'm<- m- •Sa A.^^ FROM THE LIBRARY OF REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON. D. D. BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO THE LIBRARY OF PRINCCTON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY /0^\9r (y ,IFE AND SELECTED WRITINGS OF :0& OF pr]^ ^DEC 1 1936 ^ -5^ Francis Dana Hemenway: LATE PROFESSOR OF HEBREW AND BIBLICAL LITERA- TURE IN THE GARRETT BIBLICAL INSTITUTE, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS. BY CHARLES F. BRADLEY, AMOS W. PATTEN, CHARLES M. STUART. CINCINNATI AND CHICAGO : CRANSTON & STOWE 1890. PREFACE. ^T^HIS work was undertaken a.s the result of a ^ suggestion made at the annual meeting of the Alumni Association of Garrett Biblieal Institute in May, 1887. The committee appointed were left with- out special instruction as to matter and form, and free also to make their own division of labor. From his special intimacy with Professor Hemenway, the biog- raphy was assigned to Professor C. F. Bradley, D. D., of the class of 1878, who, to perfect his labor of love, si)ent part of the summer of 1888 in the scenes of Professor Hemenway's boyhood and early manhood, and secured reminiscences from friends who remembered him n^ student, teacher, and pastor. Former students, friends, and parishioners were also laid under contribution through correspondence, and a careful and thorough examination made of diary, letters, and tributes of contemporaries, to portray, as characteristically as might be, the features of one whom all alike loved and honored. The committee acknowledge gratefully the kindness of all friends who responded to the re- quest for reminiscences; and especially the unfailing 3 4 PREFACE. and sympathetic assistance of Mrs. Hemenway, who placed at their disposal her husband's diary and let- ters, and in many other helpful ways made easier and more intelligent the work committed to them. To the Rev. Dr. Amos W. Patten, of the class of 1870, was assigned the preparation of the general lectures, sermons, and addresses; and to this writer, the lec- tures on hymnology. The work is now sent forth to perpetuate, in some degree, the labors of an able, de- voted, and accomplished minister and teacher. May it reach many, to help and to bless! CHAKLES M. STUART, Chairman of the Committee. EvANSTON, III., April, 1890. CONTENTS. Part I— LIFE. BY PROF. C. F. BRADI^KY, D. D. PAGE. Cpiapter I. The Home aniong the Hills, 9 II. The School-house aud Church at the Corners, 14 HI. Early Religious Life, 23 IV. School-days at N6wbury and Concord, . . 35 V. Pastorate at Montpelier, 49 VI. New Fields at the West 60 VII. At Evanston, 73 VIII. In Labors More Abundant, 89 IX. In Memoriam— 1884, 102 Part II— STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. edited by rev. c. m. stuart, b. d. Introductory Note, ^^7 Chapter I. Hymns and Lyric Poetry in General, .... 141 II. Hymns of the Ancient Church, 155 III. Earlier Medieval Hymns, 170 IV. Later Medieval Hymns, 185 V. Hymns from German Authors, 202 VI. Earlier English Hymns, 227 VIL Hymns of Isaac Watts, 240 VIII. Hymns of the Wesleys, 256 Notes. -'^^ 6 CONTENTS. Part III— LECTURES AND SERMONS. EDITED BY REV. A. W. PATTEN, D. D. PAGE. I. Special Qualifications Needed for a Methodist Pastor, 291 11. Ritualism in the Methodist Episcopal Church, . . . 306 III. Outlook of Methodism, 315 IV. God's Requirements; or, the Trinity of Spiritual Character, 324 V. The Vicariousness of Human Life, 339 VI. The Character of a True Life, 354 VII. The Christian Minister, 370 VIIL Fidelity to Truth, . . .^ 391 Bio6rapl)Tcal okebci). BY PROFESSOR C. F. BRADLEY, D. D. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. CHAPTER I. THE HOME AMONG THE HHvLS. THE country east of the center of Vermont is marked by huge ridges of hills running north and south. In a pleasant valley between two of these, through which flows the First Branch of White River, nestles the village of Chelsea. Up to the present day no railroad train has disturbed its rural quiet. A yel- low coach drawn by four horses brings mail and pas- sengers once a day from South Royalton, thirteen miles down the valley. West of the village green rises the noble West Hill, whose highest point is not less than seventeen hundred feet above the sea-level. A mountain road, starting from the north end of the village street, climbs up this ridge. There are dense woods on the left, and glimpses of vale and hill on the right as one ascends, until higher ranges of hills, with intervening valleys, are attained. After about two miles, an abrupt turn to the riglj^t and another half mile bring the visitor to the Hemenway home- stead. It is a small but comfortable house,' sur- rounded by the ordinary buildings of a New England farm. Behind is a wooded hill, and in front a mea- dow with its brook. Undulating hills and a blue peak in the distance complete the pleasing picture. 2 9 10 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. In this farm-house, on the tenth day of November, 1830, Francis Dana Hemenway was born. The father, Jonathan Wilder Hemenway, was born in Barre, Massachusetts, in 1784, and came to Chelsea in 1810. His first wife bore him three sons and four daughters. The mother of Alpheus and Francis was the second wife, Sarah Hebard. As is so often the case when a distinguished son comes from an other- wise unknown family, the boy inherited from the mother his marked mental and moral traits. She is described by those who remember her as above the medium height, with large, dark and expressive eyes. Her manner was quiet and sedate. Though not a church member, she was a religious woman, and, hav- ing a sweet voice, sang in the church choir. The whole family felt the inspiration of her intelligence and character. Her mother, Sarah Davison, was also a woman of superior mind and manners. She is said to have been a Congregationalist. Such glimpses, slight but gratifying, we get of '' the grandmother Lois and the mother Eunice. '' Given a New England stock, a simple New Eng- land country home, and the influences of New Eng- land village life, and what will be the result? As well might we ask what carbon will become in Na- ture's laboratory. The Vermont and New Hamp- shire farmers' boys in those days had possibilities. Webster, Marsh, Chase, and many others, prove that. The humbler Puritan stock had the strength of granite, and contained here and there veins of gold-bearing quartz. The district schools and the rural academies discovered the gold, and the country colleges gave it THE HOME AMONG THE HILLS. 11 a stamp which made it current in the markets of the world. It is interesting to note the contrast between the conditions of the country-boy of unusual talent, born in an undistinguished home, and the son of a family of the New England "Brahmin caste/' The latter had great odds in his favor; inherited talents, culture from the cradle, a literary atmosphere for daily breathing, family influences — which were often in themselves a liberal education — the best schools and colleges, the stimulus of family pride, and often foreign travel and study to widen the horizon and finish the training. Yet the country lad would often win in the long race. He had his peculiar advantages. The simpler state offered fewer temptations. The out-of- door life favored freer development of mind and body, and furnished solitude for thought and intimacy with Nature. There was less conventionality, and more chance for maturing individuality. The New Eng- land farm and village life was the mold of some of our greatest and best Americans. Fortunately we have some descriptions of life on the West Hill of Chelsea during the boyhood of Francis Hemenway in his own words. Its circle embraced the farm-house, the school, the neighborhood and village so- ciety, and the church. Its main features may be quickly sketched. There was a simplicity about it which might seem to us to involve hardship. This embraced cold bedrooms in winter, early rising, plain fare, hard work, meager expression of affection, few holidays, and few papers and books. Yet there were lofty ideals connected with this plain living. There were strict integrity, high devotion to duty, deep though unde- 12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. monstrative family affection, Puritan morality, high intelligence and practical good sense, and noble types of manhood and womanhood, such as have ever lifted the poorest of our New England native homes im- measurably above the cottage of the ordinary Euro- pean peasant. The Hemenway home lacked only family religion to make it typical of the best New England family life. Even this lack was to a large extent supplied by the mother, who taught her chil- dren to pray and read the Bible. Her death, when Francis was nine years old, left him deeply be- reaved, but permanently benefited by her teachings and example. Francis developed rapidly in body and mind until his fourteenth year. He was then a robust and merry boy, large for his age, and with a growing reputation as a precocious scholar, fond both of fun and of his books. One old neighbor, now eighty-three years of age, remembers him as ^' a first-rate boy — an extra boy ; bound to make his mark. '^ A proof of this recognized precocity is the tradition, cherished in the family, though not fully vouched for, that when seven years old he read the whole New Testament in a week. Certain it is, that before he was eight, he had read the entire Bible through. A severe illness in his fourteenth year marks a crisis in his life. The nature of the disease is not cer- tainly known. He himself, in his later life, regarded the improper treatment of an ignorant physician as more serious than the disease. Some years of ill- health followed. He could do little work or hard study. Yet this serious check, which seems to have THE HOME AMONG THE HILLS. 13 put a ball and chain henceforth upon his physical strength, and which doubtless shortened his life, brought blessings too. Relieved from the necessity of working on the farm, he had leisure for study. His life became more solitary and introspective, and habits of religious meditation and prayer were formed, which gave wings to his spirit. The depth and originality of his spiritual life owed much, no doubt, to the quiet hours he spent in the woods and in the little chamber with its one south window, which is still cherished as ^' Francis' room. '' 14 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. CHAPTER II. THE SCHOOL-HOUSE AND CHURCH AT THE CORNERS. ^' nr^HE Corners/' which formed the center of social X and religious life for the neighborhood, were about a mile and a half south-west of the Hemenway farm. They could boast neither post-office nor store, and but few dwellings. The plain, typical Vermont district school-house, which stood at the cross-roads, had no comeliness of form or feature; but that its surroundings and influence were held in grateful re- membrance by this man whose boyhood was blessed by them, we know from the following sketch, written in the early days of his last illness : "There it stood, turning its homely but honest face toward me, as I made my weary journey of a mile and a half from my childhood home to this scene and center of my early toils and triumphs. There was no paint on the walls, either out- side or inside; no inclosing fence; no friendly shade of trees; and no shrubbery of any kind, except that on one side the orig- inal underbrush had never been fully cleared away. Fortu- nately, however, the woods were not far away, and here were found inexhaustible resources in climbing the trees, getting spruce-gum, and hunting the squirrels and rabbits. Indeed, they were to us boys a veritable Arcadia. I have heard a good deal about * classic groves ' and ' scholarly retreats,' and have seen some of the most famous of these on both sides of the sea, but have found nothing that has brought to me more exhilaration, or a more delicious sense of freedom and wealth, than came to me in that oft-frequented forest. Our play- THE SCHOOL-HOUSE AND CHURCH. 15 ground was, to appearance, rather restricted ; for, in the good old utiHtarian times, no heresy could have been more radical than that of actually providing a play-ground for the children. But human nature is wiser than puritanical rules, and stronger than the barriers which the unthoughtfulness and poverty of our parents had thrown about us ; for we took, as our rightful domain, 'all out-doors,' finding our only limits in the length of the nooning or recess. ... Of course each day of the winter's school began by the building of the fire by the boy whose turn it was, for we were our own janitors. The young hero had to make an early start ; iiad to do all his own chores at home— feed the horses, milk the cows, feed the cattle, clear the stables, eat his breakfast, put up the doughnuts and apples for his dinner — take his walk of half a mile, or mile, or mile and a half, and get a rousing fire started by half-past eight o'clock. At nine the work began. The staple of the work for the first hour of each session was reading. The first class, made up of all the full-grown boys and girls, read in the 'American First Class Book,' compiled by John Pierpont. This exercise consisted in calling upon each individual in turn to stand up at his seat and read a paragraph, which, with the aid of the teacher's prompting, he would generally be able to do. The second class would be distinguished by being called out to sit together on a front seat to repeat substantially the same programme as the first, except that a different reading-book was used, which, for many years, was ' Emerson's Second Class Reader.' The days of the 'Scott's Lessons,' the ' Enghsh Reader,' and the ' Art of Reading,' had gone by, and the above avani-couriers of the coming multitude had taken their places. The other classes were called up into the floor, and had to stand with their toes exactly to the crack in the floor, while they went through the same original and exciting exercise. Then came the time for the master to go round to each one who ' ciphered,' and ask him if he had any difficulty in doing the 'sums,' and when any one was pointed out, he was expected to take slate and pencil, and work out the example for the benefit of the lazy dunce. And now there is a lull. The master seems to be getting through, and the boys are all awake and under a common spell. Suddenly the word is 16 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, spoken, 'Boys may go out,' and upon the instant the door flies open, and with an explosion like a bottle of pop, the school-house discbarges one-half of its contents into the street. Had a pound of dynamite been exploded under the seat of each individual boy, the movement would hardly have been more prompt. But when, after five minutes, the rapping of the master's ruler upon the rattling window-sash called us again to duty, the effervescence had all departed, and we came back with exemplary sedateness. " We had little apparatus in the old school-house. I well re- member when our first blackboard put in an appearance — a rather diminutive specimen, about two feet by three — and we had to wait a year or two before anybody could find a use to put it to. As for a globe, or outlhie maps, we had never seen them, and had no idea of any purpose they could serve. Even a call-bell was an unnecessary refinement ; there was more character, and more ominous suggestiveness, in the birch ruler. The only absolutely indispensable article of apparatus was this same ruler. Whatever else the teacher had, or did not have, it would not do for him to be without this. You might as well have a mason without a trowel, a barber without a razor, or a policeman without his club. At all events, I have a pretty distinct memory that, in my days, this particular article of school apparatus was put to constant and faithful service. "What did we do in that old school-house? Just about every thing. If there was any thing we did not do, it was be- cause it had not been invented. We strained every nerve, exercised every muscle, practiced every sense; took all the studies from the alphabet to algebra, geometry, rhetoric, chem- istry, and * Watts on the Mind ;' carved in the soft basswood desks all possible grotesqueness in form; upset the benches; experienced about every form of penalty which pedagogic in- genuity could invent, from 'ferrilling' to standing on the floor, or sitting among the girls. In the evenings we had de- bates, spelling-schools, and exhibitions. "But how can I recount the histories which were made there? As my mind dwells upon it, I feel the flow of infinite numbers, and take wjarning from the inexhaustibleness of mv theme to constrain mvself into limits. That old house THE SCHOOL-HOUSE AND CHURCH. 17 becomes, in my memory, a world peopled with innumerable forms of beauty and life. Never may I, this side of heaven, realize intenser experiences than in the days when my life re- volved about this center. This old house represents one of the mightiest forces which have come into my own life, I have seen many good schools, and have taught some of them myself, I may say in all modesty, and yet I have never known any school that was more loyal to its own work, or one in which the lines of progress were more directly drawn. If I interrogate my own experience, I am constrained to the con- clusion that some of my most important school-work was done in this old Vermont school-house before I was twelve years of age. The decisions which have determined the hue and color- ing of my life, so far as I can now judge, were, in large meas- ure, made in that early time." Not far from the school-house stood the church, or, as it was then called, the " West Hill Meetin'- house.'' This was a unique institution, which served a variety of purposes, and was not the home of any one Christian organization. The Methodists of the neighborhood formed a class, which met in some private house, but held their membership in the Church at Chelsea village. Their pastor |)reached a certain number of Sundays in the West Hill Meeting- house, according to an arrangement described below. The following sketch, written by Dr. Hemenway for the Vermont Messenger, gives us a charming picture of this peculiar sanctuary: " It w^as a union church ; such an one as a good old Episco- palian minister used to call a Pantheon— that is, a place where all the gods are worshiped. But this was by no means true of this dear old church. Many indeed, and various, were the 'performances' of which it was the scene and witness, strik- ing every chord of human experience, from pathos to bathos. 18 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, Funerals, weddings, sermons, lectures on temperance, lectures on phrenology, lectures on mesmerism, magic-lantern exhibi- tions, school exhibitions, revivals, prayer-meetings, Sunday- schools, singing-schools, and lyceum debates, have all pre- sented themselves in turn in this community kaleidoscope. Methodists, Congregationalists, Universalists, Adventists, Bap- tists — Freewill and Calvinistic— and Christians (with the lirst */' long), held places in the ecclesiastical procession. And yet the difference was mainly in the minister and the name; the congregation, the choir, the hymn-books, and the order of service were, for the most part, the same. This can also be said of the subject-matter of the preaching, if one or two of the denominations be excepted. And it is my belief that, not- withstanding the various names and creeds represented in the services, the worship in that humble country church, as con- stantly and truly as in any church I have ever attended, was paid to the living and true God. " It had just fifty-two pews, divided among fifty-one owners (except that one man, with a very large family, went to the extravagance of owning two), one for each Sunday in the year. A most fortunate circumstance was this, for it furnished a ready and perfect solution of the problem of occupancy. At the beginning of the year, subscription papers were circulated among the pew-owners, and they, according to their denomi- national preferences, signed their Sundays to Baptists, Meth- odists, etc. ; the number of names on each paper indicating the number of Sundays that denomination might control the house that year. Generally, as already intimated, the same congregation would be present, whoever preached; though, as must be confessed, when the Universalists 'occupied,' the con- gregations were 'pretty slim.' " Few spots on this green earth are to me as this old church. I have sat on its hard benches (for never were seats constructed with a more sublime unconsciousness of the anat- omy of the human frame) for many dismal hours, and oft- times with a burning indignation against the minister for his bad faith, in that he had finally come to say 'once more,' and then, after thus raising my hopes, had rudely dashed them again by keeping on, as I thought, a good many timts more. THE SCHOOL-HOUSE AND CHURCH. 19 My most sacred and most cherished memories center here. Here I first became accustomed to the services of religion, for the voice of prayer and praise was not wont to be heard in my childhood home. Here I recited my first Sunday-school lesson; here I first knelt as a 'seeker' at the ' anxious seat ;' here I stammered out my first words of Christian testimony; here I was baptized and licensed to exhort ; here I spoke my first words as a Christian minister; and here, too, I was mar- ried. Here, with an ineffable sense of desolation, a pitiable boy of nine, I last looked on the dear face of my mother; and fifteen years later, in the very same place, the words of re- ligion were spoken at the funeral of my father. In the old burying-ground, in the rear, sleep my parents, my wife's par- ents, a sister of each of us, together with many a friend and playmate of our childhood years, "Various, indeed, have been the 'gifts' which have been exercised in that pulpit. Sermons of the ' vealy ' type, Sf rmons of the traditional ' hard-shell ' variety, and sermons as keen and resistless as one ever hears, would follow each other in close order. The holy tones of tlie 'Freewillers,' the 'roarations' of the ' Campaigners,' and the affectations of the college-bred min- isters, were all familiar to the people who worshiped there. The singing ranged from such minor fugues as 'Complaint,' 'Russia,' and 'New Durham' — any one of which was doleful enough to start tears from anybody who had tears to shed — to 'The Old Granite State,' which was made to carry such choice and devotional lines as — ' You will see your Lord a coming, You will see the dead arising, "We '11 march up into the city, While a band of music, While a band of music, While a band of music, Will be sounding through the air.' By way of an awful warning to all choristers and choirs, I must relate what once happened because of a fugue tune there. "It was on a bright afternoon in midsummer that the min- ister, from his tub-shaped pulpit, which was just a little 20 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. lower than the singers' gallery, gave out that most searching hymn of Joseph Hart: ' O, for a glance of heavenly day.' The faithful chorister had already before him his list of tunes, and the moment the minister said 'long meter,' set to work looking up the tune. His choice was telegraphed to the vari- ous sections of the choir, and the singing began. The hymn was solemn, and the tune in keeping with it, while a fugue ar- rangement of the last line added to its expressiveness. But alas! little did we expect what was before us; for when we reached the third verse, it came upon us in this fearful fashion: 'Thy judgments, too, which devils fear, Amazing thought! unmoved I hear; Goodness and wrath in vain combine Bass— To stir this stu— Tenor— To stir this stu— Alto— To stir this stu — AIiIj— To stir this stu-pid heart of mine.' " But, after all, my main interest, as I look back to that old church, centers in the people who used to worship there. As I think of one after another who used to tread those aisles and sit in those pews, what an interesting, and ofttimes gro- tesque, panorama passes before me I Here is Deacon H , who invariably came to meeting late, and marched up the aisle, hat in one hand and whip in the other, with his thoroughly dried calf-skin boots squeaking like a band of music. And Deacon L , who, as the reward of long, faithful practice, had come to that rare state of harmony between body and soul that he could sit bolt upright, and close his eyes at the beginning of the sermon, as if for divine communion, sleep soundly and sweetly as an infant in its mother's arms, and wake up promptly at the ' amen ' without any starts or false motions. Not so ex- pert, however, was a son of another of the deacons — Deacon S . His name was John, and on one occasion, during ser- mon time, he leaned forward, resting his head on the back of the pew before him, in which unhealthy and uncomfortable position he fell asleep. Soon, however, the preacher having occasion to refer to the beloved disciple, called out in a clear THE SCHOOL-HOUSE AND CHURCH. 21 and somewhat dramatic tone, 'John.' Our friend, being sud- denly brought back to consciousness, and thinking his father was making his last and most peremptory call for him in the morning to get up and ' do the chores,' startled all about him by calling out: ' I 'm coming, father !' It was not, however, in this church, but another, that the preacher, having become fairly discouraged and desperate at the universal stupor of the congregation, with a boldness (in expedients) to which we were not accustomed in our New England churches, suddenly stopped, and called upon the people to stand up and sing: ' My drowsy powers, why sleep ye so ? Awake, my sluggish soul.' But he must have experienced some laceration in his own breast, as he heard them calling out in the very words which he had put them to : ' Nothing hath half thy work to do, Yet nothing 's half so dull.' " Blessings on the memory of the ministers who used to look down upon me from the pulpit of that old church ! The first Methodist preacher I ever heard — and that was too early for me to distinctly remember — was the Rev. James M. Fuller, who is still * doing good service as presiding elder of the most important district in the State of Michigan. What a throng of sacred memories cluster about the name of Elisha J. Scott! One of my most distinct and vivid recollections is of a baptis- mal scene in which he officiated. Twenty-eight young men and women marched from this church to the pond, which had been extemporized as a baptismal font, singing, ' On Jordan's stormy banks I stand,' and were all immersed. "But I may not call the roll of all the precious names which are inscribed on my memory and graven on my grate- ful heart. Again I say, blessings on the memory of the dead =;=In . Dr. Fuller is now (1889) a superannuate of the Detroit Conference, and lives in Detroit. 22 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. and on the hearts and Uves of the Hving! What would have been the history of that community without that humble church? What would 1 have been? My soul shudders with fear as I look down into the abyss of dark possibilities." Among others who preached in this old church was the Rev. Amasa G. Button, of whom Dr. Hem- enway wrote : '• I heard him preach often, and under a great variety of circumstances — in the village church, in the little country meeting-house on the hill, in school-houses, and in private residences — and always with much satisfaction. I do not think it is often given to a minister to make a more distinct and per- 'manent impression on a boy of twelve, than I have retained from those important years. He led the first Methodist class-meeting I ever attended.'' EARLY RELIGIOUS LIFE. 23 CHAPTER III. EARIvY RELIGIOUS LIFE. TO form a complete picture of the outward condi- tions of Francis Hemenway's early life, we need only add the additional features of the neighborhood and village society. The neighboring homes were substantially like his own, though in some of them there was a more positive religious and intellectual life. This was exemplified in the household of Mr. Ichabod Bixby, a man of excellent mind and marked religious character, and the class-leader for this neigh- borhood. His home was about three miles from the Hemenway farm. Besides the Sunday and week-day religious meetings and social gatherings, there were lyceum meetings and lectures, to bring the neighbors together. The village life, which formed the connect- ing link between the West Hill and the outside world, diifered mainly in degree from that already described. Chelsea Green supported two churches, a court-house, a small academy, and a more compact community. Amid the environments already described, began that inner life which gives to this biography its chief interest. Soon after his fifteenth birthday, Francis Hemenway commenced a journal, devoted almost ex- clusively to his religious states and feelings. This was continued, with slight interruptions, for about five 24 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. years. Its set phrases for religious things contrast strangely with the terse and manly utterances of his later life, and are to be attributed to the books of de- votion then in vogue, and to language then used in relating religious experience, which almost constituted a dialect. The journal tells us, in a sort of introduc- tion, that the habit of reading the Bible and of daily prayer had been early fixed by the instructions of his mother. After her death, in his ninth year, he had many serious thoughts, and was convinced that he ought to become a Christian, but the fear of ridicule kept him from open confession. After describing this condition of mind, his journal says: "Such was the state of my mind when a protracted meeting was commenced at this place in February, 1843 ; and while I was present one evening, an invitation was given to all who felt their need of a Savior to come forward for prayers. I immediately rose and went forward, and continued so to do for several successive evenings ; and, although I could not specify the precise time, place, or even day, yet I felt that in the course of the few days, dating from the time I first went forward for prayers until the termination of the meeting, a change had come over me. St. John says, ' We hfiow we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren,' and I felt that such was my own case; but when I heard others relate the wondrous exercises of their mind, and the marvelous change instantaneously wrought in them, my mind would revert to my (mm case, to think how different had been my feelings, and a doubt as to my genuine conversion would sometimes arise ; but I could not see why the apostle spoke of knovjing, because we love the brethren, if the feelings of all Christians were always thus clear. But my feeling towards Christians was not the only particular in which I observed a change. I felt that I loved religion ; I loved secret prayer ; I loved devotional books — those which perhaps would have been the most irk- EARLY RELIGIOUS LIFE. 25 some to me before, I now delighted in; and, altliough I did not feel so clear in my mind as I wished, yet I felt warranted in concluding my conversion real. Yet I had some misgiv- ings, lest the change I had noticed might be something short of genuine conversion ; and I would sometimes retire, and en- deavor to examine myself, and see whether I were in the faith or not, and usually after a period of self-examination, I felt strengthened and confirmed, though not always fully satisfied." Believing himself a ChristiaD, he now considered the matters of baptism and of uniting with the church. At that time the Methodists of that community prac- ticed immersion almost as exclusively as the Baptists. The ceremony of ^^ going forward in baptism/' as it was called, being performed in a pond near the church, was somewhat formidable. An opportunity of being thus immersed having passed by without his knowing it in season, he felt at liberty to postpone the act for a time. Thus two years passed, at the end of which came the loss of health referred to in the first chapter. As his journal says: ^' It was deeply afflicting at this important season of life to be com- pelled to remain inactive in body and mind.^' Yet he sought for the bright side of this providence, and found his affliction drawing him nearer to Christ. "As by my sickness I was in a measure shut out of the world, and worldly sources of enjoyment were cut off, my only resource consisted in the smiles of that Friend that sticketh closer than a brother, and he did not forsake me. As my dis- ease precluded much exercise, either of body or mind, yet did not wholly confine me, I was left with no employment which might interfere with any regulations I might adopt, and there- fore I instituted four stated seasons of secret devotion daily ; and I did find true comfort and consolation, in this season of 3 26 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. deep aflfliction, in unbosoming my cares to Him who can *be touched with the feeUng of our infirmities.' " At intervals, perplexiug doubts concerning the reality of his conversion gave him great trouble^ Like many young (Christians, he feared that his relig- ious experience was not genuine, simply because it did not correspond to a particular type deemed essen- tial by some others, and set up as a standard in his own mind. Careful self-examination would reassure him that he had really experienced the saving mercy of God. The first year of the journal presents an aifecting picture of this invalid boy, struggling against his doubts, and earnestly striving for a higher Chris- tian life. On the 7th of January, 1847, he prepared and formally signed a Avritten self-dedication. He was apparently led to this act by a devotional work called ^'The Convert^s Guide,'' which he found among the few books in his father's home. This contains a form of self-dedication which is credited to Dodd- ridge's '^ Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," but which is really a rearrangement of portions of two- examples of such covenants given by Doddridge. This self-dedication, as Bishop Ninde has said, fur-j nishes the key to his whole religious life. It is given here entire, both for its own sake, and because of the profound influence its adoption exerted upon his character : , SELF-DEDICATION. " Eternal and unchangeable God, tliou great Creator of heaven and earth, and Lord of angels and men ! I desire, with deepest humiliation and abasement of soul, to fall down in thy awful presence, deeply penetrated with a sense of thy glorious EARLY RELIGIOUS LIFE. Tl perfections. Trembling may well take hold upon me, when I presume to lift up my soul to thee on such an occasion as this. Who am I, O Lord God, or what is my nature and descent, my character and desert, that I should speak of this, and be one party in the covenant, where thou. King of kings and Lord of lords, art the other? But, O Lord, great as is thy maj- esty, so is thy mercy. And I know that in and through Jesus Christ, the Son of thy love, thou condescendest to visit sinful mortals, and to allow their approaching to thee, and their en- gaging in covenant with thee ; nay, I know that thou hast in- stituted the covenant relation between me and thee, and that thou hast graciously sent to propose it to me. I am unworthy of thy smallest favors, and having sinned against thee, I have forfeited all right of stipulation in my own name, and thank fully accept the conditions, which thy infinite wisdom and goodness have appointed, as just and right, and altogether gracious. " And this day do I, with the utmost solemnity and sin- cerity, surrender myself to thee, desiring nothing so much as to be wholly thine. I renounce all former lords that have had dominion over me, and I consecrate to thee all that I am and have ; the faculties of my mind, the members of my body, my worldly possessions, my time, and my influence with others, to be all used entirely for thy glory, and resolutely employed in obedience to thy commands, as long as thou shalt continue my life; ever holding myself in an attentive posture, to ob- serve the first intimations of thy will, and ready with alacrity and zeal to execute it, whether it relates to thee, to myself, or to my fellow creatures. To thy direction, also, I resign my- self, and all I am and have, to be disposed of by thee in such manner as thou shalt, in infinite wisdom, judge most for thy glory. To thee I leave the management of all events, and say without reserve, * Thy will he done.^ " And I hereby resolve to take thee for my supreme good and all-sufficient portion ; that I will acknowledge no God but thee — the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; that I will depend alone on the mediation of thy dearly beloved Son for wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And may it please thee, from this day forward, to number me with 28 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. thy peculiar people. Wash me in the blood of thy dear Son, and sanctify me throughout by the power of thy Spirit, that I may love thee with all my heart, and serve thee with a will- ing mind. Communicate to me, I beseech thee, all needful in- fluences of thy purifying, thy cheering, and thy comforting Spirit ; and lift up the light of thy countenance upon me, which shall put joy and gladness into my soul. And when I shall have done and borne thy will upon earth, call me from hence, at what time and in what manner thou pleasest ; only grant that, in my dying moments and in the near prospect of eter- nity, I may remember these, my engagements to thee, and may employ my latest breath in thy service ; and do thou, Lord, when thou seest the agonies of dissolving nature upon me, re- member this covenant, too, even though I should be incapable of recollecting it. Look down, O my Heavenly Father, with a pitying eye, upon thy languishing, thy dying child; place thy everlasting arms under me for my support ; put strength and confidence into my departing spirit, and receive it to the embraces of thy everlasting love. Welcome it to the abodes of them that sleep in Jesus, to await with them that glorious day, when the last of thy promises to thy covenant people shall be fulfilled in their resurrection, and to that abundant entrance, which shall be ministered to them, into that ever- lasting kingdom, of which thou hast assured them by thy cov- enant, and in the hope of which I now lay hold on it, design- ing to live and die as with my hand upon it. Amen. " As a witness whereof, I hereunto set my hand and seal, this, the 7th day of January, A. D. 1847. Francis D. Hemenway." On March 16, 1847, he refers again to his distress- ing doubts, and says : ^' Two weeks ago last Saturday, while reading Watson's ^ Life of Wesley,' I thought my present state exactly corresponded to Mr. Wesley's before his conversion ; indeed, I never read any man's experience that seemed so exactly to correspond with mine as Mr. Wesley's. I concluded I was striving to become justified by the deeds of the law, or at least EARLY RELIGIOUS LIFE. 29 by somethiDg short of that living faith which is requi- site to our justification. I, indeed, was seeking after holiness of heart, and even delighted in the law of God after the inward man ; but yet I was carnal, sold under sin. Since I have concluded this to be my state, I have been endeavoring to seek religion by faith in the Great Sacrifice for sin, but as yet have been unsuccessful. I see I am by nature evil, only evil, and that continually, and my only hope of sal- vation rests in the merits of the sacrifice of Christ; but yet some accursed thing keeps me back. O, Lord, show me what it is, and help my unbelief!" On April 25th his troubled heart found expres- sion in the following verse of Charles Wesley's — an early token of that love for devotional hymns which characterized him in later life : "0, Love divine, how sweet thou art! When shall I find my willing heart All taken up by thee? I thirst, I faint, I die, to prove The greatness of redeeming love — The love of Christ to me." On May 16th he says: '^I have not as yet at- tained to the certain knowledge of my sins forgiven, but I intend never to let go my hold until I do ; for if I stay here I die, and if I go back I die ; there- fore, my only hope is in going forward." In this painful condition of mind he continued for months. The first light came from religious conversation with a good sister in the church, which greatly restored his confidence. " She seeemed to be of the opinion," he writes, '^that I had really experienced religion, 30 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. and she encouraged me to persevere, for Jesus would surely reveal the light of his countenance. Such is my intention.'' The following extracts from his diary trace his deliverance from this despondent state : ^^ July 12. I related some of the exercises of my mind to Brother Copeland. He advised me to go forward in the duties of a Christian, as I have some evidence that I am a Chris- tian, and that it is my sincere and chief desire to be one. For some time before, I had felt some misgivings lest, after all, I were doubting away the grace of God, and had begun to notice some discrepancy between my experience and that of Mr. AVesley, the reading of which was the principal occasion of the conclusion that I had been the victim of self-deception ; while the state of mind he spoke of seemed to be produced by religious education, in a great measure at least, I had experi- enced a change which did not result wholly from religious training. I feel that I do delight in the law of God, that I love religion, that I love Christians as such, that sin is hateful and holiness pleasing in my sight; but as yet I do not see very clearly. ^^ July 13. This evening, for the first time in my life, I lifted up my voice in social prayer, and felt that the Lord did bless me, though the clouds of doubt and unbelief still hovered around. How can I be so faithless, when Jesus has loved me so well? "/uZy 10. Spent some portion of the day in reading Phil- lips's ' Christian Experience,' which served to confirm and strengthen me in the faith. The past has been a season of bitter trial to me, and I pray that it may not be altogether unprofitable. The conclusion that I had been the victim of self-deception was indeed a bitter one, and after I arrived at it I truly passed through a season of attiiction. I had made it my constant practice, for more than two years, to observe four stated seasons of secret prayer daily; but after I gave up the hope that I was a Christian, I more frequently ob- served seven or eight each day, than less. My usual prac- EARLY. RELIGIOUS LIFE. 31 tice was to read a portion of Scripture and a hymn before prayer, and in so doing, during the season of trial and doubt, at my seasons of prayer I read all the penitential hymns in our Hymn-book at least twice, and many of them eight or ten times, besides many others that I thought par- ticularly adapted to my frame of mind. I thank the Lord that, although I was thus doubting, his loving-kindness was still over me, and he did at last permit me to feel that my feet were established on the rock, although as yet I do not see with all the clearness I desire. But my deliverance from this state was certainly far different from what I expected. I suppose my state of mind concerning this was something like Naaman's, for I really thought the Lord would do some great thing; and even after I began to think I was really converted and was now doubting away the grace of God, I thought the Lord would grant me such a clear evidence of my conversion as would leave no further room for doubt. But in this I was disap- pointed, and I, at last, was obliged to accept that which I had once rejected as spurious. I have found that very many Christians have been in similar circumstances. " August S. This day I followed my Savior in the divinely constituted — but by me long neglected — ordinance of baptism, which I received by sprinkling. As I had become fully satis- fied that I had been genuinely converted, and. after careful examination of the subject, was thoroughly convinced that sprinkling was valid baptism, I saw no reason why I should not obey the command which says, 'Arise, and be baptized!' Immediately after being baptized I partook of the Lord's Supper. ^'August 19. Though I feel the evidence of my justifica- tion quite clear, yet I want to be holy; to know, by experi- mental knowledge, that the blood of Christ cleanses me from all sin." This longing for a richer Christian experience soon led him to adopt a set of formal rules for the regulation of his time and actions. The devotional books which he used doubtless suggested this course, 32 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. and his ill-health gave him the requisite time for keeping the rules. Dated August 31st, they are as follows: "1. I will observe at least five seasons of devotion daily: The first immediately after rising, the second at 9 A. M,, the third at 1 P. M., the fourth at 4 P. M., and the fifth just be- fore retiring. 2. I will endeavor to read three chapters, and commit at least five verses daily. 3. I am resolved to spend at least some portion of each day in self-examination. 4. Re- specting my actions — (1) I am resolved to commit no known sin ; (2)1 will omit no known duty. 5. I am resolved to be watchful ; to watch constantly against the enemies of my soul, and against all evil thoughts and idle words. And finally, I will endeavor, at all times and places and under all circum- stances, to observe that rule given by the apostle when he says: 'Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God;' and each night, before I re- tire, I will call myself to an account respecting the observance of these rules. " November 2S. I would be so perfectly united to Christ that his blood may circulate all through me, as the sap of a living vine through the branches. I would have such a com- munication open between Christ and my heart, as shall en- tirely cast out sin from my heart, and exclude it forever." Shortly after passing his seventeenth birthday he began teaching a district school in the adjoining town of Brookfield. An old lady, who remembers him as he was at this time, recalls his habit of practicing on the bass-viol, and also that she found him one day deeply absorbed in reading the '^ Merry Wives of Windsor.'' He experienced the usual cares and per- plexities of a young school-master, yet he recorded, at the close of the terra, his thankfulness that improving health permitted him to engage in the useful activities of life. EARLY RELIGIOUS LIFE. 33 On March 2, 1848, he was received into the church in full connection, and a few days afterward, com- menced attending school at Chelsea village, which boasted a small academy. At his boarding-place, for the first time in his life, he enjoys the daily privilege of joining in family prayers. He is surprised that the class-meetings are so thinly attended, considering the large numbers of church members, and does not understand how a Methodist can absent himself from this invaluable means of grace. He says: ^'If I know my own heart, my desire is for religion, and the blessings it confers, in preference to any and all other blessings.'' At the close of this term, he speaks of it as the first term, for three years, which he has attended without injury to his health. In an entry, dated May 23d, he speaks of reading the rules which he 'had adopted, and finds that they have been too much neglected. He still intends to carry out their spirit, though he may not be able to follow them to the letter. During this summer he had his first experience of an annual conference. On Sunday, July 9th, he listened to a sermon by Bishop Hedding, froai 1 Timothy iv, 10. He says: "The bishop gave a brief but interesting history of his life, as far as his conversion and the commencement of his ministry were concerned, and then proceeded to his discourse, from what he said was the first text he ever used." The boy-critic adds: "His remarks were sound and weighty, and characterized by much mental acumen." No one could enjoy this bit of patronizing criticism more than the author of it in his later life. 34 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. The following entry marks a most important epoch, as it gives the first intimation of his desire for a thorough education, and of his thoughts concerning the ministry : '■'■ August o. I am highly favored this summer with respect to my health, so that I am able to study considerably, and engage in light manual labor to some extent. I regard it my privilege and duty to acquire a good education, should circum- stances permit, and for this I am striving daily. I know not what employment my Lord will assign me in future life, but I frequently look forward with some anxiety, and perhaps with vain conjectures. My mind has been frequently directed toward the holy ministry ; but I almost fear it is sacrilege to indulge a thought concerning it, believing, as I do, that it should not be entered by human caprice, but only by a special divine call. I have sometimes tried to forbid my mind to dwell on this subject, but I can not." In the autumn of 1848 he taught in the old school- house on the West Hill, where he had received his own earlier education. He expresses profound grati- tude that he has health to engage in purposes of use- fulness. In the winter of the same year he taught again in Brookfield. A T NE IVB UR Y AND CONCORD. 85 CHAPTER IV. SCHOOL-DAYS AT NEWBURY AND CONCORD. 1848-1853. WE have seen that at eighteen years of age Fran- cis Hemenway had iraprcved health, an in- creasing desire for a thorough education, and serious thoughts concerning a call to the ministry. His teaching, to procure tlie means for a higher educa- tion, was in accordance with the custom of the time. Tradition has preserved a significant incident of this early apprenticeship as teacher. The big boys in one of the schools, hearing a rumor that the new master was intending to open the morning session with prayer, leagued together to make a disturbance; but the young teacher's prayer was so manly, tender, and appropriate that the plot was at once abandoned. The spring of 1849 introduced him into a larger world, whose influences were potent in developing his character and talents, and shaping his future. At that time he entered the conference seminary at Newbury. Both the place and the school became very dear to him. The village itself possesses rare charms. Built upon a high terrace of the Connecti- cut, its long street follows the direction of the river, while two shorter streets, at right angles, mark out the village green. On the west side of this common 36 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. stand the seminary building and the Methodist church, back of which rises the steep side of Mount Pulaski. The view eastward is one of the fairest in all picturesque New England. Beyond the quiet hamlet are spread broad and fertile meadows, through which the Connecticut sweeps in a series of graceful curves. Wooded hills across the river reveal here and there a prosperous village, while along the east- ern horizon extends a range of noble mountains, from the ragged outlines of Lafayette, on the north, to Moosilauke, lifting his gigantic shoulders in massive and magnificent beauty on the south. Without ques- tioning the wisdom of the subsequent removal of the seminary to Montpelier, no Methodist can fail to re- gret the necessity of abandoning this charming place, which, in summer at least, is little less than an earthly paradise. The seminary, attracting students at that time both from New Hampshire and Vermont, was ir^ a very prosperous condition. '^If there is any happy combination of circumstances on earth," wrote the young student, "calculated to assist our concep- tion of heaven, it is surely to be found at Newbury.'' The Rev. Dr. Joseph E. King, now at the head of Fort Edward Collegiate Institute, was principal, and the late Professor Henry S. Noyes was one of the teachers. The buildings and other appliances of the seminary would seem meager now ; but the men in charge, from its beginning, had fixed a high standard both of scholarship and piety. Enthusiasm for edu- cation and religion pervaded the place. Besides that of men already mentioned, it had felt the inspiring influence of Osmon C. Baker, Charles Adams, John A r NE WB UR Y AND CONCORD. 37 Dempster, and Clark T. Hinman, who had established here in 1845 the first theological school of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church, which, two years later, was removed to Concord, N. H. The ardent and heroic spirit of pioneer days animated both teachers and students. Almost every term witnessed a revival of religion, in which many students were converted and the Christian workers were trained for future service. Two entries in his journal show the purposes with which Francis began his life here, and the impres- sion which this large company of Christian young people made upon him : ^'February 26, 1849. I have come to Newbury to spend the spring term at the seminary. I expect to enjoy many privileges — educational and religious — and I pray that this may be a season of improvement in every way, that in all things I may grow up into Christ my living Head." " March 1. Attended the seminary class-meeting, where a very large number was assembed. How delightful to see so many young people who are willing to take upon themselves the yoke of Christ!" Amid these new scenes and influences his own re- ligious life is greatly quickened. He records hearing "an excellent and moving discourse on Zech. xii, 10, by Professor Hinman,'^ from which he expects abun- dant fruit. The next Sunday he goes from public service to the band-meeting, and thence to prayer- meeting. At the last, nine came forward for prayers. This was on the first of April. On the third, nine more rose for prayers; on the eighth, twelve; on the fifteenth, seven or eight. On the sixteenth of May he wrote : " The work of revival in the seminary still 38 * BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. continues." To one who loved both religion and study ardently these surroundings were most con- genial ; and amid them he increased in wisdom " and in favor with God and man." In the summer vacation he expressed to his pastor thoughts concerning his life-work which he had be- fore committed to no other confidant than his journal. The subject of the ministry, he said, had, at times, pressed with great weight upon his mind. Mr. Hill assured him that it had been his impression, and that of others in the church, that he was divinely called to that work. The autumn of 1849 was spent at Newbury in study, and the winter at Williamstown in teaching. The following entry describes his final decision with regard to his life-work. The meeting referred to was held in the old parsonage at Williamstown : '^January 13, ISJO, I have had deep anxiety for a long tinae with regard to the ministry, to which I have before al- luded, and I set apart last week for especial prayer on that subject, if by any means I might obtain satisfactory light with regard to my duty. I have long entertained the impres- sion that it would be my calling, and that it was my present duty to prepare for it, but as yet I was unsatisfied with regard to it. In this state of mind I remained until to-night, though seeming gradually to approach an affirmative decision. I went to the meeting praying for some convincing manifesta- tion of duty. I had not long been there before I began to feel the especial workings of the Spirit, while, at the same time, this subject came up before me. Soon it assumed the aspect of present duty, and, regarding it as such, I commenced mentally an act of personal dedication. I was interrupted by the singing of the hymn, * When for the eternal worlds,' etc., which seemed as a celestial voice. Again I dedicated myself, which done, they sang the verse, * Prone to wander,' etc., A T NE WB UR Y AND CONCORD. 39 every word of which was in harmony with my feeUngs. Thus, by this act, am I the Lord's in an especial sense. May I draw still closer to him !" In March he was again at Newbury, where the spring term was marked by another revival. In May he had his first experience in leading class, of which he quaintly says: ''Contrary to reasonable human expectation, I had a tolerably good season.'' On June 16th he attended the Sabbath exercises of the conference at Bradford. He describes the conference love-feast and the testimonies of the^ vet- eran ministers with delighted enthusiasm. He heard Bishop Morris preach in the grove "a very instruct- ive and practical discourse from the text, ' Cease to do evil.'" During the winter vacation of 1850-51 Mr. Hem- enway traveled through Orange County, introducing a new series of text-books into the schools. His jour- nal was neglected, and the regularity of his religious exercises interrupted, yet he found this new mode of life not unfavorable to religious experience. On February 13th he records his recommendation by the class for an exhorter's license. The following entries describe his first experiences as a preacher: " What a solemn thing it is to stand between God and man ! I have consented to speak to the people Tuesday night before I leave for Newbury. May it be in simplicity, and as- sisted by the Holy Spirit's influence! ^'February IS. Found an unexpectedly large number assembled, to whom I had a good degree of liberty in speak- ing, and am sure, by the united prayers of the praying ones, the presence of the Most High overshadowed us. Many ap- peared affected. Three rose for prayers. May this first seed, sown in tears and weakness, produce abundant fruit!" 40 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. A friend, who was present at this latter service, remembers that he gave out as the first hymn, " Sol- diers of the Cross, arise," which he started himself to the tune of " Caledonia." Once more he returns to Newbury for his last term as a student there. On March 23d he preached his first Sabbath sermon at North Haverhill, from the text, " The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." He says : ^^ It was to me a memorable time, and also a good time." The Rev. Mr. Cushing was with him. The next Sunday he consented to '^ improve a part of the day " at Swift- borough, where he had more freedom and less embar- rassment than before. The next Sabbath he preached at South Newbury, with special freedom, which he at- tributed to two causes: '^ 1. I was enabled to resign myself more implicitly into the hands of God, and rely more fully on his power. 2. My subject was better matured and more familiar." The term passed pleasantly. He enjoyed the work in school, and apparently even more his Sab- bath labors in the little churches and school-houses of the vicinity. Throughout his school-days at New- bury he maintained high rank as a talented and in- dustrious student. He was one of those selected by the authorities for occasional service as tutor. The reputation achieved at the home lyceum as a speaker and writer was increased at the seminary. When he finished his course at Newbury in May, 1851, he left with an enviable record and with sincere regret. The following summer was spent at home. His A T NE WB UR Y AND CONCORD. 4 1 journal shows that he preached several times, and with increasing enjoyment. The part he took in a Fourth of July celebration of the Lyceum caused him some uneasiness, ^'because of the prejudice which is abroad in this immediate vicinity against literary so- cieties and every thing connected with them." He adds : ^^ I fully believe it to be a Christian's duty to deny himself sometimes, in view of the consciences of his brethren ; but in this matter, after looking at it carefully and considering my obligations to all classes, it did not seem that any departure from my own ideas of right and propriety was required." August 29th he left home to teach in Waitsiield, and w^rote : '^ I shall not probably return to it again until, in a certain sense, it shall cease to be my home. I love my home, passionately love it." After preaching for the first time in Waitsfield, he says : " There are a thousand sources of uneasiness as I appear before a public congregation; but the greatest is lest, for some reason, my ministry should not be efficient — lest, by some apparent inconsistency which may have been seen in me, the word should be neutralized, and fail of producing its legitimate effect. I pray that I may be holy, discreet, entirely freed from everything which would operate, in any manner, as a hindrance to the word of God." In October he received news of the death of his intimate friend and former room-mate, A. K. Carter. Obliged to go immediately to the school-room, he gave out the hymn : "O, what is life? 'Tis like a flower that blossoms and is gone," 4 42 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. *' to be sung to that favorite tune of mine, Stepney.'' He says of this friend : ^^ From our first meeting our sympathies, secrets, and hearts seemed to flow spon- taneously together. We were bound together by the strongest and most sacred ties of sanctified friend- ship. Had he lived he would most certainly, it seems to me, have become a minister of great usefulness. '^ On his twenty-first birthday he reviews his bless- ings and anticipates the future : " I am oftentimes tempted to despond, yet as often en- couraged to hope. From the responsibilities which may prob- ably devolve upon me in future, should I live, I ofttimes shrink, yet the promise is always available: * My grace is suflScient for thee.' May I be sanctified and fully prepared for all the will of God ! If I know my own heart, my ambi- tion is not to be great nor honored nor famous, but to be just what the Lord would have me be. O that I may be able to acknowledge the Lord in all my ways, that he may direct my paths!" He was recalled to teach the winter district school at Waitsfield, and received no little discipline him- self in this work, which 'tests about all one's powers of ingenuity and endurance. He had forty scholars, and over thirty exercises a day. One morning he was called from the school-room to see a young man who was lying upon his death-bed. The conversion of this man stirred him profoundly, and he preached his funeral sermon with deep emotion and '' unusual liberty.'' In a letter of December 16, 1851, he asks of a dear friend: ''Do you think it best, all things considered, for me to go to Concord in the spring?" In Janu- nary, 1852, he wrote to the Rev. Justin Spaulding, AT NEWB UR Y AND CONCORD. 43 asking advice on this matter. The letter describing the correspondence says: " He knows something about me and almost everything about the Methodist itinerancy. He himself is a self-made man, yet a close student. He gives his decided opinion in favor of entering the Institute, and assigns ^even reasons, the substance of which is: In order for one to be prepared to ful- fill the mission of the Methodist minister, one must possess a cultivated intellect, a mind prepared to meet and grapple with the various engines which Satan may use to advance his work, a mind furnished with knowledge which shall answer to the present improved state of society. The opportunities for that close, consecutive study which alone can make us what we should be are very small on a circuit or station. He also noticed the objection that an educated ministry will be a proud and lazy ministry, urging, in answer, that the most humble and active ministers in the Church have been the best educated. I have not, as yet, reconsidered that question, but do not know but I shall to-morrow. Pray for me, that the Lord, by his counsel, may guide me. I have just commenced reading Upham's ' Interior Life,' of w^hich, perhaps, you may have heard me speak. Already my soul burns more ardently for holiness. I am daily convinced that I know too little of the deep things of God to be prepared to explain them properly to others." His presiding elder strenuously 6pposed his going to the Biblical Institute, yet, influenced by Mr. Spaul- ding's sensible advice, and his own high ideal of a minister's requirements, he decided to take a theolog- ical course. The first of March, 1852, found him in Concord. A letter describes his first meeting with Dr. Dempster : " Concord, March S, 1852. Arriving at this place a perfect stranger, as I was, I had myself driven immediately to the In- stitute boarding-house, where I found a Brother Moore in charge. He directed me to Dr. Dempster. I went and rang 44 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. the bell at his door, and was conducted by a young lady into the sitting-room, where she left me, telling me she would call Dr. Dempster, who would soon be in. I was alone, awaiting with palpitating heart the appearance of the great Dr. Dempster, whom I had imagined to be not only great in mind and name, but in body too. I was expecting to see a large, bland, portly- looking Doctor of Divinity. Imagine, then, my surprise when a small, quite ordinary-looking man, dressed in the plainest and oldest style, appeared, calling himself Dr. Dempster. He received me very cordially, and gave me all the information necessary for me." He describes the Institute as located ^^ in a retired part of the village, entirely removed from the noise and bustle, yet situated at the head of the two prin- cipal streets, and especially convenient of access to all parts of the village.'' The lofty elm-trees lining the streets are a great attraction. We may get a glimpse of him at work. He says : " Improvement is now with me the paramount aim." On April 15, 1852, he writes : " Since I last wrote I have been at work with all my might taking in pieces the Hebrew and Greek languages, and dissecting Butler's and Watson's Theology, so that I am now almost covered with rubbish. In Greek we are reading the Gospels harmonized ; in Hebrew we are now in the third chapter of Genesis. We have been translating Hebrew but a short time, yet I think it is quite an easy language, although its characters appear so unintelligible. In theology we have a lecture one day and recite the next. Dr. Dempster is now delivering a course of lectures on the connection of geology with revelation. His last was respecting the universality of the Flood. He takes the negative position. " I preached last Sabbath to an Orthodox* congregation -Some readers may not know that in New England "Orthodox" is commonly used to distinguish the Trinitarian from the Unitarian Congregationalists. AT NEWBURY AND CONCORD. 45 in an Orthodox meeting-house in Loudon, about seven miles from this place. The Lord was with me. I had a blessed season. I am to go there next Sabbath. My turn will come to preach before the school two weeks from to-morrow, at nine o'clock. Let me then have an especial interest in your prayers." He leads a class in the village, and preaches fre- quently in Concord, Barnstead, Hookset, and other neighboring towns. This work he enjoys more and more. ** It is blessed to feel that we are accomplishing the im- portant work of the evangelist. I mean not merely to go through the formality of preaching, and contemplate a de- lighted congregation hanging upon your words, if by chance it should be so, but to know that God is sending out his word through you, with the certain promise that ' it shall ac- complish that whereunto it is sent.' ^^ June 19, 1852. I am enjoying myself very greatly here this summer. I have plenty of work, agreeable companions, convenient accommodations, and the blessing of God. I have but a single object in view in all my \abors,— immediately ^ my preparation for the work of the ministry; ultimately, the glory of God ; and while I have the evidence that this end is being answered, I can not but feel satisfied. I am thankful that I ever came to Concord ; that, green as I was, I did not conclude to take upon myself immediately the responsibility of performing the work of the Christian minister. In writing of his theological instructors he speaks of Professor Baker as ''a modest, quiet, easy, good- natured, corpulent man, but a most 7ngid Greek teacher.'^ Professor Vail " is considered a Hebrew scholar of the highest order.'' Dr. Dempster " is a man full of thought, and is very suggestive in all his teaching. In the department of mental and moral science he is the greatest man I ever knew.'' As to 46 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. the students, though "there must of necessity, among a company of forty human beings, be some things to which the fastidious might take exceptions," yet he is convinced that the fears concerning a decline in religion among theological students are baseless, and that the "sacred fire does burn here in its purity." He boards in a club, and gives the assessment for one week as one dollar and sixty-one cents. In August he listens to lectures on the Discipline by Professor Baker, already elected bishop, and performing his last service in the Institute. By November he has received a temporary ap- pointment at Pittsiield, and begun his first pastoral experience. He feels an "especial sense of weak- ness" in making pastoral calls, and yet believes that "at least half of the preacher's work lies in this di- rection." The winter passed pleasantly and success- fully, and in the spring he returned to Concord. In May, of 1853, at the Conference which met at Newport, N. H., he heard an excellent sermon from Bishop Janes ; and from Abel Stevens a speech, which he had "rarely, if ever, heard equaled." His topic was " The Tract Cause," and, in response, over $1,200 were pledged by the preachers for themselves and their charges. He now has applications for preaching which would fill all his Sabbaths two or three times over, and finally arranges to preach regularly at Hill and Barnstead. In June he is present at a musical con- vention, conducted by Lowell Mason. A letter writ- ten this summer indicates two prominent traits, which all his students will remember. It speaks of his AT NE WB UR Y AND CONCORD. 47 " love for perspicuity and systematic arrangement," and discusses the proper pronunciation of *^ Goethe." In July he attended the Commencement exercises at Dartmouth College. "Wednesday morning last took the cars for Hanover — Dartmouth College. . . . The * natives ' had already begun to assemble, so that when we arrived the peddlers' carts, vic- tualing tents, and 'congregated thousands' told, in language unmistakable, that Hanover was realizing a signal day. The announcement that the Hon. Rufus Choate would speak on that day had called together an unusually large number to at- tend the exercises. As the exercises were not to commence till 9.30, after seeking out my special friends, I went with them to visit the curiosities of the college cabinet, libraries, etc. Quite interesting. At 9.30 the procession was formed at the college chapel to march to the church, where the first address was to be delivered. Falling into the procession, as all 'pro- fessional gentlemen' and 'distinguished guests ' were requested to do, after more jamming than I ever before suffered in the same length of time, I succeeded in entering the church. A very good address was then delivered by Hon. Ogden Hoffman, of New York. At 3.20 P. M. a procession was again formed, to be conducted to the church. Never before have I seen such a press to gain admission. A very strong police force had to exert itself to the utmost to prevent the people from rushing in en masi^e even before the 'dignitaries' were admitted. Mr. Choate spoke between two and three hours. Subject, ' Eulogy on Daniel Webster.' The elocution and oratory were good; but Webster, mere man as he was, was almost deified. "Thursday was the regular day for the graduation exer- cises. Between twenty and thirty young men spoke. About fifty graduated. The exercises were quite interesting— more so to me, as a whole, than those of the day before. " Some distinguished guests were present at the exercises— Hon. .John Wentworth, of IlUnois, commonly called 'Long John' (seven feet in his stockings). Dr. Mussey, Rev. Dr. Barstow, and others too numerous to mention. I saw quite a large number of the old Newbury students." 48 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. In October he visited an Adventist camp-meet- ing, which appears to him ^^ a sickening exhibition of the fruit of ignorance/' The same month he writes : '' What do you think of my going West next year ? The Doctor [Dempster] is going out to the college of which he is president, and wishes me to go with him. The West is a great field, you know. Would it not be just the place for me?'' With ten others, he graduated from the Concord Institute in 1853. As the Institute afterwards be- came the School of Theology of the Boston Uni- versity, he is, in this sense, an alumnus of that school. His graduating address was on "The Imperishable Record." In this he said : " The true testimonial of the faithful minister is not to be sought in the favorable notices of public journals, nor the popular voice concerning him, nor even in the reported con- versions, so ardently coveted. His true record is found in the hearts and characters which he is iustrumental in molding into the image of the heavenly. Happy shall he be who shall so unite in his character human excellence with divine grace, that he shall be able to produce upon plastic yet im- mortal natures impressions so true and beautiful that he can confidently appeal to them before the judgment-seat of the Omniscient One." PASTORATE AT MONTPELIER. 49 CHAPTER V. PASTORATE AT MONTPELIER. 1854-1857. PKOBABLY the majority of young men who have thus far been educated for the Methodist minis- try, have had no clearly defined boundary between school-life and the pastorate. Apprenticeship in preaching and pastoral work has been interwoven with academical and theological training. This course has both advantages and perils, but the former prob- ably preponderate. The experience gained by the young preacher in school-houses and little churches, the practical knowledge of work and people acquired in actual service, is of inestimable value. However exact scholarship may be impeded, there, is, ordi- narily, an increase of zeal for useful discipline and available acquisition. The temptations lie in the di- rection of a low ideal of preaching, a failure to com- plete one's course of study, or of superficial work in the theological school. Mr. Hemenway yielded to none of these. Although he graduated in the autumn of 1853, he returned to Concord in the spring of 1854, to complete some studies which had been inter- rupted by enforced absences. During the winter of 1853-4 he served as pas- toral supply at Shelburne Falls, in northwestern 50 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. Massachusetts. The Methodist church in this pic- turesque and prosperous manufacturing village was regarded an important one. It had formerly enjoyed the ministrations of the Rev. William Butler, who became afterwards the founder of Methodist missions in India and Mexico. The outgoing pastor, an able and eloquent man, had been convicted of untruthful- ness, and suddenly left the Methodist ministry. His defection had naturally thrown a shadow over the congregation. The young pastor found ^^the church and people quite a burden for a boy to carry. '^ His letters, though very modest, contain abundant proof that he won the admiration and love of the people. They gave him substantial gifts, and urged him to remain as their regular pastor. He writes: ''I used to think of the pastoral visiting as an unpleasant work, but I find it quite the reverse. In the sick- room, especially, our religion shines with a superadded luster." In February, 1854, he received an invitation to become teacher of Greek and Latin in a seminary in Fulton, N. Y. About the first of March, though urged by presiding elder and people to remain at Shelburne Falls, he steadfastly adhered to his resolu- tion to complete his studies at Concord. He found awaiting him there an invitation to join the New England conference, from the Rev. Amos Binney, presiding elder of the Charlestown district. ^' So you see," he writes, " that if the calls of the church are the calls of God, his kingdom is divided against itself. There are openings enough, and there is work enough. The greatest point is grace and ability to PASTORATE AT MONTPELIER. 51 do it." A letter written to an invalid friend at this time contains this characteristic passage : '' I think it my province to proclaim Scripture to you. ' Be careful for nothing.^ Live as though to live novj was all your business. Have no providence for the future, except what you have in that very thing; i. e., living care- lessly. I know living so may not seem to consist with one's interests religiously or intellectually, but it may do both. AYhen that course of life becomes a duty, and is allowed as such, it will not harm us in any regard." April 15, 1854, he writes: "I have, this very morning, had a long talk with Bishop Baker with reference to my further course for one or two years. He decidedly advises me to join conference, as the first course ; of the others, I '11 tell you when I see you. Doctor Dempster, on the other hand, wishes me to go West, and take a place, or as he calls it, a ' chair,' in an institution there. Of course it will be my privilege to ^ decide, when doctors disagree.' My present opinion is that the chances are in favor of my teaching for a year or two, and that the place will be west of Vermont, though the question still hangs ' in even scale.' " The summer of '54 was spent in preaching and study, and in visiting friends in Chelsea, Pittsfield, Barre, and other places. The first of September found him at Newbury seminary in the position of a teacher. The work was intended to be temporary only, and rendered advisable on Recount of his health, which work and study had somewhat impaired. There were two hundred and seventy-five students, and he 52 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. taught arithmetic, grammar, algebra, geometry, men- tal philosophy, reading, Latin, and Greek. In writing about the teachers, he said : " Miss has n't quite enough sparMe about her to render her- self available to the fullest extent. What a desirable quality of character is assurajice — not that which pro- duces forwardness, but that which enables us to rest easily in the right place ! Energy, vivacity, and de- cision, as it seems to me, depend very much upon confidence as a basis. Prof. Taverner, * a distin- guished teacher of elocution, has been with us for the last two days. His terms are very high — twenty dol- lars for a course of private lessons, and two dollars and a half for admission to his class.'' The letters indicate that Mr. Hemenway preached almost every Sunday in neighboring towns. But more interesting than teaching or preaching were the plans and arrangements for his approaching marriage to Miss Sarah L. Bixby, of Chelsea. They had now been formally engaged for four years; but when their attachment began it would have been difficult for either of them to have told. The families had long been neighbors and friends. As children they had gone together to the old school-house, and to the meeting-house on the hill. Miss Bixby's father had been Francis Hemenway's class-leader and spiritual adviser for years. The two young people had also been at Newbury as students together. Companion- ■' This unique, peripatetic teactier, a pliilosoplier in the science of reading, was at Evanston ifs late as 1884, but has since died. Probably no man ever gave instruction in elocution to so many and so distin- guished ministers. PASTORATE AT MONTPELIER. 53 ship, sympathy in the best things, and friendship, gradually ripened into a devoted love, which proved the greatest of earthly blessing to both, and endured all tests. The one shadow which darkened these bright days is described in a letter dated October 27, 1854. After speaking of the beauties of the Oc- tober scenery, he says: '^Our community was very much saddened, one week ago, by a telegraphic dis- patch announcing the death of the Rev. Dr. Hinman, president-elect of the North-western University, of which Brother Noyes is chosen one of the professors. His funeral was attended here Tuesday. Bishop Baker preached the sermon. The four teachers were bearers. It was a very solemn time." October 31st he left Newbury for Concord, to attend the first alumni reunion of the Concord Institute. On the 19th of November, 1854, the long-antici- pated marriage ceremony was performed, in the West Hill meeting-house, by the Rev. Elisha J. Scott, then presiding elder of the district. The young couple established their home in pleasant rooms in the sem- inary boarding-house at Newbury. During a pil- grimage, last summer, to the scenes of Dr. Hem- enway's early life, the writer spent some days in Newbury, and stopped in this building, which has now been transformed into Sawyer's Hotel, a cool and attractive summer hotel, and, by a strange coin- cidence, was assigned to these very rooms, the most pleasant in the whole house. Here began a home- life which ever seemed to him, and the nearest friends who knew its beauty, as near the highest ideal as can be hoped for this side heaven. But happy lives 54 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. and the steady monotony of faithful school duties, however significant and influential, afford little mate- rial for historian or biographer. The next spring brought an important change. May 28, 1855, he writes from Plainfield, where the Vermont conference is in session, as follows : "The appointments are to be read at five o'clock. . . . I suppose the die is now cast ! My appointment you will find, among others, upon the inclosed slip.* It can not be more surprising to you than it is to me ; and it is in spite of my personal remonstrance, which I had never expected to ex- press, that I am stationed there. Still, now it is done, and can not be remedied, I see much that is desirable about it. You remember the pretty parsonage, and know what a pleas- ant home it may be for our first. Quite a number of the people have expressed themselves in favor of the arrangement, or, in other words, petitioned for me." The appointment of Mr. Hemenway to the State capital was unwelcome to the seminary. Professor Noyes did " not know how to have it so.'' A letter to Bishop Ames is contemplated to break up the ar- rangement; but it is a fixed fact, and irrevocable. Though feeling deeply the separation and the added responsibilities, he writes to his wife : '' Let us look to the bright future. I shall have more time to devote to Biblical and theological study than here- tofore.'' The story of the two years' pastorate at Montpe- lier must be briefly told. Nature, discipline, and divine grace had now made him a preacher and pas- tor of rare attractiveness. His sermons were clear- cut, interesting, helpful, and inspiring. Congrega- *Montpelier, Vt. PASTORATE AT MONTPELIER. 55 tions increased, the church was quickened, and souls were saved. By his manliness, sympathy, and holy character he won the respect of all classes in the community, and the warm affection of those to whom he ministered. He devoted himself with ar- dent enthusiasm to his work in study, pulpit, and parish. A letter, written from Montpelier in Feb- ruary, 1889, bears testimony to the results of these labors : " His was surely a marked pastorate in the history of this church. There are not a few living still who can bear witness to the wealth and beauty of the intellectual treasures he lav- ished upon this people, and the great spiritual power which emanated from his life. Some remember, with a gratitude too deep for words, his influence while here, and the proofs of his continued interest given long afterward. One of our recent pastors said, in alluding to Dr. Hemenway, whom he never personally knew, that the fruits of his ministry could still be seen here after the lapse of so many years." A notable event in the home-life at Montpelier was the birth of the first child, a son, born December 20, 1856, and named Henry Bixby. New springs of thought and feeling were thus opened in the father's nature, enriching his own life and greatly in- creasing his usefulness. In one respect only was the young pastor unsuited for the work before him. He had not that robust health which is almost essential to great success in a city pastorate. And the work was very taxing. The ordinary Sunday services began with preaching at half-past ten in the morning. This was followed im- mediately by the Sunday-school, at which the pastor's presence was desired and most desirable. There was 56 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. preaching again aii: half-past one. In the evening, at early candle-light, there was held a mammoth prayer- meeting, for which special preparation was necessary, and which brought no small strain to the tired pas- tor's nerves. In the winter many members of the legislature were constant attendants upon his minis- try, and the house was generally packed with hear- ers. It was a successful pastorate, but the success was dearly bought. A few such victories would have utterly ruined his health. He completed the full term, but felt obliged to ask a location at its close, that he might look about for less taxing work. Two testimonials to his great service to his people will be appropriate here. The first is a selection from some verses contributed to a local paper. They are presented, not as poetry, but as a hearty and worthy expression of the impression made by his early min- istry. They were written by the daughter of a lead- ing member of the Church, a former student at Newbury : " Youth's fair light was on his forehead, Genius flashing from his eye, And the hopes of early manhood In his heart were beating high. Not a worn and weary soldier, With the battle almost done ; But a young, fresh-hearted warrior, All his trophies yet unwon. God had lent him brilliant talents, Which could charm the listening throng ; Worldly paths had often wooed him With their wildering, siren song; PASTORATE AT MONTPELIER. 57 Bat he laid each fond ambition Lowly at the sacred cross, Heeding not Fame's proflered laurels, Boldly 'counting all things loss.' Words of life seem doubly precious, Falling from his hallowed tongue, And rich treasures of affection From his people hath he won. He is with us when our loved ones. Earth-tired, sink to dreamless sleep, And in those dark, trying moments He can * weep with those that weep. Walking close with God, he leadeth Tenderly his little flock. Pointing, when the storm-clouds gather, To the ' Shadow of the Rock.' Faithfully he does his mission, Faltering never by the way, Knowing a reward awaits him In the land of cloudless day. Let us then, when, morn and evening, Bending low to breathe our prayer, Ask for him, our youthful pastor, Our Good Father's kindly care; That life's harvest-field may yield him Golden sheaves, a rich reward. And at last a crown of glory — A ' forever with the Lord.' " But no biography of a Methodist minister would be complete without a view of his gifts and graces from the stand-point of one of his presiding elders. Under the date of July 24, 1857, the lie v. P:iisha J. Scott, presiding elder of the Montpelier district, 5 58 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. wrote to a leading member of the East Genesee con- ference ; "Understanding that the Rev. F. D. Hemenway, late a member of the Vermont conference, proposes to offer himself for readmission into the traveling connection in the East Gen- esee conference, I feel it a privilege, no less than a duty, to furnish you such a representation of him as shall enable you to introduce him fairly and truly to your conference. Brother Hemenway is believed to be deeply and uniformly pious, and possessed of intellectual powers which entitle him to rank among the first young men in the country. Indeed, he exhib- its a rare ripeness, intellectually, for one of his age. His mind has been thoroughly and extensively trained. He is a scholar in the best sense of the word. It may properly be said that he has a liberal education, though not a collegiate. He has passed through the prescribed course of studies in our General Biblical Institute, and graduated with its highest honors. He does not regard his education as finished, however, but is an ardent student — perhaps too much so for his delicate constitu- tion. His talents as a preacher are of a superior order. Sound in doctrine, clear and eloquent in its enunciation, and pleasing in style and manner, he can hardly fail to be popular. The two years last past he has spent in this place, as you are aware, and to say he has been highly esteemed and universally be- loved but feebly expresses the real position he holds among us. Many deeply regret, and none more than myself, that our law does not allow him to remain longer. The conference consented to his location, with a view to his removal from us, with extreme reluctance. Nothing but a belief that a milder climate, and especially that your system of ministerial work would contribute to his health, and thus promise a longer period of active service to the church, reconciles us at all to his removal. We need many just such men in Vermont. He is a man to be trusted anywhere. Whatever he does is well done. "Trusting that you will pardon this volunteer representa- tion, I am," etc. From a letter, written several years later to an intimate friend in Montpelier, we get a satisfactory PASTORATE AT MONTPEIJER. 59 glimpse of the spirit and results of this pastorate. He had just learned of the death of a young lady of this Church, and says: "There has been no moment of time in my ministerial life, filled with so true and deep a joy as that in which she said to me, as I took her hand to bid her good-bye : ' Brother Hemenway, won't you pray for me ? I wish to be a Chris- tian.' I had long felt that she stood on the very verge of life, but in my extreme fearfulness I dared not venture to address her with reference to personal religion, lest I should break the spell that seemed to be drawing her to the Savior. And the bliss of that glad moment, in which I was first assured of her purpose to be a Christian, was the truest and deepest of my ministerial life. Her thoughtful and earnest look, wliich had confronted me so many times as I stood in the sacred desk, had burned itself into my very soul. I knew that she was an earnest seeker for the true center of rest and the unfailing source of consolation. And in the silence of this night, as I think of her, I feel a gratitude I can not express, but which fills my eyes with tears and my heart with joy that she found them." 60 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. CHAPTER VI. NEW FIELDS AT THE WEST. 1857-1870. NEVER was a man's spirit more willing to con- tinue fgr life the work of a Methodist preacher and pastor. Mr. Hemenway loved to preach, and he delighted in the pastoral relation. But the flesh stag- gered under its heavy burden, and rest and change became imperative. He decided to ask for a location at the approaching conference of 1857, and to seek recuperation among the Chelsea hills, while he should await the directing voice of Providence. The first intimation of the call came in the form of a letter from Professor Henry S. Noyes, of the Northwestern University, at Evanston, 111., dated April 13, 1857. It stated that the writer had recommended Mr. Hem- enway for the position of principal of the preparatory department of the Garrett Biblical Institute. It says: "Dr. Kidder has told me what kind of a man they want, and I have informed him that you exactly ful- fill all the required conditions. He is favorably im- pressed, and desires me to write you to ascertain whether you would favorably entertain such a prop- osition.'' The annual income of the institute was stated to be nineteen thousand dollars. The question of his joining the East Genesee Conference was under NEW FIELDS AT THE WEST 61 consideration at the same time. A later letter of Professor Noyes's says: '^The lake breeze keeps us from miasma. The range of study in the preparatory department of the Institute comprises common En- glish branches, rhetoric, elementary Greek, elocution, and possibly Hebrew. I am greatly desirous to see you in this position. Dr. Dempster speaks of you in the highest terms. We are not entirely ^ out of the woods' yet, but this is no drawback, and all our visitors are charmed with our delightful scenery." Bishop Baker, and many others, uniting in commend- ing this appointment, it was formally made by the trustees* and accepted by Mr. Hemenway, and in September, 1857, he left the hills and valleys of Ver- mont for his new home on the shores of Lake Mich- igan. His admiration and love for New England never decreased. Twelve years after this removal, he wrote to a friend in Montpelier, Vt. : '* We think of you with peculiar interest in these unri- valed summer days. What a lovely home you have ! Do you know how grand is the panorama before you every time you ride to town ? Your hills and mountains standing about you, clothed in their summer beauty, are w^orth a pilgrimage to see. I express no disloyalty to the magnificent country in which our lives are cast, when I confess my profound sense of its in- feriority, in variety and beauty, to yours. May God continue you, for many long years, to drink in his goodness through channels so appropriate!" Yet Evanston, too, had its peculiar natural charms, to which even the early Indian inhabitants were not *The trustees at this time were the Hou. Grant Goodrich, Orring- ton Lunt, John Evans, and Revs. Philo Judson and Steplien P. Keyes. 62 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. iDclifferent. To the gently rounded cape, covered with noble oaks and jutting out into the blue waters of Lake Michigan, which now forms the main campus, they gave, if the tradition is trustworthy, the name of '' Beauty's Eyebrow. '^ Just north of this, and be- yond the " Rubicon, '^ the first building* of the the- ological school was erected in 1854, on the location now occupied by the Swedish Theological Seminary. The remarkable series of events which led to the es- tablishment of the Garrett Biblical Institute might well be considered romantic, if it should not rather be regarded as providential. The history can not be related here, f The first term of instruction, under a temporary organization, began in January, 1855, with four students, under the tuition of Dr. Dempster and Professors William Goodfellow and William P. Wright. When Professor Hemenway entered upon his duties, in the autumn of 1857, he came to an Evanston very different from that of to-day. Up to that year the mail was received but once a week. The present main campus did not contain a single building. The Northwestern University found ample accommodations in a portion of the present prepara- tory building, which then stood at the north-west corner of Davis Street and Hinman Avenue. Actual work in the Northwestern University had •After the erection of Heck HaU, this building became a univer- sity boarding-house, and was known as Dempster Hall. It was burned to the ground in 1879. Special mention is here made of it because of its historic Interest, and of the memories associated with it in the minds of the older alumni of the Institute. t See the historical sketch, by the late Hon. Grant Goodrich, in the catalogue of the Institute for 1889, and "The History of P^vanston," by Miss Frances E. Willard. NEW FIELDS AT THE WEST. 63 begun November 5, 1855, with ten young men, who constituted a Freshma^n class. The Rev. Dr. Ran- dolph S. Foster was the President ; Henry S. Noyes, A. M., Professor of Mathematics; Rev. W. D. God- man, A. M., Professor of Greek ; and Daniel Bon- bright, A. M., Professor of Latin. The name of the Rev. Abel Stevens, A. M., appears as Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, but he never came to Evanston for active service. A sister institution had also been established by Professor W. P. Jones, bearing the somewhat cumbrous name of ^' The North- western Female College and Male Preparatory.'' The circular of the University for 1857-8 has the additional name of J. V. Z. Blaney, M. D., as Pro- fessor of Natural Sciences, and states that Professor Bonbright is absent in Europe. By this time there were three small collegiate classes, and two thousand volumes in the library. It adds naively that '^ Mr. Kennicott is collecting a museum of natural his- tory," and that '^the community comprises, with few exceptions,' professors of religion." The circular of 1858-9 claims a population for the village of twelve hundred. Rooms for Professor Hemenway were provided in the building of the institute named above. Fifty- three theological students were registered for the year 1857-8, of whom thirteen were engaged in prepara- tory studies. The Rev. Dr. John Dempster, the noble founder of Methodist theological institutions; the Rev. Daniel P. Kidder, an acknowledged leader in theological training; and the Rev. Henry Bannister, in the full vigor of his powers, and with a well- 64 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. earned reputation as a Biblical scholar, constituted the regular faculty. The capacity of the original building had been nearly doubled by a large addi- tion. A glimpse of the interior is given us in the reminiscences of the Rev. Thomas R. Strobridge, A. M., who says : " When I first took my seat in the chapel, and swept my gaze about me, I was amused at the coats of many colors which the students wore. But I grew sober as I observed the central figure upon the plat- form, an aged man, not large of stature, with a genial, thoughtful face, wearing the same kind of a garment, made of dark, red-figured calico. This was Dr. Dempster, whom I frequently saw afterwards work- ing at his wood-pile. There also sat Dr. Bannister, whose sturdy form, strong face, and noble character were in perfect harmony; Dr. Kidder, whose erect carriage denoted the courteous gentleman and me- thodical student; and Professor Hemenway, accurate, clear, industrious, and upright in form as in soul.^'* The conditions of life and work in these pioneer days, in what Miss Willard calls the ^^ rural and idyllic Evanston," were simpler than now, but, if the testimony of the old settlers is trustworthy, were not only satisfactory but delightful. A brief extract from a letter, written by Professor Hemenway June 11, 1859, gives us a picture of the social enjoyments: " Last Wednesday I took dinner at Dr. Foster's, only two or three being present beside the family. That eve- ning I attended a tea-party at Professor Noyes's, with the Willards, Bannisters, Professor Bonbright, Mrs. From the Evaii.stoii /Ve.s-.«, 1889. NEW FIELDS A7 THE WEST. 65 White, and Mrs. Evans. The same day I had the supreme honor and felicity of being introduced to 'The Little Giant' [Senator Douglas]. On the same remarkable day I visited the Art Union at Chicago. '^ The same letter states that "the commu- nity is excited over the prospect of Bishop Simpson\s coming to Evanston to reside." Professor Hemenway entered upon his work with an enthusiasm and equipment which assured success. He manifested those peculiar excellencies as a teacher for which he afterward became conspicuous. After an interval of housekeeping on Michigan Avenue, the family found a congenial home at Dr. Bannister's, until, in the summer of 1859, he built his own house, on Clark Street, between Judson and Hinman Ave- nues. By this time the paralyzing effects of the panic of 1857 had checked the promising growth of Evanston, and greatly reduced the resources of both University and Institute. Times grew worse rather than better, and in 1861 Professor Hemenway de- cided to relieve the general embarrassment by tem- porarily re-entering the active ministry. He was granted a leave of absence, and was appointed pastor of the Methodist church at Kalamazoo, Michigan. The following year his valued services were desired and secured by the First Methodist Church of Chi- cago, the old mother church, then in the full vigor of her prime. His ministrations there were most ac- ceptable; but the heavy duties and cares overtaxed his strength, and, at his own desire, he was returned to Kalamazoo to fill out his three years' pastoral term. The impressions and influences of these years are 66 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. cherished both by the local church and the Michigan Conference in sacred and grateful remembrance. These four years spent in the pastorate were those of the Civil War. That his utterances in regard to it were not uncertain is evident from the following extract from a sermon, preached in the autumn of 1864, at the close of his second year at Kalamazoo: "The year now closing has been one of the most exciting and perilous in the history of this nation. It has been a year of doubt and darkness, of tears and blood and suspense, of fearful peril and sublime patriotism. The terrible strife that has been raging in our land has continued with unabated fury. The cause of public order, involving every thing dear to the patriot and Christian, has been in imminent peril; and I could not be silent; I could not if I would, I would not if I could. Treason is a capital crime, and I have judged that mere indif- ference at such a time as this partakes of the nature of treason. If I could stand by with a cold, calculating selfishness when my country is in a death grapple with her foes, I should be unfit to live, how much more unfit to stand in this sacred place! And I have spoken, not as a politician, but as a patriot ; not as a par- tisan, but as a Christian. I have spoken with the single pur- pose of making the government strong. As a minister, I have felt that I have nothing to do with men or measures, with ad- ministrations or policies, except as connected with a divinely- established government. For the interests of truth, of human- ity, of religion ; for the love of the past and the hope of the future ; in view of my allegiance to my country and my God, I have spoken. Never as the friend of any party ; never as the advocate of any policy; never in view of any merely earthly interest. It is possible, though I have received no Buch intimation from any quarter, that the words I have Bpoken on this subject have sometimes been felt to be narrow and bitter and partisan, or, at least, too earnest and emphatic. If I have ever spoken harshly or bitterly ; if I have ever os- tracized from the pale of my sympathies any truly loyal man ; if plainly or obscurely, directly or by implication, I have been NEW FIELDS AT THE WEST. 67 understood to teach anything more than unconditional, un- swerving, unyielding devotion to our God-given government, I deeply regret it and humbly beg your pardon. But if, on the other hand, my words have been, as they were intended to be, true to the Union, to humanity, to God, to the past and to the future; if tliey have been such words as the Christian soldier would speak with the inspiration of his heroic death upon him ; if they have been such words as those sublime patriots of our Revolution would speak, could they come down amid the ruin and darkness of this great civil strife, whose stake is the very government founded by their wisdom, con- secrated by their prayers, watered by their tears, and baptized with their blood, I do not wish them changed. I am grateful to have been permitted to speak, though feebly, in their be- half. I could only wish that my utterances had been more emphatic and influential. If I could speak coldly or doubt- fully in behalf of a cause for which, in the same hour, hun- dreds and thousands of my brethren may be dying, I should be unworthy of the American name. Brethren, it is only the sacrifice and union, the faith and firmness of the loyal people of the North that can a;vert an issue, the result of which must be the scorn of men, the curse of God, and calamities in com- parison with which war itself would be light. Better that a generation perish than that the tyranny, corruption, and bar- barism of a slaveholding government be permitted to sweep over our land! And if this result may be averted by prayer, by suffering, by concession of everything but principle, let us not falter." The character of his preaching may be fairly judged from the sermons included in this volume. These selected examples may surpass his average ser- mon in finish or special interest, but they lose im- mensely more in lacking the living voice and impress- ive personality of the preacher. He ordinarily wrote rather full notes in preparing to preach, and then spoke extemporaneously from a brief outline. Oc- casionally, however, he would read from a full man- 68 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. uscript with marked effect. His illustrations were frequent, fresh and pointed. His main divisions were clearly marked, forcibly stated, and hence easily remembered. More than one minister has avoided using a text from which he has heard Professor Hemenway preach, from fear of plagiarism, which could not honestly be attributed to ^^unconscious as- similation." The general influence and results of his pastorate in Kalamazoo are described in a letter from a promi- nent member of the church : " One beautiful October day, in 1861, there came to our then village a young man of medium height, clear-cut, intel- lectual face, cultivated manners, and pleasant voice. He sought out the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal church, and introduced himself as Mr. Hemenway, and was at once recognized as the newly appointed pastor. That October day marked an era in the history of the Methodist church of Kal- amazoo. The church he came to serve was a small society, worshiping in an old wooden building. It was singularly wanting in all those external things which tend to make a church a refining and uplifting power in a community. After a three years' pastorate he left us well on the way to the high position of influence and usefulness to which the church has since attained. The missionary and other collections were in- creased phenomenally, and the membership largely added to, though there was no wide-spread revival. He made possible the large church-building enterprise on which we entered the next year. Indeed, the church experienced a true renais- sance — religious, intellectual, and social. He found us weak and small ; he left us strong, united, and growing. Never be- fore were the relations of all the pastors of the Kalamazoo churches so fraternal; and never before was a Methodist pas- tor in Kalamazoo so respected, beloved, and sought after by other denominations. But my poor pen can never tell all he NEW FIELDS AT THE WEST. 69 was to us, and all he did for us as individuals and as a church. The story may be partially read in our material growth and prosperity, but a fuller and more enduring record exists in the hearts and lives of those to whom he was an inspiration and a guide. And now, though more than a quarter of a century has passed, and many of those who were blessed by his ministrations here are, we trust, enjoying the * liberty of the sons of God,' there are still many among us to whom his name stands for all that most perfectly characterizes ' a minis- ter in the church of God,' and his memory is, in the Kala- mazoo church, 'as ointment poured forth.'" An important event of this period was the death of Dr. Dempster, which occurred in November, 1863. The Rev. Dr. Thomas M. Eddy preached his funeral sermon at Evanston ; and memorial services were held in the Clark Street church in Chicago, Decem- ber 13th, which were participated in by Professor Hemenway, Dr. Kidder, Dr. Bannister, Rev. C. H. Fowler, and Dr. Tiffany. Professor Hemenway was asked to speak of Dr. Dempster as a minister. A few sentences from his address will show his admira- tion and affection for this honored man : "I feel that I do no injustice to the living when I say that there are regards in which Dr. Dempster stood alone in my affection, as he now stands, and must ever stand, alone in my memory. It is not for me to speak of his genius, his va- ried and extraordinary attainments, his unsurpassed industry, his rigid parsimony of time ; his steady inclination toward whatever might improve the condition, elevate the character, and promote the efficiency of that church in which he was a happy member and honored minister for fifty years ; the sim- plicity and modesty with which he bore the distinguished honors so worthily conferred on him ; that uniform courtesy of demeanor and kindliness of heart which made him more than welcome in every circle He was sometimes 70 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. overwhelmingly eloquent In the devotional part of the minister's work he was pre-eminent. I have heard many- men pray, but no man like Dr. Dempster. In the fitness of his terms, the delicate gleams of imagery, the vigor and com- prehensiveness of the thought expressed, and, above all, in the fervor, the unction, the rapt inspiration of his style, he was most remarkable For two years T was under him as a student, and for several years as a subordinate teacher, and during these years I can recall no instance of an unneces- sary wound to my feelings, not a single exhibition of infirmity of temper, no harsh or careless or unfeeling word; but always the most tender regard for the rights, interests, convictions, and even prejudices of those with whom he had to do. The sweetness of his temper, his perfect self-control, the affability of his manners, his rare conversational powers, and keen and ready wit, made him a favorite in every circle." The vacancy caused by the death of Dr. Demp- ster was most wisely filled by the election, in 1864, of the Rev. Dr. Miner Raymond to the chair of Sys- tematic Theology, who, in addition to his work in the Institute, served as pastor of the Evanston church for three years, to the great enjoyment and profit of the congregation. The finances of the Institute hav- ing materially improved by 1865, Professor Hemen- way then resumed his duties in the school, not, how- ever, as instructor in English Literature and Greek, but as adjunct Professor of Biblical Literature. A substantial and visible proof of the improved conditions was the laying of the corner-stone of a new building for the Institute in 1866. The Rev. James S. Smart, of Michigan, who was financial agent at this time, labored efficiently to make this a worthy centenary memorial, and was nobly aided by the La- dies' Centenary Association. Miss Frances E. Wil- NEW FIELDS AT THE WEST. 71 lard was introduced to public life as corresponding secretary of this association. The new building was appropriately named "Heck Hall," after Mrs. Bar- bara Heck, of blessed memory. During this period such history was being made in his family circle as must remain unwritten, and yet is recognized in every home as more important than all which can be recorded. He had watched, with unut- terable anxiety, for the returning health of the one who was dearest to him, and whose life was threat- ened by disease. Once death had entered his home, and taken away his second child, little Willie, who seemed, in the father's eyes, the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. In joy and sorrow, his home was to him the center of his affection and life. Yet he was ever faithful to his duties as a friend and neigh- bor, as a citizen, and as a member and minister of the church. He made it a rule to be present at the weekly prayer-meeting, and most of the time he served either as a class-leader or Sunday-school teacher. During the years spent at Evanston he was frequently called for occasional service as preacher, and served as a regular supply, for longer or shorter periods, at Winnetka, Rogers Park, and some other places. These years, though outwardly rather une- ventful, were filled with beneficent activity, which brought discipline and happiness to him, and incal- culable blessings to others. In 1859 Professor Hemenway had received the degree of Master of Arts from the Ohio Wesleyan University, an honor most fittingly bestowed, since, by private study, he had mastered a range of collegi- 72 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, ate studies more extensive than the ordinary college curriculum of the day. In 1870 the Northwestern University honored him with the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and he was elected by the trustees to the chair of Hebrew and Biblical Literature. This lat- ter year, therefore, is marked by the public recogni- tion of the maturity of his powers both as a scholar and teacher. AT EVANSTON. 73 CHAPTER VII. AT EVANSTON. 1870-1874. DR. HEMENWAY was now forty years old. The portrait accompanying this volume will re- call to friends and reveal to others the attractiveness of his face, with its broad brow, clear-cut features, and bright and kindly expression. His eyes and complexion were dark; his hair and whiskers, origi- nally black, were now well silvered with gray, and becoming fringed with white. A little under the medium height, his carriage was erect and his step quick and peculiar. His dress was ^^ neither distinct- ively clerical nor noticeably otherwise, but simple, sober, and manly." He had a rich and pleasant voice, and a manner generally reserved, yet always courteous. His bright smile and occasional hearty laugh will be remembered by his intimate friends. He was now living in his own house, on the corner of Chicago avenue and Clark street. His family consisted of his wife and two sons, Henry and Frank. Of this home it is enough to say that it reached his own lofty ideal of " a place of rest and peace and freedom — a holy place, a place of brightness and warmth, the clearest and fullest revelation of the best possibilities of human experience." If he appeared reserved to others, he poured out upon his family a 74 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. veritable wealth of affection. He cherished also the neighborhood ties which had been forming for many years, and he was, in turn, greatly beloved. Many remember well his accustomed seat at the church prayer-meeting, which was seldom vacant. Some will never forget how heartily he used to sing the hymns he loved so well. His voice in prayer and testimony was ever most welcome. Of the words he spoke these sentences are characteristic : '^ No man was ever happier in his church relations than I am.'' ^' The religion of Jesus Christ meets every want of my nature and condition.'' One friend* has treasured in his memory the following remarks, and has reproduced them substantially as they were uttered by Dr. Hemenway in a Wednesday evening prayer-meeting : " It is in their human qualities that the life and character of the Savior afford to me the greatest helpfulness and hope. The fact that Jesus was a man, and that as a man he can enter into, understand, and sympathize with all the experiences of men, enables me to come into closer relationship with him than would be possible under any other conditions. As a Divine Being I adore and worship him. His power impresses me with wonder and with awe ; his condescension fills me with amazement, and his goodness and mercy with gratitude. In all these respects, however, he is infinitely removed from me. He is my Lord and Master, the God whom I reverence, the Sovereign whose loyal subject I strive to be, and believe that I am. "But it is the human Christ to whom my heart cleaves when temptations beset me. When disappointments and af- flictions and sorrows press heavily upon me, I remember that Jesus, in his human character, became familiar with all of these *Mr. Frank P. Crandon. AT E VANSTON. 75 experiences; that under conditions and limitations similar to those which surround me, he worked and walked and talked and lived and died. He is literally my brother. He knows all about my trials and my nt c^ssities, not as the ministering angels know these things, not even as God ih«- Father knows them, but as they b« conie known to one who has shared them — one who has bt)rne the burden they impose, and who, through these experiences, can understand my case, and afford me the exact assistance and j-trength which I need. In this Elder Brother's presence I am no longer conscious of the dis- tance which intervenes between an infinite God and a sinful man. The Savior talks witii me, and as we commune together he seems to enfold me in his arms. He bears me upwards out of the region of despondency or of doubt, dissipates every cloud and every fear, and ?o identifies me with himself that I am made a parttiker of his strength ; and as I go fo!th to the duties and labors which await me, I am constantly encouraged by the admonition, ' lie of good cheer, I have overcome the world.' " Dr. Hetnenway was a regular attendant of the Saturday evening teachers' meeting, which he fre- quently led. Referring to this, Mr. William Deering, a layman of great experience in this line, and of ripe judgment, has said : " Dr. Hemenway was the best Bible teacher I have ever known.'' His great life-work, however, was done in the class-room. The teacher's chair was his throne of power. The old Dempster Chapel in Heck Hall will ever be sacred in the memory of many students, be- cause of the intellectual stimulus and spiritual inspi- ration received in his classes there. A former student writes: "Nothing that he said is so vividly remem- bered by me as the prayers with which he opened each recitation hour. These were brief, fervent, pointed, and so suited to the circumstances of stu- 76 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. dent life that I am sure others must have felt as I did, that they were the voicing of desires which I had deeply felt but found no words to express. There was always more light after he had prayed." Another former student,* noticing the remarkable brevity, thoughtfulness, and finish of these prayers, formed the habit of taking them down. Among those thus preserved are the following : " Inspire us with a regard for thy law as it applies to every thought of the mind, to every emotion of the soul, and to all the energies of the will.'' "We bring unto thee an imperfect service; but we ask thee to accept it, not because of what we have obtained, but because of what we desire to obtain. Bless us, O Lord, evermore. Amen.'' "O God, help us to recognize thee as the King of truth — truth which is not only external in its relation, but first of all internal. Assist us to be ever loyal to the truth, both in the decisions of our intellect and the affections of the heart, and in the decisions of the Avill, and in all the acts and forms of our life. Bless us at this time, and reveal to us thy truth according to our need. Help us to call upon thee with full purpose of heart, for Jesus' sake. Amen." " We come unto thee, O Lord, asking thee for the blessing of which thou seest we stand in need, in order that we may properly do the work of this hour. O Lord, we thank thee for the bright shining of thy light upon us. We thank thee that we have our ex- istence in the fullness of thy revelation. We pray *Rev. Register W. inland, class of 1884. AT E VANSTON. 11 thou wouldst help us to see the eminence upon which thou hast placed us. Enable us to understand our high privileges. Help us to realize that to whom much is given, of him much shall be required; that as ability increases responsibility increases. And, O Lord, help us to be faitfiful to the responsibilities which are upon us." Mr. Bland adds : ^^ Sometimes his prayer was a single sentence, ending with an abrupt ^ Amen.' His prayers had no hackneyed, worn-out, pious phrases. His phraseology was always fresh, clear, and con- densed. He abhorred cant and Pharisaism. He said it seemed to him that the interior communings of the soul with God were too sacred to be invaded by the questious of our most intimate associates, and sometimes too sacred to be uttered aloud.'' Another old student* has recalled these sentences from his prayers : ^^ O Lord, we are driven to thee by a sense of our need, and we are drawn to thee by a sense of thy love." " As the leaf of the flower opens to receive the light of life from the sun, so, O God, we open our hearts to thee, the author of all life." ** Shine upon our darkness and dispel it. Subdue our sins and cast them out." " Help us to recognize the solemn responsibilities that confront us every hour of our mortal being." Another t writes: "in those prayers Dr. Hemen- way talked with God as a man talks with his friend. -Rev. Wm. H. W. Rees, D D., class of 1883. t Rev. O. L, Fisher, class of 1871. 78 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. One such prayer I can never forget, in which he thanked God that we could know his Son, Jesus Christ, better than Peter and James and John did, while they walked and talked with him in the flesh. As the prayer continued there cam^ to me such a revelation of Christ that we seemed almost to be on the Mount of Transfiguration/' Rev. L. M. Hartley, of the class of 1884, recalls this incident: One day, when the nature of God was under discus- sion in the class, a student questioned the propriety of attributing emotion to the Almighty. At this Dr. Hemenway kindled, and exclaimed in his peculiarly emphatic way: ^'Remove emotion and feeling from the idea of God, and yoxi have taken away my God.^' Dr. Hemen way's principal work was in Hebrew and Biblical literature. He was not enthusiastic in the drill required in teaching the elements of a for- eign language. The new methods of teaching Hebrew had not yet been introduced. Yet his instruction in the elements was thorough and satisfactory. His ex- positions were free, clear, and suggestive. Written notes were seldom taken, and written examinations were not required. In his lectures on Biblical Intro- duction he exhibited and aroused greater enthusiasm. He was accustomed to write an outline of his lecture on the blackboard, and then, standing before the class, he would enlarge upon this in forcible and well- chosen language; so that the hour proved not only instructive, but interesting and inspiring. During several of the years of this period he gave instruc- tion, also, in homiletics and pastoral theology. His ideal of a Methodist preacher and pastor was clearly AT EVANSTON. 79 defined and high. From his own exj^erience, and his observation, he had accnrate and extensive knowledge of a Methodist minister's field of labor. He had care- fully studied the conditions of success, and was pecul- iarly fitted, by his sound judgment, warm sympathy, and descriptive powers, to present these conditions viv- idly to the minds of his students. While he described this lofty ideal of a Methodist minister — as a man, a student, as a preacher and pastor — many who listened formed a new and higher conception of their calling, and accepted the directions and inspiration offered them as among the greatest and best of their lives. The notes taken on this subject were cherished and consulted in later years, in the midst of the active duties and perplexities of responsible pastoral life. Some extracts from his utterances, concerning the Methodist preacher and pastor, will show the force and clearness of his views : " The Methodist minister should have some special adap- tations. For instance, to the masses. It is the special glory of Methodism that it is eminently the religion of the people. To be suited to her ministry one must be capable of adjusting himself, not merely to the cultured and aristocratic few, but to the hard-working, practical masses, who make up the bone and sinew of society. He must not be dainty and fastidious in his tastes. He must be able to wield an influence over men in- capable of judging of the quality of his culture and indifferent to the beauty of his diction, but who, nevertheless, may judge very correctly as to the quality of his teaching and the spirit of his ministry. He should distinctly aim at power over the people. Monarchists cry, *God save the king!' American politicians, ' God save the Union !' ecclesiastics, ' God save the church !' but let it be the cry of Methodists, everywhere and always, ' God save the people !' for if they are saved, every thing else worth saving 80 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. will be saved also. There is a kind of clerical exclusiveness, which many indulge or afi'ect, and which stands in the way of this practical adaptation. Some clergymen — of what George MacDonald calls the * pure, honest, and narrow type '—seem, in every point and line of their countenances, marked as priests, and hence apart from their fellow-men. By their dress, the tones of their voice, and their general demeanor, they proclaim : 'Stand by yourself, come not near me, for I am holier than thou.' They are, they would seem to say, as the Sabbath to common days, or the church to common houses ; but, more correctly, they are like funerals to common events, or corpses to living beings. In the unsullied whiteness and the un- wrinkled blackness of their costumes, in the cold stateliness of their aspect, and their hollow and priestly tones, they re- mind us of the dead rather than of the living. They move among men with a mingled pomposity and solemnity, 'as if the care of the whole world lay on their shoulders ; as if an awful destruction was the most likely thing to happen to every one, while to them is committed the toilsome chance of saving some.' As they enter the places where men congregate — market, shop, railway depot, public hall — the language of their manner is: ^ Procul o, procul este, profaniP They flow into the sea of common humanity like streams of holy oil. When they speak to common men they bless, or patronize, or tolerate, or endure. Their ministrations have a mechanical efficacy. Men are to be regenerated by their magical, priestly touch, or by their grand, and impressive ceremonial manipulations. Men of this type, though found in every denomination, are specially out of place in our ministry. The Methodist minister s'ould be every inch a man. He should be more broadly, profoundly, and intensely human than common men. He must be able to give other men his hand and his heart — to 'rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.' Not by pomp- ous ceremonies, but by vital influences will he expect to save men There must be adaptation to the Meth- odist pulpit. The Methodist pulpit, however numerous and marked may be the individual exceptions, is a place where the gospel is preached freely, earnestly, plainly, pointedly, effectively. It is not a place for essays — theological, moral, AT EVANSTON, 81 literary, or any other kind. It is not a place for lectures or orations, be they political or religious. It is not a place for abstrusities, profundities, or platitudes. It is not a place for dry and harsh polemics. It is not a theater for oratorical display, or word-painting — for intellectual gymnastics. The preaching of the Methodist pulpit must be nothing suited to the few merely, but to all. It must address, not the intel- lectual nature mainly, but the spiritual nature. Its profiting must not respect mainly the life that now is, but that which is to come. If it be said that all these characteristics pertain to the Christian pulpit as such, in every denomination, I reply that they characterize eminently the Methodist pulpit. There are those who would be acceptable in other pulpits who would not be acceptable in ours; just as there are many who do ef- fective work among us, but would not be equally successful in any other denomination. The typical Methodist preacher is a man positive in his convictions, fervid in his feelings, plain and downright in speech, simple in manner, of broad sympa- thies, and capable of wielding a fair measure of popular influ- ence. Extemporaneousness of address, also, is commonly as- sociated with these qualities, and is their most natural mode of expression." . . . " And so, too, should be corrected all tendencies towards priestly charlatanism — ghostly, priestly tones, denominational cant, stock phrases, and affectations of all sorts and kinds. The clergyman who is faithful to himself, and thoroughly gen- uine in his individual life, will, in the end, slough off all such excrescences, and stand forth a truthful expression of the re- ligion which he assumes to teach." ... " Especially offensive to a cultivated and spiritual wor- shiper is ministerial egotism. The minister who, like J^sop's fly, seated on the end of the carriage axle, is continually ex- claiming, 'See what a dust I raise!' thus constantly thrust- ing his important self upon the attention of those whose * heart and flesh are crying out for the living God,' wearies and baffles the spirit of devotion sometimes to the point of positive disgust or absolute defeat." . . . " If I have room to mention another tlerical vice which mars the beauty and lessens the interest of public religious 82 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, service, it shall be affectation. In tbe case of the minister, it hides more excellencies than charity does sins. There is noth- ing we so much demand in men, and especially those who 'minister and serve the altar,' as genuineness — a thorough conformity of the outward life to the inward spirit. Strained allusions, disgusting finery, pomjiousness of demeanor are es- pecially out of harmony with the office of him who stands before the people 'in Christ's stead.'" . . . '' Here, then, is a prime qualification for a Methodst pas- tor. He should know the peculiar genius of his denomination, and be in full sympathy with it. He should enter into this great evangelic movement. He should feel that his business is not to instruct men as an end, but to save them. He should seek to follow worthily in the footsteps of the fathers, and tone up his soul by studying their heroic lives. He should practice the same simplicity, earnestness, directness, evan- gelic intensity which God so honored in Wesley's time. He should remember, as he stands up to speak to the people, that, in the case of many of them, he has but a half hour out of the week to raise the dead in, and this reflection should nerve his arm to strike the most vigorous blows. Then shall every sermon be a battle — short, sharp, decisive, victorious." No pen-picture of this great teacher would be complete without some reference to his sense of humor, and the sarcasm which he wielded in the class-room in an effective and sometimes startling way ; yet it is impossible to give any idea of the quality and power of his wit. All his former stu- dents remember it well, some doubtless ruefully. But few can recall definite examples, and those pre- served, apart from the remembered situation, give no adequate impression of their original pungency. Some of the alumni of the Institute may, however, enjoy the following, as reminders of the old seminary days. In the Hebrew class, one day, a student trans- AT EVANSTON. 83 lated Gen. ii, 3, as follows : ^' And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had done all his work." '^ That rendering/' re- marked Dr. Hemenway without a smile, " is for some preachers — on the seventh day they do all their work.'' To a student whose irregularity and unfaith- fulness had greatly tried his patience, and who came to him one day with a lame excuse, he said : " Brother , I believe that you are a much better man than you seem to be J' He used the Socratic method freely ^and eifect- ively in his classes. He once defined teaching as ^' the vital and helpful contact of one stronger and better furnished with another who has a conscious need." His method of questioning was calculated to draw real knowledge into adequate expression ; but it was equally w^ell fitted to expose ignorance and make conceit ridiculous. He sometimes made the contact vital by first cutting to the quick, and aroused the " conscious need " by making a student smart for a time for wounded vanity. Some of these wounds were long in healing, but the great ma- jority of students soon understood the underlying kindness of this spiritual surgery, and were grateful for it. His questions called forth some strange answers. A student, being asked whether the English or Hebrew language was the warmer, gave his opinion in favor of his mother tongue. " Why do you think so ?" asked the Doctor. " Because the Hebrew is a dead language," was the ready reply. Doubtless Hebrew was made warmer for him after that. It may be that Dr. Hemenway learned the value of occasional Si BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. severity from Dr. Dempster. It is related of the latter that he said to a student who had just at- tempted to recite : '"'' Your thought has been buried in the tomb of your words /^ and that after announc- ing that a certain man would not return to finish his course of study because he had been married, he pro- nounced his sentence in a deep voice thus: " Plunged into the bottomless gulf of oblivion !" * Dr. Hemenway sometimes followed an incorrect answer by a peculiarly emphatic ^' Never.'' An ex- aminer once perplexed a student about the word translated ^^ beginning/' in the first verse of Genesis, which the examiner spoke of as a ^' participle." Coming to the student's rescue, the Professor asked him if the Hebrew word in question was a participle. " Not here, I think," was the response. ^^ No," said Dr. Hemenway, '"' not here nor anywhere else." But as a rule it was a scimiter and not a sledge-hammer which he wielded. I have been more than once re- minded of the Arabian story of a Damascus blade, which its owner would swing swiftly around the head of his enemy. The unconscious vigtim sat smiling until a pinch of snuff made him sneeze. At this his severed head rolled to the ground. The laugh of the class was sometimes the first intimation a student had of his sudden execution. In social intercourse he had many a hearty and good-humored laugh over the incidents of his pas- toral and school life. He told me once, with great enjoyment, of an old shoemaker in one of his par- ishes into whose good graces he found it exceedingly difficult to win his way. The old man kept station- AT EVANSrON. 85 ery and other articles to sell in his shop, and Dr. Hemenway went out of his way to purchase there. At length the old man thawed. "I like you," he said. ''I'm glad to know it.'' ''But I couldn't bear that other preacher who was here. He was so close. He asked me, one day, what the price of a pack- age of envelopes was, and I says, ' I '11 let you have them for five cents.' ' What,' says he, ' has ent?f?opes riz?'" The following, from a member of the last class he taught,* represents the experience of a large number r "My first impressions of him were not favorable. He appeared stern and unsympathetic, seldom speaking to or rec- ognizing us on the street or in the post-office when we chanced to meet him ; but I soon learned that underneath this exterior, which was calculated to inspire awe, there was a warm, sympa- thetic nature and heart w^hich could but win the affection of his students when they came to know him well." An earlier student f writes: " I was but fourteen years old when I registered as a stu- dent for the ministry, and took a room in Heck Hall. Dr. Kidder cordially encouraged me when I timidly told him my boyish wish to become a preacher. I grew up on the old campus, and during those years when a boy is most deeply impressed was strongly influenced by Dr. Hemenway. I never saw him walking the old paths to and from the hall, with his peculiarly emphatic gait, without wishing to be what he seemed to be so thoroughly — a Christian gentleman. I think, by his manly deference in manner and address, he knocked off many a rough corner from us boys without knowing it him- self, and without our being aware of it. He was especially considerate of those who were trying, as I did for two years^ -Rev. E. M. Glasgow, class of 1884. t Rev. R. G. Hobbs, class of 1878. 86 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. to do that very hard thing, keep up with a class and carry on the work of a pastoral charge at the same time. He seemed to appreciate the fact that the fellows who were thus burning the candle at both ends needed special encouragement, and he never withheld it. His sympathies were quick and warm." Another alumnus * bears this testimony : "It took some time to get acquainted with him, but an acquaintance with such a character was something to be highly valued. How he prized faithfulness ! * A lazy student,' he said one day, * may have a call to the ministry, but not a di- vine call.' He emphasized the word 'divine' as only Dr. Hemenway could. In more than one of his classes he said things severe and deservedly severe. On one of these occa- sions he said: * Brethren, you are fitting yourselves to be am- bassadors for Christ. If you are unfaithful to your studies in the Institute you will be unfaithful to your duties in the min- istry.' Who can forget the tone of his voice and the flash of his eye in administering reproof? No cannon-ball was ever more direct than his words at such a time ; yet how warm and sympathetic was his nature ! The night that Dempster Hall was burned I barely escaped with my life. When I appeared next morning in the Doctor's recitation-room the earthly house of this tabernacle was not in a very presentable shape. His sympathy, expressed in words and deedz, I can never forget." Perhaps there was no part of his teaching enjoyed more by Dr. Hemenway and his classes than his lec- tures on hymnology. His love for Christian hymns began in early life, and his critical and enthusiastic study of them extended through many years. And in the minds of many, his memory is most vividly associated with his expositions of this subject in the delightful praise-meetings which he led. A part of the results of his hymn-studies will be found in this volume; but the richest fruitage, garnered in the -Rev. John Lee, class of 1882. AT EVANSTON. 87 Hymnal, has long benefited the entire Methodist Episcopal Church. For some years he led the Tuesday evening class- meeting, held in Dempster Chapel. Many students have borne testimony to the rare helpfulness of the spiritual counsels given there. From the wealth of his knowledge of the Bible, of Christian hymns, of religious literature, and of human life, but most of all from his own inner life, he was able to counsel, warn, and inspire his younger brethren. In these meetings he seemed to come closer to the students, and exhibited a pastor's solicitude for their welfare. Some, who thought him cold, distant, and severe as an instructor, discovered in the class-room the warmth and tenderness of his heart. Those students who went to him for advice in times of perplexity and trouble, could never again doubt the sincerity and warmtij of his interest in them. And by some, such interviews are cherished in memory as turning points in their lives. To such applicants he opened the secret treasuries of his mind and heart. His interest in individual students was far greater than was generally understood, and it did not cease with their graduation. In the meetings of the faculty the expressions of his judgment concerning students and alumni had especial weight. When some alumnus was to be rec- ommended for an important position or an honorary degree, Dr. Hemenway generally had the fullest knowledge of his course and success since graduation, and his discriminating judgment seemed almost in- fallible. 88 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. In estimating his personal influence, account should also be taken of his visits to the Western conferences to represent the Institute ; of his services at Sunday- school assemblies; of his articles contributed to the religious press, particularly the Northwestern Christian Advocate aud the Methodist Review. These fugitive writings related mainly to Biblical subjects and prac- tical discussions of a pastor's work. It was largely through his efforts that the Pastors' Theological Union was organized and held annually for several years at Evanston, meetings which Avere most profitable both to its members and to the Institute. In 1875 there were present six bishops and two hundred and twenty-seven pastors, representing thirty-three an- nual conferences. The witnesses already summoned bear testimony to the unique influence which Dr. Hemenway ex- erted. Others will, in a later chapter, emphasize this fact. But no description can adequately represent this power. It was as subtle and undefinable as life. It was the result of unusual character, in which gen- uineness, unselfish devotion, and deep spiritual expe- rience were the ruling elements. IN LABORS MORE ABUNDANT. 89 CHAPTER VIII. IN LABORS MORE ABUNDANT. 1874--I884. AT the session of the Michigan conference, in the autumn of 1875, Dr. Hemenway was elected a delegate to the General Conference, which convened in Baltimore May 1st of the following year. Like many of the ablest men in great representative bodies, his voice was not heard in public debate. He ren- dered valuable service in the Committees on Education and Conference Boundaries, and his letters from the ' conference show his devotion to all the interests of the church, and his discriminating judgment of men and measures. The questions of the color-line, of woman's place in the church, and of the presiding eldership, were especially prominent. On each of these he had clear convictions, but made no public expression of them beyond his vote. If we regret this reserve, we can not fail to admire the modesty which caused it. He took a deep interest in visits to Alexandria, Washington, and Mt. Yernon, and es- pecially in the new phases of life which these places presented. He enjoyed lectures by Beecher, Simpson, and Fowler, and the rich succession of great sermons and eloquent addresses which a Methodist General Conference always affords. He made a pilgrimage to 7 90 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. the graves of Asbury and Lee. This month, spent in Baltimore, extended his influence through the friend- ships strengthened and formed with leading men in the church ; but the matter which made it possible for him to render an important service to every mem- ber of the Methodist church, for decades to come, was the action of the conference ordering the revision of the church Hymn-book. When a committee to do this work was appointed by the bishops, it was a matter of course that Dr. Hemenway should be a member of it, and it caused no surprise that he Avas chosen chair- man of the Western section. By poetic temperament, practical judgment, and long-continued study of hymnology. Dr. Hemenway was peculiarly fitted for this service. It is no injus- tice to the other members of this excellent committee to say that few of its number did so much as he, and no one more, to make the Hymnal the admirable book it is. From the first he gave himself to this labor of love with untiring enthusiasm. He attended all the meetings of his section and of the general committee. From the early summer of 1876, until the publication of the Hymnal in the autumn of 1877, his heart and mind seemed full of this subject. Two summer vacations were devoted almost exclusively to it. He is obliged to confess it a ^^ prodigious job.'' The entire committee met twice in New York, and once each in Cleveland, Ohio, and East Greenwich, R. I. The work was done with great thoroughness and system. Every hymn passed in review three times, once privately and twice in the committee, where "debates arose and sometimes continued for IN LABORS MORE ABUNDANT. 91 hours on a single hymn or part of a hymn/' The sessions often continued until late at night. Dr. Hemenway was detailed more than once for special services. He was one of the sub-committee which submitted the results to the Board of Bishops, and he was one of the two selected to arrange the Hymnal with tunes, in conjunction with Dr. Eben Tourjee and Mi:. J. P. Holbrook. Dr. Hemenway prepared the greater part of the report on the revision which was presented to the bishops, and which forms a valuable contribution to the history of hym- nology. * The chapters on hymnology contained in this volume took shape soon after the completion of the revision. The period during which these labors on the Hymnal were in progress was one of the darkest in the financial history of the Institute. Yet, as he de- voted the usual time for summer rast and recupera- tion to severe and gratuitous toil for the good of the church, he wrote courageously of this gloomy outlook for the school : ^^ I have faith that God will do his work if w^e do ours, and certainly it is not our work to determine the conditions of our own labors." Speaking of his spirit and counsels at this time. Dr. Raymond says: "In the darkest hour of our history, when the trustees in- formed us that the entire resources of the institution would be absorbed in the payment of the interest on its indebtedness, and there would not be a dollar left with which to continue the school, and when the faculty were called together to con- * The first tweuty-two pages of the report, as printed, were written by the Rev. Dr. J. M. Buckley. 92 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. sider the communication from the trustees, Dr. Hemenway said at once, most emphatically: ' Wliatever it may cost us as teachers, the doors of the Institute must not be closed.' He proposed the measure which was adopted, and which, so far as the faculty was concerned, was the means of tiding the in- stitution into the broad seas of its present prosperity." In addition to his other work, Dr. Hemenway also supplied the church at South Evanston, which, in loving memory of faithful and fruitful service, upon the completion of its handsome new edifice, named it the '^ Hemenway Memorial.'' The Hon. M. D. Ewell, LL. D., contributes this concerning Dr. Hem- enway's pastorate there : "I think I was the first person who had an interview with him respecting his coming to serve this church, and I well remember the then depressed condition of the society. There were no striking events during his service, but our intercours ^ with him, from first to last, was characterized by the utmost fraternal feeling, and I may add, affection. His work was faithful and prospered from beginning to end. I have never known a man more universally beloved and respected than was Dr. Hemenway by this society. I have never known a man more entirely unselfish in his relations with his people than was Dr. Hemenway. Whenever any benevolent or church enterprise was being canvassed, he always quietly but firmly insisted upon doing more for it than we thought he ought to do. In making these statements I feel sure that I represent the feeling of all who knew him. Personally I had the utmost respect for his ability, the most unbounded confi- dence in his piety, and very great affection for him as a man and a brother." There is reason for believing that the extra ex- ertion required for this gratuitous work upon the Hymnal may have shortened his life. At all events, the slow decline of strength began about this time. IN LABORS MORE ABUNDANT. 93 After the publication of the Hymnal the usual duties of his chair were supplemented by the completion of a commentary, which had been begun some two years earlier. This was Dr. Hemenway's most important individual publication. It treated of the books of Jeremiah and the Lamentations, and, together with the Commentary on Isaiah by Dr. Henry Bannister, forms the seventh volume of Whedon's Commentary. It is a noteworthy fact that no one of the three dis- tinguished men, whose names appear on the title-page of this book, lived to see the completed volume. This commentary exhibits the same qualities which marked Dr. Hemenway^s instruction. It is clear, scholarly, independent, and spiritual, and takes rank with the best in this valuable series. In 1879 Dr. Hemenway was again chosen by his brethren of -the Michigan conference to represent them in the General Conference which met in Cin- cinnati in 1 880. Here he did quiet but efficient serv- ice, especially in the Committee on Education, of which he was secretary, and Dr. E. O. Haven chairman. Dr. Hemenway \s entire public life adds another exception to the rule that a powerful physique and robust health are essential to great usefulness in re- sponsible positions. He never excused himself from duty on the ground of invalidism, nor did he seem to regard himself an invalid ; yet it was only by the most careful regard for the laws of health, and the concentration of his forces upon a few lines of effort, that he was able to accomplish what he undertook without overtaxing his strength. He waged a forty 94 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. years^ war with disease, and contested every point with wisdom and courage ; and if a slow retreat was inevitable, it was masterly and honorable. With a cheerful courage, recognizing the early and irrepa- rable impairment of his constitution, he carefully con- served his strength and devoted it to the highest ends. In the spring of 1881, however, it became manifest to his friends and to himself that his health was seriously threatened. He planned to spend the summer months at the sea-shore, but was finally in- duced to try the effects of an ocean voyage and a short tour in the Old World. He sailed for Europe the latter part of July, in company with his son, Henry B. Hemenway, M. D. In a hurried trip, oc- cupying less than three months, they visited parts of Scotland, England, France, Germany, and Switzer- land. His letters show that he was a good traveler, tempering an intelligent enthusiasm with sensible moderation. He did not wear himself out in the effort to see everything in every place, but sought to select and study typical specimens of the various objects of interest. Facing the Atlantic voyage for the first time, he writes home: "I know you are more or less solicitous for me, but I hope you will not be at all anxious. It seems evident that I am walking in the way of Providence, and if so I must be safe. And I want to say that even if it should be God's will to overwhelm me and remove me by some unforeseen dangers, which are always liable to come, I believe it will be well with me. I have a vivid and ofttimes oppressive sense of my sins and shortcomings, and never, perhaps, was that sense more vivid than now. IN LABORS MORE ABUNDANT. 95 as I write ; but I do honestly seek to give myself to Christ, and I believe he accepts and saves me. I never felt more unqualifiedly determined, living and dying, to be the Lord's." Writing in 1882 to a friend who was starting for a foreign trip he said : '^ How this year, under God's blessing, may be made to enrich your w^hole life, and, through the work you shall do, the lives of many others also. There is a supreme instant in the pho- tographer's art when what had been a mere cloud, with dim and scarcely distinguishable outline, be- comes a perfect picture, so truthful and so expressive as to be beyond all price. So will this year, which is before you, be made up largely of such moments. The places and scenes which are old in your memory will come again into your life as new creations." After mentioning some of the principal places he had visited abroad, he added: ^^ We had the satisfaction, also, of standing by the graves of many of God's heroes, of whose names this sheet is not worthy; and some glorious visions entered our souls, which, I am sure, will be lost only, if at all, in the beatific state." One of these visions is described in a letter which he wrote home from Interlaken : " We have had glory enough for one day. At ten o'clock we left Basle and came through Berne into this Alpine region. I can not tell you what I have seen since then. It is an experience of a life-time. All the way from Berne the Alps were coming more grandly into view, until as we took the boat on Lake Thun the culmination w^as realized. The beautiful water of the lake was broken into fine ripples, which sparkled 96 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. in the sunbeams like a pavement of precious stones. In the near foreground were the bold, precipitous mountains. ;A little farther oflP the peaks rose above them, streaked with white; and just beyond, and yet so near us as to seem absolutely startling, were the great forms which wear an eternal livery of white. It was almost like confronting the Great White Throne. They looked down upon us and drew near to us like the Infinite Presence. I never had any just concep- tion of mountain scenery before.'^ Dr. Hemenway returned from Europe with his health decidedly improved, and resumed with ardor his accustomed labors. If he had premonitions that there remained but three years more in which to finish his work, he gave no outward sign of them. In the home, the Institute, and the church he bore his part as before. If any change was noticed it was that the fruitage of his mind and heart seemed more abundant and rich. Perhaps he was more careful to take rest and exercise, yet he could accomplish more in the same time than in earlier years. The letters written to his sons during the last decade contain, in a condensed form, the results of his experience, and one might almost say his philos- ophy of life. Two characteristic utterances from these letters are the following : " I always want you to feel that you represent us, your parents, and are to represent us when we have ceased work- ing; and so I want you to be strong and true and high-minded, cherishing at all times a vivid sense of the dignity and the sacredness of life." " I wish you may feel deeply and always, and that you may live it out continually, that no life is worth living that does not spend itself mainly in helping other people." IN LABORS MORE ABUNDANT. 97 A long letter is preserved, written to his elder son when he was absent from home, pursuing his medical studies. It would prove a safe chart to any young physician and helpful to any student. The product of wide observation and deep thought, it is written with the simplicity and warmth which it re- ceived in the depths of an affectionate father's heart. As expressing his mature judgment upon the condi- tions of a truly successful life, it may fitly close this chapter : " I write, then, at this time, not to administer to you a lecture, nor to change you from what you really are, but to suggest some things which may possibly be of some practical value to you this coming term of school, which will be to you of superlative importance. *' First of all, let me charge you to look wisely and watch- fully after your physical well-being. The importance of this is being constantly impressed upon you, both by what you learn and what you see. Be sure and dress yourself warmly this winter, and see that the best conditions of warmth and pure air are supplied in your room. Allow of no strain too severe on your nervous system. Do not permit your laudable zeal in study to induce overwork. It is better for such as you to make haste slowly than to kindle the fire too hotly. I would then make this first point with myself, that I will look after the body first, and let other things rest on this as a ground condition ; and whatever is necessary to this I want, you to have, suitable clothing, wholesome food, a pleasant room, and gener- ally comfortable conditions of living. All this is, as you know, consistent with rigorous physical discipline. It does not mean that you are to live a life of luxury or indolence, or of uncertain and nerveless exertion, but it is consistent with patient indus- try and vigorous eftbrt. It only means that you are to care- fully consider your bodily habits, and adapt your habits of life to your capital of strength and vitality. With your lithe and active temperament, you are capable of the best things phys- ically under judicious care; without this, you can very easily 98 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. make shipwreck. I am the more careful to speak of this be- cause I am entirely certain that I have lost fully ten years of my life simply because I did not know how to use myself at the very start. I would repeat it, then — make it a point to take good care of yourself physically. If you have not now and do not secure a room-mate, so as to make it better for you than to be alone, by all means keep the room you have rented for yourself alone. The better arrangement, however, when your social and intellectual character is considered, is to have a room-mate, provided he is of tlie right stamp. J' Let me say a word as to your intellectual life. Probably more than ought to be the case, you are likely to be judged by your fellow-men by purely intellectual and practical standards. The question will not be, What are you ? but, HtDw much do you know? and, AVhat can you do? Your power to influence and benefit your fellow-men will depend largely on the breadth and fineness of j'our culture, as well as your acquaintance with the principles and practice of your profession; and inasmuch as the best results in this direction can come only from a cor- rect ideal and an established habit or course of life, I am sure that any well-considered suggestions on this subject may be, to some extent, serviceable. Of course you must know your profession. Common honesty requires this. There is no man before the public more really dishonest than he who professes a science and a practice like that of medicine without under- standing it. Be more careful to know than to seem to know. Discriminate with the utmost care between the great things and the small. A thousand little things may wait for your knowledge until you need them, and then you will know just where to find them ; but the great and fundamental matters in your calling should be as familiar as household words. The oflftce of the school is simply to inaugurate a course of life, not to carry it forward to perfection ; hence, in the school, it is vastly more important that your work be thorough than that it be brilliant or extensive. " But it is of your intellectual life in general that I would speak. He who knows only the matters of his profession and is noticeably ignorant on other matters can not succeed People want a man in a physician — one who has some breadth of adjustment in the kingdom of the truth. lie who is a IN LABORS MORE ABUNDANT. 99 good practitioner, and, in addition, is a cultured and manly man, will be likely to realize in any community, in the long run, many times more patronage and more influence than the man who is equally skillful but lacking in the more general and outside qualifications to which I now refer. Hence I would urge upon you the importance of keeping up your lit- erary culture. Do this as a settled and inflexible principle. Do not allow any supposed press of duties to stand in the way of it. Just as nothing should be allowed to crowd out your Bible and your religion, so let nothing stand in the way of those great duties which you owe yourself as a man. What is needed for this is not much time, but a little time faithfully and wisely employed. Keep up a knowledge of the authors you have read in the school. Take some Latin author, as Vir- gil, and read it so frequently and regularly that you shall keep fresh your acquaintance with the language. It would be well, also, to do the same with the French and the German. You will'find, in the end, that all this will tell immeasurably on your well-being as a man among men. It is your most sacred duty, as well as your just privilege and honor, to fit yourself to sit down in the company of the learned. You can only do this by patient, faithful, and laborious culture. "All this applies also to English literature. Form the habit of reading the best authors. Do not attempt too much at once, but have constantly in reading something that will bring you nearer other men. Your great hope in this life will consist in cultivating the society of cultured people, most of whom must be drawn to you by considerations outside of your profession. The well-known and standard works in English literature may become links of union between yourself and all who speak the English language. In this there is a hint as to your evenings. In so far as possible, I should prefer to turn away from medical matters during the evening hours. Take up something of an entirely diff"erent character, and it will give tone and zest to your whole mental experiences. You will do better work in your studies if you turn away from them habitually every day for something higher or more gen- eral in its bearing on life. " I wish I could say some helpful word to you on another and a much higher subject. I mean that of character. In this 100 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. word is contained all of real worth in any individual. With- out any reference to mere qualifications, whether of this kind or that, the amount of real character in a man is the measure of his worth. And this is certainly under our personal decis- ion and control as nothing else is. Rich or poor, learned or unlearned, influential or obscure, it is possible for him who wills to form a positive, clean-cut, decided character. Here is his real personality, and here is to be his real value to himself and to his fellow-men. What we do is important, but what we are is inefiably more important. " One of the main factors in character is what we call judgment. This, combined with the power to do and to con- serve, practically makes up the man as an actual fierce iti soci- ety. To say that any person has good judgment is to bestow on him a high commendation ; to say that one has a weak judg- ment is to make of him a fatal impeachment. It is well, then, for any man to direct his own special attention to the condi- tions of strength in this regard. Avoid hasty and superficial judgments — mere impressions, which we take up simply be- cause they suit our moods or our prejudices. Judgment is mainly a matter of thought, not feeling. Cultivate, then, a judicial habit of mind. Make it a point to give every one his due. Be candid, but be thorough and positive. In a word, see to it that you become a man of convictions, and that your convictions are sound. "This quality of mind comes out into what we call prac- ti£al sense, a thing upon which our own success depends as upon nothing else; for, after all, it is not what we wish or purpose or say that determines our adjustment to our fellow- men, but the decisions we do actually make and the things we actually achieve. ... In your own consciousness, then, lay greatest emphasis upon your judgment, and the way in which it can be carried into effect. Do not make it ^o much a matter of word as of deed. Not what we promise ourselves or others, but what we effect, will fix our standing with our fellows. " In this matter of character, of course, the most vital element is the moral one. Be satisfied with nothing short of the most thorough truthfulness^, not merely in business and in language, but in thought and feeling. Cultivate and maintain a downright honesty. I fully believe you are doing this, yet IN LABORS MORE ABUNDANT. 101 too much emphasis can not be placed on this njatter. I hope that you will begin your life with the resolution that nothing foul or impure shall pass your own lips, and, in so far as you can prevent it, your ears too. As you move among men and families, let there be no taint or foulness because of your presence. *' And I would say one word touching the matter of personal religion. Cling to it and maintain it as for your life. Do not in this thing be time-serving and compromising. Your best interests for time and eternity lie in the direction of positive- ness and ponsistency in this regard. Calculate, then, on doing your duty fully and regularly in this regard. Make it a mat- ter of principle to be in your place in the church, the prayer- meeting, and the Sabbath-school. Let it be understood as a matter of course that you will stand in your lot and place in all religious assemblages that have a just claim upon you. Even this winter I would make it a point to attend the prayer- meeting every Wednesday evening, unless there are impera- tive reasons against it. "One other thing I would call your attention to; namely, your f^ocial character and adjustments. It is a great thing to be admitted into good society. In order to do this it is neces- sary to cultivate the qualities which render your presence de- sirable. It is also necessary to observe carefully the social opportunities and facilities which are afforded you. Make it a point to cultivate any relations which are likely to be help- ful to you and to elevate you. Do not throw away a valuable acquaintance or friend. If any door is open to you for social intercourse, especially with families which would help and raise you, be sure and enter; and when you go out, leave it ajar for another occasion. "But I had not thought to write at such length. My special wish was to put down some thoughts which have been running in my mind, more or less, with reference to you. In my early life I had to stumble and blunder along as best I could, with little help from any one. I clearly see how it might have been much better with me, and so I feel a desire that the very best may come to you." 102 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. CHAPTER IX. IN MEMORIAM— 1884. THE close of the Institute year, in the spring of 1883, was darkly shadowed by the sudden death of the Rev. Dr. Henry Bannister, who had been Pro- fessor of Exegetical Theology since 1856. In de- scribing this event. Dr. Hemenway wrote : " It is safe to say that no other death has so stirred our community to its very foundations. The influence he has exerted in shaping and developing the inner life of the Institute has been most potent, so that in its presenrt form the institution is as much the ex- pression of his mind as of any one who has had a share in its work.^' The resolutions adopted by the faculty were prepared by Dr. Hemenway, and con- tained this testimonial : ^^ For twenty-seven years he has been associated with the instruction and conduct of the school, and in all these years his career has been distinguished for the thoroughness and zeal with which he devoted himself to the work of his depart- ment and the general welfare of the institution. He brought to the chair which he so long and usefully filled rare qualifications, uniting the experience of the teacher with the aptitudes, habits, and attainments of the scholar. By unremitting study, he kept abreast of the most recent results of Biblical criticism. He was IN MEMORIAM. 103 a wide reader and an accurate and profound thinker. Hundreds now preaching are indebted to his teach- ings for the evangelical scripturalness and the simple directness which characterize their preaching/^ At the beginning of the summer vacation of 1883 Dr. Hemenway found himself not only unusually worn by the year's work, but warned by serious symptoms of disease to take active measures for re- cuperation. The summer months were, therefore, mainly spent at Saratoga and Clifton Springs', with favorable but not wholly satisfactory results. In September he entered with zeal upon the new school year. An additional class was organized by him in the Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, and his lectures on this subject were listened to with marked enthusiasm. Although his work wearied him to an unusual degree, he sought relief from no duties. He would often return from the class-room or pulpit so exhausted as to be unable to do his usual study and writing. He expressed to Mrs. Hemenway the growing conviction that his public work must soon be given up. Yet, outside the home walls, his cour- age and activity gave no sign of flagging, and pre- cluded apprehension. In the spring of 1884 he yielded to an urgent request to take a Bible-class in the Sunday-school. The book of the Revelation was taken up, and the numbers in attendance rapidly in- creased. Among the words spoken here, which proved to be among his last public utterances, these may be quoted : "It is possible for me, on this first day of February, 1884, unimportant as I am, to live the life of God, to live just as he 104 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. would have me, as truly as for the martyrs and the great men of the Church. "The great fact of God's personal love to us is the one supreme truth which heaven has for us, and one great use of earthly loves is to reveal to us, in some measure, this love of God. If my mother had had the resources of Christ, how much she would have done for me! Christ loves me more than my mother. The best earthly love may fail me, not that of Christ." On the evening of March 13th, a meeting of the faculty was prolonged to a late hour. Returning home, Dr. Hemenway was unable to sleep. The morning brought further symptoms of illness, and yet only a few days^ absence from his classes was antici- pated by any one. As he did not improve, the ex- pedient of a visit to his son in Kalamazoo was recom- mended by his physician. This was followed by greater weakness. The best diagnosis indicated a slight but constant intestinal hemorrhage as the probable cause of this slow but steady decline. As he was able he directed the affairs of the home and his classes. He assigned private work to the latter, saying that they should not meet again until called. I saw him often, and part of the time daily, during the five weeks of his illness. He usually lay upon a lounge, noticeably weak, yet calm, cheerful, and pos- sessing all the vivacity and clearness of his mind un- diminished. It was in these days that he wrote the description of the old school-house, contained in an earlier chapter. He reviewed lists of books to be purchased for the library, of which he had been cus- todian for many years. According to a request of the faculty in a recent meeting, he marked in a cat- IN MEMORIAM. 105 alogue the names of those alumni whom he regarded as suitable candidates for special honors. But the exhausting disease was slowly doing its fatal work, and on Wednesday, the 16th of April, it was fully recognized that the end was near. During this last week his old and valued friend, the Rev. Dr. R. M. Hatfield, called and prayed at his bedside, to his heartily expressed satisfaction. The last night came at length — that of the 18th of April. It may be best described in the words spoken by Bishop Ninde at the funeral services: "It was a night of great prostration and suffering. His extreme weakness made respiration very diflScult, and his ef- forts to speak were very seldom intelligible. Toward morning he touchingly said: 'I did not know I was so sick.' After prayer had been offered at his bedside, he reached out his arms and embraced each of his sons, and then the wife — whose devotion had been so untiring — kissing them his last farewell.* Thus he died, in that home which had been to him the most delightful of all earthly retreats, surrounded by the loved and loving, whose society had more than satisfied his heart's eartlily cravings, and in the midst of a community where he was widely known and universally revered and honored." The funeral services were held at the First Methodist Episcopal Church of Evanston, April 22d, and were attended by the faculties and students of the Institute and Northwestern University, and by a large number of alumni, ministers from neighboring conferences, and friends from Chicago and Evanston. The Church and family pew were appropriately *The other surviving member of Ills immediate family was Ruth Lilian, infant daughter of Henry B. and Lillie Bradley Hemenway. Tlie latter died about a j'ear before Dr. Hemenway's decease, and, anticipating death, had requested that her little daughter should be baptized by him at her funeral. This touching ceremony was the last baptism at which he ever officiated. 8 106 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. draped. Many floral offerings had been sent as to- kens of affectionate remembrance, prominent among which were a chair from the faculty and students of the Institute, a cross and crown from the Sunday- school, a harp from his Bible-class, a sheaf and sickle from the South Evanston Church (his last pastoral charge), an open Bible and a broken column from personal friends. The casket was borne by students of the Institute, and followed by the pall-bearers, Judge Goodrich, Mr. Orrington Lunt, Mr. Frank P. Crandon, and Drs. Hitchcock, Bonbright, Marcy, Axtell, and Sheppard. The services began with the singing of the hymn, "My Jesus, as thou wilt," which was read by Rev. Washington Gardner, of Kalamazoo, Mich. Presi-. dent Cummings, of the Northwestern University, then read the selections from the Scriptures which had been prepared and read by Dr. Hemenway at the funeral of Dr. Bannister a year before. President Ninde, of the Institute, read an admi- rable biographical sketch, which need not be repro- duced here. In closing, he said: "The characteristics of such a man can not be summed up in a brief paragraph. His intellect was penetrating, incisive, and luminous. He seized truth with the promptness of intu- ition, and developed it in the orderly methods of the most rigorous logic. He rarely revealed the materials of his think- ing in the rough. He disclosed only the finished product. This was true of small matters as well as great. Thus his views were uniformly expressed with a certain sententiousness that made them impressive upon other minds. He was very positive in his conclusions when reached, and held them with great tenacity, yet with no disposition to obtrude them upon IN MEMORIAM. 107 others who might differ from him. His learniDg was copious, choice, and serviceable. In the line of his special studies his scholarship was critical, profound, and accurate. Every intel- lectual task was performed with the most conscientious fidelity. As an instance of this, when he accepted his appointment as one of the revisers of the Church Hymnal, he gave to the work his absorbed attention through an entire vacation — possibly by these strenuous labors hastening that fatal event which makes sad so many hearts to-day. "But, back of the rich and cultured intellect, was a spirit so pure, so elevated, so genial, so unselfish, that words seem empty and powerless to express its nobleness. A more unself- ish soul I never knew; never asking aught for himself, ever considerate of the interests of his associates and friends. Words and acts of this sainted man, too sacred for publicity, wonderfully drew my own heart toward him. And so there is upon me to-day — and doubtless others share the feeling — an oppressive sense of loneliness. Bannister gone, Hemenway gone! The old familiar places seem vacant and unutterably sad without them. The Holy Oracles themselves seem almost mute, now that their voices are hushed in the stillness of the tomb. "I can not close without referring in a word to the relig- ious character of our departed friend. He has been well-nigh a life-long Christian. The religious life in him was thoroughly pervasive. It seemed to penetrate every fiber of his moral being. Without being demonstrative or strongly emotional, his nature seemed thoroughly possessed of an intelligent, genial, soul-satisfying piety." Rev. Dr. Miner Raymond was the next speaker. He said that, having been associated for nearly a score of years with Dr. Hemenway in the work of teaching, it seemed not inappropriate that he should say a few words of him as a teacher: "A successful teacher is familiar with what he teaches; not merelv with those outlines of fundamental ideas which 108 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. thinkers, not specialists, are wont to have, but he must be familiar with the minutiae and the details of his profession. More than this, all sciences interpenetrate, yet they may be classified in clusters, since some of them are more intimately related to each other than they are to others. The teacher must, therefore, be qualified to point out both these intimate and these remote relations. In a word, he must be a man of "broad culture. "Again, the successful teacher must be 'apt to teach;' he must have what is in common parlance called 'tact,' which is more of the nature of an endowment than of an acquirement. It is a sort of genius, by which its possessor can come down from above to the plane of the pupil, and, through sympathy with the pupil's requirements, get power to direct his thinking and lead him upward. "The successful teacher must be an enthusiast in the specialty that engages his attention. It is true, a man other- wise qualified for his work may, from a conscientious sense of duty, be so faithful and efiicient as to be successful, but evi- dently it will be far better if his heart is interested in what he does. This is true in any avocation in life. One whose work is drudgery to him will accomplish but little that is val- uable. Even if a worker's enthusiasm is inspired by an over- estimate of the relative value of his work as compared with that of other employments, still it will be no detriment to his efficiency and s access, but contrariwise will be every way ad- vantageous. But, be this as it may, surely the teacher of re- ligion has, in the intrinsic value of his work, a rational basis for the most intense interest. "Dr. Hemenway possessed all the endowments and attain- ments of which we have spoken, in an eminent degree, so that it may be said that he had few equals. " I wish to say a word of his interest in the personal wel- fare of the students. Somehow he succeeded in making an early acquaintance with them, sympathized with them in their wants and wishes, aided them as opportunity and ability al- lowed, was their friend while here, and followed them in their after history ; always evincing an undying, all-absorbing, un- selfish interest in their welfare. IN MEMORIAM. 109 " As an associate, I may say of him : His counsels were wise and were usually adopted ; but if conclusions were differ- ent, his co-operation was invariably cordial. In all these years of my association with him, never an action performed, nor a word said, nor an intimation, look, or expression, has come from him that has made upon me the least unpleasant impression. Our intercourse from the beginning unto the end has been characterized by unsullied, undisturbed reciprocity. "As I stand here to-day, I ask myself — can any one in- quire, Is life worth living? If the inquiry be made, surely the only answer possible, looking upon that coffin, and mindful of the history of him whose remains it contains, is that life may be made not only worth the living, but of incalculable value to him who lives it. But we can not avoid the reflection that that which makes our earthly existence of value to us, is the fact that it is inseparably connected with immortality. The present can not be adequately conceived apart from the future. Hence we think of the body here and of the spirit yonder. I seem by faith to see the three who have gone — Dempster, Ban- nister, and Hemenway. If the lives these have lived, the his- tories they have made, be the first-fruits of man's being, what must the full harvest be? If this be visible in the early dawn, what shall these be in the perfect day ? Dr. Hemenway has gone, and we would not call him back — our hearts say, Go, my brother; to thee to die is eternal gain; go, and farewell till I come to thee." Professor Bradley spoke in behalf of the alumni as follows : " It is my privilege to bring here a brief tribute to the teacher we revered and the friend we loved. I know I cannot represent all who have been blessed by his instructions or in- spired by his friendship. Yet imperfect and hasty as this offering to his memory must be, it is at least fragrant with precious recollections and inspired by the sincerest admiration and love. '' First among the powerful impressions which Dr. Hem- enway made upon us, his pupils, I place the emphasis which he ever laid, by precept and example, upon the sacred and 110 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. precious character of truth. 'Buy the truth and sell it not;' ' buy it at all cost and sell it not at any price,' were his injunc- tions. Because God's word is truth, because Christ is 'the truth,' they deserve absolute allegiance from us. Sham, pre- tention, and deception he abhorred. As in doctrine so in character, he demanded, as chief and fundamental, genuine- ness, sincerity, and truth. To many of us, I am sure, he made the truth more sacred and supreme. From this characteristic and unswerving devotion to truth sprang, I believe, other im- portant traits of character, such as his fidelity to duty, loyalty to his convictions, his skill and justice as a critic, his clear and accurate judgment, and his marvelous power of analysis. *' For some years delicate health has combined with other causes to bar him from any regular attention to general soci- ety. His home, the Institute, and the church are the three points through which the perfect circle of his life has been drawn. But how minutely faithful he was to all his duties in these! No man could love his home and his family more de- votedly. In the public and social services of the church he was ever active and ever welcome ; but for more than twenty- five years the class-room in the Institute has been the center of his life. The professor's chair has been his throne of power. In my experience East and West, as student and teacher, I have known of no one who seemed to me more ac- curate, more inspiring, or more impressive as a teacher. He did not emphasize forms and methods, he did not relish the routine of a drill-master, but the spirit and power of the sub- jects with which he dealt were ever present in his lecture- room. He imparted to us his life, his spirit, his experience. It was living truth which he wished us to appropriate — truth to be experienced by the heart, to become vital and capable of imparting life, so that the preaching might be, in substance, the preacher's own testimony, a personal experience of Him who is the truth and the life. " It is not easy to be intensely loyal to one's own church and still broad and just in one's appreciation of other branches of the church of Christ. Dr. Hemenway's example helps us solve this problem. He could enjoy the silence of a Quaker service; he warmly admired the character of the Cougrega- IN ME 310 R I AM. HI tional ministry; he preferred the simple rites with which the Presbyterians celebrate the Lord's supper ; he commended for imitation the spirit of reverence and worship so prominent with the Episcopalians ; he warmly cherished his own cordial . relations with sister churches here and elsewhere ; and yet how intensely loyal he was to his own beloved church ! ' No one,' I have heard him say, ' no one could be happier or more per- fectly contented in his church relations than I am.' He loved the apostolic spirit and fervent hymns and testimonies of Methodism, and was in perfect accord with the doctrines of his church. He was catholic in his sympathies and loyal in his personal allegiance. " He taught his pupils to value and use logical analysis. Every subject he took up was divided with such clearness and discrimination that we felt he was not applying an artificial system, but, with wonderful insight, discovering the actual joints and cleavage of the truth. " In all Dr. Hemenway's instructions he held before us clearly defined and lofty ideals. And then how sound was his practical judgment! He had extensive and accurate learning; but he had more than knowledge— he had wisdom. The power ' to see things as they are, and to do things as they ought .to be done,' was his in a marked degree. His strong common sense, sanctified and consecrated to the holiest ends, was a tower of strength to all who sought its help. "I think that no one part of Dr. Hemenway's great nature was less widely understood than the depth of his sympathy and the warmth of his heart. He was not demonstrative, and he did not ask demonstration in return. He had a warmer ap- preciation of his students than they generally knew. He sel- dom praised them to their faces, but in this he was consistent. No doubt he valued appreciation; but it would have been im- possible to deceive him with flattery, and it was most difficult to praise him. He would turn aside the sincerest words of admiration. He was naturally reserved; but let the slightest appeal of real need touch what seemed a wall of reserve, and there came forth refreshing streams of wise counsel and heart- felt sympathy. Where shall we turn for one to fill his place when we desire again such sympathy and advice as he has 112 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. given us? Perhaps the freest sign of tlie inner warmth of his nature came out in his use and exposition of our hymns. He cultivated in the hearts of some of us a new love for these ex- pressions of Christian feeling; and among his favorites were those which breathed the most ardent love for Christ. "There is a deep regret to-day, mingled with our sorrow, that more of the results of Dr. Hemen way's rare powers and great attainments have not been written and published, so as to be more wide-reaching in their blessed influence. How well we recall the liours w^ien he stood before us pouring forth a wealth of thought enshrined in the choicest forms of expression, 'apples of gold in pictures of silver,' or like show- ers of pearls, a few of which w^e saved, while the greater part was lost. We can hardly endure the thought of such a seem- ing waste. We treasure our small savings as more precious than jewels. But our very regret should be to us an inspira- tion. I think that Dr. Hemenway underestimated the unique force of his own utterances, but he held the truths which he presented as immeasurably precious. Nothing would have more fully met his wishes, or proved a more fitting memorial to him we love and mourn, than our grasping those truths and living them in his spirit. So shall his influence live as he would most desire. We may overestimate the influence of books, but not of living epistles. In and through our lives the teachings of our translated instructor may live and multi- ply till the end of time. To-day many a one of us makes the prayer of Elisha his own : ' I pray thee let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.' " Rev. Lewis Curts, pastor of the Evanston Church, spoke of the relations of Dr. Hemenway to the church and to the pastor in Evanston : " We could think of him as a man of broad culture ; but we may thank God that he was not too broad for the prayer- meeting. The Sunday-school teachers, the superintendent, and the church thank GcKl that Dr. Hemenway never grew to be above the Sunday-school. He was one of the most cul- tured in the art of sacred song, and yet he did not become so IN MEMORIAM. 113 refined in his ideas of music that he was not willing to sing with the great congregation or the little class-meeting or the little prayer-meeting. We think of him as a great teacher; and yet every one who has been his pastor will thank God that Dr. Hemenway was willing to sit in his pew and be taught, imperfect as his teachers might be. How the pastor will miss his encouraging look, miss his voice in song! How he will be missed in the Sunday-school, missed every where ! How appropriate is this harp of flowers! He has in his hands a golden harp to-day, and sings the song of Moses and the Lamb. This beautiful chair is a symbol of his throne of power while here ; but I hear the word of the Mas- ter saying: 'To him that overcometh will I grant to sit down with me in my throne.' He has gone from us, but he is with the church of the first-born and the spirits of just men made perfect. It will be but a little while before we shall meet him." The services in the church were concluded by singing the hymn, '^ Rock of ages, cleft for me.^' The burial took place in Rose Hill Cemetery, where the services were conducted by the Rev. Dr. Ridgaway. The following minute was drawn up by Dr. Ridg- away at the request of the faculty of the Institute : "Within the short space of another year we, as a faculty, mourn the loss of another one of our colleagues. A year ago it was the veteran and revered Dr. Bannister, who was sud- denly removed from our side, at the end of a career longer than that which is usually allotted to diligent workers; now it is our beloved Dr. Hemenway, who falls in the fullness of his powers, and at an age when, in the course of nature, there was reason to hope for him many more years of active usefulness. Words are insufficient to express the deep sense of sorrrow which we feel in view of the loss we have sustained in this added be- reavement. The fewness of our numbers as a faculty, the closeness of our relations, the identity of our work, the sym- pathy of our aims, and the oneness of our faith, bring about an 114 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. « intimacy and kindliness of intercourse which make us like one family, so that we grieve for his death as for a near kinsman, as though, indeed, the dark shadow had fallen upon the hearth- stone of each of us. "AVe grieve the more, however, because of the immeas- urable loss which the Institute has sustained. While gratefully recognizing the immense and truly admirable work which he accomplished, a work in which he lives to-day in hundreds of his former students, and which is his most fitting monument, yet we had fondly anticipated that the work hitherto done was but the broad foundation for a still nobler superstructure He had acquired a ripeness of scholarship, a richness of experi- ence, a facility of expression, an ascendency over mind — that comes alone from thorough mastery — which must have made his instructions, in the very difficult and important department of Biblical exegesis, of inestimable benefit with every succeed- ing year. To speak of the loss sustained in his own particular department, is but meagerly to state the whole calamity which has befallen our cherished school. His entire being was wrought into its structure and history. Identified with it from youth, he was with it in its small beginnings, had stood by it in all its vicissitudes, and through all his vigorous manhood he served it with a zeal that knew no abatement, a wisdom which was never at fault, and a conscientiousness that allowed neither slackness nor diversion. He could not for a moment separate himself from Garrett; and, consequently, all that he was — in the spiritual and moral excellence of his character as a man and Christian, the force and beauty of his eloquence as a preacher of the gospel, the exactness, depth, and variety of his attainments, in his marvelous power of Biblical exposition, both as writer and teacher, in his scrupulous fidelity to all the public and private duties of life— he belonged to the Institute, and helped mightily to augment its fair fame and usefulness. His life is another striking illustration of the law that con- centration is the grand element of strength, and that he lives the most who most truly loves God and serves his fellow- creatures. " In parting with the bodily presence of this our honored co-laborer in the sacred employment to which the church had IN MEMORIAM. 115 called him and us, we cheerfully bear this tribute to his mem- ory to be recorded on our minutes. We would also assure Mrs. Hemenway, the sons, and all surviving kindred, of our heart-felt sympathy in their affliction, and of our sincere prayers that the God whom he adored, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, may be their unfailing strength." The news of Dr. Hemen way's death caused wide- spread surprise and sorrow. Letters and resolutions of sympathy sent to the family showed the extent of this public bereavement. The Vermont conference, his old home conference, received the intelligence while in session, and hastened to express its sorrow and sympathy and high appreciation of his character.* An eye-witness wrote: "Such a thrill as went through the Vermont conference, when the telegram announc- ing Dr. Hemenway's death was read, I never wit- nessed before." (Rev. Ezra Walker.) The trustees of the Institute resolved "that the school, where he has so long and faithfully labored, and to whose in- terests he was so thoroughly devoted, has sustained an irreparable loss, and that the cause of sacred learn- ing has been deprived of one of its brightest orna- ments. By his thorough scholarship, marvelous ana- lytical and critical methods, hundreds of young men, preparing for the ministry, have gained a clearer in- sight into the divine word. By the singular noble- ness of his character, he has illustrated the power and blessedness of divine grace." f The Chicago Preachers' Meeting t and the Alumni Association of *The committee consisted of Rev. Drs. J. C. W. Coxe and A. L. Cooper. t Signed by Mr. Orrington Lunt, Secretary. t Their committee was: Revs. A. W. Patton, D. D., N. H. Axlell, D. D., and W. H. Holmes. 116 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. the Institute* passed similar resolutions. The Con- gregational church at Glencoe, and the South Evans- ton Methodist Episcopal church, expressed in strong terms their love and admiration for their former pastor. The press of Evanston and Chicago, and the Meth- odist papers throughout the church, gave suitable recog- nition to the public and connectional interest in Dr. Hemenway^s life and death. Yet even the notices in the Methodist Advocates showed that his modest and retiring nature had prevented an adequate apprecia- tion of his unique character. The following is con- densed from an article in the 3Iichigan Christian Ad- vocate, by the Rev. Charles M. Stuart: "It is almost impossible for one with the freshness of the loss upon him to speak calmly or judicially of his qualities as a man and teacher. So striking were they that, even under circumstances less trying to the judgment, it would be difficult to set them forth adequately without seeming, to those not ac- quainted with him, extravagantly eulogistic. No man, how- ever, could better afford to dispense with obituary honors. His undying eulogy will be found in the hearts of a gener- ation of students into whom he breathed the love of virtue and the enthusiasm of a true science. "As a teacher, perhaps nothing was more characteristic than his precision. In every detail of the class-room he was exact, methodical. Upon the stroke of the hour he was at his desk, and his mild look of rebuke to late comers was in itself a picturesque lecture on punctuality. Prodigal enough of his own time, for the sake of his students he never traded a mo- ment upon theirs. This habit was carried, with excellent effect, into his use of language. His lectures on Biblical Intro- duction, could they be reproduced as he delivered them, would be models of precision and lucidity of statement. He recog- *Revs. T. B. Hilton and A. W, Patten, D. D., committee. IN MEMORIAM. 117 nized that no two words were exactly synonymous, and his selection seemed to us Uttle less than the choice of a conscience profoundly impressed with the moral quality of speech. So, too, in thought. In him there was no confusion of ideas. He knew what he knew, and the grounds of his knowledge ; and he was quick to discern the student's uncertainty ahout the things he thought he knew. His precision in quoting author- ities was also notable. He fully shared Sumner's high scorn of the trick of quoting a man's words to the distortion of his idea. " As a teacher, Professor Hemenway was not only precise, but positive and conservative. One element of his strength was the tenacity with which he held^to old and tested truths. Novelty was not with him a reason for change of opinion. So-called ' new ' truths were canvassed and weighed. If their claims were valid he gave adherence, not because they were new, but because they were true. Eager for all light wliich modern research might throw upon Biblical questions, he was conservative of the old standards, and duly impressed his pupils with the value, in times of agitation and controversy, of making haste slowly in forming conclusions diflferent from the old and well-established. To an information which to us students seemed encyclopedic, he added the teacher's crown- ing quality: the ability to inspire enthusiasm for study. A poor recitation in his class was the exception, and anything like indifference to the subject under consideration was im- possible. "Highly valued as Professor Hemenway was as a teacher, he was not less esteemed as a man. Only by tiis intimates could the real beauty of his character be appreciated. He was prevented, by ill-health and family duties, from being dis- tinguished in the social circle, which he would have adorned by his disposition and attainments. His interest in the per- sonal concern of the students was unremitting and almost womanly in its tenderness. Many a young man carries to his work to-day the inspiring remembrance of this good man's cheerful and helpful counsel and advice. His virtues were of the rugged order. The wells of affection were deep in him. His emotional nature was rich and profound. His lack, if 118 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. lack it be considered, was in the display of his feelings. He was self-contained to a fault. "Once only did I hear him preach. It was during a re- vival in First church, Evanston. The exhortation was most touching. He spoke extemporaneously. His sentences were short, direct, simple ; his elocution at first nervous and some- what over-accentuated ; his gestures few but emphatic. When fairly launched on his subject the periods lengthened, the voice became charged with emotion, and the climax reached in thrilling impressiveness. "And now he is gone! But he is not dead to us who knew him as man and teacher. He gave us his own best nature, and by so much made us better. The grave receives his mortal body, but the immortal self lives •Embalmed in memory, with things that are holy, By the Spirit that is undying.' " The number of letters received from the alumni and other friends by the family and the Committee of Publication is very large, and there is a remarkable unanimity in the expression made. A few might well stand as types for all. They have deepened and confirmed the impression made by the man himself. Since all can not be quoted without filling the vol- ume, we must content ourselves with typical extracts from a limited number. I know he sometimes felt that the students misunderstood him, and that the relation of a teacher seemed to him less cordial than that of a pastor. We may hope that he knows now the gratitude and affection which the following ex- tracts express. A missionary in China writes : " I owe to him a lasting debt of gratitude for the exact- ness and thoroughness of his instructions. The ex- ample of his devoted and sensible Christian life is a constant help to one who is called upon to deal with IN MEMORIAM. 119 all sorts and conditions of men, especially in a heathen land/^^ From India comes this testimony: "The class-meetings in Heck Hall were always rich sea- sons to my soul because he led thera."^ From other letters we cull the following brief tributes : " His ex- position of hymns, the sweetness of his singing, and the cheerfidness of his religious experience made the class-meetings of the Institute most enjoyable."^ " His sermons were models of pith and purity, and would invariably draw an exceptional audience."^ " His words, his singing, and every movement have been a precious inspiration to me many times since I left Evanston."^ "I learned to love him ardently, and his instruction and personality produced a greater impression upon me than those of any other man, except my father/^ ^ "I learned to prize his teachings so highly that I tried to preserve in writing almost every- thing which I heard from his lips."^ " I have ever re- membered the service he rendered me by wise coun- sel at a critical time with sincere gratitude.'^ ^ " The fragrance of his holy life has gone out into all the church/'^ "I shall ever feel thankful to God for having known him as an instructor and friend/' ^^ " His clear discernment of truth and precise state- ment of it, his warm and genuine sympathy, and his personal interest in me, made him the one man of all living to whom I have looked for instruc- tion, counsel, and help in my life-work. ''" "He was one of the great standard-bearers of the church. No 1 Rev. M. C. Wilcox. 2R,ev. J. C. Lawson. s Rev. E. G. W. Hall. *Prof. John Poucher, D. D. SRev. Wm. Dawe. « Rev. E M. Glas- gow. 7 Prof. E. M. Holmes, s Rev. A. L. Cooper, D. D. sRev.O.L. Fisher. lORev. J. S, Chad wick, D. D. " Rev. A. E. Griffith. 120 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. death outside of my family could have come nearer to me.^' 12 a ]yjy beloved teacher, my true and gracious friend, my trusted counselor, my inspiring exem- plar." ^^ *' His firm, calm simplicity of manner and conversation, and his exalted Christian character, made a deep impression on my mind." ^^ ^' The in- fluence ot a few words he spoke to me one day, years ago, in the library of the Institute, has been the source of almost measureless support and encourage- ment during trials since. Some day I hope to tell him how much he did lor me."^^ The expressions of other friends were not less emphatic. Names can not well be given here, and only a few sentences may be quoted. A gentleman in whose home he was entertained during a General Conference wrote : ^^ His presence with us was a ben- ediction." A parishioner at Montpelier, Vt. : '^ How much my life has been enriched by his ministry here, only the eternal years can measure." A minister who was never his pupil wrote: "I, among thousands, am also a debtor to Dr. Hemenway, whose influence I felt long before I met him." From other letters are culled the following : "Whenever he spoke, his words came to me like a benediction." "To Dr. Hemenway I owe more for spiritual progress and insight than to any other one person." But the veil can not be drawn from the per- sonal sorrow and love which such a death discloses to those most deeply bereaved. A neighbor and friend for thirty years said: "O, if you could only tell how "Prof. E. L. Parks, D. D. i«Rev. C. H, Morgan, Ph. D. "Rev. M. M. McCreigbt. >6Rev. J. W. Richards. IN MEMORIAM. 121 much we loved him!'' But when we attempt to ex- press the deep things of life, the vahie of pure and unselfish character, the power of noble and consistent Christian living, the delight one feels in the fit em- bodiment in words of true and beautiful thought, the affection which a great and good friend inspires, then we realize that we are attempting the impossible. To the alumni of the Institute, whose admiration for Dr. Hemenway has occasioned this volume, no words spoken here will seem extravagant. They are much more likely to be regarded inadequate. They might appear to other readers the unstinted praises ot admiring pupils, unless accompanied by the testi- mony of those not under such obligations, and with a broader knowledge of men and things. Such wit- ness we have from the Rev. Dr. Arthur Edwards, editor of the No rthic ester n Christian Advocate; the Rev. Dr. J. M. Buckley, editor of the Christian Ad- vocate; Miss Jane M. Bancroft, Ph. D., formerly Dean of the AVoman's College, in Evanston ; Miss Frances E. Willard; the Rev. Dr. Isaac Crook, of Louisville, Ky. ; and Mr. Frank P. Crandon, of Evanston. Each contribution tells its own interest- ing and valuable story. DR. EDWARDS. One's regard for a man like Dr. Hemenway is very sure to be of the most genuine quality. Certain men attract irre- sistibly ; and he who is attracted, sometimes finds at last that he has been a victim of his own self-interest. Other men seem to attract because they are unselfish, and you may be sure that your regard for them is solely a tribute to their genuine worth. Dr. Hemenway won his friends slowly, but they were quite sure to remain friendly to the end. I knew him at arms'- 9 122 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. length for some A^ears, but our common service on the com- mittee to prepare the Hymnal, now in use by the church, brought us closely together. Of course I found him true in all our formal relations, but I felt drawn to him by reason of the deeper man which lay concealed at first beneath the surface of the outer personality. To most people he seemed reticent; but he was, in fact, one of the most sociable and ready talkers I have ever known. Once you broke the outer crust, you were sure to discover a thorough companion, if indeed you were entitled to the discovery and the confidence it implied. Our long journeys to the committee's meetings, and protracted service together, revealed to me, and to all the committee, one of the rarest men in our own or any other church. The Doctor was grave in demeanor; but in the restful moments we gave ourselves in the intervals of close work, he joined in the fun wdth a zest which is one of the best proofs of the genuine dignity in a confident, self-poised, and candid man. True humor often consists in the intentional violation of logical re- lations ; and the genuine humorist, by the very excellence of his fun, manifests the firm texture of his mind. In the mo- ments of which I speak, the heart and brain of Dr. Hemenway were often revealed at their best, and I am sure that those of the committee who survive enjoy the memories of our recrea- tion somewhat as they do those of our soberer work. Some men "go to pieces" in your estimation because of what is re- vealed when humorous intercourse has put them ofi" their guard. Look into Dr. Hemen way's heart or head, however, through whatever window, you were sure to discover nothing but the strong, the good, and the pure. He was instinctively a devout man. Sometimes, to try a hymn, or to get at the "understanding" with which it should be sung, we often gave it voice in two or three or more verses. I can now see him, with head thrown back, perhaps with closed eyes, as he en- tered into the spiritual interpretation of the lines we were pre- paring for the use of the church. His heart would take fire, and his strong voice was our leading soprano as we rolled forth the noble words of the poets of Methodism. Dr. Hemenway worked with a conscience. No labor was too great or pro- tracted when needed to place the text of a disputed line in IN MEMORIAM. 123 proper form. He had a genius for painstaking investigation, and, like all the rest of the world's busy men, he was called upon to do the world's extra work. He did not appear at his best when on parade, but in the uneventful corners of vital efficiency he made the success of the church's armies possible. When God promoted him to his reward, the world lost a really great man. I held him in highest estimate and loving regard. I would have freely trusted him in the highest place within the gift of the church. He was a pastor, and has aided to shape hundreds of pastors, and he was equal to the office and work of our pastors of pastors. Dr. Hemenway was pure in heart, simple-minded, devout, ambitious only in the highest and best sense, and he had that highest type of genuine catholicity which prefers his own church for the sake of all the churches. I hallow his memory, for, in all best respects, it is as ointment poured forth. DR. BUCKLKY. The request to write a few words concerning the late Pro- fessor F. D. Hemenway, preferred to me by the compilers of this memorial, has respect doubtless to that intimate relation subsisting between us in the work of revising the Methodist Hymn-book; for, prior to that time, it had not been my for- tune to have more than a passing acquaintance with him. I consider it an abundant reward for the time and labor ex- pended upon that work, that it brought me into contact with so many earnest and devoted representatives of different sec- tions and spheres ot activity in the church. It soon became apparent that the design of the bishops to make the committee of fifteen truly representative, had been accomplished. The place filled by Professor Hemenway could not have been taken by any other. His death, or inability to serve, would have left the revisers without the counsel of a critic than whom none was more discriminating, painstaking, conscientious, or kindly. During the first few weeks after the organization, to a stranger he might have seemed somewhat finical; but this re- sulted from a transient reserve, which exhibited only his in- tense devotion to truth, even in details, without the bmhomie 124 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. which on further acquaintance lit up his communications, as rays of sunlight bring out the colors in a somber landscape, and change its whole aspect. Many students exhaust their energy in sedentary habits and laborious application to monotonous work. Chronically languid, they are not able to display their knowledge attract- ively, or to hold attention while they present carefully formed opinions. It was not so with Professor Hemenway. He spoke upon recondite points with the vivacity of earnest conversa- tion; received contradiction meekly, defending his positions strongly ; and acknowledging an error, if found in one — which was rarely the case — with thanks. Understanding music, he considered every hymn, not only with respect to its sentiment, but its adaptation to Christian song in the family, the Sabbath-school, the prayer meeting, and the worship of the great congregation. Yet he often re- marked that the Hymnal served an important purpose as a volume of devotional reading; and that it should not be for- gotten that many an invalid would read these compositions, and they would be the delight of the aged and infirm, and the instruction and entertainment of many who are not able to sing. His taste was exquisite. We learned to look for the exhi- bition of the hidden beauties of a composition, if there were any, and for a prompt and convincing exposure of essential defects. Nor did he lose sight of the substance of truth. He was not one of those who would sacrifice for a beautiful figure a strong statement. If possible, he would unite them ; but I recall several occasions when he said : " The hymn is met- rically and musically almost* perfect ; but it is too weak — it con- tains nothing nourishing." Professor Hemenway distin- guished between sentimentality and spirituality, and desired that, without the loss of true sentiment, ever helpful to spir- ituality, every hymn sung by the church might be a proper vehicle for devout aspiration, thankfulness, petition, or peni- tential confession. To speak of his reverent spirit will seem to those who knew him well superfluous; but as the purpose of these words is not merely to remind his friends of him, but to enable IN MEMORIAM. 125 others to know why they loved him, I will definitely state that in two years and a half close intercourse with him, by correspondence and in conversation, in hours of work and hours of ease, I never heard from him' a word which would have been incompatible with an immediate transition to the most solemn act of devotion. Yet there was nothing somber; the "light of smiles" often played upon his features. His tenderness was not weakness, his strength not coarseness, his wit not lightness, nor his mirth levity. Upon questions of expediency he was not pertinacious ; upon those of principle he was immovable, yet more solicit- ous to be convinced of truth than to prevail in controversy. In the report submitted to the bishops and published to the church, the discussion of new hymns was committed to Dr. Hemenway, and in its preparation his qualities as a thinker and writer appear at their best. On an important sub-committee he was associated with Professor Harrington and the writer, who alone survives, and writes these words with feelings in which a sense of the un- certainty of life blends with an encouraging conviction of the permanence of work done for Christ, and the value of a hope that personality is not destroyed when this "mortal shall have put on immortality." MISS BANCROFT. In the various relations of daily living. Dr. Hemenway was honored and loved by all. A sincere and faithful friend, a professor of careful and exact scholarship, a Christian of un- obtrusive yet fervent piety, the record that he left is plain and open — it can be read by all. Yet there is no personality that completely reveals itsel to another; "as Thebes of old, so has the soul her hundred gates;" and when one swings ajar, and we have glimpses within, yet they are but glimpses, and we can only wonder and conjecture as to what we do not see. Yet by combining the glances of insight of many friends of varying nature, we shall obtain a more complete conception of a rarely lovable person- ality — a personality that veiled itself in a degree by reticent dignity and quiet composure. 126 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. I had the privilege of counting Dr. Hemenway among my friends for a number of years ; and yet I ever remember him by preference on the few occasions when I reached below the surface, and obtained a slight knowledge of the thoughts he was thinking, or the motives which impelled him. One day we were returning from church together, and were talking of the sermon, with its lesson of trust in Divine Providence — a trust that should stand firm, even if the out- ward conditions of life failed to bring home the conviction of a loving Father's care. " It is the eternal question," I said, " coming anew to every generation, fresh to every human soul, as though long centu- ries of tired, troubled men had not struggled to attain the cer- tain assurance — 'God is my Father; he has personal, loving care for me.' " ** Yes," he answered ; " and what a blessed truth it is that so many seeking souls have found the answer ! It was meant to come home to every one; each man must face it for himself. God presents us difficulties in life so as to educate us in trust. It is a ceaselessly recurring question, because it is the vital one of life." " Yes, there is witness of this in all countries and at all times," I responded, and then quoted Whittier's poem on the German mystic, Tauler, of mediaeval times: " Taaler, the preacher, walked one autumn day, Without the walls of Strasburg, by the Rhine, Pondering the solemn miracle of life; And as he walked, he prayed even the same Old prayer, with which for half a score of years- Morning, noon, and evening— lip and heart Had groaned : 'Have pity upon me. Lord ; Thou seest, while teaching others, I am blind.' " "O, that is one of mj?^ poems," he said. And taking up the lines where I left them, he quoted stanza after stanza, show- ing a wonderful exactness of verbal memory. "This is the heart of the poem," and he repeated in a slow and meas- ured way : " What hell may be, I know not ; this I know— I can not lose the presence of the Lord, IN MEMORIAM. 127 One arm, Humility, takes liold upon His dear Humanity ; tiie otlier, Love, Clasps his Divinity. So where I go, Jle goes; and better fire- walled hell with him Thau golden-gated paradise Avithout." " And this, a most beautiful conclusion of the whole matter: ' So darkness in the pathway of man's life Is but the shadow of God's providence. By the great Sun of Wisdom cast thereon ; And what is dai'k below is light in heaven.' "' As he spoke I felt with subtle sympathy, "That poem has had its message to you as it has to me— a comforting one — giving the assurance that to his own, God will reveal himself." Then there is another glimpse I cherish well in memory. I had asked Dr. Hemenway to come to our Wednesday even- ing service at the Woman's College, to give us some of the treasures of his rare knowledge of the hymns of the church. He accepted the invitation, and when he came, the entire even- ing was devoted to a song-service, made up of the hymns that had been written by women authors. Each hymn had its own explanation as to how, when, and where written ; then followed gentle words of encouragement to the young college girls, in- citing them to service for Christ's church, and, if possible, also to write words of praise and thanksgiving to be treasured in sacred song. They w^ere only a few words, but listened to with closest attention. Afterward, as I considered the thoughtful tact in the choice of the hymns, and the wise, stimulating words of en- couragement that had been said, I obtained another glimpse into a nature quick to see and ready to respond to every oppor- tunity for working good. These facts may seem but slight testimonials when com- pared with the far wider tributes that many will give— trib- utes of words and deeds that were known and recognized as sources of power in a wide range of influence — but such as I have I give ; fragrant, blessed memories, that will be treasured by me, and shared by others, while life lasts. 128 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. MISS WILLARD. The life of Dr. Hemenway was set to music. His dome- like head, trim figure, quick, measured step, and voice remark- able for rhythm, were the insignia of a spirit full of cadences and melody. I used to think that in him a tone-master was spoiled to make a scholar. Had his physical vigor equaled his psychic sensibility, he would have wrought out in a long life something in music beyond the realm of Methodism. As it is, he takes rank, for our time, as the first hymnologist of the church, concerning which he often said it was "beloved by him beyond his chief joy." When he raised the tune for us in love-feast, prayer- or class-meeting — and I heard him do so hundreds of times — we all felt that the act was one of worship. Dr. Hemenway was of a rarely reticent nature, and per- sons of frank and enthusiastic make-up did not always feel sure that he approved of them ; but it was only the surface recoil of unlikd* temperaments. Take my own case : Our homes were but a block or two apart for twenty years, yet, be- yond the kindly greeting of passers-by, we almost never met except in class-meeting, where for some time he was my leader, and beloved as almost no other has been since I became a daughter of the church. In my journals of those days, as in my sister Mary's, allusions to him are frequent, and always in appreciative terms. Take the following from mine by way of illustration: Autumn of 1869: Evening. Have just returned from class- meeting, where I went with Oliver as in the pleasant days of last spring. Professor Hemenway was as kind and candid as ever. The room was cozy, the lamp and table and pictures were just as usual. But the one with whom I used to go to class-meeting was far away. My brother prayed very sweetly and earnestly. Professor Hemenway uttered one sentence that particularh' attracted my attention. He said: " We have strength only because we are joined to him who is strong." In appearance and conduct, in character and achievement, this unique and noble man gave to all who knew him a sense of symmetry hardly paralleled in my acquaintance. He was IN MEBIORIAM. 129 one whose presence warmed the spirit. The ray was not of sunshine, but of purest starlight, and I always felt it was a beam so true and kindly that it was good to follow, even as that at Bethlehem, which led always straight to Christ. He was a man to be confided in. When three of my best beloved — father, sister, and brother — passed away. Dr. Hem- enway's presence, his voice, his participation in the last serv- ices, brought solace to the hearts that sorrowed, though we saw^ him only in the pulpit and at the grave. Tuneful and sweet, that remarkable voice has memorably fallen on my ear in tender cadences as Dr. Hemenway walked up the church aisle, leading the funeral procession, and uttering the words, " I am the resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live." There was the stead- iness of absolute conviction in those tender tones. He was a man to trust — a man to seek in time of trouble. He was a royal counselor and a choice critic. When I started out to speak without manuscript or notes, I asked him to let me rehearse before him, and, at his suggestion, we went up to University Hall, where, in Professor Cumnock's recitation- room (in which that generous friend and brother had trained me many a time). Dr. Hemenway seated himself, paper and pencil in hand, carefully noting his points of commendation and of criticism for an hour or more. Meanwhile I pictured him to myself as a large audience, and tried to speak precisely as I would have done had he needed to be saved from the errors of his ways, or aroused to the exigencies of the situa- tion and enlisted as a soldier in "every body's Avar." Noth- ing could exceed liis gentle faithfulness in telling me the im- pressions made upon his trained and w^ell-poised mind, from w^hich statements I have tried to profit. When I had heard all that he had to saj'-, we went our several ways, and I had few other opportunities for conversation with him. But there are hymns that I shall never sing without per- ceiving him before me with his lofty brow and spiritual coun- tenance, and chief among them is his favorite : " Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom, Lead thou me on." 130 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. DR. CROOK. I write not as a pupil, but as a learner and admirer. I met Dr. Hemenway at Minneapolis, at a theological confer- ence. He was its very able conductor. There, as often else- where, there seemed to me an exactness and precision, bear- ing the appearance of coldness and severity; but there was withal an affability and manliness very admirable. In the progress of the discussions he occasionally gave clear-cut statements, which I have carried and found entering into my ministry. Among others he said in substance: *' I accept the Bible because I find Christ in it and indorsing it. I do not accept any thing primarily because I find it in the Bible." I may not represent him precisely, but he made it clear and precise. He gave one evening to the then new hymnal, to the compiling of which he had devoted possibly more rea hard work than any one of the committee. It was a great feast to hear his rich comments and look at many of the hymns through the hght of his intelligent enthusiasm. He afterward said to me, at our place of entertainment, that Lytle's hymn, " Abide with me," was the finest composition in English hymnology. I never behold the hymn without see- ing his clear-cut, pensive features, and hearing the tones of "a voice that is still." MR. CRANDON. For several years Dr. Hemenway was actively associated with me in Sunday-school work. As a Bible-class instructor, and as the leader of our teachers' meetings, I never knew his peer. His exposition of Scripture was clear, forcible, and exhaustive. His diction was elegant, and his method of discussion secured the undivided attention of his audience. He never seemed to utter a superfluous word, yet at the close of any of his exercises, every person who had listened to him felt that nothing which was worth the saying had been left unsaid. His resources seemed to be almost illimitable. Our teach- ers' meetings occurred on Saturday evenings. As a matter of course it often happened that the Doctor taught a Bible-class IN MEMORIAM. 1^1 on f^unday the lesson which he Imd expounded at the teachers' meeting the evening before. The two audiences would be reposed in part of the same persons. I never knew h,m o pursL the san,e method of exposition or to "- ^^^^ ^ iuHrations, or to repeat to any considerable extent, in his SundaTte ching, what he had said to the Saturday evening class None the less, however, would he seem in each exer- c se io cover the enti;e scope of the text. Aside from his mar- velo IS powers of instruction, he was in many other ways most hip ul in all our Sunday-school work. He was par ic^ar even in minute details, to observe all the genera regulations orschool, and this conformity on his part resulted m a similar Iformily on the part of those who would otherwise have been somewhat refractory. :„,,^V,fP cast on me the mountain Of thy grief, that I may weep ; Let my heart, with ardor burning, Christ's unbounded love returning. His rich favor win and keep." There is a companion hymn to this, written by the same author, which has but recently been brought to the attention of the Christian public/^^ It is called the '' Mater Speciosa," as might the other be called the " Mater Dolorosa.'' From the oblivion of centuries it has been rescued by editors and trans- lators of the present generation, Dr. Xeale having given his English version of this hymn to the public in LATER MEDIEVAL HYMNS. 197 1866. As the " Stabat Mater" represents Mary standing at the cross, the '' Mater Speciosa " repre- sents her by the manger. As, therefore, the first is a hymn for Good Friday, the latter is a Christmas hymn of singular delicacy, beauty, and warmth of feeling. We quote a part of Dr. Xeale's yersion : "Full of beauty stood the mother By the manger, blest o'er other, Where her little one she lays ; For her inmost soul's elation, In its fer\-id jubilation, Thrills with ecstasy of praise. Oh I what glad, what rapturous feeling Filled that blessed mother, kneeling By the sole-begotten One I How, her heart with laughter bounding, She beheld the work astounding, Saw his birth — the glorious Son! Jesus lying in the manger, Heayenly armies sang the stranger. In the great joy-bearing part; Stood the old man with the maiden, No words speaking, only laden "With this wonder in their heart. Mother, fount of love still flowing. Let me, with thy rapture, glowing, Learn to sympathize with thee ; Let me raise my heart's devotion Up to Christ with pure emotion, That accepted I may be."' But the great hymn of this period, and of all periods, is the " Dies Irae." It is commonly at- tributed to a Franciscan monk of the thirteenth century — Thomas of Celano — but the eyidence as to 198 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. the identity of the author is by no means conclusive. Thomas was a personal friend as well as pupil of St. Francis, and was selected by Pope Gregory to write his life. His native home was in a small town in the kingdom of Naples; but so little is known of him that not even the dates of his birth and death can be accurately given. In truth, then, this great hymn may be fitly characterized as ^'a solemn strain, sung by an invisible singer.'^ "There is a hush in the great choral service of the universal church, when suddenly, we scarcely know whence, a single voice, low and trembling, breaks the silence; so low and grave that it seems to deepen the stillness, yet so clear and deep that its softest tones are heard throughout Christendom and vibrate through every heart — grand and echoing as an organ, yet homely and human, as if the words were spoken rather than sung. And through the listening multitudes, solemnly that mel- ody flows on, sung not to the multitudes, but Ho the Lord,' and therefore carrying with it the hearts of men, till the singer is no more solitary; but the self- same, tearful, solemn strain pours from the lips of the whole church as if from one voice, and yet each one sings as if alone to God." ^^' The hymn has been a force in the world of letters, as well as that of religious thought and experience. It has passed into upwards of two hundred transla- tions, and has called forth the admiration of the most eminent scholars. The sturdy Dr. Johnson confessed, with Sir Walter Scott, that he could not recite it without tears. Mozart made it the basis of his cele- brated requiem, and became so intensely excited by LATER MEDIEVAL HYMNS. 199 the theme as to hasten his own death. With what power do those few stanzas burst \:pon us in Scott's "Lay of the Last Minstrel!"— "Then mass was sung, and prayers were said, And solemn requiem for the dead, And bells tolled out their mighty peal, For the departed spirit's weal : And ever in the office close The hymn of intercession rose ; And far the echoing aisles prolong The awful burden of the song— * Dies irse, dies ilia, Sol vet sseclum in favilla;' While the pealing organ rung; Were it meet with sacred strain To close my lay, so hght and vain, Thus the holy fathers sung: That day of wrath, that dreadful day, When heaven and earth shall pass away, What power shall be the sinner's stay? How shall he meet that dreadful day? When, shriveling like a parched scroll. The flaming heavens together roll ; When louder yet,, and yet more dread. Swells the high trump that wakes the dead ! Oh ! on that day, that wrathful day. When man to judgment wakes from clay, Be thou the trembling sinner's stay. Though heaven and earth shall pass away !" This version by Sir Walter Scott is not strictly a translation, nor yet an imitation, but rather one of the many echoes which the "Dies Irse" has awakened in the literature of the world. It is, however, faith- ful to the spirit of the original, and of remarkable power. The hold which it had on the mind of its 200 STUDIES IN HVMNOLOGY. eminent author was shown by his frequent repetition of it in the delirium of his final illness. As already stated, the versions of this hymn may be counted by the hundred. A single author col- lected about eighty versions into the German language alone. A large number of excellent versions have been made into our own language by Irons, Coles, Earl Roscommon, Crashaw, Stanley, General Dix, and others. Several of these are of marked excel- lence; but that of Dean Stanley has some advantages for being set to music, while it is, at the same time, very faithful as a translation. The opening line of this version is: Day of wrath! O dreadful day! The version of Dr. Irons will, however, be thought by many to represent more vividly the spirit of the original, though the meter is such as to make it very difficult to find music for it, adapted to the ordi- nary use of a congregation. From this version we transcribe : " Day of wrath ! day of mourning ! See ! once more the cross returning, Heaven and earth in ashes burning ! what fear man's bosom rendeth, When from heaven the judge descendeth, On whose sentence all dependeth I Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth, Through earth's sepulchers it ringeth, All before the throne it bringeth ! Death is struck, and nature quaking, All creation is awaking, To its judge an answer making! LATER MEDIEVAL HYMNS. 201 Lo ! the book, exactly worded, Wherein all hath been recorded ; Thence shall judgment be awarded! What shall I, frail man, be pleading? Who for me be interceding, When the just are mercy needing? Righteous Judge of Retribution, Grant thy gift of absolution. Ere that reckoning day's conclusion !" About a century earlier dates the more joyous but less famous counterpart of the ^^ Dies Irse/^ known as the "Dies Ilia." Its author is unknown. It is well represented in the excellent version of Mrs. Charles : Lo! the day, the day of life! 14 202 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. CHAPTER V. HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. " '^ I ^HE hymns of Germany have been her true na- X tional liturgy. In England the worship of the Reformed church was linked to that of past ages by the Prayer-book ; in Germany, by the hymn-book/' We can mark some connections between the hymns and music of the Middle Ages and the psalmody of the German church, showing the steps by which the one passed over into the other. The humble beginnings of German hymnology, which has come to a development so marvelously rich, were made in the ninth century. In the time of Clmr- lemagne, the only part which the people were allowed to take in the services of the church was to chant the ** Kyrie Eleison'' in the litany, and that only on ex- traordinary occasions, such as the great feasts, proces- sions, and the consecration of churches. But in Ger- many, during the following century, short verses in the vernacular were introduced at such times, of which the refrain was ^^ Kyrie Eleison," and this was the beginning of hymnody in the German language. The oldest German Easter hymn dates from the twelfth century. The Latin hymn, " In the midst of life," one sentence of which stands in the English Prayer-book, in the order for the burial of the dead, HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. 203 and is said actually to have been taken by Robert Hall as a text for the preparation of a sermon, under the impression that it was a sentence of Holy Scrip- ture, was written by Notker, a learned Benedictine, near the beginning of the tenth century. It was suggested to him as he was watching some workmen who were building the bridge of Martinsburg at the peril of their lives. The hymn attained to a wonder- ful celebrity, and was even used as a battle song, until finally its use in this way was forbidden on ac- count of its being supposed to exercise a magical in- fluence. It was early translated into German, and this version formed a part of the service for the burial of the dead as early as the thirteenth century. The Flagellant fanaticism exerted an important influence in fostering and establishing the practice of singing hymns in the vernacular of the people. Pro- cessions of these pious pilgrims would go through the towns and cities, singing hymns and chants, which found ready access to the hearts of the people, and became a very influential factor in this extraordinary movement. The great Hussite movement, w^hich stirred the church more profoundly, and interested some of the most cultured and spiritual men of the fifteenth century, gave new impetus and dignity to this tendency, so that really useful popular hymns were originated. In 1504 a considerable volume of hymns, which had been in use among the *' Bohemian Brethren,'' was published by Lucas, one of their bishops. In the fifteenth century German hymns came to be used in special services and solemnities of the church, and, in some cases, even at the principal 204 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. service and at mass. Mixed hymns, half Latin and half German, also contributed their influence to break- ing down the barrier between the learned clergy and the common }3eople, and also between the church and the home. Translations and adaptations of the old Latin hymns now begin to appear. In this later medieval period, too, we mark for the first time a type of hymn which has too often since then reap- peared, and sometimes in forms peculiarly shocking and profane. Secular and love songs were, by slight changes, appropriated to religious uses, carrying the original melody with them into the service of relig- ion. For instance, a popular ditty, originally in- tended for wandering apprentices, commencing " Inspruck, I must leave thee, And go my lonely way, Far hence to foreign lands," etc., was changed to "O world, I must leave thee, And go my lonely way Unto my Father's home," etc. So in this country, and in this century, a song com- mencing "Thou, love, reignest in this bosom; There, there hast thou thy throne; Thou, thou knovvest that 1 love thee — Am I not fomily thine own?" has been published and sung, "Thou, Lord^ reignest in this bosom," etc. Another instance, still more grotesque, though scarcely more shocking, was furnished in the times, of what HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. 205 was known as the Millerite excitement, in 1843. To the familiar and popular tune known as '^ The Old Granite State '^ such wcfi'ds as these were sung: ** You will see your Lord a-coming, You will see your Lord a-coming, You will see your Lord a-coming In the old church-yard; While a band of music, While a band of music, While a band of music Will be sounding through the air." Other verses were : "You will see the dead arising." " We '11 march up into the city." A hymn is preserved from St. Francis, the founder of the Franciscan order, of a different type, but equally marked and peculiar. In this hymn he in- troduces "Brother Sun,'' "Sister Moon," "Brother Wind," "Sister Water," "Mother Earth," and " Brother Death " as praising the Creator. But it was reserved for the church of the Refor- mation to show the true office of the hymn, and to illustrate its character. As the warmth of spring re- leases the streams from their icy fetters, and calls back again their rippling melodies, so did the light and warmth of the Reformation era bring back into the homes and hearts of the people their long-lost music. This is illustrated in the sudden and extraor- dinary multiplication of hymns, and the great vari- ety of uses to which they were appropriated. When Luther arose there were not, so far as can now be told, more than one thousand hymns in the entire 206 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. church ; now there are more than one hundred thou- sand. Then the hymn was something grand, formal, artistic, suited for liturgical use, the peculiar and ex- clusive property of the priest, the choir, and the temple ; now the church is beginning to learn that the whole universe is set to music ; that the echoes of the ^' morning stars" are always resounding in our air; that wherever there is a worshiper, there may be, and ought to be, a hymn. As the earliest Christian hymn whose author can be identified is suited espe- cially to childhood and the life of the home ; as the "Magnificat'' and the "Nunc Dimittis" were prima- rily private and personal rather than public and liturgical ; as the psalms of the Jews touch upon all conditions of their life, many of them seeming to be for the household or the individual rather than the gr2at assembly, so again hymns became the liturgy of the people, and the words of joyous, holy song shook the world. Martin Luther was born in Eisleben, November 10, 1483. His father was a poor miner, who sup- ported his family by daily toil. He was educated first at the Latin school of Mansfeldt, then at the Franciscan school of Magdeburg, where he supported himself by singing from door to door; then at the school of Eisenach, where the wife of Conrad Cotta befriended and aided him; and finally at the Univer- sity of Erfurth, from which he took the master's de- gree and also that of Doctor of Philosophy. At the age of twenty-two he entered the monastery of St. Augustine, and three years later he was made Pro- fessor of Philosophy in the University of Wittem- HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. 207 berg. He posted his famous theses against indul- gences in 1517, and three years later he took the boldest step of his life, in publicly burning the papal bull of excommunication. In 1522 his version of the New Testament was given to the public; in 1525 he was married; and he died at Wittemberg, Febru- ary 18, 1546. This great leader in the older Reformation was so passionately fond of music that it used to be said of him that his soul could find its fullest expression only through his flute amid tears. " Music,'^ said he, '^ is one of the most beautiful and noble gifts of God. It is the best solace to a man in sorrow; it quiets, quickens, and refreshes the heart. I give music the next place and the highest honor after theology.^' A similar testimony he bears also to poetry, confessing that he has been ^' more influenced and delighted by poetry than by the most eloquent oration of Cicero and Demosthenes." His enemies said of him that he did more harm by his hymns than by his sermons; and Coleridge says ^^he did as much for the Refor- mation by his hymns as by his translation of the Bible." Thirty-seven of Luther's hymns have been preserved, some of them being versions of the He- brew Psalms, others versions of the old Latin hymns, while still others are original both as to form and subject matter. The earliest of these is believed to be that one the English version of which commences Flung to the heedless winds/i) which was called forth by the martyrdom of two young Christian monks, who were burnt alive at 208 STUDIES IN HYMNOL OGY. Brussels. Interpreted by such an event, it is a sub- lime and characteristic testimony to the same faith which is so resplendent in Luther's entire history. But his great hymn, and perhaps, taken all in all, his most characteristic production, is that commencing " Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott^' — '^ A strong tower is our God/' Rough and rugged, full of strength, but with little beauty, it is eminently worthy of him whose very words were half battles. It was com- posed at the time when the evangelical princes deliv- ered their protest at the second Diet of Spires, in 1529, from which event the name "Protestant" had its origin. The hymn at once became one of the watchwords of the Reformation, as it has since come to be regarded the national hymn of Germany. After Luther's death, one day Melanchthon was at Weimar, with his banished friends Jonas and Creuziger, and heard a little girl singing this hymn in the street. "Sing on, my little maid," said he; " you little know what famous people you comfort." One of the very best of the many English ver- sions of this hymn is that by Rev. Dr. Hedge, com- mencing A mighty fortress is our God.(2) Even more characteristic is Carlyle's version : A safe stronghold our God is still. This hymn has had a notable history. As its origin was coincident with the Protestant name, so it has ever been regarded as one of the great representative hymns of the Protestant church. It was sung by that noble Christian hero Gustavus Adolphus, on the HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. 209 morning of the day on which he sealed his fidelity to God with his blood. The two armies had been drawn up, and were waiting for the morning mist to disperse in order that the struggle might begin. At the com- mand of Gustavus the whole army joined in singing Luther^s grand psalm, and then the hymn which has since been called by his own name, '^ The Battle- hymn of Gustavus Adolphus:'' Fear not, O little flock, the foe.(^) Immediately afterward the mist broke, and the glory of the morning sunshine came down upon the scene. For a moment the king knelt dow^n beside his horse, in the presence of his soldiers, and repeated his usual battle-prayer: ''O Lord Jesus Christ, bless our arms and this day's battle for the glory of thy holy name." Then, passing along the lines, he spoke brief words of encouragement, and gave the battle-cry, ^' God with us !'' Thus began that memorable battle which laid low in the thickest of the fight the noblest king and soldier Europe has had since the Reformation. There are many interesting associations connected with another hymn of Luther : '■^ Out of the depths I cry to thee." It was written in 1524, soon after its author was fairly launched in his new career as the leader of a great and difficult movement. It is an impassioned and earnest appeal to God out of the depths of his conscious weakness and helplessness. It was eagerly taken up by the people, who were bound to him by the same ties of danger and extrem- ity which the very conditions of the Reformation gave rise to. Later it came to be used as a funeral 210 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. hymn, and it was sung, amid tears and lamentations, at Luther's own funeral. The hymn of Gustavus Adolphus is, in many re- gards, more perfect and better suited for ordinary use than that of Luther. It seems to have come from the royal author whose name it bears, but in what precise form can not now be determined. It has, however, been conjectured that the substance of it, and perhaps much of the language, was written by Gustavus, and that his chaplain, Fabricius, threw it into its perfect metrical form; but it can not now be determined whether the original was in Swedish or German, though, as representing the king himself, the former would seem to have special interest. There are few better hymns of Christian trust and courage than this. A community in our own land, on that terrible Monday when we learned of the disastrous defeat at Bull Run, found in this old battle-hymn words adapted to the trying emergency: " Fear not, O little flock, the foe Who madly seeks your overthrow, Dread not his rage and power; Wliat though your courage sometimes faints, This seeming triumph o'er God's saints Lasts hut a little hour." The Hussite movement was represented in the fifteenth century by the " Bohemian Brethren,'' and among these Christians, even before Luther arose, a very considerable psalmody was developed. This was one important source of the hymnody of the Lutherans. Both in doctrine and life the church of the Reformation was not a little indebted to such HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. 211 " reformers before the Reformation ^' as Huss and Jerome. Rev. Michael Weisse (died 1540), a German min- ister in Bohemia, translated many of the Bohemian hymns and added some of his own. Among the hymns thus furnished is a very precious and popular funeral hymn — '' Nun lasst uns den Leib begraben "^^^ — to which Luther added one verse. The first line of the hymn by which he is represented in many mod- ern collections is, Christ the Lord is risen again. A hymn has been in common use in English congre- gations for a generation, and, by mistake of the translator, attributed to Luther. Its real author, however, was the Rev. Bartholomew Ringwaldt, who was born at Frankfort-on-the-Oder in 1530, spent his life as a Lutheran pastor at Langfeld, in Prussia, and died in 1598. That one of his hymns should be ascribed to Luther by so good a critic as Dr. Collyer is sufficient proof of his excellence as a writer of hymns. Many of his hymns were born of the suffer- ings which he and his people endured from " famine, pestilence, fire, and floods." The hymn above referred to is: Great God, what do I see and hear? and was suggested by that greatest of hymns the Dies Irse. It has marked power, though it must be confessed that the meter of the English version is not well suited to the dignity and solemnity of the theme. Contemporary with Ringwaldt was the Rev. Mar- 212 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. tin Boehme (Behemb) (1537-1621), author of the very beautiful and comprehensive hymn which Miss Winkworth has translated, '' Lord Jesus Christ, my life, my light/' ^^^ Rev. George Weiszel (1590-1635), the author of the hymn translated by Miss Winkworth, " Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates,'' was born at Domnau, in Prussia, and spent the last years of his life as pastor at Koenigsberg. The hymn above mentioned exhib- its rare felicity in lyric expression, and we are well prepared to believe that his influence may be traced in the more numerous hymns of his junior contem- porary in Koenigsberg, Professor Simon Bach (died 1658), who composed one hundred and fifty hymns and religious poems. In the place cited above the hymn is in long meter, and in this regard gives no correct idea of the original as reflected in Miss Winkworth's version. To show the true form of the hymn, we transcribe one stanza: '*Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates; Behold, the King of Glory waits! The King of kings is drawing near, The Savior of the world is here ; Life and salvation doth he bring, Wherefore rejoice and gladly sing Praise, my God, to thee! Creator, wise is thy decree. What Luther was among the singers of the Refor- mation era such was Paul Gerhardt (1606-1670) in the period of the Thirty Years' War. Indeed, as a writer of hymns he decidedly outranks his great master and leader. Luther is represented in the HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. 213 world of song by thirty-seven hymns. But very few of these are now used, especially outside of Germany. Gerhardt is represented by one hundred and twenty- three hymns, some of which are among the most spir- itual and most ecumenical of modern hymns. Some of the choicest hymns of John Wesley are transla- tions from this older master, who, in a higher sense than Wesley, "learned by suffering what he taught in song." Among the hymns in common use are : sacred head now wounded. Extended on a cursed tree. Here I can firmly rest. Jesus, thy boundless love to me. Commit thou all thy griefs. Give to the winds thy fears. The last two are very widely known, being parts of the same hymn in the version of John Wesley. The original was born of suffering. Gerhardt had come from his native Saxony to be pastor of a church in the city of Berlin. He had held this position ten years, when, on account of conflict with the elector in refusing to sign a pledge wholly to abstain from attacking the Reformed doctrines, he was ordered to quit the country. With his wife and little children, he set out on foot to return to his native home. The journey was long and toilsome, and, in the midst of it, having stopped one night at a humble village inn, his wife's heroism completely gave way, and she broke down in sobs and tears. Sternly crushing down the "climbing sorrow" in his own breast, Ger- 214 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. hardt spoke only words of cheer and confidence, re- minding his wife of God's faithful promise : ^' Trust in the Lord. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths/' And then, in this dark hour of destitution and seeming friendlessness, with his overburdened wife and helpless children pressing upon his heart, he retired to an arbor in the garden and composed this precious hymn, which has brought strength and comfort to so many fainting souls :^^^ ** Who points the clouds their course, Whom winds and seas obey, He shall direct thy wandering feet, He shall prepare thy way. Through waves and clouds and storms He gently clears thy way ; Wait thou his time, so shall this night Soon end in joyous day." The sober second thought of the elector, and the interest of his noble wife in behalf of the banished minister, resulted in his recall; but, fearing that even his silence had been construed into a promise to change the character of his preaching, he was led to make a new declaration of his views, which resulted in his permanent banishment from Berlin. Subse- quently he was made Archbishop of Luebben, w^here he spent the last seven years of his life. But they were emphatically years of sadness; for his wdfe was dead, his only child was repeatedly brought to death's door, and he himself toiled on in the midst of con- stantly increasing infirmities. His refuge and re- freshment was his gift of song, and many of his beautiful hymns were written here. The popular HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. 215 German hymn, ^' Wake up, my heart, and sing/^ was written after he had passed a night of anguish on the altar-steps of the church at Luebben. Gerhardt has been called '' the prince of German hymn-writers/' His hymns have penetrated all ranks of society, and into the company of all classes of worshipers, and are eminently songs of the heart. The mother of the eminent German poet, Schiller, taught them to her child, and some of them continued to be favorites with him during his life. Doubtless these hymns must be recognized as one factor, and it may be a very important factor, in the education of him who has been pronounced, next to Goethe, the greatest poet of Germany. The excellent hymn-version of*the Creed — We all believe in one true God — one of the most- perfect compositions of the kind ever written, and specially suited for use on sacramental occasions and fellowship and covenant meetings, was written by Rev. Tobiah Clausnitzer (1619-1684.) He was educated at Leipsic, was sometime chaplain of the Swedish forces during the "Thirty Years' War,'' and was finally settled as pastor in the Pa- latinate. Of the two Langes, who are represented in the hymnology of this period, Ernest (1650-1727) was a layman, and held the civil office of burgomaster, or chief magistrate, of his native town Dantzic. In 1710 the town was visited by pestilence, but so marked was the interposition of God in their behalf, that he was constrained to give expression to his grat- 216 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. itude, and several of his hymns were written for this purpose. Two of his hymns were translated by John Wesley, and are in common use: God, thou bottomless abyss. Thine, Lord, is wisdom, thine alone. Joachim Lange (1670-1744) was theological pro- fessor at Halle, and one of the earliest representatives of the Pietistic School in hymnology. He enjoyed the personal friendship of Francke, celebrated both as a philanthropist and writer of hymns. The hymns of the Hallean Pietists are not so much hymns for the people and for public worship, as for the individ- ual soul and for the closet. They abound in the richest views of Christian experience and life. The best-known hymn of Lange was translated by John Wesley, and is of very high merit : God, what offering shall I give? In the same year with Joachim Lange was born Rev. J. Joseph Winkler (1670-1722), who was for many years pastor of the cathedral of Magdeburg. His hymns belong to this same Pietistic School. The two which are in universal use, and are among the most solemn and searching among those specially suited for ministers, are : Shall I, for fear of feeble man ? Savior of men, thy searching eye. Rev. Gottfried Arnold (1666-1714) wrote one hundred and thirty hymns, very few of which, how- ever, are known outside of Germany. He was a man HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. 217 of marked and positive character, and his sense of fidelity to God not unfrequently brought him into collision with men. He was a warmly attached friend of the eminent Spener, to whose influence he at- tributed his own quickening into spiritual life. His hymn — Well for him who, all things losing — is one of the finest expressions of Christian duty and Christian privilege in the whole range of hymnology. Few hymn-writers of the eighteenth century stand so eminent as scholar, preacher, and poet, as Johann Andreas Rothe (1688-1758). For many years he was intimately associated with the famous Count Zinzen- dorf, and pastor at the scarcely less celebrated Hern- hutt. He wrote a learned work on the Hebrew Bible. To his power as a preacher Count Zinzendorf bears most emphatic testimony: ^^The talents of Luther, Spener, Francke, and Schwedler, were united in him.'^ Some of the count^s hymns were dedicated to him, and he dedicated to the count his own best-known hymn — Now I have found the ground wherein. This hymn is specially dear to Methodists, not only because of its superior merit, but also because of the wealth of associations which cluster about it. It rep- resents the Moravians, who, under God, were instru- mental in bringing the Wesleys into spiritual life and liberty. It was translated by John Wesley, whose best work in hymnology consisted in bringing the precious spiritual hymns of the Germans into the English language, thus making them accessible to the 15 218 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. multitudes, of which he became the spiritual leader. Almost the last words of Mr. Fletcher, of Madeley, were two lines from the second verse of this hymn : "While Jesu's blood, through earth and skies, Mercy — free, boundless mercy — cries." Few hymns in any language are so full of devout and tender expression as those of Benjamin Schmolke (1672-1737). His father was a clergyman. Benev- olent friends assisted him to enter upon his studies in the University of Leipsic, but he was soon able to do something tow^ard defraying his own expenses by pub- lishing some of his earlier poems. The whole number of hymns written by him was more than one thou- sand. As Rist said of himself, so might Schmolke say : " The dear cross has pressed many songs out of me.'' He was the subject of severe and extraordinary personal afflictions. A destructive conflagration, which destroyed half the town in which he lived, involving the people in great suifering, the loss of two of his children by death, his own hopeless invalidism by paralysis, and finally his total blindness from the same cause, were the dark background with which contrasts the radiant glory of such words of resigna- tion and trust as — "My Jesus, as thou wilt! may thy will be mine! Into thy hand of love 1 would my all resign. Through sorrow, or through joy, Conduct me as thine own, And help me still to say, My Lord, thy will be done." HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. 219 The best-known hymns of Schmolke are : Welcome, thou victor in the strife. My Jesus, as thou wilt. Johann A. Scheffler — called also Angelas Silesius — (1624-1677) was a friend of the famous mystic, Jacob Boehm. He w^as at first a Protestant, but later a Catholic priest, and a zealous controversialist. Two of his hymns were translated by John Wesley, namely : God, of good' the unfathomed sea. 1 thank thee. Uncreated Sun. (7) The fourth verse of this latter hymn was repeated by Richard Cobden in his dying hour: "Thee will I love, my joy, my crown; Thee will I love, my Lord, my God ; Thee will I love, beneath thy frown Or smile, thy scepter or thy rod. What though my flesh and heart decay; Thee shall I love in endless day." The most churchly of the poets of the older Pie- tistic School was the Rev. Johann J. Rambach (1693-1735), professor at Giessen. He wrote the hymn : I am baptized into thy name. Wolfgang Christopher Dessler (1660-1722) was head-master of the grammar school at Nuremberg, and a Pietist. The following hymns are his; Into thy gracious hands I fall. Friend of souls, how blest the time. 220 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. The version of the first of these was made by John Wesley. The second, though less known, has yet some marked felicities of expression : "When from my weariness I climb Into thy tender breast." " And when life's fiercest storms are sent Upon life's wildest sea, My little bark is confident, Because it holdeth thee." In the same class of Hallean Pietists is Rev. Christian Friedrich Richter (1676-1711), who was physician to Francke's celebrated orphan-house in Halle, and author of thirty-three excellent hymns. The following are John Wesley's versions of two of them : My soul before thee prostrate lies. Thou Lamb of God, thou Prince of Peace. The great poet in the Mystical School in German hymnology was Gerhard Tersteegen (1697-1761). From Catherine Winkworth's " Christian Singers of Germany '' we condense the following account of this most remarkable and interesting man. He was the son of a respectable tradesman, and after such educa- tion as he could get at the grammar-school of his native place, was apprenticed to his elder brother, a shopkeeper at Muelheim. Here, under the influence of a tradesman, he was converted, and was led to devote himself to the service of God. As his days were occupied, he used sometimes to pass whole nights in prayer and fasting. That he might have more freedom for spiritual exercises, he left his HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. 221 brother, and took up the occupation of weaving silk ribbons, living for some years entirely alone in a cottage, except that in the day-time he had the com- pany of the little girl who wound his silk for him. His relations — w4io seem to have been a thriving and money-getting set of people — were so ashamed of this poor and peculiar member of the family that they re- fused even to hear his name mentioned, and when he was sick he suffered great privations for want of care. His spiritual experiences were at first marked by violent contrasts. Upon the peace and comfort of his early Christian life a season of darkness supervened, and for five years he was the subject of extreme and painful doubts. From this fearful dungeon in "Doubting Castle'' he was suddenly and gloriously delivered, and in his gratitude wrote with his own blood a new covenant of self-dedication. He began at once to devote himself to the spiritual welfare cf those about him. Soon he found himself entirely oc- cupied with a sort of unofficial ministry, which speed- ily took permanent form, and became his life-work. Peremptorily declining all pecuniary assistance, he opened a dispensary for his support, making it a means of ministering to the souls as well as the bodies of men. So famous did he become in this double ministry that people came to him from other lands — England, Holland, Sweden, and Switzerland — so that he found his strength and resources taxed to their utmost. But amid it all he maintained an unvary- ing humility, affectionateness, devoutness, and sim- plicity. 222 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOG Y. From such a life none but the most spiritual hymns could come, and Tersteegen^s are highly and justly prized/^^ Among them are : Lo ! God is here! Let us adore. God calling yet! Shall I not hear? Thou hidden love of God, whose height. O Thou to whose all- searching sight. Though all the world my choice deride. Three of the above, like so many others of the choicest and most spiritual German hymns of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, are versions by John Wesley. One of the most saintly of the many saints of Prot- estantism was John Frederick Oberlin (1740-1826). Though the sphere of his personal labors was exceed- ingly restricted, the sphere of his influence is world- wide. He stands before us as a notable illustration of what a Christian pastor, who devotes himself un- qualifiedly to his work in the spirit of the Master, may do. By his wonderful influence the words of Isaiah were more than fulfilled — "' The desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose '^ — for that rugged and sterile mountainous parish of Steinthal, with its igno- rant, degraded, and unprosperous inhabitants, became a scene of thrift, purity, and prosperity. One morn- ing, after preaching from the text, '•'• He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied,'' he made an earnest appeal to his hearers to devote themselves entirely to God, and then read a hymn, in which he asked the whole congregation to join him. It was this : O Lord, thy heavenly grace impart. HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. 223 Two famous Moravians, both bishops, made very material contributions to the hymnology of this pe- riod — Count Zinzendorf and Bishop Spangenberg. The history of Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf (1700- 1 760) is too well known to require any sketch of it here. In an eminent sense he stands in church his- tory and in hymnology as a representative Moravian, having renounced his civil honors and cares to devote himself to the religious work of the Moravian Breth- ren. The hymns *^^^ by which he is best known are all in versions made by John Wesley : Eternal depth of love divine. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness. I thirst, thou wounded Lamb of God. The last of these is very familiar and very precious to all who look to Wesley as their spiritual father. The second was written on the island of Saint Eusta- tius on his return from visiting the Moravian mis- sionaries in the West Indies. Bishop Aug. Gottlieb Spangenberg (1704-1792) is second only to Count Zinzendorf himself in the history of the Moravian church, and was greatly his superior in theological culture. Educated at the Uni- versity of Jena w^hen the distinguished Buddaeus was professor in that institution, he gave such brilliant promise as to be himself employed as a lecturer in the university at the early age of twenty-two, which place he held for six years. In 1735 he became an assistant of Zinzendorf at Herrnhut, and acted as a kind of missionary bishop to the Moravian churches in England, the West Indies, and North America. 224 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. In Georgia he came in contact with John Wesley, who had gone out with Oglethorpe as a missionary to the Aborigines. The meeting was a most memo- rable one for Wesley, and was one important means of bringing him to a realizing sense of his great want. Wesley had sought an interview with Spangenburg to consult with him as to the best plans of mission- ary work. ^^ My brother/' said the Moravian, ^^ I must first ask you one or two questions. Have you the witness within yourself? Does the Spirit of God bear wit- ness with your spirit that you are a child of God?'' Wesley was surprised, and knew not what to an- swer. Spangenberg perceived his embarrassment and asked: "Do you know Jesus Christ?" Wesley re- plied : " I know he is the Savior of the world." " True/' rejoined the Moravian ; " but do you know he has saved you?" '^ I hope he has died to save me." Spangenberg only added : " Do you know yourself?" " I do," responded Wesley ; " but/' he writes, " I fear they were vain words." This good bishop is represented in English hym- nology by John Wesley's version of one of his very choicest hymns, such as, indeed, a bishop might write: High on his everlasting throne. Other German writers whose hymns are frequently met with in the collections are Matthias Claudius (1740-1815), author of that best of harvest hymns. We plow the fields and scatter/ ^o) and Rev. Carl Johann P. Spitta (1801-1859) one of the many modern Christian poets in Germany, whose HYMNS FROM GERMAN AUTHORS. 225 hymns are characterized by depth, inwardness, fresh- ness, and catholicity. He wrote : I know no life divided. The precious seed of weeping.(ii) About three-quarters of a century ago, in the midst of a severe naval battle, the deck of the ship commanded by Captain James Haldane, was fairly swept clean by the broadside of the enemy. He or- dered up another company from below, to take the place of the dead. As they came upon the deck, slippery with blood and strewn with mangled corses, a sudden and irresistible panic seized them. The captain, swearing a horrid oath, wished them to hell. A pious old marine stepped up to him, and, respect- fully touching his cap, said : ^^ Captain, I believe God hears prayer, and if he were to hear yours what would become of us?'' These words, spoken in that terrible hour, were as a nail fastened in a sure place, and as a result this profane captain became a Chris- tian and a minister of the gospel. Through his in- strumentality his brother Robert was also led to Christ, and he, in turn, was selected by Providence as a minister of life to that old city of Geneva, where the poison of French infidelity and German ration- alism had well-nigh destroyed the life of the church of the Reformation. Mr. Haldane's labors were specially directed to the students of the theological seminary, and among the fruits of them were such men as Merle D'Aubigne, Felix NefF, Adolphe Monod, and others of similar distinction. Among the fruits of that revival must also be mentioned 226 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. Caesar Henri Abraham Malan (1787-1864), who was at that time • a young pastor in the city. He had previously been awakened to a sense of his spiritual need by the influence of the Rev. Dr. Mason, of New York, who had visited Geneva. It was Mr. Haldane, however, who led him to the knowledge of the Savior. He began at once to preach the doctrines of grace with an earnestness and plainness such as was not wont to be seen in that old city, so rich in historic memories, but now fallen into the deadness and for- malities of rationalism. A special interest attaches to the memory of Dr. Malan as the instrument, under God, of leading the soul of Charlotte Elliott into life and liberty, and so of giving to the world one of the very best hymns which this century has produced : ^' Just as I am.'^ He was the author of the French original of Dr. Bethune's hymn. It is not death to die.(i2) Another version of this same hymn, not, however, from the French original, but from an excellent Ger- man version, has been made by Professor E,. B. Dunn, of Brown University. It commences: No, no, it is not dying.^^i^) To Dr. Malan we are also indebted for several excel- lent church tunes, such as Rosefield, Hendon, and Welton. He was a man of marked individuality of character; and, by this precious funeral hymn and these tunes, and especially his noble example of Christian courage and fidelity, he has laid the church under lasting obligations to his memory. EARLIER ENGLISH HYMNS. ITl CHAPTER VI. EARLIER ENGLISH HYMNS. IN many important particulars English hymns are distinguished from those of every other language. Many of them are translations of the best and most famous hymns of other tongues. Nearly all the great hymns of the medieval time are represented by En- glish versions. This is true, also, of the most cher- ished and most spiritual of the French and German hymns. The great body of English hymns have been produced in the modern period of church history, and hence reflect the most recent phases of church life and work. As among English-speaking peoples evangelical movements have taken a greater variety of form, and have incorporated more various methods than have been employed elsewhere, so here the hymn has been appropriated to a greater variety of uses. In addition to the ordinary demands of public worship and the necessities of the 'individual life, which, though they do not essentially change, are yet all the time becoming more perfectly interpreted and more adequately expressed, there are many institu- tions which have been called into existence by the life of the church in this period. The modern prayer- meeting, revival meetings, conferences, conventions, synods. Sabbath-schools, and reform movements, have 228 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. all created a demand for a special type of religious service. Hence, in no other language is there so great a variety of hymns; in no other has the hymn been more perverted and degraded from its proper char- acter; and in no other is the vast and varied wealth of hymnology more fully exhibited. The oldest English hymn now in common use — "The Lord descended from above'' -^^ — is a transla- tion of some verses of the Eighteenth Psalm, made by Thomas Sternhold, who died in 1549. He was "Groom of the Robes'' to Henry VIII and Edward VI. He made a metrical version of the first fifty-one Psalms, which, with versions of the remainder made by John Hopkins, were attached to the Book of Common Prayer. As to the character of these men, as shown by this work, doubtless the judgment of quaint old Thomas Fuller will be generally approved : " They were men whose piety was better than their poetry; and they had drunk more of Jordan than of Helicon.'' And yet the psalm above cited fully vin- dicates, by its own ii^trinsic excellence, the taste and judgment of those who have so long kept it in its seat of honor. With this should be associated that translation of the One Hundredth Psalm made by William Kethe: All people that on earth do dwell. ^2) Of its author we know almost nothing, not even the dates of his birth and death. He was a clergyman, was sometime a chaplain in the army, and shared the exile of Knox, in Geneva, in 1555. The psalm was first published in 1561, and is not only one of the EARLIER ENGLISH HYMNS. 229 oldest, but also one of the most ecumenical of En- glish hymns. It was used at the opening of the recent Pan-Presbyterian Council in Scotland (1877,) and also was the opening hymn of the Church Congress of Episcopalians in Boston, in 1876. The clearness and archaic simplicity of the version atone for its rugged- ness; and when we call to mind the grand and heroic history of these Scottish Dissenters, of which these old psalms are in a special sense monumental, we can well understand why it should have a place of high honor in our hymnals. Among these psalms, used by those Scottish sects who are opposed to the use of ordinary hymns, are not a few which are acceptable to all who ^^ profess and call themselves Christians ,'^ such for instance as : O God, to us show mercy. The Lord's my shepherd; I'll not want.^-^) The associations connected with this last are pecul- iarly interesting. It was a favorite channel through which the sturdy Scotch people of the olden time poured out their souls to God in assured and grateful confidence. It was the language of individual trust, it beautifully befitted the worship of the home, and yet was equally in place in the great congregation. It was linked with the earliest memories of childhood, and it was the "strong stafiF and the beautiful rod^' of the aged pilgrim. In Professor Wilson's touching little story of Moss Side, when Gilbert Ainslie's little Margaret was hovering between life and death, in the delirium of her fever, she kept muttering words which showed that she thought herself "herding her sheep 230 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. in the green, silent pastures, and sitting wrapped in her plaid upon the lawn and sunny-side of Birk- Knowe." At last, when she was almost exhausted, and there was ^' too little breath in her heart to frame a tune,'^ with her blue eyes shut and her lips almost still, she breathed out these lines of sweet and restful confidence : "The Lord's my Shepherd; I'll not want; He makes me down to lie In pastures green ; he leadeth me The quiet waters by." The name of Bishop John Cosin (1594-1672) is deserving of most honorable mention, because of his translation of the " Veni, Creator Spiritus ^^ — " Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire.'' ^^^ Few men of his time held a greater variety of distinguished positions, or received more flattering testimonials of personal popularity and influence. Though made to feel the virulent opposition of his Puritan enemies, and to suffer from their unjust charges of leaning toward popery, yet he stands in the history of the church fully vindicated, and a noble example of a man true to the church, and true also to his own convictions. He expended his emoluments, and the profits arising from the sale of his works, liberally for the cause of learning and religion, founding no less than eight scholarships at Cambridge. His one hymn has a higher place of honor than any other in our language, having for two centuries and a half maintained its place in the service for the ordination of elders. It is a most satisfactory instance of ^^ poetic justice,'' in a sense much fuller and more perfect than that in EARLIER ENGLISH HYMNS. 231 which the phrase is ordinarily used, that the hymn of Gregory, who taught Britain her first lesson in prac- tical Christianity, should be the only one which has been given a place in the ritual of the English church. Another bishop, whose hymns have come to almost equal honor, and in some regards even superior, is Thomas Ken (1637-1711). Early left an orphan — his mother dying when he was but five and his father when he was fourteen — he was brought up by his half-sister, the wife of the celebrated Isaac Walton. He was educated at Oxford ; was first rector of Bright- stone, in the Isle of Wight, and afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells. King Charles used to say : " I must go and hear Ken — he will tell me of my faults.'^ He was one of the seven bishops imprisoned and brought to trial for resisting the tyranny of James II. His most enduring monument is his "Morning and Even- ing Hymns." Says one writer: "Had he endowed three hospitals he would have been less a benefactor to posterity." His grand old Doxology in long meter is heard wherever the English language is spoken. It is almost as catholic as the English Bible itself. The following hymns are his: Glory to thee, my God, this night. Awake, my soul, and with the sun. Praise God, from whom all blessings flow/i) The three great names in modern literature are Dante, Shakspeare, and Milton. But of the works of these three illustrious men, those of Milton stand forth as most evidently and unqualifiedly the product of a Christian culture. It is, therefore, a matter of 232 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. special satisfaction to recognize in the hymnology of the English church the name of John Milton (1608-1704). Some of his best-known hymns are : Let us with a gladsome mind ; How lovely are thy dwellings, Lord ; The Lord will come, and not be slow ; which will be recognized as versions of the 136th, the 84th, and selected verses of the 82d, 85th, and 86th Psalms. By the side of his should be placed the scarcely less illustrious name of Joseph Addison (1672-1719). He was the son of the dean of Lichfield, was edu- cated at Oxford University, and married to the dow- ager countess of Warwick. As a w^riter of English prose he had no equal in his own time, and few equals in any time. ^^ Whoever wishes to attain an English style," says Dr. Johnson, ^^ familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison." And though he has been described as "" so great in prose, so little in poetry," yet we have only to examine the little poetry by which he is represented in the world of letters, to be convinced how merciless and unjust this criticism is. Few finer passages can be quoted from any writer of Addison's time than the closing lines of Cato's Soliloquy : " The stars shall fade away ; the sun himself Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years; But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amid tlie war of elements, The wreck of matter, and the crush of worlds." EARLIER ENGLISH HYMNS. 233 He is represented by such hymns as the following, each of which is a real gem of its kind : The spacious firmament on high. When all thy mercies, O my God. The Lord my pasture shall prepare. When rising from the bed of death. How are thy servants blest, O Lord.'*^) Rev. Richard Baxter (1615-1691), well known as the author of " The Saints' Rest,'' was an eminent Non-conformist minister. He was born at Rowton, Shropshire; became pastor of the parish of Kidder- minster, where he was greatly popular and useful; afterward chaplain of a regiment among the Parlia- mentary forces, during which time he wrote his "Saints' Rest;" returned to Kidderminster, but was soon ejected by the Act of Uniformity ; went to reside in London, where he occupied himself in preaching and writing, until he was arrested on a charge of se- dition, and brought before the infamous Jeffreys, by whom he was adjudged to pay a heavy fine, and thrown into prison. His life was filled with activity and usefulness, and he enjoyed the friendship of some of the best men of his time — such as Matthew Henry, and others. Though he attained to a good old age, his whole life was one constant and severe struggle with disease; and the hymns by which he is known may well be added to the long list of those which have come up "out of the depths." In his final ill- ness he was accustomed to reply to those who called to inquire after him, "Almost well," and in his death- 16 234 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. hour he became "entirely well/^ The process of dying was to him, as to all God's saints, the process of becoming immortal. His best-known hymn is : Lord, it belongs not to my care.*^^) How reasonable and consoling the first couplet in the third verse — " Christ leads me through no darker rooms Than he went through before!" And how satisfying the final lines of the hymn — "But 'tis enough that Christ knows all, And I shall be with him!" Though the name of Nahum Tate (165L»-1715) is eminent in English hymnology, yet the associations connected with it are not all grateful. His active life commenced as clergyman of a country parish in Suf- folk, from which he subsequently removed to London. But intemperance and improvidence cast a blight over his life and a shadow upon his memory. In connection with Nicholas Brady, he prepared the met- rical version of the Psalms, which is now printed in the Book of Common Prayer in place of the older one of Sternhold and Hopkins, which version Mont- gomery justly characterizes as being " nearly as inani- mate as the former, though a little more refined." Nicholas Brady (1659-1 7ii(3), his associate in this work, studied at Christ College, Oxford, and gradu- ated at Trinity College, Dublin. He was afterward chaplain to a bishop and prebend to the Cathedral of Cork, and later in life taught a school in Rich- mond, Surrey. EARLIER ENGLISH HYMNS. 235 The Psalter of Tate and Brady was first published in 1696, with tunes in 1698, and with a supplement of hymns in 1703. From this work several hymns in common use have been taken, though it is impos- sible to determine which were written by Tate and which by Brady. Among them are the following: O render thanks to God above. God, we praise thee, and confess. While shepherds watched their flocks by night. As pants the hart for cooling streams. O Lord, our fathers oft have told. A very choice evening hymn has come down to us from this seventeenth century, written by John F. Herzog (1649-1699): In mercy, Lord, remember me. One of the really distinguished philosophers of England's early time was Henry More (died 1687), one of the first Fellows of the Royal Society; friend of the eminent Cudworth; defender of the philosophical system of Descartes, with whom he maintained a personal correspondence; and opponent of the famous Thomas Hobbes, Avho died eight years before him. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge, but re- fused the mastership in his college, as also all church preferment, and devoted himself with much enthu- siasm to the study of philosophy. He was the author of the hymn — On all the earth thy Spirit shower.^'') 236 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. Even at this day the thoughtful student can hardly take into his hands a book more suggestive or more stimulating than Mason's '^ Self-Knowledge/' In depth, solidity, clearness, and comprehensivenes, it has few equals in our language. The young person who makes it the subject of constant and loving study is sure to be richly rewarded. John Mason, the hymn writer (died 1694), was grandfather of the John Mason who was the author of this treatise. Little is known of his life, save that for twenty years he was rector of a parish in Buckinghamshire, where he was very highly esteemed for his piety and his devotion to his flock. Baxter called him ^Hhe glory of the Church of England.'' In 1683 he published his *' Spiritual Songs," to which were afterwards added ^^ Penitential Cries," mainly from the pen of Rev. Thomas Shepherd. Many traces of these hymns of Mason are found in the later works of Watts, Pope, and the Wesleys. Of the one hymn of his which is most used, David Creamer says that it is ^^ certainly one of the best specimens of devotional poetry in the English language." The hymn is — Now from the altar of our hearts. One hymn from the "Penitential Cries" of Thomas Shepherd (1665-1739) has been preserved in most of our modern hymn-books, though in a form so much changed from the original as almost to de- stroy its identity. Indeed, in most books the hymn is credited to Mr. G. N. Allen, who made the altera- tions, rather than to Mr. Shepherd, the original author. It begins — Must Jesus bear the cross alone ?(8) EARLIER ENGLISH HYMNS. 237 The earliest of the considerable number of Bap- tists who have been eminent as English hymn-writers is Joseph Stennett (1663-1713), who spent his life as pastor of a small congregation of Seventh-day Bap- tists in the city of London. He was also accustomed to preach to other congregations on the first day of the week, which makes it pretty certain that his sym- pathy with his people was as Baptists, rather than as Sabbatarians. In addition to his duties as pastor, he also, for some years, received young men into his house to be trained for the ministry. He died in his forty-ninth year, and among his last words were ; ^^ I rejoice in the God of my salvation, who is my strength and my God." He published two small collections of original hymns — "Hymns for the Lord's Supper" and '^ Hymns on the Believer's Baptism." His famil- iar hymn — Return, my soul, enjoy thy rest — is one of the most frequently used of our Sabbath hymns. No name appears in a Christian hymn-book with more grotesque effect than that of Alexander Pope (1688-1744). Probably few men have ever acquired an eminent literary reputation who have been more utterly incapable of appreciating an evangelical ex- perience. Born of Catholic parentage; acquiring the smatterings of an education at Catholic schools, until, at the age of twelve, he entered on the perilous path of self-culture ; with a nature deformed and diseased ; diminutive in stature and irritable in disposition ; with much of the critical but little of the creative faculty ; with an extraordinary facility for measured smooth- 238 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. ness, but showing little consciousness of the essence and soul of true poetry ; having little contact with evangelical beliefs, and an utter stranger, so far as can now be told, to evangelical experiences, — it were indeed strange if he had written a true Christian hymn. Many of his poetic utterances reflect that extreme naturalism which amounts substantially to Deism, and so are at the farthest possible remove from the warmth and life of the Christian religion. He is represented in many of our collections by his " Dying Christian " — Vital spark of heavenly flame/-" It seems to have been suggested by the Emperor Adrian's Address to His Soul, as also by a fragment of Sappho. Even for the Engh'sh of the poem he is, to some extent, indebted to an earlier rendering of Adrian's words by Thomas Flatman. As a specimen of literature it is not without interest, but it is very far from being a hymn. It is utterly destitute of warmth and devoutness, and dramatizes, as if for mere literary eifect, the holy experiences of the dying hour. That it has so long been accorded a place in our hymn-books is an unmistakable tribute to its rare beauty; but it is not to be wondered at that it is now very generally omitted from the latest collections. There is one English hymn, dating probably from the sixteenth century, whose history is specially inter- esting. It comes from an old Latin hymn, which Dean Trench assigns to the eighth or ninth century. We refer to that dearest of all our hymns on heaven — Jerusalem, my happy home.^^o) EARLIER ENGLISH HYMNS. 239 lu a very old book of religious songs, now kept in the British Museum, it stands with this title — '^A Song, Made by F. B. P., to the Tune of Diana.'' It has been conjectured — doubtfully by most, but confi- dently by some — that " F. B. P.'' is an alias for Francis Baker, Priest, who was for a long time con- fined as a prisoner in the Tower, and so that this is one of the many hymns which have come up out of the depth of sufi'ering and bitter wrong. A later and more beautiful form of this hymn — *' O mother dear, Jerusalem '' — was given to the public by David Dick- son, in the early part of the seventeenth century. The hymn, as it appears in our modern hymn- books, is considerably altered from the text as found in the book in the British Museum. It is called by Miller ^' the hymn of hymns,'' and certainly holds a very warm place in the hearts of Christian worship- ers in every communion. A young Scotchman, on his death-bed in the city of New Orleans several years ago, was visited by a Presbyterian minister. He continued to shut himself up from the good man's efforts to reach his heart. Somewhat discouraged, at last the visitor turned away, and scarcely knowing why, began to sing, *^ Jerusalem, my happy home." A tender chord was touched in the heart of the young man. With tears he exclaimed : " My dear mother used to sing that hymn !" The tender memories awakened by the hymn opened his heart to religious truth. He was led through penitence into peace, and thus was made ready for the ^' happy home" whither his mother had already preceded him. 240 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOG Y. CHAPTER VII. ISAAC WATTS. ISAAC WATTS (1674-1748) is pronounced by Montgomery the ^^ father of modern hymnody"-^ ^^ almost the inventor of hymns in our language." He was son of a school-master, and deacon of an in- dependent church in Southampton, England, a local- ity which is embalmed in the imagery of some of his hymns. So insignificant was he in stature, after he had come to years of maturity, that when he oifered his hand to Elizabeth Singer, who had already stolen his heart, she gave the death-warrant to his hopes by replying that ^' much as she might love the jewel, she could not admire the casket," and so missed the honor of becoming the wife of the most famous man of his generation. So precocious in intellect was he that almost his earliest cry was for a book ; and he actu- ally commenced the study of Latin at four, of Greek at nine, of French at ten, and of Hebrew qt fourteen, and this intellectual activity was continued through a long and most fruitful life. Says Dr. Johnson: "Few men have left behind such purity of character or such monuments of laborious piety. He has pro- vided instruction for all ages, from those who are lisping their first lessons to the enlightened readers of Malebranche and Locke." And the judgment of ISAAC IVATTS. 241 this extraordinary critic in the matter of hymns is sufficiently indicated by such sentences as the follow- ing : " It is sufficient for Watts to have done better than others what no one has done well.'^ " His de- votional poetry is, like that of others, unsatisfactory. The paucity of its topics enforces perpetual repeti- tion, and the sanctity of the matter rejects the orna- ments of figurative diction." Dr. Watts was a man of fervent and devoted piety. Descended through his mother from the old Huguenots, the traditions and memories of their bit- ter wrongs must have filled his soul with a hatred of tryanny, and a sense of the sacredness of the rights which had been purchased at such fearful cost. And the stories his mother told him of the time when his father was thrown into prison for his convictions as a non-conformist, and how she used to go and sit, day after cUy, just outside the prison bars, holding up her infant to comfort his father in his bonds, must have deepened and intensified this feeling; so that it is no wonder that this mild-spirited man was so clear and positive in his religious convictions, and, at the same time, so broad in his sympathies even toward those who differed somewhat radically from the common faith. He preached his first sermon on his twenty-fourth birthday, and the same year was chosen assistant pas- tor of the Independent church, Mark Lane, London, and four years later became sole pastor. In this pas- torate he remained for almost fifty years, though for most of the time he had an assistant, and such was the feebleness of his health that some of the time, for years together, he was unable to preach at all. 242 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOG Y. Often after preachiDg he would be compelled to take his bed, and have his room closed in darkness and silence. In 1712 he visited the mansion of Sir Thomas Abney.for rest and change of air, which led to his making it his permanent home. To a lady who once called to see him Watts said : '^ Madam, your lady- ship has called to see me on a very remarkable day. This very day, thirty years ago, I came to the house of my good friend Sir Thomas Abney, intending to spend but a single week under his friendly roof, and I have extended my visit to this family to the length of ex- actly thirty years.'' ^' Sir,'' said Lady Abney, " I con- sider it the shortest visit my family ever received." Here he found all the comforts of a home without its cares, and doubtless to this, as a ground condition, we owe much of the fruitfulness of his life. For four years after going there he was obliged to desist from preaching altogether; but all his lifelong his literary activity seems to have been incessant. In ad- dition to his poetical and theological works, he wrote numerous other books and tractates — such as a work on logic, which was adopted as a text-book in Cam- ' bridge University ; a treatise on astronomy, '^ Art of Reading and Writing English," " Guide to Prayer," ^^ Improvement of the Mind," which at one time was very widely used as a text-book in the schools of this country, and is, beyond question, one of the best of his works, as it is certainly one of the best books on mental discipline ever written. He also projected a work on the "Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul," which he was finally obliged to turn over to ISAAC WATTS. ' 243 his friend Dr. Doddridge to execute, and he did it so excellently that it has been pronounced by the North British Beview the most useful book of the eighteenth century. Watts was eminently catholic in his spirit. In this regard his own spirit and character were truth- fully prophetic of the grand and universal . mission which his hymns have fulfilled. The memory of the dark and cruel wrongs which his ancestors, and even his own parents, had suffered from religious intoler- ance, seems to have wrought in his mind something of the spirit which Coleridge so broadly expresses: " I will be tolerant of everything else but every other man\s intolerance.'^ This spirit of Christian charity and fellowship was beautifully illustrated at his funeral. Having lingered on to a good old age, " waiting God's leave to die," when at last the sum- mons did come, he was, at his own request, carried to his burial by ministers chosen from three different de- nominations. And it was fitting that in 1861 the various Christian denominations in England should bring their offerings in common for the erection of a memorial monument in his native town of South- ampton. The monument itself is a fitting expression of gratitude on the part of those who felt themselves laid under a debt of obligation to his memory by his hymns, which have come into such universal use. It stands in a public square, and consists of a base eight and a half feet square, surmounted by a pedestal of polished gray Aberdeen granite, with three bas-re- liefs of marble in the sides, upon which stands a statue of pure white Sicilian marble, the whole rising 244 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. to the height of nineteen feet. One of the bas-reliefs represents a teacher in the midst of a group of chil- dren, and bears this motto : " He gave to lisping infancy its earliest and purest lessons." Another represents the poet himself, and, underneath, this line from his own pen : " To heaven I lift my waiting eyes." The remaining one represents the poet surrounded by globe, telescope, and hour-glass, with this sentence from Dr. Johnson : " He taught the art of reasoning and the science of the stars." The inscription on the tablet is as follows: ERECTED BY VOLUNTARY SUBSCRIPTIONS IN MEMORY OF ISAAC WATTS, D. D., A NATIVE OF SOUTHAMPTON. BORN 1674 ; DIED 1748. AN EXAMPLE OF THE TALENTS OF A LARGE AND LIBERAL MIND, WHOLLY DEVOTED TO THE PROMOTION OF PIETY, VIRTUE, AND LITERATURE. A NAME HONORED FOR HIS ENGLISH HYMNS WHEREVER THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE EXTENDS. ESPECIALLY THE FRIEND OF CHILDREN AND OF YOUTH, FOR WHOSE BEST WELFARE HE LABORED WELL AND WISELY, WITHOUT THOUGHT OF FAME OR GAIN. " From all that dwell below the skies, Let the Creator's praise arise ; Let the Redeemer's name be sung Through every land, by every tongue." WATTS. Only as a writer of hymns is the fame of Dr. Watts pre-eminent. When, at the age of eighteen, on a certain Sabbath, he was complaining to one of his fellow-worshipers at the Independent chapel where his father was deacon, of the character of the hymns ISAAC WATTS. 245 sung there, the reply was, ^' Give us better, young man." He accepted the challenge, and the church was invited to close the evening service with a new hymn commencing: *' Behold the glories of the Lamb Before his Father's throne ; Prepare new honors for his name, And songs before unknown "(D — a hymn which is retained in many of our hymn- books, and is still sung with reverence and delight. Such was the beginning of the most illustrious career as a hymn-writer which, with not more than a single exception, it has ever been given to mortal to fulfill. The author of that first hymn has made more mate- rial contributions to the apparatus of Christian wor- ship in the English tongue than any other man, and his hymns are familiar and precious wherever that language is spoken. Less prolific and less versatile than some others, especially than Charles Wesley, with whom he is most frequently compared, with less of poetic genius and less of spiritual fervor and joy, his hymns are so devout, so Scriptural, so catholic, and so simple, and, in the main, so correct in diction and in sentiment, that they meet a general want more perfectly than any other. Though Wesley wrote seven or eight thousand hymns, and Watts only six hundred and ninety-seven, yet it is probable that more of Watts's hymns are in common use than of Wesley's. A recent writer says: "Judging from the results of an examination of seven hundred and fifty hymn-books, it is safe to assign to Watts the au- thorship of two-fifths of the hymns which are used 24(5 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. in public worship in the English-speaking world/^ In the ^^ Hymns and Songs of Praise," one of the best and most broadly representative of the hymn- books used by the Calvinistic churches of this coun- try, AYatts is represented by one hundred and ninety- one hymns and Charles Wesley by ninety-nine; while in the Methodist Hymnal, Watts has but seventy-eight and Wesley three hundred and seven. The facts as to actual use, however, may be considerably different from what would be indicated by these figures; and we need but to glance over the list of Watts's lead- ing hymns to be convinced that they constitute a very large proportion of the staple hymns for public religious service. Among the most eminent of these are such as the following : ^^^ Alas ! and did my Savior bleed. Am I a soldier of the cross ? Before Jehovah's awful throne. , Blest are the sons of peace. Come sound his praise abroad. Come, let us join our cheerful songs. Come, ye that love the Lord. Father, how wide thy glory shines. From all that dwell below the skies. Give me the wings of faith to rise. He dies! the friend of sinners dies. How vain are all things here below. How beauteous are their feet. ISAAC WATTS. 247 I'll praise my Maker while I 've breath. Jesus shall reign where'er the sun. Let every tongue thy goodness speak. My God, the spring of all my joys ! God, our help in ages past. The heavens declare thy glory. Lord. There is a land of pure delight. Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb. When I can read my title clear. When I survey the wondrous cross. Why do we mourn for dying friends ? Why should we start and fear to die? Some of these hymns are, in a special sense, auto- biographic. Nearly all of them bear, in a marked degree, the stamp of the poet's personal experience. It has been alleged that the hymn. How vain are all things here below, was written on the occasion of the rejection of his offer of marriage by Elizabeth Singer, to which allu- sion has already been made. The bitterness of his disappointment and its lesson are reflected in such lines as these : "The fondness of a creature's love, How strong it strikes the sense ; Thither our warm affections move, Nor can we call them hence. Dear Savior, let thy beauties be My soul's eternal food, And grace command my heart away From all created good." 248 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. To the character of the scenery about Southamp- ton are doubtless due some of the most striking and beautiful passages of his hymns. It is situated on the south coast of England, at the head of South- ampton Water, between the Itchen on the east, and the Anton on the west, with the Isle of Wight in the distance, at the mouth of the bay. This island is separated from the main-land by an interval of from one to six miles, and serves as a vast natural breakwater, making this port one of the safest and most eligible in the United Kingdom. The scenery of the island is of remarkable beauty, and the cli- mate so salubrious that in one part the death-rate is lower than in any other locality in the United King- dom. The tradition is that these conditions furnished the costume of expression for the hymn, There is a iand of pure delight. Certain it is that the language is such as exactly suits them, and by their aid we feel its force and beauty. " Death, like a narrow sea, divides This heavenly land from ours." "Sweet fields beyond the swelling flood Stand dressed in living green." " Could we but climb where Moses stood, Aiid view the landscape o'er, Not Jordan's stream nor death's cold flood Should fright us from the shore." There is little doubt that the imagery of one of the verses of another hymn may have been suggested by the same associations. Only one familiar with the sea, and accustomed to study its various moods, ISAAC WATTS. 249 would have been so felicitous in seizing upon and in- terpreting the most perfect symbol of rest which nature contains — water in repose : " There I shall bathe my weary soul In seas of heavenly rest, And not a wave of trouble roll Across my peaceful breast." The hymn in which this verse stands has been per- haps as often used as any of his hymns. It was sung on the field of Shiloh, the night after the battle, under circumstances of peculiar impressiveness. A Chris- tian officer had been severely wounded, and, being unable to help himself, lay all night on the field. Says he: ^^The stars shone out clear above the dark battle-field, and I began to think about God, who had given his Son to die for me, and that he was up above the glorious stars. I felt that I ought to praise him even while wounded on that battle-ground. I could not help singing: * When I can read my title clear To mansions in the skies, I '11 bid farewell to every fear. And wipe my weeping eyes.' There was a Christian brother in the brush near me. I could not see him, but I could hear him. He took up the strain. Another, beyond him, heard and joined in, and still others too. We made the field of battle ring with the hymn of praise to God." Many volumes might be filled with illustrative anecdotes bearing upon the use of some line, stanza, or whole hymn even, which Watts has written. The full history of his hymns, if it could be written, 250 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. would be a great part, and a very interesting part, of the history of Protestant Christianity among En- glish-speaking peoples for the last hundred years. Scarcely another couplet in the entire range of Hym- nology has been so often quoted in the great crisis- hour of individual spiritual history as *' Here, Lord, I give myself away, 'T is all that I can do." Few verses appropriate to the dying hour are so often quoted, and with such satisfying effect, as " Jesus can make a dying bed Feel soft as downy pillows are, While on his breast I lean my head. And breathe my life out sweetly there." And how often have the lines of the previous verse been the experience of God^s children : " would my Lord his servant meet. My soul would stretch her wings in haste !" Said Thomas Scott the morning of his last day on earth : ^^ I have done with darkness forever — foe- EVER. Nothing now remains but salvation and eter- nal glory — ETERNAL GLORY !'' AVas not this the brightness of the coming of the Lord to meet his servant in the dark passage-way? When the good Bishop Beveridge was on his death-bed he was visited by a ministerial friend. "Bishop Beveridge, do you know me?^' "Who are you?" said the bishop. Being told, he answered: " I do n't know you.'' Another friend sought recog- nition. "I don't know you" was still the answer. His wife addressed him, but with the same result. ISAAC WATTS. 251 At length one said : " Do you know Jesus Christ ?" "Jesus Christ?" said the dying man, as if the very name had touched a new spring of life. "O yes; I have known him for forty years. Precious Savior! he is my only hope." Thus did the loving Master support and cheer his trusting disciple as the waters of the '^dark and solemn ocean" were closing over him. Dr. Doddridge wrote to Watts of the powerful effect produced by the singing of one of his hymns in his own congregation. He had preached from Hebrews vi, 12: "Followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises ;" and at the close of the sermon gave out the hymn : '' Give me the wings of faith to rise Within the veil, and see The saints above, how great their joys, How bright their glories be. Once they were mourners here below, And poured out cries and tears ; They wrestled hard, as we do now, With sins and doubts and fears. I ask them whence their victory came ; They, with united breath, Ascribe their conquests to the Lamb, Their triumph to his death. Our glorious leader claims our praise For his own pattern given. While the long cloud of witnesses Show the same path to heaven." So perfectly suited were these words to the matter of the discourse, and so tender the associations awak- ened, that many could not sing for their emotion, and many sung amid tears. 252 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. It is a matter of special interest that the memory of AVatts is, by many associations, so closely linked with that of the Wesleys. He lived about ten years after the beginning of that grand evangelical move- ment in which the Wesleys and Whitefield were the chief actors, though probably he never came into very close personal contact with any of its chief agents. But he did read some of Charles Wesley^s hymns, and never did one eminent poet give to another, then comparatively unknown, such a gener- ous meed of praise. Said he : '^ I would rather be the author of that single poem '• Wrestling Jacob ' than of all the hymns which I have ever written. '^ Probably no other person ever agreed with him in this estimate, and these words should be quoted rather in honor of Watts than Wesley, in whose honor they have been so often quoted.^'^^ It is an interesting fact that the last words which fell from the lips of John Wesley were written by Watts. When the supreme moment came he was struggling to repeat that grand hymn of gratitude and victory : " I '11 praise my Maker while I 've breath, And when my voice is lost in death Praise shall employ my nobler powers," etc. This hymn Wesley began on earth, but finished it if he ever finished it at all, ^^ before the throne of God." Some of the very best of the hymns of Watts owe their present perfection and much of their use- fulness to the finishing touches of John Wesley. The hymn " Before Jehovah's awful throne '' is ISAAC IVATTS. 253 an instance in point. As at first written it com- menced : " Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice, Let every land his name adore ; The British isles shall scent the noise Across the ocean to the shore. Nations attend before his throne With solemn fear, with sacred joy," etc. Wesley dropped the first verse altogether, and changed the first two lines of the second to read : " Before Jehovah's awful throne, Ye nations, bow with sacred joy;" thus making a suitable beginning for a hymn which is almost unequaled in our language for strength and majesty. Two or three slight changes made by Wesley in the hymn above mentioned as spoken literally with his dying breath, are felt to be such improvements as materially to elevate the character of the hymn. Watts wrote : I'll praise my Maker with my breath, which Wesley changed to I '11 praise my Maker while I 've breath. In the third verse Watts wrote : The Lord hath eyes to give the blind. This Wesley altered to The Lord pours eyesight on the blind. In a similar way did Wesley change, materially for the better, several lines in that glad song of Chris- 254 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. tian joy, " Come ye that love the Lord." At a single stroke he cleared away the weakness and im- purity of the first verse by changing it from the first to the second person — '^ Come ye '^ for ^^ Come we^^ etc. The first four lines, as originally written, stood thus: "The God that rules on high, And thunders when he please, Who rides upon the stormy sky And calms the roaring seas," etc. Wesley made the second line to read, '' That all the earth surveys." In the hymn commencing, '' My drowsy powers, why sleep ye so ?" Watts wrote in the second verse : " The little ants for one poor grain Labor and tug and strive." Wesley reclaimed it from its uncouthness and vul- garism, and elevated it into the region of lyrical ex- pression by substituting : "Go to the ants! For one poor grain See how they toil and strive." But the most striking instance of textual change, elevating and transforming the character of a whole hymn, is seen in the hymn commencing, "He dies! the friend of sinners dies! Lo! Salem's daugliters weep around: A solemn darkness veils the skies, A sudden trembling shakes the ground ;" which, as at first written by Watts, stood : " He dies! the heavenly lover dies! The tidings strike a doleful sound On my poor heart-strings. Deep he lies In the cold caverns of the ground !" ISAAC WATTS. 255 These hymns are all dear to the universal church, and it is a matter of considerable interest that, as now sung, they are the joint product of these two em- inent and honored representatives of the Calvinistic and the Arminian type of Christian belief Many of the hymns of Watts are a part of the universal language of English-speaking Christians, and are almost as sure to be known as the Bible itself. But a few of them have been selected by the critics as entitled to special mention because of their rare perfection as lyric poems. The two most fre- quently mentioned with the highest praise are : My God, the spring of all my joys. When I survey the wondrous cross. As examples of special felicity in versifying the Psalms the following have been quoted : O God, our help in ages past. The heavens declare thy glory, Lord. 256 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. CHAPTER VIII. THE WESIvEYS. THE prominence of the famous Wesley family in the general history of the Christian church is equaled only by its prominence in the history of Christian hymnody. Samuel \¥esley, Senior (1662-1735)— father of his more distinguished sons, Samuel, John, and Charles — was educated at Oxford, and was, for most of his life, rector of the parish of Epworth, in Lincolnshire. His grandfather, Bartholomew, and his own father, John, were both Dissenters, and were driven from their pulpits, fined, imprisoned, and, in the case of the father, crushed by the persecutions which they suf- fered as Non-conformists. In the exercise of that in- dependence and self-reliance so characteristic of him, he started for Exeter College, Oxford, with less than three pounds in his pocket; yet with such energy and economy did he apply himself to the problem of self- support that, though during his entire college course he did not receive aid to the amount of a crown, he was able to leave college with ten pounds, after de- fraying all expenses. Notwithstanding the bitter wrongs which his father had suffered, and which drove him to his grave at the early age of thirty-four, he decided to enter the ministry of the Established Church, and in this ministry lived and died. His THE WESLEY S. 251 noble wife, too — one of the most extraordinary women who have ever lived — experieaced a similar revolu- tion in her views on the great and overshadowing' question of Conformity. Her father — Dr. Annesley — was an eminent Non-conformist divine, but this his favorite daughter early came to clear convictions in favor of Conformity, and that, too, without at all in- terrupting the warm affection which existed between them. In Samuel Wesley we mark a distinct prophecy of the remarkable poetical gifts of his sons. From the first he himself shows an irrepressible proclivity for rhyming. He wrote a ^'Life of Christ" in verse, as also " The History of the Old and New Testa- ments '^ in the same form. Dunton says that he would write two hundred couplets a day, a statement which in itself almost vindicates the remark of another that " the current of his verse was so rapid as to carry with it all the lighter rubbish of its banks, and to sink whatever of weighty value was cast upon it.'' Two of his hymns are in somew^hat common use : Behold the Savior of mankind ! What shall I render to my God? This last must not be confounded with a hymn by Watts, founded on the same passage — Psalms cxvi, 13. The first was found written on a piece of music res- cued from the flames of the Epworth rectory. In this fire John Wesley narrowly escaped perishing ; and the first act of the father, when he saw that all his family were safe, was to kneel down with them to thank God for his protection and deliverance. As a 258 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. memento of this interesting passage in the history of the Wesley family, as well as for its own intrinsic meritj this hymn is highly prized. Samuel Wesley, Junior (1690-1739), was the old- est son of the foregoing, and, like him, was a Church- man. As to church order he stood at the very an- tipodes of his brothers John and Charles, being thor- oughly High-church in his views, and utterly opposed to the irregularities of the Methodistic movement. He was educated at Oxford, was an excellent scholar, and an author of some reputation. For twenty years he was an usher at Westminster School, and for the last seven years of his life he was head- master of the school at Tiverton. The following hymns are his : The Lord of Sabbath let us praise. The morning flowers display their sweets. His literary taste, and probably also his churchly sympathies, led him to express in verse his views of the prevalent tendency to put the Psalms into meter and rhyme — a protest which, as there can hardly be any doubt, was directed particularly against Dr. Watts : " Has David Christ to come foreshowed ? Can Christians, then, aspire To mend the harmony that flowed From his prophetic lyre? How curious are their wits, and vain ; Their erring zeal how bold, Who durst with meaner dross profane His purity of gold ! THE WESLEY S. 259 The Psalms unchanged the saints emplo}-, Unchanged our God appUes ; Tliey suit the apostles in their joy, The Savior when he dies. Let David's pure, unaltered lays Transmit through ages down To thee, O David's Lord, our praise — To thee, O David's Son ! Till judgment calls the seraph throng To join the human choir. And God, who gave the ancient song. The new one shall inspire." The history of John Wesley (1703-1791) has often been told, and need not here be repeated. The his- tory of no minister, from the days of the apostles to the present time, is more widely and universally fa- miliar. The estimate in which he should be held is already made up, and can not be materially changed. It has come to be felt on all hands that his is one of the grandest characters in all history — that his friends and followers have no occasion to blush for him, as he takes his seat in the very highest society of earth — and that the career it was given him to fulfill had a most influential bearing upon the history of Protest- ant Christianity among all the peoples who speak the English language. Of all the movements which have been set on foot in the sacred name of religion, no one has been more catholic, more spiritual, or more Christly in its genius and in its methods than that of which John Wesley was, in some eminent sense, the originator, and in which he was a chief actor. The Churchman, Isaac Taylor, pronounces it '^the starting point of our modern religious history," and asserts 2b0 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. that "■ the field-preaching of Wesley and Whitefield, in 1739, was the event whence the religious epoch now current must date its commencement/^ But it is with the relations of John Wesley to Christian hymnody that this sketch is solely con- cerned. His work here is of three kinds — alterations of hymns written by others, translations of hymns from other languages, and original hymns. Of his work as a hymn-mender we have already given illus- trations taken from the hymns of Watts. There is little doubt that the hymns of his brother Charles may be also much indebted to his more critical though less affluent pen. It is by no means improbable that some of these precious hymns may be the joint pro- duct of these brothers, just as certain hymns already mentioned are, in their present form, the joint pro- duct of Watts and John Wesley. But his most important contributions to hymnol- ogy were made in the form of translations. His em- inent mission was to bring the spiritual hymns of the Moravians, and the French and German Pietists and Mystics, into the English tongue, and so into the hearts of his followers. In them was struck the key- note of Christian experience for himself and his people. Among the most potent and stimulating in- fluences which have ever come to the English churches are the hymns of such men as Gerhardt, Tersteegen, the Langes, B,othe, Winkler, Spangenberg, and Zin- zendorf, and to them Methodism owes much of the vigor and fervor of her spiritual life. Considered as translations these hymns are worthy of high praise. Clear, accurate, dignified, poetic in THE WESLEYS. 261 diction, and forcible in style, they are, in their way, models. We read and sing them with no feeling that they were written in another language than ours. The only objection which can lie against them is as to the meter, Avhich is in octo-syllabled lines ; arranged, for the most part, six lines to a stanza, giving one of the heaviest meters ever employed in religious poetry, and one for which it is exceedingly difficult to find suitable music. The following is a list of the principal translations of Mr. Wesley, which are still kept as hymns in the congregations : God, of good the unfathomed sea. Scheffler. 1 thank thee, Uncreated Sun. " O God, thou bottomless abyss. E. Lange. Thine, Lord, is wisdom, thine alone. " God, what offering shall I give? /. Lange. Now I have found the ground wherein. Eothe. Though waves and storms go o'er my head. " My soul before thee prostrate lies. Richter. Thou Lamb of God, thou Prince of Peace. '* Eternal depth of love divine. Zinzendorf. Jesus, thy blood and righteousness. '* 1 thirst, thou wounded Lamb of God. " Extended on a cursed tree. Gerhardt. Jesus, thy boundless love to me. " Commit thou all thy griefs. " Give to the winds thy fears. " 262 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. Into thy gracious hands I fall. Dessler. Thou hidden love of God, whose height. Tersteegen. O Thou, to whose all-searching sight. " O Thou, who all things canst control. " Lo ! God is here ! Let us adore. *' Holy Lamb, who thee receive. Mrs. A. S. Dober. High on his everlasting throne. Spangenberg. Shall I, for fear of feeble man. Winkler. Savior of men, thy searching eye. " O Lord, within thy sacred gate. From the Spanish. Come, Savior, Jesus, from above. Mad. Bourignon.^^) The following original hymns are from his pen: Father of all, whose powerful voice. Ho ! every one that thirsts, draw nigh. O Sun of righteousness, arise. Ye simple souls, that stray. We lift our hearts to thee, , How happy is the pilgrim's lot ! (-> Of these the last is the most autobiographic. In- deed, some of the verses are so exactly suited to Mr. Wesley as to be quite unsuited for the use of average mortals. Take, for instance, these of the original, which, for very manifest reasons, are not found in the hymn-books : " I have no sharer of my heart To rob my Savior of a part. And desecrate the whole ; Only betrothed to Christ am I, And wait his coming in the sky. To wed my happy soul. THE WESLEYS. 263 I have no babes to hold me here, But children more securely dear For mine, I humbly claim ; Better than daughters or than sons, Temples divine of living stones, Inscribed with Jesu's name." Seldom has good poetry been used with such dis- mal effect as in these lines. We can not fail to recog- nize here the dark shadow of that most fallacious and pernicious doctrine of priestly celibacy. There is an evident implication that a man may be a better Chris- tian and a better minister for being childless and un- married. As we read these verses we can not repress a feeling of pity, not so much for the loneliness of the w^riter's lot — without "babes" and without a "sharer of his heart'' — but because he seems to find in these essentially abnormal conditions matter for self-gratulation. There is, however, a half-truth in all this, and the complementary truth Mr. Wesley sets forth in other places in his writings most clearly and forcibly. But the great name in Christian hymnody, con- tributed by the Wesley family, is that of Charles Wesley (1708-1788). He wrote more hymns — and we will add, more good hymns — than any other ten men who have written hymns in the English lan- guage. Watts wrote less than seven hundred, Dodd- ridge less than four hundred, Montgomery less than two hundred, while Charles Wesley wrote from seven to eight thousand ! Of course some of these are such as not even his most ardent admirers can find much pleasure in reading, but others exhibit a wealth and beauty of lyrical expression truly marvelous. A 264 SlUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. prominent actor in the most important evangelical movement since the days of the apostles, his hymns have the rare merit of reflecting every significant phase of that movement; so that if the question be asked to-day, What is Methodism as a creed, an ex- perience, a life ? — a more adequate answer can be found in these hymns than anywhere else, not ex- cepting the Sermons of John Wesley or the Institutes of Richard Watson. It has been said: "Let him who would form a good English style give his days and nights to the study of Addison." With more propriety may it be said : " Let him who would un- derstand that wonderful movement called Methodism, and especially him who would enter into and partake of its life — who would feel the thrill and glow and exhilaration so characteristic of it — give his days and nights to the study of the hymns of Charles Wesley." Next to the New Testament itself, they are the best body of experimental divinity ever written. No man can sing them heartily and habitually, " with the spirit and the understanding also," without coming to a just and discriminating sense of the real genius of Methodism. In unusual measure these hymns bear the stamp of the author's personal history and experience. Even his letters to her who afterwards became his wife were often written in verse; and when we remember that he was at this time a clergyman, forty years of age, and leading a most active and laborious life, we shall realize how absolutely irrepressible his poetic proclivities must have been. Among the best known of his hymns are such as the following: THE WES LEYS. 265 Jesus, lover of my soul. O for a thousand tongues to sing. A charge to keep I have. Stay, thou insulted Spirit, stay ! Jesus, the name high over all. How happy every child of grace. Come, thou Traveler unknown. Stand the omnipotent decree. Depth of mercy! can there be? Arise, my soul, arise. And must I be to judgment brought? Love divine, all love excelling. Light of those whose dreary dwelling. Come on, my partners in distress. Lo ! He comes, with clouds descending. Forever here my rest shall be. Blow ye the trumpet, blow. Soldiers of Christ, arise ! Thou God of glorious majesty. And am I only born to die? Come, thou Almighty King. Love divine, how sweet thou art ! Thou Shepherd of Israel, and mine. Vain, delusive world, adieu ! Hark ! the herald angels sing. See how great a flame aspires.'^^ 18 266 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. This list might easily be extended so as to embrace as many more which are generally familiar and dear to the heart of the universal church, but these will serve as illustrative specimens. The Wesleyarr Hymn- book of Great Britain contains six hundred and twenty-seven of his hymns, and many others are met with, scattered through the various hymnals of other denominations. Robert Southey says of them that they have been "more devoutly committed to mem- ory,^' and "oftener repeated on a death-bed,^' than any others. But life is a more just and adequate test than death, and with even more emphasis may it be said that no hymns have ministered to the wants of the human soul, in the great crises of spiritual history, more frequently or more helpfully than these. We hear among them voiceS for all phases and grades of spiritual experience, and all forms of Christian work — awakening conviction, penitence, pardon, assurance ; rejoicing in sins forgiven, in communion with God, in prospect of heaven ; the closet, the family, the church ; evangelistic work, charitable work, reform work, — everything which lies between the fearful ruin wrought by sin and the glorious consummation of the work of human recovery. Every condition in life, every occupation, and almost every event, is here represented. Among his general captions we find: "Hymns for Watch-Nights,'' "New-Year's Hay," "The Lord\s Supper," "The Nativity of Our Lord," "Our Lord's Resurrection,". "Hymns Occasioned by the Earthquake," " Hymns for Times of Trouble and Persecution," " Hymns for Methodist Preachers," " Hymns for the Use of Families," " Hymns for THE WESLEYS. 267 Children," " Prayers for Condemned Malefactors," " Hymns for the Nation," ^^ Funeral Hymns," etc. Among the titles of individual hymns are such as these : '' For a Family in Want," " To be Sung at Tea-table," '' For a Persecuting Husband," '' At Send- ing a Child to a Boarding-school," ^^ A Collier's Hymn," ^^ For an Unconverted Wife," ^^ For One Retired into the Country," "A Wedding-song," "On Going to Work;" and the more common captions, such as "For Sabbath," "Bereavement," "Sleep," " Morning and Evening." To many a devout Meth- odist these hymns have been, as indeed they are suited to be, " the key of the morning and the bolt of the night." Indeed these hymns, beautiful and felicitous as they often are in the mere matter of expression, seldom seem like mere words, but like " a heart poured out into a heart — a child-like, dependent human heart into the great, infinite, tender heart of God." Of this Bishop Wordsworth complains, and even finds such sensuous and amatory suggestions in " Jesus, lover of my soul," as to be shocked to hear it given out in a promiscuous congregation, gathered from the poor and sinful in a great city ; but it may be safely said that right-minded persons are more shocked at the criticism than the hymn. This warm, glowing, seraphic quality in Wesley's hymns is their grand, distinguishing characteristic, and the one reason why they will ever be placed, by many, above all other uninspired compositions. Their influence is well illustrated in that exceed- ingly choice, if not the very choicest of Mrs. Charles's books—" The Diary of Mrs. Kitty Trevylyan." One 268 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. of her characters had been a poor, ignorant, and des- perately wicked Cornish wrecker, but had been reached by the evangelists and brought to Christ, and is made to tell his story in this way : "* Yes, missis, my sin is the same, I think. I hate it more ; it 's seldom out of my sight. King David says, ^^ My sin is ever before me ;'' and I find him pretty right. And the eyes of the living Lord are on me, searching me through and through, seems to me deeper and deeper ^most every day ; and I can 't avoid them any more than I could ; but, thank the Lord, I do nH want to. There \s the difference — I do n't want to. I would n't be out of the sight of his eyes for the world.' *^ ' And what helped you thus at last V said mother. " * It was mostly the hymns,' said Toby ; ^ first the Bible, then mostly the hymns ; for they are the Bible for the most part, only set to music, like, so that it rings in your heart like a tune. It was the hymns, and what they said at the class-meeting. Before I went to the class, and heard what they had to say there, I thought I was all alone, like a castaway on a sandy shore, under a great sheer wall of cliffs; a narrow strip of sand, which no mortal man had ever trod before, and which the tide was fast sweeping over, bit by bit. To spell out the hymns in the book by myself was like finding foot-prints on the sands, and that was something. It made me feel my trouble was no madness, as poor mother called it; no mad dream, but waking up from the maddest dream that could be. It made me see that others had felt as I felt, and struggled as I was struggling, and had got THE WESLEYS. 269 through ! But when I went to the class, and heard them sing the hymns, it was like hearing voices on the top of the cliifs, cheering me up and pointing out the way. Our class-leader is no great speaker, but he has got a wonderful feeling heart, and a fine voice for the hymns, and it ^s they that has finished Parson Wesley's work and healed the wound he made: ** Depth of mercy ! can there be Mercy still reserved for me?" That was the first that settled down in my heart. I could n't listen any further, and I could n't get that out of my head for days, until another took its place — "Jesus, let thy pitying eye Call back a wandering sheep ; False to thee, like Peter, I Would fain like Peter weep. Let me be by grace restored ; On me be all long-suffering shown ; Turn, and look upon me, Lord, And break my heart of stone! For thine own compassion's sake. The gracious wonder show ; Cast my sins behind thy back, And wash me white as snow. If thy bowels now are stirred, If now I do* myself bemoan, Turn, and look upon me, Lord, And break my heart of stone! Look, as when thy languid eye Was closed, that we might live — * Father' (at the point to die My Savior gasped), 'forgive!' Surely, with that dying word, He turns, and looks, and cries, "Tis done!' my bleeding, loving Lord, Thou break'st my heart of stone.' " 270 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. " That hymn^ Toby said, seemed to put a new pic- ture in his heart. Instead of the pale face of the poor lad, lying lifeless on the sands, which had lately haunted him night and day, another countenance rose before him, pale and all but lifeless, but with the hollow eyes, large with pain, fixed in the tenderest pity on him. He understood that " God was in Christ reconciling the Avorld unto himself." He felt that it was the face of the Judge that looked so tenderly on him from the cross; that suffering, beyond any he had ever dreaded, had been borne for him by the Lord himself— made sin for him. And he felt that he was forgiven. " Then all day his heart seemed bursting with the joy of reconciliation, and he was singing — 'Thee will I love, my joy, ray crown ; Thee will I love, my Lord, my God ; Thee will I love, beneath thy frown Or smile, thy scepter or thy rod ; What though my flesh and heart decay ; Thee shall I love in endless day.' Everywhere that dying face of his Savior seemed beaming on him in the fullness of pity and love, and those words — ^'Tis done! Father, forgive!' — filled all the world with music. He could see or hear nothing else. "^ And now?' said mother. "• ^ Now, missis,' said Toby, ' I see all things once more as they are; but it seems as if everything were changed inwardly, though the outside is the same. The curse is taken out of every thing. Even that poor, dead lad's face, I see it now, and I am not THE WESLEYS. 271 afeared. For it seems to say : '' Not to me, Toby, it 's too late, I want nothing; not to me, but to all the rest, for my sake." And the two faces seem to get mixed up in my mind. Missis — the poor, drowned lad's and His — and still the words the dumb lips speak are the same : " Not to me ; all is well with me ; but to all the rest for my sake.'' And that,' concluded Toby, ' is what I live in hopes it will be given me to do before I die.' "^How, Toby?' " ' Why, Missis,' he said, ^ I watch for the wrecks more than ever I did in old time. I watch for the crews as I never watched for the cargoes. And one of these days it is my belief the Lord will give me to save some of them, and to see some poor, lifeless souls wake up to life again up there by mother's fire. And then I shall feel those two faces smiling on me up in heaven — the poor, drowned lad's, missis, and the blessed Lord's himself And that will be reward enough for an angel, let alone that an angel could never know the shame, and the sin, and the bitter reproaches in my heart, that makes it like heaven to me to dare to look up in his face at all.' " One of the most notable of Charles Wesley's hymns is that known as ^^ Wrestling Jacob" — beginning, "Come, O thou Traveler unknown." The testimony of Watts in its favor has already been quoted. John Wesley indicated his own estimate of this testimony by incorporating it into the biographical notice of his brother, in the Minutes of the conference, at the time of his death. Dean Trench says of it : " Though not eminently adapted for liturgic use, it is yet quite the 272 STUDIES IN HYMNOIOGY. noblest of Charles Wesley's hymns/' Considered as a poetical composition, this opinion might be generally acquiesced in ; but considered as a hymn, this can by no means be true. It neither belongs to the highest class of Christian hymns, nor does it satisfy the highest conditions of utility. It is by no means from the mere accident of being without music well suited for popular use that it is so seldom heard, even in the social meetings, but because it is not well suited to answer the purpose of a hymn. But its eminent Scripturalness, its deep spirituality, its felicity of style, its vividness, and its thoroughly sustained in- terest from beginning to end, bear eloquent testimony to the wonderful genius of the author. Robert Southey pronounces ^^ Stand the omnipo- tent decree '' " the finest lyric in the English language ;'' but if the judgment of those who have made much use of the Wesleyan hymns — and so have made up their judgment by the test of experience rather than of literary taste — is of any value, there are many finer among the hymns of Mr. Wesley. The hymn *^ O for a thousand tongues to sing'' — which has, from the first, occupied the place of honor in the Methodist hymn-books of Great Britain and America — was written on the first anniversary of his spiritual birth, and so is, doubtless in an eminent de- gree, the outpouring of his own rapturous emotions. " Come away to the skies, my beloved, arise, And rejoice in the day thou wast born ;" and " Come, let us ascend, my companion and friend, To a taste of the banquet above," were both addressed to his wife on her birthday. '^^ THE WESLEYS. 273 But beyoDd question the most popular, if not the most famous, of Charles Wesley's hymns is " Jesus, lover of my soul." Says Henry Ward Beecher : " I would rather have written that hymn than to have the fame of all the kings that ever sat on the earth. ... It will go on singing until the last trump brings forth the angel-band; and then, I think, will mount up on some lip to the very presence of God." The last indication of life that Dr. Lyman Beecher gave was his mute response to his wife, as she repeated : "Jesus, lover of my soul, Let me to thy bosom fly." "Two lines of this hymn," says Rev. Theodore L. Cuyler, '^have been breathed fervently and often out of bleeding hearts. When we were once in the valley of death-shade, with one beautiful child in the new- made grave and the other threatened with fatal disease, there was no prayer which we said oftener than this — ' Leave, leave me not alone ! Still support and comfort me!' We do not doubt that tens of thousands of other be- reaved and wounded hearts have tried this piercing cry out of the depths." To Margaret Wilson, the Scotch martyr, the terms of this hymn had a most apposite application, and to her was the prayer of this hymn most blessedly and eminently fulfilled. A young woman of eighteen, she had been informed against as a Covenanter, and was condemned to die by being fastened to a stake, where the slowly rising tide would come over her. To try her constancy still more severely, an older woman 274 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. was also fastened to a stake still lower down, in order that the sight of her death-agonies might move Mar- garet. As the waters rose, and she saw her aged companion wrestling with death, the heartless men asked Margaret : ^' What do you see there ?'^ " I see," said Margaret, unmoved, ^^ Christ suffering there. Do you think we are the sufferers? No, it is Christ in us; for he sends none on a warfare upon his own charges." She then chanted the Twenty-fifth Psalm, beginning — *' Let not the errors of my youth, Nor sins, remembered be ; In mercy, for thy goodness' sake, O Lord, remember me." Afterward she repeated, with a cheerful voice, the eighth chapter of Romans, ending: "For I am per- suaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, my Lord." And then, as she was commending her soul to God in prayer, the waters of the dark and solemn sea closed over her. She had found in Christ's bosom a refuge from the nearer waters of earthly danger and death. Several accounts have been given of the origin of this hymn, but all are of more than doubtful authen- ticity. The most elaborate and interesting of these is given in Eev. Edwin M. Long's " History of the Hymns," and of it Mr. Long says: "These interest- ing facts were given by Mr. Pi 1 more, who was an eye- witness, to an intimate friend, Mr. Hicks, who stated them to Rev. I. H. Torrence, of Philadelphia, from THE WESLEYS. 275 whom 1 received them. The same statement was also previously given to me by the aged Rev. Dr. Collier, who received it from an Englishman, who was contem- porary with Wesley." The story is this: "Charles and John Wesley and Richard Pilmore were holding one of their twilight meetings on the common, when the mob assailed them, and they were compelled to flee for their lives. Being separated for a time, as they were being pelted with stones, they at length, in their flight, succeeded in getting beyond a hedge-row, where they prostrated themselves on the ground, and placed their hands on the back of their heads for protection from the stones, which still came so near that they could feel the current of air made by the missiles as they went whizzing over them. In the night-shades that were gathering, they managed to hide from the fury of the rabble in a spring-house. Here they struck a light with a flint-stone, and after dusting their clothes and washing, they refreshed themselves with the cooling water that came bubbling up in a spring, and rolling out in a silver streamlet. Charles Wesley pulled out a lead pencil — made by hammering to a point a piece of lead — and from the inspiration of these surroundings, composed the precious hymn." ^2 » One of the most solemn and impressive of all these hymns of Charles Wesley reflects the scenery of Land^s End, even more vividly than do any of Watts's that of Southampton. The second verse of the hymn "Thou God of glorious majesty" reads as follows : " Lo ! on a narrow neck of land, 'Twixt two unbounded seas, I stand Secure, insensible ; A point of time, a moment's space, Removes me to that heavenly place, Or shuts me up in hell." The hymn above mentioned as praised by Southey — '* Stand the omnipotent decree " — doubtless derives 276 STUDIES IN HYMNOLOGY. much of its special interest and impressiveness in that it was written "For the Year 1756^^ — a time when men were appalled by the terrible calamity of the great Lisbon earthquake. Read in the light of this fearful catastrophe, the sublimity of its almost unequaled utterances is fully evident : " Stand the omnipotent decree ; Jehovah's will be done ; Nature's end we wait to see, And hear her final groan. Let this earth dissolve, and blend In death the wicked and the just; Let those ponderous orbs descend. And grind us into dust ! Rests secure the righteous man ; At his Redeemer's beck, Sure to emerge, and rise again, And mount above the wreck. Lo ! the heavenly spirit towers. Like flames o'er nature's funeral pyre ; Triumphs in immortal powers, And claps his wings of fire. Ndthing hath the just to lose, By worlds on worlds destroyed ; Far beneath his feet he views. With smiles, the flaming void ; Sees this universe renewed, The grand, millennial reign begun ; Shouts, with all the sons of God, Around the eternal throne." Come, let us join our friends above, was a special favorite with John Wesley. It is the concluding part of what was originally a long poem of more than a hundred lines; which poem has been divided into four hymns, which, in the Methodist THE WESLEYS. 277 Hymnal, are made to follow each other in proper order. The part commencing, Come, let us join our friends above, is a tender and beautiful tribute to the memory of the pious dead. One of the most tender traditions of the later years of John Wesley is that which rep- resents him as having, on one occasion, come to the chapel at City Roads, where he was to preach that evening ; and as the shades of the evening were gath- ering around him, standing with his head bowed on his hand, as if holding communion with the invisible world; and then giving out this hymn, in which he seemed to gather up the precious memories which bound him to the first band of heroic workers, of which he was then almost the sole survivor: " Come, let us join our friends above. That have obtained the prize. And on the eagle-wings of love To joys celestial rise. . . . One family we dwell in Him ; One church above, beneath, Though now divided by the stream. The narrow stream of death. One army of the living God, To his command we bow ; Part of his host have crossed the flood, And part are crossing now. Our old companions in distress, We haste again to see ; And eager long for our release, And full felicity. E'en now, by faith, we join our hands With those that went before ; And greet the blood-besprinkled bands On the eternal shore." ADDITIONAL NOTES. Bv THE Editor. CHAPTER I. (1) Dr. Schaff says that the number of German hymns can not fall short of 100,000. Dean George Ludvig von Harden- berg, of Halberstadt, in 1786, prepared a catalogue of first lines of 72,733 hymns, and the number, not completed then, has been greatly increased since. ^2) Of these two hymns, the first was composed for his wife's twenty-ninth birthday, October, 12, 1755; the second seems to have been generally "for Christian friends," and ap- peared in the author's " Hymns and Sacred Poems," 1749. It was of this latter hymn that the saintly Fletcher said : " When the triumphal chariot of perfect love gloriously carries you to the top of perfection's hill ; w^hen you are raised far above the common heights of the perfect ; when you are almost trans- lated into glory, like Elijah, — then you may sing this hymn." C3) Composed during a solitary walk in the field, when the poet was tortured by an apprehension of returning madness. It was the last he ever wrote for the famous Olney collection. (4) Part of the hymn found in the Olney collection, en- titled "Looking at the Cross," and beginning — " In evil, long I took delight, Unawed by shame or fear, Till a new object struck my sight, And stopped my wild career." (5) A selection from a poem of ten stanzas, entitled " De- siring Resignation and Thankfulness," the first stanza of which is — " When I survey life's varied scene. Amid the darkest hours, Sweet pays of comfort shine between, And thorns are mixed with flowers.*' (6) From the Evening Hymn in the "Christian Year." The original has fourteen stanzas, of which the third, seventh, 278 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 279 eighth, and last three verses, are usually given in hymn col- lections. (7) This, one of Wesley's hymns for children, is given en- tire in the Methodist Hymnal, No. 968, and begins, "And am I only born to die?" Two stanzas are here omitted. CHAPTER II. (i) "Poesy is of so subtle a spirit that, in pouring of one language into another, it will evaporate."— Denham. (2) The Trisagion is said to have been first introduced into the Liturgy in the reign of the younger Theodosius (408-450), but it is probably much older. Tradition has it that it was supernaturally communicated to the terror-stricken popula- tion of Constantinople during an earthquake of St. Proclus (A. D. 434). f3) The Gloria consisted originally of the few words in Luke ii, 14, to which subsequent additions were made— first in the Greek, then in the Latin church— until, in the fifth ceVtury, it is found substantially as in use to-day. (4) There is a legend to the effect that Ambrose composed and sang the Te Deum by inspiration, when he baptized Au- gustine ; also, that they sang it responsively. This latter sug- gestion has been poetically wrought out by Mrs. Margaret J. Preston, in "The First Te Deum'' (see her "Colonial Ballads," 1887). It is generally believed to be a composite of some Greek morning hymns and metrical renderings of Scriptural passages. (5) Farrar (Lives of the Fathers, I, 278) doubts the gen- uineness of this hymn, claiming that, while it is beautiful and interesting, it probably belongs to a later age. (6) This version is found in the Methodist Hymnal, No. 885. (7) The author mentions a dozen others by title, one of which deserves more than passing notice; namely, " Redeemer of the nations, come !" Dr. SchafF calls this the best of the Ambrosian hymns, full of faith, rugged vigor, austere sim- plicity, and bold contrasts. We subjoin the first and last stanzas (of seven) in Dr. Ray Palmer's translation : " O Tbou, Redeemer of our race ! Come, show the Virgin's Son to earth; 280 ADDITIONAL NOTES, Liet every age admire the grace ; Worthy a God thy human birth ! With light divine thy manger streams, That kindles darlcness into day ; Dimmed by no night henceforth, its beams Shine through all time with changeless ray." The translation by John Franck, Trench calls one of the choicest treasures of the German hymn-book, and Bunsen says it is "even deeper and lovelier than the Latin." See Lyra Oermanica, First Series, page 186. (s) Confessions, ix, 6. " How greatly did I weep in thy hymns and canticles, deeply moved by the voices of thy sweet- speaking church ! The voices flowed into mine ears, and the truth was poured forth mto my heart, whence the agitation of my piety overflowed, and my tears ran over, and blessed was I therein." (9) Confessions, ix, 7. CHAPTER III. The hymns of Bernard, cited here, are all in the Meth- odist Hymnal, the second and fourth being especial favorites with our people. "Of him who did salvation bring" was, at one time, credited to Charles Wesley ; the matter and style of the poem bewraying, as was thought, the Wesleyan genius. It was discovered afterwards in a book of translations by A. W. Boehm (1673-1722), and has since been properly assigned. " Jesus, the very thought of thee," has been denominated "the sweetest and most evangelical (as the DtVs Irce is the grandest, 19 282 ADDITIONAL NOTES. and the Stabat Mater the most pathetic) hymn of the Middle Ages." Trench, selecting fifteen of the forty-eight or fifty quatrains for his "Latin Poetry," remarks: "Where all was beautiful, the task of selecting was a hard one." (2) For the benefit of Latin scholars we subjoin the text: " Sicut chorda musicorum Tandem sonum dat sonorum Plectri ministerio, Sic in chely tormentorum Melos Christi confessorum Martyris dat tensio. Parum sapis vim sinapis, Si non tangis, si non frangis; Et plus fragrat, quando flagi-at, Tus injectum ignibus; Sic arctatus et assatus, Sub ardore, sub labore, Dat odorem pleniorem Martyr de virtutibus." (3) The late Rev. S. W. Duffield essayed a translation, pre- serving the original measure, thus — " These are the latter times ; these are not better times ; Let us stand waiting ; Lo! how, with awfulness, He, first in lawfulness, Comes arbitrating." W Of the Stabat Mater (Dolorosa) Dr. Schafi* says: "It is the most pathetic . . . hymn of the Middle Ages, and oc- cupies second rank in Latin hymnology. Suggested by the in- cident related in John xix, 25, and the prophecy of Simeon (Luke ii, 35), it describes, with overpowering eff*ect, the pierc- ing agony of Mary at the cross, and the burning desire to be identified with her, by sympathy, in the intensity of her grief. It furnished the text for the noblest musical compositions of Palestrina, Pergolesi, Haydn, and others. . . . The soft, sad melody of its verse is untranslatable." ^5) The Stabat Mater (Speciosa) was brought to public notice through the researches of A. F. Ozanam (1852), and introduced more particularly to American readers by Dr. Philip Schaff", in an article in " Hours at Home," May, 1867. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 283 The question of authorship is not settled, and Dr. Coles argues a twofold authorship of the hymns from internal evidence. '^*^> Quoted from Mrs. Charles's "Voice of Christian Life in Song," one of the most scholarly and interesting works on the subject of hymnology. CHAPTER V. (1) Methodist Hymnal, No. 911. The two martyrs referred to are Henry Voes and John Esch, whose martyrdom took place in 1523. After the fires were kindled, they repeated the Apostles' Creed, sang the " Te Deum,''^ and prayed in the flames: "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy upon us!" The original poem consists of twelve nine-line stanzas, and begins — " Ein neues Lied wir heben an." The tenth stanza is the basis of the hymn quoted. Professor Bayne, in his recent Life of Luther, speaks of it as a " bal- lad — rugged, indeed, and with little grace or ornament of com- position, but tingling, every line of it, with sincerity and in- tensity." The meter is preserved in the following: '♦ With joy they stepped into the flame, God's praises calmly singing. Strange pangs of rage, amazement, sliame The sophists' hearts are wringing; For God they feel is here." (2) Methodist Hymnal, No. 166. The imagery of the hymn is derived from the forty-sixth Psalm. The hymn has com- monly been assigned to 1529 ; but the recent discovery of a print dating apparently from February, 1528, has led Kos- tlin to assign the hymn to 1527, the year of the pestilence, and of Luther's severest spiritual and physical trials. Dr. Bayne says of Luther's hymns: " It may be said generally that they are characterized by a rugged but fundamentally melo- dious rhythm, a piercing intensity and expressiveness, with tender, lovely, picturesque touches here and there. Above all, they are sincere. They seem to thrill with an intensity of feeling beyond their power of expression, like the glistening of stars whose silence speaks of God." (3) Methodist Hymnal, No. 569. The authorship of this hymn was long ascribed to Altenburg, a pastor in Thuringia ; but recent researches, according to Miss Winkworth, have 284 ADDITIONAL NOTES. made it clear that he only composed the chorale, and that the hymn itself was written down roughly by Gustavus himself, after his victory at Leipsic, and reduced to regular verse by his chaplain, Dr. Fabricius, for the use of the army. *^4) Translated by Miss Winkworth in "Lyra Germanica," second series, beginning, "Now lay me calmly in the grave." (5) Methodist Hymnal, No. 694. The translation consists of eleven stanzas. (6) Interesting and beautiful as the story is, it has to be said that Gerhard's ministry did not close in Berlin until 1667, and that the hymn was in existence in 1666. Kubler says it was first published in 1659. (7) Methodist Hymnal, Nos. 119, 478. It is said that most of Scheffler's hymns were written before he entered the Roman communion. Schultze, a German missionary in Madras, in 1722, translated Scheffler's " Liebe, die der mich zum Bilde " into Tamil for his people, and it so delighted them that he translated more than one hundred of the best German hymns for their use, and they are still sung in South India. (8) Miss Winkworth says: "His hymns have great beauty, and bespeak a tranquil and child-like soul, fflled and blessed with the contemplation of God." - (9)Zinzendorf was a prolific writer. He is said to have composed about two thousand hymns, many of which were produced extemporaneously. The Brethren took them down and preserved them. Zinzendorf says of them, in speaking of his services at Berlin: "After the discourse, I generally an- nounce another hymn appropriate. When I can not find one, I compose one ; I say, in the Savior's name, what comes into my heart." Quoted by Josiah Miller. (10) Methodist Hymnal, No. 1086. For an account of liis life and criticism of his style, see Longfellow's "Poets and Poetry of Europe," p. 267. (11) Methodist Hymnal, Nos. 755, 1010. The original of this last hymn was sung at the grave of the author when he was buried. A favorite pastime with Dr. Spitta was to sing in the evening, with his two daughters, hymns and tunes of his own composing, and so attractive was this performance that crowds were wont to gather at his window to listen. (12' Methodist Hymnal, No. 993. This hymn was used at the funeral of the translator, Dr. Bethune, who died in 1862. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 285 (I'^'The German version is by Albert Knapp: "Nein, iiein, das ist kein Sterben." Duffield ("English Hymns") inti- mates that Malan's hymn was a version of Knapp's, and not, as Dr. Hemenway implies (whose view is also Dr. Schaff's, see "Gesangbuch " and "Christ in Song"), the other way. CHAPTER VI. •^^^ Methodist Hymnal, No. 152. The second verse of the hymn, as written by Sternhold, was: "On cherubs and on cherubims Full royally he rode, And on the wings of all the winds Came flying all abroad." Duffield says it is related of the learned Scaliger— whether father or son is not stated — that he would rather have been the author of this stanza than to have written his own works. (-'Methodist Hymnal, No. 11. This was the first British composition to which the tune "Old Hundred" was united, and, as is seen, gave its own name to the tune. The author- ship is contested, Duffield, in his "English Hymns," assigning it to John Hopkins, who, with Sternhold, Kethe, and others, published a rendering of the Psalms. '=^' Methodist Hymnal, No. 156. Under the persecution of James VI., six ministers were banished for their independence of the Establishment, and were taken to Leith for embarka- tion. On the shore the parting from friends and dear ones was most touching. All joined in singing this psalm accord- ing to the quaint version, two verses of which are: "'He doth nie fold in cotes most safe, Tlie tender grass fast by; And after driv'th me to the streams . Which run most pleasantly. And though 1 were even at death's door, Yet would I fear none ill; For by thy rod and shepherd's crook, I am comforted still." '■"See Chapter III. •^'The hymn "How are thy servants blest, O Lord!" is usually called the "Traveler's Hymn." It was composed on shipboard during a terrific storm, in which all was given up for 286 ADDITIONAL NOTES. lost. AVhile the captain, in terror, was confessing bis sins to a Capuchin friar, Addison was solacing himseU with the com- position of this song of praise and trust. '6) Methodist Hymnal, No. 669. This is part of a poem of eight double stanzas, beginning, " My whole, though broken, heart, O Lord," and entitled, "The Covenant and Confidence of Faith." It has this note appended: "This covenant my dear wife, in her former sickness, subscribed with a cheerful will. Job xii, 26." The hymn was a favorite with the em- inent scientist Clerk Maxwell, who frequently repeated it dur- ing his last illness. '") Methodist Hymnal, No. 268. Considerably altered, and for the better, by John Wesley. ^8^ Methodist Hymnal, No. 666. The first verse originally stood : "Shall Simon bear thy cross alone, Aud other saints be free? Each saint of thine shall find his own, And there is one for me." '^'Methodist Hymnal, No. 969. For an interesting ac- count of the evolution of this hymn, see article by Rev. C. S. Nutter, author of "Hymn Studies," in New York Christian Ad- vocate of August 26, 1886. (10) Methodist Hymnal, No. 1044. The hymn has been traced to the collection of " Williams and Boden" (1801), where it is credited to the Eckington Collection. Duflield conjectures that as Rev. James Boden, one of the editors, lived and died near Eckington^ Yorkshire, this may have been his version of "F. B. P.'s" hymn. For a fine critical and historical sketch of this famous hymn see W. C. Prime's monograph, "O mother dear, Jerusalem" (New York, 3d edition, 1865). The Latin hymn referred to as given by Daniel ( Thesaurus Hymno- Jogicus) consists of forty-eight lines, and begins: Urbs beata lerusalem dicta pacis visio. The "F. B. P." version, as given by Dr. Bonar, opens: " Hierusalem, my happy home, When shall I come to thee ? When shall my sorrows have an end?- Thy joys when shall I see?" and contains twenty-six stanzas. ADDITIONAL NOTES. 287 CHAPTER VII. Page 5. ('^It is only proper to state that the assignment of this hymn to that occasion is based upon a tradition which, according to Dr. E. F. Hatfield, an authority on the subject, "is probably founded on the fact that the hymn appears as No. 1 of his first book." ^-)Dean Stanley, however, said of the same composition: "It is not only a hymn but a philosophical poem, disfigured, indeed, in parts by the anatomical allusions to the shrunk sinew, but filled, on the whole, with a depth and pathos which might well excite Watts to say that ' it was worth all the verses ne himself had written,' and induce Montgomery to compare it to the action of a lyrical drama." CHAPTER VHI. (3) See Chapter I, and note. (4) The late Mr. George John Stevenson, of London, and one of the best informed Wesleyan hymnologists, entirely dis- credits this story as of "pure Yankee invention." There is certainly nothing in the hymn itself to indicate that the inci- dent, if it had any existence at all, inspired the song. The hymn is found in "Hymns and Sacred Poems," 1740; bears the title, "In Temptation," and has five verses. The third verse, usually omitted from collections, runs : " Wilt thou uot regard my call? Wilt thou not accept my prayer? Lo ! I sink, I faint, I fall ! Lo ! on thee I cast my care ! Reach me out thy gracious hand, While 1 of thy strength receive ; Hoping against hope, I stand- Dying, and behold I live ;" and hints that the Scriptural suggestion is Matt, xiv, 28, ^e.q. In temper and treatment the hymn is eminently contempla- tive and subjective, the very opposite of which might be ex- pected from the spring-house episode. Lectures ar)cl S^riT)or)S. KDITED BY REV. A. W. PATTEN, D. D. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. OUT of the great number of Dr. Hemenway's lectures, sermons, and addresses only a few have been selected for publication, for the reason that most of the material was in the form of skeleton and syllabus for class-room work. The lectures on Pastoral Theology and Biblical In- troduction were those by which the Doctor most strongly impressed his students. It is, therefore, much to be re- gretted that we can not present these lectures in a com- pleted form. His broad outlook as to the nature of a Methodist preacher's work, and his power as a preacher, may be vividly recalled by the selections given. AMOS W. PATTEN. LECTURES AND SERMONS. I. SPECIAL QUALIFICATIONS NEEDED FOR A METHODIST PASTOR. THE general qualifications demanded in a Chris- tian pastor are clearly indicated by the nature of his office. He represents Christ. He is to the flock, in some sense, instead of Christ. He is in the place of Him who possessed a perfect manhood. By what he is and by what he does he is seeking to bring humanity nearer this perfect model. To stand be- tween Christ and his church, and to represent Christ to his church, calls for the highest qualities of body, mind, and soul. But it is the object of this paper to indicate not the general qualifications needed in a Christian pas- tor, but the special qualifications demanded in a Methodist pastor. I. Acquaintance and Sympathy with the History of Methodism. Each of the great denominations, doubtless, has its providential mission. It exists not by the caprice or cunning or obstinacy of men, but by the will of God. It is the product of forces divinely originated, 291 292 LECTURES AND SERMONS. which could not find vent, and so created new organs of development. It is but reasonable to conclude that each of the great Christian denominations ex- presses some idea — presents some phase of Christian- ity more perfectly than any other ; and there is no reason to doubt that all together may at last conspire to w^rk out a more perfect Christianity than the world has yet seen. Under God's providence, men are often conducted to results of the value and bless- edness of which they themselves had formed no an- tecedent conception. So, as I can not doubt, many denominational movements have been providentially originated and conducted Avith a view to results far higher and broader than the chief actors in them ever dreamed of. Their leaders have builded wiser than they knew. Men have had their will in them, but God has also had his. Honest and devoted men, under some special inspiration, have hewn out some beautiful pillar of Christian faith, and God has builded it into his great spiritual temple. They have originated some sweet and simple melody, thinking thereby only to express their own experience more correctly, and God has made it one strain in the universal harmony. At the cost of much toil, suffering, and perhaps persecution, they succeed in opening a new channel by which the water of life may come to some land which before has been ^' dry and thirsty." God adopts it as a part of that network of gracious supply which shall ultimately spread the world over. Hence each denomination has an individual char- acter. It is distino^uished from all others, not only METHODIST PASTOR'S QUALIFICATIONS 293 in men'8 minds, bi:t also in God's mind. It has not only a different creed, polity, name, manner of work, but, deeper down than these, a different genius, a different consciousness, and so a different mission. Believing, then, that this consciousness may differ in some degree from that developed in other branches of the church and yet be Christian, and so this mis- sion divine, it follows that every minister who would be an organ of this denominational life should par- take of this consciousness and recognize this mission. He has no right to bear the name of a denomination with which he is not in sympathy. He has no right to assume to do what he is incapable of doing — to seem to be what he is not. It is, then, making no narrow or bigoted claim that a Methodist pastor should be a Methodist ; that he should be familiar with this chapter in ecclesias- tical history; that he should understand the genius of Methodism, and be himself a partaker of it; in short, he should comprehend this great spiritual movement, and feel that some of its springs are in his own nature. In this he goes down below^ all questions of polity, economy, or even doctrine; he leaves out of sight the phenomena which this new force has actually produced in its historic develop- ment, to fasten upon the essence of the movement — the principle in which all these new laws and regu- lations had their origin— the force which originated these phenomena, but which, under other circum- stances, might produce other and different results. I repeat, then, in order to be fit to be a pastor in the Methodist Church a man should understand 294 LECTURES AND SERMONS. and appreciate Methodism — its dignity, its divine significance, its achievements of good, its adaptation to the wants of men, and so its promise of good in the future. He needs to see clearly and feel pro- foundly that this great movement is a God-originated one ; that it has, under God, given such an impulse to Christian feeling on all sides as to become (as the Chnrchman, Isaac Taylor, has characterized it) "the starting-point of our modern religious history; that the field-preaching of Wesley and Whitefield in 1739 was the event whence the religious epoch now current must date its commencement ; that back to the events of that time must we look necessarily as often as we seek to trace to its source what is most characteristic of the present time; and that yet this is not all, for the Methodism of the past age points forward to the next coming development of the pow- ers of the gospel.'' Especially does he need to see that Methodism was not the product of merely mechanical forces or of ingenious expedients; that it did not result from any particular economy or manner of work, as itinerant or lay preaching, for example, though its spirit may have found its natural expression in these, and the movement may have been greatly indebted to these instrumentalities; that it was not the work of any man or set of men, and so due to their sagacity, fidel- ity, zeal, or knowledge of evangelistic truth ; but that it was eminently a providential movement, the product of spiritual forces — the inspiration of that infinite, life-giving spirit under whose influence all the vital forces of the church are originated. Hence METHODIST PASTOR'S QUALIFICATIONS. 295 it must be understood, as Isaac Taylor has so well characterized it, as resulting from a direct, earnest appeal to the religious consciousness, such as is char- acteristic of the teaching of Christ and his apostles, holding up every man, in the solitude of his own in- dividuality, to the scrutiny of conscience and the searching glance of the omniscient eye. It was a simple preaching of the gospel, the great truths of which were emphasized and reiterated until they came to sink into the hearts of those who heard. It was a great movement of evangelistic philanthropy. It proceeded, with some measure of consistency, on the assumption that man needs the gospel, and that the gospel is for man. The inestimable worth of man and the fearfulness of the ruin to which he is ex- posed were on one side, and the ineffable love of God, as revealed in an atoning Savior, on the other. Methodism, in the simplest manner, with downright- ness and earnestness, sought to bring these two coun- terparts together. My brethren, let us see to it that this prime qual- ification for exercising a pastorate in the Methodist Church be ours. Let us strive to follow worthily in the footsteps of the fathers. The product of our preaching is not to be theology merely, but religion. Our business is not to instruct men as an end, but to save them. Fall into the history of Methodism. Catch the inspiration of this grand evangelic move- ment. Tone up your souls by studying the lives of the fathers. Practice the same simplicity, earnest- ness, directness, evangelic intensity which God so honored in Wesley's time. As we stand up to preach 296 LECTURES AND SERMOAS. to the people, let us remember that, in the case of many of them, we have '^ but a half hour out of the week to raise the dead in/' and let this reflection in- spire us to strike our most telling blows for God and truth and souls.' Then shall every sermon be a battle, short, sharp, decisive, victorious. II. Acquaintance and Sympathy w^th the Doctrines of Methodism. Methodism was not primarily a doctrinal move- ment. It did not result in any measure from an at- tempt to readjust the doctrinal statements of Chris- tianity. And yet there has never, in the whole his- tory of the Christian Church, been a more marked individuality of doctrine than among the people called Methodists. Their real creed is a very short and simple one; but they unite upon it, and it has contributed much to their marvelous success. It may be characterized as evangelical universalism. It rec- ognizes the all-fatherhood of God, a truth obscured by Augustinianism and perverted by Universalism ; the essential and so the universal freedom and aecount- ahility of man; the universal prevalence of sin, and the consequent utter helplessness of humanity ; and the all-embracing atonement of Christ, providing a full salvation for every man. This system antagonizes the Augustinian doctrine of election at every point, while it emphasizes the spiritual privileges of the believer. It agrees, however, with Augustinianism as against Pelagianism in maintaining man's utter dependence for all good upon the grace of God. This system of doctrine, then, is evangelical as against all rational- METHODIST PASTORS QUALIFICATIONS. 297 isiia schemes, and universal as against all partial sys- tems. With Protestants in general, we reject all papal additions to Christianity; and with all evan- gelical Christians, we agree in our beliefs as to a future state. Such is the doctrinal position of Methodism. It makes little of the philosophical aspect of theology, but much of its practical aspect. It assumes that every characteristic doctrine of Christianity is for the sake of bringing men to salvation ; that the doctrines and ordinances, as well as the living members of the church of Christ, all join in one grand, universal, im- partial invitation, "Co7ne to Jesus J^ With these doc- trines every Methodist pastor should be in sympathy. There must be in him no theological exclusiveness. He must cherish no restricted views of the grace of God. He must indulge no proclivities to bring merely speculative notions into his public teaching; for Methodism is in its genius eminently simple and practical. Especially must his words give no uncer- tain sound as to the general doctrines of grace. He must give no man any excuse for confounding Wes- leyanism with semi-Pelagianism. He must always assume that all souls belong to God. He must see in every man the purchase of the Redeemer's agony. He must set forth the infinite fullness of provision made for the spiritual wants of men. He must make every man feel that if he dies eternally, it will be as a spiritual suicide; that if he plunges into perdition, it will be because he would not plunge into " the fountain filled witli blood." 20 298 LECTURES AND SERMONS. III. Acquaintance and Sympathy with the Polity and Usages of the Methodist Episco- pal Church. This polity is at once simple and complicated — simple in principle, but complicated in outward ex- pression and adjustment. The one principle of which it is the outgrowth is that 0/ bringing all agencies of the church to bear upon all classes in the church, and to secure for all efficient pastoral care and oversight. The development of this polity has proceeded in the light of Scriptural and ecclesiastical precedent and practical expediency. The result is a polity which, for variety and completeness of detail, has no equal among Protestant churches. But all this machinery is intended for a living, militant church, and so is en- tirely unsuited for one non-aggressive and dead. The adjustments of the Methodist Church will be a yoke of bondage to every unspiritual member; and espe- cially so to a pastor in whose heart the flame of spir- itual and aggressive piety does not burn brightly. The armor and discipline suited to war will only be burdensome to an ease-loving, non-resisting, compro- mising, contented advocate of peace. And so the Methodist minister should understand and appreciate the economy of his own church — not merely its external, formal, and mechanical details, but its genius and spirit, its reason and principle. And he should be loyal to it — not, by any means, that it is perfect, and so changeless; nor even that it is the best possible, but as having much experience METHODIST PASTOR'S QUALIFICATIONS. 299 and success in its favor, and so not to be hastily and crudely tinkered. IV. Faith in the Mission of Methodism. ^' It is impossible to be a hero in anything unless one is first a hero in faith." " Fields are won only by those who believe in the winning." To be an efficient agent of Methodism, one must have faith in the mission of Methodism. We ' can only do our utmost to give Methodism to the world under the profound conviction that the world needs it. This conviction should be deeper than any that can be begotten by a knowledge of the marvelous successes of the past. It should spring from a recognition of the thorough fitness of this type of Christianity to meet a great and pressing demand. The results al- ready garnered may well be accepted as a confirma- tory comment on our conclusions touching this mat- ter; but I would look deeper than these results for the firm basis of our faith. Does humanity need to be elevated? What will do this so certainly as that bringing of each individual soul into a sense of free- dom, and so accountability before God, which is characteristic of all Methodist preaching? What will give a man to feel the dignity and inestimable worth of his own nature so fully as to show him the place he occupies in the impartial love of the infinite Father and the impartial grace of the divine Savior? What do guilty men so need to see as the cross? What does wretched and despairing man so need to know as that Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man? And what means so 300 LECTURES AND SERMONS. eifectual In publishing these great central, vital truths of religion as those which Methodism employs? V. The Methodist Pastor needs Some Spe- cial Practical Adaptations. 1. To the 3Iasses. It has thus far been the peculiar glory of Meth- odism that it is a religion of the people. Hence the man who is fitted for her ministry must be capable of adjusting himself not to the learned merely, the rich, the aristocratic, the luxurious and ease-loving, but to the common people — the hard-working, prac- tical masses, who make up the bone and sinew of society. He must not be dainty and fastidious in his tastes. He must be capable of wielding an influence over men incapable of judging of the quality of his culture and indifferent to the beauty of his diction — men who may judge very correctly as to the soul and essence of his teaching, but have no appreciation of hair-splitting distinctions and fine-spun theories. In short, he should aim at popular power. For, while it is the cry of monarchists across the water, ^^God save the king P^ and of timid and time-serving ecde- siastics, ''God save the church /'' — of demagogues and politicians, "God save the party !^^ and of patriots, "God save our country P' let it be the cry of 3Ieth- odists everywhere, " God save the people /" for if they are saved, everything else worth saving will be saved also. There is a kind of clerical exclusiveness which many indulge or affect, and which stands in direct opposition to this practical adaptation of which I METHODIST PASTOR'S QUALIFICATIONS. 301 speak. There are some clergymen of what George MacDonald calls "the pure, honest, and narrow type/' who seem, in every point and line of their counte- nances, marked as priests, and apart from their fellow-men. By their dress, the tones of their voice, and their general demeanor, they seem to say: "Stand by yourself! Come not near me, for I am holier than thou.'' They are, they would seem to say, to common men as the Sabbath to common days, or the church to common houses; but, more correctly, they are like funerals to common events, or corpses to living men. In the unsullied whiteness and un- wrinkled blackness of their costumes, in their cold stateliness of aspect and their hollow and priestly tones, they remind us of death rather than life — of the dark and solemn under-world rather than the bright and joyous heaven to which it is their busi- ness to invite men. They move among men with a mingled pomposity and solemnity, "as if the care of the whole world lay on their shoulders — as if an awful destruction were the most likely thing to hap- pen to every one, while to them is committed the toilsome chance of saving some." As they enter the places where men congregate — market, shop, railway depot, public hall — the language of their manner is, ^^Proculj procul, profanir^ When they speak to common men, they either patronize them or tol- erate them, or endure; and, manifestly, it is w^ith a very generous and praiseworthy patience. They seem to imagine that their ministerial duties are to be done in a mechanical way; that men are to be regenerated by their magical priestly touch, or their lofty and 302 LECTURES AND SERMONS. impressive ceremonials; and so their whole life seems to flow out through these channels. This type of men, though found i*n every denom- ination, have certainly no legitimate place in the Methodist ministry. They are made up in about equal parts of Puritanism and ecclesiasticism, and are thoroughly out of harmony with the genius and spirit of the Methodist denomination. The Methodist min- ister must be every inch a man. He must be ready to give to other men his hand and his heart. He should be most broadly, profoundly, and intensely human. Not by pompous ceremonial and cold and formal utterances will he seek to save men, but by vital influences. 2. To the Itinei^ancy. As not every good Christian would be suited to, or by, the Methodist Church, so not every good min- ister would be suited to our peculiar system of itin- erancy. It imposes marked and peculiar conditions of ministerial service. It requires a man to maintain a monkish abstinence from worldly entanglements, and yet allows him to be burdened with domestic cares. He may have a family, but they can have no home except that blessed home whose walls are built of the affections of loving hearts. He must form and cherish warm attachments to people from whom he is soon to be separated. His affections must take quick root, and not unfrequently deep root, in a soil from which they must erelong be torn away. He must surrender into the hands of others some of the most interesting and important questions of life. It must be decided for him, and not by him, ichere he METHODIST PASTOR'S QUALIFICATIONS 308 will labor. It must be determined jor him, and not by him, what shall be his comjpensation for labor and what the conditions of his labor. And sometimes it may seem to him that these questions are wrongly and even unworthily decided; that men, under the influence of low and selfish motives, have improperly interfered with decisions on which his usefulness and the welfare and comfort of his family ^depend. Thus unqualifiedly to commit our dearest inter- ests, and, what is more, the interests of those dearest to us on earth, into the keeping of others, demands the fullest faith in God and the fullest faith in men. A timid, suspicious, morbidly sensitive temper would not be consistent with the conditions of this service. There are those whose affections are like hooks of steel, and yet they are so sensitive that the slightest breath will throw them into painful agitation. Such men, especially if at all disposed to bitterness or jeal- ousy, would endure the friction of our itinerancy badly. The local attachments of some men are so strong as, in some measure, to disqualify them. Lack of either physical, mental, or moral stamina may unfit a man for this life of hardship and heroism. Indeed, the Methodist itinerancy is related to what are called settled pastorates, much as the life of the soldier is related to that of a civilian, and the special qualities and conditions demanded are clearly and fairly indi- cated by this comparison. 3. To the 3Iethodist Pulpit. • The Methodist pulpit, however numerous and marked may be the individual exceptions, is a place where the gospel is preached earnestly, plainly, point- 304 LECTURES AND SERMONS. edly, and effectively. It is not a place for essays, the- ological, moral, literary, or any other kind. It is not a place for lectures or orations, either religious or po- litical. It is not a place for abstrusities, profundities, or platitudes. It is not a place for dry and harsh polemics. It is not a theater for oratorical display — foV intellectual gymnastics or mere word-painting. The preaching of the Methodist pulpit should not bristle with hard, naked, angry propositions. It must not be narrow, dry, hard, nor cold; nothing suited to the select few merely, but to all. It must not address the intellectual nature mainly, but the spiritual nature. Its profiting must be seen, not in the world that now is, but in that which is to come. If it be said that all these characteristics pertain to the Christian pulpit as such, in whatever denomi- nation, I reply that they pertain, in an eminent degree, to the characteristic Methodist pulpit. And there are many who would be acceptable in other pulpits who would not be acceptable in ours, as there are also many who do effective work among us, but would not be so successful in any other denomination. To be best suited to our pulpit, a man must be positive in his convictions, fervid in his feelings, plain and downright in speech, and simple in manner; of broad sympathies, and capable of wielding a fair measure of j)()pular influence. Extemporaneousness of address is naturally associated with these qualities, and they express themselves most perfectly in this way, and yet I can not write it down as in the highest and most absolute sense essential. Such are some of the special qualifications needed METHODIST PASTOR'S QUALIFICATIONS. 305 for the pastoral work in the Methodist Church. Bat I will not refrain from adding that these must be al- lowed, in no manner, to set aside, or supersede or atone for the absence of, the still broader and more fundamental qualifications which are needed in a Christian paster. It will be a sad day for us and for religion when our ministry becomes more Methodistic than Christian, more Wesleyan than Protestant, more effective for denominational propagandism than for Christian evangelization. Loyalty to the denomina- tion should be simply the outflowing of that still deeper and more all-comprehending loyalty to Christ, to conscience, and to truth. Adhering to this prin- ciple, we shall, in our measure and in our special department of influence, help the Church to realize that beautiful description of the poet Montgomery : " Distinct as the billows, but one as the sea.^' 306 LECTURES AND SERMONS. II. RITUALISM IN THE METHODIST EPIS= COPAL CHURCH. I USE this term^ not in its narrow and technical sense^ but in the broad and comprehensive sense of order in religious service; and, hence, as opposed to all dispositions and tendencies to subject such service to the whims or caprices, the carelessness or the ignorance, of him who may happen to have it in charge. The apostle does indeed direct us to " turn away '^ from such as have the " form of godliness, but deny the power thereof ;'' but it would be a strange and unwarrantable inference from this, that we have any right to be indifferent to decent and appropriate forms in religion. On the other hand, this passage itself implies that the form of godliness is a matter of distinct and important notice — indeed, that it is so good that there may be danger of substituting it for the substance. The question in this matter is not be- tween forms and no forms, for nothing real and actual can be without some type or mode of development; it is rather between a good form and a bad or indif- ferent one. A tree can not grow without assuming some shape; a river can not flow without selecting some course ; so religious service can not proceed without taking some definite order, which, by long custom, will come to be an established form. RITUALISM. 307 And this is a feeling that holds with all classes alike. The Non-conformists of Great Britain came at last to insist on their Non-conformist usages with almost the same rigidity and intolerance that had been exhibited by the Conformists themselves. The old Covenanters of Scotland were even more inflex- ible in their demands that no religious service should be said at the open graves of the departed, than are the members of the Church of England in theirs, that in every instance must the rites of the church be per- formed over the baptized dead. There is a denomi- nation of Christians in this country who would regard it a sacrilege, never to be forgotten or forgiven, if the minister should introduce into divine service a single one of the sacred Psalms in Watts^s metrical version. There are many single churches in this country, and even whole denominations of churches, who w^ould be quite as much shocked and surprised, should tlie minister, to their knowledge, make use of a single previously composed prayer, as would the High- churchman should the priest extemporize a portion of the liturgy. Even minor peculiarities among those who dissent from the doctrine that the church must fix the forms of worship, and dictate the language of prayer and praise, confession and profession, come to be invested with the same sacred n ess and are clung to with the same tenacity, as ritualistic forms them- selves. A Presbyterian minister who should go on his knees in public prayer, in the presence of his con- gregation, w^ould do so at the imminent risk of posi- tion, reputation, and usefulness. Were a Methodist minister to practice uttering a brief invocation, as he 308 LECTURES AND SERMONS. stands up to read the opening hymn in the Sabbath morning service, he would be almost sure to lose caste by it to some extent, and to incur the charge, which would sooner or later come to him, of" being '' half-Presbyterianized.'^ So jealously do the people regard even those peculiarities which, to an outside observer. Would seem to have the smallest possible value and significance. Hence, then, I repeat it — the question is not whether there shall be set and estab- lished forms in religious service, but it is simply whether these forms shall be good or bad, appro- priate or inappropriate ; and, also, to how great an extent these can be adjusted beforehand. Hence, then, there is much practical importance investing this question of order in religious service, and it most certainly demands the careful attention of every one called to direct the worship of the sanctuary. I. First, then, let us briefly consider this subject as connected with the ordinary services of public worship on the Lord's-day. The Disciplinary direc- tions are: ''Let the morning service consist of sing- ing, prayer, the reading of a chapter out of the Old Testament and another out of the New, and preach- ing. Let the afternoon service consist of singing, prayer, the reading of one or two chapters out of the Bible, and preaching. Let the evening service con- sist of singing, prayer, and preaching.^' ..." Let the Lord's Prayer also be used on all occasions of public worship in concluding the first prayer, and the Apostolic Benediction in dismissing the con- gregation." In addition, every minister is charged to choose appropriate hymns, and not to " sing RITUALISM. 309 too much at once; seldom more than four or five verses." Such is, substantially, the sum of the Disciplinary directions on this subject. It will at once be seen that in reference to some points usually deemed im- portant, and even some that most would hold essen- tial, there are no directions given. For instance, we are not told what services should follow the sermon — whether prayer, singing, and benediction; or, singing, prayer, and benediction ; or, prayer and benediction ; or, singing and benediction ; or, the benediction alone. We are not t