JUN 18 1897 A BR 1700 .F35 1897 Farmer, Silas, 1839-1902. Champions of Christianity •1 MICHAEL FARADAY CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY By SILAS FARMER Author of "History of Detroit and Michigan," "The Royal Railroad," " The Truth Teller," " The Teacher's Tool Chest," etc. NEW YORK : EATON & MAINS CINCINNATI : CURTS & JENNINGS Copyright by EATON & MAINS, 1897. Eaton & Mains Press, 150 Fifth Avenue, New York. PREFACE THE Bible says, "Not many mighty, not many noble, are called." This is true of necessity, for the number of the mighty and noble has always been small compared with the whole number of persons. This work, in its Christian testimonies, dif- fers from all other works in that, instead of giving merely a biographer's statement, it gives the very words of the mighty and noble of various nationalities, vocations, and pursuits, verified in each case by reference to volume and page, so that every quotation is like a citation in a legal brief. Condensed biographies are given of each person quoted, in order that the collateral facts of their personality and achievements may strengthen and reinforce the testimony they give. The number of persons quoted in each vocation is limited to two, because other- wise the volume would be too unwieldy and expensive for general use. All persons named are well and widely known, and not dependent 6 PREFACE. upon temporary public position for notoriety, and the personal character of each is believed to be unimpeachable. All direct statements have been selected with a view to their use by others as quota- tions, and it is believed that they will be found very serviceable. Most of the testimonies are in themselves valuable arguments in favor of Christianity and against forms of unbelief. Some of them admirably exemplify Christian life, thought, and service, and as a whole they constitute an excellent religious tonic. The Author. CONTENTS. PAGE PREFACE 5 CHAPTER I. The Gage of Battle ii CHAPTER II. Champions from the Govern- mental World 19 Statesmen : Bismarck, Gladstone. Patriots : Washington, Garibaldi. Jurists: Blackstone, Story . Generals : Moltke, Grant. Admirals: Blake, Farragut. CHAPTER III. Champions from the Social AND Business World 37 Philanthropists : Howard, Cooper. Physicians : Harvey, Jenner. Surgeons : Simpson, Agnew. Lawyers : Erskine, Webster. Merchants : Dodge, Williams. Explorers : Raleigh, Stanley. CHAPTER IV. Champions from the Artistic World 59 Painters : Michael Angelo, Allston. Engra- vers : Durer, Bewick. Potters : Palissy, Wedg- wood. Architects: Wren, Scott. Composers: Handel, Havdn. 8 CONTENTS. PAGB CHAPTER V. Champions from the Literary World 75 Printers : Gutenberg, Caxton. Editors : Hol- land, Bryant. Philologists : Muller, Sayce. Egyp- tologists : Lepsius, Elmers. Lexicographers : John- son, Webster. Historians : Carlyle, Guizot. Poets : Milton, Whittier. Novelists : Scott, Dickens. CHAPTER VI. Champions from the Scientific World loi Astronomers : Galileo, Herschell. Physicists : Brewster, Henry. Geologists: Eyell, Dawson. Chemists : Davy, Faraday. Botanists : Linnaeus, Gray. Naturalists : Cuvier, Agassiz. Ornitholo- gists : ^i\?>on, Aw^nhow. Mathematicians: New- ton, Hamilton. Inventors : Watt, Morse. CHAPTER VII. The Award I33 INDEX.. 137 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Michael Faraday Frontispiece David G. Farragut i8 Sir Walter Raleigh , 36 John Milton 58 Sir Walter Scott 74 Samuel F. B. Morse 100 CHAMPIOiNS OF CHRISTIANITY, CHAPTER I. The Gage of Battle. CHRISTIANITY fearlessly throws down the gauntlet and defies its enemies. If all the learned, influential, and notable doubters, infidels, atheists, and agnostics were gathered together, their nunr>bers would • not supply officers for the champions that Chris- tianity has in the field. Christianity can afford to be weighed, meas- ured, and estimated by the character and ability of those who have accepted its teach- ings. The men and the women who have achieved the largest and most lasting, the most definite and valuable results in literature and learning, industry and invention, including the best-known leaders in the political, legal, commercial, artistic, literary, or scientific world, were believers in God and the Bible. Our unbelieving friends sometimes say that " the churches are made up of women and 12 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. children." Women and children may be at one end of the line, but the wisest and greatest men are at the other end, and if they believe in Christianity, all persons of lesser note would do well to accept the belief of their superiors in ability and learning. Irreligion has fought persistently against evidence, and has always been ready with a word and a blow ; but the words of Beza, the Reformer, to the King of Navarre are as true to-day as when uttered. " Sire," said he, " it belongs truly to God's Church rather to suffer blows than to strike them ; but let it be your pleasure to remember that the Church is an anvil which hath worn out many a ham- mer." Christianity has as its defenders : Statesmen, comprehensive, resourceful, ca- pable, and successful in all governmental and administrative problems. Patriots, whose pure and lofty principles and labors have made their names synonyms of progress in humanity and liberty. Jurists, whose analyses of legal principles and learned elucidations of the laws of equity are universally known and recognized. Generals, whose military combinations, un- yielding perseverance, and masterful achieve- ments have never been excelled. THE GAGE OF BATTLE. 1 3 Admirals, whose skillful and victorious battles on the sea blazoned their names forever on the roll of fame. Philanthropists, the memory of whose deeds perfumes all lands. Physicians, who unveiled marvels and mys- teries in the human frame, relieving and saving millions of lives. Lawyers, with legal foresight, forensic powers, and eloquence unsurpassed. Merchants, whose multiplied business ven- tures reached all lands, and whose name and fame reached everywhere as well. Explorers, venturesom^e, courageous, and de- termined, braving all dangers and succeeding against all odds. Painters, whose creations will charm and cap- tivate for centuries to come. Engravers, able to interpret thought, emo- tion, and color with a mere graver's line. Potters, with unrivaled perseverance and un- surpassed inventive skill, creators of a multi- tude of forms of artistic beauty. Architects, who thought in perspective, pro- ducing structures wondrous in their service, symmetry, and strength. Composers, whose souls were saturated with harmonies from, heaven, and whose strains transport one thither. 2 14 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. Printers, who made literature and the Bible possible in every tongue. Editors, who inspired pure and patriotic thoug-ht in the breasts of countless thousands. Philologists, hearing and comprehending all the voices of the past, by whomsoever and wheresoever uttered. Egyptologists, readers of symbols and hiero- glyphs, unravelers of ancient mysteries. Lexicographers, teachers of millions and torchbearers for all literature. Historians, accustomed to trace effect to cause, discerners of the secret springs of mo- tive, and definers of the results of action. Poets, full of all the noblest, kindest, holiest, and purest thoughts and fancies, speaking to hearts in every land. Novelists, who projected imaginations into realities — men full of thought, feeling, and action, able, for the time, to live as many lives as their characters portray. Astronomers, travehng paths frequented by God himself, and weighing, naming, and meas- uring his mightiest works. Geologists, who, in rocks and stones, read the hieroglyphs of the Maker. Physicists, interpreters and revealers of nature's laws, making known facts before un- known. THE GAGE OF BATTLE. I 5 Chemists, originators of mysterious sub- stances, producers of combinations and ma- terials that had escaped all other ken. Botanists, naming, describing, and classify- ing all plant life. NaturalistSjfollowing each beast to its lair and capturing every fish of the sea, and mastering and analyzing their habits and structure. Ornithologists, familiar with all bird life, drawing, coloring, and describing with detail and perfection. Mathematicians, solving problems so intri- cate and abstruse that few persons understand the formulae they use. Inventors, who in the service of mankind harnessed and utilized the most dangerous, occult, and subtle forces of nature. All these are true and knightly men, and many bear the title. Each wields his own battle-ax, lance, or broadsword, and, as he throws the gauntlet down, his challenge rings out loud and clear and strong. Cbamplons from tbe (Bovernmental MorlD. DAVID G. FARRAGUT. FROM THE GOVERNMENTAL WORLD. 1 9 CHAPTER II. Champions from the Govermncntal "World* STATESMEN, PATRIOTS, JURISTS, GENERALS, AND ADMIRALS. Count Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, statesman, was born at Schonhausen April i, 1815. He is the most noted German statesman of the century, and one of the most noted of all time. He served as ambassador to Russia and France, had much to do with the creation and establishment of the German empire, and became chancellor of the same. In a debate in 1847 ^e said: '' For me the words, ' by the grace of God,' affixed by Christian rulers to their names, form no empty sound ; but I see in the phrase the acknowl- edgment that princes desire to sway the scepter, intrusted to them by the Almighty, according to God's will on earth. I, however, can only recognize as the will of God that which is contained in the Christian gospels." ' ' Life of Bismarck. By J. G. L. Hesekiel. London : J. Hogg & Son. 1870. Page 155. 20 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. At another time he wrote : " I would to God that, besides what is known to the world, I had not other sins upon my soul, for which I can only hope for forgiveness in a confidence upon the blood of Christ. . . . Among the multitude of sinners who are in need of the glory of God I hope that his grace will not deprive me of the staff of humble faith, in the midst of the dangers and doubts of my calling, by wdiich I endeavor to find out my path." ' William Ewart Gladstone, statesman, was born at Liverpool December 29, 1809. In 1832, when only twenty-three years of age, he became a member of the English Par- liament, and has repeatedly served as prime minister. He is a famous orator, and noted as an author on a variety of difficult subjects. In one of his articles he says : " If we survey with care and candor the present wealth of the world — I mean its wealth intellectual, moral, and spiritual — we find that Christianity has not only contributed to the patrimony of man its brightest and most precious jewels, but has likewise been, what our Saviour pro- ' Li/e of Bismarck. By J. G. L. Hesekiel. London : J. Hogg & Son. 1870. Page 358. FROM THE GOVERNMENTAL WORLD. 2 1 nounced it, the salt, or preserving principle, of all the residue." ^ " Whether we refer to the Scriptures or to the collateral evidence of history and of the Church, we find it to be undeniable as a fact that Christianity purports to be, not a system of moral teaching only, but, in vital union there- with, a system of revealed facts concerning the nature of God and his dispensations toward mankind. Upon these facts, which center in our Lord and Saviour, moral teaching is to rest, and to these it is indissolubly attached."* George Washington, patriot, president, states- man, and general, was born in Westmoreland County, Va., February 22, 1732, and died De- cember 14, 1799. As general, commanding the armies of the colonies in the Revolution, and as the first President of the United States, he commended and endeared himself to the entire nation, and in private, as well as in public, life was a model citizen. In his Orderly Book, under date of July 9, 1776, he says : *' The blessing and protection of Heaven are at all times necessary, but espe- ' Gleanings of Past Years. By Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P. New York : Chas. Scribner's Sons. Vol. vii, page 78. ^ Ibid. Vol. vii, page 184. 22 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. ciallyso in times of public distress and danger. The general hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as be- comes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country." ' In a letter, dated August 20, 1778, in speaking of the war, he used these words : *' The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and worse than wicked that has not grati- tude enough to acknowledge his obligations."* In a circular letter to the governors of the States, on the disbanding of the army, he says: *' I now make my earnest prayer that God would have you and the State over which you preside in his holy protection, . . . and that he would be most graciously pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to de- mean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the divine Author of our blessed religion." ^ Guiseppe Garibaldi, patriot, was born at Nice July 4, 1807, and died June 2, 1882. His history is remarkable. A sailor by ^ The Writings of George Washington. By Jared Sparks. Boston : Little, Brown & Co. 1858. Vol. xii, page 401. 2 Ibid. Vol. xii, page 402. ^ Ibid. Vol. xii, page 403. FROM THE GOVERNMENTAL WORLD. 23 education, he became a noted general, and on both sea and land was recognized as almost invincible. For many years he aided patriot forces in South America, and subsequently visited the United States. Returning to Italy, he became a conspicuous leader and important factor in promoting and establishing the present constitutional kingdom of Italy. His autobiography says : *' To the piety of my mother, to her beneficent and charitable nature, do I not perhaps owe that little love of country which has gained for me the sympathy and affection of my good but unfortunate fellow-citizens? ... I have be- lieved in the efficacy of her prayers." ' On delivering certain flags to the Hungarian Hussars in Naples, he said : '' I am a Christian, and I speak to Christians. I am a good Chris- tian, and speak to good Christians. I love and venerate the religion of Christ, because Christ came into the world to deliver humanity from slavery, for which God has not created it." ^ Sir William Blackstone, jurist, was born in London July 10, 1723, and died February 14, 1780. * Life of Genera! Garibaldi. By Theodore Dwight. New York : Derby & Jackson. 1861. Page 14. ^Ibid. Page 444. 24 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. He was professor of law at Oxford, wrote on various subjects, but is chiefly known as the author of Commentaries on EngHsh Law, which contain the fundamental principles of English jurisprudence — a work so complete that no other has displaced it. In this work he says : *' Considering the Creator only as a being of infinite power, he was able unquestion- ably to have prescribed whatever laws he pleased to his creature, man, however unjust or severe. But, as he is also a being of infinite wisdom, he has laid down only such laws as were founded in those relations of justice that existed in the nature of things antecedent to any positive precept. . . . He has so intimately connected, has so inseparably interwoven the laws of eternal justice with the happiness of each individual, that the latter cannot be at- tained but by observing the former ; and, if the former be punctually obeyed, it cannot but in- duce the latter." ' " The belief in a future state of rewards and punishments, the entertaining just ideas of the moral attributes of the Supreme Being, and a firm persuasion that he superintends and will finally compensate every action in human life 1 Commentaries on the Laws of England. By Sir William Blackstone, Knt. Portland: T. B. Wait & Co. 1807. Book I, pages 40, 41. FROM THE GOVERNMENTAL WORLD. 2$ (all of which are clearly revealed in the doc- trines and forcibly inculcated by the precepts of our Saviour Christ) — these are the grand foun- dations of all judicial oaths, which call God to witness the truth of those facts which perhaps may be only known to him and the party at- testing; all moral evidence therefore, all con- fidence in human veracity, must be weakened by apostasy and overthrown by total infi- delity." ' Joseph Story, jurist, was born at Marble- head, Mass., September i8, 1779, and died September 10, 1845. He served as one of the justices of the Su- preme Court of the United States, was pro- fessor of law at Harvard University, and was the author of numerous important decisions and of various law volumes. In a charge to a grand jury in Boston, he said : " We believe in the Christian religion. It commands us to have good will to all men, to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to do unto all men as we Avould they should do unto us. It declares our accountability to the supreme God for all our actions, and holds * Commentaries on the Laws of England. By Sir William Blackstone, Knt. Portland : T. B. Wait & Co. 1S07. Book 4» page 43. 26 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. out to US a state of future rewards and punish- ments as the sanction by which our conduct is to be regulated." ' His inaugural address on the opening of the Dane Law School says : " One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurispru- dence is that Christianity is a part of the common law, from which it seeks the sanction of its rights, and by which it endeavors to regulate its doctrines. . . . There never has been a period in which the common law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foun- dations." ^ In a letter to his wife he says : *' Why men cannot rest satisfied with the common princi- ples of evidence, by which all human con- cerns are regulated, to govern them in relation to divine things I confess myself unable to see. . . . Christianity, it seems to me, is as conclusively established by an appeal to hu- man reason for its evidence and its truths, as it can be by appealing to the result of unknown powers supposed to be innate in the mind, which may be disputed, and have ever been in dispute." ' * Life and Letters of Joseph Story. By his son, W. W. Story. Boston : Little & Brown. 185 1. Vol. i, page 341. 2 Ibid. Vol. ii, page 8. 2 Ibid, Vol. ii, page 285. FROM THE GOVERNMENTAL WORLD. 2/ Helmuth Karl Bernhard Von Moltke, gen- eral, was born at Parchim, Germany, October 26, 1800, and died April 24, 1 891. He is recognized as one of the greatest mili- tary strategists of either ancient or modern times. His victories over the Austrian and French armies gave evidence of his com- manding military skill. He was the re- cipient of many honors from the German emperor, and was made field marshal of the empire. On one occasion he said : " Christianity has raised the world from barbarism to civilization. Its influence has, in the course of centuries, abolished slavery, ennobled work, emancipated women, and revealed eternity. . . . The ker- nel of all religions is the morality they teach, of which the Christian is the purest and most far reaching." * Ulysses Simpson Grant, general, was born at Point Pleasant, O., April 27, 1822, and died July 23, 1885. His name and fame, as the most success- ful soldier in the war with the South, and as a wise, patriotic, and judicious President of ' Moltke^ His Life and Character. Translated by Mary Herms. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1892, Pages 328 and 329. 28 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. the United States, are thoroughly established. His modesty and courage, his love of truth, and his endurance of mental and physical pain during the last months of his life endeared him to all the American people. Kis pureness in speech was remarkable, es- pecially so in view of the provocations of camp and garrison life. In his Memoirs he says : "I am not aware of ever having used a profane ex- pletive in my life." ^ In accepting from President Lincoln a com- mission as lieutenant general, he said : *' I feel the full weight of the responsibilities now de- volving upon me, and I know that if they are met it will be due to these armies, and above all to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations and men." ' One of his old chaplains says : *' Shortly after I came into the regiment our mess were one day taking their usual seats around the dinner table, when Colonel Grant remarked : "'Chaplain, when I was at home, and min- isters were stopping at my house, I always in- vited them to ask a blessing at the table. I suppose that a blessing is as much needed here as at home ; and if it is agreeable with your ^Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. New York : C. L. Webster & Co. 1S85. Vol. i, page 106. 2 Ibid. Vol. ii, page 115. FROM THE GOVERNMENTAL WORLD. 29 views I should be glad to have you ask a bless- ing every time we sit down to eat.' " ' During his last illness, when Dr. Shrady asked him what he should say in the daily bulletin about his condition, he said : ** I wish you would also express my gratitude and ap- preciation of the feeling that the people have shown for me in my sickness, and for the prayers that have been offered in my behalf." ' Robert Blake, admiral, was born at Bridge- water, England, August 15, 1599, and died August 17, 1657. He was a graduate of Oxford and an excel- lent Greek and Latin scholar. During his young manhood, and just prior to the admin- istration of Oliver Cromwell, the vice and folly of King Charles and his courtiers, and the moral laxity of the clergy, created general un- rest and dissatisfaction. Blake sided with the Puritans, or ''Roundheads," and became one of their most celebrated military commanders. His energy, intrepidity, and persistent courage have been seldom, if ever, excelled in any war or at any time. ^ James L. Crane, late Chaplain 21st Illinois Infantry, U. S. V. In McClwe's Magazine for June, 1896. Page 43. ^ Life and Public Services of U. S. Grant. By James Grant Wilson. New York ; A. T. B. De Witt. 1885. Page 117. 8 30 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. When the warfare was transferred from land to sea, and a bold and judicious officer was needed to command the fleet of the Common- wealth, they turned to Blake, as one who, though he had but slight knowledge of sea affairs, was so possessed by boldness and energy that he was deemed especially qualified for the position of admiral. He had large executive ability, and his over- sight extended to all naval matters, on shore and shipboard. He won notable victories over the pirates off the coast of Barbary, taught Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy to fear him, again and again defeated the Dutch fleet under Van Tromp, and for the first time established the naval supremacy of the English. While serving as commander in the army, he was besieged in Taunton, and those under him were reduced to great privation and dis- tress for want of food. On being summoned to surrender, Blake replied that he had not yet eaten his boots, and he should not dream of giving up the contest while he had so excel- lent a dinner to fall back upon ! At another time he said : *' We wish you for time to come to desist from all overtures of the like nature unto us, who are resolved, to the last drop of our blood, to maintain the quarrel we have undertaken, and I doubt not but the same FROM THE GOVERNMENTAL WORLD. 3 1 God who has hitherto protected us will bless us with an issue answerable to the justice of our cause ; however, to him alone shall we stand or fall." ' In one of his letters are these words : " We arrived yesterday, by a most merciful and good hand of Providence leading us, as it were, by the brink of destruction into safety. For which we, in our gratitude, have great cause everlastingly to praise the Lord for his won- derful goodness, and to rejoice in these, his salvations, with fear and trembling."" David Glasgow Farragut, admiral, was born in Knoxville, Tenn., July 5, 1801, and died August 14, 1870. In the capture of New Orleans and Mobile during the civil war in America he secured victories equal to those obtained by any other admiral, and the fleet which he commanded in sailing against New Orleans was the most pow- erful that ever sailed under the American flag. As a token of appreciation of his achieve- ments the merchants of New York presented him with $50,000 in government bonds, and Congress, in 1866, created the grade of admiral * Li/e of Robert Blake. By Hepworth Dixon. London : Chapman & Hall. 1852. Page 78. 2 Ibid. Page 280. 32 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. of the United States navy and conferred the office upon Farragut. The following year he was placed in charge of the European squad- ron, and visited all the European ports and sovereigns. He dined with the Emperor of France,with the Grand Duke Constantine at St. Petersburg, and with his majesty, the King of Sweden; was received by Queen Victoria, and by Victor Emmanuel, of Italy, and was every- where feted and honored in an unusual manner. In his published letters the spirit of faith in and dependence upon God is very manifest. When stationed on the Mississippi he wrote to his wife and son as follows : " When we shall get down again is a question to be de- cided by time alone ; but the same great God who has thus far preserved me will still preside over my destiny. In the course of human longevity I have not long to live ; and, although it would be most agreeable to spend it with you both, still it is our place to submit pa- tiently to his will and do our duty." * In a letter to his son, written from near Vicksburg, he says : " I trust in God for your safe arrival home to the embrace of your dear mother. . . . She knows that our lives are al- ways in the hands of a Supreme Ruler. . . . ^ Life of David Glasgow Farragut. By Loyall Farragut. New York: D. Appleton & Co. 1879. Page 271. FROM THE GOVERNMENTAL WORLD. 33 Do as little wrong as the weakness of your nature will permit, and as much good as you can Pray to God to give you good under- standing, and keep you from evil and protect you from harm." * In another letter: "The worst of it is that people begin to think I fight for pleasure. God knows there is not a more humble poor creature in the community than myself. I shall go to church to-morrow and try to return suitable thanks for the many blessings that have been bestowed upon me." ^ * Life of David Glasgow Farragut. By Loyall Farragut. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1870. Page 355. 2 Ibid. Page 365. Cbampions from tbe Social anb J6u6ine66 Morl^ SIR WALTER RALEIGH. FROM SOCIAL AND BUSINESS WORLD. 3/ CHAPTER III. Champions from Social and Business Worlds PHILANTHROPISTS, PHYSICIANS, SURGEONS, LAW- YERS, MERCHANTS, AND EXPLORERS. John Howard, philanthropist, was born at Hackney, England, September 2, 1726, and died January 20, 1790. Among all who have served the cause of hu- manity he stands first. Leaving the comforts of an elegant home he traveled from city to city in Europe and Asia, visiting almshouses, prisons, and jails innumerable, literally taking his life in his hands, in order that he might re- form abuses then existing in all places of de- tention. A passage in one of his letters says : " Jacob speaks of the angel who had been his guide in all his journeys and had delivered him from all his dangers; and Jacob's God, I trust, is my God and my guide and my portion forever."* In another place he says : " What is our pro- * Howard, the Philanthropist. By John Stoughton. Lon- don: Hodder & Stoughton. 1884. Page 342. 38 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. fession of religion if it does not affect our heart? Shall I desert his cause? O God, may I through divine grace persevere to the end ! My end, too, is approaching. My de- sire is to be washed, cleansed, and justified in the blood of Christ, and to dedicate myself to that Saviour who has bought us with a price." * On his last departure from England he said to a friend : '* We shall soon meet in heaven ; and the way to heaven from Grand Cairo is as near as from London." ' Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Shaftesbury, philanthropist, was born in London April 28, 1801, and died October i, 1885. His gifts and labors among the poor and neglected conferred a thousandfold more honor upon him than all the titles earth could give. He threw aside political preferment, social power, and personal ease, that he might fur- ther the cause of humanity. He did more than any other philanthropist or legislator to elevate the working people. As a true labor reformer he was the means of ' Howard^ the Philanthropist. By John Stoughton. Lon- don : Hodder & Stoughton. 1884. Page 343. 2 Life of John Howard. By Rev. J. Field. London : Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans. 1850. Page 440. FROM SOCIAL AND BUSINESS WORLD. 39 securing the cessation of the use of children as climbing chimney-sweeps, and also the respite of tens of thousands of children from severe labor in fields and factories. There was no subject pertaining to the re- ligious, educational, moral, or physical well- being of the people in his own land, and in many other lands as well, in which he did not interest himself; and, in one way or another, he came in contact with nearly all of the wise and good and great of his time. On the opening of Costers* Hall, in London, where he was to make an address, about twenty thousand of the hawkers, whom he had greatly befriended, met him a mile from the building and acted as an escort. While he was in Germany, the emperor in person paid him a visit. At his funeral there were representatives from over two hundred philanthropic, educational, religious, and work- ingmen's societies, with all of which he had been in some way identified. They formed a funeral pageant the like of which was never before seen. In 1871 he wrote in his diary as follows: " Try the Scriptures intellectually merely, and you will encounter no end of difficulties, and these difficulties will agitate and darken your moral and spiritual perception of the truth. 40 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. Try them by the heart, and you will find such a flood of comfort, conviction, and assurance that all difficulties will vanish." * In speaking on missions he said : " Neutral- ity in religion is impossible. A man must either believe or disbelieve. If he disbelieves he is an infidel, and that is the end of the mat- ter ; if he believes he is bound by every con- sideration of heaven and earth with all his soul, with all his heart, with all his mind to labor that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified." ' William Harvey, M.D., was born at Folke- stone, England, April i, 1578, and died June 3, 1657. In addition to his wonderful discovery of the circulation of the blood, he was at the head of three departments of science, name- ly: comparative anatomy, physiology, and medicine. " When these scarcely had a be- ing he evolved them into living forms from chaos." " He was used to say he never dissected the body of any animal without discovering some- thing which he had not expected or conceived ^ Life and Works of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, By Edwin Hodder. London. 1886. Vol. iii, page 19. ' Ibid, Vol. iii, page 109. FROM SOCIAL AND BUSINESS WORLD. 4 1 of, and in which he recognized the hand of an all-wise Creator."' In his will he thus expressed himself : "I do most humbly render my soul to Him that gave it, and to my blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ." ' Edward Jenner, M.D., was born in Berkeley, England, May 17, I749» ^^^ ^'^^^ January 26, 1823. His discovery of vaccination as a preventive of smallpox marks a distinct era, not only in the treatment of that dread disease, but in general medical practice. As soon as his discovery was made known and demonstrated all nations sought to do him honor. The Emperor of Russia issued a special ukase with regard to the use of his discovery, and the King of Spain sent a surgeon all around the world to make it known in Spanish possessions. He was presented with innumerable addresses and medals by learned societies and by various cities and communities, accompanied with ex- pressions of great appreciation and gratitude. These words of praise have been supple- mented by myriads of individual testimonies, ' Eminent Doctors. By G. T. Bettany. London : John Hogg. Vol. i, page 48. ' Ibid. Vol. i, page 46. 42 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. and it is undoubtedly true that his discovery saved millions of lives. Napoleon, in a spirit of gratitude, said of him, '' We can refuse nothing to that man." On one occasion Dr. Jenner said : " I am not surprised that men are not thankful to me ; but I wonder that they are not grateful to God for the good which he has made me the instru- ment of conveying to my fellow-creatures." ^ He had a great reverence for the Scriptures, presenting copies to various relatives. In one of them he wrote the name of the recipient, and expressed the hope that as this was the best book that ever was written, " she will give it not only the first place in her library, but convince those who love her dearly that it occupies the first place in her heart." ^ At another time he remarked : ** The sacred Scriptures form the only pillow on which the soul can find repose and refreshment.** ' Sir James Young Simpson, physician and surgeon, was born at Bathgate, Scotland, June 7, i8ii,and died May 6, 1870. When only eighteen years of age he gradu- ated from the Royal College of Surgeons at ^Li/e of Edward Jemier. By John Baron, M.D., F.R.S. London : Henry Colburn. 1838. Vol. ii, page 295. "^Ibid. Vol. ii, page 295. ^Ibid. Vol. ii, page 446. FROM SOCIAL AND BUSINESS WORLD. 43 Edinburgh, and four years later was made a member of the Royal Medical Society of the same place. He was subsequently appointed one of the queen's physicians, and speedily had an extensive clientele, with scores of titled pa- tients and a large general practice among all classes. His professional income eventually reached §50,000 per year. He is most widely known as being the first to bring into large practice the use of chloroform, and is recognized by many as its discoverer. His introduction of this anaesthetic, which has so greatly relieved all forms of sickness and surgery of the terror of pain, placed him in the very front rank with the benefactors of the human race. He wrote on many subjects con- cerning the medical profession, and was also a recognized authority on many archseological matters. One of his addresses contains this sentence : " If, in your own lodgings in the dark watches of the night, you are troubled with a thought about your soul, if you hear some one knock- ing at your heart, listen. It is He who said eighteen hundred years ago upon the Sea of Galilee, * It is I, be not afraid.' Open the door of your heart. Say to him, 'Come in.' In Christ you will find a Saviour, a companion, a counselor, a friend, a brother, who loves you 44 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. with a love greater than human heart can con- ceive." ^ In writing to one of his sons who was ab- sent and about to return home he says: "And when you do come let me, as your loving father, say one thing more. At our family morning prayer I hope you will always be present, both to show your love to the King of kings and to be a fitting example to your two little, loving brothers. O, my own dear, dear Wattie, let you and I do all in our power to acknowledge Jesus as our King and Saviour, and strive to lead others to his feet and throne." '^ David Hayes Agnew, physician and surgeon, was born at Noblesville, now Christiana, Pa., November 24, 18 18, and died March 22, 1892. He was graduated when twenty years of age at the University of Pennsylvania, was after- ward connected with various medical colleges, and attained world-wide fame as an anatomist and surgeon. In the most difficult and dan- gerous operations he used, with equal facility, either hand. He devised and secured the successful manufacture of a great variety of helpful surgical appliances, now known and ^Memoir of Sir James Y. Simpson, Bart. By J. Duns, D.D., F.R.S.E. Edinburgh : Edmondston & Douglas. 1873. Page 425. 2 Ibid. Page 447. FROM SOCIAL AND BUSINESS WORLD. 45 used throughout the profession. He was also one of the first to adopt antiseptic surgery. He wrote scores of articles for various med- ical and surgical journals, and is the author of Principles and Practice of Surgery, a work largely reprinted in Japanese. The spirit in which he practiced his profes- sion is indicated in the following letter to a clergyman who, after a course of treatment running through two years, was restored to health. In reply to a request for his bill Dr. Agnew wrote : ** That I have been permitted to minister to your relief, and through the blessing of God on my efforts have been en- abled to be of help to you, is a source of great- est gratification to myself. You owe me noth- ing. To your Master and my own I owe all things, and to serve one of his poor, suffering messengers is but a little service rendered to him who gave himself for me. All I ask is that you pray for me ; that is the richest return that you can make." ' In one of his last letters he wrote : " Christ to me is all, and my aspiration is for the im- mortality to come."'' ' History of the Life of D. Hayes Agnew, M.D., L.L.D. By J. Howe Adams, M.D. Philadelphia and London; The F. H. Davis Company. 1892. Page 292. "^Ibid. Page 351. 4 46 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. Lord Thomas Erskine, lawyer, was born in Edinburgh January lo, 1750, and died Novem- ber 17, 1823. He served in the navy and army, and while on duty in the latter service attracted the attention of Justice Lord Mansfield, was led to study law, and in his very first plea he achieved a notable success, and soon became the most noted of advocates, the greatest in all England. In his speech on the prosecution of Wil- liams for publishing Paine's Age of Reason he said : " For my own part, gentlemen, I have been ever deeply devoted to the truths of Christianity ; and my firm belief in the holy Gospel is by no means owing to the prejudices of education, though I was religiously educated by the best of parents, but has arisen from the fullest and most continued reflections of my riper years and understanding. It forms at this moment the great consolation of a life which, as a shadow, passeth away ; and with- out it I should consider my long course of health and prosperity too long, perhaps, and too uninterrupted to be good for any man, only as the dust which the wind scatters, and rather as a snare than as a blessing." * ' speeches by Lord Erskine. Edited by James L. High. Chicago: Callaghan & Company. 1876. Vol. i, page 575. FROM SOCIAL AND BUSINESS WORLD. 47 Daniel Webster, statesman and lawyer, was born at Salisbury, N. H., January 18, 1782, and died October 24, 1852. He served many years in the United States Senate, and was Secretary of State under Presi- dents Harrison, Tyler, and Fillmore. His commanding powers of intellect, powerful argu- ments, and masterful oratory, especially in the Dartmouth College and Girard will cases, and in his reply to Hayne in the United States Senate, will always be quoted for their learning and eloquence. During his last sickness, when giving " direc- tions about his will, he said that he had always liked the old fashion of commencing such in- struments with religious expressions, and with a recognition of one's dependence upon God." " Follow the old forms," said he, " and do not let me go out of the world without acknowl- edging my Maker." * His biographer says that during this same illness, **as he was manifestly about to say something that ought to be preserved, I sat down at a table . . . and wrote down the words just as they fell from his lips. He said : * My general wish on earth has been to do my Maker's will. I thank him for all the mercies ^ Life of Daniel Webster. By George T. Curtis. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1870. Vol. ii, page 689. 48 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. that surround me. I thank him for the means he has given me of doing some little good. . . . The great mystery is Jesus Christ — the Gospel. What would be the condition of any of us if we had not the hope of immortal- ity? What ground is there to rest upon but the Gospel.'^ . . . Thank God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to light." ^ William E. Dodge, merchant, was born at Hartford, Conn., September 4, 1805, and died February 9, 1883. He was an extensive dealer in metals, en- gaged in lumbering and coal-mining, and owned many thousands of acres of land in various States. He v/as one of the leading spirits in the building of the New York & Erie Rail- road, the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western Railroad, the Houston & Texas Central Rail- road, and several others. He was president of several insurance companies, and a director in all the leading telegraph companies. With all his multiplied business interests he was actively interested in all forms of reli- gious philanthropy, and gave away millions of dollars to various benevolences. His whole ' Life of Daniel Webster. By George T. Curtis. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1870. Vol. ii, page 697. FROM SOCIAL AND BUSINESS WORLD. 49 life was saturated with the spirit and practice of a broad and generous Christianity, and he sought to control all the corporations with which he was connected in the interest of Sab- bath observance. In an address delivered in 1872 he said: *' Unless we get an idea of what it is to be lost, we cannot know what it is to be saved. Jesus Christ came to seek and to save the lost. ... A saved sinner myself, I can de- clare that God desires not the death of the wicked. He says to all, * Turn ye ; why will ye die?' "^ Sir George Williams, merchant of London, was born in Somersetshire, England, in 1821. In 1844, while employed in a large mercan- tile establishment in London, he, with other young men, founded the first Young Men's Christian Association in the world, and from the outset gave v/ith large liberality in further- ance of the work. His entire career is exceedingly interesting, and an inspiration to young men. His home in London and his place of business at St. Paul's Churchyard are themselves reminders of old times and English worthies. The his- * Memorial of William E. Dodge. By D. Stuart Dodge. New York : Anson D. F. Randolph & Co. Pages 208, 209. 50 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. tory of Mr. Williams was almost prophetically portrayed by Hogarth in his celebrated series of paintings of the " Industrious Apprentice." Hogarth showed successively the industrious apprentice at work at the loom, attending church with his master's daughter, intrusted with keys and counting room, married to the daughter, becoming one of the firm, grown rich and elected sheriff, and finally Lord Mayor of London. Mr. Williams did not work at the loom, but he was an apprentice in a cloth house, was intrusted with his master's business, doubt- less attended church with the daughter, for he married her, became one of the firm and is still doing business at the old stand, has grown rich and influential, and is a millionaire mer- chant, modest and charitable, giving away thousands of pounds and unlimited time, and serving as chairman of over thirty philan- thropic and religious societies. In connection with the Jubilee Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the London Young Men's Christian Association and the World's Confer- ence of Associations held in London in 1894, he was the recipient of many honors and testimonials from various parts of the world, was presented with the freedom of the city of London by the corporation, the document be- FROM SOCIAL AND BUSINESS WORLD. 5 1 ing inclosed in a magnificent casket. He was also knighted by the queen. At an international convention of Young Men's Christian Associations in Toronto, On- tario, he said : ** The conversion of young men to God and their advancement in spiritual knowledge has been, and I trust ever will con- tinue to be, the great work of the Young Men's Christian Association. Since the found- ing of the first society in 1844, . . . the Bible class has been largely used in the conversion of young men. . . . The Bible class brings us into direct conflict with the work of the prince of darkness. The Holy Ghost says (2 Cor. 4. 4), ' The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ . . . should shine unto them.' . . . When the veil has been taken away from the mind and heart, and the truth of God has been seen and felt, then the tears of repent- ance have flowed and the cry for mercy has been heard. . . . No position can be more desired by young men than sitting at the feet of Christ in one of the Bible classes of an association and learning of him." * * Report of the International Convention of the Young Men^s Christian Associations, held at Toronto. Published by the Executive Committee at New York. 1876. Pages 82-84. 52 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. Sir Walter Raleigh, explorer, was born at Hayes, England, in 1552, and died October 29, 1618. He was a soldier, sailor, historian, poet, courtier, and explorer. He intermeddled with adventures of many kinds, and the age in which he lived was full of him. He was the author of numerous works, and his writings show that he was familiar with all previous writers of note. In his History of the World he quotes extensively from both the Old and New Testaments. In the preface to this work he says : ** I do also account it not the meanest, but an impiety monstrous, to confound God and nature, be it but in terms. ... It is God that commandeth all; it is nature that is obedient to all. It is God that doth good unto all, knowing and loving the good he doth ; it is nature that secondarily doth also good, but it neither knoweth nor loveth the good it doth. It is God that hath all things in himself; nature, nothing in itself." ' In another place he uses this language : "There are none in the world so wickedly inclined but that a religious instruction and bringing up may fashion anew and reform 1 Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, Kt. Oxford University Press. 1829. Vol. ii, page 57 of Preface. FROM SOCIAL AND BUSINESS WORLD. 53 them ; nor any so well disposed whom (the reins being let loose) the continual fellowship and familiarity, and the example of dissolute men may not corrupt and deform.'" In his Treatise on the Soul he says : " When Christ saith, * Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit,* to the thief, * This day shalt thou be with me in paradise;' when Stephen crieth, ' Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,* and Paul, * I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ,' do they not show us that the soul is immortal ? And the immortality of the soul of Christ maketh much for the immortality of our souls, for he hath promised that where he is there his servants shall be also.'"" Henry M. Stanley, explorer, was born near Denbigh, Wales, in 1840. As a fearless, courageous, and persistent ex- plorer of unknown and dangerous regions he has had no superior. His first great feat was the dis- covery of the whereabouts of the intrepid mis- sionary, David Livingstone. He subsequently made many important geographical discoveries, became governor of the Congo Free State, received the degree of D.C.L. from Oxford ^ Works of Sir Walter Raleigh, Kt, Oxford University Press, 1829. Vol. ii, page 31. "^ Ibid. Vol. viii, page 590. 54 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. University, and innumerable other honors from sovereigns and learned societies. In a prefatory letter to Sir William Mac- Kinnon, contained in his work on Darkest Africa^ he says : " You, who throughout your long and varied life have steadfastly believed in the Christian's God, and before men have professed your devout thankfulness for many mercies vouchsafed you, will better under- stand than many others the feelings which animate me when I find myself back again in civilization unimpaired in life or health, after passing through so many dark and dis- tressful periods. ** Constrained at the darkest hour to hum- bly confess that without God's help I was helpless, I vowed a vow in the forest solitudes that I would confess his aid before men. A silence as of death was round about me ; it was midnight ; I was weakened by illness, prostrated with fatigue, and worn with anxiety for my white and black companions, whose fate was a mystery. *' In this physical and mental distress I be- sought God to give me back my people. Nine hours later we were exulting with rapturous joy. In full view of all was the crimson flag with the crescent, and beneath its waving folds was the long-lost rear column. FROM SOCIAL AND BUSINESS WORLD. 55 "As I mentally review the many grim epi- sodes, and reflect on the marvelously narrow escapes from utter destruction to which we have been subjected during our various jour- neys to and fro through the immense and gloomy extent of primeval wood, I feel utterly unable to attribute our salvation to any other cause than to a gracious Providence who, for some purposes of his own, preserved us.'** " Before turning in for the night I resumed my reading of the Bible as usual. I had al- already read the book through, from beginning to end, once, and was now at Deuteronomy for the second reading, and I came unto the verse where Moses exhorts Joshua in these fine lines : * Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them : for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee ; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.' " ^ ^In Darkest Africa, By H. IkL Stanley. C. Scribner's Sons. 1890. Vol. i, pages 2 and 4. ^ Ibid, Vol i, page 311. Cbampions from tbc artistic FROM THE ARTISTIC WORLD. 59 CHAPTER IV. Champions from the Artistic World* PAINTERS, ENGRAVERS, POTTERS, ARCHITECTS, AND COMPOSERS. Michael Angelo Buonarotti, sculptor, archi- tect, and painter, was born in Tuscany March 6, 1475, and died at Rome February 18, 1564. In each of the three arts of sculpture, paint- ing, and architecture, he, like Shakespeare among the dramatists, was without a rival. Architect of St. Peter's, painter of '* Conversion of St. Paul," sculptor of" Moses," his fame in- creases as the centuries roll on. In writing to his father about some domestic affairs he said : '* We must have patience, and recommend ourselves to God, and try to ac- knowledge our errors, for which, and for no other reason, this adversity has fallen upon us, and especially for pride and ingratitude. . . . Live on, and if you are not to share in the honors of this world like other citizens, it is enough to have bread and to live in the faith of Christ, even as I do here, for I live humbly, nor 6o CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. do I care for the life nor the honors of this world." ' Washington AUston, painter, was born at Waccamaw, South Carolina, November 5, 1779, and died July 9, 1843. He was one of the few American painters who achieved great fame in Europe. In Rome, because of the similarity of some of his color- ing to that of Titian, he was designated " the American Titian." In England every door was opened to him. He was a personal friend of Coleridge, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Benjamin West, Irving, and Bryant. During his lifetime, and while actively en- gaged in his profession, he sold single pictures for thousands of dollars, and had an order for one to cost $25,000. Among his paintings are ** Belshazzar's Feast " and the '' Dead Man Revived by Touching the Bones of Elijah." He was a most winning poet as well as an excellent painter. In one of his letters, in speaking of certain trials, he says: "I may grieve, but not repine. It becomes not a man of sense, nor a Chris- tian, to repine at what he cannot help. I have been schooled to patience and submission ; ' Life and Works of Michael Angeio Buonarroti. By C. H. Wilson. London : John Murray. 1876. Page 185. FROM THE ARTISTIC WORLD. 6 1 I endeavor to practice them as Christian du- ties." ' On the death of his mother he wrote : " She is now with her Saviour. There is no conso- lation for the bereaved Hke this. Nor, indeed, can there be any other to a believing Christian. ... I can now think of her as my blessed mother numbered with the 'just made perfect,* where there is no more sorrow, no more trouble. ... I cannot tell you, Cogdell, how I loved my mother ; she herself never knew all the love I bore her. She was the constant object of my daily prayers." ^ Albert Diirer, engraver, was born at Nu- remburg May 21, 1471, and died April 6, 1528. He was not only an engraver, but a painter. He held the position of court painter to Charles V, and his picture of the '' Four Apostles," in Munich, is evidence of his commanding ability. Of his engraved works "The Melancholia" and ''Knight, Death, and the Devil" are deemed the most worthy. He was a personal friend of Luther and Melanchthon. In a letter to the chaplain of the Elector Frederick he says : " I pray your reverence, ^ Life and Letters of Washington Allston. By Jared B. Flagg. New York : Charles Scribner's Sons. 1892. Page 222. ' Ibid. Pages 305, 306. 62 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. therefore, to convey my very humble thanks to his electoral grace, and to commend to his grace in all humility the worthy Dr. Martinus Luther, for the sake of Christian truth, which is of greater moment to us than all the riches and power of this world, for that all passeth away, but the truth abideth forever. And if by the help of God I can but come to Dr. Martinus Luther I will paint his portrait with all diligence and engrave it on copper, for a lasting remembrance of this Christian man who has delivered me out of great perplexities."* In his Netherlands Journal he inscribes this prayer : " We beseech thee, O heavenly Father^ to bestow thy Holy Spirit once more upon one [Wyclif] who will gather together again from all parts thy holy Christian Church, so that we may again live together in Christian unity, and that all unbelievers, such as Turks, heathens, and Indians, may turn willingly to us for the sake of our good works and accept the Chris- tian faith." ^ Thomas Bewick, naturalist and engraver, was born at Eltingham, England, in August, 1753, and died November 8, 1828. ^ Life and Works of Albert Biirer. By M. Thausing. London : John Murray. 1882. Vol. ii, page 234. 2 Ibid. Page 238. FROM THE ARTISTIC WORLD. 6^ He is Styled the father of modern wood engraving. LesHe's Handbook for Young Painters says of him : ** The woodcuts that illustrate his book of natural history may be studied with advantage by the most ambitious votary of the highest classes of art." He says in his Memoirs: '' It is sufficient for the soul of man in this life to reverence and adore the omnipresent and, except through his works, the unknowable God, whose wisdom and power and goodness have no bounds, and who has been pleased to enable his reasoning creatures so far to see that everything is made by design, and nothing by chance." ' Speaking of the Bible, he says : " It may be presumed that this original and sacred docu- ment will continue to arrest the attention of reasoning beings as long as men continue to reason, and be an eternal stimulant, together with other stimulants so abundantly presented by the wonders of the universe, to lead the soul to rest its hopes on the source from whence it derived its existence."' Bernard Palissy, potter, was born near Agen, France, in 1510, and died in 1589. ^ Memoirs of Thomas Bewick. Written by Himself. Lon- don : Longmans, Green & Roberts. 1862. Page 260. ^ Ibid. Page 264. 64 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. He was a great student of nature, and, in fact, of universal truth, and wrote upon a variety of subjects, including natural history, chemistry, and religion. He was very skillful in drawing and painting, but his reputation rests chiefly upon his discoveries in the making of ceramic ware and in the elegant productions of his own hands. His success in discovering the process of making white and colored en- amel wares was only achieved through a se- ries of experiments extending through several years, amid labors and poverty and discour- agements of almost every kind. When his means and courage to prosecute his experi- ments further would sometimes fail he would turn his attention to painting or surveying in order to support his family and gather a small amount for further experiments. Over and over again, just as he felt that success was al- most within his grasp, some unforeseen diffi- culty or disaster would intervene to prevent his success. Once when some of his wares were in the furnace his supply of wood gave out, and he burned up his fence, the tables in his house, and then tore up the floor and used it also; persevering in spite of all obstacles, building his own furnaces, grinding his own colors, and modeling his own wares, he finally triumphed. FROM THE ARTISTIC WORLD. 65 His beautiful designs were eagerly purchased, and to this day are unexcelled, commanding fabulous prices. In 1585, because of his religious views, he was imprisoned in the Bastile. In 1588 Henry HI visited him and said he had been com- pelled, in spite of himself, to put him in prison, and offered to pardon him if he would become a convert to the Romish faith. Palissy replied : " Sire, you have said several times that you feel pity for me. But it is I who pity you, who have said, ^ I am compelled.* That is not speaking like a king. The Guisards, all your people, and yourself cannot compel a potter to bow down to images of clay." ' In one of his published articles, addressing his brethren, he says: "You will have enemies and be persecuted all the time of your life, if by direct paths you will follow and sustain the cause of God ; for such are the promises writ- ten originally in the Old and New Testament. Take refuge, then, under the shelter of your protecting Chief and Captain, our Lord Jesus Christ, who in time and place will know how properly to avenge the wrong that he has suf- fered and your sorrows." ' ' Life of Bernard Palissy. By Henry Morle>. Boston : Ticknor, Reed & Fields. 1853. Vol. ii, page 188. * Ibid. Page 259. 66 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. Josiah Wedgwood, potter, was born in Burs- lem, England, July, 1730, and died January 3, 1795. The Wedgwood ware is perhaps the best known of any, and Wedgwood is usually desig- nated as the father of English pottery. He possessed rare chemical knowledge, coupled with great business ability, and made many important and useful discoveries, producing the highest quality of ceramic ware. Concerning him the following anecdote is related : An English peer once called upon him and desired to see his great pottery factories. With one of his employees, a lad about fifteen years of age, Mr. Wedgwood accompanied the noble- bleman through the works. The visitor was a man of somewhat reckless life, and rather vain of his religious unbelief. Possessing great natural wit, he was quite en- tertaining in conversation, and after a while forgot himself in expressions of ** polite " pro- fanity and in occasional jests with sacred names and subjects. The boy at first was shocked by the noble- man's irreverence, but soon became fascinated by his flow of skeptical drollery, and laughed heartily at the witty points made. When the round of the factories had been FROM THE ARTISTIC WORLD. 67 made the boy was dismissed, and Mr. Wedg- wood selected a beautiful vase of unique pattern and recalled the long and careful process of its making, as they had just seen it at the vats and ovens. The visitor was charmed with its ex- quisite shape, its rare colorings, its pictured designs, and reached out his hand to take it ; Mr. Wedgwood let it fall on the floor and broke it to atoms. The nobleman uttered an angry oath. " I wanted that for my collec- tion," he said. " No art can restore what you have ruined by your carelessness.*' " My lord," replied Mr. Wedgwood, " there are other ruined things, more precious than this, which can never be restored. You can never give back to the soul of that boy who has just left us the reverent feeling and simple faith which you have destroyed by making light of the religion which has been his most sacred memory and inheritance. For years his parents have endeavored to teach him reverence for sacred things, and so to in- fluence his mind that his life and conduct should be governed by religious principles. You have undone their labor in less than half an hour." The nobleman, though greatly astonished at such plainness of speech from a ''mechanic," respected a brave and honest man ; and he did 68 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. not go away without expressing his regrets and admitting the justice of the reproof. * Sir Christopher Wren, architect, was born at East Knoyle, England, October 20, 1632, and died February 25, 1723. After the great London fire of 1666 he was selected to rebuild fifty churches in that city, and in connection therewith he designed and erected St. Paul's and an addition to West- minster Abbey. He possessed much ability in several de- partments of science, and served as Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. He was buried in the crypt at St. Paul's. The notable inscrip- tion therein reads, ** Si monumentum requiris circumspice " — " If you require a monument, look around you." During the erection of St. Paul's he caused the following notice to be aflfixed in many parts of the building: " Whereas, among laborers, etc., that un- godly custom of swearing is too frequently heard, to the dishonor of God and contempt of authority; and to the end, therefore, that such impiety may be utterly banished from these works, intended for the service of God and the honor of religion, it is ordered that ^ Youth's Companion^ Boston, Mass., July 5, 1894. FROM THE ARTISTIC WORLD. 69 customary swearing shall be a sufficient crime to dismiss any laborer that comes to the call, and the clerk of the works, upon sufficient proof, shall dismiss him accordingly ; and if any master working by task shall not, upon admonition, reform this profanation among his apprentices, servants, and laborers, it shall be construed his fault, and he shall be liable to be censured by the commissioners." ' Sir George Gilbert Scott, architect, was born at Gawcott, near Buckingham, England, July 13, 181 1, and died March 2'j, 1878. In furthering the revival of Gothic archi- tecture he was, perhaps, the most important factor. He was charged with the care and restoration of Westminster Abbey, was in large part connected with the restoration of the cathedrals of Ely, Gloucester, Durham, Chester, Worcester, Lichfield, Ripon, Exeter, and many others, and was also the designer of the Albert Memorial. He was buried in Westminster Abbey. In speaking of his devotions he says : ** When I am praying, especially for my sons, I feel I cannot do enough. I feel kneeling to be but little, and I prostrate myself on the ' Sir Christopher Wren, By Lucy Phillimore. London : C. Kegan Paul & Co. 1883. Page 285. 70 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. floor."' On another occasion he said: "O. that I had availed myself of the many privi- leges of those my early days, of their religious opportunities and of their means of intellectual improvement ! But regrets are unavailing. Let me rather thank God for my pious and excellent parents, and for the many blessings of my life, and crave his forgiveness for my neghgence and shortcomings."* He also bears this testimony : *' Without pious faith, without warm love and a heartfelt devotedness, never and nowhere was anything truly great or holy accomplished." ^ George Frederick Handel, musical composer, was born at Halle, Lower Saxony, February 23, 1685, and died April 14, 1759. Haydn said of him, " He is the father of us all." Mozart said, *' He knows better than any one of us what is capable of producing a great effect." Beethoven said Handel was the "monarch of the musical kingdom, . . . the greatest composer that ever lived." While he produced many wonderful compo- sitions, his ''Messiah" is the most notable. In * Persotial and Professional Recollections of Sir George Gilbert Scott, R.A. Edited by his son. London : Sampson Low & Co. 1879. Page 20 of Introduction. 2 Ibid. Page 52. ^ jud^ Pages 144, 145. FROM THE ARTISTIC WORLD. 7 1 speaking of the feeling and impression that he had when composing that great oratorio he said, " I did think I saw all heaven before me, and the great God himself." * After the death of his mother he wrote: *• I cannot yet restrain my tears. But it has pleased the Most High to enable me to submit with Christian calmness to his holy will." ' For several years before his death he at- tended the parish church and was fervently devout. His death on Good Friday was a fulfillment of his desire. " He had most se- riously and devoutly wished for several days before his death that he might breathe his last on Good Friday, * in hopes,' he said, ' of meeting his good God, his sweet Lord and Saviour, on the day of his resurrection.* " ^ Joseph Haydn, musical composer, was born at Rohrau, Austria, March 31, 1732, and died May 31, 1809. His musical creations marked an era in the art of composition. Even Mozart admitted that it was from Haydn that he first learned to write quartette music. Haydn wrote many famous pieces, but his oratorio of *' The Cre- ' Life of George Frederick Handel. By W. S. Rockstro. London: Macmillan & Co. 1883. Page 239. 2 Ibid, Page 162. ^ Ibid. Page 362. 72 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. ation" is sufficient of itself to give him enduring fame. In a letter, written in 1792, he says: ** In order to keep my word and support poor Solomon [his former manager] I must be the victim and work incessantly. I really feel it. My eyes suffer the most, my mind is very weary, and it is only the help of God that will supply what is wanting in my power. I daily pray to him, for without his assistance I am but a poor creature." ' 1 Life of Haydn. By Louis Nolil. Translated by G. P. Upton. Chicago: A. C. MacClurg & Co. i888. Page 127. ebamplons from tbe llterarij Morlb. SIR WALTER SCOTT. FROM THE LITERARY WORLD. 75 CHAPTER V. Champions ffom the Literary Worlds PRINTERS, EDITORS, PHILOLOGISTS, EGYPTOLOGISTS, LEXICOGRAPHERS, HISTORIANS, POETS, NOVELISTS. John Gutenberg, inventor and printer, was born at Mentz, Germany, in 1398, and died be- tween 1465 and 1468. That he was the real inventor of movable types and typography as now practiced, no candid investigator can now doubt. His first works worthy of the name of books were two editions of the Bible, but he was so modest that, as DeVinne says, ** No one except Shakespeare did so much and said so little about it." In his Catholicon, published in 1460, he says: " By the assistance of the Most High, at whose will the tongues of children become eloquent, and who often reveals to babes what he hides from the wise, this renowned book, the Cathol- icon [a Latin grammar and dictionary], was printed and perfected in the year of incarna- tion, 1460, in the beloved city of Mentz (which belongs to the illustrious German nation, and 76 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. which God has consented to prefer and to raise with such an exalted light of the mind and of free grace above the other nations of the earth), not by means of pen or pencil or stencil plate, but by the admirable proportion, harmony, and connection of the punches and matrices. Wherefore, to thee, divine Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, triune and only God, let praise and honor be given." ' William Caxton, printer, was born at Kent, England, in 1412, and died in 1491 or 1492. He was the first printer in England, and was not only a printer, but a writer as well. His works show that he had a deep sense of reli- gious things. In his Life of Charles the Greats printed in 1485, he says : *' I have specially reduced [trans- lated] it after the simple cunning that God hath lent to me, whereof I humbly and with all my heart thank him, and also am bounden to pray for my father's and mother's souls, that in my youth sent me to school, by which, by the sufferance of God, I get my living, I hope truly. And that I may do so and continue, I beseech him to grant me of his grace ; and so to labor and occupy myself virtuously that I * The Invention of Printins[. By Theodore L. DeVinne. New York : Francis Hart & Co. 1876. Page 435. FROM THE LITERARY WORLD. 77 may come out of death and deadly sin, that after this life I may come to his bUss in heaven.'' * Josiah Gilbert Holland, essayist, poet, nov- elist, and editor, was born at Belchertown, Mass., July 24, 1819, and died October 12, 1881. He was an American author of the very purest type, and if his abilities were measured by the circulation of his writings and the per- sonal esteem which he evoked he would have few equals. As editor of the Sprhigficld Republican, and afterward of Scribner s and the Century maga- zines, he was brilliantly successful. As a poet he produced successive books of poems which sold by tens of thousands of copies before the day of publication. As an author of timely moral and social homilies he was read with avidity by all classes ; as a lecturer he was one of the most popular that ever appeared on the American platform ; and as a novelist and author of Sevenoaks, Nicli- olas Minturn, and Arthur Bonnicastle he was full of true, healthful, helpful, and useful thoughts. ' Life of William Caxton. By Charles Knight. London ; W. Clowes & Sons. 1877. Page 13. yS CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. In his Every-Day Topics he says: "In the current discussions of the relations of Chris- tianity to science there is one fact that seems to have dropped out of notice, yet it is full of meaning, and deserves, for Christianity's sake, to be raised and kept before the public. Who, or what, has raised science to its present com- manding position? What influence is it that has trained the investigator, educated the people, and made it possible for the scientific man to exist, and the people to comprehend him ? Who built Harvard College ? What mo- tives form the very foundation stones of Yale ? To whom and to what are the great institutions of learning scattered all over this country in- debted for their existence? There is hardly one of these that did not have its birth in, and has not had its growth from, Christianity. The founders of all these institutions, more partic- ularly those of greatest influence and largest facilities, were Christian men, who worked sim- ply in the interest of their Master/' * " It is most interesting and instructive, we repeat, to observe how all the patent methods that have been adopted outside of or in oppo- sition to Christianity for the reformation of society have, one after another, gone to the ' Every-Day Topics. By J. G. Holland. New York : Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 1876. Pages 141, 142. FROM THE LITERARY WORLD. 79 wall or gone to the dogs. A dream and a few futile or disastrous experiments are all that ever comes of them." ^ Wihiam Cullen Bryant, poet and editor, was born at Cummington, Mass., November 3, 1794, and died June 12, 1878. He was chief editor of the New York Even- ing Post for almost fifty years, and made the paper notable for literary character and ele- vated tone. His ^* Thanatopsis " is recognized as one of the great poems of the age. He was also the author of many other highly prized poems. In a letter to Miss C. M. Sedg^vick, in speaking of the death of her mother, he says : " I was very much struck not long since with the answer of one to whom the prospect of life seemed uncertain, and whom I was endeavor- ing to console with the hope of a happier state of existence. ' It will be no heaven to me,' she said, 'if my friends are not there.' . . . The delights of the next life, I am sure, are not selfish ; they must be social. * I go to prepare a place for you,' said our Saviour to his disciples. The good who precede us in death have all this office ; it is their presence » Every-Day Topics. By J. G. Holland. New York : Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 1876. Page 154. 80 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. which will make a great part of the heaven for which we hope." ' In a letter to Bishop J. H. Vincent he says : " There is an attempt to make science, or a knowledge of the laws of the natural universe, an ally of the school which denies a separate spiritual existence and a future life ; in short, to borrow of science weapons to be used against Christianity. The friends of religion, therefore, confident that one truth never contradicts another, are doing wisely when they seek to accustom the people at large to think and weigh evidence, as well as to believe. ... It is true that there is no branch of human knowledge so important as that which teaches the duties we owe to God and to each other." ' Friedrich Max Miiller, philologist, was born at Dessau, Germany, December 6, 1823. He is probably best known by his works entitled Chips from a German Workshop and Lectures on the Science of Language. His most elaborate and learned work, however, is his translation of the Rig Veda Samhita, a collection of Sanskrit hymns that introduces ^ Biography of William Cullen Bryant. By Parke Godwin. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1883. Vol, ii, page 91. 2 Ibid. Page 395. FROM THE LITERARY WORLD. 8 1 US to the very earliest form of words and thoughts. In a lecture on missions he says: *'As to our own religion, its very soul is missionary, progressive, world-embracing; it would cease to exist if it ceased to be missionary — if it disregarded the parting words of its Founder: * Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, bap- tizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ? " ' ** As long as there are doubt and darkness and anxiety in the soul of an inquirer, reti- cence may be his natural attitude. But when once doubt has yielded to certainty, darkness to light, anxiety to joy, the rays of truth will burst forth ; and to close our hand or to shut our lips would be as impossible as for the petals of a flower to shut themselves against the summons of the sun of spring."* "A missionary must know no fear; his heart must overflow with love — love of man, love of truth, love of God ; and in this, the highest and truest sense of the word, every Christian is, or ought to be, a missionary." " ^ Selected Essays on Language^ Mythology, and Religion. By F. Max Muller. London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1881. Vol. ii, page 53. ^ Ibid. Page 55. 2 Ibid. Page 5 7. 82 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. Archibald Henry Sayce, archaeologist and philologist, was born at Shirehampton, Eng- land, in 1846. He has been Professor of Comparative Philol- ogy at Oxford, and is an author of recognized authority on several branches of archaeology. In the Preface to one of his works he says : " The later history of the Old Testament no longer stands alone. Once it was the sole witness for the truth of the narrative it contains. . . . All is changed now. The earth has yielded up its secrets, the current civilization of Assyria has stepped forth again into the light of day and has furnished us with records, the authority of which none can deny. ... Just at the moment when skep- tical criticism seemed to have achieved its worst, and to have resolved the narratives of the Old Testament into myths or fables, God's providence was raising up from the grave of centuries a new and unimpeachable witness for their truth." * In his work on Higher Criticism, his testimony is that " the assumptions and preconceptions with which the * higher criti- cism ' started, and upon which so many of its ^Assyria; its Princes^ Priests, arid People. By A. H. Sayce, M.A. London : The Religious Tract Society. 1885. Pages 10 and ii of Preface. FROM THE LITERARY WORLD. 83 conclusions are built, have been swept away either wholly or in part, and in place of the skepticism it engendered there is now a danger lest the oriental archaeologist should adopt too excessive a credulity. The revelations of the past w^hich have been made to him in late years have inclined him to believe that there is nothing impossible in history, any more than there is in science, and that he is called upon to believe, rather than to doubt." ' Richard Lepsius, Egyptologist, was born at Naumburg, Germany, December 23, 1810, and died July 10, 1884. He was one of the greatest specialists on Egypt. He unraveled the chronology and mythology of that ancient land, unfolded its system of weights and measures, and studied out and classified almost all th^ ancient and modern languages of northeastern Africa. His writings are numerous, embracing scores of volumes, and they give many evidences of his belief in the Bible. In the dedication of his work on TJie Chronology of the Egyptians he says: "The Christianity which derives its origin and sustenance from the Bible is essen- * The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monuments, By A. H. Sayce. London : Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. 1894. Page 23. 84 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. tially and intrinsically wholly independent of all learned confirmation. . . . That truth which is discerned by the sound progress of any science whatsoever cannot be hostile to Christian truth, but must promote it; for all truths, from the very beginning, have formed a compact league against everything that is false and erroneous. ... It seems to me, also, that the practical religious meaning which the Old Testament possesses for every Christian reader is very in- dependent of the dates of the periods, the exact knowledge of which could only have been known by means of a purposeless inspiration to the authors and elaborators of those writings, many of whom lived several centuries later." * Georg Ebers, Egyptologist, was born in Ber- lin March I, 1837. He is most widely known through transla- tions of his historic novels, Uarda^ Joshua^ and An Egyptian Prijicess. He is also the author of Through Goshen to Sinaiy and Egypt and the Books of Moses. He has served as Professor of Egyptology at Jena and Leipsic. In his Story of My Life he says : " My mother did not fail to endeavor to inspire us * Letters from Egypt, Ethiopia, etc, vviih extracts from his Chronology of the Egyptians. By Dr. Richard Lepsius. Lon- don : Henry G. Bohn, 1853. Pages 361, 362. FROM THE LITERARY WORLD. 8$ with love for the Christ-child and the Saviour and to draw us near to him. She saw in him, above all else, the embodiment of love, and loved him because her loving heart understood his. '' In after years my own investigation and thought brought me to the same conviction which she had reached through the relation of her feminine nature to the person and teach- ings of her Saviour. I perceived that the world as Jesus Christ found it owes him nothing grander, more beautiful, loftier, or more pregnant with importance than that he widened the circle of love which embraced only the individual, the family, the city, or, at the utmost, the country of which a person was a citizen, till it included all mankind. And this human love, of which my mother's life gave us practical proof, is the banner under which all the genuine progress of mankind, in later years, has been made. ''Nineteen centuries have passed since the one that gave us Him who died on the cross ; and how far we are still from a perfect realiza- tion of this noblest of all the emotions of the heart and spirit ! " * > The Story of My Life. By Georg Ebers. Translated by Mary J. Safford. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1893. Pages 29, 30. 86 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. He said of one of his teachers : ** He showed us the other religions mainly to place Chris- tianity and its renewing and redeeming power in a brighter light. . . . Whether he succeeded in bringing us into complete * unity' with the personality of Christ, to which he stood in such close relations, is doubtful, but he certainly taught us to understand and love him ; and this love, though I have also listened to the views of those who attribute the creation and life of the world to mechanical causes and believe the Deity to be a product of the human intellect, has never grown cold up to the present day." ' Samuel Johnson, essayist and lexicographer, was born at Lichfield, England, September 1 8, 1709, and died December 13, 1784. His erudition made him not only one of the greatest men of his time, but of all time, and his moral essays and stories, contained in the Rambler and elsewhere, are among the world's best and greatest classics. His dictionary comes near being the '* source of English un- defiled," and it is worthy of particular notice that in it he quoted no author whose writings ' The Story of My Life. By Georg Ebers. Translated by Mary J. Safford. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1893. Pages 240, 241. FROM THE LITERARY WORLD. 87 had a tendency to hurt religion or morality. In his day, and, in fact, ever since, even the words that unbelievers use have had to be obtained from vocabularies collated by Chris- tian men. The following passage is from his diary: "September 7, 1736. I have this day entered upon my twenty-eighth year; mayestthou, O God, enable me, for Jesus Christ's sake, to spend this in such a manner that I may re- ceive comfort from it at the hour of death and in the day of judgment. Amen." * Soon after 1763, when the English wrested Canada from the French, while conversing with a friend on the truth of Christianity, Dr. John- son said : ** It is always easy to be on the negative side. . . . Let us try this a little further. I deny that Canada is taken, and I can support my denial by pretty good arguments. '* The French are a much more numerous people than we, and it is not likely that they would allow us to take it. " ' But the ministry have assured us, in all the formality of the Gazette, that it is taken.' "Very true, but the ministry have put us to an enormous expense by the war in America, ^ Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. By James Boswell. London : Printed by Henry Baldwin. 1840. Vol. i, page 24. 88 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. and it is to their interest to persuade us that we have got something for our money. *' * But the fact is confirmed by thousands of men who were at the taking of it.' '* Ay, but these men have still more interest in deceiving us. They don't want that you should think the French have beat them, but that they have beat the French. •' Now, suppose you should go over and find that it really is taken, that would only satisfy yourself; for when you came home we would not believe you. We would say you have been bribed. " Yet, sir, notwithstanding all these plausible objections, we have no doubt that Canada is really ours, such is the weight of common tes- timony. How much stronger are the evidences of the Christian religion ! " * Noah Webster, lexicographer, was born in West Hartford, Conn., October i6, 1758, and died May 28, 1843. It was his personal efforts in various States that secured the first copyright law in the United States, which since that time has pro- tected the rights of authors, and for this rea- son alone he deserves the warmest remem- ^ Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. By James Boswell. London : Printed by Henry Baldwin. 1840. Vol. i, page 194. FROM THE LITERARY WORLD. 89 brance of all who are engaged in literary pur- suits. If widespread notoriety and use of one's publications afford any compensation to an author, then no other author was ever so largely compensated as he, for in every hamlet and cross-roads throughout the entire United States Webster's spelling book has been known and used for more than a hundred years. Over fifty million copies have been issued, and there still seems no limit to the demand. The series of dictionaries which he originated has had a circulation greater than all others combined. In the Preface to his earliest Dic- tionary he said : *' The United States com- menced their existence under circumstances wholly novel and unexampled in the history of nations. They commenced with civilization, with learning, with science, with constitutions of free government, and with that best gift of God to man, the Christian religion." * The closing sentences of the same Preface are as follows : ** To that great and benevolent Being who, during the preparation of this work, has sustained a feeble constitution amidst obsta- cles and toils, disappointments, infirmities, and ^The American Dictionary, By Noah Webster, LL.D. New York ; Published by S. Converse. 1828. Vol. i, Preface. 90 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. depression, who has twice borne me and my manuscripts in safety across the Atlantic, and given me strength and resolution to bring the work to a close, I would present the tribute of my most grateful acknowledgments. And if the talent which he intrusted to my care has not been put to the most profitable use in his service I hope it has not been * kept laid up in a napkin,' and that any misapplication of it may be graciously forgiven." Thomas Carlyle, essayist and historian, was born at Ecclefechan, Scotland, December 4, 1795, and died February 4, 1881. His articles in various quarterlies, his essays, his Oliver CromwelVs Letters and Speeches^ and \\\?> History of the French Revolution have given him great fame. He was offered a pension by the English government, and also a burial in Westminster Abbey, both of which were de- clined. In speaking of his father, who was a stone mason, he says: "All his strength came from God, and he ever sought new nourishment there. God be thanked for it. . . . On the whole, ought I not to rejoice that God was pleased to give me such a father — that from earliest years I had the example of a real man of God's own making continually before me? FROM THE LITERARY WORLD. 9 1 Let me learn of him. Let me write my books as he built his houses, and walk as blamelessly through this shadow world, if God so will, to rejoin him at last. Amen." ' In writing of Voltaire and his essays he says: ''Christianity, the 'worship of sorrow,' has been recognized as divine on far other grounds than * essays on miracles,' and by considerations infinitely deeper than would avail in any mere trial by jury." ' " Religion cannot pass away. The burning of a little straw may hide the stars of the sky, but the stars are there, and will reappear." ' Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot, historian, was born at Nimes, France, October 4, 1787, and died September 12, 1874. He is best known through his History of Civilization in France, but was a voluminous writer on political and other subjects. After the revolution of 1830 he became Minister of the Interior, afterward Minister of Public Instruc- tion, and, from 1840 to 1848, Prime Minister. In 1837, by authority of the United States, he wrote a Life of President Washington, and 1 Reminiscences. By Thomas Carlyle. Edited by J. A. Froude. New York : C. Scribner's Sons. 1881. Page 12. 2 Critical and Miscellafteotis Essays. By Thomas Carlyle. Boston : Brown & Taggard. i860. Vol. ii, page 68. 3 Ibid. Page 78. 92 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. was subsequently honored by having his por- trait placed in the chamber of the House of Representatives. His daughter quotes him as saying, " God and the religion of Christ are my guides ; moral law is the law to which I would refer every question."* ''The older I grow the more I feel how essential is religion to give man the energy and love of goodness which he needs. I am convinced that without reli- gion, without the continual help of God, man can never succeed in wiping out the original stain which defiles his nature, nor attain to the holiness and purity which ought to be in him who would worship God in spirit and in truth." ' In his Meditations on the Essence of Chris- tianity he says : ** The opponents of the dogma of the incarnation and of the divinity of Jesus Christ disregard, equally, man and history — the complex elements of human nature, and the meaning of the great facts which mark the religious life of the human race. What is man himself but an incomplete and imperfect in- carnation of God ? " ^ ^ Guizofs Private Life. By his Daughter. Boston : Estes & Laui-iat. 1882. Page 13. ^ /^^-^^ p^ge 16. "^Meditations on the Essence of Christianity. By M. Guizot. London : John Murray. 1864. Page 72. FROM THE LITERARY WORLD. 93 John Milton, poet, was born in London, Eng- land, December 9, 1608, and died November 8, 1674. He was one of the foremost champions of the Cromwellian regime and Latin secretary of the council of state during Cromwell's protect- orate. A prolific, graceful, and learned writer, he w^as one of the most remarkable scholars in a remarkable age. His "Paradise Lost " almost immediately brought him great renown. In his Defensio Secunda, referring to the statement of some of his enemies that his blindness was a visitation from God because of his opposition to the royalists, he says : *' I neither feel nor believe myself an object of God's anger, but actually experience and ac- knowledge his fatherly mercy and kindness to me in all matters of greatest moment, espe- cially in that I am able, through his conso- lation and his strengthening of my spirit, to acquiesce in his divine will, thinking oftener of what he has bestowed upon me than of what he has withheld." ' At another time he writes : " I offer it to the reason of any man whether he thinks the knowledge of Christian religion harder than ^ Life of John Milton. By David Masson, M. A. London ; Macraillan & Co. 1877. Vol. iv, page 595. 7 94 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. any Other art or science to attain. . . . See- ing, then, that Christian religion may be so easily attained, and by meanest capacities, it cannot be much difficult to find ways, both how the poor, yea, all men, may be soon taught what is to be known of Christianity." * *' It is written that the coat of our Saviour was without seam ; whence some would infer that there should be no division in the Church of Christ. It should be so, indeed ; yet seams in the same cloth neither hurt the garment nor misbecome it."' John Greenleaf Whittier, editorial writer and poet, was born near Haverhill, Mass., Decem- ber 17, 1807, and died September 7, 1892. His pen was ever ready with prose or verse in defense or aid of whatever was good and true. His appeals in behalf of the slave and for suffering humanity everywhere endeared him to all lovers of mankind. He was always fearless in defense of truth and right. In many respects he was the equal of any American poet, and in clear enunciation of moral and religious truth peihaps more pro- nounced than any other. ' Prose Works of Jo Jut Milton. By George Burnett. Lon- don : Printed for John Miller. 1809. Vol. i, page 168. 2 Ibid. Page 187. FROM THE LITERARY WORLD. 95 Writing upon certain proposed reforms he says : " Rejecting, as we must, whatever is in- consistent with, or hostile to, the doctrines of Christianity, on which alone rests our hope for humanity, it becomes us to look kindly upon all attempts to apply these doctrines to the details of human life, to the social, political, and industrial relations of the race." * " We know not, it is true, the conditions of our future life ; we know not what it is to pass from this state of being to another ; but be- fore us, in that dark passage, has gone the Man of Nazareth, and the light of his foot- steps lingers in the path. Where he, our Brother in his humanity, our Redeemer in his divine nature, has gone, let us not fear to follow.'" Of the " inner life ** he says : " The hour is coming when, under the searching eye of philosophy and the terrible analysis of science, the letter and the outward evidence will not altogether avail us ; when the surest depend- ence must be upon the light of Christ within, disclosing the law and the prophets in our own souls, and confirming the truth of out- ward Scripture by inward experience." ^ * lVhittier''s Prose I'Vorks. Boston and New York : Hough- ton, Mifflin & Co. 1889. Vol. iii, page 208. ^ Ibid. Page 272. ^ Ibid. Page 313. 96 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. Sir Walter Scott, poet and novelist, was born in Edinburgh August 15, 1771, and died Sep- tember 21, 1832. Admitted to the bar when twenty years of age, he was soon engaged in literary pursuits, and his " Lay of the Last Minstrel " brought him early into prominence as a poet. Among numerous other poems, published later, " The Lady of the Lake " is awarded the chief place. His success as a novelist was even greater than as a poet. Waver ley, at first issued anon- ymously, was at once highly popular ; and nu- merous other volumes, composed with amaz- ing rapidity, were warmly welcomed. His Tales of a Grandfather will probably never be rivaled by a work of similar character. His wonderful success doubtless caused him to become a little careless in business ventures and personal expenditures, and these, and the failure of persons with whom he was associated, involved him in debt to the amount of nearly $700,000. With amazing courage he set about paying off these obligations in full, and through the writing of new works and the profits from previously written volumes he succeeded — a pecuniary success through literary effort abso- lutely unrivaled. He was remarkably generous and helpful as a friend, and endeared himself to all. FROM THE LITERARY WORLD. 97 In his private journal he expresses himself as follows : " There are few, I trust, who disbelieve the existence of a God ; nay, I doubt if at all times, and in all moods, any single individual ever adopted that hideous creed, though some have professed it." * *' Our hope, heavenly and earthly, is poorly anchored if the cable parts upon the strain. I believe in God, who can change evil into good ; and I am confident that what befalls us is al- ways ultimately for the best." ' " I would, if called upon, die a martyr for the Christian religion, so completely is (in my poor opinion) its divine origin proved by its bene- ficial effects on the state of society. Were we but to name the abolition of slavery and polygamy, how much has, in these two words, been granted to mankind by the lessons of our Saviour." ' Charles Dickens, novelist, was born near Portsmouth, England, February 7, 1812, and died June 9, 1870. The characters in his various works have been more widely and more generally quoted ^Journal of Sir Walter Scott. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1890. Vol. i, page 43. ^Ibid. Vol. ii, page 60. ^Ibid. Vol. ii, page 87. 98 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. than those of any other novelist, and he did humanity a large service. *' Micavvber," " Cap- tain Cuttle," and " Paul Dombey " are known wherever the English language has a reader. In a letter to his son he said : " I put a New Testament among your books for the very same reasons and with the very same hopes that made me write an easy account of it for you when you were a little child — because it is the best book that ever was, or ever will be, known in the world ; and because it teaches you the best lessons by which any human creature who tries to be truthful and faithful to duty can possibly be guided. , . . " I now most solemnly impress upon you the truth and beauty of th^ Christian religion as it came from Christ himself, and the impos- sibility of your going far wrong if you humbly but heartily respect it. . . . Never abandon the wholesome practice of saying your own private prayers night and morning. I have never abandoned it myself, and I know the comfort of it."* ^Letters of Charles Dickens. New York: Charles Scribner & Co. 1879. Vol. ii, page 467. Cbamplona from tbe Scientific Morl^ SAMUEL F. B. MORSE. CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. 10 CHAPTER VI. Champions from the Scientific World. ASTRONOMERS, GEOLOGISTS, PHYSICISTS, CHEMISTS, BOTANISTS, NATURALISTS, ORNITHOLOGISTS, MATHEMATICIANS, AND INVENTORS. Galileo Galilei, astronomer, was born at Pisa, Italy, February 1 8, 1564, and died January 8, 1642. He made the first practical use of the tele- scope, and discovered the moons of Jupiter, a ring of Saturn, and the motion of the sun on its axis. He also discovered the basal prin- ciples of hydrostatics, and was the author of various works refuting theories opposed to the Copernican system. His discoveries awakened a fear that prevail- ing theological dogmas would be overthrown, and envy, jealousy, and ignorance combined to secure his condemnation by the Inquisition. In opposition to the theory that the earth moved the following arguments were gravely printed : *' Animals which move have limbs and muscles; the earth has no limbs or muscles; therefore it cannot move." I02 CHAMnONS OF CHRISTIANITY. "The planets, the sun, the fixed stars all belong to one species, namely, that of stars ; they therefore ail move or all stand still." It was also said that it was " a grievous wrong to place the earth, which is a sink of iniquity, among the heavenly bodies, which are pure and divine things." In defense of his theory, and to show that it was not opposed to the teaching of Scripture, Galileo quoted Cardinal Baronius as saying that "the Holy Spirit intended to teach us how to go to heaven, and not how the heavens go." Certain authorities of the Roman Catholic Church determined to prevent the spread of his teaching, and finally, in his latter years and when broken in health, he was compelled to recant his belief in the theories he advocated. The recantation, however, extorted through physical weakness, was a nullity, for he still believed as before, and in a cautious way con- tinued to evidence his belief. Of his truly religious spirit there can be no doubt. In a letter dated February 21, 1635, written subsequent to his recantation, he says : " Two grounds of consolation continually come to my aid. One of these is that in looking all through my works no one can find the least shadow of anything which deviates from love CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. IO3 and veneration for the holy Church ; the other is my own conscience, which can only be fully known to myself on earth and to God in heaven. He knows that, in the cause for which I suffer, many might have acted and spoken with far more learning and knowledge, but no one, not even among the holy fathers, with more piety and greater zeal for the holy Church, nor altogether with purer inten- Sir John F. W. Herschell, astronomer, was born at Slough, near Windsor, England, March 7, 1792, and died May ii, 1871. He was president of the Royal Astronom- ical Society, and one of the greatest astrono- mers of the century. He compiled catalogues of the stars, wrote various treatises on astro- nomical subjects and on sound and light, and was the first to make a telescopic survey of the entire heavens. In one of his essays he expresses himself thus: ''Cause, design, and nature are, as we conceive them, abstractions drawn from ob- served analogies, of which our own personal and conscious experience supplies the chief mate- rials. It is by these primordial analogies that ^ Galileo Galilei and the Roman Curia. By Karl von Geb- ler. London: C. Kegan Paul & Co. 1879. Page 279. 104 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. we are led upward from creation to Creator and animated by the prospects of our own im- mortal destiny." ^ One of his addresses says : " The stars are the landmarks of the universe, and amidst the endless and complicated fluctuations of our system seem placed by the Creator as guides and records, not merely to elevate our minds by the contemplation of what is vast, but to teach us to direct our actions by reference to what is immutable in his works." ' Sir David Brewster, physicist, was born at Jedburgh, Scotland, December ii, 1781, and died February 10, 1868. He discovered the polarization of light, in- vented the kaleidoscope, and mastered some of the most difficult problems of optics. In his Life of Newton he says : *' The antiq- uity and authenticity of the books which com- pose the sacred canon, the fulfillment of its prophecies, the miraculous propagation of the Gospel have been demonstrated to all who are capable of appreciating the force of historical evidence ; and in the poetical and prose com- positions of the inspired authors we discover ' Essays and Addresses. By Sir J. F. W. Herschel, Bart., K.H. London : Longman, Brown, Green & Co. 1857. Page 239. ' Ibid. Page 469. CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. 105 a system of doctrine and a code of morality, traced in characters as distinct and legible as the most unerring truths of the material world." ' In his work, entitled 3fore Worlds than One, he says : " When our Saviour speaks of the sheepfold of which he is the door, and of the sheep who follow him and know his voice and for whom he was to lay down his life, he adds : ' And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold ; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice ; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.' " ' '' When our Saviour died the influence of his death extended backward in the past, to millions who never heard his name, and forward in the future, to millions who will never hear it. Though it radiated but from the Holy City, it reached to the remotest lands, and affected every living race in the Old and the New World. Distance in time and distance in place did not diminish its healing virtue." ^ ' Life of Nezuton. By Sir David Brewster. Edinburgh : Thomas Constable & Co. 1855. Vol. ii, page 358. * More Worlds than One. By Sir David Brewster, M.A., D.C.L. London : Chatto & Windus. 1874. Page 16. 3 Ibid. Page 166. I06 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. Joseph Henry, physicist, was born at Albany, N. Y., December 17, 1797, and died May 13, 1878. Serving in various honorable offices, he is best known through his position as secretary and chief executive of the Smithsonian Institu- tion at Washington. This institution was founded by James Smithson, an Englishman, who, in 1829, left his fortune of upward of $500,000 to the United States to found an establishment " for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men." Professor Henry, in December, 1846, became the first secretary of the corporation, projected its plan of operations, and under his able leadership the property increased more than threefold. The institution has served not only the nation, but the world, through the discoveries it has promoted. Several score of valuable works bearing its imprint have been issued, the number of volumes printed reach- ing hundreds of thousands. Professor Henry was the author of nearly a hundred articles and monographs on scien- tific subjects. He invented the wire-wound or electro-magnet, and demonstrated the ability of this magnet to transmit its power several miles. He did this several years before the introduction of the telegraph. He also made CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. lO/ important contributions to scientific knowledge by his discoveries in meteorology, acoustics, and other branches of physics, but refused to patent his inventions, giving them freely to the world, and was thus doubly a benefactor to mankind. When he died he received honors such as have been paid to but few persons since the United States was established. His funeral services were arranged for by a joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives. They were attended by the President, by the justices of the Supreme Court, by members of both houses of Congress, by the heads of the Army and Navy Departments, by the Diplo- matic Corps from foreign governments, and by all the dignitaries of the nation then in Wash- ington. Memorial addresses were delivered by Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, by Professor Asa Gray, by James A. Garfield, by General W. T. Sherman, and others. Fifteen thousand copies of a memorial volume were published by Congress, and a bronze statue was ordered erected in the Smithsonian grounds in his honor. In a long and familiar letter to a friend he discusses several religious questions as follows : " After all our speculations and an attempt to grapple with the problem of the universe, the simplest conception which explains and con- I08 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. nects the phenomena is that of the existence of one spiritual Being — infinite in wisdom, in power, and all divine perfections, which exists always and everywhere — which has created us with intellectual faculties sufficient in some degree to comprehend its operations, as they are developed in nature, by what is called ' science.' " ' At another time he said : *' That there is one God, an infinite Spirit ; that man is made up of body and soul ; that there is an immortal life for man, reaching out beyond the present world ; that the power and love of God are brought into relation with the weakness and sinfulness of man in the Lord Jesus Christ — of these great truths I have no doubt. I regard the system which teaches them as rational beyond any of the opposing theories which have come under my view. Upon Jesus Christ as the One Avho, for God, affiliates him- self with man— upon him I rest my faith and my hope."' Sir Charles Lyell, geologist, was born at Kinnordy, Scotland, November 14, 1797, and died February 22, 1875. ' A Memorial of Joseph Henry. Published by order of Congfi-ess. Washington : Government Printing Office. 1880. Page 24- "^ Ibid. Page 19. CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. IO9 He was an expert geologist and the author of numerous works. His Principles of Geology was like a new revelation on that subject, and his abilities procured him the recognition of Queen Victoria, by whom he was knighted. In his Principles of Geology he says : ** In whatever direction Ave pursue our researches, whether in time or space, we discover every- where the clear proofs of a creative intelli- gence, and of his foresight, wisdom, and power. *'As geologists we learn that it is not only the present condition of the globe which has been suited to the accommodation of myriads of living creatures, but that many former states, also, have been adapted to the organ- ization and habits of prior races of beings. " The disposition of the seas, continents, and islands and the climates have varied ; the species, likewise, have been changed, and yet they have all been so modeled on types analogous to those of existing plants and animals as to indicate throughout a perfect harmony of design and unity of purpose. " To assume that the evidence of the begin- ning or end of so vast a scheme lies within the reach of our philosophical inquiries, or even of our speculations, appears to be incon- sistent with a just estimate of the relations 8 no CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. which subsist between the finite powers of man and the attributes of an infinite and eternal Being." ' Sir John William Dawson, geologist, was born in Nova Scotia in 1820. He studied in Edinburgh, explored Nova Scotia with Sir Charles Lyell, and subse- quently became chancellor of McGill College at Montreal. He discovered the eozoon in the Laurentian limestone of Canada, thus revealing the oldest known form of animal life. He is the author of numerous works on geological subjects, was awarded a gold medal by the London Geolog- ical Society, and was knighted by the queen. In speaking of the fact that there is still much to be learned in geology, he says; " Even in the longest journey of the most adventurous traveler there is an end of dis- covery ; and in the study of nature cape rises beyond cape and mountain beyond mountain interminably. The finite cannot comprehend the infinite ; the temporal, the eternal. We need not, however, on that account, be agnos- tics, for it is still true that, within the scope of our narrow powers and opportunities, the ' Principles of Geology. By Sir Charles Lyell. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1858. Page 799. CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. I I I supreme Intelligence reveals to us in nature his power and divinity ; and it is this, and this alone, that gives attraction and dignity to natural science." ' *' Christianity itself is, . . . not so much a revelation of the supernatural, as the highest bond of the great unity of nature. It reveals to us the perfect Man, who is also one with God, and the mission of this divine Man to restore the harmonies of God and humanity, and consequently, also, of man with his natural environment in this world, and with his spiritual environment in the higher world of the future." ' Sir Humphry Davy, chemist, was born at Penzance, England, December 17, 1778, and died May 28, 1829. He is best known by his invention, in 18 15, of the safety lamp for miners, the use of which has undoubtedly saved tens of thou- sands of lives. For this invention, which he refused to patent, he was presented by the Russian emperor with a splendid vase, accom- panied with a personal letter. He also dis- covered several chemical elements. ' Some Salient Points in the Science of the EaHh. By Sir J. W. Dawson, C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., etc. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1894. Page 6. "^Ibid. Page 495. 112 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. He was the friend of Humboldt, Laplace, and other scientists. Cuvier said of him : ** Davy, not yet thirty-two years of age, in the opinion of all who could judge of such labors, held the first rank among the chemists of this or any other country." As to his sympathy with religion Davy said : ** I am never more delighted than when I am able to deduce any moral and religious conclu- sions from philosophical truths. Science is val- uable for many reasons ; but there is nothing that gives it so high and dignified a character as the means which it affords of interpreting the works of nature so as to unfold the wis- dom and glory of the Creator." ' "The simple and fundamental truths of the Christian religion are perfectly intelligible ; namely, the unity of God, the necessity of morality, and the future state of retribution founded on the resurrection." ' '' Of all the religions which have operated on the human mind, Christianity alone has the consistent character of perfect truth ; all its parts are arranged with the most beautiful symmetry; and its grand effects have been * Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy, Bart, By his brother, John Davy, M.D., F.R.S. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1839. Vol. i, page 128. 2 Ibid. Page 19. CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. II 3 constantly connected with virtuous gratifica- tion, with moral and intellectual improvement, with the present and future happiness." ^ Michael Faraday, chemist, was born at New- ington Butts, England, September 22, 1791, and died August 25, 1867. He was one of the most expert chemists of any age, produced many new and rare chem- icals, and was the author of several score of articles on chemical subjects, which were pub- lished by the Royal Society. He was a mem- ber of numerous learned societies, and was honored with various degrees from both Ox- ford and Cambridge. Once a poor errand boy, a newspaper car- rier, he afterward received nearly a hundred honorary titles and marks of merit, and had the honor of a government pension and a resi- dence in Hampton court palace. A letter to his niece contains these words : " I cannot think that death has to the Chris- tian anything in it that should make it a rare or other than a constant thought. . . . My worldly faculties are slipping away day by day. Happy it is for all of us that the true ' Collected Works of Sir Ihtmphry Davy, Bart. By his brother, John Davy, M.D., F.R.S. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1839. Vol. i, page 144. 114 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. goodness lies not in them. As they ebb may they leave us as little children, trusting in the Father of mercies and accepting his unspeak- able gift." ' When the dark shadows were creeping over him he wrote to the Comte de Paris thus : *' I bow before him who is Lord of all, and hope to be kept waiting patiently for his time and mode of releasing me, according to his divine word and the great and precious prom- ises whereby his people are made partakers of the divine nature."" Carl von Linne, or Linnaeus, botanist, was born near Rashult, Sweden, May 13, 1707, and died January 10, 1778. To him belongs the honor of being the only individual of his time who classified and described all the animals, plants, and minerals then known. The fact of his having accom- plished such a task abundantly proves his ex- traordinary genius, energy, judgment, and zeal. All of his most important works begin and end with some verse from the Scriptures, and his diary contains many indications of his reverence for and gratitude to God. The ' Li/e and Letters of Faraday. By Dr. Bence-Jones. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1870. Vol. ii, pages 429,430. '^ Ibid. Vol. ii, page 477. CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC VvORLD. II5 first time he crossed Putney Heath, England, the sight of the gorse blossom in its blaze of May made him fall on his knees in rapture to thank God for making anything so beautiful. On June 24, 1731, O. S., while in Lapland, he wrote in his diary: "Blessed be the Lord for the beauty of summer and of spring, and for what is here in greater perfection than almost anywhere else in the world — the air, the water, the verdure of the herbage, and the song of birds." * He concluded the record of the occurrences of his life with these words : " The Lord was with thee wherever thou didst go." ^ Asa Gray, American botanist, was born in Paris, N. Y., November 18, 1810, and died Jan- uary 30, 1888. His text-books are so well known, and have been studied by so many millions of students, that his name is a household word, and no one outranked him in his specialty. In his Natural Science and Religion he says : " An excellent judge, a gifted adept in phys- ical science and exact reasoning, the late Clerk Maxwell, is reputed to have said, not long ' Through the Fields with Linncevs. By Florence Caddy. Boston : Little, Brown & Co. 1887. Vol. i, page 179. "^ Ibid. Vol. ii, page 359. IIO CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. before he left the world that he had scruti- nized all the agnostic hypotheses he knew of, and found that they one and all needed a God to make them workable."' ** However we may differ in regard to the earlier stages of religious development, we shall agree in this, that revelation culminated, and for us most essentially consists, in the advent of a divine Person, who, being made man, manifested the divine nature in union with the human ; and that this manifestation constitutes Christianity. Having accepted the doctrine of the incarnation, itself the crowning miracle, attendant miracles are not obstacles to belief."' Baron George Leopold Chretien Frederic Dagobert Cuvier, naturalist, was born at Mont- b^liard, France, August 23, 1769, and died at Paris May 13, 1832. When twelve years old he was as familiar with quadrupeds and birds as many natural- ists. He drew and colored representations of insects, birds, and plants with surprising cor- rectness and fidelity. He originated the cele- brated collection of comparative anatomy in ' Natural Science and Religion. By Asa Gray. New York : C. Scribner's Sons. 1880. Page 91. ^Ibid. Page 108. CHAxMPIONS FROM SCIP:NTIFIC WORLD. 11/ the Museum of Natural History of Paris, and was made by Napoleon one of the councilors of the Imperial University. His work on Fossil Remains, published in 1812, revolution- ized the study of geology. One honor or office after another was con- ferred upon him, and he numbered among his friends and correspondents the most learned men of his time. The publication of his mag- nificent work on ichthyology was begun in 1828; it contained descriptions of several thousand fishes not previously described. In zoology and entomology he was equally at home, and he discovered many new classes in both these departments of science. He ex- posed many errors connected with the discov- eries of fossil remains, while his own conjec- tures as to the form and size of certain extinct animals were repeatedly verified. His lectures on various subjects showed great familiarity with the Bible, and he was one of the vice presidents of the Bible Society. In his introduction to the history of those awarded prizes in virtue by the French Acad- emy he said : "' We read in the holy writings, *Love God above all things, and your neigh- bors as yourselves ; the law and the prophets are contained in these two precepts.' Thus, he who has followed these precepts is virtuous ; Il8 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. he will have accomplished the entire law. Now, what is it to love God? How can we prove that we love him ? It is by conforming to his will, by doing that which he orders. And the first thing which he commands us to do, after loving him, is to love our neighbors as ourselves ; and our neighbors are all men, with- out distinction or exception, as the Gospel also teaches us in the parable of the Samaritan." * Louis Jean Rudolphe Agassiz, naturalist, was born at Motier, Switzerland, May 28, 1807, and died December 14, 1873. He was confessedly one of the greatest scien- tists of all time. He originated the accepted glacial theory, and is the author of numerous works. Of these the most notable are Fossil Fishes 2iX\d Contributions to the Natural History of the United States. Concerning his belief and practice he de- clared : " For myself I may say that I now never make the preparations for penetrating into some small province of nature hitherto undiscovered without breathing a prayer to the Being who hides his secrets from me only to allure me graciously on to the unfolding of them. I sometimes hear preachers speak of ' Memoirs of Baron Cuvier. By Mrs. R. Lee. New York ; J. & J. Harper. 1833. Page 86. CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. I I9 the sad condition of men who live without God in the world; but a scientist who lives without God in the world seems to me worse off than ordinary men." * In one of his works he says : '* The products of what are commonly called physical agents are everywhere the same (that is, upon the whole surface of the globe), and have always been the same (that is, during all geological periods), while organized beings are every- where different, and have differed in all ages. Between two such series of phenomena there can be no casual or genetic connection. ** The combination in time and space of all these thoughtful conceptions exhibits not only thought, it shows also premeditation, power, wisdom, greatness, prescience, omniscience, providence. In one word, all these facts in their natural connection proclaim aloud the one God, whom man may know, adore, and love ; and natural history must in good time become the analysis of the thoughts of the Creator of the universe, as manifested in the animal and vegetable kingdoms." ' "^Recollections of Eminent Men. Ey E. P. Whipple. Bos- ton : Ticknor & Co. 1887. Page 96. ' Contribttiions to the Natural History of the United States of America. By Louis Agassiz. Boston : Little, Brown & Co. 1857. Vol. i, page 135. I20 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. Alexander Wilson, ornithologist, was born at Paisley, Scotland, July 6, 1766, and died August 23, 1813. Largely self-educated, he was highly es- teemed as a poet and artist, as well as a stu- dent of bird life. He was the first to publish a work on American ornithology, supplemen- tary volumes to this work being added by Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte, a nephew of the great Napoleon. A statue in honor of Wilson is erected in his native town. In a letter to a friend he says : *' God visits those with distress whose enjoyments he wishes to render more exquisite. The storms of affliction do not last forever, and sweet is the serene air and warm sunshine after a day of darkness and tempest. ... It is our duty to bow with humble resignation to the deci- sions of the great Father of all, rather receiv- ing with gratitude the blessings he is pleased to bestow than repining at the loss he thinks proper to take from us."* In an essay on ornithology he says : *' Men join with reverence in praises to the great Cre- ator; and can they listen with contempt to the melodious strains, the hymns of praise, which ^ Memoirs and Remains of Alexander Wilson, By Rev. A. B. Grosart. Paisley : Alexander Gardner. 1876. Vol. i, page 105. CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. 12 1 these joyful little creatures [the birds] offer up every morning to the Fountain of life and light? . . . Are tenderness of heart, fidelity, and parental affection only lovely when they exist among men ? O, no ; it is impossible I These virtues, that are esteemed the highest ornaments of our nature, seem to be emana- tions from the Divinity himself, and may be traced in many of the humblest and least re- garded of his creatures." * John James Audubon, ornithologist, was born in Louisiana May 4, 1780, and died Jan- uary 27, 185 1. His work, Birds of America^ a most ele- gantly and expensively illustrated production, and not less accurate than elegant, was pro- nounced by Baron Cuvier to be the most splendid monument which had ever been erected in honor of ornithology. Its price was $1,000, and that it found numerous pur- chasers in days when money was far from plentiful is the best evidence of its attractive- ness and worth. In the obtaining of living originals for his sketches and paintings he traversed the woods ' Memoirs and Remains of Alexander Wilson. By Rev. A. B. Grosart. Paisley : Alexander Gardner. 1876. Vol. i, page 257. 122 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. and shores in all parts of the country, and endured privations and dangers that would have discouraged others. A conscientious determination to describe and illustrate his theme with accuracy and fullness was the im- pulse that gave him success and fame. Whether in his own land or across the sea he was always in possession of a reverential spirit. In speaking of an artist who was pleased with his work he said : ** The reason why my works pleased him was because they are all exact copies of the works of God, who is the great Architect and perfect Artist." In his journal he speaks of hearing a sermon in London by the noted Sydney Smith, and says : '' It was a sermon to me. . . . He made me smile, and he made me think more deeply, perhaps, than I had ever before in my life. He interested me by painting my foibles, and then he pained me by portraying my sins, until he made my cheeks crimson with shame and filled my heart with penitential sorrow; and I left the church filled with veneration for God and reverence for the wonderful man who is so noble an example of his marvelous handiwork." ' On his arrival at New York, after a pro- ^Zt/e of John James Attdubon. Edited by his Widow. New York : G. P. Putnam & Son. 1869. Page 141. CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. 123 longed tarry in England, he says : " I clasped my hands and fell on my knees, and raising my eyes to heaven — that happy land above — I offered my thanks to our God that he had preserved and prospered me in my long absence." * Sir Isaac Newton, physicist and mathema- tician, was born at Woolsthorpe, England, December 25, 1642, and died March 20, 1727. In the autumn of 1665, when only twenty- three years of age, the sight of an apple falling from a tree suggested to him the law of gravi- tation, and his powers of thought and reason were such that he was able to formulate the existence of a law which, before, had existed only in the mind of the Infinite. His great work, Principia, discusses math- ematical questions of such an abstruse na- ture that but few persons can master its con- tents ; indeed nearly all his researches dealt in questions requiring clear and comprehensive knowledge of a large variety of uncommon subjects. In one of his dissertations he says : " Oppo- site to godliness is atheism in profession and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so sense- > Life of John James Audubon. Edited by his Widow. New York : G. P. Putnam & Son. 1869. Page 1S3. 124 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. less and odious to mankind that it never had many professors." ^ Once, when religion was spoken of with dis- respect, he said, " I have studied these things ; you have not." ^ In his " Short Scheme of True Religion " he says : " We are therefore to acknowledge one God, infinite, eternal, omnipresent, om- niscient, omnipotent, the Creator of all things, most wise, most just, most good, most holy. We must love him, fear him, honor him, trust in him, pray to him, give him thanks, praise him, hallow his name, obey his commandments, and set times apart for his service." ' ** ' To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things ; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,' and we by him;' that is, we are to worship the Father alone as God Almighty, and Jesus alone as the Lord, the Messiah, the great King, the Lamb of God, who was slain, and hath redeemed us with his blood, and made us kings and priests."* ^ Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton. By Sir David Brewster, K.H. Edinburgh: Thomas Constable & Co. 1855. Vol. ii. page 347- ' Ibid. Vol, ii, page 408. * Ibid. Vol. ii, page 348. * Ibid. Vol. ii, page 350. CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. 12$ Sir William Rowan Hamilton, mathemati- cian, was bom in Dublin, Ireland, August 4, 1805, and died September 2, 1865. From early boyhood to old age he was a most remarkable scholar. At five years of age he was reading Hebrew, Greek, and Latin; at eight years of age he had added the study of French and Italian, and at ten he was also studying Arabic and Sanskrit. When only fourteen he was systematically studying astron- omy and making nightly observations with a telescope, connecting with them abstruse and difficult calculations. At this same period he literally enjoyed performing in his mind long arithmetical problems, extracting the square and cube roots without the aid of pencil or paper. Yet he was full of humor and greatly enjoyed athletic sports. Through these years he was an omnivorous reader, and took down, in shorthand, sermons, speeches, and addresses. Before he was twenty- one he wrote papers which were read before, and commended by, different learned societies. When only sixteen years old, writing to his sister, he said : " In studying conic sections and other parts of geometry I have often been struck with the occurrence of what may be called demonstrated mysteries, since, though they are proved by rigidly mathematical proof, 9 126 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. it is difficult, if not impossible, to conceive how they can be true. ... If, therefore, within the very domain of that science which is most within the grasp of human reason, which rests on the firm pillars of demonstration, and is totally removed from doubt or dispute, there are truths which we cannot comprehend, why should we suppose that we can understand everything connected with the nature and at- tributes of an infinite Being ? * For if ye un- derstand not earthly things, how shall ye those that are heavenly ? * " * In a letter to Wordsworth, in speaking of one who was studying Plato, Mr. Hamilton says : ** I trust that, while he thus unspheres the spirit of Plato, to unfold the discoveries that have been made by the light of ancient reason, he will not imitate some modern Platonists in despising that better light which has since risen on man, and which, though by the Greeks deemed foolishness, we know to be indeed the power and the wisdom of God." ' In another letter, in referring to Dr. Chan- ning, he says : " Others, who have searched far more than he has done into the heights and ^ Life of Sir William Roxvan Hamilton, Kt., LL.D,, D.C.L., M.R.I.A., etc. By Robert Perceval Graves, M.A. Dublin : Hodges, Figgis & Co. 1882. Page 92. ^Jbid. Page 331, CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. 12/ depths of thought, have been compelled to acknowledge mysteries of reason which pre- pare for and harmonize with the mysteries ascribed to religion by the great body of the Christian Church ; they have felt that the in- carnation and passion are not incredible to those who believe and meditate on the earlier mystery of creation." * James Watt, inventor, was born at Green- ock, Scotland, January 19, 1736, and died Au- gust 19, 1819. His invention of the steam engine relieved both man and beast of toils innumerable, and introduced conditions that have blessed the world. Sir Walter Scott said of him, *' He was not only the most profound man of science, but one of the kindest of human beings." Words- worth, twenty years after Watt's death, said of him, " I look upon him, considering both the magnitude and universality of his genius, as perhaps the most extraordinary man that this country has produced." Sir James Mack- intosh placed him ** at the head of all inventors in all ages and nations." ^ Life of Sir William Rowan Hamilton, Kt., LL.D.^ D.C.L., M.R.I. A., etc. By Robert Perceval Graves, M.A. Dublin : Hodges, Figgis & Co. 1882. Page 465. 128 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. A colossal statue was erected in his honor in Westminster Abbey, the inscription on it being written by Lord Brougham. On hearing of the death of a friend he wrote : "We may all pray that our latter end may be like his ; he has truly gone to sleep in the arms of his Creator. . . . Let us cherish the friends we have left, and do as much good as we can in our day." * At another time he wrote : " I, in particular, have reason to thank God that he has pre- served me so well as I am. ... I can offer no other consolations than what are derived from religion." ' Samuel Finley Breese Morse, electrician, was born at Charlestown, Mass., April 29, 1791, and died April 2, 1 872. His invention of the electric telegraph brought great advantages to the entire world, and upon no inventor were greater honors showered. The Sultan of Turkey sent him the decoration of the Order of Glory. Italy bestowed the cross of a Knight of Maurizio and Lazaro ; Prussia, the gold medal for Scien- tific Merit ; Spain, the cross of Knight Com- ' Life of James Watt. By James Patrick Muirhead. New York : D. Appleton & Co. 1859. Page 397. "^ Ibid, Page 399. CHAMPIONS FROM SCIENTIFIC WORLD. 1 29 mander of the Order of Isabella ; Austria, a gold medal ; Portugal, the cross of a Knight of the Tower and Sword ; and the governments of France, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sardinia, Tuscany, the Holy See, Russia, Swe- den, and Turkey united in the gift of four hun- dred thousand francs. At a public banquet given him in 1868 he said : " If not a sparrow fall to the ground without a definite purpose in the plans of in- finite Wisdom, can the creation of an instru- ment [the telegraph] so vitally affecting the in- terests of the whole human race have an origin less humble than the Father of every good and perfect gift ? I am sure I have the sympathy of such an assembly as is here gathered to- gether if, in all humility, and in the sincerity of a grateful heart, I use the words of inspira- tion in ascribing honor and praise to Him to whom, first of all and most of all, it is pre- eminently due: 'Not unto us, not unto us, but to God, be all the glory'— not, *What hath man done ? ' but, * What hath God wrought ? ' " ^ Rev. Dr. William Adams, of New York, of whose church Mr. Morse was a member, speaking of his last days, says : " At the holy "" Lives of Electricians. By William T. Jeans. London: Whittaker & Co. 1887. Page 315. I30 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. communion, ... at the close of the service, he approached me with more than usual warmth and pressure of the hand, and, with a beaming countenance, said, ' O, this is something better than standing before princes.* ... At another time he said, ' I love to be studying the guide- book of the country to which I am going ; I wish to know more and more about it.' A few days before his decease, in the privacy of his chamber, I spoke to him of the great good- ness of God to him in his remarkable life. 'Yes, so good, so good,' was the quick response, ' and the best part of all is yet to come.' " * ' Livfs of Electricians. By "William T. Jeans. London : Whittaker & Co. 1887. Pages 320, 321. Zhc Swarb, THE AWARD. 1 33 CHAPTER VII. The Award* CHAMPIONS like these are necessarily victorious. Many of the challenges are evidently spontaneous and unpremeditated, given with easy naturalness in letters and con- versations with intimates; others are clearly the result of a distinct purpose to emphasize a personal belief in Christianity and the Holy Scriptures. Some represent the flush of youth, some the vigor of manhood, and others the matured thought of a long and vigorous life ; in some the intellect, and in others the heart, finds expression ; and, taken singly or together, they are strong, convincing, overwhelming. The variety, range, and scope of the utter- ances give them greatly increased force, and, combined, they exhibit all the tenderness, faith, and devotion that the most simple- hearted Christian could desire. Men from land and sea, from city and country, from hamlet and metropolis, from occupations pursued in the quiet of study and laboratory cloistered from the world and from amid all forms of 134 CHAMPIONS OF CHRISTIANITY. business activity; philosophers and investiga- tors of things tangible and intangible, animate and inanimate, in earth and sea and sky, some educated in the schools, and others only by contact with the world ; men who unraveled the most secret operations of nature, and were familiar with the inmost workings of the human frame, nay, even with the sources of life — all defend the same religious truths. Many of these champions were accustomed to observe nature in all her moods and mani- festations. Some watched the storm clouds, analyzed their contents, and drew their light- ning ; others peered into the deepest blue of the heavens, followed the stars in their courses, and marked their paths. Some were men of affairs, accustomed to weigh and decide matters of the highest judi- cial and national importance. Others possessed the keenest of intellects, and were known and recognized as the coolest and clearest of thinkers, with analytic minds and of unanswer- able logic. These men, some born amid high social surroundings, and others in direst poverty, titled and untitled, engaged in varied voca- tions, amid peculiar surroundings, and under such circumstances that they literally com- passed the world*s thought and work ; men of THE AWARD. 1 35 every age and clime, nationality and environ- ment, stand together in defense of Christian- ity and the Bible. When such men champion Christianity, we may well believe that all who oppose it lead a forlorn hope and essay an im- possible task. All hail our King and Ruler! Hail to our Lord and Christ ! Hail, Saviour of mankind ! IN DEX. PAGE Agassiz, Louis J. R ii8 Agnew, D. Hayes 44 AUston, Washington 60 Angelo, Michael (Buonarroti) 59 Audubon, John J 121 Bewick, Thomas 62 Bismarck, Count von 19 Blackstone, Sir William 23 Blake, Robert 29 Brewster, Sir David 104 Bryant, William Cullen 79 Buonarotti, Michael Angelo 59 Carlyle, Thomas 90 Caxton, William 76 Cooper, Anthony Ashley 38 Cuvier, Baron 116 Davy, Sir Humphry in Dawson, Sir J. W no Dickens, Charles 97 Dodge, William E 48 Durer, Albert 61 Ebers, Georg 84 Erskine, Lord Thomas. 46 Faraday, Michael 113 Farragut, David G 31 138 INDEX. PAGE Galilei, Galileo loi Garibaldi, Guiseppe 22 Gladstone, William E 20 Grant, Ulysses S 27 Gray, Asa I15 Guizot, Francois P. G 91 Gutenberg, John 75 Hamilton, Sir William Rowan 125 Handel, Sir George Frederick 70 Harvey, William 40 Haydn, Joseph 71 Henry, Joseph 106 Herschell, Sir J. F. W 103 Holland, Josiah G 77 Howard, John 37 Jenner, Edward 41 Johnson, Samuel 86 Lepsius, Richard 83 Linne (Linnaeus), Carl von 114 Lyell, Sir Charles 108 Milton, John 93 Moltke, Count Von 27 Morse, Samuel F. B 128 Muller, F. Max 80 Newton, Sir Isaac 123 Palissy, Bernard 63 Raleigh, Sir Walter 52 Sayce, Archibald Henry 82 Scott, Sir George Gilbert 69 Scott, Sir Walter 96 INDEX. 139 PAGE Simpson, Sir James Y 42 Stanley, Henry M 53 Story, Joseph 25 Washington, George 2i Watt, James 127 Webster, Daniel 47 Webster, Noah 88 Wedgwood, Josiah 66 Whittier, John G 94 Williams, Sir George 49 Wilson, Alexander 120 Wren, Sir Christopher 68