G.P.Pulnanrs Sons. New York. 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM 
 
 AND 
 
 THE NEW FAITH 
 
 BY 
 
 EDMUND C. STEDMAN 
 
 NEW YORK 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 182 FIFTH AVENUE 
 1876. 
 

 Copyright 
 
 1876. 
 BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS. 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 T N response to numerous requests, and to the generally 
 ** expressed opinion that the material belonged to per- 
 manent rather than ephemeral literature, the able essay of 
 Mr. Stedman, which first appeared in ' ' The Galaxy, " is 
 here reproduced in book-form. 
 
 The growing interest in the purport and influence of 
 what are known as Radical ideas, and the very general 
 recognition of the fact that those ideas have passed through 
 their first and inevitable stage of simple negation and icono- 
 clasm, and are shaping themselves into a positive and con- 
 structive faith, and a practical rule of life, form a sufficient 
 ground for the work that the essayist has attempted. 
 
 His terse yet comprehensive summary of the life and 
 teachings of the man who, more probably than any other 
 American, is the representative and apostle of the liberal 
 faith, will be of interest to all who sympathize with this 
 
 960435 
 
4 INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
 
 faith, and of special value to the many whose objections to 
 or dread of Radicalism are founded upon distorted reports 
 and prejudiced impressions. 
 
 To Mr. Stedman's effective presentation (which has 
 received the author's revision) has been added an extract 
 from a recent and typical sermon, which gives the teacher's 
 own statement of his faith and life-long purpose. 
 
 G. H. P. 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS 
 
 TF this philosophical teacher and divine had 
 chosen to live in some rural spot, or from 
 an academic grove had sent his thoughts out to 
 the world in such case possibly the world's at- 
 tention would have been more speedily fixed upon 
 him. He would be even more conspicuous by 
 position, though not by magnitude, than he has be- 
 come through his peculiar eminence among the 
 notable preachers of New York. Settled in a pro- 
 vincial town, he doubtless would make the place 
 of his teachings, as Emerson has made Concord, a 
 modern oracle and shrine. 
 
 I. 
 
 Frothingham has been called the successor of 
 Parker and Theodore Parker, whose life he has writ- 
 
 Frothingham. 
 
 ten with equal simplicity, reverence, and 
 judicial poise. Certainly we have no other man 
 
6 OCTAVIUS. BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 .who, <since th fdeath of Parker, has so persistently 
 grounded w alt-, religious faith and hope upon the 
 'biisis of-re^.soa, nature, discovered law. No other 
 preacher, taking up the ideas to which Parker final- 
 ly advanced, has so expanded and developed them 
 in keeping with the steadfast growth of knowledge. 
 The mantle which fell to him rests upon a religious 
 orator who displays less of that magnetic power 
 which, in its lower manifestation, sustains the dem- 
 agogue, and, in its higher, the noble leader of men ; 
 yet upon one who can see to it, by every gift of 
 culture, purpose, and unflagging zeal, .that no step 
 is taken backward, and who with his rational 
 intellect has crystallized in a religious system 
 what was at first an inspiration the revelation of 
 a lofty and impetuous yet somewhat overburdened 
 soul. 
 
 Parker stormed traditionalism in its stronghold. 
 Boston, the nucleus of intellectual pride, was so 
 
 content with the advance of Unitarian- 
 Boston. 
 
 ism that it was less easy to draw her lib- 
 erals any further than to disorganize the ranks of 
 the extreme devotees of authority. While Parker 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 7 
 
 was striving to enfranchise religious belief, even a 
 Roman Catholic was more likely to swing over to 
 rationalism than was a Unitarian of the period. 
 Frothingham, the disciple and successor, saw that 
 to make the work complete he must enter upon a 
 wider sphere of action. His field must be the world 
 the world as represented in a metropolis. Mr. 
 Conway recently said of London that it afforded 
 a hearing and companionship to any mind, no mat- 
 ter how eccentric, since there is no person who 
 will not find among millions, gathered from every 
 race and country, others of like creed and disposi- 
 tion with his own. In New York, since 
 
 New York. 
 
 it has fairly become metropolitan, the 
 chance to be found is the same as in London, Paris, 
 and other great cities of the world. Here, then, 
 Frothingham at least was sure, first, of a foothold ; 
 secondly, of room for growth; and hither he came, 
 to transplant his scion and to nourish it for years. 
 In such a place as New York enduring qualities are 
 not those which at once enforce attention. Every 
 year some new claimant appears in each profession, 
 and often disappears as quickly. But when posi- 
 
8 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 tion is once legitimately attained, it is reputation 
 and power, extending to the borders of the land. 
 Mr. Frothingham at length finds himself not only 
 an authority with his immediate followers, but 
 also, whether he will or no, what is termed a " pop- 
 ular preacher." His church is at the present time 
 one of the widely known resorts of visitors who 
 would. acquaint themselves with the characteristic 
 men and places of the city. In making a brief 
 sketch of its leading features we may also touch 
 upon its religious system, and upon the quality and 
 bearing of the preacher to whom it owes a vigor- 
 ous establishment. 
 
 It is believed, that even those readers who are 
 honestly at variance with Frothingham's doctrines 
 A representative must nevertheless take an interest in 
 
 preacher. 
 
 the power and attitude of the man. No 
 preacher is more fully entitled to the epithet " rep- 
 resentative." In temperament and person he is of 
 the purest New England type. As to the former, 
 Edwards, Hopkins, Bellamy, were of the like spiri- 
 tual, self-contained, and dauntless mold ; as to the 
 latter, his form and features repeat characteristics 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 9 
 
 which have been found among eastern theologians 
 and scholars from the early colonial times. He 
 has the clear-cut face, the intellectual forehead, the 
 
 large unarched New England nose, and the pointed 
 
 j 
 
 chin suggesting equally the most delicate refine- 
 ment and the sturdiest polemical valor. Here are 
 the blue-gray, scholarly, half-gentle, half-satirical 
 eyes, a mobile mouth, compressed and accurate 
 lips. The whole head is of the down-east, Brah- 
 ministic type; somewhat aristocratic, for the 
 clergy of the New England colonies were an aris- 
 tocracy by selection, learning, and faith. In brief, 
 here is one whom you might suppose to have 
 had, like Emerson, eight generations of orthodox 
 preachers behind him ; a man who, in the light of 
 an earlier period, might have been a Calvinist of 
 the sternest order, and have died for his belief, or 
 have gone out into the forest with as stout a heart 
 as he brought, in these times, to our " wilderness 
 of brick and stone." But we are not living in the 
 colonial period, and Calvinism, being no longer a 
 protest, is no longer an instinctive religion with 
 men of his type and ancestry. 
 
10 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 Let us first convey some notion of the service 
 conducted by him, and then speak of his devotional 
 Aspiring and philosophy remarking that this, while 
 
 progressive 
 
 spirit. changeless in an essential spirit of aspira- 
 
 tion and receptivity, is avowedly subject to modifi- 
 cation by whatever knowledge may be acquired. 
 Though its purpose remains the same, its outward 
 form moves in an ascending scale. "More light," 
 is the teacher's perpetual cry, and his belief is ever 
 more freshly and truthfully set forth as new dis- 
 coveries are apparent to him. 
 
 II. 
 
 The large hall in the Masonic Temple, at the 
 junction of Twenty-third Street and Sixth Avenue, 
 Religious ser- ' ls a place leased on Sundays to Mr. 
 
 vice at Ma- 
 sonic Hall. Frothingham's congregation, and de- 
 voted to the performance of a religious service. A 
 lofty ceiling rests upon two rows of imposing but 
 somewhat cumbrous pillars, that lead to a semicir- 
 cular recess and the speaker's chair above which 
 are visible the ancient symbols of the " craft." Ex- 
 ercises begin at 10 : 45 A. M., but at that time not 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. II 
 
 more than one-half of the audience has arrived. It 
 is an audience of no ordinary kind. Sincerity and 
 interest are visible upon the countenances of regu- 
 lar attendants. A voluntary is performed upon the 
 organ, and a hymn, possibly selected- from the 
 Unitarian collection, is sung by a choir of four 
 voices. You will not fail to take notice that the 
 music is exquisite. This, and the floral decora- 
 tions of the lecturn, show that here the aesthetic 
 harmonies are well observed, though rendered sub- 
 ordinate to the main purpose of the hour. The 
 preacher rises, and receives close attention. The 
 book which he usually reads is one com- 
 
 The reading. 
 
 piled from the sacred scriptures of many 
 ancient nations, and entitled "The Sacred Anthol- 
 ogy; " a work arranged by Moncure D. Conway, in 
 whose London chapel a liberal service also is held. 
 Mr. Frothingham begins to read, in tones that at 
 first are somewhat labored or muffled, but speedily 
 attract and hold the ear ; his voice, despite a few 
 peculiarities of articulation, having a quality and 
 distinction of its own. His chief effort is to convey 
 the full meaning of the printed text. " Listen," 
 
12 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 he says, " to the teachings of the ancient scrip- 
 tures. This is from the Hindu;" or, " This is 
 from the Chinese;" afterward, " This is from the 
 Hebrew " (Old Testament) ; or, " This is from the 
 Persian ; " or again, " This is from the Christian " 
 (New Testament); thus giving no precedence in 
 authority to any selection, but valuing each for its 
 beauty, wisdom, piety, and internal truth. 
 
 After the reading, of this unusual character, the 
 doors are opened to admit another throng of peo- 
 ple, who seat themselves in time for the prayer. 
 The speaker's voice rises in an invocation 
 
 The prayer. 
 
 to the Supreme Source of Law and Good- 
 ness an address which is an aspiration, a poem 
 of reverence, worship, and acknowledgment, but 
 never, by any chance, a petition to a listening 
 Ruler for gifts, protection, or other personal and 
 special benefits. The ties of human brotherhood 
 are remembered ; the noble souls that have sought 
 for truth in the past, and suffered for it, are spoken 
 of as the saints whose memory every professor of 
 the liberal faith must love and cherish, and whose 
 example it is a holy ambition to imitate. Thus 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 13 
 
 much of Positivism is often reflected in Mr. Fro- 
 thingham's speech and prayer. But in assuming for 
 Religion of HU- the title of an important volume,* which 
 
 manity. 
 
 illustrates his religious system, a phrase 
 adopted by the followers of Comte, he seeks to 
 invest the beautiful expression with a more expan- 
 sive and spiritual comprehensiveness. Still, the 
 idea of human brotherhood, as a religious basis, is 
 frequently advanced by him in words such as these 
 which formed the larger portion of one of his 
 recent prayers: 
 
 Let us be striving, this morning, to get some nearer 
 insight into that great Eternity, to which so many things 
 are passing evermore from our mortal sight. We would 
 feel how little we know, how short-sighted is our vision. 
 We would know how much there is of purity that we have 
 never felt, how much of justice we have never seen, of 
 sweetness we have never known, of hope and expectation 
 that we have never cherished. We would believe, in our 
 life, that there are worlds on worlds of knowledge, of wis- 
 dom, of good, of sanctity, of loving kindness, and good 
 will, \vhich eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor the 
 
 * "The Religion of Humanity." An Essay. (In Twelve Dis- 
 courses.) By Octavius B. Frothingham. Third Edition. New 
 York : George P. Putnam's Sons. 
 
14 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 heart of man comprehended. We would believe that 
 these worlds are round about us all the time. We would 
 believe that, whatever we may have of faith or hope, of 
 love or earnest desire, we can enter into and bring down 
 into our hearts the peace and strength of these blessings. 
 We would remember the character of those before us, the 
 gifts that have come down to us, the light of glory in our 
 darkness, of hope in our fears, of courage in our weakness, 
 of faith in our doubt, of peace and joy in OUT sadness and 
 sorrow. In a world so full as this of doubting and ques- 
 tioning ; where there are so many things to be asked, and 
 answers are so few ; where the problems are so deep and 
 perplexing, and the solution of them so far away ; where 
 there is so much to be borne and forborne, so much to 
 be remembered, and so much to be forgotten ; where there 
 are so many debts to be forgiven, so many evils to be 
 eradicated, so many wounds to be healed, and so many 
 patients to be cured ; where there is this perpetual struggle ; 
 where we must lift ourselves up by such strength as we 
 possess we would remember the great words of faith 
 and courage that echo through all the ages, responded 
 to by the earnest hearts of mankind, the strong-hearted 
 men, the noble, sainted women, who, with hearts full of 
 affection, and souls bright with glory, and minds thirsting 
 for truth, have walked their short journey in life, and done 
 the work given them to do while the day lasted, and, in 
 parting, have left behind them contributions to the world 
 of human activity and human nature. 
 
 And we woirid be profoundly grateful for all these aids, 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 1 5 
 
 and supports, and benedictions, and by our endeavor we 
 would make them not less, but more ; richer, not poorer ; 
 to help ourselves and to help our fellow men to renew their 
 lives, and so render praise and glory forever to the Author 
 of Supreme Goodness and Life. 
 
 This prayer, equally with George Eliot's noble 
 lines beginning, " Oh, may I join the choir invis- 
 ible," breathes the spirit of reverence for the saints 
 and martyrs of humanity ; but does not aspire to 
 the utter self-abnegation implied in her relinquish- 
 ment of the desire for a personal immortality be- 
 yond the grave. 
 
 After another hymn, the sermon is delayed for a 
 few moments, during the admission of a new multi- 
 tude of late comers, who arrive for the purpose of 
 listening to this unique discourse. An air of 
 mutual acquaintance pervades the congregation, 
 more noticeable than in other churches ; but there 
 are many strangers, attracted by the reputation of 
 the preacher, and disposed to be sharply critical of 
 what they are to hear. 
 
 Judged simply as an intellectual per- 
 
 The Sermon. 
 
 formance, the sermon is almost without 
 
l6 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 a modern counterpart. However impressive the 
 genius, fervor, oratory, of the most noted preachers 
 belonging to our established sects, there is no one 
 of them whose spirit is more eloquent and imagi- 
 native, and no one who relies so utterly upon the 
 force of reason in his teachings, or who ventures to 
 proffer his audience a discourse so thoroughly de- 
 manding attention and the exercise of the mental 
 powers. While profoundly reverential, he reverses 
 the method of evangelical preachers, and essays to 
 reach the heart through the brain through the 
 perceptive, reasoning, and aesthetic faculties. He 
 prefers to take the hearer in his sanest, acutest 
 mood his most logical mood ; in the full posses- 
 sion of the judgment with which a human being is 
 endowed. 
 
 As he stands with his sinewy but light and grace- 
 ful figure, apart from the desk, you see that, although 
 Method and his discourse may have been carefully 
 
 characteristics. 
 
 prepared, it is to be spoken, not read ; you 
 realize that it cannot have been literally memorized, 
 and you study the play of his features as he begins, 
 without flaw or impediment, to speak and " think 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. I/ 
 
 while on his feet." It is a remarkable piece of in- 
 tellectual oratory, exciting the surprise of cultured 
 listeners. Commencing without a text, but with 
 the announcement of a theme, he continues for an 
 hour or more to pour out a stream of thoughts in 
 language nearly as compact as Emerson's prose, 
 yet so clear that even his youngest auditors are 
 persuaded by its charm. We should compare his 
 thought to Emerson's for closeness and wisdom, 
 but it is arranged upon a logical system which is 
 absent from the epigrammatic essays of the Con- 
 cord sage. Frothingham's method is synthetic ; he 
 pays regard to the framework and order of his dis- 
 course. At times his expressions are highly poeti- 
 cal, and he warms into eloquence of looks, speech, 
 and gesture. What the teachers call elocution is 
 against him ; his voice, in spite of himself, plays 
 him tricks, and occasionally a word is inaudible at 
 the close of a sentence. But he is all imbued with 
 his theme, forces hearers to keep pace with him, 
 and holds them to the end. Every face is directed 
 toward him ; young and old hang upon his lips, as 
 if anxious that no word " should be lost." In the 
 
1 8 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 total absence of ordinary platform tricks this is, I 
 Triumph of sav > a triumph of pure reason. At the 
 
 Pure Reason. 
 
 close, even if you feel that you have been 
 subjected to a certain mental tension, you acknowl- 
 edge that nothing can be more fascinating than the 
 study of so fine and free an intellect thus brought 
 into play. There is no mental impoverishment ; 
 the audience departs well fed, and the food carries 
 its own aid to digestion. 
 
 in. 
 
 What is the religion taught by this preacher, and 
 how is this congregation, with its original forms of 
 worship, gathered and sustained by his ministra- 
 tions ? Recalling the series of discourses preached 
 at the Masonic Temple last winter, and condens- 
 ing their essential matter, we may obtain a par- 
 tial answer to these questions ; availing ourselves, 
 when practicable, of Mr. Frothingham's own 
 words. 
 
 His rational or " reasonable " religion 
 
 The Rational 
 
 is to be distinguished, first, from a relig- 
 ion founded, like Romanism, on authority ; second- 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 19 
 
 ly, from a religion founded on simple faith. It 
 claims to have reached a higher level than that of 
 the Old or New Testament. It subjects the chro- 
 nology, history, miracles of the Bible to investiga- 
 tion, and judges it to be a compilation, and not a 
 single work divinely organized and inspired. It 
 has no sealed book. Its canon of Scripture is not 
 completed, nor will be. It reads all Bibles, Indian, 
 Persian, or Christian. It opposes alike that " evan- 
 gelicalism " which requires us to accept as revela- 
 tion a special theory of the universe, and, on the 
 other hand, that bald intellectualism which is 
 equally intolerant in an opposite way. In distinc- 
 tion from Calvinism, it believes that man's nature is 
 radically good and only evil incidentally; were this 
 otherwise, the human race would make no progress 
 in morals and enlightenment. It recognizes the 
 heart and soul of man, with his instincts and hopes. 
 Finally, it discerns a perpetual revelation in the 
 phases of nature, as elucidated by science. It has 
 no fear of the term infidelity, as opposed to ortho- 
 doxy, but regards the infidels of all periods as 
 earnest and conscientious men ; often martyrs and 
 
20 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 pioneers of new thought. Infidelity is a great 
 word and describes a great thing. It has been 
 applied to holders of widely different opinions ; tc 
 the primitive Christians, to the Jews of the middle 
 ages, to the Protestants of the twelfth and thir- 
 teenth centuries, to historians, to the New England 
 transcendentalists, to the school of Parker. It is 
 used to describe the opinions of the minority, the 
 suspected and hated few. Modern infidelity is of 
 two kinds : the old, destructive school of Paine and 
 the French revolutionists; the new, constructive re- 
 ligion which liberalists are professing. This religion 
 is more than any particular system of faith, and 
 much greater than the forms and traditions of the 
 past ; in fact, it is always seeking grander and more 
 beautiful forms, a surer vision, a more radiant hope. 
 Mr. Frothingham does not hold himelf quite in 
 sympathy with the woman of the Eastern fable, who 
 Consequences b re a torch in one hand and a bucket 
 
 to be recog- i i 
 
 nized. of water in the other, that with the 
 
 one she might burn up heaven and with the other 
 extinguish hell. On the contrary, while preaching 
 that right should be done because it is right, he 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 21 
 
 also justifies a system based on hopes and fears ; 
 on a wise recognition of consequences. These he 
 deems the enactments of the universe, and thinks 
 that according to their natures they produce the 
 conditions which people have dramatized under 
 the epithets of heaven and hell. To be sure these 
 words, in their theological sense, are spoiled phrase- 
 ology, and no longer believed in. But they have 
 had their restraining uses, have acted as a police 
 force in the regulation of human affairs, and their 
 place must still be supplied by a wholesome re- 
 gard for the good or evil consequences which in- 
 evitably wait upon the observance or violation of 
 universal law. 
 
 In answer to the question propounded by the 
 advocates of tradition and authority, Why go to 
 iig- church? he takes occasion to explain and 
 justify his own forms of worship. He 
 proffers his religion and exercises to those who find 
 the standard orthodox ceremonies flat, stale, and 
 unprofitable. The aim of his service is to stimu- 
 late the mind and move the feelings in the direc- 
 tion of ideal thought, goodness, and beauty; it 
 
 ous servce. 
 
22 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 belongs to those agencies by which men are ele- 
 vated and made pure. To these ends it legitimately 
 employs: (i) Music. (2) Reading of Scriptures 
 its aim and which contain the antique wisdom of the 
 
 methods. 
 
 race ; all " sacred " writings that utter 
 the solemn convictions of their ages and peoples. 
 (3) Prayer. There is no religion without this. 
 But to prayer he restores the original meaning, the 
 heart's desire for unattained good. It is hunger 
 and thirst for divine things, not a means for pro- 
 pitiating higher powers or establishing private re- 
 lations with a patron deity. The desire is its own 
 satisfaction ; the petition its own answer. Omit 
 this aspiration, and the spiritual or finest intellec- 
 tual feature of his service would depart. (4) The 
 sermon. This is addressed not to the emotions, 
 but to the understanding. He does not, like the 
 Romish priest or Protestant divine, arrogate a 
 special inspiration by virtue of ordination or con- 
 secration. He has no gospel of redemption, no 
 The Preacher's sea -l e d commission ; he claims for his 
 
 themes. 
 
 words no authority, and affects to pos- 
 sess no knowledge above other men. It is his 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 23 
 
 province to discuss subjects which people require to 
 have presented statedly, for the reason that secular 
 life tends to keep them out of mind. These are not 
 the Trinity, deity of Christ, atonement, and other 
 traditional themes ; rather the relations of man to 
 man, the hopes and capacities of the race, the sig- 
 nificance of the ancient words, God, immortality, 
 life, death, of worship, piety, brotherly love. All 
 these he would interpret and illuminate as matters 
 of vital concernment, and apply their lessons to 
 the needs of the hour. In this way the higher 
 ministry is attained, and made progressive and per- 
 petual. 
 
 Mr. Frothingham's views concerning the nature 
 and existence of a Divine Being are frankly set forth 
 The supreme in three discourses,* remarkable for 
 strength and beauty of expression, en- 
 titled " The Living God," " Thoughts About God," 
 and " The Theist's Faith." His position relative 
 to this subject and to the question of immortality, 
 
 * " Beliefs of the Unbelievers, and Other Discourses." By O. B. 
 Frothingham. New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons. 
 
24 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 the two vital matters with every inquiring soul, 
 has been so often scrutinized that he seems at 
 pains to define it for the satisfaction of his hearers, 
 and for his own vindication before the outer world. 
 He may be termed a theist, in the broad and 
 aspiring sense of that word. Our thoughts of God, 
 he says, are all that we have ; but the picture 
 framed by human mind is inadequate, whether 
 that of the Trinitarian, the Unitarian, the Theist, 
 or the Pantheist. Anthropomorphism is totally 
 absent from his conception, and he discovers this 
 quality in all religions of all races from the savage 
 to the modern Christian in the faiths of the 
 Limitations Indian, the Hebrew, the Greek, the Goth, 
 
 of Human 
 
 the bigot, and the philosopher. To limit 
 the Divine Being by our thoughts of him is fatal 
 to humility, establishes dogma, perpetuates fable 
 and tradition, makes Deity responsible for what is 
 due simply to the limitations of our own minds. 
 Human thoughts about God harden into tyran- 
 nous theologies. We arraign Providence by our 
 own standards, not seeing that inflexible and eter- 
 nal Law is the universal and benignant Providence ; 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 25 
 
 we measure God by our own narrow comprehen- 
 sion, as if we could embrace the vast design. 
 Therefore Frothingham foregoes all attempts to 
 conceive of a personal God. But let us quote his 
 own words : 
 
 In this it is not implied that God does not exist as a 
 being, but only that we do not apprehend him as a be- 
 ing. It is impossible for me not to believe that the universe 
 is governed by an intelligent will ; but it is equally 'impos- 
 sible for me to imagine the nature of the intelligence, or to 
 conjecture the movements of the will. Believe in the 
 Supreme Power, trust it, repose on it as we may, it still is 
 a reality beyond our comprehension or our reach. This 
 is a point that cannot be seized too firmly. The stronger 
 my faith in God the more modest my estimate of such an 
 idea of him as it is practicable for me to form. The no- 
 tion that he might be such a being as mind can conceive, 
 no greater, no wiser, no nobler, would drive me into athe- 
 ism. It is only by remembering faithfully the utter inad- 
 equacy of my thought that 1 can make him an object of 
 adoration. 
 
 With the sorrowful atheism of Mill, for example, 
 
 Frothingham is wholly at issue. He finds peace 
 
 The Reign of an d satisfaction in the reign of law. 
 
 Law. 
 
 He recognizes what we call evil as a 
 portion of a universal plan beyond our present 
 
 2 
 
26 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 comprehension or arraignment, and believes in 
 God as " a power outside of us that works for 
 righteousness." * If this be so, the heart of the 
 theist is content. Faith in such a power, based on 
 what we can discover of the nature of things and 
 of the doctrine of development, is such a faith as 
 one may reasonably cling to. 
 
 He consequently does not seek to recall a van- 
 ished God, deeming a God who appeared and then 
 conception of disappeared to be more hopelessly ab- 
 
 a Living God. 
 
 sent than a God who never appeared. 
 Nor need we imagine a time when God will mani- 
 
 * From another prayer, taken from the report of the service at 
 Masonic Temple, June 4, 1876, we quote the following passage, in 
 further illustration of Mr. Frothingham's conception of the Supreme 
 Being : 
 
 " Spirit of Truth, Inspirer, Helper, Consoler, we invoke Thy 
 presence ; we implore Thy peace. Thou hast no name by which 
 we can call Thee ; Thou hast no form under which we can appre- 
 hend Thee ; Thou dwellest in no place ; Thou hast no temple ; 
 Thou speakest to us in no voice ; we have no thought that can com- 
 prehend Thee, no feeling that can do justice to Thee ; and yet we 
 may have Thee in our hearts ; through the dark paths of our life 
 we may be guided by Thee as our light. . . . We would feel 
 the privilege of being emancipated ever so little from the bondage 
 of prejudice and tradition, of being able to lift up our minds ever so 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 27 
 
 fest himself, nor solve the difficulty with those 
 revivalists who import a deity for the hour. 
 
 The real question is, whether or no this supreme 
 power define it and speculate about it as we will think 
 of it and reason about it as we may is or is not LIVING 
 a real power of intelligence and will, or nothing at all but 
 a fiction of our minds. . . . The universe is conceded, 
 by earnest, believing, religious men, not materialists or 
 skeptics, to be not so much a complicated machine, which 
 once made need not even be superintended, as a living 
 abode and ever-present manifestation of whatever being, 
 spirit, power it is that men call by the name of deity. . . . 
 So far then, the conception of a living God is made 
 definite. No hint, it may be, is thrown out in regard to 
 the nature of infinite being ; we are as far, perhaps, as ever 
 from a knowledge of what God may be in 'himself; nay, 
 the mystery of that may possibly be deepened ; still that 
 
 little above the clouds and tumults of the present to the serene and 
 everlasting light that is changeless and shadowless, forever and 
 ever. We mourn not that what has been called inspiration has 
 ceased ; that great words once devoutly listened for are hushed ; that 
 much that has been mistermed knowledge has passed away ; that 
 revelations which men have waited for, and longed for, and greeted 
 with uplifted souls, have lost their meaning for us. We rejoice that 
 our hearts are stirred as with a divine hope, that our minds are 
 quickened with a deep and earnest love of knowledge, that our souls 
 are alight with glorious anticipations of human good, that our con- 
 science has felt the power of unutterable law, and our. hearts the 
 sweetness of an unspeakable peace." 
 
28 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 whatever power there is is alive, in every atom of space, in 
 every instant of time, is put beyond controversy, and man- 
 ifest, let us add, in a much higher form in mind than in 
 visible matter. 
 
 It is then the object of the teacher's discourses, 
 so far as theology is concerned, to seek for the 
 present manifestation of this Supreme Being, dis- 
 carding all other revelations, and to constantly 
 obtain loftier views of His goodness and power. 
 
 Upon the question of immortality i. e., of the 
 future existence of the soul in its separate indi- 
 The question of viduality, preserving its affections, con- 
 
 Immortality. ; . 
 
 science, acquirements, memories, hopes, 
 tastes, and perceptions upon this question Fro- 
 thingham's position seems not unlike Emerson's, to 
 wit : that this " secret is very cunningly hid." He 
 has referred to the belief of the early Christians in 
 the resurrection of all who belong to Christ, and to 
 the new doctrine of Dodwell and Clarke, the Ox- 
 ford lecturers, who made the immortality of the 
 soul a consequent upon its immateriality ; but he 
 finds no proof of all this, not even in the modern 
 phenomena of " spiritualism." Yet in these and 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 29 
 
 other religious faiths he discerns a " great hope," a 
 hope wide, encouraging, and sweet to 
 
 A Great Hope. 
 
 men. To be permitted thus to hope is 
 enough. The mystery of the future is its charm. 
 The hope of immortality is deeper and more uni- 
 versal than the belief in it. It seems never to die ; 
 it revives and increases as the faith in conscious 
 continuance in another state of being declines. 
 Among just grounds for this hope he includes the 
 imperative demand for justice, in view of the 
 apparent disarrangement and incompleteness of 
 human affairs ; the incompleteness and arrested 
 development of life and of the soul itself; the 
 starvation and frustration of our holiest natural 
 affections and aspirations. Reason lends its ear to 
 such cries, and those who disbelieve in creeds and 
 revelation may well cling to this magnificent 
 hope.* 
 
 As to faith itself, when assuming the guise of 
 authority, claiming to hold the key to happiness 
 
 * The question of immortality is specially discussed, also, in his 
 sermon entitled " The Glorified Man," delivered April 16, 1876. 
 (G. P. Putnam's Sons.) 
 
3O OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 after death, and to possess a monopoly of the 
 privilege of admitting souls to it, he es- 
 
 Faith. 
 
 teems this a sheer perversion of power. 
 The pretension is that of supposition, not of faith. 
 itmustrestup- Religion has ho sympathy with it; true 
 
 on Knowledge 
 
 and Aspiration; religion strives to disengage itself from 
 this despotism, of which extreme types are found 
 in the iron sway of the Roman Catholic Church 
 and in the unyielding dogmas of the Calvinists. 
 
 Not upon Tra- But f^th based upon knowledge and 
 
 dition and 
 
 Authority, upon loftiness of motive is a part of true 
 
 religion. The trouble is that it often claims to rest 
 
 on knowledge when it rests on fancy ; to rest on 
 
 fact and its fact is fiction ; to rest upon history, 
 
 and its history is mythology. The place 
 
 Science. 
 
 and work of true faith are admitted by 
 science itself: 
 
 For the scientific man lives by faith, in this sense : Faith 
 in the integrity of Nature, the omnipresence and inviola- 
 bility of law, the equivalence of forces ; faith that ' ' the 
 universe .was made at one cast/' that mechanics and 
 mathematics are the same in all worlds, that sand grains 
 and planets obey the same kind of impulse ; faith of a 
 truly audacious and somewhat speculative sort. 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 3-1 
 
 Finally, a lofty and rational faith is the ground 
 of moral enthusiasm and of every historic reform. 
 The strong workers, the wise prophets, the bold 
 achievers, have been men who believed in inviola- 
 ble laws and principles, have been eminently men 
 of faith. 
 
 IV. 
 
 Let us now consider this preacher's, relations 
 with the flock under his charge, and the nature of 
 TheNewReii ^ s P ra ctical admonitions. Teaching a 
 
 ion applied. 
 
 rational not an authoritative religion, and 
 always seeking new light for faith and hope, he 
 naturally pays careful, learned, and eloquent atten- 
 tion to scientific discovery and social progress, and 
 
 finds the clearest revelation of Deity in 
 
 " More Light." 
 
 Nature's elements and processes, and 
 the best evidence of " pure religion and undefiled" 
 in the sympathy of man with man. His illustra- 
 tions and arguments are largely drawn from scien- 
 truths, of which no one is a more 
 
 sen 
 
 timerit. 
 
 ardent and well-informed observer. His 
 moral injunctions are pointed and incessant. He 
 
32 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 is a stern rebuker of the false and honeyed senti- 
 ment which tempts so many to venture upon dan- 
 gerous ground. There is no sentimental looseness 
 or license in his doctrine. Morals are of the first 
 importance. Works, despised by the Calvinist, re- 
 ceive honor at his hands. Spirituality 
 
 Good Works. 
 
 begins, continues, and culminates in use. 
 To be nobly, humanely useful is to be spiritual in 
 a grand way. Love your neighbor more than your- 
 self; pay your debts; lead pure and rational lives; 
 conform to the laws of nature ; be honest even in 
 your secret heart. After all these he fearlessly and 
 honestly endeavors. He strives in every way to 
 
 nourish a close and delightful social 
 Socmi Brother- 
 brotherhood among his people. As to 
 
 the worship of children, he enjoins upon parents 
 the duty of keeping the youthful heart untram- 
 meled either by selfishness or superstitious fear. 
 
 He finds in the very clogs of life its greatest 
 
 opportunities! Even the clog of theology, the 
 
 stumbling-block of bigotry, the barricade 
 
 Evolution. 
 
 of dogmatism, have a use and value. 
 False religions have educated the human mind in 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 33 
 
 faith and courage, where sweet beliefs would have 
 uses of Past failed. The theology of New England, 
 against which liberalism is a protest, 
 explains New England's moral growth: 
 
 Hard, acrid, angular, how many tender bosoms have 
 been bruised against it ; how many delicate consciences 
 and sensitive souls have been wounded and struck to death 
 by its sharp points ! And yet what a discipline in thought 
 it was ! For, when men were hedged round as with a line 
 of fire by these tremendous dogmas of predestination, de- 
 pravity, atonement, hell, it was imperative that they should 
 resist and react. Reaction in favor of rational liberty of 
 mind could not be prevented. ... It was the con- 
 scientious effort of those pious, painful men to find out the 
 truth within the limits appointed to them ; to grapple with 
 the terrible* questions which their age propounded, and to 
 answer them as they could. People who are brought up 
 outside of the old theology, who were born into liberalism 
 without personal knowledge of the older faith, having no 
 problems thrown down before them, and, consequently, 
 being discharged from the duty of turning them over, are 
 tempted never to ask, and failing to ask, become loose, 
 flaccid, and indolent in their minds. We have to conjure 
 up forthem new questions, to bring forward new problems 
 that will take the place of the grim old provocatives their 
 fathers knew. 
 
 The following extract from a recent discourse, en- 
 
34 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 titled " The Spirit of the New Faith," is of special 
 interest, as giving a.clear statement of the teacher's 
 faith and purpose. 
 
 What is the new faith ? What is its peculiarity ? 
 What is its intellectual ground ? The new faith rests 
 frankly and composedly upon the doctrine of evolution ; 
 not maintaining the doctrine in any dogmatic sense ; 
 not pretending to define it with scientific accuracy ; but 
 accepting it in its broad meaning and lofty significance ; 
 planting itself upon it as the most probable account of the 
 world's existence. Instead of believing that the creative 
 power and wisdom interposes to carry out special plans, 
 and to impart special ideas to the race, it is persuaded that 
 from the very beginning from the veriest beginning 
 things have been working themselves gradually out into 
 intelligent forms, into beautiful shapes, into varied use, 
 loveliness, and power. It contends that the world of hu- 
 manity began at the beginni-ng and not at the end. It 
 therefore discards miracles, rejects everything like super- 
 natural interposition, considers as obsolete the popular 
 theory of revelation. It has no inspired books distin- 
 guished in character and contents from the world's best lit- 
 eratures. It sets up no teachers and prophets as proclaim- 
 ing an infallible word. It expects no infallible word from 
 any quarter. It reads no book with absolute or entire 
 reverence such as no other literature can receive. It sees 
 the work of the supreme will and wisdom in the ordinary 
 texture of the world, hailing its vital presence as an influ- 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 35 
 
 ence working toward light, order, righteousness, goodness, 
 perfection in individual man and in the social groupings 
 of mankind which are called societies. Planting itself 
 upon this idea, the spirit that animates it must be peculiar- 
 ly its own. It cannot be narrow, dogmatical, or exclusive ; 
 nor can it be negative, scornful, or contemptuous. It 
 stands beyond the very last attainment in charity. 
 
 Charity is the last step that has been taken in 
 religion by any considerable number of people. It is con- 
 sidered by most as the final step, the ultimate goal of kind- 
 ness. The spirit of chanty is commended by Christians 
 as being the most excellent the supreme spirit. But cha- 
 rity is not brotherhood ; it is not fellowship or apprecia- 
 tion. Charity can be unjust in its pity. Pity indeed is its 
 essence. It does not scorn, but it does compassionate, 
 and compassion is but a gentler form of contempt. In 
 being charitable, one must believe that he or she has 
 the sole, complete truth ; he scarcely more than tolerates ; 
 only, instead of the haughty pride of toleration, he mani- 
 fests kindness, gentleness, and a sentimental forbearance 
 that forbids the demonstration of ili will. Charitable peo- 
 ple may be indifferent in a way that to the sensitive is ex- 
 tremely disagreeable, and may be felt as extremely insulting. 
 Charity too is limited. The churchman's charity is limited 
 to church people. The dogmatist's charity does not pass 
 cordially beyond the membership of his own communion. 
 
 The new faith therefore rises beyond charity to appre- 
 ciation. It has no contempt ; it has no toleration ; it has 
 no active or passive indifference ; it has more than nega- 
 
36 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 tive good will ; it has the warm sentiment of brotherhood 
 It can turn to the most abject forms of faith, the forms 
 commonly regarded as superstition, and recognize their 
 importance, their timeliness, even their benignity in the 
 periods when they prevailed. It can do justice to their in- 
 tent, their purpose, their being, when faith alone discloses 
 it. It can interpret their significance to their own be- 
 lievers unaware of their spiritual sense. It has no lan- 
 guage of disparagement for men like Mahomet, Confu- 
 cius, Zoroaster, Pythagoras, Socrates, or any other renowned 
 teacher, reformer, or saint. It has no words of scorn for 
 men like Voltaire, Thomas Paine, d'Holbach, Helvetius, 
 Bolingbroke, the so-called, the self-styled infidels or athe- 
 ists of their day. It takes these men at their best takes 
 their systems by their positive elements, enters into their 
 sj^ate of mind, their purposes and wishes, interprets them 
 from the inside motives that actuated them, and holds 
 them to account for what they meant to do and be, pre- 
 senting them as objects of regard to the fellow creatures 
 whom they thought to serve. The new faith takes the old 
 faiths by one hand and the modern faiths by the other, 
 embraces all earnest people, and cordially says : Let us be 
 friends ; we are all working together, thinking, hoping, 
 feeling our way into the realms of truth, conspiring to fur- 
 ther the welfare of mankind. The new faith, thus taking 
 every mode of thought at its best, not at its worst, can do 
 justice even to abhorrent opinions. It says to the atheist : 
 You deny the existence of God ; you take Deity out of 
 the Heavens, leaving none but natural and human forces 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 37 
 
 in the world ; very well, then put Deity into your hearts. 
 You say there is no Creator of the Universe ; but there 
 must be creative power somewhere ; be yourself a creator. 
 Do your utmost to put the regenerating powers that are 
 within you into the task of making the material and moral 
 world what it should be. You ridicule the idea of a Divine 
 Providence ; but somebody must provide ; be a providence 
 yourself in your own place and after your own fashion a 
 human providence, watchful, careful, helpful, kind. Show 
 humanity that man has the capacity in himself for supply- 
 ing his own necessities ; logic compels you to this ; com- 
 pels you to look up, not down; to rank yourself with the 
 affirmers, not with the deniers ; with the builders, not with 
 the destroyers ; with the worshippers, not the desecrators. 
 
 The new faith approaches the materialist in the same 
 spirit. It says to him : Be consistent with your own cr?ed, 
 and fulfill its positive requirements. You say there is no 
 spirit in man or out of him ; that matter is all in all. 
 Very well, spiritualize matter by exalting all its capabilities. 
 You are bound to develop all the potencies of organiza- 
 tion ; it is incumbent upon you, as you maintain that 
 there is no supernatural, superhuman world, to unfold the 
 possibilities of this world. You are certain that there is 
 no hereafter ; teach men to honor, love, glorify their exist- 
 ence. Teach them to believe in this life ; believe your- 
 self that the next life is the nearest life, and the nearest life 
 is the life of to-day ; show them that you understand the 
 worth of the hours ; make this life eternal, by packing it 
 full of purposes and deeds that never perish. 
 
38 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 Men come forward and boldly profess a yet darker creed, 
 the creed of the pessimist. They deliberately avow their 
 conviction that the world they live in is the worst world 
 possible. They believe less than the atheist does, who 
 simply denies the existence of a supreme power. The pes- 
 simist holds the controlling power to be evil. He believes 
 in no tendency to righteousness or beneficence, he looks 
 neither upward nor forward, recognizes no power outside 
 of the world or inside of it that works with a prevailing 
 purpose toward order and harmony. The new faith takes 
 the pessimist, too, at his word. " This is the worst possible 
 world, you say ; if you have the moral perception to dis- 
 cern that, the moral sensibility to feel it and complain of 
 it, the moral earnestness to denounce it, the duty of trying 
 to mend the world is laid upon you. Is the world full of 
 ugliness, wickedness, error, and sin ? See if you can find 
 nothing else in it ; set yourself diligently to pick out the 
 grains of beauty and grace, that lie like gems amid the 
 ashes ; preserve all the saving qualities you can discover ; 
 add to them your own ; be yourself a hopeful, brave man, 
 bent on disproving the fact that you as well as the rest of 
 the world are good for nothing, a bit of driftwood or a 
 devil." 
 
 When faith shall stand upon a spirit as live, sweet, ten- 
 der, and encouraging as this, at once all heretics will be 
 disarmed. The wars between the churches will cease ; 
 sectarian hatred must be at an end ; religionist will no 
 longer clutch religionist by the throat and drag him down. 
 All true seekers, believers, hopers, aspirers, workers, will 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 39 
 
 be confessed by one body, one fellowship, one family, 
 contending together zealously to bring in a new order of 
 things. This is the spirit of the new faith. Toleration it 
 looks upon as utterly unwarranted. Charity at its best is 
 exceedingly imperfect. It will accept nothing else than 
 cordial and full appreciation of every earnest endeavor 
 that is made by any thinker or worker for humanity. 
 That the new spirit does not yet manifest itself as it should 
 do among the disciples of the new faith we fr.eely concede, 
 "and more's the pity ; " and this is the reason, if reason 
 be required, why the new faith has not before this gathered 
 hundreds. 
 
 It is to little purpose that we have garnered 
 these thoughts from the outgivings of Mr. Fro- 
 Constructive thingham, if it does not now appear that 
 
 Spirit of the 
 
 New Faith, he has 3. very definite creed of his own in 
 the liberal religion, and that he belongs to the con- 
 structive rather than to the old destructive order of 
 spiritual reformers. In calling upon those who are 
 dissatisfied with traditional theology to come out 
 openly in favor of the new religion, and thus join 
 the ranks of the searchers after truth, he is earnest 
 and plain-spoken. Clearness and faithfulness in 
 conviction he deems especially important in a pe- 
 riod of transition, and he pays a tribute to Proctor 
 
40 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM, 
 
 for honesty in disavowing an inherited creed be- 
 cause it was inconsistent with his scientific faith. 
 He takes up and demolishes, one by one, the pleas 
 of the temporizer. You cannot place new wine in 
 old bottles, and he that is not with the truth is 
 against it. 
 
 Frothingnam, as we already have intimated, 
 differs from other radicals by his comprehensive 
 A jud ; c ; alcast mental scope and impartial attitude. 
 
 of mind. 
 
 He certainly has little of the bigotry of 
 reform, or of the pride that apes humility. Often 
 his congregation is startled by some ground taken 
 which is precisely the opposite of what the more 
 radical expect from him. Thus, in speaking of 
 the Pharisees, he perceives their spirit among both 
 the Philistine and Bohemian classes of all times ; 
 among conservatives and radicals, rich and poor, 
 the formal and the free. It is the spirit which 
 brings men of any class to set themselves apart as 
 being worthier than their enemies or neighbors. 
 This is the soul of Phariseeism, the source of ex- 
 clusiveness, assumption, arrogance, and, of course, 
 of bitterness, formalism, hypocrisy. There are 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 41 
 
 Pharisees philosophical, scientific, aristocratic, de- 
 mocratic, professional, orthodox, heterodox. The 
 attitude of actors toward the clergy is nearly 
 as pharisaical as that of the clergy toward the 
 dramatic calling. The Bohemian may be a Phari- 
 see as lofty in pretension as the Conventionalist, 
 etc., etc. The strictly judicial cast of mind which 
 prompts these utterances leads one often to think 
 him unduly fond of paradox, until it is seen that 
 what seems startling to others is to him the first 
 and most truthful view of his subject. As his 
 point becomes fairly understood, you perceive that 
 he is an intellectual discoverer, with a method orig- 
 inal and peculiar. Yet with all his reasoning, it 
 has been well said that his " mind is log- 
 
 Style. 
 
 ical in its method of thought, but not in 
 form of expression." The latter is often rhetorical, 
 and seems discursive from its wealth of imagery 
 and illustration. It should be remembered that 
 he is speaking from the orator's platform, and that 
 the printing of his discourse, as Ben Jonson said 
 of written English, " is but an accident." He is a 
 poet one who masters and is not carried away by 
 
42 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 his imagination. The aesthetic side of his nature 
 Taste and Cui- ' ls cultured to a rare and sensitive degree. 
 
 ture. 
 
 Taste is apparent in word, thought, ac- 
 tion ; yet he has rendered it subordinate to his duty 
 as a teacher, and is not like him who 
 
 . . . .built his soul a lordly pleasure house 
 Wherein at ease for aye to dwell. 
 
 His predilections for art and literature are mani- 
 festly strong, and if he had followed authorship 
 exclusively, he would be most distinguished in that 
 calling. His scholarship excels that of many 
 learned doctors. If not elaborate in special fields, 
 it is broad, rich, universal, covering with ardent 
 and impartial view the literature of all peoples and 
 times. 
 
 Owing to the popular knowledge of Mr. Fro- 
 thingham's liberality toward all who desire to wor- 
 
 Personal quail- shI P after the Dictates of their OWtt 
 
 natures, all sorts of new-fangled reform- 
 ers and doctrinaires appeal to him and to his society 
 for recognition or aid. If he has a weakness it is an 
 excessive good nature, which makes him averse to 
 utterly repelling even the. most indiscreet. His 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 43 
 
 charity in this respect often has led to a mis- 
 conception of his own views on the part of the 
 orthodox world, who father upon him many a 
 movement of which he may respect the aspiration, 
 and be heartily amused at the poverty or foolish- 
 ness of the creed. In reality the critical bent of 
 his mind has been so increased by training that, 
 as becomes an investigator, he subjects every fact 
 and doctrine to the most relentless scrutiny. A 
 disdain of empty sentiment never leaves him ; 
 there is no obtaining emotions under false pre- 
 tenses at Masonic Hall. Conscience and sincerity 
 make him strong and clear. One who listens to 
 him for the first time might accuse him of lacking 
 that indefinable quality termed magnetism. But 
 he is in truth both magnetic and humane, full of 
 practical charities, and exquisitely sensitive to the 
 friendship of. those whom he respects and loves. 
 In private life he is delightful, and, by his sweet- 
 ness, humor, conversational tact, and power, the 
 inciter of general delight. To see him in his 
 home is a privilege indeed. Here, and among the 
 groups of his select acquaintance, he is the flower 
 
44 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 *, of courtesy and companionship a gentleman of 
 the most refined and genuine school. 
 
 A word in relation to his published writings. 
 " The Religion of Humanity," mentioned here- 
 tofore, is a series of essays upon Mod- 
 
 Publications. 
 
 ern Tendencies, God, the Bible, the 
 Power of Moral Inspiration, Providence, Immor- 
 tality, Conscience, the Soul of Truth in Error, and 
 that of Good in Evil. Another of his volumes 
 is " Beliefs of the Unbelievers, and other Dis- 
 courses." His " Life of Theodore Parker " is an in- 
 spiriting and well-proportioned biography. It has 
 been aptly succeeded by the " History of Transcen- 
 dentalism in New England," a book which those 
 interested in that remarkable phase and movement 
 long ago called upon him to write ; and no other 
 man, Dr. Ripley possibly excepted, is so fitted for 
 the task, or could have accomplished it so readily 
 and well. It is, in its way, a handbook of philo- 
 sophic inquiry, from the time of Kant, and, as a 
 record of New England transcendentalism and of 
 the lives of the poetic, original beings who were the 
 leaders of that movement, is, and will remain, an 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 45 
 
 indispensable authority. Mr. Frothingham always 
 has taken special interest in the ways, thoughts, 
 and culture of the young. Years ago he made an 
 attractive paraphrase of some familiar Scripture 
 legends, in two volumes, " Stories from the Lips of 
 the Teacher " and " Stories of the Patriarchs." 
 His " Child's Book of Religion," for Sunday schools 
 and homes, is a unique and attractive compilation, 
 prose and verse, for the enjoyment and religious 
 training of children. He has been a frequent 
 contributor to our leading magazines and reviews. 
 A feature of his church is the gratuitous distri- 
 bution of his more impressive discourses, steno- 
 graphically reported from week to week. These, 
 and all of his printed works, are issued and for sale 
 by the Putnams, and form a library of original 
 and eloquent religious teaching. 
 
 V. 
 
 Mr. Frothingham was born in Boston, and is now 
 at his prime, something more than fifty 
 
 Biographical. 
 
 years of age, although his face and figure 
 are those of a younger man. He belonged to the 
 
46 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 Harvard class of 1843, went through the course of 
 study at the Divinity School, and became, like his 
 distinguished father, a Unitarian clergyman. For 
 some years he was the pastor of a church in old 
 Salem, but finally, after a period of study, contro- 
 versy, and foreign travel, grew too radical and 
 progressive to be bound by the ties of any ex- 
 isting organization. In 1855 ne began to preach 
 upon an independent basis to a small congrega- 
 tion in Jersey City. In 1859 ne removed to New 
 York, organized a society, and for some years 
 preached in a church near Sixth Avenue, on For- 
 tieth Street. After a time it was thought advisable 
 to sell that building, and the society removed to 
 Lyric Hall, which became famous through the repu- 
 tation of its preacher. A peculiar congregation, 
 though until recently a small one, gathered around 
 him ; a fit audience, though few, making up in 
 character and influence whatever it lacked in num- 
 bers and worldly wealth. 
 
 Some of our choicest and best-known 
 
 Mr. irothing- 
 ham's " Soci- 
 ety." writers, thinkers, and philanthropists, 
 
 have belonged to this society. It has also been 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 47 
 
 remarked that many thoughtful people, long 
 unaccustomed to church-going, have resorted to 
 Mr. Frothingham's church as to a place where 
 absolute freedom of conscience is proffered to 
 the worshipper. No doubt it is looked upon 
 as a cave of Adullam by the orthodox ; cer- 
 tainly it is the haunt of eager, restless, unsatisfied 
 spirits, attracted by the originality and boldness 
 of the preacher's views. Members of the literary, 
 artistic, and dramatic guilds favor it, and here 
 you find a select group from the scholarly and 
 learned professions. Many Israelites, of the pro- 
 gressive school, are scattered among the audience. 
 In the fall of 1875 the society removed from 
 Lyric Hall to its more convenient and beautiful 
 quarters in the Masonic Temple. An immediate 
 and great enlargement of the congregation was 
 the result. It has nearly doubled its numbers 
 and resources, and the hall, during the winter of 
 1875-76, was crowded with audiences listening to 
 a brilliant and notable series of discourses. Marked 
 attention was given to this series by that portion 
 of the press which is on the alert for what is 
 
48 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 most significant among the men and matters of 
 our time. 
 
 The spirit of the society is declared by the 
 " rules " of the " Independent Liberal Church " 
 The indepen- to be not in any sense ecclesiastical 
 
 dent Liberal 
 
 or dogmatical, but purely social. No 
 distinction is allowed between members of the 
 " church " and members of the "congregation." 
 The society is " cordial, open, humane ; its wel- 
 come is warm, its sympathies are wide, and it relies 
 on these qualities for its influence and success." 
 But one regular service with preaching is held dur- 
 ing the week, that of Sunday morning, the after- 
 noon of Sunday being devoted to pastoral lectures 
 and instruction. Social reunions, occur on secular 
 evenings, at intervals, and are of a pleasant and 
 entertaining nature. A peculiar feeling of brother- 
 hood exists among the frequenters of the church. 
 No sacraments are observed or rites adminis- 
 tered. The ceremony of christening, or the dedi- 
 cation of childhood, as a social rite of poetic signifi- 
 cance, is performed by the pastor when requested. 
 The association was originally incorporated in 
 
OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM. 49 
 
 1860, under the title " Third Congregational Uni- 
 tarian Church." This title has been changed, 
 and for some years past the church has openly 
 maintained an unsectarian position. This is in ac- 
 cordance with the principle announced in its con- 
 stitution, which declares that it is " established for 
 the support of public worship, the maintenance of 
 a religious faith, liberal, intelligent, and progres- 
 sive, the cultivation of religious life, individual and 
 social, insisting always on freedom of individual 
 opinion in all matters of religious belief, and claim- 
 ing to be responsible only to God and the private 
 conscience." A section of the by-laws declares, 
 " It is expressly understood that no subscription or 
 assent to any covenant or formula of faith shall be 
 required of any member." 
 
 The national " Free Religious Association " is 
 an organization which counts upon the list of its 
 The Free Reiig- directors such names as Emerson, You- 
 
 ious Associa- 
 
 tion - mans, Curtis, Higginson, Weiss, Sar- 
 
 gent, Lucretia Mott, Lydia Maria Child. Fro- 
 thingham's position as the most active and eminent 
 leader, since the death of Parker, of the liberal 
 
50 OCTAVIUS BROOKS FROTHINGHAM, 
 
 movement in America, is confirmed by the 
 action of this body. At the time of its forma- 
 tion he was unanimously elected to the presiden- 
 cy, an office which he still retains. His own 
 church, as we have seen, has reached a vigor- 
 ous maturity. Leaving out of question the vitality 
 claimed for such an institution as we have de- 
 scribed, it is exposed to perilous contingencies, be- 
 ing held together and nurtured by the force of a 
 master who as yet has but few professional asso- 
 ciates, and to whose place no one at this moment 
 could fitly succeed. 
 
 Our sketch, however inadequate, of a remark- 
 able teacher, his system, and the church under his 
 guidance, must now be ended. But even this much 
 will serve to show that many notions current with 
 respect to Octavius Brooks Frothingham are ut- 
 terly superficial ; that his reverential and judicial 
 qualities are on a level with his acknowledged intel- 
 lectual genius, and that he exerts in this commu- 
 nity, and throughout the world of religious aspira- 
 tion, a constant, earnest, and most potential force. 
 
BOOKS BY OCTAVIUS B. FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY. AN ESSAY. 
 Third Edition Revised. Price, $1.50. 
 
 " Nobody can peruse this book without respect for the learning, mental honesty and 
 skill in the statement of his convictions, possessed by the author, and for the essential 
 integrity and philanthropic tendency of his spirit." Springfield Republican. 
 
 " A profoundly sincere book, the work of one who has read largely, studied thor- 
 oughly, reflected patiently. * * * It is a model of scholarly culture and of finished 
 and vigorous style." Boston Globe. 
 
 "A marked book, forming a most important contribution to our religious literature." 
 Boston Register. 
 
 THE CHILD'S BOOK OF RELIGION. 
 
 For Sunday- Schools and Homes. Price, $1.00. 
 
 THE SAFEST CREED, AND OTHER DISCOURSES. 
 I2mo, Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 We commend these discourses, not "as food for babes," but as full of suggestion 
 for earnest and- thoughtful men. 
 
 STORIES FROM THE LIPS OF THE TEACHER. 
 With Frontispiece. Cloth, $1.00. 
 
 "The Parables are so re-told as to absorb the attention of the reader, and to fasten 
 upon the mind what the writer believes to have been the impression the Saviour meant to 
 convey. It is in style and thought a superior book, and will interest alike young and old." 
 Zion's Herald (Methodist.) 
 
 STORIES OF THE PATRIARCHS. 
 
 With Frontispiece. Cloth, $1.00. 
 
 " A work of culture and taste ; it will be welcome to all ages, and gives the sublimes! 
 lessons of manhood in the simple language of a child.'' Springfield Republican, 
 
 BELIEFS OF THE UNBELIEVERS. A LECTURE. 
 I2mo, Paper, 25 cents. 
 
 TRANSCENDENTALISM IN NEW ENGLAND. A HISTORY. 
 With sketches and studies of Emerson, Alcott, Parker, Margaret 
 Fuller, the Brook- Farm Community, etc. 
 
 8vo, Cloth extra, with steel portrait of the author, $2.50. 
 
 THE LIFE OF THEODORE PARKER. 
 8vo. With Portrait, $3.00. 
 
SERMONS 
 
 O. B. FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 SECOND SERIES 
 
 i. 
 
 2. 
 
 3- 
 4- 
 
 5- 
 6. 
 
 7- 
 8. 
 
 9- 
 10. 
 ii. 
 
 12. 
 
 T 3. 
 14. 
 IS- 
 1 6. 
 
 19. 
 20. 
 
 21. 
 
 22. 
 
 23- 
 24. 
 
 THE GREAT HOPE 
 
 REASONABLE RELIGION 
 
 THE DESPOTISM OF FAITH 
 
 THE CARDINAL'S BERRETTA 
 
 PHARISEES 
 
 PAYING DEBTS ^ 
 
 INTERESTS: MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL 
 
 ALLEGIANCE TO FAITH 
 
 THE LIVING GOD 
 
 THE THEIST'S FAITH 
 
 THOUGHTS ABOUT GOD 
 
 CLOGS AND OPPORTUNITIES 
 
 NEW WINE IN OLD BOTTLES 
 
 KNOWLEDGE AND FAITH 
 
 INFIDELITY 
 
 RELIGION AND CHILDHOOD 
 
 THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 
 
 MATERIALISM 
 
 IRREVERENCE 
 
 RIGHTS AND DUTIES 
 
 AUTHORITY IN RELIGION - 
 
 MORAL NARCOIICS 
 
 THE NATURAL MAN 
 
 THE GLORIFIED MAN 
 
 DELIVERED, 
 
 April 4, 1875. 
 
 April n, 1875. 
 
 April 1 8, 1875. 
 
 May 2, 1875. 
 
 May g, 1875. 
 
 March 28, 1875. 
 
 Sept. 19, 1875. 
 
 Oct. 3, 1875. 
 
 Oct. 17, 1875. 
 
 - Oct. 24, 1875. 
 
 Oct. 31, 1875. 
 
 - Dec. 5, 1875. 
 Dec. 12, 1875. 
 
 - Dec. 19, 1875. 
 
 Jan. 9, 1876. 
 
 - Jan. 16, 1876. 
 Jan. 23, 1876. 
 
 -' Jan. 30, 1876. 
 Feb. 6, 1876. 
 
 - Feb. 27, 1876. 
 
 - March 5, 1876. 
 
 April 2, 1876. 
 
 - April 30, 1876. 
 April 1 6, 1876. 
 
 The above Sermons, and those remaining of the First Series, are 
 for sale by the Publishers, or are sent by mail, paid, at the price of 10 
 cents each ; and subscriptions are received for the Series for the year 
 (planned to consist of 20 Sermons), at $2 each. 
 
 It ha? been decided to put upon the Sermons for the present merely 
 such nominal price as is expected to meet the cost of their publication. 
 
 4 8 3 
 
YC134SS5