THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 C^anning Ctnknax^ (Pofunte*
 
 Hcliotype, from Plaster Cast of Marble Bust by Sidney II. Mohse.
 
 THE 
 
 CHANNING CENTENARY 
 
 IN 
 
 AMERICA, GREAT BRITAIN, AND 
 IRELAND. 
 
 91 Ecport of fHtttins& IjcIU in Ijonar of tljr ©nr ibttntircUtI) 
 Slnniijfrearp of tl)c ^irtlj of 
 
 WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. 
 
 EDITED BV 
 
 RUSSELL NEVINS BELLOWS. 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 Geo. H. Ellis, 141 Franklin Street 
 
 (CHANNING building).
 
 GHO. H. KLLIS, TRINTER, 14! FRANKLIN ST., P.OSTON.
 
 3X 
 
 No power can die that ever wrought for Truth; 
 
 Thereby a law of Nature it became, 
 And lives unwithered in its sinewy youth, 
 
 When he who called it forth is but a name. 
 
 Therefore I cannot think thee wholly gone : 
 
 The better part of thee is with us still ; 
 Thy soul its hampering clay aside hath thrown, 
 
 And only freer wrestles with the 111. 
 
 Thou livest in the life of all good things; 
 
 What words thou spak'st for Freedom shall not die; 
 Thou sleepest not, for now thy Love hath wings 
 
 To soar where hence thy hope could hardly fly. 
 
 J. R. Lowell, 1S42. 
 
 ANTKRO-sdcr
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 Preface, 
 
 Introductory, ii 
 
 Origin of the Channing Centenary Movement.— Account of the Celebration of the Ninety- 
 ninth Anniversary of Dr. Channing's Birth. — Poem by Rev. John W. Chadwick.— Letters 
 from President Charles W. Eliot, Thomas W. Higginson, James T. Fields, Henry W. 
 Longfellow, Henry W. Bellows, Octavius B. Frothingham, William H. Fumess. — Resolu- 
 tions of the Unitarian Society of Newport. 
 
 AMERICAN CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS. 
 The Celebration at Newport, 19-82 
 
 Fifty Thousand Dollars subscribed for a Channing Memorial Church. — The Opening 
 Services.— Memorial Discourse by Rev. Henry W. Bellows, D.D.— Ceremonies at the 
 Laying of the Corner-stone of the Memorial Church.— Letter from Dr. Channing's only 
 Surviving Brother. — Ode by Rev. Charles T. Brooks. — Corner-stone Address by Rev. 
 William Henry Channing. — Evening Meeting. — Letters from Rev. Dr. James Martineau, 
 Bishop Huntington, Bishop Clark, John G. Whittier, Rev. Dr. Hitchcock, William Lloyd 
 Garrison. — Addresses by Governor Van Zandt, Rev. Dr. Hosmer, Rev. Dr. Hale. — Poems 
 by Mrs. Martha P. Lowe and Mrs. Julia Ward Howe. — Remarks by A. Bronson Alcott, 
 Miss Elizabeth Peabody, Revs. N. S. Folsom and Charles F. Barnard. 
 
 The Celebration at Boston, 83-144 
 
 The Meeting in Arlington Street Church. — Addresses by Rev. Dr. James Free- 
 man Clarke and Rev. Dr. C. A. Bartol. 
 
 Pulpit Tributes. — " Dr. Channing a Man of Affairs," by Rev. Dr. Edward Everett 
 Hale. — "Channing Unitarianism," by Rev. Minot J. Savage. — "Dr. Channing the Ideal 
 American," by Rev. William H. Channing. 
 
 The Children's Service — Remarks by William H. Baldwin, Governor John D. Long, 
 Revs. E. E. Hale, H. Bernard Carpenter, Minot J. Savage, William P. Tilden, James Free- 
 man Clarke, and William H. Channing. 
 
 American Unitarian Association. — Addresses at the Annual Meeting by Rev. Dr. 
 William H. Fumess, Rev. Dr. Frederic H. Hedge, and Rev. William H. Channing.
 
 6 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 PAGES 
 
 The Celebration at Brooklyn, I45--53 
 
 Mkktings in thk Church of the Saviour.— Remarks of Rev. Dr. A. P. Putnam, 
 Kcv. Dr. K. A. Farley, Rev. Dr. J. B. Thomas, Rev. Dr. J. M. Buckley.— Ode by Rev. 
 John W. Chadwick.— Remarks of Mr. Oliver Johnson. — Hymn by Rev. Dr. William 
 Newell.— Remarks of Rev. Dr. Charles H. Hall, Rev. Amory D. Mayo, Rev. H. R. Nye, 
 Rev. Dr. Oustav Gottheil, Rev. H. W. Foote. 
 
 Merting in the Academy ok Music. — Remarks of Rev. Dr. Rufus Ellis, Rev. Robert 
 Collyer, Rev. Dr. J. M. Pullman, Mr. George William Curtis, Rev. Dr. C. N. Sims, and 
 Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 
 
 The Celebration at New York, 254-261 
 
 Sermons in the Churches. — No Special Observance of the Centennial Day. — Oration 
 by Rev. Dr. Samuel Osgood before the Historical Society. — Discourse by Rev. Dr. Gustav 
 Gottheil in the Jewish Temple Emanu-el. 
 
 The Celebration at Chicago, 262-287 
 
 Meeting in Central Music Hall. — Addresses by Judge Henry Strong, Prof. David Swing, 
 Rev. Dr. George C. Lorimer, Rev. William R. Alger, Rev. Dr. H. W. Thomas, and Rev. 
 Brooke Herford. 
 
 The Celebration at St. Louis, 288-299 
 
 Remarks by Rev. John Snyder, Rev. John C. Learned, Rev. Dr. William G. Eliot, Judge 
 McCrary, Rev. Joseph H. Toy, Mr. George Partridge, Rev. Samuel Young, and Rev. Dr. 
 Boyd. 
 
 The CELEBR-vnoN at St. Paul, 300-318 
 
 Memorial Service in Unity Church. — Sermon by Rev. William Channiug Gannett. 
 
 The Celebration .\t Meadville, 319-324 
 
 Remarks by Mr. Harris, Prof. Frederic Huidekoper, Mr. Savage, Dr. Wilson, Rev. 
 George Whitman, and President A. A. Livermore. 
 
 The Celebration at Washington, 325-327 
 
 Remarks by Justice Miller, Hon. George B. Loring, Hon. Horace Davis, Rev. Qay 
 MacCauley, and Mr. Robert Purvis. — Discourse and Hymn by Rev. Clay MacCauley. 
 
 The Celebration at Ann Arbor 32S-332 
 
 Remarks by Rev. J. T. Sunderland, Judge Harriman, Prof. T. P. Wilson, Mr. Anthony 
 Reynolds, Prof. B. C. Burt, Prof. Donald McLean, Judge Cooley, and Prof. V. C Vaughan. 
 
 The Celebration at Madison, 333-341 
 
 Meeting in the Jewish Synagogue. — Addresses by Rev. H. M. Simmons and Prof. W. F. 
 Allen.— Remarks by Prof. D. B. Frankenberger, Hon. H. H. Giles, and Rev. W. E. 
 Wright.
 
 CONTENTS. 7 
 
 PAGES 
 
 The Celebration at Cincinnati 342-345 
 
 Discourse by Rev. William R. Alger. — Remarks by Rev. C. W. Wendte, and Rev. J. H. 
 Hartley. 
 
 The Celebration at San Francisco, . 346-352 
 
 Discourse by Rev. Dr. Horatio Stebbins in the Unitarian Church. 
 
 Other Celebrations, 353-366 
 
 Brief Mention of Meetings in Greenfield, Springfield, Watertown, Melrose, Ashby, Mass. ; 
 Hartford, Conn.; Burlington, Vt. ; Concord, Manchester, Nashua, East Wilton, N.H. ; 
 Belfast, Me. ; Detroit, Mich. ; Mi'waukee, Janesville, Wis. ; Keokuk, Iowa ; Shelbyville, 
 111. ; Canton, N. Y. ; Portland, Oregon ; Montreal, Canada. 
 
 Notices of the American Press, 367-374 
 
 CELEBRATIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 
 
 The Celebration at London 377-433 
 
 Meeting in St. James' Hall. — Letters from Rev. .Stopford Brooke, George MacDonald, 
 Emen Renan, Rev. Dr. E. A. Abbott, Rev. Dr. Stoughton, Rev. Dr. Raleigh, Miss 
 Frances Power Cobbe, Rev. Dr. G. Vance Smith, Rev. W. H. Fremantle, Sir J. C. Law- 
 rence and others. — Addresses by Rev. Dr. James Martineau, Rev. J. Baldwin Brown, Mr. 
 Thomas Hughes, the Dean of Westminster, Dr. William B. Carpenter, Rev. Dr. R. Laird 
 Collier. 
 
 The Celebration at Liverpool, 434-455 
 
 Meeting in St. George's Hall.— Addresses by Mr. H. A. Bright, Rev. J. H. Thorn, Rev. 
 Charles Beard, Rev. William Binns. 
 
 The Celebration at Manchester, 456-478 
 
 Meeting in the New Town Hall. — Memorial Discourse by Rev. Charles Wicksteed. — 
 Remarks by Alderman C. S. Grundy, Rev. William Gaskell, Rev. Charles T. Poynting, 
 Prof. Roscoe, Mr. John Dendy, Mr. E. C. Harding. 
 
 The Celebration at Belfast, 479-489 
 
 Meeting in the Music Hall. — Reading of Letters by Rev. A. Gordon. — Resolutions and 
 Remarks by Rev. J. C. Street, Mr. John Campbell, Rev. A. Gordon, Mr. John Rogers, 
 Gen. Richmond, Rev. C. J. M'Alester.
 
 8 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 I'AGES 
 
 The Celebration at Aberdeen 490-495 
 
 Meeting in the Unitarian Church. — Remarks by Mr. G. T. Walters, Mrs. Carohne A. 
 Soule, Rev. Joseph Vickery, Mr. Robert Adams, Mr. William Lindsay. 
 
 Tributes ok the European Press, 496-510 
 
 A French Catholic on Channing, 511-514 
 
 The Influence of Channing in EuRorE, S15-532 
 
 Letter from Unitarians of Hungary. — Letter from Mr. John Fretwell.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Soon after the celebration of the Channing Centenary, I was 
 invited by Mr. Ellis, the publisher of this volume, to prepare for 
 the press some account of the more interesting Channing memo- 
 rial meetings. I accepted the invitation, and began immediately 
 to collect materials for a book. Soon afterward, it was decided to 
 make the volume somewhat more comprehensive in its plan than 
 had been originally intended. The additional labor made neces- 
 sary by this decision, the press of regular work, and the absence 
 from home during the summer season of many of those who had 
 taken part in the celebration, occasioned unexpected delays ; and 
 the volume now appears nearly a year after the time at first de- 
 cided upon. While the special enthusiasm awakened by the cen- 
 tenary celebration has long since subsided, there has always been 
 a quiet, steady interest in the study of Dr. Channing's life and 
 writings, and this has probably not declined within the past year. 
 
 The width and depth of public interest in the centenary anniver- 
 sary surpassed the expectation of even Dr, Channing's most faith- 
 ful disciples and ardent friends. As the anniversary day drew 
 nigh, news came of careful arrangements for the appropriate cele- 
 bration of the occasion in many of the chief cities and towns not 
 only of America, but also of Great Britain and Ireland, Holland, 
 Germany, France, Italy, Hungary, and other European countries. 
 After the event, the notices of the press revealed the unusual com- 
 prehensiveness and catholicity in the plan and spirit of many of the 
 meetings, the high quality of many of the memorial addresses, and 
 a striking array of names of well-known writers and speakers who
 
 lO CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 had taken part in tlie proceedings. Seldom before, it seemed, had 
 so many noted and worthy men, of widely divergent religious 
 opinions, joined their voices in a chorus of praise at once so 
 hearty, so generous, so discriminating. 
 
 To preserve and present in a form convenient for students, 
 whether of Dr. Channing's life, character, and teachings, or of the 
 present tendencies of liberal religious thought, this somewhat 
 remarkable body of testimony, is the purpose of this volume. It 
 contains reports, more or less complete, of the principal memorial 
 meetings held in America, Great Britain, and Ireland. To have 
 attempted more than this would have involved largely increased 
 expense and more labor of all sorts than the editor could well 
 give to the work. On the other hand, a book made up exclusively 
 of selections from the more interesting addresses would not have 
 served to indicate either the extent or the popular character of the 
 interest in the occasion. 
 
 Such a series of reports is inevitably somewhat monotonous in 
 character ; but the monotony lies in this instance in the common 
 theme, and not in its treatment, which is singularly rich and varied. 
 Many of the reports plainly bear the marks of hasty preparation 
 for the daily press. It has not been possible in some cases to ver- 
 ify names and dates, and no attempt has been made to correct 
 faults of style. If this volume shall serve in any degree to keep 
 alive or quicken the interest in the study of Dr. Channing's life 
 and teachings which the celebration of his centenary awakened, 
 the editor will feel amply repaid for his pains. 
 
 R. N. B. 
 New York, May, 1881.
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The movement which culminated in the very general 
 observance of the one-hundredth birthday of William Ellery 
 Channing first manifested itself early in the year 1879. For 
 some time previous to this date, the appropriateness of such 
 a celebration had been freely discussed by members of the 
 Unitarian society in Newport, R.I., where Channing was 
 born ; but no steps were taken toward carrying out the idea, 
 until the Rev. M. K. Schermerhorn, minister-in-charge of the 
 Newport society, happily conceived and successfully executed 
 the plan of a preliminary celebration in Newport of Dr. 
 Channing's ninety-ninth birthday. The purpose of this 
 movement was to arouse public attention, and so secure the 
 widest and best possible celebration of the centennial, a year 
 afterward. The preparations for this preliminary meeting, 
 which was decided upon only a few weeks before the time 
 appointed, were hastily but energetically made by Mr. Scher- 
 merhorn ; and his efforts were crowned with complete suc- 
 cess. The best account of this meeting appeared in the 
 Boston Daily Advertiser of April 8, 1879, from which we 
 make the following extracts: — 
 
 CELEBRATION OF CHANNING'S NINETY-NINTH BIRTHDAY. 
 
 Thanks to the energy and enterprise of the Rev. M. K. Schermerhorn, 
 pastor of the Unitarian Church in this city, where the Rev. C. T. Brooks, 
 the great scholar, preached for over a quarter of a century, the meeting
 
 12 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 to-niglit, commemorating the ninety-ninth birthday of William Ellery 
 Channing, the great apostle of Unitarianism, was a complete success 
 The meeting \vas held in order that the movement for the centennial cele- 
 bration — one year from to-night — in this, the birthplace of Channing, 
 migiit be inaugurated under the most favorable auspices. A feature of 
 the services was that all the hymns and anthems were the composition of 
 Unitarian authors: namely, "In the Cross of Christ I glory," by Sir 
 John Bowring; " Nearer, my God, to Thee," by Sarah F. Adams ; " The 
 Lord will come, and not be slow," by John Milton ; " Thy Kingdom 
 come," by Harriet Martineau ; " Star of Bethlehem," by William CuUen 
 Bryant ; " Universal Worship," by John Pierpont ; " Old and New," by 
 John G. Whittier; and "God of Ages and of Nations," by Samuel Long- 
 fellow. The church was crowded, and the floral decorations were very 
 fine, there being a large "C" and the figure "99" in one large piece. 
 The opening prayer was offered by the Rev. A. Manchester, of Provi- 
 dence. After singing, selections of Scripture were read and prayer of- 
 fered by the Rev. R. R. Shippen, Secretary of the American Unitarian 
 Association of Boston. An anthem was then sung, after which the 
 pastor of the church made introductory remarks, giving the object of 
 the meeting and explaining the matters connected with the centennial 
 anniversary next year. Governor Van Zandt was then asked to preside, 
 the invitation being read by the pastor of the church. The Governor 
 made a few eloquent and appropriate remarks, after which a large 
 number of letters from prominent Unitarians were read by the pastor, 
 and a poem appropriate to the occasion was read by the Rev. C. T. 
 Brooks, and one by John W. Chadwick, of Brooklyn, N.Y. Mr. Chad- 
 wick's poem is as follows : — 
 
 "ALWAYS YOUNG FOR LIBERTY." 
 
 [Channing's Memoir, Vol. III., p. 301.] 
 
 Channing, when thou wast living among men, 
 Thy pulse, that beat not always with the strong, 
 Full tide of health, when thou didst hear of wrong 
 O'erthrown, of freedom won, was once again 
 As quick and warm as in thy childhood, when 
 Thou heard'st old ocean's mighty thunder-song 
 Beating familiar cliffs and crags along. 
 And thou didst glow as ardently as then. 
 Yes, thou wast always young for liberty ;
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 1 3 
 
 And, when a hundred years have passed away, 
 
 Aye, and a thousand, from thy natal day, 
 
 Thy never-dying spirit still shall be 
 
 As young for freedom as when here of old 
 
 In her great name thou wast the boldest of the bold. 
 
 John W. Chadwick. 
 Brooklyn, April 3, 1879. 
 
 A poem written by the late Judge Green of Rhode Island (author of 
 " Old Grimes "), read on the occasion of the death of Dr. Channing, in 
 Providence, October 12, 1842, was read by the author's son-in-law, Gov- 
 ernor Van Zandt. 
 
 THE LETTERS. 
 Several of the letters received are appended : — 
 
 Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 
 
 April 4, 1S79, 
 My dear Sir, — My engagements will prevent me from attending the 
 meeting in honor of William Ellery Channing at Newport on Monday 
 evening next. 
 
 His countrymen may well hold the name of Channing in remembrance. 
 By his eloquent speech and his unanimous persuasive writings, he greatly 
 helped to destroy African slavery and to rid Christianity of superstitions 
 with which it had been encumbered. These were good services, which 
 may usefully be commemorated until the evils which Channing combated 
 no longer afflict humanity. 
 
 Very truly yours, Charles W. Eliot. 
 
 Cambridge, Mass., April i, 1879. 
 
 Rev. M. K. SCHERMERHORN : 
 
 Dear Sir, — • I thank you for the invitation to take part in the service 
 commemorative of the Rev. Dr. Channing. It will be impossible for me 
 to be present ; but it seems to me eminently appropriate that this anni- 
 versary shall be celebrated in Newport, which he so loved, and which is 
 identified with his memory. 
 
 Very truly yours, Thomas Wentworth Higginson.
 
 14 CHANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 14S Charles Street, Boston, April i, 1879. 
 
 Kcv. Mr. SCIIERMERHORN, NEWPORT, R.I. : 
 
 Afv dear Sir,— I wish it were in my power to be present next Monday 
 evening, and add a word or two of my testimony of admiration for the 
 character and services of Dr. Channing. The world owes a debt of 
 gratitude to his sacred memory; and, to those of us who knew and loved 
 him, his name will always call up the tenderest recollections. I always 
 think of him in Wordsworth phrase as one 
 
 " Attired 
 With sudden brightness, like a man inspired " ; 
 
 and the tones of his matchless voice are as fresh in my remembrance 
 
 as if I heard them yesterday. His words are, indeed, "part and parcel 
 
 of mankind." I trust your meeting on the 7th will be in every way a 
 
 successful one. 
 
 Cordially yours, James T. Fields. 
 
 Cambridge, April 2, 1879. 
 
 Afy dear Sir, — I wish with all my heart I could answer your request 
 favorably, and take some part in your celebration of the birthday of 
 Channing. 
 
 Want of time and many pressing engagements render it impossible 
 for me to write anything which would contribute to the interest of the 
 occasion. 
 
 I can only assure you of my sympathy and of my deep and lasting 
 reverence for his memory. 
 
 Yours sincerely, Henry W. Longfellow. 
 
 New York, 232 East Fifteenth Street, 
 
 April 2, 1879. 
 My dear Mr. Schermerhorn, — Every year adds to the admiration, rev- 
 erence, and gratitude that embalm the name of Channing. He treated 
 the greatest of human interests in the greatest manner. There is noth- 
 ing local, sectarian, or temporary in his writings or influence. He is still 
 before, and not behind, the age, nearly forty years after his decease. He 
 is waiting for fit audience, and not few, from the better future of human-
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 15 
 
 ity, already adopted into the short calendar of universal saints. His 
 religious genius shines wherever the rarest of human endowments is 
 prized. His peculiarity was to be able to wrest the greatest of themes 
 from the hands of the language of technical theologians, and clothe it in 
 words intelligible to all, while fully sustaining its dignity and its sacred- 
 ness. Only a soul intimately acquainted with God could have spoken 
 as he speaks. He, Hke his Master, had the full confidence of his own 
 spiritual vision. He trusted the nature his Maker had given him, and 
 revered it as a part of his reverence for the Creator. He knew no dis- 
 tinction between reason and revelation which could put the human mind 
 into servitude to the written Word. But his reverence for human nature 
 humbled while it exalted him, and was utterly remote from that vain 
 bugbear called " the pride of reason." While he shared in reason the 
 nature of the universal mind, he was under it, and not over it. It was 
 not his reason he honored, but Reason herself, which was God's and 
 man's. 
 
 The perfection of his culture and style is the enamel round his 
 thoughts. Seldom has the highest religious thought and feehng found 
 in prose so admirable and imperishable a vehicle. Like Milton's angels, 
 he " can only by annihilating die." His usefulness is alike conservative 
 and progressive. He furnishes both sail and ballast to our rational 
 Christian cause. May God multiply his followers ! 
 
 Fraternally yours, 
 
 H. W. Bellows. 
 
 New York, April 5. 
 My dear Sir, — On my return last evening from an absence of several 
 days, I found your note on my table. It will not be possible for me at 
 this juncture of time to be in Newport to add my tribute toward the 
 debt we all owe to Dr. Channing ; and it is too late to write such a letter 
 as would in any degree do justice either to him or to my regard for him. 
 The cause of liberal thinking and human doing in America, and abroad, 
 too, received from him an impulse which is far from being yet exhausted 
 or even comprehended. He builded better than he knew. He was a 
 seer into things invisible, — a prophet of greater times than he himself 
 divined. He was greater than himself. He increased in spiritual pro- 
 portions while he lived, passing his theological limitations as he ad- 
 vanced, until now we learn that at last he was inclined to adopt Christ
 
 l6 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 into humanity. One would like to hear what he might have to say on 
 the social questions that vex us. One thing seems to me certain, that 
 his woiil would be one of hope and faith. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 O. B. Frothingham. 
 
 Philadelphia, No. 1426 Pine Street, 
 April 2, 1879. 
 
 My dear Mr. Schertnerhorti, — I thank you for the opportunity and 
 privilege, which your invitation gives me, of paying my tribute to the rev- 
 erend memory of Dr. Channing. The American Unitarian Association 
 have done no better thing than in taking especial pains to disseminate 
 his writings. Not only nor chiefly because they help to advance the 
 cause of simple Unitarianism, but because their readers imbibe from 
 them, almost unconsciously, principles and modes of thinking at once 
 profoundly religious and perfectly free. A mind that has caught the 
 spirit that pervades his works may be safely left to itself. If we find 
 that he is only uttering our own thoughts, we nevertheless feel the in- 
 spiration of his convictions. He once said to me of Waldo Emerson, 
 " I do not know that he tells me anything new, but he inspires me," 
 which is equivalent to the acknowledgment of a greater gift than any 
 mere mode of thought, the gift of the spirit. Mr. Carlyle somewhere 
 says that the writings of Dugald Stewart are an excellent introduction 
 to the study of moral and intellectual philosophy. I have always thought 
 that Dr. Channing's writings discharge a like introductory office to the 
 whole broad domain of religious thought. Much as he has done for our 
 liberal form of faith, he has done far more enduring service for perfect 
 freedom of inquiry. His favorite theme — the dignity of human nature, 
 the priceless sanctity of the human soul — rendered him incapable of 
 imposing any restrictions upon the mind. In his Dudleian lecture, de- 
 livered long before the question was started by George Ripley as to the 
 value of miracles as evidences of a visitation. Dr. Channing freely admits 
 that sincere Christians may reject the miracles of the New Testament, — 
 an admission I well remember, as the venerable Dr. Osgood of New 
 York, a stout Calvinist to be sure (my pastor then), wrote on the margin 
 of a copy of the lecture, which I loaned him, against said admission, 
 "This I deny." 
 
 When the question arose concerning the miracles (which, by the way,
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 1/ 
 
 has had results), Dr. Channing offended near and valued friends by 
 saying that no heresy disturbed him so much as the free and full discus- 
 sion of doubts and difificulties interested him. He was a free religionist, 
 and pre-eminently a Christian believer, also. I remember his repeating 
 to me, with no hint of dissent, a remark of Lucretia Mott's (who had 
 just paid him a visit, and whom, by the way, we should canonize by and 
 by, were we Catholics). She had expressed to him the hope that the 
 time may come when "a good man" would be higher than "a good 
 Christian," — a hope which we all may share, if the Christian name is 
 not held to be as broad as humanity itself. 
 
 It is not because his influence closed with his brief presence on earth 
 and he is in danger of being forgotten, but for the very opposite reason, — 
 because he is still living and active in the world of religious thought, — 
 that you meet to commemorate him upon the spot which he loved. How 
 pure his style was ! As pure and fresh as the midsummer air at New- 
 port. How chaste his fancy ! He never pauses to elaborate figures of 
 speech : he only suggests them. He had no literary ambition. Eminent 
 critics might find fault with him. He gave them no heed. And that 
 voice, so exquisitely flexible, quivering to every shade of emotion ! Yes, 
 dear friends, cherish him in special and revering remembrance. 
 
 Very truly and respectfully, 
 
 W. H. FURNESS. 
 
 Letters, some quite long, were also read from A. Bronson Alcott, l!loyd 
 Garrison, Dr. Hedge and Dr. Peabody of Harvard College, Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson, Rev. James Freeman Clarke, Robert Collyer, Dr. Dewey, and 
 the Rev. E. E. Hale. Telegrams were read from George William Curtis 
 and from President White of Cornell University. The following paper 
 was read and adopted. It will show clearly what the Unitarians of 
 Newport propose to do for the centennial celebration: — 
 
 At a meeting of the congregation of the First Unitarian Church of Newport, 
 R.I., held on Sunday evening, April 6, 1878, of which William A. Clarke was 
 appointed chairman and Thomas Coggeshall secretary, after due deliberation, 
 the following was ordered to be presented at the close of the services of the 
 ninety-ninth birth-anniversary of William Ellery Channing, to be held on 
 Monday evening, April i, 1879, and the approval of those present on that occa- 
 sion solicited thereto: — 
 
 First. — It was unanimously voted that we, Unitarians of Newport, R.I., ear- 
 2
 
 l8 CHANNIXG CENTENARY. 
 
 ncstly desiring that the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of William Ellery 
 Channing mav be celebrated in this his native city, and in order that, for this 
 proposed celebration, timely and fitting preparations may be made, do hereby 
 resolve that a committee of twelve be appointed, to be known as The Chaiming 
 Cnitenuial Committee- of Xtivport, R.I., whose business it shall be to inaugurate 
 and carrv out such preparations as may seem to them appropriate and desirable. 
 
 Second. — It was unanimously voted that this committee shall consist of the 
 following persons: namely, the Rev. C. T. Brooks, William A. Clarke, John 
 T. Bush, Thomas Coggeshall, F. A. Pratt, William B. Sherman, Edmund 
 Tweedy, John G. Weaver, Mrs. A. P. Baker, Dr. A. F. Squire, Mrs. C. T. Hop- 
 kins, Mrs. Henry C. Stevens. 
 
 Third. — It was unanimously voted that the Unitarians of Newport, R.I., do 
 hereby cordially invite the Unitarian denomination to join with us on the 
 seventh day of April, 1880, in celebrating, in this his native city, the one hun- 
 dredth birth-anniversary of William Ellery Channing, offering the hospitalities 
 of our city and homes to all who may be pleased to come, and promising our 
 hearty co-operation in the carrying out of whatever arrangement may be sug- 
 gested to us as appropriate and wise. 
 
 Fourth. — It was unanimously voted that this invitation be presented to the 
 Unitarian public through the hands of the secretary and officers of the Amer- 
 ican Unitarian Association, accompanied with the information that a local com- 
 mittee of twelve has been appointed in Newport, of which the Rev. C. T. 
 Brooks is chairman, with full power to act in co-operation with any central 
 committee which may be appointed as a committee of the Unitarian denomina- 
 tion at large.
 
 THE CENTENARY CELEBRATION. 
 
 NEWPORT, R.I. 
 
 Soon after the successful celebration of Dr. Channing's 
 ninety-ninth birthday, the Unitarian society of Newport for- 
 mally resolved, after due deliberation, to undertake the so- 
 licitation of subscriptions for a Channing Memorial Church. 
 Committees were appointed to take the matt3r in hand; and, 
 after much hard work and a great deal of patient waiting, 
 subscriptions amounting to nearly fifty thousand dollars 
 were secured. Preparations were accordingly made to lay 
 the corner-stone of the proposed edifice on the centennial 
 day, A suitable site, on Pelham Street, opposite the Old 
 Mill, was secured ; and the seventh day of April found every- 
 thing in readiness for the ceremonies which had been care- 
 fully arranged. 
 
 The celebration began with a meeting on Tuesday even- 
 ing, April 6, under the auspices of the Channing Conference 
 of Unitarian and other Christian Churches. A large con- 
 gregation filled the Unitarian church, which was beautifully 
 dressed with plants and flowers. After an anthem by the
 
 20 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 choir and the readins: of the Scriptures, the congregation 
 sang Longfellow's hymn, " O Life that maketh all things 
 new!" The Rev. William H. Channing, of London, offered 
 prayer. After a second anthem by the choir, the Rev. Dr. 
 G. W. Hosmer, of Newton, Mass., preached an eloquent 
 sermon from the words, "All my springs are in Thee." 
 In concluding, he said: "It is good for us to be here. 
 Mighty influences are hanging over us like rain-clouds. We 
 are here to-night waiting for inspiration and guidance, as the 
 children of Israel waited at the foot of Sinai for the pattern 
 ideals of duty and life there to be shown them. That re- 
 vered brother, the prophet of liberal thought, the Moses of 
 our Exodus, whose centennial birthday comes to-morrow, 
 thirty-seven years ago went up out of our sight. He has not 
 been forgotten. His word has gone out through the Eng- 
 lish-speaking world ; but we who knew him need to have 
 our memories quickened, and younger men will gladly open 
 their minds and hearts to his influence. Indeed, how great 
 that influence has been ! To-morrow, its story will be told. 
 Who like him has gone up into the mount of aspiration, — 
 the strong thinker, prayerful and tender-hearted as a little 
 child, and so hungering and thirsting after righteousness ; 
 and who with such consecrated purpose has hastened down 
 with his mountain thoughts to uplift the world ! Oh, come, 
 let us sanctify ourselves for the morrow, that the spirit of 
 Channing, which has been as air and light and warmth to 
 us, a greater blessing than we know how to appreciate, may 
 more deeply inspire us and bless our children's children." 
 
 Mr. Isaac Littlefield, of New Bedford, then sang, " I will 
 lift up mine eyes." After prayer, the meeting closed with 
 the singing of Whittier's hymn, beginning, " O pure re- 
 formers, not in vain your trust in human kind! " 
 
 The services of the centennial day opened in the opera 
 house shortly before eleven o'clock; and all the exercises
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 21 
 
 of the day, except the formal ceremonies of laying the 
 corner-stone, were also held there. The florists of the 
 city contributed from their greenhouses a profusion of 
 flowers and plants, which were artistically arranged upon 
 the stage. The most conspicuous feature of the floral dis- 
 play was the decoration of the reading-desk. This was 
 completely covered with bright buds, and in front of it 
 was an inscription in white flowers upon a bed of green, 
 "1780 — Channing — 1880." A large-size oil painting of 
 Dr. Channing stood at the left of the stage. The exercises 
 were opened with singing by a double quartette. The hymn 
 selected was one written by Theodore Parker, beginning 
 with the words " O thou great Friend to all the sons of 
 men." Dr. G. W. Hosmer at the close of the hymn read 
 a short passage of Scripture. The Rev. Dr. E. E. Hale 
 offered prayer, after which the response, " Nearer, my God, 
 to thee, nearer to thee," was beautifully sung by Mr. Lit- 
 tlefield. The Rev. Dr. Bellows then began his discourse. 
 He was pleasantly interrupted at the very beginning by the 
 confusion attending the seating of a train-load of people who 
 arrived from Boston ; and again, in the middle of his dis- 
 course, he paused, and called upon the audience to rise and 
 sing a congregational hymn written for the occasion by the 
 Rev. Charles T. Brooks. Dr. Bellows spoke for more than 
 two hours ; and the audience paid a great tribute to his elo- 
 quence, and showed its deep interest in his theme, by listen- 
 ing with close and apparently untiring attention from the 
 beginning to the end. The opera house was filled to its 
 utmost capacity. Probably about two thousand persons 
 were present.
 
 2 2 CHANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 MEMORIAL DISOOUESE, 
 
 By HENEY W. BELLOWS, D.D. 
 
 " He was a burning and a shining light : and ye were willing for a season to 
 rejoice in his light." — John v. 35. 
 
 It was when John the Baptist's light was fading in the 
 glory of the newly risen Sun of Righteousness that Jesus 
 bore this generous testimony to his predecessor's lustre. 
 He characterized, in words that have become immortal, the 
 flame of that stern prophet who had heralded the way for 
 his own appearing ; but at the same time intimated that its 
 fires had paled, like a torch whose oil had burned low. The 
 Sun had risen, the torch was no longer useful. 
 
 We have come together to bless and praise a modern 
 prophet, who, like many other saints who have been the 
 burning and shining lights of their generation, was the 
 herald of a new and brighter day. But it is not his mem- 
 ory chiefly that we recall. It is a living light that we are 
 to contemplate, brighter than it ever was ; it is not a torch 
 that has gone out, but a star that shines on, guiding our 
 present way, that we meet to rejoice in the light of. Of 
 Channing, we do not say he was, but he is, a burning and 
 a shining light ; and the season has not gone by, it has not 
 even reached its meridian, when the Church and the world 
 are willing to rejoice in his light. 
 
 On this occasion, the centennial of his birth, and in the 
 place of his birth, it falls to me to be the spokesman of the 
 love and honor in which his life and teachings, his character 
 and his services to the Church and the world, are held by 
 his townsmen, and especially by those who have inherited 
 and have sought to extend and perpetuate what was special 
 in his theological opinions. It is true his birthplace was
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 23 
 
 not the principal seat of his life and labors ; and it is still 
 more true that no sect or denomination has any exclusive 
 right in his fame. He belonged to the order of Christians 
 called Unitarians, but he belonged still more to the Church 
 Universal ; and nothing would have grieved him more than 
 any attempt to shut him in to any enclosure that shuts 
 out the pure and good of any name, Catholic or Protestant, 
 Trinitarian or Unitarian. His theological opinions, in my 
 judgment, upon a very recent careful reconsideration of 
 them, prove much more systematic, definite, and positive 
 than it is common to allow ; but they are also much more 
 comprehensive, inclusive, and inconsistent with the secta- 
 rian spirit or form than they are sometimes assumed to be. 
 They are profoundly conservative and profoundly radical, 
 holding on to all that is eternal, going down to all that is 
 eternal, and going on to all that is eternal. In the strength 
 of his moral intuitions and convictions, and without antici- 
 pating many results of later criticism, or using the methods 
 which a larger learning has employed, he simply ignored and 
 set aside all that hampered his full intellectual and moral 
 freedom, and slowly evolved a system of religious thought, 
 which has recommended itself more and more to spiritual 
 minds in all branches of the Church and in all Christian 
 countries, — a system so profound, simple, and lofty, so 
 humane and natural, and yet so Christ-like and divine, that 
 it lacks dogmatic and ecclesiastical features almost as much 
 as the Sermon on the Mount or the personal teachings of 
 the Saviour ; enters almost as little into scholastic and tech- 
 nical questions, and avoids, by reducing to their proper in- 
 significance, most of the sectarian disputes of the Church. 
 
 Channing was a theologian, but not of the old pattern. 
 He studied God, and reported his ways and his will after a 
 manner that had not been recognized in former schools of 
 theology. This indeed was his chief service, that he broke
 
 24 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 with the old theological methods, and refused to settle the 
 controversies of the Church by an appeal to Scriptures and 
 creeds, authoritative over the mind and heart of man, and 
 not merely authoritative within them, and by concurrence 
 with their testimony. He was fully convinced that the pre- 
 vailing system of dogmatic and ecclesiastical Christianity — 
 essentially the same in the Romish and the Protestant His- 
 torical Church — was contrary to the teaching of the spirit 
 of Christ, contrary to the light of natural reason and con- 
 science (which indeed has been offered as the proof of its 
 divinity and of man's total corruption), and that the power 
 of the gospel could be restored only by returning to Jesus' 
 method of teaching it, a method that respected, honored, 
 and relied upon man's essential relations to God, instituted 
 in his rational and moral constitution. 
 
 Channing recognized no theology based upon a revelation 
 which by interpretation separated Christianity from the gen- 
 eral history of humanity, and placed it, and must ever keep 
 it, in antagonism to Philosophy and Life. He did not con- 
 sider theology as the study of God, within the covers of the 
 Bible, as if that were a book foreign to human intelligence, 
 and altogether above and aside from it. He resisted stoutly, 
 from the irrepressible freedom of his own soul, all compulsory 
 allegiance to the Church, to the creeds, to the past, to Jesus, 
 nay, to God himself, and strove to emancipate all other souls 
 from this prostration before mere power and authority. It 
 was not necessary to bind him with cords to the altar, if the 
 Being worshipped there was entitled, as he thought he was, 
 by his holiness, justice, and goodness, to the sacrifice of his 
 heart. Freely, joyfully, humbly, and with his whole soul, he 
 bowed before truth, worth, goodness, purity, sacredness, and 
 in the testimonies of his own spiritual nature he saw them, 
 to an infinite extent, in the Great Source of his own moral 
 experiences. But not one joint would he bend before the
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 2$ 
 
 threats of mere power, or the assumptions of an authority 
 not guaranteed by his rational and moral nature. 
 
 We are not left to speculate about his fundamental ideas. 
 They are not only given with transparent simplicity and 
 unfaltering courage, and with a reiteration that to many is 
 wearisome in his collected writings ; but he has prefaced 
 his own works, almost at the conclusion of his life, with a 
 deliberate statement, in which he distinctly, and with the 
 most solemn emphasis, calls attention to the two ideas 
 which he wishes to be regarded as the dominant notes and 
 the master-keys of his whole system of religious and politi- 
 cal thinking and feeling. One is unqualified reverence for 
 human nature ; the other, boundless faith in freedom. They 
 are easily interchangeable, and become in his writings one 
 and the same. Human nature is worthy of unspeakable, 
 immeasurable reverence, because God informs it, because it 
 reveals God, because reason is the intellectual life of God 
 and man, and conscience the moral life of God, which he 
 dignified man by inviting him to share. Man knows God 
 only because he is made in his rational and moral image. 
 God is as much dependent upon our moral and rational 
 powers for worship, communion, and filial love, as we are 
 dependent on his holiness and loveliness and paternal char- 
 acter for an object which is truly adorable. And our intel- 
 lectual and moral powers owe their worth, their development, 
 and their glory to freedom. This is God's own everlasting 
 glory and life, — freedom. Were he not free in his holiness, 
 his goodness, his thoughts, he could not command the love 
 and reverence of free beings ; and were they not free to 
 offer him a voluntary, a rational, moral homage, their wor- 
 ship would be mechanical and worthless. Civilization is 
 nothing but the triumph of freedom, and that is the victory 
 of Reason and Conscience. Unreason — the fruit of self- 
 will, ignorance, passion, prejudice — shows itself in barbar.
 
 26 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 isms of a more or less atrocious kind ; and society, even 
 now, in its least deplorable forms, is irrational and barbaric. 
 It is not yet based upon, and is not characteristically con- 
 ducted in, reverence for Reason, but rests still on force, on 
 cupidity, on fear. Governments are not strong where they 
 should be strong, in their reliance on what is true and right, 
 but in their appeal to party passion, the love of power, and 
 national animosities. Mankind do not glory in their nat- 
 ure as rational and moral, but in its external circumstances. 
 They build up artificial distinctions of condition and caste ; 
 they glory in luxury and ostentation ; they belittle them- 
 selves with costume and equipage and titles and state. 
 And if Reason, in the occasional form of triumphant logic 
 or vigorous literature, obtains respect, it is often in disre- 
 gard of the only element that makes Reason wholly worthy 
 of reverence, — its subordination to Conscience. Can that 
 state of society be regarded as in any but an inchoate con- 
 dition, in which the quality that aloHe makes God godlike 
 or venerable is made secondary and subordinate, and that 
 by an immense and all-characterizing step, to what is con- 
 venient, pleasant, favorable to immediate interests, or flatter- 
 ing to mean and interested desires .-* Where is the city or 
 community in which the right and the good are enshrined 
 in the inmost heart ; governing respect and affection, de- 
 ciding social station, making and executing the laws ? If 
 God be moral perfection, must he not expect and demand 
 that the race made in his image should be aiming steadily 
 to make justice and goodness prevail and reflect his holi- 
 ness .-* But this justice and goodness cannot be forced. 
 They perish, and discharge themselves of their essence 
 when in bondage or under force. Hence in Channing's 
 eyes any state of commotion, revolution, or contention was 
 preferable to intellectual formalism and compulsory decorum. 
 No atheistic or infidel opinions were so much to be dreaded
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 2/ 
 
 as a compulsory formalism of creed. That was the smother- 
 ing of the rational and moral nature. Free, it might wander, 
 but it would learn by its wanderings, and at any rate keep 
 itself alive by its motion, and might some day return. But 
 slavery of the will was moral death. 
 
 The exalted view of human nature, which Channing had, 
 was not only not opposed to, but it grew out of his sublime 
 sense of the greatness and glory of God. Man learned God's 
 being and his moral and rational attributes from the constitu- 
 tion of his own soul, not from external nature. This was the 
 chief glory of man's own spirit, that it revealed an Infinite 
 Spirit ! Self-reverence was only the reflection of the awe 
 which God's holiness or moral grandeur kindled in a being 
 who found himself capable of recognizing the Divine exist- 
 ence and character, by the mysterious power of reason and 
 conscience, which at once made him a partaker in the Divine 
 nature, and were the only instruments of his faith and wor- 
 ship. That mind is one and tJie same essence in God, aftgels, 
 and men, is a fundamental postulate with him. That the 
 finite mind is of the nature and essence of the Infinite mind, 
 he everywhere assumes as the very first condition of all knowl- 
 edge of God or intercourse with him. The later or more 
 modern difficulties, which have arisen from the recognition 
 of the limitation of the finite as vitiating all assumed knowl- 
 edge of the Infinite, he not only does not recognize, but his 
 faith, his character, his service to humanity, are due to the 
 utter freedom of his soul from this most fatal and ultimate 
 form of scepticism. That the finite was cut off from the Infi- 
 nite by its conditions was to him a proposition as meaningless 
 as that the bay was cut off from the ocean, or could have no 
 communication with the ocean, because it was a bay and not 
 the ocean itself. The human soul was open to God, who 
 flowed into it in man's rational and moral nature ; and more 
 and more, as the moral and rational nature grew, expanded, and
 
 28 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 became capable of receiving it. There was no pantheism in 
 this sentiment of God's presence in man, for that involves 
 a notion against which Channing's whole nature revolted, — 
 the notion that man loses himself by admitting God into his 
 soul. According to him, man is freer, the more nearly he 
 approaches, the more truly he is possessed by, the Infinite 
 Freedom. It is only in freedom, in the exercise of an unen- 
 slaved will, that man can form any true conception of God, 
 who is freedom itself. But it is the glory of God that his 
 freedom is the freedom of his own zvill ; and zvill exists, and 
 can exist, only in a person. God is a Person, and as a per- 
 son cannot be confused or confounded with other persons. 
 Man is a person, — tending, however, by his weakness of will, 
 to degenerate into a thing. This indeed is the radical evil 
 of sin. It tends to fall, nay, it is itself a fall from that sense 
 of moral freedom without which moral obedience cannot be 
 rendered. The more man becomes like his Maker, the more 
 truly he is a Person ; and God's personality lies in essence, 
 in the fact that his truth and goodness are always matters of 
 choice, while his choice is always truth and goodness. Noth- 
 ing could have been more dreadful to Channing than the 
 idea of a God who was only the name for inexorable laws, 
 infinite but blind forces, without self-consciousness, without 
 freedom, without feeling, and that men were free only by 
 feigning freedom, or ignoring the bonds that hold them fast 
 in a fatal necessity. 
 
 Channing's sense of God's goodness and holiness were so 
 utterly dependent on his sense of his freedom that it became 
 impossible for him to think God pleased with any bondage 
 in his children, or any dominion of fear in their worship and 
 service. As God was free, so his children, to know and love 
 and worship him, must be free also, — free to think, free to 
 act, free to worship. This made him the life-long foe of all 
 systems of government in state or church, whose essence
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 29 
 
 was conformity, the suppression of free thought, free wor- 
 ship, free will. He dreaded the effort to overawe the indi- 
 vidual soul by the weight and pressure of numbers ; to con- 
 fine the present within the limits of the past ; to quote stale 
 precedents against fresh inspirations ; to discourage new 
 hopes by instancing old failures ; to limit and stereotype the 
 creeds. He had a boundless faith in God's great and good 
 intentions toward the human race ; the infinite love of an 
 Infinite Person — owing his own rational and moral glory to 
 his character and his freedom — toward his human offspring, 
 who were to be made great and glorious after his own pat- 
 tern, by becoming continually more free and more reverent 
 of others' freedom ; more just, and loving more to be just ; 
 more obedient, and more willing in their obedience ; more 
 his children, and more themselves at the same time. This 
 is the key to the ideality, the moral enthusiasm, the hopeful- 
 ness of Channing's faith. No one had a keener, deeper 
 sense of individual or social imperfection, folly, and sin than 
 he. His censures, his groans, his yearnings over the inade- 
 quate attainments, the low standards, the dull feelings of his 
 fellow-creatures ; his inexorable determination to accept no 
 excuses or apologies in place of repentance and newness of 
 life ; his severe demands on himself ; his tonic remon- 
 strances with the shortcomings of his best friends ; his 
 jealousy of any praise of himself or his doings ; his arraign- 
 ment of immoral but commanding characters worshipped by 
 the world about him ; of the shallow respectability that mis- 
 took itself for morality ; of the traditional acquiescence that 
 called itself faith ; of the love of freedom that coexisted with 
 the allowance of domestic slavery in his own country ; of 
 the business cupidity that covered itself with the name of 
 enterprise and public spirit ; of the faith in free thought 
 that allowed the prejudices or even the just prepossessions 
 of numbers to persecute individual peculiarity or even eccen-
 
 30 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 tricity of opinion, — all this habitual censoriousness or exact- 
 ingness was nothing but the reverse side of the immense 
 confidence he had in human possibilities, based upon the 
 relations man bore, in his very nature, to a God vi^hose pow- 
 ers, whose love, whose benignity toward man were bounded 
 only by his Divine purpose of keeping man's manhood in 
 him, and never allowing him, either as a race or an indi- 
 vidual, to be content or satisfied in any state of life or happi- 
 ness short of the truly human. 
 
 Men sometimes talk of Channing's ignorance of the neces- 
 sary conditions of human life ; of his secluded separateness 
 from the world ; of his imperfect acquaintance with the pres- 
 sure of material necessities, the spring of animal passions 
 and appetites ; the necessary preoccupation of the masses of 
 men and women with immediate things. He seems almost 
 like an anchorite, a hermit, a pillar-saint, in the fewness of 
 his wants, the wonder he expresses at the low pleasures men 
 find so attractive, and in the monotonous concentration of 
 his thoughts upon the moral and the spiritual. But the 
 truth is, it was not that Channing did not see all this ; but 
 that, seeing it, he saw what is still more real and vastly more 
 powerful and inviting : he saw God, and saw man's likeness 
 to him, and his capacity for realizing it, and saw that men 
 mostly did 7iot see it, and that it was his office and privilege 
 to draw their attention to it with all urgency. 
 
 Nobody ever lived since Jesus who recognized the evil in 
 men and the world with a deeper, tenderer sorrow, and still 
 retained so perfect a possession and enjoyment of his own 
 faith and hope for man and society, in God and his gracious 
 purposes. There is no despondency in his complaints, no 
 disrespect in his upbraidings, nay, no impatience in his 
 enthusiasm. He had more than the optimist's content. His 
 confidence is not in powers he does not know, in a God he 
 blindly trusts, in purposes he cannot sympathize with ! He
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 3 1 
 
 has grasped the nature of the Divine method, apprehends its 
 implements, uses them, and knows their temper and edge. 
 It is because mind is at work, and is a Divine instrument ; 
 because truth and justice exist in perfection in God, and are 
 revealed in man's conscience ; because love is almighty, and 
 has its delegates in human hearts, — that he expects results 
 from civilization, and a stage of progress that will make our 
 present state appear barbarous ; and that he appeals so 
 urgently, so boldly, so pleadingly, to men to keep the 
 weapons of the Divine armory open to their use, and make 
 successful war on the lusts, the ignorance, the moral sloth, 
 the dull content that belate the spring of heaven on earth, 
 and perpetuate the winter of human discontent. If other 
 human spirits had seen the vision of God's powers and prom- 
 ises in the human soul and its latent capacities, as Channing 
 saw them, he would never have seemed visionary and extrav- 
 agant. It was the glory of this burning and shining light, 
 that the fogs of our fleshly and self-indulgent civilization — 
 built on the urgency of what is animal and superficial — did 
 not quench its own exalted beams. Channing was an ideal- 
 ist in essence. The ideal was for him the only real, and he 
 treated it as such. So did his Master before him ; so have 
 all the prophets, and so must all those do who have the 
 heavenly vision of God in their eyes. It is not they who are 
 fanatics and dreamers, but we who are asleep, or with only 
 one eye yet open. They see and know what man is, and can 
 prove himself to be, if he will — because he is the child of 
 God by a real spiritual generation, and has his Father's attri- 
 butes at his command; can claim and exercise his moral 
 freedom and his rational nature. They see and know that it 
 is nothing new and strange that is wanted to regenerate the 
 world ; only more of a kind they already have and know ; 
 more of the truly human yet divine sentiment of justice and 
 love. Given a million hearts and minds, a million wills like
 
 J- 
 
 CHANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 Channing's, — nay, like any humble, loving, holy follower of 
 Jesus, — and instantly an unspeakable regeneration — a de- 
 scent of the kingdom of God — appears! Things become 
 easy, that were before impossible. War, that we cannot kill 
 by force, dies of shame. Selfishness, that we regard as 
 indigenous and indestructible, turns into justice, mercy, and 
 the enjoyment of others' happiness as the truest extension 
 of our own, and disappears from the world, just as it disap- 
 pears in every truly regenerate household. All that has ever 
 been realized in any one man is possible in families ; all that 
 has ever triumphed in families may triumph in communities. 
 Every true community predicts the universal emancipation 
 of the race ; and the race, glorified out of its own nature, — 
 which is the gift of God, — foretells more and larger and 
 nobler measures of perfectness in the boundless worlds and 
 times yet to be inherited. 
 
 With these exalted views of God's freedom, justice, and 
 goodness, as the source and perpetual inspiration and inex- 
 haustible fountain of human powers and hopes, no wonder 
 that Channing had the profoundest and most cheerful faith 
 in the earthly and the celestial destiny of humanity. There 
 was no caprice in the purposes, no limitation in the love, no 
 uncertainty in the direction of the Divine Mind. And 
 equally there was no incapacity to receive God's truth, no 
 constitutional antagonism to it, no essential alienation, no 
 hopeless break with God in human nature, — which was 
 indissolubly connected with and an echo or image of the 
 Divine nature. 
 
 The clear and full declaration, or rather illumination, of 
 the essential relations of God and man in Christianity, as 
 founded in the oneness of mind and the sovereignty of moral 
 truth, made the gospel of Christ the joy and confidence of 
 Channing's heart, and secured it the allegiance and devotion
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 33 
 
 of his life. Because Jesus in his own life and character, and 
 by his precepts and parables, made God's truth to be justice 
 and holiness directed by Fatherly love, and man's life to be 
 obedience to truth and duty, which he was not only capable 
 of rendering, but capable of enjoying, and finding to be his 
 chief and permanent bliss ; because Jesus made God's 
 Fatherhood and man's sonship correlative, transcendent 
 truths, and illustrated them in his own person and character, 
 Channing fastened his faith and affections upon Christianity 
 as the divinest method of advancing the kingdom of God on 
 earth, and the salvation of man for time and eternity. As 
 he understood or interpreted it, it was in exact accordance 
 with what the highest human thought and feeling would 
 wish it to be and expect it to be. It met and satisfied his 
 intellect and his conscience. It presented God in the most 
 holy, just, and merciful character. It honored humanity by 
 exhibiting it in the perfect sinlessness and disinterested love 
 and self-sacrifice of Jesus. Its respect for human freedom 
 was complete ; its method, not force, but persuasion, ex- 
 ample, and light. It made certain the imi mortality for which 
 humanity had only hoped, and by this as.urance gave to 
 man that dignity which only a nature destined to a much 
 fuller unfolding than was yet possible on earth could pos- 
 sess. It blended morality and piety for the first time in an 
 indissoluble unity. It rebuked worldliness, and humbled the 
 pride of wealth and station, and the worse pride of intellect 
 and self-will. It abased the high and exalted the lowly. It 
 made men brothers by a tie stronger than blood, whether of 
 race or of family. It discountenanced war and violence. It 
 founded its hopes on the triumphs of mind and heart, of 
 moral truth and love, and not on the schools of science and 
 philosophy, not on the sword nor the power of artificial 
 organization. It was the noblest and most exalted honor
 
 34 CHANMNG CENTENARY. 
 
 ever paid to humanity that God in Christ addressed not its 
 fears, not its passions, not its dogmatic hopes, not its 
 national prejudices, but its highest and holiest powers, its 
 reason and its conscience — what is universal, uniting, and 
 elevating — what is godlike and divine — and not what is 
 attractive to self-interest, gratifying to self-importance, flat- 
 tering to selfish hopes. Christian to the core, Channing had 
 absolutely nothing of the Churchman in him, — less, possi- 
 bly, than would have been wise, — for he held the Church 
 responsible for a great dogmatic and ecclesiastical system, 
 which had buried the simplicity of Christ's gospel beneath 
 a mass of opinions and customs revolting to his mind and 
 heart. His Christianity was essentially that which fell only 
 from Christ's lips, and was illustrated in his life, before the 
 Apostle to the Gentiles had given it the dogmatic shape of 
 his ingenious intellect, or the powers of the world had seized 
 it, to forge from it a new instrument of political order and 
 ambition. 
 
 But, simple and profoundly rational as Channing's ideas of 
 Christianity were, they were central and commanding, and 
 they were historical and supernatural. For him Jesus was 
 no mythic growth of marvel-loving times ; he was no uncom- 
 missioned, self-appointed prophet, owing his authority to his 
 greater wisdom and insight. Channing fully believed him 
 to be sent, in the ordinary sense of the Church, from heaven 
 — from God's immediate presence. He believed him to 
 have been pre-existent. He thought him to owe his sinless- 
 ness not simply to his nature, but to his special and personal 
 relations to God, — relations which we do not yet fully enjoy. 
 He did not regard him chiefly as an example for us, in his 
 own temptations and trials, because we could not understand 
 his resources nor enter into his experience. But it would 
 not be just to call him an Arian without explanation, for he
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 35 
 
 did not think Christ's nature different from ours, but only 
 the same in a higher stage of development ; nor had he any 
 perception or recognition of what has been called the double 
 nature of Christ, — the divine and the human. He knew but 
 one form of spiritual nature, — God's own. It was mind, and 
 mind was rational and moral. It might have, it did have, 
 different stages of development. It was eternally perfect in 
 God. It was eternally capable of development in his chil- 
 dren. God's glory was eternally to give, and man's eternally 
 to receive it. Jesus Christ had, according to his view, a 
 created existence ; but it was older than man's. He brought 
 his moral and spiritual perfections with him. He did not 
 grow into them as we grow, nor were they limited by what 
 hinders us. I am bound, in simplicity, to say that I do not 
 share these views of Christ's pre-existence ; nor is the moral 
 and spiritual exaltation of Jesus in my view dependent upon 
 the place or the date of his first creation ; nor do I think 
 that Channing, judging by the views his disciples have since 
 attained, would have continued in them, if he had lived to 
 our day. His own spiritual philosophy ought, it seems to 
 me, to have made him, of all men, readiest to believe that a 
 being made in the Divine image might, occasionally at least, 
 live in the Divine likeness free from sin ; nor can I see what 
 should prevent us from believing that spiritual or moral 
 genius, like intellectual, may be exceptional, without being 
 abnormal. We do not think Homer, Aristotle, Plato, Mi- 
 chael Angelo, Shakespeare, pre-existed, because their genius 
 is unparalleled : why Jesus } Genius, poetic, artistic, execu- 
 tive, is always unaccountable and always exceptional ; but it 
 is never other or more than human. I hope and trust that 
 other sinless beings have lived besides Jesus. Beings, at 
 any rate, there have been in whom no sin appeared ; and I 
 should hold it a great deduction from my reverence for
 
 36 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Christ and luimanity if I were compelled to leave Jesus out 
 of the ranks of our common manhood. 
 
 But let us not forget that Channing's views about the pre- 
 existence and the miraculous, in which he was a firm be- 
 liever, and the difference between the origin of Christianity 
 and other religions, only emphasize the pure rationality and 
 ethical and spiritual quality of his characteristic views. " Be- 
 lieving in the miracles, he neither magnified them nor rested 
 in them. Believing in the pre-existence, it was not this 
 that gave Christianity its dignity and importance in his eyes, 
 and he did not require these opinions from others as a test 
 of their faith. They were not of the essence of his own 
 faith. It was not the mysterious nor the abnormal nor the 
 irrational ; not the ontological and metaphysical, nor the 
 supernatural, that he valued. It was what was rational, in- 
 telligible, rulable, imitable. He accepted certain views 
 which we might reject, as being to him most in accord with 
 the record. He held the record in a more literal respect 
 than modern scholars of his general views. But I feel 
 bound to say that none of his views brought him any nearer 
 to the orthodoxy of the visible church than it did Parker or 
 Martineau ; and that those who use him to disfavor free in- 
 quiry or to buoy up sinking dogmas, or to stop theological 
 progress cannot be careful students of his life and writings, 
 and do not illustrate his freedom. He had no such views of 
 the difiference between the truly human and the truly divine 
 as would have made even interesting to him the ordinary 
 empty questions as to how far the same mind can partake of 
 the divine and the human. That question was settled in his 
 fundamental theory of the identity of mind. There was no 
 difference, except in degree of development, between Jesus 
 and other men, as the only difference in nature between God 
 and man is that God is eternally father, and man eternally his
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT, 37 
 
 child, by rational and moral generation, or identity of nature 
 and derivation of essence. Channing never permitted theo- 
 retical differences to diminish or weaken the significance of 
 moral and spiritual agreements. There is no evidence that 
 he valued anybody more for sharing his views, or depreciated 
 anybody for opposing or denying them, if in a good spirit. 
 If he had a choice, it was for the society of those who had 
 some new or divergent view to present. He had a wondrous 
 confidence in the power of truth to protect itself ; in the 
 safety of free discussion ; and in the possible importance of 
 the new light which even very young and unrecognized spir- 
 its might at any time shed upon questions regarded by most 
 as closed and settled. Like the mothers in Israel, who re- 
 garded every son as the possible Messiah, Channing hailed 
 every independent and earnest mind as the possible opener 
 of some new and wide door into the kingdom of God. He 
 was equally tolerant of others' opinions, and cautious and 
 docile in his own. He thought that new truth was yet to 
 break out of God's Word, and that with new truth would 
 come new means of advancing the delayed triumphs of the 
 gospel, which were identical with the progress of true civili- 
 zation. 
 
 It is easy to see why, with these views, Channing should 
 be claimed both by conservatives and by radicals in the lib- 
 eral ranks, andwhy even enlightened and spiritual believers 
 of the so-called orthodox faiths should be able to cull from 
 his writings passages which savor of the old system. He 
 was no destructive, no despiser of the past ; and he retained 
 and breathed all that was sacred and divine in the piety that 
 had been associated with the old opinions. Now and then, it 
 is true, as in his famous Baltimore sermon, and in his equally 
 great New York sermon, he made the strongest, most direct, 
 and most damaging assaults upon the Trinitarian and Cal-
 
 38 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 vinistic systems of opinion, — assaults which, for courage, 
 explicitness, and even for offensiveness to the feelings and 
 prejudices of the Christian world, have never been exceeded. 
 But controversy of a textual or ecclesiastical kind was his 
 strange work. He dreaded its effects upon himself and 
 others, and only engaged in it when driven by the stress of 
 his position or by his noble necessity to vindicate the free- 
 dom of opinion and the claims to respect of his own be- 
 leaguered company of fellow-believers. Controversy bears 
 no greater proportion to the affirmative part of his writings 
 than Jesus' own contradiction of Jewish and Pharisaic errors 
 does to his positive teaching of religious truth. And there- 
 fore as Jesus has continued to be honored, loved, and quoted 
 by rationalists and supernaturalists, by Catholics and Protest- 
 ants, by churchmen and anti-churchmen, by Calvinists and 
 Arminians and Pelagians, because the bulk of his teaching 
 is universal, uncontroversial, and of that spirit and temper 
 which time does not stale, nor place color, nor other differ- 
 ences affect ; so Channing has been placed, by a wide con- 
 sent, in the calendar of the Universal Church, — the ortho- 
 dox Christian world condoning his denial of several of its 
 most generally received opinions, in recollection of the glo- 
 rious testimony he bore in his writings and his life to the 
 beauty of holiness, the might of divine truth, and the 
 transcendent importance of the Christian life. None have 
 been able to escape the power of his spirituality, the earnest- 
 ness of his faith, the purity and elevation of his character. 
 It has deodorized his dogmatic offenses, and made his con- 
 troversial writings forgotten or forgiven by all except those 
 who have nothing to forgive or forget, still thinking them 
 the necessary and invaluable expression of theological con- 
 viction, on which his own vital faith and his lofty personal 
 character rested, and in which the Christian world will finally 
 unite and agree.
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 39 
 
 I have already given more time than I intended to the con- 
 sideration of Channing as a theologian and the essence of his 
 opinions. Let us now turn to the contemplation of his gen- 
 ius and character, or the measure of the man himself. 
 
 In some respects, his views, as already set forth, are them- 
 selves the best description of the genius and character of the 
 man. Considering the date of his settlement in the Chris- 
 tian ministry and the prevailing opinions of his contempora- 
 ries, the depth and breadth of his opinions, the freedom of 
 his intellect, and the unconventional, undogmatic, and unec- 
 clesiastical character of his thoughts are the indications of a 
 mind of the first order, — possessing an authority in the 
 clearness, soberness, and calmness of its own vision and its 
 own convictions, that liberates it from local, accidental, and 
 merely custom-made bonds. Rarely has any religious thinker 
 appeared who was less obviously the child of his time and 
 circumstances, whether in his opinions, 'his spirit, or his ca- 
 reer. He called no man master. The religious views he 
 held were not in accord with those of his kindred ; he was 
 not the disciple of the great men nearest to him in his youth, 
 like Dr. Hopkins and Dr. Stiles, whom he greatly honored. 
 He was not the echo and representative of the prevailing 
 moderation, and compromised or emasculated orthodoxy, the 
 Arianism or obscurantism of the growing liberalism of his 
 region and time. He was utterly out of sympathy with 
 Priestley and Belsham, though appreciative of the merits of 
 Price, and probably more indebted to Butler than to any 
 single mind. He honored Buckminster, but did not partake 
 the scholastic or highly literary spirit, which in his time was 
 giving to Boston the name of the modern Athens, and was 
 arraying the liberal pulpit in the silken robes of academic 
 culture, — the generation of mellifluous pulpit oratory, mild 
 and correct, which Kirkland illustrated and Everett carried 
 to its culminating perfection.
 
 40 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 He was not the close friend and companion of the able 
 and cultivated men who made Boston the seat and centre of 
 conservatism in everything except theology, — in classicism, 
 in oratory, in rhetoric, in taste, in manners, — and in theol- 
 ogy, the seat of a cautious, ethical, or secularized divinity, — 
 lukewarm and inoffensive, difficult to define and impossible 
 to propagate. Himself exquisitely refined, sensitive to beauty 
 and sublimity in nature and literature ; fond of good letters, 
 read in poetry, with a taste for the classics and for the fine 
 arts ; the first scholar in his class, and at eighteen the chosen 
 writer of the address with which the students hailed Presi- 
 dent Adams in his stiff resistance to French policy ; with 
 early promise of high success in the legal profession, for 
 which his friends and classmates predestined him, or else 
 for a great political career, — he never was the echo or the 
 mouthpiece of the special tendencies or predilections of his 
 day and generation, or of the city where he spent his life. 
 And it was because his impulse came from a higher source 
 than any local or temporary stream. So far as he was not 
 the child of God, he must be pronounced the son of his own 
 genius, and not of his time and parentage and neighborhood, 
 his sect or his party. And his genius was one of intense 
 self-possession, — making his own thoughts more engrossing 
 and commanding than any thoughts he found in books, or 
 any influences that were about him. He found within him- 
 self ideas, feelings, faculties, that fastened his attention upon 
 themselves, not as being Jiis in the egotistic sense, but as 
 being wonderful suggestions and keys, the sublime represen- 
 tatives of what he shared with humanity and with God. 
 What he was and saw and felt in his own nature gave him 
 his inspiration, his mission, and his special career. There 
 was nothing indirectly derived, second-hand, or traditional, 
 and merely bred of local contagion, in his views or in his
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 4I 
 
 methods. He was an original force, commanded by his vision 
 and conviction, and from a height which no fortresses of 
 venerable custom or of elegant prejudice overlooked, much 
 less overawed. More individual than if his individuality had 
 not lacked all egotism and all eccentricity, all caprice and 
 self-allowance, he had little power of co-operation, little faith 
 in organization, and little dependence on others' sympathy 
 and applause, and as little susceptibility to censure. The 
 most sanctified of his clerical contemporaries, he was the least 
 professional in his temper and spirit ; the most Christian in 
 his heart and life, the least ecclesiastical. He loved Boston 
 best of all the world, — if Newport may not to-day claim the 
 warmest place in his heart, — yet he was not a Bostonian in 
 the most characteristic sense of that term. He did not 
 share its distrust for genius untrained in academic lore ; its 
 bated breath for new men not baptized into Harvardian 
 waters ; its impatience with strength, if it were shaggy and 
 rugged ; its marvellous solidity of social conformity, and the 
 breeding in and in of its tastes and convictions. Respecta- 
 bility, good family, self-consistency, decorum, moderation, 
 the lares around that honored hearth, were not his household 
 gods. Far be it from me to disparage the noble self-suffi- 
 ciency and compact perfectness of the place of my own birth 
 and breeding. But, however much it may have been or may 
 still be deplored, it is due to the right measurement of Chan- 
 ning to say that he was not the typical Bostonian of his day 
 or of any day, and that what he did in and for Boston was 
 usually against the grain of its characteristic and governing 
 tastes and wishes. He gave his genius to Boston and man- 
 kind. He did not shape it to suit Boston or his generation, 
 but to satisfy his nature and conscience, and to honor God 
 and his service among men. 
 
 The same may be said of his great though younger con-
 
 42 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 temporaries, Emerson, Parker, Garrison. It was a fortunate 
 thing for Channing that he was driven to Virginia, the old 
 heart of the countsy, to earn his independence, and there to 
 settle his opinions and his profession. There, in comparative 
 solitude, and beyond the reach of local influences, and even 
 natal bonds, he found himself (not that he had ever wan- 
 dered), because there, with his manhood just attained, con- 
 curred the first great struggle of his mind and heart with its 
 own questions, in a meditative separation from all that could 
 have biased him or warped him from being other or less than 
 himself. True, in that protracted season of profound reverie 
 and meditation, in which his soul was feathering and taking 
 wing and direction, he lost his bodily health permanently. 
 He was adding to his conscientious labor, as a tutor and 
 teacher, the tasks of a profound self-questioner and inquirer 
 of the Spirit of God. He found his soul, and saw the great 
 lines that marked its significance, and indicated his sources 
 of power and usefulness, and fixed his calling and self-dedica- 
 tion to God and Christ and humanity ; he lost his health, and 
 that finally. It is important to connect the two facts. They 
 are curiously illustrative of the disrespect in which he held 
 all endeavors to associate matter and mind in any close mu- 
 tual dependency ; and he was himself the minimum of body 
 and the maximum of mind. But it is well to remember that 
 Channing had been athletic, joyous, springy, and gay, manly 
 and bold to a fault in physical courage in his boyhood and 
 college days ; that there was never any other asceticism or 
 melancholy or other worldliness about him than necessarily 
 belong to invalids who have to study their health continually; 
 and that, if his poor physique compelled him to live a good 
 deal in solitude, to avoid too much exertion in any form, and 
 to fix his mind upon his special pursuit, it never took any 
 robustness from his courage, dignity from his manhood,
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 43 
 
 sympathy from his love of children, the open air, nature, and 
 womanhood. There is no ill health in his lusty hopes of 
 humanity, in his unvaletudinarian admiration for those who 
 could defy and resist wrong and oppression, blind custom, or 
 tyrannical use and wont. His love of the beaches of your 
 island in the time of storms, where he said he felt his soul 
 expand and take on the power of the elemental strife, should 
 teach us how little the softness of his tissue or the worn 
 fibres of his muscles communicated their weakness to the 
 cords of his intellectual or his moral nature. In fact, his 
 soul would have animated a giant, and set forth a Viking, in 
 its magnificent courage and sweep of life. 
 
 I am struck with nothing more than the comprehensive 
 grasp of his thoughts. They bind God and man together, 
 the past and the future ; and, high and holy as they are 
 wide and deep, they are never filmy and airy ; always solid, 
 ready to bear the tread of the strongest reason ; full of 
 sense, if full of light ; enthusiastic, but never eccentric, 
 never wild. His feet are steady on the ground, if his eye 
 and arm are reaching for the skies. 
 
 He had been addicted to reverie, as all ideal natures are, 
 in his earlier manhood ; but the mist quickly consolidated 
 into a cloud, out of which shot bolts of prodigious force and 
 directness. His greatest, most distinctive gift — his instru- 
 ment and his method alike — was the power of an almost 
 unequalled concentration of attention upon his own thoughts 
 and inward experiences, afterwards enlarged into the faculty 
 of fixing his mind, with an absorbing exclusion of other 
 themes, upon any subject he chose to meditate and examine. 
 He brooded, with a patience that Nature does not equal in 
 her winged kind, over the seminal suggestions he found in 
 the sacred nest of his own soul. Other men have had his 
 thoughts; nay, happily, they are so native to humanity that
 
 44 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 they must always lack originality. It was what they grew 
 to, under his prolonged, persistent meditation, that made 
 them new, and other, and more fruitful than they have 
 proved in kindred minds lacking his unwearied and fixed 
 power and habit of contemplation. 
 
 This, too, is the source of the monotony of which some 
 complain in his writings. There is not room enough in the 
 mind for the concurrent and full expansion of many ideas, 
 as important and sublime as those that occupied his great 
 soul. A few master-thoughts — the greatest that can em- 
 ploy the human soul — had early fastened his attention; 
 they never ceased to yield new fruits to meditation.* He 
 never got to the end of them, or was fully content with the 
 expression he gave them. He returns to them again and 
 again. He applies them. They are always as useful as 
 they are engaging, always as much the ground of his action 
 as of his feeling. They are thoughts of God, of man, of 
 freedom, of holiness, of public justice, of the elevation of 
 the humble, of the enrichment of the poor ! They are not 
 thoughts to amuse, to please, to dazzle ; thoughts for a culti- 
 vated class or a fastidious appetite ; thoughts whose aim is 
 to show off the thinker's skill or taste or originality ; they 
 are not clothed in rhetoric, nor made to suit the love of 
 variety. They can hardly be said to be chosen thoughts ; 
 but rather thoughts so self-urged and spontaneous that they 
 seem the special hardy natives of the soil, too vigorous and 
 too exhausting of the sap to allow any lesser thoughts, or 
 
 • Mr. Browning, in his " Paracelsus," describes this experience : — 
 " So that, when quailing at the mighty range 
 Of secret truths which yearn for birth, I haste 
 To contemplate undazzled some one truth, 
 Its bearings and effects alone — at once 
 What was a speck expands into a star. 
 Asking a life to pass exploring thus."
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 45 
 
 any variety of thoughts, to spring up in the neighborhood. 
 The solemn pause and measured formality with which in his 
 writings he announces his passing from one to another 
 thought exhibits and illustrates the awe with which he was 
 himself overcome in the presence of his convictions. They 
 hardly seemed his own, and he introduced them as if he 
 were presenting the lofty ambassadors of some sacred power, 
 for the obeisance of the company met to receive them. It 
 is the greatness and glory of only the rarest souls to be thus 
 filled with a few themes, that claim and crowd all the room 
 our nature has, — thoughts so exalted, so peerless, and so 
 self-sustained that they neither allow nor require any train- 
 bearers or attendants. Channing did not lack native versa- 
 tility, aptness for many things, taste and capacity for litera- 
 ture, philosophy, science, art, poetry, practical affairs, politics, 
 statesmanship, natural history, society; that he was capable 
 of wit, satire, humor, is evident enough to those who make a 
 study of his biography — almost an autobiography — by the 
 hand of his favorite nephew. It was no lack of nice obser- 
 vation, of practical interest in daily life, of sympathy with 
 common things, of physical sensibility or even manly pas- 
 sion, that made him such a uniform or one-keyed organ of a 
 few great thoughts. It is as plain as light that he was no 
 mystic, no mere temperamental saint, no vestal in disguise 
 — not even a man to whom evil was unknown, and the world 
 naturally repulsive, and therefore carefully veiled from sight. 
 He had none of the scholar's learned ignorance, the saint's 
 pious inhumanity, the devotee's upturned eyeballs. There 
 was in the odor of his sanctity no savor of any ecclesiastical 
 herbs, no artificial, sickly perfume of funeral tuberoses, 
 rosemary, and myrrh. His seriousness was habitual, and 
 caused by the essential solemnity of his thoughts. He did 
 not often smile, and seldom laughed ; but it was not from
 
 46 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 want of cheerfulness or incapacity for humor, but only from 
 the prepossession of his mind by grave and intensely inter- 
 esting themes. He thought himself one of the happiest of 
 men, and his chiklren testify to the vivacity and cheerful- 
 ness of his domestic life. But he was made happy and 
 happier, every year he lived, by his greater realization of 
 our wonderful nature, and its relations to its generous and 
 glorious Source, his high and cheerful views of human prog- 
 ress on earth, and its sublime destiny beyond the skies. 
 
 It was a grand peculiarity of this great man so to have 
 reconciled his ideas with his immediate life and duty that 
 his life was his religion, and his religion his life. He did 
 not wear his faith and piety as a professional robe ; it was 
 his home attire and his working-dress. He did not keep 
 his thoughts for meditation, except as far as meditation is 
 itself life and action, but for use and application. He could 
 not be caught in undress. He was the same exalted person, 
 at home and abroad, in ordinary conversation and in the pul- 
 pit. Indeed, Dr. Dewey — whose testimony comes nearer 
 to that of a peer, though his is a different variety of the 
 order of greatness, than that of any close witness of Chan- 
 ning — has told me that his talk was greater, and more 
 exhaustive and exhausting, than his writings or his preach- 
 ing ; upon the same themes, just as lofty and just as grave, 
 but more prolonged and more glowing. In short, the nearer 
 you got to this burning and shining light, the more you 
 found it to be not painted flame, but real fire ; not light 
 only, but heat. It went far to consume Channing himself, 
 who lay a live coal upon the altar ; and it was apt to scorch 
 and shrivel even the stoutest souls that stood near it while 
 it steadily burnt, not out, but on. It was the utter genuine- 
 ness of his faith, the power it had over himself, that made 
 it so effectual over others, and gives it such might to-day.
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 47 
 
 Of his preaching, I was myself the glad and fortunate 
 beneficiary, and am among the not too many living witnesses 
 to its transcendent power. There is no spot in Boston so 
 sacred to me as the profaned site of the old Federal Street 
 Church ; for thither, a youth of twenty-one, I was wont to 
 repair (and it was a walk of several miles) every other Sun- 
 day morning, for two critical years of my life and theological 
 studies, to hear Channing preach ! There were excellent 
 preachers to be heard much nearer home ; but there was 
 that in Channing's mind and soul, in his voice, manner, and 
 look, that separated him from them, as the prophet is sepa- 
 rated from the priest. Indeed, he did 7iot preach, in the ordi- 
 nary sense of the word. Gowned as he was, and obedient 
 to all the decorums of the pulpit, it was not the preacher, 
 but the apostle, you saw and heard. Even in the pulpit, he 
 lived the things he saw and said. The greatness of human 
 nature shone in his beautiful brow, sculptured with thought, 
 and lighted from within ; his eye, so full and blue, was lus- 
 trous with a vision of God, and seemed almost an open door 
 into the shining presence. His voice, sweet, round, un- 
 strained, full, though low, lingered as if with awed delay 
 upon the words that articulated his dearest thoughts, and 
 trembled with an ever-restrained but most contagious emo- 
 tion. He was intensely present in his thoughts, as if just 
 born from his soul, and dressed from his lips, although he 
 usually (always in my experience) spoke from a manuscript. 
 But, while his individuality was inexi^ressibly commanding, 
 it gave no suggestion of the love of personal influence. He 
 used the word '' I " with the freedom of the master, but it 
 conveyed the sense, " not I, but the Father in me ; not I, 
 but the truth I speak ; and not you, but the nature you 
 represent ; not you, but humanity and God in you and in 
 us ! " He rose slowly, read a hymn, and began his dis-
 
 48 CIIANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 course (for seldom in my clay was he able to spare much of 
 his strength for the preliminary services, conducted by his 
 colleague) on a plane so level to the feet of the simplest of 
 his hearers that few noticed the difificulty of the slow but 
 steady ascent he always made, carrying his rapt hearers 
 with him by the power of his thought, the calm insistance 
 of his conviction, and the solemn earnestness of his spirit, 
 until they found themselves standing at a height from which 
 visions of divine things, in their true proportions and real 
 perspective, became easy and spontaneous. There was no 
 muscular strain or contortion in his limbs or face or voice ; 
 no excitement of a fleshly origin ; no false fervor or false 
 emphasis ; no loss of perfect dignity and self-possession. 
 And there was little in the words themselves to fix atten- 
 tion, except their purity and grace. It was the subject that 
 came forward and remained in the memory. He left you 
 not thinking of him, nor of his rhetoric. He had no start- 
 ling figures, no brilliant fancies, no sharp points ; little for 
 admiration or praise ; everything for reflection, for inspira- 
 tion, and for illumination. There was one other peculiarity 
 in his preaching. He preached only on great themes, and 
 this made his sermons always timely, for great subjects 'are 
 ever in order. So profoundly helpful, so inspiring was his 
 preaching, that I, for one, lived on it, from fortnight to fort- 
 night, and went to it every time, with the expectation and 
 the experience of receiving the bread of heaven on which I 
 was to live and grow, until the manna fell again ; and men 
 of all ages had much the same feeling. 
 
 When, for the first time, I saw Channing out of the pulpit, 
 I was as much surprised at his diminutive form as if, expect- 
 ing a giant, I had met a dwarf ! He had seemed to me a 
 large and tall man in his pulpit ; but I soon found that, 
 slight and low as his frame was, nearness and familiarity
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 49 
 
 took nothing from its dignity, and suggested nothing fragile 
 or weak. Indeed, his attenuated and lowly figure really 
 increased the sense of his moral majesty and intellectual 
 eminence. His presence was more awful, simple and gentle 
 as he was, than that of any human being I ever saw. It 
 forbade familiarity, silenced garrulity, checked ease, and had 
 something of the effect of a supernatural visitor ; awfng 
 levity, and making even common speech, or speech at all, 
 difficult. He was so unconscious of this effect, so -little 
 willing to produce it, so anxious to make others free and 
 communicative, that it became pathetic to witness the paral- 
 ysis of tongue and motion that usually fell on those whom 
 he in vain tried to set at liberty from his overpowering per- 
 sonality. Doubtless there were familiar and domestic friends, 
 and perhaps m^n who had grown up with him, that escaped 
 this awe, and overcame this distance ; and children did not 
 seem to feel it ; but just in proportion to the sense and 
 sensibility of young men and women was it irresistible. 
 
 I have said that Channing was not the kind of preacher 
 Boston usually made and welcomed. Fortunately he did 
 not settle, of choice, in a congregation most characteristic 
 of Boston, — not in Brattle Street, where he was called, but 
 in Federal Street, then comparatively inconspicuous, — and 
 so he made, by degrees, out of a less fixed and wool-dyed 
 class of citizens, a congrega<tion of his own, to which he 
 communicated much of his own spirit and something of his 
 own views. But it was in his character of philanthropist 
 that he had most to do with shaping a new Boston, and most 
 to contend with ; and there his personal courage and com- 
 manding individuality were most displayed. I must not go 
 at length into the history of his relations to the politics, the 
 pauperism, the anti-slavery agitation, the questions of free 
 speech and free opinion, which are really the places where 
 his character and even his views are best illustrated. But
 
 CHANNING CKNTENAKY. 
 
 I should wholly fail in the completeness even of an outline 
 of Channin*;, if I did not trace the line of his course upon 
 these public questions. 
 
 Everybody knows how much of Channing's mind and 
 heart, courage and inspiration, went into the application of 
 his views, — God's glorious purpose in man's creation, the 
 di^iity of human nature and the sacredness of freedom, of 
 will, thought, speech, and conduct, — to the working institu- 
 tions of government, of business, of charity, of domestic life. 
 He was above all things a man, 3.nd then only a minister; and 
 no zeal or fidelity to his profession, incompatible with or 
 overriding his duties as a man, could have satisfied him. 
 Indeed, a Christian minister in his eyes was only a man, 
 realizing under Christ's teaching the full dignity of humanity, 
 and working for its rights and its development in the sphere 
 of our present existence. Any effort to shut him up in the 
 pulpit or within the clerical profession, or to cut off his right, 
 his duty, his opportunity of making his moral and spiritual 
 convictions forces in society at large, would necessarily have 
 been unavailing. He knew no distinction between his man- 
 hood and his ministry, and accepted no rules as binding on 
 him which were not binding on all. His field was the world, 
 his congregation the human race ; his office an ordination to 
 advance, protect, and serve all the higher interests of his 
 kind. There was nothing strictly new in this position. All 
 the noblest and greatest men have been distinguished by a 
 certain refusal to observe conventional bounds, or to make 
 their special profession or calling less than that of servant of 
 all truth and all good. Some of the greatest poets have been 
 also theologians ; great lawyers, publicists ; and great physi- 
 cians, philanthropists; great artists, thinkers and reformers. 
 
 New England never lacked men in the ministry who felt it 
 their right and duty to guide and watch over political senti- 
 ment ; and Boston had had her Chauncy and Mayhew, not to
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 5 1 
 
 speak of her Eliot and Mathers. But, in ordinary times, the 
 tendency of all professions is to become special, and to have 
 an ethics each of its own. Unprofessional, unclerical, are 
 words of significant meaning. No doubt, too, there is a 
 wholesome instinct which teaches men that every profession 
 is a jealous mistress, and demands the exclusive use of the 
 time and talents of its followers, and that a division of labor 
 and a certain mental and moral uniform peculiar to each best 
 favor the interest of all. Departure from this practical rule 
 is only justified when those who break it are clearly seen to 
 be men of exceptional greatness, and competency to larger 
 influence and larger work than belong to any one calling in 
 life. Channing was such a man, — a philosopher, a philan- 
 thropist, a statesman, a poet, — nothing less than the general 
 condition and prospects of the whole race could engage his 
 attention, or limit his sense of responsibleness. He was 
 accordingly an observer and student of other countries, and 
 their moral, social, and political prospects. He.was deeply 
 interested in all experiments for increasing popular intelli- 
 gence, improving the condition of the poor, or widening polit- 
 ical rights. He understood the relations and influence of 
 men and events across national boundaries. The French, 
 the English, the German influence upon humanity and the 
 fortunes of Christianity closely concerned him, at a time 
 when few could see over the fences, which, however they 
 narrow the view, do not prevent the circulation of a common 
 human atmosphere. And, in the same way, he was profoundly 
 interested, at a time when interest was rare, in the mutual 
 relations of the different classes of society. Singularly 
 tempted to devote himself to his own excellent and fortunate 
 class, — refined, decorous, solid, and satisfied, and all the more 
 tempted by the fact that his profession justified and expected 
 a certain confinement within parochial bounds, — he could 
 not limit his views or his sympathies or his obligation within
 
 52 CnANNIN(; CENTF.NARY. 
 
 ail}' class lines, lie rcvertcvl to the original office of the 
 ministry, when men were not settled over congregations, but 
 sent forth api>stles of truth and mercy to all men. And 
 although he was precluded, by his want of health, from active 
 missionary or active })ublic labors, and lived a peculiarly set- 
 tled and uniform life, his mind, his heart travelled widely, and 
 his pen was a missionary and a public servant that recog- 
 nized the claims of the whole world. 
 
 Few men, in this country or any other, have been as univer- 
 sal in their survey, their aims, their breadth of view, and the 
 comprehensiveness of their purposes as Channing. With the 
 tastes and habits of a recluse, he was mentally a cosmopolite 
 and a publicist. The least of a partisan and a politician, he 
 had all the feelings and all the capacity of a statesman. 
 Limited by his physical fragility to a narrow walk of personal 
 observation and intercourse, he went in spirit and by the aid 
 of his intellectual and moral sympathies into the homes and 
 shops and fields, and felt the closest and warmest interest in 
 the trials, sorrows, wrongs, and exposures of the common 
 people, and especially those most overlooked. Tuckerman, 
 his most intimate friend, the apostle to the poor of Boston, 
 found in no one so patient and so helpful a supporter and 
 admirer as Channing, who envied his skill, his success, and 
 his delight in this gracious service. His advice and his en- 
 couragement to the laboring classes, which reached many 
 countries, drew forth expressions of gratitude that gave Chan- 
 ning more satisfaction than he could receive from the admira- 
 tion of literary critics, or the crowds of cultivated people that 
 hung on his lips. The ministry to the poor in Boston owed 
 most of its permanent interest to his direction and encouf- 
 agement. He was profoundly concerned for the elevation, 
 the happiness, the substantial good of the humbler ranks of 
 people. It was not a professiopal, technical interest of the 
 ordinary ministerial kind, lest their souls should be lost, but
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 53 
 
 a sad sense of what they were losing in not knowing, serving, 
 and loving God. 
 
 There were none of the materials for a fanatic in Chan- 
 ning ; and yet fanatics have seldom gone as far in their mad- 
 ness or narrowness of view as Channing went in his sobriety 
 and comprehensiveness. He hoped and expected more of all 
 men than perfectionists, socialists, and idealogists have looked 
 for and demanded ; but he had the most practical sense of 
 the difficulties in the way. He had the patience of God and 
 geologic time with the slowness of the advance. Nobody 
 could have told him much about the obstructions and trying 
 conditions, under the sense of which most men give up the 
 problem. He was hopeful in full view of all obstacles, and 
 active and earnest in spite of his knowledge how long and 
 how much action and effort would be required for an indefi- 
 nite time to come. 
 
 His course in regard to the anti-slavery movement is per- 
 haps the best illustration of his character as an humanitarian 
 and a citizen. By position, by taste, and by associates, he 
 was one of the men likely to feel most what was called the 
 violence, the narrowness, and the vulgarity of that movement, 
 as it first presented itself in Massachusetts. Its starters and 
 supporters outraged the taste, the ethics, the customs of the 
 best people. It looked wild, fierce, revolutionary, impious, 
 much as the earliest pretentions of Christianity must have 
 seemed to devout and influential Jews in the Holy City. As 
 a rule, Christian ministers gave a wide berth to its advocates. 
 Channing regarded it doubtless with distaste, and turned a 
 cold shoulder upon its first apostles, from genuine doubts of 
 its being in right hands, or advocated in a legal and Christian 
 way. In this, he only exhibited the uniform caution of his 
 conscientious mind, which never allowed itself to be swept 
 off the base of its own solid judgment. It was always his 
 judgment — which was his conscience — that had to be set
 
 54 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 on fire, not his feelings, and it did not catch prematurely ; 
 and when it did, it burnt with a flame that could not be 
 quenched. 
 
 When Channing began — and it was far earlier than any 
 of the sober and weighty minds about him — to see and feel 
 what was involved in the anti-slavery cause ; what this fierce 
 indignation was, — the cry of outraged justice and down- 
 trampled humanity ; what a holy sense of wrong done to the 
 human soul lay at the bottom of the wrath that made relig 
 ious, social, and political conventionalities, so far as they 
 condoned or supported slavery, objects of anger and deri- 
 sion, — he transferred his sympathies from the conservative 
 and popular side of Boston taste and feeling to the radical, 
 the unpopular, the odious side of the anti-slavery reformers. 
 I do not think he counted the cost of this, or of any course 
 he ever took ; but he knew as well as any man the way in 
 which it would be received by his friends and lovers. His 
 difficulties were never those of the politician, the sectarian, 
 or the time-server. His slowness was always his desire to 
 be right with God and his conscience ; his quickness, the 
 zeal he had in the service of truth and duty, the moment he 
 knew them. What services he rendered to the anti-slavery 
 cause ; what he did to clarify, exalt, and make possible the 
 views that afterwards became acceptable and potent, — the 
 world knows, and abolitionists concede. But he never would 
 or could join any organization that compromised his least 
 conviction, or controlled his own sense of a Divine policy. 
 He spoke for himself ; he stood for himself. He had neither 
 the concurrence of the conservatives nor the radicals. He 
 offended the abolitionists ; he disgusted the W^higs ; he 
 pleased only God and his own conscience, and served the 
 great cause of freedom with transcendent power, because his 
 devotion to it was neither fanatical, partial, nor local ; and 
 what he wrote on anti-slavery is true for all time. His anti-
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 55 
 
 slavery was a logical and moral consequent of his reverence 
 for human nature. 
 
 Channing's course in regard to the trial of Abner Knee- 
 land for atheism was an equal illustration of his faith in the 
 self-protecting power of the truth, and the safety of freedom 
 of opinion and expression. It required immense moral 
 courage to head the petition which he also wrote for his 
 release from prison and punishment. But in the commu- 
 nity, in all the world, where public opinion is most worth 
 attending to, because rarely impulsive or extravagant, Chan- 
 ning had, many times in his life, to confront it with protests 
 or resistance, which left him open to all sorts of suspicion in 
 the very places where his reputation was most valuable, — his 
 piety, his faith, and his scrupulosity. He kept the company 
 of publicans and sinners; like his Master, he could not judge 
 those universally condemned. His moral courage — because 
 it had no conceit, no superficial passion, no partisan fire in 
 it — was truly sublime. His only cowardice was the rare 
 and honorable fear of being left alone with an accusing 
 conscience. 
 
 And here, to draw these dim outlines of Channing's views 
 and character to a period, let me crown all by saying that 
 self-reverence was, after all, his most characteristic and his 
 central grace and quality. No praise, no sympathy, no con- 
 currence was essential to his peace ; but the approval of his 
 own soul he must have at all hazards and at every sacrifice. 
 He guarded himself at every door from what might betray 
 his purity of motive, his rectitude of will, his moral freedom. 
 To be and not to seem ; to be himself what he demanded 
 and urged others to become; to be just, charitable, hopeful, 
 submissive ; to be like Jesus, and like what he believed God 
 to be, in spirit and in truth, — this was the never-failing pur- 
 pose and plan of his life. Nothing could he do that compro- 
 mised this holy necessity of being true to God and himself.
 
 56 CHANNINC CENTENARY. 
 
 \W c»)uld not i;'<) one step over the limits his fastidious 
 purity prescribed, nor one step back from the path where 
 his conscience beckoned him on, to disaffront his best 
 friends or to disabuse his most powerful censors. And with 
 all his publicity, and his wide sphere of fame and influence, 
 he lived with God almost as in the seclusion of a hermit's 
 cell : as free from worldly ambition as if he were the lowliest 
 of his kind ; as womanly in his purity as if not the most 
 manly of men ; as childlike as if he had not the experience, 
 the wisdom, the strength of the ripest maturity, and the 
 duties and opportunities of a statesman, a great citizen, a 
 leader of his time, and the foremost in the ranks of liberal 
 spirits. 
 
 I have not attempted a biography of Channing, nor fol- 
 lowed his life in detail, nor quoted his words. No later 
 work of that sort can supersede the precious autobiography 
 which his nephew has .skilfully extracted from his journals, 
 letters, and sermons. It is too serious, too spiritual, too 
 much in essence and too little in detail, too bulky and yel 
 too monotonous, to be easy or popular reading, though a 
 dozen American and perhaps as many English editions of it 
 have been circulated. But it is immortal in its substance, 
 and can never cease to be new and fresh in its influence, as 
 human souls rise to the level where its sublime simplicity 
 and searching spirituality become visible. It is a work to 
 be put upon the shelf or table of the private closet, in the 
 small class of permanent devotional helps, into no page of 
 which can any docile heart dip without finding a baptism of 
 the Holy Spirit. Would it were read and studied more ! I 
 can name no work which ministers of religion, and especially 
 our own, could consult and feed upon with more profit to 
 their souls and the souls of those they teach. It is encourag- 
 ing to know that Channing's works and his memoir have, if 
 not the immense circulation they merit, a wide, a constant.
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 57 
 
 an increasing currency among all sects, and especially among 
 the ministers of all sects ; that they are translated into the 
 chief tongues of the world, and are revered and honored by 
 all who are capable of appreciating their calm, deep, un- 
 partisan, permanent, and changeless truth and piety. 
 
 I should not have presumed, however, to make this dis- 
 course so long and full, had I not a painful feeling that 
 Channing, after all the exaltation connected with his name 
 and the settled canonization of his character, is really, to 
 a marked degree, neglected and unread and unappreciated 
 among those who owe him most, and who should be best 
 acquainted with his writings, his views, and his character- 
 istics. I often hear men, who owe no small part of their 
 own liberty and spiritual life to his inspiration, say they do 
 not, nay, cannot read him ; and then I feel somewhat the 
 same regret and surprise with which I hear others say they 
 cannot enjoy the Bible. I confess that Channing saturated 
 his more docile hearers and disciples, in his lifetime, with 
 his views and his temper, and that some of them have that 
 surcharged filiality, which sometimes makes children find 
 the best fathers less stimulating society than much less 
 able and worthy men, not so familiar and congenital. But 
 I am confident that this influence has at length become a 
 forgetfulness and an ignorance of the man and his opinions, 
 and has passed over from those who once knew him well, 
 and have neglected the care of his memory, to a generation 
 that did not know him, and do not seem to care to know 
 him, since those who did seem so lukewarm, or so careless, 
 to preserve his present fame and influence. If I do not, in 
 the strength of my reverence and gratitude, overstate this 
 neglect, it is a deplorable one. For nothing can be less 
 true than any notion that Channing was overrated by his 
 immediate contemporaries, his fellow-ministers, his towns- 
 men, or his disciples. The reverse of this is nearer the
 
 58 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 tiulh. Nor is he duly estimated, great as his fame is to- 
 day. His is still the morning-star, and is climbini; the sky. 
 He has not been outshone ; he has not been superseded. 
 No great spiritual light, of a strictly human kind, ever had 
 greater, denser fogs of prejudice to encounter, or could 
 oppose to them a milder flame. Still, his star is one held 
 baleful by millions of good Christians. His light waits a 
 purer air, a clearer and more rational sky, a freer humanity, 
 to show its full glory. But it is steady, and its oil does not 
 fail, nor its beams flicker. Long after names more popular 
 and commanding have faded out of human memory, his 
 name will be reviving with new splendor. There is in him 
 and his works little to decay, little to correct or change ; and 
 there is nothing to excuse or to explain away. His lan- 
 guage has no false rhetoric, no pretence, no tiresome tricks 
 or shallow music. He was an artist, but one who never left 
 the mark of his tools on his work. Perhaps he fed the mid- 
 night lamp with oil, but it never spilt upon his page or 
 scented his ink. He touched nothing trivial, local, or pass- 
 ing ; his themes are always great, his treatment always 
 majestic. He has not mixed the temporary and the per- 
 manent, feet of clay with thighs of brass and head of gold. 
 He is always high, always in earnest, always careful, clean, 
 and precise, self-consistent, and full of reverence for truth, 
 for God, for man, and for himself. 
 
 Those who think such a soul and such a thinker and 
 spiritual force can pass by, can be repeated and improved 
 upon, superseded and displaced, outgrown and out-shined, 
 are dull observers of the permanent place which such rare 
 spirits hold in the uncrowded meridian, where their stars 
 shine together forever. Religious genius is God's rarest in- 
 spiration and least common gift in any transcendent form. 
 If we haunt and search the remotest antiquity to find and 
 to sit at the feet of poets, artists, sages, and hang our fresh-
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 59 
 
 est wreaths upon the spectral brows of shades whose per- 
 sonal history is unknown, when will the day come that St. 
 Augustine, Borromeo, a Kempis, Fenelon, and Guion, Bos- 
 suet, Taylor, and Butler, and Channing are to be esteemed 
 less than ever fresh fonts of Divine inspiration ? Channing 
 belongs to the Church Universal, and for all time. But he 
 had an American birthplace, near the sea that unites all, 
 and in a place that is more and more frequented and cosmo- 
 politan. It is fit that on this spot his eternal memory should 
 have its monument. Catholic, and all the more Catholic, 
 because Unitarian, he must always wear the unity of God, 
 not in its vulgar sense, but in its spiritual significance, as 
 the central jewel in his coronet of shining doctrines. He 
 suffered for his testimony to this concealed, neglected, or per- 
 verted " Simplicity of Christ," and his disciples and fellow- 
 Christians would be ungrateful to forget that they owe him 
 special devotion, and the devotion of publishing and pro- 
 claiming him, all the more because his fidelity to them cost 
 him dear, and took him out of the general ranks of Christen- 
 dom to be their conscript soldier. He was a cosmopolite, 
 but he was none the less a thorough American ; and the 
 genius of America possessed him, — the hopefulness, the 
 progressiveness, the freshness, the courage and unconven- 
 tionality of the new hemisphere. He belonged in a new 
 world, a democratic State, a country with an ample horizon. 
 He was born by the sea, he died in the mountains. He was 
 bred in the country, he lived in the city ; he passed away in 
 a place that knew him not, in the heart of the most Ameri- 
 can of American States, and on a journey. These things 
 are typical. He belonged in no one place ; and his spirit 
 and influence are national, and still on a journey. The sea 
 and the mountains claim him. Places he knew not have a 
 sacred interest in his history. I believe the nation will 
 some day, remembering his physical birth in Rhode Island,
 
 60 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 his spiritual birth in \'ir^inia, his life-work in Massachusetts, 
 his death in Vermont, his rehitions to the most sig'nihcant 
 reformation and revolution in reliji^ious life, because a thor- 
 ough reversal of base in the whole order of theology, place 
 his monument in the Capitol, as the only place central 
 enough to express his national significance. But it will not 
 be until his name and place as the greatest of American 
 prophets is fully recognized. And that will come when the 
 candid study of his works and his life shall show, with uni- 
 versal consent, that, although a generation or two in advance 
 of his time, he proclaimed and illustrated the kind of relig- 
 ion, the form of Christianity, which is alone adapted to a 
 universal spread, and destined to become a universal leaven 
 and the true Bread of Life to the American people ; and that 
 what is permanently their faith is sure at last to be the faith 
 of the whole world. So high, so wide, so deep is the claim 
 of William Ellery Channing, 
 
 After the Rev. Nathaniel Adams had pronounced the ben- 
 ediction, the audience was dismissed ; and, by invitation of 
 the committee on hospitality of the Newport parish, the vis- 
 itors from out of town went to the Aquidneck House, where 
 a bountiful collation was served. 
 
 THE OOENEK-STONE CEREMONIES. 
 
 The hour for the ceremonies of laying the corner-stone of 
 the Memorial Church quickly came, and found a crowd of 
 from fifteen hundred to two thousand persons, who had 
 gathered to see what might be seen, shivering beneath the 
 clouded sky in the chilling wind that whistled through the 
 leafless trees. The inspiration was in the occasion, and not 
 in the surroundings. There was no disposition either on 
 the part of the spectators or of the participants to prolong 
 the exercises here.
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 6 1 
 
 The services were conducted by Rev. Mr. Schermerhorn, 
 pastor of the church. He first introduced Rev. John C. 
 Kimball, of Hartford, a former pastor of the Unitarian 
 church, who offered prayer. Mr. Schermerhorn then made 
 the pleasing announcement that the minimum amount for 
 the expense of building the church, J§ 50,000, had been fully 
 subscribed, a telegram just received from the Rev. Dr. Put- 
 nam, of Brooklyn, making up the sum to that desirable 
 figure. The church could thus be proceeded with imme- 
 diately, and begin its career with no debt to hamper it. 
 Mr. Schermerhorn then read the contents of the sealed 
 box placed within the corner-stone. The articles were the 
 following : Dr. Bellows' memorial address ; Rev. C. T. 
 Brooks' poem ; a programme of the day's services ; an ac- 
 count of the first meeting of the Unitarian Society of New- 
 port, in 1835 ; a full list of the forty original corporators of 
 the church ; the Christian Register of April 3, the Newport 
 Mercury of March 13, March 27, and April 3, the Newport 
 News of April 6, and the Newport Journal of April 3 ; the 
 list of the contributors to the memorial fund, five hundred 
 and sixty-eight in number ; a set of ancient coins left by one 
 of the incorporators who died a few months since, making 
 the request that the coins be put in the corner-stone with his 
 name; a new silver dollar of year 1880, presented by Jos. J. 
 Read ; the Hartford Times, containing a sermon by Rev. 
 John C. Kimball; a copy of the Bible, presented by John 
 T. Bush ; a copy of the " Reminiscences of Channing," by 
 Miss E. P. Peabody ; a copy of the Unitarian Review for 
 April, 1880; and the Providence yijz^r;?^/ of April 7. When 
 the box had been placed in the stone, Mr. W. F. Channing, 
 of Providence, a son of the great divine, lovingly laid a 
 bunch of roses on the top. The Rev. W. H. Channing, of 
 London, a nephew of Dr. Channing, with uplifted eyes and 
 standing upon the corner-stone, said, " I pronounce this
 
 62 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 corner-stone, hrnily and squarely laid, placed on the rock of 
 ages, Christ Jesus, in the full fellowship of the Son and in 
 the blessing of God." The benediction was pronounced by 
 the Rev. R. R. Shippen, Secretary of the American Unita- 
 rian Association. 
 
 The poem written by the Rev. C. T. Brooks and the Rev. 
 
 William H. Channing's address, which, if the day had been 
 
 warm and pleasant, would have been delivered at the site of 
 
 the church, were delivered in the opera house, where a large 
 
 audience assembled at about half-past three. After singing 
 
 by the choir, Mr. Brooks read the following note from the 
 
 Rev. George Gibbs Channing, the only surviving brother of 
 
 Dr. Channing : — 
 
 Milton, Mass., April 7, 1880. 
 
 I long to be in Newport on this sacred anniversary, but my great age 
 of ninety years prevents me from being present in the body. 
 
 I send to the survivors of my early friends and fellow-townsmen, and 
 to their children, my heartfelt benedictions. 
 
 George Gibbs Channing. 
 
 Mr. Brooks then proceeded to read the following ode, writ- 
 ten by him for the occasion : — 
 
 ODE AT THE LAYING OF THE CORNER-STONE OF THE 
 MEMORIAL CHURCH. 
 
 Auspicious day ! 
 What throngs from far and near, 
 With grateful heart, on Memory's altar here. 
 
 Love's offering lay ! 
 
 Thy voiceful morn 
 Calls back long-vanished days, 
 And opens to the soul's prophetic gaze 
 
 Ages unborn. 
 
 This day shall be. 
 While years and ages run, 
 And Truth's bright torch is passed from sire to son, 
 
 A way-mark of the free.
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 63 
 
 A hundred years, 
 By thought evoked, return ; 
 And the long-buried past, from Memory's urn, 
 
 Transfigured, reappears. 
 
 With reverent feet. 
 We climb the historic hill. 
 All else how changed! — yet earth, sky, ocean, still 
 
 Our vision greet. 
 
 In these fair skies. 
 Illumined by a spirit's glow. 
 The forms of them whose relics sleep below 
 
 In glory rise. 
 
 On this green slope. 
 They, musing, stood, and to the skies. 
 In many a holy hour, upraised their eyes 
 
 In yearning hope. 
 
 On this fair hill, 
 " P'or Christ and Peace " they built in faith sublime 
 In Christ and Peace, far from the storms of time. 
 
 Their souls live still. 
 
 In heaven's pure height, 
 Those noble men, — the reverent, brave, and free, — 
 Still young for Virtue, Truth, and Liberty, 
 
 Walk in God's light. 
 
 Pure as the sky. 
 Unfettered as the wind and wave, 
 They live in Him to whom their lives they gave, — 
 
 Their King on high. 
 
 Amid that band. 
 One form, with meek yet manly mien, 
 I see, majestic and serene, 
 
 In saintly beauty stand. 
 
 To heaven's broad light. 
 His infant vision opened here. 
 And with a deeper rapture, year by year. 
 
 He hailed the radiant sight. 
 
 His eye could see, 
 In earth's and heaven's expanse. 
 His heart could ftel, in Nature's kindling glance. 
 
 The Father of the free.
 
 64 ClIAXNING CKNTENARY. 
 
 How (litl his heart rejoice, 
 " In solitude, when man is least alone," 
 To feel Christ's word attuned to unison 
 
 With Nature's voice ! 
 
 Henceforth, his thought 
 No chain of sect or school could bar or bind ; 
 Belittling creeds, before his free-born mind, 
 
 Shrank into naught. 
 
 His God was Love ; 
 His creed, the Master's footsteps to pursue ; 
 His the warm heart, — the clear-eyed vision, too, — 
 
 John's eagle and Christ's dove. 
 
 So lived and taught 
 The sainted man, — the upright, true, and free, — 
 Whom we to-day remember tenderly 
 
 With reverent thought. 
 
 And in the Trust 
 In which he lived and died — 
 In which for evermore abide 
 
 The spirits of the just — 
 
 And to the Truth 
 For which he lived and wrought. 
 And whence his heavenward-yearning spirit caught 
 . The quenchless fire of youth. 
 
 This corner-stone. 
 In Faith, Hope, Love, we lay, 
 And for Christ's peace and God's pure blessing pray 
 
 To rest thereon. 
 
 Rise, hallowed walls I 
 Look forth o'er land and sea, 
 And welcome all to Peace and Liberty 
 
 Whom Christ's free spirit calls I 
 
 From thy rock-base, 
 Laid by Almighty Power, 
 Lift high thy well-knit frame, majestic tower, 
 
 In strength and grace ! 
 
 While on thy spire 
 The morning sunbeams play. 
 And linger there the smiles of dying day 
 
 With cheerful fire,
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 65 
 
 Men's thoughts shall climb, 
 As by a heavenward-pointing finger led, 
 To that bright realm where dwell the immortal dead 
 
 In peace sublime. 
 
 There 'mid the band 
 Of blessed ones who have, through death, gone in 
 To the Lord's joy, made strong by Him to win 
 
 The immortal land, 
 
 C banning shines now 
 In glory far above all earthly fame, 
 With that ineffable and holy Name 
 
 Writ on his brow : 
 
 That name which none 
 Can read but they who, through the holy strife 
 Of truth and patient faith, a place have won 
 
 In the Lamb's Book of Life. 
 
 The reading of the ode was followed immediately by an 
 ADDKESS BY REV, WILLIAM H, CHANNING. 
 
 This morning, amid the sunrise brightening to full noon, 
 in the presence of the all-good, all-true, all-beautiful, all- 
 blessed, all-beneficent, all-perfect Father, we beheld to- 
 gether the light of life which irradiated Channing, as mir- 
 rored back in crystal splendor from our dear, beloved friend, 
 Henry W. Bellows. And now this afternoon, amid his 
 townsfolk and his fellow-countrymen, amid Christians of 
 the same communion and of all communions in the Church 
 Universal, amid a great cloud of witnesses unseen to us, 
 we have laid the corner-stone of the temple that is to be. 
 I stand here to render back a grateful tribute, in the name 
 of the family whose head the illustrious Channing was in 
 his generation, commissioned by my venerable uncle to 
 speak for him and them, as the son of the eldest son. And 
 now, dear fellow-children in the great family of God, allow 
 me to lay before you what is the significance of the corner- 
 stones of this temple. The classic ancients were wont, 
 5
 
 66 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 when they would sketch the rerfect Life, to speak of a 
 " Four-square Man," meanin<;- thereby a person in whose 
 character and life the four cardinal virtues of Temper- 
 ance, Fortitude, Wisdom, and Justice were duly balanced. 
 And the Christian Fathers reared upon these foundations 
 the four theological virtues of Faith, Hope, Charity, and 
 Holiness. Let us, too, plant on the rock of Eternal Right 
 our Four Corner-stones, and upbuild our Four Walls of 
 Channing's Living Temple. There are four corner-stones. 
 Let me name them. The name of the first is Confidence 
 in the infinite love of the heavenly Father. If there was 
 one grand central reality of which Channing was the 
 prophet and the representative, it is this assurance that 
 the Giver of all Good is the Father of all spirits throughout 
 the universe of spirits. It was in the confidence of this 
 inner relationship with the Father that he looked without 
 a cloud of fear into the sunlit presence of the Father's face, 
 assured that all the love of all earthly parents combined is 
 dim, cold, lifeless, in contrast with the infinite love of the 
 Father of all. It was in this spirit Channing lived, and 
 shed abroad the lustre of the Father's love. The second 
 stone is Filial Love, and stands for the name of the beloved 
 Son of God. If you would see the secret of Channing's 
 power, find it there. From first to last, he placed his hand 
 in the hand of the beloved Brother, of the Friend of friends, 
 of that glorified and transfigured son of man made Son of 
 God. He recognized as coming from an immortal centre 
 this life of God in Christ, which made Jesus not an excep- 
 tion to the race, but the very type of the race. The third 
 corner-stone, as the completion of these two, is the grand 
 Family of the Children of God. Channing taught not only 
 that man upon this earth is one, but that the race here 
 below is one with the race above, with the Father over all. 
 You have not read aright his doctrine, unless you see that
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 6^ 
 
 he had such a consciousness of the all-pervading and all- 
 inspiring love of the Father, that he believed the progress 
 and advance of angels in the highest hierarchy are felt by 
 the youngest child on earth. He interprets by that the 
 rights of the slave, he comes down from his place of privi- 
 lege and power to speak his grandest words to the child of 
 the hard-working mechanic. The fourth corner-stone is the 
 Beautiful Beneficence which unites the reconciled race of 
 man universal around our globe in the free-will co-opera- 
 tion of mutual service and interfluent good-will and joy. 
 
 Here are the four corner-stones. Now on them let us 
 rear the four walls of this temple, corresponding to these 
 corner-stones. And the first wall, corresponding to the love 
 of the Father, is harmonious Equity of well-ordered rela- 
 tions according to God's law throughout the universe. 
 There is the first fair wall of the temple. And, next, let me 
 ask you to look at the second wall of this temple, which 
 corresponds to the second corner-stone, the love of the child 
 for the parent. And the name of that wall is Brotherly 
 Kindness,- recognizing as of kith and kin every single 
 human being. And then the third wall, which corresponds 
 to the family on earth and the family in heaven, is Hu- 
 manity, made one in organized society. How little justice 
 has been done to the statesmanship of Channing ! He be- 
 lieved in the words lisped in the simple childish prayer, 
 "That thy will may be done on earth as it is done in 
 heaven." He believed in the possibility, he believed in the 
 certainty, of a new era of heavenly humanity. No young 
 man whom I have ever known was so enthusiastic in his 
 ideal, so poetic in his imagination, so filled full with the 
 courage of an immortal and universal hope as was William 
 Ellery Channing. Year by year of his progress, he was 
 growing deeper, higher, firmer, broader. The fourth wall is 
 just the name that was given to the last volume of sermons
 
 68 CHANMNG CENTENARY. 
 
 published from his manuscripts. It is the Perfect Life. If 
 you ever read his early writings, if you ever study what was 
 his aim from the time he entered into the ministry, you will 
 find that, as far back as the very first sermon he preached, 
 he says that Love is the law of universal order, and that the 
 end for man in life is perfect harmony by perfect love. 
 And, from that time forward, it was his end, his aim, his 
 thirst, his aspiration. Dr. Channing believed in a perfect 
 life for you and nie. With the saints of all ages, he sought 
 to know the length and breadth, and depth and height, of 
 that love of God in Christ, which passeth knowledge, that 
 he might be filled with the fulness of God. And this Per- 
 fect Life was the P"ourth Wall of his temple. 
 
 We have laid the corner-stones and reared the walls, and 
 now come ye and enter in. And there, in the front of that 
 impartial equity of God's own righteousness, is the lowly 
 porch of humility. Of all human beings whom I have ever 
 known, — and God has been rich to me in bounties in bring- 
 ing me into union with many angels in the flesh, — I have 
 never seen Channing's peer in simplicity and humility. The 
 portal through which Channing entered into the inner pres- 
 ence of the P"ather was this lowly porch through which we 
 must all enter. P'rom the time I first knew him as a little 
 child, — and I crept among his books when I was an infant, 
 — onward to the last hour when he spoke into my ear his 
 closing words, " I have received many messages from the 
 Spirit," — never once in all those years did I ever see an act, 
 did I ever hear a word, did I ever behold a look, that was 
 not according to his ideal of the perfect life. When I came 
 to study his manuscripts, tear-stained and soiled, I found his 
 own confessions before his P""ather of his shortcoming. I 
 call upon all who witnessed his daily life in the exquisite 
 sweetness of his home and in every relationship of duty in 
 which he stood to the country, was he not faultless, spot-
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 69 
 
 less, peerless ? I have known many grand spirits in my 
 own land and abroad ; but here I say it, as before the 
 angels, never yet upon the earth have I met the peer of 
 William Ellery Channing. He was humility itself. Yet 
 how grand was his dignity ! Only through his own confes- 
 sions in his own private manuscripts am I conscious that he 
 ever was touched with sin and knew struggle and warfare 
 with evil. The pavement of his temple is the co-ordinated 
 strength of mutual help in all the lowliest services of life. 
 He comprehended what is the blending of majesty and 
 mercy, and carried out in every hour of every day the law 
 of the Master : he is greatest who is most the servant of all. 
 At the end of the temple are the altars, and they are 
 three in number. The first is purity, the second is self-sac- 
 rifice, and the third the open tomb, the up-springing aspira- 
 tion toward God. And now let us crown the temple with 
 the dome, the dome of perennial inspiration, the dome of 
 the inflowing holiness of God, the dome of the Father 
 coming down to dwell in the tabernacle of the family of the 
 children of God on earth, made one with the children of 
 God in heaven. We have laid our corner-stone, we have 
 reared our walls, we have pictured the altars, we have 
 spanned the dome. Dear brethren, dear sisters, in the 
 name of my beloved uncle, accept his benediction, his God- 
 speed, and good cheer. Farewell, dear fellow-mortals on 
 earth, dear fellow-immortals in Christ : — 
 
 " Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 
 As the swift seasons roll. 
 Leave thy low-vaulted past : 
 Let each new temple, nobler than the last. 
 Lift thee toward heaven with a dome more vast ; 
 Till thou at length art free. 
 Leaving thine out-grown shell by life's unresting sea." 
 
 The afternoon exercises closed with singing and the 
 benediction, pronounced by Rev. Dr. Hosmer, of Newton.
 
 /O CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Many of the visitors from out of town returned home by 
 the afternoon trains ; but their departure produced no visi- • 
 ble effect upon the attendance at 
 
 THE EVENING MEETING, 
 
 also held at the Opera House, which was crowded by an 
 audience principally made up of citizens of Newport, many 
 of whom had been unable to attend the morning and after- 
 noon meetings. Governor Van Zandt presided, and was 
 surrounded on the platform by many men and women of 
 distinction. After devotional exercises, conducted by Revs. 
 Charles A. Humphreys and R. R. Shippen, Mr. Littlefield, 
 whose rich solos were a feature of the whole proceedings, 
 sang again the hymn "Nearer, my God, to Thee." Mr. 
 Schermerhorn then announced the receipt of letters from 
 many distinguished persons. Time would suffice only for 
 the reading of a few. Those selected and read were sent 
 by the late William Lloyd Garrison, John G. Whittier, 
 Henry W. Longfellow, E. G. Robinson, President of Brown 
 University, Bishop Clark, of Rhode Island, Bishop Hunt- 
 ington, of Syracuse, N.Y., George W. Curtis, editor of 
 Harper s Weekly, Mrs. Mary Livermore, Rev. Phillips 
 Brooks, Prof. Roswell D. Hitchcock, of the Union Theo- 
 logical Seminary, New York, Ralph Waldo Emerson, 
 Dean Stanley, and James Martineau. Among the letters 
 received and not read were those from Dr. C. A. Bartol, 
 Henry P. Kidder, Rev. Dr. J. W. Thompson, Oliver Wendell 
 Holmes, of Boston, Charles W. Eliot, President of Harvard 
 College, Rev. Thomas Hill, ex-President of Harvard, Dr. 
 A. P. Peabody, and Dr. F. H. Hedge, also of Harvard 
 College, Rev. Dr. W. H. Furness, of Philadelphia, and Prof. 
 J. L. Diman, of Brown University. 
 
 We give here in full the letters of Dr. Martineau, Bishop
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. ^1 
 
 Huntington, Bishop Clark, John G. Whittier, Rev. Dr. 
 Hitchcock, and William Lloyd Garrison : — 
 
 From JAMES MARTINEAU. 
 
 5 Gordon Street, London, W.C, March 20, 1880. 
 
 My dear Mr. Schermerkorn, — If Rhode Island were only as many 
 miles away as it is degrees of longitude, I should assuredly ask permis- 
 sion to join the Newport commemoration on the 7th of April. It would 
 be a pure joy to me to unite in the chorus of grateful reverence wliich 
 will there and then harmonize all spirits. Happily, the feeling which 
 creates this celebration transcends all local limits, and will find voice for 
 itself here as well as in Channing's land ; so that, in thinking of your 
 festival of thanksgiving, we shall feel, not as exiles from you, but as 
 brethren stirred by the same affection and bending in the same homage. 
 You ask me for a word of testimony to the influence of Channing's life 
 and writings. You could appeal to no more willing witness. I can 
 never forget my first introduction to his name. I was a school-boy of 
 sixteen when, in 1821, my master, the late Dr. Lant Carpenter, received 
 from Boston a copy of the Dudleian Lectures on the Evidences of 
 Christianity, and both read it to his pupils in private, and, after a 
 preface of enthusiastic commendation, preached it to his congregation 
 on the following Sunday. It laid a powerful hold on me, and seemed to 
 find something in me that had never been reached before. This was 
 but the beginning of an experience which was repeated and enlarged as, 
 one after another, his great sermons and essays came over and burned 
 their way into new seats of thought and affection. Nor was the impres- 
 sion due to my temporary susceptibility of youthful zeal. On the con- 
 trary, when his later writings defined his attitude toward the great social, 
 moral, and constitutional questions of the time, — slavery, freedom of 
 discussion, of association, war, temperance, sect, organization,— they 
 appeared to me so strong in their justice, so calm in their wisdom, so 
 considerate in their charity, as to lift him above the whole region of 
 prejudice, passion, and fear, and to express not less the statesman's 
 mind than the prophet's soul. And so, till he was taken home in 1842, 
 my heart followed him with ever-deepening veneration, and recognized 
 in him the commanding power of spiritual religion to harmonize the 
 intensest faculties and glorify the frailest Hfe. 
 
 But, when I would give account to others of this subduing influence, 
 it seems to evade all words. Like every form of living beauty, it can 
 be seized by no analysis ; for it is more than all its parts, and, lay them
 
 72 CHANNING CKNTENARV. 
 
 out as you will, it is not there. In truth, Channing's greatness was of 
 a kind that has nothing complex in it; that, instead of being elaborated 
 by constant additions, is rather disengaged by freeing its first element 
 from all adhesions that hide and hinder it. Its very essence lay in its 
 simplicity; and, just as all books upon the character of Christ do but 
 spoil the gospel and wipe out the image which they pretend to delineate, 
 so will the secret of Channing be better known from any page of his 
 own than from volumes of critical appreciation. One thought, possess- 
 ing his whole nature and showing to him the whole field of being, con- 
 stitutes the focus of his power ; namely, the vision of moral perfection 
 as the reality of God, the possibility for man, the standard of right, the 
 acme of beauty, the end of society, the pledge of immortality, the 
 essence and the blessedness of heaven. Every feeling in himself that 
 fell short of this he rebuked and disciplined with profound humility and 
 aspiration. Every traditional doctrine at variance with this he relent- 
 lessly cut off, and gained a purified theology. Every institution that 
 treated this with insult or despair he indignantly denounced, and so 
 became an emancipator of the body and the soul, a champion of all 
 spiritual culture, a proclaimer of the " honor due to all men." Every 
 conception of human greatness and glory that contradicted this, and 
 made an idol of dazzling ambition and unscrupulous artifice and suc- 
 cessful force, he exposed as a blind revolt against the supremacy of 
 God. This light of righteousness was to him the whole inner mean- 
 ing of the universe, bathing the heavens in eternal splendor, and ever 
 struggling to conquer the shadows of our earthly lot. He turned it as 
 his test on all that came before him for judgment. Whatever was 
 congenial with it no disguise could withhold from his love ; and all 
 that repelled it shrank from his pure and piercing look. Christianity 
 itself had its authority for him chiefly from the same source : its persua- 
 sion lay in the disinterestedness and holiness of Christ, in that life of 
 filial surrender, of gentlest compassion, of unshrinking sacrifice which 
 revealed what our nature would be under the transfiguring power of a 
 divine faith. This identification of religion with goodness, and its cog- 
 nate truth and beauty, is the real source, I take it, of Channing's influ- 
 ence on his age. His words were no echoes of old voices, no repeti- 
 tions of things learned by rote : they made no circuits through texts 
 and creeds, but spoke straight to the living though sleeping contents 
 of men's conscience and affections, asking there for no consent which 
 could not be honestly refused, and kindling a sympathy which it was 
 a joy to yield. He rebuked no sin but that which already disturbed the 
 heart's true rest ; he set up no authority which was not inwardly felt ere
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 73 
 
 it was outwardly claimed ; he offered no salvation that dispensed with 
 the free exercise of spiritual power, in surrender, if not in victory ; he 
 promised the earth no golden age of which the elements were not con- 
 sciously stirring in the human soul, and the dawn already climbing the 
 horizon with foregleams of the perfect day. To his pleadings and ap- 
 peals, every one has within him an irresistible witness and response, fur- 
 nished not by any temporary mood or accidental conviction, but by the 
 very make of his nature, the primary self-knowledge of his reason, his 
 affections, and his will. Hence, it is that his writings pass from lan- 
 guage to language, and in the transition lose nothing essential to their 
 power, and, though special and occasional in their origin, are not hin- 
 dered in their influence from becoming universal. 
 
 And for the same reason he speaks with a persuasion that cannot 
 easily be antiquated. The constancy with which, in every argument, he 
 starts from first principles of reason and right, and recurs to them at 
 each completed stage of his advance, elevates his biographical estimates, 
 his historical criticisms, and even his political papers, into philosophical 
 and ethical dignity, and will retain for them a place in literature when 
 the persons and the crises they discuss have been forgotten. At last, 
 no doubt, as the past recedes from view, and its problems vanish before 
 some new strife of thought, and the tides in the affairs of men have 
 altered the curves and shifted the landmarks on all their coasts, it will 
 become too difficult to extract the permanent from the transient in his 
 page ; and he must share the general fate which quenches the voices of 
 the dead in the acclaim that gathers around living genius. But it will 
 not be so till the truth in which and for which he lived has passed into 
 many another soul and made it an organ of the Holy Ghost. And so, 
 even if, as the centuries lapse, he should be heard of no more, his words 
 will yet not be made void, but still water the roots of future good, and 
 accomplish that whereto he sent it. 
 
 That your commemoration and ours may so quicken his Christ-like 
 spirit in us as to consecrate us anew to disinterested service in the love 
 of God is the heartfelt prayer of 
 
 Your faithful friend and brother, 
 
 James Martineau. 
 
 From Bishop HUNTINGTON. 
 
 Syracuse, N.Y., March 6, 1880. 
 
 My dear Mk. Schermerhorn, — I thank you for the kindness and 
 
 courtesy of your note of invitation. Any tribute from me to the memory
 
 74 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 or character of Dr. Cliannin<j; — amid the chorus of praises that will 
 resound at the coming celebration, made up of eloquent voices from all 
 parts of the world — can be of but small account. Indeed, we are still 
 so much in the period of his living presence and influence that it is 
 probably doubtful whether any of us know the exact and full significance 
 of the errand on which he was sent. What we do know is that he was 
 a radiant figure, of singular power, in a line of providential persons and 
 events of which the end is not yet. 
 
 For myself, having been born in a community intensely Calvinistic, 
 and having heard through all my early years a Puritan preacher, who, 
 as he was in the habit of crying audibly and visibly in the pulpit, 
 appeared to me somehow at the time to be crying because he was 
 afraid too many people would be saved, I began to read Channing's 
 and Dewey's and Martineau's writings when I was a child. Living in 
 the country, I read them often in the open air, and they are associated 
 with running streams in the woods, with apple-blossoms, with clear hill- 
 tops, and with wide spaces of earth and sky. To these thoughtful and 
 devout authors I have always felt more indebted, perhaps, for first 
 arousing the life of my mind and heart, than to any others, except the 
 inspired men of the Bible, and Sir Thomas Browne and Burke and 
 De Ouincey. It was because, like many others, I found them when 
 I seemed to need them. Parted from their guidance, afterwards, in 
 interpreting some of the great meanings of revelation and history, 
 I have never forgotten my unpaid obligation, and am glad of this 
 eminent opportunity to acknowledge it. 
 
 With high esteem, yours very cordially, 
 
 F. D. Huntington. 
 
 From Bishop CLARK. 
 
 Providence, R.I., March 26, 1880. 
 
 Reverend and dear Sir, — In reply to your polite note, inviting me 
 to attend the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of Dr. 
 Channing's birthday, will you allow me, as I cannot accept your kind 
 invitation, to express my profound admiration of this distinguished son 
 of Rhode Island? As a writer and scholar, he did very much to in- 
 spire respect for our republic abroad, at a time when the question, 
 " Who reads an American book ? " had received no satisfactory answer. 
 
 Not less eminent as a philanthropist, he never shrank from identifying 
 himself with any unpopular cause which he regarded as resting upon the 
 foundation of truth and righteousness, because of his " dislike of the
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 75 
 
 offensive objects with whicli it might be associated " ; and this is no 
 slight praise when we consider the peculiarly sensitive and conservative 
 texture of his mind. He was always bold and outspoken, without being 
 violent and extreme ; and his strength in great part lay in his quietness. 
 What his precise position as a theologian would have been, if he had 
 come upon the stage to-day, — where, on the one hand, the acerbities of 
 German doctrine have almost everywhere become so wonderfully soft- 
 ened, and, on the other, the denial of those supernatural elements in 
 Christianity and its records, which he so earnestly and devoutly recog- 
 nized, is becoming rampant, — it may be somewhat difficult to determine. 
 However this might have been, the sweet and loving spirit of the man 
 would have remained the same ; and Christians of every name all must 
 revere his memory. 
 
 It is a fitting thing that the State which is distinguished by his birth 
 should celebrate this centennial with solemn rites, and erect on these 
 shores, where in his youth he walked and meditated, an abiding memo- 
 rial in honor of his name. 
 
 Very truly and respectfully yours, Thomas M. Clark. 
 
 From JOHN G. WHITTIER. 
 
 Danvers, Mass., 3d mo. 13, 1880. 
 My dear Friend, — I scarcely need say that I yield to no one in love 
 and reverence for the great and good man whose memory — outliving all 
 the prejudices of creed, sect, and party — is the common legacy of Chris- 
 tendom. As the years go on, the value of that legacy will be more and 
 more felt, not so much, perhaps, in doctrine as in spirit, — in those utter- 
 ances of a devout soul, which are above and beyond the aiifirmation or 
 negation of dogma. His ethical serenity and Christian tenderness, his 
 hatred of wrong and oppression, with love and pity for the wrong-doer, 
 his noble pleas for self-culture, temperance, peace, and purity, and, above 
 all, his precept and example of unquestioning obedience to duty and the 
 voice of God in the soul, can never become obsolete or out-dated. It is 
 very fitting that his memory should be especially cherished with that of 
 Hopkins and Berkeley in the beautiful island to which the common resi- 
 dence of these worthies has but given additional charm and interest. 
 
 Thy friend, John G. Whittier. 
 
 From Rev. Dr. HITCHCOCK. 
 
 You are right in assuming that the reverence and affection and grati- 
 tude fell to be due the memory of Dr. Channing are sluit up within no
 
 76 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 denominational boundaries. New England may well be proud of him. 
 Even Puritan New England had much to do in the making of liim. His 
 roots went down deep into her soil, ethical and spiritual. Her words 
 of doctrine brightened his fibre. It was once my good fortune to hear 
 him in a pulpit prayer; and I shall never forget how his spirit seemed 
 to be cleaving the sky. The tones of his voice went out afar. That, I 
 should say, was about three years before his death. Not far from the 
 same time, I spent an evening with him at his house in Boston. We 
 talked of Coleridge, and the influence he was having upon the rising 
 generation of thinkers and preachers. He made on me the impression 
 of a widening horizon for himself year by year. 
 
 RoswELL D. Hitchcock. 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON'S LETTER. 
 
 BosTOX, April 5, 1877. 
 
 I cheerfully respond to the request made in your letter, by which I am 
 informed that a meeting will be held in your city on Monday evening 
 next, with reference to making arrangements for celebrating the hun- 
 dredth anniversar}' of the birth of William Ellery Channing. Such a 
 celebration will be a most fitting tribute to the memory of one whose 
 intellectual power, moral excellence, nobly catholic and widely philan- 
 thropic spirit, profound regard for truth and right, courageous disregard 
 for popular sentiment in the matter of theological dissent, and a pervad- 
 ing spirituality of thought and purpose, entitle him to rank with the fore- 
 most teachers, exemplars, and benefactors of mankind. As he never 
 sought human applause, he needs nothing of it now ; yet, having conse- 
 crated his life to all that is beautiful in humility. Godlike in aspiration, 
 uplifting in virtue, ennobling in true piety, and world-regenerating in 
 divine love, let all sectarian shibboleths be forgotten at such a commem- 
 oration as is contemplated ; and let the wise and good of every sect and 
 party improve the opportunity to show their appreciation of his worth. 
 For, in regard to doctrinal views or Scriptural interpretations conscien- 
 tiously held, no one is more orthodox or heterodox than another; and 
 there is no such thing as a heretic or heresy, on Protestant ground, any 
 more than there is of papal infallibility, seeing that the right of private 
 judgment in all matters of religious faith and practice is admitted to be 
 absolute, and that no higher or better test can be applied than this, 
 " By their fruits ye shall know them." 
 
 For his testimonies and appeals in behalf of the suffering poor and 
 workincr-classes, the millions that were groaning in bondage at the
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 'J'J 
 
 South, and for the incoming of the reign of universal peace on earth, 
 Dr. Channing deserves to be held in grateful remembrance. Especially 
 is he to be honored as the eloquent advocate of free thought, free 
 speech, free inquiry, and non-conformity where acquiescence would be 
 in violation of the understanding and conscience. And nothing could 
 be more guarded, comprehensive, or sublime than his definition of the 
 human mind. " I call that mind free," he says, " which zealously guards 
 its intellectual rights and powers; which calls no man master; which 
 does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith ; which opens 
 itself to light whensoever it may come ; which receives new truth as an 
 angel from heaven ; which, whilst consulting others, inquires still more 
 of the oracle within itself, and uses instructions from abroad, not to 
 supersede, but to quicken and exalt its own energies." . . . 
 
 Wm. Lloyd Garrison. 
 
 The reading of these letters, which was frequently inter- 
 rupted by applause, was followed by the singing of Emer- 
 son's hymn, " Here holy thought a light has shed." His 
 Excellency Governor Van Zandt was then introduced as 
 the president of the meeting, and was received with hearty 
 applause. The Governor said : — 
 
 It is pleasant for me to preside over this great assembly, 
 and I come as the chief magistrate of Rhode Island ; and 
 you, in doing honor to one of the brightest and best of the 
 sons of the State, are here to-night with fragrant forget-me- 
 nots for the cradle and with garlands of white immortelles for 
 the grave of William Ellery Channing. There is a curious 
 little book in the archives of the State at Providence, which 
 contains the original compact made by the first settlers of 
 this colony. It is written in a cramped, old-fashioned hand, 
 with references to the Books of Exodus, Chronicles, and 
 Kings, and pledges its signers, in the presence of Jehovah, 
 to incorporate themselves into a body politic with his help. 
 In a period of sharp theological distinctions and bitter secta- 
 rian controversies, the fathers of our Commonwealth, ignor-
 
 ^8 CIIANXIN(; CENTENARY. 
 
 ing all subtle technicalities then so prevalent, organized a 
 government (somewhat like the Israelitish judges), and in it 
 all systems of belief were tolerated and protected. And, as 
 Roger Williams and the fathers planted, so have we reaped. 
 There are three men after Roger Williams who have always 
 appeared to me to fitly represent the breadth and depth of 
 Rhode Island's religious toleration, — Bishop Berkeley, Dr. 
 Hopkins, and Dr. Channing. The first was the "consum- 
 mate flower" of the then conservative Established Church 
 of England. He was for a long time an attached resident 
 of this beautiful island. Dr. Hopkins was of sterner, tougher 
 stuff. It was a new country, and there was heavy work to 
 do in its young theology. Rocks were to be blasted, stumps 
 pulled up, subsoil ploughing done. He had to fight with 
 slavery, which was young and strong and black and profit- 
 able. Most of his salary came from men who made their 
 money in the slave-trade. It was not a time for rosebuds 
 and perfume. The men required strong meat ; and Dr. 
 Hopkins gave it to them, and then shook them over the pit 
 in a way to promote spiritual digestion. And, a hundred 
 years ago to-day, Channing came among men almost like an 
 angel. He was tender and pure and good ; and yet he was 
 brave and strong and positive. He, as well as Dr. Hopkins, 
 fought the black affright of slavery, — the one with the 
 battle-axe, the other with the cimeter. These three men, 
 differing in almost every essential particular, are equally the 
 glory and the love of Rhode Island ; and to-day we begin to 
 erect a beautiful memorial edifice to William Ellery Chan- 
 ning. Its outer walls will be of stone as gray as the old 
 rocks of our cliffs ; its mullioned windows will be stained 
 with the gathered glories of our sunsets ; its spire will point, 
 as he did, steadily heavenward ; its bells will ring for the wed- 
 dings and toll for the funerals of many generations yet 
 unborn ; its doors will open for worshippers of all beliefs 
 
 I
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 79 
 
 and every land. The bride will enter there with orange- 
 flowers and smiles ; and the pale, still dead will be borne in 
 and out in silence and with tears. But, beyond and above 
 and around it, will glow like an aureole the memory of the 
 saintly man who, one hundred years ago to-night, in this old 
 town, when the mist came in from the ocean at night, was a 
 little, helpless infant in his cradle. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Hosmer then gave pleasant reminiscences of 
 Channing, saying he first saw him fifty years ago in Cam- 
 bridge, heard him preach, and became acquainted with him 
 slightly. His remarks were so full of wisdom that I used 
 often to go to Boston to hear him. I remember his tones, — 
 that voice so wonderfully modulated, so full of sympathy. I 
 wonder that, amid all these grand utterances, more has not 
 been said about Channing's strength and courage. He was 
 strong to wrench himself out of a narrow creed ; and he 
 showed his courage in his attacks on the doctrinal theories, 
 wonderful for their sharpness. Let the wonderful legacy of 
 thought left us by Channing lead us onward. 
 
 Mrs. Martha Perry Lowe, of Somerville, next read the 
 following original poem : — 
 
 THE PERFECT LIFE. 
 By Mrs. Martha P. Lowe. 
 
 The Perfect Life, — his last bequest, 
 
 The gleanings of his autumn morn : 
 The latest gathering is the best, 
 
 The sweetest harvest it hath borne. 
 
 What large intent, what lofty height, 
 
 What visions warming every page 
 With fairer futures which shall right 
 
 The wrongs and sorrows of the age 1 
 
 What summits of celestial calm, 
 
 Elastic youth, and high desire; 
 What droppings of refreshing balm, 
 
 What stirrings of prophetic fire !
 
 So ClIANNING CENTKNAKY. 
 
 Uluniined pages, burn and shine, 
 
 Consuming all our dross of sin, 
 Till human work may grow divine, 
 
 And Christ's new kingdom shall begin ! 
 
 And yet his book may turn to dust ; 
 
 The printed word shall fade at length : 
 His living gospel may we trust. 
 
 His Rock of Ages be our strength. 
 
 RcUirn, immortal Seer, to find 
 
 The secret meaning of our day ; 
 Return, beloved Saint, to bind 
 
 Our hearts in wisdom's pleasant way ! 
 
 Descend, O Spirit-form serene. 
 
 And light the paths thou once hast trod ; 
 
 Show us the Master thou hast seen, 
 And lift us to the Mount of God ! 
 
 Rev, E. E. Hale humorously referred to the many people 
 who said they had got Channing's knack in everything, but 
 who, in reality, knew little or nothing of him or his ways. 
 He then delivered a glowing eulogy of Channing, and spoke 
 at some length of the advantages of the theological freedom 
 which such men as Hopkins and Berkeley and Ghanning 
 found in Rhode Island, and which was so beneficial in devel- 
 oping noble traits in their characters at a time when in 
 neighboring States their desire to extend knowledge of 
 God in their own way would have been frustrated. 
 
 In introducing Julia Ward Howe, the Governor made a 
 graceful allusion to her " Battle Hymn of the Republic," 
 which " inspired an enthusiasm worth a hundred thousand 
 men." Before reading an original poem, written for the 
 occasion, Mrs. Howe gave it as her opinion that the events 
 of the day would lay firmer the true foundations of re- 
 ligion among men. In early life, and once only, she heard 
 Channing preach, and was so impressed with his sermon 
 that she "told no lies after that, neither did she prevari- 
 cate in any way." [Applause.] 
 
 I
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEWPORT. 8l 
 
 MRS. HOWE'S POEM, 
 
 I come to-day a verse to build, 
 
 Which skill should match with arches fine, 
 A task to set the workman's guild 
 
 Whose strength shall stand for things divine. 
 
 In this fair isle, by Nature blest, 
 
 Where men for health and pleasure throng, 
 I call a spirit from its rest ; 
 
 I summon back a soul with song. 
 
 For God, who gave this genial sky, 
 
 The rapture of this mellow air, 
 Did lend in happy days gone by 
 
 A presence grand, an influence rare. 
 
 Our beauteous seasons wax and wane, 
 And bear us on to fate and death ; 
 
 But he shall bloom and bloom again 
 In every generation's breath. 
 
 Oh ! fine and brave that subtle hand 
 
 Which found the knots, so small and strong. 
 
 By which Belief and Passion band 
 To do divine and human wrong. 
 
 He caught the echo of the wail 
 
 Which once from Calvary's mountain rolled, 
 When felt the Love that cannot fail 
 
 The spite of superstition old. 
 
 His voice took up the trumpet blast 
 Which Hope's glad resurrection blew, 
 
 When out of mystic shadow passed 
 The glory that the Master knew. 
 
 O deep of heart ! O true of thought ! 
 
 The temper of thy perfect steel 
 In Heaven's high armory was wrought, 
 
 The strength of justice to reveal. 
 
 The Negro in the Southern wild 
 
 Had cause to bless thy champion name ; 
 
 The Northern freeman for his child 
 Thy gracious heritage doth claim.
 
 S2 CIlAXNINCi ci-:xii:\.\KN'. 
 
 The faitli that inakctli Woman free 
 
 For humankind to do and dare, 
 The peace that dwells with liberty, 
 
 Were in thy teaching and thy prayer. 
 
 Here the foimdation-stonc we lay 
 
 Of some fine fabric that shall rise, 
 To image to a later day 
 
 Thee, greatly good and purely wise. 
 
 Where God vouchsafes his greatest gift, — 
 
 The Prophet, crown of all desire, — 
 Let us our duteous emblem lift. 
 
 Let us endeavor and aspire. 
 
 So shall the work we strive to rear 
 
 Be crowned with blessing in our sight. 
 And, like the life we honor here. 
 
 Reflect the everlasting light. 
 
 A. Bronson Alcott paid a glowing tribute to the memory 
 of his friend, to whom he said was due the transformation 
 of religion. During an extended visit to the West, he could 
 not help witnessing the great respect which men showed 
 everywhere to the memory of Dr. Channing. After the 
 singing of Bryant's hymn, "Yet doth the star of Bethlehem 
 shed," Miss Elizabeth Peabody made a deeply interesting 
 address, and was followed with remarks by Revs. N. S. 
 Folsom and Charles F. Barnard, both of whom have very 
 vivid memories of Channing, since their lives were deeply 
 touched by his own. Mr. Barnard offered to give to the 
 new Memorial Church the valuable oil portrait of Chan- 
 nins: which was before the audience, on condition that the 
 picture of Channing's mother should be procured and 
 hung as its companion piece. As a last exercise before 
 Mr. Schermerhorn's benediction, Whittier's hymn was 
 sung: — 
 
 " Henceforth my heart shall sigh no more 
 For olden time and holier shore ; 
 God's love and blessing, then and there, 
 Are now and here and everywhere."
 
 THE BOSTON CELEBRATION. 
 
 Boston's expression of interest in Dr. Channing's cen- 
 tenary was thoroughly characteristic of that most individual 
 of American cities. No attempt was made, as in many 
 chief centres of America and Great Britain, to arouse public 
 attention by a great catholic meeting, in which men and 
 women of all sorts of religious beliefs should be invited 
 to express their appreciation of Dr. Channing and his in- 
 fluence. Possibly, the fact that many Bostonians had 
 accepted invitations to participate in the Newport celebra- 
 tion, which had been widely advertised for several months 
 beforehand, may account for the lack of general interest 
 in the special Boston meeting. More probably, the meet- 
 ing held in Arlington Street Church failed to arouse wider 
 interest, simply because no attempt was made to provide 
 for the expression of that interest. It was, in its plan, 
 exclusively a Unitarian meeting, so far as the speakers 
 were concerned ; and the congregation seemed to be chiefly 
 of the same religious complexion. 
 
 But the birthday meeting was only one of many inter- 
 esting occasions, in which Boston quietly expressed her 
 love and reverence for her great preacher of fifty years ago. 
 In all the Unitarian churches of the city and neighborhood,
 
 S4 C HA NX I NO CENTENARY. 
 
 and in some churches of other faiths, appropriate reference 
 was made to the anniversary ; and, in many of them, special 
 memorial discourses were delivered. A few of these were 
 afterward published at length, in the newspapers or in 
 pamphlet form ; while many of them were briefly commented 
 upon by the local press. An interesting union service of 
 Sunday-schools was held in the Church of the Discijoles ; 
 and at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Historical 
 Society appropriate reference was made to Dr. Channing 
 by the President, the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop. Finally, 
 the annual meeting of the American Unitarian Association, 
 May 25, was especially dev^oted to the celebration of Chan- 
 ning's memory. Full reports of a few of the more inter- 
 esting addresses delivered in Boston are here presented. 
 
 THE MEETING IN ARLINGTON STREET OHUROH. 
 
 [As reported in the Christian Register, April 17.] 
 
 On the 1st of June, 1803, William Ellery Channing, then 
 entered on his twenty-fourth year, was ordained as pastor 
 of "the Religious Society worshipping God in Federal 
 Street," which is now known as the Church in Arling- 
 ton Street. The late Mr. George Ticknor was led as a child 
 by the hand of his father to the ordination services, of which 
 he understood and remembered little, except that near the 
 close the pale and frail-looking young man, whom he 
 thought of as soon to die, arose and gave out a hymn 
 in a voice so tremulous and thrilling, and a manner so 
 devout and earnest, that even the words of one stanza 
 seized his childish attention so vividly as never to be for- 
 gotten : —
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 85 
 
 " My tongue repeats her vows, 
 
 Peace to this sacred house ! 
 For here my friends and brethren dwell ; 
 
 And since my glorious God 
 
 Makes this his blest abode, 
 My soul shall ever love thee well." 
 
 The pastoral relation then formed continued till Dr. 
 Channing's death, October 2, 1842. The site of the build- 
 ing in which he preached for nearly forty years (corner of 
 Federal and Channing Streets), like that whole section of 
 the city of Boston, is now occupied for business purposes. 
 One Sunday afternoon in the summer of 1859, ^^e old 
 church, about to be demolished, was opened for a final 
 religious service, in which thirteen ministers took part, — all, 
 or nearly all, of whom had been at some time members of 
 Dr. Channing's congregation, and had been led into the 
 ministry by his influence. Rev. J. F. W. Ware, the present 
 pastor, sees in his congregation but few of the faces which 
 used to look up to Dr. Channing forty years ago ; but the 
 society may well preserve, with affection and pride, the 
 memory of one whose name has done so much to make its 
 own annals illustrious. 
 
 A public meeting in honor of Dr. Channing's memory 
 was held on the evening of April 7, in the Arlington Street 
 Church, at which many prominent citizens and clergymen 
 were present. On the table in front of the pulpit, sur- 
 rounded with flowers and vines, stood the bust of Channing, 
 " Praise God in his hoHness " was the anthem which uplifted 
 the hearts of the people. Rev. Dr. Lothrop led in prayer, 
 and a passage was sung from Whittier's Elegy on Channing, 
 beginning, — 
 
 " Not vainly did old poets tell, 
 
 Nor vainly did old genius paint, 
 God's great and crowning miracle, 
 The hero and the saint."
 
 86 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 The leading address of tlie ev^ening" was on 
 
 CHANNING'8 PLACE IN HISTORY. 
 By Rev. James Freeman Clarke, D.D. 
 
 I regard it as an honor to be asked by my friend, the 
 pastor of this society, to speak to you this evening on this 
 hundredth birthday of Dr. Channing. It is also a happi- 
 ness. Channing was the inspiration of my youth. He gave 
 me a higher conception than I could find elsewhere of the 
 worth of the Christian ministry. He glorified and honored 
 it by his own life, and by his thoughts lifted the veil of 
 routine which had obscured the divine lineaments of Chris- 
 tianity. In maturer life, Channing stood before me as 
 master in sacred study and in practical reforms. When his 
 first work on slavery appeared, I was editing a monthly 
 magazine in Kentucky, and rejoiced in the opportunity of 
 publishing in that work copious extracts from his volume. 
 I recollect giving his " Letter to Henry Clay," on the an- 
 nexation of Texas, to a Kentucky planter, who was an 
 admirer of Channing, and opposed to slavery, though a 
 slaveholder. He had the little pamphlet interleaved, and 
 kept it in his pocket, reading it at intervals, and writing 
 his comments upon it till he had filled it with his notes, 
 and then returned it to me. It was interesting to see how 
 the mind of Channing had taken hold of this intelligent 
 Kentuckian, and sent him in a new direction of thought. 
 It was at this time that Dr. Channing, at my request, wrote 
 for the Western Messenger his letter on the Roman Catholic 
 Church. Such an act of kindness as that can only be ap- 
 preciated by those who are trying to get a hearing amid 
 uncongenial surroundings. But Dr. Channing was always 
 ready to lend the powerful aid of his great reputation and 
 commanding intelligence to any struggling or unpopular 
 cause, if he believed it, in the main, the cause of truth.
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 87 
 
 Nor can I forget how, when still a young man, I came 
 to this city, and with others formed the Church of the 
 Disciples here, Dr. Channing lent me again the aid of his 
 sympathy and counsel,- advising us as to our plans, en- 
 couraging our design, and being present at several of our 
 meetings. I therefore thankfully accept this opportunity 
 of saying a few words to-night in honor of this good and 
 great man. 
 
 W/iaf is Chafining' s place in Jiistory ? What will be the 
 nature of his influence, and what his position among the 
 prophets and teachers of mankind } This theme is too great 
 to be adequately treated at this time ; but it is so interesting 
 that a few suggestions may lead each one present to make 
 himself better acquainted with the life and thought of this 
 great man. 
 
 " A prophet .-* yea, I say unto you, and more than a 
 prophet." Every man truly great in thought, who is to 
 influence mankind widely and long, must be something 
 of a prophet. He must see so deeply and truly as to be 
 able to foresee. His insight must lead to foresight. He 
 who has any real gift of vision apprehends principles at 
 work which are to govern the future. He beholds in his 
 imagination a new heavens and a new earth. Thus the 
 seer is always a prophet. He may be a prophet in the 
 material order, like Columbus, seeing in his dreams the far- 
 off continent in the West on which no earthly eye had 
 yet fallen. Or, like the great inventors of our own day, he 
 may be haunted by unborn discoveries which are to change 
 the face of the world. In the higher sphere of religious 
 thought, the prophet foresees the dawn of new truths when 
 all is night to others. There is nothing unnatural in this 
 fore-vision. Jesus has classed it with the sagacity which 
 foretells to-morrow's weather by to-day's sunset. 
 
 Baron Bunsen has therefore correctly classed Channing
 
 88 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 among the prophets ; for, more than most men, by a pro- 
 found sight of the present he foresaw the future. The 
 nature, quality, and extent of this vision will determine 
 Channing's place in history. 
 
 Although we are all familiar with the events of Chan- 
 ning's life, yet let us briefly survey them, as this very survey 
 will be to some extent the contemplation of his great career 
 and character. 
 
 Born in Newport, April 7, 1780, grandson of William 
 Ellery, signer of the Declaration, who was a type of the 
 best New England character ; his father an eminent lawyer 
 and accomplished gentleman, his mother one of the New 
 England matrons, some of whom we may all remember, — 
 calm, strong, pure, self-possessed, with the inborn truth 
 which compels others to be true, — Channing began life 
 under the best conditions. No matter how great any man 
 may be by his convictions and his personal devotion to high 
 ends, two-thirds of his character rests on a foundation out- 
 side of himself. Character results from the three factors 
 of organization, circumstances, and free choice. Some of 
 the life of past generations is organized in each new-born 
 child, and on that basis of organization he must forever 
 stand. We seem to see, in Channing's character, an inher- 
 itance of the old Puritan conscience and the old Puritan 
 self-reliance, refined and purified by passing through the 
 men and women whose souls were enlarged by the earnest 
 thought which went before the American Revolution. 
 Channing owed much to himself : he made of himself more 
 than most men. He kept his eye steadily fixed on the 
 truths which lift the soul near to God. But he did not 
 make his own simplicity of soul, his own integrity of pur- 
 pose, his own ardent love of freedom, hatred of oppression, 
 courage to stand alone against all odds. These qualities, 
 I think, were born in him ; and he was not obliged to waste
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 89 
 
 any of his strength in cultivating them. They were his 
 birthright gifts from a noble past. What belonged to him- 
 self was that intense and concentrated singleness of purpose 
 which gave to all his natural powers their best opportunity, 
 which unfolded them to their full extent. 
 
 A part of every man's character comes from his organiza- 
 tion, another part from education, including in this term 
 that which comes from environment, from circumstances, 
 and especially from the atmosphere of thought in which we 
 live. Who can tell the mighty and irresistible influence of 
 the opinions which have passed into the very air we breathe, 
 the commonplaces of all conversation, tacitly assumed in all 
 discussion } They are taken for granted, not stated : there- 
 fore there is no opportunity to question or deny them. 
 
 The religious, moral, social, political, intellectual atmos- 
 phere which young Channing breathed was, on the whole, 
 healthy. His family were strong Federalists. Washington 
 and Jay ha'd visited his father's house. In religion, they 
 were moderately orthodox, according to that type which was 
 gradually passing into Unitarianism. The moral and social 
 sentiments with two exceptions were good, — those two 
 being occasioned by the rum manufacture and the slave- 
 trade, in both of which Newport was engaged. But perhaps 
 it was necessary for him to be brought thus near to the 
 source of such great evils, in order to react against both in 
 the cause of temperance and freedom. 
 
 Dr. Channing speaks of the Federalists with great re- 
 spect in his paper on the Union. " A purer party," he 
 says, "never existed." "Its failure," he says, "was despon- 
 dency." "It had not sufficient confidence in our free insti- 
 tutions, nor in the moral ability of the people to uphold 
 them." He goes on to draw a striking portrait of George 
 Cabot, the leader of the Federalists, and, giving him credit 
 for his high qualities of mind and heart, thinks he wanted 
 "the wisdom of hope."
 
 90 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 And as he illustrates the excellences and defects of the 
 Federalists by the character of George Cabot, so he illus- 
 trates the excellences and defects of moderate Calvinism by 
 the character of Dr. Stiles. He says that in his earliest 
 years there was no one whom he regarded with equal rever- 
 ence. Calvinism was breaking up all around him, under the 
 influence of men like Ezra Stiles and Dr. Hopkins. Of the 
 latter, Dr. Channing also speaks with great respect. He 
 mentions that when a young man he preached for Dr. Hop- 
 kins, at his own request, in his church, — the very building 
 in Newport in which at present a congregation meets, as we 
 are meeting here, to remember gratefully Channing's name 
 and services. After the young Channing had concluded the 
 service, the good old man, Dr. Hopkins, turned to him with 
 a benignant smile, saying "that theology was still imper- 
 fect," and that he hoped that he, Channing, "would live to 
 carry it to perfection." The7i, we may say with Milton, 
 
 " Old experience did attain 
 To something of prophetic strain." 
 
 It was a very happy thing for Channing to be early asso- 
 ciated with these two leaders of New England theology, 
 both of whom, while claiming to be orthodox, had broken 
 with a large part of the old orthodox creed and traditions. 
 Their example must have encouraged Channing to follow in 
 that path, and go much further. 
 
 But it was not from human environment alone that he 
 drew inspiration. Early and always, his soul was fed by the 
 influences of Nature. Miss Peabody, in her very valuable 
 monograph on Channing, just published, which admits us to 
 many details of his daily life, says that, when at Newport 
 in the summer, he seemed "to watch the growth of every 
 flower, enjoying the sunshine and air, and seeming to have 
 some secret intimations of all that passed in the skies, call- 
 ing the family out often to look at some beautiful effect of
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 9I 
 
 light or other passing loveliness of Nature." He regarded, 
 she says, "all summer-time as though it were a religious fes- 
 tival, the rites of which were the sight of natural beauty and 
 sympathy with innocent animal life." And who does not 
 remember his description in his Newport sermon of New- 
 port beach, the noble place for his study in his youth } "No 
 spot on earth," says he, "has helped to form me so much 
 as that beach. There I lifted up my voice in praise amid 
 the tempest. There, softened by beauty, I poured out my 
 thanksgiving and contrite confessions. There, in reveren- 
 tial sympathy with the mighty power around me, I became 
 conscious of power within. There, struggling thoughts and 
 emotions broke forth, moved to utterance by the eloquence 
 of the winds and waves. There began a happiness surpass- 
 ing all earthly pleasures, the happiness of communing with 
 the works of God." 
 
 In Harvard University, where he was in the same class 
 with Judge Story and Dr. Tuckerman, he describes a criti- 
 cal and dangerous condition of things. "The French Revo- 
 lution," he says, "had diseased the imagination and unsettled 
 the understanding of men. The foundations of social order, 
 loyalty, tradition, reverence, were shaken. The authority of 
 the past was gone. The tone of speech and books was pre- 
 sumptuous. The tendency of all classes was to scepticism." 
 Paine's A£;-e of Reason was read by the students very gen- 
 erally. We think that there is a great deal of doubt and 
 unbelief now in the world ; but it is probable that there is 
 more religious faith at present, by far, than when Channing 
 was in college. And, if so, we owe it in a measure to the 
 proof his writings have given that perfect freedom of 
 thought, entire confidence in the reason, and a profound 
 conviction of great spiritual realities can go harmoniously 
 together. 
 
 While in college, he passed through an intellectual expe-
 
 92 CHANNING CENTENARY. < 
 
 ricncc which gave him much of his power over the thoughts 
 of men. Two authors, Ilutcheson and Price, awakened his 
 mind, — one to the belief in disinterested goodness in God 
 and man, the other to faith in eternal ideas of truth and 
 right, seen in the depths of every soul by some inward intui- 
 tion, "a light, lighting every man who comes into the 
 world." The first of these convictions came to him as he 
 was walking, while he read, in a field on Dana's Hill. The 
 place and hour remained sacred in his memory. There he 
 passed through a new birth into a higher world of convic- 
 tion. He saw the glory of the divine goodness, a universe 
 of progress and order, and the possibility of absolute devo- 
 tion to the will of God. " I longed in that hour to die," said 
 he, "and to go where only such thoughts could have room. 
 But, when I found I must live, I determined to do some- 
 thing worthy of such thoughts." This was the result of 
 Hutcheson's Moral Philosophy. The other came from Dr. 
 Price's book. Dissertations on Matter and Spirit. "That," 
 said he, "saved me from the philosophy of Locke, and 
 taught me to believe in the Platonic philosophy of ideas." 
 It was worth while that these two books should have been 
 written, if no one except Channing had ever read them ; for 
 his whole theological influence took its bias and direction 
 from that reading. English Unitarianism and early Ameri- 
 can Unitarianism had followed Priestley's philosophy, which 
 was based on Locke's doctrine that all our knowledge con- 
 sists in transformed sensations. But Dr. Channing inaugu- 
 rated a spiritual theology, based on faith in the soul as born 
 with infinite capacities and divine adaptations, and in this 
 may be found the secret of a large part of his power as 
 a theologian. 
 
 Behold him, then, having passed through his studies, and 
 his year and a half of experience at the South, entering his 
 profession. In a letter to a friend, written at this time, he 
 
 J
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 93 
 
 says, " In my view, religion is another name for happiness ; 
 and I am most cheerful when I am most religious." 
 
 His religious life had been much quickened while in Vir- 
 ginia, though he describes the unbelief in all religion as 
 greater than it was in Massachusetts. " Christianity is here 
 breathing its last," says he. "I cannot find a friend with 
 whom to converse on religious subjects. . . . The Bible, is 
 wholly neglected. . . . Infidelity is very general among the 
 higher classes, and in fact religion is in a deplorable state." 
 
 But Schiller says, " In better natures, even poison be- 
 comes wholesome food." Surrounded by infidelity, Chan- 
 ning became a more confirmed believer in Christianity, just 
 as, surrounded by the sensational philosophy, he had be- 
 come a transcendentalist. 
 
 Returning from Virginia to Newport, after passing eigh- 
 teen months there in study, he went back to Cambridge to 
 finish his theological studies. "There was a time," said he, 
 "when I verged toward Calvinism; for illness and depres- 
 sion gave me a dark view of things. But the doctrine of 
 the Trinity held me back. I followed Doddridge through 
 his Rise and Progress till he brought me to a prayer to 
 Christ. There I stopped ; for I was never, in any sense, a 
 Trinitarian." 
 
 June I, 1803, he was ordained over the society which now 
 worships here, then in Federal Street. George Ticknor, 
 who was present as a boy at his ordination, says that he can 
 never forget the tone of Channing and the intense feeling 
 in his voice in reading a hymn. From this time till his 
 death, he pursued a course of entire consecration to all that 
 was highest and best. He became the apostle of religion, 
 freedom, humanity, progress. A few great ideas perpetually 
 inspired his teaching. Christianity, as he saw it, was sent 
 to make tJiis world full of God's love, to make men holy and 
 happy here, to redeem man from sin and misery in this life.
 
 94 CHANMNG CENTENARY. 
 
 The great power to accomplish this he believed to be faith, 
 — a strength of inspired conviction, — faith in three forms : 
 in God as an infinite tenderness, in Christ as manifesting in 
 his character perfect goodness, in man as capable of becom- 
 ing, like Christ, a child of God. But the essential condition 
 of this salvation was to him freedom, — freedom of thought 
 and action, liberty in full harmony with law. 
 
 As we read that beautiful volume of Channing's writings, 
 circulated by the Unitarian Association, we are struck by 
 the fact that all of these ideas, which were at first denied 
 and opposed, are passing into the thought and life of Chris- 
 tendom. They have been working a revolution in religious 
 thought, not the less radical because so quiet. Some move- 
 ments are like the earthquake or the tempest ; but this of 
 Channing was accomplished by the still, small voice of 
 reason. Yet what an entire change is being effected 
 throughout all denominations by this all-penetrating influ- 
 ence .■* God, so long represented as a stern judge and abso- 
 lute monarch, whose dreadful anger burns against sinners 
 until assuaged by the sufferings of his Son, is now seen as 
 the dear Father who loves the bad and good both ; loving 
 the wicked with an infinite compassion, loving the good 
 with an infinite sympathy. Pain and evil, before regarded 
 as the punishment of sin, are now seen to be divine bless- 
 ings, also sent to cure our sicknesses of heart and thought. 
 Death, long considered as the king of terrors, is now looked 
 upon as an angel of benign goodness, leading us to upper 
 worlds of rest and peace. The whole direction of practical 
 Christian teaching is reversed : instead of fear, we have 
 hope ; instead of mystery, reason ; instead of blind submis- 
 sion to irresistible force, we have willing and glad obedience 
 to what we know to be right and good. 
 
 I have heard Channing criticised as repeating himself too 
 much, as a man of few ideas. He knew better than to 
 
 <
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON, 95 
 
 scatter his fire. He concentrated it on the points where 
 a breach was to be made in the walls of ancient custom. 
 And this is to his credit ; for he was interested in a vast 
 variety of subjects, of which his different biographers fur- 
 nish us ample evidence. But his mind was intensely practi- 
 cal, no less than spiritual ; and so he kept to his point, and 
 elaborated a few all-important truths thoroughly. 
 
 These few truths were, however, fruitful in numerous 
 applications to social reforms. He delivered powerful argu- 
 ments in behalf of many an unpopular cause, helping it on 
 to its ultimate triumph. Each of his essays and discourses 
 on such topics is a perfect crystal, — compact, transparent, 
 sharply defined. Each leaves a distinct impression of unan- 
 swerable truth. Such are his writings in behalf of freedom, 
 his repeated blows at slavery, eight of which are in his col- 
 lected works. Such, also, are his admirable papers on 
 Temperance, Education, Self-culture, the Elevation of the 
 Laboring Classes, the Ministry to the Poor, Peace and War. 
 Each of these subjects is treated in an original way, with 
 breadth and freedom, with justice to opposite opinions, giv- 
 ing full weight to all facts on the other side.' Every one of 
 these reforms is in the line of human progress, all are to be 
 accomplished in the future. The opinion of civilized man 
 is slowly but certainly setting in this direction. Dr. Chan- 
 ning devoted the ripest and best years of his life to setting 
 forth the evil and sin of slavery, and declared his confident 
 belief that in some way it would come to an end. It has 
 come to an end, because the excessive demands of the slave 
 power made slavery intolerable. Channing set forth the sin 
 and evil of war. War has not ceased, but the excessive and 
 enormous armaments of Europe have made the burden al- 
 most intolerable ; and perhaps war may come to an end in 
 the same way. But Dr. Channing truly says that we can 
 have no security against international war, until we have
 
 96 CHANNTNG CENTENARY. 
 
 a Christianity in which Christian love shall overcome secta- 
 rianism and bigotry, — a Christianity which shall make man 
 everywhere the object of reverence to man. And toward 
 this conclusion all opinion tends. 
 
 If we read Dr. Channing's essay on Temperance, we shall 
 see that he considered no outward arrangements adequate 
 to cure this evil. He demands the improvement and eleva- 
 tion of the whole man, — a higher education, more sympathy 
 between different classes, the cultivation among the people 
 of a taste for beauty in nature and art, by public goodness, 
 public music, innocent amusements, in which he includes 
 some form of dancing and of the theatre. " Let us become 
 a more cheerful, and we shall become a more temperate 
 people." 
 
 But all these reforms which Channing advocated grew 
 from the root of one great conviction, his faith in the worth 
 of the human soul. The great evil which he saw in slavery, 
 war, ignorance, intemperance, was always the same, — that 
 it degraded the human soul. This view was eminently his 
 own. The sacredness of man had been forgotten by Chris- 
 tian theology 'down to the time of Channing. Christian 
 teachers had thought to exalt God by heaping contumely 
 on human nature, calling it utterly corrupt and evil. They 
 wrote this reproach in every creed. To call man's nature 
 wholly depraved was thought to be somehow an honor to 
 God and Christ. But Channing led the way by the first 
 emphatic declaration made in modern times of the dignity 
 of man in the sight of God. And already, in consequence 
 of this, we find it announced with great authority that ortho- 
 doxy, when it solemnly declared man by nature to be "ut- 
 terly corrupt and defiled in all parts and faculties of soul and 
 body," merely meant to say that his moral symmetry was 
 " disarranged." The influence of Dr. Channing's teaching 
 has been so great in this direction that the orthodox have
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 9/ 
 
 not only deserted their old belief, but now blame him for 
 having said that they e\'er held it. 
 
 What, then, will be the place of Channing in history ? 
 Doubtless that of a prophet who saw the coming of the 
 great day, when the barbarities of the old theologies should 
 pass away, when God should be known as the universal 
 Father and Friend, Christ as the human brother and high 
 example of character to all, and when, in consequence of the 
 heavenly hope of a universal redemption, all the evils of this 
 lower world should be gradually overcome. Since the days 
 of Paul, no one has so clearly seen as Channing saw the 
 approach of the time when all enemies shall be subdued by 
 the power of Christ's love and truth, and that time still 
 farther on, when all enemies having been subdued under 
 him, the Son also himself shall be subject to Him who did 
 put all things under him, that God may be all in all. 
 
 In the last address given by Channing before his death, 
 this heavenly vision of a new heavens and a new earth floated 
 before his eyes. 
 
 " I began this subject," said he, "in hope, and in hope I 
 end. . . . Mighty powers are at work in the world, and who 
 can stay them .-' A new comprehension of the Christian 
 spirit, a new reverence for humanity, a new feeling of broth- 
 erhood, and of all men's relation to the Father, — these are 
 among the signs of our times. We see it. Do we not feel 
 it .'' Before this, all oppressions are to fall. Society, silently 
 pervaded by this, is to change its aspect of universal warfare 
 for peace. The power of all-grasping selfishness is to yield 
 to this diviner energy. Oh, come, thou kingdom of heaven, 
 for which we daily pray ! Come, Friend and Saviour of the 
 race, who didst shed thy blood on the cross to reconcile man 
 to man, and earth to heaven ! Come, ye predicted ages of 
 righteousness and love, for which the faithful have so long 
 yearned ! Come, Father Almighty, and crown with thine 
 
 7
 
 98 ClIANNING CKNTENARY. 
 
 omnipotence the humble strivings of thy children to sub- 
 vert oppression and wrong, to spread light and freedom, 
 peace and joy, the truth and spirit of thy Son, through the 
 whole earth." 
 
 Amid such high hopes, the life of Channing ended below. 
 It remains for us to-day to cherish his memory, not merely 
 by commemorations, but by doing our part also to spread 
 that truth which was so dear to his heart. On this hun- 
 dredth anniversary of his birth, let us resolve to be loyal, as 
 he was loyal, to the great principles of spiritual freedom and 
 human progress. And thus shall we best remember him, 
 the moral of whose life may be best summed up in the 
 words, " His eye was single, and his whole body was full of 
 light." 
 
 ADDBESS OF REV. DE, BARTOL, 
 
 We speak of making occasions. But no newspaper arti- 
 cles, or lightnings running to and fro on the wires, none of 
 our despatches or arrangements, have made this one. It is 
 wider than this church, than this city, or than this country, 
 — even, like Channing's soul, wide as the world. It is the 
 electricity, and is in the air. Yet what home bodies and 
 home-loving spirits w^e are ! So, although his name seems 
 voiced to-day by the elements and written visibly on the 
 sky, let me come back from the broad earth, over which his 
 spirit has travelled, and down from the sky, into which, he 
 told me, out of earthly commotions he always loved to look, 
 to congratulate this church and community on their privilege 
 and advantage and honor in his nearly forty years' ministry ; 
 and let me speak here their grateful owning, before God, of 
 this one ringing and resounding name, blown so far from 
 that trumpet of fame which is an instrument no money can 
 hire, but which some angel holds fast and forever to his lips. 
 
 Channing, more than any other, more than all others of
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 99 
 
 his alike worthy comrades and compeers, is for mankind the 
 representative name of a rational and liberal faith. Be any- 
 other clerical contemporary lesser or greater than he, there 
 is something in the old orthodox doctrine of election ; and 
 Jie was chosen by Providence for our spokesman, beyond all 
 doubt. 
 
 Why and how did he become so } What made him the 
 plenipotentiary and delegate he was t And what was the 
 message he delivered, and the burden he rolled off upon all 
 the winds, to be carried so flaming and far } The special 
 errand on which he was sent by the Holy Ghost was to pro- 
 claim in the ear of the race the worth of the human soul, 
 
 " I love a prophet of the soul," 
 
 writes our Emerson ; and so he well loved him ! For, at a 
 time when human nature in the long-prevailing and night- 
 mare-brooding creeds was so despised that it had come 
 almost to despise itself, he reached forth his hand and — 
 with what a mighty lift ! — raised it from the dust. We can 
 ill conceive, so long after the thing was done, and with the 
 now everywhere modified views, what a touch of courage^ 
 and power, what a stroke of originality, what a demand from 
 the core of his being, and what a sublime inspiration of duty 
 in his breast it was ! He saw, as every thoughtful person 
 now sees, that, if the road to God in ns is blocked, every 
 road is blocked ; and no way to him, through a written reve- 
 lation, through an ecclesiastical tradition, or even through 
 that beauty of nature which is but the echo or shadow of 
 mind, is really left. He cleared the so-long-closed and 
 clogged inward track to our Author. That was his great 
 mission and achievement sublime. He told me, with much 
 tenderness, that he thought his view of the dignity of 
 human nature did not interfere with personal humility. 
 How much reason and how little pride of reason he had ! 
 Indeed, only in the attitude, aspect, and atmosphere of the
 
 lOO CITANNINC; CF.NTKNARY. 
 
 relation to Deity, which he tried to liberate and disclose, can 
 a genuine humility be born. 
 
 It is said by some, who distrust Channing's influence, that 
 his sway is declining, and his thoughts on religion now 
 dwarfed and dwindling away. But, if Unitarianism, as he in 
 such unsectarian wise preached it, is less prominent and 
 aggressive than of yore, it is not by reason of diminution, 
 but by universal absorption of its sense, as the sun and rain 
 are absorbed. It has, for sixty years, been working in the 
 theological landscape a change how beneficent and immense! 
 How the once brown, almost black region of dogma has 
 changed into green meadows indeed, and even the thorny 
 wilderness of Calvinism made to blossom as the rose ! Out 
 of that bloom should come no curse or reproach, but only 
 warm acknowledgments of gratitude to those, like Chan- 
 ning, who have wrought a difference so vast, so evident, and 
 so benign. 
 
 I know how stoutly many of the orthodox preachers of our 
 day declare that the w^hole idea of any departure from the 
 ancient symbols and standards is a slander or a mistake. 
 But, lo ! my friends, am not I a living witness of the fact to 
 which I refer ? I was born and bred in the old gloomy New 
 England belief. I hung my head, day after day, and for 
 hours at a time, in my boyhood, before a revengeful God, 
 like an iron pillar ; with hopeless prayers, a hundred times 
 repeated that /le would be merciful to me a sinner, before I 
 knew of any sin that lay at my door ! I thought him cruel 
 and hard ; and when women fainted in the hot and ill-venti- 
 lated church, and were borne out on the shoulders of men, 
 I supposed they were summoned to the dreadful judgment 
 that had just been held forth from the desk. How heavy 
 and corrupt was the religious as well as the natural air ! 
 
 I look daily out of my window at the spot in Boston where 
 Channing lived. The large elm-tree at his threshold, lofty
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. lOI 
 
 and lowly, with its massive trunk and its drooping branches, 
 as he was lofty and lowly, though with some of its limbs 
 lopped off, still overshadows his, to me, so familiar roof. 
 Does the house stand, and does the tree renew its verdure, 
 and is he gone to be extant no more ? He is present and 
 alive, at least to me. I feel moved sometimes to go and ring 
 the bell, if I might venture to ask leave of those who occupy 
 the mansion now to enter the room where he, the friend and 
 saint, sat and studied and talked. Best of listeners as the 
 eloquent man was, he also hearkened till the silence was 
 almost painful to the guest, scarce ready, though so earnestly 
 invited and entreated, to speak on the subject in hand. 
 Does the tree then survive, and has he deceased.-* I know 
 not Jiow in form and circumstance he is. But I question not 
 that he is, and is here, even as is the Master whose table is 
 spread at this shrine with the emblems of the transcendent 
 love and sacrifice. He is where he lives and works, and 
 loves and leads. Does the tree that, like all nature, was so 
 dear to his eyes, outlive himself.'' I have no such idea of 
 the longevity of a tree. I have an idea, which none has 
 done more than he to brighten and keep fresh, of the immor- 
 tality of the soul. The tree is maimed, and predicts, in 
 every limb, its own fall and destruction. He prophesied, in 
 every faculty and affection, which were more youthful and 
 vigorous in him the longer he lived, that human nature in 
 such an unfolding, however it may be evolved and trans- 
 formed angelically, can never die. The human soul, so long 
 a minor, in Channing came to its majority. That is his 
 crown. 
 
 After the benediction, many of the congregation passed 
 into the vestry, at the invitation of Mr. Ware, to take a look 
 at the old Federal Street pulpit, which is there preserved.
 
 102 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 PULPIT TRIBUTES. 
 
 DE. OHANNING A MAN OF AFPAIES. 
 
 From a Sermon preached in the South Congregational Church, April ii. 
 By Kev, EDWARD EVERETT HALE, D.D. 
 
 . . . Not attempting myself to say a word more as to the 
 measure of his moral greatness, I ask your attention to a 
 single form of his work, which has, naturally enough, been 
 neglected in the efforts to state succinctly the principle _ 
 beneath it all. The men who remember him now, forty 
 years after his death, are, of course, men who remember 
 him in the time which covers the close of his life, as an 
 invalid recluse, not often appearing in society, excepting as 
 a preacher or a lecturer appears. It is almost taken for 
 granted that he was not a man of affairs or of practice. 
 But the truth is that in his college days, as appears from the 
 places he held in the college societies and from the remem- 
 brances of his friends, he was accounted a man of business, 
 to be intrusted with practical commissions. When he left 
 college, they all supposed that he was to follow the law, — a 
 profession then, as now, exacting skill in business as well as 
 quick knowledge of men. When, at twenty-two years of 
 age, he took the charge of the Federal Street Church, he 
 
 1
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. IO3 
 
 regarded the pastoral charge, the personal intimacy not only 
 with his parishioners, but with the poor of the town, as the 
 most important part of his duty. He declined a call to 
 Brattle Street, because that congregation was larger, and he 
 doubted whether he could meet the demands made on his 
 strength. He accepted a call to Federal Street, because 
 that congregation was smaller. But this choice was, you 
 see, not because he meant to neglect these practical duties, 
 but because he did not. Had he meant to be the studious 
 recluse, appearing in public only as a speaker, which he is 
 now represented, and which, in the bud of his life, he be- 
 came, he would have chosen the larger congregation and not 
 the smaller. In point of fact, from the moment of his ordi- 
 nation, he attacked the practical duty of a man who means 
 to fight the devil on all his lines of approach, and to trample 
 out sin wherever he finds it. He rejected that fallacy which 
 supposes that a church is a private club for the mutual in- 
 surance of the members, but that they may be indifferent to 
 the needs of others. He recognized the truth that he was 
 one of twelve or fifteen ministers to the town, to whom 
 were intrusted the moral affairs of the town — even of the 
 lowest harlot and of the meanest publican — as they were 
 not intrusted to men in other duties. To the cares of 
 uplifting the moral life of the town, he addressed himself. 
 For fifteen years, as I suppose, no man in the town was 
 more active in such work, even in its details. 
 
 To understand the way in which he addressed himself 
 to it, remember what the town was. It was a little seaport 
 of some twenty-six thousand people, all told. It was not a 
 place so large as Springfield is to-day. It more resembled 
 the Gloucester of to-day. In the years which soon followed 
 his settlement, its foreign commerce, on which it largely 
 depended, was almost ruined by Jefferson's embargo, under 
 the empire of which grass grew in State Street and on Long
 
 I04 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Wharf. That was a period in its history not unlike what it 
 went through under the Boston Port Bill, when George III. 
 tried the same experiment. Probably, in those first years 
 of Channing's ministry, Boston suffered more from the pov- 
 erty of her people than she has suffered at any other period 
 in the last century. To care for the poor in such a condi- 
 tion of things, to reform criminals, particularly criminal 
 boys, to meet the dangers and difficulties which followed 
 in a state of war, were all practical matters to which Chan- 
 ning addressed himself; just as Dr. Tuckerman did after- 
 wards, or Mr. Charles Barnard, whom Channing trained to 
 such work, or as Mr. Winkley does to-day. In this time, the 
 school committee took new activity; and I think that for one 
 or two years Dr. Channing acted as the chairman. 
 
 To speak of a significant detail, we say that in the cus- 
 toms of our time church parlors and rooms for week-day 
 meetings are necessary for the practical work of a church. 
 We want a vestry building ourselves for such purposes. 
 There is a letter of Dr. Channing's, written in 1817, to the 
 standing committee of his church, where he proposes such 
 a building, and shows how it was to be used. He gives six 
 uses to which it would be applied. Among other things, it 
 was to have a church library, and he was to be the librarian ; 
 so that, giving out the books and receiving them, he could 
 become better acquainted with the young people personally, 
 and direct or advise their reading and their lives. That is 
 no plan of a recluse orator. 
 
 To take another instance, which shows his habit even 
 later. We think there is nothing more characteristic of our 
 time than the modern review, in which the gravest theology 
 is discussed in articles side by side with the latest literature 
 or the most critical discovery. But such is exactly the plan 
 of the Christian Examiner, formed at a meeting called in 
 Dr. Channing's study by himself. His name heads the list
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. IO5 
 
 of members of the association formed to carry it on, followed 
 immediately by that of Prof. John Farrar, the physicist, and 
 that of Andrews Norton, the critic. It is not in the least a 
 company of divines. There are merchants, engineers, physi- 
 cians, in the society. Among early subjects prepared are: 
 "Our National Union," to be discussed by Dr. Channing ; 
 "Lyceums," then in their infancy, by Dr. Dewey; "Rail- 
 roads," to be treated by my father ; and " Catholic Emanci- 
 pation," by James T. Austin. The two subjects taken by 
 Dr. Channing in early numbers were " American Litera- 
 ture " and the "American Union." 
 
 I think it would be found that the first copies of the 
 European treatises on practical education, on the reform 
 of schools, poorhouses, and prisons, received in America, 
 were the copies received by Dr. Channing from his corre- 
 spondents in Europe. The interest which he took in Fell- 
 enberg's school at Hofwyl, in the Baron Degerando's publi- 
 cations on social science, resulted in the wide extension of 
 the knowledge of these men in this country ; and I suppose 
 we should iind that the speculations of Fourier and of 
 Robert Owen were carefully studied by Channing and his 
 friends before they were studied in any other part of 
 America. 
 
 As I have said, I suppose that in the first fifteen years of 
 his ministry he was as largely engaged in the practical move- 
 ment of the town in which a young man would gladly take a 
 share as any man in it. I think it was in 1814 that he was 
 engaged actively in the school committee, in a movement for 
 the regulation of the Latin School. By that time, the popu- 
 lation of the little town had increased to thirty-five thousand. 
 We find it difficult to imagine such a Boston, — a town of gar- 
 dens and orchards, a town of which it is said, with some pride, 
 that there were in 181 1 nine brick blocks of buildings and 
 one of stone, a town suffering severely under the pressure
 
 I06 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 of the war and the events which led to it. But I believe no 
 adequate estimate of the habit of Channing's work will be 
 made, unless we bear in mind what that town was and what 
 its aspirations were. Those people were not many, but they 
 were proud. The same spirit which defied George III. 
 was in them ; and I hope it may always be in them. They 
 were used to seeing in the old books and on the old maps 
 that Boston was the " metropolis of America," and they 
 meant it should be. They laid out their public institutions 
 on a scale not for a little provincial fishing-town, but for 
 a metropolis, indeed. Remember their numbers, and think 
 what it was to build the Massachusetts Hospital, to establish 
 on a generous scale the American Academy and the Histor- 
 ical Society, the Charitable Mechanic Association, the Bos- 
 ton Library, and the Athenaeum, the asylums for orphan 
 boys and orphan girls, to develop the public schools by the 
 addition of the high schools, which are a pure Boston inven- 
 tion, to raise the college from an "academy" to a university, 
 and to erect and organize the new houses of industry and 
 reformation and like institutions. Imagine any town you 
 know of those numbers, even with the much larger wealth 
 of to-day, undertaking such enterprises in the course of 
 fifteen years. They had a genius for public spirit : they 
 liked to turn their thought that way, and to spend their 
 money that way. 
 
 In such a community of whom every leader was in his 
 way an idealist, such men as Channing and Murray — ideal- 
 ists eager to see the world made over — found their fit wel- 
 come. The old phrase that Boston was the " paradise of 
 ministers " was not a mere joke. Such men were able to 
 try their practical experiments here as Calvin tried his in 
 Geneva, under circumstances not dissimilar. I wish I might 
 dwell, in some detail, on the results. Without trying to do 
 that, I will say that the work of the group of men who
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 10/ 
 
 surrounded Channing in those years frequently shows au- 
 dacity such as I remember nowhere else in men's conflict 
 with the errors and vices of society. You can compare it 
 with nothing but Prescott's audacity in throwing up his 
 redoubt on the hill yonder within the range of the English 
 guns. The Church, in its various enterprises of reform, as 
 those men speak of them, proposes, not simply to reduce 
 the amount of vice and pauperism, but to trample out those 
 diseases. Just as three years ago, by vigorous measures, 
 your Board of Health reduced the deaths by small- pox here 
 from hundreds to one solitary case, where a poor stranger 
 died, so these men expected to reduce pauperism to be the 
 accident of exile. When Dr. Channing and his friends es- 
 tablished their society for this purpose, they did not call it 
 a society for the " Relief of Pauperism " or the "Diminution 
 of Pauperism" : they called it a society for the " Prevention 
 of Pauperism." When they established the " Ministry at 
 Large," they meant that every man, woman, and child in 
 Boston should be sure of the counsel and help of a sympa- 
 thizing Christian friend. And that illustration shows their 
 habit all along. You will find in their speeches, in their 
 reports, in their private letters, that they really mean to 
 make this little town to be a "city of God," in which the 
 vices and the crimes which have stained city life in other 
 countries shall be unknown. Well, there has been no lack 
 of such enthusiasts in other places ; but the peculiarity here 
 was that for a long term of years these enthusiasts virtually 
 led the town in their plans. The rich men and its political 
 leaders were as much interested in such schemes as they 
 were. They supplied the means, they brought out the detail, 
 and they gave their personal supervision in that happy exer- 
 cise of public spirit which shows itself in like work at this 
 day. So soon as an evil was observed in social order, the 
 measures prepared were measures large enough to meet it
 
 I08 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 in full. Were there orphans, the orphan asylums were made 
 large enough for them all. Were there children, the schools 
 were made large enough for all. The Massachusetts Hos- 
 pital was to be built large enough for all who needed it in 
 Massachusetts and in the province of Maine. Nobody seems 
 to have thought of leaving this or that detail to this or that 
 side direction. If they acted at all, they acted for the whole. 
 You see they were bound to such a course, in mere decency 
 or consistency. "Perfectibility of human nature," — who 
 had a right to talk of perfectibility of human nature, when 
 boys and girls, men and women, were sent every day to the 
 House of Correction not perfected .-' Every word that they 
 said of the divinity of man and of his oneness with God 
 compelled them to show that the meanest could be lifted up 
 so that they could stand, and that this ideal gospel of glad 
 tidings should be proclaimed to all who were in need, not by 
 the voice only, but in the practical efforts of human love. 
 
 It is the feeling that they can try their experiments of 
 reform at once, in their own town and State, which gives a 
 definiteness to those statements which such schemes are apt 
 to lack. Indeed, when John Lowell or Colonel Perkins or 
 Charles Jackson or Jonathan Phillips or Josiah Ouincy drew 
 up a scheme or made a statement, there was no more reason 
 why it should lack definiteness than if it had been a State 
 paper or an account of trust. The action and reaction be- 
 tween the thinkers and the actors in such a community has 
 a very great interest, and it should not be forgotten in read- 
 ing the expression which the time made in literature. "We 
 governed the Commonwealth," said one of the youngest of 
 those men to me thirty years ago, " and they let us govern 
 it because we governed it so well." 
 
 I need not say that this set of conditions has been largely 
 changed. It was changed to the very foundation by the 
 settlement in Boston of a population wholly outnumbering
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. IO9 
 
 the natives, — a population of alien descent, of alien tradi- 
 tions, and an alien religion, — jealous of interference from 
 those it found here, and resenting the moral influences 
 which, in the days of a homogeneous race, could be extended 
 alike over each and all. I know that if Dr. Channing were 
 living here now he would still speak of the "divinity of 
 human nature" and the "possible perfection of human 
 society." But he would speak of each in different phrases 
 from what he did use, and he would not speak with that 
 certainty of speedy abolishment of this evil or that evil 
 which you find once and again in his letters and addresses. 
 In his early days, this whole town was opened to the 
 appeals, nay, welcomed the advice and help, of those moral 
 leaders to which, by tradition and history, was intrusted the 
 guidance of this town. In our days, three-fifths of the people 
 distrust those appeals, and, so far as they look anywhere for 
 moral guidance, find it in the directions of the servants of a 
 foreign prince, themselves unused to our civilization, igno- 
 rant of its history, and indifferent as to its plan. It is in 
 such a change that a certain chill comes over us who read 
 the prophecies of the idealists, as they made them sixty 
 years ago. If we think they spoke too hopefully, it is 
 because we are living in other conditions, wholly changed 
 from those which were around them. 
 
 Let us of to-day, however, not be paralyzed nor discour- 
 aged. When we find the real secret of the power of Chan- 
 ning, we find it not in the conditions of his life, not in the 
 methods of his intellectual process, not in such superficial 
 accidents as the sweetness of his voice or the correctness of 
 his style or the books that he read or the philosophy which 
 he devised. The secret is the open secret of nearness to 
 God — "Nearer, my God, to thee!" This was the struggle 
 of those days of his early manhood, to read which is to read 
 the agonies of a Greek tragedy, — to seek God, to find God.
 
 no CnAWlNG CENTENARY. 
 
 This is the success of his life, and then to do his Father's 
 work, whatever that work might be. Did God choose to 
 have a school system amended, " Here am I : send me." 
 Or did God choose that a house of industry should be organ- 
 ized, " Here am I : send me." Or is it that a hundred 
 idols, reared in dark ages of theology, shall be insulted and 
 hurled from their pedestals, " Here am I : send me." Or 
 is it that the absolute statement of right shall be made in 
 the matter of human slavery, " Here am I : send me." 
 Brethren, we do not want to look on all this as if it were a 
 thing of the past. We do not want to talk of this prophet 
 as we might talk of Orpheus or of Amos, prophets to other 
 ages, whose work is now a curiosity of history. It is a 
 prophet of our own time whom we consider. It is for the 
 work of our own future that we consider him. We will look 
 forward and not back. Looking forwa,rd, it is that I beg 
 you, young men and young women who are of this genera- 
 tion now stepping upon the scene, to work in the spirit in 
 which your fathers worked. Make large plans, nor be satis- 
 fied with small. Look square in the face the whole duty, 
 and trust in the infinite Ally. The ignorance of those 
 around you, — their intemperance, their selfishness, their 
 dirt, their disease, their sin, these are great evils, very 
 great ; but the precise business for which you are sent into 
 the world — children of God, God's sons and daughters — is 
 that you shall meet great evils and tread them down. It is 
 not to a small work that a "prince of the blood royal" is 
 commissioned. It is not to a small work that he conde- 
 scends. In all this noble eulogium to a great leader of men, 
 there is no blessing, there is no good, unless you who are 
 of to-day and of to-morrow are willing to take larger work 
 upon your shoulders, as God has given to you a larger field 
 and larger power, — that so his kingdom may come and his 
 will may be done on earth as it is in heaven.
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. Ill 
 
 OHANNING UNITAEIANISM. 
 
 From a Sermon preached in the Church of the Unity, April 4. 
 By Rev. MINOT J, SAVAGE, 
 
 . . . So, in these modern days, there has sprung up, it seems 
 to me, this growth of sentimental admiration for Channing, 
 going along with an utter misconception of his real spirit and 
 life ; so that the men who claim to be governed by his prin- 
 ciples, and assume to themselves the honor of his name, are 
 the very ones who never think, to-day, of saying and doing 
 the things, the like of which Channing said and did in his 
 own time. There has come to be talk of the " Channing 
 school " of Unitarianism. There are those who claim to 
 represent what they think to be the Unitarian ideal which 
 Channing represented and outlined ; those who deprecate 
 the advocacy of any doctrines not to be found in Channing's 
 works, or in their interpretation of his works ; those who 
 would not go one step further than Channing went in his 
 own lifetime. Channing Unitarianism has been used in 
 these later years to stop the mouths of earnest, strong- 
 thinking young men, has been used as a chain to bind their 
 freedom, has been used as though it were the watchword of 
 a petty little sect created to perpetuate the peculiar ideas 
 that Channing is supposed to have held. Men and women 
 say, " I can't bear such radical preaching," or " I can't abide 
 science in the pulpit," or "I wish people knew when to 
 stop," for — "I'm a Channing Unitarian.-" I wish, then, 
 this morning to raise the question as to what Channing 
 Unitarianism means, what it has been in the past, and what 
 we may regard as its probable outlook in the future. 
 
 Channing Unitarianism, in the sense in which those 
 words are used, implies three things which I wish just to 
 refer to. It implies in the first place the creation of a little
 
 I [2 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Unitarian sect. Of cour.sc, it means nothing, unless that 
 there arc certain churches and certain people that are 
 " Channing " in their doctrines, in distinction from other 
 people and other churches which are not. It means, fur- 
 ther, the establishment of a creed. It makes no difference 
 that the creed is not written or printed, because, if one is 
 to be a Channing Unitarian in distinction from any other 
 kind, it must be by holding certain beliefs which Channing 
 is supposed to have held and advocated ; and these, of 
 course, will constitute a creed. It implies still one more 
 thing ; and that is the supposition that Channing believed 
 that there had been a completed revelation of divine truth 
 from which this finished and perfected creed could be 
 drawn. Now, I wish not to weary you; but I must read 
 a few extracts that I have culled from Channing's works, 
 to illustrate the positions which he really held on these 
 points. Here is something that he says concerning sectari- 
 anism : — 
 
 A sect skilfully organized, trained to utter one cry, combined to cover 
 with reproach whoever may differ from themselves, to drown the free 
 expression of opinion by denunciations of heresy, — such a sect is as 
 perilous and palsying to the intellect as the Inquisition. 
 
 And, of his own position in regard to sectarianism, he 
 says : — 
 
 I have no anxiety to wear the livery of any party. I indeed take 
 cheerfully the name of a Unitarian, because unwearied efforts are used 
 to raise against it a popular cry. Were the name more honored, I 
 should be glad to throw it off; for I fear the shackles which a party 
 connection imposes. I desire to escape the narrow walls of a particular 
 church, hearing with my own ears and following Truth meekly but reso- 
 lutely, however arduous or solitary be the path in which she leads. 
 
 Again : — 
 
 Christian truth is infinite. Who can think of shutting it up in a few 
 lines of an abstract creed ? Christianity is freer, more illimitable than
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. II3 
 
 the light or the winds. From the infinity of Christian truth of which 
 I have spoken, it follows that our views of it must always be very imper- 
 fect, and ought to be continually enlarged. Every new gleam of light 
 should be welcomed with joy. Better for the minister to preach in barns 
 or the open air, where he may speak the truth from the fulness of his 
 soul, than to lift up in cathedrals, amidst pomp and wealth, a voice which 
 is not true to his inward thoughts. 
 
 And in his address in dedicating Divinity Hall at Cam- 
 bridge : — 
 
 To train the student to power of thought and utterance, let him be 
 left, and, still more encouraged, to free investigation. . . . Teach the 
 young man . . . that he has a divine intellect for which he is to answer 
 to God, and that to surrender it to another is to cast the crown from his 
 head and to yield up his noblest birthright. . . . Guard him against 
 tampering with his own mind, against silencing its whispers and objec- 
 tions that he may enjoy a favorite opinion undisturbed. Do not give 
 him the shadow for the substance of freedom by telling him to inquire, 
 but prescribing to him the convictions at which he must stop. Better 
 show him honestly his chains than mock the slave with the show of 
 liberty. 
 
 We must never forget that free rational thought is the greatest gift of 
 God. 
 
 To free inquiry then [still from the address in dedicating Divinity 
 Hall], to free inquiry then, we dedicate these walls. We invite into 
 them the ingenuous young man, who prizes liberty of mind more than 
 aught within the gift of sects or of the world. Let heaven's free air 
 circulate, and heaven's unobstructed light shine here ; and let those who 
 shall be sent hence go forth, not to echo with servility a creed imposed 
 on their weakness, but to utter, in their own manly tones, what their own 
 free investigation and deep conviction urge them to preach as the truth 
 of God. 
 
 And once more : — 
 
 I must choose to receive the truth, no matter how it bears upon my- 
 self, must follow it, no matter where it leads, from what party it severs 
 me, or to what party it allies. 
 
 And then again, for the consideration of those who think
 
 114 CHANNING CKNTENARY. 
 
 that Channing himself thought that he had attained ultimate 
 truth : — 
 
 I apprehend there is but one way of putting an end to our present 
 dissensions ; and that is not the triumph of any existing system over all 
 others, but the acquisition of something better than the best we now 
 have. 
 
 And his definition of freedom : — 
 
 I call that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and 
 powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with 
 a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whencesoever it 
 may come, which receives new truth as an angel from heaven. 
 
 Towards the last of his life, when he had almost retired 
 from the ministry, he wrote : — 
 
 As I grow older, I grieve more and more at the impositions on the 
 human mind ; at the machinery by which the few keep down the many. 
 I distrust sectarian influences more and more. I am more detached 
 from a denomination, and strive to feel more my connection with the 
 universal Church, 
 
 Which he defines as "all good and holy men." 
 I must read you one more passage. James Martineau, of 
 London, a few years ago, during the last of Channing's life, 
 was regarded as dangerously radical by his friends ; and 
 Channing writes to him : — 
 
 Old Unitarianism must vmdergo important modifications or develop- 
 ment. It began as a protest against the rejection of reason, against 
 mental slavery. It pledged itself — [To what.'' To the creation of a 
 little sect called Channing Unitarianism?] — it pledged itself to progress 
 as its life and end ; but it has gradually grown stationary, and now we 
 have a Unitaj'ian Orthodoxy. 
 
 That is Channing's own utterance. And it is well known, 
 to those who are familiar with the history of that time, how 
 Channing was one of the few men that held out his hand in 
 sympathy to the young, impulsive, and outlawed Theodore 
 Parker. And one of the famous sayings of his life, which
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. II5 
 
 rings out in tones worthy of the war-cry of an immortal, was, 
 " Always young for liberty ! " 
 
 I had in mind some other passages that I had thought to 
 read to you, illustrating and emphasizing these same points ; 
 but I must pass them over, for lack of time. Now let us for 
 a moment glance at the outline of his life, to see how this 
 Ipears upon the question as to where he really stood as a 
 theologian. 
 
 When he became a young man and first began to preach, 
 Channing stood very near what we should call liberal Ortho- 
 doxy to-day. He progressed from that to Arianism : that is, 
 — to give you its definition in a word, — the doctrine taught 
 by Arius concerning the person of Christ : that Jesus was 
 a supernatural being, but not equal to God ; that he had 
 lived in a pre-existent state, and had come into this world 
 with a special mission from the Father to save and lift up 
 the human race. He went on from this to his old age, 
 and broadened more and more, until at the last, as the Rev. 
 Mr. Brooks, his biographer, tells us, he was a broad-hearted 
 humanitarian. His nephew, W. H. Channing, of London, 
 the one who has written his biography, tells us the same. 
 And last fall I had the privilege of conversing with Dr. 
 Channing's son, who is now residing in Providence; and I 
 asked him the plain question, " What did your father believe 
 at the last .' What was his theological attitude.''" And he 
 told me that he broadened more and more to the last day 
 of his life, and died a simple humanitarian. This does not 
 deny that he held this special belief or that, but rather 
 refers to his spirit and sympathy. And it is a little signifi- 
 cant, as showing at least the influences that were around 
 these boys, to see that both Dr. Channing's son and the son 
 of Dr. Gannett, his long-time colleague, are utterly free and 
 universal to-day, in their theological views.
 
 Il6 CHANNINfi CKNII'.NAKA' 
 
 And Dr. Bellows has said 
 
 If anything would move Channing's spirit to indignation in his heav- 
 enly state, and make his bones stir in their resting-place, it would be the 
 knowledge that his name was used as a block to the progress of religious 
 thought. 
 
 And Mr. E. P. Whipple calls him "the father of Theodore 
 Parker, and the grandfather of O. B. Frothingham.'' 
 
 My purpose so far is not to espouse this side or that, but 
 to give you, as far as I can, a reflection of the inner life and 
 essential principles of Channing. Now, then, let us raise 
 the question, What is Channing Unitarianism ? What must 
 we mean by it ? Why, if you just transcribe Channing's life 
 at the first, you can get Orthodoxy ; touch it a little later, 
 and you get Arianism ; touch it a little later, and you get 
 what is called Conservative Unitarianism ; touch it at the 
 last, find Channing's life as it gradually faded out of human- 
 ity and became one with the Divine, and you find him a free 
 and broad and simple humanitarian. And, if we govern our- 
 selves by this one idea, if we take as Channing Unitarianism 
 not simply what he said at any particular time, not simply 
 what he did at any particular period of his career, but the 
 essential underlying ideas of his life, what shall we find 
 Channing Unitarianism to be ? What were his fundamental 
 principles ? They were three, and they were very simple, 
 very broad : they were nothing narrower than those of uni- 
 versal religion. The first was an undying faith in God, — 
 trust in the integrity, the goodness of the universe. The 
 next was an undying belief in the possibilities of human 
 nature, — faith in man and what man might become. Third 
 and last was a pure, simple, free-thinking, reverent ration- 
 alism, as his one universal life-long method, — the method 
 which he applies to all subjects in his search for truth. 
 Faith in God, faith in man and reason, — these are the three 
 central, underlying, formative, life-giving principles of Will-
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 11/ 
 
 iam Ellery Channing. They manifested themselves, of 
 course, in the formal doctrines of the time. If a person 
 chooses to say, " I cannot listen to any talk of modern sci- 
 ence, or about evolution or Darwin, because Channing did 
 not say anything about these things," why, of course, any 
 one on a moment's reflection will see that this is simple 
 absurdity, for the very good and sufficient reason that these 
 subjects were not prominent in Channing's time. To look 
 for these in Channing would be like searching Shakespeare 
 for some reference to the telephone. The thing we are to 
 do, then, is to find out the principles that moulded and 
 shaped Channing's life, and by so doing we shall find in the 
 true sense the meaning of the term Channing Unitarianism. 
 We must not, parrot-like, repeat his words or, ape-like, imi- 
 tate his deeds, but ask ourselves the question. What would 
 Channing think, what would Channing do, how would he 
 act, and how would he deal with the living questions of 
 to-day ? This is Channing Unitarianism. 
 
 Let us take an illustration. There are two ways in which 
 you can claim to represent Lord Bacon, to be an exponent 
 and adherent of the Baconian philosophy. One is to devote 
 yourself to celebrating the achievements of Bacon himself, 
 reiterating his language and practising that which he did ; 
 another is, to accept his method, which is really the great 
 thing which he has added to the history of the civilized 
 world, and carry that out into the infinitude of modern life, 
 and let it develop as many grand and noble things as pos- 
 sible. How will you best honor the man who first invented 
 the boat and navigated the sea, — simply, by keeping on all 
 your life constructing the simplest and clumsiest kind of 
 dug-outs like that which he invented, or by building the 
 finest A I clipper or steamship that you can, that which 
 really carries out the work which he undertook to do ? It 
 was not simply the building of the dug-out that he devoted 
 himself to, it was the principle of navigating the seas ; and
 
 llS CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 the man who carries out this work into its finest and truest 
 development is the one who is the truest representative of 
 his spirit. Suppose a man should propose to celebrate and 
 honor Watt and Stephenson, and in doing that should take 
 no account of any improvement of the steam-engine that has 
 been invented since their times, regarding them as question- 
 able novelties : would that be the true way to honor the men ? 
 Rather would it not be the greatest honor to recognize the 
 principle of their magnificent invention, and rejoice in all 
 its widest unfolding and the highest point of development to 
 which it can be carried ? And so the truest representative 
 of Channing is not the man who repeats Channing's words, 
 not the man who tries to keep the world from turning 
 around any longer, but to hold it simply in the position 
 where it was when Channing died, but the man who is fired 
 in his heart by Channing's spirit, a man who has Channing's 
 love for and faith in man, Channing's trust in God and the 
 universe, Channing's fearlessness in defence of truth, Chan- 
 ning's devotion to the lifting-up of men, to the development 
 of everything that shall go to make the world finer and 
 sweeter and better, and who can say with Channing that he 
 welcomes every new ray of light that comes into the world, 
 who dares to follow truth wherever it leads him, from what- 
 ever party it severs, or to whatever party it allies. The man 
 who feels that truth is safe and that all truth is a manifesta- 
 tion of God, he is the true follower and representative of 
 Channing in this hundredth year after his birth. 
 
 DR. OHANnNG THE IDEAL AMERICAN. 
 
 On Thursday, April 8, the Rev. William H. Channing, of 
 London, spoke to a large congregation in the South Con- 
 gregational Church on " Channing as the Ideal American."
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON, 1 19 
 
 The yonnial of the next day contained the following report 
 of that discourse: — 
 
 Mr. Channing read, as the basis of his discourse, a portion 
 of the third chapter of Paul's Second Epistle to the Corin- 
 thians. He spoke first of the pleasure that he had derived 
 from his return to Boston, the place in which he was born 
 and brought up ; and next of the men of this country who 
 have been eminent or who are now eminent as jurists, scien- 
 tists, authors, artists, merchants, and reformers. In the 
 list of reformers, he placed as leaders Jonathan Edwards, 
 Charles Chauncy, and William Ellery Channing, — the last 
 of whom he characterized as a dear son of God. He con- 
 tinued : I wish to speak to you of that man as the ideal 
 American. If ever a person had a peculiar privilege in his 
 birthplace, it was Channing ; for he was Dorn in the land 
 of Roger Williams, who was the real author of the life of 
 Rhode Island. It was under the influences of that life that 
 Channing was reared and trained. Then he had the advan- 
 tage of going to Virginia, and being face to face with the 
 very best type of Southern statesmen. And then, to crown 
 and complete the circle of these influences, in his early 
 manhood his lot was cast in Boston. What is the central 
 idea, the quickening principle, of all our institutions .'' You 
 know that magnificent saying of his, that all men are of one 
 family. But do you know what is the inner significance of 
 it .'' It is this : every child of God is a prince or princess of 
 the blood royal. Channing taught thus that everything of 
 kingliness and queenliness was in human nature, in humanity 
 developed after the image of God. To whom were given 
 those grand lectures of his on " Self -culture " and the " Labor- 
 ing Classes " .'' The grandest statement made in them is 
 where Channing expresses to the young apprentices of the 
 Mechanics' Library that he feels it a greater honor to speak 
 to them of their possibilities than if he were summoned to
 
 120 CIIANNMNG CENTKNARV. 
 
 d Oliver an address before the assembled courts of Europe 
 Now, see what was the next principle, following directly 
 from this. It is that we are peers together in our Father's 
 home, that we are all children of God in this great family 
 of God. He had a conception of a universally cultivated 
 people, in which genius should be as prodigal as flowers in 
 midsummer. And here is one grand word of his, still a 
 word of prophesying: " Laboring men and laboring women," 
 said he, "demand of our statesmen that the public lands of 
 this nation, which are our common heritage, be consecrated 
 to universal education." 
 
 Well now, once more, look into that sermon of his upon 
 spiritual freedom. When the sermon was delivered, the 
 Governor came to hear it ; the citizen soldiery was there ; 
 the Old South was crowded to its roof-tree. Read again 
 that sermon. Teach your boys that passage in which he 
 describes what spiritual freedom is. It should be written in 
 lines of light upon the walls of all the public schools. But 
 there came something more, and it is yet to be considered, 
 for we have sadly forgotten it. What we call political power 
 is not a right : it is a privilege to which we have no claim ; 
 it is a free gift of God ; it is a free gift of humanity. 
 We claim the right of suffrage. Channing's doctrine was 
 directly opposite : it is the duty of suffrage ; it is how far is 
 your conscience enlightened to know justice, — how far is 
 your reason illuminated to know the truth ? You claim the 
 right to stand here.'' Prove it! His doctrine was never 
 that of promiscuous suffrage : he would have men go to 
 the polls as they would go to an act of worship, as if they 
 were doing an act seen in the courts on high, as if it were 
 being measured there by those scales of infinite equity. 
 We need a thorough regeneration in this matter. An entire 
 new era is to come, and when that era comes we may 
 exclude the harmless and the insane, but we shall exclude
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 121 
 
 men who are drunk until they regain their reason : we shall 
 shut out the man who dares offer a bribe to his fellow; we 
 shall welcome our mothers, our sisters, our wives, and our 
 daughters. Then for the first time shall we be a free and 
 united people. It is time that doctrine were widely taught 
 in the name of God and of Christ. It was this sublime idea 
 of mankind and womankind, of chivalric heroism, that was 
 the very inspiration of Channing's life. He never uttered 
 a word of apprehension for this republic. He foresaw all 
 its troubles, but never for one single instant did he despair 
 of it. I challenge any critic to find in his writings any 
 word of distrust. Channing's conviction was clear as sun- 
 shine that there was but one method by which our republic 
 could realize this sublime ideal that had been handed down 
 by Puritan ancestors, that had been washed by the tears of 
 despairing nations, that had been cleansed in the blood of 
 martyrs who had died in vain across the seas, and that he 
 that was the greatest of all should be the minister of all, that 
 there should be perfect equality in all things. He ^aid 
 again and again that there should not be in this republic one 
 single pauper, one single criminal, one single untaught and 
 unrefined child. It is a general government ; it is a uni- 
 versal government : the birthright is for all ; it is we who 
 are guilty of pauperism and crime and degradation. The 
 reason why he pressed so earnestly forward to declare the 
 gospel of the Son of God was not because it interested him 
 as a theologian, but because he saw the intense practical 
 power of the new life which was working amid the nations. 
 He drew very near to the beloved Son, — not as he was 
 centuries ago in Palestine, not as he breathed out his soul 
 on the cross. Jesus has risen. Jesus is glorified. Jesus is 
 influential. Jesus has been passing through all these cen- 
 turies of trouble in the past to make Christendom Christian, 
 to make humanity human ; and, from the time he woke in
 
 122 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 the morning until he slept at night, it was Channing's 
 endeavor to enter into his labors, to bear the cross upon that 
 road that leads to heaven and to God. He believed that 
 nothing but the Christian life in our Commonwealth could 
 bring any real republic, that it could be alone done by 
 uniting all the children of God. 
 
 Has this been done.-' William Ellery Channing, if he 
 were here, would say : " Ask yourselves why that awful 
 judgment of God came upon you in the civil war.? Are 
 you sure that that punishment was enough ? Do, you see no 
 more awful civil war than that between the States ? Do you 
 want me to name it.-* Your own consciences tell you in 
 advance. What means this high, insane passion for wealth ? 
 What means this miserable pride in class, in nominal prop- 
 erty, in money for yourselves .-' Money is well enough when 
 it is held as a trust from the Great Giver of all ; but the man 
 who stalks up and down these free States, saying that he 
 owns so much bank-stock, so much in factory shares, so 
 much of God's free soil, is a man who is not doing the will 
 of God. I tell you the time will come when it will be said 
 that this form of possession is another form of slavery. To 
 stand as a steward of God is all right, — God's blessing be 
 with you, — but to coin blood out of the laboring classes is 
 simply robbery in the sight of God." That is what he would 
 say to you. He would say, Shame on you, unless you feel 
 the privilege and the honor of universal industry. What is 
 the power whereby demagogues wield the mob } It is because 
 you who are privileged have not placed yourself in sympathy 
 with the masses. The danger underlying our institutions is 
 that these demagogues that lead the masses shall, like blind 
 Samsons, pull down our house over our heads. The struggle 
 to come is unfortunately worse than that between slavery 
 and freedom ; but it is before us, unless we do our duty. Mr. 
 Channing spoke of his own sorrow for and disgust at recent
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 123 
 
 political revelations at Washington, after which he said : All 
 Europe is aghast with the corruption of our politics, but the 
 mightiest scorn of our bitterest foes is hardly to be com- 
 pared with the reality. Away with it, away with it, at all 
 costs ! I ask for regeneration, for reformation, in this nation. 
 I am told that, in the palaces of the merchant princes around 
 the Common, there are young men who think politics beneath 
 them. It seems incredible that a young American should 
 dare in his inmost soul for one single hour to spit upon his 
 birthright. What we need to learn is that those who are 
 highest in their privilege should feel most their duty to 
 serve the people. There is but one way in which this 
 sublime work of regeneration can be effected, and that is by 
 elevating the people. Divorce the Church from the Com- 
 monwealth ! Our mission is to wed them in an indissoluble 
 union, and the ring that binds Church and Commonwealth 
 together should be knowledge and universal culture. Every 
 home should be a church and a commonwealth ; every home 
 should be a college ; in every community there should be 
 those instrumentalities whereby man is formed in the Church 
 of God.
 
 124 CHANNING CENTENARV. 
 
 THE CHILDREN'S SERVICE. 
 
 Ox the afternoon of Sunday, April 4, a union service of 
 Sunday-schools was held in the Church of the Disciples. 
 Classes with their teachers were present from the South 
 Congregational Church (the Rev. E. E. Hale's), the Hollis 
 Street Church (the Rev. H. B. Carpenter's), the Church of 
 the Unity (the Rev. M. J. Savage's), the New South Free 
 Church (the Rev. W. P. Tilden's), and the Church of the 
 Disciples (the Rev. J. F. Clarke's). Addresses were made 
 by each of the pastors named above, by the Rev. W. H. 
 Channing, of London, and by Governor Long. The church 
 was tastefully decorated for the service. Calla lilies and 
 other potted plants were on each sid'e of the desk; and a 
 beautiful arch of green, with a graceful green fringe, rose 
 to the top of the wall behind the desk. In the focus of the 
 arch was a five-pointed star of white flowers with a crimson 
 centre. On the left of the pulpit was a portrait of Dr. 
 Channing. 
 
 President W. H. Baldwin, of the Young Men's Christian 
 Union and superintendent of the Sunday-school of the 
 church, conducted the exercises. The church was filled 
 with the Sunday-schools, a large part of the congregation 
 being young girls. Printed programmes of the exercises, 
 with hymns, responsive services, and prayers, were dis- 
 tributed, giving all the people an opportunity to participate.
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 125 
 
 The first speaker of the afternoon was the Rev. Dr. E. E. 
 Hale. He spoke of the character of the gospel as a par- 
 ticular revelation to children. It had been kept from the 
 wise and prudent and had been revealed unto babes. The 
 address was adapted to the age of his hearers, and impressed 
 upon them the truth that the church is for children as truly 
 as for grown people. The change in popular belief by 
 which added importance was given to children was attrib- 
 uted to Channing. " Love God, love man, and live for 
 heaven," was a motto inculcated by Channing; and it is as 
 truly applicable to children as to any people. 
 
 The Rev. H. B. Carpenter, the only pastor of those 
 present in whose church Channing had actually preached, 
 followed Mr. Hale. Liberty as the greatest boon of earth 
 — greater than life or limb — was the central thought of his 
 address ; and the application was to Channing, who was filled 
 with the spirit of religious liberty, and who brought that 
 liberty to others. Channing was greater than any political 
 deliverer, inasmuch as religious liberty is of greater moment 
 than any other liberty. Channing's writings were pro- 
 nounced full of the great thoughts and deep reflections 
 which fill the writings of Bishop Berkeley. The spirit of 
 Berkeley and of Wordsworth met in the heart of Channing. 
 The waters of life in his writings are sweet and soft, pure 
 and limpid, and have permeated the nation's life, making- 
 great changes. 
 
 After singing, an address was made by the Rev. Mr. Sav- 
 age, an address specially devoted to the children. It was a 
 little biographical sketch of Channing, put in simple words 
 and sentences, stating his beginning as an orthodox minis- 
 ter, and his service in the great movement which resulted in 
 the establishment of the Unitarian churches. He was also 
 pictured as a man fond of children, winning toward them 
 even in his religious life. He was held up as the American
 
 126 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 saint of religious freedom, and the meaning of the expression 
 was explained to the children, 
 
 Mr. Savage was followed by the Rev. Mr. Tilden, who 
 dwelt upon the influence of Channing's mother upon her 
 son, directing him to a pure and noble life. Channing was 
 a reflective boy, and the habit of thought was continued into 
 manhood. Love of nature was a marked trait of his charac- 
 ter ; but it was love of nature as a work of God rather than 
 as a thing of beauty. Channing's influence is of the kind 
 which never dies; and, in the highest sense, he still lives, 
 and will continue to live. 
 
 Dr. Clarke was the next speaker, and began at once with 
 a story of Channing the boy, who got his first lesson in 
 doubt of orthodoxy by hearing his father whistle after he 
 had sat under the delivery of a sermon full of threats of the 
 penalties for sin, as if he did not believe it. Channing's 
 record as an abolitionist was briefly rehearsed, and an expla- 
 nation was given, in language adapted to children, of the 
 great change which was effected by Channing in the theol- 
 ogy of his day, — how it was softened down from the wrath 
 to the mercy of God in its presentation to the people. 
 
 Governor Long followed Dr. Clarke with a short tribute 
 to the memory of Channing and a few words of sympathy 
 with the gathering. Channing, he said, is one of those men 
 who, though dead, live more and more in the expanding 
 influence of their lives. Of men in New England, none is 
 more worthy of commemoration than this man who was 
 honored by the day's services. The Governor suggested the 
 preparation of a brief biography of Channing for the especial 
 benefit of children. He closed with the hope that Chan- 
 ning's life and genius and teachings would become as famil- 
 iar as household words. 
 
 The closing address was made by Rev. William H. Chan- 
 ning, of London, who spoke of Channing's relations with 
 his mother and of his great interest in children.
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 12/ 
 
 AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION. 
 
 ADDRESSES AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, MAY 25, 1880. 
 
 ADDEESS OF REV. DR. WILLIAM HENRY FURNESS, OF PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 I AM not competent, and, if I were, I am not inclined 
 to undertake an analysis of Dr. Channing's distinguished 
 power. From different mansions of our common house- 
 hold of faith, eloquent voices have spoken his praise, and 
 dwelt upon the spiritual and intellectual characteristics 
 of the man, and of the exalted position which he holds in 
 the religious history of this age. And there are his writ- 
 ings, as faithful a portraiture of the inner man as the por- 
 trait of the outer man which you have hanging in your 
 studies, the unconscious work of his own hand. My only 
 qualiiication for the office which I have been honored by 
 the invitation to discharge on this occasion is that I happen 
 to be one of the rapidly diminishing number of those who 
 had the privilege of Dr. Channing's personal friendship, 
 and in whose minds the charm of his speech is still strong. 
 I propose, therefore, only to talk to you about him, and 
 to revive as vividly as I may the impression that he made 
 on me. "To analyze the characters of those we love," says 
 Wordsworth, " is not a common nor a natural employment 
 of men at any time. We are not anxious unerringly to un- 
 derstand the constitution of the minds of those who have
 
 128 CII.WMXr, Cr.NTENAKV. 
 
 soothed, who have cheered, who have supported us, with 
 whom we have been long and daily pleased and delighted. 
 The affections are their own justification. The light of 
 love in our hearts is a satisfactory evidence that there is a 
 body of worth in the minds of our friends, whence that 
 light has proceeded." The admiration, the reverence, which 
 have shone forth from so many hearts here and abroad, 
 irrespectively of sectarian distinctions, on the hundredth 
 anniversary of Dr. Channing's birthday, do they not testify 
 more impressively than any words to the rare worth of 
 him by whom they were inspired .-' 
 
 The portrait of Dr. Channing, with which you are fa- 
 miliar, strikes me as remarkably faithful. It is faultless. 
 
 It is hard for those who knew him in his manhood to 
 believe that the spiritual power which he then manifested 
 was prefigured by his physical strength in boyhood, that 
 he was famous among his playmates as an athlete. Such, 
 we are told, was the fact. His person in manhood was very 
 slight. His physical hold upon this mortal life seemed to 
 be of the feeblest. To the eye, he was an apparition that 
 might vanish at any moment. He might have said, with 
 Paul, that his bodily jDresence was " contemptible." Once, 
 when speaking of the doctrine of non-resistance, he said he 
 did not believe that he could strike a. man, not from any 
 question of his strength, but from his sense of the sacredness 
 of the human person. The human body was to him the 
 temple of the Highest, not made with hands. The doubt 
 arose involuntarily in my mind whether, if he did strike, the 
 man struck would be aware of it. It is the spirit, I believe, 
 that keeps us all alive, even the strongest. In the case of 
 Dr. Channing, that was evidently the vital spring of his be- 
 ing. That kept his most delicate organization here, and 
 it is a wonder that it kept him so long. There was a soft- 
 ness in the expression of his countenance that I always
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 1 29 
 
 felt like velvet. His smile was all the sweeter for the ap- 
 pearance around ^his mouth of physical weakness, through 
 which it struggled, a sunbeam through a cloud. His voice, 
 — ah, that wonderful voice! — wonderful not for the music 
 of its tones, but for its extraordinary power of expression. 
 Whether from the delicacy of the vocal organ or from 
 bodily weakness, I do not know, it was flexible to tremu- 
 lousness. When he began to discourse, it ran up and down, 
 even in the articulation of a single polysyllabic word, in so 
 strange a fashion that they who heard him for the first time 
 could not anticipate its effect, — how, before it ceased, that 
 voice would thrill them to the inmost. I cannot liken it to 
 anything but a huge sail, flapping about at first at random, 
 but soon taking the wind, swelling out most majestically, 
 as Sidney Smith said of Sir James Mackintosh that, " when 
 the spirit came upon him, he spread his enormous canvas, 
 and launched into a wide sea of eloquence." 
 
 We pronounced Dr. Channing eloquent in speech as well 
 as in style. But no one could suppose for a moment that he 
 had ever taken a lesson in elocution, or had ever given it a 
 thought, so original, so entirely his own, was his manner 
 of speaking. It was the pure personal conviction from 
 which he spoke that inspired his voice, and took sole charge 
 of it to its faintest modulations. When he read familiar 
 hymns and passages of Scripture, one felt as if he had never 
 heard them before. The effect of his reading was, at times, 
 something more than a pin-drop silence : his hearers were 
 awe-struck. I recall single words which, as he uttered 
 them, seemed so big with meaning that to write them so 
 that they might be as large to the eye as they were to the 
 ear a whole side wall of the church would hardly have af- 
 forded space enough. While he spoke as he was moved, 
 and because he thus spoke, his speech exemplified the finest 
 principles of elocution. There could not be a more striking
 
 130 CIIANNINC. CENTENARY. 
 
 instance of the rising and falling inflections, which the books 
 tell of, than Dr. Channing's reading of the close of the Ser- 
 mon on the Mount, where the wise man is compared to one 
 who builds his house on a rock, and the fool is likened to 
 one who builds upon the sand. In the former case, the 
 hearer saw that the rain and the wind and the flood were 
 wasting their fury ; in the latter, you felt, before the catas- 
 trophe was announced, that the storm was doing its work, 
 and the house was already rocking upon its foundations. 
 
 Men are not canonized until after death. But the delicacy 
 of Dr. Channing's bodily frame was in such unison with his 
 impressively spiritual character, he had so light a garment 
 of flesh to put off, it so thinly veiled the spirit, that, long 
 before it dropped off, he was invested, to our eyes, in an air 
 of saintliness, as with a robe. No other man among us was 
 so regarded as one having his constant walk and conversa- 
 tion with eternal verities, which were bringing him in life, as 
 in death, "messages from the Spirit." 
 
 And now, if much that I tell you of him, and, relying 
 upon your indulgence of old age, make bold to repeat, — if I 
 do not repeat myself, I must repeat some one else, for little 
 remains to be s.aid, except what our friends, Frederic Hedge 
 and William Henry Channing, have to say, — if what I 
 relate seems hardly worthy of mention, you must make 
 allowance for the peculiarly strong feeling of personal rev- 
 erence which Dr. Channing inspired, and which made very 
 impressive every word that fell from his lips. Certain 
 things that he said made such deep and lasting impressions 
 on my mind from his manner of saying them that every 
 word of his appeared to be charged with authority. I had 
 the privilege of hearing his Dudleian Lecture, to which I am 
 happy, with our admirable and venerated friend, James Mar- 
 tineau, to acknowledge a great obligation. To the few brief 
 remarks upon the character of Christ which occur in that
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. I3I 
 
 lecture, I owe much of the inexhaustible interest with which 
 I have ever since pursued the study of that great life. 
 
 And then I was greatly helped by Dr. Channing, when 
 he said in his own impressive way that it was not by contro- 
 versy that the hold of the old dogmas upon the minds of 
 men is loosened, but by the dissemination of undisputed 
 truth and the expansive force of general intelligence; in a 
 word, that doctrinal errors are not out-argued, but outgrown. 
 
 It was in accordance with this teaching that Dr. Channing 
 rendered his best service to a liberal theology. It is true 
 that he first became known as the advocate of liberal views. 
 One of the earliest premonitory signs of the Unitarian and 
 Trinitarian controversy that began in the first half of this 
 century was a published correspondence between Dr. Chan- 
 ning and the Rev. Samuel Worcester, an eminent Orthodox 
 clergyman of Salem. In a memoir of the late Rev, Thomas 
 Worcester, the nephew of the Rev. Samuel Worcester and 
 the son of the Rev. Noah Worcester, the friend of peace (of 
 sainted memory), I find it stated that Dr. Channing sub- 
 mitted his letters to the Rev. Samuel Worcester in MS. to 
 the Rev. Noah Worcester, the brother of his opponent ; and 
 that, after the correspondence was closed, when Rev. Samuel 
 Worcester was informed of this fact, he expressed regret 
 that he himself had not done the same, — had not subjected 
 his letters to his brother's revision. 
 
 Dr. Channing's discourse at the ordination of Mr. Sparks 
 was the first formal publication of Unitarianism in this 
 country, or rather it was so received. And, as such, so wide 
 and powerful was its effect, and to such learned, able, and, 
 on the whole, courteous controversies did it give rise, that 
 it makes our Baltimore church historical, a consecrated me- 
 morial spot. May it stand forever! Beside that discourse, 
 the doctrinal writings of Dr. Channing are few. His theo- 
 logical influence wrought, not controversially, but much in
 
 132 CllANN'ING CENTEX A KY. 
 
 the same way that the principles of freedom and justice 
 wroui2;ht in old anti-slavery times, in the thirty years' war 
 of opinion for liberty that preceded the great Rebellion. 
 Obnoxious as the anti-slavery cause then was, orthodox men 
 who embraced it soon found it so rich and exhilarating that 
 they discovered how innutritious in comparison were the old 
 traditional husks from which they had all their lives been 
 trying to draw sustenance, like "sucklings from the breasts 
 of a dead mother." So frequently did this happen that it 
 was a matter of regret with the abolitionists that they could 
 not win over to their side an orthodox man who would stay 
 orthodox, and so give the cause the advantage of his influ- 
 ence. My kinsman, Wendell Phillips (I am proud of the 
 relationship), was the only man among them who retained a 
 sort of reputation for orthodoxy ; but somehow or other, in 
 his case, it did not avail much. The reason, I suppose, was 
 that it required a great quantity of orthodox repute, a great 
 deal more than Wendell Phillips was credited with, to over- 
 balance his bold and most eloquent speech. Thus it was 
 that the influence of Dr. Channing's writings has wrought 
 to enlarge and elevate the general mind. He has dwelt 
 with such power upon the truths that arc truths that the 
 fetters of a false theology have broken and fallen away with- 
 out one direct effort to sever them. 
 
 Dr. Channing has somewhere said that the defect of our 
 Unitarian preaching is that it is fragmentary, lacking in 
 unity; and that, while he felt deeply his own shortcomings, 
 he was thankful for having been early and deeply penetrated 
 with one great truth, — the sanctity of the human soul, the 
 dignity of human nature. He was indeed blessed therein. 
 Thence it was, from that deep fountain, faith, that there 
 flowed from within him rivers of living water to refresh and 
 inspire other minds. It was made unto him eloquence and 
 wisdom and power. May I, friends and brothers, without
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. I33 
 
 offence to propriety, add to Dr. Channing's the testimony of 
 my humble experience of the advantage and satisfaction of 
 being early possessed with some one great idea .-' I esteem 
 it one of the chief blessings of my life that I was, more 
 than half a century ago, taken with a strong desire to ascer- 
 tain the simple historical truth concerning Jesus of Naza- 
 reth. This study has been my faithful companion, com- 
 forter, and friend. I cannot tell whether it is as a literary or 
 religious question that it has most interested me. 
 
 The feeble health rendered Dr. Channing reserved and a 
 recluse to such a degree that it has been said that he had no 
 sense of humor. And we certainly never thought of telling 
 him humorous stories in order to ascertain the fact. I think, 
 however, that fine sense was latent in him. I am assured 
 by one who knew him better than I that there was no ques- 
 tion of its existence. I asked him once rather hesitatingly 
 (it was at a time when I was riding full gallop that hobby of 
 my steed) whether he ever read Elia, the first of humorists. 
 "Oh!" he exclaimed with animation, "that is the finest 
 English of our day." I do not think one can appreciate 
 Charles Lamb's English and be insensible to his humor. 
 Once, when we were talking of a popular writer of the hour, 
 of whom I had expressed a favorable opinion, Dr. Channing 
 asked with an amusing tone of contempt in every syllable, 
 "Do you suppose he can say anything of anybody .-' " 
 
 The habitual tone of his mind was profoundly serious. 
 No one could be in his presence without feeling that he was 
 a man whose thoughts were running upon the greatest in- 
 terests. He was often attacked by disease, when his life 
 hung by a thread, and he knew how feeble the tie was that 
 kept him here. Once, when dangerously ill, he expressed 
 a desire to live, because he "had something to say." He 
 lived among us, dwelling as few do in the inner world, and 
 subsisting on food that our world knows not of.
 
 134 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 In his later years, in order to escape from your east 
 winds, he was wont to spend a few weeks in the spring time 
 in Philadelphia, where he had special pleasure in the ac- 
 quaintance of members of the Society of Friends, a body 
 to whom he felt a strong attraction, cherishing great venera- 
 tion for John Woolman and Elias Hicks, " those faithful 
 sons of the morning," as the venerable Lucretia Mott calls 
 them. Then it was that I had the pleasure and instruction 
 of frequent intercourse with him. I remember how he 
 spoke of Mr. Emerson, whose light had then risen and was 
 shining on us all. " I do not know," said Dr. Channing, 
 " that he tells me anything new, but he inspires me." (Is 
 not this, by the way, a greater service than the communica- 
 tion of any amount of knowledge, secular or sacred ?) " He 
 has no partisans," he continued : " his warmest admirers 
 hold their own. He does not need any. Emerson is a 
 hero." It was on one of those annual visits that Dr. Chan- 
 ning delivered his lecture before our Mercantile Library 
 Association upon "The Universality of the Age." As he 
 had rarely spoken in public save ujDon religious occasions, I 
 asked him, before the evening of the lecture came, whether 
 he had ever been applauded while speaking. Upon his 
 replying in the negative, I warned him of the applause 
 that would be sure to break out as often as he should give 
 it opportunity. I knew that, if it were distasteful to him, 
 he would not hesitate to request its discontinuance. I had 
 heard of his asking his hearers in church, before beginning 
 his sermon, not to cough, — a quite unnecessary request, it 
 seemed to me, as people forgot not only to cough, but even 
 to breathe, when he preached, as I have heard it testified on 
 more occasions than one. Once a friend who had just come 
 from hearing him preach in his old pulpit in Federal Street 
 told me that, at the close of a certain passage in the sermon, 
 the people all over the church could be heard taking their
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 1 35 
 
 breath. The same report, almost in the very same words, 
 came to me years afterwards, from one who had just been 
 listening to Dr. Channing in New York. Generally speak- 
 ing, the coughing of a congregation is the fault or the mis- 
 fortune of the preacher. It always ceases when an impres- 
 sive passage comes in the sermon. I had the whooping- 
 cough pretty severely after I became a settled minister. I 
 should be ashamed to mention it, if I had ever been seized 
 with a paroxysm while in the pulpit, as that would have 
 betokened that I was not interested in what I was doing. 
 As with the preacher, so with the hearers : they do not 
 cough when they are interested. But pardon me : I am 
 growing garrulous. 
 
 On the occasion of Dr. Channing's lecture in Philadelphia, 
 there was no restlessness, no clearing of throats, but a deep 
 silence, broken by frequent impassioned bursts of applause, 
 that ceased suddenly, as if there were a fear on all that a 
 word might be lost. Seldom has such an assembly been 
 gathered in our city. I never saw a large crowd more com- 
 pletely spell-bound. After speaking some thirty minutes, 
 at a moment when he had the whole audience under his 
 sway, he paused, and said that, with their permission, he 
 would sit down and rest awhile, — a simple act, and in per- 
 fect character. Who else would have hazarded the resump- 
 tion of his power .'' Who else would not have risked the 
 fatigue, rather than have broken the spell and laid his wand 
 aside .-' There was no one else but himself tired or likely to 
 be. All else were drinking in great draughts of refreshment. 
 When he rose again and resumed his discourse, the spell was 
 as powerful as ever, and so it continued to the end. " What 
 did he stop for .-' " one of the retiring crowd was heard to 
 e.xclaim. " Why did he not go on, and tell us what he 
 thought about everything ? " I said to him afterward that I 
 had warned him against the applause, but that it struck me
 
 136 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 as very intelligent and hearty. "Oh," said he, "it did me 
 good ! " Did him good not as a personal tribute at all, but 
 as an impressive declaration of agreement with him. Does 
 not Mr. Carlyle somewhere quote Novalis as saying that his 
 conviction of any truth is doubled in strength the instant 
 another is of the same mind .-' The hearty assent of a thou- 
 sand and more to one's word must needs do one good. 
 
 I do not think that in all Dr. Channing's writings there 
 can be found so vivid a figure of speech as occurs in that 
 same Philadelphia lecture. We Philadelphians boast of 
 having given to the world Benjamin Franklin, of Boston. 
 Dr. Channing gratified our pride by a graceful allusion to 
 the illustrious philosopher, and said (I quote from memory) 
 that " when Philadelphia should be a ruin, and the darkness 
 of desolation should rest over the place, the kite with which 
 Franklin drew the lightning from the skies would still be vis- 
 ible to the eye of posterity." We all saw it, floating, white, 
 afar off in the darkness. Dr. Channing's fancy seems to me 
 to be singularly subdued and chastened. It throws a delicate 
 grace over his forms of expression. It never runs away with 
 him, or betrays him into saying more than he felt. " People 
 always sympathize," he once remarked, " with suppressed 
 emotion." The least hint of reserved power always touches 
 us to the quick. Every mother knows the pathos of the 
 grieved lip when her infant child, equally ready to cry and 
 to laugh, struggles to keep from crying. We felt that there 
 was deeper faith in Dr. Channing than words could express. 
 
 No man could be more indifferent than he to literary 
 reputation, rich as he was in literary qualifications. He 
 esteemed nothing that he possessed, except as it could be 
 made subservient to the best interests of his fellow-men. 
 One of the discourses which attracted special notice abroad 
 was one of his earliest publications, his sermon on War. "I 
 think Channing an admirable writer," says Sydney Smith,
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. 1 37 
 
 in a letter to Countess Grey, — " so much sense and elo- 
 quence ! such a command of language ! Yet, admirable as 
 is his sermon on War, I have the vanity to think my own 
 equally good, quite as sensible, quite as eloquent, as full of 
 good principle and fine language ; and you will be the more 
 inclined to agree with me in this comparison, when I tell 
 you that I preached in St. Paul's the identical sermon which 
 Lord Grey so much admires. I thought I could not write 
 anything half so good, and so I preached Channing." My 
 friend, Mrs. Kemble, told me that, once in conversation with 
 Miss Berry, the intimate friend of Horace Walpole, and 
 religion was the topic, " My dear," the old lady said to her, 
 " I am a Channingiie." By the way, over what a long stretch 
 of time a few lives may extend ! Horace Walpole tells us 
 that he recollected seeing, when a boy, a lady who belonged 
 to the court of James H. 
 
 The essay on Milton, first published in the Christian 
 Examiner, in 1826, contemporaneously with an article on the 
 same subject in the Edinburgh Review by Macaulay, was 
 Dr. Channing's first excursion from the pulpit. I remember 
 receiving the number of the Exaininer containing the essay, 
 and thinking at first that it was the work of a new hand in 
 that periodical ; but I recognized the author before I finished 
 it, although I was quite unprepared to meet Dr. Channing 
 there. The two essays hardly admit of comparison. Macau- 
 lay's is, I suppose, the more learned and brilliant ; but I 
 cannot read Macaulay now without having in mind a remark 
 of Dr. Johnson's, that he who writes antithetically "desires 
 to be applauded, not credited," — a remark which I suspect 
 the grand old man m^de from the depths of his own 
 consciousness. I call Dr. Johnson old : did any one ever 
 imagine him as young .'' It is a long time since I read Dr. 
 Channing's essay, but I remember it seemed to me to sweep 
 on, a broad tide of eloquent enthusiasm. Dr. Channing's
 
 138 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 works have been twice noticed in the Edinburgh Review, 
 long the leading English periodical : first by Hazlitt, who 
 is ill-natured and depreciating, — partly, I suppose, because, 
 being the son of an English Unitarian clergyman, he had 
 taken offence at certain remarks of Dr. Channing's unfavora- 
 ble to the theology of the English Unitarians, Priestley and 
 Belsham ; but, more than that, Hazlitt bore no good-will to 
 Dr. Channing for his most Christian estimate of Napoleon, 
 — an estimate the justice of which time is confirming. Na- 
 poleon was Hazlitt's pet argument against legitimacy and 
 the divine right of kings. Be that as it may, Hazlitt's ill- 
 nature made not the slightest impression upon Dr. Chan- 
 ning, who always spoke of him with special interest. I 
 doubt whether he ever read Hazlitt's criticisms, although I 
 do not doubt that he knew of them. Everybody read the 
 Edinburgh in those days, when there was not such a library 
 of reviews as there is now. 
 
 The second notice of Dr. Channing in the Edinburgh was 
 understood to be by Lord Brougham. It was characteristi- 
 cally savage. But it was not the first time that his lordship 
 had committed the egregious blunder of disparaging men 
 greater than himself. In the very first volume of the Review 
 (in 1803), he had the ignorant arrogance to pronounce a 
 paper "destitute of every species of merit," -r- a paper in 
 the Philosophical Transactions, written by Thomas Young, 
 the author of the undulatory theory of light, and the reader 
 of the hieroglyphs, — a man of whom Professor Tyndall 
 (and he is an authority) has said that, if a line were drawn 
 from Sir Isaac Newton, horizontally down toward our time, 
 it would pass over all heads until it came to Thomas 
 Young, who towers tota vertice above all Newton's suc- 
 cessors. I spoke once to Dr. Channing of Lord Brougham's 
 notice of him, and, encouraged by his love of free speech, 
 I said that, while the spirit of that notice was offensive,
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. I39 
 
 some of the criticisms seemed to me to have force. " Oh, 
 very likely," was his reply. " The favorable reception that 
 essay met with was wholly unexpected by me. I have no 
 doubt Lord Brougham is right. / have never read his arti- 
 cle." Considering the sensitiveness of our people to Eng- 
 lish opinion, — not now, perhaps, so marked as in those 
 earlier days, — I admired Dr. Channing greatly for his indif- 
 ference to what so distinguished a person as Lord Brougham 
 thought of him. It was one of many proofs of how little 
 he cared for fame. No concern for that ever biassed his 
 judgment the weight of a hair. It has been observed that 
 the members of all small sects are apt to inflame one 
 another with exaggerated praise. And it must be admitted 
 that, when the number of avowed Unitarians were small, 
 we thought a good deal of one another. We were the wise 
 men, doubtless ; and wisdom would die with us. But it 
 was never for a moment conceived that Dr. Channing was 
 at all open to flattery. . He was as insensible to it as nature 
 herself, and we could no more think of moving him than 
 her by our plaudits. Whether of good report or evil report 
 in the critical world, it was all the same to him. When told 
 that Robert Southey had pronounced him the most remark- 
 able American he had met with, " It must have been then," 
 he said, " because I was so good a listener. I hardly said 
 a word. Mr. Southey did all the talking." Such being 
 the case, we do not wonder that Southey spoke so highly 
 of him. Is not the first qualification of a good conversa- 
 tionalist that he shall be a good listener ^ 
 
 Sir Walter Scott quotes Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 
 as saying that the most romantic part of any region is where 
 the mountains melt into the plains and lowlands. Some 
 thing of the same sort. Sir Walter, with a jjoet's eye, finds 
 to be true in history. Those periods, he remarks, being 
 the most picturesque in which rude, barbaric customs are
 
 I40 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 beginning to be softened by the approach of greater enlight- 
 enment. And is not the same true in the history of opinions, 
 of religious opinions ? Is it not exemplified in our revered 
 teacher and friend ? It is interesting to note how, born 
 when a theology reigned that made the atmosphere of New 
 England thick with gloom, — it is beautiful to see how 
 steadily, though gradually, his lovely light rose and pene- 
 trated and dispersed the clouds, — in a word, how constantly 
 he grew, a growing man to the last, the old and the new 
 mingling in him in ever-increasing disproportion ; at the 
 first, the most eloquent advocate of a liberal faith ; at the 
 last, caring less and less, as he said, for Unitarianism, and 
 more and more for universal humanity. Advancing years 
 brought no fetters for him ; in age abounding in the faith 
 and hopefulness of youth, growing ever younger, and like 
 the morning light shining brighter and brighter, ever ap- 
 proaching the perfect day. 
 
 Addresses upon Channing were also given by Rev. Dr. 
 Hedge and Rev. William H. Channing, of which we pre- 
 sent abstracts : — 
 
 ADDRESS OF EEV. DK. HED&E. 
 
 There is nothing more respectable in man than his enthu- 
 siasm for a great and worthy object. The sentiment of 
 reverence and admiration for what is excellent is the inex- 
 tino-uishable hope of human society. To it belongs the 
 future of th^ race. What is it that we admire in Channing ? 
 I agree to all or nearly all that has been said by the elo- 
 quent speakers who have set forth in these centennial days 
 the many noble qualities of the orator and the man. I still 
 ask myself, Why do we admire the impersonation of these 
 qualities in Channing ? And the answer is, I think, because 
 they are a revelation of our own nature, — in them we see
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. I4I 
 
 as in a glass our better selves. This unfathomable human 
 nature of ours in its manifold and everlasting workings, out 
 of the ground forces of its constitution has once again 
 heaved up a character beyond the level of the common, — 
 a peak that has caught a ray of the everlasting morning, 
 and draws our wondering eyes. When I attempt to classify 
 Channing, I find him to belong to that class of theologians 
 whose opinions are shaped by their feelings, — who see 
 through the medium of their sentiments, — the sentimental 
 class. These are the ones who have acted with the greatest 
 power in and on the religious world, and who have fed the 
 life of the Church. 
 
 My next characterization of Channing may seem fanciful ; 
 but I am deeply in earnest when I say that he was one of 
 those in whom a feminine soul incarnates itself in a mascu- 
 line body. The feminine principle in human nature, we are 
 told, is that which leads heavenward. There is a sex in 
 souls as well as in bodies, and they do not always coincide. 
 Occasionally, a masculine soul appropriates to itself a femi- 
 nine body ; and, on the other hand, a feminine soul is some- 
 times clothed with a masculine body. Lessing said that 
 Nature intended woman to be her masterpiece, but she 
 made a mistake in the clay and took it a little too soft. 
 There was nothing "soft" in the opprobrious sense in Dr. 
 Channing. But the feminine soul in him reveals itself in 
 his exceeding refinement, in his moral sensibility, in his spir- 
 itual hunger, and negatively in his want of humor. It 
 revealed itself above all in the excess of aspiration over 
 insight. 
 
 Last of all, I define Channing as " the last of the Deists," 
 — the man in whom Deism culminated and reached its Nir- 
 vana. I am aware that that name has an odious sound to 
 orthodox ears, but I hasten to explain : not the Deism 
 which rejects what is called, whether rightly or not, the
 
 142 CHANNING CENTKNAKV. 
 
 supernatural element in Christianity, but the iheosophic 
 Deism, which regards God as not only personal and formally 
 distinct from (Creation, but as substantially separated from 
 creation, — an outside God, — a mighty individual, who created 
 not onl)' the forms, but the substance of the universe. 
 
 In one thing, Channing stood before and above all others, 
 and for it above all others we prize and praise him, — the one 
 thing dear to men of all times and climes, dear, as nothing 
 else is or can be, to the universal heart of man ; and I am 
 sure of the consent of all who hear me when I name it, — 
 liberty ; liberty based on the dignity of human life. This 
 is what Channing especially stood for, labored for, and would 
 have died for, — yes, and did dio. for, when out of the sanc- 
 tuary of his own respectability he stretched forth his hand 
 to aid the release of Abner Kneeland, imprisoned for free- 
 dom of thought ; when in his solemn ire at the murder of 
 Lovejoy he craved the use of the sacred place in which to 
 offer up the birth-offering of public indignation. He died to 
 the respect and good-will of old friends and fellow-citizens, — 
 died to rise to life again, and to live forever in the gratitude 
 and honor of the generations following. 
 
 ADDEESS OF EEV. WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING. 
 
 As regards William Ellery Channing and his ideals, my 
 impression is that his first ideal was this : the ideal of an 
 integral education for every single mortal on this globe. He 
 believed that every single human being was intrinsically 
 great, — had genius, had heroism; that it was the accident 
 of the time that prevented this outbreak of the divine, in all 
 its varied forms, in every human being. He really believ-ed 
 in the possibility of an integral education that should bring 
 out the latent virtue of the manhood and womanhood of the 
 men and women around us. Then he had this other thought :
 
 CELEBRATION AT BOSTON. I43 
 
 that you must make round, symmetrical, beautiful, this cult- 
 ure of the human being. Then he wanted the spirit of 
 beauty poured through all life, to bind men together. 
 
 His second grand ideal was that of a perfectly organized 
 society. He had set his whole heart and soul upon making 
 this city of his adoption an ideal city. And, if you study his 
 life as I have, you will be surprised to find how the little 
 germs that he planted have developed here into grand insti- 
 tutions. He believed in the possibility of the capital of this 
 Bay State, even when it was comparatively a little town, 
 developing into a perfect type of a Christian community ; 
 and it was his deep sorrow that he could not take a more 
 active part in hastening onward this development. He was 
 not an enthusiast or a visionary. He was a man of solid 
 judgment, a man of good business powers, pre-eminently a 
 practical man ; and, if you will talk with those who guided 
 the business and social reforms of that day, you will see that 
 his judgment was singularly critical and discriminating, and 
 made apt suggestions, and that some of the best schemes for 
 working came from his study. 
 
 Another ideal : it seems to me that, of all men who have 
 lived since the days of our forefathers, no man has ever 
 drunk more deeply of the fountains of the life of this Repub- 
 lic than did William Ellery Channing. His ideas and hopes 
 for this nation were sublime. His thought was of a united 
 nation that should bring out all the resources of art and of 
 conscience, and of will and of imagination, and of aspiration, 
 and blend them together into a perfect whole. He believed 
 in the possibility of our taking such an attitude among the 
 nations of the earth that we should be peace-makers and 
 peace-keepers, standing as the great representative and 
 prophet of a universal peace. And, while believing in this, 
 he still believed that every nation should hold its own, and 
 discharge its own trusts, and stand up to the work which 
 God gave it to do.
 
 144 CHANNINU; CKNTENAKV. 
 
 lie was the prophet of a transfigured humanity, the 
 prophet of a Christ-like humanity, dwelling in close and 
 living communion with God. That is what he was in hope 
 and aspiration, and those who stood nearest to him know 
 that that is what he was in character and life. He was a 
 living temple, and from him flowed a holy influence, in 
 every glance of his eye, in his every gesture and his every 
 word. His mere presence was a benediction and an open 
 heaven.
 
 MEETING AT BROOKLYN, N.Y. 
 
 [This meeting, the largest and-in many respects the most interesting and sig- 
 nificant of all those held in America, has already been very fully reported in 
 a handsome octavo volume, edited by Rev. Dr. Alfred P. Putnam, and pub 
 lished by Mr. George H. Ellis, loi Milk Street, Boston. The following report 
 is an abridgment from that fuller one.] 
 
 The plan of the Brooklyn celebration was brought to the 
 attention of the Trustees of the Church of the Saviour early 
 in January. The enterprise was regarded with earnest 
 favor ; and a Committee of Arrangements was appointed to 
 take it in hand and carry it forward to completion. People 
 and churches of the neighborhood and the public at large, 
 without regard to creed or name, were cordially asked to 
 join in the celebration. The response from all sides was 
 most gratifying. It was found that, however widely men 
 were separated from Dr. Channing by their theological opin- 
 ions, yet all recognized some vital point of agreement or 
 sympathy with him. 
 
 The pulpit of the Church of the Saviour was occupied on 
 Sunday, April 4, by Rev. A. D. Mayo, of Springfield, Mass., 
 whose sermons, morning and evening, the one on " New 
 Saints for the New Republic," and the other on "Our 
 Common Christianity," closed with tributes to Dr. Chan- 
 ning, and formed a fitting introduction to the memorial 
 services of the week. 
 
 The opening services of the l^rooklyn meeting were held
 
 146 CHANNINO CENTENARY. 
 
 in the Church of the Saviour on Tuesday evening, Ai)ril 6. 
 The church was filled with people of all denominations in 
 the city, a large number of representative clergymen and 
 laymen of the different sects and neighboring churches 
 being in the audience. After a voluntary on the organ and 
 an anthem by the choir, prayer was offered by the Rev. 
 Riifus Ellis, D.D. The Rev. Joseph May read appropriate 
 selections from the Scriptures. A commemorative dis- 
 course, from the text, "The righteous shall be in everlasting 
 remembrance," Psalm cxii., 6, was then delivered by Rev. 
 Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, of Harvard University. 
 
 The memorial meeting was held in the Church of the 
 Saviour on the next day, Wednesday, April 7, at 10 A.M. 
 The church was again crowded with representatives of all 
 denominations. There were many present from the neigh- 
 boring towns and cities. On and around the pulpit and tab- 
 lets were rich and abundant floral decorations. The baptis- 
 mal font was surmounted with a large and beautiful cross 
 and star of flowers, a gift from the Church of the Messiah, 
 New York. Directly in front of the pulpit, resting upon 
 an easel, and facing the audience, was the fine portrait of 
 Dr. Channing by Ingham, kindly lent for the occasion by 
 Dr. Bellows, its owner. The services were opened with a 
 chant by the choir. After prayer by Rev. F. W. Holland, 
 a former pastor of the first Unitarian congregation gathered 
 in Brooklyn, the Rev. Dr. A. P. Putnam, Chairman, made 
 the following address of welcome : — 
 
 EEMAEKS OF EEV. DE. PUTNAM (Chairman). 
 
 Friends, we bid you one and all a hearty welcome to this 
 celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the birthday 
 of William EUery Channing. Our first thought was to have 
 a single service, to be held in this church, and to consist 
 mainly of a commemorative discourse. But very soon the
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. I47 
 
 plan assumed a larger form, and especially as we remem- 
 bered that here was a name that belonged to the Church 
 universal, that was reverenced in all communions, and that 
 would most fittingly be honored by friendly voices from all 
 the churches and sects around us. We therefore arranged 
 a more extensive programme, and cordially invited ministers 
 and laymen of Brooklyn and elsewhere, of whatever creed 
 or worship, if they had any sympathy with the spirit or 
 purpose of the occasion, or had any word to speak of love 
 or gratitude in memory of Channing, to come and freely 
 participate in the services. We were very glad, nor were 
 we at all surprised, to find that representative men of quite 
 every faith or name in the community were ready and more 
 than willing to respond to the call, and to lend their presence 
 and voices, too, in furtherance of the object we ha?l in view. 
 Many of them are with us here, and you will have the 
 pleasure of hearing what they have to offer. Others have 
 expressed the deepest interest in the proposed meetings of 
 the day, and regretted that absence from the city or press- 
 ing engagements would render it impossible for them to 
 attend. We invite the freest utterance on the part of 
 those who may feel moved to address the audience, be they 
 Protestants or Catholics ; and we expect here this morning, 
 and at the Academy' this evening, a full and varied expres- 
 sion of honest thought and feeling in relation to the one 
 great theme that engages us. 
 
 I shall not long detain you with words of my own, since 
 there are so many others whom you have come and arc 
 waiting to hear. But, before I take my seat, I must read 
 two or three letters which, of the many I have received from 
 far and near, to be read during the proceedings of the day, 
 seem to me a fit introduction to what may follow at this 
 particular meeting. The first is from Rev. William H. 
 Channing, nephew and biographer of Dr. Channing, who, as
 
 T48 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 you are well aware, has very recently arrived in this country 
 from England, but whose engagement made long ago to be 
 at Newport to-day prevents him from being present here 
 with us. Another will be found to be of great interest to 
 you, dictated as it was — though the signature is in his own 
 handwriting — by the Rev. George G. Channing, of Milton, 
 Mass., the only surviving brother of him whom we meet to 
 honor, and himself now ninety-two years of age. Patiently 
 he awaits the not-distant hour when he shall rise to join the 
 ascended and sainted one. And another letter still is from 
 the Rev. Charles T. Brooks, the revered and beloved poet- 
 preacher, who fpr so many years was the minister of 
 the Unitarian Church at Newport, Channing's birthplace. 
 
 [These letters, with many others, some of which were read by Rev. 
 S. H. Camp at later stages of the meeting, and some were received after 
 the celebration was over, will be found in the Appendix of the fuller 
 Report of this meeting.] 
 
 I have a special purpose in introducing Mr. Brooks' letter 
 just at this point. Much anxiety has been felt, as you know, 
 lest the required sum of fifty thousand dollars for the new 
 Memorial Church at Newport might not all be pledged by 
 the time the corner-stone should be laid to-day. Great 
 effort has been made to this end in various quarters. Last 
 Saturday, I received a telegram from Rev. Mr. Schermer- 
 horn, present minister of the Society there, saying that five 
 thousand dollars more were needed, and asking additional 
 help from the Church of the Saviour. On Monday, I sent 
 him word that my people on Sunday had contributed another 
 thousand, and asked him to let me know by Tuesday the 
 state of things. This morning before breakfast, a telegram 
 came, informing me that there was still, at the last hour, a 
 deficiency of two thousand dollars. Through the generosity 
 of a member of my parish, it was my privilege and joy to re- 
 turn immediately the message that the deficiency was met.
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 1 49 
 
 [Applause.] It is, therefore, permitted our assembled friends 
 there to go on and lay the corner-stone of the new edifice 
 with rejoicing; and I cannot help feeling a little pride that 
 it has been given to my own beloved Church to add the 
 capstone. [Renewed applause.] 
 
 And now I beg to present to you Rev. Dr. Farley, my 
 venerable predecessor as pastor of this Church, who is 
 connected by marriage with the family of Rev. George G. 
 Channing, and who will speak to you of Dr. Channing from 
 personal acquaintance and varied associations with him. 
 
 REMAEKS OF EEV. DR. F. A. FARLEY. 
 
 I do not think, my friends, that there is any heart among 
 you that is filled with more grateful emotions than my own, 
 in connection with all the associations .of this anniversary. 
 It was my good fortune — shall I not, rather, say that it was 
 "by the blessing of God" my great privilege.? — to know 
 Dr. Channing in the early and more impressible period of 
 my life, and especially during my preparatory studies for 
 the ministry. 
 
 I recur to the time when I was a student in the Divinity 
 School at Cambridge, and when I was accustomed to go 
 into Boston on the return of the Lord's day, and listen to 
 the preaching of this eminent man. 
 
 The first reminiscences of Dr. Channing, therefore, which 
 come to my mind, are connected with his public ministry, 
 with the discharge of his duties in the Christian pulpit ; and 
 I am sure that, among those who have been preachers of 
 Christ and his holy gospel, never has there been a man 
 who, from the sacred desk, more entirely held the minds and 
 the hearts of those who listened to him ; and never were 
 there people who sat under preaching with more reverent
 
 15^ CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 and yet more tender feelinj^- than those who heard the 
 sweet, gentle, inspiring, mighty words of that sainted man 
 of God. 
 
 After what was said by our dear Brother Peabody last 
 evening in his admirable discourse, it might seem superflu- 
 ous to attempt even to give expression to the recollections 
 which rise from my own memory, in relation to the manner 
 of Dr. Channing, the matter of his sermons, the power which 
 they manifested, or even to glance at the influence which 
 must have followed, and which we know did follow and is 
 still destined to follow, his remarkable utterances and pub- 
 lished writings. But I am called, and must obey. 
 
 Among the portraits of Channing there is one that has 
 not been given to the public, and is now the property of my 
 brother-in-law, George G. Channing, of Milton. It is a por- 
 trait painted by the celebrated Stuart of Boston. Somehow 
 or other, the widow of Dr. Channing, and, I believe, both 
 of his surviving children, did not value this portrait as it 
 has always seemed to me it deserved ; and therefore, among 
 the various portraits which have been made, and which have 
 been copied by the engraver and the photographer and sent 
 forth to the world, this does not appear. But it remained a 
 very treasured memory in the mind of the late Dr. Walter 
 Channing, eminent in the medical profession, and of his 
 brother George, as also of his sister, Mrs. Russell. It is 
 now, as I said before, the property of the Milton branch 
 of the family in Massachusetts. That portrait presents to 
 my own remembrance Channing, as at that day he appeared 
 in the pulpit of the old Federal Street Church. He is 
 painted in the costume which was then almost universal 
 with our clergy, of the robe and surplice and bands. And 
 it brings him before me every time I look at it with a lifelike 
 power, precisely as he seemed to me in the very prime of 
 his active ministry. Next to that, I should place the per-
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. I5I 
 
 trait by S. Gambardella, painted in 1839, when Dr. Chan- 
 ning was fifty-nine years old ; a fine line engraving of which, 
 by Kimberly and Cheney, is prefixed to the second volume of 
 the admirably finished Memoir of his distinguished uncle, by 
 William Henry Channing ; and a photograph of the same to 
 our Brother Charles T. Brooks' interesting volume, " A Cen- 
 tennial Memory," just from the press, and which, in passing, 
 I desire warmly to commend to my hearers. 
 
 The portrait before you was executed by the late Charles 
 C. Ingham, of New York, at his own suggestion, on one of 
 Channing's visits to that city, and is now the property of 
 Dr. Bellows, who very kindly lent it to us for this occa- 
 sion. In some respects, those of you who are familiar with 
 the portrait of Gambardella will be able at once to trace 
 a very considerable resemblance between this and that. 
 Gambardella's is the latest, and was painted for Dr. Chan- 
 ning's intimate friend, the late Jonathan Phillips, of Boston, 
 the senior deacon of his church. There is very much about 
 Ingham's portrait that is like Dr. Channing in the later 
 years of his life. It presents, certainly, an image of that 
 thin, spare habit, which was a very marked point in his per- 
 sonal appearance, and of the spirituelle expression of his 
 face. 
 
 You have been told that he was what, in a certain 
 sense, may be called a tiny man. He was tiny in his figure. 
 He was a very small man, and proportionately thin. I 
 never knew him at any time when he appeared other than 
 thin. From the loss of teeth in early life, his cheeks were 
 comparatively hollow. 
 
 But there was that in his eye which, I am sure, my 
 Brothers Peabody and Holland, and the few others who 
 remember him, cannot forget. Not only did it speak and 
 flash with his words in the pulpit ; but in his private con- 
 versation and in his most familiar hours there was still,
 
 152 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 with all its softness and y;cntlcncss, a remarkably searching 
 quality. 
 
 In regard to his pulpit ministrations, I beg to say that I 
 have never heard a preacher in whom there was less of 
 what might be called display. His manner was very simple 
 and very engaging. He usually leaned upon his left arm, 
 with his manuscript in the left hand ; and this habit was 
 largely, beyond doubt, the result of the delicacy of his con- 
 stitution and general debility. A very slight movement — 
 and always, as Dr. Peabody said last evening, purely "volun- 
 tary," with the forefinger of the right hand raised — was 
 about all the gesture in which, ordinarily, he. indulged. But 
 most remarkable was his intonation. Why, although that 
 voice from its general feebleness seemed to make it impos- 
 sible that he should be heard, even in an auditorium of the 
 size of the Federal Street Church, which was about the size 
 of this, yet, such was its special and peculiar quality, that I 
 suppose there never was a person who went out from those 
 walls, after listening to Dr. Channing, without having heard 
 and understood every word he uttered ! One great reason of 
 this may have been the intense silence which attended his 
 public ministrations. The slightest foot-fall on the carpet 
 could have been heard while he was speaking. At times, 
 in his loftiest flights and in the most earnest appeals which 
 he made to the hearts and consciences of his hearers, his 
 voice was slightly raised; but there was no straining after 
 effect. The manner was perfectly natural, just as natural as 
 when he sat with you in conversation ; and yet, impressive 
 as it was, no one can describe it, and you are left entirely to 
 your imagination to conceive of it. 
 
 But what shall I say of his prayers ? There is one of our 
 brethren now living, in very advanced age, of whom I have 
 often heard it said — I refer to our venerable and beloved 
 friend, Dr. Dewey — that it seemed to require a very painful
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 1 53 
 
 effort to utter himself in public prayer. I think there never 
 was a greater mistake. It was no effort, except it were sim- 
 ply the effort of self-control. So awed was he in the felt 
 presence of the Almighty, and in the responsible office of 
 leading the devotions of his people, that he seemed to speak 
 under a certain, not morbid, but most natural feeling of con- 
 straint ; and tears have been observed to follow his profound 
 inward emotion. That the heart was full to the brim, every 
 word that he uttered and the very expression of his counte- 
 nance faithfully proved. 
 
 There was nothing in Dr. Channing of this peculiarity of 
 Dr. Dewey. His prayers were the simplest utterances of 
 the most affectionate and devout feeling of the confiding, 
 trusting child, communing with an all-loving Father, uttered 
 in the most tender and yet the most earnest tones. It be- 
 came contagious, and lifted his hearers to the same plane of 
 devout feeling with himself. All the words which he uttered 
 in prayer seemed to come from the very depths of his own 
 consciousness, and to reach those of his fellow-worshippers, 
 who were thus brought at once into communion with the 
 same Blessed Spirit who was filling his own heart. Taking 
 these two men together, who were, moreover, most intimate 
 friends, I think I never heard from other human lips such 
 soul-subduing, touching, inspiring, uplifting prayer to the 
 Source of all good. 
 
 I pass from Channing's public ministry to say a word or 
 two of what I must esteem, as has been intimated already, 
 a most blessed privilege, — that of personal communion with 
 him in the quiet of his own study and home. I would go of 
 an evening to his study, and, finding him alone, would sit 
 with him, perhaps an hour or two ; and I confess that the 
 chief feeling which carried mc there was the consciousness of 
 the merest pupil in the presence of a great teacher. Shall I 
 say that he commanded me into this feeling? By no means.
 
 t54 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 From the reverence which was inspired by what I had expe- 
 rienced of his work in public, and from the knowledge of 
 his saintly character derived through, what afterwards be- 
 came a dear family connection, I realized to some extent 
 in what a remarkable presence I stood, and what a fulness 
 there was in the fountain within Iiim, of the sprinklings of 
 which I desired to partake. 
 
 I see in many notices of Dr. Channing references to him 
 as a remarkable conversationalist. I remember very well one 
 occasion, after his brother-in-law, Mr. Allston, had received 
 a letter from Coleridge, in which allusion was made to him, 
 I asked Dr. Channing who he considered the best conver- 
 sationalist that he met abroad, the two prominent names at 
 that time being Sir James Mackintosh and Coleridge. He 
 very promptly answered, "Sir James Mackintosh." He 
 added that Mackintosh had remarkable conversational power, 
 and that it was truly conversational ; while Coleridge, on the 
 other hancl, discoursed, and that one had only to propose to 
 Coleridge a subject or a question to have him instantly 
 pour forth from his rich and cultured mind and soul most 
 remarkable utterances, quite at length. I could not help 
 thinking, at the moment, that that was, to a certain extent, 
 the case with himself. So far as my own experience was 
 concerned, it really seemed so to me ; but then you must re- 
 member I was only a novice, an inexperienced young man. 
 And I regard it as a blessed condescension on his part that, 
 when I ventured to bring a subject before him, he gave me 
 such distinct and prolonged attention, and shed upon it such 
 a flood of light. 
 
 In the letter referred to, Coleridge said, in substance, " I 
 have had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with your 
 honored friend. Dr. Channing, whom I consider the most 
 remarkable conversationalist that I ever met from your 
 land." When I repeated this, he said, with his quietest
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 155 
 
 manner and gentlest voice, albeit with a slight twinkle of 
 his eye, "Ah! that was because I was so good a listener." 
 
 When I was in his study, at various times, I find on recol- 
 lection that he was accustomed, as we used to say in college, 
 to "pump" me. He began by questioning me, I might 
 almost say, in the Socratic way ; but his object seemed to 
 be to get into my mind, — a very easy thing for him to do, 
 by the way, for there was very little there at that time, at 
 least ; and, by the questions and the themes which he pro- 
 posed to riddle me through and through ; and then, by and 
 by, to help me, in the kindest manner possible, at once to 
 realize my own faulty way of search, and put me on the 
 right track, by pouring into my soul some of those effective 
 and weighty suggestions which so frequently fell from his 
 lips. Such was his way of dealing with a young man, and 
 was it not a wholesome way .'* 
 
 I would come from him to the family of my wife, tell 
 them where I had been, and express my delight in the visit. 
 They wondered why. And here I am led to speak of Chan- 
 ning as he appeared in his ordinary intercourse. Persons 
 of high culture and intellectual accomplishment met him, 
 not exactly with awe, but with a feeling of profound respect 
 and even reverence ; and others, with entire confidence, so 
 that they could be at once at ease with him ; while there 
 were many cases in his congregation, as in that very family 
 to which I have alluded, where the moment he appeared 
 among them there was shrinking as from a being of a 
 superior order. 
 
 Now was this because he put on airs.-* Was it because 
 he assumed anything.? Why, he was the simplest of human 
 beings in his whole manner and speech. But it was the in- 
 tense reverence, notwithstanding all the admiration which 
 they might have of him as a preacher and as a man, which 
 he inspired through the saintliness of his very bearing and
 
 156 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 lile on all occasions and under all circumstances; and they 
 could not forget it. 
 
 I would say, " I have had a most delightful evening with 
 Dr. Channing." "Delightful.? How could it have been de- 
 lightful ? Why, I shrink into nothingness when I am in his 
 presence," would be the response, perhaps. And then I 
 told them that I went there and got just what I wanted ; 
 that in the veriest sweetness of condescension he listened to 
 my poor words, and poured out the better words and the 
 richer thoughts he had to give me, and sent me away from 
 that place again and again with the inspiration I had gained 
 quickening my resolves for good, and filling me with a 
 heartier thirst for truth, knowledge, and freedom. I could 
 not possibly make it understood that to me, in the relation 
 in which I stood to him as a very humble and a very de- 
 sirous-of-learning pupil, it was possible that I had had a 
 delightful evening. 
 
 How often have I heard him lament that he could not 
 draw all his people nearer to him in more familiar inter- 
 course in his pastoral walk, — in which no one could have 
 been more faithful, — and divest them of all timidity in their 
 approaches ! His sympathy in their sorrows and trials, how- 
 ever, all felt; for the spell of that none could resist. He had 
 no "small talk"; but he was simple and gentle as a child. 
 And this leads me to allude to his love of children and his 
 manner toward them. Never can I forget a little incident 
 in connection with one of my own. I had taken my oldest 
 boy, then perhaps four or five years old, to spend a night at 
 "Oakland," his lovely summer retreat at Portsmouth, R.I. 
 His marked kindness soon won the heart of the little fellow ; 
 and the next day, after early lunch preparatory to our drive 
 liome, and the chaise being ready at the gate, the doctor 
 took the child, nothing loath, in his arms, and, carrying him 
 to the vehicle, put him safely in, kissed him, and bade him 
 " good-by."
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. I 57 
 
 I was about to say something of the charm of this remark- 
 able man in his home at Rhode Island, which I had so often 
 the happiness of enjoying during my first ministry at Provi- 
 dence. It was one of the loveliest spots in the world ; but 
 his presence, sweet yet dignified manners, affectionate inter- 
 course with his family and guests, only made it the more 
 lovely. " Happy," says his nephew in his " Memoir," — 
 " happy the guest who is to ride with Dr. Channing in his 
 chaise ! It is a most plain vehicle, indeed, and the horse 
 knows well that he may trespass almost without remon- 
 strance on his master's good-nature ; but who can regret the 
 slowness of a drive which prolongs the delight of his con- 
 versation ? " Happy, indeed ! On one of these drives, when 
 he had just been reading a spirited paper by Samuel J. 
 May, advocating the extremest doctrine of non-resistance, 
 the doctor, after analyzing the argument of our excellent 
 friend, raised his tiny but clenched fist, — at the moment 
 and under the circumstances seeming almost ludicrously 
 small, — and, turning to me, exclaimed, " Ah, Brother Far- 
 ley, but there are occasions when we i7i?cs^ fight!" But I 
 leave this theme, so much fuller and better treated than I can 
 pretend to treat it, to the delightful pages of his nephew and 
 Mr. Brooks. 
 
 There are two occasions in my life, Mr. President, which 
 brought me into close and most affecting contact with Dr. 
 Channing, which can never be forgotten, and the remem- 
 brance and influence of which will go with me, I trust, to 
 my final account. To him, indeed, more than to any other 
 mere man, more than to any other being that has trod this 
 earth, except my divine Saviour, do I owe whatever of quick- 
 ening impulse I have felt in my religious, moral, professional 
 life. The first of these was my ordination to the Chris- 
 tian ministry at Providence, in 1828, when he preached that 
 great sermon on " Likeness to God." With all who then
 
 158 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 heard him, despite the emotion wliich naturally tlirilled a 
 young heart at such a time, I was carried away from my- 
 self. Never, too, was his manner so inspired and grand, 
 so animated and free ; and this was the universal judg- 
 ment on all sides expressed. By accident, the platform 
 on which he stood lifted his tiny form so much above the 
 pulpit cushion that he could not, as was his wont, lean upon 
 it. When he began to speak, he seemed slightly embar- 
 rassed, and now and then looked around and beneath him, as 
 though he sought relief ; but then, gathering up his strength 
 in his decision to go on, he stood erect, and went through 
 with his discourse with the unction and fervid eloquence of 
 a prophet. Then came the good old symbolic custom of the 
 Congregational Churches, which seems to have well-nigh died 
 out in our branch of that body, — "the laying on of hands " ; 
 and he, with others of the fathers and brethren in the min- 
 istry, laid his hand upon my head. If anything could have 
 added to the touching and solemn significance of those ordi- 
 nation services, it was the conscious pressure of that hand 
 upon my head, while the prayer of consecration rose in my 
 behalf to the Father of our spirits. 
 
 Once more, he it was — in connection with his colleague, 
 of blessed memory, ray very dear friend in later years, Ezra 
 Stiles Gannett — who with his own hands joined my wife's 
 hands and mine in the holy sacrament of marriage ; and his 
 look and word as he gave us his blessing went, I tell you, 
 to the heart. 
 
 Do you wonder, as I close, that I look back on my inter- 
 course witli that beloved and saintly man with feelings im- 
 possible indeed to express, and which I must leave you to 
 imagine.'' With unfeigned gratitude, with great joy in the 
 remembrance ; and with confident faith that if his spirit be 
 conscious now of what we and so many all over Christen- 
 dom are engaged in to-day, he joins in our thanksgivings
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. I 59 
 
 for what he was inspired to do, and the fruits of which we 
 are reaping, for the Church Universal, and its "unity of 
 spirit in the bond of peace"; yet, let us give the glory to 
 God! [Applause.] 
 
 Dr. Farley's address was listened to with deep interest by 
 the audience. At its conclusion, the Chairman introduced, 
 as the next speaker, Rev. J. B. Thomas, D.D., Pastor of the 
 Pierrepont Street Baptist Church, who was heartily ap- 
 plauded, as he came forward to the platform. 
 
 EEMARKS OF REV. J, B. THOMAS, D.D. 
 
 Were there no other occasion, I should be most happy to 
 be here to-day in response to the courtesy of my valued 
 friend and neighbor, whose spotless life and faithful minis- 
 try and amiable spirit I have so long known. I find it easy 
 to obey the Scripture precept to love my neighbor as myself; 
 and I am glad to share in all things that make him glad and 
 in all things that he reverences. 
 
 But, aside from that, this occasion has for me an interest, 
 as I trust it has for all lovers of their kind, who believe that 
 good men are not superfluous in the world, and are not to be 
 hastily forgotten. 
 
 I am associated with that body of -people whom Dean 
 Stanley recently called "the austere sect," — the Baptists, — 
 and whom he regards, and probably many others regard, as 
 the most unprogressive Christian people. It might seem 
 strange that there should be the suggestion of any possible 
 affinity between them and you who are accounted the most 
 progressive ; and yet, were I to look to-day for the largest 
 and most trenchant compilation of authorities sustaining our 
 views on the particular question which outwardly separates 
 us from other Christians, I should look for it in the Racovian 
 Catechism.
 
 l6o CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 If you and Dr. Channing are the product of Ihc Reforma- 
 tion, so are we. If you insist upon the spirit of free inquiry, 
 so did we. If you insist upon supremacy of the spirit over 
 form, whether in organization or in expression, so have we, 
 so do we. The root of our organization is not in exterior 
 separation, by ordinance or by creed, but in the radical 
 proposition that the word of God alone, unmanacled, unper- 
 verted by the decree or the organized influence of man, is 
 sufficient for the individual soul. Such is the corner-stone 
 of our organization. 
 
 When I say this, I do not forget that, in the years since 
 the Racovian Catechism was promulgated, you and we have 
 gone far apart. I have no fear to-day that you will be mis- 
 taken for Baptists because you invite me to speak, or that I 
 shall be mistaken for a Unitarian because I respond to your 
 invitation. 
 
 I am reminded, however, that this occasion is a memorial, 
 not of the particular faith which you hold or of the particu- 
 lar organization which you represent, but of the particular 
 man to whom you do honor. I am reminded that that man 
 himself accounted himself, and I trust that by those who 
 appreciate him he is accounted, as above the organizations 
 which he deprecated as merely provisional, regarding them 
 as matters of necessity, but believing that man was before 
 the organized church, that he will be after it, and that he is 
 superior to it, [Applause.] I remember with what earnest- 
 ness he inveighed and protested against those barriers and 
 hinderances which cramped from without, rather than devel- 
 oped from within, the nature that God has given us. I 
 remember how sterling a champion he was for freedom to 
 seek the truth; and, if you will pardon me, still more by 
 his spirit than by his word, a champion of the purest spiritu- 
 ality in i:eligion. 
 
 Many years have passed since he was taken from us. In
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. l6l 
 
 that very profound and moving discourse to which I had the 
 feHcity of listening with many of you last night, the question 
 was asked, How has the time so changed that men of all 
 faiths are ready to do reverence to Dr. Channing .'' It is true, 
 unquestionably, that the time has gone by when men will be 
 at once disposed of by classifying them under the organiza- 
 tions to which they belong. ■ Men count as tiien. Pondcran- 
 tur noil numerantiir. In parliamentary assemblies, sometimes, 
 in haste, they read bills by their titles, and so dispose of 
 them ; but let men no longer be read by their titles or by 
 their ecclesiastical relationships: let them be pondered, in 
 order that we may know what is in them. No man was ever 
 more earnest than Dr. Channing in the opinion that the prin- 
 cipal thing in a man is not the specific intellectual conception 
 of truth that he has, but his devotion to the truth as truth ; 
 that a man should be true to the truth, — not that he should 
 accept my opinion or your opinion, but that he should main- 
 tain his own opinion until he get a better one, and that he 
 should be seeking always for a better one. This, I appre- 
 hend, he put above any exterior relation. This, I take it, 
 he thought would bring the world along, rather than any 
 mechanical process. This, as I understand it, he believed to 
 be God's ideal of, and God's preparation for, the progress 
 of truth and of Christianity in the world. And this I sympa- 
 thize with. 
 
 I remember Dr. Channing's trenchant papers on creeds, 
 copies of which I see here. Dr. Channing was an alert dis- 
 putant. He was a man of rare clearness in statement. He 
 was a man of vigorous and forcible logical faculty, and, I 
 think, not altogether unwilling to cross the sword in debate, — 
 for men like to do that which they can do well ; and yet I have 
 never been prepared to accept the suggestion that his discus- 
 sions were emotionless, and transparent only because they 
 were icy. They rather seem to me to be luminous with the
 
 l62 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 light within the cloud. As has been pithily said of another: 
 "His words are vascular. Cut them, and they would bleed." 
 Underneath them, you catch the throb of the heart; and 
 this it is that will perpetuate his memory among all men. 
 Men's thoughts perish in the day that they are born, they 
 are but as the leaves of autumn ; but the spirit that informs 
 them lives in them and goes beyond them, as it goes beyond 
 the life of man. 
 
 In that noble discussion of last evening, emphasis was laid 
 upon Dr. Channing's loyalty to Christ. " Grace be with all 
 them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." I was 
 taught it in my childhood, I seek to apprehend it in my 
 manhood. May God let me die with that spirit in my heart 
 and those words upon my lips. 
 
 When Dr. J. W. Alexander died, and the passage was 
 quoted, " I know whom I believed," and it was corrected by 
 inserting the preposition " zV/," he said, " No ! no ! I know 
 whom I have believed." Now, Dr. Channing did not profess 
 to know all about Him whom he believed : he did profess to 
 know Him. As through his clear eye he looked beneath the 
 husk of things in politics, in humanitarian reform, in the dis- 
 cussions of the time, in literature, in all the phases of human 
 existence, and saw life within form greater than form, so 
 he reverenced Christ as revealed through a deeper faculty 
 and a more spiritual intimacy than logical definition brings. 
 Therefore, he was a man of mighty power in his day, and a 
 man whose influence will not speedily die. 
 
 I should perhaps stop here, for I am not a missionary to 
 this people ; but will you permit me, having expressed, as I 
 sincerely feel, the most unfeigned admiration for Dr. Chan- 
 ning, to make a suggestion, which I would not have ven- 
 tured but for an allusion that I heard from one [Dr. 
 Peabody] whom men of all faiths reverence, and to whose 
 utterances they listen with devout respect, and with the
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 1 63 
 
 most earnest desire to profit by them? Alluding to the 
 widely diverse developments of Unitarianism since Dr. 
 Channing's day, he spoke of it as the "Texas of Chris- 
 tendom," to which men holding all shades of opinion had 
 resorted, when forced by the rigor of creeds to leave their 
 denominational relations. Accepting the figure, the inquiry 
 is suggested, " How comes Texas to be so proverbial a 
 refuge as to make the allusion significant.?" Was it not that, 
 lying between the United States and Mexico, it suffered the 
 inconveniences and dangers of the frontier, being open to 
 emigration from either side ? Dr. Channing himself ex- 
 pressed great apprehensions, as we are reminded, in regard 
 to its annexation to the Union, lest the Union should be it- 
 self deteriorated. 
 
 His apprehensions were in some measure realized, but yet 
 were perhaps exaggerated so far as their ultimate results are 
 concerned ; for, although Texas did get into the Union some- 
 what modified, it has not destroyed the Union, and it has a 
 future yet before it. 
 
 Allusion was made to the transcendental element which 
 affected theology in New England. If I remember rightly, 
 there was a sentence of Dr. Channing's in one of his articles 
 to this purport : That all sects, all bodies of people, have 
 tried too much to define their religion ; that the Infinite is 
 undefinable, and inaccessible to the square, the compass, and 
 the measuring lines of logic ; that transcendentalism which 
 is intellectual is but a counterfeit and a mockery. It is the 
 cloud without the glory, thin, cold, and life-destroying. 
 
 But there is a transcendentalism that reaches to the 
 Throne. There is a transcendentalism in which life grows 
 and thrives, and in which Dr. Channing himself was per- 
 petually bathed. The dangers of scholasticism, and the 
 damage it has done, he did not overestimate ; but will you 
 permit me to say that in his discussions, it seems to me, he
 
 164 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 may ha\e opened a narrow gap at least toward the scholastic 
 method, in meeting subtlety by subtlety in the attempt at an 
 intellectual counter-definition of the Divine? The old eccle- 
 siastical enginery, the dungeon-houses, the instruments of 
 torture, might perhaps better have been burned up by the 
 fires of love than hammered down by catapults of polemic 
 discussion. 
 
 But, my friends, let me say this, — and pardon me for 
 having detained you so long, — while I do not accept Dr. 
 Chanuing's theology so far as formal statements are con- 
 cerned, and while I am not therefore a Unitarian, I bow 
 humbly at the feet of the man whom I believe to have been 
 a brave, pure, devout, unselfish worshipper and disciple of 
 the Master that I serve ; and I greet you in memory of the 
 hour in which he was born ; and I pray God that, as the 
 years go on, the clash of war and the strife of tongues, and 
 all those divisions that make Christianity to mean anarchy 
 rather than a kingdom, may be overcome, and that the 
 shadows may flee before the better dawn which brings the 
 better day, in which distant things shall be seen to be distant 
 and immeasurable, in which friends shall not be mistaken for 
 enemies, nor enemies for friends. [Applause.] 
 
 The Chairman. — That was a voice from out the great 
 Baptist communion, expressive of the very spirit of Roger 
 Williams. And now I have the pleasure of introducing to 
 you, from another large and powerful denomination which 
 has done much good in the world, which has had great suc- 
 cess in the past, and which we hope may have still greater 
 success in the future, the Rev. Dr. Buckley of the Hanson 
 Place Methodist Church of this city, who has just arrived, 
 and will say some words to you.
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 165 
 
 EEMASZS OF REV. DR. J. M. BUCKLEY. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, mid Ladies and Gentlemen, — I am not doc- 
 trinally or theologically in any sense in sympathy with what 
 are distinctively called Unitarian views. The gentlemen 
 who invited me to speak here informed me that I would be 
 permitted to express my candid estimate of the life and work 
 of the Rev. William Ellery Channing ; and I have assumed 
 that it is possible to do that in a manner that shall be in har- 
 mony with the spirit of this occasion. 
 
 The few moments that I shall speak will be devoted to 
 that simple statement. Invited at a late hour, I should not 
 have presumed myself competent to make such a statement 
 if I had not, ever since I entered the ministry, carefully read 
 and studied the works of Dr. Channing. I had the fortune 
 to begin my ministry in the State of New Hampshire and 
 the town of Exeter, the site of Phillips Academy, within a 
 very few miles of Portsmouth, where at that time the Rev. 
 Dr. Peabody was an honored pastor. The system to which 
 I belong rarely trusts a minister, in his earlier stages, very 
 long in one place. Consequently, after having had the op- 
 portunity to derive all the good I could from the people of 
 Exeter, and to communicate all it was supposed possible that 
 I could give, I was removed to Dover ; but I was still as 
 near Portsmouth as before. 
 
 Now, Dr. Peabody I heard preach with profound respect ; 
 and I was led to believe, when I heard him, that the differ- 
 ence between his theological views and mine was very slight. 
 But when I removed to Dover, where there was a very large 
 church of the Unitarian denomination, I found the incumbent 
 of that church a very different man theologically, to say no 
 more, from the Rev. Dr. Peabody. And when he and I met 
 on the School Board, — both of us being appointed as mem- 
 bers of that Board, according to the custom which prevails in
 
 l66 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 that city. — wliilc we devoted considerable time to the consid- 
 eration of matters of education, as required at our hands by 
 the law, in the intervals we devoted a great deal more time to 
 theological debate ; and I found that the difference between 
 him and me was so vast as to be absolutely irreconcilable. In 
 order to prepare myself to convince him that he had widely 
 departed from the doctrines of the Unitarian fathers, I pro- 
 cured the works of Dr. Channing, and during the two years I 
 spent there I always managed to have a quotation ready for 
 him. The quotations that seemed to disturb him most were 
 those in which Dr. Channing stated that the death of Christ 
 appeared to have some peculiar and special relation to the 
 pardon of sin. I was familiar with those passages. I could 
 repeat them ; and I assure you it gave me a great deal of pleas- 
 ure to remind my radical friend of those words of Dr. Chan- 
 ning. And while I was studying Dr. Channing, even from that 
 somewhat equivocal point of view, I came to love his style 
 very much, — not the less so because I saw from the begin- 
 ning that I should never be able to imitate its clearness, its 
 beauty, or its marvellous balance. 
 
 Now, I do not know who is in this house ; but I fancy to 
 myself that we have in the city of Brooklyn a clergyman 
 whose style in very many particulars resembles that of Dr. 
 Channing. I refer to the Rev. Dr. Storrs. I say in many 
 partiadars. I do not for a moment suppose the resemblance 
 to be perfect ; but in the particular of the marvellous capacity 
 to illustrate thought, and to balance every part, and to con- 
 struct a discourse so that it shall resemble a symmetrical 
 piece of architecture, I think I see a very great similarity. 
 I may be permitted to say that I think in simplicity Dr. 
 Channing surpassed the gentleman to whom I refer, and 
 almost every great speaker in the country to-day. I do not 
 suppose that Dr. Channing as a public speaker would have 
 attracted great attention in the South, from his lack of a
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 1 67 
 
 certain kind of fervency, or in the West, from his excess, 
 relatively to the attainments in that region, of refinement ; 
 but in New England, and in the more cultivated circles of 
 the Middle States, it seems to me Dr. Channing's style was 
 exactly adapted to make the profoundest impression. I have 
 never supposed that he was a logician, in the technical sense 
 of that term. I think it would have been impossible for John 
 Calvin and Dr. Channing to converse together to their mu- 
 tual satisfaction and edification, entirely apart from their 
 doctrinal views. I believe that John Wesley would have 
 considered Dr. Channing a genuine Christian, but that he 
 would not have been able to argue with him. John Wesley 
 was a dialectician and a logician, who used his logic as a 
 means to an end, to prove the point he had in view at the 
 time. Dr. Channing — and, in order to assure you that I 
 have not been drawn astray in my former reflections, I will 
 say that I have spent a couple of hours this morning in 
 reading his selected discourses — seems to me to have been 
 a philosopher. He was, however, led aside by a poetic ten- 
 dency from the straight lines of philosophy ; and it appears 
 to me that he was not as logically consistent as some who 
 would go further. 
 
 Permit me a single word here. If I adopted the root prin- 
 ciples of Dr. Channing himself, I fancy that my tempera- 
 ment, my thoughts, and my way of following out to the last 
 results what I seemed to myself to see, would take me a 
 great deal further than he went. On the other hand, if I 
 had such a pure spirituality, if I may use such a term, as 
 that which he possessed, but which I lay no claim to by 
 nature, — and I say nothing in this presence about grace! — 
 I fancy that my temperament would not lead me to go so far 
 as he did, but would lead me rather to content myself with 
 dwelling in the regions of experience. 
 
 Dr. Channing was of very great use to the Methodists in
 
 I 68 CHANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 tlio folli)wing manner. He iisctl the spleinlor of his intellect 
 against Calvinism. In that respect, he was of very great 
 benefit to us. Our entrance into New England was under 
 peculiar circumstances. Our first preacher stood on Boston 
 Common and lifted up his voice. No church was opened to 
 receive him in the State of Massachusetts. He lifted up his 
 voice in song. He understood then what the world under- 
 stands now, — that the people will hear a singer when they 
 will not hear a speaker. Though he had but few listeners to 
 begin with, his powerful voice, singing in a style that was 
 not known in that part of the country, soon attracted a vast 
 concourse. He lifted up his voice like a trumpet to de- 
 nounce Calvinism ; and certainly a man is more sure when 
 he is in a dogmatic state of a satisfactory flow of speech than 
 when he depends upon the changing moods of feeling. And 
 he created a great excitement; and, when he waked the 
 people up to understand what he was doing, an old gentle- 
 man came forward, and, with a voice as loud as that of the 
 speaker, said, " Are we to stand on Boston Common and 
 hear our foundation principles attacked .^ " They all agreed 
 they were not there for that purpose ; and, as in the case of 
 Paul on Mars Hill, some said they would hear him again, and 
 others said, "What doth this babbler say .-* " 
 
 Such was our entrance into New England, and we could 
 not do much for a long time; but Dr. Channing used the 
 splendor of his intellect and his marvellous influence, and 
 fought our battles, so far as Calvinism was concerned. 
 
 Now, Mr. Chairman, if, in the complacency which is a 
 part of our denominational life, growing out of our great 
 success, we felicitate ourselves on having the sense and 
 grace to stop a little this side of Dr. Channing's final point, 
 we should not be blamed for that. We appreciate the work 
 he did in assisting us in our protest against Calvinism. And 
 if he were alive to-day, and were to apply for admission into 
 
 I 
 I
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 169 
 
 our church as a layman, I, standing here as a warrior upon 
 the walls of Zion, would vote for the admission of a man of 
 God, a patriot, a philanthropist, a friend of temperance, a 
 friend of his country, a friend of the laboring classes, and a 
 friend of all good men ; but candor requires me to say that, 
 if he were to apply for admission into our ministry, while I 
 should rejoice to recognize him as a friend of humanity, and, 
 I will say with Brother Thomas, as a friend of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and as one whose influence in many particu- 
 lars has promoted the interests of the kingdom of Christ in 
 the world, especially in this country, I am afraid, sir, that 
 logical consistency would compel me to raise some points, 
 the final effect of which might be to delay or embarrass his 
 entrance into the ministry. 
 
 This, Mr. Chairman, is my candid opinion of the life and 
 work of Dr. Channing. I rejoice that he has lived. I 
 acknowledge my indebtedness to him. I do not positively 
 know that even, from my point of view, his influence has 
 been deleterious to the progress of Christ's kingdom in the 
 world. But his principles were not mine. I cannot accept 
 his views ; and therefore I simply would honor him as a 
 great factor in American civilization, and befleve that every 
 citizen of the United States, in making a list of the men 
 of influence and of power that our country has produced, is 
 compelled, with delight and admiration, to include among 
 the foremost the name of William Ellery Channing. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Ladies and gentlemen, I am very much obliged to you for 
 the opportunity of speaking to-day, and for the attention 
 which you have given me. 
 
 The Chairman. — We are glad, you see, to have the freest 
 utterances of members of different communions. We pro- 
 pose to have the greatest possible variety. And so, having
 
 170 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 heard from our friend Dr. Ihomas, of the Baptist Church, 
 and our friend Dr. Buckley, of the Methodist Church, not to 
 take too large a leap at once, I will call upon our friend Mr. 
 Chadwick to offer some remarks and read us his Centennial 
 Ode. 
 
 KEMARZS OF REV. J. W. CHADWICK. 
 
 Ladies and Gentletneji, — You are well aware, no doubt, 
 that, in making the preparations for this noble and beautiful 
 occasion, Dr. Putnam has said to one man, " Go," and he 
 goeth, and to another, "Come," and he cometh, and to a 
 third, " Do this," and he doeth it ; and, when he said to me, 
 " Go you and couch the words you have to say in a sort of 
 rhyme and rhythm," I did just as he told me. But for Dr. 
 Putnam's commands, I should not presume to vary from my 
 ordinary form of speech ; but, as it is, I am to read to you a 
 kind of hymn, or ode, on The Hundredth Anni'^ersary of 
 Channing's Birthday : — 
 
 CENTENNIAL ODE. 
 
 iW hundred years ago to-day I 
 
 How often in this latter time, 
 
 In fond memorial speech or rhyme. 
 Has it been ours these words to say! 
 
 A hundred years to-day, we said, 
 
 Since Concord bridge and Lexington 
 
 Saw the great struggle well begun 
 And the first heroes lying dead. 
 
 A hundred years since Bunker Hill 
 
 Saw the red-coated foemen reel 
 
 Once and again before the steel 
 Of Prescott's men, victorious still 
 
 In their defeat ; a hundred years 
 
 Since Independence-bell rang out 
 
 To all the people round about, 
 Who answered it with deafening cheers,
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. I7I 
 
 Proclaiming, spite the scorner's scorn, 
 
 That then and there — the womb of time 
 
 Through sufferance triumphing sublime — 
 Another nation had been born. 
 
 "All men are equal in their birth," 
 
 Rang out the steeple-rocking bell ; 
 
 Rejoice, O heaven I Give heed, O helll 
 Here was good news to all the earth. 
 
 And still our hearts have kept the count 
 
 Of things that daily brought more near, 
 
 Through various hap of hope or fear, 
 The pattern visioned in the mount. 
 
 Nor yet the tale is fully told 
 
 Of all the years that brought us pain, 
 
 And through the age of iron again 
 The dawning of the age of gold. 
 
 But naught of this has brought us here, 
 With the old saying on our lips, 
 What time the rolling planet dips 
 
 Into the spring-tide of the year. 
 
 Apart from all the dire alarms 
 Of field or flood in that old time, 
 With reverent feet our fancies climb 
 
 To where a mother's circling arms 
 
 Enraptured hold a babe new born ; 
 And who was there to prophesy, 
 Though loving hearts beat strong and high. 
 
 Of what a day this was the morn t 
 
 For in that life but just begun 
 The prescient fates a gift had bound 
 As dear to man as any found 
 
 Within the courses of the sun, — 
 
 A gift of manhood strong and wise, 
 Nor foreign to the lowliest earth — 
 Whereon the Word has human birth — 
 
 Ilowc'er conversant with the skies. 
 
 A hundred years ago to-day 
 Since Channing's individual life 
 From out the depths of being, rife 
 
 With spiritual essence, found a way,
 
 172 CHANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 And welcome here, ami torccs kind 
 To gently nurse his growing power 
 With steady help until the flower 
 
 Of instinct was a conscious mind. 
 
 To him the sea its message brought, 
 Filling his mind with sacred awe 
 What time his eye enraptured saw 
 
 Its wildest tumult; or he caught 
 
 From its deep calm some peace of heart ; 
 To him the ages brought their lore 
 Of books, and living men their store 
 
 Of thought, and still the better part 
 
 Of all his nurture was the eye 
 Turned inward, seeking in the mind 
 Some higher, deeper law to find 
 
 Than that which spheres the starry sky. 
 
 And so the youth to manhood came, 
 A being frail — with nameless eyes, 
 That seemed to look on Paradise — 
 
 As clear as dew, as clean as flame. 
 
 He willed in quiet to abide, 
 Leading his flock through pastures green 
 And by the waters still, where lean 
 
 The mystic trees on either side. 
 
 But on his listening ear there fell 
 The jarring discord of the sects. 
 Still making with their war of texts 
 
 The pleasant earth a kind of hell. 
 
 He saw the Father's sacrtd name 
 Made dim by Calvary's suffering rood ; 
 Man devil-born — a spawning flood, 
 
 Engendering naught but curse and shame. 
 
 He saw the freedom of the mind 
 
 Denied, and doubt esteemed a crime ; — 
 The path whereby the boldest climb 
 
 To heights which cowards never find. 
 
 He saw the manhood which to him 
 Was image of the highest God 
 Trodden as if it were a clod 
 
 'Neath Slavery's idol-chariot grim.
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 1 73 
 
 lie saw it fouled with various sin, 
 
 Sick'ning from lack of air and light, 
 
 Abjuring glories infinite 
 To fatten at the sensual bin. 
 
 He heard and saw ; his shepherd's rod 
 
 With grieving heart he broke in twain ; 
 
 The wondering world beheld again 
 A prophet of the living God. 
 
 Then, as of old, was heard a voice : 
 
 "His way prepare," and "Come with me, 
 
 All ye that heavy-laden be, 
 Take up my burden, and rejoice." 
 
 It rang through all the sleepy land 
 
 In tones so sweet and silver clear 
 
 The waking people seemed to hear 
 The accents of divine command. 
 
 The statesman heard it in his place. 
 
 The oppressor in his cursed field, 
 
 And hearts beyond the ocean yield 
 Allegiance to his truth and grace. 
 
 Our Father, God; our Brother, Man: 
 
 On these commandments twain he hung 
 
 The law and prophets all, and rung 
 For all the churches' eager ban 
 
 A hundred changes deep and strong; 
 
 Let who would hear him or forbear. 
 
 The ancient lie he would not spare, 
 The doubtful right, the vested wrong. 
 
 What words were his of purest flame 
 
 When, straining up from height to height. 
 
 He felt the Presence infinite 
 And named the Everlasting Name I 
 
 With him the thought and deed were one : 
 
 Man was indeed the Son of God ; 
 
 " What, strike a man ! " * Break every rod 
 Of hate beneath the all-seeing sun I 
 
 So greatly born, how dare to trail 
 
 Our festal garlands in the mire I 
 
 How dare not evermore aspire 
 To Him who is within the veil I 
 
 • Hi» argument against flogging in the Navy.
 
 174 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 In weakness iiuulc cacli day more strong, 
 Softly his days went trooping past 
 Till, robed in beauty, came the last, 
 
 And with the sun he went along; 
 
 Not to oblivion's dreamless sleep, 
 But, like the sun, on other lands 
 To shine, where other, busier hands 
 
 The fields immortal sow and reap. 
 
 And he is ours 1 Yes, if we dare, 
 Leaving the letter of his creed. 
 Say to his mighty spirit, " Lead, 
 
 We follow hard." Yes, if no care 
 
 Is ours for aught but this : to know 
 What is God's truth, and knowing this 
 To count it still our dearest bliss 
 
 To go with that where'er it go. 
 
 So shall we go with him ; so feel 
 That comfort which the Spirit of Truth 
 Gives all who with his loving ruth 
 
 Are pledged to her for woe or weal. 
 
 O thou whom, though we have not seen. 
 
 We love! Upon our toilsome way 
 
 Be thy pure spirit as a ray 
 From out that Light which is too clean 
 
 Uncleanness to behold ; shine clear. 
 
 That to our dimly peering eyes 
 
 All hidden truths, all specious lies. 
 That which they are may straight appear. 
 
 There is no ending to thy road. 
 
 No limit to thy fleeting goal. 
 
 But speeds the ever-greatening soul 
 From truth to truth, from God to God. 
 
 [Applause.] 
 
 The Chairman. — Mr. Oliver Johnson was in the earliest 
 fight with William Lloyd Garrison against slavery, and we 
 deem ourselves fortunate to have him here this morning; 
 for he knows something about Dr. Channing's connection
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 1^5 
 
 with that movement, and had the great pleasure and privi- 
 lege of listening to some of Dr. Channing's famous public 
 discourses, as published in his works. Mr. Johnson will now 
 address you. 
 
 EEMAEZS OF ME. OLIVER JOHNSON. 
 
 Mr. Johnson. — I feel myself very highly honored in being 
 invited to say a few words on this occasion. I have the 
 greatest reverence for the memory of Charining. My ac- 
 quaintance with him was indeed but slight. When I went 
 to Boston, as a boy, in 1830, I used often to see him in the 
 street. His figure was familiar to me ; but that was the time 
 as you all remember — or at least as you all knoiv, if you are 
 not old enough to remember — when the great controversy 
 between Orthodoxy and Unitarian ism in Boston was at its 
 height, — Dr. Beecher the great leader of Orthodoxy, and 
 Dr. Channing the great leader of Unitarianism. I was then 
 an intensely earnest orthodox man. I had united with the 
 church a few years before, and was looking forward to the 
 Christian ministry ; and I was told by those around me, in 
 whom I had the utmost confidence, that Unitarianism was 
 infidelity, or something not much better than that. There- 
 fore, when I first came in contact with Dr. Channing, I was 
 under the influence of very strong prejudice, — not against 
 him personally, however, except as he was the representa- 
 tive of Unitarianism. 
 
 It was not a great while after this that the first Anti- 
 slavery Society — the parent of all that great circle of asso- 
 ciations which agitated this land nearly fifty years ago, and 
 which prepared the way for the abolition of slavery in our 
 country — was organized in Boston ; and, in the preliminary 
 meetings which we held to consider the question of organ- 
 izing that society, I met the noble man [Samuel E. Sewall]
 
 176 CHANNING CKNTENAKY. 
 
 wiioiic letter has just been read, then one of the young men 
 of Channing's congregation ; and I said to myself, " Now I 
 shall see what Unitarianism is." I never shall forget the 
 strong prejudice with which I came in contact with that 
 young man, and with another equally noble, Mr. Ellis Gray 
 Loring, also a member of Dr. Channing's congregation. I 
 expected to find those men destitute of a Christian spirit. 
 I supposed I should hear, when they opened their lips, some 
 utterance of infidelity. I believed with all my heart that 
 figs could not grow upon thistles ; and, as I had been told 
 that Unitarianism was a thistle, I was looking out for some- 
 thing very bad to come from these men. But, when I wit- 
 nessed their Christian deportment and their firm attachment 
 to the truth, I felt rebuked for my presumption ; and I began 
 to open my eyes, and to ask whether, after all, I had not 
 been misinformed, and whether it was not possible for a 
 good man to come up under the influence of Unitarianism. 
 And let me say that I was not long in correcting the error 
 into which I had fallen. In the Christian character of those 
 two men was revealed to me the spirit of Channing and of 
 Unitarianism. 
 
 It was my privilege to hear Channing preach but once, 
 and then I listened with orthodox ears. It was on the occa- 
 sion of the delivery of his "Election Sermon" in 1832, which 
 will be found in his works under the title of " Spiritual Free- 
 dom." It is certainly one of the finest of his discourses. 
 He addressed the "assembled wisdom" of the Common- 
 wealth in that historic place, the Old South Church. I 
 recall the scene now as freshly as if it were only yesterday 
 that it occurred. As he spake, he held his manuscript in his 
 left hand, and his voice, though gentle as a woman's, filled 
 the house. How vividly I recall his utterance of this strik- 
 ing passage, which will live while the English language con- 
 tinues to be spoken ! — 
 
 I call that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 177 
 
 powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with a 
 passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whencesoever it 
 may come, which receives new truth as an angel from heaven, which, 
 while consulting others, inquires still more of the oracle within itself, 
 and uses instructions from abroad, not to supersede, but to quicken and 
 exalt its own energies. 
 
 The exquisite intonation and emphasis with which this 
 and other passages of the discourse were read made a deep 
 impression upon my youthful mind. 
 
 Dr. Channing at first kept aloof from the abolitionists, 
 partly because of the intense individualism which led him 
 to distrust all organized movements, and partly because our 
 bold and uncompromising utterances grated harshly upon his 
 sensitive — may I not say his over-sensitive .■' — ear. He 
 could not well bear the noise of the ecclesiastical machinery 
 by means of which his own religious thoughts were sent 
 forth to the world. He shrank from being called an aboli- 
 tionist, partly from the same feeling which led him to say, " I 
 have little or no interest in the Unitarians as a sect ; I have 
 hardly anything to do with them ; I can endure no sectarian 
 bonds." He stood for himself in all things. The abolition- 
 ists were exceedingly unpopular; and he probably thought he 
 should gain a more favorable hearing if he magnified some- 
 what the differences between them and himself. But he did 
 not by this means escape the brand of abolitionist. The 
 whole pro-slavery party stamped it upon him, hurling at his 
 head every epithet that they had bestowed upon Garrison. 
 The good doctor, notwithstanding his clear moral insight, 
 was slow in accepting the doctrine of immediate emancipa- 
 tion. He was not quite sure that it would be safe to set all 
 the slaves free at once. The results of emancipation in the 
 British West Indies convinced him at last, as his Lenox ad- 
 dress proves. He thought that a great sin did not neces- 
 sarily imply great sinners, and he had somehow persuaded
 
 \yS CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 himself that there was a way of touching off an anti-slavery 
 gun, and a well-loaded one too, "aisily," as the Irishman 
 said, without making a disturbance. Experience soon cor- 
 rected this mistake on his part. The reverberations of his 
 own gun, so gently discharged as he thought, startled thou- 
 sands from their sleep, and made the slave-holders and their 
 apologists angry. The abolitionists, it must be confessed, 
 did not relish his criticisms, and paid him back in his own 
 coin. The account was long ago settled; and they have no 
 unpleasant memories, but are glad to honor him for his noble 
 and timely testimony. His agreements with them were cen- 
 tral and vital, his differences but incidental and transient. 
 Nor should it be forgotten that he bore with meekness a load 
 of reproach, such as fell to the lot only of the bravest and 
 truest champions of the slave. Even in his own parish, his 
 message was unheeded, save by a few. When he asked that 
 the doors of his church might be opened for a eulogy upon 
 his beloved friend, Dr. Pollen, a warm-hearted abolitionist, 
 to be pronounced by another dear friend, the late Samuel 
 J. May, they were rudely shut in his face. In this and many 
 other ways, he was made to feel that his testimony against 
 slavery had greatly impaired his reputation. But he neither 
 wavered nor turned back. His voice grew clearer and 
 stronger to the end. 
 
 When in 1837 Elijah P. Lovejoy was murdered at Alton, 
 and the liberty of the press struck down by violence, Chan- 
 ning was the first man in Boston to seek to bring the people 
 of that city to a sense of the importance of speaking out 
 against that outrage. It was through his influence that a 
 great meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, and held — let me 
 say it to the shame of Boston — in the daytime, because we 
 dared not hold it in the evening, knowing that it would 
 be broken up by a mob. His friend Jonathan Phillips, the 
 senior deacon of his church, took the chair. I shall never
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 1/9 
 
 forget the appearance of Dr. Charming as he presented him- 
 self in that meeting. His face was all aglow with solemn 
 earnestness, his voice tremulous with emotion, his whole 
 attitude and bearing that of a prophet with a message from 
 God. He spoke briefly, but eloquently. There followed 
 him into that meeting a distinguished lawyer of Boston, a 
 member of his own congregation, James T. Austin, Esq., 
 who sprang to his feet the moment the doctor's speech was 
 concluded, and, intruding himself upon the audience, uttered 
 a most disgraceful harangue, which he doubtless thought 
 would have the effect of breaking up the meeting. For a 
 time there seemed to be reason to fear that he would 
 succeed in his purpose ; but, under the inspiring eloquence 
 of Phillips, all such apprehensions were soon averted. The 
 voice of that meeting went forth to cheer the friends of 
 freedom all over the land. 
 
 Once, and once only, did I have a personal interview with 
 Channing; but that to me was memorable. It was at his 
 home in Portsmouth, near Newport, in 1838 or 1839. ^ "^^^ 
 then the secretary and general agent of the Rhode Island 
 Anti-slavery Society, and I eagerly embraced an opportunity 
 to visit him. He received me with a gracious sweetness and 
 dignity that I shall never forget, and his counsel, modestly 
 given, was most cheering and helpful. In that day, the anti- 
 slavery lecturer was often called to face a mob. More than 
 once had the tar-kettle been heated for me, and the garment 
 of feathers woven for my behoof. In such circumstances, the 
 words of Channing gave me fresh courage. 
 
 There are not many persons, if there is even a single one, 
 •in this house, who, like myself, witnessed the funeral rites 
 of Channing, and looked upon his placid, I had almost said 
 his seraphic, face in death. One circumstance connected 
 with that funeral ought to be mentioned. Some years be- 
 fore, when the good Catholic Bishop Cheverus died, and
 
 I So CHANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 funeral services were held in the "Church of the Holy 
 Cross," the boll on the Federal Street Church was tolled by 
 Dr. Channing's particular request, as a token of respect for 
 his memory. The Catholics did not forget it ; and now the 
 boll on the "Church of the Holy Cross" in Franklin Street 
 pealed forth a requiem in honor of an uncanonized but truly 
 catholic saint. 
 
 In conclusion, dear friends, — for I have spoken too long 
 — I will say, Let us, in honoring a prophet of the past, not 
 forget to honor and love the prophets of our own time, — 
 the true messengers of God, who live and move among us ! 
 [Applause.] 
 
 The Chairman. — We would ask the audience to rise and 
 sing, to the tune of "America," the first and the last two 
 stanzas, on the printed slip, of the Memorial Hymn for the 
 Centennial Anniversary, written for this occasion by the 
 venerable Dr. William Newell, of Cambridge, Mass., who had 
 some personal acquaintance with Dr. Channing, and who has 
 -also sent us a letter, which will be published with others that 
 have been received, but which cannot all be read now for 
 lack of time. 
 
 MEMOKIAL HYMN. 
 
 By EEV. WM. NEWELL, D.D. 
 
 And now abideth Faith, Hope, Charity. — I. Cor. xiii., 13. 
 Charity rejoiceth in the Truth. — I. CoR. xiii., 6. 
 And the Truth shall make you free. — John viii., 32. 
 
 All hail, God's angel, Truth I 
 In whose immortal youth 
 
 Fresh graces shine : 
 To her sweet majesty, 
 Lord, help us bend the knee, 
 And all her beauty see, 
 
 And wealth divine.
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 151 
 
 Thanks for the might of Faith, 
 That fears not change or death 
 
 Under God's care; 
 Bringing the distant nigh 
 To the soul's quickened eye, 
 And soaring to the sky 
 
 On wings of prayer. 
 
 Thanks for the light of Hope, 
 As through the mist we grope 
 
 Toward heaven's far goal ; 
 On each dark cloud it shines, 
 Illuming God's designs 
 "Where ill with good combines 
 
 To round the whole. 
 
 Thanks for the heart of Love, 
 Kin to our Lord's above, 
 
 Tender and brave ; 
 Ready to bear the cross, 
 To suffer pain and loss 
 And earthly good count dross. 
 
 In toils to save. 
 
 Thanks for the names that light 
 The path of Truth and Right, 
 
 And Freedom's way ; 
 For him whose life doth prove 
 The might of Faith, Hope, Love, 
 Thousands of hearts to move, 
 
 A power to-day I 
 
 May his dear memory be 
 True guide, O Lord, to thee. 
 
 With saints of yore ; 
 And may the work he wrought, 
 The truth of God he taught. 
 The good for man he sought. 
 
 Spread evermore. 
 
 The Chairman. — We are very glad to see present with us 
 Dr. Hall, Rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in this 
 city. We all know his large and liberal spirit, and need not 
 to be assured beforehand of his interest in such an occasion 
 as this. I know he will respond to our call upon him, and 
 that you will all rejoice to hear him.
 
 I 82 CHANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 REMARKS OF CHARLES H. HALL, D.D. 
 
 It is a long time since I have felt so great an anxiety as I 
 do now to speak, or so profound a conviction that to do so 
 would be an impropriety. You must be talked out by this 
 time. I should be very glad if I had time to follow out one 
 idea, which of course it would be simply impossible to follow 
 out at this time ; namely, the place of Channing in the his- 
 tory of our various faiths as they are related to us to-day. 
 I must, then, only touch the salient points. 
 
 We drop from a man's name after he is dead, if he has 
 been good for anything, his ordinary Christian titles and the 
 honorary degrees that he may have picked up and carried as 
 a burden along the path of life ; and therefore I speak of 
 him whose memory we celebrate to-day simply by his one 
 name, Channing. 
 
 It is claimed that Channing was a Unitarian ; but, in the 
 graveyard where he sleeps, denominational lines are wholly 
 lost sight of. Although, according to the vicious habit 
 which prevails in Greenwood, and I presume in Mount Au- 
 burn, they may put chains about the lots, and build up 
 stone-walls around them, and erect hideous structures that 
 make the place unsightly, and take away all natural beauty 
 from it, yet under ground there are no distinctions. And 
 in the blessed shrines of the Church of Souls above it there 
 are none. There, I presume, "all hearts confess the saints 
 elect." The value of Channing to every one of us, whether 
 he was a Unitarian or a Baptist or a Presbyterian or a 
 Methodist or an Episcopalian, or what not, is simply very 
 precious. He did manfully the work which was given him 
 to do. 
 
 When the Puritans came to this country in 1620, it was 
 a tremendous change for John, the Puritan. Being perse- 
 cuted, he came over here to be a persecutor. He did not
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 1 83 
 
 persecute more than others, but he did something in that 
 bad way. I hide under the name of Prescott, who says that 
 he came hither to establish religious liberty for /^m.$-^^, — not, 
 as it proved, for all other men as well. He came over here 
 to assume a totally new relation. He came over here with 
 the tremendous gift of Calvinism, and it is an awful gift for 
 any man to bear ! 
 
 I reverence old John Calvin, while I differ with him, 
 though perhaps not so much in his ultimate thought. That 
 ultimate thought in his system, as I look at it, was, with 
 such doctrinal materials as he found ready to his hands, to 
 assert the superiority of an illuminated personal conscience 
 against the tyranny of an objective sacerdotal church. I 
 do not know that I differ with anybody in the ultimate 
 thought. I reverence him as I do great names in my own 
 Church, whom I estimate, not so much by what they did as 
 by the spirit which was in their hearts. 
 
 Well, the Puritans had had persecutions to keep them to- 
 gether in England, and they came over here to be governors, 
 constructors, and builders. They had a tremendous work. 
 
 Singularly enough, the first difficulty which they encoun- 
 tered was in regard to the sacrament. The first great press- 
 ure that bore upon them was the sacramental question, 
 though it did not take precisely that definite form. 
 
 John, the deacon's son, when he came to be of age, was 
 to be a voter; and Sally, the daughter of the other deacon 
 across the way, was to be married to John. And the ques- 
 tion came up as to what should be their relations — civil and 
 ecclesiastical — to the village and to the Church. John said, 
 " I love the meeting, I love the deacons, I love the whole 
 thing, and I believe all you say ; but I have not been struck 
 by lightning, I have not had that which every one of the 
 members say they have had." 
 
 Under oppression, they had been driven in upon the
 
 iS-l CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 centre, and they remained as one body ; but the attempt to 
 settle the questions how Sally's children should be baptized, 
 and how John should be allowed to be a voter and a civil 
 officer, agitated New England up to the time when old Dr. 
 Samuel Stoddard, of Northampton, having at last lost faith 
 in the old device of "the half-way covenant," struck out a 
 most peculiar sacramental idea, which our ritualistic friends 
 in my section of the Church are to-day striving to fructify 
 upon ; namely, that, though no man could put himself where 
 the lightning is going to strike, yet by the sacraments he 
 could get where he ought to be in case the lightning did 
 strike. Dr. Stoddard, in his "Appeal to the Learned," in 
 1705, wrote an admirable tract, a copy of which you will 
 find in the Yale College Library. He adopted a system 
 of reasoning on the sacrament to the effect that, while the 
 sacrament would not give an individual the conviction of his 
 personal election, it was a means to that grace ; and that, 
 therefore, John and Sally, and all such, should take it, if they 
 would promise to put themselves where the elective decree 
 ordinarily came to an issue. 
 
 That device became the acknowledged system of church 
 membership of Northampton, when Jonathan Edwards, that 
 magnificently terrible man, whom none of us can honor or 
 differ from too much, came to be the assistant minister of 
 his maternal grandfather. Dr. Stoddard. 
 
 Now we are all Unitarians, Presbyterians, and good fel- 
 lows together here to-day ; and we all have in our hearts, I 
 suppose, about what that grand man, the young Edwards, — 
 and I honor and love his memory almost as much as if I 
 had known him, — felt, when finding, as I think he was cor- 
 rect in concluding he found, that that system must go down 
 unless it could be saved from its own works, he struck out 
 the idea that, at whatever cost, every man must stand on 
 his sense of divine manhood, illuminated by the thought of
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 1 85 
 
 the election of God, with no compromise or " halt-way cove- 
 nant." With the most rigid Calvinism, — more rigid than 
 the platforms of Cambridge and Boston and Saybrook, and 
 more rigid even than the Westminster Catechism, — he at- 
 tempted to carry out that "revival" system, as it is now 
 called, which shook New England to the centre. Just then 
 came in that blundering Irishman, ordained of Providence to 
 bring the hidden thoughts of men to light by his surpassing 
 eloquence and his intolerable egotisms, Whitefield, "whose 
 shade through history halts," as Whittier well says. The 
 issue of his New England career was the remorseless test 
 put to every man of the sternest Calvinism or its most 
 decided negative. Compromise was at an end. It was Cal- 
 vinism, pure and simple, or a new departure. Then fol- 
 lowed the two Tennents, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, of New 
 Jersey. Then came the fanatical Davenport, of South old, 
 Long Island. And so came about what is called by Con- 
 gregational historians "the Great Awakening" of 1740. 
 
 From that time, it was predestined that there should be 
 two opposite movements, a Channing movement on the one 
 side, and a "revival "movement with Nettleton and other 
 thorough Calvinists on the other side; and it seems to me 
 that this man that we are speaking of to-day must, to his 
 own friends, as they stood nearer and nearer to him, have 
 appeared almost with an aureole upon his head, evidently 
 sainted before he was taken away. It is the simplest thing 
 in the world for us to stand here and recognize the true 
 pedestal on which he stood in the history of that movement 
 which was born in 1740. He did not create it, for it began 
 long before he was influenced by it. It was the effort of the 
 New England conscience to escape from the awful dogmas 
 of Edwards, — to find its way back to what I conceive to be 
 a better gospel. The real object was to save the gospel 
 and reject the iron system which called itself by that holy
 
 I 86 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 name. Thcrctoro, it was loni^ known as Arminianism, then, 
 after Channing had passed through the paths of Arianism, 
 as Socinianism, or Unitarianism. 
 
 As a boy, Channing must have had extraordinary keen- 
 ness of perception and tenderness of conscience. It was 
 the death of his father, I think, that went down into his soul 
 and stirred it to its depths, and brought him to a conscious 
 religious life, and to a constant thought of it ever after- 
 wards; and then, almost the first man that came in contact 
 with him, and made an impression upon his religious life, — 
 as some old dominie has first made his profound impression 
 upon us when we were boys, — and guided his mind, and 
 turned his thought, was Dr. Samuel Hopkins. 
 
 Dr. Hopkins was a pupil of Jonathan Edwards ; and I 
 tliink I am correct in saying that, as such, he had accepted 
 almost entirely Edwards' theological system. He accepted 
 with it another idea, which many of the best of the pagans 
 have held, which, if treated as unskilful men often do, you 
 may make seem fearful ; or you may use it wisely, and may 
 make it shine with the very brightness of God's presence. 
 That idea was, roughly, that a man should so live that he 
 shall feel more or less willing to be damned, if it be God's 
 will, for His glory. It is an old Stoical notion, which has 
 run through the human race from its beginning. And it 
 affected Hopkins powerfully ; and I imagine that it begat 
 William Ellery Channing. The first of the books that he 
 was profoundly interested in in college was Hutchinson's 
 " Ideas of Beauty and Virtue," which drilled him in that 
 same general idea, that, benevolence could not have a self- 
 ish origin. Take that principle, and follow it through his 
 earlier writings, and you find the man filled with its natural 
 results. And, by the way, let me say that we have all been 
 a little incorrect here this morning in supposing or talking 
 as if Channing had been brought up a Unitarian. The
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. iS/ 
 
 thing, as it appears to us to-day as a rounded system, is not 
 the thing as it appeared to men in 1780. It was then the 
 division or balance between the two sections of the ortho- 
 dox order, — the Congregational system itself. 
 
 I remember that my dear old friend, "Rabbi" Stuart, of 
 Andover, always spoke of the Unitarians as Arminians ; 
 that is, as the antagonists of Calvin. So I say to you Uni- 
 tarians here to-day that I am a better Unitarian than you 
 are ; because, with all your admiration for Channing, I do 
 not see that you recognize when he gave up his Arianism. 
 And I say — I say it frankly anywhere — that I worship one 
 God with all my soul ; and I say, looking at the Redeemer 
 of men, that I will not allow any being or creature, however 
 supernal, to stand between the man Christ Jesus and the One 
 infinite God. He was God manifest in the flesh; and to me 
 he is not merely a sort of being superior to archangels. 
 
 It seems to me perfectly clear that that was the system 
 which Channing received as a boy, and which entered into 
 all his life. He antagonized Calvinism, as it had appeared 
 in the Congregational life of New England. He believed 
 profoundly that benevolence could not have a selfish origin ; 
 and he was willing to accept any opprobrium or persecution 
 for the faith that God is all good, and could wish no evil 
 thing. I love to trace the roots of his life-thoughts back 
 into the age before him. For, talk as you please about it, 
 that glorious New England thought, that grand old Calvin- 
 istic life, certainly begat men and women. They brought 
 that life up to that point where reaction in dogma was in- 
 evitable, their mistakes bringing them here to rigid Calvin- 
 ism, and bringing them there to freer thought. And at last 
 the Master had occasion for another mode of education. 
 And God, in his mysterious providence, gave to this deli- 
 cate, sickly boy his wonderful power simply to love truth for 
 asserting itself, simply to throw himself in the way of every-
 
 I 88 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 thing tliat was good and beautiful and kindly and tender, 
 and to utter always the right word and the right thought to 
 his troubled age. As I read his writings, I confess that the 
 chief point about the man is, to my thought, that he was like 
 crystal. I always see through him. I do not stop to think 
 that he was a Yankee, and that I was born in Georgia ; or 
 that he sympathized with the abolitionists, while I was 
 taught to detest them. I forget that he was a Unitarian, 
 and that he had ideas about war that I cannot agree with, 
 1 care nothing for those things that are merely upon the 
 surface. I recognize that there was in him — always, and in 
 all that he did, and I honor any man in whom it is found — 
 this one thought, "What evil is in me I dare not throne 
 above." In that creed of Channing, on that platform of all 
 true souls, I shake hands with you to-day. [Applause.] 
 
 The Chairman. — We are glad to find Dr. Hall so good 
 a Unitarian, and we cordially extend to him the right hand 
 of fellowship. I see Mr. Mayo here, from Springfield. He 
 has, as you are aware, devoted much time to the subject of 
 education ; and who, better than he, can speak to us of 
 Channing's gospel of education for the people ? He will 
 now address you. 
 
 Mr. Mayo, coming forward, read from manuscript an able 
 and interesting paper, to which we can here make only the 
 briefest reference. He claimed that Channing's educational 
 work was more thorough, far-seeing, logical, and statesman- 
 like than any that had been attempted in America before 
 his day ; that the student of pedagogics will find in a few 
 hundred pages in the writings of Channing the most wonder- 
 ful prophecy and thorough comprehension of all that is most 
 durable and vital in what we call "The New Education." 
 Dr. Channing was no believer in the possibility of " over- 
 education." He always insisted that the laboring man, the
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 1 89 
 
 man of affairs, the mother in the home, needed especially 
 the expanding and uplifting influence of education to open 
 their eyes to the sacredness of common life. 
 
 Whoever reads Channing carefully will see that never for 
 a moment was he bitten with the plausible fallacy of ultra 
 " secularism " in popular education. He saw that the real 
 difficulty in this matter in America is with the clergy, and 
 very little with the people. The American people, at the 
 beginning, made a new departure concerning religion in 
 public affairs, even more important to civilization than the 
 Protestant Reformation in Europe. That departure assumes 
 the existence through all Christendom of what Dean Stanley 
 so happily calls "a common Christianity." 
 
 No man represents more completely than Channing the 
 practically unanimous resolve of the American people, that 
 character training and public morality shall be a paramount 
 element in our common schools, and that the basis of that 
 training in private and public virtue shall be that common 
 Christianity which is the soul of all progress in Christian 
 lands. 
 • The Chairman. — We must hear from some of our Uni- 
 versalist friends. Rev, Mr. Nye, pastor of the " Church of 
 Our Father" in this city, is with us here to-day. We regret 
 to learn that he is about to leave Brooklyn for another field 
 of labor. Before he goes, however, he must leave with us 
 his thought about Channing. 
 
 REMARKS OP REV. H. R. NYE. 
 
 I believe I would have preferred, at this hour, to have 
 kept my seat. I have a bit of an address somewhere in my 
 pocket, but I shall utter only two or three words to you now. 
 
 The sympathy existing between the Universalist and the 
 Unitarian churches now is, of course, much greater than that 
 of former times. Dr. Putnam, the pastor of this church,
 
 190 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 — and that accounts probably for so many excellent things 
 in his character, his spirit, and life, — was brought up in the 
 Universalist Church, and, if I am not incorrect, in a Uni- 
 vcrsalist family. I was brought up in a Congregationalist 
 family, and my father was a Congregationalist clergyman; 
 and I can remember very well the early times in my boy- 
 hood days, before the rupture had taken place between the 
 Trinitarian Congregationalists and the Unitarian Congre- 
 gationalists, — the time to which the Rector of the Holy 
 Trinity Church referred, — when the Unitarians were Ar- 
 minians, and when the name "Unitarian" was scarcely 
 known ; and you remember that it was scarcely known at 
 all until after the war with England in 18 12. I can re- 
 member very well that then my father, though a Congrega- 
 tional clergyman, was accustomed to exchange with the 
 Rev. Dr. Crosby, the Unitarian pastor, twelve miles distant. 
 The rupture was not quite complete in that direction. 
 Now we are very near together. You may remember Starr 
 King said — and he said many brilliant things concerning 
 the Universalists and the Unitarians — that the Universal- 
 ists believed that God was too good to damn any human 
 being absolutely forever, and that the Unitarians believed 
 that human beings were too good to be damned. 
 
 I honor Dr. Channing for his loyalty to Christ and his 
 broad Christian charity. He believed firmly in different in- 
 terpretations of the Christian faith. There is the Methodist 
 interpretation ; there is the Baptist interpretation ; there is 
 the Congregationalist interpretation ; and there is the Epis- 
 copalian interpretation ; and, if you please, they are all 
 Christian, and they stand at last upon the one Foundation 
 and honor the one Name. Jesus Christ is above them all, 
 he being the Master, and we only the learners and pupils in 
 his school. That is the reason why we, in one sense, so 
 largely revere Dr. Channing.
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. IQI 
 
 I have a wife, at home, who was in Dr. Channing's 
 Sunday-school. I hold in my hand a sermon preached by 
 Dr. Channing in the year 1819, the year that I was born. 
 I remember that Dr. Channing died in 1842, the year that 
 I was ordained. Somehow, I put these thoughts along in 
 this manner together. In the year 1842, it was my utmost 
 desire to hear this great man preach; but I could not, and it 
 was never my privilege to put my eyes upon his face. But 
 for two things the name of Channing is to me exceedingly 
 precious : first, for his love of truth, wherever to be found ; 
 and next for his love of man. And I ask you to remember 
 to-day that in no ancient religion of which any man can 
 speak, and in no ancient philosophy, was there ever such an 
 idea of man as Christianity presents to us; and that, in 
 Christianity, in its grand idea of every man a child of God 
 and every man a spiritual and birthright heir of the im- 
 mortal life, lies all that is sweetest and tenderest and noblest 
 in the teaching of Channing. I honor him for his love of 
 truth and for his love of man ; and I am very glad to utter 
 these few words, which I do with the profoundest reverence, 
 in my whole heart, for the beautiful spirit of his life, for the 
 power which his example has exerted upon the age since he 
 passed away, and for the good which his books have done 
 to my own soul in the Christian life. [Applause.] 
 
 Dr. Gottheil of the Temple Emmanuel, New York, being 
 seen in the audience, Rev. Mr. Camp was requested to in- 
 vite him to come forward and offer his testimony. As he 
 stepped upon the platform, he was greeted with hearty 
 applause. 
 
 EEMAEK3 OF EEV. DE, GUSTAV GOTTHEIL. 
 
 Is there room in this place, — I ask not for much, as I do 
 not intend to detain you for any length of time, — is there
 
 192 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 room ill this place for the hand of a Jew to lay a flower 
 on the honored grave of this apostle of love and freedom ? 
 [Applause.] Is there room for one of the ancient people to 
 express his admiration for, and his great obligation to, the 
 man whose birthday you celebrate? In accepting the invita- 
 tion that was kindly extended to me to join in this celebra- 
 tion, I hoped to be among the silent participants ; but, just as 
 Mr. Chadwick confessed himself to lie helplessly under the 
 spell of the honored pastor of this church, so I avow myself 
 to be in the power of one of his brethren, Mr. Camp. We 
 Jews have recently been celebrating the anniversary of our 
 fathers' emancipation from Egyptian bondage. I did not 
 feel at that time that there was any one chain about me 
 which I should never be able to break ; but Brother Camp 
 undeceived me when, a few moments ago, he came to me 
 with the command that I had to say something. I begged 
 for mercy, but he was implacable. He would give me no 
 release. So you must forbear with me, and pardon the 
 crude state of my remarks, as I had not even the priv- 
 ilege of Brother Chadwick in regard to time for prepara- 
 tion. I take, however, courage from the consideration that, 
 where the heart is full, the least preparation often proves the 
 best. 
 
 As many of those who hav^e preceded me referred to some 
 personal recollections, permit me to do so in my turn. 
 
 Some twenty years ago, I made my entry into an English- 
 speaking community, at Manchester, England, profoundly 
 ignorant of the mysteries of the English tongue. The presi- 
 dent of my congregation came to me one morning, when I 
 was just setting out on the dangerous journey to discover 
 the island where the treasures of English thought and feel- 
 ing are to be found, and, handing me two volumes, said : 
 " Here, this is an American classic. Study him." I opened 
 the books. They were the works of William Ellery Chan-
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. I93 
 
 ning. So you see that my acquaintance with your apostle 
 is contemporaneous with one of the most important changes 
 in my life. 
 
 Since that time, I have never ceased to read these works 
 over ; and it would be hard for me to convey to you, even if 
 I had had time to prepare, the feelings with which I, a de- 
 scendant of that ancient race which has fought so long and 
 paid so dearly for the great truth of the unity of God and 
 the brotherhood of man, listened to the solemn accents that 
 fell from the lips of this immortal man ; when I heard him 
 solemnize and glorify this central and vital doctrine in 
 accents which I had never heard before, and, to be frank 
 with you, which I never have heard again, from any one 
 professing Christianity. 
 
 I came still nearer him through the medium of one in 
 whose friendship I rejoice, and who has always appeared 
 to me to stand to him in the relation in which John the 
 Evangelist is said to have stood to his Master. I refer to 
 Dr. Bellows. He gave me a new and deeper interest in the 
 works of the great divine ; and I think I shall not dishonor 
 his memory if I take his name, next Sabbath day, to my own 
 pulpit, and pay him the tribute which is due to one who 
 stood forth the devoted and eloquent champion of liberty 
 and the emancipation of the slave, the apostle of human 
 dignity and of the immortal greatness of the human soul. 
 
 The impression I have gathered from Dr. Channing's 
 writings is that his t*heory of Christianity cannot be sub- 
 stantiated by the literary or historical proofs on which he 
 relied ; but it participated of his own deeply moral nature, 
 his own great mind, his deep and loving heart ; he roams, 
 as it were, in the ancient halls, calling to his aid all the 
 spirits which he thought would minister to the ideal which 
 alone could satisfy his own spiritual needs and those of his 
 generation. It is Channing reflected on the historical back-
 
 194 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 i;roun(l which he construed, I look upon the issue which 
 he placed before himself as Channing's ideal, glorious with 
 light and freedom and joy, as against the dark picture of 
 the Church. Though he always meant to speak as a dis- 
 ciple, he, in truth, spoke as a master. You feel, wlien you 
 read him, that he was much bolder than he knew, and that 
 all his thoughts have the force and freshness of a sponta- 
 neous mind, and do not state what he found in the book, 
 but what he discovered in his own reason and conscience. 
 
 Since that time, the issue has been transferred to a very 
 different- field.' The contest now lies between science and 
 religion, — between religion and no religion at all. But, 
 when we trace the way of progress, Dr. Channing will at 
 all times be recognized as one marking a new epoch in the 
 development of Christianity in this country as well as in 
 others. What the issue may be no man can tell ; but I 
 believe that the great minds of all ages will ever be held 
 in honor as helpers and coworkers in the advancement of 
 the human mind. I may declare unto you, speaking as to 
 brethren and sisters, gainsaying no man's faith nor insisting 
 upon my own, that I am satisfied to feel the throb of human 
 hearts, as I do now in this temple, in the communion of all 
 the saints, whatever the church that owns them. 
 
 I do not ascribe perfection or expect the solution of the 
 last problem to any one church or denomination. Truth 
 would be but a very small thing, hardly worth striving for, 
 if it could be contained within the wails of one church, or 
 if it could be known among men ranging themselves under 
 one name only. The human mind is too rich, too abundant 
 in possibilities, for that ; and when we leave our narrow 
 bounds, and allow our minds to cross the ocean, and go into 
 distant continents, or recall half-forgotten ages, everywhere 
 we find the same straining of the human mind after the in- 
 finite God, though in divers ways and various manner. And, 
 
 i
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. I95 
 
 as Goethe says, because men arc striving after the highest, 
 they needs must err. No one has yet appeared on this 
 planet in whom all conditions of men could absolutely 
 believe. 
 
 Therefore, I join with my whole heart every movement 
 that tends to widen our sphere, to unshackle the soul, and 
 to lift it to the heights where the eternal One, that Being 
 in whom this great man lived and moved, overshadows all 
 others. [Applause.] 
 
 The Chairman. — The time is drawing near when this 
 meeting must be brought to a close. There are many others 
 here whose voices we would fain listen to, and we regret 
 that the needed time is not afforded us ; yet, before we sing 
 the concluding hymn, we want to hear a word from Boston. 
 The pastor of the First Church of that city will be one of 
 the speakers to-night at the Academy ; but I think that Mr. 
 Foote, minister of King's Chapel, the first of American 
 Unitarian churches, will consent to address you now. 
 
 EEMAEKS OF KEV. H. W. FOOTE. 
 
 My friends, I did not expect, at this late hour, to say a 
 word to you ; and I must say but a very few words. 
 
 The beauty of this occasion has been the voice from every 
 other side of Christendom and from beyond it. I suppose 
 that our friend. Dr. Putnam, has called upon me now, that 
 the chord which Channing touched ii-^ the city where his 
 work was done might not be wholly wanting here ; and 
 certainly I am more than thankful, not to lay a stone on 
 the cairn of a dead prophet, — for, if he were only that, he 
 would be, like many another, almost or quite forgotten, — 
 but to join with you in our triumphant testimony to a life 
 and a work full of vital and vitalizing power.
 
 196 CIIANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 The sini;le thought that I would like to put into words, in 
 thinking of I^r. Channing, is one that has not been brought 
 out this morning. Perhaps, from being the minister of a 
 very ancient church, I like to trace historic continuity; and 
 so, as I look at Channing's life, it seems to me that some- 
 times it has been looked at too much as an isolated fact in 
 the spiritual history of America, and that his spiritual pedi- 
 gree has not been sufficiently recognized. Dr. Hall has 
 told us, most eloquently and vividly and truly, how that is 
 to be traced through the historic line of New England Con- 
 gregationalism; but there was another factor which, I think, 
 as I ponder Dr, Channing's life, entered more than that into 
 that life, and that was the very blood that beat in his veins, 
 
 Channing was a native of the island where, from the 
 beginning, was the colony of religious liberty ; and the ideas 
 that throbbed in Roger Williams' heart, in him, blossomed 
 and bore fairer fruit than Roger Williams knew or could 
 foresee. His life as a preacher was passed in Boston, and 
 he did more than Boston can tell to fill it with larger life ; 
 yet the most loyal of us Bostonians can see that it was not 
 the spirit most characteristic of Boston that kindled in him, 
 though he strove to make this spirit more. He brought to 
 us ideal elements of character which he did not fully find 
 there, and he made that the place whence his spiritual phi- 
 losophy and the large light of his generous soul shone as 
 from a beacon set on a hill. His spirit was the spirit of 
 Rhode Island. He was a typical Rhode Islander. That 
 which we have to remember and to rejoice at in him more 
 than any thing that he taught, more than any one of the' 
 ideas, great, living, eternal, which were the very heart of his 
 life, is the fact of what he was in himself. His special 
 influence is and must be, chiefly, in the fact that he stands 
 pre-eminently in our modern America for moral ideas. Here 
 was one who lived in these thoughts, whose life was spent
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. I97 
 
 in communing with them and in setting them before others, 
 the thoughts the greatest, the ideas the most inspiring, 
 which a soul can touch. Who can estimate the infinite value 
 to his country of a man who is consecrated absolutely to 
 such high, grave themes in this land of hasty speech; in 
 this age of theological indifference, on the one side, or of 
 theological virulence, even ncJw, on the other ; in this period 
 so devoured with the lust for material things; in this era 
 of an unspiritual philosophy, when, though the stars shine, 
 there are so many eyes that cannot see their shining.? 
 How shall we describe in words glowing enough the value 
 of such a type of character, this mind, so calm, and so pa- 
 tient in waiting for the truth to orb itself in its full light, 
 this soul that lived so absolutely in communion with the 
 great Eternal Thought, — the thought of Christ, of duty, of 
 the human soul, and of the living God.-' [Applause.] 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Foote's remarks, the audience 
 rose, and joined in singing the following doxology (Hymn 
 104 of the Collection) : — 
 
 From all that dwell below the skies, 
 Let the Creator's praise arise. 
 
 The Chairman then renewed the invitation to all present 
 to repair to the adjoining chapel and basement hall of the 
 church, where committees of ladies were in waiting to re- 
 ceive them to the social festivities of the day. 
 
 The benediction was pronounced by Rev. Dr. Peabody, of 
 Cambridge. 
 
 At the close of the morning meeting, some six hundred 
 persons accepted the invitation to the social festival, and 
 soon assembled in the chapel of the church. 
 
 The desk in the chapel had been removed from its plat- 
 form, which was now thickly set with a variety of flowering
 
 \()S CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 phinls. Tables bountifully spread with refreshments ex- 
 tended alon<^ the centre of the room. A blessing was asked 
 by Rev. George W. Cutter, of Buffalo, N. Y, ; and, long 
 after the repast which followed, friends from near and from 
 afar still lingered to talk of the one subject of the day, and 
 to revive memories and traditions of past years. 
 
 MEETING IN THE ACADEMY OF MTJSIO. 
 
 The final meeting of the celebration was held in the 
 Academy of Music on Wednesday evening, April 7, at 7.45 
 o'clock. Free tickets had been issued for all who wished 
 to attend, and were placed- at numerous convenient centres 
 in Brooklyn, N.Y., or sent with circulars of invitation to 
 friends in and out of the city. The Brooklyn Eagle of the 
 next day, in its report of the occasion, said : — 
 
 " The Academy of Music has rarely, if ever, held such a 
 magnificent audience as that which assembled within its walls 
 last evening to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary 
 of the birth of William Ellery Channing. A large throng 
 waited before the doors were opened to pay homage to the 
 memory of the great preacher and thinker, and eagerly em- 
 braced the first opportunity of entering the building. When 
 the portals were unbarred, the multitude, like a mighty 
 torrent released from its bonds, rushed through the door- 
 ways and surged over the parquet and along the galleries, 
 submerging every seat in the dense human tide. It was a 
 grand audience that looked up from the main floor and down 
 from the bended bows of the dress and family circles. It 
 embraced a vast representation of thinking Brooklyn, beside 
 delegates from other cities who came to honor Channing and 
 to enjoy the intellectual treat promised in the announcement. 
 All the faces in the throng were reflective of careful atten-
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 1 99 
 
 tion and profound thought. Fully one-half of the audience 
 was composed of ladies. 
 
 The decorations were almost entirely floral. The orches- 
 tra stall was turned into a flower-garden. Huge calla lilies, 
 with snow-like bells and darting golden tongues, raised their 
 pure petals from masses of evergreens that screened the 
 facing of the stage. Azaleas, ferns, and potted plants and 
 flowers of numerous varieties filled the entire space between 
 the boxes. Beneath the proscenium arch, in letters of white 
 upon a ground of emerald green, was this reminder, " 1780 
 — Channing — 1880," which had been seen over the pulpit 
 in the church during the morning and afternoon. 
 
 Beside the reading-desk bloomed an immense floral cross 
 and star. Its flowers were radiant and fragrant, and showed 
 all their beauties beneath the gleaming gas-jets. An excel- 
 lent portrait in oil of Channing stood at the head of the 
 centre aisle. The painting was by Ingham, of New York, and 
 is the property of the Rev. Dr. Bellows. It was adorned 
 by an elaborate floral wreath. The perfume of the flowers 
 made fragrant the atmosphere in the auditorium. When 
 the exercises began, every inch of space in the Academy 
 was packed. At least four thousand persons were present." 
 
 Beside those who addressed the meeting, there were 
 seated on or near the stage five or six hundred persons, 
 representing the most prominent departments of social, 
 official, literary, and professional life, as well as all sects and 
 parties in the city. Mingled with these were many distin- 
 guished ministers and laymen from other places. Included 
 in this general array of citizens and strangers were Mr. 
 Isaac H. Frothingham, President of the Board of Trustees 
 of the Church of the Saviour ; Rev. A. P. Peabody, D.D. ; 
 Rev. Charles H. Hall, D.D. ; Rev. John Cotton Smith, D.D., 
 of the Church of the Ascension, New York; ex-Mayor John 
 W. Hunter; Hon. Dorman B. Eaton, New York; Hon,
 
 20O CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Joseph Ncilson, Justice of the City Court ; Joshua M. Van 
 Cott, Esq.; Hon. J. S. T. Stranahan ; Mr. Alexander M. 
 White; Rev. Henry W. Foote, of King's Chapel, Boston; 
 Mr. Josiah O. Low ; ex-Judge John Greenwood ; Hon. A. W. 
 Tenney ; Hon. Ripley Ropes; Capt. Nathaniel Putnam; 
 Prof. R. F. Leighton ; Professors A. Crittenden and D. G. 
 Eaton, of the Packer Institute ; Rev. J. G. Bass, City 
 Missionary; Mr. R. H. Manning; Rev. J. C. Ager, Pastor 
 of the Swedenborgian Church ; Rev. Almon Gunnison and 
 Rev. H. R. Nye, of the Brooklyn Universalist churches ; 
 Mr. John T. Howard ; Hon. Demas Strong; Col. Rodney C. 
 Ward ; Rev. William C. Leonard, of the Church of the 
 Redeemer ; Mr. J. G. Hollinshead ; Mr. E. W. Crowell ; 
 Mr. Gordon L. Ford; Chauncy L. Mitchell, M.D. ; Mr. 
 Henry Sanger ; Rev. J. W. Chadwick ; Mr. Eli Robbins ; 
 Mr. Oliver Johnson ; Hon. Edwin Reed, Bath, Me. ; Messrs. 
 James and Duncan Littlejohn ; Rev. Edward Beecher, D.D.; 
 Collector John Tanner; Rev. S. H. Camp; Mr. Reuben W. 
 Ropes ; Col. W. B. C. Thornton ; Rev. A. D. Mayo, Spring- 
 field, Mass.; Dr. Gustav Gottheil, of Temple Immanuel, 
 New York ; ex-Mayor Samuel Booth ; Mr. George Hannah, 
 Librarian of the Long Island Historical Society ; Mr. S. B, 
 Noyes, Librarian of the Brooklyn Library ; Prof. G. S. 
 Taylor, of the Adelphi Academy ; President David Coch- 
 ran, of the Polytechnic Institute; Mr. Samuel McLean. 
 
 Mr. A. A. Low, President of the meeting, and the va- 
 rious speakers for the evening, were greeted with loud 
 applause as they came upon the stage at the appointed 
 hour. 
 
 Mr. Low, the President, excused himself from making 
 any opening address, but called on Rev. Dr. Putnam, Chair- 
 man of Committee of Arrangements, to offer any intro- 
 ductory remarks that might be necessary. Dr. Putnam said
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN, 201 
 
 that his speech would simply be the announcement of the 
 first hymn on the printed programme. He would, however, 
 state that all sects and churches in the vicinity, and the 
 public generally, had been cordially invited to join in the 
 commemorative meetings of the day ; and he desired, in 
 behalf of the Committee of Arrangements, to thank most 
 heartily the thousands present that they had accepted the 
 invitation in the same spirit in which it had been given. 
 He then requested the assembly to rise, and all join in sing- 
 ing the hymn to the tune, "Hummel." 
 
 The audience responded to the call, and were led by a 
 chorus of more than fifty voices from the several Unitarian 
 churches of the city, with organ and cornet accompaniment. 
 
 After prayer by the Rev. George C. Miln, pastor of the 
 Bast Congregational Church, Brooklyn, the Chairman intro- 
 duced the Rev. Dr. Rufus Ellis, of the First Church, Boston. 
 
 EEMAKKS OF EEV. EUFU3 ELLIS, D.D. 
 
 Mr. President and dear Friends, — I count it a great privi- 
 lege to be summoned to this gospel feast. It is always 
 pleasant, it is always helpful, to look up and recall a deserv- 
 edly famous man. I love to be able to look up, and not to 
 be called upon, as we so continually are in our day, to ana- 
 lyze, to explain, to account for great men ; for that is so apt, 
 as you know, to end in explaining them away, and bringing 
 them down to our poor level. We want to look up, and let 
 the light from their faces shine down into ours ; and I am 
 sure it is an especial privilege when we can come together, 
 men and women of different minds, of different opinions, — 
 and yet, as we believe, of the same most precious faith, striv- 
 ing to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, and 
 to be of one heart in one Christian household, if we cannot 
 be just of one mind and of one opinion. It is one of our
 
 202 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 privileges, us we all sec in these days, that we can so come 
 together, and that, when we make up our calendar of saints, 
 we always go beyond our communion, seeking only for those 
 whose love for Christ is true. And because there are so 
 many such seekers, the name that we are naming to-day will 
 be spoken with affection and reverence in many Christian 
 households, — not only Protestant, but Catholic as well; for 
 we know^ that one of the best eulogiums upon Channing has 
 been pronounced by one of our Roman Catholic brethren. 
 
 Now, sir, it does not seem to me hard to find or long to 
 seek, if we wish to know what it is about Channing that so 
 binds us all to him. Why, the very things that have been 
 said about his limitations, the very things that have been 
 said sometimes seemingly in disparagement of him, only 
 help to bring out his characteristic merits more distinctl)t 
 They only help to put a frame around the picture. I think 
 we shall all say that he is always, and everywhere, and at 
 all times, and in all his utterances, distinctively a gospel 
 preacher, — one of the great gospel preachers of our age. 
 People object. They say, "Well, he was not a great the- 
 ologian " ; and they are right. His theology was always 
 only popular theology. It was not metaphysical theology. 
 It was not the theology of the schools and of the professors. 
 They add, "lie was not distinctiv^ely a man of letters"; 
 and I should say, though not quite so confidently, that I think 
 they are right there. I suppose that even his great sermons 
 will hardly go down to posterity among the great English 
 classics. We do not read them now at a sitting. We do 
 not take in every picture eagerly. We do not read to the 
 very last line, just as we sip the last drop of some precious 
 cordial. They are didactic. They are over-diffuse even, I 
 think, for the reader. They are weighty rather than inci- 
 sive. Even his essays are all sermons. He always preaches. 
 And they say that he founded no sect. He was only inci-
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 203 
 
 dentally, indirectly, by the way, connected with a sect. They 
 even tell you that he knew very little of the world, — the 
 great world, the world of the statesman, the world of the 
 merchant ; that he was a parish minister, and an invalid at 
 that. And that is true, also. But, then, consider, my friends, 
 that, though metaphysical theology has spoiled a great many 
 preachers, it never made one yet, and it is not an essential 
 part of a minister's outfit ; and consider, too, — and we Uni- 
 tarians have had some sad experience in this, — that a man 
 of letters is often wholly lost upon a great congregation of 
 hungry souls, whilst the man who is thought to be unlet- 
 tered, and never to have been taught anything, will hold an 
 audience sometimes, out on the parish green, that has been 
 lost from the church. 
 
 And, then, as to founding a sect, was there ever a great 
 preacher yet who was not a great deal larger than his sect, 
 or who did not come to be, at all events, before he got 
 through } Consider, too, as to knowing men. Why, how 
 many of us know a great many men, know all about what 
 they are saying and doing, and yet know very little about 
 man and what is in man. 
 
 Now, we can admit all these things about Channing, only 
 remembering that, when the moral development in a man is 
 very large, it is likely to overshadow the intellect, and we do 
 not think as much of his intellectuality then as we ought. 
 Remember this. And yet, admitting it all, I shall say that 
 Channing was so wondrously endowed with the prophetic 
 function that it amounted, as it always does, to genius, to 
 which you must add learning, as much as you can get of it, 
 and intellect, as much as you can get of it, and poetry, and 
 wit, and rhetoric, and everything else. But, then, all those 
 things are perfectly useless, and always very tedious in tlie 
 preacher, without the prophetic function. Channing was, 
 first, last, always, a great gospel preacher ; and, if you are
 
 204 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 willing lo use the old words in the old sense, you had 
 better say that he was a prophet. Being filled with the 
 spirit of his God, and finding God near him and in him, he 
 prophesied ; and the world listened to him. And that is why 
 we are here to-night. And we do not consider, I think, as 
 much as we ought, how preaching has been spoiled by those 
 very things which Channing was said to lack, or how much 
 we have lost and left out of sight that old prophetic speech, 
 — tiio word which the people in Judea and in Galilee heard 
 so gladly, not irrational truth, not unreasonable truth, but 
 unreasoned truth, truth from the people to the people, truth 
 right out of the abundance of a loving, religious heart. The 
 Word of God, that never returns to a man void, — we are 
 spoiling that continually by what we undertake to add to 
 it. And Channing is to be remembered, not so much for 
 what else he was, — and that was a great deal, — but be- 
 cause he was all else in subordination to this great function 
 of a preacher ; and for that, I say, we remember him. In 
 that way, he served his generation ; and he is laying his 
 hand upon our hearts to-day, still living and working on. 
 
 He came, as such men always do come, in the fulness of 
 the times, — not alone, not unheralded. He came at a time 
 when he was greatly needed, and there was preparation for 
 him. As those of you who heard the sermon of last evening 
 know, it was a time in New England when just such a man 
 was wanted. We had had a dispensation of the letter, 
 which indeed was glorious ; but there was needed, as we 
 always need, a fresh dispensation of the Spirit, which should 
 be infinitely more glorious. And it came, and there had been 
 preparation for it. There were tokens of such life in New 
 England before the Revolution. Charles Chauncy, in the old 
 First Church of Boston, was a man of mark, — a man who 
 made, or began to make, an epoch in his time. So was May- 
 hew, in the West Church. And, before the Revolution, they
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 205 
 
 both of them spoke living words, — not merely words from 
 the old traditions, — and the times went on ripening. There 
 were signs in the New England Congregational body of 
 a reviving of religious life ; and it is very narrow, it is a 
 great mistake, to say that it came from only one quarter. 
 It came from both sides of that body, — from those who were 
 called "conservatives," and from those who would have been 
 called, if the word had been used in that day, "liberals." 
 There was a feeling all around that men must come nearer 
 to flie reality of Christ's gospel ; that they must have some- 
 thing other than what they had been having too much of in 
 New England, and a great deal of in Scotland, — what was 
 called "Moderatism." There were many preachers who had 
 ceased to hold old truths in the old way ; and they met the 
 case by saying nothing about them, lest somebody should be 
 hurt, lest the repose of the churches — for it was no better 
 than that — should be disturbed, lest there should be some 
 divisions. 
 
 Now, they all began to feel that that was not the way to 
 preach the gospel. And so the more conservative said, 
 " If we are going to have these old doctrines, let us have 
 them, and let us have them clearly and earnestly stated." 
 On the other hand, there was a feeling that the time had 
 gone by for these old statements, and that they must be 
 restated. On both sides, they were reaching out for the 
 reality of the Lord's Word, — the conservatives in their way, 
 and the liberals in their way ; and we must not dispose of 
 the whole matter by saying that on the one side it was all 
 bigotry, and that on the other side there were only pale 
 negations. That does not represent the case at all. There 
 were signs of a new life. Channing, in his way, was reach- 
 ing continually after this great divine reality. He believed 
 that there was still a message in the gospel for men, and 
 he was bound somehow to get it uttered.
 
 J06 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 He was not alone. You cannot help thinkinj; sometimes, 
 or asking;- yourself, what might have been the result, if some 
 men who began their career with him had only been per- 
 mittetl to live on. There was a famous man in what was* 
 called the Brattle Street Church, one Buckminster (we do 
 not hear his name often in our day), — a man who died at 
 the early age of twenty-eight, and yet left his mark deep in 
 that city, — evidently a man of most earnest spirit, of most 
 wonderful gifts ; and another man, one Thatcher, in what 
 was called "The New South Church," who lived a little 
 longer. Both of them were contemporaries of Channing; 
 Buckminster dying in 1812, and Thatcher in 1818, Thatcher 
 only thirty-two or thirty-three years of age at the time of his 
 death, surviving to write the memorial of his friend. These 
 inen died in the very bloom of their years. Channing lived 
 on in life-long feebleness, and yet with great power, reaching 
 out after this reality. 
 
 We sometimes wish — I am sure I do — that the Congre- 
 gational body had not been divided, and that Channing 
 might have got at his affirmations in some more direct way, 
 just as the blessed Lord reached his affirmations, — not by 
 discussing with the Jews their theology, but by passing right 
 through the HalacJia and the Hagada, as they called them, — 
 the allegories and the legal niceties that were taught then 
 in the synagogue. He simply passed over them all, paying 
 hardly any attention to them, not destroying, but fulfilling, 
 and went back to the great Book of Deuteronomy and to 
 the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Micah, 
 and the rest, building upon them. But such things are not 
 for us men, and Channing must do the best thing he could ; 
 and so he became a controversialist, though only for a little 
 while. We wish it could have been otherwise. At least, I 
 do, because the theology of Channing seems to me to be 
 the least interesting part of him. He kept a good deal that
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 20/ 
 
 he might as well have parted with ; and what interests us 
 about him is not this transitional and temporary thing that 
 we call theology, but his Christian consciousness, his faith 
 in Christ as the One who lived in God and for God, and for 
 God's children, and who had a personal message to his soul. 
 That is what he cared for, and compared with that it was 
 of very little consequence in what it happened to be em- 
 bodied. 
 
 It was, in his case, embodied first in Trinitarianism, then 
 in Arianism, and then we can hardly tell in what ; but the 
 consciousness remained, and that was the deep living nature 
 in him, and that was what he lived to bring near to men's 
 need; and every day he became less polemical in his preach- 
 ing. We talk about his theological sermons and his contro- 
 versial sermons ; but they are very few in number compared 
 with the rest of his sermons. He personally got his sub- 
 jects from the street, and from men's wants and sins, and 
 strove to apply them in the most practical fashion, not as 
 men had been so much in the habit of preaching all around 
 him, seeming to play with their subject, because Sunday 
 had come and there must be a sermon, but as men who had 
 a point to carry, and who believed that Jesus, in his spirit 
 and life, could help them carry it. That was his manner of 
 preaching; and every one said, "Well, now, here is some 
 one who has something to say" ; and they filled his church, 
 as men always fill the church of a preacher w^ho is not 
 coaxing and teasing and trying to persuade them to go 
 to church, but who gives them something to go for. They 
 came and heard him, and heard him gladly; and he was 
 really an epoch-making man. " He founded no sect," you 
 say. Well, why should he have founded a sect ? What did 
 we want of another sect .-• Were there not too many sects 
 then, as there are now.? Ought we not to be thankful, 
 when we begin to see the end of one of them .-' Channing
 
 208 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 founded no sect ; but he became easily the leader of a still 
 increasing company of men, who may be said — and we say 
 it reverently — to be of the mind of Jesus ; to see God as he 
 saw him ; to see men as he saw them, with the same faith; 
 to share his great blessed trusts, his great blessed confi- 
 dences that this world and the world to come are ours, if 
 we choose to have them, — men who have a blessed Christian 
 optimism, men who have a realistic faith that the kingdom 
 of heaven belongs here on the earth, and that, if we ever 
 mean to get into the kingdom of heaven, we must get into 
 it now. [Applause.] That was his faith, and that was what 
 he preached. I do not mean that he was always conscious 
 of this. He illustrates singularly one of Cromwell's great 
 sayings, that a man never climbs so high as when he does 
 not know where he is going. I do not think Channing 
 knew where he was going, but he was always enlarging, 
 always spreading out. He believed that everything in this 
 life is sacramental, that everything can be made the bread 
 and the wine of a divine life. And so he found sacraments 
 everywhere, and he found subjects to which he could apply 
 his Christianity ; and he did apply it far and wide. 
 
 Although his knowledge of men was so largely intuitive 
 and inspirational, somehow he did get a most practical 
 knowledge of practical things, and he became a leader of 
 a great company of preachers. You do not find them, 
 happily, set apart in a little sect, but you find them in all 
 sects. 
 
 Why, when Dean Stanley was in this country, a little 
 more than a year ago, one of his inquiries was, "Where 
 is the Cemetery of Mount Auburn ? " The gentleman to 
 whom he put that question was the Rev. Phillips Brooks, 
 He put it with a great deal of interest. Said Mr. Brooks: 
 "What do you care about Mount Auburn ?" For, my friends, 
 it is only one of our cemeteries. We do not take people
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 209 
 
 out there so long as they are living. Said Dean Stanley, 
 "Channing is buried there." He wanted to go out and see 
 Channing's burial-place. 
 
 And so you find men everywhere preaching Channing. 
 Channing is preached to-day in pulpits to which, I am afraid, 
 he would hardly now be admitted, for reasons which are 
 doubtless satisfactory to those who so appoint. I make no 
 criticisms upon them. Every man must answer all these 
 things to his own conscience. But it is a fact that he is 
 everywhere preached, because his spirit is abroad. 
 
 And so, though I may seem to have spoken lightly of his 
 books, it is not that I think little of them. Their lines have 
 gone out, and are going out wider and wider; but you 
 cannot put such a life as that into any book. It is an 
 ever-unfolding mind. It is an ever-proceeding spirit. It 
 comes in new forms, in new expressions, every day. You 
 think you have got the whole of it, and you find that it is 
 doing a greater work than you ever thought of, and that it 
 has only begun its career. And so I say that he is first, last, 
 always, everywhere, to me, the preacher of this blessed 
 gospel of the Son of God. 
 
 In this simple truth, — unformulated, if you choose to use 
 such a word, — as it came from the lips of that blessed and 
 wonderful One, who lived in God, and for God, and for God's 
 children, let us live, and we shall say, as time goes on, in 
 the power and sweetness of this spirit, "The day of Pente- 
 cost is fully come." The discii^les shall wait no longer in 
 Jerusalem, amid its mingled shadows and light. We mean 
 to know what Jesus says ; and his Word is in us, as he 
 said it would be in them. It will be something more than a 
 quotation. We shall know it ourselves, and shall be able to 
 utter it ; and then we shall be fit to preach it. We shall 
 have it straight from him. We mean to be as Christian 
 as his disciples were. We do not mean to interpret Jesus
 
 2IO CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 by Taul or by John: we mean to interpret Paul and John 
 by Jesus. We mean to get at the reality. That was what 
 Channing sought ; and that was what, according to the meas- 
 ure of his age and time and ability he found. 
 
 So, while we take some little satisfaction as a denomina- 
 tion in such a man, we rather choose to belong to the greater 
 company, — to be of all those who, with him, are striving to 
 walk in the one light and to build upon the one foundation ; 
 and we believe that, if we do it in his spirit, there will be as 
 little as may be of the wood and the hay and the stubble 
 that will be consumed, and as much as may be of that fine 
 gold which the fire can only purify, until it shall be laid up 
 as treasure at God's right hand. 
 
 I am very glad to find that so many, this day, have shown 
 that they are of Channing's spirit ; and I do not care how 
 much they may be careful to say to me that they do not 
 agree with him in this and that. Well, who does.? And 
 who could find out, without a great deal of trouble, precisely 
 what he thought about this or that ? And who would care 
 to find out? It is the man's spirit, that ever-proceeding life, 
 in which we rejoice. [Applause.] 
 
 The Chairman. — You have all heard of the Rev. Robert 
 Collyer, formerly of Chicago, but now, I am happy to say, of 
 New York. He is accustomed to speak to full houses, and 
 he must feel at home here. He will please introduce himself. 
 
 EEMAEK8 OF REV. EOBEET COLLTEK. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Friends, — I do not know when I have 
 felt more like sitting still and enjoying myself, and letting 
 somebody else do the talking. We used to have a saying in 
 our Methodist class-meetings, when we could not say any- 
 thing else to save us, " It is good to be here." I would like
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 211 
 
 to say just that, and then sit down. At our morning meet- 
 ing, I got so full that I had to go away ; and now I feel so 
 full that I am afraid I shall be like one of those bottles that 
 are so full to the stopper that the water cannot get out ! 
 
 But I was thinking last night and this morning, and again 
 just now, about something I read once about Channing : that 
 if you went to him, and began to praise him — to praise the 
 man — for something he had said or done, his wonderful 
 eyes seemed to empty themselves of concern, and his face 
 of the beautiful, eager interest, and it would seem to the 
 speaker as if you should talk to the snow of its whiteness 
 or to the fresh west wind of its power of refreshing. He 
 did not like to be praised to his face ; and I have felt very 
 glad, in every address that has been made, to notice a cer- 
 tain delicacy of touch about it all, — a feeling, evidently, in 
 the heart of the speaker, like that which Charles Lamb had, 
 who said, I remember, " When we talk about those who have 
 left us, to praise them, we should be as modest as we would 
 if they were still with us on the earth." I have rejoiced in 
 this feeling, which has evidently prevailed in these meetings, 
 — the realization that we must speak with a certain delicacy, 
 with a certain sense of the presence of the man among us, 
 and not overpass the mark so that the praise shall sink into 
 adulation. I feel sure that Channing now, where he dwells, 
 and as he is, cannot have that feeling about all this which he 
 would have, if he were with us still in the flesh ; but, if he 
 can be conscious of the words that are uttered to-day all 
 over the world, about his life, in praise of him, he has risen 
 so high and grown so great in that life into which he has 
 gone, that any such words as are said do not trouble him, but 
 he simply takes them and gives them up to the Giver of the 
 gift that made him so great and so good, and in some sweet, 
 spiritual fashion says again what he learned to say as he 
 nestled by his mother's knee, — that beautiful ascription,
 
 212 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 " Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever 
 and ever, Amen." Wc shall not hurt him by such words as 
 we say, especially as they arc said out of such a heart as 
 we witnessed this morning, in that grand meeting in the 
 Church of the Saviour. 
 
 But I have felt, sir, all the time, as if any word I might 
 say during these meetings would take, possibly, a different 
 turn from such words as I have heard, noble, beautiful, grand, 
 and sweet as they have been. I ha\'e rather longed for 
 some man to say, more emphatically and more incisively, 
 what I recognize in C banning as his grand, broad radicalism, 
 — his deep sympathy with the wide differences as well as 
 the wide agreements of men. 
 
 I have been very much interested in the study of Chan- 
 ning's life for years now ; and I confess frankly, sir, that 
 this is what has always gone most warmly to my heart : that, 
 while I felt that I could recognize in Channing that beauti- 
 ful and noble quality of the preacher about which our brother 
 has just spoken so well, there was this also in him, that he 
 had a perpetual sympathy with all sorts of thinkers on all 
 sorts of subjects, and wanted all the time, if he could, to get 
 down into their mind to explore it, to see what good reason 
 lay in them for their conclusion, and so to come into the 
 closest possible sympathy with them, while he must be the 
 man he was in his own convictions and in his own life. 
 
 I notice .therefore that he, as a young man, with his life 
 before him, had great sympathy for the writings of men like 
 Godwin and Rousseau, and for the writings of Mary Woll- 
 stonecraft, who was, he said, one of the greatest women on 
 the earth. And all through his life those who were drawn 
 to him, who gathered about him, who would come to him for 
 help or direction or sympathy, were very much, I think, like 
 those who gathered about David in the old days, in the cave 
 of Adullum. Those who were discontented, and those who
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 21 3 
 
 were distressed, and I guess, also, those who were in debt, — 
 all kinds of poor creatures, — came to him to get some word 
 that would cheer them, and help them to go forth on special 
 missions in this world, and tell the truth according to such 
 light as might shine forth on their way. I like that quality 
 in Channing, — that grand sympathy for the differences of 
 men in their thinkings and in their conclusions. And I 
 notice that, as he grows older, he loses none of this. It is all 
 in him fresh and true to the last. Some man said to him, I 
 remember, when he was far on in years for him, after he had 
 come through one of the many fights into which he was per- 
 petually plunged, "You seem to be the youngest man in the 
 crowd." "Always young for freedom," he said. It was the 
 deepest thing in his heart, that he should stand by the most 
 absolute freedom of thought and word to which a man can 
 attain. 
 
 Robert Hall said of a man, in his day, that his mind was 
 hung on hinges, so' that he was always in motion, but made 
 no progress. It was not so with Channing. He was always 
 moving onward to those heights of thought and exploration 
 that made him the grand companion of all the prophets of 
 every name. He gave his heart to the whole truth ; and 
 that was the reason why he won so many hearts. I remem- 
 ber he says that for the first twelve years of his ministry he 
 does not remember that he mentioned any sect in the Chris- 
 tian church byname for criticism. He did not want to ques- 
 tion and bring into court any of the great religious bodies 
 about him. He always wanted to tell the truth, and let it 
 go home and rest there, and do its work. He had the same 
 feeling towards all sides. Let him find an honest man, — 
 one he believed to be sincere to the bottom of his heart, — 
 and then, so far as he could give that man companionship 
 and sympathy, that man was his friend and his companion. 
 I love that quality in the man. I love to find it forever a
 
 2\^ CIIANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 llamc in his heart. I love to note it as one of the grandest 
 and noblest traits in Channing's character. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, in the little village where I lived the better 
 part of my life, three hundred years ago, there were two fami- 
 lies, one living on the hill and one in the valley. The family 
 on the hill came there in the time of Henry II. They are 
 there to-day. They have not heard of the Reformation. 
 They are just as nearly as possible what they were at that 
 time, when they went to live there in twelve hundred and 
 something, I do not remember what. The family down in 
 the valley were obscure folk who worked at day's work, and 
 at the time of which I am speaking the representative of the 
 family was earning four cents a day of our present money, — 
 twopence, English. It was borne in upon this working man 
 that this would never do. Something stirred in his heart 
 to strike for a better life ; and so at last it came to pass, 
 after another hundred years, they migrated to this New 
 World, leaving the family still on the hill. They were 
 planted down in this soil. They grew, through the grand 
 opportunities that come to a man when he comes from the 
 Old World to the New, somewhere down in the wilds of 
 Maine ; and at last they bloomed out into the family of 
 Longfellows, of which we have the poet, and our grand good 
 friend, Sam Longfellow, a minister of our church in Ger- 
 mantown, Pennsylvania. The old family stays on the hill 
 still ; but this new one moved onward, and has caught this 
 new life, and has made it noble and beautiful before the 
 world, because there was this fine daring in them to go on- 
 ward, while the old family remained still in the old family 
 nest. 
 
 That was also, in the deeper spiritual sense, the truth with 
 our Channing, He, migrating from the old fastnesses to the 
 new, has made it nobler and more beautiful to those who 
 have to live in it. It was because of this that he became the
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 21$ 
 
 man he was. It is because of this that we love him and 
 revere him, and speak of him with this affection as we gather 
 together to-night. He was the apostle of a new and nobler 
 life ; and it was sufficient to him that under God he was 
 able to do his day's work in his short day. 
 
 Shall I say that I love him also for this ? I notice sick 
 men arc like sick cats : they like to go mto a corner, and be 
 let alone. They do not like the movement of their time. 
 They cease to grow aggressive. Everything may go as it 
 will, but they do not want to be bothered. Channing was 
 a sick man. From the time he came from the South, you 
 know, to the time he died, he did not know what it was to 
 be strong, and stand the racket of every day like a man 
 such as our friend Mr. Beecher, for instance. [Applause.] 
 And yet, with that delicate frame, all the time wondering 
 what he should eat and what he should drink and where- 
 withal he should be clothed, having in this very constitution 
 and make of him conditions of creeping away out of active 
 life, and being quiet somewhere in a corner, and getting off 
 his sermons, some such sermons as our friend described just 
 now, in which everybody will feel good and everybody will 
 be peaceful, and go home and say, "What a capital sermon!" 
 and care nothing at all about it, — a man with such a con- 
 stitution, we would think, would drive in that direction ; but 
 he gave his heart and he gave his life utterly, regardless of 
 the pain, of the fatigue, of the work, of the wear and tear 
 of it, to those great purposes for which God had sent him 
 into the world. 
 
 I told them last Sunday, when I was talking about him, 
 that I used to have a coat of Channing's. It went up in 
 the fire, as nearly all things did in Chicago, He gave it to 
 Conant, and Conant left it to me at his death. It was the 
 coat of a boy. " How in the world," I said, "did you manage 
 to do such a grand work on earth with that poor, lean body
 
 2l6 ClIANMNG CF.NTENARV. 
 
 of v'Hirs ? " If I ever do take to worshipping a saint, I am 
 going to worship Channing. It is this that draws me to 
 him, — that with his poor chance of doing anything he should 
 have done so much. 
 
 Brother Ellis said, just now, that Dr. Chauncy was one 
 of the grand men of the former days; and I was reminded 
 of an anecdote that T read about him, tlrat he wrote one of 
 those progressive books in the direction of the doctrine of 
 Universalism, and hid it in his desk, and durst not bring it 
 out to daylight. Channing never wrote a word that he did 
 not show to the world, no matter what folks might have to 
 say; and he did find those that were not in the heartiest 
 sympathy with him in Boston. There he stood, four-square, 
 — if you can apply such a term as four-square to such a little 
 body, — to every wirtd that blew, and let the^m blow and blow, 
 and fought his battle, and then, like a brave man, thought 
 less of what he had done than any other man on earth. Ah ! 
 we may well think tenderly of him, and we may well think 
 with pride of him. 
 
 And now, Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I want to 
 say one word more ; and that is, through this great, free soul, 
 we are freer to-day, far and wide. That is a nobler thought ; 
 and I trust we will all think more nobly, and, because he has 
 lived, we can all live better. 
 
 Our dear friend, in his speech just now, spoke, you know, 
 of Channing's being above, and in a great measure aloof 
 from, what he himself had done; that his sermons were but 
 one part of the grand work, and might not by himself be 
 considered to be at all so grand as many consider them to 
 DC now. It reminded me of a day which came once when 
 I got, I was going to say, aggravated, reading a poem of 
 somebody in Philadelphia, which bears the title "No Sect 
 in Heaven." The aggravation arose out of this, that I did 
 not find Unitarians there in any shape whatever. There
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 217 
 
 were the Baptists and the Methodists, the Episcopalians and 
 the Quakers; but there were no Unitarians. And I said, "I 
 am going to make an improvement on that," very much as 
 the Yorkshire man thought he could make an improve- 
 ment on the Lord's Prayer by making it read, " O Lord, give 
 us this day our daily bread, and some cheese." [Laugh- 
 ter.] I said, "I will write something for the Unitarians"; 
 and this is what I got off. I remember after having got 
 them all in heaven safe and sound, as the other poem got 
 them, I jotted down these lines: — 
 
 Then one came, saying, with low, sweet voice : 
 
 "I have sermons here : they'd the world rejoice. 
 
 I must bear them on to the shining shore. 
 
 And make joy in heaven for evermore." 
 
 But, as twilight is lost in the springing day. 
 
 Doctrine and dogma melted away. 
 
 And Dr. Channing cared no more 
 
 For the word he had said on the time-bound shore. 
 
 And Parker said, " I have sermons seven. 
 
 That must be read in the courts of heaven." 
 
 But the sermons seven went down like lead 
 
 In the waters that run between living and dead. 
 
 [Applause.] 
 
 The Chairman. — Rev. Dr. Pullman, of the Sixth Univer- 
 salist Church in New York, will say a few Vv^ords to you now. 
 
 EEMARKS- OF REV. J. M. PULLMAN, D.D. 
 
 Mr. CJiairman, Ladies, and Gcntlemeii, — If it ever happens 
 to you to be called u{X)n to apologize for not being some- 
 body else, you will be able to enter into my feelings at this 
 moment. I am an eleventh-hour man ; and I am here be- 
 cause Dr. Chapin is sick and cannot come. But, finding 
 myself in so brilliant a presence, I suppose I must act by tlie 
 law of contraries; and, since I cannot speak at all like Dr. 
 Chapin, I must speak as differently from him as I can, — and
 
 •2lS CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 I can assure you it is very easy for me not to speak like Dr. 
 Chapin. And I would not be here, honorable as I esteem 
 this position, if I did not know how sorry the Doctor is that 
 he cannot be here ; how interested he is in this meeting, 
 how he loved the subject of it, and how all the throbs of his 
 <^reat heart are towards tliis house to-night. Under the cir- 
 cumstances, I feel that I ought to stand up here and say my 
 Universalist word of praise, whether I say it very well or not. 
 
 I labor under an embarrassment in trying to say that word 
 here to-ijight. I feel as I were between Scylla and Charyb- 
 dis. I loved Channing very deeply and very dearly; and I 
 loved him for the very things that the world at his time did 
 not love him for. And how shall I, in an assembly like this, 
 gathered from all churches, of all shades of opinion, in beauti- 
 ful amity and accord, go on and praise him for those things 
 that I love him for, and not jar some discordant note.? It 
 would be better for me, doubtless, not to say anything about 
 those matters ; and yet, if I speak about a man who loved 
 the truth as he did, and who taught me, in my little way, to 
 love it, I must say what I think. So I am between the Uni- 
 tarian Scylla and the Orthodox Charybdis. 
 
 You know we live in the days when something that is 
 called the "Channing influence" has broadened out, and 
 deepened, and sharpened down into — what shall I say, and 
 be respectful and nice as I would like to be.' — I will only 
 say that it has come to something that was in that young 
 gentleman who threw his Euclid aside the other day, because 
 the propositions were too dogmatically stated. He said that 
 he really thought he had a right to doubt whether there was 
 that equality in the angles of an equilateral triangle which 
 the author insisted so much upon. 
 
 A general adviser of mankind, who has broken out down 
 East of late years, and broken out very well, — and who ad- 
 vises very well, too, — has said, recently, that by putting his
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 219 
 
 ear to the ground he can hear the retreating lootsteps of 
 Channing's influence, or words to that effect. Of course, I 
 must be careful here. I know where the rock is, here and 
 there; but I cannot help saying, men and brethren, that it 
 cannot be very difficult for one who commits himself to the 
 statement that Channing's influence is waning to put his 
 ear to the ground. [Laughter.] If Channing's influence is 
 not making as much stir in the world to-day as it seemed to 
 be making thirty or forty or fifty years ago, it is for the same 
 reason that the water that comes up through my house to the 
 cistern in the attic does not make a noise after a while, — it 
 is because the tank is full ; and if Channing's influence does 
 not seem to be as extensive as it was in the earlier days, if it 
 seems to be departing from that level and going downward, 
 it is for the same reason that the water of the reservoir 
 up here sometimes departs from its level, and goes down 
 through a million pipes, and is feeding a million households. 
 I stand for the perpetuity of the influence which I feel so 
 clearly in myself. 
 
 If one should ask me what I think is the thing for which 
 William Ellery Channing will be remembered and loved and 
 enshrined among the world's few great men, I should take 
 the broadest generalization I am to make, and say. It is 
 because he taught men to think nobly of God by thinking 
 nobly of themselves. No man that does not think nobly of 
 God can act nobly ; and, the more nobly men arc taught to 
 think of God, the more nobility you will find in their daily 
 conduct. Is it not so .'' And is it not true that Dr. Channins 
 himself said, in the preface to one of liis publisli^d works, 
 that, among all the things there written down, there was this 
 one above all others, — his confidence in the essential worth 
 of human nature, and his disposition to stand up for human 
 liberty.? And men thought, "Why, if you elevate the ch.ir- 
 acter of men, if you make them think too well of themselves,
 
 220 CIIy\NNING CENTENARY. 
 
 by SO much you lower God." They seemed to think that, in 
 order to get contrast enough, you must make men abject, 
 prone upon their faces, and that then God will be better 
 l^leased. Men and brethren of all churches, and of no 
 church, it does not turn out so. Those men who have been 
 taught to feel their own moral ability, and who have been 
 taught to know that of themselves they can do right, are 
 the men that think nobly and speak nobly of God in all 
 churches, and everywhere. 
 
 I want to say, before I close, that, so dearly do I prize 
 what has sometimes been called the dogmatism of Channing, 
 I wish it might go further. I do love to see such a spectacle 
 in imagination as some happy people saw in reality in that 
 church in Baltimore, when he preached his famous sermon at 
 the ordination of Jared Sparks. It must have been grand to 
 have seen that slight, pale man, with deep eyes that looked 
 through all things, and to have heard him say : " We all agree 
 externally, do we not, upon the character of God, — as to his 
 goodness, as to his holiness, and as to his power ? Yes : 
 externally we do ; but it is possible to speak magnificently of 
 God, and to think very meanly of him, — to apply high-sound- 
 ing epithets to God personally, and to apply principles to his 
 government that are odious." And then he went on to de- 
 scribe the reasons why he loved and trusted and worshipped 
 God, — that he did it not simply because God had power, but 
 because that power was good, and was exerted for good ; not 
 because he was a Ruler only, but because he was a good 
 Ruler. And then came that grand sentence, which I know 
 I shall ne^er forget, — " We respect nothing but excellence 
 on earth or in heaven." Am I wrong, men and brethren, 
 when I say that in the development of the intellectual and 
 spiritual life of Channing he grew toward the Christ, and 
 not away from him .!" Have I erred in drawing from his 
 words those thoughts that seem to me to indicate that, the
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 221 
 
 longer and the more closely he looked, the more dearly he 
 loved the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? I maybe mis- 
 taken, — I know upon what rock I am running, — but I 
 believe that from my heart and soul. 
 
 So I speak for the Universalist Church, who sec in Chan-* 
 ning the exemplification of that which they consider their 
 central light and doctrine, of the moral perfection of the 
 Almighty. The corollary which follows from this is the final 
 extinction of moral evil ; and, taking him as one of those who 
 has contributed so largely to a result everywhere so desirable 
 and noble, how can I better close this short address than in 
 the words of Dean Stanley, as quoted for us from Norman 
 Macleod, speaking from the general aspect of the man ? 
 " A man broad with the breadth of the charity of Almighty 
 God, and narrow with the narrowness of his righteousness." 
 [Applause.] 
 
 The assembly then rose and sang, as before, the following 
 selected hymn : — 
 
 Come, kingdom of our God, 
 
 Sweet reign of light and love ; 
 Shed peace and hope and joy abroad, 
 
 And wisdom from above. 
 Over our spirits first 
 
 Extend thy healing reign ; 
 There raise and quench the sacred thirst 
 
 That never pains again. 
 Come, kingdom of our God, 
 
 And make the broad earth thine ; 
 Stretch o'er her lands and isles the rod 
 
 That flowers with grace divine. 
 Soon may all tribes be blest 
 
 With fruit from life's glad tree ; 
 And in its shade like brothers rest, 
 
 Sons of one family. 
 
 The Chairman. — I now have the honor to present to you 
 the Hon. George William Curtis. [Applause.]
 
 222 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. CURTIS. 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — As a son of 
 Rhdde Island, I have peculiar pride and pleasure in this 
 day. Mv native State is small, but it is rich in great mem- 
 ories and in great men. The stone of religious liberty, 
 which my Brother Ellis's Massachusetts rejected, became 
 the head of the corner in Rhode Island ; and upon the foun- 
 dation principle of that little State is reared the vast super- 
 structure of the civil and religious liberty of America. 
 
 And look with me, for an instant, at the contributions of 
 Rhode Island to American history. In our earliest epoch, 
 it gave us Roger Williams, its founder, — the preacher, not 
 of religious tolerance, but of absolute religious liberty, who 
 held that the Quaker and the Puritan who hung the Quaker, 
 that George Fox and John Endicott, were both of them too 
 narrow for the broad church of soul-liberty. To the Revolu- 
 tion, Rhode Island gave General Greene, the friend of Wash- 
 ington, and Esek Hopkins, the first Commodore, the first 
 Commander-in-chief, of the American Navy. To the later 
 war with Britain, Rhode Island gave Commodore Perry, who 
 upon Lake Erie met the enemy, and they were his. And, 
 last of all, my native State gave to America and the world, 
 to liberty and to humanity, William Ellery Channing. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Among the thousand tributes of reverence and of love 
 that are to-day paid to his memory, I have been asked to 
 say to you a word of his anti-slavery career. Why, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, there is not a man who shall speak of him who will 
 ■not speak of that. Every breath he drew was an anti-sla- 
 very inspiration. Every word he uttered was an anti-slavery 
 battle. Wherever he saw a chain binding the human soul 
 or the human body, he struck it, and he broke it, — not with 
 'die might of the trip-hammer that shatters, but with the 
 'ouch of the sunbeam that melts.
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 22$ 
 
 Channing was one of the three great spiritual emanci- 
 pators in our history. The first was Roger WilHams ; the 
 second was Channing ; the third, in a later generation, was 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson. [Applause.] They all held to what 
 Roger Williams called "soul-liberty." They all asserted that 
 moral independence was the sole source of moral power; 
 that the moment any man looked for his duty to the plat- 
 form of a party, or to the creed of a sect, or to any authority, 
 to any source, but his own conscience, which is God in him, 
 that moment he lost his moral liberty. And, sir, I rejoice to 
 see this great and brilliant assembly, at a time when every 
 mind in the country is forecasting the vast excitements of 
 the Presidential election, when passions and ambitions, and 
 hopes and prejudices of every kind, are fiercely inflamed. 
 The serene memory of a man like Channing falls upon us 
 like a benediction of manly courage and peace. For so long, 
 fellow-citizens, as we are true to his principles ; so long as,. 
 in a country of sects and parties, we hold them as servants, 
 and not as masters ; so long as we trample under our feet the 
 familiar ecclesiastical, the familiar political sophistries, scorn- 
 ing their scorn, despising their contempt, excommunicating 
 their excommunications, — so long we shall understand the 
 mysterious saying that one with God is a majority ; and our 
 beloved country will be truly invincible because truly free. 
 
 The supreme passion of Channing's life — if I may use 
 such a word to describe a man so passionless, or, rather, who 
 held all his powers and passions under so strict control — 
 was love of liberty. To him God was perfect love and per- 
 fect freedom. It was this which made him intensely indi- 
 vidual, and it was this which gave him his profound sense 
 of the worth of man as man. 
 
 He lived in a time of tremendous controversies, — political, 
 theological, social. He was always a teacher of the teach- 
 ers, a leader of the leaders; but he bore himself throughout
 
 224 CllANiNING CENTENAR\'. 
 
 Willi absolute heroism and independence, always serene, 
 superior, solitary. His manner was as gentle and sweet as 
 the dew that falls on Hcrmon ; but his convictions, rooted 
 upon the Internal Centre, were as absolutely uncompromising 
 as the mountain upon which the dews of Hermon fall. And 
 as to-ilay we look back into that stormy time, as we catch 
 a glimpse of that slight figure and seraphic glance amid the 
 hea\ings of the tempestuous epoch, amid the contentions 
 of statesmen, of politicians, of theologians, of reformers, we 
 seem to see a fervent and penetrating flame that purifies 
 while it illuminates; and we catch at least some glimpse of 
 that essential and innate dignity of human nature which 
 was his profound faith, and the theme of his transcendent 
 eloquence. 
 
 Mr. President, I can hardly believe, as I look around 
 upon this audience, that there are so many who honor me 
 at this moment with their attention, so many young men 
 and so many young women who have no personal remem- 
 brance of our great anti-slavery debate. It was a question 
 which involved a wrong against human nature, a crime 
 against liberty, so immense and so intolerable that it neces- 
 sarily overshadowed all other questions ; and if I have given 
 you, in the few words that I have spoken, my idea of the 
 golden key that unlocks the whole career of Channing, you 
 will understand where a man, arrayed by the very law of his 
 nature against despotism, necessarily stood in that great con- 
 flict. The question was absolutely unavoidable. Ah! sir, I 
 si)eak to men who remember with me how we sought to 
 escape it. I speak to men who remember how we evaded the 
 omnipresent issue, how we said that it belonged to the South ; 
 that it was so "nominated in the bond," that it was not our 
 affair, that we were morally free from taint. Why, human 
 slavery, as it existed in this country, was a cancer which could 
 live only by tainting the sound flesh around it ; and, by the
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 225 
 
 veiy law of its being, slavery within the Union necessarily 
 encroached upon freedom within the Union. It was every- 
 where. It was not to be evaded. Beyond the Mississippi, 
 the free laborer, planting his happy home and singing at his 
 work in the free territory, suddenly found himself confronted 
 Dy the spectre of slavery, in the persons of the overseer and 
 his gang, to dispute with slaves the bread of freedom. 
 
 It was not beyond the Mississippi alone; but the panting 
 fugitive, guilty of no crime but color, taking his life in his 
 hand, tracked by blood-hounds, suffering torments which have 
 not been written, and following his only friend, the cold 
 north star in heaven, fled across the border, and here, in 
 your very Brooklyn streets, cowering and starving and 
 knocking upon your own doors, brought home to you, at 
 your hearthstone, the crime and the appalling sorrow of 
 slavery. 
 
 Nor on the land alone, but on the sea, — far out on the 
 ocean, beyond the sight of land, — innocent men, overpower- 
 ing other men who, for their own gain only, had robbed them 
 of their liberty, were obliged to go somewhere to shore, and, 
 coming to our coast, piteously appealed to the protection of 
 our flag; and the government which that flag symbolized 
 hesitated and demurred. But let me say it to the eternal 
 honor of a man then living, an ex-President of the United 
 States, whose heart and mind echoed the pitiful cry that he 
 heard, personally a friend of Channing, and also of the relig- 
 ious faith of Channing, but with the ability, with the instinct 
 of a moral gladiator, that he, virtually alone in Congress, 
 with his strong hand and his dauntless will upheld American 
 liberty in the House of Representatives, maintained for us 
 the fundamental American principle of the right of petition, 
 and in the Supreme Court of the United States made the 
 poor foreign slaves, the slaves of the "Amistad," his clients, 
 and gave them liberty.
 
 226 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 When I think of this man, I see John Pym in the Com- 
 mons, thundering against Charles Stuart; I see Lord Mans- 
 field upon the King's Bench, declaring that there cannot be 
 a slave in England : and I feel that, in the darkest hour of 
 American history, America and human liberty had no truer 
 friend than John Quincy Adams. [Applause.] 
 
 Well, this was the contest with which Channing was con- 
 fronted. There was not a man in this country who could 
 feel the crime more deeply than he, and you will see at once 
 tiiat two things were to be expected of him. He would be 
 one of the earliest and most intrepid of the anti-slavery 
 leaders, and he would not be identified with the party known 
 as abolitionists. On reading our history, you will find that 
 both of these facts are verified by the record. 
 
 Channing, by temperament, by the intense individuality 
 of which I have spoken, represents everywhere the indi- 
 vidual force, the individual influence. His refinement, his 
 sensitiveness of temperament, and his overpowering sense 
 of justice made him, more than any man in the country, 
 alive to what he conceived to be the excesses and the per- 
 sonalities of reform. 
 
 Now, fellow-citizens, I do not read Channing aright, if 
 it was the bitterness of invective, so much as what seemed 
 to him its injustice, which kept him solitary in the great 
 awakening. He had no personal aim. He had no private 
 ambition. All his ends were God's, his country's and 
 truth's, — these and nothing more. His object was always 
 a moral object. It was persuasion ; and therefore he recoiled 
 from vituperation, and denounced it, as defeating the very 
 object of the reform. Whatever made persuasion, in his 
 judgment, impossible, was to him a flagrant crime against 
 the cause, and a betrayal of the slave himself. 
 
 But, on the other hand, the abolitionists, viewing this 
 question with their conscience, with their knowledge of
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 22/ 
 
 mankind, with their experience of daily affairs, considered 
 moderation treachery. They regarded Channing as a man 
 who compromised, and who might even be accused of 
 cowardice. But Samuel J. May, one of those saintly soulf 
 akin to Channing's, early caught up in the ardor of thij 
 great crusade of humanity, tells us that Channing, always 
 open, always generous, as Mr. Collyer has said, to every 
 claim of every man and of every cause, asked him perpet- 
 ually how that cause was coming on, and one day reproved 
 Mr. May for what he considered to be the extravagance 
 of reform. Mr. May tells us that he at once responded, 
 "Well, Dr. Channing; God works with such instruments 
 as he can find. He has called the world, he has called the 
 mighty, he has called the leaders of men, and they have not 
 answered. We have come in from the hedges and from the 
 ditches, we have come in from the highways and by-ways, 
 and are here to do our work. Look to it, sir, look to it; 
 for the work in the Master's vineyard will be surely done. 
 Is it not time, sir, that you spoke.''" Mr. May said that 
 the moment he had uttered this reproof to Channing he sat 
 drooping before him, not knowing what the rebuke might 
 be ; but Channing, with the utmost simplicity, answered : 
 "Brother May, I feel the justice of that reproof. I have 
 kept silence too long." 
 
 I do not, for myself, think that he had kept silence in 
 an unjust sense. Every word, every act of his, had been 
 charged with the anti-slavery spirit ; and of his great co- 
 laborer, William Lloyd Garrison [applause], and Dr. Chan- 
 ning, — both residents of the same city, both moved by the 
 same inspiration, both pursuing the same end, but abso- 
 lutely different in temperament and training, — all we "can 
 say is, as of all the resplendent planets in the great heaven 
 of that agitation, "One star diffcreth from another star in 
 glory."
 
 228 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 For, from the beginning, when Channing was born, a 
 lunuhcd years ago to-day in Newport, Newport was a slave 
 trading port. Its public opinion was what the public opin- 
 ion of New York was when the anti-slavery agitation began 
 Down to the period just before the war, the public opinion 
 of New York was expressed by one of its greatest merchants, 
 when he said, "There will be no peace in this country until 
 men like Charles Sumner are hung." In that one remark, 
 those who were not familiar with those days may understand 
 what those days were. 
 
 Well, in the old Newport in which Channing was born, 
 his first preacher, in the church to which his father went, 
 was old Dr. Hopkins, who preached every Sunday the terrors 
 of hell to a poor congregation in a desolate church, and who 
 insisted to them that the final test of true faith was the will- 
 ingness to be damned for the glory of God. [Laughter.] 
 Old Dr. Hopkins, preaching that faith, was still a worthy 
 embassador of Him who came to break every bond. And it 
 was from his lips, from his life, and from the whole adverse 
 stress of public opinion there in Newport, that Dr. Channing 
 first acquired his hostility to slavery as it existed in this 
 country. 
 
 Then, when he is eighteen years of age, just at the very 
 beginning of the century, he goes to Richmond to teach. 
 And he writes home from Richmond, " Except for their sen- 
 suality and their slavery," — two considerable exceptions, — 
 " the Virginians would be the. finest people in the world." 
 
 In 1830, when Garrison began his Liberator Dr. Chan- 
 ning was in Santa Cruz for his health. But in Santa Cruz, 
 amid all the delights of Elysium, he could see and feel but 
 one thing. Like the princess in the fairy tale who could not 
 sleep upon a hundred beds of down because of the little 
 pebble under them all, so he could not rejoice in all the 
 splendor and prosperous luxuriance of the tropics, knowing
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 2^9 
 
 the injustice to human nature that was beneath its whole 
 social system. 
 
 When he returned to Boston, he stood in the pulpit of a 
 congregation panoplied in as obdurate a respectability against 
 every form of agitation of the anti-slavery question as any 
 congregation in the land. Yet he did not hesitate to say, as 
 he stood meekly before them, " I have been in Santa Cruz. 
 I have seen in Santa Cruz the mildest form of human slavery ; 
 and in its mildest form, brethren, human slavery is the de- 
 stroyer of the soul." 
 
 In 1835 and in 1837, he published his essay upon Slavery, 
 and his letter upon Texas to Henry Clay. I challenge for 
 those two documents the merit of being the most permanent 
 and imperishable contributions to the literature of the anti- 
 slavery cause, as expressing its fundamental reason and prin- 
 ciple and scope. 
 
 I do not forget for a moment — how could I in this pres- 
 ence.'' — the words of the prophet, and the John Knox of- 
 that movement, of whom I have already spoken, Mr. Garri- 
 son. [Applause.] I do not forget the mingled trumpet and 
 flute of the speech of Phillips, which has so often filled this 
 very building with the truest music of eloquence. [Ap- 
 plause.] I do not forget that great appeal, that romance, 
 in which the whole life of slavery was figured, which was 
 borne into every land, which was translated into every lan- 
 guage, and which melted the heart of the world, as it pon- 
 dered the career of " Uncle Tom." [Applause.] I do not 
 forget that, as Emerson said, in every anti-slavery meeting 
 the eloquence was dog-cheap. But the plea of Channing, 
 perfectly tranquil in tone, stands, it seems to me, always 
 separate and apart. These were his words : " God has not 
 intrusted the reform of the world to passion." His argument 
 was a calm and permanent statement. It is the argument 
 which our children's children will read, and feel to be invlnci-
 
 230 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 ble. It will not have the glow, the fervor, the palpitation of 
 the speeches and the appeals to which our hearts have 
 responded ; but it will shine always with the calm light of 
 the stars. 
 
 Nor was ne wanting — I think my best anti-slavery 
 friends will acknowledge — in his fidelity to his profound 
 convictien. The work of our friend Mr. Oliver Johnson — 
 the last contribution to the history of the anti-slavery reform 
 — tells us that it was not until 1843 that Mr. Garrison felt 
 called upon to declare his gospel of the dissolution of the 
 Union, because it was then his feeling that the Union was 
 a covenant with death and an agreement with hell. But in 
 the essay upon Slavery, eight years before, and in his letter 
 to Mr. Clay, five years before, Dr. Channing had done what 
 every man in this country was warned by the statesmen not 
 to do, — he had weighed the value of the Union ; and he had 
 said: "To other men the Union is a means, but to me it is an 
 end. I love the Union with a love surpassing all the feeling 
 that I have for any American institution but that of liberty." 
 "We will make every concession for the Union," said Chan- 
 ning, "but truth, justice, and liberty : these we will not con- 
 cede." And when he wrote to Clay in 1837, he did not 
 hesitate to speak of the consummation of the annexation of 
 Texas as a justification for the separation of these States. 
 With celestial prescience, he knew that the States could 
 not cohere, slave and free. He knew that they would sepa- 
 rate either by the sword or by consent ; and, as a man 
 of peace, he hoped that it might be by consent. And, when 
 he said these words, he seems to me to have repeated those 
 great words of Burke, — "All government is founded upon 
 compromise and barter ; but in every bargain the thing sold 
 must bear some proportion to the price paid. No man will 
 barter away the immediate jewel of his soul." Channing 
 spoke the deepest conviction of the American people before
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 23 1 
 
 they knew it themselves. He spoke for that love of lib- 
 erty, for that fidelity to the Union, which, when the trial 
 came, was sure to be found supreme. When our Southern 
 brethren made their demand, they asked us to barter away 
 the immediate jewel of our soul. They have had their 
 answer. 
 
 Mr. President, many voices in many lands are. at this 
 moment speaking of this man. He is shown in a hundred 
 aspects. I have mentioned one. But turn this priceless dia- 
 mond in your hand ; and, wherever you look, every smooth 
 facet will be as pure and luminous as every other. 
 
 I never saw Channing, I never heard his voice ; but, walk- 
 ing often in the old Newport garden that he loved, I have 
 felt that its sunny solitude, penetrated by the cool, racy 
 breath and the infinite murmur of the neighboring sea, was 
 the truest symbol of his life and character. 
 
 We cannot truly appreciate, nor fitly express, our debt 
 to the great men who are not specialists,- who are not 
 — if my brother will allow me — preachers merely, nor 
 reformers, but who are great uplifting powers which supply 
 the thoughts that make civilization, who give us the inspira- 
 tions that make the glory of our life. These things we can- 
 not express ; but our deepest souls and all that is noblest 
 within us respond to them, as the shells strown upon that 
 Newport beaj:h of his answer the eternal music of the ocean. 
 
 "Our echoes roll from soul to soul, 
 And grow forever and forever." 
 
 The heavenly light in those sweet eyes is long since 
 quenched ; the music of that voice is silent ; that gentle 
 presence has vanished from men's sight forever ; that slight 
 figure, that trembling body, lies mouldering in the grave. 
 But in the greater spiritual liberty that we sec, in the 
 quickened public conscience, in the downfall of sectarian 
 divisions, in the deeper, higher, truer sense of the father-
 
 ~J- 
 
 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 hood of God and the brotherhood of men, that soul of fire 
 and of love goes marching on. [Loud applause.] 
 
 The Chairman. — The Rev. Dr. Sims, of the Methodist 
 Church, will now address you. 
 
 ADDRESS BY REV, C. N. SIMS, D.D. 
 
 A Californian, with whom his nephew had been long visit- 
 ing, grew strangely sad. The nephew anxiously inquired 
 the cause of his grief, and was surprised to hear his uncle 
 say, "I am so afraid you will never come to see me again." 
 " I certainly will," said the affectionate young man. " No," 
 said the uncle, " I think you never will, for I am afraid you 
 will never go away this time." 
 
 Now, my friends, I do assure you our meeting to-night 
 will close some time, so you may have a chance to come 
 again. In view of the lateness of the hour, I promise to 
 be extremely brief. Indeed, I only speak at all, because it 
 is fitting that I, and Mr. Beecher who is to follow me, 
 should put an orthodox finish to this centennial celebration, 
 and that it should pass under orthodox revision, as all such 
 meetings ought. 
 
 The world is not rich enough in virtue or strength to per- 
 mit a great, good man to be forgotten. It has no super- 
 abundant accumulation of truth, that we can afford to turn 
 away from any truth-searcher, no matter though his methods 
 be different from ours ; and we are here to-night, my friends, 
 to speak words of grateful remembrance of one who was a 
 courageous, devoted searcher after the truth, and who conse- 
 crated that truth to the best interests of humanity, as he un- 
 derstood them. 
 
 William Ellery Channing is one of the few men who have 
 escaped death and oblivion, and who live on forever in the
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 233 
 
 truest life, because he was a great man, after the Master's 
 deepest and most profound definition of greatness, — being 
 the servant of all. His influence upon the world is twofold. 
 It is impersonal, in so far as it goes out to affect general 
 thought and sentiment. As a rivulet on its way to the river 
 gives its waters to the atmosphere, and then those waters arc 
 condensed into dew-drops and deposited upon leaf and flower 
 and bud, and yet are truly of the rivulet, though they may 
 not make their way with it to the river, so there are lives 
 that in their definite and living influence quicken and refresh 
 all humanity, long after they themselves have disappeared 
 from any personality in the matter. But, beside that, there 
 is another influence upon the general thought of the world 
 as we have studied him, the philanthropist, the teacher ; the 
 man whose words and thoughts have been before the world, 
 always fresh, never belonging to a departed or to a decayed 
 age ; the glorious thinker, searching after truth. 
 
 I speak of his continuous personal influence. To the 
 student of his biography, who has followed his labor and 
 struggle and thought, he is still a most living personality, 
 able yet to stir the thought, arouse the enthusiasm, and 
 inspire to noble efforts and purposes. His was the life of 
 a great, consecrated searcher after God's verities. He was a 
 man who gave himself to know the truth. Because the state- 
 ments of Christian doctrine around him did not satisfy his 
 mind, he sought to make other statements which seemed to 
 him more correct. In order to do his work, he became a 
 great and glorious martyr for the truth as he understood it, 
 willing to part company with old friends, willing to feel 
 whatever pain he may have felt in the disapprobation of 
 those under whom he had been instructed, from whom he 
 had learned, and whom he had loved. He parted company 
 with them for conscience' sake. 
 
 And so the student of Channing's character comes to
 
 234 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 calcli ihe inspiration of one who loved the truth, not simply 
 to love what Channing believed. If it were that, we could 
 not all mingle here to-night. But we come to stand where 
 he stood, on this broad principle of loving the truth as he 
 loved it, and to judge of the truth for ourselves as he judged 
 of it for himself ; and this inspiration is one which must 
 always be healthful and lielpful. 
 
 Again, the influence of his personal character upon those 
 who study him is felt in his broad, earnest, tender, loving 
 philanthropy. He was a man of generous nature, one who 
 could agree to honor those with whom he disagreed. Not 
 ev^ery man can forgive his fellow for holding opinions not 
 in harmony with his own. Many a one can forgive the thief 
 who steals his watch, that cannot pardon his neighbor who 
 fails to find his faith expressed in the same catechism. 
 Because Channing's soul was full of sympathy, he lives 
 largely in my mind and in my affections. It seemed as if 
 his heart was the focal centre of a whispering gallery broad 
 as this wide world; and that every sigh of human woe 
 and every sob of human sorrow came to be articulate and 
 audible, as it reported to his spirit. 
 
 So he came to stand before the world the advocate 
 of temperance ; the advocate of freedom ; the advocate of 
 religion; the man of pure and noble life; the man who 
 loved humanity in its loneliness and poverty ; the Sabbath- 
 school man ; the pastor who cared for the poor and needy ; 
 the man whose broad and loving heart planned all generous 
 things for all men ; the man who planned for the emigrant, 
 for the workingman, for the mechanic, for the degraded, for 
 the imprisoned, — planned for whoever suffered or was igno- 
 rant or fallen or hopeless in this world, — and who longed to 
 lift up humanity toward the God whom he worshipped. He 
 was a reverent worshipper of God. 
 
 This world, my friends, is broad enough, God's love rich
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 235 
 
 enough, and his character grand enough, for all of us, with 
 our different religious views, to stand on, and gaze straight 
 up into the face of our divine Father, and not be in one 
 another's way. He loved God and believed in him, and he 
 that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as He is 
 pure ; and his whole life grew beautiful in the sunshine of 
 the divine favor and love, and in the light of God's all-seeing 
 eye, with nothing evil hid away in his heart or in his hand. 
 So he gave his life to humanity. So he lives on, having 
 escaped death. So to-day, in all that makes up life, the 
 helper of the thinker and the worker, of the student, and 
 the down-trodden, he lives on. The life of flesh is past. 
 He does not any longer eat and drink, and suffer and toil ; 
 but he helps humanity, and he will help it through all the 
 years that are to come. And so, believing, as I do, in the 
 essential divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the perma- 
 nent and perpetual power of God's Holy Spirit, and in the 
 doctrine and reality of genuine conversion, I come to lay 
 my chaplet down in memory of one whom I honor ; and I 
 pray God that all truth gathered everywhere in this wide 
 world may be consecrated to the service of all men, and 
 that all truth-seekers may be honorable in the sight of 
 their brethren forever. 
 
 The Chairman. — Of course you will all remain to hear 
 Mr. Beecher. 
 
 ADDRESS OF EEV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 I do not propose to speak to-night at any length. It is 
 now a time at which Dr. Channing would have been abed 
 and asleep for an hour. You have had a banquet, if ever an 
 audience had ; and you have also had the benediction of a 
 good sound orthodox clergyman at the end of it. And it
 
 236 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 seems to nie that the consent of men, whether they are in 
 the Mother Church or in any of the scattered sectarian 
 churches, — orthodox, half-orthodox, or heterodox, — is all 
 gained to-night, and gained on one point : that a man who 
 loves God fervently and his fellow-men heartily, and devotes 
 his life to that love, is a member of every communion and 
 of every church, and is orthodox in spite of orthodoxy or 
 anything else! 
 
 There is one point, however, that has been pressed upon 
 my mind, as I have been overwhelmed with the richness 
 of the thoughts and illustrations of the speakers gone by. 
 So warm and enthusiastic have been the eulogies to-night, 
 that one might almost imagine that Dr. Channing was him- 
 self the light of the world ! But no ; so rich is God, so all, 
 pervading, so incarnated in every soul that thinks and in 
 every heart that throbs, that Dr. Channing was but one 
 single taper shining in the darkness of this world, and draw- 
 ing his light from the great solar Fountain, God. He was 
 the mouthpiece of his time ; but his time had prepared the 
 material which he expressed. No man, in any age, though 
 he stand head and shoulders above his fellows, is competent 
 to do much more than has been wrought out for him, — to 
 be the teacher of those things which have been made needed 
 and manifestly needed, by the experience of millions of men, 
 and to give intellectual expression to those truths which in 
 their emotive form have welled up in thousands and tens of 
 thousands of bosoms. Dr. Channing felt all the accumu- 
 lated force, moral and social, of the times gone by and the 
 times at hand in which he lived. And so, though he was 
 great, mankind behind him was greater, the time was greater, 
 and the all-informing spirit of God was greater yet. 
 
 In my boyhood, I went to Boston in 1826, and was thrown 
 into the very centre and heat of that great controversy which 
 was raging, in which my father was an eloquent thunderer on
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 237 
 
 one side, and in which Dr. Channing was an eloquent silent 
 man on the other side. Mostly his work had been done 
 at that time. Do I not remember the image of that day ? 
 In my own nature enthusiastic, sincere, and truthful, did not 
 what my father thought become what I thought ? And did 
 I not know that Unitarians were the children of the devil ? 
 And did I not know that those heresiarchs, if they had not 
 fallen from heaven, ought to fall from the earth ? And did I 
 not regard Channing, I will not say as a man misled, but as 
 a man demented, in whom was the spirit of error, leading 
 men down to perdition, and who ought to be silenced, and 
 all of whose followers ought to be scourged ? Did I not 
 read in those days the haughty statement, the reply, the 
 rejoinder, and then the diffusive controversy generally .'' 
 And yet time has wrought with me, as it has wrought 
 with you, and with all men, wonderful changes ; and now 
 those two men, my father and Dr. Channing, that stood 
 over against each other, — to my young seeming, — as wide 
 apart as the east from the west, I see standing together, 
 and travelling in precisely the same lines, and toward pre- 
 cisely the same results. For did not Lyman Beecher feel 
 that, as the doctrine of God and of moral government was 
 presented in the day in which he lived, the glory of God was 
 obscured, that men were bound hand and foot, and that the 
 sweetness and the beauty of the love of Christ in the gospel 
 were misunderstood, or even veiled and utterly hidden } 
 And what was he striving for but such a renovation of the 
 old orthodoxy as should let the light of the glory of God, 
 as it shone in the face of Jesus Christ, have a fair chance 
 at folks ? And what was Channing striving for } He felt 
 that the old formulas and statements of men did not let out 
 the whole circumference, nor did it give the whole force and 
 beauty of the character of God. He, too, was driving, as 
 best he could, the clouds out of heaven, and seeking to
 
 238 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 make the character of God more resplendent, and morally 
 more effective to mankind. And there they stood bombard- 
 ing each other, botli of them with the same grand object 
 and motive; like two valiant men-of-war, that are giving 
 each other broadside after broadside, and yet are on a 
 stream of Providence that is carrying them unconsciously 
 in the same direction ! They sailed side by side, and as 
 they met in heaven I think they lifted up hands of wonder 
 and exclaimed, "Is it possible that I am here — and you .? " 
 
 My estimate of Channing is not less because my estimate 
 of the whole force of society is greater. He was one of the 
 men, and but one, — a great and noble and leading man. 
 Ten thousand other things were working. When Sisera 
 was at his battle, the stars in their courses, it is said, fought 
 against him ; and, when God hath great work on hand, the 
 stars, and every thing that is beneath them, are working in 
 one direction. The changes in governments, the advance in 
 laws, the development of a better political economy, the 
 evolution of commonwealths, the progress of science and of 
 the mechanic arts, but especially the science of mind, are 
 working out a final theology by working to the same great 
 end, — the emancipation of man, the clarity of his under- 
 standing, the sovereignty of his conscience, the sympathies 
 of his soul, and the full disclosure of God, over all, blessed 
 forever. And it is enough glory to say of Channing that 
 he understood the day in which he lived, and understood 
 that he was appointed to be a pilot to the times that were to 
 come after ; and that whatever he did administratively he 
 did intelligently, that the young and the vital wood that 
 carried the sap and the life of the tree might have a chance. 
 
 Those who are horticulturists will understand that the 
 bark that carried the sap last year will have to get out of 
 the way, and let the bark that comes on this year have a 
 chance ; and the kind pomologist, with his knife, often slits
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 239 
 
 the bark of the cherry-tree that is conservative, to give a 
 chance to that which has a hereditary right to be the bark, 
 and let the bark-bound diameter of the tree expand a little. 
 Dr. Channing, among other men, used his knife for the sake 
 of letting the new truth, which was struggling for a larger 
 diameter in the world, have a chance. 
 
 Well, what has been the result ? That was one hundred 
 years ago to-day. And what would Channing think if he 
 were allowed to stand here to-night.^ He would have been 
 half deaf by this time, if he had heard every thing that has 
 been said on this platform ; but, if he turned his eye upward, 
 and saw the change that has come over the American world, 
 to say nothing of Christendom, during the last hundred 
 years, and contrasted the spirit of antipathy which existed 
 between sect and sect, between theologian and theologian, 
 and the spirit which exists between them now, what would 
 be his thought.^ Even so sympathetic a man as my fatlicr 
 never saw an Arminian come into his church in that early 
 day, that he did not feel bound to give him such a dose of 
 Calvinism as would physic him for a year! I know very 
 well how stringent were the habits, the methods, the pecu- 
 liarities of each sect, and how each sect defended itself. 
 They were like so many nests of wasps in neighboring 
 trees, each one stinging for his own nest, and each one 
 fighting against the nest of every other. 
 
 So the fiery sects, if they were not dead and buried iu 
 worldliness, or when they revived and came to life, were 
 animated by a spirit of antipathy and suspicion and jeal- 
 ousy. Of course the spirit of envy and jealousy is universal 
 and continuous; but in that early day there was the spirit 
 of criticism and of suspicion, and it all sprang from a very 
 obvious source. For had they not embraced that world-wide 
 heresy, that God had committed his kingdoms in this world 
 to the consciences of his official disciples, and had ordained
 
 240 ClIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 their consciences to govern the consciences of all mankind? 
 Has it not been the banc of every sect, from the beginning 
 to this day, that men have felt that they were the special 
 depositaries of divine knowledge, and that the deposition 
 gave them the power to dictate to other men what they 
 should think and what they should believe, and to hold the 
 rod of everlasting damnation over their head, if they did not 
 think and believe as they were told? All men held substan- 
 tially this view then, and some men hold it even now. So it 
 came to pass that each sect followed its own notion of God, 
 marking out exactly the line of the wall, throwing up exactly 
 the right bulwarks, and defending what each man knew to 
 be the one exclusive truth of creation, and feeling bound to 
 look sharp at all the others, to contest them, and to con- 
 demn them, that the deposit of truth which each one had in 
 purity might have a fair chance in this world ! 
 
 That is all changed. I remember when you could not get 
 a minister of the Episcopal Church, and of the Unitarian, 
 and of the Universalist, and of the Swedenborgian, and of 
 the Baptist, and of the Congregationalist, on to a common 
 platform. You could scarcely do it on the Fourth of July, 
 and it was a wonder then that they did not fight. But, 
 to-day, on how many different subjects are they glad to 
 come together and consult ! And how marvellous an event 
 is it of the time in which I live, to see all these stanch 
 churches, by their stanchest ministers and advocates, stand 
 together through one long day with nothing on their tongue 
 but praises of that heretic Unitarian, Dr. William Ellery 
 Channing! Time and the world do move. Changes have 
 been wrought. 
 
 And more than that : there has come in, from influences 
 which it has pleased God to give forth and distribute in the 
 heart and understanding of many a man, but by none more 
 than by Channing, a change by which it is understood in
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 24I 
 
 this world that, if God is to have all the glory, then he must 
 be represented to be a God that is altogether glorious ; that, 
 if he is to have sovereign and absolute control of men, then 
 he is to have sovereign and absolute control of men because 
 all the faculties of the human soul which he infixed in man- 
 kind for the very purpose of judging what is right and what 
 is wrong, what is just and what is unjust, what is holy and 
 pure and what is unholy and impure, are satisfied with the 
 representations that are made of him ; and the whole Chris- 
 tian world to-day is feeling after such a representation of 
 God as mankind will not let die out. No view of. God will 
 be allowed to reign which does not conform to the enlight- 
 ened moral sense of good men. While there are men who 
 are atheists largely because the God on which they have 
 been fed is not God, is a misrepresentation of the true God, 
 in churches all over our land, — and, with perhaps more re- 
 luctant step, in the churches of other lands, — the cry of 
 Christendom is : " Give to us a God that shall not be apolo- 
 gized for ! Give to us a God that we do not need to defend ! 
 Give to us a God that, when the child, and the mother of 
 the child, and the just man, and the loving soul, look up, 
 they shall say, ' Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and 
 there is none that I desire upon earth beside thee.'" 
 
 The Calvinistic theology of New England before Chan- 
 ning's day had become intolerable to the best Orthodox 
 men, and Channing was but one of many who sought its 
 modification. Judged by the Scotch, the Genevese stand- 
 ard, Edwards, Hopkins, Bellamy, West, Spring, Backus, 
 Strong, Dwight, and a host of others, were smoothing its 
 features, and softening its immedicable harshness. The 
 revolt against this system of organized fatalism and infinite 
 despotism is not yet ended. In the lecture-room of the 
 schools, where intellect has supreme sway and the heart is 
 excluded, it still lives, but in the pulpit it has perished
 
 242 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 The educated moral sense of the laymen has slain it. The 
 free air of human life, the play of Christian sympathies 
 upon it, have made it as impossible to employ it as it would 
 be to upliold astrology, or alchemy, or the inquisition. 
 
 But, while we thus speak of Calvinism, John Calvin was 
 illustrious as a radical. He broke away from the reigning 
 spirit of his times, and led the spirit of free inquiry. Were 
 he alive in our day, no man would scourge Calvinism with 
 such resounding blows as John Calvin ! Nor was his theo- 
 logical system without great benefit, in an age when the 
 king and the priest had more power upon the senses and 
 the imagination than God. Men believed in nothing that 
 they could not see and handle. The Church was busy in 
 bringing all high and ineffable truth into a sensuous con- 
 dition. 
 
 Over against this magnificent Rome, with its cathedrals, 
 altars, robed priests, processions, gorgeous ceremonies, fill- 
 ing the eye, and bringing down the spiritual man to the 
 bondage of the senses, Calvin wrought out a theology of 
 thought, logical, elaborate, complete. When men pointed 
 to the visible church, its flowing rituals and its impressive 
 trappings, and asked tauntingly, " Where is your religion ? 
 There is ours, visible to all men, sublime and beautiful," 
 Calvin pointed to his system, invisible yet powerful, ad- 
 dressed to reason, not sense ; a system that aroused fear, 
 that developed imagination, that moved in men's thoughts 
 as laws of nature move upon the earth. His God was full- 
 orbed in power, and his light and glory extinguished the 
 false lights of the throne and the altar. It was a time 
 when nations were being dashed in pieces as a potter's 
 vessel ; and Calvin's God was the very divine iconoclast, 
 going forth to overthrow idols and polluted temples, and 
 drive headlong all usurpers of His prerogatives. His attri- 
 butes did not shock the rude ideas of that day. It only
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 243 
 
 concentred in God the barbaric authority to which men had 
 wearily and long submitted in magistrates and masters. 
 Better one^ despot than a thousand. That system, which 
 now oppresses the conscience and shocks the moral sense, 
 in its day emancipated reason, developed the moral sense, 
 and inspired men with ideas that led to liberty in the State 
 and in the Church. 
 
 But, like the steel armor of our fathers, admirable in its 
 day, it can be no longer worn. The spirit of God has ad- 
 vanced men beyond the need of such an instrument. It 
 must be placed in the hall, or gathered in military museums, 
 with broadswords, spears, culverins, and the whole panoply 
 of antiquated weapons. 
 
 Our age has witnessed, and is still rejoicing in, a better 
 idea of justice. There has been a great advance in our day 
 in the conception of justice, as an emanation of sympathy 
 and love, and not a deification of combativeness and destruc- 
 tiveness. Justice has been made vindictive rather than vin- 
 dicatory. The principle of hate has ruled in civil law, in 
 government, in theology, and in the churches. We have 
 had a fighting, and not a loving Christianity. Repulsion 
 has been stronger than attraction, dislike than s} mpathy. 
 Upon this dreary winter, spring is advancing. It has not 
 yet conquered. Here and there come blustering days, to 
 renew the rigor and to destroy this new life. But the Sun 
 of Righteousness is now high in the heavens. The days 
 are longer; the light advances, and the warmth. 
 
 All things are tending to draw men to each other. The 
 things in which men agree are more and more important 
 than those in which they differ. Love is growing, hate is 
 weakening. 
 
 More than that, I think in the past one hundred years — 
 and this, the birthday of Channing, marks the beginning 
 of it — there has not only been a change in the spirit of
 
 244 ClIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 sects, in the notions of government and in theology, but 
 there has also been a wonderful progress in true religion. 
 If you measure religion by the exact forms of- any of the 
 highly organized churches, — our mother, Rome, and her 
 eldest daughter, the Episcopal Church ; if you measure it 
 by dogma and formality and ordinance, in the different 
 aspects in which the denominations present it ; if you 
 measure its condition by the Westminster Catechism, or 
 by the Confession of Faith, or by any of the mediccval 
 Confessions, or by the hitherto standing claims of any of 
 the organized religious bodies, — I think it must be admitted 
 that there is a decadence of religion. But how.? When 
 the morning star begins to shine, the nimble lamplighters 
 of our cities go around extinguishing one gaslight after 
 another. They were substitutes for daylight ; but, when 
 the sun is coming up, there is no longer use for gaslight. 
 And shall any man say, "They are putting out the light of 
 the world" .'' They are putting out the artificial lights that 
 help up through the night, but are they destroying daylight .'* 
 If religion means veneration, there is not so much as 
 there was. Our own institutions do not tend to breed ven- 
 eration. Our children know as much as we do at fifteen 
 years of age, and govern us at twenty ! Our magistrates 
 have but little dignity. We put them up merely that we 
 may pelt them. To nominate a man for office in our land 
 is to stigmatize him ; and to elect him is to damn him ! 
 There is nothing old in America but trees ; and people do 
 not care for them. For it is with us as of old, when a man 
 was accounted great as he lifted up an axe against the 
 trees ; and almost nothing in the body politic is sacred in 
 our scrambling, active land, where men are building every 
 one for himself. There is little veneration here ; and, if 
 that is religion, Heaven help us ! We have tried to breed 
 it. We build big churches with small windows. We put
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 245 
 
 out what little light can get through, with paint. We have 
 imitations of grotesque things that have come down five 
 hundred or one thousand years, and we try to dress as they 
 used to dress before they knew how to dress ! In every 
 way possible, we are trying to coax the old mediaeval spirit 
 of veneration. We cannot do it : it is not bred in our day. 
 It will not live in our land. The common school is against 
 it ; the elective franchise is against it ; the whole of our so- 
 ciety is against it. So dangerous are the lapses of men 
 now in theology that we are all of us trying to stop that ; 
 and we are refurbishing the old armor, and the word is 
 going out : " We must reprint the old doctrines, and we 
 must introduce a shrewder economy in our seminaries, and 
 we must screw up the system. It is getting loose and 
 shackly." The engineers are screwing it up here and 
 there, and by every means striving to make it work as it 
 used to work. There is such a widespread doctrinal defec- 
 tion — with one or two exceptions — that, if you are to 
 measure the progress of religion by the exact agreement of 
 men to confession and catechism, woe be to religion ! 
 
 Religion is of the heart. It is a living force. Books do 
 not contain it, but only describe it. Creeds and Catechisms 
 may be honored while religion is perishing; and religion 
 may be increasing in scope and sweetness while creeds are 
 waning. It is born in every generation, and in every heart 
 that is a child of God ; and one cannot find whether men 
 have religion or not by bringing them to the catechism, 
 or by asking them how they got it. We have learned one 
 thing, and that is that mankind are greater than all the gov- 
 ernments of mankind. Wc have learned that man is more 
 than the church, and that the church was made for man, and 
 not man for the church. We have learned that, if there is 
 such a thing as religion, it is not to be found in any machin- 
 ery. Wc have learned that religion is loving God and loving 
 our fcUow-men.
 
 246 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Now, then, tested by that, is there more or less religion in 
 the age in which we live than there was in the days that are 
 gone by ? I say, more. I call the whole civilized world to 
 witness that, although there is much of the lion, of the bear, 
 of the eagle, and of the vulture yet in mankind, and though 
 these foul beasts or birds float on our national banners and 
 represent much of the under economy of animalism among 
 men, yet, to an extent that was never known before in the 
 world, there is the spirit of sympathy of man with man 
 disclosed. Never before has God been worshipped by the 
 serving of his children as he is to-day. Never before was 
 there such an adhesion as there is to-day to the words of 
 Christ, " Inasmuch as ye do it unto one of the least of these, 
 ye do it untp me." We worship a Christ that stands by the 
 poor, by the slave, by the prisoner, and by the emigrant who 
 lands, weary and discouraged, on our shores. We worship a 
 Christ that identifies himself with the low and the needy 
 and the suffering. We worship a Christ that is in the hos- 
 pital among the sick. If worshipping God is worshipping 
 Christ, I am Orthodox. I wish others were. I aver that 
 Christ was never worshipped so much as he is to-day by the 
 love, by the sympathy, and by the self-sacrificing helpful- 
 ness which we bestow upon all classes and conditions of 
 men. Never before did the human race see a whole age 
 and an organized nation putting their hands under the very 
 bottom of society, and attempting to lift, not the crowned 
 heads, not the middle classes, not the burghers and rich 
 men, but mankind from the very lowest, taking the whole 
 house up from its foundation. And while I see all reform- 
 atory societies attempting to reclaim men from intemper- 
 ance, to cleanse our prisons, to purge out vice, to restrain 
 all wrong ; while I see the tendency everywhere to send, 
 by showers of gold, the gospel to benighted nations, and to 
 promote the mission cause at home, and to educate the
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 24/ 
 
 slave and every living creature, — shall a man stand by and 
 tell me that religion is going down? A religion that lets 
 these alone is no religion ; and a religion by which any 
 man or community takes care of these, and in the love of 
 God sympathizes with man, and cares for him, — that is the 
 true religion. 
 
 When the potato was first sent to Ireland, they planted it, 
 and did not know where to look for the fruit. And when 
 it blossomed and bore its little seed-pods, they boiled these 
 pods, and ate them, and did not like potatoes ! If they had 
 gone to the root of the matter, they would have liked them. 
 And there are very many men who taste religion as it is 
 shown in the pod, if I may so say ; and they do not like this 
 church, that doctrine, this ordinance, and that economy. 
 What if you do not .-' These are not crops : they are merely 
 the tools by which we try to raise crops. They are the 
 machinery by which we work, and not the thing for which 
 we are working. I never ate millstones ; but I have eaten 
 that which millstones have produced. And the things that 
 grind out human love and kindness, — all may be defective ; 
 but the flour is the thing. And I say that never before was 
 there so much holy flour ground as there is to-day. 
 
 There is one more thing that I think is true, and of which 
 this celebration is significant ; namely, that there is no state- 
 ment of religion like religion itself. You cannot put into 
 words the essential verities of religion. When you have 
 used all the language that the vocabulary can give you, and 
 tacked word to word, you cannot have made a belt that will 
 go around the infinity and eternity of God. When by every 
 figure that is known to fallible men, by all the sweetness of 
 a mother's love, by all the purity of a child's love, by all the 
 fervor of noble souls just mated, you have tried to represent 
 God ; when you have gathered up all things that are re- 
 splendent, and made them patterns of divine love, — you have
 
 24S CHANXING CKNTKNARV. 
 
 (lone, as it were, nothing. The love of God that fills eter- 
 nity, and that is marching down through eternities, bearing 
 benison and benediction to countless spheres of existence, 
 doubtless, besides our own, — when you attempt to put it 
 into language and represent it by figures gathered by the 
 limited experiences of men, it is as if you undertook to find 
 timber for your navy in moss, and as if you undertook to 
 decorate your cathedrals with the inconspicuous flowers and 
 plants that grow too small but for the microscope. God is 
 too big for language, too big for representation by human 
 experience. The thing that most nearly represents God is 
 a man that is living like God. And no man can draw that 
 portrait or put it into language. We can see it, and we can 
 rejoice in it; but, after all, the man that is like God is the 
 best catechism and the best confession of faith. And we 
 have learned one thing, — that, when we see such a man, he 
 is God's, and he is ours. "All things are yours," says Paul. 
 On that ground, I am as good a Catholic as there is in this 
 world, except the pope and the cardinals and the bishops, 
 and their doctrines. And from my ownership of every saintly 
 woman and every saintly man no one can hinder me. They 
 are mine, because they are God's ; and I revere them and love 
 them. There is a vast amount of true theology in the good 
 living of the Catholic Church. There are men that rebuke 
 our lukewarmness and our lives by the nobility of theirs, — 
 multitudes of them ; and they are all right. Whatever the 
 church may be that makes them, theirs is the true theology. 
 I go from that into the Episcopal Church. It is enough for 
 me that she gave me my mother. Than that there can be 
 no farther argument. The church that yields such blessings 
 is not a church that I can contest, whatever her machinery 
 may be. I ask : " What are the products ? Where are the 
 saints, men and women .''" If they are Christ-like, they are 
 all right. I go into the Unitarian Church. I want no better
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 249 
 
 Christians than I find there. They are orthodox, sound, 
 by every Christian man and every Christian woman among 
 them that makes piety beautiful in the eyes of mankind. 
 I go into the Swedenborgian Church. Brother Ager is a 
 good enough Christian for me. He is soundly orthodox, 
 whatever he believes. No matter about that. I don't care 
 what a man believes. What is he .-' That is my question. 
 I say that what a man is, is his confession of faith. A 
 man's life is more important than any statement of the phi- 
 losophy of that life, or of the machinery by which that life 
 was brought into existence. 
 
 It is true that some schools are better than other schools, 
 that some methods of teaching are very likely to be better 
 than some others, that some statements of doctrine are 
 better than some other statements of doctrine in their apti- 
 tude to carry men on and upward. I will not discriminate 
 as to which I think is the better, though I can well under- 
 stand that there is a difference between one and another ; 
 but this I say, that when any man has been made a Chris- 
 tian, luminous of heaven, he does not belong to the church 
 that bred him : he belongs to that universal church which 
 has no exposition but in the .sympathies of the universe ; 
 and he belongs to you and to me. And, sir, don't. take on 
 airs, as if Channing was your man. He is my man as much 
 as he is yours. I have seen considerable of that spirit here 
 to-night, — and I feel bound as a Christian to fight it, — as if 
 you had a man that you would let us come and look at, as 
 if we might be permitted to come on this platform and wor- 
 ship your hero. I thank God that you have some such men 
 to worship and to present to us. It is a sign that there is 
 a sort of grace with you. Your doctrines may be very im- 
 perfect ; but, after all, there is a grace of God that goes with 
 imperfection. All sorts of instruments have been employed 
 in this world. Oftentimes, too, the instrument has been more
 
 250 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 than the prophet, as when lialaam went forth on his famous 
 ride of old. And, since all sorts of instruments are emjjloyed 
 by the good God, no matter what the instrument is, it is the 
 man that is created. 
 
 Here was a man, in a dark day, in a day of controversy, 
 in a day in which men stood very differently from the way 
 in which they stand now ; and I look upon the godly man 
 and see a lambent flame of holiness. I see that he was 
 a light kindled in a dark place ; and the sweetness of his 
 humility strikes me. He blushes in heaven to hear what is 
 said of him on earth, if he attends to it, — though I think 
 likely he does not. He was a good man. If he had been in 
 the Roman Church, he w^oukl have been a saint ; and he is 
 not less a saint, because he was in the Unitarian Church. 
 We have learned that man is a better exposition of Chris- 
 tianity than doctrines, or any of the various instruments of 
 the church. We are learning to receive whom God receives ; 
 and whenever a man shows that he is acceptable to the 
 Master, is wearing his spirit, and is blessed by his contin- 
 ual attendance, that man is sacred to us, no matter to what 
 denomination he may belong. A man is more than doctrine, 
 — and mankind are more than church and more than govern- 
 ment. Next to God, the only valuable thing in this universe 
 is living men ; and all nature is prepared to take care of 
 them. God is the Fountain and Cause of all things ; and 
 all nature and all time and all providence and all grace are 
 so many ministering servants to develop manhood in men. 
 And the only difference there can possibly be in our view of 
 God is this : those views of God that tend to beat men down, 
 and to beat down their moral sense, you may be sure are 
 false views ; while the views of God that tend to lift men 
 up, to inspire them with a holy horror of sin, to lead them 
 to aspire to holiness, and to give them a willingness to do 
 kindness at their own expense, to live for mankind, and if
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 25 1 
 
 need be to shed their blood, — such views are orthodox, how- 
 ever defective the system may be from which they spring. 
 
 When we look back, then, one hundred years, what do we 
 see ? The greatest change, I think, that has been produced 
 in any hundred since the advent ; and, when I look forward 
 from this stand-point, it seems to me that we stand just 
 about in the month of April in the history of the world as 
 we do in this year. We have had our dead winter, we have 
 had our blustering, controversial month of March, and now 
 ^we have our month of April, which does not know exactly 
 whether it has left March or whether it is entering into 
 May ; but it is on the way toward summer, and soon there 
 will come the blossoms of May already anticipated ; and 
 after that will come June, the opal of the year ; and then 
 the summer ; and then the harvest. We are on the full 
 march ; and, therefore, instead of looking back to the leeks 
 and onions of orthodoxy in Egypt, the spirit of God, the 
 spirit of philosophy, the spirit of wisdom, the spirit of true 
 religion, is to forget the things that are behind, and to press 
 forward toward the mark for the prize of our high calling in 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 Mr. Beecher resumed his seat amid the loud and long- 
 continued applause of the audience, which had still remained 
 unbroken, though it was now after eleven o'clock. 
 
 The following verses, from Bryant's " Thou hast put all 
 things under His feet," were then sung by the assembly to 
 the tune of "Coronation," as the closing hymn: — 
 
 O North, with all thy vales of green I 
 
 O South, with all thy palms ! 
 From peopled towns and fields between 
 
 Uplift the voice of psalms. 
 Raise, ancient East, the anthem high, 
 
 And let the youthful West reply.
 
 252 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Lu I 111 the clouds of hciiven appears 
 
 God's wcll-belov^d Son ; 
 He brings a train of brighter years ; 
 
 His kingdom is begun. 
 He comes, a guilty world to bless 
 
 With mercy, truth, and righteousness. 
 
 O Father I haste the promised hour, 
 
 When at His feet shall lie 
 All rule, authority, and power 
 
 Beneath the ample sky ; 
 When He shall reign from pole to pole, 
 
 The Lord of every human soul I 
 
 The benediction was pronounced by the Rev. F. A. 
 Farley, D.D., in these words: — 
 
 Now, with gratitude in our hearts, and thanksgiving and 
 praise to God for this occasion, for all its sweet memories, 
 and for all the blessed words it has caused to be spoken, may 
 the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and 
 the communion of the Holy Spirit, be with us, and remain 
 with us always ! Atnen. 
 
 Cordial letters, expressive of interest in the celebration 
 and of regret at not being able to attend its meetings, were 
 received from the following near relatives of Dr. Channing : 
 Rev. Geo. G. Channing, his only surviving brother, now in 
 his ninety-first year; Rev. William Henry Channing, his 
 nephew and biographer; Dr. W. F. Channing; Miss Eliza- 
 beth P. Channing ; Miss Mary Channing ; also from Rev. 
 Charles T. Brooks; Miss Mary E. Davey; Rev. Dr. Samuel. 
 Osgood; George Ripley; Rev. Dr. H. W. Bellows; Rev. 
 Dr. James Martineau ; Rev, Dr. Phillips Brooks ; Rev. Dr. 
 William Newell ; Rev. Dr. John Cordner ; Rev. Dr. F, H. 
 Hedge; Rev. E. Turland ; Rev. Dr. C. A. Bartol ; Rev. 
 Robert Spears ; Rev. Dr. Thomas Hill ; Bishop Joseph 
 Ferencz; Prof. David Swing; Rev. Edwin M. Stone; Rev. 
 
 I
 
 CELEBRATION AT BROOKLYN. 253 
 
 Dr. George H. Emerson ; Rev. Dr. VVm. G. Eliot ; Dr. 
 Franz von Holtzendorff ; Prof. C. C. Everett, D.D. ; the 
 Dutch Protestant Association, Holland; Rev. C. C. Sewall ; 
 Hon. S. E. Sewall; Rev. Dr. G. W. Hosraer; Rev. Dr. John 
 Cotton Smith ; Rev. Dr. John H. Morison ; Prince Arthur 
 Odescalchi and others, Hungary; Mr. John Fretwell ; 
 Charles W. Eliot, LL.D., President of Harvard University; 
 ex-Governor George S. Boutwell, of Massachusetts; Henry 
 P. Kidder, Esc|., President of the American Unitarian Asso- 
 ciation ; John H. Rogers, Esq., . of Boston ; Col. Thomas 
 Wentworth Higginson; Prof. J. L. Diman, of Brown Uni- 
 versity; Rev. E. A. Washburn, D.D., New York; Rev. 
 W. H. Furness, D.D.; Rev. R. P. Stebbins, D.D. ; Rev. 
 James Freeman Clarke, D.D. ; Rev. L. D. Bevan, D.D., 
 of New York ; Rev. E. E. Hale, D.D. ; Rev. Messrs. 
 J. F. W. Ware, R. R. Shippen, Samuel Longfellow, S. R. 
 Calthrop, Minot J. Savage, Brooke Herford, James De 
 Normandie, C. A. Staples, C. G. Ames, H. H. Barber, 
 E. H. Hall, etc. 
 
 A few of these letters were read at the meeting. All are 
 printed in the Appendix of the Special Report of the Brook- 
 lyn meeting.
 
 THE CELEBRATION AT NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 The comprehensiveness of the plan of the celebration in 
 the neighboring city of Brooklyn, and the fact that two of 
 the three Unitarian ministers of New York had accepted 
 invitations to participate in the celebration at Newport, R.I., 
 Channing's birthplace, made any special observance of the 
 centennial day in New York impossible. Sermons appro- 
 priate to the occasion were given on the Sundays preceding 
 and following the anniversary day in the three Unitarian 
 churches of the city, and at the Jewish Temple Emanu-el, 
 by Rev. Dr. Gottheil ; and reference to Channing and his 
 influence was made in many other pulpits and in the edi- 
 torial columns of the leading newspapers of the city. At 
 the meeting of the Historical Society of New York, on 
 Tuesday evening, April 6, the Rev. Dr. Samuel Osgood 
 delivered an oration on Channing's Life and Work, which 
 held the interest of the assembly for an hour and a half, 
 and on Judge Peabody's motion was ordered to be printed 
 and placed in the society's archives. This address will have 
 for Dr. Osgood's friends a double interest, from the fact that 
 it was his last public utterance, delivered only a week before 
 his death, on the 14th of April. 
 
 Dr. Bellows' discourse was the one prepared for delivery
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEW YORK. 255 
 
 at Newport. Mr. Collyer's sermon was a fresh and an in- 
 teresting biographical sketch, which was pubhshed in full in 
 the Oiristian Register of April 17. 
 
 The following passages from the discourse of the Rev, Dr. 
 Gustav Gottheil, the Rabbi of the Jewish Temple Emanu-el, 
 will, we believe, be read with peculiar interest, as probably 
 the most hearty and elaborate Jewish tribute ever paid to 
 Channing. 
 
 The text was from Daniel xii., 3 : " And they that be 
 wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament ; and 
 they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars forever 
 and ever." After an introductory biographical passage, the 
 preacher said : — 
 
 Time was when a Christian saint's day strupk terror to 
 the heart of the Jew ; for it stirred up the embers of a 
 smouldering wrath, and aroused a sleeping hatred, if ever 
 it did sleep, to new fury. 
 
 It laid the bleeding, mangled bodies of its victims as a 
 sweet savor on the altar of the saint. Time is now — how 
 can we be sufficiently thankful for it.? — when the gates of 
 the church are thrown wide open, and all are invited to 
 gather around and lay their flowers on the honored tomb ; 
 and, when the Israelite is found among them, his tribute is 
 gladly accepted. I was invited to take part in the celebration 
 of the day in our sister city, Brooklyn. I responded gladly, 
 and said what my heart prompted me to say. But I asked 
 myself. Have we Israelites as a body no interest in the 
 event beyond that of sympathetic spectators } Do we owe 
 nothing to the great man .? And, if we do, why should we 
 remain silent } One of the Rabbinical sayings is to this 
 effect: "This life is to the other what the vestibule is to 
 the palace." And they admonish us so to prepare ourselves 
 in the outer court that we may worthily appear before the
 
 256 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 King of kings in the inner court. What better portion 
 can wc think of than to remember lovingly and thankfully 
 outside the palace those whom we shall meet inside ? Death 
 will have swallowed up all our little creeds, will have blotted 
 out all the dividing lines, and we shall then meet together. 
 What a feeling that will be, knowing that there is nothing 
 in the heart, nothing antagonistic, — no book, no church, no 
 creed, — that any one of us will have to save or to defend, 
 — because God will be in all, and all will be found in God ! 
 Suppose we try to bring that heaven just a little nearer to 
 our troubled earth, and lay our ear to a great heart, though 
 it may have cherished a name of its own, just to feel how 
 closely its heart-throbs resemble those of our own hearts. 
 
 Here in our own house of prayer, and in the midst of 
 worship of Almighty God, let us honor the memory of 
 C banning. 
 
 First and foremost, because he was a righteous man. 
 Righteous did I say .'' Why that is but poor praise ; for so 
 may be the man of flinty heart, from which not a spark of 
 love is emitted. But Channing's heart was suffused with 
 love and compassion. His yearning for well-doing was so 
 strong that it nerved his feeble body to uninterrupted action 
 for his kind. The law of love was in his heart and on his 
 lips. He was a great controversialist. The largest portion 
 of his sermons and writings is devoted to exposure of 
 the fallacies in religion, in politics, and in social life. He 
 applied the scalpel with unsparing hand, cutting down as 
 deep as he thought necessary in order to heal the sore. 
 And yet I know of no other polemical writer so free from 
 all bitterness, from all passionate vindictiveness, from all vile 
 insinuations as he. His classic repose and absolute self- 
 control never forsook him, even in the very heat of the 
 battle. And, when his funeral cortege moved to his grave, 
 the bells of the Catholic churches tolled their dirges, albeit
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEW YORK. 257 
 
 that Channing was a determined adversary of the Church 
 of Rome. So overpowering indeed was the influence of his 
 goodness, and so irresistible the beauty of his benevolent 
 life! 
 
 Next to this, we cherish his memory as that of a powerful 
 and intrepid advocate of the emancipation of the slave, 
 who takes his place in American history by the side of 
 such men as William Lloyd Garrison. We honor him as 
 a stanch upholder of the divine rights of man, as the elo- 
 quent defender of liberty, as a propounder of a national 
 system of free education, from the primary school up to 
 the university, and as one of the founders of a national 
 literature. 
 
 Now, as lovers of this country, as faithful children of this 
 nation, you cannot but share in the general joy that a man 
 was born who contributed so much to elevate America to 
 the position which she occupies to-day ; whose diligent 
 hands 'sowed the seed in the furrows of time, which now 
 cover the fields with such abundant harvests. He has been 
 called the representative man of what is best and most pe- 
 culiar in the character and tendency of the American. 
 
 If some theory or some name must needs be put into our 
 Constitution, I for one shall vote for Channing's theory of 
 a republic ; when he declares in his paper for the annexa- 
 tion of Texas that " the ornaments and safeguards of a 
 republic are the higher virtues, the moral independence, the 
 simplicity of manners, the stern uprightness, and the re- 
 spect of man for man." 
 
 It has been said that Channing's influence is waning. So 
 much the worse for Americans. The fault does not lie with 
 them, but with us, in allowing the voice of that prophet of 
 righteousness to be drowned by the noises of selfish pas- 
 sions and mean political ends. Wc can see that Channing's 
 life, even though it bore no relation at all to our religion, is
 
 25S CIIAN'NING CENTENARY. 
 
 worthy of our recognition. If not, we should then leave un- 
 noticed the noblest and largest part of his work, the peculiar 
 work to which he had consecrated himself, — " to educate 
 men to just views of God and man." 
 
 In Channing's days, Calvinism ruled supreme. The Ori- 
 entals dream of a bridge, of the thickness of a hair only, 
 over which the soul will have to pass on its way to paradise. 
 The bridge that leads to the Calvinistic heaven is of no 
 greater strength. One single doubt or misgiving, and the 
 bridge snaps, and down the soul must go to eternal fire. 
 You meet many people nowadays who hold exactly the 
 same doctrine, but you do not recognize them, because 
 these things have now receded to that domain to which 
 they belong, — to the domain of j^rivate opinion. I have 
 sometimes strayed into a church, — and I have been to al- 
 most every variety of worship, — when I have heard from 
 the pulpit theories that made my blood run cold. And I 
 began to think, What a stern, unyielding, unloving character 
 must the man have, who can adopt and preach such terrible 
 doctrines of wrath and fury and brimstone! But when, by 
 chance, I have seen the man afterwards, come down from 
 the cloudland of his pulpit to our solid earth, and have 
 shaken his hand, I find that he is a capital fellow, whom 
 the worst of theology could not spoil. 
 
 It was very different in the days in which Channing lived, 
 at the beginning of the present century. That Christian 
 theory pressed like a weight upon American society, and 
 divided it. The controversy raged not only in the pulpit, 
 but in every-day life. You would scarcely credit the fact 
 that Channing saw, with his own eyes, a man arraigned in 
 a court and sentenced to three months' imprisonment for ut- 
 tering what was then called "blasphemy." If the same 
 law were still carried out, one-half of New York would have 
 to go to prison. He raised his voice against such a the-
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEW YORK. 259 
 
 ology. His mind revolted against a view of the Deity that 
 invested the Eternal Father with a character among men 
 that would cause the human father to be pointed at and 
 abhorred as a monster. He crowned God with the glory of 
 Fatherhood, and seated him on a throne of eternal justice, 
 — a throne unshared by any other being. 
 
 He held, as we hold, that man is not a criminal chained 
 to this earth as his prison, but that he is crowned with glory 
 and honor ; that, if he did fall in paradise, he fell, as has 
 been truly said, upwards ; that he took the first step toward 
 a higher moral development ; that every soul is God's own 
 property, for which he, as the Creator, is responsible to him- 
 self, and being a faithful God he will see to it that his prom- 
 ises be fulfilled. Channing tried to close the gates of hell, 
 because he could never be happy in his paradise so long as 
 these gates yawned to receive his fellow-sinners. He de- 
 throned Satan, because he considered him a usurper of the 
 power which belongs to God alone. So you see Channing 
 preached the brotherhood and equality of men. And, if you 
 look at it a little carefully, you will find that Judaism was 
 preached in Boston long before a single Jew had settled 
 there, at a time when there was no synagogue there out- 
 side of Federal Street Church, where Channing preached to 
 throngs of devout hearers. Is it not, then, a cause of joy 
 to us that that truth has burst through all the thin layers 
 of the Calvinistic rock, and has welled up in so pure a state, 
 and reflects such a beautiful light as that man was able to 
 shed upon it .? Not that he meant to preach anything but 
 Christianity. Channing was a believing Christian ; and, 
 probably, if he were here and heard me so construe his 
 theory, he would turn around and protest. Many preach 
 Moses in their churches, though they do not acknowledge 
 it. Jesus was to Channing, if not God, yet the next of kin, 
 who was sent into this world in a miraculous way, to per-
 
 260 CMAXMNG CENTENARY. 
 
 form a work of such stupendous and unique character that 
 it can be accounted for on no other theory than that of the 
 suspension of all natural causes. But his disciples have 
 loni; since blotted out the circle of his theology, and clung 
 only to his principles and his spirit ; and that spirit is 
 immortal. 
 
 Channing spoke for his time. His favorite theory of a 
 church purified by the holy spirit which he thought to 
 breathe into it, as the mother of a redeemed world, will 
 never be fulfilled. But there is a true prophecy in words 
 like these: "Charity," he says, "and forbearance delight 
 the virtuous of the different sects : recrimination and cen- 
 sure we condemn." Those are virtues which, however 
 poorly practised by us, we heartily recommend. We would 
 rather join ourselves to the church in which they abound 
 than to any other communion, however well confirmed their 
 belief in their own orthodoxy. That spirit is destined to 
 burst all the husks of dogmas based on particular histories, 
 and to rear the temple of the living God on the eternal rock 
 of human consciousness and all the common experiences and 
 needs of our common humanity. The sects of which Chan- 
 ning speaks are Christian sects. That follows from the 
 preceding sentence. The Jews are left out in the cold 
 altogether. His references to the Jews are few, and Ju- 
 daism as a surviving religion seems to have been entirely 
 outside of his horizon. Of the deep pathos of Jewish his- 
 tory, of their martyrdom for the same truths which he de- 
 fended, and which were so dear to him, he seems to have 
 known nothing. This is not to be wondered at, since there 
 existed in his day but very little of Judaism in America, 
 and that little in a petrified state, the mediaeval orthodoxy, 
 symbolized by what we see in 'his own birthplace in New- 
 port, a burial-place and an empty synagogue. But, had he 
 witnessed the rejuvenescence in our day, he would have felt
 
 CELEBRATION AT NEW YORK. 26 1 
 
 the affinity between his spirit and that in which we endeavor 
 to reconstruct our religion just as keenly as do his followers 
 nowadays. He might have stood in this very pulpit. He 
 might have reiterated in our own hearing his adoring homage 
 to the one God and Father in heaven, which would grace 
 any synagogue. He could have repeated his pleadings for 
 the brotherhood of all men, his trumpet-calls to duty and 
 virtue, his tender appeals for the poor and the suffering, his 
 elevating and ennobling prophecies of a glorious future in 
 store for man, both here and hereafter. Had he done so, 
 I know that each one of you would have said with all your 
 heart and soul, To such teachings, Amen.
 
 THE CHICAGO CELEBRATION. 
 
 Of this meeting, "C. P. W.," the regular correspondent 
 of the Christian Register, says : — 
 
 The call for the Channing celebration at Chicago was signed by many 
 of the orthodox clergymen of the city, and the committee of arrange- 
 ments included Rev. Dr. Felsenthal, a Jewish rabbi ; Dr. Lorimer, Bap- 
 tist; Dr. Thomas, Methodist; Prof. Swing, Independent; and Messrs. 
 Herford, Alger, and Galvin, Unitarians. 
 
 Long before the hour of opening, the crowd began to gather at the 
 doors of Central Music Hall on the evening of April 7, and by eight 
 o'clock an audience of nearly two thousand had assembled in celebra- 
 tion of the Channing centenary. The six addresses which constituted 
 the principal part of the programme were happily interspersed with fine 
 music and the reading of letters from a few distinguished invites who 
 could not be present. Hon. Isaac N. Arnold served as reader. A 
 friendly word was received from our beloved poet Whittier, and mes- 
 sages of sympathy and regret from Dr. Bellows, George W. Curtis, and 
 Edward E. Hale. 
 
 The first speaker of the evening was Judge Henry Strong, whose 
 subject was " Channing's Influence on Public Life." The wise, impar- 
 tial, and statesmanlike qualities of Channing's mind were clearly set 
 forth ; and at the close a comparison was drawn between him and Mon- 
 tesquieu, of whom Voltaire said, "When the human race had lost their 
 charter, Montesquieu found and restored it." 
 
 Prof. David Swing then read a brief essay, replete with brilliant meta- 
 phor, delicate and playful irony, and graceful narrative. It fell to his
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 263 
 
 share to treat of the religious inriuence of Channing, which he naturally 
 found to lie, not in his leadership of a new sect, but in the emphasis he 
 laid upon the two ideas of the divine goodness and wisdom and the 
 dignity of human nature. Dr. Channing lived at a time when theology 
 " had gone wrong at both ends," having " set up a bad doctrine of God 
 and a bad doctrine of man." What Channing did was to "take up his 
 pencil and retouch both canvases, so that Christianity saw a new image 
 of God and a new image of man." Respecting the Trinitarian contro- 
 versies of those days, Prof. Swing thought that it was not the number 
 so much as the quality of the Godhead that disturbed the religious sen- 
 sibilities of men. A Deity with three faces might not be so bad, if each 
 face beamed with love. The speaker alluded to the criticism of Joseph 
 Cook, that the influence of Channing is on the wane ; and the comment, 
 " Well perhaps it is so," was, as one of the morning papers puts it, 
 " spoken highly sarcastically," and with an additional touch of the char- 
 acteristic drawl. Channing's influence is on the wane, said Prof. Swing, 
 in much the " same sense as abolitionism is, because the slave is free ; 
 or from the same cause that induced the woman in the Scriptures, after 
 she had found her piece of silver, to stop sweeping for it; or for the 
 reason that, like Alexander, it has no more worlds to conquer." The 
 definite outlines of Channing's work are lost, if lost at all, in its general 
 adoption and assimilation into the thought of the day. 
 
 Rev. G. C. Lorimer, the popular Baptist preacher, whose weekly con- 
 gregations run up into the thousands and rival those of Central Church, 
 followed in an address on " Channing as a Philanthropist." In a series 
 of brilliant periods, Boston and Boston charities, and lastly and most gen- 
 erously Unitarian labors in these charities, received most glowing trib- 
 utes. Whether Dr. Channing understood aright the scope and meaning 
 of Christ's thoiight or not might be open to question, but there could 
 be no difference of opinion as to his comprehension of the Master's 
 heart. As Dr. Lorimer is a straight-out orthodox clergyman, it should 
 be said that, for a perfectly frank, manly, and courteous bearing toward 
 forms of thought which lie must hold in deep distrust, he deserves the 
 laurels of the occasion. 
 
 After him came Rev. W. R. Alger, with the congenial theme "The 
 Character of Channing as an Ideal Force in the Life of America." He 
 drew a contrast between the average ideals of the Vanderbilt and Jay 
 Gould order, produced by a materialistic age like the present, and those 
 types of the highest spiritual excellence, among which America has pro- 
 duced one of the greatest in Channing. 
 
 To Rev. Dr. Thomas, the liberal Methodist, was assigned the topic of
 
 264 CHANXING CENTKNARY. 
 
 Channing's relation to the anti-slavery cause, presumably, the speaker 
 said, because he was a Southerner. After expressing the great pleasure 
 he felt in attending a meeting of this kind, he proceeded to give a brief 
 and graphic account of the political condition of the North and South 
 half a century ago, and a risiimi of the work of Channing in the cause 
 of human freedom. He called attention to the persistent religious pur- 
 pose underlying all that Channing did and said on this subject, and 
 forming the inspiring motive of his life, quoting those words of high 
 faith and courage, " If I did not see any way to right this wrong, I 
 would still believe there was a way." 
 
 Rev. Brooke Herford made the concluding address, his subject being 
 " Channing's Influence in Europe." Channing did not belong to America 
 alone. Channing had the distinction, growing rarer every year, of 
 descent from one of those families that did not come over in the " May- 
 flower." [Laughter.] Europe was in a mighty struggle when Channing 
 was a young man. He watched the career of Napoleon, appalled at that 
 conqueror's wickedness, and never dazzled by the splendors of his 
 success. He appreciated the fact that England was, almost single- 
 handed, fighting the battle of freedom ; and he opposed his country's war 
 with England. As Channing appreciated Europe, so he was appreciated 
 by Europe. Next to Irving, he was the first man to compel Englishmen 
 to read .American books. His collected works were published first in 
 England. His essay on Self-culture was the foundation of many a 
 library and reading-club in England. It was in its time almost the'text- 
 book of the self-education of thousands of young men of England. Mr. 
 Herford cited the estimates of Channing entertained by Frederic Rob- 
 ertson, Sismundi, Laboulaye, and Bunsen. His works were translated 
 into all the leading languages of Europe. ^ They were softening the 
 Lutheranism of Sweden, they were eagerly read by Calvinistic pastors in 
 Hungary, and an Italian statesman said, " On Channing's line, religion 
 is still possible to Italy." [Applause.] Ten years ago, it was doubted 
 if an edition of ten thousand copies of Channing's works could be sold. 
 Before that edition w-as issued, twenty thousand were subscribed for ; 
 and now an edition of one hundred thousand was being prepared. This 
 evening, Channing's centenary was being celebrated in many of the 
 leading European cities. The finest town hall in England, in his old 
 city of Manchester, was echoing to eulogies such as they were listen- 
 ing to in Chicago ; and in London a great meeting was being addressed 
 by Rev. Baldwin Brown, the leading English Congregationalist, and 
 Thomas Hughes ; and Rev. James Martineau had come out of his 
 retirement to say one more word in public for the memory of his old
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 265 
 
 friend. Mr. Herford concluded with a prophecy of Channing's ever 
 widening and deepening influence. 
 
 In every particular, the Channing memorial celebration in Chicago 
 was a triumphant success. By means of it, the bonds of brotherly love 
 and religious fellowship will be strengthened anew, and a multitude of 
 sweet and helpful influences set to work in favor of spiritual freedom 
 and moral culture. 
 
 The addresses of Prof. David Swing, Rev. H. W. Thomas, 
 D.D., Rev. George C. Lorimer, D.D., and Rev. WilHani R. 
 Alger, are given here in full, as they appeared in the Chicago 
 Alliance of April 17. 
 
 CHANNING AS A RELIGIOUS KEFORMER. 
 By Prof. David Swing. 
 
 This evening, set apart for expressions of regard toward 
 the name of a great Christian worker, our friendship will 
 all be good and true and a unit, but opinions will be many' 
 as to wherein lay the influence of him we recall. In my 
 mind, the influence and merit of Channing came not from 
 his opposition to the notion of the Trinity, but from his 
 exaltation of man. The oneness of God and the secondary 
 position of Jesus Christ had been taught fully and clearly 
 for three hundred years. In the north of Ireland there were 
 Presbyteries of Unitarian Presbyterians, and through Eng- 
 land there were many Baptist Unitarians. The names of 
 Milton, Samuel Clark, Lardner, Locke, and Isaac Newton, 
 may well remind us that William Ellery Channing was born 
 too late to become illustrious or influential by teaching that 
 only the heavenly Father is God. Adding somewhat to 
 the momentum of this doctrine, his most significant task 
 was to transform man, a "vile worm," into man, an angel ; 
 and to transform a despotic Deity into a most just and
 
 266 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 tender friend. It was not tiie tkrceness of the orthodox 
 Deity which harmed that form of Christianity, but it was 
 the infinite cruelty of the " threeness" which wrought the 
 injury. A creator of three faces would not harm religion, 
 if each countenance shone with love. For innocent mor- 
 tals to be punished for the glory of God was not made 
 anv less rational or more cruel by the consideration that 
 this God had three persons in the Godhead. The Jehovah 
 which ordered the exterminating wars of old Canaan was 
 not a trinity, but a unity, thus teaching us that the bad 
 element in old Christianity was not the number of the 
 persons in the Godhead, but it was the quality of the per- 
 sons. Moses and Joshua were Unitarians, but they were 
 not Channings. The beauty of Unitarianism lies more in 
 its picture of God than in its unity of him. Not from 
 unity as an idea, or from it as a spiritual truth, did this 
 noble Christian draw his eminent place in the world's 
 memory, but this high position came from the excessive 
 light which this clear mind poured upon the nature of God 
 and upon human life in all its details of duty and hope. Let 
 us permit him to announce his own form of Christianity : 
 " From the direction theology has taken, it has been thought 
 that to ascribe anything to man was to detract from God. 
 The disposition has been to establish striking contrasts 
 between man and God, and not to see and rejoice in the like- 
 'ness between them. It has been thought that to darken the 
 creature was the way to bring out more clearly the splendor 
 of the Creator. . . . Man's place is in the dust. The entire 
 prostration of his faculties is the true homage he is to offer 
 God." Channing deeply felt the falseness and harmfulness 
 of any moral system which tended to make man degrade 
 himself, and hence his most powerful blows were always 
 dealt out against those dogmas which made humanity a 
 lot of rubbish fit only to be burned; and for all dogmas
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 26/ 
 
 that could make the mind look toward education and high 
 character and which could fill the heart with both earthly 
 and heavenly hope. 
 
 In the early days of most of us there were several denom- 
 inations which could not find language that could express 
 too strongly the richness with which all men deserved 
 eternal punishment. Man was the being to receive and 
 God just the being to bestow inexpressible calamity. Chan- 
 ning came upon this dark scene a messenger of more light 
 and peace. He said, Man is not such a fit subject of pain, 
 and God is not the being to inflict pain. Theology had gone 
 wrong at both ends of its thought. It had set up a bad 
 picture of God and a bad picture of man. He whom we 
 remember to-night took up his pencil and retouched both 
 canvases ; and, behold, when his hand dropped, Christianity 
 saw the image of Jehovah in the benignant face of Christ, 
 and saw in the same temple a grand portraiture of man. 
 
 The subjects of sermons gradually changed in the evan- 
 gelical pulpit. It did not abate its zeal over the distinctive 
 doctrines of the cross, but it found time and impulse for 
 discourses upon education and temperance and emancipa- 
 tion, and industry and frugality, and upon all the consid- 
 erations of success and happiness in this world. A broad 
 man sweeping along with so much of eloquence and sweet- 
 ness, and touching society at all points, waked up much 
 imitation even among clergymen who differed with their 
 model in some one or more particulars. The old-time 
 clergy came out of their cells of abstraction rather slowly. 
 They always had come out in hours of great peril for State 
 or Church ; but, as soon as some great national or religious 
 peril had passed away, they relapsed at once into abstrac- 
 tion about theological, far-away matters, and could not 
 realize that all life is storm-tossed. The old pulpit could 
 preach for liberty in war times ; l)ut, when peace came, it
 
 268 CHANNIXG CENTENARY. 
 
 could, if need be, own a few slaves. And it seemed aware 
 of the evils of intemperance ; but, for years and years to- 
 gether, it could preach the cardinal doctrines, as it called 
 them, and meanwhile taste a little strong drink, if the 
 weather were too hot or too cold. It sometimes touched 
 mankind in bulk, but seldom in detail. 
 
 Into the midst of such forms of Christianity, Channing 
 came, not more as a Unitarian than as a teacher of a whole 
 Christian civilization. His task was an adaptation of Christ 
 to human life, — a forerunner of such teachings as now 
 appear in the Manliness of Christ and in the discourses 
 of Dean Stanley and Howard Crosby and Dr. Storrs. He 
 brought new themes to Presbyterian and Methodist and 
 Episcopalian, and helped build up a demand for all such books 
 as Thompson's Sermons to Young Men. Powerful as this 
 orator was in presenting the imity of God, he was more 
 effective and more demanded in his grand exaltation of 
 the individual man and woman and child. The same ration- 
 alism which led this careful thinker to reject the Trinity 
 led him to apply the life and teachings of Jesus to earthly 
 things ; for reason dares not slight a life that now is for 
 one that is to come. And the same rationalism attended 
 this heart, when it sat down to interpret the sacred books. 
 Channingism was, therefore, a Christian rationalism, the 
 calmest and most devout that had appeared up to the date 
 of its birth. It was the reason of Bacon or Isaac Newton, 
 joined with the spirituality of a Fenelon or an Augustine. 
 It was prayer separated from credulity. After urging morn- 
 ing prayer, he passes to evening prayer, in the following 
 strain: "The evening is a fit time for prayer, not only as 
 it ends the day, but as it immediately precedes the hour 
 of repose. We are soon to sink into insensibility and sleep. 
 How fit that we resign ourselves to the care of that Being 
 who never sleeps, to whom the darkness is as the light, and
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 269 
 
 whose providence is our only safety ! How fit to entreat 
 Him that he would keep us to another day ; or, if our bed 
 should prove our grave, that he would give us a part in the 
 resurrection of the just, and awake us to a purer and 
 immortal life ! " Words which, strangely mingle logic and 
 piety, and remind us of some one soul that must be partly a 
 Carlyle and partly an Isaac Watts. 
 
 This influence upon surrounding creeds came as much 
 from manner as from philosophy. No reformer ever treated 
 an opponent more justly or kindly. It has not often been the 
 good fortune of Calvinism t© meet so fair an opponent. In 
 his most powerful review of that form of belief, he makes an 
 opening statement, which many others in similar movements 
 on either side of a question have neglected to introduce : 
 " We intend to treat this subject with great freedom, but 
 we beg that it may be understood that by Calvinism we 
 intend only the peculiarities of that system. We would also 
 have it remembered that these peculiarities form a small part 
 of the religious faith of a Calvinist. He joins with them 
 the general and most" important truths of Christianity. . . . 
 Accordingly, it has been our happiness to see in the numer- 
 ous body by which they are professed some of the brightest 
 examples of Christian virtue. Our hostility to the doctrine 
 does not extend to its advocates." To the favorite ideas of 
 Channing add this justness and even sweetness of spirit, 
 and it will be seen that this Christian affected all adjacent 
 theology, not only by his logical power, but by his wide 
 sympathy. 
 
 I must not s-peak beyond my limited time. Joseph Cook 
 has said that "Channing's influence is on the decline." 
 This may be true. If true, the explanation must be found 
 in the parallel that the fame of abolitionism has declined 
 because the slaves have become free, in the parallel that 
 after the woman in the Bible had found her lost piece of
 
 270 CIIANNING CENTKNAKY. 
 
 silver she quit sweeping for it. Channingism has perhaps 
 failed, like Alexander, because it has no more worlds to 
 conquer. Even Joseph Cook himself resembles this new 
 star more than he resembles those that went down before 
 this new era came. If Channingism has failed, it is be- 
 cause it has been so absorbed by the American Church and 
 assimilated that it has lost its definite outline by becoming 
 almost universal. The Evangelical churches have not sur- 
 rendered their estimate of Christ, but in other respects they 
 have journeyed toward rather than away from him whose 
 memory we recall to-night. 
 
 CHANNINa'S ANTI-SLAVERY WORK, 
 By Rev, H, W, Thomas, D,D, 
 
 I had no conference with the committee in reference to 
 the part I should take on this programme ; and I suppose 
 they assigned me this, because they knew I was a South- 
 erner, — born and raised in a slave state. [Laughter.] 
 Well, I have always been proud of that, and proud that 
 I came from one of the very first families of the South. 
 [Laughter.] We never owned any slaves, and we did our 
 own harvest work. [Applause.] I was quite an abolition- 
 ist when I was but two years old [laughter] ; and my hatred 
 of despotism and oppression of every kind, physical or men- 
 tal, by Church or State, has increased with every passing 
 year. [Applause.] 
 
 Slavery has always formed a dark page in the history of 
 our world. It has resulted from despotism, from wars, from 
 captivities, and from the cruelty and avarice of men. But 
 not until the last few hundred years did it cease to be gen- 
 eral in its victims, and settle down upon the poor, inoffen- 
 sive, and helpless African.
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 2/1 
 
 The great anti-slavery agitation began in England, about 
 a hundred years ago, under the labors of Wilberforce and 
 Clarkson and Pitt. In 1791, Wilberforce moved to bring 
 before the House of Parliament a bill to prevent the impor- 
 tation of slaves to the British colonies. In 1807, under the 
 administration of Fox, he secured its adoption by both 
 houses. Then he and those noble workers for liberty be- 
 gan the agitation of the plan for the emancipation of the 
 slaves in the West Indies, and in 1833 — forty-seven years 
 ago — this act was passed. 
 
 It was natural that the French Revolution, and all these 
 movements in England for liberty, should have excited the 
 people of our own country ; and it was under the influence 
 of such excitements that Channing spent his early and his 
 college years. After graduation, he spent a year and a 
 half in Richmond, Va., making his home with a Mr. Ran- 
 dolph, chief marshal of the State. Here his mind was much 
 exercised. He studied philosophy and theology, and was 
 deeply moved at the condition of society and the sufferings 
 of the colored people. He says, " I could weep over a novel 
 or over the sufferings of the poor ; and then the thought 
 came to me that I feel deeply, but what am I doing for 
 these people ? " This question aroused him to thoughts of 
 action. A few years later, he spent the winter in the Island 
 of Bermuda. Here he was still more deeply impressed with 
 the call of duty, and began the outline of his first work on 
 the evils of the slave system. 
 
 To understand Dr. Channing's position and work, we 
 should reflect upon the condition of society in this country 
 in those days. In the South there was the general i)ro- 
 slavery sentiment, but there were two classes. One class 
 was radically pro-slavery, — the "fire-eaters" of the South, 
 as we call them. The other class was pro-sla\-cr)', but felt 
 that it was hardly right, and yet quieted their consciences
 
 272 CIIANN'ING CENTENARY. 
 
 in the reflection that it was sanctioned by the law and the 
 church. In the North there were three classes : the extreme 
 conservatives, who looked with favor upon the Southern in- 
 stitutions ; the extreme radicals or abolitionists, who sought 
 the destruction of these institutions; and, between them, the 
 clearly pronounced anti-slavery party, who believed slavery 
 to be wrong, and yet who could not wholly sanction the 
 course pursued by the abolitionists. To this third or middle 
 party, Channing belonged. He was aroused to greater ac- 
 tion by the murder of Lovejoy in 1837, and the refusal of 
 the authorities of Boston to open Faneuil Hall for a public 
 meeting. 
 
 Dr. Channing's writings on the subject are the following : 
 
 The Evils of Slavery in 1835 ; in 1837, Letter to Henry 
 Clay; in 1839, Rcph' ^^ Clay ; in 1840, Emancipation in the 
 
 West Indies ; in 1842, Duty of the Free States ; and, also in 
 the same year, his last address at Lenox, Mass. I can only 
 suggest the bearing of these able works. He sought to 
 bring all questions to the great principles of right. " The 
 universe is ruled by almighty rectitude and impartial good- 
 ness," was his foundation argument. He claimed that 
 slavery violated the principles of right, — showed its effects 
 upon the slave, the master, the home, and society. And 
 yet he was opposed to violence, to inciting insurrection. 
 " Better bare," he said, " our own bosoms to the knife than 
 to put it in the hand of the slave to slay his master." But 
 he claimed that we should give the slaves our moral support, 
 and resisted the arrogance of the South in trying to muzzle 
 the press of the North and to silence her orators. Channing 
 calmly met Clay's argument, — that slavery was necessary for 
 the security of the government : he pointed to a statue of 
 liberty with a " slave and a chain as a pedestal." To Clay's 
 claim that the North had $1,200,000,000 in slaves, Channing 
 replied, the more, the worse ; that money did not weigh in
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 2/3 
 
 morals, and the amount did not change the character. The 
 author of Memoirs of Harriet Martitieaii does great injus- 
 tice to Channing by claiming, in the presence of these facts, 
 that, while Webster and others were the legal and business 
 apologists of slavery in the North, Channing was brought 
 in to cover its religious aspects. Channing said all a man 
 could say, — spoke wisely, plainly, and well. He claimed the 
 right and duty of the North to speak, and he spoke. He 
 claimed that the earth had better be given over to wild 
 beasts than that men should sanction wrong. He had 
 great faith in the power of trust and principle, and that 
 these would somehow prevail. He believed that the love 
 of God, that had reached the world in Christ, was a power to 
 reconcile the world, and that it would open all prison-doors. 
 In his last address, only a few months before his death, he 
 says, " Come, O Kingdom of God, for which we daily pray, — 
 come, and break every chain, set every prisoner free." 
 
 My friends, Channing went to sleep. Wilberforce and 
 Fox and Pitt were gathered to their rest. In our day, the 
 great struggle came. The fife and the drum were heard in 
 the land. Our fathers and brothers and sons went to the 
 war. The flag was saved, the slaves were freed. And, oh ! 
 with what joy must these toilers for liberty — Wilberforce 
 and Clarkson, Parker and Sumner, and Lovejoy and Lincoln 
 — look down from the heavenly heights upon the great 
 work, upon a land that is free ! Had Channing lived in the 
 days of the Rebellion, he would have been for the Union and 
 the P2mancipation. Were he here to-day, he would say, 
 Stand by the freedmen ; help the refuges ; build schools and " 
 churches all over the South for these poor people. And 
 let us take up his work, and carry it on till all minds and 
 hearts may rejoice in the blessings of liberty and justice.
 
 2/4 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV. GEO. C. LORIMER, D.D, 
 
 The hiii^^hest exj^ression of the religious idea is philan- 
 thropy. It is the sublimest, as it is the truest, embodiment 
 of its spirit. It is the purest worship, the divinest ritual. 
 In comparison with it, processions, mitres, crosiers, tiaras, 
 smoking altars, glittering shrines, and all the tawdry frip- 
 pery of sacerdotalism, are vulgar, childish, and obtrusive. 
 Beneficence cannot but be the supreme symbol of a religion 
 whose Author is pre-eminently Love. Goodness can be the 
 only real incarnation of the infinitely Good ; and giving 
 ourselves for others, the only adequate exposition of a sys- 
 tem that reveals an All-Father giving his Son, and the Son 
 as giving himself, for the life of the world. 
 
 Coleridge has said that, " to restore a commonplace truth 
 to its first uncommon lustre, you need only translate it into 
 action." In my judgment, this was one of the most distin- 
 guished features of Dr. Channing's brilliant career. He 
 translated into the language both of doctrine and conduct 
 the great commonplace of Christianity, — its philanthropy, — 
 and set it before society radiant with its original beauty. 
 Dr. Channing was beyond everything else a philanthrojDist. 
 Whether he fully grasped the vast themes of Christ's min- 
 istry, or rose to the high lev^el of his transcendent thought, 
 may be open to debate; but there can be no doubt that he 
 sympathized with the heart of love, and entered deeply into 
 the spirit that led the Saviour to care for the neglected, to 
 rescue the perishing, to deliver the captive, and to lift up 
 the fallen. The philanthropy of Dr. Channing was certainly 
 orthodox, whatever we may think of his theology. And as 
 charity never faileth, even when his teachings shall fail, and 
 the memory of his- eloquent tongue shall cease to stir, and 
 his knowledge shall vanish quite away, that shall still abide 
 to guide and bless mankind.
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 2/5 
 
 If we may judge the influence of this servant of God by 
 the community in which he lived and labored, we will cease 
 to question its Christly character. Boston, eminent in let- 
 ters, is supereminent in charities. That old city, radical in 
 its ideas of right, uncompromising in its devotion to prin- 
 ciple, stern and rugged, is, perhaps beyond all others, the 
 one most easily moved by the appeals of suffering and 
 sorrow. To the cry of distress, its ear is never closed ; to 
 the plaint of indigence, its hand is ever open. And whether 
 the wail of anguish arises from a poverty-stricken South, a 
 fire-scarred West, or a famine-stricken Ireland, it is as ready 
 to help as the dews are to refresh the sun-scorched flowers, 
 or the rain to fertilize the drouth-encrusted earth. Relie:- 
 ious, political, and commercial rivalries and animosities melt 
 like snow before the genial warmth of its philanthropy, and 
 no more bound its gracious ministry than glaciers, icebergs, 
 or grinding frozen seas restrain the rising of the sun. This 
 spirit is common to all classes, all societies, churches, sects, 
 and parties in Boston, and is conspicuously prominent in 
 that religious body of which Dr. Channing was an honored 
 member. And, as long as it continues to number among 
 its representatives such noble men as Edward Everett Hale, 
 whose truly human soul, whose cosmopolitan tastes, sen- 
 timents, and culture, and whose unfailing love impart a 
 gentle cadence to the music of his speech, the Unitarians 
 will continue to reign a queen among the sisterhood of 
 charity. How much of this spirit is traceable to Dr. Chan- 
 ning, I leave others to determine ; but, that it is largely due 
 to his influence, a brief analysis of his jDhilanthropy will 
 demonstrate. 
 
 If we examine its source, we shall find it springing from 
 an abiding sympathy with humanity. Throughout his min- 
 istry, he laid great stress on love, — the love of God for man, 
 the love of man for man. So deep was this divine passion
 
 276 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 in his breast, and so strong, that he was acutely pained at 
 the thought of every evil that afflicts the race. He con- 
 fessed that "his nature was such that he turned away from 
 the contemplation of evil," and added that "his mind sought 
 the good, the perfect, the beautiful." "It is only," he said, 
 " from a sense of duty that I read a narrative of guilt in the 
 daily i">apers." To him, " souls in evil " were a terrible sight ; 
 and the partial success which attended all efforts to deliver 
 them was appalling. Continually, he was haunted by a grand 
 ideal of humanity. He regarded its redemption as of price- 
 less worth, and as claiming the best endeavors of the pure 
 and enlightened. " One soul," he said, " is worth more than 
 material worlds." " Men travel far to see the wonders of 
 nature and art. The greatest wonder is man himself." He 
 believed in the essential "grandeur of man's nature, its like- 
 ness to God, its immortality, its power of endless progress." 
 And describing him as the " victim of sin," " as the fallen, 
 but redeemed," he regarded Christ's advent as the sign of 
 the high value placed by God himself upon his ruined creat- 
 ures. Condition, station, shame, ignorance, even crime, 
 could never obscure to his eyes the immeasurable impor- 
 tance of the soul, or lessen his interest in its well-being. He 
 never sympathized with the theory now growing in favor, — 
 that philanthropy is simply a measure of society, inspired by 
 social perils, and determined by its necessities. No more 
 did he approve of that selfish utilitarian philosophy that puts 
 happiness before morality. He was not a nice calculator of 
 profits and losses, but expressly taught that good should be 
 attempted, not so much for the benefit to be reaped by the 
 doer as for the blessings it confers on the recipient. In a 
 word, he fully realized the spirit of the Master, who sought 
 not primarily the elevation of society, nor the mere correc- 
 tion of its abuses, but, first of all, the salvation of man as 
 man, and that, too, not from an arithmetical balancing of
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 2// 
 
 advantages to be gained, but from an intense and a consum- 
 ing love of the being in whom God had wrought his image, 
 and for whom he had given his Son to die. 
 
 This thought furnishes the key to Dr. Channing's philan- 
 thropic methods. They were essentially spiritual. He pro- 
 claimed no superficial cure for the deep-seated diseases and 
 evils of the race. His reliance was not centred in external 
 means and material agencies. In his opinion, poverty never 
 can be permanently relieved by bounteous gifts of fuel, food, 
 or clothing. Such assistance he even looked on with dis- 
 trust, as tending to pauperize large bodies of people. At 
 best, it could only be of temporary service, and under no 
 state of the case should be relied on permanently. His 
 theory was. Educate the people to take care of themselves, 
 and they will overcome the evils of their condition. Con- 
 centrate beneficence on the elevation of the man, and he will 
 take care of himself afterward. This explains the stress he 
 laid on the preaching of the gospel. He knew its capabili- 
 ties, its tendency to produce a noble type of self-dependent 
 manhood ; and he would have every means used to bring 
 the entire community under its influence. For this reason, 
 he took great interest in .what is known as the Ministry 
 at Large, — an agency appointed to carry the teachings and 
 offices of Christianity to the poor, — and expressed a desire 
 to see such congregations gathered under its preaching as 
 assembled to hear the Methodists of his day. He carefully 
 sought the reason for Mr. O. A. Brownson's comparative 
 failure to attract and hold the people, when that gentleman 
 tried to draw them to his ministry, and attributed it to the 
 philosophical style of his pulpit efforts. While he did not 
 believe in the perpetuity of the Jewish Sabbath, he regarded 
 the Lord's day as sacred, and advocated its observance as a 
 day of private and public religious instructions, not to be 
 desecrated by amusements, for which he would have society
 
 2/8 CIIANNINC CI".N ri'.XARV. 
 
 set apart a portion of Saturday, lie thought that the day 
 could not be more liighly honored than by consecrating it to 
 instruction in Christianity and to the practical exemplifica- 
 tion of its beneficence. He would have it fully devoted to 
 man as it was originally made for man, — not made for 
 him to abuse, to pervert, to degrade into an opportunity 
 for riot, debauchery, or serviceless amusements. The day 
 rightly observed would tend to the regeneration of man- 
 hood, and hence the high value it had in Dr. Channing's 
 eyes. This also accounts for the part he bore in the educa- 
 tional movements of his time. Fully sympathizing with 
 Horace Mann, supplementing his labors with his pen, he 
 also gave to the world his stimulating paper on Self-culture, 
 which has exerted so wholesome and so wide-spread an in- 
 fluence for good both in Europe and America. The secret 
 of all these endeavors was his profound conviction that the 
 needs of the race required pre-eminently the elevation and 
 enlightenment of each individual, and that every method 
 that came short of this would be fatally defective. I am in- 
 clined to-night to remind you emphatically of his position, 
 as it may warn you against some illusions of philanthropy 
 that are at present current in almost every community. We 
 have only recently been told that it would be better to break 
 up our churches, silence our preachers, sell the property 
 held by different denominations, and give all to the poor. 
 This has an air of philanthropy about it, and many regard it 
 as the outcome of lofty wisdom. Channing would have de- 
 nounced it as the consummation of folly. Hew down your 
 orchards, dry up the sources of your streams, and expect fruit 
 and expansive rivers afterwards, and you will be less de- 
 ceived than you are by the expectation that the extirpation 
 of Christianity and the conversion of the proceeds for the 
 benefit of the indigent will end all poverty and suffering. 
 Such a measure might bring temporary physical relief; but,
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 2^9 
 
 as the sources of spiritual renewal would perish through it, 
 the permanent condition of humanity would remain sadder 
 and more debased than ever. Some of our modern reformers 
 look to government, to agitations and strikes, or to associa- 
 tions, as affording means of practically solving the problems 
 which perplex society. It is simply another form of the 
 error that relief is to come from without, not from within. 
 Channing appreciated good government, but he recognized 
 the limits of its beneficent power. Some things it cannot 
 do. He realized this, and compared it to the walls of a 
 house, affording protection to the machinery, but it cannot 
 fabricate the goods. The people make the government, and 
 only in a very inferior sense does the government make the 
 people. Strikes and revolutions Dr. Channing looked on 
 with distrust, and he dreaded the "tyranny incident to asso- 
 ciated action." He was not the enemy of associations, 
 but in a paper pointed out their perils, and reaffirmed his 
 old doctrine of individual and family improvement. And, 
 in this, I venture to say that he interprets the method of 
 Jesus Christ as it is presented in the gospel; and I am old- 
 fashioned enough to avow myself a sincere believer in its 
 efficacy. 
 
 It remains for me to add that the philanthropy of Chan- 
 ning was all-inclusive in its scope. Every year produces 
 some reformer, who is one-sided and partial, the partisan of 
 some special virtue or improvement. He is apparently ig- 
 norant of every other interest than the one that has secured 
 his special advocacy, or, if not, is at least indifferent to its 
 welfare. It may be temperance, labor-reform. Sabbath ob- 
 servance, kindness to animals, the social evil, or some other 
 movement of equal imj^ortance. Whatever it is, he gives 
 himself up absolutely to its success, becomes so absorbed 
 in it that it casts into the shade all other claims. He judges 
 the virtue of others by the degree of sympathy they feel in
 
 28o CHANNING Cr.NTENARV. 
 
 his idol, and is ready to stone them, if they fail to worship it 
 as unreserv'^edly as he does. But this was not characteristic 
 of Channing^. His mind was too broad, his heart too large, 
 for so narrow and discriminating a philanthropy. He ad- 
 vocated temperance, he pleaded the cause of the laboring 
 man, he uttered his protest against war, he befriended the 
 criminal, he denounced slavery and defended liberty. Even 
 Abner Kneeland, condemned by the courts of Massachusetts 
 on a charge of atheism, he petitioned for, in the name of 
 that freedom which is the heritage of unbelievers as well as 
 believers. Thus his philanthropy was full-orbed, compre- 
 hensive, symmetrical, as will be the philanthropy of every 
 man who has been taught in the school of Christ. 
 
 As I close this resume, I deem it a fitting opportunity to_ 
 urge upon the good citizens of Chicago the example of this 
 eminent friend of humanity. In his name, — yea, in the 
 name of One higher, from whom he derived his inspiration, 
 — I plead for education, for the extension of its blessings to 
 all our children, and for special efforts to make this one of 
 the great university cities of the world. I plead for temper- 
 ance, for the better observance of the Sabbath, and for 
 sympathy with the poor and with the struggling laboring 
 classes. Let us not be indifferent to these great objects ; 
 let us not lose sight of them in the mad pursuit of wealth 
 and material splendor. These words of mine are but echoes 
 of that philanthropy which you admire in Channing. Happy 
 shall we be, if even the echoes shall guide us to the field 
 where real glory is to be won. Remember that the great- 
 ness of Chicago is indissolubly interwoven with her chari- 
 ties, her benefactions, her seats of learning, and that the 
 brotherhood of citizens can only be perfected by the spirit 
 of philanthropy reigning among them. Let philanthropy 
 prevail, and our people will be blessed ; and, though creeds 
 and nationalities may sometimes divide us, let philanthropy
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 28 1 
 
 rule, and, though we be Calvinists, Arminians, or Unita- 
 rians, in each other we shall trace the features of a brother, 
 and in each other's grasp feel the warm pulsations of a 
 brother's heart. 
 
 ADDRESS OF REV, W, R, ALGER. 
 
 There is an extreme fitness in the democratic nature of 
 this celebration, in which not only the liberal professions 
 and the leaders of society are represented, but also the 
 doors are opened for the people to come in from the streets. 
 For a great man sheds lustre on those below him. They 
 are seen lifted up and glorified in him. The greatness of 
 human virtue is revealed in him. The transcendent quali- 
 ties shown in his life, which enable us to think of him as a 
 God-like and immortal creature, help us to hold the same 
 belief as to the common crowds of men, since they have a 
 common nature with him. 
 
 My wish on the present occasion is to illustrate the work- 
 ing of the character and power of Channing as an ideal force 
 in the life of America. In the good sense of the words, 
 what is an ideal force .^ Any influence acting through our 
 intelligence and sensibility to purify, free, and ennoble us, 
 to expand, enrich, and consecrate us. It is by means of 
 ideal forces that our moral education is secured, that our 
 passions and sentiments are restrained, impelled, regulated. 
 These forces are of several distinct varieties and ranks. If 
 we glance rapidly at their definitions, it will enable us to 
 grasp the conclusion which I am to establish. 
 
 First comes perceptive education, or the Theoretic Ideal. 
 This embodies in rules, maxims, exhortations, the average 
 moral perceptions current in society, the standard of con- 
 duct established in the ordinary acceptance and profession 
 of the community. The power of these precepts as incul-
 
 282 CllAXNINc; CENTKNAKV. 
 
 cau-ci in llic himily, llic sclu)ol, and tlie church, is not very 
 vivid i)r prt)f()inul. This is usually overrated as a saving 
 influence. What power it exerts comes chiefly from the 
 personal authority of revered and beloved characters asso- 
 ciated with the precepts in the memory of the pulpit. 
 
 Secondly, we find operative as a moulding moral force 
 what may be called social edjication, or the Realistic Ideal. 
 This is the action on the individual of the living social order 
 around him, the embodiment, not of the profession of a\er- 
 age mankind, but of the sincerest and strongest passions. 
 What the ruling ruultitudes environing us say is right and 
 desirable has some influence on us ; but what they demon- 
 strate to be their sovereign convictions and desires, by actu- 
 ally incarnating them in their daily conduct, this influences 
 us far more deeply. The verbal profession of society en- 
 thrones morality, but the genuine life and constant struggle 
 of society enthrone self-seeking. Therefore, the predomi- 
 nant power of the realistic ideal, worshipped everywhere in 
 the great battle of the world, is a demoralizing influence 
 which more than offsets its high precepts. 
 
 Thirdly, we come to irritative education, or the Inciting 
 Ideal. The most resolute and energetic champions in the 
 social struggle, who surpass their competitors in the fierce 
 game for money, position, power, reputation, luxury, stand 
 out conspicuously as the objects of popular admiration and 
 envy. Their examples catch the attention and inflame the 
 ambitions of younger aspirants, and thus shape their desires 
 and direct their toils. In this way, the actuals of men of 
 exceptional success become the ideals of the men of medioc- 
 rity. The tendency of this style of influence is more evil 
 than good, because it excites still further passions already 
 too intense. 
 
 And now we come to personal education, or the Divine 
 Ideal. There are men who extricate themselves from the
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 283 
 
 vortex of selfish contentions, and consecrate their powers to 
 the worship of God, the pursuit of truth, the cultivation of 
 beauty, the doing of good, the perfecting of their own souls 
 and experiences. These are original characters, endowed 
 with direct insight into the highest things, subjects of a 
 fresh inspiration from the Infinite Spirit. Exalted by the 
 sacred superiority of their lives, they lift the gaze of meaner 
 men from servile tasks and perishable interests, and enkin- 
 dle in them moral devotion and religious aspiration. Thus, 
 in turn, the actuals of these sacred types of humanity be- 
 come the ideals of less gifted but generous and susceptible 
 natures. The mission of every truly great man or original 
 genius who appears is, by setting up a better example, to 
 free and advance other men out of their bondage to the 
 inferior examples which were established in honor before 
 him. But the final ideal will not be made up of the special 
 actuals of any : it will arise from a consensus of the true 
 insights and aspirations of all, harmonized and perfected by 
 history and criticism. And every successive instance of 
 pure worth and genius which wins public recognition, and 
 is crowned with general applause, makes its contribution 
 toward this result. 
 
 The sweet and noble countenance of Channing has long 
 since been added to those portraits of illustrious men with 
 which fame sprinkles history. It is a profound gratification 
 to see in how many far places there is a spontaneous up- 
 rising to encircle his spotless memory with a garland of 
 cosmopolitan praise on the arrival of his centennial day. 
 It is indeed a high omen of good. For he is, perhaps, the 
 purest instance of the divine type of man that has appeared 
 in our country. He is pre-eminently worthy of reverence 
 and love and study. No character in American history is 
 fitter to be lifted up for popular adoration and gratitude, or 
 worthier to be commended to the emulous docility of the
 
 2."^4 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 using i;cncialu)n. lie was not a man of meteoric mind, set 
 off with (.lazzliny; attributes which challenge approach or 
 rci>r()iluction ; l)ut everything in his genius and methods is 
 sober and clear and imitable by those who, appreciating his 
 worth, desire to become like him. By calm, patient, hum- 
 ble, severe painstaking, he i)urified himself from vices, and 
 built virtues into his character. He took the most un- 
 wearying care in the formation of his opinions, to help out 
 error, prejudice, and extravagance, and to render them 
 sound and proportionate. He cultivated a direct personal 
 consciousness of the living God, whose omnipresence he 
 realized with a vivid constancy which filled him with author- 
 itative sanctity and clothed him with awe. He repudiated 
 all yokes of dead usages, every form of unrightful dictation, 
 and exemplified a liberty as sublime as his faith. And there 
 are things for all to do in accordance with the degrees of 
 their ability. 
 
 Channing conceived of God as a being of infinite power, 
 freedom, consciousness, wisdom, love, and beneficence, 
 whose attributes are to be seen in fixed revelation, in ma- 
 terial nature, and to be recognized in perpetual play in the 
 free spirit. He thought of himself as a finite filial copy of 
 God, and destined to an equal eternity. He therefore had 
 an overwhelming self-respect, which forbade him to wrong 
 or defile his own being. And recognizing with intense 
 clearness in all his fellow-men incarnated representatives of 
 God, sympathetic copies of himself, he w-as irresistibly im- 
 pelled to love and honor and serve them. He did not live 
 for money, ofifice, power, pleasure, or fame ; but he lived 
 sacredly for God, humanity, truth, beauty, good, perfection, 
 eternity, resolutely resisting all temptations to the contrary, 
 and steadily growing more calm, wise, holy, useful, blessed, 
 commanding, and divine to the very last. When he was yet 
 a young man, he said, " I practise temperance, and strive for
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 285 
 
 purity of heart, that I may become a temple for the spirit of 
 God to dwell in." And, while the radiance of the setting 
 sun was answered by the angelic smile on his dying face, he 
 said, " I have received many messages from the Spirit." 
 
 Ay, gild his name with new honor. Peruse his record 
 with fresh interest. His example will work as an ideal force 
 in the life of America with results of still greater reach and 
 beneficence, just as our people fix their attention upon it 
 with the spiritual conditions requisite for assimilating its 
 influence. 
 
 And I must add, in closing, a reason of the strongest ur- 
 gency for asking the attention of the American people to 
 the life and spirit of Channing, to the perfect timeliness and 
 adaptation of his thought and example to the exigencies of 
 the present moment. In the crisis of selfish ambition and 
 materialism through which we are passing, the experience 
 and authority of Channing are needed as a counter- weight 
 in the other scale. After a full lifetime of supreme devo- 
 tion to spiritual themes, he affirmed with unhesitating con- 
 viction the reality of God, the soul, duty, and immortality. 
 He united the acumen of the philosopher and the vision of 
 the seer. After the long consecration of his deep and pure 
 gifts, his matchless spirituality and loyalty to truth, he had 
 a right to speak and a claim to deferential attention. But 
 his single assertion, based on grounds of positive perception, 
 may justly outbalance the negative reports which coarse 
 and unthinking millions of observers base on their failure to 
 perceive. 
 
 The most harmonized and competent judges are invari- 
 ably modest and expectant, because they clearly see that 
 the known is petty, the unknown immense. Such minds 
 hold that those who affirm from a positive apprehension 
 always liave an iiicxpugnalile achantagc over those wlio 
 merely deny, whether from emptiness or from rebellion.
 
 286 ciiANNMNd centi:naky. 
 
 Indeed, it should be evident to every trained reasoner that 
 the rejection, on the mere ignorant ground of the senses, 
 of the truths approved by the spiritual intuitions, is an in- 
 competent procedure. I'^or the physical facts, which are all 
 that the vulgarest minds perceive, are enveloped in mys- 
 teries which not even the profoundest thinkers have ever 
 yet explained. The eyes translate the undulations of the 
 ethereal medium into light, and then the soul uses that light 
 to discover loveliness, and then in the perception of that 
 loveliness thrills with ineffable joy, and then in the en- 
 trancement of that joy recognizes a symbolic revelation of 
 the presence of God, and then in that intuitive fellowship 
 with God finds a tacit proof of its own immortal destiny. 
 And I will put one such positive' declaration of a conse- 
 crated seer, who speaks from what he believes, against the 
 hostile declarations of a wilderness of atheists and an ocean 
 of infidels, who speak only from what they do not believe. 
 A Hottentot can see nothing in the mathematical calcula- 
 tions of Newton. A Patagonian can see nothing in the 
 musical scores of Beethoven. So a materialist, looking from 
 over the solid landscapes of the earth into the open spaces 
 of faith, gazing on the blank blue of the infinite, the empty 
 socket whence the All-Seeing Eye has winked itself out, 
 can perceive nothing in the great formulas of the religious 
 believers of all ages. Nevertheless, Newton is authority in 
 mathematics against the Hottentot, and Beethoven is au- 
 thority in music against the Patagonian. Why is not Chan- 
 ning, with his tremulous and divine sensitiveness to the 
 true and the good, equally an authority in religion, as against 
 the stolid materialist } m 
 
 If the affirmations of the believers are true, it places these 
 in a rank of superiority to the unbelievers. And so the 
 latter reverse the verdict, and give themselves the suprem- 
 acy, by declaring that idealism is delusion and error, that
 
 CELEBRATION AT CHICAGO. 28/ 
 
 materialism contains the whole truth. But every pure 
 thinker whose intuitive faculties have been developed and 
 illuminated knows that to all which appears in outer mani- 
 testation to the senses, the entire material universe is but 
 a series of transient phenomena, glimpsing out of that un- 
 manifested infinitude of real being, which is forever hidden 
 from sense, but forever open to reason and faith.
 
 Till- CELEBRATION AT ST. LOUIS. 
 
 The Missouri Repuhlican of April 8 contains the following 
 account of the celebration at St. Louis : — 
 
 The services commemorative of the centenary birthday of 
 William Ellery Channing were held last evening in the new 
 hall, corner of Jefferson and Washington Avenues, and were 
 honored with an audience worthy of the occasion. Rev. 
 John Snyder, of the Church of the Messiah, Dr. William 
 G. Eliot, and Mr. Wayman Crow were the committee in 
 charge of the arrangements for the celebration. 
 
 The new hall had been especially placed in order for the 
 occasion, the interior decorations not being fully completed. 
 The platform was handsomely dressed with flowering and 
 foliage plants ; and upon the wall over the stage was a large 
 evergreen shield with a silver monogram " C " in the centre, 
 the figures "i 780-1 880" being conspicuously displayed at 
 either side of the shield. 
 
 The exercises opened with singing by the choir of the 
 Church of the Messiah. A short prayer was offered by 
 Mr. Snyder, followed by singing by the choir. Mr. Snyder 
 then came forward, and said it was always a work of super- 
 erogation for a writer to put in the preface what was to ap- 
 pear in the body of his book ; and it would be equally so for
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. LOUIS. 289 
 
 him to explain at any length the object of the meeting. He 
 would merely say that they had met to honor the memory 
 of William Ellery Channing, one of the noblest and greatest 
 men known to the nineteenth century, and leave it to the 
 other speakers who were present to tell the story in detail. 
 He then introduced, as the first speaker. Rev. John C. 
 Learned. Mr. Learned was called upon for a biographical 
 sketch of Dr. Channing. The speaker called attention to 
 the difficulty attending an effort to put a sixty-two year 
 biography into a ten or twelve minute sketch, but went on 
 to say that Dr. Channing was born April 7, 1780, a time 
 when Wordsworth and Napoleon I. were youngsters of ten 
 years, and Coleridge was eight. Dr. Channing was well 
 connected, and had advantages for developing his natural 
 talents. His father was a graduate of Harvard, and was 
 a man held in high esteem among his fellows. The sub- 
 ject of the sketch was given an excellent home training, 
 and among other things was thoroughly grounded in the 
 catechism. His mother was not only a woman of marked 
 originality of mind, but was possessed of the most undevi- 
 ating rectitude. His father died, leaving him at the age of 
 twelve just preparing for college. At that time, Newport 
 was becoming a fashionable place, as it has since remained. 
 British and French officers and Southerners visited it in 
 great numbers, and the peculiar ideas they brought with 
 them had their effect on society. France was then in a 
 state approaching anarchy ; and, amid all the exciting polit- 
 ical doctrines discussed, there had also begun to appear open 
 attacks on the doctrines of Puritanism. At such a time, an 
 active mind found a ready field for employment. Chan- 
 ning, though connected with various societies at college, 
 would never indulge in wine. He stood well in his classes, 
 but excelled chiefly in composition, attaining rare elegance 
 as a writer. On leaving college, he went to Richmond as 
 20
 
 290 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 a tutor in a private family, remaining a year and a half. 
 This time proved most eventful to him in the matter of 
 shaping his career. He came in close contact with slavery, 
 and formed his estimate of it. At the same time, from his 
 study of the French situation and troubles, he developed 
 his views on war. He made this year and a half a time 
 of such incessant and hard study as almost to break him- 
 self down, and in fact did sow the seeds of disease which 
 kept him ever after in frail health. It was during this time 
 that he read Rousseau and other authors, who did so much 
 toward developing his mind. Then it was that he decided 
 upon the study of divinity, and he began with a most 
 e.xhaustive examination into the evidences of Christianity. 
 He began to preach in 1802 in Boston. Crowds thronged 
 to hear him almost from the first. He was never a secta- 
 rian. He always refused to lead or be led by a party. He 
 wanted all to be as free in thought as himself. His advice 
 was not to unite with any church, if required to subscribe 
 to any principle the truth of which did not appear beyond 
 doubt. He was thirty-four years old when he married. He 
 went to Europe in 1822, and there met some of the great 
 thinkers, in whose writings he had long taken delight. At 
 the age of forty-four, he had to have a colleague to lighten 
 his labor, being no longer able to bear the fatigue ; yet, 
 his active mind obtained no rest. His idea of freedom went 
 out to all mankind. He was the father of New England 
 Transcendentalism. He left Boston in 1842, and went to 
 Bennington, where he was taken with typhoid fever. Sun- 
 day, the 2d of October, they read him the Sermon on the 
 Mount and the Lord's Prayer, after which he turned, and, ^ 
 looking out upon the mountains he loved so well, his body 
 fell asleep, and no one knew when the spirit departed 
 from it. 
 
 Dr. Eliot was introduced as the next speaker. He said
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. LOUIS. 29I 
 
 he desired to ask why should this Channing memorial sec- 
 vice be held. Such services were being held by Christians, 
 scholars, and philosophers everywhere in the civilized world 
 from England to India, and all over the United States ; yet 
 Dr. Channing was a quiet, retiring man, not distinguished 
 for great learning. He was not a popular man, nor the 
 leader of a party ; yet his works were now read most ex- 
 tensively. Recently, an edition of one hundred thousand 
 copies of his writings was sold in England. At the pres- 
 ent day, so long after his death, he was more honored than 
 ever. This was because of his earnest and sincere con- 
 victions. He planted himself firmly on the principles of 
 Christianity, and dared to apply the doctrines of religion to 
 his daily life. He was now spoken of as the apostle of lib- 
 erty, — the liberty of a lover of truth and a servant of God, 
 — one who held to the justice of law. He was not a will- 
 ing iconoclast. It was painful to him to break down old 
 customs. He was the same all the time, alone or with the 
 multitude. In quiet gentleness, he received the new light, 
 and caused it to shine on all around. He could never dis- 
 cover any conflict between science and revelation. True 
 science he held to be essentially religious. The speaker 
 quoted several passages from Dr. Channing's sermons, illus- 
 trating his views. He was a man of stern, unbending in- 
 tegrity, and under no circumstances was he ever known to 
 strengthen his argument by unfair treatment of an oppo- 
 nent. In his first work on slavery, he declared that if a 
 work, no matter how good, could not be carried out by the 
 benevolent workings of Christianity, then the time for do- 
 ing had not arrived. He held that the first object of zeal 
 was not to prosper, but to do right. 
 
 Judge McCrary was the next speaker. He said it was 
 always a healthful thing to study the lives and commemorate 
 the virtues of the great and good men of the past, because
 
 292 CHANNINU; CM'.NTP.NAKY. 
 
 the more these were dwelt upon and the more familiar they 
 became, the more the men of tQ-day would be led to imitate 
 thorn. Consciously or unconsciously, the speaker supposed, 
 all men had their saints and ideals ; and it was of great 
 moment whether their ideals were high or low, such as to 
 lift up or drag down. In this, he believed, was the true 
 secret of the. hold the Christian religion had obtained, 
 because by it the perfect character of Christ was continually 
 held up before the people. On this occasion, there was held 
 up a life affording an example as perfect, a model as uplift- 
 ing, as could be found among all the great men of America. 
 It was an example of honesty, not only with his fellow-men, 
 but also with his own conscience. Holding clear convic- 
 tions, he uttered them without fear and in the face of oppo- 
 sition, sometimes amounting to persecution. He was the 
 apostle of freedom of thought, and at the same time the 
 peaceful teacher of Christianity. He never held his peace 
 when he felt it his duty to speak. He was also an example 
 of catholicity. His writings would be searched in vain for 
 any expression of unkindness toward those who differed 
 from the views he held. With him, it meant liberty of 
 thought .on all subjects, but especially religion. It had 
 fallen to the lot of but few to impress their thoughts on the 
 world as Dr. Channing had done. To-day, that broad catho- 
 licity which he preached in the face of such violent opposi- 
 tion is preached from thousands of pulpits. His theology 
 permeated the thoughts of men as did Jefferson's political 
 views. He proclaimed a declaration of religious independ- 
 ence founded, as Jefferson's declaration was, on the dignity 
 of human nature. He believed man was fit to exercise his 
 own judgment. Though he belonged to the Unitarian 
 denomination, he really belonged rather to the world. He 
 did not believe that all good could be found in any one 
 denomination, and he found brethren in all denominations
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. LOUIS. 293 
 
 and outside of all denominations. The speaker was glad 
 the memory of Dr. Channing was so widely celebrated. It 
 would be good for the world that this great and pure charac- 
 ter should be held up as an example, and emulated. 
 
 " I will now introduce to you a gentleman from another 
 room of the family household," said Mr. Snyder. "In my 
 Father's house there are many mansions," quoted the clergy- 
 man, as he introduced Rev. Joseph H. Foy, pastor of the 
 Central Christian Church. 
 
 Mr. Foy said he esteemed it an honor and a privilege to 
 speak a word of honest eulogy to one who was a living force, 
 he had almost said a living presence, in their lives. Being a 
 member of a church which held some tenets totally at vari- 
 ance with those grandly advocated by Dr. Channing, ' he 
 could not be accused of bias in the favorable judgments 
 he had soberly formed and would candidly express. The 
 speaker formed his opinions from no memoirs nor laudatory 
 biographies ; yet he knew as much of the man from a study 
 of his works as any one living or dead. The incertitude 
 in respect to doubtful men, like Byron, Napoleon I., Fred- 
 erick the Great, or Thomas Paine, drove one to investi- 
 gation ; but he was so certain of Channing's truth, good- 
 ness, and purity, that he would as soon have investigated 
 the genealogy of an angel as to distrustfully scrutinize the 
 personal character of this almost inspired proclaimer of the 
 "fatherhood of God" and the "brotherhood of man." His 
 comprehensive and philosophic mind, his almost divine ten- 
 derness, his devotion to truth and principle, that raised him 
 above the earthly plane, made a profound impression upon 
 the speaker. He had dawned upon the lecturer in his works 
 as a gentle, princely man, thoroughly human, yet moving in 
 a large orbit around the central sun. He took hold of him 
 as a man of profound mind, unalterable convictions upon all 
 questions of right and wrong, justice or injustice, of quick
 
 294 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 sympathies with the down-trodden everywhere. He grew 
 upon him as a man who, though not having learned evil 
 from sad experience, could, by the sympathy of a common 
 nature, enter heartily into plans for the recovery of man, 
 and his restoration to that dignity which was his birthright. 
 Of all the sons of men who had, in imitation of the Blessed 
 One, "gone about doing good," there was none whose name 
 was worthier of perpetual embalmment in the considerate 
 regard and tender affection of all succeeding generations 
 than Channing's. No biographic praise or silver voice of 
 oratory could give their souls a tenderer veneration than 
 they had for the one who labored that "every wrong, injus- 
 tice, and oppression in the world might cease to be." The 
 deathless truths from Channing's majestic brain were among 
 his most treasured possessions. Though bigotry and preju- 
 dice blinded hundreds as to the value of Channing's works 
 and their marvellous influence upon modern thought, they 
 are nevertheless gradually finding their way into every 
 thoughtful preacher's library. He had spoken to a number 
 of ministers of his own Church upon the subject, and he 
 could not recall one who did not possess these works. His 
 own copy was so marked up as to be almost a curiosity. 
 Mr. Foy paid an eloquent tribute to the man who had taught 
 by precept and example that "truth only endures," who had 
 been an instrument in God's hand to remove distressful 
 doubts, who taught the " rational character of the Christian 
 religion," and who brushed away any doubts as to "immor- 
 tality " and "future life." Campbell, Fletcher, Flavel, New- 
 man, Marvin, Alexander, Hall, Channing, and Dewey, were 
 sources of intellectual and spiritual sustenance to him. The 
 speaker referred in glowing terms to Mr. Channing's absorb- 
 ing interest in the elevation of the laboring classes, and 
 asserted that his essay on "Sunday-schools" gave him a 
 better idea of the importance of this department than all
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. LOUIS. 295 
 
 Other essays or speeches he had ever read or heard put 
 together. The same applied to his "Address upon Temper- 
 ance." Channing's " Discourses on War" were the founda- 
 tion of the modern peace societies. His "Essays on Sla- 
 very," coming as they did at a time when discussion was 
 intemperate and the State itself in peril, swept everything 
 before them by their irresistible logic. The cathedral bells 
 of the Catholic church in Boston were tolled, it is said, by 
 order of Bishop Cheverous, when Channing died. " All his 
 ends were his country's, his God's, and truth's." Already, 
 great foreign academies had accorded prizes for the best 
 discriminative analyses of the man and his works. The 
 speaker concluded with these words : " As the chilling 
 snows of bigotry, once piled high and hard upon the bleak 
 peaks of prejudice, melt and disappear before the sun of 
 enlightened Christian liberalism slowly climbing toward the 
 zenith, the overflowing Nile of William Ellery Channing's 
 influence will deepen, rise, and widen, carrying refreshment, 
 strength, and joy beyond measure, to parched hearts, bowed 
 heads, and drooping spirits, in all the coming ages." 
 
 Mr. Snyder said, upon the conclusion of Mr. Foy's re- 
 marks, that it was difficult to tell whether he belonged to 
 their church or they to his, but he supposed they belonged 
 to each other. He then introduced Hon. George Partridge, 
 who, he said, had sat in the choir of Dr. Channing's church 
 and listened to him preach. 
 
 Mr. Partridge said, although he had been a member of a 
 quartette in Dr. Channing's church, he did not intend to 
 speak of that. He referred particularly to Channing's sym- 
 pathy with humanity. He never received a salary of more 
 than $1,600 a year, and began at $1,200. He gave half of 
 this away to the poor members of his church. No one went 
 away from the church without thinking over what he had 
 heard, and would probably pray when he got home. His
 
 296 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 gentle, soft voice impressed the listener as if he was above 
 humanity, yet he was always with them. These impres- 
 sions of the man were still strong within the speaker, and 
 would ever remain with him. 
 
 Rev. Samuel Young, an Episcopalian minister of Canada, 
 staying in the city for a few days, was introduced as another 
 member of the common household. The English, he said, 
 were like Moses, and possessed many virtues ; but they 
 needed the help of an Aaron, or Americans with their silver 
 tongues and ready utterances. He was not an off-hand 
 speaker. People could be divided into two classes : first, 
 the supporters of ecclcsiasticism ; and, secondly, those who 
 thought themselves privileged in their conceit to say, " Or- 
 thodo.xy is mine, heterodoxy and all other doxies are yours." 
 The speaker believed in the royal supremacy of reason. He 
 believed in exercising reason in regard to supposed reve- 
 lation. His religion circled around the trinity of God, 
 Channing's about the humanity of Christ. If they would 
 turn their heads toward the front and not look behind, the 
 lines would almost converge, and there would be but little 
 difference. 
 
 In a few appropriate words, Mr. Snyder introduced Rev. 
 Dr. Boyd, pastor of the Second Baptist Church, who said : — 
 
 It were impossible for me, after the exhaustive and elo- 
 quent addresses which have been delivered, to enrich the 
 thought or add to the interest of this occasion ; but I cannot 
 withhold my simple, grateful tribute to the memory of a man 
 with whose generous Christian spirit I am in full sympathy, 
 and to whom I owe so much in the matter and manner of 
 my thinking. Sure I am that this centenary memorial is 
 in accord with the apostolic injunction, " Honor to whom 
 honor is due, tribute to whom tribute." 
 
 The estimate in which I hold the life and character of 
 William Ellery Channing has been formed, not from bio-
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. LOUIS. 29/ 
 
 graphical sketches, but from the six volumes of his published 
 writings (put into my library by the kind thoughtfulness of 
 a friend in Boston), which I have read and reread with ever- 
 increasing interest and profit. 
 
 Dr. Channing's own language is the key to his character : 
 " Men are distinguished from one another not merely by 
 difference of thoughts, but often more by the different de- 
 grees of relief or prominence which they give to the same 
 thoughts." The greatness of Dr. Channing's soul is seen in 
 the intensity of the feelings and thoughts which predomi- 
 nate in his writings. His conception of the dignity of man, 
 though conceding the " weakness and limitations of man's 
 present development and the moral degradation that sin has 
 wrought, yet reveals the capabilities of the race and the 
 grand future which God has in store for it." " God's sov- 
 ereignty is limitless," he says, "still man has rights. God's 
 power is irresistible, still man is free. On God we entirely 
 depend ; yet we can and do act from ourselves, and deter- 
 mine our own characters." On the union of the infinite and 
 the finite, not on their contrast or opposition, Dr. Channing 
 founded all hope of ameliorating man's condition. In this 
 union, he recognized an escape from both pantheism and 
 fatalism. Here were the hidden springs of all social order 
 and reform. From this conception of man's nature and pos- 
 sibilities sprung his profound reverence for liberty, his 
 earnest advocacy of human rights, his love for the poor, his 
 appeals for the laboring classes, and his active opposition 
 to slavery, war, intemperance, and every form of mental op- 
 pression. 
 
 J^elieving most sincerely and broadly in the fatherhood of 
 God and the brotherhood of man, he gave utterance to the 
 purest religious sentiments concerning God, Christ, duty, 
 self-culture, immortality. 
 
 Rarely in the history of the race do we meet with one
 
 298 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 who combines in such grace and symmetry the claims to 
 hi<;h renown. His essays, especially those on Milton, Napo- 
 leon Bonaparte, and Fenelon, full of research, of profound 
 insii^ht into human nature, of critical and well-balanced 
 judi^ments exjjressed in "burning words that clothe the 
 God-breathed thoughts." reveal the ripe scholar. His dis- 
 sertations on the "evidences of revealed religion," "the 
 imitableness of Christ's character," and on many devotional 
 themes, bring us face to face with the large-hearted and yet 
 incisive theologian. His exact and comprehensive views on 
 the subtile influences of society constantly in exercise to rob 
 us of our individuality show that independence of mind 
 which made him a prince of reformers. 
 
 There is nothing which the world resents so much as an 
 attempt to carry out a better measure than existed before. 
 The world never lets a man bless it, but it first fights him. 
 But the criticisms evoked by Dr. Channing's labors in the 
 interest of temperance, of education, of the freedom of the 
 slave, and of the higher emancipation of the intellect and 
 heart from the thraldom of traditional and severe theology, 
 have but made his ideal of human destiny the more sublime 
 and his charity the sweeter. 
 
 Of all the professions, it has been said that the ecclesias- 
 tical one is that which most decidedly and most constantly 
 affects the judgments of persons and opinions; ttiat it is 
 peculiarly difficult for a clergyman to attain disinterested- 
 ness in his thinking, to accept truth just as it may happen 
 to present itself, without passionately desiring that one doc- 
 trine may turn out to be strong in evidence and another 
 unsupported. But disinterestedness in the pursuit of truth 
 was Dr. Channing's pre-eminent trait. I do not agree with 
 all of his conclusions in theology, but I do most sincerely 
 admire his untiring effort to attain and to express the simple, 
 scientific truth. He never writes for the sake of argument,
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. LOUIS. 299 
 
 even in the heat of controversy : it is light and truth which 
 his spirit yearns for, even at the sacrifice of past opinions 
 and preferences. This is the great charm of his character, 
 and this it is that makes him not the exclusive possession 
 of one denomination or time or country, but the sainted 
 teacher of all Christians for all time the world over. 
 
 Love is ownership. We share in the work of all the great 
 and good whom we reverence along the centuries. And so 
 I claim some humble share of Dr. Channing and his work, 
 because I admire his Christian character and revere his 
 memory. He is not dead. He lives and will live in the 
 heart of ages so long as men honor purity of life, reverence 
 truth, and love liberty. 
 
 Dr. Eliot stated that a letter had been received from Dr. 
 Post, regretting his inability to be present, and expressing 
 his high appreciation of the character of Dr. Channing. A 
 similar letter had been received from Rev. Dr. Nichols. He 
 referred to an article upon Dr. Channing, published in the 
 New York Evangelist, and said nothing could be more cor- 
 dial and hearty. He spoke in favor of their church paying 
 for a memorial window to be placed in the memorial church 
 at Newport. The meeting closed with singing the doxology 
 and pronouncing the benediction.
 
 Tin- ri'LI-BRATION AT ST. PAUL 
 
 The St. Paul and Minneapolis Pioneer Press of April 5 th 
 gives the following report of the celebration by the congre- 
 gation of Unity Church, St. Paul: — 
 
 Yesterday being the hundredth anniversary of the birth 
 in Newport, R.I., of Rev. William Ellery Channing, the dis- 
 tinguished Unitarian divine, the event was appropriately 
 celebrated by the congregation of Unity Church, St. Paul. 
 There was an unusually large and intelligent congregation 
 present, there being many members of other churches in 
 attendance. Ifi front of the reading-desk was placed a large 
 photograph, copied from a painting of the subject of the 
 day's celebration, to which allusion was made in the dis- 
 course. The picture was elegantly framed, and around it 
 were entwined smilax, pansies, and roses, while a bunch of 
 calla lilies overtopped the whole. After the usual devotional 
 exercises. Rev. W. C. Gannett, the pastor of the congrega- 
 tion, delivered the following eloquent sermon : — 
 
 I desire to do two things, — in three or four quick pictures 
 to show you Channing coming to himself, and then to show 
 you Channing in relation to the so-called Unitarian move- 
 ment ; and this is all. Next Sunday, I hope to speak of that 
 which Channing himself has called " my one sublime idea," —
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. PAUL. 3OI 
 
 that idea central to all that he thought or spoke or did or 
 was, the idea for which his name stands in the world of 
 churches. Alread}^ I have spoken once, in preparation for 
 to-day, of the general gain in religious liberty made during 
 this century since Channing's birth. Three Sundays are 
 none too many for the great themes connected with his 
 memory. And perhaps to-day you will allow me to claim a 
 little more of your time than usual. 
 
 The first picture takes us to the ancient, dingy, dreamy 
 town of Newport in Rhode Island. The time- is the middle 
 of the war of revolution, 1780. The blackened ruins of sev- 
 eral hundred houses show that the British troops have just 
 left the place. A drowsy old town even then, where people 
 lived long, they lived so quietly. Sundry nonagenarians, 
 white and black, are in its chimney-corners. It is the town 
 of the famous old " Stone Mill," which nobody remembered 
 being built, and which was therefore referred to the North- 
 men of eight hundred years before. Queer characters, 
 strong characters, abound ; for it is a seaport and a capital, 
 and a place of families with wealth and refinement. It might 
 be called too the " slave-market " of the Northern colonies. 
 The pavement in the main street was paid for by a town tax 
 upon the Africans imported ; and it was quite the thing to 
 do for even a thrifty minister to send his venture to the 
 coast of Guinea in the ship of some friendly parishioner to 
 have it return to him in the shape of a likely Guinea boy. 
 
 Here the little child was born whom his parents chris- 
 tened William EUery Channing. The I'-llery was for his 
 grandfather, who had just been signing the Declaration of 
 Independence. The father was a genial lawyer, much be- 
 loved by friends ; the mother, a small, straight, elastic, 
 bright-eyed lady, who looked alert and self-reliant, kindly 
 and yet blunt. That last she was, sharp-witted, plain- 
 spoken, — with a ready frown for any kind of vsham, — truth-
 
 302 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 telling, trulh-dcaling, truth-exacting. If the man who was 
 her boy had one trait above others, it was truthfuhicss. 
 That mother gave it to him. He was a little, straight, quick 
 lad. like the mother again in this, fond of racing, climbing, 
 wrestling. Very tender-hearted, he let the rats out of the 
 trap, and could not bear a deed of cruelty; indeed, was ready 
 for a fight to defend boys smaller than himself. A generous, 
 chivalric child, then ; thoughtful, too. As a five or six years' 
 youngster, the playmates called him "little minister"; for he 
 used to take texts and preach nursery sermons, and summon 
 the household by beating on the warming-pan. A little 
 older, his name was " little peace-maker." A little older yet, 
 and we hear of his fondness for long, lonely rambles about 
 the beautiful' island shores. Of course, he was brought up 
 to go to church and say the Westminster Catechism. 
 
 Now we change the picture, and get a glimpse of Harvard 
 College life. He is but fourteen when he goes there, now a 
 fatherless boy ; and the mother, left poor, can ill spare the 
 little that a college education cost. Cost what it would, 
 William must have it. No famous scholar, but a good one, 
 especially his translations, and very fond of history and 
 moral science. Fast deepening now, growing more solemn 
 and yet more enthusiastic, as college boys are apt to after 
 Sophomore year is gone and they begin to hear the noise of 
 the great world at the gates of manhood. One day in college 
 life, the very place and hour, the very tree under which the 
 experience occurred, the very chapter of the book that kin- 
 dled the experience, he remembered all his life as the hour, 
 tree, book, of his " new birth," when a glowing vision of the 
 majesty of rectitude and the beauty of holiness broke upon 
 his soul. 
 
 Now change the scene to Richmond, Va., whither he went, 
 college days over, to teach in a rich Southerner's family. If 
 in college he had had his "call," now he had his "forty
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. PAUI-. 3O3 
 
 days " of trial in the desert. But the days were twenty 
 months, — days of inward tumult and outward self-discipline, 
 days of poverty, of sleep upon the floor, of stoical exercises 
 to " harden himself," days of reverie and sentimental long- 
 ings for he knew not what ; yet ever of self-watching and 
 self-correction, that brought him nearer to the discovery of 
 the purpose of his life. Finally, he reached it ; and again 
 we hear dimly through the hints of a biographer, who says 
 the record is one of those too intricate to be given to the 
 world even after death, — again we hear of an hour of very 
 intense and solemn consecration, a giving himself heart, soul, 
 mind, strength, to God for life. 
 
 It is said by friends and critics that Channing never knew 
 the agonies of inward conflict, never in his own experience 
 glanced down into the chasms of sin, and slowly and with 
 stumbles climbed the heights of the repentance that most 
 men have to climb, and therefore was not fitted to know 
 much about "sin" and the degradation of poor human 
 nature. I doubt it much. I doubt much whether those 
 whom the world calls saints, and who are saints and inno- 
 cent from the great transgression common enough to most 
 of us, do not perhaps know more about such falls and strug- 
 gles than even we. They fall upon a higher plane, but it is 
 worse to fall upon a higher plane ; and it is upon the edge 
 of the heights that one best knows the sense of depths. At 
 all events, this much is true of Channing, that something in 
 Richmond, and it was inward experience largely, so took hold 
 of him that he who went there a young fellow buoyant with 
 health came back to be for life a thin and pallid invalid, — 
 came back scarcely to know henceforth a day free from lassi- 
 tude and pain. Even his native town, to which he now 
 returned, with its quiet for study and its wonderful shores, 
 and its beach, of which he said in after life, " No spot on 
 earth has so helped to form me as that beach," — even that
 
 304 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 failed to restore him. He himself tells us, " My body pined 
 away to a shado-w there, under the workings of a troubled 
 mind." I suspect that Channing had some of the experi- 
 ences which most men have, and christen "sin." 
 
 And now we must follow him to Boston, where, as young 
 pastor, the lad scarce twenty-three was settled over the 
 Federal Street Church, in 1803. The beginning, of Chan- 
 ning's ministry ! As we look at that beautiful face before 
 us, chastened, disciplined, sensitive, yearning, it seems like 
 an open book, written, though in some language of the 
 spirit, to tell us what a "minister's" life may be, — -"min- 
 ister," " servant " of mankind. And now we see him 
 beginning that life. Let me quote some sentences that 
 show us his conception" of such a life : "Nothing calls forth 
 the soul like a consciousness of being dedicated to a sub- 
 lime work, in which illustrious beings are our associates, 
 and of which the consequences are interminable."- "The 
 minister is a fellow-worker with Christ and the angels." 
 " For true eloquence, there is but one preparation : it is to 
 make the thought of spiritual perfection, of God's life within 
 the soul, real to ourselves by habitual experience." "The 
 only true dignity is that which results from proposing 
 habitually a lofty standard of feeling and action." "Power 
 and majesty belong to him who yields himself up in willing 
 obedience to the rectitude of God." " The preacher has to 
 penetrate men with great convictions." " No man is fitted 
 to preach or promote Christianity who is not fitted to die 
 for it." Listen again to these, his definition of essences : 
 "The essence of Christianity is a spirit of martyrdom in 
 the cause of mankind." " Religion means the adoration and 
 imitation of the perfections of God." "Is not faith in the 
 perfect love of God, the knowledge of him as infinite good- 
 ness, the grand, commanding, central view.'' This God as 
 having no other end in creation than to communicate his
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. PAUL. 305 
 
 own life to his children." "This correspondence of the 
 soul to God, this principle of virtue or inward law impelling 
 to unbounded progress, I consider as the very essence of 
 human nature." 
 
 I do not mean that all these great sentences came into 
 his first sermon or out of his early years ; but the life pur- 
 pose, the conception of the ministry, and, in not very vague 
 germ, the conception of religion, of the soul, of God, which 
 framed these scattered sentences, and hundreds like them, 
 was in the early years and sermons. In his very first 
 sermon, he struck the key-note of the long life-anthem when 
 he said, " We glorify God when by imitation we display 
 his character." A commonplace, — of the kind of common- 
 places that make up the Sermon of the Mount. 
 
 What wonder, then, that, with this conception of his work 
 irradiating him from the outset, he should make what is 
 called a " spiritual impression".^ Add to his face, so irra- 
 diated, his sweet voice, an organ of wonderful clearness, 
 delicacy, expansiveness, as those who recall it delight to 
 tell us, and what wonder that men should remember as 
 events his reading of certain Bible passages and certain 
 hymns, even his pronunciation of certain words .-* A sense 
 of the Eternal came out from him, even in those days of 
 boyish pulpit-work. The little children were awed by it, 
 and remembered it to tell about as grown men and women, 
 — how they caught their first strong impression of a man 
 at worship from his look and tone. What is Mrs. Brown- 
 ing's mark of the angel .'' She uses words like these, " You 
 saw by his eyes that they had looked on God." That seems 
 to have been true of the young preacher of Federal Street. 
 The sermons were not "great" sermons. Boston was re- 
 garded as a sort of " paradise for ministers " in those days ; 
 and there were brilliant preachers in the city, — notably, 
 young Buckminster. But Channing would scarcely have 
 
 21
 
 306 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 been counted among them. Indeed, he never would have 
 been called a "brilliant" preacher. His style is "sunlight, 
 not lightning." He was a careful pruner of all superlatives, 
 carefully left out metaphors and illustrations, almost com- 
 pletely abstained from quotation. His sermons preach 
 truthfulness, whatever the subject be, — preach the utter 
 disuse of all trick, all exaggeration. His thought habitu- 
 ally was on such high themes that his reverence for them 
 made unornamented words the only worthy style. " I come 
 to another great truth," he was apt to say as he passed 
 along his sermon. "This is an infinitely important truth." 
 There is a superlative, to be sure. He kept them then, sa- 
 cred to such use. Now, all this makes life-giving sermons, 
 but not brilliant, — impressive only with spirit-force. And it 
 made his so impressive in this way that the young pastor 
 soon saw his congregation — which he had chosen as the 
 smaller of two Boston parishes offered him at once — in- 
 creasing, till a new church was needed in place of the 
 quaint old barn that had descended to them from the Pres- 
 byterians ; for Channing's church happened to be in origin 
 the single Presbyterian foundation in the city of Congrega- 
 tionalists. 
 
 And what was the young man's thought at this time, 
 doctrinally speaking .■* It might be called vaguely un-Cal- 
 vinistic. It was like the common Boston thought around 
 him. And here my "pictures" cease, and I come to the 
 second part of my sermon ; or, rather, the picture that I now 
 would outline is a moving picture, is the drama of a Change 
 of Faith. To understand " Dr. Channing's relation to the 
 Unitarian movement," we must understand something of 
 the movement itself. It is a well-nigh forgotten story, nor 
 is it worth while often to rehearse such stories. Yet it is 
 well enough to know, for instance, what happened sixty 
 years ago to give us a Unity church to-day, and specially
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. PAUL. 307 
 
 well to trace this story, because it is a clear-cut, typical in- 
 stance on a small scale, of evolution in religion. 
 
 The orthodox critics are perfectly right in calling " Uni- 
 tarianism" a transitional theology. That is its chief merit. 
 Still more exactly, it is but a single phase in a long move- 
 ment of transition, not beginning and not ending with itself. 
 In this country, — to limit our look to that, — the movement 
 thus far embraces three phases: (i) The "Arminian," from 
 about 1740 to 1800; (2) The "Unitarian" phase proper, 
 from about 1800 to 1840; (3) The "Transcendental and 
 Critical," from 1840 onwards. Channing's life barely lasted 
 . through the second. 
 
 The starting-point of all is the rigid Calvinism which the 
 Pilgrims and Puritans brought with them to New England in 
 the seventeenth century, — the century of which the West- 
 minster Confession is the theological monument and the 
 survival. We smile at that rigidness to-day, — the modern 
 Calvinist no less than others, — as a faith that put seven 
 solemn Sundays in the week, and legislated by the light of 
 "Moses his judicials." But it was a faith that filled the 
 wilderness with psalms, and made each log hut a temple of 
 the Eternal God. A noble faith, — to have had in one's 
 grandfathers far enough removed. The iron in it then was 
 largely in the form of bars ; but, absorbed by the self-disci- 
 plines that it imposed, that iron became constitutional, and 
 it still runs as iron in our people's blood. 
 
 The "great awakening" of 1740 found the bars already 
 shaky. That revival revealed New England to itself. It 
 waked some minds to strict Puritanism, others to a more 
 deliberate dissent from Puritanism. The latter class discov- 
 ered that they had unconsciously become " Arminians," — 
 a name of evil omen, that implied beliefs in man's free will, 
 in the impartial love of God. It implied, besides, a growing 
 dislike of creeds, a growing like of toleration, a tendency to
 
 308 CHANNING CENTENARY." 
 
 reduce faith to a few fundamentals, and a care to phrase 
 those fundamentals in simple Bible words. As years went 
 by, ^uch minds as these began to question, further, the vica- 
 rious atonement ; a little later, to examine the divinity of 
 Christ. In Eastern Massachusetts, a silence about these and 
 kindred doctrines fell upon the pulpits ; the Trinitarian dox- 
 ologies were quietly dropped ; young parsons were less 
 closely questioned by the ordaining councils ; the ordination 
 sermon itself was apt to hold a plea for toleration ; books 
 of devout English heresy were lent from minister to min- 
 ister. Now and then, some bolder voice — Mayhew's, per- 
 haps, or Bentley's — startled the brethren with a pointed 
 doubt or slur of the old faith ; but that was apt to cost 
 them some "exchanges." No break as yet, however, was 
 feared in the old Church of the Pilgrims. These men 
 were only "moderate" or "liberal Calvinists." Freeman of 
 " King's Chapel " in Boston, an Episcopalian, — and a half- 
 alien, therefore, in this land of Congregationalists, and 
 therefore with the less to lose by being independent, — was 
 the first to reach, and to dare to avow anything like open 
 Unitarianism (1787). 
 
 Meanwhile, among the other class of minds, those whom 
 the revival had waked to a more loyal Puritanism, a process 
 of "transition" was also going on, slower, but not -a whit 
 less certain. Hopkins, a disciple of Jonathan Edwards, was 
 teaching a " rational Calvinism," which the fathers of New 
 England would have called but milder heresy than that of 
 the Arminians. It was Calvinism bettered by a decidedly 
 more moral theory of vicarious atonement ; by a statement 
 of man's total depravity that mystified the totalness with- 
 out spoiling it ; and by a sort of laissez-faire scheme of 
 reprobation, which represented God as calling whom he 
 pleased to his grace, and simply leaving the rest uncalled to 
 that native depravity which made their deep damnation as
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. PAUL. 3O9 
 
 inevitable as it was to be eternal. This was so great an 
 improvement that, when Hopkinsonism was fully formu- 
 lated a few years later, the Presbyterians of the Middle 
 States, who remained genuine Calvinists of the good old 
 type, called the New England sort " another gospel," non- 
 sense, impiety, the high road to infidelity and atheism. That 
 is the chronic trouble with all "transition" movements. 
 They always lead in that 'direction. . 
 
 Channing's sole but sufficiently ample relation to the 
 movement thus far was that he was born toward the cen- 
 tury's close ; that his birthplace, Newport, was Dr. Hopkins' 
 own town; that Dr. Hopkins' house was just across the 
 garden from his own ; that he heard his first sermons as a 
 child from Dr. Hopkins' lips, doubtless recited his West- 
 minster Catechism in Dr. Hopkins' study, and owed more, 
 as he tells himself, to that good old man and burly thinker 
 than to any one except his parents ; also, that he was 
 brought up amid earnestly religious Calvinists of a moderate 
 and tolerant kind, while college life removed him to the 
 still more liberal Boston influences. He must needs have 
 been well acquainted, therefore, with all forms of the chang- 
 ing faith. 
 
 Only two years after his ordination in 1803, an event 
 occurred which may be said to mark the beginning of the 
 second — the "Unitarian" — phase of the transition. It 
 was the appointment of Dr. Ware as professor of divinity at 
 Harvard College. Henry Ware, known to be "Arminian,'' 
 suspected of being " Arian ! " Five years later, Kirkland, 
 one of the most advanced of the liberals, was called from a 
 Boston pulpit to its presidency. It was too true. Harvard 
 College, simply descending from generation to generation in 
 the line of Massachusetts culture, was, by that title, found 
 to be in the hands of the liberals in 1800. 
 
 The orthodox, now thoroughly alarmed, began to muster
 
 310 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 their forces for attack ; and for ten years they tried in vain 
 to drive these liberals to avow " Unitarianism." But that 
 name the liberals very honestly repelled, because at the 
 time it was closely identified with " humanitarian " views of 
 Christ, while their own views were earnestly and strongly 
 " Arian " ; that is, to most, at least, of them, Christ, though 
 not longer regarded as the Eternal God, was a being far 
 above all archangels in his nature and his dignities. Yet 
 between 1805 and 181 5 the liberals, as a whole, must be 
 called a silent and non-committal brotherhood. No doubt, 
 many were still vague in their own thought ; no doubt, all 
 deprecated the irreligiousness of angry theological contro- 
 versy; no wonder they could not bear the thought of a break 
 in the dear old Church of the forefathers^ In other words, 
 they were in the " Broad Church " attitude, so well known 
 to-day, and not admirable then or now, because not simply 
 and honestly self-representing; and yet to have been for- 
 ward for the fray would have shown a still more fault-worthy 
 spirit, and even more misrepresenting. In spite of this 
 silence, however, many signs — the temper of the magazines, 
 and the convention sermons ; the limiting of ministerial ex- 
 changes ; an occasional church-break or trial for heresy ; the 
 founding of the Andover Theological School, and young 
 Thacher's keen criticism on its " designedly ambiguous " 
 and everlastingly unalterable creed ; the bold anti-trinitarian 
 stand at this time taken by the Universalist leaders, and 
 the scholarly defence by Andrews Norton, and his friends 
 of the same position — all these signs indicated a fast- 
 approaching crisis. 
 
 It arrived at last by a strange transatlantic route. A 
 Mr. Belsham, London Unitarian preacher of the extreme 
 sort, printed in a biography some Boston letters received 
 from Freeman of " King's Chapel," — letters describing the 
 non-committal liberalism in vogue around him. Promptly,
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. PAUL. 3II 
 
 those letters were made to appear in pamphlet form in 
 Boston ; and then Dr. Morse, of Charlestown, father of the 
 father of the telegraph, in his magazine well named the 
 Panoplist, bore down on Boston, and gave three ringing 
 blows, charging : (i) that the New England liberals shared 
 Belsham's low, humanitarian view of Christ ; (2) that, in 
 sharing it without avowing it, they were systematic hypo- 
 crites; (3) that, for so thinking and so doing, they ought to 
 be denied all Christian fellowship. 
 
 The liberals could not keep silence now ; but who should 
 be their spokesman } 
 
 Channing was thirty-five years old. The beautiful face in 
 Allston's portrait — not the one before you, which was from 
 a painting made many years later — shows him as he then 
 was, with the light of his great thought dawning on him, be- 
 fore the eyes gazed widely and the lips were set. He had 
 been a quiet minister, making his calls, preaching his twice a 
 day, not often going to the Anthology Club, but becoming 
 known as one who made men feel religious. Sad and indig- 
 nant, Channing answered the attack. He admitted the Uni- 
 tarianism, using that word in its broad sense, unconfined to 
 Belsham's view of Christ. Opinions differed among them 
 as to Christ, he said. " To think with Belsham was no 
 crime." But, as a fact, few did. For himself, he had always 
 scrupulously avoided every expression that might seem to 
 acknowledge the Trinity, and, when asked in conversation, 
 had explicitly avowed dissent. As to the pulpit silence 
 about the Unitarianism, he admitted, justified, glorified it. 
 The charge of hyjDocrisy was a slander. " We preach pre- 
 cisely as if no such doctrine as the Trinity had ever been 
 known." No doctrine was more abstract or perplexing, so 
 apt to gender strife. " We all of us think it best to preach 
 what we esteem to be the truth, and to say very little about 
 (speculative) error." About Calvinism, had they not been
 
 312 CHANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 also silent ? Yet they were well known anti-Calvinists, and 
 no preachini; was more easy or more popular than attack 
 upon its dogmas ; and they deemed its errors far more 
 injurious than any about Christ's person. " Yet the name 
 Calvinist has never, I presume, been uttered by us in the 
 pulpit." Not hypocrisy, but self-djenial rather. And then, 
 with all his heart and soul and mind and strength, he depre- 
 cated the threatened break in the Church. 
 
 To answer him, Samuel Worcester now stepped forward 
 in behalf of orthodoxy. To and fro the letters went, till 
 each had three in print. It was the first set debate of the 
 " Unitarian controversy," and as such turned less upon the 
 doctrines themselves than upon their importance as ground 
 for breaking fellowship. Were the liberals, in ceasing to be 
 Calvinists and Trinitarians, ceasing to be Christians .-' was 
 the question. Channing said the differences are not funda- 
 mental. " Fundamental ! " said Worcester. That was all, 
 but that was final. 
 
 At last, then, the heresy was out ; a name had been 
 forced on it ; the schism had begun. The orthodox were 
 peremptory ; and, spite of all reluctance, — felt mainly by the 
 elder liberals, who had out-thought, but not in sympathies 
 outgrown, the old faith, — the two churches, no longer now 
 two parties of one church, drew off from one another. 
 Twenty stormy years followed, — years of clashing contro- 
 versy with each other, years of inward organization on both 
 sides. 
 
 Channing kept the leader's place ; and once, twice, thrice 
 again, his plain, strong words served to draw the fresh 
 attack. Whatever he said seemed to have more power than 
 any earnestness of others. The first time was in 1819, 
 when he preached at Baltimore the famous ordination ser- 
 mon defining Unitarianism. It was published and repub- 
 lished, and probably created a greater sensation than any
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. PAUL. 313 
 
 single sermon ever preached in America. At once, it led to 
 three more set debates, two of which became the classics of 
 the " Unitarian controversy," — those in which Prof. Stuart 
 and Prof. Woods of the Andover School faced Prof. Norton 
 and Prof. Ware of the Cambridge School, Stuart and Norton 
 debating with each other the dogma of the Trinity, Woods 
 and Ware the doctrine of Calvinism. From the Baltimore 
 sermon and these debates, men at last began to plainly see 
 what Unitarianism was, both in its denials and in its affir- 
 mations. Saw, namely, that it was a Bible faith buttressed 
 by Bible texts ; that it meant belief in revelation, miracles, 
 the superhuman Christ ; but that it said Unity, not Trinity, 
 in naming God ; that it said superhuman, not deity,- in nam- 
 ing Christ; said revelation, not the "literal God word" in 
 naming the Bible ; that in saying atonement, it meant man 
 uplifted and reconciled to God by the power of a holy 
 Saviour's life and martyrdom, not God reconciled to man 
 by the agonies of a sacrificial death; that it rejected as 
 essentially immoral all idea of vicarious guilt or vicarious 
 punishment; that, above all, no shred of "Calvinism" with 
 its creed of total depravity and arbitrary election was left, 
 but in its place came a new and mighty affirmation that 
 human nature and human reason were in themselves akin to 
 God, and deserved not vilification, but rather a reverence 
 due to things that shared divinity. This was " Channing 
 Unitarianism." 
 
 Three times, I said, his words proved battle signals. The 
 second time was the famous dedication sermon at New York 
 in 1825, in which he vindicated this "Unitarianism as the 
 system most favorable to piety." His opponents have never 
 forgiven him the allusion in it to the "central gallows of the 
 universe." The third time was the "election sermon" in 
 1830, in which he spoke of modern forms of "inquisition." 
 This word brought on one more debate, and then the " Uni-
 
 314 CllANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 tarian controversy " was virtually over. It had been short, 
 anil (lurinL;" the last few years had been sadly sharp on both 
 sides. Yet, perhaps, no church schism that involved so 
 clean a break has had less of bad blood in it. The hottest 
 anger was roused in certain parishes where the supreme 
 court's decision that the church property belonged to the 
 parish at large, and not to the inner circle of "church-mem- 
 bers," wrought some real hardship. By this decision, many 
 a " First Parish " of Eastern Massachusetts, the very earliest 
 homestead of the old New England faith, was found to be by 
 large majorities in " Unitarian " possession ; and a second 
 steeple now rose in place, where, till then, the church had 
 been only the " meeting-house " for the whole town. 
 
 Meanwhile, in other ways the new party had been organ- 
 izing itself. It now had a name, doctrines, churches, chiefs, 
 ministerial conferences, the " American Unitarian Associa- 
 tion " (1825), and several literary organs. Harvard College 
 was largely under its control ; and many of the strongest, 
 probably the most of the well-educated, minds of the State 
 were its helpers. And yet this outward triumph was 
 already nearly over in 1830. It was confined to Massa- 
 chusetts, and in that State to the eastern half. Cultured 
 rationalism can never quickly generate fresh material ; and 
 the material slowly accumulated through three generations 
 of growing liberalism (since 1740) had already been appro- 
 priated. Already Lyman Beecher had kindled a strong 
 back-fire in the very heart of Boston ; and, as the country 
 population came pressing to the city year by year, they 
 brought with them their country Calvinism, ready to be 
 modified indeed by the new views of their own chiefs, ready 
 even to be modified somewhat by Unitarian principles, but 
 by no means ready to accept the Unitarian name or Unita- 
 rian positions. Thenceforward, say from 1830 to 1835, the 
 growth of Unitarianism has been inward, by its own devel-
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. PAUL. 315 
 
 opment, its own renewed "transition"; and outward, chiefly 
 by a certain "leavening" influence upon the sects in con- 
 tact with it. 
 
 Next, it should be observed that he fought but little even 
 against opinions. Nothing that he wrote of a controversial 
 nature remains unpublished, says his careful biographer ; 
 and the pieces, only eight or ten in number, show how very 
 little of a controversialist he was, in spite of his fame of lead- 
 ership. Apparently, through all that stormy time, he did 
 not carry to his own pulpit one single sermon "against Cal- 
 vinism," one set argument "against the Trinity," one system- 
 atic exposition of " the Unitarian system " ! Think what a 
 calm in his own soul, above the storm, that implies, — what 
 nobility of judgment, what true proportioning and right 
 estimate of things by their real importance ! " The most 
 effectual method of expelling error is not to meet it sword in 
 hand, but gradually to instil great truths with which it can- 
 not easily coexist, and by which the mind outgrows it." 
 " Never distrust the power of a great truth fairly uttered." 
 The words, his own, state his method of controversy. It was 
 the positive, not the negative, method. His specific work as 
 a " theologian " was to affirm and unfold the doctrine of di- 
 vinity in human nature, — that larger and perpetual incarna- 
 tion, ignored by those who made a single historic incarnation 
 one corner-stone of Christianity, and man's total depravity 
 the other corner-stone. His work as a "social reformer" 
 was to apply this doctrine of divinity in human nature to 
 human institutions, — a work somewhat, and naturally, neg- 
 lected by those who took the more hopeless view of the 
 race. This was constructive work : the destruction, the ne- 
 gation, was but incidental. This work was for religion : 
 that belonged to the ism, which they might organize to em- 
 phasize who would, — not he. He was the inspircr, not the 
 organizer of the Unitarians ; the prophet, in no way the
 
 3l6 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 general, of their movement. Only in this sense can he be 
 called its leader. 
 
 Not their organizer : that is a point to be emphasized, if 
 we would understand Dr. Channing. Indeed, he distrusted 
 organizations of all kinds with remarkable distrust. Neither 
 in the cause of war nor of temperance nor of abolition of 
 slavery — his three chief lines of social work — nor of Uni- 
 tarianism, would he ally himself to "parties," fearing their 
 tyranny only less than he feared the tyranny which they 
 opposed. True, he openly on all occasions shared their 
 reproach with his fellow-believers : he took the front in the 
 first announcements, and afterwards, as needs demanded 
 him ; but as openly he refused to identify himself with any 
 settled and consolidated system called "Unitarianism." He 
 took but little interest in the "Unitarian Association." 
 His own preference would probably have been to speak, 
 write, publish, confer together in an annual meeting, under 
 some slight bond of union. And, in this preference, he had 
 the sympathy of many of the older liberals. It was the 
 younger men that, for good or ill, "organized" Unitarianism 
 into a denomination. 
 
 As he grew older, and, withdrawing from his parish work, 
 gave his mind increasingly to the social applications of his 
 views, in pamphlets on the slavery question and the eleva- 
 tion of the laborer, the prisoner, the intemperate; as he 
 grew older doing this, his interest in the Unitarianism even 
 lessened. The open mind, the principle of liberty in religion, 
 the freest use of reason in its problems, he seemed to trust 
 more and more ; the day's solution of those problems, less 
 and less. " This Unitarianism, which so many seem to 
 think is the last word of the human mind, is only the vesti- 
 bule ! We have everything to learn." That was said quite 
 early in the "controversy," I believe. But, in his later 
 years, such expressions grow even common. " I have little
 
 CELEBRATION AT ST. PAUL. 317 
 
 or no interest in Unitarians as a sect. I have hardly any- 
 thing to do with them. I can endure no sectarian bonds. 
 Old Unitarianism must undergo important modifications 
 or developments. It cannot quicken and regenerate the 
 world. It pledged itself to progress as its life and end ; 
 but it has grown stationary, and now we have a Unitarian 
 orthodoxy." This was said in the opening years of the 
 "Transcendental" period, that which I called the third 
 phase of this whole transition movement. It indicates no 
 symptoms of return to the old orthodoxy, surely. Neither 
 does it indicate sympathy complete with the young Trans- 
 cendentalists, Emerson and Parker and their friends, who 
 now began to follow out the logic of the Unitarian principle 
 to results quite different from those which Channing cher- 
 ished. What it does indicate is, as said before, sympathy 
 with that principle, that method, as, above all other treas- 
 ures, the thing most precious to religion. 
 
 His advice to the friends who brought him the little cove- 
 nant of the Newport Unitarjan Church, formed in 1835, 
 shows the daring of his piety in his fear of harm to religious 
 liberty. The one thing he demurred at in the covenant was 
 the expression "believing in one God, the Father." Chan- 
 ning, whose very life was that belief become inspiration and 
 serenity, — Channing whose sermon at the dedication of that 
 very church was on "The Worship of the Father a Service 
 of Gratitude and Joy," demur at that confession ? Yes, in a 
 church-covenant, — fearful lest even that dear faith might 
 exclude a true worshipper, and set orthodoxy of opinion 
 above the filial and fraternal spirit. 
 
 Here we must stop. The second phase of the transition 
 in American theology was passing to the third, and Chan- 
 ning's death in 1842 almost marks the date of the passing. 
 His relation to that third phase can be told in a single word : 
 it was the relation of a dawn to a daybreak, of a May to
 
 3lS CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 a Tune. We will not speculate on what his own opinions 
 niii;ht have become, had he lived to "inspire" men through 
 that June-time with his gracious "prophecy." Let no 
 young " Radical," emphasising his Bible criticisms and mir- 
 acle denials, dare to claim him. Let no " Conservative," 
 clinging to the dear old ism, dare to claim him, either. 
 Channing would have been above them both, even as in his 
 life he was above such things full of the unessential. One 
 thing only may be said : for one thing both may claim him 
 as their own, and with them all true lovers in all churches, — 
 namely, this, that Channing would have been as "young for 
 liberty " to-day as in the day when his living lips made men 
 feel the Eternal in them, and "know by the look in his eyes 
 that those eyes had looked on God."
 
 THE CELEBRATION AT MEADVILLE, PENN. 
 
 The following account of the meeting at Meadville, 
 Pennsylvania, is taken from the report in the Meadville 
 Republican of April 9 : — 
 
 The one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Dr. William Ellery 
 Channing was commemorated at the Unitarian Church Wednesday 
 evening by appropriate services. The audience was not large, but 
 what it lacked in numbers was more than made up in refinement, and 
 in appreciation of the serviges of the occasion. The celebration was in 
 no wise exclusive or sectarian. It was rather a union of all sects and 
 denominations in paying tribute to the memory of a man whose life 
 was spent in heroic effort to harmonize sectarian differences and in 
 inculcating that spirit of broad and liberal tolerance which binds all 
 denominations in the common Christian brotherhood, finds some redeem- 
 ing quality in every form of religious worship, "and good in everything." 
 Many gentlemen prominent in denominations other than the Unitarian 
 were present, and evinced a lively interest in the services, one of them, 
 Rev. George Whitman, delivering a highly interesting address upon 
 Channing's life and character. 
 
 The regular services were preceded by some excellent music by the 
 choir, after which Mr. Harris, of the Theological School, who con- 
 ducted the meeting, read a portion of the Scriptures, and Dr.Livermore 
 offered a fitting prayer. 
 
 Mr. Harris began the regular services by reading an essay giving an 
 outline of the history of Channing's birth, his ministerial labor and 
 his death. The paper was a carefully prepared historical sketch, and 
 abounded in extracts from the writings of Channing's contemporaries,
 
 320 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 giving their estimates of his wonderful genius. The essay was listened 
 to with marked interest, and indicated deep and patient research in its 
 preparation. 
 
 Professor Frederic Huidekoper was the second speaker, and our ina- 
 bility to present a verbatim report of his remarks is a matter of genuine 
 regret. He spoke of the intense sincerity everywhere apparent in Chan- 
 ning's writings, of the deep earnestness in every sentence he wrote or 
 uttered, and of the strong, manly faith which characterized every act of 
 his life. Professor Huidekoper referred to Channing's clearness of state- 
 ment, to the simplicity of his language, and the ease with which he made 
 his meaning clear to his readers, as among the secrets of his success as 
 a minister and a philosopher. It was doubted if Channing ever penned 
 a sentence for mere rhetorical effect. He never sacrificed sense to 
 sound. He always thought before he wrote, and when he wrote his 
 words carried conviction with them. 
 
 Professor Huidekoper spoke of the great affection for Channing in 
 Europe, and referred to numerous expressions of this affection which he 
 had heard in Great Britain and various points on the Continent. Even 
 among those races who opposed his teachings, and regarded his love 
 of liberty and his devotion to the cause of humanity as menacing the 
 safety of their social and political relations — even among those races, 
 Channing's purity of character and the vigor of his arguments com- 
 pelled universal respect and esteem. Channing's critics have charged 
 him with being an idealist ; but his idealism, if he had any, was that 
 which was exemplified by his own life. 
 
 No more has been attempted in the above synopsis than the briefest 
 outline of Professor Huidekoper's address. His admiration of Chan- 
 ning's conciseness of statement and simplicity of terms was expressed 
 in language that was of itself a model of simplicity and clearness. His 
 remarks were clothed in the plainest, purest Saxon, and were a worthy 
 tribute to the eloquent simplicity which adorns every page and every 
 sentence of Channing's writings. 
 
 Mr. Savage, from the Theological School, followed Professor Huide- 
 koper, and offered what he had to say as a general report from fields 
 beyond Unitarianism, as a report from the Evangelical Church. He 
 spoke of the growing interest in the EvangeHcal churches in the life and 
 works of Channing, and related a number of instances of the beneficent 
 results which had followed a study of his writings, among both ministers 
 and laymen. He said this interest in Channing's writings was growing, 
 not only among the clergy of the Protestant churches, but among those 
 of the Catholic Church on both sides of the ocean. Channing's broad
 
 CELEBRATION AT MEADVILLE. 321 
 
 philanthropy, his love of humanity, his strong, brave words for univer- 
 sal liberty and progress, and his pure, simple life endeared him to all 
 mankind, and possessed an influence that would be felt and recognized 
 for generations to come. 
 
 Dr. Wilsoii was the fourth speaker. He said that until four years 
 ago his acquaintance with the life and works of Dr. Channing had been 
 meagre and unsatisfactory. Four years ago, however, while in London, 
 he picked up a volume of Channing's works in the house of a friend ; 
 and the astonishment of his friend, when he informed him that he, an 
 American, had not read it, was so great, that he lost no time after return- 
 ing to this country in giving them a careful reading. Dr. Channing, the 
 speaker believed, was one of the men whom lovers of the good and 
 the great and the true would place in the gallery of the world's noblest 
 heroes. Not with Napoleon nor with Alexander, because they were 
 great only in a transitory or a worldly sense, but in a higher, brighter 
 niche, beneath which it might be written, " He loved and lived for his 
 fellow-men." His example, his spotless life, and his ringing words for 
 truth, liberty, and justice, are a legacy, not alone for this church or for 
 that, but for all men and all churches and all time. He was a pioneer in 
 the great cause of Christian progress ; and, in the criticisms and the con- 
 tumely that were heaped upon him by those who blindly fought against 
 the truths which he represented, he only experienced the antagonism, 
 often amounting to persecution, which reformers have met with in every 
 age of the world's history. As Socrates was doomed to death by a 
 court of his fellows, whose cloudy minds even the brightness of his 
 intelligence was unable to penetrate ; as the Saviour was sacrificed 
 by a council whose ignorance and mental darkness debarred them from 
 an understanding of the glorious truths of his mission; as all great 
 reformers in all ages have been opposed and often persecuted, — so Chan- 
 ning was no exception, and upon him fell the contumely, the denuncia- 
 tion, of those who stood in the clouds beneath him. But, though scarce 
 a generation has passed since he withdrew from the field, the truthful- 
 ness of his teachings and the nobility of his life shine forth like a 
 beacon light, a priceless legacy to all mankind. 
 
 Rev. George Whitman, of the First Baptist Church, followed Dr. 
 Wilson, and delivered an address so befitting the occasion that we take 
 real pleasure in presenting it in full. Mr. Whitman said: — 
 
 All denominations have their great names. Among the Roman Cath- 
 olics, we have a Fenelon, a Pascal, and a Massillon : among the Episco- 
 palians, a Leighton, a Taylor, and a Sherlock; among the Lutherans, a 
 Jean Paul Richter, a Tholuck, and a Melanchthon; among the Baptists, 
 
 22
 
 ;jj CMANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 a Wavland, a Robert Hall, and a Spurgeon ; and, among the Unitarians, 
 we have at least one great name that deserves to be placed among the 
 stars, and that is the name of William EUery Channing. 
 
 Great names are the inheritance of humanity. Prejudiced men may 
 seek to confine these names within the narrow bounds of their own sect; 
 but true greatness overleaps all barriers, and lives not for party, but for 
 humanity. Truth is the property of mankind : and, when a man comes 
 into the world full-freighted with heaven's inspiration, and bearing a 
 message of truth for man, it is madness for little souls to gather around 
 him, and claim him as their own. True greatness is the heritage of the 
 race. So far from being jealous of the great men in other denomina- 
 tions, we ought to rejoice in them. They are all ours. We take a pride 
 in their greatness : we share an interest in their fame. For, while we 
 are not compelled to accept their errors, we joyfully acknowledge their 
 charity, philanthropy, and devotion, and claim these qualities as the 
 richest legacy of man to man. 
 
 And so I claim a share in the greatness and goodness of Channing. 
 He was not thine alone, but mine as well. And, as I should have been 
 proud to have stood by his side in Faneuil Hall when he pleaded the 
 cause of the enslaved African, so now I am proud in the privilege of 
 placing one little laurel leaf upon his broad, manly brow. We honor 
 ourselves, my friends, in honoring the memory of one who lived so un- 
 selfishly, so devotedly as he, and of whom Dewey has said, " He strove 
 to give birth to his own glowing idea of the true Christian man." 
 
 With the best of New England's blood in his veins, and the best of 
 Harvard's culture in his head, Channing lived to do noble service for 
 humanity. He was one of the few men of earth who clearly saw that 
 greatness and goodness are inseparable. He might have risen high in 
 the realm of science, of jurisprudence, or belles-lettres ; but his relig- 
 ious instincts early taught him that the crowning greatness of man was 
 only compatible with the truest goodness ; and so, in early life, he made 
 companions of such authors as Fenelon and Pascal, and attained to that 
 purity of character for which he is justly distinguished. In his youthful 
 days, he was called "the peace-maker"; and he quickly learned that 
 life's noblest duty is to set men at peace with their Maker. In a letter 
 to a friend, written in his twentieth year, he speaks of having met with 
 " that change of heart which is necessary to constitute a Christian " ; 
 and, to the facetious laughter of the worldling who would call his conver- 
 sion a farce, he opposes that conscious assurance which the restored 
 blind man of Jerusalem felt, when he said, " This I know, — that, whereas 
 I was blind, now I see." Previous to this change, he regarded mere
 
 CELEBRATION AT MEADVILLE. 323 
 
 moral attainments as sufficient; but, from this time forward, he solemnly 
 devotes his life and services to his God. 
 
 But, though Channing knew that greatness and goodness are insepa- 
 rable, he knew also that goodness is not acquired by the sacrifice of con- 
 victions. He was no pulpy man, no man of putty, — to yield his princi- 
 ples at the solicitation of a false liberality. He had his convictions of 
 truth and duty, and they were dear to him as the apple of his eye. He 
 knew the world was not to be made better by the sacrifice of truth, but 
 by the earnest, sincere, and kindly advocacy of it ; in other words, as 
 Paul says, " By holding the truth in love." Without this courage of his 
 own opinion, this earnestness of conviction, his name would never have 
 passed into history. 
 
 If I were to select the one characteristic that shines brightest in 
 Channing's life, it would be this ; namely, his large-hearted philanthropy. 
 He held that "the distinguishing principles of our holy religion are 
 humility, purity of heart, forgiveness of our worst enemies, forbearance 
 under the' heaviest injuries, detachment from the pleasures and prosper- 
 ity of the world, and supreme affection for the Deity." These were the 
 governing principles of his life. His philanthropic spirit, his tender 
 instincts, his sympathy for the suffering both among men and beasts, 
 have received the recognition of his admiring countrymen. Many of you 
 will remember that story of his early days, so illustrative of his sympa- 
 thetic nature. One day, in his rambles, he found a bird's nest, in which 
 were four little ones, that opened their wide mouths to him, as if they 
 were hungry. He fed them some crumbs that he chanced to find in his 
 pockets. Every day thereafter, he hastened homeward from school, in 
 order to get crumbs for his little pets. They had now become feathered, 
 and were nearly ready to fly ; but what was his amazement, in coming to 
 feed them one evening, to find them all cut into pieces, and their little 
 nest covered with blood, — the work, no doubt, of wicked boys. There 
 on the tree mournfully sat the mother-bird, looking down upon young 
 Channing, as if he were the cause of her desolation. The lad never 
 forgot this inhumanity; and, in after years, his native sympathy found 
 expression in feeding the hungry mouths of men and women. Such 
 men of philanthropic mould are nature's truest noblemen. They con- 
 stitute the true knight-errantry of this present age. May God grant 
 that you and I, like the great Channing, may always write such words 
 as Love, Right, Justice, and Humanity, with a large capital letter. 
 
 Rev. J. T. Bixby spoke next. He said that great names were the 
 most valuable inheritances of our race. They come to us as common 
 property: they are for all and to all. Dr. Channing was a great man.
 
 324 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 and his greatness was of the kind that grows and brightens with every 
 passing year. His greatness was based upon two great traits of his 
 character, love of God and love of man. His love of the Creator was 
 the central principle, the inspiration of his whole life. It developed his 
 moral nature, awakened his spiritual energies, and brought him face to 
 face with those great problems of Christian progress with which he was 
 subsequently to grapple in the great field of theological discussion. 
 This love of God, awakened in his heart so early in life, — it was this 
 love for the Master which fully explains that uprightness 'of character 
 and gentleness of manner for which his whole life was so distinguished. 
 Out of his love of God, his love for man flowed naturally and freely. 
 His unstinted philanthropy, his sympathy for the weak and the down- 
 trodden of mankind, was as broad and deep as life itself. He stood for 
 liberty, for light, for charity, to all humanity. He preached the nobility 
 of man, and attested his doctrine by his own life. He taught charity 
 and forgiveness, not alone in the pulpit, but by precept and example. 
 His bitterest enemies basked in the sunlight of his forgiveness, and the 
 poorest slave who sweltered beneath the task-master's lash found in him 
 a loyal friend and an advocate whose eloquence was irresistible. His 
 manner was severe, as his hfe was earnest. Life with him was a solemn 
 fact, but not a sad one. It was his destiny rather to look upon and deal 
 with its graver aspects ; and he did so bravely and fearlessly. His 
 splendid labors in behalf of morality and true religion, the record of his 
 busy life, and the inestimable inheritance of his works place Channing 
 among the great benefactors of his race. His writings are at once a 
 monument to his genius and a golden legacy to posterity. 
 
 Professor Livermore was the last speaker. He paid an eloquent 
 tribute to Channing's genius and his character. Professor Livermore's 
 address was devoted chiefly to an analysis of Channing's religious feel- 
 ings, and a refutation of the charge of "idealism" which has been pre- 
 ferred against him. Instead of "idealism," so called. Professor Liver- 
 more believed the predominant trait in Channing's religious thought 
 might better be termed an intense Christian spirituality; or that, if there 
 was idealism, it was that species of idealism which finds expression in 
 the highest type of moral and physical manhood, which, it seems to us, 
 is no idealism at all. Professor Livermore's thoughts upon this subject 
 were particularly interesting, and indicated a deep and careful study of 
 Channing's character from a psychological stand-point. We regret that 
 we are unable to publish the address entire. 
 
 The audience united in singing, and were then dismissed with the 
 benediction by Rev. Mr. Whitman.
 
 THE CELEBRATION AT WASHINGTON, D.C. 
 
 The National Republican of April 8 gave the following 
 brief account of a memorial meeting held in All-Souls 
 Church on the evening of April 7: — 
 
 His honor Justice Miller took the chair, and after a fervent prayer by 
 Rev. William Silsbee, of Trenton, N.Y., made an interesting and instruc- 
 tive address upon the place Dr. Channing has occupied in the develop- 
 ment of religious thought in America, and the evident greater influence 
 he is yet to exert in the way of the liberalization of theology and the 
 exaltation of piety and faith. At the conclusion of his remarks, Justice 
 Miller called upon Hon. George B. Loring, who eloquently discoursed of 
 the career and character of Dr. Channing as a man, thinker, and Chris- 
 tian reformer, showing the surroundings through which Channing en- 
 tered his work, exhibiting the condition of civil and rehgious thought in 
 New England, how there were difficulties which the great soul had to 
 overcome, how grandly he overcame them, and became a leader in a new 
 era of thought and culture in religion, social affairs, and literature in 
 America. Dr. Loring's address was a broad, scholarly, masterful picture 
 of the early growth of the American republic, with Dr. Ciianning se. 
 lected as a central figure and shaping actor. Dr. Loring was followed 
 by Hon. Horace Davis, of San Francisco, who, in touching words, told 
 of the personal debt he owes to the influence of Dr. Channing at a time 
 when he greatly needed the help only Dr. Channing's faith and hope 
 seemed able to give. 
 
 Hon. Fred. Douglass was exj^ected at this point to round out the 
 evening's tribute by treating of Clianning's memorable work as a philan- 
 thropist ; but, unfortunately, Mr. Douglass was detained from the meet-
 
 3JO CllANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 ing. In order that there might not be an omission of this phase of 
 Channing's many-sided service to mankind, Rev. Clay MacCauley made 
 a short address on Dr. Channing's anti-slavery labors, referring also to 
 the one principle which guided the great man's life, — his faith in the es- 
 sential dignity of human nature, which faith lay back of his many efforts 
 to ameliorate the condition of all the down-trodden and unfortunate mem- 
 bers of human society. Mr. Robert Purvis added a few words to Mr. 
 MacCauley's remarks. Justice Miller, then, with some happily chosen 
 thoughts, brought the meeting to a close, reminding the audience of the 
 fact that all over the world men were then honoring not a warrior, but 
 a man of peace ; not a hero of State or commune, but a leader of relig- 
 ious faith and aspiration. With a benediction by Rev. A. Kent, of this 
 city, this interesting and instructive meeting closed. 
 
 On a following Sunday, the Rev. Clay MacCauley deliv- 
 ered a di-scoiirse upon " Channing's Place in American 
 Religious History," of which the Republican said: — 
 
 All-Souls Church was filled yesterday by an interested audience, gath- 
 ered to hear Mr. MacCauley's discourse upon "Dr. Channing : his Place 
 in American Religious History." In honor of the day, there was a 
 special floral decoration of the arches back of the pulpit. In the two 
 side arches were wrought in immortelles the year of Dr. Channing's 
 birth, " 1780," and the present year, " 1880"; while in the central arch, 
 in the same kind of flowers, appeared the name " Channing." Over all 
 was a beautiful white star. 
 
 Mr. MacCauley's discourse was an elaborate analysis of Dr. Chan- 
 ning's character, thought, labors, and influence in the religious develop- 
 ment of our country. He traced the great preacher's career, from his 
 childhood to old age, showing how the remarkable character developed, 
 — as the child, in a serene home, responding to the light breaking 
 through the gloom of the ancestral faith ; as the college student, 
 ennobled, in spite of his surroundings, by a growing self-respect and 
 his new-found faith in the dignity of human nature ; as the lowly tutor at 
 Richmond, Va., struggling through some decisive inner experience; as 
 the preacher of the Federal Street Church, Boston ; as a leader in the 
 Unitarian controversy, and at last as the great-souled ajiostle of the 
 Church of Christ, beyond all sectarian bounds. Mr. MacCauley then 
 made a minute exposition of what was peculiar in Channing's theology, 
 and showed how his beliefs surely and steadily grew with his years, in 
 breadth and strength, and were the outcome of a constantly increasing
 
 CELEBRATION AT WASHINGTON. 32/ 
 
 freedom of thought. Channing was indeed free among the free. " To 
 vindicate the rights of mind, to save the churches from spiritual despot- 
 ism, Channing claimed, had been nearer his heart than to secure a tri- 
 umph for any distinguishing doctrines." The importance of Channing 
 in the development of religious thought in this country comes from his 
 successful moral protest against Calvinism, the example he gave of the 
 personal moral dignity possible among men, and of the consideration 
 they can show to an ideal welfare for mankind. " Prophet of the dignity 
 of human nature though he was, hero of the struggle in New England 
 for the liberation of mind from the ecclesiastical thraldom, and leader 
 though he was to the discovery of some of the most inspiring truths we 
 now possess, above these," said Mr. MacCauley, " we behold, sublime 
 in moral grandeur and radiant with love for man, a love that sought to 
 make real among men his ideal of a divine humanity." The services 
 closed with the singing of the following memorial hymn, prepared for 
 the day by the pastor of the church. 
 
 CHANNING. 
 
 Eternal Being! Source of all, and Lord! 
 
 Humbly we bow beneath thy sovereign sway : 
 Both joy and woe, at thy resistless word, 
 
 Brighten and cloud each creature's fleeting day. 
 
 But not to us, O God, is now this faith 
 
 Fra-ught with the doubt and fear our fathers saw : 
 
 We follow one, who, from thy Spirit's breath. 
 
 Caught the glad message, Love works through thy Law. 
 
 He, like thy Christ, thy name, the Father, found ; 
 
 He, like thy Christ, in man thy child discerned ; 
 Wide as the world, he saw thy grace abound, — 
 
 Saw, and to men with eager spirit turned. 
 
 Prophet of grace, of human dignity ; 
 
 Truth's bold evangel ; foe to every wrong ; 
 Brave by thy might to set the bondman free ; 
 
 Girt with a jxnver to make the freeman strong I 
 
 Father, may we, with like devoted zeal, 
 Live for the faith that Law Divine is just; 
 
 Strive for the life that aims at human weal ; 
 Hasten Christ's day of perfect love and trust.
 
 THE CKLEBRATION AT ANN ARBOR, MICH. 
 
 From the Argus of April i6, we condense the following 
 report : — 
 
 The Unitarian church was crowded on Sunday evening 
 by people who came to listen to the exercises of the occa- 
 sion. The altar was tastily adorned with flowers. After 
 prayer, singing, and the reading of an extract from Chan- 
 ning, the Rev. J. T. Sunderland gave a brief biographical 
 description of the eminent divine. Several letters from 
 distinguished Unitarians, among the number one from Rev. 
 Mr. Collyer, of New York, were read. Mr. Simderland then 
 called upon Judge Harriman, who spoke of " Channing as a 
 Teacher of Religion versus Theology," 
 
 JUDaE HAERIMAN'S ADDEESS, 
 
 We people of Ann Arbor are not peculiar or alone in 
 celebrating, as we do to-night, the one hundredth anniver- 
 sary of the birth of William Ellery Channing. In many 
 towns and cities and villages, all across this broad continent 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the event is commemorated 
 as well as here. The fame of this modest and unassuming 
 man has crossed the sea ; and this centenary is celebrated in 
 England, in France, in Italy, — in Florence, honored and
 
 CELEBRATION AT ANN ARBOR. 329 
 
 consecrated by the grave of the heroic Parker, — in Hungary, 
 in Asia Minor, on the southern slopes of the Himalaya, by 
 Buddhist and Theist and Brahmin on the great plains of 
 India. So that to-day the praises of Channing are spoken 
 in twenty tongues "from the Orient to the drooping West." 
 And it is probable that the moral and intellectual influence 
 of his teaching and character is greater than that of any 
 other American. 
 
 Yet Channing was not a man of extraordinary genius. 
 He was not a great scholar. His literary style, pure and 
 crisp as it was, was not the best that our country has pro- 
 duced. He had none of those adventitious aids secured 
 by great wealth or official position. He possessed delicate 
 physical health. He was sensitive, retiring, and unassum- 
 ing, without confidence in himself, and utterly lacking in 
 " push " of character, or will. 
 
 What, then, was the secret of his large fame and influ- 
 ence.'' In my opinion, it is explained by the simple fact 
 that, like Jesus of Nazareth, he was a teacher of natural 
 religion in its highest sense, and, like Jesus of Nazareth, 7iot 
 a teacher of theology in any sense. 
 
 Do you suppose we should be celebrating the hundredth 
 anniversary of Channing to-night, if he had been the apostle 
 of some narrow creed, or if he had been the champion of 
 some metaphysical dogma of no interest or value to man- 
 kind .-* Who commemorates the birthday of Jonathan Ed- 
 wards or Stephen Hopkins } Where is the antiquarian who 
 can tell us the names of the men who wrote the " Saybrook 
 Platform," or the "Proceedings of the Council of Uort," or 
 the "Thirty-nine Articles," or the "Westminster Cate- 
 chism " .'' These were theologians all, notorious in their day ; 
 but mankind has allowed their names to fade into oblivion. 
 But in the city of London, almost in sight of the spot where 
 two hundred and forty years ago the politicians and the clergy
 
 330 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 of lCni;"laiul ami Scotland met to frame the " Westminster 
 Confession of Faith," there has been laid, this very week, the 
 foumlation of a church dedicated to the memory of Channing, 
 a man who has done so much to break the influence of that 
 Confession. And hard by, in the great Abbey, unawed by 
 the dust or opinions of England's most illustrious dead, 
 Dean Stanley, Sunday after Sunday, reiterates the teach- 
 ings of Channing, this unassuming plebeian from over 
 the sea. 
 
 It seems to me that there is a confusion of ideas, in some 
 minds, as to the relation of religion and tJieology. The opin- 
 ion seems to prevail that these words stand for one and the 
 same thing, — that they are inseparably connected, counter- 
 parts of each other. The truth is they stand for entirely 
 different things. The truth is that reason, logical analysis, 
 and history prove them to be the deadly enemies of each other. 
 The truth is they bear no more relation to each other 
 than the light of the little fire-fiy that flits before the vision 
 on a summer's eve bears to the light of the eternal star that 
 stands sentinel far out on the frontiers of creation. Religion 
 makes people love one another, and so binds them together 
 in the bonds of brotherhood and peace. Theology makes 
 people hate one another, and so divides them into hostile 
 and warring factions and sects. Religion is the beautiful 
 goddess descending from the skies, clothed in robes of inno- 
 cence and charity and purity and truth. TJieology is the 
 scowling and wrinkled Titan that comes up from the mud. 
 Theology is the dry and worthless chaff which shrinks and 
 shrivels and starves the soul. Religion is the clean golden 
 wheat from which we may all of us, if we will, obtain the 
 very "bread of life." Surv^ey the history of the world, and 
 behold the black and bloody devastation following in the 
 track of wars caused by theological dogmas and quibbles ! 
 We are almost justified in denouncing theology as an enemy
 
 CELEBRATION AT ANN ARBOR. 33 1 
 
 of the human race. With an arrogant and a superciHoiis air, 
 it has seized infant science by the throat and attempted to 
 strangle it ; with satanic impudence, it has seized divine 
 reason by the throat and attempted to strangle it ; with 
 heartless and unparalleled tyranny, it has strangled civil and 
 political liberty whenever and wherever it had the power. I 
 have sometimes thought that the great tragic poet of Greece 
 looked forward into the centuries, and with an inspired pre- 
 science saw the crimes and cruelties engendered by theologi- 
 cal hate, and personified them, when he described those 
 strange and loathsome creatures, drippnig with gore, who 
 crouched at midnight in mockery of worship around the altar 
 of the Eumenides. Channing clearly saw the distinction 
 between the religion which ^ is natural, eternal, and divine, 
 and the theology which is unnatural, temporary, and human. 
 Like his divine Master, he taught a religion which does not 
 have its origin in any book, which is broader than any creed 
 or race, older than any church, a religion which finds a natu- 
 ral and spontaneous response in every human heart. Herein 
 is the secret of his fame and influence. He taught men the 
 inestimable value of character and conduct. He taught men 
 that there is no spiritual salvation in this life or in any other 
 life, worth anything, except salvation from sin, and that the 
 only way to be saved from sin is to stop sinning. He taught 
 men the inspired and inspiring truth that, if they would live 
 pure, upright, and honorable lives, they would have the "king- 
 dom of heaven in their hearts." He taught that all man- 
 kind everywhere were his brothers and chiklren, equally 
 dear to the same heavenly I'^athcr. So all mankind every- 
 where, who have learned his character, revere his memory 
 with a fraternal gratitude. 
 
 The Catholic Church cherishes with a pious enthusiasm 
 the n^emory of Thomas a Kempis, who wrote the liiiitatioii 
 of Christ. Without fear, we may place alongside this great
 
 332 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Catholic writer of the Middle Ages our Charming of the 
 nineteenth century, who lived thQ "Imitation of Christ"; and 
 when we think of his pure, unselfish, and noble life, devoted 
 to " doing good," and to the improvement and elevation of 
 his fellow-men, we feel justified in applying to him those 
 words which the breezes of Galilee bore upon their rejoicing 
 wings eighteen centuries ago : " Blessed are the pure in heart, 
 for they shall see God." " Bessed are the peacemakers, 
 for they shall be called the children of God." "Blessed 
 are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 
 And when we consider the circumstances of his ministry, 
 which we will not repeat, we may apply to him that other 
 beatitude : " Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and 
 persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely 
 for my sake." 
 
 We shall none of us see the second centenary of Chan- 
 ning ; but the millions who will then swarm upon the earth 
 will see the divine religion which Jesus and Channing taught, 
 glorified by twenty centuries of struggle and trial, and invin- 
 cibly armed at last by reason in her right hand and science in 
 her left, going forth conquering and to conquer, banishing 
 ignorance, bigotry, and superstition from the earth, and 
 elevating, ennobling, blessing mankind. 
 
 Addresses were also made by Prof. T. P. Wilson, Mr. 
 Anthony Reynolds, Prof. B. C. Burt, Prof. Donald McLean, 
 Judge Cooley, and Prof. V. C. Vaughan. Several of these 
 addresses were quite fully reported in the Ann Arbor Argus 
 of April 17, which also contained a poem by George Newell 
 Lovejoy, received too late to be read at the meeting.
 
 THE CELEBRATION AT MADISON, WIS. 
 
 The one-hundredth birthday of Dr. William Ellery Chan- 
 ning, the father of modern Unitarianisra in America, was 
 celebrated at Madison, in the Jewish synagogue, by the 
 Unitarian Society of this city. Addresses were read by 
 Rev. H. M. Simmons and Prof. W. H. Allen, and remarks 
 made by Prof. D. B. Frankenberger, Hon. H. H. Giles, and 
 Rev. W. E. Wright. The exercises were of an exceed- 
 ingly interesting character. The attendance was not large ; 
 but the company was principally made up from the literary 
 and educational circles of the city, and entered with marked 
 spirit into the very interesting proceedings, which consisted 
 of music, essays, and impromptu remarks of a character 
 appropriate to the occasion. 
 
 The music, consisting of a vocal quintette, — Mrs. DeMoe, 
 Misses Giles and Norton, and Messrs. Perkins and Wright, 
 — was a prominent and highly creditable feature. 
 
 The pulpit was profusely decorated with foliage and flow- 
 ering plants, and appropriate mottoes and designs in ever- 
 green adorned the wall. 
 
 The exercises were commenced at 7.45 o'clock, by Rev. 
 H. M. Simmons, pastor of the Unitarian congregation, who 
 spoke substantially as follows : — 
 
 One hundred years ago to-day, William Ellery Channing
 
 334 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 was born in Newport, R.I. It was a day when human 
 ri<;hts were little regarded in our country, even though the 
 "Declaration of Independence" had just been proclaimed, 
 and the Revolutionary War was in progress. African sla- 
 very was allowed, and seldom rebuked ; harshness and in- 
 humanity in many forms prevailed. The religious freedom 
 which the Pilgrims came to establish was anything but free. 
 New England still had its Established Church, which de- 
 manded ta.xes from all and governed all. Still less free and 
 humane was its theology. Total depravity and eternal dam- 
 nation were taught in nearly every pulpit, and nearly every 
 Sunday. Right there in Newport, when and where Chan- 
 ning was born, Samuel Hopkins was preaching his stern 
 doctrines that man is, by riature, wholly bad ; that his very 
 efforts after virtue deserve the divine wrath, and only in- 
 crease his guilt and condemnation ; that he cannot be saved, 
 until totally converted, and willing to be damned. This 
 gloomy "Hopkinsian Calvinism," as it was called after him, 
 was the prevalent theology of New England. 
 
 What a change the century has seen ! Slavery has been 
 overthrown ; humaner feelings everywhere prevail ; men to- 
 day worship where and how they will ; of that theology but 
 a faint echo is heard in the most orthodox pulpit ; and, in 
 nearly all churches, that religion of tyranny and terror has 
 given way to the gospel of liberty and love. In this eman- 
 cipation, Channing has been a conspicuous worker, and 
 often a leader. He has been indeed only one among many 
 workers in many ways ; but, as William C. Gannett says, 
 "it may be doubted if any one has done more to bring 
 freedom into the faith and keep faith amid the freedom." 
 So that all true lovers of liberty are glad to honor him 
 to-day. 
 
 Reading his life to-day,, we almost wonder whence this 
 power was. We find few striking incidents, — one long pas-
 
 CELEBRATION AT MADISON. 335 
 
 torate of thirty-nine years in Boston, varied with public 
 addresses and Hterary work. Physically, frail, weak, small, 
 — "As I knew him," says Dr. Bartol, "scarcely more than a 
 hundred pounds of flesh clothed and served in him the 
 informing soul." His speech seldom, if ever, rose to impas- 
 sioned eloquence ; though his marvellous voice, sending its 
 gentlest whispers into the furthest corners, — called by Emer- 
 son one of the three most eloquent he has heard, reading 
 into Scriptures and hymns " more than I could afterward 
 find there," — always hushed an audience. His style was 
 neither brilliant nor incisive, though wonderfully clear and 
 luminous. He was not famous for large learning nor pro- 
 found thought. He avoided controversy ; and though the 
 acknowledged leader of the Unitarians for twenty years, and 
 sometimes taking the occasion to define and defend Unita- 
 rianism, he generally kept to the common themes of life, 
 practical and spiritual. He was ever calm and rather con- 
 servative, and in the new movement of thought, just at the 
 close of his life, did not quite keep step with Emerson, Rip- 
 ley, and Parker. We almost wonder at his power. Vet it 
 was there. He had a rare honesty and sincerity of thought 
 and statement, "a lofty seriousness and spirituality; so that, 
 with his weak body and unadorned speech, he could yet, as 
 Dr. Hedge said, from the spiritual height on which he stood, 
 by mere dint of gravity' {coming from such an clevatioii), 
 send his word into the soul with more searching force than 
 all the orators of his time. So his pulpit became the 
 attractive one in Boston ; the voice from that frail body 
 echoed through all New England ; his words have spread 
 through most of the languages of Europe, and are circu- 
 lated there even more widely than in America ; and, of our 
 English edition, fifty thousand coi^ies are said to have been 
 sold, while the sale of the centennial edition, just published, 
 is expected to reach one hundred thousand. Nor have his
 
 33''' CHANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 words failed to bear fruit. All admit to-day his influence in 
 the cause of temperance and anti-slavery. Those humaner 
 doctrines of religion he preached have softened theology 
 throughout the land ; his thoughts have become common- 
 place in the liberal pulpits, and are heard in all the great 
 orthodox pulpits. And though he did not share that new 
 movement of thought, which began in the last years of his 
 life, still that idea which he said was the central one of 
 his religion — the greatness and divinity of the soul — has 
 been the inspiring one of Parker and Emerson, and of the 
 highest religious thought since. 
 
 I notice that this April 7th is rich in the number and 
 variety of the great men it has produced. To-day is also 
 the birthday of Xavier, Wordsworth, Fourier, and Rubini. 
 But Channing's heart was warmed with a devotion as deep 
 as Xavier's ; Channing, though no poet, still as much as 
 Wordsworth, loved nature both in the sea and the soul ; 
 Channing wrought for social reform more truly than Fou- 
 rier; and Channing's life, so attuned to reverence and 
 charity, was a song richer and sweeter than Rubini's tenor. 
 I am glad so many people in Madison have met to honor 
 him. I am glad we have met in this Jewish synagogue. 
 For no American more than Channing has reasserted that 
 doctrine of the unity of God, which Jewish writers, both of 
 the Old Testament and the New, declared ; and no Ameri- 
 can preacher more than he has shown that charity which 
 should bind Jews and Christians in one religion. 
 
 Prof. W. F. Allen, being then announced, spoke at some 
 length concerning the work of Dr. Channing in influencing 
 the old creeds and in preparing the path for modern free 
 religious thought. He said, in conclusion : — 
 
 Channing's theology may be summed up into three w^ords, 
 which we have placed upon our walls : Faith, as the founda- 
 tion of all ; Reason^ as a method of inquiry ; Righteottsness,
 
 CELEBRATION AT MADISON. 337 
 
 as the chief object of effort. The whole summed up is 
 Unity, the fellowship of all who have faith in right, and are 
 willing to work for the advancement of righteousness. 
 
 The movement toward Unity, which is so marked a feat- 
 ure of the present day, belongs in large part, no doubt, to a 
 general movement of the age. Mankind has outgrown the 
 old intolerance and exclusiveness ; and, if Channing had not 
 proclaimed this gospel, no doubt somebody else would have 
 proclaimed it. But this does not lessen the debt we owe to 
 Channing. It might with equal truth be said that, if Luther 
 had not lived, still the Reformation would have come in due 
 season. We are grateful to the men through whom it did 
 come. And to illustrate how completely Channing's agency 
 in this work is recognized outside of the denomination, and 
 even of Protestantism, I will read some extracts from a 
 work by a French Catholic, a writer who absolutely rejects 
 Channing's theology, and even hesitates to call him a Chris- 
 tian, but who has written a volume of nearly three hundred 
 pages to make him known to his countrymen, in the hope 
 that a strong influence for good may be exercised where it 
 is so much needed. " How can we help," he says, " wishing 
 that France may have another Channing, as radically relig- 
 ious, as sincere a friend of progress, as tolerant, as good a 
 patriot, as free from party spirit, as devoted to the interests 
 of the working class, as determined to improve its moral 
 and material condition } How can we help wishing that wc 
 were ourselves working to understand his language and 
 follow his counsels } . . . The author of these lines would 
 believe himself abundantly rewarded for his labor if, by 
 placing in a clear light the great qualities of the celebrated 
 American moralist, he could aid in some degree to allay the 
 political and social hatreds which threaten to devour France 
 and modern society." 
 
 Again: " Such words prove by themselves the beauty of 
 
 23
 
 3^8 CIIANNMNG CKNTKNARY. 
 
 Channing's soul, and the fervor of his faith. I cannot forget 
 all that separates him from the Catholic faith, all that he 
 lacks to have a right to the title of Christian ; but, u^hatever 
 may be, in this regard, my differences from him, God forbid 
 that I should ever see anything but a brother, a spiritual 
 friend, and a Nestor in the Unitarian minister who traced 
 these admirable lines. 
 
 " He may not be a Christian by belief : he is already one 
 by spirit and by sentiment ; and we cannot forget what he 
 constantly reminds us of, — that a Christian, according to the 
 gospel, worships in spirit and in truth. Moreover, we do not 
 live at a time in which it is possible to make an issue on 
 such an article of the creed. We have to do, at the present 
 time, -with something very different. An ardent, stubborn 
 contest, of unequalled violence and ability, has been excited 
 against the very innermost idea of all religion and philos- 
 ophy. God himself is attacked and denied. In the pres- 
 ence of such a danger, it is a positive duty to suspend all 
 purely theological debate, and confront the common enemy. 
 In the face of the destroyers of all morality, all society, all 
 science, all philosophy, all consolation here below, all hope 
 beyond the tomb, divisions must, if not disappear, at least be 
 softened down." 
 
 Prof. D. B. Frankenberger, being called upon, spoke of the 
 different manner in which birthdays were celebrated, say- 
 ing that appropriateness should always be observed. Upon 
 the anniversary of the birth of the nation, we indulge in 
 rockets and smoke and powder; upon Washington's birth- 
 day, we have flaunting flags, parading troops, and military 
 insignia everywhere prevalent, to remind us of the warlike 
 grandeur of the Father of the Republic ; but, when we cel- 
 ebrate the birth of a great moral hero, like Channing, 
 flowers and songs and music and literary communion are 
 appropriate. Channing was the power which rendered mod-
 
 CELEBRATION AT MADISON. 339 
 
 ern liberalism possible. He was not an ultra thinker: he 
 preached what might be termed orthodox Congregationalism 
 to-day ; but he was as much in advance of the faith of his 
 day as is now the most ultra thinker in advance of present 
 orthodoxy. Because Channing was not as advanced as are 
 the Unitarians now is no reason why he* should not be up- 
 held as a prophet of advanced religious freedom ; for he 
 thought for himself, and led others out of spiritual bondage, 
 even if he did not lead them so very far away, at a time 
 when advance in such matters meant the loss of popularity, 
 the hatred of the average Christian. Channing's power lay 
 in his spirituality. He moved by the force of bis character, 
 the power of his soul. As it was fabled that the hunter, by 
 dipping his bullet in his own blood, could never fail of hitting 
 his game, so did Channing drive home the charmed bullet of 
 truth to every heart, — he was so alive with his subject, his 
 argumentative missile was so steeped in his own heart-blood, 
 so much a part of his own soul. He broke loose from the 
 cumbersome restrictions of creed; he wanted no heaven 
 made with hands ; he sought the open air and universal 
 sunlight. 
 
 His power was in his honesty of intellect, in his idea of 
 the dignity of human intellect. To-day there is no vice so 
 prevalent as dishonesty in matters of belief, — as, in all tran- 
 sition periods, men are always trying to get under some 
 particular banner that shall lead them to victory. But 
 Channing was a man who stepped out and from under, not 
 wanting to be trammelled ; and, for his honesty and inde- 
 pendence, he became unpopular, almost hated by the secta- 
 rians. 
 
 Prof. Frankenberger said that he did not know whether 
 a second Channing centennial would be celebrated or not. 
 But he thought that the general truths asserted by Chan- 
 ning would become universal, those common to our Iniman-
 
 340 CHANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 ity will live and cluster around his name. Channing's works 
 are translated into nearly every tongue, and are every- 
 where having their influence. Each germ once planted 
 cannot be uprooted, and the time will come when tlie re- 
 freshing shade of the princi})les of man's brotherhood and 
 God's fatherhood will be sought by all men. It matters 
 little whether Channing's name be associated with it : the 
 truth will remain, and forever grow. 
 
 Rev. W. E. Wright succeeded Prof. Frankenberger. Mr. 
 Wright suggested that perhaps the place of Channing's birth 
 — by the seashore, in sight of the great, broad ocean — 
 might have had some influence in shaping the character of 
 the great leader, some tendency to awaken in him the pro- 
 phetic mind. His theme was the fatherhood of God and 
 the brotherhood of man ; and he preached upon it with 
 unabated enthusiasm. He was a great man, a grand soul : 
 this was the secret of his power to move men. His influ- 
 ence was wide-spread, and growing, and Mr. Wright called 
 especial attention to the fact that, even in far-off India, his 
 works were translated into the native tongue, and read with 
 keen interest. 
 
 Hon. H. H. Giles was the last speaker of the evening. 
 Mr. Giles had some recollection, he said, of those early 
 times when Channing was alive and about his great work. 
 In those days, the great leader was held up as a very dan- 
 gerous man, whose teachings uprooted all kinds of religious 
 faith. Yet to-day Channing's doctrines, with one or two 
 exceptions, constitute the very platform of the liberal ortho- 
 dox churches. In spite of the bitter attacks made upon him 
 by the Puritan pulpits of forty years ago, very few orthodox 
 preachers of this day would venture to controvert the posi- 
 tions then assumed by Channing. He stood, a half century 
 ago, as the representative of intellectual freedom : he was 
 the father of advanced thought in America. And that
 
 CELEBRATION AT MADISON, , 34I 
 
 freedom is to-day acknowledged all over Christendom, in 
 every creed ; and that thought has become the accepted 
 doctrine of to-day. Mr. Simmons read an anecdote illus- 
 trating the precocity of Channing, and then, after music by 
 the choir, — which had also interspersed the proceedings, — 
 declared the memorial exercises at an end.
 
 TlIK CELEBRATION AT CINCINNATI. 
 
 Two great meetings were held in Cincinnati on Sunday, 
 April 4, the Unitarian and Univcrsalist congregations crowd- 
 ing the Unitarian Church (Rev. C. W. Wendte's) in the 
 morning, and the Universalist Church (Rev. J. H. Hart- 
 ley's) in the evening. The former was richly decorated 
 with flowers, the two pastors sharing the exercises. After 
 music and a reading from Channing, Mr. Wendte told 
 briefly the story of Dr. Channing's life, after which the peo- 
 ple heard with delight a discourse by Rev. William R. Alger, 
 of which the Covnnercial gave the following outline : — 
 
 By celebrating the memory of great men, their spiritual 
 presence is kept alive. How much of that knowledge and 
 thought, of that sentiment and sympathy, which constitute 
 the costlier parts of an acquired experience, is bestowed by 
 gifted men who were the pioneers, instructors, refiners, and 
 ordainers of their times ! What would induce the people 
 of Switzerland to have William Tell removed from their 
 annals, and the spots his deeds immortalized taken from 
 their soil ^ Is not the verdure of spring greener, the rose 
 more beautiful, the warble of birds more delicious, because 
 the poets have gazed and worshipped, and passed them 
 through their hearts .-' Is not Thermopylae a beacon-fire, 
 blazing courage and exultation through the wide night of 
 time, because there Leonidas and his three hundred threw 
 themselves into the sea of Persians that Sparta might be
 
 CELEBRATION AT CINCINNATI. 343 
 
 saved? What an incalculable loss from our inner wealth 
 would we experience, what a blank left in our souls, if all 
 the starry names now studding the mental firmament were 
 struck away, all the inspiring instructions of departed genius 
 banished ! 
 
 To appreciate the exalted traits of great men is to show by 
 this recognition that kindred elements are in us. There is 
 naturally a gradation of the spiritual scale of qualities. It is 
 a duty for everything below to pay homage to everything 
 above itself. That variously modified hero-worship which 
 has followed man to every nook and isle is the gratification 
 of this natural instinct. 
 
 Handing down with faith, appreciation, and eulogy the 
 histories of men of distinguished deserts, kindles in us the 
 noblest aspirations after excellence. 
 
 But as a most important use of a true commemoration 
 with the spirits and histories, with the greatest and the 
 best of our race, the chief justification for paying them the 
 homage of public honors and fresh appreciation is that 
 we thus lift up before the community higher ideals for 
 popular adoration to fasten on and for popular ambition 
 to copy. There is no educational or moral force in society 
 so effective as the ideals chosen, in constant contemplation, 
 to direct the energies of other aspirants. That which any 
 strong and earnest person most admires in another marks 
 what he most desires to be in himself. The superior whom 
 we worship guides and influences and moulds our characters 
 more than any other single free power. The vulgar ideals 
 which allure and govern the common crowd of men are the 
 conspicuous examples of success in those rules of selfishness, 
 social prominence, wealth, luxury, power, honor, which are 
 the strong average ambitions. These scarcely need to be 
 multiplied or strengthened. 
 
 But when, after a hundred years are gone, the character
 
 344 ClIANNING CKNTENARY. 
 
 and the examiile of a jmre and noble man still shine out con- 
 spicuously, and he is remembered with a loving regard, as one 
 who represented the grandest type of humanity, — a lawyer 
 who strove for justice more than success ; a statesman who 
 subordinated self and party to country, and country to man- 
 kind ; an orator or a philosopher who cultivated his gifts, 
 not as a means of shining and feeding his vanity, but to fit 
 himself to be an instrument of God in doing good ; a man 
 who lived supremely to acquire truth and diffuse benefi- 
 cence, — then when the people come spontaneously forward 
 to crown his memory with fame and praise, they give the 
 sanction of public opinion to the divine ideals of life. They 
 give to that ideal a new charm and intensity of appeal. 
 They clothe it with a more inspiring fascination to draw 
 disciples and imitators. 
 
 As a rule, it is out of the actuals of eminent conquerors or 
 heroes that common men make their ideals ; and it is thus 
 that the vice and crime of the hostile struggle of society are 
 prolonged. Oh, if the divine ideals could be popularized as 
 the genuine inspiration and desire of the whole world ! 
 
 The final ideal will not be made up of the actuals of any : 
 it will arise from a consensus of the true insights and aspi- 
 rations of all harmonized and perfected criticism. 
 
 In order really to gain from the great men of the past the 
 divine uses which they are meant to bestow, we must not be 
 content blindly to worship them, and mechanically repeat the 
 formulas they have bequeathed. We must personally study 
 to get at the secrets of their greatness, and apply the same 
 principles and methods to ourselves. All-important as this 
 truth is, it is not commonly practised. The degradation and 
 bane of the average multitude is their gregarious conformity 
 to what is established, their slavish and unthinking routine. 
 Every great man shatters this dead crust of custom, spurns 
 this ignominious yoke of authority, and with audacious orig-
 
 CELEBRATION AT CINCINNATI. 345 
 
 inality employs his own faculties to lead a fresh, free life of 
 his own under the spirit of God. This, in every instance, is 
 the dynamic lesson of their inspiration to every one who 
 would emulate their glory. Only one in a million appears 
 capable of learning this lesson. All the rest either gaze in 
 stupid wonder without a thought of attempting to become 
 like them, or else are subdued into mechanical disciples, 
 mumbling ritualistic repetitions of words and forms, instead 
 of reproducing in endless variety the living genius of the 
 Master. 
 
 A large congregation of the two societies filled the First 
 Universalist Church in the evening. Mr. Hartley read selec- 
 tions from Dr. Channing's writings. Rev. C. W. Wendte, 
 in his remarks on the "Brotherhood of Man," recalled how 
 great as a philanthropist was Channing ; that, above all 
 things, he was the Friend, in a high sense of the word. He 
 was interested in temperance work. He took an active inter- 
 est in prisoners, and in pointing them to hopes of personal 
 regeneration of character. We should take Channing's life 
 into our own, and be moved by the many high motives, that 
 when men went to the polls to vote to-morrow they should 
 vote from principle, and strive to put good, honest, pure men 
 into office. 
 
 Rev. W. R. Alger spoke of the dignity of human nature 
 in remarks characterized by his fine insight and profound 
 thought. 
 
 Rev. J. H. Hartley felt it a matter of congratulation that 
 these two bo"dies of Christians should thus unite, that it had 
 been to him a very happy Sunday, and before another Chan- 
 ning centennial should have come he ho[)ed many Christian 
 bodies would thus be united. 
 
 The exercises were gratifying to both congregations, and 
 there will not soon be forgotten the Sunday celebration in 
 this memorial service of Channin<r.
 
 TIIK CELKBRATIOX AT SAX FRANCISCO. 
 
 At the Unitarian Church, the Rev. Dr. Horatio Stebbins 
 delivered the following discourse: — 
 
 It matters little where a man whose thought and spirit are 
 as universal as humanity was born, or by what particular 
 earthly circumstances he was surrounded. His being is 
 chiefly unfolded from within, and not from without; and, 
 according to his moral and spiritual greatness, the breadth 
 and universality of his symj^athies, his earthly accidents are 
 unimportant — the vanishings and fallings-off of mortal his- 
 tory. The point at which our interest culminates is in the 
 relation he sustained to the mind of his period, and to those 
 great human and divine principles that pervade all periods. 
 
 Channing was born twenty-two years after the death of 
 Jonathan Edwards, that Coryphaeus of American Calvinism, 
 who had written himself upon the theologic mind of the 
 country in its prerevolutionary period. It was amid the 
 noise and tumult and fortitude and despair 6f a political 
 revolution, — a new impulse of the Protestant Reformation 
 in the New World, carried on through seven years of fluct- 
 uating fortunes of war. It was a period of transition, when 
 the principles of the sixteenth century were beginning to be 
 darkly felt in the blood of men here on this oldest of the
 
 CELEBRATION AT SAN FRANCISCO. 347 
 
 continents, which Providence had reserved to be the field of 
 the newest liberty. Channing was born into a new age, — 
 an age in which civil and religious liberty were to take a 
 new form and a new spirit. No true idea of his place, his 
 character, his influence, can be got without recognizing this 
 great fact of time and Providence. No man makes an age 
 or a period. No solitary effort avails anything. Intellectual 
 and moral gravitation must be with it, — the time, the now. 
 It is said, "The time finds the man." Doubtless, that is 
 true, if the man is there. If we mean by "the time" any 
 particular period of human stress or need, when guidance is 
 the instant demand, or " the common soul" needs a voice, 
 there are many "times" that do not find the man. And it 
 may not be the man's fault, inasmuch as he cannot see. To 
 appreciate what is near, to see that now is the great day, the 
 day of salvation, is the peculiar gift of a few rare spirits, to 
 whom the light of truth is not refracted by distance. To 
 ordinary minds there is nothing great that is not remote. 
 " Is not this the carpenter's son .? " The individual soul 
 that feels and knows that powers of truth are coming forth 
 and maturing in him which shall voice the common heart 
 and mind when the common heart and mind are awakened, 
 that sees the first tokens of a new day upon the mountains 
 of its own spirit, and heralds the coming light, — that is the 
 inspired genius, that is awakened not by noise without, but 
 by whispers within ; and, while tlie time finds him, he finds 
 the time also, and unconscious, it may be, of his own great- 
 ness, speaks for the future when he utters the simple con- 
 victions of his own spirit; Channing's experience, his con- 
 victions, his opinions, his aspirations, were a growth. They 
 were the result of the workings of a genius, imbued with in- 
 tellectual and moral light and love, upon the materials which 
 Providence provides for such a being. He discerned the 
 good, the best; and his being increased by that which nour-
 
 34^ CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 ishod it. Ills mind did not wear the cap of liberty; but 
 his soul was imbued with the spirit of it, and he conceived 
 truth to be the only freedom. He avoided things not true 
 by a sure instinct of his moral nature, as domestic animals 
 in the pasture avoid poisonous grasses. He did not re- 
 nounce Calvinism, but went by it, and was as free from it 
 as if he had lived in the second century or been a fisher- 
 man on the sea of Galilee. He discerned and appreciated 
 the good there was in it, and loved and honored the good 
 men that were reared in it ; but he saw from the rectitude 
 of his own moral nature the fundamental fallacy of it as a 
 way of thinking about man and God and destiny. Thus, at 
 the start, we have an important element of his greatness and 
 power. He thought and wrote and spoke from his own ex- 
 perience and from the level of his own mind. There is 
 nothing so mighty on earth as the individual soul filled 
 with the spirit of truth and completely thorough in its 
 inward life and thought. 
 
 In Tennyson's drama of Queen Mary, he makes one of his 
 characters say, — 
 
 " Yet thoroughly to believe in one's own self, 
 So one's own self be thorough, were to do 
 Great things, my Lord." 
 
 That defines and contains all the moral grandeur of indi- 
 vidual being, and is the secret of that personal greatness 
 through which the world receives its chief inspirations. It 
 was the secret of Christ's self-possessed soul, and by it he 
 said, "I am the truth," Of this greatness, Channing was a 
 conspicuous example. He felt the power of truth within, 
 and felt his being move in the rhythm of divine law and 
 love, and thoroughly believed in himself because himself was 
 thorough. Thus the new age of spiritual liberty and human- 
 ity had its best exponent in him. Thus the time found him
 
 CELEBRATION AT SAN FRANCISCO. 349 
 
 When we read the accounts of those who saw and heard 
 him, who were capable of interpreting the occasion and 
 describing the subtle influences that produced such moral 
 effects on those fitted to receive them, we are inclined at first 
 to say that these are the qualities of the living person, — 
 his material presence, his voice, his countenance, his eye, — 
 and his name and influence are the name and influence of a 
 popular orator, that time obliterates with remorseless hand ; 
 and thus we should only repeat the verdict of time and his- 
 tory pronounced on all merely extemporaneous powers. But 
 it was not so. Inspired as he was, wonderful as was his 
 mortal presence transformed to a spiritual body, his voice 
 breathing upon all that was sublime or beautiful, touching or 
 tender, in his theme, like the winds of heaven among the 
 strings of a harp, he still was not a popular preacher, nor 
 had he a great following. He was so far above the ordinary 
 thinking of his time, his mind and heart and soul and spirit 
 moved on a plane so elevated that the earth-bound wings of 
 common human sympathies could not beat the rarefied air in 
 which he breathed. He was felt to be great by those who 
 were able to come near him and be touched by sympathy of 
 moral grandeur; and he had a great reputation among the 
 few, but he had no common notoriety. Those who know him 
 only through the traditions of his unique personality would 
 be very naturally led to the conclusion that his reputation 
 and influence were merely cotemporary, and lived, like the 
 name of a popular orator, in the breath that fanned its tran- 
 sient flame. His broad human sympathies ; his supernal 
 heights of attainable good for mankind ; his profound trem- 
 bling reverence for human nature amid the ordinary and 
 humble conditions of human life, where common men see 
 only the discouraging facts of human character ; his near-by 
 and present realization of immortality in his own conscious- 
 ness of indwelling life, — these were more than men could
 
 3$0 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 enter into fully, and they knew not what he said. For this 
 reason he is mueh better understood and more widely felt 
 now than in his own time, and he will be much better un- 
 derstood in time to come. Not that he will be the conspicu- 
 ous figure of human thought ; for the success of great princi- 
 ples absorbs the men who first promulgate them, and they 
 are lost to view in the splendor of increasing truth, as the sun 
 rising over the eastern mountains" attracts our wonder more 
 than when from noonday height he sends abroad his fervid 
 beams and fills the world with glory. But, when I say that 
 Channing will be better understood and appreciated in the 
 future, I mean that his method of thinking, his way of look- 
 ing at the human world, at man's relations and destiny 
 under God, will be the common inheritance of men, the 
 common air of human feeling, and the common light of 
 human guidance. 
 
 It seems almost unimportant to inquire, concerning such 
 a man as he was, what was the rank of his intellectual 
 powers. His whole being was so suffused with moral and 
 spiritual light that to inquire for his intellectual gifts is like 
 calling for candles when the sun shines. It is true that sim- 
 ple moral excellence, goodness, is not enough. There must 
 be intellectual strength. But mere intellectual strength 
 is not enough to conduct to new discoveries in the realm of 
 truth. Unless the intellect is as honest as the conscience, 
 and as pure as the pure heart, then the light within is dark- 
 ness, and strength is blind. Never was a man's intellect 
 so inseparable from his moral being, and the rays of truth 
 suffered no refraction in his mind. Channing had that last 
 accomplishment, the genius of virtue : he was intellectually 
 honest. In all his writings there is not a single word in 
 which there is a shadow of intellectual trick or advantage, 
 or crowding the argument, or pushing language to the verge 
 of meaning, but a calm, gentle, mighty stream, pouring on
 
 CELEBRATION AT SAN FRANCISCO. 35 I 
 
 with the momentum of truth. It is this quality of intellect- 
 ual purity that makes the mind mediator between God and 
 man. This is the "whole body full of light." 
 
 If, however, we inquire for the peculiar quality and rank 
 of his intellect, if it was not the highest known to human 
 endowment, it was, nevertheless, very high. He was the 
 first writer of his time upon themes of great human inter- 
 est; and, if we take the most distinguished examples of his 
 writings, we cannot fail to see that he spoke not for a time 
 or a party, but for man and time. For comprehensiveness, 
 discrimination, and penetration, he could have had few con- 
 temporary equals, and his style is so luminous that it needs 
 no illustration. I think if any intelligent man will read 
 Channing's letter to Henry Clay, and then read anything 
 that remains of Clay's writings or speeches, he must feel the 
 vast superiority of Channing's mind over that of the pop- 
 ular, fascinating, and beloved orator of Kentucky. I think, 
 if any man will explore the terrible logic of Mr. Calhoun, 
 and note the strands of steel with which he wove his ar- 
 gument, and then turn to the Baltimore sermon, woven 
 with threads of light and tinged with moral glory, he must 
 feel that the statesman compares with the preacher as the 
 almanac compares with the Bible. No statesman, no phi- 
 losopher of contemporary fame, had a clearer, more compre- 
 hensive view of the nature and tendencies of our govern- 
 ment. No writer in- Christendom had such an insight into 
 the causes and tendencies of the French Revolution, or so 
 transfixed with his pen upon the walls of time that paragon 
 of self-will. Napoleon. But we are not interested in the 
 mighty spirits of the race presented in fragments. They 
 stand as a whole in the unity and fulness of their being, 
 and shine in the glory from which they are derived. 
 
 It is said in some quarters that Channing's influence is 
 declining. What can be meant by that .-• If anybody would go
 
 35- CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 to the root of the matter, and inquire and know for himself, 
 let him ask, W'hat were the great insi)iring ideas and princi- 
 ples of his mind ? Where did he begin ? He began with 
 Man. He started with the nature of Man instead of the 
 jisychology of God. It was another way of looking at the 
 universe, as distinctly different from the old theologic 
 method as the Copernican system is from the Ptolemaic. It 
 superseded the old method, as the modern engine super- 
 sedes the mail-coach. The vast, clumsy, mechanical scheme 
 of redemption was not needed to regulate the relations of 
 the heavenly Father with his earthly children. Reason, con- 
 science, affection, the inspiration of God in man, rejected it. 
 This is a wa}' of thinking that belongs not to a creed or a 
 time, but to universal human nature and the divine relations 
 of man. This is a great way of thinking. It is a world way, 
 it is a mankind way; and it will go on while man remains or 
 God endures. If anybody thinks it is coming to an end, 
 he makes' a great mistake. You might as well pull the 
 sunbeams out of the day by the roots. There is nowhere 
 to stand and nowhere to get hold. It is a presence in 
 everything that has any alliance with man ; and it attends his 
 fortunes, as the good angel of his progress. It is a style of 
 intellectual and moral life, a process after the manner of the 
 spirit of God, and not a concluded fact. All things belong 
 to it. The past is its possession, the bright present is its 
 own, and the unrevealed glories of the future are committed 
 to its trust.
 
 OTHER CELEBRATIONS. 
 
 So FAR as can be learned, appropriate notice of the occa- 
 sion seems to have been taken by nfearly every Unitarian 
 church in America, and by many others. But of most of 
 these celebrations only a mere mention was made by the 
 local press ; and only partial success has attended the effort 
 to collect reports of the meetings in the smaller cities and 
 towns. In most cases nothing more was attempted than to 
 give the ordinary church services of either the Sunday pre- 
 ceding or the Sunday following the centennial day a memo- 
 rial character. In a few places, however, a special meeting 
 was held on the eve or day of April 7, and at nearly all these 
 meetings the speakers included representatives of various 
 religious denominations. 
 
 Great pains seem to have been taken to make the cele- 
 brations in all respects worthy of the occasion. The hymns 
 and anthems sung, the passages of Scripture read, the 
 prayers offered, the sermons preached, the good taste dis- 
 played in the decoration of the churches, — all bore witness 
 to a deep and wide-spread feeling that nothing but the best, 
 the truest, the purest, the simplest, must be offered in com- 
 memoration of the life and influence of a man so elevated in 
 his spirit as Channing. The general testimony of the press
 
 ^54 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 is that the services, if not always largely attended, were 
 almost invariably of a high order of excellence. 
 
 Word has come to the editor of celebrations held in the 
 following cities and towns : — 
 
 Greenfield, Mass. — A meeting more notable for quality 
 than for quantity was held, April 8 {Fast Day), in the Uni- 
 tarian church, at which inspiring addresses were given by 
 ministers from various towns in the Connecticut Valley. 
 The Gazette says: "Mr. Moors read an address upon the 
 religious and theological condition of the New England 
 churches at the opening of this century, and sketched the 
 causes which led to the division of the Congregational 
 Church into Trinitarian and Unitarian. He extolled Chan- 
 ning's agency in this work, and gloried in his widely extend- 
 ing influence in all the world. Mr. Flagg, of Bernardston, 
 followed in an earnest talk upon the early and entire conse- 
 cration of Channing to God's service. Mr. Moors then read 
 a brief paper of ' Reminiscences of Channing,' prepared by 
 the venerable Mr. Smith, now nearly ninety-one years old, 
 which showed that his mental vigor was not abated. Mr. 
 Green, of Brattleboro', read a paper upon Channing as a 
 Theologian, and Mr. Parsons, of Athol, upon Channing as 
 a Scholar. A collation was served in the parish parlor, and 
 the afternoon session was opened by an essay by Mr. Hey- 
 wood, of Holyoke, on Channing as a Reformer, and was 
 followed by another by Mr. Ferry, of Northampton, on 
 Channing Unitarianism. Mr. Porter, of Chicopee, spoke 
 upon the duty of the Church of to-day in carrying out Chan- 
 ning's great ideas. Mr. Buckingham, of Deerfield, spoke of 
 Channing's love of nature, of his sympathy with the poor, 
 and of the cross he bore for his anti-slavery position. Mr. 
 Waite, of Orange, expressed the indebtedness of the Uni- 
 vcrsalists to Channing, and the hope of a cordial sympathy
 
 OTHER CELEBRATIONS. 355 
 
 between the two branches of the Liberal Church. The 
 papers and speeches were carefully prepared, and full of ear- 
 nest and uplifting thought." 
 
 AsHBY, Mass. — A meeting was held on Wednesday even- 
 ing, April 7, in the Unitarian church ; and Rev. Joshua 
 Young, of Groton, gave a fine address on the " Life and 
 Influence of Channing." 
 
 Springfield, Mass. — Appropriate services were held in 
 the Unitarian church, Rev. A. D. Mayo, pastor ; and " Chan- 
 ning and his Times " was the Sunday evening theme of Rev. 
 Washington Gladden, in the North Church. 
 
 Shelbyville, III. — Rev. J. L. Douthit conducted a 
 memorial service on Sunday evening, April 4, and gave a 
 discourse on Channing's life and teachings. 
 
 Burlington, Vt. — Appropriate services were held ; and 
 Rev. L. G. Ware held up to his people a portrait of Chan- 
 ning's character, taking for his text Dan. xii., 3 : " They 
 that be wise shall shine as the firmament, and they that 
 turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever." 
 The sermon was reported in the Free Press and Times of 
 April 13th. 
 
 Belfast, Me. — Rev. E. Crowninshield gave in the even- 
 ing a clear and large discourse on Channing's religious 
 teaching and influence, an outline of which appeared in 
 the Progressive Age. 
 
 Watertown, Mass. — Rev. A. M. Knapp preached on 
 " Channing, the Reformer of Theology."
 
 356 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Manchester, N.H. — Rev. J. B. Harrison, of Franklin, 
 uavc a discourse on Channint;- in the morning ; and in the 
 cxening there were addresses by Messrs. Harrison, H. C. 
 Parker, of Nashua, and Mr. Powers, the pastor. 
 
 Caxtox, N.V. — Under the auspices of the students of 
 the Theological School (Universalist), a memorial service 
 was held on the evening of April 7, at which Rev. Dr. Lee 
 gave an address over an hour long, which the Canton Com- 
 tncrcial Advertiser describes as " full of facts, incidents, 
 quotations from Channing's writings, and personal recollec- 
 tions illustrating the life and character of Dr. Channing 
 as a man, a leader in a great religious revolution, and 
 a philanthropist and social reformer." Among the exercises 
 were a hymn, written for the occasion by W. C. Sellec, 
 and the reading of an original poem by Miss A. G. Waltze, 
 entitled "Channing in Richmond," being based on an epi- 
 sode in his early life. 
 
 Melrose, Mass. — Rev. Nathaniel Seaver, Jr., preached 
 on Channing's life, character, and influence, and gave the 
 Sunday-school a talk about Channing's early years. 
 
 Detroit, Wis. — Rev. W. R. Alger delivered a memorial 
 address on the morning of Sunday, April 1 1, in the Unita- 
 rian church, taking as a text, " The righteous shall be in 
 everlasting remembrance." 
 
 Janesville, Wis. — The children of All Souls' Sunday- 
 school sang; and Revs. Faville and Sewell, of the Methodist 
 church, Dr. J. B. Whiting, Hon. J. R. Burnett, and James 
 Burgess addressed the meeting. 
 
 Milwaukee, Wis. — The celebration was held on the 
 evening of April 6 ; and addresses were given by Rev.
 
 OTHER CELEBRATIONS. 357 
 
 Messrs. Calthrop of Syracuse, J. L. Dudley, G. E. Gordon, 
 Dr. Moses of the synagogue, and Prof. McAllister. The 
 rabbi spoke of Channing as " a modern prophet, without 
 the crudeness of the prophets of old." 
 
 Keokuk, Iowa. — Memorial addresses were made by 
 Judge G. McCrary of the Supreme Bench, Rabbi Bogen, 
 S. M. Clarke of Gate City, and Revs. Andrews and Hassel. 
 
 Nashua, N.H. — The Daily Telegraph of April 13 said: 
 " Memorial services commemorative of the centennial anni- 
 versary of the birth of one of New England's most cele- 
 brated modern divines occurred at the Unitarian church on 
 Sunday last. The pastors of various other societies were 
 invited to be present ; but none accepted the invitation. 
 The duty of speaking therefore devolved upon Rev. Messrs. 
 Lincoln and Twiss. There were flowers about the pulpit, 
 and a picture of Channing was hung in front of the pulpit. 
 The choir gave one or two very fine selections; and hymns 
 were sung, written by J. G. Whittier and Rev. Charles T. 
 Brooks. Rev. Mr. Lincoln, whose life of nearly eighty-one 
 years extends far back, — almost to the birth of Channing, 
 — spoke acceptably of the great influence of this man on 
 moral, intellectual, social, and religious life. Rev. Mr. 
 Twiss spoke eloquently of Channing's life, and paid a fitting 
 tribute, not only to his great genius, but to his simplicity 
 and goodness. The laity was represented by Dr. Peavey, 
 who spoke to the point — as he always does — of his appre- 
 ciation of Channing as a leveller of creeds and a promoter 
 of moral and religious life." 
 
 East Wilton, N.H. — The meeting of Sunday, April 11, 
 was addressed by Rev. I. Sumner Lincoln, Rev. J. Twiss, 
 and Dr. Peavey.
 
 35''^ CII.WNINC CKNTKNARY. 
 
 Hartfokd, (Junn. — The Hartford Daily Times of April 5 
 said : " Yesterday was observed by the Unitarians as a me- 
 morial of Channing, the celebrated preacher, philanthropist, 
 theologian, and Christian, the one hundredth anniversary of 
 whose birth occurs this present week. The hall was made 
 attractive and beautiful with vines and flowers ; and above 
 the desk was a copy of Gambardella's wonderful portrait of 
 Channing, life-size. The picture, with frame, was the gift of 
 two members of the society. The services, conducted by the 
 pastor, the Rev. John C. Kimball, were of a very high order. 
 After the opening reading, prayer, and response by the choir, 
 the hymn, ' The Abode of Saints,' was sung. The prayer 
 that followed seemed to bring the audience into harmony 
 with the tender spirit of the pastor, whose study of his sub- 
 ject seemed to imbue him; and the selections read from 
 Channing's own writings were a fitting prelude to the elo- 
 quent discourse that followed. * The Christian Soldier' was 
 the stirring hymn that closed the service. We publish the 
 discourse, and invite to it especial attention as a masterly 
 treatment of the subject, as well as a fine specimen of clear, 
 good thinking, conveyed in an admirably simple and pellucid 
 way." 
 
 Montreal, Canada. — The members and friends of the 
 Liberal Christian Union assembled in the Church of the 
 Messiah last evening, in commemoration of the centennial 
 birthday of Dr. William Ellery Channing. The church and 
 lecture-room were both profusely decorated with flowers and 
 hot-house plants, which displayed the tasteful handiwork of 
 the committee of young ladies who had the arrangements in 
 charge. Over the pulpit was poised a snow-white dove; 
 while upon the reading-desk was a bank of exquisite flowers, 
 bearing the word "Channing" in crimson flowers on a back- 
 ground of white ones. To the right of the chancel was a
 
 OTHER CELEBRATIONS. 359 
 
 life-size bust of the man in honor of whose memory the 
 company was assembled. The exercises of the evening- 
 opened with Newman's beautiful hymn, " Lead, Kindly 
 Light," by the choir. An historical sketch of Channing's 
 life, written by a young lady of the congregation, was read 
 by Mr. Alexander Manson. Whittier's poem on " Chan- 
 ning " was prettily recited by Miss Annie Smith. Mr. 
 George W. Stephens was to have considered " Channing, the 
 Reformer," but confessed that a contemplation of the magni- 
 tude of the subject had induced him to decide upon reading 
 the opinions held of Channing by eminent men of other 
 denominations. His j^rincipal illustrations were drawn from 
 the writings of the late Rev. F. W. Robertson, of Brighton, 
 England. Dr. T. Sterry Hunt was called upon for an ad- 
 dress, and responded in a most felicitous and able manner, 
 in which he spoke of the growing influence of Channing in 
 human thought, and included him among the prophets of 
 his race. A sonnet, ''Always Young for Liberty," was next 
 recited by Miss Jennie Barney. Mr. W. N. Evans read an 
 address, entitled " Channing, the Man," in which he laid 
 much of the goodness and gentleness of Channing's char- 
 acter to the influence of a good mother. Rev. Mr. Barnes 
 was down on the programme for " Remarks with Pleasant 
 Pages." Mr. Barnes' "pleasant pages" consisted of letters 
 of salutation and good-will from the following friends : Rev. 
 J. B. Green, of Brattleboro, Vt., late pastor of the Church 
 of the Messiah; Rev. Frederick Frothingham, of Milton, 
 Mass., a son of Montreal ; Rev. Charles G. Ames, editor of 
 the CJiristian Register, of Boston; Mr. William H. Baldwin, 
 President of the Young Men's Christian Union, of Boston ; 
 Rev. Rush R. Shippen, of Boston, Secretary of the Amer- 
 ican Unitarian Association ; Rev. M. K. Schermerhorn, of 
 Newport, R.I., writing as from the " cradle" of Channing; 
 Rev. J. V . W. Ware, of Boston, representing the church of
 
 3^0 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 which Channinj:^ was pastor; Rev. C. A. Bartol, the oldest 
 living intimate friend of Channing's later years ; Dr. A. P. 
 Putnam, of lirooklyn, N.Y., representing the Brooklyn gath- 
 ering; and also characteristic letters from Rev. Dr. J. Free- 
 man Clarke, of Boston, and Rev. Dr. Henry W. Bellows and 
 Rev. Robert Collyer, of New York. The letters were all of 
 an inspiring character ; and their reading was received with 
 applause. Mr. Barnes closed his remarks by conveying a 
 message of good-will and sympathy from Rev. Dr. Cordner, 
 who was prevented by sickness from being present. An 
 adjournment to the lecture-room then took place for a soiree 
 and refreshments, the company separating at a late hour. 
 — The Star, April 8. 
 
 Concord, N.H. — The centennial of the birth of William 
 Ellery Channing was observed at the Unitarian church in 
 this city, on Sunday, both forenoon and evening. The 
 morning discourse by the pastor, Rev. S. C. Beane, dealt 
 with Channing's early life, his active manhood, and the 
 influence that survives in his published works and in the 
 history of thought and philanthropy. As distinguished from 
 all previous theologians, he took man for his starting-point, 
 believing with Pope that "the proper study of mankind is 
 ipan." Romanism and Protestantism had hitherto, shaping 
 their religious views by their political, made God a despot, 
 for his supposed glory ; and, as in civil despotisms, man, 
 the subject, became of little account. Election, decrees, 
 foreordination, necessity, left no room for human freedom 
 or nobility. Channing re-enthroned man, saw in human 
 nature God's image, the unspoiled possibilities of exceed- 
 ing beauty and grandeur; saw that the soul and conscience 
 could be trusted for right and truth, and hence should be 
 permitted and encouraged to be free. This love and exalta- 
 tion of man abolished in Channing's mind all belief in divine
 
 OTHER CELEBRATIONS. 361 
 
 wrath, reprobation, and total depravity. The idea of vicari- 
 ous atonement he regarded as the offspring of human sav- 
 agery and meanness which demanded bribes and expiatory 
 satisfaction. The Unitarianism of Channing, which waxed 
 stronger and stronger till the last, was simply the demand 
 of a soul that saw the whole race to be one and the universe 
 one, and hence a Father over all, with one mind and pur- 
 pose and personality. The preacher traced the work of 
 Channing in various channels of philanthropy, education, and 
 politics, all, like his theology, springing from his belief in 
 human nature and his love for men. 
 
 In the evening as in the morning, there was a large con- 
 gregation, composed of many of the most intelligent and 
 prominent men and women of the city. The pastor pre- 
 sided, and, after devotional services, began by saying that 
 Channing is so universal, and his words and works extend 
 into so many directions, that it is hard to name him. He is 
 in a large degree the father of Am.erican literature, and was 
 one of the first men this side of the Atlantic who won the 
 attention of the reading public of Europe, Lady Holland 
 and Mrs. Somerville pronouncing him the best English 
 writer of the period. As a theologian, as a genius in re- 
 ligion, as an abolitionist and advocate of peace, he was also 
 spoken of; and it was announced that, during the present 
 week, his centennial would be observed in America, India, 
 Italy, France, England, Hungary, and probably Iceland. 
 
 Frank S. Streeter, Esq., followed in an able and a clear 
 presentation of ttie demands of religious liberty, as repre- 
 sented in Channing. 
 
 Judge Asa Fowler drew a sharp contrast between the 
 Calvinism of the last century, which is still professed and 
 sworn to by the evangelical churches, and the rational Uni- 
 tarianism of Channing and the New Testament. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Conger, in a hearty and extended adch'css, ex-
 
 362 CI I ANN INC. CENTENARY. 
 
 pressed the slrong s)'mpathy of the Universalists with 
 Channing" and his followers. 
 
 He was followed by Hon. Solon A. Carter, who gratefully 
 spoke of his indebtedness to the training of his boyhood in 
 the liberal views of the great American prophet. 
 
 Mr. Parker Pillsbury spoke earnestly and with great power 
 of Channing's interest in all philanthropies, and especially 
 in the slavery question. 
 
 The last speaker was J. C. A. Hill, Esq., who spoke more 
 particularly of Channing's published works, and urged a 
 new reading of them, announcing that they would soon be 
 for sale in Concord. 
 
 The large audience seemed deeply interested during the 
 two hours and a half of the meeting ; and the addresses 
 were alternated with delightful music by the choir, hymns 
 by the congregation, and a solo by Mrs. Lizzie Carpenter, 
 formerly of this city, now a distinguished vocalist of Chi- 
 cago. Letters of regret for absence, full of grateful appre- 
 ciation of Dr. Channing, were received among others from 
 Hon. W. H. H. Allen of Claremont, Hon. E. D. Rand of 
 Lisbon, and Hon. Wm. E. Chandler, but lack of time pre- 
 vented their reading. — Daily People and Patriot, April ^. 
 
 Portland, Oregon. — The handsome auditorium of the 
 Unitarian church was well filled last night, at the exercises 
 commemorating the one hundredth anniversary of the birth 
 of William Ellery Channing. The programme opened with 
 an excellent selection, Beatiis Vir, by the choir. Rev. T. L. 
 Eliot then delivered the following address of welcome : — 
 
 I think it was Laboulaye, a distinguished author in France, 
 who, upon reading Channing for the first time, said, " I 
 have found a man." If the great spirit, who is a century 
 old to-day, takes cognizance of our thoughts, no word can 
 be more grateful than this, whose meaning stands forth all
 
 OTHER CELEBRATIONS. 363 
 
 the more conspicuously for the absence of qualifying 
 phrase. To be thought in some degree to have filled the 
 place of man, to have touched some of the heights and 
 depths comprehended in the human soul, to have fulfilled 
 in action and word something of the life to which infinite 
 God elects his children, — would be, to a heart like Chan- 
 ning's, the highest honor, the completest tribute of memory. 
 In him, the world is more and more finding a man. His 
 work derives its dignity from himself, from his own burning 
 and elevated enthusiasm. There are few men who so shine 
 through their words, and make the reader glow as if face 
 to face with the intensest purpose and most quenchless 
 convictions. Channing is called a prophet of humanity ; 
 and, while we turn his pages, we recognize a prophet's 
 inspiration, a prophet's tone. Bunsen well describes him, — 
 "in humanity a Greek, in citizenship a Roman, in Christian- 
 ity an Apostle." 
 
 What did Channing do ? For brief answer, I can say : 
 He rediscovered the dignity of human nature, and with that 
 great discovery glowed and burned into men's hearts a new 
 method, a new principle of life. He found his fellow-beings 
 sceptical, not only of others, not only of themselves, but 
 darkly doubting, and disbelieving in the very type of that 
 part of creation called human and humanity. He saw that 
 the very heart of Christianity was being left out. Salvation 
 was being called "something added to humanity," and in 
 his insight it meant "something inherent in humanity, 
 brought forth, unfolded, and redeemed." His method was 
 an almost unbounded faith in man as such, and in human 
 society as such ; and he reasoned, " Once get a man, how- 
 ever low or self-despairing, to believe in kiinself, and believe 
 calmly in what God has laid away in his soul, and with 
 this faith will come impulse, growth, spirituality, intellectual 
 and moral salvation. . . . The moral nature is man's irreat
 
 364 ClIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 tie to the Divinity. If .so, there is but one mode of ap- 
 proach to Goil. It i.s by faithfulness to the inward, ever- 
 lasting law." If you will read the words I have ventured 
 to place upon the programme as mottoes, you will feel the 
 searching power, the comprehensiveness of this method. 
 "All minds are of one family," — the mind of God, the 
 mind of Christ, the mind of man, — and substantially, 
 fundamentally related to each other, as are members of 
 one household. " The lesson of the universe is God's impar- 
 tiality. He has one law, one love, for all." To draw out 
 the full meaning involved in those words would be to unite 
 a body of Divinity, to frame a widely searching theory of 
 nature and society, to redefine Providence. In them lies, 
 as if in germ, the best elements of the modern scientific 
 method. " I belong to the Church Universal : nothing shall 
 separate me from it." Here is a thought expanding and 
 inspiring. There is a sense in which Channing belonged 
 to no sect, and, while intense in all his convictions, held 
 them as world possessions. " One sublime idea has given 
 me unity of thought, — the greatness, the divinity of the 
 soul." To understand all that Channing meant by this, 
 one must read his life. We shall find it no idle mysticism, 
 but a grand working faith, arraigning a Napoleon as a giant 
 failure, denouncing slavery, war, the oppressions of society, 
 intemperance, partisan selfishness. Everywhere appealing for 
 intellectual freedom, Channing saw Christ in every human 
 kind. He fulfilled His word, " Ye have done it unto me." 
 I welcome you, friends, to this simple hour of memorial 
 thoughts. I welcome still more this wondrous day of grace 
 in which we live. I welcome the signs that our race is in 
 spiritual and mental travail. I welcome the eternal dawn- 
 ing light which is destined to go on into perfect day. Other 
 prophets of God will rise, and are rising. It is a day of 
 open vision. May we fulfil the spirit of this commemora-
 
 OTHER CELEBRATIONS. 365 
 
 tive hour by a resolve to keep our faces to the light. 
 The conviction that the Infinite One has indeed one law, 
 one love, for all that in the moral and rational nature is 
 God's perpetual revelation, that human society and the in- 
 dividual are forever to be weighed in the scales of moral 
 purpose, is growing upon mankind. This conviction stands 
 behind kings, senates, churches, behind wealth, oppression, 
 materialism ; and in its presence these things become shad- 
 ows. Man, his rights, his wrongs, his moral elevation, his 
 destiny as child of God, is the keyword of the future ; and, 
 wherever the note is struck, and life flows out, there the 
 kingdom of heaven is set, and God as Sovereign is coming 
 to his own. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Frazar, who heard Dr. Channing preach 
 more than fifty years ago in Boston, read some interesting 
 reminiscences of the great liberal writer. Miss Augusta 
 Allen read, with clearness, good expression, and fine taste, 
 not unmixed with gentle force, Dr. Channing's address, " I 
 call that mind free." Miss Jennie Miller then recited 
 Whittier's tribute, " Hero and Saint," and was followed by 
 Willie Eliot, who recited a portion of Dr. Channing's ad- 
 dress on "Slavery in America," — both well rendered. The 
 most charming portion of the interesting programme was 
 Mrs. D. F. Smith's reading of James Russell Lowell's elegy 
 on Channing. Her rich, low, well-modulated voice was 
 admirably suited to the selection, and every stanza was 
 a separate gem. Mr. Alfred T. Sears delivered a short, 
 concise, and not overdrawn eulogy on the character of 
 Channing, closing with an appeal to all Christians to finish 
 the great moral structure planned by the man whose birth 
 they were celebrating. The exercises were interspersed 
 with more than ordinarily fine offerings by the splendid 
 choir. 
 
 After the literary exercises, the announcement was made
 
 ^66 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 that every one present would be the guest of the ladies of 
 the church at refreshments, which were served in the chapel. 
 A picture of Channing, surrounded by blooming flowers, 
 was hung in the chapel, and was admired by all present. 
 Pleasant social intercourse closed a most enjoyable evening. 
 — Daily Oregonian, April 8.
 
 NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN PRESS. 
 
 To GIVE an adequate idea either of the number or the 
 quality of the centennial tributes to Channing by our Amer- 
 ican press would, of itself, require a volume. We have yet 
 to see the American newspaper which has not in some 
 appropriate way alluded to the occasion, and many of the 
 tributes have been elaborate and highly discriminating. 
 From among the many which have reached us, we have 
 culled here and there a few sentences or paragraphs, remark- 
 able either because of their source or for some intrinsic 
 merit of insight or nice criticism : — 
 
 While refusing to accept a great deal which he apparently believed 
 and taught, we gladly acknowledge ourselves, in common with all Chris- 
 tians, to be indebted to him exceedingly for much wise and earnest 
 spiritual teaching, and for the example of a singularly pure and noble 
 life. The distinctive truths with which his name is associated, certainly, 
 as now uttered by his successors, are altered in shape, and do not find 
 advocates as readily as formerly. But no one can read his writings or the 
 record of his career without learning to cherish a genuine reverence for 
 him as a truly great and noble man, whose memory belongs to and 
 should be honored by the good of every name. — Boston Congregation- 
 alist. 
 
 Channing was a man with an open mind ; but it was open most on the 
 heavenward side. If he seemed to estimate men too highly, . . . did he 
 value them more highly than did Jesus 1 If the Man of Galilee had
 
 368 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 estimated men as did some of the theologians before Channing's time, 
 would he have died for them ? Nay, would he have lived for them ? . . . 
 His own words upon the tenet which chiefly distinguishes the Unitarian 
 sect are that, " if Trinitarians would tell us what they mean, their sys- 
 tem would generally be found little else than a mystical form of the 
 Unitarian doctrine." It hardly seems possible to the men of this gen- 
 eration that there should have been such bitter controversies over a 
 difference so expressed. . . . Dr. Channing did the world a service, for 
 which it will not soon let his name die, in recalling it to the fact that 
 Christianity is a life, not a creed. And, being a life, Channing was 
 entitled to be called a Christian of Christians. — Boston Golden Rule. 
 
 Channing was one of the few earlier names in American literature 
 that gained recognition in Europe, and compelled the admission that "an 
 American book " could find readers. He was a philanthropist, pleading 
 the cause of the poor and the oppressed, and denouncing the evils of 
 intemperance and of war, when his was as the voice of one crying in 
 the wilderness. In such aspects, his character and life are a common 
 heritage. 
 
 It will probably be said that Channing originated a movement. . . . 
 But, if it be required to estimate men by their relations to such a move- 
 ment, we are compelled to doubt the priority of Dr. Channing. He was 
 in the movement, and augmented it, but was himself moved along with 
 others by a common impulse. — Boston Watchman {Baptist). 
 
 We doubt if any modern leader in Christian thought did wiser, better, 
 more successful service in showing that reason must be deferred to, that 
 an unnatural faith cannot be true, that no amount or quality of testi- 
 mony can uphold a creed at which nature revolts. There was great 
 occasion in that day to assert earnestly and continuously what in 1880 
 we may dismiss with a word. Now, the very party which pronounces 
 the theological specialties of Channing a failure takes its chief pride in 
 standing upon the identical platform for constructing which Channing 
 was derided by no less an authority than Prof. Moses Stuart. His 
 formula is Orthodoxy in accord with science. 
 
 Cheerfully, gratefully, we bear our humble testimony to the greatness 
 of Channing, to the pre-eminence of the service he rendered the Chris- 
 tian Church and the world. We do not moderate our humble encomium 
 in the recollection that the great Unitarian was positively, almost pas- 
 sionately, the enemy of avowed Universalism. We cannot say that he
 
 NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN PRESS. 369 
 
 was opposed to Universalism. But he was determined in liis opposition 
 to avowed Universalism. We cannot say that he invented, but he 
 sanctioned and gave great prestige to, the policy of wholly evading the 
 question of human destiny. He shunned the issue. He taught a whole 
 generation of Unitarians to shun it. A third generation of Unitarians 
 — that of the present — has departed from the policy; and the Univer- 
 salist issue is now boldly met in nearly every Unitarian pulpit and peri- 
 odical. — The Christian Leader {Universalist). 
 
 Once he was the leader of a school of religious thought, the offset of 
 New England Puritanism, which culminated and centred chiefly in Bos- 
 ton and its vicinity; but long before his death he outgrew his limitations, 
 and became in a certain sense the great ethical teacher of New England. 
 As pure an idealist as Emerson, as fearless in the support of political prin- 
 ciples as Garrison, he belonged essentially to the school of Wordsworth 
 and Coleridge, and to the band of Cambridge Platonists of two centu- 
 ries ago. It was by accident that he came to represent Unitarianism. 
 Its controversies were distasteful to him, its later crystallization into 
 ecclesiastical forms was not to his liking; but this does not prove that 
 he had any fondness for the Church or ever entered into any conception 
 of its system. There is nothing to encourage this in his memoirs or in 
 his published works ; and yet there is much in the temper and tone of 
 Channing's works, much in the way in which he has set forth funda- 
 mental truths of natural religion, much in the drift of his influence upon 
 religious thought, which has been largely preparatory to the better 
 understanding of the Episcopal Church in New England. It could not 
 but be so. 
 
 Channing was a positive thinker. His tendency was to construct 
 something. He saw the deficiency in the religion of his day, and sought 
 to find a basis for it in what is permanent in human nature. Dr. Chal- 
 mers thought him essentially wrong; but the growing verdict of the 
 broadest and wisest men in America and Europe, as they have come to 
 judge him apart from religious prejudice, is that he was essentially right 
 as far as he went. Churchmen must say that he was as nearly right as 
 a man usually is who does not stand upon the basis of historical Chris- 
 tianity. The evidence is now so fully in as to what he was, his writings 
 have so widely disseminated his ethical teachings, his moral principles 
 have been found to come up so closely to the generally accepted stand- 
 ard of what the spiritual life is, that — not among Unitarians only, 
 but among all Christian people — he is looked up to as a man wlio lived 
 in advance of his time, whose "soul was like a star, and dwelt apart," 
 25
 
 370 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 and whose memory is precious wherever what is best in human hfe is 
 honored and loved. 
 
 While the special trustees of Channing's fame and memory gather 
 this week to honor his centennial birtiiday at Newport, we cannot with- 
 hold our hearty recognition of what the religious world owes to Chan- 
 ning, nor allow the disciples of a certain school of religious thought to 
 feel that he belongs exclusively to them. . . . He is now one of the few 
 Americans in whose fame all men, whatever may be their religious fold, 
 take conscious pride. And generations yet to come will honor the spirit- 
 ual force of the man, when his writings may have been forgotten. — The 
 Cli u rch ma n {Episcopa lia n). 
 
 While Channing was broader than any denomination of his day, it 
 certainly is true that what he left of his work and influence was be- 
 queathed to the world. Therefore, the part which not only clergymen, 
 but prominent men connected with evangelical societies, took in recent 
 demonstrations, was a privilege to which they had undisputed claim. 
 They viewed a lofty character, and so much of a grand mission as was 
 accomplished while the actor was among earthly scenes, from their own 
 stand-point, and spoke such words of appreciation as seemed to them 
 fittest. There was no stinted praise or trace of bigotry, whatever dis- 
 criminations there may have been, that could give rise to the suspicion 
 that they were not glad to honor one to whom the common consent of 
 mankind is fast according high rank among the prophets and saints of 
 the Most High. ... A hundred years hence, none of those now living 
 will be here to attend another memorial celebration ; but there will be 
 another Channing Centennial Celebration, April 7, 1980, for Dr. Chan- 
 ning's name and fame will live on with such power and influence that 
 there will be a celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of his 
 birthday. He will be remembered, not on account of anything he did in 
 theology, but on account of what one of his biographers described as 
 " the divine spirit of his life and influence." It is this that makes his 
 memory what it is to those who cherish it. — Worcester Spy. 
 
 Dr. Channing was an influence, an atmosphere of incalculable reach 
 and intensity to those who felt the touch of his personality. It is to 
 them that his writings still impart an impression of transcendent power, 
 while men of every type of Christian faith discover in them a tender, 
 winning thoughtfulness and graciousness, which endears their author to 
 all hearts. It is not the thought which forms their contents which gives 
 them this grasp of men. In our judgment, Dr. Orville Dewey, of Chan-
 
 NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN PRESS. 37 1 
 
 ning's own church, surpassed him as a thinker. It is the discovery of 
 a great and very good man behind the book, — a man who saw the invisi- 
 ble. It is this discovery which imparts a value to his slightest utterance 
 on any theme. And, of Channing's thought, it is not the definitely theo- 
 logical, much less the sectarian, element which has moved men. . . . 
 Channing's was an influence parallel to that of Coleridge, — of whom he 
 was in a great measure a disciple, — of Dr. James Marsh, and of Fred- 
 erick Maurice. He was a natural Platonist in the Aristotelian world. — 
 Philadelphia Weekly Notes. 
 
 Channing did much in many ways, but as a man he seems greater than 
 anything he did. Not only by his teachings and his achievements, but 
 by the lustre of his character and the height of his aspiration, — in a word, 
 by the breadth and dignity of his manhood, — he has reflected honor on 
 us all. . . . His was the attitude rather of the prophet and the oracle than 
 of the legislator. There were times when his utterance seemed fraught 
 with the solemnity, but also with the vagueness, of second-sight. On 
 the other hand, we are astonished now and then by the unerring accu- 
 racy of his intuitions. For example, Channing seems to have com- 
 pletely divined Napoleon Bonaparte at a time when the materials of a 
 right judgment were not at hand, more than half a century, indeed, be- 
 fore the publication of Lanfrey's History and the Memoirs of Madame de 
 Remusat. He was also one of the first to detect the grievous blunders 
 in the existing theories of penitentiary discipline. . . . Those who would 
 appreciate the wide ethical and social gulf between the liberal New 
 Englaind of our day and the austere New England of three-quarters of a 
 century ago will do well to study the career of William Ellery Channing. 
 He beheld the birth of the forces which brought about the change ; he 
 was a part of them ; indeed, he must be credited with the largest share 
 in the dynamic agencies which have caused the permanent divorce of 
 the New England intellect from the narrow Calvinism of an earlier 
 epoch. It is true, as we have said, that the movement which Channing 
 did so much to stimulate has left him far behind, that the premises of 
 his theology have been discarded, its limitations overstepped, its point 
 of view almost forgotten. His influence, however, has far transcended 
 the bounds of the transitory creed he sought to formulate, and may 
 be recognized in every phase and guise of liberal Christianity. — New 
 York Sun. 
 
 The materials exist for a better knowledge of Channing to-day than 
 even his best friends had of him when he was living. In his lifetime,
 
 .i/- 
 
 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 few knew him intimately: the pulpit was the chief channel of his influ- 
 ence upon public opinion, liut now we know him, not only through 
 those few, hut through his collected writings ; and these writings have 
 had a circulation unique and unparalleled for their kind. . . . And, if we 
 except Jonathan Edwards, no other American has ever contributed more 
 to the vital and quickening thought of the world. . . . He was such a 
 master of moral philosophy, such an original student of the intuitions 
 of human nature, that he controlled the tide. The Unitarians could 
 have no better man to guide the school of religious thought which they 
 represent, and no man among them has ever equally thrilled men's souls 
 with the passionate beauty of virtue as a sentiment and a life. It is 
 always dangerous to fashion new channels for the religious nature ; but 
 Channing had, what his followers have seldom shared, the inspiration of 
 his idea. . . . He was the pioneer of religious inquiry, the spiritual father 
 of Parker and Emerson. But he was more. . . . He stands for what is 
 noblest and best in human life. Nothing that concerns man is foreign to 
 him. Neither Socrates nor Plato has reasoned more profoundly for im- 
 mortality, and no writers on natural religion have struck notes quite so 
 high. But at the very point where a great mind passes within the veil, 
 where Fdnelon passed, where his friend, Cardinal Cheverus, passed, 
 where faith leads the reason, Channing acts the part of the natural man. 
 He is the moralist, not the devotee : the man of speculative reason, not 
 the disciple of love. . . . He represents the perpetual youth of the think- 
 ing world, and interprets realities which every man, sooner or later, has 
 to interpret for himself. This has given his writings an exceptional in- 
 terest and value. ... A generation to come he is likely to be even more 
 influential than he is to-day. His writings strike into the permanent 
 elements of life. He is felt to be a true "prophet of the soul." — New 
 York Times. 
 
 Very many recognized Orthodox men (as Orthodoxy runs nowadays) 
 stand on the same platform substantially as to sin and the atonement ; 
 and for such beliefs Channing would not be driven now out of the 
 Evangelical communion, as he would have no occasion to present his 
 views with such polemic force as he had sixty years ago. To the term 
 "Channing Unitarians," many of the denomination would now object; 
 but it designates what we regard as the high-water mark of Unitarian- 
 ism, — a Unitarianism which excels in its Christology, but still more in 
 its apprehension of sin, not as a disease or an accident, but as personal 
 guilt; and, therefore, of the obligation of repentance and reformation, 
 of a moral consecration, and a striving after a perfection like God's, and 
 not a thin " ethical culture." — New Yofk Independent.
 
 NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN PRESS. 3/3 
 
 It is a severe test of the hold which a great man has on posterity, 
 when we are asked to celebrate his hundredth birthday. Few of his 
 own generation are left to swing their hats for him ; and, unless his 
 service to humanity has been broad and deep, the next generation does 
 not rally around his name. Channing has stood this test remarkably 
 well. The Newport celebration of his centenary was naturally the place 
 of greatest interest, and was fortunate in the presence of men who could 
 best give meaning to the occasion. Dr. Bellows was the best man, 
 perhaps, to speak of Channing, though hardly his representative in 
 religious belief; and his oration, two hours in length, was a full and fair 
 statement of Channing's religious and humanitarian position. The con- 
 trast between the speaker's statement of Channing's views of Christ and 
 his own views was painful. Channing's views of Christ, said Dr. 
 Bellows, were central and commanding, historical and supernatural; but 
 his eulogist said that he would not have Jesus out of the ranks of our 
 common manhood. The oration was a significant restatement of the 
 chief points in Channing's life, including some personal reminiscences. 
 
 There was a scene on the platform while Dr. Bellows was speaking, 
 which perhaps few thought of, but which to me was more inspiring than 
 anything that happened during the day. It was the grouping of the 
 men who had naturally the deepest interest in the centenary. Directly 
 behind Dr. Bellows sat the foremost pupil of Channing, Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson, his eyes sparkling, his head bent forward, his face all aglow 
 with excitement to catch more distinctly every fresh point made by the 
 speaker. On the left of Emerson sat William F. Channing, the only 
 son of Dr. Channing, himself evidently at threescore and ten a charac- 
 teristic man, his heavy gray hair struggling to escape from his ample 
 head, his restless position indicating that the past was struggling with 
 the present in his mind, his face so marked that everybody was saying, 
 "Who is he?" On Emerson's right sat Channing's nephew, the Rev. 
 William H. Channing, a small, spare man, having the outline of his 
 uncle's features, the face and look indicating a temperament finely organ- 
 ized and of spiritual insight, so wrapped up in the occasion that he 
 seemed lost in his own thoughts, and yet following the speaker with the 
 keenest emotion. Next to him sat the Rev. Samuel Longfellow, a brother 
 of the poet, himself a man of the Channing type, his keen, piercing eye 
 taking in the whole scene. And on the outer edge of the half-circle sat 
 the venerable A. Bronson Alcott, a Boston schoolmaster when Chan- 
 ning was at the height of his fame, now an octogenarian, apparently the 
 youngest man on the platform, as eager as Emerson to catch every 
 point, and evidently feeling in some undefinablc way that Channing was
 
 374 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 a part of his own life. 'Fhe faces of these men, as emotions and mem- 
 ories clian^jed the features, was the unforgetable part of the occasion. 
 It was lik-e reading history, personated by the actors themselves, to 
 watch them. The speaker could have turned around at any moment 
 and said, "' Is this not so .'*" Emerson, all unconsciously to himself, was 
 irresistible. He had the eager look of youth. His countenance was all 
 flushed like that of a girl. You had to look at the thin gray hair to 
 keep to the fact that he was an old man. Though he spoke not a word, 
 his very presence, his deep, absorbing, silent interest in all that was said 
 and done, did more to make the occasion great and memorable than any- 
 thing else. It is he who once said of Channing, " In our wantonness, 
 we often flout Dr. Channing, and say he is getting old; but, as soon as 
 he is ill, we remember he is our bishop, and we have not done with him 
 yet." And it is he of whom Channing once said, " He is a great moral 
 and, I am glad to think, also profoundly Christian teacher, who deserves 
 our respect by his whole life": he "seems to be gifted to speak to an 
 audience which is not addressed by any of us." Emerson himself was 
 the silent but conspicuous hero of the Channing Centennial. — Corre- 
 spondence of the Independettt.
 
 CELEBRATIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN 
 AND IRELAND.
 
 THE CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 
 
 MEETING AT ST. JAMES' HALL. 
 
 [From the report in the Inquirer of April lo.] 
 
 On Wednesday evening, April 7, St. James' Hall was 
 filled in almost every part by a brilliant assembly, met to 
 celebrate the centenary of the birth of William Ellery Chan- 
 ning. Near the organ were draped the flags of England 
 and the United States, and the front of the platform was 
 profusely decorated with choice flowers. While the audi- 
 ence were assembling, a very appropriate selection of music 
 from Mendelssohn and Handel was played on the fine organ 
 by Mr. Thomas Petitt, organist lof the Bach Choir ; and the 
 Hallelujah Chorus was played at the close of the meeting. 
 
 After teas had been served to a constant succession of 
 parties in a large room adjoining the Great Hall, the Chair 
 was taken by Mr. David Martineau, the President of the 
 British and P'oreign Unitarian Association, who was sur- 
 rounded on the platform, among others, by Mrs. Arnold and 
 her son (the daughter and grandson of the Rev. W. H. 
 Channing, the nephew and biographer of Channing) ; the 
 Revs. Dr. Martineau, Dr. Sadler, Dr. S. Davidson, Dr. Wy- 
 sard (German Lutheran Church), Dr. Laird Collier, R. 
 Spears, J. Lstlin Carpenter, C. V>. Upton, James Drummond,
 
 3/8 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 T. VV. Freckelton, C. Wicksteed, H. Solly, T. L. Marshall, 
 E. M. Geldart, J. Worthington, T. Rix, M. C. Gascoigne, T. 
 Crow, G. Carter, C. Corkran, F. Summers, J. T. Whitehead, 
 P. H. Wicksteed, W. J. Odgers, J. Shannon, J. P. Ham, J. 
 Martin, J. E. Stead, T. Dobson (Brighton), T. Taylor (Hors- 
 ham), P. W. Clayden, J. Baldwin Brown, C. Shakespeare 
 (St. Stephen's, Westbourne-grove), J. N. Hoare, Mark Wilks, 
 
 W. Dorling, Roe (Vicar of St. Catherine's, Brixton), W. 
 
 Panckridge (St. Matthew's, City-road), W. Urwick, Dr. Ave- 
 ling, John Stanton, J. Charlesworth (Rotherham), Professor 
 E. H. Plumptre, Dr. Carpenter, F.R.S. ; Messrs. Meadows 
 Martineau, J. P., T. Hughes, Q.C., E. Clodd, F. Nettlefold, 
 S. S. Tayler, R. Glover, J. P., T. C. Clarke, W. Shaen, J. T. 
 Hart, E. Lawrence, C. Watson, Courtney Kenney, C. E. 
 Mudie, E. Bromley, Carvell Williams, C. Allen (Secretary 
 of the Anti-slavery Society), W. Talleck (Secretary of the 
 Howard Society), etc. 
 
 In the body of the hall, we observed the Revs. R. B. 
 Drummond (Edinburgh), D. Amos (Southampton), C. M. 
 Birrell, P. M. Higginson (Styal), J. R. McKee, V. Davis 
 (Nottingham), J. G. Evans (Preston), J. D. H. Smyth, Mrs. 
 Madge, Mrs. G. Martineau, Mrs. C. Holland, Miss Anna 
 Swanwick, Dr. Wylde, Dr. Haward, Dr. Longstaff; Messrs. 
 J. T. Preston, R. Bartram, T. Smith Osier, Q.C., J. Gregory 
 Foster, Dr. Aspland, G. Lawford, M. D. Conway, J. Hobson 
 (Sheffield), etc. 
 
 A considerable number of letters have been received, ex- 
 pressing sympathy with the objects of the meeting, and 
 regretting inability to attend ; among others, from Sir J. C. 
 Lawrence, Miss F. P. Cobbe, the Hon. and Rev. W. H. 
 Fremantle, the Revs. John Macnaught, Dr. Bayley (Sweden- 
 borgian), H, Griffith, W. Young, Dr. G. Vance Smith, J. C. 
 Harrison, Dr. A. J. Ross, Johnson Barker, LL.B., and John 
 Hunter (York), etc.
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 379 
 
 At least, two thousand persons must have been present, 
 four-fifths of whom, we judge, were members of the Unita- 
 rian and Free Christian Churches. 
 
 The following hymn, by J. Mason Neale, was sung to the 
 tune " Weber " with great spirit and feeling by the whole 
 assembly : — 
 
 They whose course on earth is o'er, 
 Think they of their brethren more ? 
 They before the throne who bow, 
 Feel they for their brethren now .'' 
 
 Yea, the holy dead have still 
 Part in all our joy and ill ; 
 One in heart, and one in love ; 
 We below, and they above. 
 
 Those whom many a land divides, 
 Many mountains, many tides, 
 Have they with each other part .-' 
 Have they fellowship in heart ? 
 
 Each to each may be unknown, 
 Wide apart their lots be thrown; 
 Differing tongues their lips may speak; 
 One be strong, and one be weak : 
 
 Yet, in tear and sigh and prayer, 
 Each with other hath a share; 
 With each other join they here 
 In affliction, doubt, and fear. 
 
 So with them our hearts we raise. 
 Share their work, and join their praise ; 
 Blessed pledge that we shall be 
 Joined, O Lord, in bliss with thee. 
 
 An appropriate prayer was offered by the Rev. Professor 
 Drummond. 
 
 The Chairman. — I would now like to call upon the secre- 
 tary to read two or three letters from persons who had 
 hoped to be with us this evening, and whose hearts are very 
 heartily with us, but in consequence of other events taking 
 place just now have been prevented. I may mention that
 
 380 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 James Russell Lowell, who is at present the United States 
 Minister at the Court of St. James, expressed to our secre- 
 tary his deep regret that, owing to the unfortunate illness 
 of his wife, he has been obliged to return to Madrid, other- 
 wise he would hope to have been with us here, and has sent, 
 as many of you know, a very beautiful elegy, which has ap- 
 peared in one of our papers last week. 
 
 The Rev. H. Ierson. — The first letter is a very brief one 
 from the Rev. Stopford Brooke, who says, " I should have 
 liked to acknowledge in some way my great obligations to 
 Dr. Channing, — obligations which I shall never forget, and 
 which I can scarcely overestimate," — but he is from town, 
 and not able to be present. Mr. George MacDonald writes 
 to thank the committee for the honor they do him in desir- 
 ing his presence at the commemoration : " It would have 
 given me much pleasure to be there, but I shall not be in 
 England so early in the year. I hope you will have some 
 one from Boston with you. There Channing's spirit seems 
 to hang brooding over the place." A letter from Mr. Mur- 
 phy, of the Lambeth Mission, expresses his interest in Dr. 
 Channing's work and his desire to honor so noble a mem- 
 ory, but he regrets that he is not able to be here. There 
 is a letter from the eminent lecturer of the Hibbert Trust of 
 this week, M. Renan, who writes : " I regret sincerely that 
 an engagement that I had accepted for the evening of 
 Wednesday, some time since, will not permit me to join 
 your Association in celebrating the centenary of the birth 
 of Channing. Channing was a true prophet. He heard 
 with a rare justice the first warning sounds of the clock 
 of the future gospel. You have reason to honor, as pillars 
 of the eternal Christianism, these saints of the nineteenth 
 century, the grandest of all that Rome will not canonize. 
 The doctrine of Channing, entirely a doctrine of peace 
 and love, will remain true, whatever be the evolutions of
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 38 1 
 
 science and of the free spirit." A letter addressed to the 
 committee from Mr. Frank Channing, who is at present 
 very busily occupied in election matters in his neighbor- 
 hood, expresses his deep interest in the meeting, and his 
 great regret that he, a member of the family, in the absence 
 of his father, at present in America, is not able to be with 
 you ; but he gives a letter, which might have been read to 
 the meeting, had time permitted. But you will be inter- 
 ested to know that the nephew of Dr. Channing has a son 
 in England, whose spirit is with you on the present occa- 
 sion. [The President here remarked that a daughter of the 
 Rev. W. H. Channing was present.] Dr. E. A. Abbott 
 regrets that the state of his health prevents his being able 
 to be present ; but he says : " What I have read of Chan- 
 ning increases my regret at my enforced absence. I hope 
 many more worthy representatives of the Church of Eng- 
 land will be present to testify that, from the contemplation 
 of Channing's simple allegiance and loyal devotion to Christ, 
 it is impossible even for us Trinitarians not to derive a 
 spiritual benefit, and to feel that, even as regards the wor- 
 ship of Christ, we have much to learn from the study of the 
 words and works of so true a servant of our common Mas- 
 ter. But what has most impressed me has been the thor- 
 ough and systematic manner in which this great prophet of 
 reform applied the principle of Christianity to social and 
 political questions. It is here, most of all, that we of the 
 Church of England must feel that in Channing we have a 
 pattern whom we should do well to keep before our minds 
 for many generations. And, for my part, after reading his 
 discourse on Slavery, and that on the Abolitionists, and 
 contrasting his political theory and practice with that of 
 many of my brethren in the Church, I am tempted to wish 
 that there might be added to our Thirty-nine Articles 
 yet a fortieth, teaching our clergy to distinguish between
 
 382 CHANNlNCi CENTKNAKV. 
 
 that lower form of politics, which he describes as the tactics 
 oC party for gaining power, and that higher form which he 
 defines as the study and pursuit of the true, enduring good 
 of the community, and the application of great, unchange- 
 able principles to ]niblic affairs, which latter pursuit no 
 minister of Christ can neglect with spiritual impunity. 
 More especially, in his discourses on the elevation of the 
 laboring classes, I know not who can fail to sympathize 
 with his high yet sober idea of the future in store for work- 
 ingmen, with his anticipations of the powerful part that 
 Christianity is destined to play in bringing about the 
 brighter state of things to come, and with his indignant 
 protest that the future influence of Christianity must not 
 be judged from its effect in those past periods in which 
 it has been perverted to a political engine for making the 
 poor poorer, and for preventing the meek from inheriting 
 the earth." I have read the substance of Dr. Abbott's 
 letter. The next is a letter from Dr. Stoughton. He 
 says : " There would be no necessity to entreat me to 
 attend the meeting you purpose to hold, were it in my 
 power to be present ; but I stand engaged to visit Italy 
 with some of my family next month, and I do not expect 
 to be back till the latter part of May. Dr. Channing has 
 been to me from my youth a favorite author. Though, of 
 course, I did not accept some of his theological opinions, 
 yet I derived from some of his discourses much spiritual 
 profit and enjoyment. They had an elevating and purify- 
 ing effect, which I hope never to lose. There is a passage 
 in his sermon on the character of Christ, which I have often 
 quoted in the pulpit, and which now comes to me in my 
 solitude with a peculiar force, as I think of those who are 
 gone, and of that blessed Saviour who has taken them to 
 himself : ' He lives and reigns. With a clear, calm faith, I 
 see him in that state of glory; and I confidently expect, at
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 383 
 
 no distant period, to see him face to face. We have, in- 
 deed, no absent friend whom we shall so surely meet.' 
 Dr. Channing's advocacy of negro emancipation, when the 
 name of it was cast out as evil, and the cause in Amer- 
 ica was trampled under foot, awakened my warmest enthu- 
 siasm ; and, in his just views of war and its accompani- 
 ments of different kinds, — deceitful hero-worship, false 
 splendor and glory, as well as slaughter and sin, — I fully 
 sympathized. His thoughts on the ministry for the poor, 
 the Sunday-school, the obligations of a State to take care 
 and watch over the moral health of its members, — these 
 bore a high value in my estimation, and were often pondered 
 by me in my early days, when engaged in arduous pastoral 
 work." One or two lines from Dr. Raleigh's letter you 
 would like to hear. He is referring to the movements in 
 favor of reform which Channing advocated at a time when 
 they had but few friends. " More than forty years ago," 
 he continues, " when I was hardly more than a lad, the 
 perusal of some of his writings gave my mind one of the 
 most powerful and freshening impulses it has ever received, 
 and one of the most lasting ; for I believe that what I then 
 received has mingled congenially and wholesomely with 
 later thoughts, and with some of my deepest convictions. 
 I write these few lines to you, that you may understand 
 that I am not excusing myself without a cause," and he 
 wishes that his name should be mentioned as sympathizing 
 with the object, of this meeting. I can only mention to 
 you that I have a letter from Mathew Jochumsson, who 
 is carrying on work and preaching the gospel according 
 to the free interpretation in Iceland. He sends his hearty 
 congratulations to this meeting, and wishes that his name 
 should be mentioned in connection with this grand occa- 
 sion. We have also received a letter from Mr. William 
 Rathbone, to which justice c(nikl not be done by extracts,
 
 3S4 CHANNMN(i CKNTENARY. 
 
 though time will not allow of its being read in full ; also a 
 telegram from the Executive Committee of the Protestant 
 Union of Germany, to this effect: "The Executive Com- 
 mittee of the German Protestantenverein sends its cordial 
 good wishes for the celebration of the hundredth birthday 
 of Dr. William Ellery Channing, the great modern apostle 
 of the true humanity of Jesus, the defender of the rights of 
 man against slavery in Church and State. May his ideas 
 penetrate the communities of the Old and New World, 
 and unite them into one great Christian Church according 
 to the Channing ideal ! " I might mention the names of 
 a number of gentlemen who have sent letters, and with 
 them sentences of very expressive sympathy with the 
 object of the meeting; but it would detain you too long 
 from the speeches to which you are to listen. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Martineau. — I may venture to say one word on 
 behalf of the Dean of Westminster. I the more readily 
 spoke to him about this meeting some weeks ago, because 
 he had told me that, when he was in America, he believed 
 he never preached a single sermon without mentioning the 
 honored name of Channing. I knew therefore that he felt 
 an interest in the works and in the life of Channing. When 
 this occasion was named to him, he took it up with great 
 interest and zeal, entered it in his diary as an engagement, 
 and most fully intended to be with us this night. But after- 
 wards I had a letter from him, in which he explained that 
 a very unusual pressure of work had considerably broken 
 him down, and unfitted him for the pressure of the season 
 coming on in London, that he found it was absolutely nec- 
 essary for him to seize some opportunity of quitting London 
 and being in the country. The only days that were at his 
 disposal for that purpose were, unfortunately, precisely the 
 days including this meeting. He is now in the Island of 
 Guernsey for the sake of a little refreshment ; and he writes
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 385 
 
 to me, begging me to explain this matter, and to say that 
 he trusts that neither within nor without the limits of the 
 Church will his absence be mistrusted or misunderstood. 
 
 The Chairman. — Ladies and gentlemen, we have assem- 
 bled here this evening to celebrate the centenary of the birth 
 of that man of venerated memory, Dr. William Ellery Chan- 
 ning ; and we may feel that, in this endeavor to pay hom- 
 age where so much admiration and gratitude are due, we are 
 joining with thousands who are now meeting in other lands 
 and in far distant places to celebrate the event. They are 
 refreshing, as we hope to do, their minds and hearts with 
 deep draughts from the well of his intense religious devo- 
 tion at these memorial meetings. We welcome with out- 
 stretched, cordial hands all lovers of Channing from what- 
 ever church or communion they may come ; for in all 
 churches and climes good men are to be found, who know 
 and revere and love the name of Channing. His words and 
 his w^orks are cosmopolitan and for all time. They are 
 words of love and reverence and wisdom concerning the 
 Eternal Father of mankind, and of man as God's child and 
 our brother wherever he may be found. And it is in this 
 spirit of our great Exemplar, Christ, in whose steps Chan- 
 ning so humbly, so lovingly, so confidingly walked, that we 
 welcome all here to-night to assist in honoring this truly 
 great, this wonderfully God-loving man, and to<lo what may 
 in us lie to extend still wider and more fully the knowledge 
 and appreciation of his works and of the spirit of their 
 author. We shall thus fulfil the cherished wish of his life 
 to extend more fully this influence, and make it a common 
 property, universal everywhere, — that ennobling, glorious, 
 intense consciousness of the Deity that he felt as the loving 
 parent, the support, and at the same time the reason of man's 
 existence. If for a moment we look back over the pages of 
 history to the surroundings of Channing this day hundred 
 20
 
 ^86 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 years, and consider the progress which the more educated 
 and refined portion of the world has made since then, politi- 
 cally, morally, socially, and religiously, we see and feel the 
 effect that Channing and scores of God-loving, God-fearing 
 men like him have had in purifying and ennobling their 
 race, and may feel well strengthened by the knowledge of 
 that progress to strive to keep it alive and growing. The 
 poet says, and I cannot help thinking that there is great 
 force in his words : — 
 
 " Where is the victory of the grave ? 
 What dust upon the spirit lies ? 
 God keeps the sacred life he gave ; 
 The prophet never dies." 
 
 I shall now beg our good friend. Dr. Martineau, the Prin- 
 cipal of Manchester New College, to commence the proceed- 
 ings of this evening by a short address. 
 
 DE. MAETDTEAU'S ADDEESS. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Martineau, who was received with loud ap- 
 plause, said : Mr. Chairman and friends, if I accepted the 
 office of opening the proceedings of this evening, it is be- 
 cause of the century upon which we are to look back to- 
 night, as I have myself an experience of three-fourths. But 
 I can assure" you that this is but a very partial advantage, 
 for the debt which it piles up is great ; and to attempt to 
 compress the gratitude of sixty years in the course of the 
 words of half an hour is certainly an attempt not very likely 
 to be successful. Your Chairman has promised for me that 
 my address shall be short. Sir, I will do my best to make 
 it so; but, if my duty is to lay compendiously before the 
 meeting the elements of the great subject which engages 
 us here, that subject is so rich and various and many-sided 
 that it is hardly possible without a considerable use of time
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 387 
 
 to perform the task that is committed to me. I shall most 
 compendiously do so, I think, if I try first of all to sketch 
 slightly the growth of the characteristics of Channing's 
 mind and life, and then, having viewed them as they run 
 down in time from his biography, to review them with 
 the intention to select, if possible, the regulating principle, 
 the central thought, ideal, or faith which forms the unity 
 of the whole. You all know that he was born at Newport 
 in Rhode Island ; and there is so much, we are told, in the 
 bright skies and the beautiful undulating surface, and the 
 fine sands and rocks of that island, so much to tempt one 
 to say that they may have exercised a great influence in 
 the formation of such a mind as Channing's, that I might 
 easily be tempted to dwell upon it. But there are many 
 children that were born under precisely those influences, 
 in the same year, at the same time, and those children did 
 not become Ellery Channings. Therefore, I dismiss these 
 altogether ; and I do not suppose that we are to look upon 
 the rocks of Rhode Island to see inscribed upon them the 
 future characteristics of our saint. Nevertheless, during: 
 the youth of Channing there were some small circumstances 
 which really did, I believe, plant a germ of the future man ; 
 and it is not infrequent that during the life of childhood 
 incidents that appear to adults to be but trifling produce 
 an effect that rarely fails to be considerable in after-life. 
 
 I find indications that almost all the great causes in which 
 Channing enlisted were more or less introduced to his intei"- 
 est in his childhood. Rhode Island was at the time of his 
 boyhood engaged in that abominable commerce, the slave- 
 trade. Just as the merchants of Liverpool and of Bristol 
 at that time carried their cargo of African negroes to sell 
 them to the Western world, so the merchants of Rhode Isl- 
 and were engaged in this trade also. If this were all, it 
 might have produced no effect. Usually, it was a subject
 
 388 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 never adverted to in the place ; but there was one venerable 
 and faithful man, with the old Puritan spirit in his heart, 
 Dr. Hopkins, a celebrated disciple of Jonathan Edwards, 
 who was preaching in that place when Channing was young. 
 And Hopkins saw, what apparently no other person there 
 saw, that the slave-trade was a wickedness and an abomina- 
 tion ; and he preached from the pulpit openly, notwithstand- 
 ing the resistance of his flock and the unpopularity which it 
 occasioned. This aroused a controversy in the place ; and 
 Channing as a boy knew that there were two sides to this 
 question, was brought to reflect upon it, and his sensitive 
 and gentle nature began to work upon the merits of this 
 question from that time. Again, it would appear that the 
 question of temperance, in which he took so much interest, 
 was not altogether asleep, even in those early days. Though 
 the habits of the place were strongly convivial, yet there 
 was at least one man who held up his protest against it. 
 There was a Baptist clergyman, a certain Father Thurston, 
 who was in the habit of preaching against intemperance, of 
 testifying in favor of total abstinence ; and, what is more, he 
 bore his testimony in his life. The man was excessively poor : 
 he was not able to live upon his small stipend, and in the 
 week-day he eked out his scanty means — how do you sup- 
 pose .'' He took the tools, the chopper, of a journeyman 
 cooper, and worked in the cooper's yard, and preached upon 
 the Sunday to his people. He made a restriction for his 
 work : he declined to make any hogsheads or puncheons 
 which were employed to carry wines and spirits, and 
 he made it a stipulation with his employers that he should 
 make nothing but pails and water-bottles ; and this whim- 
 sical testimony to the value of temperance made an effect 
 upon the heart of that boy, and the subject never after- 
 wards slept. So that there were germs, after all, of the 
 future Channing even in these early experiences. Nay, the
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 389 
 
 sincerity and depth of his religion, and also some of his her- 
 esies, — these also were planted in him by his experience as 
 a boy. He tells the story of his being taken by his father 
 to hear a celebrated preacher some miles from Newport ; and 
 the sermon was one of those dreadful sermons upon human 
 perdition and hell-fire, which so often strike into the heart 
 of young persons with terror. This tender-hearted boy was 
 sunk into anguish by the hearing of this sermon, the more 
 so when, on coming out of the place, he heard his father 
 make a remark to a member of the congregation, "Very 
 sound doctrine, sir." Well, then, he thought. All this is 
 true, then, is it .■" When he went home, he sank into 
 silence in the carriage, thinking that his father would 
 make some remark upon this ; but, to his astonishment, his 
 father broke out into a jolly whistle, whistled a tune, and 
 in that way went home. He thought when he got home he 
 would tell the dreadful news he had heard ; but no, his father 
 kicked off his boots, took up his newspaper, flung himself 
 into his easy-chair, and enjoyed himself at his ease for the 
 rest of the day. This produced a profound impression. It 
 left upon his mind not a distinct conviction, but a conscious- 
 ness of an inconsistency between the things taught in the 
 pulpit and the life that was lived by men in reality. 
 No doubt he from that time began to make allowances 
 for that ; and he must have thought that it was no real 
 voice of God that uttered those dreadful thunders, that it 
 was only the echoes of echoes which men themselves hardly 
 believe at the moment that they spoke them. Thus the 
 very root of sincerity, and at the same time the root of 
 heresy, was planted in that boy by such experience. After 
 he had lived about to the age of fifteen, he went to college; 
 and at college there were two or three additional elements 
 contributed to his character. One of those arose from his 
 falling upon one or two books which are now almost forgot-
 
 390 CHANNINC; CENTKNAKY. 
 
 ten, but which produced a revolution in his character. Hith- 
 erto, he had heard upon the subject of human nature and 
 moral philosophy nothing but the French doctrine of self- 
 love alone as the animating principle of human nature on 
 the one hand, and on the other the Calvinistic doctrine of 
 the absolutism of God, which rendered all morality arbitrary, 
 and made things right and wrong simply because they were 
 appointed by the will of God. When he went to Hutcheson 
 and to Ferguson, he found a different doctrine, — a doctrine 
 that the roots of morality were planted in human nature ; 
 that there was an intuition of right and wrong in every con- 
 science; that man was not intended to love himself alone, 
 but was susceptible of disinterested affection ; nay, that these 
 disinterested affections were often more powerful than all 
 the pleadings of conscience, and carried men into the noblest 
 self-forgetfulness and self-sacrifice. This conception laid 
 powerful hold of his mind, and from that time he felt as if 
 he were delivered into a fresh atmosphere, and able to look 
 upon mankind with different eyes. The other fresh influence 
 borne upon him was from a profound study of the evidences 
 and characteristics of Christianity, which had never before 
 been brought before him excepting through the medium of 
 the pulpit. The moment he came in contact with Christian- 
 ity, interpreted by his now illuminated and liberated nature, 
 he felt its congeniality. He said, I found that for which I 
 was made, and from that time I made my vow to devote 
 myself to the service of God in teaching the universal prin- 
 ciples of Christianity. After his college life was over, he 
 took a tutorship : the tutorship was in Virginia, and it brought 
 him into immediate and personal contact with slavery. It 
 made him acquainted with the kind of society which slavery 
 creates, and so uncongenial was it that he felt himself in a 
 condition of almost absolute solitude. He went to that place 
 with vigorous health, with high spirits, a perfect athlete in
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 39 1 
 
 his activity ; but that solitude sunk him into depression. 
 He became ascetic and miserable ; and at the end of four 
 years he left that position with broken health, an invalid 
 filled with infirmities from which he never afterwards recov- 
 ered. But one influence had been poured upon his mind. 
 He had never before studied social questions. The touch of 
 slavery induced him to do so. For a time, he fell under 
 the fascination of some of those speculative writers that so 
 abounded in that time, who held up the promise of a golden 
 age for society. I refer to Rousseau, to Godwin, to Mary 
 Wollstonecraft, to the English writers who called themselves 
 Pantisocratists ; that is to say, Southey and Coleridge, who 
 had intended to go to America, to form an ideal society 
 there. These speculations fascinated him; and he was deliv- 
 ered from these delusions only by that previous conversion, 
 you may say, to the life of God, which enabled him to trans- 
 figure this mere picture of a secular golden age into the hopQ 
 and promise of a true kingdom of God. With that experi- 
 ence, I take it, the various directions of his mind and affec- 
 tions were all brought out. No doubt, his nature grew 
 enormously ; but it grew in all dimensions, grew symmetri- 
 cally upon all sides. And I cannot see that there is any 
 fresh empire which he conquered after that time. He set- 
 tled in Boston for a ministry of nearly forty years, a ministry 
 first of all alone for twenty years, afterwards for sixteen 
 years with a colleague to help him, and with an interval 
 between of two years, highly interesting years, in which he 
 visited this country and other countries of Europe. I will 
 only mention one or two little things with regard to this 
 particular visit, which I myself well remember. The two 
 persons he was most anxious to see were the two poets, 
 Coleridge and Wordsworth. He sought Coleridge first of all. 
 Now Coleridge was a man who at that time was distinguished 
 for the extraordinary acrimony with which he attacked the
 
 39- CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 thcolocy which Channing himself professed. Coleridge 
 had been a preacher of the theology in his youth, but he 
 had changed, as most persons know ; and, like many con- 
 verts, he showed peculiar bitterness toward the views which 
 he had renounced. Nevertheless, when he came in personal 
 contact with Channing, there was something so winning, 
 something so deep in his spiritual nature, that his prejudices 
 seemed to be entirely conquered, and he used this remarkable 
 expression after he had left him. He said : " Dr. Channing 
 loves the good as the good, and the true as the true, with 
 the righteous subordination of the latter to the former, that 
 absolute justice to both which I declare from my heart of 
 hearts appears to me to constitute the very rarest of 
 human characters." Wordsworth he visited from Gras- 
 mere, where he was staying ; but it might well be wished 
 that the long conversations that they had had been reported 
 to us. They were held, however, under conditions not very 
 favorable to a report. He called upon Wordsworth ; and, 
 after a short stay, the philosopher, who was very fond of a 
 walk, proposed to return on foot to Grasmere. After a little 
 while, Channing be,came exhausted, within half a mile, and 
 proposed that they should ride the rest of the way. Well, 
 they both mounted the vehicle, and resumed their conversa- 
 tion ; but the vehicle was a one-horse cart, and in those pre- 
 macadamite days the roads of the Lake country were not 
 particularly smooth, and this was not exactly a position in 
 which to hold a Socratic dialogue, and their speculations no 
 doubt were shaken to a mere fragmentary philosophy, the 
 elements of which have never been reported to us. He left 
 this country without visiting scarcely any of the friends who 
 are connected with him socially. Well, now, I regard the 
 period of his life that followed, by far the most prolific 
 period, as that of which I should say the least. The period 
 of his home ministry was that of his great sermons, — the
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 393 
 
 period which determined and defined his theology. The 
 period of his colleagueship was the period of his great 
 essays, — the essays upon Milton, upon Fenelon, upon Napo- 
 leon Bonaparte ; and subsequently it was the period also of 
 his noble and manly civil action upon the subject of slavery, 
 and his splendid manifestoes against that abomination. 
 Upon that subject, I shall say nothing. 
 
 I will now, therefore, advert to the second part of what I 
 have to say ; and that is. What is the spirit of the man, and 
 what is the unity which blends together the parts of this 
 various life .'' I will only make one further remark before I 
 proceed to this, upon the personal features of his life. There 
 is nothing strikes me more than this in it. He began his 
 ministry in a kind of plaintive, pathetic, almost sad tone, 
 with a profound sense of human evils, and with the deepest 
 and almost desponding humility. The last years of his life 
 were all brightness : he declared that the perfection which 
 was revealed to the human heart was never intended to de- 
 press us and to make us feel despair at our shortcomings, but 
 to present us with a kindling object, to present us with our 
 future destiny, — the destiny which we may reach, if only 
 we pursue it in faith and love. Accordingly, his depression 
 ceased. His joy in nature, his delight in his friends, his 
 hopes for society, became more and more exhilarated the 
 older he grew ; and, at last, his last days seemed to be almost 
 days of 1 riumph. But very few weeks before he died, he de- 
 livered one of the most delightful addresses which is to be 
 found in his works. It was to commemorate for the third 
 time the emancipation by England of her West Indian slaves. 
 It was delivered upon the ist of August, the day when the 
 emancipation took place ; and he said in a letter to a friend, 
 "I have written this under the inspiration of the mountains; 
 and the mountains, you know, arc the holy land of liberty." 
 That address breathes the very spirit of freedom and of joy :
 
 394 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 it breathes a rare elevation, and it commands a wide horizon 
 of human affairs. A few weeks after that, his call came to 
 him. He was sitting among the Green Mountains of Ver- 
 mont ; and at sundown, upon the 2d of October, 1842, as his 
 face was turned to the window to see the sinking glow upon 
 the hills, his call came, and his spirit passed away as if in 
 pursuit of the sinking light which he loved, as if he could 
 not tear himself away from it ; and he entered that perfect 
 life which ever moved before his thought, and of which he 
 has left us the prophecy and the foreview. Who would not 
 utter the prayer that so the Father of Lights may glorify for 
 us the west, when we shall sink to final rest } Now, I take 
 it that throughout this tender and great life one thought 
 and one faith constituted its cardinal point. I mean the 
 faith in moral perfection as the essence of God, and as the 
 supreme end, least developed, of our fellow-men as having 
 potentially within them that very perfection which we recog- 
 nize in the saints and heroes of mankind. It furnished him 
 also with his social doctrine; for, if that be the nature and 
 destination of man, then every power which suppresses or 
 which perverts this moral nature, or prevents the unfolding 
 of this mental and spiritual nature of man, is a wrong done 
 to our fellow-men. But, if it can be remedied, it must be 
 remedied. Therefore the State or society must exercise a 
 brotherly guardianship over the poorer members, to remedy 
 their ignorance ; over its elements in thraldom, to redeem 
 their slavery ; over all who are put down by force ; over, for 
 e.xample, the contentions of nations, which might be settled, 
 or ought to be settled, by reason or by right from the 
 necessity of settling them by the barbarous resort to force. 
 All these social doctrines flow at once from this one principle. 
 So with regard to the future of each other : who can 
 despair of the future of a being constituted as Channing con- 
 ceived man to be constituted ? Is that reason which is the
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 395 
 
 organ of truth, is that conscience which is the instrument 
 for perceiving right, is that sense of beauty which is the 
 adornment of life, to be forever under a cloud, forever sup- 
 pressed, and never to burst through and declare what its 
 efficacy and prerogatives are ? It is impossible.' He, there- 
 fore, anticipated that there must be a period of society in 
 which all these faculties should assert their prerogatives 
 and attain their true dignity. And so of the future of the 
 individual soul : one who measures it by Channing's standard 
 cannot but feel that the small limits of human years give 
 but inadequate scope for the assertion of its real powers, and 
 that another and a greater future must await it, — a future 
 which will be proportionate to its conceptions and which 
 will realize its ideals. Therefore, I say that this one idea 
 is capable of application throughout the whole of life ; and 
 accordingly one thing is noticeable by every reader of 
 Channing, — he tries everything really by this standard. 
 Whatever be his subject, whether he follows the filibuster- 
 ing troops into Texas, whether he follows the armies of 
 Napoleon or looks into the garrets of Boston under the 
 guidance of Tuckerman, whether he treats of the character 
 of Milton or of Fenelon, whatever the subject is, the same 
 great thoughts are forever returning, — the grandeur of the 
 human soul, the solemnity of duty, the difference between 
 false and true glory, — these are the thoughts that contin- 
 ually turn up. I have heard fastidious litteratem's com- 
 plain of this monotony of Channing's writings, of this 
 uniformity. Why, I say you might as well complain of 
 a teacher of mechanics that he wearies you with the law 
 of gravitation, because that is a formula that he has to 
 apply to every problem. One of the great signs of excel- 
 lence of a large grand formula is that there is no end to 
 the cases which it will resolve, and any one who can place 
 himself in possession of such a one as will solve all prob-
 
 396 CHAXNIXG CENTENARY. 
 
 Icms takes his stand upon the highest altitudes of human 
 intelligence. I know that this faith is looked upon in 
 our day as a kind of romance. The heart of the pres- 
 ent age is greatly depressed by the sense of the evils of 
 society and of the degradations of large portions of man- 
 kind. Well, I even venture to say that this very feeling; 
 instead of contradicting the doctrine of Channing, is the 
 strongest confirmation of it. What inference do we draw 
 from these sad and deplorable phenomena .-' Do we draw 
 the inference that our nature is made for them, that it 
 is upon the level, that they are the proper standard, 
 that there is nothing else whatsoever in that nature except 
 that which is se.en upon those low steps of development.' 
 If so, I say these evils would never sadden us at all : if 
 they were native to us, if they were what we were made 
 for, they would no more sadden us than would the lower 
 destination of the brutes. They would be akin, they would 
 be in harmony with, the measure of our powers ; and the 
 reason why we are depressed is because we cannot bear 
 to see a nature so great in a plight so vile. It is, 
 therefore, a testimony to the inner consciousness we all 
 have that we are made for better things ; and accordingly 
 the very tragic character of this, the very pathos of pessi- 
 mism, is actually lent to it by the doctrine that it contradicts. 
 It is, therefore, quite possible to face these great evils, and 
 yet at the same time to hold this great faith. Surely, I 
 need not remind you of Him who said, " Be ye perfect as 
 your Father in heaven is perfect." Did that imply a for- 
 getfulness of human sorrows, of human guilt, of human sin, 
 or was this sublime precept given by One before whom the 
 whole dark picture was revealed more than it has ever 
 been to any human eye .-' So it was, as it seems to me, in 
 Channing. He had a mind singularly sensitive to even the 
 minor evils of life : he had what would be called a kind of
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 397 
 
 fastidiousness, which would recoil from every thing which 
 was inharmonious, which was ugly, which was base. You 
 cannot imagine a nature that shrank more from evil, and 
 yet he never hid it from himself. Who has given descrip- 
 tions of it that are more passionate, that are more awful, 
 that are more touching ? And yet, with this picture before 
 him, his faith grew brighter and brighter as his years passed 
 on. He said at last : " What mysteries we are to ourselves ! 
 Here am I, finding the cup of life sweeter as I approach to 
 what are called its dregs ; seeing the face of man more hope- 
 fully, seeing nature more glorious, and having the brightest 
 hopes for society at the very time when I am most conscious 
 of its evils." This, I take it, is a tender and a sublime feel- 
 ing, which shows the absurdity of those oscillations between 
 optimism and pessimism, which we find in weaker minds 
 and weaker schools. The intensity of this faith in Chan- 
 ning showed itself in various ways, but especially in this. 
 Throughout his discourse, you find a perpetual sighing, as 
 it were, for some power to impress his convictions upon the 
 minds of others. He says again and again : " Oh, that I 
 had power to carry to your hearts the conviction of this 
 great destiny of yours ! Or if I had but a voice that could 
 reach your soul, to convince you of that which God has 
 designed for you ! " Well, my friends, I ask you. May we 
 not say, this night especially, that that prayer has been 
 answered ? That word of his surely has not gone forth 
 from him and been made void. You cannot say that it 
 is limited. Is it limited to his own land .-' Is it limited 
 to the English tongue .-* No : from every part, we have 
 almost a repetition of the miracle of Pentecost. From 
 every tongue where European civilization spreads, from 
 Ireland to Italy, that word of his has gone forth. And if 
 those who have been touched to the heart by that word 
 could fling their testimony into this hall at this very hour.
 
 398 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 I ask you, do you not think we should stand in presence of 
 a glorious chorus, — a chorus of the living and the dead, a 
 chorus which commemorates the past, and a chorus which 
 promises the future ? And surely we may bless God with 
 a thankful heart that he, being dead, so speaketh. 
 
 REV. J. BALDWIN BROWN'S ADDRESS. 
 
 The Rev. J. Baldwin Brown. — The brief paper which I 
 have undertaken to read to you to-night will concern itself 
 entirely with the character and work of Dr. Channing as a 
 spiritual teacher. To that I confine myself, for I under- 
 stand that the topics have been so distributed as to secure 
 some sort of unity in the business of the evening. 
 
 St. Peter little susi^ected the range of the emancipation 
 of thought and spirit of which he was the instrument, when 
 he " perceived that in every nation he that feareth God and 
 worketh righteousness is accepted with him." God is ever 
 guiding us into the same truth in relation to the creeds, but 
 we have not fully perceived it yet. In truth, it is hard work 
 for us, as it was hard work for Peter. But we must master 
 the lesson, or this weak, struggling, distracted condition of 
 the Church will prolong itself, to the sorrow and shame of 
 all Christian souls. Few sentences more blighting to the 
 germs which ripen into the fruits of the Spirit have been 
 spoken in Christendom than the celebrated judgment that 
 "the virtues of the heathen are but splendid vices." These 
 words, and the thought which inspired them, have made the 
 Church the witness against, and not to, the great human 
 world through all the Christian ages, and have filled the 
 sphere of Christian history with bitter enmities and fierce 
 contentions, instead of with a light of divine love, golden 
 and glorious as dawn, stealing on by gentle and yet tri- 
 umphant processes, and at length flooding the earth with
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 399 
 
 the splendor of the perfect day. There can be no question, 
 I fear, that the temptation of the churches is to transfer to 
 the graces of their Christian rivals the judgment once formu- 
 lated on the virtues of the heathen, and to look coldly and 
 with dark suspicion on the signs of a noble and faithful life 
 outside their own pale. That is, they are tempted to think 
 of themselves, and not of their Master ; of the credit of their 
 creeds, and not of the Saviour. 
 
 I suppose that one of the chief curses of Christendom 
 in all ages has been man's limitation of the kingdom of 
 heaven. The Saviour saw it. " Nevertheless, when the 
 Son of Man cometh, will he find faith in the earth," — 
 faith in him and in his kingdom, and not in the parodies of 
 it which man may set up in its stead, to mock the longing 
 hope of mankind. One of the best and most hopeful feat- 
 ures of the times in which we live is the measure in which 
 this perception of Peter's is spreading among Christians. 
 The churches are keen for their creeds still, and they are 
 bound to be keen. I am not here to-night because I think 
 lightly of the doctrinal belief which I hold in God manifest 
 in the flesh. Our creeds, if they are worth anything, are 
 something more than intellectual beliefs : they are modes of 
 apprehending and realizing vital facts, which are deeply 
 related to the noble and fair unfolding of the life. Life 
 gathers its tone and tinge from what it feeds on, and we are 
 bound to contend strenuously for what we believe to be the 
 truth of God in the doctrine and discipline of the Christian 
 Church. But the churches are opening the eyes of their 
 understandings to see that there is one thing greater 
 than their creeds, a Christ-like life, and to recognize and 
 honor it wherever it may appear ; nor are they startled 
 and perplexed, as they once were, if they find it in a very 
 pure and noble form quite outside their own pale. Two 
 things, I think, among many others, are found very hcli)ful
 
 400 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 to this happy result. The first is the tremendous trial 
 throui:;h which our common Christianity is passing. I will 
 not call it a deadly trial, for it is well that we should remem- 
 ber that there is nothing in God's truth which can die, or 
 even be in danger of dying ; but still the trial is a searching 
 one. The second is great Christian lives, of which a very 
 noble typical example is that of William Ellery Channing. 
 The assault on Christianity in these days is so determined, 
 and so aimed at that which is most vital, that the lovers of 
 the truth are drawn — I will not say driven — into closer 
 fellowship by the apparent peril of that which they hold 
 most dear. 
 
 The time of danger and pressure always brings out the 
 unity in communities, and shows the diversities in their real 
 proportion. "Blood is thicker than water," said the Amer- 
 ican captain, when he saw us hard pressed in China, and 
 gallantly struck into the fray on our side. It was esteemed 
 an omen of doom in the death struggle of the Jews that 
 their deadly peril inflamed instead of mitigated their intes- 
 tine hates. We are banded together, not to defend, — the 
 truth wants less defence than we think, — but to maintain 
 the truth of the gospel ; and we rejoice, as we stand shoulder 
 to shoulder, to find how much in heart and life we are due. 
 I say the truth wants less defence than we think. We are 
 not God's advocates, we are his witnesses. Speak the truth, 
 live the truth, and cease your fancies. It will defend and 
 advocate itself. But there can be no doubt that the assault 
 which is now directed on the very foundations of the faith 
 tends to band believers together in loving and holy fellow- 
 ship. And it is not only the essentials of Christianity 
 which are assailed : it is the essentials of humanity ; the 
 presence of a spirit in man, as well as the presence of a God 
 in nature, — a Being with whom man can hold living com- 
 munion, whose thoughts he can think out after him, and
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 4OI 
 
 whose presence will be the bliss of his heaven. And here I 
 am thankful to be able to acknowledge publicly, on behalf 
 of a great company, the deep debt of gratitude which 
 we owe to your distinguished scholar and preacher, Dr. 
 Martineau, for his noble and conclusive vindications of the 
 reality of the spiritual sphere, without whose experiences, 
 aspirations, and hopes, men would find, in the long run, 
 that life was not worth the living ; and when suicide would 
 again rise to the dignity of an art, as it did in the days of 
 imperial Rome. I think that some effectual part of Dr. 
 Channing's mantle rests on Dr. Martineau. The essential 
 dignity of man was the key-note of the deepest passages of 
 his writings, — the dignity of man and the love of God, 
 which is an essential part of that dignity ; and it is precisely 
 the spiritual dignity of man which Dr. Martineau has upheld 
 with such convincing power against the philosophy, falsely 
 so called, which would degrade it, and set it in the dust. 
 The wisest Christian teacher whom I have ever known, the 
 late A. J. Scott, of Manchester, said some thirty years ago, 
 " A theology that shuts out human interests is teaching men 
 a humanity that shuts out God and Christ." It was a 
 remarkable forecast of what we see around us now. In the 
 last generation, the dominant theology deliberately expelled 
 the larger human interests from its sphere, and preached a 
 kingdom of heaven whose principles and methods of adminis- 
 tration, when brought out into the sunlight, simply revolted 
 the heart and conscience of mankind. The present genera- 
 tion is striving strenuously to exclude God and Christ from 
 the human sphere, and is bent on trying the experiment 
 whether man's life, and the larger interests and activities of 
 human society, cannot be made to flourish without any re- 
 ligion at all. That is the question which the assize of the 
 "ermine-robed great world" is trying now. We may look 
 on the progress of the experiment, not with composure ex- 
 
 27
 
 402 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 actly. — the disturbance of sacred beliefs is too serious, the 
 agony of doubt and mental conflict into which earnest minds 
 and the young generation at large are plunged is too sad 
 for such composure, — but certainly we may regard it with- 
 out a shadow of alarm. Human life and Christian society 
 need Christ, just as the earth needs the sun ; and, when 
 men have satisfied themselves by experiment, — they must 
 satisfy themselves, — they will not take any account of it. 
 The theologians for a time have lost (and I fear righteously 
 lost) the confidence of the great world, — I say, when they 
 have learned by experiment in what debased and distorted 
 forms the fair flowers and fruits of life unfold themselves 
 in the cold, dark shade of atheism, they will be the first to 
 bring them out into the living sunlight once more. But this 
 is the religious problem of our times, — the reconciliation 
 of humanity with the theology of the Church ; and there will 
 be much sore pain and bitter strife before it is solved. Now, 
 I reckon it the chief distinction of William Ellery Chan- 
 ning that he was one of the first to see with clear eye the 
 disastrous tendencies of the dominant theology, and cer- 
 tainly one of the first to contend against it with passionate 
 earnestness, which made him a kind of prophet in his times. 
 His inmost soul revolted — and I touch here the centre of 
 his theological system, in the space at my command I can 
 deal only with central points — against that interior schism 
 in the divine nature which the popular language of the dom- 
 inant Evangelical school seemed to imply. The Son, repre- 
 senting mercy, acting on the Father, representing justice, 
 by means of an infinite sacrifice of pain, and moving him 
 by the compensation of a costly atonement to let his mercy 
 • lighten on the world, — that interior schism, which the fun- 
 damental tenets of Calvinism seem to me to imply, pre- 
 sented to the world such a conception of the divine nature 
 and ways as rendered Unitarianism inevitable as a protest ;
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 4O3 
 
 and there, you will forgive me for saying, though you will 
 not agree with me, I believe that its function ends. But 
 thus far it was needed ; and Channing gave voice to that 
 protest with a fire, a depth of conviction, a persuasive elo- 
 quence, and, I will add, with an Evangelical fervor, which to 
 me is Channing's chief charm among many noble and con- 
 spicuous qualities, which were unmatched in his generation, 
 and almost in our own. One thing he saw with marvellous 
 clearness, — and it is about the finest thing in the universe 
 to see, — the unity of the divine counsel, the divine thought, 
 the divine love in the work of human redemption. From 
 first to last, it was in his sight the blessed and glorious work 
 of the divine Son. I should say that the key-thought of his 
 theology was this deep sentence of St. Paul, "God was in 
 Christ, reconciling the world unto himself," not Christ rec- 
 onciling God to the world, but God in Christ, originating, 
 carrying on, and completing the work of the redemption of 
 mankind. 
 
 I should say that few Evangelical preachers have felt so 
 deeply, certainly few have experienced so powerfully, the 
 wealth of the attractive, regenerating, sanctifying power 
 which the Son of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, 
 supplied to the world. Here is the human as well as the 
 divine gospel, — a gospel which will bear the full sunlight of 
 man's reason, and will only reveal new depths of wisdom as 
 well as love to explore. And if ever there is to be a recon- 
 ciliation of the creeds of Christendom, if ever Trinitarian 
 and Unitarian are to be gathered in the bosom of one 
 Church, it must be on the basis of the Unity of Father, 
 Son, and Spirit in the redemption, the restoration, and the 
 rule of the great human world. This gospel Channing pro- 
 claimed with a freshness and a convincing power which had 
 their springs partly in the singular strength of his intel- 
 lectual conviction, but mainly in the fervor of his spiritual
 
 404 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 life. Ho spoke with the force and certainty of a prophet, 
 and men listened to him as to one who was inspired. Chan- 
 ning saw full clearly that, if Christianity was the universal 
 religion for man in all states, in all places, and for all time, it 
 must include the whole field of man's legitimate interests and 
 activities within its sphere. There was no human interest, 
 there was nothing which promised any measure of benedic- 
 tion to mankind, which he did not connect by natural necessity 
 with the gospel. It is not enough to say that he was about 
 the most eminent philanthropist of his tim.e, — a leader and an 
 early leader, in all those great movements which have added 
 so much to the dignity of life and the happiness of mankind. 
 About slavery, about drunkenness, about war, about educa- 
 tion, about contact with the ministry to the poor, you vv^ill 
 find him early in the century forecasting the line of Chris- 
 tian and social progress, which, at the end of the century, 
 we are following still with a rich harvest of blessing. He 
 had to struggle hard, and at the cost of much personal suf- 
 fering, to work into the mind and heart of Christians ideas 
 and habits of action on social matters which are now the 
 familiar things of Christian wisdom and the daily paths of 
 Christian love. He had wonderful insight, too, into the 
 position and mission of England. And I think that one of 
 the noblest passages in his writings is that in which he 
 traces the service which England had rendered to humanity 
 in her long, stern struggle with Napoleon, and deprecates 
 and censures the newly declared war. Many a noble pas- 
 sage, too, do his works contain on that course of public 
 policy which maintains the strength and dignity of nations, 
 that course from which we Englishmen have sadly wandered, 
 but to which, thank God, we have now with full intelligence 
 and steadfast purpose returned. All this I might say, and 
 support by manifold and striking extracts ; but I made up 
 my mind that there would be no space for extracts without
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 405 
 
 infringing on time which will be employed to high purpose 
 by others. So I must beg you to believe, what no doubt 
 many of you know perfectly well, that all which I advance 
 I could support by ample quotations, if I had time. But it 
 is not enough to say this : it is only a part, and, I venture 
 to think, the least part, of the truth. All his philanthropic 
 work was the fruit of most sacred religious conviction. He 
 was philanthropist and reformer, because he was a Christian 
 in days when such Christians were few ; and this threw into 
 his advocacy of these great measures of mercy and progress 
 (the task of dilating on which is committed to other and 
 more competent hands) a constraining and convincing power 
 such as religious belief alone lends to the argument of 
 progress. He threw himself with characteristic ardor into 
 every movement which promised to forward the secular im- 
 provement of men and things around him, because he found 
 in it his gospel, — just as in an earlier age the "yea, yea," 
 and "nay, nay," of George Fo.x and his Quakers, in all their 
 commercial transactions, first established the all-important 
 commercial principle of fixed price in retail trade. The 
 book has yet to be written which shall show what society 
 owes to religion in quickening and cherishing through their 
 infancy the germs of all its most important reformers. 
 
 Another of the key-thoughts of Channing's religious sys- 
 tem was the essential dignity of our human nature, which 
 had been systematically vilified — I can use no other words 
 — by the dominant theological school. I have read in the- 
 ological works of high repute statements about our human 
 nature which equally dishonored the wisdom which created 
 it and stultified the love which redeemed it. To Channing's 
 eye, our nature, fallen, discrowned, dishevelled as it is, still 
 bore sacred marks of the touch of the divine finger, and was 
 not dignified only, but glorified by the incarnation. Some 
 of the very finest passages in his writings have for their
 
 406 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 text. I here c]iu^te his own words, "human nature glorified 
 in jcsus." In truth, those large, spiritual, and most Chris- 
 tian ideas about man and God which the old Broad-Church 
 party, of which the ever beloved and honored Frederic 
 Denison Maurice was the founder, may be found writ large 
 early in the century in Channing's discourses, while at the 
 same time — and I believe that every great leader of a last- 
 ing progress combines two great streams of tendency — he 
 combined with it the passionate fervor, the intense personal 
 piety, the burning love to Christ, which finds utterance in 
 Wesley's, Newton's, and Toplady's hymns, and which charac- 
 terized the most Evangelical of the Evangelical school. 
 
 And this leads me on, in closing, to the noblest and the 
 deepest source of Channing's influence on mankind, — his 
 life. There is much in his books, as we have seen, to ac- 
 count for his influence, though there is in his style a fertility 
 of words and a reiteration of thoughts which is just a little 
 wearisome to us in these days. But then we must remind 
 ourselves that this new literature in his days was young ; and 
 young things are endowed with a copiousness and facility 
 which are not without their uses, and which mature into 
 felicity in time. And, further, these great themes which 
 occupied his pen, familiar now to us as daily bread and sun- 
 light, had to be pressed by constant reiteration, " line upon 
 line and precept upon precept," on the heart and conscience 
 of mankind. Still, there is a want in his style, though it is 
 powerful and eloquent, of the subtle, opalescent charm, that 
 aif/ind/iov yi/iaa/ia which iEschylus saw in the ocean, and which 
 plays over the pages of the great scholarly master of style in 
 the literature of the world. But, then, there was something 
 larger and deeper than charm. There was a force there 
 which mastered and compelled men. There was electric fire 
 that set them in vital movement ; there was the ring of in- 
 tense personal conviction ; there was the expression which 
 none could miss, of a great, noble, self-sacrificing life.
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 4O7 
 
 And here I touch the chief point of all, and with this 
 I close. A man's worth to the world, after all, depends 
 on what he is, and not on what he says, or even what 
 he does. The Life was the light of men, is the light of 
 men, and will be to the end of time. What Channing was 
 as a preacher and leader of progress is a great thing : the 
 greatest was what he was in his own soul. If you want to 
 know what he was as a preacher, you must not only sit with 
 the throng which gathered to hear his burning words, which 
 hung upon his lips and listened breathless while Christ's 
 ambassador pleaded as with Christ's own earnestness with 
 human souls : you must follow him to his study; you must 
 read his diary ; you must catch the outbreathing of his in- 
 most spirit to his Master ; you must watch him breathing 
 importunate prayer for the souls of men. I know not any- 
 thing within the whole compass of theological literature 
 more calculated than Dr. Channing's diary to impress young 
 preachers with a solemn, almost an awful sense of the 
 sacredness of their vocation, and to cast them on the Mas- 
 ter's grace in fulfilling it. " One thing I do," he could say, 
 if ever man could say it, with an honest heart. And men 
 observed him as a man whose whole being was consecrated 
 to what he believed to be the greatest of missions, and who, 
 if he preached Christianity fervently from his pulpit, would 
 have preached Christ as fervently from the rack and the 
 stake, and would have gloried, like Paul, in being counted 
 worthy to suffer loss and even death for his name. And 
 beneath all this, the basis of it all, its strong, unfailing sup- 
 port, was his inner fidelity, simplicity, and piety as a man. 
 He lived to God. God was in all his thoughts. Truly his 
 fellowship was with the Father, and with the son Jesus 
 Christ. He felt, as few men have ever felt, the attraction of 
 his Master's example, the inspiration of his Master's jDur- 
 pose, the constraining power of his Master's love. "The
 
 408 CHANNING CKNTENARV. 
 
 lovo of Clirist constraineth me," c.\i)ressed the inner secret 
 of his life. v\ncl because he lived a Christian of a very 
 noble and lofty tyi:)e in the deep recesses of his own spirit, 
 always aspiring after the divine likeness and seeking ever 
 fuller and yet fuller satisfaction in the contemplation of the 
 divine perfectness and the communings of the divine love, 
 he was able to be as a beacon-light in his generation to a 
 great multitude, not in his own country only, but through- 
 out the world. It was given to him to work out for his own 
 generation the path of a noble, lasting, and fruitful progress ; 
 and now that he is gone, "being dead, he yet speaketh," 
 He is speaking here to-night, — yes, and the light of his life 
 still flashes on far before us, and marks the line for our 
 advancing steps. For himself, he has heard the word of the 
 Master, "Go thou thy way until the end be: thou shalt rest, 
 and shalt stand in thy lot in the end of the days." And 
 then few, I think, among earth's great ones, will be crowned 
 with more illustrious honor in the day " when the teachers 
 shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and those 
 that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and 
 ever." 
 
 ADDRESS OF ME. THOMAS HUGHES, Q.C. 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Friends, — The paper which I have 
 been asked to read is entirely upon Channing as the anti- 
 slavery prophet. I feel it to be an honor to be allowed to 
 take part in this festival, and to speak of Dr. Channing as 
 one of that band of men and women who, fifty years ago, 
 made the cause of the slave their own in the United States, 
 and in the face of rebuke and discouragement from society 
 and the churches, and of danger to life and property from 
 the mob, persevered, through evil report and good report, 
 until the victory was achieved, and the flag of the Great 
 Republic, like our own, waved over none but freemen. I do 
 
 1
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 4O9 
 
 not know how far you who are gathered here to-day in mem- 
 ory of a great and good man may agree with me ; but to me 
 it has long seemed that to that band belongs the highest 
 place as benefactors of our race in this strange and eventful 
 century, — that the seeker for heroic and Christian lives, for 
 the simplest, the truest, the bravest followers of the Son of 
 Man, will have to turn to the abolitionists of New England. 
 I do not forget — I am proud always to remember — that 
 Old England led the way, and that the struggle here, too, 
 was one which tried men's hearts and reins. But honor 
 to whom honor is due ; and if we will try to think what our 
 anti-slavery movement would have been, had our eight 
 hundred thousand slaves been scattered over the southern 
 counties of England instead of over islands thousands of 
 miles away, and had belonged by law to the noblemen and 
 squires in those counties more strictly than their rabbits and 
 hares belong to them, we shall have little hesitation, I think, 
 in yielding freely the foremost place to the group of New 
 Englanders among whom Channing stood out a noteworthy 
 figure, — in some respects, undoubtedly, the most note- 
 worthy of all. Yes, as Mr. Lowell sings : — 
 
 " All honor and praise to the women and men 
 Who spake out for the dumb and the down-trodden then ! 
 I need not to name them. Already for each 
 I see History preparing the stake and the niche. 
 They were harsh ; but shall you be so shocked at hard words, 
 Who have beaten your pruning-hooks up into swords ? 
 Your calling them cut-throats and knaves all day long 
 Don't prove that the use of hard language is wrong. 
 You needn't look shy at your sisters and brothers 
 Who stabbed with sharp words for the freedom of others. 
 No : a wreath, twine a wreath, for the loyal and true 
 Who, for sake of the many, dared stand with the few, — 
 Not of blood-spattered laurel for the enemies braved, 
 But of broad, peaceful oak-leaves for citizens saved I " 
 
 This defence which he who was to become one of their
 
 ^lO CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 most powerful voices hero fiiuls himself driven to rnnke for 
 the abolitionists, was never needed for Channing ; and it is 
 for this reason that I have referred to him as perhaps the 
 most noteworthy of them all. For in all the excitement of 
 a controversy which he felt to be for the life itself, and to be 
 going down to the roots of things ; when the religious and 
 respectable world shrank from the side of the teacher they 
 had pretended to love and honor for thirty years ; when the 
 finger of hatred and scorn was pointed at him in an all but 
 unanimous press, as the fomenter of revolution and the 
 associate of felons and fanatics, — no word ever fell from his 
 lips or pen which was not weighted with consideration for 
 and sympathy with his enemies, and generous allowance for 
 the difificulties of the Southern slave- owner. In his first 
 great anti-slavery manifesto, his Letter to H. Clay on the 
 Annexation of Texas, he speaks of his own early residence 
 in the South, and his life-long attachment to them. "There 
 is something singularly captivating in the unbounded hospi- 
 tality, the impulsive generosity, the carelessness for the 
 future, the frank, open manners, the buoyant spirit and 
 courage, which marks the people " ; and from this he never 
 swerved in later years, when the contest had become en- 
 venomed. " Hitherto, the Christian world has made very 
 little progress in assailing and overcoming evil," was one of 
 his sayings ; and it w^as with scrupulous care that he strove 
 to set some example of the divine method in the great con- 
 troversy of his own time. 
 
 Let me now, as briefly as possible, recall the position 
 of the question of 1830. The struggle in England was 
 drawing to an end. Those of you who are old enough will 
 recollect those days, when children were brought up to use 
 no sugar, and to give every penny they could call their own 
 for the cause of the slave. How the time was one of bright 
 hope and enthusiastic work, for the goal was full in view !
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 4I I 
 
 On the 1st of August, 1834, the Act passed, and emancipa- 
 tion was a fact. In the United States, it was far otherwise. 
 There, year by year, the prospect was growing darker, and 
 the clouds were gathering. The Southern tone had changed 
 under the strain of the immense development of the cotton 
 trade. Instead of lamenting slavery as an evil inheritance 
 from their fathers, which was to be curtailed by every 
 prudent method, and finally extinguished, Calhoun and the 
 Southern leaders were now openly proclaiming it to be the 
 true condition of the laborer and the mainstay of society. 
 They were looking round eagerly for new slave States, to 
 balance the steady increase of free States in the North, and 
 by savage word and savage act were challenging and trying 
 to stamp out every attempt to interfere with their domestic 
 institution. Their challenge had been formally accepted, 
 and the gage of battle taken up in these very months. It 
 was in this winter of 1830-31 that Garrison, the immortal 
 journeyman printer, by extraordinary energy, got out the 
 first number of the Liberator, declaring slavery to be a 
 "league with death and covenant with hell," and pledging 
 himself and his friends to war with it to the bitter end. 
 Their watchword was uncompromising, immediate emancipa- 
 tion. It was in this same winter that Channing went to spend 
 some months at St. Croix. He had not been in a slave State 
 since his boyhood, and he returned with all his old impres- 
 sions confirmed and strengthened. Slavery he felt to be even 
 a greater curse to the world than he had always proclaimed 
 it. So he preached on his return to New England, and at 
 the same time showed much interest in the work of Garri- 
 son, and the uncompromising party, pleading for them that 
 "deeply moved souls will speak strongly, sought to speak 
 so as to move and shake nations." No wonder that they 
 turned eagerly to him in the hope that he would join them 
 openly and lead their attack. But for the moment this
 
 412 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 coulil not be: the temper of the combatants, waxinj; fiercer 
 ilay by clay, was a barrier wbich be could not cross as yet ; 
 and no doubt the social ostracism — so formidable to one 
 who has for a generation stood foremost — among those 
 whom his countrymen delighted to honor weighed somewhat 
 with him. He could defend the abolitionists as " men 
 moved by a passionate devotion to truth and freedom," 
 which led them to speak "with an indignant energy which 
 ought not to be measured by the standard of ordinary times," 
 but join them at once he could not. And they, in their 
 disappointment, were almost ready to denounce him as one 
 of those recreants who are addressed in the first stirring 
 appeal in the Biglow Papers : — 
 
 " Wall, go along to help 'em stealin' 
 Bigger pens to cram with slaves ; 
 Help the men that's oilers dealin' 
 Insults on your fathers' graves ; 
 
 " Help the strong to grind the feeble ; 
 Help the many agin the few ; 
 Help the men that call your people 
 
 Whitewashed slaves and peddlin' crew. 
 
 " Hain't they sold your colored seamen } 
 Hain't they made your envj-s wiz .■' 
 Wut'U make ye act like freemen? 
 Wut'll get your dander riz.'"' 
 
 The question whether Channing would have done well 
 to join the abolitionists at once will always remain fairly 
 debatable, and will be settled by each of us according to the 
 strength of his own fighting instinct. Those who blame 
 him for delaying can at any rate call himself as a witness on 
 their side. When at the end of 1834 the Rev. Samuel May, 
 General Agent of the Boston Anti-slavery Society, in answer 
 to Channing's expostulations as to the harshness and vio- 
 lence of their language, and the heat and one-sidedness of 
 the abolitionist meetings, turned upon him with : " Why,
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 413 
 
 then, have you left the movement in young and inexperi- 
 enced hands ? Why, sir, have you not moved, why have 
 you not spoken before?" Channing, after a pause, replied 
 in his kindest tones: "Brother May, I acknowledge the jus- 
 tice of the reproof. I have been silent too long." Looking, 
 however, at the man's age and character, I cannot myself 
 join in casting blame on Channing. Other men might have 
 deserved reproach for not emphasizing their convictions in 
 this way, but not he. At school, he had gained the name of 
 the Peacemaker. He had been true to that character for 
 half a century. While a gleam of hope remained that the 
 South might even yet move in the direction of abolition, a 
 gentle firmness of remonstrance was the only weapon he 
 could conscientiously sanction. And there was still such a 
 gleam of hope in the lurid clouds. As late as 1832, the 
 question of abolition had been discussed in the Virginian 
 legislature. Some few of the best Southern public men 
 still held the old doctrine, and were ready to work for 
 gradual emancipation. They were even doing so by a coloni- 
 zation society, and other stop-gaps, the hollowness and worth- 
 lessness of which had not yet been proved. The peacemaker 
 might still prevail. But now the time had indeed come 
 when farther hesitation would have left a stain on his armor. 
 I have said that the South were on the lookout for new 
 territories into which to carry their slaves, and the devil 
 rarely fails to find what they are in search of for men in that 
 frame of mind. We must once more go back for a few 
 years. In 1827, the Spanish American Colonies had gained 
 their independence. Mexico, the chief of them, and the 
 nearest neighbor to the United States, had from the first 
 looked up to the Republic with hope and admiration. But 
 from her great elder sister no response came. Her good- 
 will was coldly put aside, for she had declared freedom to all 
 slaves in her borders ; and these borders, unhappily for her,
 
 414 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 comprised a magnificent territory called Texas, as large as 
 any four States of the Union, and eminently fitted for cotton- 
 growing, and therefore for slave-labor. The temptation of 
 this Naboth's vineyard soon proved too strong for the slave- 
 holders, and an immigration of planters and slaves set in. 
 The Mexican Government remonstrated ; and high words 
 ended in a declaration of independence by the new settlers, 
 and fighting, which must soon have resulted in their defeat — 
 for they scarcely amounted to twenty thousand in all — but 
 for the constant replenishment of their ranks by bands of 
 filibusters from the other side of the Mississippi. By this 
 means, Texas maintained a precarious kind of independence, 
 which she was endeavoring to convert into annexation to 
 the Union. For some time, every American statesman 
 scouted so shameless a proposal ; but, by degrees, the value 
 of the country began to impress the slave States more and 
 more. Talk of " manifest destiny " began to be heard not 
 only in the New Orleans Picayune and in border ruffian 
 meetings, but within the walls of Congress, till in 1835-36 it 
 became clear that annexation, involving almost certain war 
 with Mexico, was about to be submitted to the great council 
 of the nation. Here, then, was a new departure, involving 
 on the part of the nation a sanction of slavery such as had 
 never yet been tolerated. Already Channing had begun to 
 redeem his pledge. He had published a volume on Slavery, 
 taking firm ground against the furious madness of the 
 Southerners, who were calling for the suppression of anti- 
 slavery publications, and setting prices on the heads of lead- 
 ing abolitionists ; and against the more odious respectable 
 Northern mobs, which even in Boston had broken up 
 meetings, and had dragged Garrison through the streets 
 with a halter round his neck, intent on hanging him. 
 Channing had also opened his pulpit to May, the general 
 agent of the anti-slavery societies. Now, he stepped for-
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 415 
 
 ward as a leader, and stood frankly side by side with the 
 abolitionists. Selecting for his correspondent Henry Clay, 
 of Kentucky, the best and most moderate of Southern poli- 
 ticians, he addressed to him the most famous of his political 
 writings, — the Letter on the Annexation of Texas. I have 
 already quoted from this one of many passages which show 
 his friendly temper toward the Southern slave-holders ; but 
 the most thorough-going abolitionist could take no excep- 
 tion to the firmness of the position taken or the power with 
 which it was held. Time will only allow me to give the 
 briefest outline of this masterly paper. Congress, Chan- 
 ning said, is about to be called on to decide whether Texas 
 shall be annexed to the Union. Public questions have not 
 been those on which my work has been spent. But no one 
 speaks, the danger presses, and I cannot be silent. There 
 are crimes which in their magnitude have a touch of the 
 sublime, and this will be one of them. The current ex- 
 cesses only make it more odious. The annexationists talk 
 of their zeal for freedom ! What they really mean is their 
 passion for unrighteous spoil. Of manifest destiny ! Away 
 with such vile sophistry ! There can be no necessity for 
 crime. Mexico came to us seven years ago, a sister repub- 
 lic, just escaped from the yoke of a European tyranny, look- 
 ing to us hopefully for good-will and sympathy. Instead of 
 these, in our unholy greed, we have sent them land specula- 
 tors and ruffians, who are waging war against a nation to 
 which we owed protection against such assaults. Is the 
 time never to come when the neighborhood of a more pow- 
 erful and civilized people will prove a blessing and not a 
 curse to an inferior community ? But the crime is aggra- 
 vated by the real cause of it, — the extension and perpetua- 
 tion of the slave-trade. What will other nations — what, 
 especially, will England — say to it .'* We hope to prop up 
 slavery by this filibustering; but the fall of slavery is as
 
 4l6 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 sure as the fall of your own Ohio to the sea. A nation pro- 
 voking war by cupidity, by encroachment, and, above all, by 
 efforts to spread slavery, is alike false to itself, to God, and 
 to the human race. You are entering on a new and fatal 
 path. Let the spread and perpetuation of slavery be once 
 systematized and proposed as a Southern policy, and a new 
 feeling will burst forth in the North. Let Texas be once 
 annexed, and there can be no more peace for us. We may 
 not see the catastrophe of the tragedy, the first scene of 
 which we seem so ready to enact. We who are enlarging 
 the borders of slavery, when all over Christendom there are 
 signs of a growing elevation of the poor in every other 
 country, — we are sinking below the civilization of our day ; 
 we are inviting the scorn, indignation, and abhorrence of 
 the world. In short, this proposed measure will exert a 
 disastrous influence on the moral sentiments and principles 
 of this country by sanctioning plunder, by inflaming cupid- 
 ity, by encouraging lawless speculation, by bringing into the 
 confederacy a community whose whole history and circum- 
 stances are adverse to moral order and wholesome restraint, 
 by violating national faith, by proposing immoral and in- 
 human ends, by placing us, as a people, in opposition to the 
 efforts of philanthropy and the advancing movements of 
 the civilized world. Freedom is fighting her battle in the 
 world with long enough odds against her already. Let us 
 not giv^e new chances to her foes. 
 
 I fear I can have hardly succeeded in giving you even a 
 faint notion of the power of argument and beauty of style 
 of this splendid protest. Occasions for speech now crowded 
 on him thick and fast. In July, 1836, a mob sacked the 
 office of the PJiilatithropist at Cincinnati, and drove Mr. 
 Birney, its editor, from that city. Channing could not rest 
 till he had written him the noble letter (published in his 
 collected works under the title " The Abolitionists "), ex-
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 417 
 
 horting him and his friends to hold fast the right of free 
 discussion, but to exercise it as Christians. " The cross is 
 the badge and standard of our religion. I honor all who 
 bear it. I look with scorn on the seliish greatness of this 
 world, and with pity upon the most gifted and prosperous in 
 the struggle for office and power ; but I look with reverence 
 on the obscurest man who suffers for the right, who is true 
 to a good but persecuted cause." But his complete identifi- 
 cation with the abolitionists did not come till the next year. 
 In November, 1837, the office of the Alton Observer m. Illi- 
 nois was attacked, sacked, and its owner and editor, Lovejoy, 
 the friend and fellow-worker of Garrison, killed while defend- 
 ing his property. New England's respectability was fairly 
 startled at last. It was resolved by gentlemen of position, 
 who had no dealings with abolitionists, that a meeting must 
 be held in Faneuil Hall, to protest against this and other 
 acts of murderous violence, and to maintain the threatened 
 right of free speech. A petition for the use of the hall was 
 prepared. And the first signature was Channing's, over those 
 of Sewall, Sturges, and others of the best blood in Boston. 
 The Board of Aldermen refused the hall ; but the response 
 from the whole Bay State to a temperate letter of Chan- 
 ning's in the Daily Advertiser soon convinced them that 
 they had gone too far. The hall was granted, and the meet- 
 ing held on December 8 ; and Channing proposed resolutions 
 in favor of freedom of speech and meeting, prepared by him- 
 self. When these had been seconded, the Attorney-General 
 of Massachusetts rose, and, in a speech in which he likened 
 the Alton mob to the fathers of the Revolution, opposed the 
 resolutions. The meeting wavered ; and they would proba- 
 bly have been lost but for the speech of an unknown youth, 
 who has since proved himself the greatest of anti-slavery 
 orators, Mr. Wendell Phillips, The resolutions were carried 
 in the end by acclamation, and for the moment the cause of
 
 4l8 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 freedom triumphed in Boston. But too soon the clouds 
 leathered a.i;ain, swiftly and ominously ; and, from that time 
 till his death, in 1S42, Channing's soul was vexed and his 
 patience tried by the blind fury and malignity with which 
 the slave-owner's cause was pressed, and the frequent un- 
 wisdom and needless provocation with which the assault was 
 met. Within a few days of the Faneuil Hall meeting, when 
 a weak or vain man would have been glorying in his tri- 
 umph, he addressed a letter to the Liberator, calling on the 
 abolitionists to show their disapproval of Lovejoy's use of 
 force at Alton. "You are a growing party, burning with 
 righteous zeal," he urged; "but you are distrusted and hated 
 by a multitude of your fellow-citizens. Here are the seeds 
 of deadly strife, conflicts, bloodshed. Show your forbear- 
 ance now, that you will not meet force by force. Trust in 
 the laws and the moral sympathy of the community. Try 
 the power of suffering for truth : the first Christians tried 
 it among communities more ferocious than ours, and pre- 
 vailed." 
 
 And now he himself had to bear bitter humiliation for the 
 truth's sake, such as the refusal of the committee of his own 
 church to allow a service connected with the death of his 
 friend Charles Follen, a leading abolitionist. Yet he con- 
 tinued his work faithfully and even hopefully, speaking out 
 at every dangerous turn in the conflict which was raging 
 round him. His chief remaining works in connection with 
 the slavery question are : "The Duty of the Free States," in 
 which he defends the English Government for refusing to 
 surrender a slave cargo who had overpowered the officers 
 and crew, and had carried the brig "Creole" into Nassau; 
 and " Emancipation," a tract on the great triumph in the 
 West Indies. They are as thorough and able as the best of 
 his works, and must be read by all who desire to know the 
 length and breadth of the strength of his charity. As Eng-
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 419 
 
 lishmen, however, we may be allowed to refer with special 
 pride to the last public utterance of his saint-like life. In 
 the summer of 1842, he was dying slowly in the lovely Berk- 
 shire hills, when the return of August ist, the anniversary 
 of emancipation in the West Indies, once more inspired him 
 to lift up his voice for the outcast and the oppressed. To 
 the men and women of Berkshire, he spoke of the emancipa- 
 tion of the eight hundred thousand British slaves, begun 
 eight and finally completed four years before. While giving 
 full credit to the nation and the men who had been the in- 
 struments, — Christian men who had carried through their 
 work against prejudice, custom, interest, opulence, pride, 
 and civil power, against the whole weight of the commercial 
 class thrown into the other scale, — he repeats once more : 
 " Emancipation was the fruit of Christian principle acting 
 on the mind and heart of a great people. The liberator of 
 the slaves was Jesus Christ." And these are the last words 
 he ever spoke in public : " The song * On earth peace ' will 
 not always sound as a fiction. Oh, come, thou kingdom of 
 God, for which we daily pray ! Come, Friend and Saviour 
 of the race, who didst shed thy blood on the cross to recon- 
 cile man to man and earth to heaven ! Come, ye predicted 
 ages of righteousness ! Come, Almipfhty Father, and crown 
 with thine omnipotence the humble striving of thy children 
 to subvert oppression and wrong, to speak light and freedom, 
 peace and joy, the truth and spirit of thy Son through the 
 whole earth." 
 
 These were the last words of the great Christian leader 
 of the New England abolitionists. He died before his 
 country had committed the great wrong whose issues he 
 had so clearly seen. The war with Mexico was declared 
 in 1848, Texas and California were annexed ; and, as Chan- 
 ning prophesied, all hope of peace between North and 
 South, while slavery survived, vanished from that hour.
 
 420 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Then followed twelve feverish years of futile compromise 
 and smouldcrinij: civil war, the fugitive slave law, the free 
 soil crusade in Kansas, the raid of John Brown at Harper's 
 Ferry, culminating in secession, and the extinction of 
 slavery in the Union in torrents of the best blood of the 
 Republic, poured out at last like w^ater, to redeem that 
 strange New World as the glorious inheritance of all men, 
 without distinction of race, color, or condition. All honor 
 to the brave and true souls who led the forlorn hope, and 
 to him, the wisest and greatest, and not the least firm, of 
 all, whose memory we are to-day to keep green and fresh 
 in men's minds ! In thinking of his anti-slavery record, 
 does not the lesson read somehow thus ? There are times 
 when it would seem that great causes in this mysterious 
 battle-field of our race can only be upheld by an enthu- 
 siasm which can see but one side, backed by the strong 
 arm prompt to return blow for blow. But such crises 
 can only arise in human affairs from the failure of true 
 insight, patience, charity, at some earlier stage of the 
 drama. And, on the whole, we shall best serve God's pur- 
 pose by bearing steadily in mind that the victory of the 
 Son of Man, which alone has made any and all victories 
 possible for his brethren, was won for our race by Him of 
 whom it is said by the inspired seer : "He shall not cry, 
 nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. 
 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax 
 shall he not quench : he shall bring forth judgment unto 
 truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set 
 judgment in the earth ; and the isles shall wait for his law." 
 
 The Chairman said that Mr. Sturge had been asked to 
 read a paper on Channing as the opponent of slavery, but he 
 was unable to be present at the meeting. He had, however, 
 sent a long letter, portions of which would now be read. 
 
 The Rev. H. Ierson. — Mr. Sturge, after speaking of the
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 421 
 
 great fight that Channing carried on against slavery in 
 America, says : " I had never the privilege of a personal 
 acquaintance with Dr. Channing; but, in the year 1840, my 
 late brother, Joseph Sturge, undertook a mission to America, 
 with the main object of attacking the apathy on this ques- 
 tion, which then but too largely pervaded the Society of 
 Friends of that country. In this, he had the able and 
 effective co-operation of John Whittier, and the work was 
 blessed with no little success ; and it was on his return that 
 he gave descriptions of Dr. Channing and the warfare that 
 he was urging as to place me almost as much eii rapport 
 with Dr. Channing as though I had known him in the flesh. 
 Forty years have not effaced these impressions ; and they 
 impel me to add my feeble testimony to that of the gentle- 
 men who meet to-morrow, that the memory of the just is 
 blessed. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Martineau. — I hold in my hand a short 
 paper communicated by the Dean of Westminster, which he 
 requested me to read to the meeting. 
 
 THE DEAN OF WESTMINSTER'S ADDRESS, 
 
 When at Boston two years ago, I visited in the beautiful 
 cemetery of Mount Auburn, overlooking the river Charles, 
 the grave of William Channing. I saw on his tomb the 
 inscription which tells that he was honored, not only by the 
 Christian society of which for nearly forty years he was 
 pastor, but throughout Christendom. This sentiment of 
 universal respect was testified in America on the day of his 
 funeral, by the mourning of all Boston, when the bells of 
 the Roman Catholic chapel joined with those of church, 
 chapel, and meeting-house of all Protestant communities in 
 tolling for the loss of one whom all esteemed and lamented. 
 This sentiment, irrespective of the peculiar opinions he
 
 422 ClIANMNC. CENTKNAKY. 
 
 professed or the peculiar sect to which he bekonged, was 
 not confined to his native country. With the exception of 
 Jonathan lulwards and Dr. Robinson, the fame of Channing 
 was, until recently, the only standard of American theology 
 which had reached the continent of Europe. It is not often 
 that the great French review which bears the name of the 
 Tzvo Worlds condescends to notice any English-speaking 
 divine. 
 
 One of the few exceptions was in the thoughtful and brill- 
 iant article written by Remusat, on the life and writings of 
 Channing ; and, in Germany, the venerable and illustrious 
 DoUinger is reported to have said that, with one exception, 
 Channing was the only theologian that the Americans had 
 produced. What is it, we may ask, which justifies this 
 wide-spread fame.' What is it which justifies the celebra- 
 tion of the centenary of Channing's birth on both sides of 
 the Atlantic .'' First, let me speak of the effects of his char- 
 acter. He was one of the rare instances, rare in all ages of 
 mankind, of -a man in whom was combined the dignity and 
 moderation of a high ecclesiastic, or, if we choose so to 
 put it, of a calm philosopher, with a courageous enthusiasm 
 on behalf of the more practical and popular objects of phi- 
 lanthropy. Such a union was, to a certain extent, seen in 
 the career of Thomas Arnold in the Church of England and 
 Thomas Chalmers in the Church of Scotland ; but perhaps 
 neither of these distinguished men, superior as they may be 
 in other respects, presented so striking a contrast of qualities 
 as in the union of the shrinking, cautious temperament of 
 which so many curious tales are rife to this day in Boston, 
 with the generous, outspoken expression of what was then 
 in that city the unpopular and unattractive cause of the 
 abolition of slavery. 
 
 A character of this kind is doubly precious, because, on 
 the one hand, it helps to justify in the hearts of other
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 423 
 
 reformers of a wild and, so to speak, revolutionary tendency 
 the value of repose, and, on the other hand, it tends to 
 redeem the views of philanthropic zeal from the reproach 
 which the recklessness and folly of their adherents often 
 provoke from the more reasonable and moderate champions 
 of light and sweetness. Secondly, he combined what is rare 
 in any country, but perhaps most rare in his own, an unques- 
 tionable patriotism with a large comprehension and appre- 
 hension of the glories of other countries. He loved with 
 a passionate love the scenes of his early childhood in the 
 charming town of Newport. " No spot on earth," he said, 
 " helped to form me like that beach." It is, indeed, a curi- 
 ous reflection, as we pass along that stretch of sands and 
 those projecting crags which overlook the vast roll of the 
 Atlantic waters, that the same spot should have nourished 
 two spirits so far asunder in their respective careers, yet so 
 similar in their high aspirations, as Channing and our own 
 Berkeley. What Boston, the intellectual centre of Amer- 
 ica, was to him, and what he as its intellectual leader 
 was to Boston, it is needless to describe ; but, neverthe- 
 less, he never surrendered himself to the besetting tempta- 
 tion which leads so many of his countrymen to regard 
 America as the only land of promise, the only sphere of 
 moral and intellectual progress. No Frenchman, be he 
 Catholic or Protestant, could have taken a more appreciative 
 view of the character and writings of Fenelon than Chan- 
 ning, in an essay which he has devoted to the character and 
 writings of the Archbishop of Cambray ; and no English- 
 man could have been fired with a warmer zeal for the great- 
 ness and glory of Britain during the Napoleonic war than 
 was this son of England's revolted children. The proof of 
 this, larger than any local or parochial sympathy, is found in 
 the fact that not once only, nor in one generation only, Chan- 
 ning's sermons have been preached in the pulpit at the Met-
 
 4^4 niAXMNG CKNTENARY. 
 
 ropolitan Cuthodral witliout affording the opportunity for a 
 critical congrcgatitMi to detect by any utterance of provincial 
 accent or thought the source from which they proceeded. 
 
 But if this universality of his sympathy found its deep 
 expressitin in the catholicity of his religious sentiments, be- 
 longing as he did to the Unitarian communion, which at that 
 time almost formed what we may call the Established Church 
 at Boston, he yet rose far above it and beyond it, both in his 
 particular expressions and his general aspirations. " I value 
 Unitarianism," he said, "not as a perfect system, but as 
 encouraging freedom of thought, and as breathing a mild 
 and tolerant spirit into the members of the whole Christian 
 body. I am little of a Unitarian. I stand aloof from all 
 those who stand and pray for a clearer light, who look for a 
 purer and more effectual manifestation of Christian faith. I 
 have little or no interest in Unitarianism as a sect." He 
 strove, if we may use his own words, to seize the true idea of 
 Christ's character, to trace in his history the working of his 
 soul, to comprehend the divinity of his spirit ; he strove to 
 rise above what was local, temporary, and partial in that 
 teaching to its universal, all-comprehending truths. Without 
 entering into details, for which this occasion would be un- 
 suitable, it is sufficient to say that any one who desires to 
 exercise a permanent influence over the future must breathe 
 more or less of the spirit which animated this truly Christian 
 philosopher. "He is a philosopher," said Coleridge, "in 
 both possible senses of the word : he has the love of wisdom 
 and the wisdom of love." Every one, of whatever church, 
 who identifies his teaching with the peculiar phrases in 
 which by ancient formularies or modern party spirit the 
 temporary tendencies of this or that church may have been 
 expressed, clogs the upward and onward course of his 
 words with an incumbrance which in after years will prove 
 a serious obstacle to his reception on the roll of those whose
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 425 
 
 works will live in every age and every country. Channing 
 keenly felt the insufficiency not only of the past, but of 
 the present. "Till a new reverence for truth," he said, 
 " such as, I fear, is not now felt, takes possession of some 
 gifted minds, we shall make but little progress. The true 
 reformation is yet to come. The time is perhaps at hand, 
 when all our present sects will live only in history. Could I 
 see before I die but a small gathering of men penetrated 
 with reverence for humanity and the spirit of freedom, and 
 with faith in a more Christian constitution of society, I 
 should be content. " It is this appreciation of a fuller truth 
 than he had himself attained which places him in that suc- 
 cession of gifted men whose thoughts formed the golden 
 age of Christian theology. Origen, Clement of Alexan- 
 dria, in their better and more lucid state, Chrysostom and 
 Augustine, Erasmus in the sixteenth century, Falkland and 
 Tillotson in the seventeenth, the serener atmosphere and 
 freer thoughts which formed the background of the vigorous 
 mind of Butler, the vigorous common-sense of Paley, and 
 the generous enthusiasm of Wesley in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury, Frederick Robertson and Dean Milman in the nine- 
 teenth century, — to speak only of the dead, and not of the 
 living, — it is among these that Channing will take his place 
 as having contributed in no mean degree toward the right 
 appreciation of the right, and toward fixing the attention of 
 Christendom on the moral and spiritual, and which is also, 
 for that reason, the truly divine, the truly permanent, super- 
 natural element of Christianity. 
 
 DE, W. B. OAEPENTER'S ADDRESS. 
 
 Dr. Carpenter : Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — 
 At this late hour of the evening I shall confine myself to a 
 very few words to express my heartiest accordance with all 
 that has been said in regard to the worth and the vast infiu-
 
 426 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 ence of the threat man whose centenary we are here met to 
 ciMiiniomorate. And let me bet^in with two little anecdotes 
 which will show the extent of that influence. As long ago 
 as the year 1S27, I was staying with my father at Newport 
 in the Isle of Wight, I being then little more than a boy ; 
 and he became acquainted, through the introduction of a 
 friend, with the minister of the Independent Chapel in that 
 town. Channing's essay upon Milton had then recently 
 reached this country ; and he found that young minister in a 
 state of the highest excitement, reading the essay, walking 
 up and down his study. His spirit was stirred within him : 
 he said that he could not sit still while he read it. The 
 earnest utterances of that essay on behalf of freedom, 
 which were not surpassed by Jeremy Taylor in his Liberty 
 of Prophesying, or by Milton himself in his vigorous pro- 
 tests, stirred the mind of this young minister ; and I will 
 now tell you who that young minister was, — Thomas Bin- 
 ney. You all know what an important influence Thomas 
 Binney, who removed to London two years after that, exer- 
 cised in that great movement of thought, which has com- 
 pletely altered the aspect of the theology of the Congre- 
 gational body, as, I am sure, my friend Mr. Brown will 
 agree with me. Another little anecdote refers to a very 
 recent time. I take a very great interest in the advance 
 of free thought in the various sections of the great Scottish 
 Presbyterian Church, and early association has led me to 
 keep up communication with many of its leaders. In cor- 
 respondence with a friend last year, I found that even in 
 the straitest sect of Scottish Calvinism there is an opinion 
 held that Channing and Martineau must be subjects of the 
 uncovenanted mercies of God. They, of course, restrict to 
 themselves the covenanted mercies ; but they feel that such 
 men must come within the recognition of that great Being 
 who looks upon all ahke. Now, I am asked to say some
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 427 
 
 words with reference to Channing's advocacy of all move- 
 ments relating to the elevation of the human race. His 
 recognition of the dignity of human nature has been so 
 ably dealt with this evening that I need not say a word more 
 on the subject ; but I would point to this, that that recog- 
 nition dominated every utterance that he gave on these great 
 subjects. 
 
 He appealed to first principles. He was in that respect a 
 prophet. He appealed to those first principles which find 
 an echo in our intellectual nature, in our love of truth, in 
 our moral nature, in our love of right ; and everything that 
 he uttered on these great subjects was to encourage every 
 endeavor for what he called the elevation of the soul. And 
 what he defined as elevation of soul was force of thousfht 
 exerted for the acquisition of truth, — force of pure, generous 
 feeling, not merely the entertaining these feelings, but the 
 earnestness with which they were felt ; and the force of 
 moral purpose in action, that purpose which is cultivated 
 by the habitual sense of effort which he speaks of as most 
 contributing to growth. Man owes his growth, his energy, 
 chiefly to the strife of the will, — that conflict with difficulty 
 which we call effort ; and, in those noble utterances of his 
 with regard to liberty, he shows how all restraints tend to 
 the truest liberty, how man by struggling against these 
 restraints elevates his own powers and becomes the victor, 
 and how every restraint that does not foster that tendency 
 to liberty is evil, while every restraint that does is good. 
 But there is one part of the grand essay on spiritual freedom 
 which is worthy to be compared with the beatitudes of the 
 Sermon on the Mount, where, in a dozen sentences, he says, 
 " I call that man free who struggles into the light of free- 
 dom " ; and he goes on and shows how every part of our 
 nature is to be freed by effort. In that grand essay, sir, 
 there is one passage that impressed me on reading it re-
 
 42S CHANNINC. CENTENARY. 
 
 cciitlv with iho force o{ prophetic insight which cannot, I 
 think, be surpassed b)' any utterance, — that passage in 
 which he adverts to the duty of governments. He says : 
 " How is the Government to serve the cause of spiritual 
 freedom in promoting energy and elevation of moral pur- 
 pose ? Not by teaching or persuasion, for that is not its 
 function ; but by action, that is, by rigidly conforming it- 
 self in all its measures to the moral or Christian law, by 
 the most public and solemn manifestation of reverence for 
 right, for justice, for the general weal, for the principles of 
 virtue. In its relations to other governments, it should 
 invariably adhere to the principles of justice and philan- 
 thropy. By its moderation, sincerity, uprightness, and 
 pacific spirit toward foreign States, by abstaining from 
 secret arts and unfair advantages, by cultivating free and 
 mutually beneficial intercourse, it should cherish among 
 its citizens the ennobling conscience of belonging to the 
 human family, of having a common interest with the human 
 race." Then he says : " As it is the first duty of a states- 
 man to build up the moral energy of a people, he who 
 weakens it inflicts an injury which no talent can repair, 
 nor shall any splendor of circumstances or any momentary 
 success avert for him the infamy which he has earned. 
 Let public men fear nothing so much as to sap the moral 
 convictions of a people by unrighteous legislation or a self- 
 ish policy. Let them put faith in virtue as the strength 
 of nations. Let them not be disheartened by temporary ill- 
 success." Now, since those words were written, what have 
 we seen as the verification of them .-* We had sden the 
 downfall of the slave power in the United States ; we had 
 seen a nation rising in its might, in response to the appeals 
 of great men, and destroying that slave power. What hap- 
 pened in a neighboring kingdom ? We had seen a man 
 raising himself by a combination of circumstances — with
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 429 
 
 great ability of his own, no doubt — to the supreme 
 power, becoming the ally of England, and for a time the 
 trusted friend of our Sovereign and her Consort ; and we 
 saw that man alienating by secret arts, by underhand meas- 
 ures, for his own aggrandizement and the aggrandizement 
 of his nation, as he believed, all the sympathy which he 
 possessed, and exciting that universal suspicion in every 
 country in Europe which led to his downfall. 
 
 Now, I need not to point the moral with regard to our 
 present state ; and what satisfies me of the soundness of the 
 heart of England is that it has shown that it will not sup- 
 port the statesman who attempts to aggrandize England by 
 secret compacts and underhand dealings. Only one word 
 more in reference to Channing's advocacy of the temper- 
 ance cause, because that is as pregnant an instance as I 
 could produce of the value of the appeal to first principles. 
 Channing distinctly states that the great evil of intemper- 
 ance is the enslavement of the man who gives way to it. 
 All other evils, in his mind, are subordinate to this. He 
 is glad that the dreadful nature of this vice should make 
 itself apparent in the evil it produces ; but he says it is 
 in the vice itself that the greatest evil exists. Now, sir, 
 these are words which appeal to our deepest and at the same 
 time to our highest feelings ; and I look upon Channing as 
 the one who, more than any other in modern times, brought 
 all social questions to the test of the highest principles, and 
 who, in laying down those highest principles, did not merely 
 formularize them as part of a moral code, but appealed to 
 our own moral sense and our own love of truth and right, 
 and our own love of humanity and all that is highest and 
 best in humanity, to give them effect. And I may conclude 
 by a reference to one whose name is known to all of you, 
 and I think without egotism I may name the name of Mary 
 Carpenter. I would say that it was entirely in the spirit of
 
 430 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Channin.u's utterances that she worked. She had faith in 
 hutnan nature ; she had faith that there was a holy spot in 
 every child's mind that could be touched ; and she had a 
 faith in God, who would help to guide her in all her attempts 
 at the elevation of those whom the crimes, as she consid- 
 ered, of society, had degraded from the high position to 
 which human nature is capable of being exalted. 
 
 DR. COLLIER'S ADDRESS. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Laird Collier : Mr. CJiairman, Ladies, and 
 Gentlemen, — It seems to me that this centennial anniver- 
 sary of the birth of Channing should mark not the close, 
 but the opening of an era. We should not expend all our 
 thought in commemoration, but some of our will in a holy 
 consecration to live, to propagate, and to enact the principles 
 that Channing preached. And not one of those principles 
 has found enactment in the customs of the nation. Not one 
 has taken deep root in the hearts of the Christian public. 
 First of all, if for anything, it seems to me that Channing 
 stood for religious equality ; and by that Channing never 
 meant mere religious toleration. He was the last man to 
 have his religious opinions merely tolerated. When Abner 
 Kneeland was arrested, and convicted before the High Court, 
 as it was called, of Massachusetts, for publishing what was 
 termed a bit of atheism in the free-thinking paper the Inves- 
 tigator, Channing wrote a petition for the release of this 
 atheist. His own Church turned their backs upon the peti- 
 tion, and most of his leading men signed a counter-petition. 
 He not only signed the petition, but he called a public meet- 
 ing in Faneuil Hall, and aroused the sentiment of Boston in 
 favor of absolute freedom of thought and absolute freedom 
 of speech. He meant by religious liberty the subordination 
 of Christian dogma to Christian charity ; but I appeal to
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 431 
 
 you, if it be not true that dogma and superstition are still 
 subsidized on all hands. And where may we look for human 
 equity or social equality.^ If I were in Boston to-night 
 instead of being" in London, I could be a little freer in what 
 I had got to say. I rejoiced with a great rejoicing at Mr. 
 Brown's outspokenness. Mr. Channing wrote, I think, to 
 Harriet Martineau, "Aristocracy can only look upon man to 
 patronize him, not as bearing the image of man, and the 
 image of God in the image of man." Man was the pride of 
 Channing's intellect, man was the passion of Channing's 
 heart, — man not as hero, man not as saint, but simply man. 
 And to-night we find men starving in the hovel, swinging 
 from the gallows, staring at us from behind the gratings of a 
 prison, and dying upon the field of battle, in war waged 
 without cause and without explanation. Now, when I speak 
 of Channing's principles, you will quite understand that I do 
 not refer to his casual and speculative opinions. He was a 
 Congregationalist in his views of church policy : he was a 
 Unitarian in his conception of the person and character of 
 God. Had he been living in our day with the same person- 
 ality, I am not quite sure that he would have been either 
 Congregationalist or Unitarian ; but of this I am sure, — that 
 he would not have been less, but larger. But he did not go 
 forth to fill the earth with contentions about creeds of falli- 
 ble men : he was no more wedded to his own opinion, as he 
 said, than he was to the opinions of other men ; but it has 
 been repeated here to-night twice that Coleridge said of 
 Channing after he had had a personal interview with him, 
 " He subordinates the true to the good without encroach- 
 ment upon the health of either : he has the love of wisdom 
 and the wisdom of love." Channing was not supremely a 
 theologian, he was a mystic : he was not pre-eminently a 
 philosopher, he was a poet. The last words he uttered on 
 earth were these : " I have received many messages from
 
 432 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 the spirit." lie said late in life that he had experienced 
 relii;ion, that he had e.xperienced a changed heart, — so great 
 a change that it ought to be called the new birth, — in the 
 twentieth year of his age. Now, friends and brethren, a 
 Rationalist would analyze these sentences, and say that 
 Channing was mistaken. "There is no such thing as spirit : 
 there are no messages from the spirit." But the mystic and 
 the poet knows there is spirit, and that there are messages 
 from the spirit ; and it was these messages from the spirit 
 that stirred and fired Channing's soul, and fearlessly he 
 went forth to preach them. 
 
 Channing was a Unitarian minister in Boston. And when 
 I tell you that we might have foretold from the circum- 
 stances in which he lived, the very spiritual air which he 
 breathed, that he would have been a Unitarian minister, I 
 do not mean to say that his theology was mine or yours, but 
 that his theology was the theology not only of his head, but 
 of his heart ; and he said that Unitarian theology was meant, 
 in his opinion, not only to enlarge the spiritual vision, but to 
 increase the fervor of the heart. When I say that he was a 
 preacher, I mean that he was a preacher by temperament. 
 He was a preacher like Savonarola, like Chrysostom, like 
 Chalmers, like Wesley, with a burning, agonizing love for 
 men. But he was trained to be a preacher. During his col- 
 lege career, two or three times a week he entered debating 
 societies ; and he tells us he was on his feet on an average 
 two or three times a week, learning to speak, learning to talk 
 to the people. He was without imposing physique. Never 
 a day from the time he began his ministr\' till he closed it 
 did he have generous health. And yet this man, — whom I 
 would not class among the highest in the world of genius, 
 certainly not with a comprehensive intellectual training, for 
 he graduated at Harvard with less technical knowledge than 
 would now be required for matriculation at the same Uni-
 
 CELEBRATION AT LONDON. 433 
 
 versity, — this man without physique, without health, with- 
 out superlative intellectual genius, without comprehensive 
 learning, rose to be the prophet of his century. America 
 has raised up illustrious men, statesmen, scholars, philan- 
 thropists, and divines, — Washington, Lincoln, Garrison, and 
 Channing ; and the greatest of these is Channing. They had 
 faith, and they had hope ; but he had charity, and " the great- 
 est of these is charity," — charity not by might, not by power, 
 not by the will of the flesh, but by the will of God. We 
 claim to be in sympathy with the principles and views to 
 which he consecrated his life. It is in reverence of these 
 that we have come together. But, brethren and friends, the 
 immortal Channing asks not for mere hero-worship. He 
 gave none, and he expects none. Would we could catch the 
 fervor of his mind, the glow of his heart, the glory of his 
 deeds ! Then we should go forth rekindling the fires of love 
 with rational, with ennobling Christianity ; we should go 
 forth to plead with sordid and with sinful men of our gener- 
 ation, as he pleaded with servile and selfish men of his gen- 
 eration, to work the works of God, that liberty may speed to 
 the ends of the earth, that peace and progress may abide in 
 all its nations, that simple truth and Christian charity may 
 be the only contemplation between children of the same 
 family, until we all come to owe no man anything, but to 
 love one another. 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Collier's remarks, a few words 
 were said by the Rev. W. Dorling. The Rev. H. lerson re- 
 ferred to the absence of the Rev. William H. Channing in 
 America, and said he should be glad to receive subscriptions 
 toward the building of the Channing Memorial Church in 
 Newport. After a vote of thanks to the Chairman, the pro- 
 ceedings terminated. 
 
 29
 
 THE CELEBRATION AT LIVERPOOL. 
 
 MEETING AT ST. GEORGE'S HALL. 
 
 The centenary of Dr. Channing was celebrated last even- 
 ing at St. George's Hall, by a large and brilliant assemblage. 
 The celebration commenced by a large number of ladies, 
 gentlemen, and young people partaking of an excellent tea. 
 Besides this, there was a very interesting exhibition of micro- 
 scopes and other objects. Shortly after eight o'clock, the 
 ladies and gentlemen adjourned to the small concert hall, 
 and were joined by many others who had not been able to 
 attend the earlier proceedings. Mr. H. A. Bright presided 
 in the early part of the meeting, and was succeeded by Mr. 
 W. H. Meade-King. There were also present the Revs. 
 Charles Beard, G. Beaumont, W. Binns, W. H. Dallinger, 
 G. Fox, H. W. Hawkes, T. Holland, E. Howse, T. Lloyd, 
 T. Jones, J. Lee, D. Davies, E. Hassan, J. E. Odgers, C. J. 
 Perry, R. Pilcher, H. S. Solly, J. H. Thom, W. E. Turner, 
 and J. F. Williams ; and Messrs. A. Booth, F. H. Boult, 
 C. T. Bowring, C. Botterill, William Bowring, G. F. Chan- 
 trell, J. B. Cooke, J. T. Ellerbeck, H. Fernie, H. M. Guthrie, 
 F. H. Gossage, W. Holland, W. D. Holt, George Holt, 
 Meade-King, H. Jevons, C. W. Jones, E. English, Goffey, 
 T. E. Paget, R. Robinson, J. Samuelson, H. Tate, J. C.
 
 CELEBRATION AT LIVERPOOL. 435 
 
 Thomson, W. Thornely, Barnes, Sproule, H. Young, Dr. 
 J. M. Johnson, etc. 
 
 Mr. H. A. Bright, who was received with loud applause, 
 said: This centennial celebration of Dr. Channing is surely 
 a very remarkable occurrence. That there should be such 
 a celebration in the case of some great poet, whose burning 
 words have sunk deep into the minds of his fellow-country- 
 men, is intelligible enough. That the anniversary of some 
 great victory, when a nation has achieved her freedom or 
 a tyrant has been crushed, should be held in honor, is a 
 matter of no surprise. But why, in the very midst of pres- 
 ent political strife, should men in London, Manchester, and 
 Belfast, and, a few days later on, we, in Liverpool, meet to- 
 gether in honor of an American theologian ? 
 
 Why is the name of Channing being commemorated alike 
 in the city of the pontiffs and amid the poor dwellings of 
 the capital of Iceland.'' Well, I suppose there is but one 
 answer, the only one and the true one. It is because 
 men feel that they owe Channing a distinct debt of grati- 
 tude, which they would only too thankfully repay, though 
 they well know that recognition and not repayment is alone 
 now possible. Nearly ninety years have passed since Dr. 
 Priestley (and I wish to pay a passing homage to one to 
 whom modern Unitarians, certainly not men of science, 
 have been, perhaps, a shade unthankful) was driven from 
 his home by a Church and State mob, and took refuge in 
 the freer lands across the seas. He was a good and true 
 man, if ever there was one, — kindly and genial, a great 
 scholar, a learned theologian, an illustrious philosopher, and, 
 above all, a confessor, almost a martyr for conscience' sake ; 
 yet Priestley's name fails to stir us like the name of Chan- 
 ning. Channing was twenty-four years old when Priestley 
 died; but I doubt whether in any case he owed much to his 
 teaching. But other influences had already been at work,
 
 43^> CHANNIXG CENTENARY. 
 
 and, not the least, the intiuencc of the all-pervading Mother 
 Nature. As Channing, still a youth, paced the rocky shores 
 of his native State, Rhode Island, he drank in the spirit of 
 freedom and devotion from the wind and wave. The influ- 
 ence of such a scene had been felt centuries before by the 
 old British monk Morgan, who was known afterward as 
 Pelagius, because, so tradition tells us, he was constantly 
 seeking fresh inspiration from the pelagos, or ocean, and 
 who was in his time the champion of the freedom of the 
 human will, as Channing was in later times. One had Saint 
 Augustine for an opponent, the other had the Calvinism of 
 Jonathan Edwards ; and both first learned the lesson of free- 
 dom from the sights and sounds of the natural world. But 
 that strand on which Channing walked had a special associa- 
 tion of its own. It was a part of that coast where, in the 
 year 1620, 
 
 "A band of pilgrims moored their bark 
 On the wild New England shore." 
 
 They had fled from ecclesiastical tyranny, and Channing 
 would not that any ecclesiastical tyranny of any kind or sort 
 should still remain. " Freedom to worship God " should be 
 absolute and uncontested. And now let me say, in a few 
 words, what I conceive to be Channing's chief claim to our 
 gratitude, our respect, our veneration. It is not that he held 
 certain speculative opinions which we call Unitarian, though, 
 as a matter of fact, he has done more to spread those opin- 
 ions than any one man before or since. But, in the first 
 place, I doubt whether those of us who agree most fully 
 with Channing's speculative opinions admire him chiefly on 
 that account. And I doubt not there are many here who 
 do not agree with these opinions, and who think they err, 
 either by defect or excess, either going too far or not going 
 far enough. Nor is it as a great man of letters that we 
 admire him. His writinccs are all condensed into that won-
 
 CELEBRATION AT LIVERPOOL. 437 
 
 derfiil little one-shilling edition. He wrote no great book, — 
 nothing but a few essays, a few lectures, and a good many 
 sermons. His style is pure and dignified, but somewhat dif- 
 fuse, and only at times reaches to any great height of elo- 
 quence. And yet how noble is his appreciation of Fenelon, 
 how sympathetic his character of Milton, how scathing his 
 denunciation of Napoleon ! Still, on the whole, there have 
 been many far greater men of letters, for whom no centen- 
 nial would ever be suggested. No, the reason of our regard 
 is the greatness of Channing's character. It is not for what 
 he did or for what he thought, but for what he was, that we 
 hold him so high in our affections. I believe him to have 
 been one of the best men who ever lived, and it is his ex- 
 ample rather than his teaching which is influencing men for 
 good to-day. There is a well-known passage in Goethe's 
 
 Wilhehn Meister, where the education of the young is to 
 be taught symbolically; and the recollection of this comes 
 to me as I think of Channing. The first lesson is to look 
 upward, — it is the lesson of reverence for what is above. 
 Channing learned this lesson early, and teaches it to us. 
 He had for the moment to help to destroy old forms of faith, 
 but he would " uproot the false by planting of the true." 
 His very process of destruction was a process of construc- 
 tion, and meanwhile there was no frivolity or flippancy in 
 the means he used or the words he spoke. The truths he 
 held were sacred to him with a sanctity beyond expression. 
 Nothing base or bad could, we are told, live in his presence 
 for a moment. He had looked up, and learned to reverence 
 what was above. And the second lesson, according to 
 
 Wilhehn Meister, was to look down, and reverence what 
 was below. Channing found the curse of slavery heavy on 
 the land, and his first impulse was to leave the question to 
 others to settle. Ikit he looked down, and he saw the dig- 
 nity of man debased beneath the foot of the slave-owner ;
 
 4,V^ ClIyVNNING CKNTKKAKV. 
 
 and he resolved to ujilift it, not alone for the sake of the 
 individual, but for the sake of human nature. And so with 
 men of despised opinions. No one could have had less sym- 
 pathy than he with Theodore Parker's special views; but he 
 would have no one insulted on account of his views, and so 
 in defence of Parker he risked the good opinion of his fellow- 
 ministers, as in the case of slavery he had risked the good 
 opinion of his fellow-citizens and of the leading laity of his 
 church. And, lastly, the pupil of the story had a third 
 lesson to learn, — of reverence to himself and the facts 
 around him. He must now look straight onward, ready to 
 act on his own convictions, and bear his part as one of 
 many. And Channing was now indeed foremost and most 
 earnest among those of his time, among those of any time, 
 
 " Whose one bond is that all have been 
 Unspotted by the world." 
 
 He had learned the three great lessons of the three forms of 
 reverence, — piety, compassion, and earnestness. By these 
 moral gifts, his preaching became so powerful for good that 
 long before he died he had become one of the strongest in- 
 fluences in New England. And, when he died, his charity 
 was felt to have been so wide that the Roman Catholics 
 were touched at the thought of it, and tolled the bell of their 
 cathedral when his body was carried to its last home. And 
 then it was that here in England, as I am old enough to re- 
 member, a sense of loss came upon us all, and in all our 
 chapels sermons were preached to remind us that our great- 
 est leader had fallen. But to-night, ladies and gentlemen, 
 we will not think of what we lost when Channing died, but 
 of what we gained when he was born. If Southey, the High 
 Churchman, could speak of him in the Quarterly Review as 
 "an honor to any age and any country," what must be our 
 feelings toward him } It is for us to imitate his example, to
 
 CELEBRATION AT LIVERPOOL. 439 
 
 spread his teachings, and to show our gratitude not in bar- 
 ren words, but fruitful deeds. 
 
 Mr. Bright then vacated the chair, which was filled by 
 Mr. Meade-King, after the first-named gentleman had called 
 upon 
 
 The Rev. J. H. Thom. He said : We hold our celebra- 
 tion to-night under circumstances of disadvantage. Duties 
 to the nation, it was apprehended, might, upon the 7th of 
 April, have been agitating the atmosphere, — duties which 
 Channing would have regarded as supreme above all per- 
 sonal considerations, but which might not have contributed 
 to those calm depths of contemplation in which alone his 
 image can be mirrored and seen. Yet perhaps it was un- 
 fortunate for them ; for they could not have been more glad- 
 dened, strengthened, and aided in the causes which were 
 then discussed, — causes which Channing had most at heart, 
 — the brotherhood of weaker races and hate of oppressive 
 wars. We certainly should have been raised by his spirit 
 far above local or temporary defeat into regions of faith, 
 where justice and mercy universally prevail. And not 
 only are we late in the field. The mighty reapers have 
 been there before us, gathering in the richest sheaves and 
 presenting them in a perfect assortment ; and we are but 
 the poor gleaners of what they have left. That would be a 
 positive advantage ; for the field is of inexhaustible richness 
 and variety, if only we can presume that all that has been 
 said at London and Manchester and elsewhere was known 
 to every person present, and that we had only to follow those 
 leaders, gathering up what even their open arms will not 
 hold in one embrace, and adding something, it may be, of 
 the finishing hand to their incomplete work. That all the 
 essential things have been said already, and said in the best 
 way, does not disconcert us : rather, gladly do wc appropri- 
 ate it all to enrich our own offering ; for wc arc here to bear
 
 .\.\0 CllANNING CENTENARY. , 
 
 a continuous testimony, to give our share to the greatest 
 debt man can owe to man, and to share the general tribute 
 to the friend and benefactor of all English-speaking people, 
 and not only English people, but French, Italian, Hunga- 
 rian, and Siiani.sli. And, speaking of their debt of gratitude, 
 this generation can hardly know how great it was, nor can 
 many recall that to which Mr. Bright alluded, — that unpar- 
 alleled testimony to him in the sudden sinking of the heart 
 in the friends of light and liberty in both continents when 
 his death was known, as if every evil cause was stronger 
 and every righteous cause weaker than before. Wellington 
 said that Napoleon's presence on the field was equal to thirty 
 thousand men ; but here the loss was the only man who 
 could make his voice heard in both Worlds, — the Old and the 
 New. The greatest soldier when he is dead gains no more 
 victories, but the prophet lives in ever-widening triumph. 
 And, of us who have been for fifty years and more under the 
 unspent influence of his quickening life, few can remember 
 its first electric stroke. I remember it. I remember a sense 
 of having been new-born. I cannot speak worthily of Chan- 
 ning, but I can acknowledge my debt. Mr. Thom then re- 
 viewed the influence which Channing's character had upon 
 himself, and proceeded : Now, in a word, what did Chan- 
 ning do } He lifted the religion out of controversy, out of 
 criticism, out of a wrangle about the texts, into healthy and 
 inexhaustible life, shining in the face of Christ. He did for 
 us what the great teachers desired to do for the Jews. This 
 is what Channing did for the Church to which he belonged. 
 We are reminded, and by those who gave him the first place, 
 that he was not a critic, nor a great scholar, nor a learned 
 theologian versed in the methods of historical investigation 
 and intimately acquainted with all ancient religions. Be it 
 so. The same, I think, might be said, and without loss of 
 reverence or indebtedness, of a greater than he. But I have
 
 CELEBRATION AT LIVERPOOL. 44 1 
 
 seen it laid down by the highest Hving authorities upon 
 these matters that the result of the modern critical testing 
 of the literary and historical value of the New Testament 
 documents is this, — that it brought back the living Christ of 
 the work ; that it inaugurated a second coming of the Son 
 of Man ; and that it has caused us to place the spiritual facts 
 of history in the place of secularistic systems. Now, that 
 result was exactly the result which Channing reached, not 
 by a critical, but by a spiritual method. All honor to criti- 
 cism in its place, but at its best it only clears the way to 
 unobstructive vision. Nothing intercepted, nothing stood 
 between Channing and the light directed. Thirty-seven 
 years ago, I had to speak of Channing from the pulpit and 
 from the press, because the offices I then held toward the 
 pulpit and the press required me so to do. Let Channing 
 speak for himself by his works. Only the year before his 
 death, Channing issued a corrected edition of his works, with 
 an elaborate preface. The introduction, in which Channing 
 concentrates and reflects himself, is less than ten pages ; and 
 the one-volume edition of his works, with the correspond- 
 ence, except for the time that it might make you meditate, 
 would be but a short evening's reading. We have seen, and 
 all know, Channing's predominant thought, — the central 
 light of his conscience ; hence, the mighty monotone of his 
 mind, like the monotone of the ocean. The natural history 
 of the religious development and action of Channing's char- 
 acter is most instructiv'e, for it is the same as all those who 
 have made the spiritual era of the world. There was an 
 early time when Channing seemed to be absorbed in piety, — 
 not yet a warrior for the right, a good soldier of Jesus Christ 
 on the battle-field of the world, — a youthful Christ himself, 
 retired within the secrets and recesses of his being. This 
 earnestness is the feeling of Channing which comes out viv- 
 idly as they flash the light to one another. Channing pointed
 
 44- CIlANNlNc; CKNTl'-NAKV. 
 
 out lo Hlanco White the on-ors which are to be deplored ; 
 ami White's answer is in the widest catholic spirit, and yet 
 he lays his nni;er upon the true source of religious faithful- 
 ness wherever it exists. In conclusion, the reverend speaker 
 said: Music has made a lar_L;'e part of om- celebrations to- 
 night, whether with the knowledge or instinct of its suita- 
 bleness I do not know ; but Channing himself said of music 
 that it reached ilepths in his being beyond all other influ- 
 ences, that it extended to his conscience, and that it gave 
 him new revelations of immortality and heaven. The 
 speaker then, after making a short allusion to the impetus 
 that Channing's writing gave for spiritual advancement in 
 their minds, sat down amid loud applause. 
 
 The Rev. Charles Beard said : If, ladies and gentlemen, 
 Mr. Thom found himself in a difficulty, how must I feel after 
 you have listened to a speech so exquisitely impressive in 
 its personal reminiscences, and so widely reaching and so 
 deeply penetrating in its statements of i-cligious truth .-* And 
 I am also in the farther difficulty that I am conscious that 
 the evening has already far advanced, and that the Chaii-man 
 would have done well to accept the offer which I made to 
 him a moment ago to cut me out of the programme, and to 
 let you arrive at home in decent time. We are indeed in a 
 perplexity, because this subject has been discussed again and 
 again, and every possible aspect of it has already been laid 
 before the public by speakers and writers with great oppor- 
 tunities of knowledge and great powers of expression. But 
 the other day, while you were engaged in your ordinary 
 morning worship, I made a pilgrimage to the grave of The- 
 odore Parker, which lies in the Protestant cemetery at the 
 gate of Florence, and the violets shed their fragrance under 
 my feet, the sad cypresses shot their green flames overhead, 
 and all round about were the hum and the noise of that great 
 and famous city over which Dante yearned, which Michel
 
 CELEBRATION AT LIVERPOOL. 443 
 
 Angclo loved with all the passion of his soul, and which 
 Savonarola awoke to brief repentance from its sins ; and it 
 struck my sense that it would be possible to give some little 
 novelty to the treatment of the subject which is asked of me 
 to-night, if I were to venture for a few moments upon a 
 parallel between those two great souls which it was the fort- 
 une of Boston — not a very considerable city in point of 
 population — to produce within a very few years of one 
 another, because, liovvcver their differences have been exajr- 
 gerated by partisan feeling on either side, there can be no 
 doubt whatever, to any one who looks at their life and writ- 
 ings from some little distance in point of time and from an 
 impartial point of criticism, that they were one in far more 
 than they were two, — that Parker would never have been 
 possible without Channing, and that one of the points of 
 Channing's life which we reflect upon with the greatest 
 pleasure is that, at the moment of the crisis of Parker's fate, 
 he said, " Give my love to Mr. Parker, and tell him to speak 
 his whole heart." Now, I said in the first place that Parker 
 would not have been possible without Channing. Where 
 except from Channing did he derive that boundless faith in 
 human nature which was so strongly characteristic of the 
 older preacher .-' Where but from Channing did he derive 
 that intensely moral conception of the nature of religion, 
 and especially of the nature of Christianity ? You don't 
 find these things in old-fashioned New l£ngland Presby- 
 terianism : you don't find them in the school of thought 
 which prevailed both in England and America at the close 
 of the eighteenth century. Channing was in America, 
 and to a large extent in England too, himself the point of 
 transition between them ; and it was at the feet of Chan- 
 ning, whether Parker knew it or not, that he learnetl much 
 that made him afterward the |)ure and fervent and powerful 
 soul that he was. I know nothing so shameful in the whole
 
 444 CHANNINCr CENTENARY. 
 
 history oi vcWy^'nni?. persecution as the persecution whicli 
 was raised against Parker for his discourse with regard to 
 the "transition" and the "permanent" in Christianity. 
 There have been persecutions which have raged more 
 fiercely against men's bodies, there have been persecutions, 
 God knows, in the world, whose instruments were the axe, 
 the fagot, the stake, and the thumb-screw ; but the partic- 
 ular iniquity of this persecution was that it was excited by 
 men who themselves were bound to freedom, who them- 
 selves were brand-marked with heresy, and whose only alle- 
 gation against Parker was that, in the exercise of his free 
 thought, he had gone a little further than themselves. Mr. 
 Bright has already said, and we all know very well, that 
 Channing's views of Christianity were not Parker's. We 
 know that Parker said many things, especially in the latter 
 part of his life, which Channing perhaps would have heard 
 with unwilling ears : but you will never make me believe 
 that the older prophet did not know what we see when he 
 sent that loving message to the younger ; you will never 
 make me think he did not feel that he was standing upon 
 the verge of a new era, and that he looked upon that era 
 with a full confidence that, come what might, his landmarks 
 of religion were of a kind that could neither be submerged 
 nor removed, and that God would still be holy, and human 
 nature worthy, and Christ the leading light of humanity, 
 whatever might be the result of criticism. 
 
 Now, I suppose these two young men were equally dis- 
 tinguished by the love of truth, — it is a distinguishing char- 
 acteristic of all great prophetic souls, — and I should hesitate 
 to say which of them loved truth the most faithfully and the 
 most urgently ; but they sought truth in very different ways. 
 I don't know whether Parker was a great scholar. I do 
 know that he was a great, an omnivorous reader, and a 
 mighty collector of books ; and I do know that in some cases
 
 CELEBRATION AT LIVERPOOL. 445 
 
 his writings bristled with quotations from all manner of un- 
 known authors. But, when you come to Channing's writings, 
 you find no quotations at all. Whatever learning he had 
 was so amalgamated with himself, so assimilated to the text- 
 ure of his mind, that it seemed only to feed the natural foun- 
 tain of thought as it flowed out of his harmless soul. And 
 whereas the one man was a wanderer in intellectual regions, 
 a bee sucking honey from " every flower that grows," so 
 the other was a quiet, meditative soul, rarely venturing 
 beyond the precincts of his own study or summer retreat, 
 and letting truth, as it shone upon him from every quarter 
 of the heavens, find its way silently and thoughtfully into his 
 mind ; so that, whereas one man spoke hotly, passionately, 
 had a word in every controversy, looked forward to large 
 intellectual and literary results, so it was characteristic of the 
 other to say nothing except upon emergency, to keep his 
 best work for the pulpit. And when he spoke, as he some- 
 times felt himself compelled to speak, upon other topics, and 
 addressed the whole literary world, — in the United States 
 and in this country, — he allowed his thoughts to come from 
 him carelessly. And it was this that showed in a very 
 remarkable degree that Parker and Channing addressed a 
 very different order of minds. They were both of them, I 
 believe, in the essential sense of the word, mystics ; that is 
 to say, they were men who had the vision and the faculty 
 divine, and who looked in God's face and spoke of that 
 which they saw. They were both of them men of deep 
 individuality. But Channing spoke, or speaks, to a very 
 large extent to men who have been under the influence of 
 orthodox views, to men who wanted to shake off the old 
 views of their moral impulsiveness ; while Parker is the 
 guide of those venturesome souls who are voyaging away 
 into the sunny seas of the unknown, hardly caring, perhaps, 
 to what harbor they ultimately arrive. And yet both of
 
 44^ CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 them were anient servants of the truth, and both of them 
 ready, if need be, to lay down their lives for truth. It is 
 a eharacteristic difference between the two men that, while 
 they both were ardent lovers of Christ, they loved him, as 
 it were, with a different species of affection. Channing, 
 who was almost of age when the nineteenth century began, 
 and who therefore had got his first training in the very 
 different school of thought which prevailed in the last cen- 
 tury, — never disturbed much by modern criticism, — was 
 content to take the Scriptures as he got them. Parker, 
 on the contrary, was one of the men who welcomed every 
 new theory as it came from England, a man to whom noth- 
 ing came amiss, what any man said or thought. And, while 
 to Channing, Christ was a being above humanity, — the Son 
 of God made flesh, the image of the Father's grace and 
 truth, one in whom he felt everything that was best in 
 humanity, or reflected and carried up to its highest degree, 
 and one to whom he looked to inspire the strength of hu- 
 manity in future ages, a bright and beautiful being, no vision 
 indeed, but a heavenly reality, — to Parker, who hardly loved 
 Christ less, if less at all, he was a carpenter's son, a man 
 who had gone about the cities of Galilee not knowing where 
 to lay his head, one who had mingled with the common 
 people ; and who always loved him better, as it were, if he 
 might feel that Christ was in truth a man like ourselves, 
 one born in the midst of us, owning our weaknesses and 
 exhibiting our possible strength. 
 
 And yet I would not say that one man loved his Master 
 less than another. I do not know where you would go for 
 stronger, more devout, more affectionate expression of love 
 to the great Galilean Prophet than you can find in Parker's 
 works. So that, while they both loved Christ, they loved 
 him in a different fashion. Comparing Parker with Chan- 
 ning in their relation to the moral controversies of their
 
 CELEBRATION AT LIVERPOOL. 447 
 
 time, Mr. Beard said that they were both men who felt — as 
 such men must feel — in the very depths of their nature the 
 iniquity of negro slavery ; but whereas it was the character- 
 istic of Channing that he could only speak well-balanced 
 words, even if they were words of reprobation, while it was 
 characteristic of him that he must seek out precisely the 
 right time to speak, and choose the very words and no 
 others which would aptly express and weigh both sides of the 
 question, Parker went down into the throng of men, worked 
 upon this committee, helped to incite this rebellion, took the 
 fugitive slave to his own house and braved the penalties of 
 the law. So while on the one side there was something 
 shrill and almost passionate in Parker's rebuke of public 
 wrong, on the other side men said that Channing did not 
 speak soon enough, and spoke too softly when he did speak. 
 Perhaps there may be some boy growing up among us who 
 will have something of Channing's saintliness and some- 
 thing of Parker's fervor, and add to both the beautiful philo- 
 sophic spirit of the prophet who is yet among us. One 
 thing I know : truth will never lack a servant, God will never 
 be without worthy children, nor will the Church in time to 
 come, as in times past, ever be barren of saints. 
 
 The Chairman next called upon 
 
 The Rev. William Binns, who was warmly applauded. He 
 said : There are eight Roman Catholic saints whose memo- 
 ries are celebrated on Channing's birthday ; and, putting his 
 theology on one side, and looking at the spirit of his life, 
 there are many Roman Catholics who would willingly accept 
 him as a ninth. And perhaps a liberal pope, as the develop- 
 ment of doctrine proceeds, may some time canonize him, not- 
 withstanding his theology. The Positivists certainly ought 
 to give Channing a place in their calendar. He has a better 
 right to be there than many mere warriors who figure promi- 
 nently in it, and than some mythological personages, such as
 
 44^ CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 rromethcus, Hercules, and Orpheus, whose very existence is 
 a fable of the poets. Channing illustrated Comte's service 
 of humanity without falling into Comte's extravagance of 
 ignoring God ; and I would recommend the Liverpool Posi- 
 tivist Society to atone for the deficiency of their master, 
 and to set apart the 7th of April or the 13th of Archimedes 
 for Channing. Diophantus possesses that day already, and 
 I have no objection to let him remain. Among the multi- 
 tudes who claim the 7th of April as their birthday, as well 
 as Channing, there are three who have a near spiritual kin- 
 ship to him : Wordsworth, who represents the higher relig- 
 ious aspirations of Channing, in moods when Wordsworth is 
 as little of a sectarian Anglican as Channing is a sectarian 
 Unitarian; Saint Francis Xavier, — for Francis Xavier was 
 a true saint, if the world ever had one, — who represents 
 Channing's practical Christian enthusiasm ; and Fourier, the 
 French philosophical socialist, who represents, though in a 
 form of chaotic and misdirected science, Channing's long- 
 ings for a Utopian condition of society. If Canon Farrar 
 had been appointed to the bishopric of Liverpool, — I mean 
 the bishopric of the second order, for the bishopric of the 
 first order naturally belongs to the older Church, — he would 
 have made some of the characteristics of the Channing 
 theology immensely popular. But, unhappily for him and 
 unhappily for the religious life of the town, the publication 
 of Eternal Hope made his prospects hopeless. If he had 
 vaguely hinted at his sublime and beautiful heresies, and not 
 plainly stated them, we might have had him here instead of 
 Dean Ryle, and perhaps with us to-night. Channing's soci- 
 ology came, as everything good in every man's case gen- 
 erally does come, out of his religion. Now, Channing's 
 fundamental religious ideas were three : first, God is perfect ; 
 second, Jesus Christ is the true type of a man after God's 
 own heart ; and, third, in universal human nature there are
 
 CELEBRATION AT LIVERPOOL. 449 
 
 the germs of this true type of a man after God's own heart. 
 I am content for to-night to take my stand on them. The 
 additions that Channing made and the additions that are 
 made by the compilers of and behevers in elaborate confes- 
 sions of faith I pass by, as not needed for myself and as 
 destined to be gradually eliminated by the course of history, 
 serving a purpose while they last, but still being a slowly 
 dying cause. Christian manhood, then, — and I include, of 
 course, womanhood in manhood, — is the end and aim for 
 which social institutions are established. This is the raison 
 d'etre. We preserve them as they promote it, we discard 
 them as they hinder it, and we modify them as we get 
 clearer views of what is required by the ever-unfolding 
 capacities of mankind. In the animating spirit of these 
 ideas, Channing bravely faced the problems of the time. 
 To begin with, they made short work of his early Calvinism, 
 and emancipated him into the glorious liberty of the chil- 
 dren of God. With the various social activities that they 
 prompted him to undertake, I find myself substantially at 
 one, and with the political activities, too ; for politics is but 
 a minor section of the larger sphere of sociology. So he 
 condemned slavery in days when all the respectabilities 
 defended it, and when all the pieties, except honest Quaker 
 piety, said, "Let it alone." It always seems to me a mel- 
 ancholy thing, and an illustration of the perverting influence 
 which the possession of irresponsible, absolute power exer- 
 cises over the conscience and the conduct of even good men, 
 that the American people, while asserting their own liberty 
 and shedding their blood in lavish streams to win it, did not 
 sooner realize that in an equitable government, fashioned 
 after divine models, liberty is just as much the birthright 
 of the blacks as of the whites. They, however, took refuge 
 in a policy of short-sighted utilitarianism. I say short- 
 sighted, because, in the long run, utilitarianism ends in 
 
 30
 
 450 CIIANNING CKNTKNAKY. 
 
 morality, which docs right for right's sake, and docs not 
 consider utility. Utility goes without the saying. Right- 
 eousness is the guarantee of the only utility worth caring 
 for. Channing did not live to see the triumph of his prin- 
 ciples. That triumph had to be achieved by war. It was 
 evolved as a providential consequence of mixed human pur- 
 poses. Liberty is an inspired saying. But the Americans 
 found out the truth of Tennyson's words, that it is 
 
 " A saying hard to shape in act ; 
 For all the past of time reveals 
 A bridal dawn of thunder-peals, 
 Whenever Thought has wedded Fact." 
 
 The American thunder-peals purified the air, and set the 
 people free. Channing was a republican ; and hereditary 
 privileges were alien to his generous and freedom-loving 
 soul. In England, we are not as yet, except in a few cases, 
 educated up to the level of this lofty ideal of statesmanship. 
 His political doctrines, therefore, run counter to some of 
 our prejudices; and I should not have mentioned them, if 
 justice to him would have allowed me to keep silence. But 
 we want to grasp him in his completeness ; and this repub- 
 licanism is an essential element of his sociology. For prac- 
 tical purposes, we no doubt possess most of the advantages 
 of republicanism ; and it may be that our nearly real repub- 
 licanism works about as well as the nominal combined with 
 the real republicanism of America works. But old forms 
 unfortunately tend now and then to reassert themselves as 
 living forces. That is their nature. And I look upon Chan- 
 ning as a prophet of the good time coming, — when effete 
 forms, also, will disappear; when there will be no hereditary 
 privileges; when the position of men and women will be 
 determined by what they are, and not fixed beforehand by 
 what their parents were, irrespective of their own present 
 fitness ; when, in simple parlance, every tub will stand on its
 
 CELEBRATION AT LIVERPOOL. 45 I 
 
 own bottom. There is no need to hurry any changes in 
 England. But it is evident that the social organism is 
 working its way onward by natural and inevitable processes 
 of development, and the future will be republican. Chan- 
 ning was a peace man, not a pqace-at-any-price man ; for he 
 believed, and I believe, in war sometimes as a bitter neces- 
 sity, — war for justice, war for liberty, war for the right to 
 live and grow to the full stature of humanity, — and death 
 before slavery and dishonor. I have no inclination to aban- 
 don the world to the dominion of strong wickedness. The 
 tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. I hold, with Milton, 
 that a man must be willing to defend his country with the 
 pen or the sword, as need may be. And 
 
 " How can man die better 
 Than facing fearful odds, 
 For the ashes of his fathers 
 And the temples of his gods ? " 
 
 But, notwithstanding this warlike preamble, I, too, am a 
 peace man ; and I candidly confess that I do not know of 
 a single war in which we have been engaged, since the 
 defeat of the Spanish Armada, which might not have been 
 avoided by wise and Christian statesmanship, by a display of 
 that scientific diplomacy of which we hear so much and see 
 so little. England has still more faith in power than, in 
 righteousness, and is too ready to appeal to the arbitrament 
 of arms instead of the arbitrament of the conscience of the 
 world, and to show at the same time there is power enough 
 at the back which we will call into play when peaceful pro- 
 posals, pressed with an almost but not quite everlasting 
 patience, have failed. A general reduction of armies and 
 navies, a discouragement of the war spirit, a ceasing" to 
 confer honors on the fighting ruffian athletes of the Lord 
 William Beresford stamp, the establishment of courts of 
 international arbitration, whose decisions shall be enforced
 
 .|;j CHANNINO CKNTr.NARV. 
 
 by the omnipotent international [lower, — this was Chan- 
 ninij^'s ideal, and to this the peoples will yet bring their gov- 
 ernments. God grant it may be soon : it is weary waiting. 
 Channing believed in free churches. So do most of us. 
 Else wherefore are we here .'' " An Established Church," 
 said he. "is the grave of intellect." And I see no possibility 
 of answering that statement satisfactorily. The Church of 
 England itself furnishes at once the best and the saddest 
 commentary that we could desire. I admit with glad grati- 
 tude the number of eminent men who have adorned it. I 
 remember Anselm's acute metaphysical intellect ; I remem- 
 ber Jeremy Taylor, the Shakspeare of divines ; I remember 
 Hooker, with his Ecclesiastical Polity, so much broader than 
 Cartwright's Puritan scheme ; I remember Tillotson's latitu- 
 dinarianism ; I remember Bishop Butler, with the Analogy 
 of Religion, so splendid in its first part and so halting in its 
 second ; I remember Dean Stanley, with his all-embracing 
 geniality and charity, — I remember them all; and, whether I 
 agree with them or disagree with them, I am proud of them. 
 But they have one drawback; and, in my mind, that hampers 
 and mutilates them from Anselm to Dean Stanley, hampers 
 and mutilates the laity as well as the clergy. They are 
 not free. Their thinking is bound to reach certain con- 
 clusions. Or, if they reach conclusions not in harmony 
 with the plain meaning of the standards, they must either 
 play tricks with words or seek a new home ; and I feel, 
 therefore, that if, when limited by creeds, they are able to 
 do so well, they would be able to do vastly better, if they 
 threw their creeds simply to fly in the winds as temporary 
 flags, and did not inscribe upon them an inglorious semper 
 eadem. Now, Channing would not have his own creed 
 established, nor would he have ours so doomed to be stereo- 
 typed. Let theology be as science is, open to new revela- 
 tions ; and let it throw aside old forms and old symbols of
 
 CELEBRATION AT LIVERPOOL. 453 
 
 speech, as it presses into an ampler ether and a diviner air. 
 And to this complexion, too, England will come at last. 
 Channing believed in woman. So, again, do we all. But 
 there are three ways of believing in woman. We may believe 
 in her as a creature made for us to hold as a chattel, which 
 belief we have outgrown ; or as a creature to be protected 
 and cared for by the superior lords of creation, which belief 
 is still the prevailing superstition ; or as a creature not only 
 to be protected and cared for, but possessing the same 
 rights as ourselves to the full development of all her natural 
 faculties, which belief some of us have attained, and more 
 vaguely sympathize with, and all are destined to. This last 
 form of belief was Channing's. What does it involve ? It 
 involves a higher education of women, and by means of high 
 schools and an extension of university opportunities we are 
 slowly moving in the right direction. But, when we have 
 given a higher education to woman, there will be little use in 
 it : it will simply rust in her, if we do not frankly open to 
 her the various professions. And here men, in spite of 
 their politeness, are often tyrannical, jealous, and selfish. 
 Doctors protest, lawyers protest, parsons protest this, that, 
 and the other is not her sphere. I protest in my turn 
 against them all. Let woman choose her own sphere. 
 She cannot make a greater mess of things than many male 
 doctors, lawyers, and parsons make already ; and the 
 chances are that she would often do very much better. 
 And, to crown all, give her the legal right to the fran- 
 chise, and to more control over the joint property and the 
 personal property, and so in harmony with Channing's 
 ideal, though I do not know that he ever formulated it in 
 this way, bring law up to the demands of morality. This 
 revolution will come to pass also. 
 
 Finally, Channing believed in the elevation of the social 
 condition of the working classes. He sympathized with
 
 434 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 some of the ends that Fourier and Robert Owen set before 
 themselves, fie did not, of course, sanction Fourier's me- 
 chanical arrangements ; and still less did he fall in with 
 Owen's parallelograms and community of property and doc- 
 trine of circumstances. But he felt the startling anomaly 
 in a Christian country of so many poor in the face of a hand- 
 ful of the rich. America, to its discredit, has no poor laws. 
 Channing insisted that it was the duty of a State to care for 
 its poorer citizens, to educate them, and to protect them in 
 sickness and old age. He constantly urged on the rich their 
 moral obligations in this matter, and was prepared to make 
 sweeping reforms of a legal kind in relation to land and other 
 property. But, and what is always of supreme importance, 
 he clearly saw that no laws, no elaborate, artificial, social 
 arrangements could of themselves destroy our social evils. 
 Only to the elevation of the personal character can we look 
 for the permanent elevation of the whole social system. 
 Temperance, industry, economy, self-control, morality, relig- 
 ion, are the genuine levers to raise humanity. He was a 
 socialist ; but he preserved the sanctity of the individual and 
 the home, and made personal and family life the basis of 
 national prosperity and social progress. There is one as- 
 pect of Channing's theology on which I must say a conclud- 
 ing word. He has exercised a wide and healthy influence 
 over the old-fashioned methods of theological thinking, and 
 that influence is still growing from year to year. Perhaps 
 it is owing less to his power as a thinker than to his moral 
 and spiritual earnestness as a man. It was also moral and 
 spiritual earnestness that made him a iieretic himself to 
 begin with, and compelled him in very fidelity to his own 
 best instincts to believe in a potential divinity of human 
 nature in spite of its waywardness and sin, and to reinter- 
 pret the work of Christ as a quickening agency rather than 
 a legal satisfaction, and to assert the ultimate victory of God
 
 CELEBRATION AT LIVERPOOL. 455 
 
 in harmony with the freedom of God's children, over against 
 the prevailing notion of a disastrous and deplorable break- 
 down, in which the devil, and not God, gets the better in 
 the great conflict between good and evil. And Channing's 
 ideas on these matters now find multitudinous expression in 
 the pulpit and the press, on the part ■ of men who differ 
 from him on the Trinity, and still cling to the Incarnation 
 as the cardinal truth of Christianity. But he has weaned 
 them from the idolatry of creeds ; and they no longer, to 
 anything like the same extent, hold that their own little 
 cluster of dogmas constitute the sole way to heaven. They 
 gladly reckon themselves members of a universal church ; 
 and the ancient anathemas, that consistency seems to re- 
 quire, they only utter from the lips outward, and take care 
 to explain the meaning away. Channing's unique spiritual 
 personality has made a breach in the citadel of bigotry. 
 Through him, we can see, rising in the midst of the east 
 orthodox world, a new temple for a new faith, lofty as is 
 the love of God, and ample as the wants of man. I have 
 now, from my own stand-point, briefly sketched some of 
 the phases of Channing's manifold activity. You may not 
 agree with all the details of his views ; but, like me, I am 
 sure that you will bow before his spirit. I say that as a 
 free and catholic religionist, as an enemy of slavery, as a 
 republican, as a friend of peace, as a believer in free churches, 
 as an advocate of the equal rights of man and woman, as a 
 servant of God and the people, he was a hero in his own 
 country and a saint worthy of the worship of mankind. 
 
 Upon the motion of Mr. Henry Jevons, a vote of thanks 
 was passed to the Chairman, and the proceedings afterward 
 terminated.
 
 THE CELEBRATION AT MANCHESTER. 
 
 A SOIREE and public meeting was held in the New Town 
 Hall, Albert Square, under the auspices of the Manchester 
 District Unitarian Association, to celebrate the birth of Dr. 
 Channing. There was a very large gathering. On the even- 
 ing previous, near one thousand tickets had been sold. 
 There was a most brilliant assembly. The Mayor's magnifi- 
 cent suite of rooms was thrown open for the accommodation 
 of our friends. Tea was served in the tea-room, where every- 
 body appeared to have their wants bountifully supplied. 
 About twenty minutes to seven o'clock, Mr. J. Kendrick 
 Pyne began the organ performance, giving as his first piece 
 a concert fantasia from Sir R. Stewart. This was followed 
 by a Bourree (B) from Macfarren, which was succeeded by 
 the overture from "William Tell." There were present 
 Alderman C. S. Grundy, ex-Mayor of Manchester, who 
 occupied the chair ; the Rev. Charles T. Poynting, B.A., 
 and Mr. John Dendy, Jr., joint Secretaries of the Associa- 
 tion ; the Revs. Charles Wicksteed, B.A., William Gaskell, 
 M.A., James Black, M.A., Joseph Freeston, P. M. Hig- 
 ginson, M.A., T. Lloyd Jones, W. M. Ainsworth, J. T. Mar- 
 riott, C. C. Coe, D. Walmsley, B.A., Noah Green, S. A. 
 Steinthal, J. B. Lloyd, Benjamin Walker, Richard Pilcher, 
 B.A., J. Harrop, William Mitchell, Silas Farrington, E. W.
 
 CELEBRATION AT MANCHESTER. 457 
 
 Hopkinson, John Moore, James Harwood, B.A., John Mc- 
 Dowell, George Ride, F. H. Jones, B.A., J. K. Smith, W. 
 Mellor, H. Thomas, W. C. Squier, J. Perry, B.A., J. G. 
 Slater ; Messrs. E. H. Greg (Styal), Smith Golland, G. W. R. 
 Wood, treasurer of the District Association, Robert Nichol- 
 son, Henry Leigh, E. Winser, Jesse Pilcher, E. C. Harding, 
 J. Barrow (Bolton), J. Barrow (Styal), John Heys, John 
 Dendy, Sen., John Thomas, Richard Wade, H. J. Leppoc, 
 Z. Smith, Henry Coffey, O. Oldham, Alexander Ireland, 
 Archibald Winterbottom, W. H. Herford, B.A., H. Long, 
 T. H. Baker, F. Holland, F. Monks (Warrington), Councillor 
 H. Baily, W. Horrocks, W. H. Talbot (Deputy Town Clerk), 
 J. Bellhouse, James D. Oliver, Richard Peacock, Thomas 
 Swan wick, Thomas Rawson ; and Colonel Shaw (U.S.A. 
 Consul), Dr. Roscoe, and Dr. John Watts. 
 
 After an eloquent introductory speech by the Chairman, 
 Alderman C. S. Grundy, which was heartily applauded, the fol- 
 lowing eulogy was pronounced by the Rev. Charles Wicksteed. 
 
 Mr. Wicksteed said : A hundred years ago this day 
 week, a New England household received from all-bounteous 
 Heaven the gift of an infant-life, the growing light of 
 whose purity, nobility, and goodness, — after irradiating 
 home, school, college, church, country, and touching at 
 length the four corners of the earth, — we are met this day 
 to declare, with gratitude, shines still. Sprung from John 
 Channing, a Dorsetshire man of Old England, the first of 
 the name that came to America, the subject of our eulogy 
 to-day had the inherited advantage of some of the best cult- 
 ure and opportunity of his country ; and, as we go back 
 through the intermediate generations between himself and 
 his English ancestors, we find among them, and among the 
 American families with whom marriage allied them, the 
 merchant, the physician, the lawyer, the member of Con- 
 gress, the chief justice, and the office-bearer of State.
 
 45S CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 His father, who had graduated at Princeton College, in 
 New Jersey, became eminent as a pleader at the bar, 
 and was made Attorney-General of his native State. Of 
 a winning countenance and deportment, the law of kind- 
 ness was in his heart and on his tongue. He was an 
 obedient son, and a conscientiously good, if somewhat dis- 
 tant, father. Keenly feeling the distresses of mankind, 
 and a generous reliever of them, his munificence was ever 
 accompanied by a sweetness in the manner which doubled 
 the obligation of gratitude. While a warm asscrter of the 
 rights of man, he was a lover of peace and order; and 
 though in religious profession particularly attached to the 
 Congregational denomination, and to the ministry of his 
 devout and learned pastor, Dr. Styles, he treated all good 
 men of all denominations with kindness and respect. 
 
 This admirable father Channing lost when he was thir- 
 teen years of age. His mother, Lucy Ellery, was spared 
 to him for more than fifty years after his birth. A disci- 
 plinarian in her family, and a woman of energy and judg- 
 ment, she yet united with these qualities a tenderness of 
 sensibility and an enthusiasm, which threw a charm of 
 romance over her conversation and her actions. Feelings 
 quick, humor lively, she so clothed sagacious thought in 
 quaint dialect that she was as entertainhig a companion 
 as she was a wise counsellor. To her son (he himself said), 
 the most remarkable trait in her character was the rectitude 
 and simplicity of her mind. Perhaps, he says, I have never 
 known her equal in this respect. She had the firmness 
 to see the truth, to speak it, to act upon it ; and in my long 
 intercourse with her I cannot recall one word or action 
 betraying the slightest insincerity. She had keen insight, 
 she was not to be imposed upon by others, and, what is 
 rarer, she practised no imposition in her own mind. 
 
 In attempting to describe and to trace the mental and
 
 CELEBRATION AT MANCHESTER. 459 
 
 spiritual career of Dr. Channing, it would be at once irrev- 
 erent and ungrateful to the past, and incomplete as regards 
 what followed, not most distinctly to mark these powerful 
 factors in the product. For in this, as in all cases, inherited 
 quality, with the formative surroundings which it involves, 
 is the one thing, more than any other, which makes the 
 man. At this moment there is no more solemn fact weigh- 
 ing on the conscience of mankind than this law of hered- 
 ity; and of the two laws of succession, the one to property 
 and the other to quality, the law of succession to special 
 characteristics of body, mind, conscience, and character, 
 is even the more uniform and certainly the more momentous 
 in its operation, of the two. 
 
 This, indeed, is not the place or the occasion to enlarge 
 on the wide influence which this fact has on all human 
 life, on the responsibility in which it involves every 
 parent in the universe, or the weight it brings to bear on 
 the conscience, and the motive-power it supplies to self- 
 culture and the formation of character and habits through- 
 out society. 
 
 Suffice it that Channing himself believed in the power of 
 this heredity in his own case, — that he traced to the virtues 
 of his parents his own, to their high principles his prin- 
 ciples ; and that he believed, as he said, that the best part of 
 himself came from them, and from the moral atmosphere 
 they caused him to breathe from the first. 
 
 Inherited elements, however, never reappear in the same 
 combination and proportion in successive generations, but 
 always so vary as to form a new individuality, quite distinct 
 from every other individuality that ever existed or ever will 
 exist ; and that individuality always adds to the result some- 
 thing of its own, something apparently original to itself. 
 And while we trace the high and direct aim, the conscien- 
 tiousness, the brain power, and the severe purity in the char-
 
 460 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 actcr of Channing to this heredity, the sensitiveness, the 
 aspiration, the severity of self-discipline, and the spirituality 
 that belonged to him, we must trace directly to himself, as 
 the product of his own will, working on the inherited qual- 
 ities, and moulding them into fresh and higher forms ; and 
 also must we not, and ought we not, to add, to some direct 
 inspiration of heaven, some personal descent and gift of the 
 Holy Spirit on his soul, descending upon him in resjDonse 
 to the constant cry of his own heart, and his own daily 
 effort to climb the Mount of God ? 
 
 The result of these influences and all this earnest seeking 
 was a rare and unique personality, some leading features of 
 which we shall endeavor to portray as we proceed. 
 
 But we must not suppose that the external circumstances 
 which helped to make him were exhausted by, though they 
 might be involved in, the immediate heredity of constitution 
 and of home. External Nature herself had a hand in him. 
 The very situation of the place of his birth, Newport, Rhode 
 Island, he himself declares "had no small influence in de- 
 termining his mode of thought and habits of life." More 
 even than the fresh green pastures on the north side of 
 Newport, with the ever-varying cloud scenery, and softness 
 of the atmosphere, and the reflected light of surrounding 
 bay and ocean, was to him the pebbly, shelly shore on the 
 south, wath its gorgeous bivalves, its shelving sands, its 
 precipitous rocks, the almost perennial roar of the waves, 
 and the deep-riven rent, which formed part of that stern and 
 rock-bound coast 
 
 " Where the band of pilgrims moored their bark, 
 On the wild New England shore. 
 
 "No spot on earth," says Channing, "has helped to form me 
 so much as that beach. There I lifted up my voice in praise 
 amidst the tempest. There, softened by beauty, I poured
 
 CELEBRATION AT MANCHESTER. 461 
 
 out ray thanksgivings and confessions. There, in reveren- 
 tial sympathy with the mighty power around me, I became 
 conscious of power within. There, strugghng thoughts and 
 emotions broke forth, as if moved to utterance by nature's 
 eloquence of winds and waves. There began a happiness 
 surpassing all worldly pleasure, as all gifts of fortune, — the 
 happiness of communing with the works of God." 
 
 One characteristic incident of his boyhood, and one alone, 
 need we pause to describe ; and, though it has been often re- 
 ferred to and is perhaps better known than anything else 
 recorded of his childhood and youth, it would be a culpable 
 incompleteness in us now to omit it. His father took him 
 to hear a celebrated preacher, from whom the boy, 
 
 " With his wonder so intense, 
 And his small experience," 
 
 " thought that he should learn great tidings from the unseen 
 world." He heard, however, the usual Calvinism of the 
 time, — the decrees, the curse, the darkness, and the horror. 
 The boy felt that all amusement and earthly business must 
 now be abandoned, and all people must set themselves to 
 flee, and to help others to flee, from the wrath to come. 
 " Sound doctrine, sir," said his father to some person after 
 the service. " It is all true, then," said the boy to himself. 
 His father whistled as they drove along, and when he 
 reached home took off his boots, put his feet upon the man- 
 tel-piece, and quietly read his newspaper. " It is all untrue," 
 now said the boy to himself. He had been, he thought, the 
 victim of a lie; and from that moment he rose in freedom 
 into the air of heaven to seek God for himself. 
 
 And now nothing will arrest the rapidity of our progress 
 through his boyhood and early youth. He read in the pul)- 
 lic library, and went to the town school which New England 
 Puritanism provided everywhere, that, as it was said, " bar-
 
 462 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 harisni " nui;hL not prevail in their families ; and at last to 
 Harvanl College, aided by the same power, that, as it said, 
 "learning- might not be buried in the graves of our an- 
 cestors." 
 
 Here, at college, the thoughtful, pensive boy pursued his 
 silent and almost solitary walk among the grave moralities 
 and still graver theologies of his time, and scarce a trace 
 remains of the more cheerful and refreshing culture of the 
 humaner letters. Living influences and powers seem to 
 have laid no hold of him, or special academic studies drawn 
 his heart. As has been well said, "the intensity of the moral 
 sentiment within him absorbed everything into itself, made 
 his reflected activity wholly predominate over the apprehen- 
 sive, and determined it in one invariable direction. He med- 
 itated where others would have learned ; and the materials of 
 his knowledge disappeared as fast as they were given, in the 
 large generalizations of his faith. His mind thus grew, 
 while his attainments made no show; and, while he missed 
 the praise of learning, he had an affluence of wisdom." 
 
 College friendships, few but choice and lasting, college 
 discussions, readings, and debates, a knowledge of the lead- 
 ing standard English divines, and of a few moral philoso- 
 phers, especially Ferguson, he took away with him indeed ; 
 but the fabric of his mind was self-reared, steady alike amid 
 the black thunder of Calvinism and the encroaching waves 
 of utter overthrow and unbelief. It was quite true what he 
 himself said, " It is easy to read, hard to think " ; and he 
 chiefly applied himself to the harder task. From college, he 
 went to Richmond in Virginia ; and here we encounter the 
 greatest probably of the formative influences of his youth 
 and early manhood. He was tutor to a dozen boys, and 
 stayed there a year and a half. Not insensible to the grace 
 and charms of Southern life and society, when he looked 
 down into the crater on which it rested, his soul was filled
 
 CELEBRATION AT MANCHESTER. 463 
 
 with horror, and the foundation of his hatred to slavery was 
 laid. Retiring also into himself from society, the tone of 
 which offended his Northern Puritanism and principle, he 
 spent much of his time in solitary musing. "I lived alone," 
 he says, "too poor to buy books, spending my days and 
 nights in an out-building, with no one beneath my roof ex- 
 cept during the hours of school-keeping. There I toiled as 
 I have never done since, for gradually my constitution sunk 
 under the unremitting exertion." Partly from a youthful 
 stoical enthusiasm, not uncommon, leading him into the 
 practice of asceticism from principle, and partly in order not 
 to use the money with which his mother had supplied him, 
 but which he thought she herself might want, he deprived 
 himself of necessary food and rest and raiment, became in 
 consequence shyer and shyer of all human intercourse, — 
 musing, meditating, introspecting, and self-reproaching, — 
 going, in fact, through all the experience so well known in 
 the history of our race as the discipline of the saint, till his 
 body became a skeleton, and his mind a laboratory of mor- 
 bid thought, but also of something better than morbid 
 thought. He thus sowed indeed the seeds of the weakness 
 and disease which never left him ; and many have thought 
 that this painful discipline was an utter mistake and wrong, 
 not only to himself, but to society, disabling him from nobler 
 toils and a greater service the remainder of his life. But I 
 am not so sure of this. It was after all part of the making 
 of an exceptional man. Health of body, easy circumstances, 
 and peace of mind are not usually the parents of excep- 
 tional excellence. Had Johnson been a comfortable gentle- 
 man-commoner at Oxford, with good health and competence, 
 enabling him to engage in the society and amusement of the 
 place instead of a servitor in poverty and neglect, and with 
 a bad constitution that drove him into solitary ways and 
 studies, are we sure we should have had the great lexicog-
 
 464 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 raphcr and moralist ? Who would assert that, if Prescott 
 had not lost his sight, he would have produced a better his- 
 tory ? Still less, who will say, except out of poverty and 
 obscurity and blindness, that Milton would have risen into 
 himself, especially after his pathetic lament of "knowledge 
 at one entrance quite shut out," and the inspired prayer, 
 " So much the rather. Thou ! celestial light, shine inward " ? 
 
 Even in common life, how often do we find that broken 
 health, adverse circumstances, and disappointment of vainly 
 cherished hopes have driven a man, in spite of himself, into 
 his higher usefulness, and therefore his higher happiness ! 
 And so in self-abnegation and self-mortification of the saint, 
 in the subordination of the physical energies and the pas- 
 sions to the struggle for a purity more than human, and ap- 
 proaching the divine, who shall say that the special loftiness 
 and the highest spirituality of a man do not take their rise ? 
 The psychology of saintship is as yet unsettled, — nay, an al- 
 most unexplored, unstudied branch of knowledge. All, as 
 far as I know, that we have arrived at is this : that the most 
 spiritual states and the loftiest visions that humanity h^s 
 yet reached have been in actual connection more or less 
 with these very conditions of what we call morbid asceticism 
 and sense mortification. And the fact in our own day, that 
 practical and sensible people, and people of the world, find 
 in such a book as the Christian Year a response to the cry of 
 some higher inner nature, and a nutriment for it, indicates 
 the deep natural correspondences there are between the 
 spiritual perfection born of the abnegation of the saint and 
 the common run of our humanity. 
 
 The scanty food, the sleeping on the floor, the shivering 
 in thin, threadbare clothes in the winter frost were no artifi- 
 cial regimen to Channing. These things were the product 
 of a deep yearning. They were the honest outcome of his 
 own nature. His own nature led him to them, his own
 
 CELEBRATION AT MANCHESTER. 465 
 
 sense of duty urged him to them. They were the instru- 
 ments, as he conceived, of his near entrance into the divine 
 presence, and the realization of his highest visions. He 
 might lose his health by them, but he thought they helped 
 to reveal his own soul to him. 
 
 Indeed there can be no farther question, still less denial, 
 of this after his own words. "Yet I look back on those days 
 and nights of loneliness and frequent gloorn with thankful- 
 ness. If I ever struggled with my own soul for purity, 
 truth, and goodness, it was there. There, amidst sore trials, 
 the great question, I trust, was settled within me, — whether 
 I would obey the higher or lower principles of my nature ; 
 whether I would be the victim of passion, the world, or the 
 free child and servant of God." " My mind was then receiv- 
 ing its impulse toward the perfect." 
 
 It is not for us then to step in and say in such a case the 
 self-discipline and self-denial were extreme, unnecessary, un- 
 desirable, but to stand in reverence by that holy ground on 
 which that great spiritual conflict was fought, or to ask 
 whether under more judicious self-management we might 
 not have had something better or stronger. One thing is 
 certain : he would not then have been what he was. He 
 would not have been himself; and it is for himself and what 
 he was, not what he might have been, but was not, that we 
 honor and thank him, and canonize him this day. 
 
 We can easily imagine that as St. Paul, after the great 
 revulsion of his nature, needed his two years' quiet in 
 Arabia, so Channing, after his fierce spiritual conflict, 
 should need a season of repose to restore his health, mature 
 his thought, and gather up the splintered forces of nature 
 before fastening himself to the work of his life. Accord- 
 ingly, from his twentieth to his twenty-third year, he lived in 
 his house in Newport and at Harvard, where as regent (a 
 kind of head monitor to preserve order) he had a quiet 
 
 31
 
 466 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 opportunity of following his studies, till at twenty-three he 
 became minister of the church in Federal Street, Boston, 
 which he rendered so celebrated, and with which he was 
 connected some forty years. 
 
 It is not within my design to follow minutely a career 
 which was singularly uniform and uneventful except in 
 thought and utterance. I prefer rather to study the char- 
 acteristics of c^ir hero, and to try to ascertain how this 
 stately tree grew up. 
 
 The political state of society into which he was born had, 
 I think, an immense influence in the formation of the man. 
 When he was born in 1780, the Declaration of Independence 
 (July 4, 1776) had only been made four years, and the 
 war between England and America was still going on. 
 (Peace 1782.) 
 
 Lord Cornwallis was carrying on his hangings of Ameri- 
 can citizens and the rest of his ruthless proceedings. The 
 recent oppression and tyranny of England were fresh in the 
 minds and frequent on the tongues of all about him ; and her 
 harassing and spiteful endeavors to crush the nascent inde- 
 pendence of his countrymen, and to force them once again 
 to bow their necks to the hateful yoke they had thrown off, 
 were even then filling with sounds of a fiery indignation the 
 atmosphere into which this child was born. I date to these 
 early influences and surroundings that hatred of injustice 
 and oppression which signalized his after-life, and caused 
 that humane and gentle nature to flush up with indignation 
 in the presence of any wrong. Thus, he was a republican, 
 not necessarily because that was the best form of govern- 
 ment under all circumstances that could possibly be, but 
 because the Republic was to him the mother and the nurse 
 of Liberty, of Justice, of Happiness. And as he saw her laws 
 developing themselves in the free air into better and better 
 and wiser and wiser completeness ; as he saw a native sci-
 
 CELEBRATION AT MANCHESTER. 467 
 
 ence, a native literature, and a jurisprudence growing up 
 not only to enrich his country, but to win the admiration of 
 the world ; as he saw the measureless lands stretch them- 
 selves out to afford independence and competence to count- 
 less myriads ; as he saw the cfowds of human beings coming 
 from the hopelessness and the misery of the old countries, 
 with their over-crowded populations, to start a life of hope 
 and energy for generations, in what he now called his own, 
 — he was proud of his country, as he had reason to be. 
 
 As the early memories, however, of the bitter time of 
 wrong and struggle with wrong faded before the light of 
 his lofty spirit, and he could remember and appreciate 
 the hearty sympathy of many a manly English statesman, 
 and the best half of the English nation during the very 
 time of the war, with the struggle of his country, he could 
 afford to forget and forgive the arbitrary insistence of that 
 brief time on the part of a man and a generation that were 
 past, — he took it as an unhappy episode, — and, going back 
 to the past, he cherished a glad pride and affection for that 
 far-off little island that had been the home of his fathers, 
 and was by her literature and learning the nurse of his own 
 soul. 
 
 In truth, Channing saw, and his seeing should carry 
 instruction to all coming time, that the England that then 
 or since has refused its sympathy to America in any of 
 her great struggles for justice and for freedom is not the 
 England of the English people. It is in its fulness, or its 
 remains, that Old England that — under the Stuarts — per- 
 secuted and drove away its own children, followed tliem 
 to their new homes and persecuted them there, annulled 
 their charters, took away their rights, and fought them. 
 And the Englishmen that were thus treated in America 
 left behind them brethren in bonds in England ; and for 
 generations we, too, on this side of the Atlantic, have been
 
 468 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Struggling for our rights, and pressed down under the bur- 
 dens of our wrongs, compelled to eat dear bread, denied 
 a voice in the representation of our country or the govern- 
 ment of our native towns, the doors of our universities 
 shut against our children, marriage made impossible to us 
 except by a compulsory religious service opposed to our 
 tastes and convictions, education offered to us in small 
 doles of charity, — where should I end the list ? No : our 
 American brothers fought their battle, and won it : we 
 have fought our battle, and nearly won it, too ; but the con- 
 test on both sides of the Atlantic has been the same. We 
 are, and we always have been, on the same side. We are 
 united in the same aims and hopes and sympathies. We 
 ought forever and forever to form parts of the same band 
 of progress. Channing saw all this clearly : he knew it 
 was not and never could be the England proper that 
 sought to wrong America or refused her sympathy. He 
 knew it was only the old tyrannical element in it that had 
 sought to wrong Englishmen, too. With this England, 
 the true England, our England, we are necessarily, he 
 said, in a perennial alliance; and when, in 1812, the 
 American Government declared war against England, he 
 almost shrieked out against it as impossible. It would be 
 the direst blow that we could deal to the progress of all we 
 held good and right : it would be a blow to the progress of 
 the world. 
 
 It is curious that, though he seems to have read a good 
 deal, the influence of literature was not great upon him. 
 It was only indeed a small and select part of what he 
 read that he gathered, as it were, into his mind, or 
 assimilated to his moral being. He does not seem to 
 have cared for what has been happily termed " a general 
 fertilization of the mind." What he read must illustrate 
 or strengthen some grand moral aim of his own, or aspira-
 
 CELEBRATION AT MANCHESTER. 469 
 
 tion for humanity, or he did not care about it for any other 
 character of influence. Thus, it is astonishing to find him 
 saying, after going through almost all the great writers of 
 England up to his own date, " English theology seems to 
 me, on the whole, little worth : there is little in it to repay 
 the attention of an enlightened mind." But what he 
 meant was that he did not get the idea of Christianity 
 reproduced in its integrity in the class of writings where 
 it was particularly to be expected it should be found. He 
 acknowledges that he had received help from these sources ; 
 for he excepts from the above sweeping censure some 
 thirty or forty writers, — among them Butler, Cudvvorth, 
 Hooker, and Leighton, — but he did not find even in these 
 men the free, untramelled, trusting study and declaration 
 of the truth from which he himself longed for help. He 
 says, in language which for power and explicitness has 
 never been surpassed, referring to every creed-bound, man- 
 acled form of establishment, " An Established Church is 
 the grave of intellect. To impose a fixed, unchangeable 
 creed is to raise prison walls around the mind ; and, when 
 the reception of this creed is made the condition of dig- 
 nities and rich benefices, it produces moral as well as intel- 
 lectual degradation, and palsies the conscience as much 
 as it fetters the thought. Once make antiquity a model 
 for the future ages, and fasten on the mind a system too 
 sacred for examination and beyond which it must not stray, 
 and in extinguishing its hope of progress you take away its 
 life." 
 
 I think I know of no writer that owed less to other writers 
 than Channing, or whose religion and thought were more 
 self-originated. This gives his earlier utterances their won- 
 derful freshness, and startled the world into some degree 
 of attention. He will never go down to posterity as the 
 author of any system or rank among what are called
 
 470 cnANNiNi; ckntenakv. 
 
 Scientific Tlicologians ; and such among mankind is the 
 love of argument, the longing for logic, the desire to pen- 
 etrate into the hidden things of God by a clear metaphysic, 
 — to ha\e, in short, a well-sustained and well-wrought out 
 system of thought and belief, — however hollow, fanciful, 
 and mistaken may be its basis, — such as in fact we find 
 in the works of Augustine and the Institutes of Calvin, that 
 Channing as a theologian, or the author and systematizer 
 of a theology, may have no name and no place in the world's 
 history. While as a thinker, a breather of purity and faith, 
 the imparter to the world of a serene atmosphere of holy 
 Christian reality and health, a great reflection of Jesus 
 Christ, and a bearer on of his pure likeness, he will survive, 
 incorporated into the life of the world, and finding his 
 unconscious immortality in the hearts of generations to 
 come, when the great system-writers I have named will only 
 live as specimens of a wasted ingenuity and a false and mis- 
 leading dogma. 
 
 Closely connected with this marked fact in the psychol- 
 ogy of Channing is the adverse criticism sometimes passed 
 upon him, — that he was incapable of sustained continuity 
 of thought. I consider his whole life was one continuous 
 course of growing and developing thought. Remember 
 that he was a Christian minister, had the pastorate of a 
 congregation, which that very thought made large, that he 
 was bound through a great part of his life to weekly duty, 
 was to produce powerful effects in short times and at 
 short intervals. No person of culture and of religious 
 tastes, from the English nobleman to the humblest minister, 
 came to Boston without going to drink at this fountain of 
 inspiration. The very success of these concentrated efforts, 
 the very intenseness of these emotional discharges, so to 
 speak, the quick and finished gleams and flashes of his 
 soul, absorbed and all but exhausted the power of exiDression
 
 CELEBRATION AT MANCHESTER. 47 1 
 
 in his nature. What could you expect besides, except what 
 you got, the occasional lecture and the occasional review ? 
 These were not, indeed, Iliads or a Novum Organum ; but 
 they sped their way over the United States and Europe, 
 striking chords of an ennobling and enlarging sympathy 
 in thousands of hearts, and helping to treasure up great 
 stores of moral result, and forming the noblest continuity 
 of a well-sustained and undeviating purpose. A man 
 may live an epic as well as write one, and may be a 
 philosopher without writing on philosophy ; and, in this 
 case, Coleridge's remark had the right ring about it, when 
 he said that Channing was a philosopher in a double 
 sense, for he had the love of wisdom and the wisdom of 
 love. And when I hear not of what he was, but of what he 
 was not, I sometimes wish we could apply to the great 
 heroes of thought and service, 'in their strong and beautiful 
 variety, the spirit of the ever memorable lines of Spenser on 
 the trees : — 
 
 " The sailing pine, the cedar proud and tall, 
 The builder oak, sole king of forests all, 
 The yew, obedient to the bender's will, 
 The birch for shafts, the sallow for the mill, 
 The myrrh sweet-bleeding in the bitter wound; 
 The war-like beech, the ash for nothing ill, 
 The fruitful olive, and the plaintain round." 
 
 So I wish that some of our critics would open their eyes to 
 the largeness of the world and "see men as trees, walking." 
 In the numerous estimates of the character of Channing 
 and the influence of his writings, there has come to be an 
 almost monotonous uniformity, arising, however, from a 
 profound unanimity. In truth, he was a man most easily 
 interpreted; for he so fully interpreted himself. This has 
 given rise to the charge of iteration, and the charge is true. 
 He was a preacher; and, if the preacher does not iterate, 
 he cannot create, and he will leave behind him no enduring
 
 47^ CIIANN'ING CKNTENAKV. 
 
 impression. Is a great, {lee[> thought, is an all-underlying 
 jirinciple, to be thrown on the scarcely, perhaps, listening 
 ear of the world oiicc, and never repeated? "There is a 
 great deal of iteration in his style," and so there is in the 
 sun's. The sun rises every day and thus iterates itself, but 
 no two days in the life of the world have been the same. 
 And Channing, finding the great, but perhaps only half- 
 acknowledged, if half-acknowledged, truth lying day after 
 day deep down in his breast, uttered, and uttered, and ut- 
 tered it again. But that is no reason that, if it has long 
 taken possession of our own minds, ivc should go back to the 
 former days of its first formation and its first fine enuncia- 
 tion. The whole of Channing is not for all of us. For 
 some, of us, unquestionably, the half is better than the whole. 
 Because it is a part of his very triumph that he has now 
 made so many of these great truths familiar to us, that they 
 form part of the very atmosphere we breathe. But there 
 are millions and millions yet, to whom I regret to say his is 
 an unspoken gospel, a much-needed, though as yet, unheard 
 word. 
 
 There is no use attempting to make a mystery of Chan- 
 ning. The simplicity of his aims and methods is transpar- 
 ent : the results are equally clear. He says : "Christianity is 
 a revelation of the infinite universal parental love of God 
 toward his human family." " Receive Christianity as given 
 to raise you in the scale of. spiritual being." "There is 
 more danger from thinking too meanly of human nature 
 than from thinking too highly of it." " Expect no good from 
 Christ any further than you are exalted by his character and 
 teachings." "Creeds are to the Scriptures what rushlights 
 are to the sun." Christianity is a rational religion: if it 
 were not so, I should be ashamed to profess it." But 
 "Christianity, we must always remember, is a temper and 
 spirit rather than a doctrine."
 
 CELEBRATION AT MANCHESTER. 473 
 
 But what that doctrine was he had no more doubt than 
 what that spirit and temper were. In the broad sense of 
 the word, from his early manhood to his death, he was a 
 Unitarian, and could be, from the principles on which he con- 
 ducted his inquiries, no other. For he dismissed at once, as 
 unauthoritative, all intervening evidence between himself 
 and Christ, and found, he said, no Trinity in Nature, 
 no Trinity in Reason, and no Trinity in Scripture. And 
 the simple truths of this form of religion, which he re- 
 garded as those of the gospel, he maintained in no merely 
 affirmative style, but put them face to face with the opposing 
 errors, that the nature of both might be clearly seen ; and 
 thus, notwithstanding his gentleness and his candor, — nay, 
 in consequence of his candor, — he was, in portions of his 
 writings, about the most vividly incisively controversial of 
 all our great writers on divinity. But he said, " I \'alue 
 Unitarianism not because I regard it as in itself a perfect 
 system, but as freed from many great pernicious errors of 
 the older systems, as encouraging freedom of thought, as 
 raising us above the despotisms of the Church, and as breath- 
 ing a mild and tolerant spirit into all the members of the 
 Christian body." 
 
 But he would not, he said, live within the narrow walls 
 of any sect, but under the open sky (as he himself said of 
 Milton, "great minds everywhere were his kindred"), in the 
 broad light, looking far and wide, seeing with my own eye, 
 hearing with my own ear, and following Truth meekly, but 
 resolutely, however arduous and solitary the path in which 
 she leads. So intensely did he verify each one of his own 
 convictions that he could not admit them afterward into 
 question, and this gave an air of finality to his mind in later 
 years, not finality for others, or finality for truth, or a con- 
 scious finality to his own mental state, but a stillness, sct- 
 tledness, repose, — the repose of a stately vessel that had
 
 474 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 braved i)crilous seas and encountered many a storm, but was 
 now resting in the harbor of a completed voyage. But they 
 will greatly mistake his spirit, who think this meant ultimate 
 completeness or turn him into a creed-maker for mankind, 
 tliough I myself should think him, if it were so, the very 
 noblest that has trod this earth since Jesus Christ. But 
 there was nothing of which he himself had a greater dread 
 than stationariness. He declares that he would not linger 
 round his own writings for fear that his mind might become 
 stationary. He rebuked those who spoke of the state of the 
 blessed, of heaven as stationary : he latterly objected to Uni- 
 tarianism even that it had become stationary, "and now [he 
 writes with displeasure] we have a Unitarian orthodoxy." 
 He says the Christianity of the primitive age is not the 
 standard for all that follows. " It is growing light, and must 
 be expounded by every age for itself." He says, " I am 
 surer that my rational nature is from God than that any book 
 is the expression of his will." It is of the very highest im- 
 portance that in honoring the memory of this great man, 
 and calling attention to and circulating in larger and larger 
 quantities his writings, we should bear continually in mind 
 these noble declarations. Already some, a great deal, of that 
 new light which he knew must come has dawned upon us. 
 Already, of many things he has written, has that magnificent 
 hope been fulfilled, — "I shall see with no emotion but joy 
 those fugitive productions forgotten and lost in superior 
 brightness." But, although this may be so, he has helped to 
 bring us, and will still help to bring many, many more, to the 
 point at which we are ready to receive and waiting for that 
 light. He himself would now spurn us as unworthy spiritual 
 descendants, if we were content to remain exactly where he 
 had left us, with no new irradication, no fresh enthusiasm, no 
 opening vision. What ! he would say, with all this light of 
 knowledge that has flooded in on your world since I was
 
 CELEBRATION AT MANCHESTER. 475 
 
 among you, have you no fresh start to make in the great 
 race ? Can you do nothing but slavishly repeat me, using 
 words and arguments that I myself begin to feel are inade- 
 quate, if not untrue? I gave you the richest, finest version 
 of the gospel of Jesus Christ that has reached your ears for 
 eighteen centuries. Are you doing anything to spread it .-' 
 I put you on the path of a holy and happy progress. Arc 
 you moving on it .'' I left you gifts many of yourselves con- 
 sidered great, and led some sad captivities captive. Are 
 you inspired by my examples ? Are you, with your increased 
 lights and powers, doing for humanity and truth in your, day 
 what I strove with all my heart and nature to do in mine ? 
 
 It is true that in the later years of his life, especially in 
 seasons of depression and sickness, some of the new forms 
 of Scriptural criticism and inquiry struck pain into the nerve 
 of his mental eye ; but he braved the pain, and would not 
 close the eye. He had confidence in truth ; though, with his 
 habit of looking at everything as it affected the holiness and 
 happiness of man, he could not himself see how these things 
 were to benefit the race. 
 
 But while changes have come over the thought of our 
 time, and on all sides men are rising up to carry on the 
 thought of his, yet his work is far from done, and his good 
 influence far from exhausted on the wisest and the best of 
 us, while for the masses of Christendom and of humanity it 
 may be made still a star of guidance to prostrate ignorant 
 millions. What man is there living on the face of the earth 
 who would not rise higher and nobler from the study of that 
 unrivalled decalogue of freedom, each clause of which begins 
 " I call that mind free".' Are we still beyond or above the 
 power of his word on the misery and wickedness of war, 
 or on the madness and ignoblcness of a simi)]y Napoleonic 
 ambition ? Are there no other annexations to be deprecated 
 besides those of Texas ? Does not the very course of our
 
 476 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 searchini;' physical inquiries still leave room for his voice on 
 the nobleness of man ? Has the timid outward and ungenu- 
 ine conformity of our times no need of the rebuke of his 
 courage and his robust virility ? Has God so many faithful 
 children, has Christ so many loving followers, has man so 
 many helpful brothers, have purity and peace so many ear- 
 nest advocates that we have no farther need of him ? Listen 
 to what men say of him. The French say he is a new 
 Fenelon ; the Germans say he is a new Schleiermacher ; 
 Bunsen says that " his work cannot be too highly estimated, 
 and is destined to be a still increasing influence on the 
 spiritual conception of Christianity and the practical appli- 
 cation of its principles." " He is a man like a Hellene, 
 a citizen like a Roman, aiid Christian like an apostle. If 
 one whose whole life and conversation in the sight of all 
 his fellow-citizens stand in absolute correspondence with the 
 earnestness of his Christian language and are without a spot 
 be not a prophet of God's presence in humanity, I know of 
 none such." "When first I came across Dr. Channing's 
 writings," says the hardy agriculturist of Scotland, the late 
 George Hope, bred a Calvinist, " I was electrified by them, 
 and felt that he gave a clear, articulated expression to the 
 dim thoughts that had previously floated through my mind, 
 and lifted me nearer to the Infinite Father." Says an early 
 and diligent student of him, in an article in the Christian 
 Teacher, published at his death, which is so consummate 
 in its discerning power and truth that we could not do 
 a greater honor to Channing's memory than republish it : 
 " Perhaps no one living man ever stood in the same spiritual 
 relation to so many minds. . . . The doctrines of Jesus were 
 the lights in which he regarded the relations of every human 
 being to society and to God, and consequently his judgments 
 on moral subjects were uttered with a simplicity, a com- 
 manding clearness and fulness of conviction that make them
 
 CELEBRATION AT MANCHESTER. 477 
 
 sound like inspirations. . . . He spoke like a prophet as from 
 immediate vision, as one who had come from listening to the 
 everlasting voice." 
 
 So nearly unparalleled was his influence even on minds of 
 a very high order that the Italian professor Sbarbaro says 
 that " no single writer since Dante has ever made so great 
 an impression on my faculties as Channing " ; and he speaks 
 of the rapid and universal diffusion of his works in all cor- 
 ners of the civilized earth. 
 
 Innumerable are the tributes to his greatness and his in- 
 fluence which I have collected at some pains, but which a 
 regard to your time and patience compels me to omit, to- 
 gether, I may say, with a great deal of other matter which 
 I had prepared. These testimonies come from the leaders 
 of thought ; and they come from almost every land, — from 
 America, from England, from France, from Holland, from 
 Italy, from Switzerland, from Germany, from Transylvania. 
 And each year they increase in volume and significance, 
 from the first response of sympathy sent by the Unitarians 
 in this country, more than half a century ago, to the other 
 day in London, when M. Renan wrote of him " that he heard 
 the first warning sounds of the clock of the future gospel," 
 and as one of the grandest of those saints whom Rome had 
 not yet canonized. Almost as numerous, too, are the edi- 
 tions that have been published of the whole or portions of 
 his works, and of the translations that have been made of 
 them into foreign tongues ; and at this moment, as a farther 
 instalment, the spirited step has been taken to offer to the 
 world a new edition of a hundred thousand copies. 
 
 Ought we to let the centenary year of his birth pass by 
 without gratitude to God, without gratitude to this his ser- 
 vant, and a renewed desire, with renewed encouragement, to 
 spread far and wide those pure influences by which the souls 
 of so many of us have been raised and blessed, and with 
 which we must try to baptize the nations .-'
 
 478 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Wicksteed's address, remarks 
 were made by the Rev. William Gaskell, Mr. John Dendy, 
 Rev. Charles T. Poynting, Professor Roscoe, and Mr. E. C. 
 Harding. 
 
 Votes of thanks were then passed to the Chairman, and to 
 Mr. Wicksteed for his very interesting and valuable address. 
 
 The following impromptu acrostic was composed, during 
 the meeting, by a lady who was unfortunately so placed as 
 not to be able to hear the speakers : — 
 
 Come ye people, let us pay 
 Homage to the Great to-day, 
 And our restless spirits lay 
 Neath his pure and noble sway. 
 Never will ye hours repent 
 In such sweet communion spent ; 
 Never may the impulse die 
 Given by a soul so high !
 
 THE CELEBRATION AT BELFAST. 
 
 A LARGE number of the Unitarians of the Belfast and the 
 surrounding districts commemorated, at a collation in the 
 Music Hall, the centenary of the birth of Dr. William Ellery 
 Channing. The company, which included a good many 
 ladies, numbered between one and two hundred. Among 
 those present were Hon. W. Porter, General Richmond, 
 U. S. Consul ; Messrs. E. J. Harland, J. P., John Miller, 
 J. P. (Comber), W. J. C. Allen, J. P., John Campbell, G. W. 
 Wolff, James Dickson, John Carlisle, N. Oakman, H. Darbi- 
 shire, J. R. Neill, R. W. Gordon, G. Fisher, Joseph Mackay, 
 A. Hunter, H. Murray, Marcus J. Ward, John Rogers, R. 
 M'Calmont, W. Spackman, John Little, Wallace Boyle, 
 J. W. Russell, G. K. Smith, F. Frankfort Moore, J. Salvage, 
 John Smyth, Jr. (Banbridge), W. Smith (Banbridge) ; Revs. 
 C. J. M'Alester (Holywood), J. Hall (Ballyclare), English 
 Crooks (Ballyclare), Hugh Moore, M.A. (Newtownards), 
 Harold Bylett (Moneyrea), David Thompson (Dromore), 
 Barnard Gisby (Rademon), David Thompson (Hopeton 
 Street), J. J. Wright (Mountpottinger), Thomas Dunker- 
 ley, B.A. (Comber), James Kennedy (Larne), T. H. M. Scott, 
 M.A. (Dunmurry), R. J. Orr, M.A., James Cooper, H. T. 
 Basford (Banbridge), Joseph Pollard, James C. Street, and 
 A. Gordon.
 
 4S0 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Rev. R. J. Orr said grace. Rev. T. H. M. Scott said 
 grace after meat. 
 
 In the absence of Dr. Ritchie, J. P., from illness, James M. 
 Darbishire, Esq., was. on the motion of Rev. J. C. Street, 
 called to the chair. 
 
 Rev. A. Gordon stated that letters of sympathy with the 
 object of the meeting and regretting inability to attend 
 were received from Revs. R. Campbell (Templepatrick), 
 President of the Non-subscribing Association and Modera- 
 tor of the Remonstrant Synod, S. C. Nelson, M.A. (Down- 
 patrick), David Gordon (Downpatrick), Robert Cleland, B.A. 
 (Crumlin), John M'Caw (Killinchy), William Whitelegge 
 (Cork), W. S. Smith (Antrim), J. Miskimmin (Greyabbey), 
 W. Napier (Clough), John Jellie (Cairncastle) ; Messrs. J. R. 
 Musgrave, J.P., High Sheriff of Donegal, John Millar, J. P. 
 (Lisburn), W. Robertson (Belfast), Thomas Andrews (Com- 
 ber), Professor Hodges, M.D. (Belfast), Messrs. Edward 
 Gardner, LL.B. (Downpatrick), T. M'Clelland (Belfast), 
 and David C. Patterson (Holyrood). Mr. Gordon read an 
 interesting extract from a letter by the venerable Rev. S. C. 
 Nelson. 
 
 The Chairman, who was received \vith applause, thanked 
 the meeting for the honor they had conferred upon him in 
 asking him to take the place of Dr. Ritchie. They all knew 
 that Dr. Ritchie's spirit was with them, though he was 
 absent in the flesh. 
 
 Rev. J. C. Street moved the following resolution : — 
 "That, in commemorating to-day the one -hundredth birth- 
 day of William Ellery Channing, we desire to pay a reverent 
 tribute to the transcendent beauty and sweetness of his 
 character, which shone through all his acts and all his writ- 
 ings, and constitutes for all time a living exemplification of 
 manly dignity and Christian worth." He said, not here 
 alone, but in many other parts of the English-speaking
 
 CELEBRATION AT BELFAST. 48 1 
 
 world, citizens are gathered together to do honor to the 
 name and to the works of William Ellery Channing. There 
 were possibly others than those of our own spiritual com- 
 munion who are being brought together on that day, and 
 who in other parts of the world are doing as we are doing, 
 and are united with us in a common bond, and making us 
 feel that we are engaged in a genuine work. A hundred 
 years have passed since the advent of William Ellery Chan- 
 ning to the world. Many men have lived and died within 
 that period, but of the many comparatively few are remem- 
 bered as Channing is remembered this day. Generations 
 rise and pass away, and only the souls that are richer and 
 riper and rarer in our race are perpetuated in the memory of 
 those who succeed them. It is because there was some- 
 thing exceptional in the character and work of Channing 
 that men and women are assembled that day to honor his 
 name. For my own part, I do not look upon Channing as 
 one of the greatest of men, but I look upon him as one of 
 the best of men. He was not profound in his scholarship, he 
 was not majestic in his mental powers ; yet there was a 
 wealth of scholarship and there were powers of singular 
 sweetness which belonged to him, and which have secured 
 for him a place which men of larger scholarship were never 
 able to occupy. Whatever scholarship and mental power 
 he had were hallowed and sweetened by one of the kindest, 
 gentlest, and most loving spirits that ever radiated in the 
 heart and brain of a human being. 
 
 One of the main characteristics of Dr. Channing was that 
 perfume of sweetness and holiness, that high-toned morality, 
 which are to be found running through all he said and all he 
 did, and which will forever remain as his greatest monument 
 among mankind. This resolution will embody, not simply 
 the sentiments of this meeting, but of all those whom we 
 represent in the North of Ireland ; and it would al.so clfectu-
 
 482 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 ally embody the sentiments of those who in different parts 
 of the world were that day commemorating the birth of 
 Channing. The resolution recognizes the wonderful sweet- 
 ness and beauty of Channing's character, \id no reader of 
 his writings could help failing to be impre!S(Sed with that. 
 Though Channing had to hold aloft a banner "that required 
 firm hands to hold it up, still in all his controversies, and 
 they were many, in all the battles in which he W9.s engaged, 
 and they were not few, his greatest foes admitted the won- 
 derful sweetness of his thoughts and utterances. Dr. Chan- 
 ning dignified controversy and exalted reasoning. He made 
 those who disputed with him feel that the battle was not a 
 battle of persons, not a battle merely of conflict, but a battle 
 of earnest principles, to which men were to look carefully 
 and reverently in order that they might find what was the 
 truth. Men who enter into a controversy in that spirit, 
 though they might not convince their opponents, yet by 
 their tenderness of manner and the sweetness of their 
 method they could not help winning for themselves a pro- 
 found love and reverent respect. Among all the controver- 
 sial writings which had sprung from the bosom of our 
 Church, none have had such a wide extent of influence as 
 the writings of Channing. He seemed to be the fitting in- 
 strument of the moment. There was a great transition in 
 public opinion and religious thought at the time that Chan- 
 ning stepped forward to enter upon his work. He seemed 
 a man peculiarly adapted to addressing himself to the con- 
 troversies of the age. He dignified his part of the contro- 
 versy in such a way that those who came after him, having 
 their work well begun, have now almost carried it to a suc- 
 cessful issue. Dr. Channing was, as the Chairman has told 
 you, a Unitarian. He was a Unitarian with very pronounced 
 and definite views. He differed very much from many of 
 his brethren who were round about him, and his views were
 
 CELEBRATION AT BELFAST. 483 
 
 not in harmony with many of those held by his brethren in 
 this day. But, while that was the case, he was a large- 
 minded man, who could put himself in his brother's place, 
 and sometimes see with his brother's eye and feel with his 
 brother's heart. He knew that there were points of view 
 different from his own, and that it might be that even an 
 opponent saw some measure of the truth of God. Hence he 
 was largely tolerant in his spirit ; and hence, though he was 
 born in a sectarian Church, he rose out of it, and entered 
 into the universal Church of God, with all its sympathies for 
 mankind; and hence on this day we have, all over the Eng- 
 lish-speaking lands, men of broad views in our free Churches, 
 who were banded together to do honor to the name of Chan- 
 ning. They do not care for the precise form of his thought, 
 or whether it expresses exactly their form or not. What 
 they were honoring that day was the large, tolerant catholic 
 spirit which looked out into the universe of God, and sought 
 for the brotherhood of humanity all over the world. In all 
 probability, in the history of the world, Channing would be 
 remembered more for the work he did in connection with 
 great social questions and even for his work in connection with 
 theology. For, after all, I dare say we all feel that theology 
 is a changing topic, that it shifts its as2:)ects as the world 
 becomes larger, and as the truth of God becomes more and 
 more revealed ; but the great principles of morality and free- 
 dom and righteousness, which belong to all churches and 
 also to humanity, remain with us perennially, and will be to 
 us a source of perennial strength. Dr. Channing threw him- 
 self as few men did into the great living controversies of the 
 day. He was always pleading for righteousness and the 
 great principles of human frecdpm. Channing was a man of 
 weak physical constitution ; but he seemed to have mastered 
 himself, and to have held himself supreme in llic tabernacle 
 of his own nature. He beloncrcd to a class of men who
 
 484 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 jrave an exaltation to their communion. He was one of the 
 men we prize as representing the highest type of personal 
 character. In the ordinary forms of daily life, in his minis- 
 trations among his people, in his utterances from the pulpit, 
 in his sympathies with the slave, in his work among poor 
 sufferers from drunkenness, he carried with him a spirit of 
 wonderful consecration, which tended to remove many a 
 stain from human life. It was this that prominently distin- 
 guished him, and made him a power and inspiration wher- 
 ever he went, quickening the men and women about him, 
 and elevating them into closer relationship with the spirit of 
 the Living God. We this day bear our humble testimony to 
 the worth of that great life ; and, forgetting many things, we 
 join hands, as we may not have done for many years, in a 
 reverent recollection of one who, representing none of our 
 differences, symbolizes our unity. 
 
 Mr. John Campbell, in responding to the call to second 
 the motion, rejoiced to have an opportunity of commemorat- 
 ing the birthday of Dr. Channing. They might establish 
 memorial churches and might publish and circulate Dr. 
 Channing's works, but they would do most honor to his 
 memory by humbly endeavoring to catch his spirit and 
 imitate his virtues. 
 
 The Chairman said he had been asked to propose the 
 following : " That, in celebrating Dr. Channing's special 
 services to our own denomination, we would thankfully 
 recognize that breadth of soul and delicacy of spiritual touch 
 which have rendered his expositions of Christianity the 
 common property of liberal minds in all Churches." 
 
 Rev. A. Gordon, in seconding the resolution, said : The 
 April sun is shining on our festivity, in happy unison with 
 the pure and radiant spirit of him whose birth we are met to 
 commemorate, whose virtues we remember, and whose ser- 
 vices we gladly and proudly own. Channing belonged to a
 
 CELEBRATION AT BELFAST. 485 
 
 class of influential minds always rare, and differing in some 
 important respects from the majority of those who have in- 
 fluenced the course of thought and theology in the various 
 denominations and churches. There were those of whom 
 they could hardly think, apart from the peculiar ecclesias- 
 tical position in which they found themselves placed. It 
 would be impossible to consider Aquinas except as a school- 
 man, Hooker save as an Anglican, Bossuet in any other 
 light than that of a Roman Catholic, Jonathan Edwards 
 except as a Calvinist, or John Relly Beard save as a Uni- 
 tarian. 
 
 Noble as all these men were in their thoughts, and sympa- 
 thetic in their hearts, nevertheless, if they were stripped 
 of their theological or ecclesiastical position, their identity 
 would be destroyed, and they would become unrecognizable 
 units in the crowd. On the other hand, there were those 
 whose precise theological or ecclesiastical place seemed to 
 be rather the result of the accident of time, birth, or train- 
 ing than the effect of any special innate tendency. Such 
 men as Tauler, the Dominican ; as Valdes, who, though we 
 look upon him as one of our own predecessors, lived and 
 died in the Roman Catholic Church ; as Henry Scougal, the 
 Scottish Episcopalian ; as Bishop Berkeley or Dr. Dod- 
 dridge, — such men as these belong not to one Church, but 
 to all. Remove them from their immediate surroundings, 
 and one might transplant them into any other Christian 
 community, and the thoughts which they would breathe, 
 and in the main the words that they would speak, would 
 awaken the self-same echoes which they had awakened 
 before. Now, to neither of those classes did Channing 
 properly belong. We cannot escape classing him as a 
 denominationalist. He was one of those of whom Baxter 
 was the grandest example in the seventeenth century, l^ax- 
 ter was a typical English non-conformist : we might call him
 
 486 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 even tlie creator of non-conformity. It was the unresting 
 eagerness and vehemence of his conscientious scruples, 
 rejecting any, even the least, obedience to an outer law as 
 distinguished from the inward spirit, which gave existence 
 and courage and permanence to English Dissent. And yet, 
 though Baxter was a denominationalist and the founder of 
 denominationalism, Presbyterians have long ago forgiven 
 him his telling them that Presbyterian was an odious name. 
 Unitarians are perfectly content that he should assure them 
 that the creed of Athanasius, to his mind, interpreted best 
 the deepest of all mysteries, the mystery of the Divine 
 Being. Even conformists gathered round his monument the 
 other day at Kidderminster, acknowledging that the spirit 
 of Catholic charity lived in the man, and was by no means 
 diminished or injured by the strength of his non-conformity. 
 I think we may say this likewise of Dr. Channing, and per- 
 haps in a larger degree. Dr. Channing was decisively a 
 Unitarian : we may call him the creator of modern Unita- 
 rianism. It was he who took up the Unitarian name and 
 gave it its modern significance and present power. That 
 name which their forerunners in the great age of the Refor- 
 mation knew not ; that name which Servetus never heard, 
 and which Socinus rejected ; that name which survived in 
 obscurity amid a picturesque community nestling among the 
 Eastern hills, far away beyond the woods and thickets which 
 fringe the vast arid plain of Hungary ; that name which 
 was revived in England by the learned Biddle and the pious 
 Emlyn, but the use of which died with the men ; that name 
 which was borne aloft once more by the gentle heroism of 
 Theophilus Lindsey, and rnade by him synonymous with 
 a rigid Scriptural monotheism and a stern doctrine of phil- 
 osophic necessity, — that name, when Channing took it up, 
 acquired a new meaning and a spiritual importance which 
 it never had attained before. The famous sermon at Balti-
 
 CELEBRATION AT BELFAST. 487 
 
 more, in 1819, first told Unitarians what their name really 
 meant or might mean. I believe that here in Ireland the 
 use of the name Unitarian dated from Channing's time and 
 influence, and in Ireland that the name has always been 
 conceived in Channing's sense. It was not always so inter- 
 preted in England. To understand what Channing's ser- 
 vices to them as a Unitarian denomination had been, they 
 must realize what he had made their distinctive name im- 
 port. That which Priestley thought impossible, and if pos- 
 sible inexpedient, the amalgamation under one name of the 
 older Arian and the rising Humanitarian party, was seen, 
 under the influence of Channing's teaching, to be not only 
 feasible, but inevitable. And it was made so by the strength 
 of Channing's affirmations, by the power with which he put 
 forward the moral as well as the spiritual ground of our faith, 
 and showed that, while our metaphysical differences may be 
 many, there are points of union which bear witness to a 
 common Christianity in all. 
 
 It was this great doctrine of a common Christianity 
 preached by him in season, and, some thought, out of 
 season, which enabled him to be such a power not only 
 in the little Church of which he was the mainstay and 
 vindicator, but a power also among enlightened men of 
 all other Churches. We cannot say that Dr. Channing's 
 influence was either such a bulwark in defence of Chris- 
 tianity itself as was presented by the learned Lardner or 
 the industrious Norton ; we cannot claim for him the frank, 
 philosophic acumen of Priestley ; we cannot say that he 
 had compelled the intellect of Christendom to reconsider 
 any cardinal dogma, in the same way as Socinus had done 
 with regard to the dogma of the atonement. But this we 
 can say: that in all the Churches around he has made men 
 feel that there was something grander and better, something 
 nobler and truer, than either what they had been (igliting
 
 4SS CllANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 for or fi!;hting against. He lias made men feel that Unitari- 
 anism, as he preached it, must be iaterpreted as a witness, 
 lofty and peerless, for spiritual freedom, for Evangelical 
 charity, for the religion of Christ Jesus undefiled. So it has 
 happened that now, a hundred years after his birth, we find 
 in the nations round about, and in the Churches, whether 
 orthodox or heterodox, men rising up to pay a tribute of 
 reverent homage to. the works and services, to the true 
 and Christian spirit, of William Ellery Channing. We 
 know that in Italy this very day, in the very capital of the 
 the most invincibly orthodox type of Christianity, a little 
 band of noble spirits, with the Senator Mamiani at their 
 head, assembles to bear witness to the emancipating power 
 of Channing. We find the same movement as far off as 
 the northern snows of Iceland. We find it wherever the 
 English language is read and Channing's works in the 
 original form are accessible. We find also that those works 
 have been honored in translations to an extent to which 
 no other v^^orks have been honored, except the Bible and 
 the Pilgrim's Progress. Last month there happened in the 
 city of Buda-Pest a very interesting ceremony. It was a 
 wedding between the son of the Lord Lieutenant Daniel, 
 one of the leading names of our own Transylvanian Church, 
 and a Roman Catholic lady. The ceremony was performed 
 in the chief church of the Reformed or Calvinistic body, 
 lent for the occasion ; and the officiating minister was our 
 own Bishop Ferencz. Among the crowded congregation 
 who witnessed the unwonted spectacle was that noble 
 specimen of a true Christian gentleman, Bishop Torok, the 
 Calvinistic Bishop of Buda-Pest. When I received this 
 very morning the news of that remarkable incident, it 
 struck me as possessing some features of an augury. Here 
 was the marriage of Unitarian truth and Catholic piety, 
 solemnized amid the not unmoved or unsympathetic pres-
 
 CELEBRATION AT BELFAST. 489 
 
 ence of the Calvinistic community. This was the very 
 work of Charming. It was not merely a proclamation of 
 divine truth, it was the wedding of this with Evangelical 
 charity and with social righteousness. When we con- 
 template the influence and power of such a life, we may 
 take courage and renew our hope. Thinking over what 
 our great ones have done in the past, we may go forward, 
 in the strength of God, to vindicate the spiritual kingdom 
 of His Son, in the days that are present and that shall be. 
 
 The resolution was passed unanimously. 
 
 John Rogers, Esq., moved the next resolution : " That, 
 in recording our sense of Dr. Channing's ceaseless exertions 
 through the pulpit and the press, in the cause of freedom, 
 culture, and philanthropy, we rejoice to witness the con- 
 tinual spread of principles of which he was the intrepid and 
 enthusiastic advocate. 
 
 General Richmond, United States Consul, said he would 
 not follow the eloquent example of those who had preceded 
 him, but should merely take advantage of the opportunity 
 of expressing his full sympathy with the objects of this 
 meeting. 
 
 Rev. C. J. M'Alester moved the fourth resolution : 
 That we commend the public spirit which has achieved 
 the issue of a centennial shilling edition of Channing's 
 works, and regard the welcome accorded to his writings in 
 both hemispheres as a happy omen of the progressive influ- 
 ence of high thoughts, fitly embodied in a captivating liter- 
 ary form.
 
 THE CELEBRATION AT ABERDEEN. 
 
 A PUBLIC meeting was held on Monday evening, April 5, 
 in Blackfriars Street Hall, Aberdeen, to commemorate the 
 hundredth anniversary of the birth of Dr. William Ellery 
 Channing. There was a large attendance ; and Mr. G. T. 
 Walters, George Street Unitarian Church, occupied the 
 chair. 
 
 The Chairman, in introducing the proceedings, intimated 
 that the Rev. Edward Lang, Dee Street Methodist Church, 
 who had intended to be a speaker on this occasion, was 
 unavoidably absent ; and he also stated that the invitations 
 were not given to the speakers, nor were they supposed to 
 be accepted on any ground of doctrinal agreement, but on a 
 religious sympathy of a broad and liberal kind. 
 
 Mrs. Caroline A. Soule, President of the American 
 Women's Universalist Association, gave an eloquent address 
 on "The Spirit of Channing's Life." She said the name 
 and fame of Channing had been familiar to her from her 
 girlhood, as they were to the children of all intelligent Amer- 
 ican families ; for, however much people might differ on the 
 other side of the sea in regard to the correctness of Chan- 
 ning's theology, they were united as to the solemn beauty of 
 his life. One and all were proud of their countryman. 
 They loved him as a man, they admired him as a writer, 
 they respected him as a religious teacher, and they cher- 
 ished his memory as that of one who never failed in the
 
 CELEBRATION AT ABERDEEN. 49I 
 
 hour when Truth sounded her bugle notes to come to the 
 front, and bear its banner into the very thickest of the con- 
 flict. To catch thoroughly the spirit of Channing's life, they 
 must remember somewhat the circumstances of his birth. 
 Born while the war of the Revolution was in its travail, and 
 born of patriotic parents, it was easy to see that his spiritual 
 inheritance was an indomitable love of freedom, and an 
 equally strong hatred of all that was enslaving. The boy 
 who had seen his father entertain at his own table George 
 Washington, the father of his country, could scarcely have 
 other than that spirit which would fight its way from all 
 trammels, secular or religious, and rise up as on eagle's 
 wings to the clear sky of victory, — victory over all that was 
 false or little or low, all that was unworthy of a child of 
 God. The spirit of that life, whose birth they now com- 
 memorated, was broad, bold, brave, bounteous, benevolent, 
 and beautiful ; and, if they read his life carefully, they would 
 not be able to find a single page on which they could not 
 mark the one or the other of these. Besides the circum- 
 stances of his birth, to catch thoroughly his spirit, they 
 must remember that his parents were both individuals of 
 rare natural gifts. Channing, though comparatively poor at 
 birth in this world's goods, had yet a grand inheritance, — 
 gold that could not be stolen, jewels that could not be lost. 
 Inheriting from his parents a character that was spotless, 
 and from his country one that was noble, they might say, 
 without irreverence, he inherited a portion of the kingdom 
 of God, which was inward righteousness, peace, and joy. 
 Mrs. Soule said the predominating qualities of Channing's 
 life might be seen in his boyhood ; and, after noticing his 
 early life, she went on to speak of his maturcr history. 
 Singularly free from bigotry and prejudice, he was an ardent 
 yet consistent advocate for religious liberty. Broad in his 
 own views, he still would not force them upon any one,
 
 492 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 believing that it was the right of every individual to exert 
 and exercise his own faculties in the investigation of relig- 
 ious truth. He abhorred a sectarian spirit ; he labored not 
 so much to build up a church as the Church, the Church 
 of Christ, not to develop the truth of a sect, but the truth of 
 God. Yet, when the time came for him to reveal his convic- 
 tions on any point of theological inquiry, he was bold and 
 brave, yet ever magnanimous ; rejecting decidedly those 
 views which seemed to him erroneous, but never believing 
 that error was guilt. He made a distinction also between 
 his opponent and his "opponent's views. The latter, if they 
 seemed wrong, he was bound in honor as an apostle of truth 
 to contradict and to discuss, yet he was courteous and 
 gentle to the man in error. Channing was a free giver in 
 his thoughts, and also a free giver in material things. The 
 beauty of -his spirit was seen in his generosity to his oppo- 
 nents, in his sympathy with the suffering, in his tenderness 
 to the sinful, and in his self-consecration to what he con- 
 ceived to be the duties of a Christian minister. His ideal 
 was high : perhaps the world has not seen one higher than 
 that. 
 
 The Rev. Joseph Vickery, Blackfriars Street Congrega- 
 tional Church, gave an address on " Channing as a Social 
 Reformer." He said it was the great merit of Channing, 
 born on the eve of that great French Revolution which was 
 to shake all nations, that he was among the first to catch 
 that new spirit of freedom and inquiry, and to apply it to the' 
 consideration of practical questions. In his very youth, he 
 caught all the ardor and patriotic aspiration of that new 
 period, and the glow of it never died away from his face. 
 Channing's position in regard to all questions of social re- 
 form and progress is best expressed by the emphasis which 
 he constantly laid upon the action of the individual. He 
 had a distrust, which was perhaps too great, in the mere
 
 CELEBRATION AT ABERDEEN. 493 
 
 machinery of philanthropy ; and he was perhaps somewhat 
 disposed to underrate the action of wise governing poUcies 
 upon the condition of society. And yet it is impossible, in 
 the reading of his speeches, his letters, and his various 
 schemes, not to perceive that he had clearly recognized and 
 firmly grasped the one principle which, more than all other 
 principles, lies at the heart of social progress. Reformation 
 must begin from within, and in this respect Channing's 
 ideas of social reform are pre-eminently Christian. But it 
 was not less characteristic of Channing's attitude to society 
 as a reformer that in all his ideas his aim was constructive 
 rather than destructive. He recognized in the ascendency 
 of every institution, however evil or objectionable in certain 
 of its features, the outcome of conflicting motives of a com- 
 plex society. The true policy of reform is to see not how 
 much we can cut away, but how much we can save. To 
 understand the social questions which confront us, we must 
 trace them to their origin. Not only by temperament, but 
 by conviction, Channing was opposed to all indiscriminating 
 attacks upon the evils and errors of society. He knew both 
 the danger and the error of uncritical reform. His social 
 radicalism was deep and fervent ; but it was a radicalism 
 which took a wide survey of the conditions of human life, 
 and made large allowance for the infirmities and ignorance 
 of men. In the firmness, yet moderation and breadth, with 
 which he held and expressed his principles, in his clear 
 recognition of the real difficulties at the root of our social 
 troubles and disorders, in his healthy and genuinely Chris- 
 tian trust in the inherent goodness of human nature, in his 
 preference for a moral and religious policy rather than for 
 what is purely political and mechanical, Channing was admi- 
 rable. He (Mr. Vickery) joined in the praise of Channing 
 that evening, because he was not only an illustrious member 
 of the society of Christ and God, but because throughout liis
 
 494 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 spotless career he was entirely faithful to that policy of 
 progress which he believed to be the only one which is 
 supremely true and divine. 
 
 The Chairman spoke on " Channing's Influence on 
 the Future of Humanity," and said that Thomas Carlyle 
 had given us the hero as divinity, as prophet, as priest, 
 etc., but not the hero as a saint. Amid the struggles, 
 the hopes, and fears of mortal men, there was room for a 
 type of heroism such as that. If by the word "saint" 
 they might mean one who sought to purify the world 
 from its sin and shame, and to make life glorious by truth, 
 devotion, and love, then William Ellery Channing might 
 stand, for them, the hero as a saint. And how did such 
 men influence the world ? They did not cause a great 
 and sudden commotion. They did not shake the pillars 
 of an Empire. Their influence was of a gentler kind, 
 rather to be compared to the subtle breath of spring, 
 which calls forth flowers and grass to make joyful the dark, 
 sad, wintry soil. With reference to Channing's influence 
 upon the religious future of humanity, Mr. Walters said 
 that he believed that many had been delivered from a 
 hard, selfish dogmatism, and prejudices had been removed. 
 Channing was a Unitarian ; and people who had been 
 trained, as he (Mr. Walters) had, to regard that word with 
 the utmost horror, found when reading Channing's works 
 that a Unitarian might be a sincerely pious and good man, 
 might be a Christian in that very highest sense of the term, 
 which means Christ-like. Things could not remain as they 
 were. People were beginning to ask why theological differ- 
 ences should divide men of earnestness and faith, why the 
 great cause of civilization and progress should be checked 
 by reason of jealousy or suspicion between various men, 
 who, whatever their doctrinal differences might be, were 
 striving to win the world to a nobler and purer life. In
 
 CELEBRATION AT ABERDEEN. 495 
 
 the future, then, the Churches of Christendom would realize 
 that there was something more truly precious than creeds 
 and formularies, — that the distinctions of sect were but 
 mean and paltry in the sight of Him who gathered to his 
 side the beggar and the outcast, and who enunciated in the 
 surprised hearing of a Samaritan woman the grandest prin- 
 ciple of religious faith, that the true ' worshipper should 
 worship the Father in spirit and in truth. The influence 
 of Channing would also save many from drifting away 
 into the extremes of Materialism and Atheism. This ser- 
 vice would not be less than the other. Over the stormy 
 seas of controversy, while the waves of sectarian passion 
 roll and break, while theories of extreme partisans dash 
 in vain tumult and perpetual babble, the light of Channing's 
 faith will shine as from the light-house top, will calmly assert, 
 through the dark and stormy night, the perpetual love of 
 God ; and, from age to age, many a human soul struggling 
 through life shall be guided to the harbor where every 
 sorrow and every pain shall be hushed in the eternal 
 peace. 
 
 Mr. Robert Adams, flesher, moved a vote of thanks 
 to the lady and gentlemen speakers for their eloquent 
 addresses. 
 
 Mr. William Lindsay, in seconding the motion, sug- 
 gested that they should have a standing committee, that, 
 year after year as the birthday of Channing came round, 
 would enable them to meet and consider and reflect upon 
 the great and glorious work that that great man had done 
 for the world. 
 
 The vote was heartily accorded, and the proceedings 
 shortly afterward terminated.
 
 TRIBUTES OF THE EUROPEAN PRESS. 
 
 From the London Daily News. 
 
 The meeting at St. James' Hall last night, to celebrate 
 the centenary of the birth of Dr. Channing, was wisely not 
 limited to those who share his religious views. The founder 
 of New England Unitarianism, like his predecessor and 
 sometime contemporary, Dr. Priestley, was too large and 
 wide a man for his best influence to be limited to any relig- 
 ious sect. He may, perhaps, be longest remembered as the 
 great preacher of doctrines then regarded as new and strik- 
 ing ; but his place in the history of the United States is in 
 some degree independent of his position in the history of 
 opinion. The writings on which his theological reputation 
 rests have perhaps a wider fame, and certainly a far larger 
 audience, than his more purely literary efforts ; but it is by 
 his moral and social influence that he did most for his coun- 
 try. Dr. Channing was one of the makers of New England. 
 He it was, more perhaps than any other man, who widened 
 and transformed its narrow and provincial life. He found it 
 colonial, and left it national. He not only made Boston the 
 centre of the religious views of which he was the most elo- 
 quent exponent, but helped to make it the intellectual capital 
 of the United States. The War of Independence was
 
 TRIBUTES OF THE EUROPEAN PRESS. 497 
 
 brought to an end while he was still a child, and he went as 
 a youth of fourteen to Harvard while Washington was in 
 the second term of his Presidency. Neither the troubles 
 nor the successes of the future Republic had then begun. 
 When Channing went to Boston as a young preacher, in 
 1803, the opinion of the chief politicians of the young 
 nation was that slavery would die out in the air of freedom. 
 The States of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Vermont had just 
 been added to the Union ; and, in that very year, the coun- 
 try beyond the Mississippi had been added to the territories 
 of the Republic by purchase from France. It was a time of 
 intense mental activity in the newly liberated States. There 
 was a reaction from political anxieties, which seemed to have 
 been set at rest, toward social and theological problems. 
 We may pass over the religious controversies which then 
 raged in New England, though they claim a passing notice, 
 because it was as one of the founders of " the Boston relig- 
 ion," as it was called, that Channing was first known to 
 fame. It was in somewhat later years, after these contro- 
 versies had settled down, and the Federal Street Church 
 was regarded with pride by men who did not share the relig- 
 ious views inculcated from its pulpit, that Channing's larger 
 influence began. His celebrated Review of the correspond- 
 ence between President Adams and some supposed oppo- 
 nents of the Federal Union in Massachusetts was published 
 in 1829. It was an eloquent and exhaustive statement of 
 the reasons why the Union should be cherished as the guar- 
 antee and the guardian of American freedom. In this strik- 
 ing essay, he foreshadowed in some degree, and probably 
 did much to foster and increase, that devotion to the Union 
 which thirty years after his death took up the Southern chal- 
 lenge and destroyed slavery to save the Federal Government 
 from dissolution. 
 
 It was not foreseen in Channing's early days that cither 
 33
 
 498 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 the Union on the one hand, or slavery on the other, would 
 become objects of passionate attachment. Channing's own 
 chief political service to his country arose out of the aggres- 
 siveness of slavery rather than from any aggressive attitude 
 on his part toward slavery. He regarded his chief work as 
 lying outside politics ; and, though he held and taught anti- 
 slavery doctrines, he did not join the early anti-slavery move- 
 ment. What Miss Martineau calls the Martyr Age of 
 American freedom does not form part of Channing's life. 
 His doctrine of the dignity of human nature was inconsist- 
 ent with all slavery, but he was content at first to leave its 
 practical application to that particular evil to the gradual 
 operation of the public sense of right and justice. But 
 slavery soon found that it must have room or die. The early 
 founders of the Republic had been justified in their belief 
 that it would not hold its own in a free State, but they did 
 not know that new lands would open out on all sides over 
 which it might spread. Channing, like many other men of 
 quiet and gentle nature, held aloof from the early denouncers 
 of what Garrison called "the covenant with hell." He 
 seems to have hoped that the South would be more likely to 
 abolish it, if they were reasoned with than if they were de- 
 nounced. He proved to be wrong, or circumstances disap- 
 pointed his expectation. But when the slave-owners over- 
 flowed into Mexican territory, and it was proposed to steal 
 Texas from that neighboring republic in order to add another 
 slave State to the Union, Channing wrote Mr. Clay a protest 
 against the proposed act of national dishonesty, which post- 
 poned, though it could not prevent, the crime. He was dead 
 when the annexation was at last accomplished ; but his pro- 
 tests against the threatened war, and the almost prophetic 
 tone of his warning, had already done much to rouse the 
 conscience of the nation. This, indeed, was Channing's 
 great political service to his own and the immediately fol-
 
 TRIBUTES OF THE EUROPEAN PRESS. 499 
 
 lowing times. He made the people feel that a nation could 
 not do injustice without suffering for it, and that the petty- 
 cowardice of bullying weak neighbors was utterly unworthy 
 of a free and self-respecting people. If he was late in publicly 
 joining the anti-slavery protest, he, at least, gave it efficient 
 and noble help when at last he was induced to speak ; and he 
 planted in the minds of the people of New England a sense 
 of national responsibility for the wrong-doings of the gov- 
 ernment, which had much to do with the great national 
 uprising he did not live to see. 
 
 Probably some disappointment is now felt by many who 
 come to Channing's writings for the first time, by the ab- 
 sence of anything which at once strikes them as original. 
 It is difficult to realize that political and social views which 
 are now the common possession of mankind can ever have 
 had the charm of novelty. Nor, indeed, was there anything 
 altogether new in Channing's doctrine of the dignity of man 
 as man. It was new to the age to which he taught it ; and 
 it was received with so much enthusiasm because the time 
 for it was ripe. It is the appropriate thought of a demo- 
 cratic age. It was Channing's merit, moreover, that he 
 applied it not only to great political questions like that of 
 slavery, but to social difficulties. In the America and in the 
 England of that day, it had scarcely yet occurred to reform- 
 ers to begin with the habits and homes of the people them- 
 selves. The attempts at social reform took the shape of 
 socialistic dreams, — such as those which fascinated Haw- 
 thorne and had charmed Channing himself in his earlier 
 days. But it was his great service to give these efforts a 
 severely practical shape. He urged the improvement of the 
 outward circumstances in which the people lived, the better- 
 ing of their general condition, and the cleansing and briglit- 
 ening of their homes as a direct obj.cct of philanthropic 
 effort. The educational and sanitary movements which
 
 500 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 characterize the present century had scarcely begun even in 
 the United States in Channing's boyhood; and they owe 
 much of their impetus, on both sides of the Atlantic, to his 
 teaching. We may say indeed that in his political and 
 social writings there is still much that the Americans espe- 
 cially need to learn. In the essay on the Union, of which 
 we have already spoken, he not only vindicates republican 
 government, but free trade. The essay was written in 
 1S29, and anticipated therefore by many years the adoption 
 of free-trade principles in this country. Even at that early 
 date, he tells his countrymen, not only that "every custom- 
 house should be shut from Maine to Louisiana," which is 
 one of his arguments for the Union, but that "the interests 
 of human labor require that every fetter should be broken 
 from the intercourse of nations, that the most distant nations 
 should exchange all their products, whether of manual or of 
 intellectual labor, as freely as the members of the same com- 
 munity." This is only one illustration of the clearness of 
 his intellectual vision. In this matter, he is still far before 
 the great bulk of his countrymen ; and it would be a happy 
 circumstance if the new attention called by this centenary 
 celebration to his writings should induce his own countrymen 
 to learn from the teacher of whom they have such just rea- 
 son to be proud how, in his own words, " happy it would be 
 for us could tariffs be done away with, for with them would 
 be abolished fruitful causes of national jealousies, of war, of 
 perjury, of smuggling, of innumerable frauds and crimes, 
 and of harassing restraint on that commerce which should 
 be free as the winds."
 
 TRIBUTES OF THE EUROPEAN PRESS. 50I 
 
 From the Inquirer. 
 
 Channing was a great and good man, unquestionably ; and 
 his labors on behalf of the down-trodden and enslaved will 
 never be forgotten. But he was not a great theologian ; 
 and, while he promulgated principles of the highest value, it 
 was left to other more critical minds to develop them accord- 
 ing to their logical and inevitable tendencies. Channing 
 began his career as an Arian and a somewhat rigid su- 
 pernaturalist. Toward the close of his life, his Arianism 
 merged into that larger Humanitarianism which regards 
 "all minds as of one family"; while his supernaturalism, 
 although not absolutely discarded, was entirely subordinated 
 to a deeper faith in the moral and spiritual principles of 
 Christianity. 
 
 In the chorus of eulogies on Channing, — all good and 
 true in the main, — it is well that we should bear in mind his 
 limitations as a thinker, and beware of the danger, which he 
 himself would have been the foremost to deprecate, of set- 
 ting up a " Channing school," or making him an authority 
 to be followed with servile allegiance, even where he is least 
 logical and least self-consistent. The Pall Mall Gazette ^ 
 which is nothing if it is not critical, and which although con- 
 servative in politics is rationalistic in theology, points out, in 
 an article we have quoted elsewhere, that it can hardly be 
 claimed for Channing that his sincere and steadfast attempts 
 to reconcile the problems of religious philosophy were at- 
 tended with much success. He eliminated from the popular 
 conception of Christianity everything that offended his rea- 
 son and moral sense, but he retained those miraculous ele- 
 ments which have formed the chief difficulty of modern 
 criticism. Our .Sadducean contemporary remarks, with some 
 truth, that in holding this position he either went too far or 
 did not go far enough. " If we accept a miraculous system,
 
 50J CHANNING CENTENARY. ^ 
 
 we arc bound to believe that it has been introduced into the 
 world for some adequate reason : it must be associated with 
 a body of doctrine, to which the human mind would not 
 have risen by its own unaided powers. What Channing 
 called Christianity cannot possibly be regarded as a body of 
 doctrine of this nature : it was made up of a few beliefs, 
 which may easily be held wdthout supernatural sanctions. 
 And we may add that it has much less power to move the 
 common mass of men than the so-called orthodox creed in 
 almost any of its shapes. Unitarians dilate in vain on the 
 superiorit}" of a purely spiritual faith ; for, although they may 
 appeal wdth effect to a limited class, ordinary people are un- 
 touched by truths which are incapable of sensuous repre- 
 sentation." 
 
 Grillparzer has said that " religion is the poetry of unpo- 
 etical natures." The Pall Mall Gazette, without altogether 
 adopting this epigram, maintains that a religion cannot be 
 popular which does not possess poetical qualities, and that 
 there are poetical qualities — of a kind — in the ideas not 
 only of Catholicism, but even of despised Calvinism. Chan- 
 ning's answer would be that these ideas are incredible ; but 
 it is an obvious retort, adds our contemporary, that if a man 
 is prepared to accept miracles, he may, without much hesita- 
 tion, accept a great deal more. " Dans cette voie," says M. 
 Renan, " il n'y a que le premier pas qui coute." 
 
 It is no disparagement of Channing's real eminence in 
 another field than that of critical and scientific theology, to 
 say that in dealing with the question of miracles he quite 
 failed to perceive the character which the controversy had 
 assumed even in his day. He knew too little of physical 
 science to understand the full force of the objection drawn 
 from the uniformity of nature ; and he did not give sufficient 
 attention to the great critical movement in Germany, which 
 began with Lessing, and found its most important represen- 
 tatives in Strauss and the Tubingen school.
 
 TRIBUTES OF THE EUROPEAN PRESS. 503 
 
 But, as we have often had occasion of late to remark, 
 Channing's work was that of the prophet and social reformer, 
 not that of the critical and scientific theologian. The 
 questions referred to above came to the front in America 
 and England, only among a very limited class of thinkers 
 and students of German theology, toward the close of his 
 career. It was his one conspicuous merit as a divine that 
 he recognized the principle of growth in theology as well as 
 in every other department of inquiry. His mind was never 
 closed to new questions ; and his attitude was exactly the 
 reverse of that of the conservative old-school theologian, 
 who can recognize truth only when it is clad in its old, well- 
 worn garb. 
 
 This largeness and comprehensiveness of Channing's 
 mental position is clearly brought out in a delightful little 
 book which has just been published in Boston, by the Rev. 
 C. T. Brooks, so well known on both sides of the Atlantic 
 as the now venerable "poet-preacher" of America. The 
 book makes no pretensions to a complete biography, but is 
 rather "a Centennial Memory" from the pen of one who, 
 as the minister for forty years of the Unitarian church of 
 Newport, R.I., was brought into close contact with Channing, 
 and has many interesting personal reminiscences to recount, 
 which are not to be found in the more elaborate biographies, 
 whether English or French. Mr. Brooks' little work has 
 the additional charm of several illustrations, including, as 
 the frontispiece, the best photograph of Channing we have 
 ever seen, together with a likeness of Channing as a young 
 student, after a sketch by Malbone ; a portrait of his mother, 
 in which we trace a remarkable resemblance to her son ; and 
 illustrations of Federal Street Church, Boston, — the scene 
 of his earlier ministry, — and his residences at various pe- 
 riods in Rhode Lsland. Altogether, it is an invaluable sup- 
 plement to the more elaborate Memoir by W. II. Channing,
 
 504 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 and a delightful introduction to the study of the life and 
 works of the great American divine. 
 
 One thing is evident from these reminiscences : that Chan- 
 ning was more of a mystic and a rationalist, in the best 
 sense of 'both words, than a Unitarian in the old sense of 
 the term. At all times, he disliked controversy, which was 
 forced upon him as a painful necessity, and always protested 
 against sectarian bonds and limitations in any form. His 
 favorite thought is that Christianity is a temper and spirit 
 rather than a doctrine ; the life of God in the soul of man 
 rather than a creed or a ceremonial ; a principle uprooting 
 every doctrine which dishonors God and man. As Dr. Fur- 
 ness well said, " It was not by doctrinal preaching, but by 
 the precepts of the New Testament, that a great change in 
 opinion was wrought in New England. It was practical 
 preaching that worked a doctrinal change." We find Chan- 
 ning himself complaining, toward the close of the more 
 controversial period of his ministry, that Unitarianism " has 
 suffered from a too exclusive application of its advocates to 
 Biblical criticism and theological controversy, from a too 
 partial culture of the mind." The progress of philosophy 
 had not then widened the great issue in the religious contro- 
 versy of his time, from the question, what God's Word says, 
 to the deeper question of these latter days, where God's 
 Word is to be sought. But, practically, as Mr. Brooks testi- 
 fies, Channing was already for himself answering, " Not in 
 Scripture alone, but in reason and nature." His Arian 
 theories, if not altogether discarded, at least dropped into 
 subordination to more important principles. In a letter to 
 Joanna Baillie, in 183 1, he writes : " For years, I have felt a 
 decreasing interest in settling the precise rank of Jesus 
 Christ. The power of his character seems to me to be in 
 his spotless purity, his moral perfection, and not in the time 
 during which he has existed. I have attached less impor-
 
 TRIBUTES OF THE EUROPEAN PRESS. 505 
 
 tance to this point from having learned that all minds are of 
 one family, — that the human and the angelic natures are 
 essentially one." As he advanced in years, Channing grew 
 in catholicity. And, when he said that he was "little of a 
 Unitarian," he meant that he was more and more a Chris- 
 tian ; in fact, more and more a man, which was earlier and 
 greater than either. As Theodore Parker wrote, in what he 
 modestly styled his " Humble Tribute," " This must be said 
 of Channing : that, if he was slow in coming to the principles 
 and method of a liberal theolog}^ he never forsook them, but 
 went further than his former friends to serve conclusions 
 logically unavoidable, but now [then] vehemently denied." 
 And as Mr. Brooks well adds, with a significant lesson to 
 many who claim to be of " the school of Channing " : " If 
 they who have departed from certain of Channing's opinions, 
 who have become more Humanitarian, more of Restoration- 
 ists, more of Naturalists than he, as regards speculative 
 doctrine, are set down as recreant to Channing Unitarianism, 
 the reproach shows a grievous failure to perceive what were 
 the Unitarian principles dearest to Channing's heart." 
 
 Finally, as to the creed question, which still unfortunately 
 comes up among Unitarians, who can doubt what Channing's 
 attitude would have been .'' Mr. Brooks, his intimate friend, 
 and the close companion of his later years, bears uncom- 
 promising testimony on this point, in a section which wc 
 must give in full as the conclusion of this article : — 
 
 "When, a few years ago, that memorable crisis came in 
 the history of our Unitarian fellowship, at which it was 
 thought by some to be high time that we should take a new 
 departure, — that we should give up the good old plan of 
 lengthening the cords of the fellowship, and so strengthen- 
 ing the stakes of faith, — that we should put ourselves into 
 uniform, so as to know ourselves and make ourselves known, 
 — in other words, and without a figure, that we should, at
 
 5o6 CIIANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 our National Conference, adopt a creed, and make ourselves 
 more distinctively and decidedly a sect, — who can doubt, if 
 Channini;- had been still among us, what would have been 
 his mind and word in the matter, — what he would have 
 thought and said, who, so often and so earnestly, in his last 
 years, and in the growing light of the eternal life, empha- 
 sized the superiority of the inward and spiritual drawing to 
 any outward and formal binding, as means and motives of 
 Christian union ; arguing that though in this way the benefit 
 of aiithority might be lost, and the unity of the sect threat- 
 ened, still no unity was ' of any worth, except the attraction 
 subsisting among those who hold, not nominally, but really, 
 not in words, but with profound conviction and love, the 
 same g:reat truths.' " 
 
 From the Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 The hundredth anniversary of the birth of Channing will 
 be celebrated this evening in public meetings by a large 
 number of people in the United States, and by a considera- 
 ble number even in England. Celebrations of this kind are 
 as a rule very unwisely conducted ; but, as Channing's admir- 
 ers belong to a well-educated class, it may be assumed that 
 most of the speeches in his honor will be marked by intelli- 
 gence and good taste. He is known in this country mainly 
 as the representative of American Unitarianism, but he 
 himself disliked to be closely identified with any particular 
 sect. He was willing to be called a Unitarian, he some- 
 where says, merely because the name was to some extent 
 one of reproach. One of his leading ideas, indeed, was that 
 sects have, on the whole, exerted a pernicious influence. In 
 nearly all his religious discourses, he gives expression to this
 
 TRIBUTES OF THE EUROPEAN I'RESS. 507 
 
 conviction, insisting that his readers must not regard his 
 opinions as more than the conclusions of a soHtary thinker, 
 and that, if they wish to arrive at a decision on the questions 
 he discusses, they are bound to investigate the evidence for 
 themselves. And he placed no limits on the freedom of 
 criticism. Every belief, no matter how it might be sanc- 
 tioned by tradition, was to be examined afresh in the light of 
 modern knowledge, and doctrines for which no adequate 
 foundation could be discovered were to be fearlessly aban- 
 doned. In this teaching, Channing was, of course, simply a 
 consistent Protestant, carrying the principles of the Reforma- 
 tion to their legitimate conclusion ; but, at the time when he 
 began his public career, it was teaching which had hardly ob- 
 tained a hearing in the United States. Until about the begin- 
 ning of the present century, the religion which dominated 
 the American people was the narrowest form of Puritanism. 
 Departure from the system of Calvin was considered to be 
 not so much a mistake as a crime, and heretics were visited 
 with the heaviest social penalties. The inevitable conse- 
 quence was almost intellectual stagnation. Men of talent 
 were afraid to enter upon inquiries which might lead to in- 
 convenient results, and in every department of thought 
 ignored facts and arguments that seemed, even in a remote 
 degree, to conflict with accepted dogmas. Channing did 
 essential service to his country by casting discredit on this 
 intolerant temper. He was not the first American who 
 spoke clearly and strongly in favor of free investigation, but 
 he was the first to do so in a manner which attracted general 
 attention, and which commanded the respect of the most 
 thoughtful section of the community. He had too little of 
 the historic spirit to understand that every phase of serious 
 religious belief has corresponded to real necessities of human 
 nature at particular stages of development, but his love of 
 liberty made him remarkably fair in his treatment of opinions
 
 50S CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 with which he himself did not agree. American Protestants 
 were astonished to learn that in his view Catholicism was 
 not simply a monstrous system of superstition. He even 
 insisted that the Catholic Church has a much better right 
 than any Protestant sect to claim infallibility ; and in his 
 admirable essay on Fenelonhe took occasion to show that, 
 under certain conditions, it is capable of producing very 
 rare and beautiful types of character. There are indications 
 that he could also appreciate some aspects of the great Ori- 
 ental religions. To Calvinism alone, he was a little unjust; 
 but this was perhaps to be expected from the peculiar nature 
 of what Mr. Spencer would call his "environment." 
 
 From statements in the English papers, we suppose there 
 were public meetings in honor of Channing in several cities 
 of the continent, notably at Paris and Florence. At Leipzig, 
 Mr. John Fretwell, Jr., was to deliver an address in German. 
 
 Mr. Fretwell has recently sent to Christian Life an Eng- 
 lish paraphrase of a German tribute to Channing, which 
 appeared in 1868 in Nippold's Kirchengeschichte. Nippold 
 finds the chief characteristic of Channing's faith to be " the 
 active power of the individual conscience." He clothes the 
 old rationalistic trinity of God, Virtue, and Immortality, 
 with a beauty unknown to the rationalists, and has impressed 
 Unitarianism with gospel freedom as well as Christian piety. 
 His object was to develop self-conscious energy and to win 
 obedience for the inward voice of God. He subordinates 
 the mystical and supernatural to the ethical. Jesus is not 
 for him an object of admiration merely, but an example that 
 we may follow. His death has a practical moral value : he 
 has revealed the fatherly Providence. He seeks the mani-
 
 TRIBUTES OF THE EUROPEAN PRESS. 509 
 
 festation of Christian character not in sect and creed, but in 
 the spirit and life of professors. He hated the spirit of party 
 and of intolerance ; he felt the perils of associations, yet 
 acknowledged their proper uses ; he honored the quiet influ- 
 ence of home life and natural relations. In seeking to ele- 
 vate the working classes, he looks first to their moral, next 
 to their material welfare. In all practical questions, he car- 
 ries out his fundamental principle, — the value of the individ- 
 ual soul. His virtue is not passive, but active. " In spite of 
 all Channing's critical, speculative, and aesthetic deficiencies, 
 he is one of the moral heroes of our century, and deserves 
 to be called 'The Unitarian Saint.' And the Unitarians are 
 worthy of their hero. While Gieseler praises them because 
 they have won back to Christianity many a soul alienated 
 from it by the creeds and superstition of the sects, Wichern 
 has found among the Unitarians some of his most successful 
 and devoted predecessors in the works of practical Christian 
 love. Even Schaff, who regards them as infidels, is obliged 
 to confess that they are as generous as their orthodox neigh- 
 bors. The great importance of Channing is now recognized 
 in the whole civilized world, after men like Edgar Quinet in 
 France, and Bunsen in Germany, have drawn attention 
 to it." — CJiristian Rezister. 
 
 The one hundredth birthday of Dr. Channing was cele- 
 brated at Hildesheim by a crowded public meeting, over 
 which Dr. C. Gotting, member of the Prussian I'arliament, 
 presided. Dr. Carl Manchot delivered a masterly address 
 on the life and influence of Channing. He said that many 
 of the older inhabitants of Bremen (where Dr. Manchot is 
 pastor) had lived in New England in Channing's time, and 
 still spoke of the great impression made on them by his
 
 5IO CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 addresses on slavery. On Sunday, April ii, Pastor Man- 
 chot preached in the Saint Remberti Church of Bremen, on 
 the life of Dr. Channing. Telegrams of sympathy were 
 sent to the Hildesheim meeting by branches of the German 
 Protestant Association in Berlin, Bremen, and Elberfeld ; 
 and a selection from the works of the American Unitarian 
 is to be published shortly in the German language.
 
 A FRENCH CATHOLIC ON CHANNING.* 
 
 The authorship, the contents, and the occasion of this 
 book are alike remarkable. It appears that in the year 1871, 
 just after the close of that war which with terrible sufferings 
 delivered France from the unchristian sway of Louis Napo- 
 leon, the Society of Moral and Political Science offered a 
 prize for the best essay on Channing, laying, however, spe- 
 cial stress on those aspects of Channing's life and work 
 which would be appropriate to the moral needs of the 
 French people. 
 
 Monsieur Jules Simon, president of this society, said: 
 "While no aspect of Channing's work should be altogether 
 neglected, it is not necessary to lay the same emphasis on 
 all. For instance, his controversial and abolitionist writings 
 have little interest for us ; while we have to contend with 
 another sort of slavery, which Channing has attacked with 
 incomparable eloquence, — the slavery of ignorance and vice. 
 It is as the adviser of the people that Channing has attained 
 an unprecedented sublimity and efficacy. Supremely de- 
 voted to the loftiest interests of the human soul, he pro- 
 claims his grand theme in a language full of fire, with a 
 
 * Channing : sa Vie et sa Doctrine tl'apr6i ses dcrits et «a correspoiiHance, par Rcni I.avollee. 
 Ouvrage couronn^ par I'Acadi-mie des Sciences morales et politiques. Paris, 1876.
 
 512 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 spirituality at once ardent and practical. Time cannot 
 weaken the force of his apostolic teachings, which deserve 
 the attention of all nations." 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the author of the prize work, 
 mentioned at the head of this article, is a pious Roman 
 Catholic ; and it will interest our readers if we quote some 
 passages in which the sympathy between the Catholic and 
 Unitarian is most strongly expressed. 
 
 "Channing's attitude toward Catholicism, if not absolutely 
 sympathetic, is less antagonistic than toward Calvin." 
 
 "He had found among the great classics of the seven- 
 teenth century a soul as lofty as his own, and the Boston 
 pastor entered into so intimate a spiritual relationship toward 
 the holy Archbishop of Cambrai that he deserves to be called 
 the American Fenelon." 
 
 After a few pages, attempting to defend Catholicism 
 against the reproaches of Channing, Lavollee goes on : " He 
 would seem to have delineated the moral portrait of Jesus, 
 as Fra Angelico painted his features on the canvas, in tears 
 and adoration. We seek in vain among the numerous Works 
 on Christian doctrine a more lofty inspiration and a more 
 true and profound sentiment of that moral beauty which 
 places Jesus so far above humanity." 
 
 The words with which Lavollee closes the only controver- 
 sial chapter in his volume are no less characteristic : — 
 
 " I cannot forget all that separates Channing from the 
 Catholic faith, all that he yet needs to be truly a Christian in 
 belief, as he is undoubtedly one in sentiment. But we can- 
 not afford in these times to quarrel about one or the other 
 article of the Credo. ' Without being faithless to our own 
 creed, we can unite with Channing in being Spiritualists 
 against the Materialists, Theists and Christians as against 
 the atheist and the sceptic. Otherwise, we may have to 
 share the fate of the Greeks of the lower empire, who were
 
 A FRENCH CATHOLIC ON CHANNING. 513 
 
 discussing theological subtleties, while Mahomet II. was 
 scaling the ramparts of Constantinople.' " 
 
 In his chapter on Channing as a social reformer, he says : 
 
 " The Internationale (French Communism) is no more a 
 birth of yesterday than Prussia itself, and its excesses in 
 June were no more difficult to foresee than the victory of 
 Sadowa. ' But why was the triumph of anarchy so rapid 
 and easy ? Because the party of order in France knew as 
 little of its domestic enemies as of its foreign ones, and 
 neglected to disarm them by timely reforms.' " 
 
 After applying the social teachings of Channing to the 
 present state of society in France, and comparing them with 
 Monseigneur Mermillod's similar expressions, and those of 
 Guizot, regarding the duty of the Church to the working- 
 men of the nineteenth century, he quotes from M. de Re- 
 musat's Channing, sa Vie et ses QLuvres, a letter written in 
 1832 by Channing to M. de Gerando, on the proper moral 
 influence of France in modern Europe ; and speaking of 
 some words written by Channing, a few days later, to the 
 sceptic, M. D. Sismondi, he says : — 
 
 " Such are the warnings which Channing addressed to 
 France in the time of her prosperity and grandeur. Shall 
 we neglect them now in the days of our misfortune .'' " 
 
 The fifth chapter contains interesting contrasts between 
 Fenelon, a classic writer in advance of his times, and Chan- 
 ning, the thinker and child of his times ; F6nelon, the Cath- 
 olic and theologian, and Channing, the " almost Christian " 
 moralist. He contrasts the spiritual Channing with the 
 utilitarian Franklin ; and, after a quotation from Father Gra- 
 try's La Morale et la Loi de V Histoire, he concludes : — 
 
 "Are these words the visions of mystics and dreams of 
 the millennium } Is this invincible faith, cherished alike by 
 Channing and by Gratry, in the mercy of God and the 
 progress of humanity, a mere illusion } Arc not rather the
 
 514 CHANNIN(; CENTENARY. 
 
 terrible comailsions of modern society the birth-pains of a 
 better time ? At any rate, our duty is clear. We must 
 struggle and keep our hope, which sustains and saves us." 
 
 I regret that the necessity of compression has forced me 
 to spoil the eloquence of LavoUee ; but I would recommend 
 the book to all disciples of Channing, because it seems to 
 me that this eloquent French Catholic has, more than La- 
 boulaye, Bunsen, Remusat, Nippold, or any other continental 
 writer known to me, apprehended the true significance of 
 Channing's teaching for our time ; and the translation of his 
 little book into the other languages of Europe would secure 
 for Channing a greater influence than ever before. 
 
 John Fretwell.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHANNING IN EUROPE. 
 
 Two Letters read at the Brooklyn Celebration. 
 
 LETTER FEOM UNITARIANS OF HUNGARY. 
 (Translated by Miss Mary Lyman.) 
 
 To the Pious Believers of the Unitarian Church itt Brooklyn : — 
 
 Salvation and all good, from the one true God ! 
 
 We have received the information through the newspapers, and 
 through our dear brother in the faith, John Fretwell, the zealous friend 
 of our schools, that you were making preparations to celebrate the 
 hundredth anniversary of the birth of Channing, the wisest teacher of 
 humanitarian Christianity in this century. The sympathetic attention 
 of the world therefore rests upon you. It is an undertaking worthy of 
 the free people of North America, a fitting tribute to the great man, and 
 well-pleasing to God. We bow before your greatness of heart, and 
 implore God's blessing on your noble effort. Many thousand Hunga- 
 rians do this with us. We wish that your project may have brilliant 
 success, and that your holy work may leave behind traces rich in bless- 
 ing in the life of Christianity. 
 
 The recently formed First Hungarian Unitarian Filial Church congre- 
 gation of Budapest will, as soon as it has obtained the consent of the 
 highest church council, send you and the Unitarian Churches of North 
 America and England an address, in order to give you therein an expla- 
 nation as to our affairs and efforts, and in fitting manner to ask for your 
 sympathy and brotherly assistance. In the mean time, we obey the 
 impulse of our heart on the occasion of this festival, which has especial 
 interest for us as a new church congregation, and greet you tlirougli 
 these lines with the genuine warmth of Christian love and with tlie 
 brotherly affection of a kindred faith. 
 
 William Ellcry Channing is your countryman ; but his soul, aflame 
 with Christian love, is known to us also. To you belongs only his name : 
 his spirit belongs, in its universal working, to all humanity. We have
 
 5l6 CHANNING CENTENARY, 
 
 also translated his works, and published them by the aid of our North 
 American brothers in the faith. The same are already read in Hungary 
 to-day by thousands in private, as well as in the reading-rooms of the 
 public libraries and universities of the Hungarian youth. The ideas 
 unfolded in them are disseminated in the collected Confessions of Faith 
 belonging to these institutions. The literary circles of Hungary have 
 expressed themselves in the most appreciative manner with regard to 
 the author of these works; and, even in years just elapsed, prominent 
 men of learning and of high social position have gone over to us, and 
 such conversions take place frequently, even now. All this may be 
 ascribed, in a high degree, to the influence and winning power of Chan- 
 ning's Works, and to the free spirit and stand-point of faith of the 
 English-American Unitarians. 
 
 These ideas have, among us, fallen upon a well-prepared, deep, and 
 fruitful soil. It is already three hundred years since the Unitarian con- 
 fession of faith has received legal sanction and equal authority with the 
 opposing creeds in the Siebenburg parts of Hungary, and a well-organ- 
 ized central church government in one of the most cultivated cities in 
 the land, Klausenburg, and numbers in addition thereto the factors and 
 standard-bearers of political freedom and universal culture. The first 
 founder and bishop of our church — who also enjoyed in his time a Euro- 
 pean reputation, whose three hundredth anniversary we celebrated last 
 year, and whose life, career, and glorious battles for the establishing of 
 the faith, one of the ablest of our fellow-believers, Alexius Jacob, has 
 described — died as a martyr to that teaching whose acceptance your 
 fortunate countryman and apostle of the faith, Channing, so gloriously 
 achieved in this century by the subtlest human thinking. 
 
 Honored brothers in the faith, we beg you earnestly to turn your atten- 
 tion to this circumstance : The successful dissemination of Channing's 
 religious ideas opens in our fatherland a wide field, and throughout the 
 south-eastern countries of Europe, those lying on the Danube and even 
 down into Turkey, where Hungary is especially called upon to transplant 
 Western culture. Many Hungarians, also, are to-day living in Constanti- 
 nople, who have there scientific and literary associations, and who are in 
 constant intercourse with their Hungarian homes. Recently, Gabriel 
 Bdlinth has gone there, — a Hungarian scholar, tutor in the Budapest 
 University, a Roman Catholic who became converted to the Unitarian 
 faith, and, commissioned and partly assisted by the Hungarian Academy 
 of Sciences, travelled in the East for several years, and who has now 
 received the appointment to an inlluential position in the Finance Bureau 
 of Bagdad.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHANNING IN EUROPE. 517 
 
 Our English and North American companions in the faith could 
 accomplish successful missionary work in Hungary, and, through Hun- 
 gary, in the East. Their sacrifices would bear here a rich harvest in 
 the spread of Unitarian Christianity, and of Western, especially English, 
 civilization. 
 
 We commend you to the protection of God, and our interests to your 
 hearty sympathy, and remain, with respect and brotherly greetings in the 
 faith, at Budapest, the capital of Hungary, March 20, 1880, your loving 
 brothers, and companions in the faith, in Christ. 
 
 (Signed by) 
 
 Prince Arthur Odescalchi, 
 
 Of Szariin. 
 
 Dr. Peter Hatala, 
 
 Public and Professor in Ordinary at the Royal Hungarian University in Budapest. 
 
 Blasius Baron Orban, 
 
 Member of the Chamber of Deputies in Hungary. 
 
 Alexius Jakob, M.P.R., 
 Member of the Hungarian Academy of Savants. 
 
 Aron Buzogany, 
 
 Secretary of the Department of Education and Public Instruction; Secretary 
 of the Unitarian Filial Church Congregation in Budapest. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHANNINQ'S WEITINGS IN EUEOPE. 
 By JOHN FRETWELL. 
 
 London, March 20, 1880. 
 
 (i.) My dear Dr. Pttlnam, — Your invitation to address the meeting 
 at Brooklyn on Channing's influence in Europe recalls to me so many 
 inspiring memories that I would gladly cross the Atlantic to be witli 
 you on this grand occasion, and listen, as I have often listened in 
 former days with charmed ear, to the eloquence of the speakers who 
 are to address our people in praise of William Ellery Channing. 
 
 But I have to speak in Germany on that very day; and, on the whole, 
 1 shall be better occupied in trying to spread the influence of Channing 
 in the Old World than in talking about him to those who know his 
 work better than I on the Western Continent.
 
 5l8 CMANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 I gladly accede, however, to your request that I would send you a 
 letter containing some account of the influence exercised by the works 
 of your great countryman, here and on the continent of Europe. While, 
 to procure you still more detailed information, I have asked competent 
 persons in every European country to send you direct reports on the 
 influence exercised by Channing on their respective peoples. 
 
 I. Great Britain. 
 
 (2.) Here the testimonies are so numerous that my only difficulty is to 
 select a few, while I must necessarily omit a large number of almost 
 equal value. The great Christian philosopher who has contributed 
 most in our time to the development of Unitarian Christianity, Pro- 
 fessor James Martineau, has frequently paid tribute to his American 
 forerunner; and I will quote only one expression from his discourse 
 preached before the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, May 
 19, 1869, wherein, after speaking of the Religion of Causatioti^ as taught 
 by Priestley, he goes on to Channing's Religion of Conscience^ and 
 says : — 
 
 " When the tones of the New England prophet reached our ears, why did they 
 so stir our hearts .-' They brought a new language, they burst into a forgotten 
 chamber of the soul, they recalled natural faiths which had been struck down, 
 they touched the springs of a sleeping enthusiasm, and carried us forward from 
 the outer temple of devout science to the inner shrine of self-denying duty. 
 The very inspiration of the new gospel, in what thought does it lie ? The 
 greatness of human capacity for voluntary righteousness, for victory over 
 temptation, for resemblance to God." 
 
 (3.) When we listened at Unity Church to these words of James 
 Martineau, we had among us one whom we loved to call the English 
 Channing, Martineau's colleague and friend, — John James Tayler, the 
 Principal of our Divinity School. 
 
 Saintly as Channing, he had a wide and thorough knowledge of the 
 tendencies of modern speculative thought and the results of modern 
 Biblical criticism. In that most fascinating of all ecclesiastical his- 
 tories, his Retrospect of Religious Life in Eiigland he defends Chan- 
 ning against the reproach of having written no great work, saying of 
 Channing's publications : — 
 
 " Addressed to present feelings and interests, and eagerly absorbed by them, 
 they only infused the principles of which they were the vehicle more deeply 
 into the heart of society. Such has ever been the literary character of men 
 who have acted most powerfully on the general mind of their time. It was
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHANNING IN EUROPE, 519 
 
 that of Wesley; to a large extent, it was that of Baxter and Luther. His 
 function was rather that of the prophet than of the scholar or philosopher." 
 
 And again (p. 306, edition of 1876): — 
 
 " The earnest and devotional character of his mind was altogether averse to 
 the wild and gratuitous scepticism which has infected so much of the theology 
 of the Germans. He does not appear to have drawn in any instance direct 
 from German stores of erudition and philosophy. Yet his writings — perhaps 
 in America, certainly among the Unitarians of England — have contributed to 
 prepare the public mind for more truly estimating the scholarship and compre- 
 hending the intellect of Germany, and furnished a medium of transition from 
 the school of Priestley, which, on nearly every point, is at war with them." 
 
 II. Ireland. 
 
 (4.) Turning from England to the sister isle, we find there, in the 
 excellent little book of Rev. John Orr, of Comber, a clear and succinct 
 statement of the services rendered by Channing and his school in "mod- 
 ifying the dominant theology, reconciling the sceptic with religion, and 
 promoting every good form of humanitarian enterprise " ; fully indors- 
 ing the language used by Starr King, when he calls the " single contribu- 
 tion of Channing's thought and character to the influences that mould 
 our civilization equivalent in value almost to the collective achievements 
 of whole churches." 
 
 III. Scotland. 
 
 (5.) Having quoted from the printed utterances of three representative 
 theologians, let us now turn to a Scotch farmer, " George Hope, of Fenton 
 Barns." This gentleman was a man of no small influence in Scotland. 
 His essay on the repeal of the Corn Laws was one of the three which 
 were selected as worthy of a prize and of publication, the other two prize 
 essayists being also Unitarians, — Mr. Arthur Morse and the afterwards 
 so celebrated William Rathbone Greg. When the three great " Corn- 
 leaguers" — Cobden, Bright, and Ash worth — went to Scotland to speak- 
 in favor of repeal, one of them asked to what religious denomination 
 Hope belonged, and, on hearing that he also was a Unitarian, expressed 
 his surprise that these men with no religion should be such philan- 
 thropists ! 
 
 Let us see to whom he owed the inspiration of philanthropy. In a 
 letter addressed to his brother in Canada, he writes : — 
 
 " When I first came across Dr. Channing's writings, I was electrified by them. 
 I felt that he gave a clear and articulate cxprcssitm to the dim thoughts that 
 had previously floated through my own mind. I'y iiis a.ssistancc, I looked
 
 520 CMANNING CP:NTENARY. 
 
 higher up to the blue vault above us, and obtained a clearer view of the Infi- 
 nite Father. But it is not alone in religious sentiment, exactly so called, that 
 I have been educated by his instructions. From him I have obtained juster 
 views of the rights and worth of the human race. Who that reads his writings 
 can be insensible to the sin and misery of war, to the great curse of slavery, to 
 the guilt of ambition, which makes murder the trade of thousands, subjugating 
 men's souls, and breaking them to servility as the chief duty of life ?" 
 
 The man who thus escaped by Channing's aid from the gloomy 
 bondage of Calvinism laid twenty years later the foundation-stone of 
 the Second Unitarian Church in Glasgow. His farm at Fenton Barns 
 became renowned through all England, not merely because from poor 
 beginnings he raised it to a model of successful farming, but also 
 on account of his admirable treatment of his laborers. 
 
 IV. Channing Propagandism in Britain. 
 
 (6.) The case of George Hope is but one among hundreds of instances 
 of the robust virtue inspired among our people by the direct or indirect 
 influence of Channing's word ; and it is not to be wondered at that num- 
 bers of our preachers, from Robert Aspland down to John Page Hopps, 
 have used every available opportunity of popularizing his thought, and 
 of bringing his works within the reach of all who were open to their 
 influence. A cheap edition was published by Rev. Mr. Maclellan, of 
 Belfast, in Northern Ireland. Joseph Barker, a preacher of the Metho- 
 dist New Connection, recommended in his periodical, the Evangelical 
 Reformer, the perusal of Channing's works ; and after his expulsion, 
 on the ground of heresy, from this Connection, he published, with the 
 aid of money furnished by a Unitarian family in Leeds, a cheap edition 
 of Channing's Works, bringing them within the reach of thousands, who 
 but for him would probably never have seen them. The British and 
 Foreign Unitarian Association has always distributed large quantities 
 of Channing's separate discourses, and, during the secretaryship of the 
 Rev. Robert Spears, sold and gave away twenty-four thousand copies of 
 the complete works, distributing them not in Britain alone, but among 
 readers of English on the continent, in India, and our colonies. 
 
 Since his withdrawal from the secretaryship of the Association, Mr. 
 Spears has established a missionary paper, T/ie Christian Life, a 
 Unitarian Journal, which distinguishes itself from other papers in our 
 denomination by its making the promulgation of those views taught by 
 Channing its special object. This journal contains also the richest fund 
 of information about the spread of C)aanning's influence throughout the 
 world, while its zealous editor is now working hard to celebrate the one
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHANNING IN EUROPE. 5*21 
 
 hundredth anniversary of Channing's birthday by circulating one hun- 
 dred thousand copies of the complete works, including the " Perfect 
 Life," at the price of twenty-five cents. 
 
 V. Channing's Influence in the Orthodox Churches of 
 Britain, 
 
 I. Sam. ii., 36: "And it shall come to pass that everyone that is left in 
 thine house shall come and crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel 
 of bread, saying, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priest's offices, that I may 
 eat a piece of bread." 
 
 (7.) The prophecy of the man of God to Eli is applicable to so many 
 ministers of the State Church and of the popular theology that it is 
 very difficult to obtain clear statements of the impression made by 
 Channing upon conformists. 
 
 The English abolitionists and the leaders of our Peace Society, like 
 Henry Richards, M.P., have of course recognized the immense services 
 done by Channing to their cause. 
 
 The Rev. J. Baldwin Brown, most eloquent and enlightened of the 
 Congregationalists, and Thomas Hughes, M.P., Q.C., the pupil of and 
 biographer of the good and great Dr. Arnold of Rugby, shew their 
 admiration of Channing by taking part in our London commemoration. 
 
 Other ministers, of kindred spirit to Channing's, like F. W. Robert, 
 son of Brighton, Stopford Brooke of London, and the Rev. F. D. 
 Maurice (himself the son of a Unitarian), have, while bold enough in 
 expressing their sympathy with Channing, probably injured thereby 
 their prospects of advancement ; and many who, like Canon Farrar, ap- 
 proach the direction of his teachings on the subject of eternal punish- 
 ment, ignore him altogether. 
 
 In his Bampton lectures on the "Divinity of Jesus Christ," Canon 
 Liddon has made frequent quotations from Dr. Channing, for the purpose 
 of attempting their refutation; and he even uses the brilliant but untena- 
 ble arguments of Renan in the attempt to show that Channing, if he had 
 lived to-day, would have been either a Trinitarian Christian or not a 
 Christian at all. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, the Dean of Westminster, 
 who refused a bishopric, preferring the office of chaplain in ordinary and 
 confidential adviser to our Queen, who has always sliown himself brave 
 toward the bishops, though sometimes too deferent to court influence, 
 ' who called our Priestley "the last of the pilgrim fathers," has several 
 times expressed his admiration of the work done by Dr. Channing. 
 
 How many laymen and preachers have been won over to our ranks 
 by the peru.sal of Channing's works, it is hard for me to say; but I
 
 522 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 know the number to be large, and to his writings, more tlian to those of 
 any other Unitarian, may be applied those words of James Freeman 
 
 Clarke : — 
 
 " Those men we honor here, 
 Sent to bring back the gospel's blessed youth, — 
 Who knew no doubt, no fear, 
 And so renewed man's faith in God and truth: 
 Far as thought goes, their influence has gone, 
 Through iron gates and walls of stone 
 Built around churches to keep out all change 
 By magnetism strange. 
 
 Their simple, honest word has entered in 
 
 Unchallenged, passed all creeds ; 
 
 And now their thought. 
 
 Which fifty years ago seemed rankest sin. 
 
 Is freely welcomed and around us taught." 
 
 VI. The Greatest Tribute of All. 
 
 (8.) There was one man in Europe who had more capacity to judge 
 of Channing's true place among the prophets of God in history than 
 almost any other, English or German, theologian or statesman. This 
 was C. Josias von Bunsen. Sent by the King of Prussia in 1834 to 
 Rome, to arrange the differences between the Prussian government and 
 the Pope, and in 1841 to England, to arrange with our government for 
 the establishment of a Protestant Bishopric at Jerusalem, he became 
 the friend of our Queen, of Prince Albert, and of Dean Stanley. De- 
 voted to the very close of his life to the study of the Bible, he was at 
 once a statesman, a scholar, and a liberal though always a Trinitarian 
 theologian; and, striving to enrich English theology, on the one hand, 
 with the results of German scholarship and philosophy, he took to the 
 German Church, on the other, his observations of the practical methods 
 of Christian work, which are peculiar to the voluntary church organiza- 
 tions in England and America. 
 
 The unprejudiced opinion of such a man is of more value than that 
 of any one belonging to our own body, however great he may be. 
 
 And what does Bunsen say? (See his God in History^ Book V., 
 p. 268) :— 
 
 " Now since Channing spent his life in indefatigably and fearlessly incul 
 eating these principles by speech and writing upon his fellow-countrymen, the 
 influence of his personality . upon all Christians speaking the English tongue 
 cannot be estimated too highly. And hence we can discern how it came to pass 
 that the man whom the older Unitarians of America and England regarded
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHANNING IN EUROPE. 523 
 
 with mistrust, and Calvinists and Methodists with abhorrence, while the friends 
 and defenders of slavery at once feared and hated him, no less on account of 
 his classic eloquence, which reminds us of the most admirable models of an- 
 tiquity, has already, within a few years after his death, come to be revered in 
 every quarter of his vast fatherland as a grand Christian saint and man of 
 God, — nay, also as a prophet of the Christian consciousness regarding the 
 future; and, without doubt, he is destined to exert a still increasing influence, 
 throughout the United States, on the spiritual conception of Christianity and 
 the practical application of its principles. 
 
 "Channing is an antique hero with a Christian heart. He is a man like a 
 Hellene, a citizen like a Roman, a Christian like an apostle. People take him 
 for what he is not when they treat him as a learned and speculative theologian." 
 
 He then goes on to suggest that in the latter case Channing might 
 have become in some sort a Trinitarian, quotes from the discourses on 
 "The Means of Promoting Christianity," "Sermon on Spiritual Free- 
 dom," " Remarks on Life and Character of Napoleon Bonaparte," and 
 " Essay on the Duty of the Free States of North America," and con- 
 tinues : — 
 
 " If such a man, whose whole life and conversation, in the sight of all his 
 fellow-citizens, stand in absolute correspondence with the earnestness of his 
 Christian language, and are without a spot, be not a prophet of God's presence 
 in humanity, I know of none such." 
 
 I have given Bunsen a section to himself, because he of all men is 
 entitled to speak both in the name of England and of Germany. And 
 now let me speak of Germany alone. 
 
 VII. Channing's Influence in Germany. 
 
 (9.) A translation of Channing's Complete Works, by Sydow and 
 Schulze, was published in Berlin in the year 1850, some years before 
 Bunsen published his God in History ; and it seems to me, after a care- 
 ful study of Bunsen's later influence in Germany, that, while he may 
 not be willing to accord to Channing the power to give any "scientific 
 solution of the problem of God in history," this great thinker and his 
 friend Richard Rothe approached in later days more nearly to tlie Chris- 
 tology of Channing than is shown by the book from which I have 
 quoted. 
 
 The publication in 1859 of Bunsen's Signs of the Times was the 
 starting-point for a new Protestant movement in Germany, the leaders 
 of which were, among lawyers, Dr. Biuntscldi, Baron von IIoltzcndolT, 
 and Hausser; and, among the theologians, Dr. Daniel Schcnkrirdna
 
 524 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Richard Rotlie of Heidelberg, and Dr. Carl Schwarz of Gotha, and 
 liaumgartcn, Holtzmann, Spaeth, Littel, Krause, Manchot, etc. 
 
 While the theological diversities of these men were very great, that 
 Religion of Conscience, which as Martineau says sprang to its feet at the 
 bidding of Channing, was the bond of union and the basis of common 
 activity among these men. In 1S65, at Eisenach, they constituted the 
 I'rotestantenverein. Their example was quickly followed by Holland 
 and Hungary; and, at the Conferences of these Associations, delegates 
 from the Church of Channing, both in England and America, have fre- 
 quently been warmly received and respectfully listened to. While Hase, 
 Gieseler, Pfleiderer, Hagenbach, and many other German writers, have 
 borne their testimony to Channing's influence, we can only let one of 
 them speak here, Nippold, the historian of the Protestantenverein : — 
 
 " After Parker, who is widely known by the popular style of his writings,* 
 it is especially Channing who claims our attention. The study of Channing's 
 life shows many points of resemblance between him and the great Protestant 
 heroes of Europe. His chief characteristic is the active power of the individ- 
 ual conscience. Like Vinet and Chalmers, he cannot be called an original 
 thinker; but, like them, he insists on the development of individual religion, 
 emphasizing above all things what is seemingly human and common to all indi- 
 vidualities rather than the exceptional endowments of genius. 
 
 " In all the fundamentals of Channing's theology, the gospel freedom of the 
 Unitarians is as strongly marked as their Christian piety. His anthropology, 
 like that of the Rationalists, is based on the possibility of repentance and im- 
 provement, which, however, is not with him, as with them, a matter of philo- 
 sophic deduction, but the result of his ethical faith in the dignity of man. 
 The Augustinian pessimism of the old orthodoxy is in his eyes a hinderance to 
 the true spirit of Christianity; and he clothes the old rationalistic Trinity, God, 
 Virtue, and Immortality, with a beauty unknown to the Rationalists. Jesus is 
 not for him merely an object of admiration, but also an example that we may 
 follow, whose death has a practical moral value for us, and who has revealed 
 to us the fatherly providence of God. 
 
 "While Channing's Christology was essentially Unitarian, and he was brave 
 enough to bear the social odium attached to this name, he was strongly opposed 
 to sectarianism and the prison walls of creeds; seeking the manifestations of 
 Christian character not in them, but in the spirit and life of its professors. He 
 showed his eminently ethical tendencies by his brave antagonism to all social 
 and religious evils, but especially to the spirit of slavery and persecution. 
 With a sincere love for the republican institutions of his birthland, he warns 
 his countrymen against national pride and prejudice ; and his horror for the 
 
 * These few words are all that Nippold has to say regarding Parker, while Fock in his His- 
 tory 0/ SocinianUm has more to say about Paiker than about Channing.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHANNING IN EUROPE. 525 
 
 excesses of the French Revolution of 1793 '* equalled by his benevolent sym- 
 pathy for the legitimate national aspirations of France, Germany, and Italy. 
 His dislike of party spirit is shown by his repeated warnings against the faults 
 of organizations, while he cordially acknowledges their value within due limits. 
 It was his object not to make men into parts of a machine, but to develop their 
 self-conscious individual energy, not to subject them to external authority, but 
 to win their obedience for the voice of God in conscience. He shows, too, 
 how dangerous the exaggeration of associated action is to the whole com- 
 munit)', how far superior are the quiet influences of home life to those of any 
 public institution for children, and how the proper use of natural relations does 
 more to promote Christianity than any ofiicial mission. In all these practical 
 questions, he carries out his own fundamental principle, the value of the indi- 
 vidual soul; and, just like Vinet, he subordinates to this end all political and 
 ecclesiastical institutions. 
 
 "In treating of the elevation of the working classes, he looks, first of all,*'to 
 their moral, and, secondly, to their material welfare. It is just the same with 
 his care for the prisoners, for the cause of temperance, for seafaring men, and 
 for education. The philanthropist Brownson, Tuckerman, the lover of the 
 lost, Father Taylor, the sailor's evangelist, found in Channing their most ardent 
 sympathizer. No one was more in earnest about keeping holy the Sabbath day 
 than Channing, yet no one was more strongly opposed to the Sabbatarian 
 degradation of Christianity for objects of police than he was. 
 
 "Channing has emphasized in America that ethical character of Christianity 
 which has long been insisted on by the noblest minds in Europe. To this the 
 mystical and supernatural aspects of religion are in him subordinate, and its 
 most essential aspect is conscious devotion to what is good. But this devotion 
 must be conscious and self-acting. Channing's virtue is not passive, but active. 
 Patience, humility, self-denial, are inspired by him with robust virility, and suf- 
 fering is sacred because it is sustained by moral energy. In spite of all Chan- 
 ning's critical, speculative, and aesthetic deficiencies, he is one of the moral 
 heroes of our century, and deserves to be called ' The Unitarian Saint.' And 
 the Unitarians are worthy of their hero. While Gieseler praises them because 
 they have won back to Christianity many a soul alienated from it by the creeds 
 and superstitions of the sects, Wichcrn has found among the Unitarians some 
 of his most successful and devoted predecessors in the works of practical 
 Christian love. Even Schaff, who regards them as infidels, is obliged to con- 
 fess that they are as generous as their orthodox neighbors. The great impor- 
 tance of Channing is now recognized in the whole civilized world, after men 
 like Edgar Quinet in France and Bunsen in Germany have drawn attention 
 to it." 
 
 (10.) And this influence on Germany has extended far beyond the bor- 
 ders of the Fatherland. Among the Lutheran pastors living far away in 
 Soutlicrn Transylvania, among those apostolic laborers who are working
 
 526 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 under terrible discouragements to keep alive the flame of evangelical 
 Christianity in the little villages of Austrian Galicia and Silesia, in the 
 Baltic provinces of Russia, and among the preachers and professors of 
 Holland, I have found Sydow's translation of Channing ; and its posses- 
 sors have welcomed me when I spoke of him, and have wanted to know 
 more of his people. To Berne, to Basel, and to Ziirich, his thought has 
 also gone in German dress. 
 
 VIII. France. 
 
 Channing's own letters, written in 1831 and 1832 to Baron de Gerando 
 and M. de Sismondi, show his intense interest in the state of religion in 
 France. His own sojourn on the continent helped to make his work 
 known there ; and when, after the events of 1 848, the grave question of 
 pauperism was agitated among the French publicists, one of them, 
 Laboulaye, was delighted to find, in Channing's paper on the ministry to 
 the poor, the solution so much desired. He published a translation 
 under the title, Chajtning, Apostolat aupres des Pativres, and soon 
 after, Chantiing: CEuvres Sociales. Traduction Laboulaye.* After the 
 appearance of W. H. Channing's memoirs of his uncle, there appeared 
 another work, Channing : Sa Vie et scs CEuv?'es, par M. de Renuisat. 
 And so the words of Channing inspired in France that ministry to the 
 poor, which was carried on in Switzerland by Pestalozzi, in Alsace by 
 Pastor Oberlin, and in Hamburg by Madame Sieveking and Dr. Wichern. 
 
 In that martyr Church of France, — dear to us for its sufferings, and 
 for those noble souls, like James Martineau, which it has given to hu- 
 manity, — there have been many who, like the two Coquerels, Reville, 
 Fontanes, Pressensee, Colani, Vincent, Dide, have not only loved and 
 studied Channing, but have carried the influence of his thought to the 
 French part of Switzerland and to the Walloon Churches of Holland. 
 But Laboulaye and Rdmusat are peculiarly important, because their 
 enthusiasm for Channing is free from all theological bias. 
 
 Another Frenchman whom w'e cannot neglect in this connection is 
 M. Renan, whose " Channing et le Mouvement Unitaire aux Etats- 
 Unis," published in his Etudes d'Histoire Religieuse, 1863, does as 
 much justice to Channing and to American and English Unitarianism 
 as his non-Christian and specially anti-Protestant bias will permit. To 
 
 * This publication was reviewed in the principal journals of France and Belgium, especially bv 
 Renan in the Revue des Deux Mondes, by Leroy in the Revue de Paris, and by Pelletan in the 
 Siicle ; while M. van Niemen in Brussels wrote a study of Channing's Works.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHANNING IN EUROPE. 527 
 
 show the spirit of Renan's brilliant essay on Channing the following 
 quotation will suffice : — 
 
 "The special character of France prevents us from supposing that Channing's 
 ideas (except under great restrictions) are applicable to it. They aspire to 
 create an enlightened population rather than a grand culture. But France 
 unites two extremes, — a general vulgarity below mediocrity, and an intellectual 
 aristocracy transcending all others in the world. Channing's religious ideas 
 seem to me just as inappropriate to our country. If France were really capable 
 of creating a national religious movement, she would have become Protestant 
 under the favorable conditions of the seventeenth century. But she has re- 
 jected Protestantism. She is the most orthodox country in the world, because 
 she is the most indifferent in religious matters." 
 
 Such assertions may impose upon careless observers, who are fasci- 
 nated by Renan's magnificent style. But are they true.'* 
 
 When a Sylvestre de Sacy bears witness to the historic significance 
 of the French Protestant Church, a Charles de R^musat to its religious 
 value, an Emile Montegut to its moral influence, an Audiganne and a 
 Baudon to the industrial achievements of the French Protestants, we 
 may be justified in supposing that Renan has not seen the whole truth ; 
 and, for my own part, I believe that what may have been wanting to 
 make the Unitarianism of Channing a power in France has been sup- 
 plied by James Martineau. And now I have to call the attention of our 
 American brethren to a French book upon Channing, which seems to 
 me at once the most affecting, the most interesting, and, in its possible 
 effects for the spread of Channing's influence among the Catholic races 
 of Europe, the most important that has yet appeared. It is entitled 
 Chattning : Sa Vie et sa Doctrine, par Rene' Lavollee. Oiivrage cou- 
 ro7ini par r Acaddmie des Sciences Morales et Politiqiies. Paris, 1876. 
 Renan's essay was the work of the librarian of Louis Napoleon, too 
 courtly to write what might displease the bigoted empress, and flattering 
 imperial vanity before the bubble had burst. 
 
 Lavollde's book is that of a pious Catholic, seeing in Channing the 
 American Fdnelon, wishing that the Unitarian saint were a Catholic 
 like himself, writing when the imperial bubble has burst, and earnestly 
 trying to learn from the Americans what he and his fellow-c9untrymen 
 can do to avert the terrible dangers which threaten modern France. 
 I have sent you to-day my review of this book. So I will now only 
 beg you to tell my American brethren that I see the call of God in it 
 to use the means offered us by Lavollde's essay of bringing Channing's 
 noblest inspirations to bear on our Catholic brethren in Canada, France, 
 Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc., far more persuasively than without Lavollde's 
 aid we could have done it.
 
 528 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 Jules Simon's tribute to Cliaaning, mentioned in the preface to this 
 book, is also a most encouraging evidence that the French republicans 
 of to-day are alive to their real duties to their countr}^ and lead us to 
 hope that those misfortunes of 1793 and 1830, which no one deplored 
 more than Channing, will be averted now. 
 
 IX. Italy. 
 
 The most characteristic evidence of Channing's influence in Italy is 
 contained in an article by Professor Sbarbaro, published in the Rivista 
 Europea of October, 1879. He relates how in 1863 he met at Leghorn 
 a Jewish lady from Manchester (probably Mrs. Schwabe, the friend of 
 John James Tayler), who first drew his attention to Channing's works. 
 He obtained them in Florence, and says: — 
 
 " They were to me a revelation, or rather a reminiscence, of ideas which I 
 had long entertained in my own confused and indistinct thought, and which now 
 came before me in orderly elucidation, like the faces of old friends never for- 
 gotten. 
 
 " No single writer, since Dante, has ever made so great and so profound an 
 impression on my faculties as Channing." 
 
 Sbarbaro shows ground for believing that Channing supplies the very 
 form and spirit of that religion which is needed by the craving heart of 
 thoughtful Italy; and he concludes: — 
 
 " In tine, I have made choice of Channing as the most eloquent witness, and 
 an irrefragable proof of the new evolution of Christian thought in the world, 
 and of the reform which is being initiated in human religiousness, because, in 
 the story of his career, and in the fortunes of his books, in the marvel of their 
 rapid and universal diffusion in all corners of the civilized earth, is to be seen 
 the most luminous and triumphant proof of the reality of that movement 
 which is inwardly transforming European society, and bringing it little by little 
 to worship under the roof of a new temple, that church really catholic, whose 
 frontal shall bear, without untruth, the inscription, "To the One God," which 
 Mazzini hailed on the facades of the Unitarian Churches of Hungary." 
 
 Another sign of the times in Italy is the appearance of Terenzio 
 Mamiani's La Religione delV Avvenire; della Religione Posit iva e 
 Perpetua del Genere Umano. Milan, 1880. Mamiani, who became ac- 
 quainted with Unitarianism through Professor Bracciforti's translation 
 of Channing, advises his countrymen to develop the movement com- 
 menced by Bernardino Occhino, of Sienna, and the two Sozzini. 
 
 Several other prominent Italians, as Aurelio Saffi, Luigi Luzzati, and 
 Ruggero Bonghi, will speak at the conference to be held in Italy on the 
 birthday of Channing. But, while welcoming these new laborers in the
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHANNING IN EUROPE. 529 
 
 vineyard, we must not forget those older Italian expositors of Channing 
 who have borne the heat and burden of the day: the advocate IMagnani, 
 who for years conducted Unitarian service at Pisa; Professor Filopanti, 
 the astronomer, who lectured on Channing's idea of duty, in Bologna, 
 Milan, Rome, and Naples ; and Ferdinando Bracciforti, the translator of 
 Channing, who has also for years past conducted a Unitarian church in 
 Florence, and another in Reggio. 
 
 X. Hungary. 
 
 While for about three hundred years there has existed in Transylvania 
 an Episcopalian Unitarian Church, the work of Channing was first com- 
 municated to the brethren there by Alexander Farkas, a Unitarian from 
 Klausenburg, who visited Massachusetts in 1831, and afterwards pub- 
 lished an account of his American travels. In 1848, the young Transyl- 
 vanian professor, Joseph Jakab, brother of the learned biographer of 
 Francis Davidis, took home with him, on his return from Manchester 
 New College, the works of Channing, intending to circulate them in 
 Hungary, but was prevented by the war and his early death. In 1852, 
 Sydow's German translation was introduced among the Transylvanian 
 Saxons; and in 1861 the Jveresz/en^' Afagve^z {Christian Seed-sower) con- 
 tained translations from Channing's works ; while the professors of the 
 college, aided by money from Boston, have now translated the complete 
 work into Magyar, and circulated them among Catholics, Calvinists, 
 Lutherans, and Greeks. Professor Moritz Ballagi, the liberal Calvinist, 
 and Peter Hatala, formerly Professor of Theology in the Roman Catho- 
 lic Seminary of Budapest, now an eloquent advocate of Unitarianism, 
 have both acknowledged their deep obligation to the works of Channing, 
 which are read by men of all churches in Hungary. It will interest you 
 to know that young Count Gerando, grandson of Channing's correspond- 
 ent of 1832, has in 1875 publicly notified his conversion from the con- 
 ventional Cathohcism of his family and his entry into the Unitarian 
 Church of Hungary. 
 
 XI. Scandinavia. 
 
 In Sweden there is published a Unitarian religious paper called San- 
 ningsokaren (the Truth-seeker), which has a circulation of about two 
 thousand in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. A recent 
 number, mentioning the enterprise of Mr. Spears, says: "Portions of 
 Channing's works have been translated into Icelandic by M. Jochumson 
 of Reikiavik. A collection of Channing's discourses in a Swedish vcr-
 
 530 CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 ion was issued as early as 1S40, by a congenial spirit, Nils Ignell." I 
 may mention that one of our English Unitarian ministers, Rev. Ephraim 
 Turland of Ainsworth, has made the promotion of Channing's influence 
 in Scandinavia his own special object, and I have asked him to write 
 you direct. 
 
 XII. Switzerland. 
 
 The German cantons of Switzerland have been always in intimate con- 
 nection with the German admirers of Channing. Nippold, whose eulogy 
 I have quoted, and Schmidt, a former secretary of the Protestanten- 
 verein, are now professors of theology at Swiss universities. The French 
 cantons are in just as intimate connection with the liberal Protestants 
 of Paris ; and Etienne Chastel, Professor of Ecclesiastical History at 
 Geneva, and the friend of John James Tayler, is among Channing's most 
 ardent admirers. But French Switzerland has itself produced two great 
 Unitarians, — Samuel Vincent and Alexander Vinet, — who did for 
 French theology what Channing did for New England. Samuel Vin- 
 cent, after studying Kant, Schleiermacher, and De Wette, put Chris- 
 tianity, like Channing, into relation with the facts of conscience and the 
 wants of the human soul ; while Vinet, making Christ the centre of the 
 gospel, also expresses the idea of the New England saint when he says, 
 ' The great merit of the Reformation was the restoration to the indi- 
 vidual of all his responsibility, — to remove him from the convenient gov- 
 ernment of the faith of authority, and to impose upon him the most severe 
 of laws, that of liberty^'' 
 
 XIII. Holland. 
 
 Holland, like Switzerland and America, always hospitable to those 
 who were exiles for conscience' sake, has never been wanting in the 
 representatives of a free theology since Erasmus John published his 
 Antitheses DoctrincB Christi et Antichristi de uno vero Deo. 
 
 Its older liberal school — of which Van der Palm, Heringa, Muntighe, 
 and Clarisse were the chiefs — arrived at the same results as Channing, 
 and by the same methods, while Clarisse resembled him as a man and 
 as preacher. 
 
 In the Walloon Churches of Holland, Coquerel, Reville, and Maron- 
 nier have made Channing known ; and the latter has translated some of 
 his writings into Dutch. 
 
 In a work published in London by Dr. E. J. Diest Lorgion, a member 
 of the Groningen School, Channing is also quoted as an authority in 
 rclicrion.
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF CHANNING IN EUROPE. 53 1 
 
 The foreign missions of the Dutch Missionary Societies are more 
 wisely conducted than any others known to me. 
 
 XIV. Russia. 
 
 Of the Baltic provinces of Russia, I have already spoken in connection 
 with Germany; of Finland, in connection with Scandinavia. 
 
 Though I have heard that some of Channing's works have been trans- 
 lated into Russian, I have no evidence of the fact. So far as the Catho- 
 lics of Russian Poland are concerned, their great sympathy with France 
 leads me to believe that Rend Lavollde's book on Channing would find 
 ready acceptance among them, while I can form no opinion as to the 
 people who are under the tyranny of the Russo-Greek priesthood. 
 
 XV. Spain and Portugal and their Colonies. 
 
 Here I have not discovered any traces of Channing's influence, and in 
 regard to them I would refer to what I have already said about LavoUde's 
 book. 
 
 XVI. Greece, Turkey, Syria, Egypt. 
 
 In these countries, the American missions might be used as a means 
 of propagandism. And I think it especially desirable that a selection 
 from Channing should be translated into the language of the Koran. 
 
 XVII. In Conclusion. 
 
 I have tried in the foregoing report to confine myself as much as pos- 
 sible to the published evidence of other men, carefully keeping my own 
 subjective convictions in the background. 
 
 I cannot, however, conclude without expressing my own conviction 
 that we have in the works of Channing an aid to missionary effort, 
 in the circulation of which all schools of Unitarians can unite, and 
 which is likely to be welcomed by people of every church and country. 
 Let us, however, in using it, carefully examine all that has been written 
 about Channing in every country in which his books have been read, 
 and, as far as possible, adapt our selections from Channing to the neces- 
 sities of time and place. 
 
 You in Brooklyn arc at the gate of America, and have tlie best oppor- 
 tunity of influencing those who come from the Old World as immigrants, 
 and who come to the Old World as visitors. And I would earnestly 
 suggest to you the propriety of having selections from Channing in the
 
 53- CHANNING CENTENARY. 
 
 chief European languages, or the best essays on Channing existing in 
 these languages, — as Sbarbaro's in Italian, Sydow's or Manchot's in 
 German, Lavollde's in French, — distributed, at the lowest possible price, 
 wherever they can do any good. 
 
 Yours very cordially, 
 
 John Fretwell.
 
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