ask forgiveness of the 
 chinch and the world. I shall be a star of small mag- 
 nitude, but it is a wonder tliat I shall get to heaven at 
 all. It is because love works miracles that such a sin- 
 ful, feeble worm may be saved by grace. Oh the mercy 
 of God, to put such comeliness on such a worm as I ! 
 I am an unprofitable servant. How Uttle have I done 
 of what I might have done ! , . . 
 
 "I have thrown myself on the mercy of God in 
 Christ Jesus." 
 
 As to the great Christian doctrines he said, 
 "They are the truth of God, and will bear the 
 light of eternity." 
 
 Many things contributed to render his parting 
 with his family a painful and anxious one. The 
 advanced age of his mother-in-law, the youth of 
 their adopted daughter, and the peculiar unfitness 
 of Mrs. Fisk to encounter the trials of widowhood, 
 must have made his thoughts about them gloomy 
 and comfortless as he looked to their situation on 
 its eartldy and human side. As he had always 
 expected to outlive his wife and her mother, he 
 had not been careful to provide means for their 
 support after his departure. He knew that all 
 they had, supplemented by the aid which would 
 be rendered his widow from the funds of the New 
 England Conference, would be but a meagre sus- 
 tenance. Not six months earlier, after the session 
 of the New England Conference, says Mrs. Fisk : —
 
 262 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 " I felt alarmed for his weakness, and expressed my 
 fears that his exeitions at conference would lay the 
 foundation of a disease which would prove fatal. He 
 replied : ' I hope not. After I have rested, I shall be 
 better. I have been called to make great exertions, in 
 behalf of the church, against a spirit which I cannot 
 think is the spirit of the gospel. I have done it consci- 
 entiously, and fi'om a sense of duty.' And, raising his 
 eyes full upon my face, with an expression I had never 
 seen on his face before, he added : ' Dear wife, if my 
 exertions could only be the means of uniting the church, 
 I am willing my life should be the sacrifice. And is it 
 asking too much of you ? ' I burst into tears, saying, 
 ' I cannot feel as you do.' " 
 
 This touching scene must serve as a background 
 and relief to the leave-taking from his family. 
 Witnessing the intensity of Mrs. Fisk's sorrow on 
 hearing the adverse result of the physicians' coun- 
 cil, lie said : — 
 
 " My dear wife, I have always loved you ; I have 
 loved to love you ; and you were never dearer to me 
 than at this moment. But do not distress my dying 
 moments with your grief. This ought not so to be. I 
 have a great work to do : you must help me by your 
 prayers. I have always thought I should outlive you, 
 and have always prayed that this lot might never be 
 yours ; that it might be resei'ved for me, for I know 
 how unable you are to bear it. But God seems to be 
 determining otherwise. Bear it ? You cannot bear it ! 
 But God will help you ; for he has promised to be the 
 widow's God and husband, and he will not fail." 
 
 Mrs. risk dropjDed on her knees before him (he
 
 THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 263 
 
 was in his cliair), when her husband laid his hands 
 upon her head, and poured out his soul to God 
 for her in prayer. Then, beckoning Mrs. Fisk's 
 mother, and the daughter, Martha, to him, he gave 
 the whole family, as they knelt around him, his 
 dying blessing, concluding with the words : " I 
 leave you in the hands of a good God. He will 
 take care of you." From that hour God strength- 
 ened the heart of the chief mourner for the duties 
 and trials which lay before her. 
 
 At another time the sick man comforted his wife 
 in these terms : — 
 
 " Your husband cannot be buried ! he will be in 
 heaven. His body may be ; and let it go, and mingle 
 with its mother earth : why should you lament ? And 
 yet I love this body, notwithstanding it has so often 
 been a hindrance to the aspirations of my mind ; for it 
 has been an old companion of mine. It has cost me 
 much care and pain, its tendency being continually to 
 decay ; and though it may lie long in the grave, it shall 
 be raised, and I shall see it again ; for I hope to be 
 united with it, but with none of its infirmities, with none 
 of its moral deformities. Yes, every particle of this 
 dust shall be raised and changed, in the twinkling of an 
 eye, on the morning of the resurrection. Then it will 
 be freed from all its infirmities. It will have no lame 
 limbs, no weak lungs. It will be refined from all its 
 gross particles. It will be buoyant and ethereal, glo- 
 rious and immortal ! It will be perfect, for it will be 
 fashioned like unto Christ's most glorious body, and 
 united with the soul forever."
 
 264 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 Referring to his fond parents, Dr. Fisk said : — 
 
 " My dear, aged parents, how will they bear the stroke ! 
 God will strengthen them for all his will. Write to 
 them, as soon as you can, all the particulars of my sick- 
 ness. Give them my best love. Wherein I have failed 
 in duty, I believe they will put it down to poor human 
 nature. Give my best love to all of them. Tell them 
 I believe I shall meet them all in heaven." 
 
 Hearing Mrs. Fisk say that his life had been 
 sacrificed through his excesses in labor, Dr. Fisk 
 said : " Sacrifice — sacrifice — what did you say?" 
 Being reminded that this was the opinion of the 
 physicians, he proceeded : — 
 
 " Yes ; they say my nervous system is prostrated, and 
 that, to be sure, looks like sacrifice. But it is too late ^ 
 now. ... I do not know but my friends will think I 
 have done wrong in exerting myself so much, and I do 
 not know but I have ; but I have not intended it. It is 
 much more pleasant for me now to look back and feel 
 that I have exerted myself to the utmost degree of 
 my strength — for you know I could do but little at 
 best — than it would be to look back on a life of idle- 
 ness. We were not placed here to be idle ; nor shall we 
 be idle in heaven. I feel, indeed, as if I should hardly 
 want to go there if I thought I should be idle. If the 
 Lord take me away, he has something for me to do ; for 
 he never gave me such energy of soul as I have, with- 
 out designing to employ it." 
 
 There were two things which he now arranged 
 for the benefit of his family. Being told that 
 the church and world would expect to see a biog-
 
 THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 265 
 
 raphy, he reluctantly consented to the suggestion, 
 so far as to name Professor Holdich as his choice 
 for that work. 
 
 At a later day he said to Mrs. Fisk : — 
 " Write to Dr. Bangs, and say that it is my request 
 that my writings which have been pubUshed may be 
 collected into one form, and pubhshed for your benefit. 
 Tell Dr. Bangs to say to the brethren I believe they 
 would wish to see you provided for, and if there should 
 be more than you need, let it go to the University : I 
 think it will do more good to the church generally. If 
 I had thousands to leave, I should think I was benefit- 
 ing the general church most by leaving it to the Univer- 
 sity ; for, I trust, streams will issue thence which will 
 greatly assist in fertilizing our whole moral vineyard. 
 Education must go hand in hand with religion, or the 
 world wUl never be converted without a direct miracle 
 from God. Our people will take care of our other in- 
 stitutions, but I fear they are not sufiRciently awake to 
 the subject of education. Oh, if I could only feel that 
 our people — our brethren in the ministry — were alive 
 to the interests of the University, how it would cheer 
 my departure ! But I leave it in the hands of a good 
 God, who has blessed it beyond our most sanguine ex- 
 pectations, and I trust will continue to bless it for the 
 good of the church and for his own glory." 
 
 This message shows that the University had the 
 next position to his own family in the affections of 
 Wilbur Fisk; hence we may as well complete here 
 what he had to say on that point. It is noticeable 
 that he sent no message to the New England Con- 
 ference on the kindred subjects of education and
 
 266 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 the University, probably for the reason that he 
 had already so trained that conference to liberal 
 ideas and action on that matter, that it was already 
 leading the church. But when he last saw Dr. 
 Bangs he intrusted him with a message to tell the 
 New York Conference : " That I give it as my 
 dying request that they nurse Wesleyan Univer- 
 sity, — that they must exert themselves to sustain 
 it and carry it forward." The selection of Dr. 
 Bangs as bearer of this solemn message shows the 
 usual sagacity of President Fisk, since Dr. Bangs 
 could induce that conference to heed this dying 
 request, if anybody could. 
 
 When people spoke to Dr. Fisk about the loss 
 the college woidd sustain by his death, he replied : 
 '• I think it is of God, and if so, he will no doubt 
 take care of it. If it is not, certainly I have been 
 connected with it long enough. It has always 
 been my aim, and, so far as I know the feelings of 
 the faculty, it has been the aim of us all, to send 
 forth young men into the world to make it better." 
 Again: "It will be easy to find another president, 
 but not so easy to find another father." 
 
 Of the facidty circle he once said : " We all 
 loved each other, and lived together in such har- 
 mony." Mrs. Holdich responded: "Yes, doctor, 
 but you were the magnet that drew us all to- 
 gether. We all loved you." " Yes, but not be- 
 cause I was worthy," was the modest reply. 
 
 As his illness was during the long vacation, not 
 all the members of the faculty were accessible.
 
 THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 267 
 
 But to those who were in town the invitation went 
 to come together to the sick-room of their friend 
 and president. To them he expressed his fears 
 that the church in general was not keenly enough 
 alive to the cause of Christian education, and went 
 on : " On you, therefore, will devolve a double 
 duty. Oh, be faithful ! Hitherto you have been 
 faitliful." Then to Professor Smith, who liad al- 
 ways been acting-president during his various ab- 
 sences from the college, he said : " I thank you 
 for the interest you have manifested in reHeving 
 my burden. You and Professor Huber have been 
 associated with me the longest ; you have, there- 
 fore, shared with me the deepest in the cares, the 
 interest, and the poverty of the University. But 
 you will not lose your reward. I would express 
 my love and gratitude to you all for your kindness 
 to me. It gives me great pleasure to recollect 
 how pleasantly we have lived together, not only in 
 college, but in our little family circle. We have 
 shared each other's joys and sorrows." Then for 
 the beloved wife so soon to become a desolate 
 widow he asked, with incomparable grace, a tender 
 place in their homes and hearts, saying : " I be- 
 lieve she has added years to my life by her con- 
 stant care and nursing. You will love her for my 
 sake." Mrs. Professor Smith answered for all 
 that so it always had been, and so it always should 
 be ; a vow which was sacredly redeemed. With 
 his habitual courtesy the dying man said, that 
 what he had said of the professors applied to those 
 absent as well as to those present.
 
 268 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 The students who were in town, to the number 
 of about a hundred, wished to bid their honored 
 president and faithful friend good-by. At his de- 
 sire, they came to his house in a body. As soon as 
 he caught sight of them he beckoned to them to 
 come in. To each he gave his wan and wasted 
 hand, and whispered a few parting words. It was 
 remarked by all present that his counsels varied in 
 accordance with his knowledge of their character 
 and wants. The impression upon their minds was 
 ineffaceable. 
 
 Mrs. Fisk asked him if he had any message for 
 the New England Conference ? His answer was : 
 " I have not strength to frame one. Yet you may 
 say to them, ' Oh, be faithful I And, though we 
 have had some differences of opinion, I die at 
 peace with them, and with all mankind; and I 
 hope they will meet me in heaven, where we shall 
 see eye to eye.'" It was possibly in connection 
 with this that somebody asked his present views 
 of the Colonization Societ}^ He replied : " I advo- 
 cated that cause from principle. It was not blind 
 impulse or passion, though I may sometimes have 
 erred in spirit. But they have been unhrotherly 
 in imputing to me motives that were never in my 
 heart." 
 
 The Board of Managers of the Methodist Mis- 
 sionary Society in New York called a special 
 meeting to send a committee of nine members, 
 " to repair forthwith to Middletown, in token of 
 the interest felt in the present season of alarm on
 
 THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 269 
 
 account of our esteemed brother, and that they be 
 authorized, in the event of his death, to prepare and 
 adopt, on behalf of this Board, such resolutions of 
 condolence as the melancholy occasion may require, 
 and take such other measures as circmnstances may 
 call for." 
 
 Three of the committee — the Rev. Dr. Bangs, 
 the Rev. John Lindsey, and G. P. Disosway, Esq. 
 — visited Dr. Fisk on this mournful errand. 
 When they told him why they had come, he said : 
 "I feel very grateful, though unworthy of such 
 attention. It is, however, only an additional evi- 
 dence of the Christian sympathy and brotherly 
 affection I have so long beheld among my breth- 
 ren." 
 
 A letter reached him from some of the saintly 
 members of the British Conference. When it had 
 been read to him he said : " Dear, dear brethren ! 
 it is so like them ! I shall meet them in heaven." 
 
 With his keen delight in music, it was a sweet 
 pleasure to have some of the songs of Zion sung 
 by some of his visitors. One of his favorite hJ^nns 
 is number 822 of the revised Methodist hpnn- 
 book. This was often sung in his room during 
 his illness, and his face glowed with holy joy as 
 he whispered the words : — 
 
 "Happy if with my latest breath 
 I may but gasp his name, 
 Preach him to all, and cry in death, 
 Behold, behold the Lamb ! " 
 
 Watts' s hymn, another favorite, was sung at his 
 desire : —
 
 270 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 " Lord, in thy temple we appear." 
 
 He whispered out, slow and distinct, the last two 
 stanzas : — 
 
 "Jesus, the vision of thy face 
 Hath overpowering- charms ; 
 Scarce shall I feel Death's cold embrace 
 If I be in thy arms. 
 
 " And while you hear my heartstrings break, 
 How sweet the moments roll ! 
 A mortal paleness on my cheek, 
 But glory in my soul." 
 
 His catholicity of temper was very naturally 
 called out when clergymen not belonging to the 
 Methodist Episcopal Church called on Dr. Fisk. 
 Thus, when the Rev. Messrs. Granger and Tyler, 
 pastors of the Middletown Congregational churches, 
 visited him, " he immediately began to converse 
 about the solemn responsibilities of the ministry, 
 and said, 'I hope you will give the trumpet a 
 more certain sound than I have ever done.' " Af- 
 terwards he spoke of the happiness of the union 
 of all real Christians, of whatever name, remark- 
 ing, " Oh, the near prospect of heaven seems to 
 swallow up all those little distinctions which sep- 
 arate evangelical Christians." To the pastor of 
 the Baptist Church, the Rev. Mr. Cookson, he 
 said : " I am leaving the walls, but I leave you on 
 them. God bless you and make you more faithful 
 in sounding the gospel triunpet than I have been. 
 Oh the responsibilities of a minister ! May not 
 the blood of souls be found on our skirts ! "
 
 THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. Ill 
 
 In one of his awful paroxysms of distress, when 
 all present thought the breath had left the body 
 forever, the Rev. Dr. Jarvis, of the Episcopal 
 Church, chanced to be present, and j^i-onounced 
 over the departing saint these words : — 
 
 " Unto God's gracious mercy and protection we com- 
 mit tliee. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The 
 Lord make his face to shine upon, and be gracious unto 
 thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and 
 give thee peace both now and evermore." 
 
 On reviving, the weary man said, " I thought I 
 should never breathe again." 
 
 To the various visitors whom he received in his 
 sick-room, whether they came merely to show their 
 respect or on errands of mercy, he always had 
 just the right thing to say, so that these words 
 were long treasured up with gratitude. One of 
 his visitors managed to say to him what all felt. 
 To Judge Hubbard, whom he had known in busi- 
 ness relations, he said, "You find me hovering 
 between two worlds." " And fit for either," was 
 the felicitous response. 
 
 He could not bear to think of the trouble and 
 distress of his family during his long illness. His 
 wife says : — 
 
 " He became somewhat easier, and occasionally had 
 brief naps. Such had been his distress that I had passed 
 several days and nights without sleep. He had repeat- 
 edly urged me to He down until I said to him, ' My dear, 
 don't make the request. Let me be with you while I 
 can. Every moment, every word, is precious.' Then
 
 272 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 he ceased ; yet every look told liis anxious feelings. 
 Mrs. Waring came to watch that evening. Seeing his 
 anxiety, she urged me to lie down, saying, ' It will do 
 your husband good to see you resting, and he continues 
 easier.' My dear husband looked up ; he spoke not, 
 but his eyes pleaded her petition. I placed myself on a 
 bed near him, so that I could see him. He remained 
 easier, and sleep soon overtook me. As soon as I woke 
 I went to him and he said, ' Why did you not sleep 
 longer ? ' When the lady went, he asked her to ' come 
 again, you relieve Mrs. Fisk so much.' " 
 
 He expressed liis gratitude to all who had any 
 care of him in terms which showed how deeply he 
 felt their sympathy and love. When all efforts 
 on one occasion did not give him the ease he 
 hoped for, he said, as if apologizing for a personal 
 fault : — 
 
 " We will try and make it do. I hope you will not 
 think me impatient because I want moving so often. 
 ... I hope I am not impatient : I groan and sigh a 
 great deal, and I have, perhaps, been in the habit of it 
 aU my life ; but I hope it is not impatience, and I think 
 it is not. It is only one of Nature's methods of express- 
 ing her agony, and I do not know but she finds relief 
 that way." 
 
 Again, after intense pain : — 
 
 " All this and not death ! I thought I was almost 
 home ; but if the Lord bid me suffer, I would say, 
 ' Thy will be done.' It is sweet to sink into the will of 
 God, and feel that all is well." 
 
 When one tried to ease him by holding him in 
 an easier posture, he said : —
 
 THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 273 
 
 " It will not afford relief enough to compensate you 
 for your fatigue. I am sure I do not know what I am 
 spared for, unless to furnish an opportunity of showing 
 the patience of my friends. Sure never man had such 
 friends ! " 
 
 His sufferings had now become so intense that 
 it took four persons to attend to his wants. He 
 couhl find no relief from his complaint except by- 
 lying down, and then for no more than an hour at 
 a time, when he would begin to strangle. He 
 was seated the rest of the day in his chair. One 
 was incessantly busy fanning him ; another gave 
 him his food and medicines ; and two were busy 
 shifting him to positions which might promise 
 momentary relief, or changing this pillow or that 
 blanket in the vain hope that the sufferer would 
 find things a little less unendurable. His very 
 flesh seemed all alive with anguish, and his weari- 
 ness became intolerable, unutterable. After vainly 
 trying to keep his bed a few moments, he said : 
 " I can find no rest, — tried the bed, but my body 
 is sore all over. I cannot lie down. What must 
 a man do when he can neither lie nor sit? O 
 weary, weary me ! When shall I find rest, — rest 
 in the grave ? " After another bootless quest for 
 an easier position on his couch for a body which 
 ached in every muscle, quivered in every nerve, 
 and was tired in every fibre, he said : " I have 
 always thought I should have a lingering illness, 
 but an easy death. I would like to have my bed 
 my dying pillow ; but my Saviour died on the 
 cross."
 
 274 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 Yet even in such distress lie was as unselfish as 
 ever. After one of his terrible spasms of distress, 
 when he knew from his symptoms that another 
 was not far oif , as he noticed one of the attendant 
 physicians, Dr. Woodward, leaving the room, he 
 exclaimed, " The doctor will not leave me now. I 
 feel that the paroxysm will be very severe." But 
 when told that he had been sent for by another 
 patient, a lady who was very sick, he said, " Oh, 
 then, let him go." Then he asked Mrs. Fisk to 
 pray with him for her relief, and closed his eyes 
 for a time in silent prayer. Anything finer than 
 this I know not where to find in history, though 
 something: of the same nature I do observe in 
 the famous act of Sir Philip Sidney at Zutphen, 
 where he received a wound in his left leg. . . . 
 " Being thirsty with excess of bleeding, he called 
 for drink, which was presently brought him ; but 
 as he was putting the bottle to his mouth, he saw 
 a poor soldier carried along, who had eaten his 
 last at the same feast, ghastly casting his eyes at 
 the bottle, which Sir Philip percei^'ing took it 
 from his head before he drank, and delivered to 
 the poor man with the words, ' Thy necessity is yet 
 greater than mine.'' " Assui^edly Wilbur Fisk was 
 a true kinsman to the noblest of English heroes 
 and noblemen. 
 
 The last few days were less distressing, because 
 he had fallen into a lethargic torpor, from which 
 it was not easy to arouse him, but when aroused 
 he was rational and intelligent. His last words
 
 TEE RENEWAL AND TEE END OF LABOR. 275 
 
 were spoken when Mrs. Fisk aroused him by 
 pressing his hand, and asking him if he knew her. 
 He returned the pressure, saying, " Yes, love, yes." 
 It was the 22d of February, 1839, that Dr. Fisk 
 died.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 FINAL LESSONS. 
 
 It is fifty years since the death of Wilbur Fisk, 
 so that this is a natural point for asking ourselves 
 how far he was successful. A saintly life always 
 is successful in the eyes of God. In human eyes 
 this is not always so apparent, though a saint like 
 Madame Guyon, John Fletcher, St. Francis of As- 
 sisi, or Mrs. Judson, makes a strong impression 
 even on worldly men. In the case of men like Fa- 
 ber and Newman, there is always a suspicion that 
 their fame for saintliness has been heightened, if 
 not created, by solitude and congenial companion- 
 ship. They impress the world with their holiness 
 in an indirect and a roundabout way. But a saint 
 who is a pastor, a presiding elder, the principal of a 
 large school for young people, president of a col- 
 lege, has a fond and very exacting wife, is delegate 
 to general conference, interested in the temperance 
 and slavery questions, who must organize boards 
 of trustees for educational institutions, and faculties 
 of instruction, be school commissioner and visitor, 
 be twice chosen bishop, have much controversy on 
 theological questions and also on questions of 
 ecclesiastical and national policy, has the immense
 
 FINAL LESSONS. 277 
 
 advantage of acting with all the force of his sanc- 
 tity on men who are in the thick of this world's 
 business. A man who is a saint in all this and 
 throiioh all this is the sort of saint the world 
 needs. Whatever Wilbur Fisk had to do in any 
 of the relations of life was better and more faith- 
 fully done because of his holiness ; for he thought 
 the whole conscience, the whole judgment, the 
 whole will, ought to go into every act of duty. 
 Hence the many-sidedness as well as manly vigor 
 of his activity. Hence too the religious fruitful- 
 ness of Dr. Fisk's life. If one considers the brev- 
 ity of his ministerial life (for he joined conference 
 in 1818 and died in 1839, and was for some years 
 too ill to preach) it was a fruitful life. We have 
 seen that at Craftsbury, Charlesto^\^l, Wilbraham, 
 and Mi(ldleto\vn, however successful in other ways, 
 he would have and did have souls as seals to his 
 ministry; for nothing else would content him. He 
 was often asked to assist other pastors in revival 
 labors, and more than one church owed its exist- 
 ence to his missionary zeal. 
 
 How far successful Dr. Fisk was in educational 
 work has been already set forth with such detail 
 that it will not be needful here to do more than 
 allude to it. It was shown that there had been 
 an extremely creditable change in New England 
 Methodist education since Dr. Fisk's day. From 
 the fact that nothing was said of such work in 
 other parts of the country, it should not be suj)- 
 posed that there was nothing to be said. Schools
 
 278 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 on the model of the one at Wilbraham have been 
 multiplied in every part of the country, so that 
 nothinsT but want of room has led to the omission 
 of details about them. Were all the Methodist 
 colleo'es that have been established elsewhere in 
 our land to do the same kind of work that Wes- 
 leyan University has done, grouped together at 
 Middletown, the array in point of numbers would 
 dwarf Oxford University itself. And of this vast 
 educational movement Dr. Fisk was the providen- 
 tial leader, because he first brought into play the 
 common sense, the hard work, the saintly charac- 
 ter, and the religious inspiration needful for such 
 a difficult work. 
 
 The two reforms for which Dr. Fisk labored so 
 assiduously and unsparingly, temperance and anti- 
 slavery, have had curiously contrasted fortunes. 
 He thought the victory of the temperance cause at 
 the very gates, on account of the ease with which 
 Christians of every section of the country and of 
 all churches could be combined against it. Yet 
 the saloon still baffles its enemies, and secures a 
 reversal of aU legislation that seeks its extinction. 
 But slavery, which seemed so impregnable to him 
 behind its constitutional defenses, has been swept 
 out of existence, simply because it was mad enough 
 to renounce the constitutional protection which 
 was its only safeguard against the civilization and 
 humanity of the age. Yet with wdiat heightened 
 courage and faith in God woidd he not rene^v the 
 war against rum in view of the unhoped for and 
 magnificent victory over slavery !
 
 FJNAL LESSONS. 279 
 
 So with the missionary work in which Dr. Fisk 
 took such an early and intelligent interest. It is 
 not merely the immense advance that has been 
 made in the sums given for missions ; in the better 
 literary, classical, and scientific education given 
 modern missionaries ; in the wiser methods of mis- 
 sionary activity that would seem hopefid to Dr. 
 risk, but the profounder way in which the church 
 has grasped the true principles of missionary zeal 
 and activity. A good man triumphs in the tri- 
 umph of the causes to which he is devoted. 
 
 The most recent of Edwards' biographers has 
 shown us how he was drawn on to undertake the 
 defense of all the extravagances of Calvinism both 
 at the bar of reason and of Scriptvire. So pow- 
 erful was that defense that it compelled a read- 
 justment of the views of all the advocates of 
 Calvinism in the English Protestant world. This 
 movement of readjustment was equally obvious 
 amongst the adversaries of Calvinism ; for they 
 were compelled to reexamine the philosophical 
 basis of his views, as well as to submit to search- 
 ing scrutiny the exegetical principles to which he 
 had resorted. This work of readjustment has 
 been largely left to the American Wesleyans, be- 
 cause Edwards is much more of a vital force here 
 than abroad. Amongst the other American critics 
 of Edwards' Inquiry, the book of Bledsoe, " Ex- 
 amination of Edwards on the Will," deserves 
 careful study, as being the only formal reply by 
 an Arminian.
 
 280 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 The real answer, though not a formal one, to 
 the doctrines of Edwards and his school, was to 
 come from a pupil and associate of Dr. Fisk's at 
 Wesleyan University, — Daniel Denison Whedon. 
 Young Whedon had enjoyed long and fruitfid in- 
 tercourse with President Fisk. Of him he says, 
 " I learned more theology from Dr. Fisk than any 
 other man." He was Fisk's trusted friend through- 
 out his " Calvinistic Controversy," and it was prob- 
 ably at his suggestion that AVhedon began a care- 
 ful study of Edwards' Inquiry, for he says : — 
 
 " Even so late as my pupilage, the scholar was ex- 
 pected to understand his soul from Locke, his con- 
 science from Paley, and his responsibility from Edwards. 
 Of this triad, if the indicated materialism of the first, 
 the low expediency of the second, and the granitic fatal- 
 ism of the third, did not prepai-e me for the atheism of 
 Hume, it was because my moral sensibilities disbelieved 
 and I'epudiated the whole quaternion. I could neither 
 believe, from the first, that I had no soul ; from the sec- 
 ond, that I had no conscience ; from the third, that I 
 had no will ; nor from the fourth, that I had no God." ^ 
 
 This systematic and thorough study of Edwards' 
 Inquiry had one unexpected result : — 
 
 " As he followed Edwards' steps, he felt compelled 
 to assent to Edwards' arguments, until he at length 
 found himself led into the terrible grasp of an iron 
 fatalism. From this his soul revolted, but his reason 
 saw no way of escape. It caused him the greatest dis- 
 tress. It haunted him by day, and awoke him from 
 
 ^ Whedou's Essays, Reviews, and Discourses, p. 38.
 
 FINAL LESSONS. 281 
 
 sleep by night. He called on God for relief, and be- 
 soufrht him for light ; he would rise from his bed to 
 pray ; and finally, when on his knees in prayer, he saw 
 the clue. With that clue he turned anew to his read- 
 ing the first chapters of Edwards, and soon detected his 
 fallacies and mistakes. That clue was the fact of human 
 responsihility. It is the basis of his argument against 
 the necessarian theory. Thus the treatise on the Will 
 was begotten in prayer. It was at the suggestion of 
 Dr. Fisk that he began to write." 
 
 It is a curious fact that Jonathan Edwards was 
 for years in a state of mind towards those dogmas 
 closely resembling that of his illustrious* critic. 
 " From my childhood up, my mind had been full 
 of objections against the doctrine of God's sover- 
 eignty, in choosing whom he would to eternal life, 
 and rejecting whom he pleased, leaving them 
 eternally to perish and be everlastingly tormented 
 in hell. It used to appear like a horrible doctrine 
 to me." It is curious to mark the sharply con- 
 structed outcome of such scruples in the minds of 
 these two greatest of American metaphysicians. 
 Edwards says : — 
 
 " I remember the time very well when I seemed to 
 be convinced and fully satisfied as to this sovereignty of 
 God, and his justice in thus eternally disposing of men 
 according to his sovereign pleasure ; but never could 
 give an account how or by what means I was thus con- 
 vinced, not in the least imagining at the time, nor a 
 long time after, that there was any extraordinary influ- 
 ence of God's spii'it in it, but only that I now saw fur-
 
 282 WILBUR FJSK. 
 
 ther, and ray mind saw the justice and reasonableness 
 of it. However, my mind rested in it, and it put an 
 end to those cavils and questionings. . . . God's abso- 
 lute sovereignty and his justice with respect to salvation 
 is what my mind seemed to rest assured of, as much as 
 of anything that I see with my eyes ; at least it was so 
 at times. But I have often since had quite another 
 kind of sense of God's sovereignty than I had then. 
 I have often had not only a conviction, but a delightful 
 conviction. The doctrine has very often appeared ex- 
 ceedingly bright, pleasant, and sweet. But my first 
 conviction was not so." 
 
 If ever a great thinker went tlirougli with griev- 
 ous, sorrowful, and contradictory frames of mind 
 towards his own inherited dogmas, it was Jona- 
 than Edwards. The first attitude, " from my 
 cliildhood up," was one of strong repulsion and 
 disgust ; then came a second attitude of strong 
 approval of them, but never was he able to assign 
 and explain any reasons for this transition from 
 strongly hostile to strongly favorable feelings : it 
 happened and Edwards recorded it ; " at least it 
 was so at times " is incidentally thrown in. The 
 fhial transition in his mind is " from conviction to 
 delightful conviction " of their truth. 
 
 Edwards' account has the frankness and candor 
 of a great and powerful thinker. His statements 
 are not without certain elements of contradiction. 
 In one sentence he " could never give an account 
 how or by what means I was thus convinced ; " 
 and in the next he thought, " I now saw further.
 
 FINAL LESSONS. 283 
 
 and my mind saw the justice and reasonableness 
 of it." Then the idea comes to him that this 
 changed attitude, whose logical reasons he does not 
 see and cannot explain, may proceed from " an un- 
 common influence of God's spirit." It was in this 
 illogical and confusing way that Edwards' mind 
 found rest from " those ca\dls and questionings " 
 which had followed him from his youth. 
 
 The younger metaphysician, brought up in tra- 
 ditional unbelief of Edwards' principles, but led 
 both by the advice of Dr. Fisk and the natural 
 attraction of a strono; book for a strong thinker to 
 study Edwards, exposes his mind to the full force 
 of Edwards' argument. At first, the reasoning 
 overwhelms his mind ; he becomes temporarily an 
 Edwardean in philosophy and theology. But his 
 moral distress is so intense as to fill his soul with 
 anguish. In pra3'er to God for direction, the 
 clue to the errors of Edwards is given him in the 
 fact of human responsibility. A quarter of a 
 century later, this pupil and successor of Wilbur 
 Fisk in the championship of Arminian theology 
 gave the best exposition and defense of those views 
 the world has yet seen in " The Freedom of the 
 Will as a Basis of Human Responsibility, and a 
 Divine Government Elucidated and Maintained in 
 its Issue with the Necessarian Theories of Hobbes, 
 Edwards, the Princeton Essayists, and other Lead- 
 ing Advocates." 
 
 This book was instantly recognized by all good 
 judges, whether friends or foes to its doctrines, as
 
 284 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 tlie broadest, most scholarly, and most pliilosophic 
 defense of the Arminian system that has ever 
 been published. It has long been one of the 
 books every young Methodist clergyman has to 
 lay to heart as a part of his course of study. It 
 has made an equally decided impression upon hos- 
 tile critics and students, as appeared from the vio- 
 lence of their attacks as well as the carefulness 
 with which they study it. Regular courses of 
 lectures on it are given in several Cahanistic the- 
 ological schools, which bestow no such honor on 
 Edwards' Inquiry. Yet no formal answer has ap- 
 peared. 
 
 It is mainly on the strength of this book that 
 the roimd of questions relating to the freedom of 
 the will may be regarded as having found an ade- 
 quate settlement. 
 
 It is not meant by this that the advocates of 
 necessity will disappear from the realm of philoso- 
 phy or of theology. What is meant is, that what- 
 ever can be said on either side has been said. At 
 the present hour, one of the most hopeful religious 
 omens is the frankness with which former Calvin- 
 ists repudiate their own errors. When that most 
 conservative of churches, the Presbyterian, is 
 widely agitated by vigorous movements in favor 
 of a revision of its Calvinistic formularies, Wesley, 
 Fisk, and Whedon may well congratulate them- 
 selves that not only does no such contention divide 
 the peace and energies of their followers, but also 
 that not a few of the noblest and wisest of the
 
 FINAL LESSONS. 285 
 
 Calvinistic leaders see in the unity and ortho- 
 doxy of Methodism one of the happiest omens for 
 the future of the American churches. 
 
 Jonathan Edwards is reported to have said that 
 nobody had answered his famous Inquiry. Shoukl 
 he return to earth, he would find that formal an- 
 swers now abound. Yet perhaps the most unan- 
 swerable response to his greatest book is the extent 
 to which his own earlier feelings of repulsion and 
 disgust are shared not only by saints like Wesley, 
 risk, and Whedon, but also by an innumerable 
 army in all the Calvinistic bodies. It is barely pos- 
 sible that even Jonathan Edwards might now re- 
 gard his early disgust at Cal\anism as the profound 
 and sacred voice of a conscience that could only be 
 reduced into silence by his greatest efforts. In 
 the present struggle to repudiate Calvinism, he 
 might perhaps see the proper and just reaction of 
 the reaenerate conscience and heart of our times 
 against his dogmas. 
 
 Certain it is that the repudiation of Calvinism 
 is one of the most characteristic and widespread 
 movements of our time. All must conclude that 
 the wide diffusion of Methodism has had much to 
 do with this changed temper of the times. So far 
 as this movement involves an especial repudiation 
 of Edwardean theology, that result is mainly due 
 to Fisk, Whedon, Bledsoe, and their helpers. 
 
 There is no doubt that Dr. Fisk would regard 
 his large influence, direct and indirect, in promot- 
 ino- this chanee of sentiment, as one of his chief 
 earthlv honors.
 
 286 WILBUR FISK. 
 
 In the main, the causes which enlisted Dr. 
 risk's interest, in church and state, are the causes 
 which have made signal advances in the world 
 since his death, and are destined to a universal 
 triumph over sin, wrong, and error.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Academy, Cazenovia, 139, 148. 
 
 Academy, Kent's Hill, 139, 1-18. 
 
 Academy, Militarj', 110. 
 
 Academy, New Blarket, G8, 72 ; first 
 subscription to same, 73. 
 
 Academy, Wesleyan, 18 ; Dr. Fisk as 
 principal, 76 ; course of study, 81. 
 
 Anti-Masonic excitement, 229. 
 
 Arnold, Mattliew, ou Methodists, 22 ; 
 mistakes of, 27, 35. 
 
 Asbury, Bishop, sends Jesse Lee to 
 New England, May 28, 1789, 1 ; his 
 relation to the work in New Eng- 
 land, 3 ; defect in his leadership, 
 11. 
 
 Baker, Bishop, 103. 
 Bangs, Rev. Kathan, 185, 253. 
 Bartlett, Rev. Horace, 2G0. 
 Beecher, Lyman, extract from auto- 
 biography of, ISO. 
 Birney, James G., 216. 
 Boardm.an, 8. 
 Boston University, 18. 
 Brewer, Calvin, 72. 
 -Brodhead, John, 68. 
 
 Case, Rev. W.. 223 
 
 Chase, Daniel H., 151. 
 
 " Christian Advocate " at first not 
 
 favorable to temperance reform, 
 
 185. 
 Clarke, General, 224. 
 Coke, Thomas, 11, 19. 
 Conference, general legislation on 
 
 temperance in 1839, 193. 
 Controversy, Calvinistic, 112, 120. 
 Cox, Melville B., 222. 
 Cushiug, Rev. Stephen, 100. 
 
 Disosw.ay, G. P., 225. 
 
 Drew, D.aniel, 171. 
 
 Dunn, N., 70, 106. 
 
 Dunn, Nathanael, Jr., 76, 80. 
 
 Dur'oin, J. P., 119. 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan, the theology of, 
 in the light of Fisk's life, 279-286. 
 
 Fields, James T., on Maffltt'e preach- 
 ing, 98. 
 
 Fisk, Hannah, 13, 20. 
 
 Fisk, Isaiah, 21. 
 
 Fisk, Wilbur, first contact of, with 
 Methodism, 11; birth of, 13; an- 
 cestry and home training, 13 ; at- 
 tends Peacham Academy, 13 ; at 
 University of Vermont, 13 ; in 
 Browu University, 11; studies law, 
 15 ; private tutor near Baltimore, 
 15 ; sudden illness of, 15 ; renewal 
 of his religious life, 15 ; his motives 
 for entering the Methodist ministry, 
 
 15 ; is licensed to preach, and joins 
 the New England Conference, 15, 
 
 16 ; on the spread of Methodism in 
 New England, 10 ; on Unitarianism 
 and Universalism, 31 ; on Crafts- 
 bury Circuit in 1818, 40 ; in Charles- 
 town in 1819, 41 ; his rules for use 
 of time, 42 ; his success, 43 : camp- 
 meeting at Easthara in 1819, 44 ; 
 peculiar religious experience there, 
 44 ; Horton's account, 40 ; change 
 in his religious life, 48 ; his theolog- 
 ical views changed, 51 ; his success 
 in Charlestowii, 51 ; intercourse 
 with Isaac Rich, 55 ; illness, 57 ; 
 impaired health, 57; his marriage; 
 58 ; his wedded life, 58 ; his gen- 
 erous conduct to wife, .59 ; kindness 
 to Mrs. Fisk after his death, 02 ; 
 his mother's scruples, 04 ; his 
 answer, 04 ; declines to aid New 
 Market Academy, 72 ; elected Prin- 
 cipal of Wesleyan Academy, 75; 
 wide range of his duties, 76 ; his 
 inaugural speech, 70 ; manifold 
 duties, 81 ; school govei'nment un- 
 der, S3 ; the social interview, 85-87 ; 
 
 ■ bo.ar.Jinj; house, 87 ; obtains further
 
 288 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 subscriptions to tlie academy, 89 ; 
 his letter to " Ziou's Herald," 90 ; 
 religious life at Wesleyan Academy 
 under Wilbur Fisk, 95 ; first revival 
 in the school, 95; his letter to 
 " Ziou's Herald " on the first revival, 
 98 ; Ills tlieological class, 102 ; his 
 views on farming, 106 ; elected 
 President of Wesleyan University, 
 140 ; his letter of acceptance, 141 ; 
 his inaugural address, 142-14G ; his 
 relations with the faculty, 153 ; his 
 relations with the students, 155 ; 
 strength of his college government, 
 158 ; certain college organizations 
 approved and disapproved, 158 ; his 
 patience with perverse students, 
 159 ; his decision regarding estab- 
 lisiiUig schools of law, etc., 100 ; 
 his financial administration of the 
 University, 167 ; his anxiety in re- 
 gard to reUgious welfare of Univer- 
 sity, 175 ; his account of first revival 
 in University, 176; his regard for 
 modern languages, 179 ; his attitude 
 regarding temperance, 182 ; his 
 preaching and lecturing on temper- 
 ance, 1S4 ; his address on subject of 
 temperance, 1832, 180 ; his letter to 
 '• Zion'sHerald," 195 ; his connection 
 with the slavery controversy, 201 ; 
 aids in forming colonization socie- 
 ties, 213 ; his address upon coloni- 
 zation, July 4, 1835, 213; predicts a 
 dissolution of the Union, 215 ; his 
 letter to James G. Birney, 216 ; re- 
 signs his seat in General Conference, 
 219 ; offers his services to the Libe- 
 rian Mission, 222 ; his interest in 
 missions among the Indians, 223 ; 
 voyage to Europe, 239 ; his views on 
 the Roman Clnircii, 244; his ap- 
 pearance before British Conference, 
 247 ; writes a memorial to British 
 Conference, 248 ; returns to Ameri- 
 ca, 252 ; appeals to the Connecticut 
 Legislature, 253; his last appear- 
 ance at tlie New England Confer- 
 ence, 254 ; his dispute with Sunder- 
 land, 255 ; )iis last appearance at 
 commencement, 256 ; his last sick- 
 ness, 257 ; his wishes regarding 
 the University, 2G5 ; receives a 
 C.)mmittee of Methodist Missionary 
 Society in New York, 268 ; final 
 lessons of his life, 276. 
 Free moral agency, Wilbur Fisk's 
 argument upon, 125, 130. 
 
 Holdich, Rev. Joseph, 52, 56, 149, 150, 
 
 178, 226, 247. 
 Hubbard, Oliver P., 151. 
 
 Huber, J. F., 152. 
 
 Itinerant preachers in New England, 
 tJie first, 1, 2, IS ; success in their 
 mission, 2-12 ; their doctrine, 5 ; 
 strength of, in 1888, 20. 
 
 Jarvis, Rev. Dr., 271. 
 Johnston, Prof. John, 150. 
 
 Knox, iiOren L., 151. 
 
 Lane, Prof. H. B., 240. 
 
 Lee, Daniel, 226. 
 
 Lee, Jason, 224. 
 
 Lee, Jesse, mission of, to New Eng- 
 land, 19 ; organizes the first church 
 in 1789, 2 ; his first assistants, Jacob 
 Brush, George Roberts, and Daniel 
 Smith arrive in February, 1790, 2 ; 
 his coutioversial methods, 7. 
 
 Library and pliilosophical apparatus 
 ui Wesleyan University, 167. 
 
 Lindsay, John, 74, 164, 201; incor- 
 poration act of, February 1, 1814. 
 
 Luckey, Rev. Dr., 218. 
 
 Maffit, Rev. John Newland, 95. 
 
 Magoun, William, 8S, 151. 
 
 Mather, H. W., 151. 
 
 Merrill, Abram D., 196. 
 
 Merrill, Jolin W., 103, 163. 
 
 Merrill, Joseph A., 72. 
 
 Merritt, Timothy, 228. 
 
 Messer, Asa, 14. 
 
 Metcalf, David, 113. 
 
 Methodism in New England, begin- 
 ning of, 17 ; its rapid spread, 17 ; 
 its reasonableness, 34 ; could alone 
 oppose C ilvinism, 35. 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, the, 25 ; 
 its union with tlie Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church, 26 ; articles of reli- 
 gion of, 27 ; amount of funds held 
 by it for education in 1887, 174; 
 division in, concerning slavery, 1844, 
 220. 
 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
 the, 220. 
 
 Natural and moral ability, 131. 
 
 New Haven Circuit, the, 2. 
 
 New England, religious condition of, 8. 
 
 Olin, Dr., 2.53. 
 
 Otheman, Bartholomew, 201. 
 
 Partridge, Capt. Alden, 140. 
 Patten, Dana, 163. 
 Peck, Rev. George, 230. 
 Perkins, Jared, 196. 
 Pilmoor, 8.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 289 
 
 Protestant Episcopal Church, the, 16, 
 
 18, 19, 22, 25. 
 Protestant Methodist Episc. Church, 
 
 the, 26 ; its Calvinism, 35. 
 
 Ramsdell, Hezekiah S., 201. 
 Regeneration, as stated by Dr. Fisk, 
 
 132. 
 Report to committee on education, 
 
 138. 
 Rice, William M., 151. 
 Rich, Isaac, 171 ; his gifts to Wesleyan 
 
 University, 173. 
 Ruter, Martin, made principal, 69 ; 
 
 his dreams, 70 ; resigns, 71. 
 
 Sanborn, Jacob, 201. 
 
 Scott, Orange, 219. 
 
 Seminaries in New England, Meth- 
 odist, 17. 
 
 Sliepherd, Cyrus, 226. 
 
 Sherman, David, 102. 
 
 Slavery : appeal to New England and 
 New Hampshire Conferences, 1834, 
 196. 
 
 Smith, Augustus W., 149, 252. 
 
 Smith, Rev. John M., 150. 
 
 Stevens, Abel, on our articles of reli- 
 gion, 3, 27, 226. 
 
 Btorrs, Rev. George, 194. 
 
 Sunderland, La Roy, 196. 
 
 Taylor, Edward T., 201. 
 
 Temperance reform in New England, 
 
 181. 
 Theology, deficiencies in Wesley, 36; 
 
 the Greek, 36. 
 
 Universalism : two sermons thereon 
 
 by Dr. Pisk, HI. 
 Tillinghast, Caroline, 83. 
 True, Rev. Charles K., 178. 
 
 Walker, William, 224. 
 
 Wesleyan University, 18; purchase 
 of site for, 140 ; trustees, first meet- 
 ing of, 140 ; date of opening of, 141 ; 
 students in, first classed by their 
 college year, 147 ; requires no re- 
 ligious test for students or officers, 
 148 ; names of its first faculty, 149 ; 
 financial difficulties in consequence 
 of panic of 1836, 1G9. 
 
 Wesley's, Charles, hymns, 9, 10. 
 
 Wesley's, John, sermons, 5 ; his ec- 
 clesiastical liberalism, 19. 
 
 Whedon's, Dr., " Issue between Ro- 
 manism and Calvinism," 149 ; his 
 account of Dr. Fisk's preacliing, 
 232 ; his refutation of tlie doctrines 
 of Jonathan Edwards, 280. 
 
 White, E. H.,201. 
 
 Wliitfield in New England, 7, 8. 
 
 Willitt, William M., 151. 
 
 Wilson, Shipley W., 196. 
 
 Woodward, Charles, M. D., 252.
 
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 amencau CommontDcaltl)0. 
 
 Edited by Horace E. Scudder. 
 VIRGINIA. A History of the People. By John Esten 
 
 Cooke, author of " Life of Stonewall Jackson," etc. 
 
 OREGON. The Struggle for Possession. By William 
 
 Barrows, D. D. 
 
 MARYLAND. The History of a Palatinate. By Wil- 
 liam Hand Browne, Associate of Johns Hopkins University. 
 
 KENTUCKY. A Pioneer Commonwealth. By Na- 
 thaniel S. Shaler, S. D., Professor of Pateontology, Harvard Uni- 
 versity. 
 
 MICHIGAN. A History of Governments. By Thomas 
 
 Mclntyre Cooley, LL. D., formerly Chief Justice of Michigan. 
 
 KANSAS. The Prelude to the War for the Union. 
 
 By Leverett W. Spring, formerly Professor in English Literature in 
 the University of Kansas. 
 
 CALIFORNIA. From the Conquest in 1846 to the 
 
 Second Vigilance Committee in San Francisco. A Study of American 
 Character. Bv Josiah Royce, Assistant Professor of Philosophy in 
 Harvard University, formerly Professor in the University of California. 
 
 NEW Y'ORK. The Planting and the Growth of the 
 
 Empire State. By the Hon. Ellis H. Roberts, Editor of the Utica 
 Herald. In two volumes. 
 
 CONNECTICUT. A Study of a Commonwealth De- 
 mocracy. By Professor Alexander Johnston, author of " American 
 Politics." 
 
 MISSOURI. A Bone of Contention. By Lucien Carr, 
 
 M. A., Assistant Curator of the Feabody Museum of Archaeology. 
 
 INDIANA. A Redemption from Slavery. By J. P. 
 
 Dunn, Jr., author of " Massacres of the Mountains." 
 
 OHIO. First Fruits of the Ordinance of 1787. By 
 
 Hon. Rufus King. 
 
 In Preparation. 
 
 NEW JERSEY. By Austin Scott, Ph. D., Professor 
 
 of History, etc., in Rutgers College. 
 
 PENNSYLVANIA. By Hon. Wayne McVeagh, late 
 
 Attorney-General of the United States. 
 
 ILLINOIS. By E. G. Mason. 
 SOUTH CAROLINA. By Edward McCrady, Jr. 
 Other vohivies to be announced hereafter. With Maps. 
 Each volume, i6mo, gilt top, $1.2^. 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY, 
 
 4 Park St., Boston; ii East 17TH St., New York.
 
 amencan -Beligtou^s leatierja;. 
 
 A Series of Biographies of Men who have had great 
 
 influence on Religious Thought and 
 
 Life in the United States. 
 
 JONATHAN EDWARDS. By Professor A. V. G. 
 
 Allen, author of " The Continuity of Christian Thought." 
 
 WILBUR FISK. By Professor George Prentice, of 
 
 Wesleyan University. 
 
 DR. MUHLENBERG. By Rev. William Wilberforce 
 
 Newton. 
 
 FRANCIS WAYLAND. By Professor J. O. Mur- 
 ray, of Princeton. 
 ARCHBISHOP JOHN HUGHES. By John G. 
 
 Shea, LL. D., author of " The Catholic Authors of America," etc. 
 
 CHARLES HODGE. By President Francis L. Pat- 
 ton, of Princeton. 
 THEODORE PARKER. By John Fiske, author of 
 
 " The Idea of God," " Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy," etc. 
 
 CHARLES G. FINNEY. By Professor G. Frederick 
 
 Wright. 
 
 This Series will include biographies of eminent men 
 who represent the theology and methods of the va- 
 rious religious denominations of America, yet the ob- 
 ject of the Series does not contemplate emphasizing 
 personal character and history except as these are re- 
 lated to the development of religious thought or the 
 quickening of religious life. The Series when com- 
 pleted will not only depict in a clear and memorable 
 way several great figures in American religious his- 
 tory, but will indicate the leading characteristics of 
 that history, the progress and process of religious 
 philosophy in America, the various types of theology 
 which have shaped or been shaped by the various 
 churches, and the relation of these to the life and 
 thought of the Nation. 
 
 Other volumes to be announced hereafter. Each volume, ibmo,gilt 
 
 top,li.25. 
 
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