p 449 
 .11466 
 Copy 1 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Samuel Joseph May. 
 
. CK-S 
 
 
 SAMUEL JOSEPH MAY. 
 
 Born in Boston, Massachusetts, 
 September 12th, 1797. 
 
 Died in Syracuse, New York, 
 July 1st, 1871. 
 
 SYRACUSE: 
 
 PRINTED AT THE JOURNAL OFFICE, 
 l87I. 
 
m 
 
 " And I heard a voice from Heaven , 
 saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead 
 which die in the Lord from henceforth : 
 yea saith the Spirit, that they may rest 
 from their labors ; and their works do 
 follow them," 
 
Another hand is beckoning us, 
 
 Another call is given, 
 And glows once more with angel steps 
 
 The path which reaches Heaven. 
 
 Sweet promptings unto kindest deeds 
 
 Were in his very look ; 
 We read his lace, as one who reads 
 
 A true and holy book ; 
 
 The measure of a blessed hymn 
 To which our hearts could move ; 
 
 The breathing of an inward psalm, 
 A canticle of love. 
 
 Fold him, O Father, in Thine arms, 
 A nd let him henceforth be 
 
 A messenger of love, between 
 Our human hearts and Thee. 
 
 Still let his mild rebuking stand 
 Between us and the wrong, 
 
 And his dear memory serve to make 
 Our faith in -rooducss strong. 
 
 

 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 At a meeting of the members of the Unitarian Congre- 
 gational Society of Syracuse, held after morning service 
 in the Church of the Messiah, on Sunday, July 9th, 1871, 
 a committee, consisting of Pev. S. E. Calthrop, Mr. C. D. 
 B. Mills, Mr. D. P. Phelps, Mr. IT. X. White, Mrs. Mary 
 E. Bagg, and Mrs. Kebecca J. Burt, was appointed to pre- 
 pare and publish a memorial pamphlet embracing the fune- 
 ral obsequies of the former pastor of the Society, — Rev. 
 Samuel J. May. 
 
 In the performance of that duty, the committee have not 
 thought it advisable to use more of the very abundant 
 matter in their hands, than is included in the following 
 pages. They were inclined at first, to add some of the 
 very many appreciative and glowing tributes to Mr. May's 
 life and character which his death spontaneously called out, 
 from both the religious and secular press. 
 
 The occasion seemed also to invite a somewhat detailed 
 account ot his pastorate in Syracuse, so faithfully filled on 
 the one hand and so lovingly received on the other— ex- 
 tending from 1815 to 186S— through twenty-three of the 
 best years of his active, beautiful and saintly life, and which 
 was officially ended, only to be merged in new relations 
 
^ 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 
 with his people, if possible stronger and more tender than 
 before. 
 
 Bat upon reflection it was felt, that a rounded Christian 
 life like Mr. May's — so beautiful and complete in all its full 
 proportions, called at once for a faithful and loving biogra- 
 pher, and that any attempt on the part of the committee to 
 anticipate in this memorial of his death and burial, any 
 material part of that biographer's proper work, would 
 be inappropriate. By whomsoever the story of his life 
 shall be told, we may rest assured that his pastorate in Sy- 
 racuse, and the noble work which he here did for his 
 parish, for the community about him, and for the world at 
 large, will receive the attention which it deserves. 
 
 And }'et the committee have deemed it very proper to go 
 so far beyond the limitation thus marked out for themselves, 
 as to incorporate in this memorial, the very full obituary 
 notice of Mr. Ma} 7 which appeared in the Syracuse Daily 
 Standard^ on the Monday morning after his death ; a notice 
 which for its brief comprehensiveness, its thorough appre- 
 ciation of the work he had done and of his exalted chris- 
 tian character, and for its loving tenderness of spirit and 
 expression, seemed to make it the fitting article for the 
 place we give it. 
 
 The committee have also to express their obligations to 
 the several daily papers of the city, and to the Christian 
 Register of Boston, for their very full reports of the ser- 
 vices at the Church and at Oakwood, on the occasion ot the 
 funeral, of which they have very freely availed them- 
 selves. 
 
 The death of Mr. May was quite sudden. Although he 
 had been ill for several weeks, he felt much better again, 
 
INTRODUCTORY, 
 
 and spoke hopefully of dismissing bis nurse, and of visiting 
 New England. He saw several friends on Saturday, in- 
 cluding President White, of Cornell University, who in- 
 formed him of an offer received by his University of a very 
 liberal gift, upon the condition that young women should 
 have the same advantages as young men in that institution. 
 Mr. May promised to give the college his portrait of Prudence 
 Crandall, if this should be consummated, and he parted 
 with Mr. White in the most cheerful and affectionate man- 
 ner. About ten o'clock in the evening he became very ill. 
 As his strength ebbed away, he manifested a desire that his 
 daughter should kiss him, and then, witli a farewell smile 
 his spirit took its upward flight. 
 
 His death occurred at so late an hour on Saturday even- 
 ing, that but few persons knew of it until announced, as it 
 was, in several of the churches after morning service next 
 day. 
 
 These announcements were generally accompanied by 
 spontaneous, heartfelt tributes to his exalted character and 
 pure, noble life. 
 
 The whole community were deeply impressed ; and as 
 soon as it became generally known, large numbers of per- 
 sons — people of all conditions in life — called at the house 
 of his son-in-law, Mr. Alfred Wilkinson, with whom he had 
 lived, not only to express their respect and sorrow, but that 
 they might once more look upon that face, which in death 
 retained the same beautiful expression of love for all his 
 kind, which made it everywhere and always in life, a wel- 
 come presence, shedding heavenly benedictions upon all 
 around him. And so, to the day of his funeral, friends 
 from far and near, those who knew him well and those who 
 
10 
 
 IXTEODUCTOKY 
 
 only knew of him, came there, impelled by a common sor- 
 row, which had cast its dark shadow over all their homes, 
 and made deep wounds in all their hearts. 
 
 Gen-it Smith came from Peterboro, notwithstanding his 
 own illness, and also wrote : " Mr. May was the most 
 Christ-like man that I ever knew. He made Christ his pat- 
 tern, and how successfully, was proved by his never-failing 
 gentleness, meekness and sweetness. Heaven is more de- 
 sirable to me now that my dear May is there." 
 
 The city papers of Monday morning, contained long and 
 glowing tributes to his worth, one of which, from the Daily 
 Stcmdard, we reproduce. 
 
 
IN MEMOEIAM. 11 
 
 SAMUEL JOSEPH MAY. 
 
 Not in this community alone, where the kindly face of 
 our departed friend and teacher was so familiarly known, 
 and his reputation so tenderly cherished, but also in many 
 different sections of the land, where he had worked in holy 
 enterprises, and attached to himself zealous circles of friends, 
 will the announcement of the death of Samuel J. May be 
 received with profoundest sorrow. In common with a host 
 of loving ones, impressed with the sublimity of the char- 
 acter we would depict, and the worthlessness of words in 
 its serene presence, we would offer our tribute of respect to 
 the memory of him who, through goodness, rose to great- 
 ness, uniting the courage of a Knox and the ardor of a 
 Howard with the dear simplicity of the Vicar of Wake- 
 field. The life we would sketch was unusually prolonged 
 and essentially earnest, crowded with activities and crown- 
 ed with blessings; and it is, therefore, difficult, in a limited 
 space, to compass a comprehensive survey of its usefulness, 
 or even to detail many of the facts which gave it signifi- 
 cance ; nor does this, indeed, seem necessary in a region 
 which sensitively vibrated to its touch, and is imbued with 
 regard tor it^ efficacy and reverence for its spirit. We trust. 
 
12 
 
 IN MEMOBIAM. 
 
 
 however, that we may be enabled, while outlining its 
 course, to emphasize a portion of its virtues and to extract 
 therefrom something of the secret of its power. 
 
 Samuel Joseph May was born in Boston on the 12th day 
 of September, 1707. lie was the tenth of twelve children 
 of Joseph and Dorothy Sewall May, all of whom attained 
 mature years, and but one of whom, the wife of the think- 
 er Alcott, and the mother of the author of " Little Women," 
 survives. He was of Puritan stock, as moulded by the hardy 
 influences of early colonial times and as modified by the 
 searching theological reformation which swept over Massa- 
 chusetts towards the close of the last century. He was de- 
 scended, in the fourth generation, from John May, who, 
 born in England in 1628, came to New England while quite 
 a lad, settled in Roxbury, near Jamaica Pond, and acquired 
 an estate which remained in the family so late as 1810. 
 No circumstances could be more conduaive to a true mental 
 and moral development, and no happier ties of kindred 
 could exist than those which waited on the opening years 
 of Samuel J. May. He was allied to the best blood of his 
 native state — historic in the grand old Commonwealth. 
 His mother was the daughter of Samuel Sewall, of Boston, 
 by his wil'c, Elizabeth Quincy, niece of Josiah Quincy, Jr., 
 of glorious memory, and sister of the wife of John Han- 
 cock. She w r as the lineal descendant of Chief Justice 
 Sewall, of Salem, one of the first to suspect, and finally to 
 expose the Witchcraft delusion. She was also the sister of 
 a later Chief Justice, and the grand-daughter of the Rev. 
 Joseph Sewall, pastor for many years of the ( >Ll South 
 Church, a Calvinist divine of justly extended reputation. 
 
 Joseph May, the father, designed to study for the minis- 
 try, but was prevented from so doing by the breaking out 
 
mmmmwi sassamsmemMni 
 
 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 of the Revolutionary war. lie engaged in business pur- 
 suits, was Colonel of Militia in the famous "Boston Cadets," 
 and Secretary, for forty years, of one of the earliest organ- 
 ized Marine Insurance Companies in the country, and was 
 highly esteemed for his integrity, exactness and charitable 
 energies. He lived until 1841, dying at the age of eighty- 
 one. As related to the religious bias and labors of his son, 
 the most interesting feature of his career was his connec- 
 tion, for nearly half a century, with King's Chapel, as one 
 of its Wardens and most tenacious supporters. King's 
 Chapel, left without a priest, by the flight of its tory in- 
 cumbent, invited the Rev. James Freeman to conduct, as a 
 Reader, its services. At the close of the Revolution, he 
 was solicited to become its Rector, but upon applying to 
 the Bishop for ordination, was unable to subscribe to the 
 Thirty-Nine articles, as well as to certain observances of 
 the Episcopal establishment, and being tinctured with the 
 reputed heresies of Priestley, was denied the sacred rite. 
 His congregation, nevertheless, endorsed his views, and 
 themselves iustalled him. Thus was instituted the first 
 Unitarian Church in America, to which Dr. Freeman min- 
 istered until his death in 1S35, and Col. May gave his con- 
 sistent aid, and from which Samuel J. received inspiration 
 and instruction. Of the value of his early religious educa- 
 tion Mr. May had the liveliest appreciation. He held it as 
 one ol the chief blessings of his life that he was not devoted 
 to the tenets of a stern creed and the terrible imaginings it 
 imposes. He was a Liberal Christian, almost by intuition ; 
 and hence experienced none of the pangs with which the 
 conflict between the dogma of vengeance and the gospel 
 of love tortures so many souls. 
 
 Mr. May received his education, preliminary to entering 
 
 college, at the Chauncy Hall School, famous for many 
 
14 
 
 IX MEMORIAM. 
 
 years in Boston, and still flourishing. lie entered Harvard 
 College in the fall of 1813, and graduated in 1817, with 
 
 high rank in a class which has since, in many of its mem- 
 bers, proved itself illustrious. Among its notable names 
 are those of George Bancroft, Caleb dishing, Samuel A. 
 Eliot, member of Congress from Massachusetts, and the 
 father of President Eliot, George B. Emerson, a leading 
 teacher and student of natural and social science, Samuel 
 E. Sewall, a distinguished lawyer of Boston and cousin and 
 chum of Me May, t!i3 Riv. Dr. Stephen II. Tyng, and the 
 Rev. Dr. Alvaji Woods. The late Dr. Ilolyoke, of this city, 
 was also a class-mate ; and in this connection we should 
 not omit to mention one who achieved an ignoble fame — 
 Robert Schuyler, the great defaulter. It is noteworthy 
 that, in 1S60, fifty two years after graduation, nearly one- 
 half of this class of sixty-seven members was alive — a con- 
 vincing proof of its average moral worth. At the termin- 
 ation of his academic course, and indeed before, Mr. May 
 engaged in teaching at Hingham, Concord, Beverly and 
 Xaliant, pursuing meantime his classical and theological 
 studies, and becoming aroused to that deep interest in the 
 cause of popular education which he ever maintained. 
 Among his pupils at Nahant was the historian Motley, 
 whom he instructed in the English language, if not in that 
 of " the Dutch Republic." In the spring of ISIS, he en- 
 tered the Divinity School at Cambridge, graduating in 1S20, 
 and he was approbated to preach in December of that year. 
 The School was then under charge of Dr. Henry Ware, 
 Sen., who was assisted by Professors Norton, Frisbie and 
 Willard, all clear-headed, keen-sighted and conscientious 
 instructors. Of the manner of their teaching Mr. May 
 gives the following exposition : " These gentlemen marked 
 out for us a sufficient! v extended theological, as well as eth- 
 
 
IN MEMOUIAM. 
 
 ical and devotional course of reading ; but they perempto- 
 rily dictated nothing except personal purity and righteous- 
 ness, the diligent improvement of our advantages, and fidel- 
 ity to our highest sense af the true and the right. They 
 enjoined it upon us to examine every subject brought to 
 our consideration thoroughly and as impartially as we were 
 able in the various lights thrown upon it by the religious 
 and theological writers of opposite sects, and to accept such 
 conclusions as should, after such an examination, seem to 
 our minds correct — remembering our responsibility to God 
 alone, for the use we made of our opportunities to learn, and 
 of the powers He had given us to judge of the true and the 
 right." 
 
 As indicative of the effect of such counsels upon himself 
 we continue our quotation from the discourse delivered in 
 the Church of the Messiah, in 1867, upon the occasion of 
 his reaching his seventieth birthday : " Thus encouraged 
 I entered upon the inquiry after true religion, fully persua- 
 ded that it was the ' one thing needful ' for all men ; and 
 longing to be a minister of it to my fellow beings, so many 
 of whom seemed to me to be ' living without God in the 
 world.' I was soon more than ever convinced that Christi- 
 anity was the true religion ; but that a strange theology had 
 been foisted into its place in Christendom ; substituted for 
 it in most of the churches. It seemed to me self-evident, 
 that Christianity was to be learnt from Jesus Christ ; that 
 he must be the best teacher of his own religion ; that, if he 
 be, as most Christians profess to regard him, ' the author 
 and finisher of our faith,' nothing should be appended to 
 the Gospel as he left it ; not even on the authority of Paul, 
 Appollos, or Cephas; certainly not on the authority of St. 
 Augustine, John Calvin, or the Tope, should anything be 
 
10 
 
 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 prescribed as essential, which is not perfectly consistent with 
 the teaching of the Master. It seemed to me then, as it 
 seems to me now, the highest impertinence, and most egregi- 
 ous presumption, in any Doctor of Divinity, Assembly of 
 Divines ( especially those who believe that Jesus was a super- 
 human being, aye, the very God ), to prescribe a Creed, as 
 comprising the essential faith, which is nowhere to be found 
 in the words of the Master." 
 
 Thus holding to personal purity of life, and placing him- 
 self in the attitude of a seeker after truth, under the All- 
 Father, he commenced the work of the ministry, serving as 
 supply at Springfield, Mass., Brooklyn, Connecticut, and 
 New York City, during the succeeding year. In 1821, he 
 made a journey to Richmond, Va., preaching on his way at 
 Baltimore, Washington, and other cities. In Washington, 
 that abhorrence of u the peculiar institution," which soon 
 became one of the strongest impulses of his life, as displayed 
 in acts of daring and devotion, was aroused by seeing a 
 coffle of slaves in the street. Returning to Boston, he be- 
 came the temporary colleague of Dr. Channing, in the Fed- 
 eral street pulpit, and in this connection continued several 
 months. The intercourse with this gifted and fervent apos- 
 tle of Liberal Christianity had a most energizing and sanctify- 
 ing influence upon the ministrations of Mr. May, and he 
 was accustomed to refer to it as of eminent benefit to him in 
 many respects. Upon his part, Dr. Channing conceived a 
 warm friendship for his youthful assistant, and maintained 
 it until his death, delighting always to welcome and to 
 counsel with him, even at times when their views upon pub- 
 lic questions were somewhat divergent. While he was in 
 Boston, he was invited to gather a church at Richmond, 
 Virginia, and was strongly tempted to an enterprise which 
 

 IN MEMOIUAM. 
 
 seemed to have many encouraging prospects ; but receiving 
 a simultaneous call to Brooklyn, Conn., where was located 
 the only Unitarian Church in that state, he deemed it his 
 duty to accept the latter invitation. He had previously 
 been ordained to the ministry by the Association of Boston 
 el mrches, the ceremony being notable from the high stand- 
 ing of the clergymen who officiated in it. It took place in 
 Chauncy Place Church, March 13th, 1822, the Rev. Dr. 
 Freeman preaching the sermon, the Rev. Dr. Channing giv- 
 ing the charge, the Rev. Dr. Greenwood extending the 
 right hand of Fellowship, and the Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., 
 making the prayer of Ordination. On the succeeding Sab- 
 bath he took charge of the church at Brooklyn ; from which 
 time his settled labors in the ministry may be said to date. 
 
 He lived in Brooklyn fourteen years, bringing a feeble 
 church into a state of efficiency, impressing his personality 
 upon his neighbors, and being prominently identified with 
 every good work to which he could put his hand. Besides 
 fulfilling the ordinal'} 7 duties of his parish, he edited a paper 
 called The Liberal Christian, was a member ot the School 
 Committee of the town, and did much to raise the standard 
 of education in the state, giving lectures on the subject, 
 and calling the first convention ever held to consider the 
 question of popular education. He early took ground in 
 favor of a less austere and more rational use of Sunday, 
 against exclusiveness in the administration of the Lord's 
 Supper, and against ritualistic methods in the church, dis- 
 carding in a short time after his ordination the gown and 
 bands then universally worn ; but an aged man having 
 scruples about baptism, and believing on Scripture grounds 
 that immersion was necessary to the validity of the rite, he 
 consented to gratify his desire by entering a river with him, 
 
 fSt 
 
18 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 but addressed the meeting on coming out to the effect that 
 a drop of water was sufficient to baptize a man whose heart 
 was really consecrated, an ocean otherwise having no poten- 
 cy. At this time, as always, his characteristic doctrine was 
 that no form, or service, or profession, makes a man accepta- 
 ble to God, but only the denying of all ungodliness and living 
 soberly, righteously and piously in all the relations of life — in 
 an adherence, so far as possible, to the precept of the Golden 
 Rule. 
 
 At Brooklyn Mr. May became actively interested also in 
 the various reforms to which he afterwards gave so much of 
 his thought and strength, and to which we shall hereafter 
 allude, as a biography of him without including something 
 of them would be singularly incomplete. On the first of 
 June, 1825, he married Lucretia Flagge Coffin, daughter of 
 Peter Coffin, a merchant of Boston, and had issue by her as 
 follows: — Joseph, died in infancy; John Edward, now in 
 business in Boston ; Charlotte Collin, wife of Alfred Wilkin- 
 son, of this city; Joseph, minister of the Unitarian Church 
 in Newlmryport, Mass.; and George Emerson, engaged in 
 mercantile pursuits. The wedded life of Mr. May, was, we 
 need not say, beautiful in the blended being of kindred 
 souls — redolent with the perfume of affection, and blossom- 
 ing in the sweetest charities. Mrs. May, known, honored, 
 and loved in this community, has but recently passed away. 
 ( rentTe in disposition, retiring in manners, yet highly cultur- 
 ed, firm in purpose, and thoroughly sympathizing with the 
 aims of her husband, her kindly influence was felt in every 
 circle in which she moved, and her supreme confidence in 
 the righteousness of his labors sensibly nerved him to per- 
 severe in their behalf. 
 
 He resigned from Brooklyn in 1835 to accept the position 
 
■BOTffraBBMBHHBMBMIM 
 
 IX MEMOKIAM. 19 
 
 of general agent of the Massachusetts Anti Slavery Society, 
 in which he continued eighteen months, lecturing, writing 
 and arranging conventions. Late in 1830, he was installed 
 over the church at South Scituate, Plymouth county, Mass., 
 remaining there for six years. lie at once took up his work 
 in the same active and practical spirit which had before 
 marked it. Under his administration the prosperity of the 
 church was greatly enhanced, spiritually and temporally. 
 Already recognized as a reformer, he continued his labors 
 for Anti-Slavery, Peace, Temperance, Education and other 
 worthy objects of his zeal. His house was the rendezvous 
 for reformers of all kinds. Garrison, Phillips, Foster, 
 Pillsbury, Abbj Kelly, Lucretia Mott, Douglass, Remond 
 were all at home in the Scituate parsonage. Pie was the 
 intimate friend and adviser of Horace Mann ; he organized 
 societies for reform purposes, held anti-slavery conventions 
 and temperance meetings, and lectured all through the 
 eastern part of Massachusetts. Plymouth county he regard- 
 ed as his parish, and was personally known and esteemed 
 in all parts of it. At the same time, he was indefatigable 
 in his ministerial work, an affectionate and devoted pastor; 
 his memory is still green and fresh in the little town ; and 
 his visits to it, which have been frequent of late, have al- 
 ways been in the nature of ovations. 
 
 In 1812, the position of principal of the Normal School 
 fur female teachers at Lexington having became vacant 
 through the illness of the incumbent, Hon. Horace Mann, 
 then Secretary of the State Board of Education, urged the 
 place upon Mr. May, and he accepted it, removing immediate- 
 ly to Lexington and assuming control of the school ; but, 
 within two years, the former principal recovering his health, 
 Mr. May, though honored and useful in, and attached to 
 the position, resigned in his favor, feeling it to be the right 
 
20 
 
 IX MOIOKIAM. 
 
 of liis predecessor to be reinstated. He was then invited 
 to the charge of the Lexington parish and accepted the 
 same temporarily. The church stood on sacred ground, 
 within the region where the first fighting of the Revolution 
 occurred, on the common where the villagers mustered to 
 meet the red-coats and where the first volley of battle was 
 fired. The spirit of conflict was not yet dead within the 
 town. Theological differences raged within it, and Mr. 
 May was called to a duty he often had to perform — the 
 duty of peace-maker. A feud had completely alienated the 
 sympathies of the two parishes into which the town was di- 
 vided, growing out of a dispute concerning the proper dis- 
 tribution of a church fund. Mr. May's was the old parish 
 and (as is usual in the old towns of New England ) had be- 
 come Unitarian, the adherents to the evangelical creed 
 having seceded to form a new church. So bitter was the 
 hostility of the two organizations that social amenities 
 were almost disregarded among them. Mr. May, with that 
 desire for peace which was one of his most prominent char- 
 acteristics, at once applied himself to the settlement of this 
 quarrel, and labored so successfully as to procure an equi- 
 table adjustment of the matters in difference and a reconc lia- 
 tion of the people. " Blessed are the peace-makers, for they 
 shall be called the children of God." 
 
 While Mr. May lived in Lexington there arose, in Boston, 
 the famous Theodore Parker, then the leading thinker of 
 the now so-called Radical theologians. Barker was, as is 
 well known, though the minister of a Unitarian parish, 
 completely ostracised by the clergy of Boston and treated 
 by them in a manner particularly inconsistent with their 
 peculiar gospel of personal mental freedom. Their conduct 
 roused the indignation of Mr. May, who, at that time, coinci- 
 ded in the theological views of Mr. Barker less clearly thai: 
 at a later period ; bat he was sincere in his profession ot be- 
 
mmmmvw sa 
 
 IX MEMORIAM. 
 
 lief that every man must be fully persuaded in his own 
 mind and had a right to speak his thought. lie wrote to 
 Mr. Parker, expressing his sympathy with him and propos- 
 ing an exchange of pulpits. Herein the broadness of that 
 charity, which was the crowning grace of our friend's char- 
 acter, thus early declared itself. Only two other Unitarian 
 clergymen were as true to the principle of free thought as 
 this. The result of Mr. May's proffer was a friendship close, 
 affectionate and firm, which endured so long as Mr. Parker 
 lived. 
 
 At the conclusion of his temporary engagement with the 
 church of Lexington, Mr. May received an invitation from 
 the school committee of Boston to become head master of 
 one of its public schools. This offered him a favorable op- 
 portunity to embrace a profession congenial to his taste and 
 in which he had already distinguished himself. He strong- 
 ly desired so to do, but was willing to consent only on the 
 condition that his school should be excepted from the opera- 
 tion of the " Franklin Medal" system, receiving, in lieu of 
 the medals awarded for distribution in each school, an 
 equivalent in money to be used in a way he should deem 
 less objectionable. The committee replied, expressing their 
 sympathy in his objections to this method of stimulation, 
 but stating that the laws left them no discretion as to the 
 Franklin Fund. He therefore declined the offer. 
 
 In 1S43, Mr. May made a journey to Niagara, accom- 
 panied by his wife, and was invited by the Rev. Mr. Storer, 
 first pastor of the Unitarian Church in Syracuse, to occupy 
 his pulpit for several Sundays. He thus became known to 
 the members of this congregation, and, upon Mr. Storer's 
 death, which sudden circumstance is vividly remembered 
 by many of our citizens, was invited first to preach as a 
 
22 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 candidate and then to become its pastor — with what una- 
 nimity the following letter attests : — 
 
 Syracuse, March llth, 1S45. 
 
 Dear Sir: — The meeting, of which we advised yon, was 
 held to-day, and, on the other side, is a copy of a resolution 
 which was unanimously adopted. In our society there is 
 no diversity of opinion in respect to yourself, and we hope 
 that you may not see cause to regret your coming among 
 us. Will you he so kind as to advise us when we may ex- 
 pect to see you here '. 
 
 John Wilkinson, 
 Hiram Putnam, 
 Ciiaki.es F. Williston, 
 To Rev. SamuelJ. May. Trustees. 
 
 This call Mr. May accepted and preached for the first 
 time as pastor of the church sometime in the April succeed- 
 ing. The church, to which he was thus called, was as yet 
 in its infancy, although its membership embraced some of 
 the strongest men of the village. It was organized in 1837, 
 embracing among its founders such names as E. F. Wal- 
 lace, John Wilkinson, Hiram Putnam, -John Newell, Par- 
 ley Bassett, Aaron Burt, Joseph Savage, .!. L. Bagg, D. P. 
 Phelps, D. J. Morris, B. F. Colvin, C. F. Williston, dames 
 (t. Tracy, M. M. White, E. d. Foster, (Aldington 1!. Wil- 
 liams, Stephen Smith, Jared II. Parker and II. X. White. 
 The Rev. J. P. B. Storer, a highly intellectual and much 
 loved clergyman, had been its pastor from is:; 1 ,) until his 
 death, of heart disease, in the summer of 1844. Origin- 
 ally worshipping in a little wooden chapel on East Genesee 
 street, on or near the site of the present Seymour Block, it 
 had, in 1843, removed to a new and pleasant editicc on its 
 present lot which, with additions and enlargements, lasted 
 until it was destroyed by the falling of the spire in I 852, the 
 present church being completed in 1853« 
 
IX MEMORIAM. 23 
 
 It was not to be expected that a new-coming Unitarian 
 minister would receive a cordial welcome from the clergy- 
 men whose opposition had much tried the less resolute 
 heart of his predecessor. Nor did he ; but to such opposi- 
 tion he was already accustomed, and for it was fully prepar- 
 ed. He took up his ministerial work with good heart, and 
 met the sermons occasionally preached in denunciation of 
 his theologicsl position with pretty constant expositions of 
 what he found objectionable and abhorrent in the popular 
 creeds ; and it was not long before his utter geniality con- 
 quered the hearts, if it did not change the convictions, of 
 his < Orthodox brethren. With the late Dr. Adams, who 
 had strongly denounced him, lie, at last, contracted a friend- 
 ship, sincere if not very demonstrative, and the good Doc- 
 tor, upon his death-bed, sent for him and the} 7 had a long 
 conference, a fact to which Mr. May was accustomed to 
 refer with truly Christian pride. 
 
 Of his pastoral labors we need not speak at length. In 
 the hearts of his hearers they are forever enshrined. Under 
 his watchful care, the church has steadily and gradually 
 grown into a power in our midst. lie has gone out and in 
 among its members for twenty-six years, blessing their chil- 
 dren, marrying their young men and maidens, committing 
 their dust to solemn sepulture — by all of them respected, 
 loved, venerated as it has been the fortune of few pastors, 
 in this age of the decadence of respect for the ministerial 
 office, to be honored. Not a great pulpit orator, he 
 was yet a singularly (dear writer, with terse and vigorous 
 sentences often infused into the plainness of a narrative 
 style. He rose ever to the eloquence of earnestness, and 
 none might doubt the sincerity of the thought which guid- 
 ed his pen. In every house of his parish he was a welcome 
 
24 IN MEMOBIAM. 
 
 guest ; received rather with the warmth ot regard which 
 marks the affinity of blood. Thus strung in the pulpit and 
 loved on the hearth stone, he rilled the years of his useful- 
 ness in the ministry until the lengthening shadows of his 
 life compelled him to decline its further responsibilities. 
 On the 15th of September, 1867, he tendered to the church 
 his resignation, — which was accepted on the 7th of October, 
 with resolutions of the deepest respect and affection, a lib- 
 eral annuity being voted him to take effect when his sue- 
 tr should be installed. This was accomplished on the 
 29th of April, 1868, when the Rev. Mr. Calthrop was re- 
 ceived as pastor. On the 15th of September, 1SG7, upon 
 the completion of his seventieth year, he preached "A Brief 
 Account of his Ministry," to which we are indebted for 
 many of the facts and suggestions of this biography, and 
 from which we may be permitted to make a further quota- 
 tion, as illustrating, in a small compass, the character of his 
 ministry. 
 
 " Thus it was, dear friends, that an acquaintance com- 
 menced twenty-four years ago last month, which led to my 
 settlement with yon in April, 1845, as your minister. What 
 sort of a minister I should probably be, you were fairly 
 warned, for during my visits, in 1843, and again during 
 the four weeks that I preached to you as a candidate, in 
 November and December, 1844, I lectured in the city twice 
 on the immediate abolition of slavery ; once, on the para- 
 mount importance of an improved system of popular edu- 
 cation ; and orce, if I remember correctly, on the great ex- 
 pediency, if not duty, of total abstinence from the use of 
 any intoxicating drinks. Therefore, if you have been much 
 disappointed in the character of my ministry here, you 
 must blame your own want of discernment and not any 
 
IX MEM0RIAM. 20 
 
 concealment on my part.'' It may well be added that 
 while it was a bold undertaking for a minister in this State, 
 a quarter of a century ago, thus unreservedly to identify 
 himself with these obnoxious reforms, in this church no root 
 ot bitterness was planted by the efforts of its pastor; on 
 the contrary he nurtured and tended the seed of his own 
 sowing within it, and from a fruitful soil it sprang up and 
 bore abundant fruit. Xo church can claim greater credit 
 for efficient humanitarian labors than the Unitarian Society 
 of Syracuse. He educated it up to his own standards. 
 
 We have said that any sketch of Mr. May's life would be 
 singularly incomplete without an allusion to his connection 
 with the great refDrms of the day. Herein he was a 
 pioneer and acquired a national reputation ; his philanthro- 
 py was of the purest and most enlarged type ; but we may 
 do little more than allude to it ; for, even if our space did 
 not forbid a larger reference, we know that there are many 
 intimately associated with him in various progressive move- 
 ments who will do him fuller justice than we may hope to 
 do, and who will be swift to bear their testimony to the 
 worth of his counsels and the completeness of his consecra- 
 tion. He was among the apostles of the gospel of anti-slavery. 
 His disgust at the abuses of slavery, incited by personal 
 observation of its enormities, developed, under the inspira- 
 tion of William Lloyd Garrison, into an undying hostility, 
 towards the institution of barbarism. So early as 1830 he 
 preached anti-slavery sermons, to the annoyance of his good 
 friends, Dr. Channing and the Rev. Henry Ware, Jr., and 
 to the alarm of his father. He defended Prudence Cran- 
 dall against an indictment, under a modern Connecticut 
 " blue law," for teaching a school to which colored children 
 were admitted. He was the age.it, as we have shown, for 
 
2G 
 
 IN MEMoKIAM. 
 
 nearly two years of the Massachusetts anti-slavery society, 
 during which connection he was grievously persecuted for 
 opinion's sake, being on several occasions mobbed — notably 
 at Newburyport and Haverhill — and to our disgrace, be it 
 said, burned in efligy in this city so late as 1861. He was 
 a prominent member — and very proud was he of that mem- 
 bership — of the Convention at Philadelphia which institut- 
 ed the American Anti-Slavery Society, to whose constitu- 
 tion, on the 6th of December, 1833, sixty-one devoted men 
 signed their names. lie was one of the sub-committee 
 which drafted the famous declaration of anti-slavery par- 
 pose, William Lloyd Garrison and John G. Whittier being 
 the other members, the principal labor of composition be- 
 ing confided to Mr. Garrison. Thenceforth, Mr. May was 
 one of the most earnest anti-slavery advocates in the land, 
 speaking from pulpit and from rostrum upon every occasion 
 when God gave him grace and man gave him an opportu- 
 nity. No convention was complete without his presence, 
 and no council chamber of the fiery-hearted leaders but re- 
 lied upon his wisdom. His house was a principal depot of 
 the underground railroad, and to his protection many hun- 
 dreds of panting fugitives were consigned, whom he guided 
 safely to a haven of rest and freedom, often after minister- 
 ing to their pecuniary necessities from his slender purse. 
 .Man of peace though he was, he became implicated in the 
 rescue of the slave "Jerry," and, despising the law under 
 which the iniquity of rendition was possible, would willing- 
 ly have suffered stripes and imprisonment for the release of 
 even the humblest bondmen. In 1809, lie published a vol- 
 ume entitled, "Some Recollections of the Anti-Slavery 
 Conflict,"" which has had an. extensive circulation, and is 
 full of information concerning the trials of those earnest 
 
IN MEMOKIAM. 
 
 men to whom, under God, the nation is indebted for its de- 
 liveranee from the burden of its sin. 
 
 Mr. May had become interested in the question of peace 
 while at College, by listening to addresses from Dr. Noah 
 Worcester, and steadily bore his testimony against the nec- 
 essity of war according to the convictions he then acquired. 
 In 1S2G he formed an Auxiliary Peace Society in Brook- 
 lyn, to co-operate with that of Dr. Worcester; and being 
 elected chaplain if a Connecticut regiment, he declined 
 the honor, telling the Colonel " he could not pray that they 
 might do the very thing they would be mustered to do — 
 but only that they might beat their swords into plow-shares 
 and learn war no more." The first pamphlet he ever pub- 
 lished was an " Exposition of the Sentiments and Purposes 
 of the Windham County Peace Society," in 1820. It is 
 believed, however, that his sentiments upon this subject be- 
 came somewhat modified when secession culminated in 
 treason and the nation rose to its feet to confront the foe in 
 its own household. 
 
 At an early day, also, he become opposed to capital pun- 
 ishment. Being waited on by a sheriff to be present at the 
 execution of an atrocious murderer, he enquired if the con- 
 demned desired him to attend, and upon being told that he 
 was invited on behalf of the State, he answered that he 
 would not attend ; he would go if the criminal requested 
 it as the sympathizing friend of a very wicked brother, but 
 would in no way seem to countenance the State in doing 
 what he thought the State had no right to do. The con- 
 versation which followed so impressed the Sheriff that he 
 declined to act as the executioner. Against judicial murder 
 Mr. May remained constantly opposed during the rest of 
 his life, preaching and writing against its enormity. 
 
 m 
 
28 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 In May, 1826, he attended the Boston Anniversaries and 
 was present at a meeting of the Massachusetts Temperance 
 Society, as also at a meeting of Unitarian ministers called 
 to consider the subject of temperance. He had not pre- 
 viously regarded it as wrong to drink wine in moderation, 
 but was so much influenced by these discussions that he de- 
 termined to discountenance the use of all intoxicants, — 
 " lest he should cause his brother to offend." Returning 
 home he received the hearty sympathy of his wife, and soon 
 called public attention to the subject. He personally visit- 
 ed every retailer of liquors in the town, to ascertain the 
 amounts of liquor sold, and from the overseers of the poor, 
 physicians and others, learned something of the disastrous 
 effects of the traffic. The result was the adoption, under 
 his leadership, by many individuals, of the rule of Total 
 Abstinence and the formation of a society having its prin- 
 ciples in view. Of his labors in this city in this direction 
 we all know personally. He was one of the staunchest 
 friends of this reform, joining a number of organizations 
 pledged to its support, and one of his last public addresses 
 was in its advocacy, before the Syracuse Christian Union, 
 the address being published by its request in this journal. 
 
 Latterly he had become much interested in the demand 
 ot "Woman for Suffrage and interested himself in its en- 
 forcement with all the fire of his youth. Of the immense 
 labor all these reforms necessitated, of the travels, the 
 correspondence, both foreign and domestic, of the numbers 
 of speeches delivered, we have no reliable data. We know, 
 however, that his activities were severely taxed to the very 
 end, and that he had laid out an amount of work, literary 
 and otherwise, which would have appalled an ordinary man 
 of half his years. It is certainly to be regretted that an 
 autobiography, which he had in contemplation, remains in an 
 unfinished state. Mr. May had published much of a seen- 
 
IN MEMOBIAM. 2'J 
 
 lar and religious cast ; but little of it, however, in permanent 
 form. His last publication was a pamphlet entitled " A 
 Complaint against the Presbyterians and their Confession of 
 Faith," which is very perspicuously written and is valuable 
 as giving- evidence of the maintenance of his life-long views 
 of the goodness of God. 
 
 To write of Mr. May as a citizen is a grateful task. He 
 was a minister who came out of his pulpit to mingle with 
 his fellow men, bringing the meditations of the closet and 
 the soul of good-will to bear upon the social problems which 
 beset us all. lie came to us when we were a village ; he 
 lived among us to see our population quintupled — a fair and 
 prosperous city. He was as public-spirited as philanthropic. 
 No improvement but had his sanction, no charity but had 
 his encourgement. The Franklin Institute, the Historical 
 Association, the Orphan Asylum, the Home, the Hospital, 
 all called him their friend. jS t o differing creed could deter 
 him from giving his aid to a noble enterprise. At our pub- 
 lic meetings he was often present,whatever their object — pro- 
 vided only it was commendable. His charities liowed in 
 all directions — towards the Indians of our Reservation, the 
 homeless boys who wander along our great artery of inland 
 navigation, the victims of self-imposed or heaven-sent 
 wretchedness at our doors. 
 
 We have spoken of Mr. May's interest in the cause of 
 popular education, elsewhere; it was here signally exhibited 
 and, we believe, fully appreciated. Those of us, who were 
 at school twenty years ago, remember how often his genial 
 face beamed in upon our studies, and his words of advice 
 encouraged us in our pursuits. Many of us then learned 
 to love him — a love which has not been diminished by con- 
 stant acts of kindness and of countenance since received. 
 In 1864: he was elected, from the fourth ward, member of 
 
IN MEMOKIAM. 
 
 the Board of Education and by successive and unanimous 
 re-elections continued therein for the ensuing- six years. 
 Duriii"- the last live years of his service he was President 
 of the Hoard. lie was faithful in attendance at its meet- 
 ings and judicious in his selection of its committees, lie 
 was thoroughly acquainted with the discipline and the 
 studies of the schools, and with the character and qualifica- 
 tions of their teachers. lie gave much of his time to a 
 personal inspection of the schools, not only of his own 
 ward, but also of the whole city, and his was ever a wel- 
 come presence in the school room. He was greatly inter- 
 ested in the High School, and to him is largely due the 
 erection of its present magnificent building, and the compre- 
 hensive range of studies there pursued, lie strenuously 
 opposed corporal punishment, here as everywhere, and to 
 no man in the country may greater credit be awarded for 
 the gentler modes of correction which have nearly banished 
 the foolscap and the birch from systems of education. As 
 a memorial of his labors the "May School" was named in 
 his honor by his associates — and, we believe, he would ask 
 for no more suitable monument. .Nor should we forget 
 the interest he manifested in the education of the very lit- 
 til ones, the " Kindergarten " system particularly commend- 
 in"- itself to his judgment, as a promising advance upon 
 the arbitrary methods yet in vogue. 
 
 And now, as we write our last words, we would if possi- 
 ble have our pen touched, as by an angel, to fitly note 
 the gracious character itself of which the record we have 
 sketched is but the outward expression ; but words are cold 
 and speech is lifeless here. There was no man of truer con- 
 victions, of more generous impulses, of a nobler selt-aban- 
 donment than he. His charities were as countless as the 
 
IN MEM0RIAM. 
 
 31 
 
 dewdrops glistening on the meadows of morning ; his sym- 
 pathies as pervasive as the objects towards which they could 
 be directed. A zealot, he had none of the zealot's bitter- 
 ness ; a reformer, he had not the reformer's caustic tongue ; 
 a theologian of pronounced views, he had none of the the- 
 ologian's regard for sect. True to his own flesh and blood, 
 he was yet everybody's friend. Simple in his habits, con- 
 fiding in his nature, sometimes imposed upon through the 
 very excess ot his philanthropy, no man but respected him 
 for the possession of the most sterling qualities of head as 
 well as of heart. Now that the asperities of the conflicts 
 in which he was engaged are hushed in the triumph of 
 nearly all the principles for which he contended, we believe 
 there is no man living who will cherish an envious or a hos- 
 tile feeling over this new-made grave. Utterly free from 
 envy himself, he paid most generous tribute to the talents 
 and the good works of his fellows. In the fullness of years, 
 with intellect unimpaired, with affections undiminished, with 
 a record lustrous for its accomplishment and beautiful in its 
 spirit, with the regard of all who had heard of him, and 
 the veneration of all who knew him, he has been gathered 
 to the fathers, and taken his place among that goodly com- 
 pany who "by pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, 
 by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the 
 word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of right- 
 eousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and 
 dishonor, by evil report and good report,'' have entered into 
 the rest of the faithful. To use his own words, he had 
 learned life's lesson, and had gladly turned the page to see 
 what there is on the other side. Upon us his life falls like 
 :i benediction, gracious and gentle, from the hands of the 
 Father Supreme. ^Tay it be given us to live as in its pre- 
 sence, and to assimilate in our characters something of its 
 essence ! 
 

 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 SOCIETY TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 MEETING OF THE MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH. 
 
 A very largely attended meeting of the members of the 
 Church of the Messiah and of that Society, was held Mon- 
 day evening July 3d, to take action in regard to the death 
 ot the late Rev. Samuel J. May. 
 
 Dr. Lyman Clary was called to the chair, and Mr. P. II. 
 Agan was made Secretary. 
 
 Mr. C. D. B. Mills moved the appointment of a com- 
 mittee of three to draft resolutions, and the motion being 
 carried, the Chair appointed Messrs. C. D. I>. Mills, D. P. 
 Phelps end P. II. Agan as such committee. 
 
 The committee subsequently reported the following series 
 of resolutions : — 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of Rev. Samuel J. May, our 
 Society has lost from our midst a widely-known, greatly 
 gifted and loved religions teacher; one endeared to us by 
 many and most tender associations, who was, through years 
 reaching back to the very beginnings of our existence as a 
 religious society, its faithful, most affectionate and devoted 
 pastor, and who has laid us all under a debt never to be re- 
 paid, but always to be most gratefully and tenderly remem- 
 bered. 
 
IN MEMOKIAM. 
 
 Resolved, That in his death our community has lost one 
 of its most public-spirited, philanthropic and generously 
 useful citizens, magnanimous and self-sacrificing without 
 end — and laimanitij itself the world over has lost a warm 
 and untiring friend. Of him it may be truly said, he was 
 a brother to all mankind. 
 
 Resolved, That the exalted virtues of our departed friend, 
 so marked, so bounteous and so rare, deserve well to be cele- 
 brated and kept in perpetual record, and we rejoice that we 
 may hold and commend these as the legacy he has left us, 
 inestimably rich and precious, the imperishable possession 
 and sacrament to be appropriated for quickening, before 
 which all may well feel incited to seek to attain something 
 of that high self-sacrifice and untiring devotion to human 
 kind for which he was distinguished. 
 
 Resolved, That we tender our warm sympathies to the 
 stricken family, the descendants and all the kindred of our 
 brother, invoking for them the kind consolations and sup- 
 ports of Heaven in this their hour of sorrow, and we point 
 them not without joy to the assurance that a soul that has 
 wrought so faithfully and signally well, has, beyond perad- 
 venture, gone to its large reward. 
 
 Resolved^Hhsit we hereby authorize and instruct the trus- 
 tees of this society, in conjunction with a committee of 
 three, to be appointed to act in concert with them, to cause 
 to be placed in the walls of the church, a tablet suitably in- 
 scribed to the name and memory oi Mr. May. 
 
 Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed in be- 
 half of our society to take, after conferring with the family 
 of the deceased, and in consonance with their wishes, such 
 steps as may be deemed requisite for providing for the 
 funeral services. 
 
 Before the resolutions were put to vote, short and feeling 
 addresses were made by Messrs. C. D. B. Mills, C. B. Sedg- 
 wick, S. II. Calthrop, D. P. Phelps, and II. L. Green, of 
 the society, and on invitation, by the He v. E. W. Mundy, 
 and Charles E. Fitch. While none of the addresses were 
 labored, all bore testimony to the moral and intellectual 
 
 m 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 
 worth of the deceased, a worth indeed whose eulogy cannot 
 find expression in words. The following committees were 
 then appointed : — 
 
 To prepare and decorate the Church for the funeral : — II. 
 N. White, J. IT. Clark, O. V. Tracy, Mrs. Church. Mrs. E. 
 A. Putnam, Mrs. E. P. Howlett and Mrs. D. F. Gott. 
 
 On the tablet:— Mm. Dr. Clary, Mrs. W. B. Smith, and 
 Mrs. O. T. Burt. 
 
 To confer with the family concerning the arrangements 
 for the funeral : — E. B. Judson, C. B. Sedgwick, C. F. 
 Williston, C. D. B. Mills and J. L. Bagg. 
 
 The funeral was announced to take place from the Church 
 of the Messiah, on Thursday, July 6th, at 2 1-2 P. M., and 
 the meeting adjourned. 
 
 SOCIETY OF CONCORD. 
 
 The following resolutions, adopted by the members of a 
 Jewish congregation, are so honorable to them, and express 
 so feelingly the common sentiment which pervades all classes 
 of the community, that we make them an exception, and 
 give them a place in this memorial. 
 
 At a special meeting of the Society of Concord, in Syra- 
 cuse, held at the vestry rooms on the evening of July 5th, 
 the death of the late Rev. Mr. May was announced, and a 
 committee on resolutions appointed, consisting of Messrs. 
 Jacob Straus, I. Henry Danziger and Bernhard Bronner. 
 The committee reported the following preamble and resolu- 
 tions, which were unanimously adopted by the meeting: — 
 
 Whereas, It has pleased our Almighty Father to call hence 
 to a better life in heaven our esteemed fellow citizen, the 
 Pev. Samuel J. May, be it therefore 
 
 I 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Resolved, That in the death of the Rev. Samuel J. May, 
 the State has lost one of its most eminent citizens, the com- 
 munity one of its truest philanthropists, the church one of its 
 most liberal pillars, and mankind at large the noblest speci- 
 men of a man, who devoted his life to all that is pure and 
 holy in the eyes of God and man. 
 
 Resolved, That while we bow in humble submission to 
 the decrees of Providence, we hereby extend our heartfelt 
 sympathies to the bereaved relatives of the deceased. 
 
 Resolved, That this Society in a body, attend the funeral 
 obsequies of the lamented departed. 
 
 Resolved, That these proceedings be placed on our record 
 and published in the daily papers of the city, and that a 
 copy duly engrossed be handed to the bereaved relatives of 
 the deceased. 
 
36 
 
 IN MEMOKIAM. 
 
 FUNERAL SERVICES, 
 
 PRIVATE SERVICES. 
 
 On the morning of Thursday, July Oth, there was a pri- 
 vate service at Mr. Wilkinson's house. Rev. Frederic Froth- 
 inghain read appropriate passages of Scripture. Rev.W. P. 
 Tilden prayed, and Air. A. Bronson Alcott made an address 
 of indescribable beauty, delicacy and tenderness. Not long 
 afterwards the household re-assembled to listen to the rem- 
 iniscences of Mr. George B. Emerson, Itev. "YV. P. Tilden, 
 and others. Mr. Emerson spoke of his early and ever-grow- 
 ing love for Mr. May, of their college-life, and of the de- 
 lightful Sunday evenings which he had spent with him at 
 Col. May's house in Boston. Mr. Emerson stated that Mr. 
 May received his first anti-slavery impressions from Daniel 
 Webster's denunciation of the Slave Trade, and his elo- 
 quent allusion to the duty of the pulpit to speak out cou- 
 cerning its sin and shame, in his memorable oration at 
 Plymouth. Mr. Emerson believes that in going to Brook- 
 lyn, Conn., and declining calls to other places, Mr. May was 
 o-overned by the consideration that in worldly goods it was 
 the poorest parish, and less likely to obtain a desirable pastor. 
 
 
IN MEMoRIAM. 
 
 REMAINS REMOVED TO THE CHURCH. 
 
 la accordance with a very generally expressed wish that 
 it should be so done, the body enclosed in a metallic casket, 
 was, at 10 o'clock, removed to the Church of the Messiah, 
 which loving hands had fittingly decorated, and placed be- 
 fore the pulpit, from which he had spoken so many faithful 
 and earnest words. The doors of the Church were opened, 
 and from that hour until the time appointed for the service, 
 great numbers of persons of all classes, conditions and creeds, 
 came forward to take a last look of that benevolent, loving 
 face, and pay their last respects to the venerated friend. 
 Every seat in the church that had not been reserved for the 
 family and pall-bearers was occupied some time before the 
 hour appointed for the services. The porch was crowded, 
 and the stairway and yard outside were also tilled with the 
 old and the young, the rich and the poor, all eager to join 
 in doing honor to the name and memory of the beloved dead. 
 On either side of the altar were seated the city and other at- 
 tending clergy, and in slips in front were the members of the 
 Board of Education, of which Mr. May was for several years 
 President. Inside of the altar sat four aged pall-bearers, 
 who were personal friends : George Wansev, Captain Hiram 
 Putnam, Joseph Savage and E. 13. Culver. At ten minutes 
 before three o'clock the family and friends entered the church 
 preceded by the officiating clergy and other pall-bearers, — 
 Mayor F. E. Carroll, E. B. Judson, C. 15. Sedgwick, James 
 L. Bagg, Dr. II. B. Wilbur, Hon. Dennis McCarthy, Dr. 
 Lyman Clary and N. F. Graves. The pulpit was occupied 
 by Rev. S. R. Calthrop, William Lloyd Garrison, Bishop 
 Loguen, C. D. B. Mills and Rev. T. J. Mutnibrd. 
 
 SERVICES AT Till': CHURCH. 
 
 As the procession entered the church, the organ, at which 
 
BD 
 
 
 IN MEM0RIAM. 
 
 Prof. Ernest Held presided, gave forth a voluntary, after 
 which the choir sang 
 
 " Cast thy burden on the Lord, 
 
 And He will sustain thee and comfort thee." 
 
 Rev. S. R. Calthrop then offered prayer. 
 
 Infinite Father, God of Jight and love, we are assembled 
 here to-day to thank Thee for everything. We bless Thy 
 name for the beautiful world Thou has given ns. We 
 thank Thee for all the kindly relations between man and 
 man, and for the tender family ties that Thon hast given 
 ns. Here, in the midst of tears, we bless Thee for death ; 
 for that beautiful angel of Thine whom Thon dost send to 
 each of us in turn, saying, with silent and gentle voice, "Son 
 or daughter, come up higher!" And so, O Father, while 
 many hearts shall feel a weariness to-day, and all shall feel 
 that something noble has gone out of the world, we, never- 
 theless, with the spirit of him who lies here, bless Thy name 
 that Thou hast received him to Thyself. He loved Thee in 
 this world, and did try with all the might that was in him 
 to do Thy will here. He saw Thy face here, and rejoiced 
 in it, and would that all men would rejoice in the same. Fath- 
 er we bless Thee for the benediction of his life and thank Thee 
 that Thou didst put it into his heart to be such an one. In 
 the name of him who lies silent before us, we bless Thee 
 for the true and beautiful influences that taught him to be a 
 Christian and a true man. Above all, in duty to him, we 
 thank Thee for the beautiful manifestations of love that he 
 saw in Jesus Christ. We thank Thee for all that Jesus was to 
 him personally. We thank Thee that the shadow of that beau- 
 tiful cross fell on his life, a mingled command and benedic- 
 tion, and that he took it up and carried it all his days. We 
 thank Thee, Father in heaven, that as Jesus was so he strove 
 to be in this world ; with humble heart, never thinking that 
 he had obtained, nevertheless, pressing toward the mark 
 ever. We thank Thee that Thou didst put it into his heart 
 to love the poor that Jesus loved ; that he did take up the 
 cause of the oppressed as a precious legacy from the Mas- 
 ter's hand ; that he desired ever, as Jesus did, to go about 
 doing good ; to put down the kingdom of wrong, and to 
 
IN MEMOKIAM. 39 
 
 establish the kingdom of right ; to minister to the poor, the 
 fatherless, the oppressed and them that had no helper. We 
 thank Thee for the large, noble heart of this man, who said 
 that all mankind was his brother. We pray Thee, dear 
 Father, that, as the light has been so plainly manifested be- 
 fore ns, we may be led to love it more ourselves, lest 
 town and country may feel shrunken because one 
 just man has gone. O, Father, send down his spirit 
 upon us, and grant that we may take up the work 
 just where he laid it down, with thanksgiving to Thee that 
 we are for Thy sake, and for man's to do it. We thank 
 Thee for all these things, in the name of him who was the 
 leader, the teacher, the brother of him, who has gone up 
 higher. 
 
 Rev. T. J. Mumford, of Dorchester, Massachusetts, one 
 of Mr. May's early students, read appropriate selections of 
 Scripture. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Calthrop gave out, and the choir sang the 
 370th hymn * 
 
 While tliee I seek, protecting Power ! 
 
 Be my vain wishes stilled ; 
 And may this consecrated hour 
 
 With better hopes lie filled. 
 
 Thy love the powers of thought bestowed ; 
 
 To thee my thoughts would soar ; 
 Thy mercy o'er my life has flowed — 
 
 That mercy I adore ! 
 
 In each event of life, how clear 
 
 Thy ruling hand 1 sec ! 
 Each blessing to my soul more dear, 
 
 Because conferred bj thee. 
 
 *This Hymn, and all the other Hymns read and sung during the ser- 
 vices, were favorites of Mr. May's, and were selected for the occasion on 
 that account. 
 
40 
 
 IX MEMORIAM. 
 
 Addresses were then made by Mr. C. D. B. Mills and 
 
 others, as follows : 
 
 ADDRESS OF MR. MILLS. 
 
 We are here together to-day, friends, to testify to one 
 c >m:non grief. All are mourners, each one carries in his 
 bosom se v ise of personal bereavement. 
 
 We have come, not as is often the wont, as outside friends 
 or neighbors, to gather around a stricken family in the hour 
 <>f their sorrow, to offer our respect to the memory of a 
 deceased acquaintance, and perform the last oiliecs for one 
 who, however well regarded or even in general way esteem- 
 ed, was of no near relation or special importance to us. 
 No, we are here ourselves as one bereaved family. Our 
 several households have been entered, our several circles 
 broken, our community, society itself, has suffered a deep, 
 an irreparable loss, and ever)* heart feels the pang of the 
 separation. All ages grieve, the children with the adults, 
 for this brother was not less dear to the heart of tenderest 
 childhood than to the intelligence, the affection of maturest 
 years. If only those who were simply friends were to speak 
 on this occasion, sympathizers, not mourners, I think no 
 lips would be opened here to day. And beyond the bounds 
 of this large congregation, there is another, far larger, un- 
 gathered, unseen to the ej T e, but one with us in feeling, in 
 sense of the deep and overbearing sorrow. 
 
 For a great soul has departed, one widely related and 
 deeply knit to human hearts, wherever seen and known. 
 What a generous nature was his, that went out in devotion 
 and love to all his kind, that was friend to humanity, and 
 drew in warmest, sympathy and ceaseless kindly oilice to all 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 41 
 
 . 
 
 subjects of suffering, or of want or of sorrow ! His love 
 was universal, and it never chilled, never wearied. Noth- 
 ing could discourage or alienate him, or reduce his faith in 
 the good possibilities. The instances of his fine benefac- 
 tions, his aid by counsel and by hand, for most part silent 
 and unknown save to the subject and himself, in our city 
 alone, no one now can begin to enumerate, and probably in 
 full they will never be known to any. Many and many a 
 one he has saved from sense of friendlessness, from the hard 
 pressures, from discouragement and surrender to the fear- 
 ful temptations. He kept open door, he spread bountiful 
 table, freely inviting all the poor and heavy laden, and none 
 who came went empty away. We hear that of the Indian 
 Logan, chief of the Mingoes in the last century, sitting 
 (juietly in his home, and refusing all participation in the 
 wars which his countrymen waged against the whites, the 
 red men were wont to say as they passed the cabin, There 
 dwells the friend of the white man. I think that through 
 all these years, upon the door of that house on yonder 
 slope, might have been written, Here dwells the friend of 
 all men. 
 
 This man has left no real estate behind, but I deem the 
 estate he does leave is far more real than any lands or 
 structures that earth affords. lie has left no iron safe well 
 filled with bonds, with scrips of stocks accounted of such 
 value among men, but the stocks he transmits are far 
 more precious and enduring, deposited in stronger safe, — 
 the human heart. So rich a man, leaving such legacies 
 of wealth, not for one or for few, but for all, has never died 
 from our midst before. 
 
 His charity beginning at home and doing all possible in 
 the humble every day relations, did not stop there. His 
 benevolence was d illusive and wide reaching as the race. 
 
42 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 The broad humanities of his soul brought him inevitably 
 into connection with the great reforms of the time, partic- 
 ularly the Anti-Slavery, Temperance and Woman's Rights. 
 One of the very first to espouse the cause of the slave, as 
 one here present* doubtless will tell you, more fitly and fully 
 than I can, he labored with unswerving devotion and at 
 great personal cost to the end. His earnest unsparing ap- 
 peals, his urgent, hearty incitements to duty, have been 
 among the most effective in this memorable anti-slavery 
 conflict. And when at length emancipation came, he was 
 alert to meet promptly its responsibilities ; he gave freelj r 
 his energies and his substance to provide for the education 
 and enlightenment of the newly freed. Any enterprise 
 that sought the improvement of man found in him a cordial 
 friend and helper ; he labored for prison reform, for peace, 
 for popular education, for the reclamation by kindliest 
 methods of juvenile offenders, for the interests of the work- 
 ing man, just wages to all, to man and to woman alike for 
 all faithful performance. And with all this he was a most 
 untiring and devoted preacher and pastor, an honor to the 
 denomination to which he belonged, a constant powerful 
 worker everywhere in behalf of religious enlightenment 
 and emancipation, for a true and liberal faith, an J most of 
 all a noble worthy life. 
 
 But a warm quenchless benevolence and spirit of generous 
 self-sacrifice, were not our brother's sole characteristic. He 
 held in blending with them other qualities which went to 
 temper and perfect them, and built up one harmonious, bal- 
 anced, perfect character. With all the fine sensibilities, 
 the tenderness, affection, and deeply sensitive nature of 
 woman, he united those traits, which, essential to all strength 
 
 * Mr. Garrison. 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 43 
 
 and completeness, belong more particularly to the sever- 
 er temperament of man. He had stern, unblenching 
 courage. He knew not shrinking or fear. In presence of 
 danger or overawing threat he could be, he always was, as 
 upstanding and unmoved as a soldier. In his urgent ad- 
 vocacy of the cause of the slave, he was not seldom 
 brought into relations of exposure, sometimes of imminent 
 personal peril, yet such a thing as intimidation or surrender 
 was never in his thought. I have seen him when assailed, 
 
 " Patient and meek he stood ; 
 His ioes ungrateful, sought his life- 
 He labored for their good." 
 " The sandal tree, most sacred tree of all, 
 Perfumes the very axe which bids it fall." 
 
 And to more dangerous influences, bland seductions dis- 
 suasions of friends, that would tone down his zeal and 
 withdraw him from undivided devotion to this path, which 
 to him was the path of duty, albeit beset with many 
 thorns, his ear was deaf. His heart loving and tender 
 everywhere, here was steel. Such fine poise and blending 
 of the different qualities, such happy union of the elements 
 that make up fullness and strength of character, is very 
 seldom found. 
 
 It did not seem to us that he could ever die. His aims 
 implied an unending activity among us, and his labors 
 were part of the plan of the world ; they took hold on the 
 forever. The familiar beaming face, the musical accents 
 of the voice — we counted upon them as confidently to be 
 ours at short intervals as the rising of the sun or the 
 courses of the seasons. Why should so loved and inspiring 
 a sMit so indispensable to our own life and quickening, 
 ever go away ? 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 And yet we knew also that death must come. 
 
 ''By cool Siloam's shady rill, 
 The lily must decay." 
 
 And this lily of human life, the lily man, fairest ot all 
 the blooms that ever put forth from the bosom oi the earth, 
 — this must full quickly fade and perish. Death has taken 
 this fine flower also for its own, and we can see and know 
 it no more. We have now henceforth to speak in the past 
 tense. The wistful, anxious thought asks, Why ; asks, 
 Where, O where brother, art thou gone, but the eternities 
 are silent. 
 
 We know that his life had solidity with the foundation 
 of the heavens, that he cannot drop out of the universe, 
 that wherever worlds are with their laws of justice, benefi- 
 cence, love, there he dwells at home ; that wherever and 
 whatever he be, he is in the bosom and warm embrace of 
 the infinite Love. For his spirit here was lovingly set to 
 the music of the skies, he was wedded to the everlasting. 
 
 Too grateful we cannot be that he remained with us so 
 long, that tor more than a quarter of a century our city has 
 had the light of that saintly presence, pouring its benigni- 
 ties into all eyes, shedding the dawn of worthier ambitions, 
 some touch of nobler aspirations and better resolve into 
 every heart. Who will not give thanks for all that had 
 to do with introducing him here, the religious society that 
 invited, the friends that encouraged, the influences that de- 
 termined his choice ( Who will not bless those ances- 
 tors, the John May that in youth migrated and settled at 
 Itoxbury, the Sewalls and Quincys of the olden days, that 
 they so wed, so bore and reared offspring, that in due 
 time there' might be such parentage to fruit in such 
 a son '; Who not bless that quiet, but most ster- 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 45 
 
 ling and accomplished mother, leaving so deeply the 
 stamp of her affection upon him ; that kindly father, "war- 
 of King's Chapel," who with such care and skill 
 guided the tender years, watchful to encourage, not to cross 
 or mar the generous instincts, to bring out to full and per- 
 fect bloom this delicate, noble flower \ We all had stake 
 there, my friends, and the following future lay wrapped up 
 in those childhood days, largely in the nurture to that little 
 boy of the courtly, but tender and loving father. 
 
 But an end to eulogy. It easily becomes excessive and 
 in effect harmful, resting absorbed in the person rather than 
 regarding the character, dwelling in the history rather than 
 the idea, the reality greater than history, which transcend; 
 all. This mortal has put on immortality. We have to do 
 now with the ethereal. Samuel J. May was of worth to us 
 most especially, not for what he historically was, but for 
 what in him was hinted, tor the intimation we saw there 
 of the infinite and unseen. There was symbolism and the 
 worth was in the thing behind the symbol. Any scripture, 
 the highest and largest, is but a fragment of the universal 
 volume. The divinest souls that have lived were but 
 broken lights through which shone, somewhat refracted and 
 diffracted & withal, a little ray, a tiny beam of the effulgence 
 and the beauty of God. Jesus was but a hint of the unex- 
 plored and unimagined possibilities. 
 
 It was to intimate to us something of this that our 
 friend came. He was sent from God. It was a repast to 
 which we were invited, furnished in most bountiful profu- 
 sion, every nourishment, every delicacy. Our brother gave 
 himself to us, in mystic sense his own body and blood, all 
 that he had or was, that we might eat not to enjoy and to 
 slumber, bat to gather strength wherewith to rise up and 
 
 
do. It was an evening's entertainment at the house of a 
 friend, where the conversation of the guest that had dropped 
 in was so tine, we were transported, lifted and ravished 
 away ; the lung hours were beguiled, and ere we were aware 
 the night was spent. We deemed that an angel had spoken 
 to us, and so it was. 
 
 "He spoke and words more soil than rait), 
 Brought back the age of gold again ; 
 His actions won such reverence sweet, 
 As hid all measure of the feat." 
 
 But our stranger guest, mysteriously coming, mysterious- 
 ly disappearing, has gone, and we look for him farther in 
 vain. As the lightning, which appeareth in the east, shin- 
 eth unto the west for the instant, so also is the coming of 
 the son of man. That memorable evening is past, the 
 crisp morning is upon us, and we are bidden, man, woman, 
 each for most part alone, forth and abroad to translate and 
 to realize. 
 
 God's volume of revelation and of message is never 
 closed. We have read of these things in books, great deeds, 
 saintly divine lives, souls that made earth celestial, have 
 heard them celebrated in poetry and song, treasured them 
 in our imagination and beheld them as of days more glori- 
 ous, more blessed than ours. They were not to be in the 
 realities of our experience. They were of the romance that 
 glowed in the ages long departed. But this man, modest, 
 unassuming, claiming nothing, professing only to be a hum- 
 ble follower of Jesus, treading at remote distance in his 
 footprints, — in respect to the great qualities, in sweetness, 
 poise, love and self-sacrifice, certainly approximated if he 
 did not equal that Master, who to his thought was peerless. 
 The life seemed to itself sc unsufficing, so infinitely short of 
 its own ideal. Yet we now can see, remembering withal 
 
 m 
 
 
IX MEMOBIAM. 
 
 the human limitations, that here again the heavens have 
 hended to the earth. 
 
 I have heard that this earth is ameliorating, that however 
 slowly, surely, consuming if need he untold seons of time, 
 it is moving to its destiny, to become purified and ripened, 
 finely fit for the abode of man. That the volcanos are be- 
 coming extinct, are less numerous and less violent to-day than 
 of old, that the nether explosive fires are burning out. That 
 compensating, absorbing agencies are at work, neutralizing 
 the poisons, and rendering more wholesome and life-sustain- 
 ing the air. Recent science tells us that certain fragrant es- 
 sences, that fine blooms like the narcissus, heliotrope, mig- 
 nonette, lily, co-operate with the strong angels phosphorus 
 and electricity, to sweeten and vitalize the atmosphere, nay 
 that they may disinfect the marsh, and swallow and trans- 
 mute the poisonous emanations. One loves to think there 
 must be constant advance and increase, more ozone in the 
 air to-day, more life in the sunbeam. 
 
 So, on the moral earth too, is amelioration. P.looms of saint- 
 ly souls through all the ages have purified and enriched this 
 atmosphere, absorbed the poisons and exalted the vital condi- 
 tions. Human affection has been purer and sweeter since 
 Jesus lived and loved, and the upward way grows easier, 
 since so many true have pressed there with eager feet, 
 enduring the cross, despising the shame. 
 
 We also are called to work in the same glorious line. 
 Each one of us, however narrow his sphere, may do some- 
 what towards the grand accomplishment. Each may lie at 
 least a humble lily of the valley, to help to renew and re- 
 cover some little district of this still much infected domain. 
 
 Consecrated by this grave, reverting to the luminous life 
 we see here, — closed now but also unclosed, transplanted, 
 transfigured, a star in the skies henceforth, — alas for us if 
 
48 IX MEMOEIAM. 
 
 
 we feel not the heavenly quickening, if we rise not this day 
 to a higher devotion, a larger fervor of noble living than 
 we had ever known or even thought before ! 
 
 ADDRESS OF WM. LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 If I have ever coveted that rare gift of speech, whereby 
 the deep emotions of the soul are enabled to find something 
 like an adequate expression, I do so on this occasion. But, 
 alas! by no command of language can I hope to do any 
 justice to myfeelings or to your own. We are participat- 
 ing in common, in a great beravement. These mourning 
 children have lost one of the best of fathers, one of the 
 wisest of counsellors and guides. I have lost a most affec- 
 tionate and unswerving friend, an early and untiring co- 
 worker in the broad field of freedom and humanity, a broth- 
 er beloved incomparably beyond all blood relationship. 
 Syracuse has lost one of its most useful and esteemed citi- 
 zens ; the nation one of the worthiest of its sons; the world 
 one of the purest, most philanthropise, most divinely actua- 
 ted of all its multitudinous population. In him all the 
 elements of goodness, mercy and truth were so equally 
 blended as to form a character as perfect and beautiful as 
 it is in the scope of ages to produce. What could surpass 
 his habitual gentleness and tenderness of spirit, the modesty 
 of his nature, his self-abnegation, his moral intrepidity, in 
 times of fiery trial, his inflexible adherence to fundamental 
 principles, his ready espousal of every righteous cause, in 
 conflict with a corrupt overmastering public sentiment, his 
 compassionate sympathy for every phase of human degrada- 
 tion and misery, his generous disposition to relieve the 
 necessities of the poor and needy, his varied labors to estab- 
 lish the kingdom of righteousness in the earth ? Like Job, 
 "he was a perfect and upright man, one who feared God, 
 
IB 
 
 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 ■49 
 
 and eschewed evil ; so that when the ear heard him, it bless- 
 ed him ; when the eye saw him, it gave witness to him ; 
 because he delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, 
 and him that had none to help him. The blessings of him 
 that was ready to perish, came upon him ; and he caused 
 the widow's heart to sing for joy. lie was eyes to the blind, 
 and feet was he to the lame, and the cause which he knew 
 not, he searched out." Never was a portraiture more ac- 
 curately drawn than this ; and if our departed friend had 
 been the first to sit for it, it could not have been more strik- 
 ingly exact in all its lineaments. Some of his other dis- 
 tinguishing characteristics are felicitously portrayed by 
 Wordsworth, in his description of the " Happy Warrior," 
 as one 
 
 " Who comprehends his trust, and to the same 
 
 Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim ; 
 
 And therefore does not stop, nor lie in wait 
 
 For wealth or honor, or for worldly state ; 
 
 Whom they must follow,: on whose head must fall, 
 
 Like showers of manna, if the}' come at all ; 
 
 Whose powers shed round him in the common strife, 
 
 Or mild concerns of ordinary life, 
 
 A constant influence, a peculiar grace ; 
 
 But who, it he be called upon to face 
 
 Some awful moment to which heaven has joined 
 
 Great issues, good or bad, for human kind, 
 
 Is happy as a lover ; and attired 
 
 With sudden brightness, like a man inspired ; 
 
 And, through the heat of conflict, keeps the law 
 
 Iu calmness made, and sees what he foresaw ; 
 
 Or if an unexpected call succeed, 
 
 Come when it will, is equal to the deed ; 
 
 Whom neither shape of danger can dismay, 
 
 Nor thought of tender happiness betray ; 
 
 Who, whether praise of him must walk the earth 
 
 For ever, and to noble deeds give birth, 
 
 Or he must go to dust without his fame, 
 
 And leave a dead, unprofitable name, 
 
50 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 Finds comfort in himself and in Ins cause ; 
 And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws 
 His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause ;— 
 This is the happy warrior ; this is he 
 Whom every man in arms should wish to be." 
 
 Such, in the very letter and spirit, was Samuel Joseph 
 May. Witness half a century of active participation in all 
 the leading reforms of the age ! Witness the temptations, 
 trials, sacrifices, perils to which he willingly subjected him- 
 self in the service of the enslaved millions at the South, 
 until it was granted unto him to see their fetters broken 
 and to join with them in singing the- song of jubilee ! 
 
 It is now more than forty years since I made his acquain- 
 tance, and happily secured his friendship, the value of which 
 to me, subsequent^, proved to be beyond all price. I shall 
 always gratefully remember that he was among the very 
 earliest to take me by the hand, and bid me God speed in 
 my labors for the immediate and unconditional abolition of 
 American Slavery. In his printed " Recollections of the 
 Anti-Slavery Conflict," he generously acknowledges his 
 deep indebtedness to me on hearing my first lectures on 
 slavery in Boston, in the autumn of 1830— adding that they 
 gave a new direction to his thoughts — a new purpose to his 
 ministry. However that may have been, I am sure that I 
 have felt far more indebted to him ; for, without his en- 
 couraging words and zealous co-operation, I should have 
 lost much of the inspiration that enabled me to battle per- 
 sistently against all opposing forces. At that time, the 
 pastor ot a small Unitarian church in Brooklyn, Conn., and 
 the occupant of the only Unitarian pulpit in that State, he 
 had no slight cross to bear, no inconsiderable amont of theo- 
 logical odium to confront on account of his alledged doctiiti- 
 al heresies ; and he therefore might have plausibly pleaded 
 
 nniwimMMiiii ■iii i nma««w«Miiiiiw»iniii ii i mm in im i mni 
 
IN MEM0RIAM. 
 
 51 
 
 i 
 
 that he had already as heavy a load as he could well carry, 
 without espousing any other disreputable issue. But it was 
 not in his nature to consult expediency where duty was 
 plainly revealed ; nor to measure the amount of proscrip- 
 tion he was willing to bear for righteousness sake. If it 
 must be so, he was ready to be branded as a fanatic or an 
 incendiary, as he had been a heretic. No "son of thunder" 
 was he, indeed, but eminently a "son of consolation ;" yet 
 to the mildness of a John, lie united the firmness and moral 
 courage of a Paul, when called to meet the solemn issues of 
 the times. Avoiding all violations of good taste, and wisely 
 circumspect in his utterances, he nevertheless could speak 
 in such tones of rebuke and warning as to make the ears of 
 hardened transgressors tingle, and at the same time was 
 quiek to perceive where simple entreaty might be effec- 
 tually substituted for harsh impeachment. He had no taste 
 for controversy as such; no man disliked it more. "As 
 much as he lieth in you, live peacefully with all men, 1 ' was 
 with him a favorite apostolic injunction ; and he continually 
 overflowed with the milk of human kindness. But he felt 
 none the less sensibly the obligation to "declare the whole 
 counsel of God/ 1 as revealed to his own soul, whether men 
 would hear or whether they would forbear. What he 
 sought to know, was the truth ; what lie stood ready at all 
 odds to maintain, was the right. If he was a heretic, he had 
 still unwavering faith in God; if he was on any occasion a 
 disturber of the peace, it was only in the sense in which 
 prophets and apostles, saints and martyrs have been ; if he 
 stood in a minority, sometimes alone, it was because he 
 could not be tempted by any consideration to go with the 
 multitude to do evil. His standard of judgment was very 
 simple, and, so far as speculative theology was concerned, 
 broadly catholic. "I ask not, 1 ' to quote his own language, 
 
52 IN MEMOKIAM. 
 
 " what may be a man's profession or faith ; I ask net what 
 may be a man's creed or system of theology ; I ask only 
 whether he gives unequivocal evidence of his fidelity to 
 God, and his love of the Father, by his fidelity to the right, 
 and his love of the brethren, especially his poor brtthren" 
 And, truly, in the light of such an example as he set, of 
 such a life as he lived, how worthless is every sectarian 
 shibboleth ! Men are to be known by their fruits, not by 
 their professions ; and what a prolific fruit-bearer was here ! 
 
 " For modes of taith let graceless zealots fight ; 
 His can't be wrong whose life is in the right." 
 
 If ever there was "an Israelite indeed, in whom there 
 was no guile," he existed in the person of him whose mortal 
 remains lie before us. I can conceive of no society beyond 
 the grave, however pure and exalted, into which he may 
 not enter, and be received as a worthy guest — aye, as a broth- 
 er beloved, and a member of the household of saints " in 
 o-ood and regular standing." Let it be remembered that if 
 the same averment had been made of the great Founder of 
 Christianity in his day, it would have been deemed shock- 
 ing impiety by all who made any pretensions to soundness 
 of religious faith ; for was not he, also, a heretic — aye, of the 
 worst type ? Had he not eaten with publicans and sinners '{ 
 Did he not audaciously impeach the piety of priest and 
 Levite, and recognize as worthy of imitation and praise a 
 hated, heretical Samaritan ? Had he not been convicted of 
 blasphemy ? Had he not a devil I 
 
 For myself — raising here no question as to whose theo- 
 logical opinions are sound or unsound — I feel that, as the 
 fearless advocate of liberty of conscience, as against all 
 dogmatic authority and ecclesiastic rule, Mr. May is en- 
 titled to our common gratitude ; for, however dissimilar we 
 
IN MEMOKIAM. 
 
 may be in our scriptural interpretations or religious convic- 
 tions, he contended for us all equally as lor himself. Like 
 the Apostle, he regarded it as a small matter to be judged 
 of man's judgment. Like that same heroic spirit, he in- 
 culcated the duty of proving all things in an independent 
 investigation, every one for himself; taking care to hold 
 fast that which is good. Like a greater than Paul, he asked, 
 "Why judge ye not of yourselves what is right?"" Per- 
 haps to no one in our country is the cause of free inquiry, 
 in its broadest signification, more indebted than to this 
 world-embracing friend and brother. 
 
 Mark Antony lamenting over the dead body of Caesar, 
 exclaims : — 
 
 " The Evil that men do lives after them; 
 The good is oft interred with their bones." 
 
 Of the truthfulness of his first assertion there can be no 
 question. The evil that men do survives their earthly ex- 
 istence, and not unfrequently goes down from generation to 
 generation. But by w4iat law of Providence does it happen 
 that the good is ever buried with their bones? Believe not 
 the statement. Evil has no such advantage over good. 
 The same conditions, the same chances, the same limita- 
 tions apply to each ; but what a difference in quality ! For, 
 
 "Only the actions of the just 
 
 Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust.'" 
 
 Yes, even in the dust they blossom, and bear fruit abun- 
 dantly for the nourishment of a long line of posterity. 
 Beautifully has the great master of poetry illustrated this 
 diffusive power of goodness in the oft-quoted couplet — 
 
 " How far the little candle thiows its beams ! 
 So shines a good deed in the naughty world." 
 
54 
 
 IX MEMORIAM. 
 
 
 And it retains its lustre long after the removal of the 
 mind that eoneeived and the hand that executed it. 
 
 What one of the multitudinous gooi acts of our beloved 
 friend, what one of the many grand testimonies uttered by 
 him with such boldness and lidelity, can possibly become 
 extinct in his grave \ These have entered into the general 
 life of the community; they have widely affected the pop- 
 ular conscience and heart; they have greatly lessened, and 
 will continue to lessen, the sum of human sorrow and 
 wretchedness; they have powerfully contributed towards 
 shaping the destiny of the nation. " Though dead, he yet 
 speakcth ;" and his spirit still walks abroad in all its quick- 
 ening power. 
 
 With what zeal and persistency did he give himself to 
 the cause of popular education, with all its far-reaching 
 consequences, from the primary school to the university ! 
 How well he comprehended its priceless value to the mil- 
 lions, its indispensable necessity to the maintenance of free 
 institutions! As the natural sequence to his anti-slavery 
 labors, how deep was the interest he evinced in the instruc- 
 tion of the benighted freedmen of the South ! No one 
 ever responded more warmly to the Divine mandate, "Let 
 there be light," than himself. 
 
 To that most blessed and fundamentally important mo\ e- 
 nient which seeks the abolishment of the drinking customs 
 of society, he gave an early adhesion and an earnest sup- 
 port. Alas ! that these pernicious customs still prevail so 
 widely, carrying with them a legion of evils! Yet, had it 
 not been for the temperance reformation, the land would 
 have been given over to intoxication beyond all reasonable 
 hope of recovery. It has brought sunshine and joy, and 
 health and happiness, to tens of thousands of homes, and 
 
IX MKMORIAM. 
 
 55 
 
 saved millions from the liability of going down to drunk- 
 ards' graves. It has greatly diminished insanity, pauper- 
 ism and crime, strengthened private and public virtue, 
 accelerated the general prosperity, and augmented the na- 
 tional wealth. Still, it needs all possible encouragement 
 and support ; for the obstacles thrown in the pathway of its 
 complete success continue to be of a formidable nature. 
 The departure, therefore, of one whose example and testi- 
 mon} T were so efficient in its behalf, is a very serious loss. 
 
 " Blessed are the peacemakers ; for they shall be called 
 the children of God." If I mistake not, the very first re- 
 formatory movement which challenged the attention and 
 won the advocacy of Mr. May, was that for the promotion 
 of universal peace. This must have been nearly half a cen- 
 tury ago, at the very commencement of his ministerial 
 career. Aside from the teachings of Jesus, to no one pro- 
 bably was he so indebted for his deep-seated convictions on 
 this subject, as to the venerable Noah Worcester, of blessed 
 memory. His whole being seemed to be permeated with 
 the divine element of peace, as was the Saviour's whom he 
 loved and revered so profoundly, and whose example he 
 constantly held up as worthy of all imitation. Ilis spirit 
 was ever attuned to the angelic song, " Glory to God in the 
 highest; on earth peace ; good will towards men." Peace 
 radiated from his countenance — found fitting cadence in the 
 music of his voice — made fragrant his daily walk and con- 
 versation. While he clearly saw that, in the Divine Prov- 
 idence, war had both its admonitory and retributive uses, 
 he saw not less clearly that 
 
 " Were half the power that fills the world with terror, 
 Were half the wealth bestowed on camps and courts, 
 
 Given to redeem the human mind from error, 
 There were no need of arsenals or forts. 
 
 
56 
 
 IX MEMO EI AM. 
 
 The warrior's name would be a name abhorred ; 
 
 And every nation that should lift again 
 Its head against a brother, on its forehead 
 
 Would wear forever more the curse of Cain." 
 
 That, just prior to his being summoned hence, he was 
 permitted to hear of the ratification of an honorable treaty 
 of peace between Great Britain and the United States, 
 whereby all their grave difficulties are to be amicably set- 
 tled, must have given to him inexpressible gratification, 
 causing a feeling kindred to that of aged Simeon, when he 
 exclaimed, " Lord, let now thy servant depart in peace ; for 
 mine eyes have seen thy salvation. " In view of all the 
 circumstances, it is the most cheering event in the history 
 of international arbitration, and cannot fail to exercise a 
 salutary influence upon the nations of the earth in the 
 bloodless adjustment of their variances with each other. 
 In that case, it will be a long stride towards the goal of uni- 
 versal peace, which, whenever reached, shall be the fulfill- 
 ment of the inspiring prediction — 
 
 " No more shall nation against nation rise, 
 
 Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eves : 
 
 Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered o'er, 
 
 The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more ; 
 
 But useless lances into scythes shall bond, 
 
 And the broad falchion in a ploughshare end. 
 
 Then palaces shall rise ; the joyful son 
 
 Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun ; 
 
 Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield, 
 
 And the same hand that sow'd, shall reap the field." 
 
 Farewell — at the longest, a brief farewell— friend of lib- 
 erty, of temperance, of peace, of universal brotherhood, of 
 equal rights for the whole human race, without distinction 
 of clime, color, sex or nationality ! 
 
 Farewell, lover of God and of man, without partiality 
 
ess 
 
 IN MEM0EIAM. 
 
 0« 
 
 and without hypocrisy — ready for every good word and 
 work — benefactor of the poor and outcast, succorer of the 
 hunted fugitive slave, sympathizer with the widow and 
 orphan in their distress, rescuer of the wandering and lost, 
 strengthener of the weak, and lifter up of the bowed down ! 
 
 Farewell, sweetest, gentlest, most loving and most loved 
 of men ! 
 
 "Gone to the Heavenly Father's rest ! 
 
 The flowers of Eden round thee blowiDg, 
 And on thine ear the murmurs blest 
 
 Of Shiloah's water softly flowing ! 
 Beneath that Tree of Life which gives 
 To all the earth its healing leaves ! 
 In the white robe of angels clad ; 
 
 And wandering by that sacred river, 
 Whose streams of holiness make glad 
 
 The city of our God forever ! 
 
 Gentlest of spirits ! — not for thee 
 
 Our tears are shed, our sighs are given ; 
 Why mourn to know thou art a free 
 
 Partaker of the joys of Heaven ? 
 Finish' d thy work, and kept thy faith 
 In Christian firmness unto death ; 
 And beautiful as sky and earth, 
 
 And Autumn's sun in downward going, 
 The blessed memory of thy worth 
 
 Around thy place of slumber glowing !" 
 
 ADDRESS OF BISHOP LOGUEN OF THE AFRICAN M. E. CHURCH. 
 
 I would not tax your patience for one moment were it 
 not for the intimate relationship that has existed between 
 this dear friend and myself for over a quarter of a century. 
 I had commenced laboring for my people here — the colored 
 race— a few years before the Rev. Mr. May came to this 
 
 
5S IN MEMOBIAM. 
 
 village, as it was then. It was a dark place, — no friends, 
 no encouragement, a solitary wilderness for the colored 
 man. I began my labors as a poor boy, teaching school 
 here ; and I shall never forget the joy that our dear friend 
 brought me when I made his acquaintance. From that 
 hour until his death, I never met him, in the darkest mo- 
 ment, or amid the most fearful trials of my people, but 
 that a ray of sunlight would strike my breast from his 
 countenance. 
 
 While these friends have been speaking of him, I have 
 been thinking of all the oppressed and afflicted he has re- 
 lieved and comforted. Those who have known him as 
 long as I have, can say that there are no words that can 
 exalt him as a man and as a brother of humanity. He was 
 a brother to all. I feel like weeping with his friends and 
 his children. lie was as dear to me as any one could be. 
 Never did I go to his house for counsel, or for help in vain. 
 Enemies were prowling around, but he was always true and 
 always ready to befriend and welcome me to his table, to 
 his study, and to his fireside. He was truly a friend to hu- 
 manity, everywhere, and under all circumstances of life. 
 As one of the colored race I can testify heartily that he was 
 a brother to us as well as others. If I could say all that 
 was in my heart I would say much more ; but you have 
 heard much. Being the only one of my race to stand here, 
 I thought I must say a word about the kind heart and no- 
 ble life of the dear brother lying before us. Oh ! you 
 know that a man who, twenty years ago, would prove a 
 brother to my hated, oppressed, and enslaved people, would 
 prove a brother to all. I can only say, God bless you my 
 dear friends, his children and relatives, follow in his foot- 
 steps. 
 
 BP2 
 
ADDRESS OF REV. W. P. TDLDEN, OF BOSTON. 
 
 It has been said that love will always bear one word 
 more, if it be said in simplicity and sincerity,"' though I 
 should hardly dare attempt to say that word now, after all 
 that has been said, did I not stand here as the representa- 
 tive of others, as well as to speak a simple word for myself. 
 The brief notes 1 hold in my hand, will explain what I 
 mean. Just before I left Boston I received these letters, 
 one from the Rev. Charles Lowe, known to all the Unita- 
 rians in this place, and throughout the country, as the be- 
 loved Secretary of the American Unitarian Association, for 
 some years past ; having recently resigned because of ill 
 health to the regret of all who knew him. He says : 
 
 My Dear Mr. Tjlden :— I write a line to express my 
 earnest hope that you will represent the Association, as they 
 have asked you to, at the funeral of Mr. May. If I could 
 go, I should accompany you, for not only is my personal 
 feeling for him very tender and near, but I recognize so 
 strongly his eminent service to our cause, that I should be 
 glad by my presence to express it. 
 
 I hope it you go, you will say something publicly to testi- 
 fy to his connection with the association and his efficient 
 service. He has been acting as a missionary, ever since he 
 left tUe charge of his society, with only such interruption as 
 his health or other ergagements made necessary ; and the 
 peculiar respect he had won all through the State in which 
 his work was given, and his rare faculty of saying just the 
 right word— enabled him to do what no one else could have 
 done so well. He was our counsellor, and he was for the 
 societies in his "diocese' 1 (as he used to call it,) an adviser, 
 an inciter to zeal, and a dear friend. If 1 were still Secre- 
 
60 
 
 IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 tary of the Association I should feci that one of my best 
 supporters was gone. Ever truly yours, 
 
 Charles Lowe. 
 
 The other note is from Mr. Shippen, who says : — 
 
 In requesting you to represent this Association at the 
 funeral of Mr. May, I heartily accord with all that Mr. 
 Lowe has just written, and hope that at Syracuse you may 
 express, in behalf of our Association, as well as of the broth- 
 erhood of the ministry, our deep gratitude for the noble 
 and faithful life of our beloved and departed brother. To 
 many of us he was a father, rather; by his benignant and 
 gracious presence illustrating to our hearts that tenderness 
 and loving kindness toward the humblest and least of men, 
 which our faith rejoices to ascribe to the Infinite Father as 
 his dearest attribute. 
 
 Please express, especially to the family and friends, our 
 heartfelt sympathy. 
 
 Very cordially yours, 
 
 Rush 11. Shippen. 
 
 First let me express to the dear family of our departed 
 brother our heartfelt and cordial sympathy, the heartfelt 
 sympathy of the whole denomination. For who is there 
 among us all that did not know and love your dear and 
 honored father ? And yet we have no word of condolence, 
 but rather of congratulation, thanking God, with you, to- 
 day, that through his loving kindness you have been blessed 
 with such a noble father. 
 
 As to brother May's connection with the Unitarian Asso- 
 ciation, it would hardly be proper for me to say a word to- 
 day, were it not that in his own heart he traced much of the 
 love he bore for his fellow-men, and the interest he felt in 
 
[N MEMOBIAM. 
 
 the groat reforms of tlie age, to their principles early en- 
 graven upon his heart ; and the seeret of his snceess as a 
 preaeher I am certain was that he so thoroughly, clear down 
 to the depths of his soul, believed every word that he 
 preached. It was that which touched people's hearts when 
 they heard him. They said, here is a man who really be- 
 lieves what he teaches ; when he speaks of the fatherhood 
 of God, and when he speaks of the brotherhood of man we 
 know that he believes it, and therefore we are ready to listen 
 to him and bid him God speed in his work. Yes, brother 
 May had a deep and living convictioti of the simple truths 
 of Unitarian Christianity. And, oh ! how simple they are ! 
 — the fatherhood of God ; the sonship of humanity ; the 
 brotherhood of the race ; sin its own sorrow; holiness its 
 own sweet and blessed reward ; the upper mansions opening 
 right out of this world ; human love beginning here to be 
 perfected beyond. These were the truths that in earliest 
 childhood took hold of his heart ; that was the source of his 
 theology — to call God Father ; that was the source of his 
 philanthropy. He really believed that God was his Father ; 
 he really believed that man was his brother, and he sought 
 to live that out. That was what made his philanthropy so 
 broad. It was color blind ; and it is the only kind of blind 
 ness that I know of that indicates a clear vision, lie could 
 not see anything of the distinctions made by man in any of 
 God's creatures — it was the Divine image he saw every- 
 where. And so whenever he saw a human being there he 
 saw his brother, a child of the same Heavenly Father. 
 
 I would if I had time, tell you how well dear 15rother 
 May was loved in other places besides Syracuse, and in 
 other States besides New York. You have enjoyed him 
 here now for twenty-six years. It seems to you, I suppose, 
 as if nobody loved him as you did. I tell you that where- 
 
62 
 
 IN MEMOKIAM. 
 
 ever he went, there were those that loved him just as well 
 as you. It was my privilege to be one of his parishioners 
 thirty years ago, when he went fresh from the anti-slavery 
 field of labor, and settled at South Seitnate. I was then a 
 young man working in a carpenter shop, but yet I longed 
 for the Christian ministry ; yet how should I get into it? 
 God knows whether I ever should, although I rather think 
 he would have found a way for me — if brother May had not 
 come like an angel of God, and taken right hold of my hand, 
 hardened with toil, and elasped it, as only dear brother May 
 could clasp a hand, and aided me with his counsel and sym- 
 pathy. Oh, think how many have been clasped by that 
 dear hand, and how many hearts have been cheered by that 
 clasp! When he came to Scituate he drew us all to him by 
 this strong human sympathy. lie carried our sicknesses and 
 bore our sorrows. And it was wonderful that, while he was 
 so deeply interested in all these various objeets of philan- 
 thropy, his personal interest for every individual in his parish 
 was so deep and constant. Mr. Garrison has called him a 
 " son of consolation." Oh, he was that indeed. Seldom do 
 we see united that deep and tender sympathy, and that moral 
 heroism which made him ready to do and dare for any cause, 
 that he believed to be the cause of God and humanity. 
 
 I want to emphasize one thought before we go hence, that 
 has already been mentioned sweetly and hopefully, that is, 
 that our brother is not dead. God does not let him die 
 even here. J lis influence will live in our hearts long to en- 
 kindle within us something of the light that shone through 
 him for God and humanity. Of all the men that I have 
 ever known, I do not recall one who basso fully, as I think, 
 realized the words of the poet — 
 
 " I live to hold communion." 
 But it is because our brother lived those glorious truths, that 
 
 A 
 
IN MEM0HIAM. 
 
 now that he has risen, he has taken up all onr hearts with 
 him. 
 
 The 271st Hymn was then read by Rev Mr. Calthrop 
 and sung by the choir : 
 
 Awake, my soul ! stretch every nerve, 
 
 And press with vigour on : 
 A heavenly race demands thy zeal, 
 
 And an immortal crown. 
 
 A cloud of witnesses around 
 
 Hold thee in full survey : 
 Forget the steps already trod, 
 
 A nd onward urge thy way. 
 
 'Tis God's all-animating voice 
 
 That calls thee from on high ; 
 'Tis his own hand presents the prize 
 
 To thine aspiring eye ; 
 
 That prize with peerless glories bright, 
 
 Winch shall new lustre boast, 
 When victors' wreaths and monarchs' gems 
 
 Shall blend in common dust. 
 
 *■ 
 
 Prayer was then offered by Rev. Frederick Frothingham, 
 of Buffalo, after which the choir sung, 
 
 Nearer, my God, to thee, 
 
 Nearer to thee : 
 Even though it be a cross 
 
 That raiseth me, 
 Still all my song shall be, 
 Nearer, my God, to thee, 
 
 Nearer to thee. 
 
 Though like a wanderer, 
 
 The sun gone down, 
 Darkness be over me, 
 
 My rest a stone, 
 Yet in my dreams I'd be 
 
 Nearer to thee. 
 
 $m*m 
 
(U 
 
 mm 
 
 IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 There let the way appear 
 
 Steps unto heaven ; 
 All that thou sendest me 
 
 In mercy given, 
 Angels to beckon me 
 Nearer my God, to thee, 
 
 Nearer to thee. 
 
 Then with my waking thoughts, 
 
 Bright with th} r praise, 
 Out of my stony griefs, 
 
 Bethel I'll raise ; 
 So by my woes to be 
 Nearer, my God, to thee, 
 
 Nearer to thee. 
 
 Or if on joj'ful wing, 
 
 Cleaving the sky, 
 Sun, moon, and stars forgot, 
 
 Upward I lly, — 
 Still all my sons; shall be, 
 Nearer, my God, to thee, 
 
 Nearer to thee. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Calthrop announced the close of the services, 
 and said that those especially who had been unable to gain 
 admission to the church, would be glad to know that there 
 were to be short services at the grave, to attend which they 
 were most cordially invited. lie pronounced the benedic- 
 tion. 
 
 FROM THE CIU'RCIl TO THE CEMETERY. 
 
 The casket was brought from the church between two 
 rows of Sunday school children, stationed on the right and 
 left from the church entrance to the hearse, all dressed in 
 white, presenting a beautiful sight. The procession was 
 formed, and the long line of carriages moved through James 
 and Salina streets to Oakwood Cemeterv. 
 
m 
 
 IN MEMOKIAM. 
 
 Co 
 
 
 AT THE GEAVE. 
 
 On arriving at the cemetery, the procession passed up the 
 winding roadway to the place of burial, the Sunday school 
 children again forming in two lines. A large number of 
 people had congregated, and after the casket was taken from 
 the hearse, brief services were held, commencing with the 
 children singing : — 
 
 " In the sweet by and by, 
 
 We shall meet on that beautiful shore." 
 
 Remarks were made by the Rev. Mr. Calthrop, President 
 Andrew D. White, of Cornell University, Rev. Mr. Mum- 
 ford, and the Rev. E. W. Mundy. 
 
 REMARKS OF REV. S. R. CALTHROP. 
 
 When an Egyptian king died, his body lay in state before 
 the assembly of the people, who were called upon solemnly 
 to pronounce their verdict on his character. If that verdict 
 was adverse, he was buried apart, as unworthy of honorable 
 sepulture ; if favorable, he was buried, amid the tears of the 
 people, among the sacred sepulchres of the kings. 
 
 We are assembled here, to pronounce our last judgment 
 on the clay that lies before us. Here, among the leafy trees, 
 the joyful light, and the thousand sweet sounds of summer, 
 the dust will lie. But where shall we bury him in our hearts ? 
 Already judgment has been passed in other places. This 
 morning his nearest kindred, — those who had known his 
 innermost life, — gathered, and with one voice declared, that 
 this was the truest, kindest, faithfulest friend, father, man, 
 their eyes had ever seen. With sweet, cheerful converse, 
 they delighted to recall every word he had spoken, every 
 thing he had done. 'Twas not a funeral, it was a beautiful 
 commemoration service, which made their hearts glad. 
 
G6 IN MEMOKIAM. 
 
 Their verdict was, "The memory of the just is blessed." 
 This afternoon a mourning crowd gathered, of their own 
 accord, in the midst of the busy day, publicly to do honor 
 to one who 'had fought a good fight, and finished his course.' 
 Their verdict was, " O, God, we thank Thee that this man 
 has lived." And now we, too, are gathered together, to 
 declare, under the eye of Heaven, what our thought is. 
 Every one is free to speak. We are not afraid to hear the 
 testimony of any man on earth. Is there any here present, 
 who can say that this man's ear was ever closed to any single 
 cry of distress, of loneliness, of oppression, of poverty, of any 
 human misery % That an}' just cause ever languished for lack 
 of his help % Was there ever one a stranger, that he took 
 not in ; naked, that he did not strive to clothe ; sick and in 
 prison, that he did not visit ? Whenever I came down the 
 hill, from a visit to that most hospitable house, if I chanced 
 to meet any specially forlorn man or woman going up, I 
 was instantly sure whither they were bound. When going 
 home, last Monday, after our church meeting, I got out of 
 the car with an Indian. As we were walking the same way, 
 I thought I would try an experiment, and see if this chance- 
 met stranger knew anything about Mr. Ma}\ I inquired. 
 " Oh," said he, " the best friend our nation ever had. I had 
 a deaf and dumb boy nine years old. Mr. May got him into 
 the Asylum in New York. They said, he only nine years 
 old, — none under twelve can come in. But Mr. May said, 
 ' Indian boy, Indian boy,' — He must come in." I wonder 
 how many hundreds of just such tales could be told. Yes, 
 our verdict is, " We will bury him among the kings because 
 he hath done good" 
 
 Already the whole countiw, through the press, begins to 
 pour in its tribute from all quarters. There was a time when 
 men spake all manner of evil against him falsely, for Jesus' 
 
EST MEMORIAM. 
 
 sake ; but already the cause is swallowed up in blessing. 
 The verdict of America is, " The nation honors him, and 
 weeps his loss." 
 
 One more verdict, and we have done. There is another 
 assembly before which our friend is now standing. The 
 general assembly and church of the first-born ; Jesus, bringer 
 in of the new covenant. God, the judge of all men, and the 
 spirits of just men made perfect. Can we not already, in 
 faith, see that joyful welcome, and hear that last grand ver- 
 dict pronounced, " Well done, good and faithful servant, 
 enter thou into the joy of thy Lord !" 
 
 And now what a lesson this life teaches as to where a true 
 ambition lies. I would invite all brave young American 
 men to ponder it well. Here, in America, we all stand, in 
 one sense as equals. Here we have no Dukes, Earls, Mar- 
 quises or Lords, whose very names are supposed to give their 
 possessors a right to stand before other men. And yet, the 
 thing j for which alone these names, otherwise worthless, 
 ought to stand, is here. Here lies one whose name no out- 
 ward titles ever adorned, and yet the honor is all his own. 
 Here lies one, who was Duke or Leader in the cause of man. 
 Earl of justice, Lord of the glorious dominion of love and 
 good will. Whoso wishes these coronets to be placed on 
 his brow, let him go and do likewise. Young friend, you 
 like him, can win them, if you love and hate the things he 
 loved and hated ; he hated no man, he hated only the vice 
 that degrades men, the intemperance that imbrntes men, 
 the oppression that enslaves men, the sin and selfishness 
 that destroy men. He loved the truth that enlarges, the 
 justice that strengthens, and the love that blesses men. This 
 is the word, which he, being dead, yet speaketh to you, to 
 me, and to all men. 
 
" "■ ■ ■ ■■ —n—n—M «—■ ^ 
 
 OS IN MEMOKIAM. 
 
 REMARKS OF PRESIDENT WHITE. 
 
 Mij Friends : — Here lies before us all that was mortal 
 of the best man, the most truly Christian man I have ever 
 known ; the purest, the sweetest ; the fullest of faith, hope 
 and charity ; the most like the Master. 
 
 For nearly thirty years he has blessed us — for all these 
 years his very presence has been a benediction to us. 
 
 I think that the first characteristic of our dear friend, 
 which rises in the remembrance of us all, is his kindliness, 
 his tenderness and love toward all Clod's creatures. How 
 well do I remember its first revelation to me. Nearly thir- 
 ty years ago, as a child in one of your public schools, I was 
 upon a boat crowded with children on our way to celebrate 
 the national anniversary. Into our midst came a man 
 whom most of us had never before seen. He spoke, and 
 instinctively we loved him. He " suffered little children to 
 come unto him." Had his creed been recited to us by un- 
 friendly lips, it would have doubtless scared us ; but the 
 man was Mr. May, and his kindliness and goodness have 
 never been clouded from that day to this. 
 
 But this quality was not mere geniality. It deepened 
 and broadened into a great stream of Christian charity — 
 charity to the distressed immigrant, to the African, to the 
 Indian, to Jew and Gentile, to Catholic and Protestant, to 
 those who differed from him, to those who reviled him. 
 
 Another striking characteristic was his courage. A few 
 years since I was for a few days in London, hurrying home- 
 ward. The July riots had just taken place in New York, 
 and I feared that they would spread to other cities, and in 
 that case Mr. May's very nobleness would draw upon him 
 the blind fury of the mob. Expressing dread of this to an 
 
IN MEMORIAM. 
 
 GO 
 
 English lady, formerly a resident of Boston, she said, 'Have 
 no fear of Mr. May. lie is one of the most courageous 
 men I have ever known. I saw him withstand the old mob 
 against anti-slavery, and I know him. 1 ' 
 
 There are those here who know this quality in him. 
 Many of you can doubtless recall with me how, for rescu- 
 ing a slave, fellow citizens of ours were dragged from court 
 to court over this State, and how thrilling it was when 
 another great, good citizen* stood up and said publicly in 
 that storm, " Why persecute those men ? Samuel J. May 
 and I did the deed." 
 
 Another characteristic was his patience. Few know how 
 this was tried ; not merely by the poor and needy, but by 
 every man or woman with this or that plan of regenerating 
 the universe ; by that most trying class, whose poor glim- 
 mering spark of genius is smothered in half knowledge or 
 absurdity or conceit. For all these his time and patience 
 were limitless. 
 
 And to those who refused to work with him, refused to 
 recognize him as a brother, refused to return the civility of 
 his call, who thought it their duty to hold him up to public 
 reprobation, and to misrepresent him — for those there was 
 never a word of reproach, I heard him speak plaintively 
 of this once, but not at all bitterly. 
 
 We who have grown up here, whether in other creeds or 
 not, know something of this. Let any young man, no mat- 
 ter of what church, speak, no matter on what subject, and 
 he was sure to see Mr. May in the front ranks of his audi- 
 ence, encouraging, looking on the bright side, strengthening 
 him during his effort, counselling him after it. 
 
 * Gcrrit Smith. 
 
IN MEMoRIAM. 
 
 And all these and a host of other good qualities were 
 real, and they were real because they were rooted in Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 The question has been asked, was Mr. May a Chris- 
 tian ? 
 
 My friends, there are certain parts of the Scriptures which 
 no criticism will ever touch. Biblical students may remove 
 this or that addition to the original text ; but the Sermon 
 on the Mount — the " First commandment, and the second 
 which is like unto it," — the depiction of pure religion and 
 undefiled by St. James, — these shall stand forever, for they 
 are based upon eternal verity. Judged by these — judged 
 by every utterance of the Founder of Christianity — Samu- 
 el J. May was one of the purest and most perfect of 
 Christians. 
 
 When the Sermon on the Mount was read this afternoon, 
 it seemed prophetic of the man. It was not — " Blessed are 
 the pure in heart — who accept the thirty-nine articles;" 
 not " Blessed are the peacemakers — who subscribe to the 
 decrees ot the Council of Trent;" not, "Blessed are ye 
 when men shall revile you — provided ye agree to the West- 
 minster catechism ;" — no. The blessings of that greatest 
 of utterances since the world began, were without human 
 test, and they fell upon our friend in full measure, and his 
 life was the radiant witness of them, and we all saw them. 
 
 Yes, my friends, he was the best Christian man we have 
 ever known. Had our Lord come on this earth again and 
 into these streets any time in these thirty years, he was sure 
 of one follower. Came He as black man, or red man, or 
 the most wretched of white men, came He in rags or sores, 
 this, our dear friend, would have known Him and followed 
 
IN MEM0RIAM. 
 
 71 
 
 Him, no matter what weapons, carnal or spiritual, were 
 hurled at the procession. 
 
 To him came the words of the Master he so fully believ- 
 ed in, " Inasmuch as ye have dojie it unto the least of one of 
 these, ye have (jone it unto Me. 1 ' To us come those other 
 words, brushing away all formulas, " Bytheir fruits shall ye 
 know them." 
 
 My friends, I account it among the greatest of blessings 
 that it was given me to know this man, and I shall always 
 rejoice that on the last afternoon of his lite I spent a most 
 delightful hour with him, and bore away his blessing. 
 
 REMARKS OF REV. T. J. MUMFORD, OF DORCHESTER, MASS. 
 
 Born in Beaufort District, South Carolina, where four- 
 fifths of the inhabitants were slaves, the son of a slavehold- 
 er, until I was twenty years old, I believed in slavery as a 
 divine institution, and carried a bible in my pocket to de- 
 fend it asrainst all comers. When the faithful hands of no- 
 ble Quaker women removed the sacred veil which had con- 
 cealed the monstrous features of the system, and I saw 
 clearly at last that it was not of celestial, but infernal ori- 
 gin, I soon lost all faith in my religious teachers, who 
 seemed to declare that man was made for the church and 
 not the church for man. I was almost drowning in a sea 
 of skepticism, when Samuel J. May came to the town in 
 Western New York where I lived. 
 
 As soon as I saw his radiant face and heard his sweet 
 yet earnest voice, I felt drawn to him by a mighty magnet- 
 ism. It became my first desire to share in the blessed work 
 that he was doing, to follow him, although with feeble 
 
IN MEMOMAM. 
 
 steps, and a great way off, in going about doing good. 
 Since that daj r , all ot my life that I can look back upon 
 without regret and shame, I owe to the inspiration of his 
 example and the power of his encouragement. No other 
 friend has exerted such an uplifting influence upon my 
 spirit. Therefore, I could not resist the strong attraction 
 which has drawn me here to-day. There are many other 
 things which I should find relief and joy in saying, but 
 these threatening clouds admonish me to be content with 
 reciting a hymn which expresses what is in all our minds 
 and hearts. 
 
 Calmly, calmly lay him down ! 
 He hath fought a noble fight ; 
 lie hath battled for the right ; 
 He hath won the fadeless crown. 
 
 Memories, all too bright for tears, 
 Crowd around us from the past ; 
 He was faithful to the last, — 
 Faithful through long, toilsome years. 
 
 All that makes for human good, 
 Freedom, righteousness and truth, 
 These, the objects of his youth, 
 Unto age he still pursued. 
 
 Kind and gentle was his soul, 
 Yet it had a glorious might ; 
 Clouded minds it filled with light, 
 Wounded spirits it made whole. 
 
 Huts where poor men sat distressed, 
 Homes where death had darkly passed, 
 Beds where suffering breathed its last, 
 These he sought, and soothed, and blessed. 
 
 Hoping, trusting, lay him down ; 
 Many in the realms above 
 Look for him with eyes of love, 
 Wreathing his immortal crown. 
 
IN MEMOEIAM. 
 
 REMARKS OF REV. E. W. MTJNDY. 
 
 Friends : — We might remain until the midnight, 
 telling of the worth of Mr. May. But his deeds speak more 
 potently than any words which we can utter, and our poor 
 rhetoric is wholly inadequate to set forth his virtues. His 
 life has been an uninterrupted beneficence. "Want and sor- 
 row never appealed to him in vain. His presence diffused 
 continual blessings. When the unfortunate and the suffering 
 in our city had exhausted every other means by which to 
 obtain relief, they knew that after all else failed, they could 
 go to Mr. May, and that he would open some way for them. 
 In the activity of a long life, he has been counsellor and 
 friend to us all ; and now at his grave there come calmness 
 and cheerfulness and high resolve into our hearts, as we look 
 for the last time upon the dear dead face. 
 
 To the younger clergy of this region Mr. May has been a 
 constant friend. He has appreciated our difficulties ; he has 
 understood our perplexities ; he has cheered and strength- 
 ened us by his wise suggestions and by the contagion of his irre- 
 pressible hopefulness. We have called him Father for the 
 love that we bear him, and now there is left to us the in- 
 heritance of his. example, his spirit and his work. His in- 
 fluence descends upon us as a perpetual benediction. 
 
 To-day, as hour after hour the people passed along that 
 they might look once more upon the features they loved so 
 well, there came with the crowd an Indian. For a moment 
 he stood quiet, and then the hard brown face broke into tears, 
 and he sat down and sobbed like a child. That bereaved 
 Indian expressed the feelings of us all. White people and 
 black people and red people, learned and ignorant, old and 
 young, poor and rich, Catholic and Protestant and Infidel,— 
 we have a common sorrow, and drop our tears upon the grave 
 
IN MEMoRIAM. 
 
 of one who was a common friend. He knew neither sect 
 nor color, nor nationality ; but he saw in all men his brothers, 
 antl his ear was ever open to their words and his hand ever 
 extended in their aid. The fresh generosity and beauty of 
 his life is well symbolized in the fragrant flowers which lov- 
 ing hands have brought to his tomb, and the maturity and 
 perfectness of his work is strikingly suggested in the ripened 
 wheat sheaf which lies upon his coffin. His work is well 
 done. His earthly life has been well lived. And his death 
 was peaceful and bright as the setting of the sun. 
 
 The last day of his stay on earth, was one of pleasure to 
 him and to the friends who saw him ; and with the disap- 
 pearing twilight he passed into the glory of the other world. 
 As sung by the poet, 
 
 " He sat in peace in the sunshine 
 
 Till the clay -was almost done, 
 And then at its close an angel 
 
 Stole over the threshold stone." 
 
 " lie folded his hands together, 
 He touched his eyelids with balm, 
 
 And his lost breath floated upward, 
 Like the close of a solemn psalm." 
 
 THE EX1>. 
 
 A hymn was sung, when the casket was deposited in the 
 grave. The children then came forward, each one dropping 
 a bouquet upon the bosom of their late and beloved pastor, 
 friend and guide, as they passed. The services closed with a 
 
 BENEDICTION BY ME. MILLS. 
 
 So this mortal puts on immortality ; this corruptible puts 
 on incorruption. That which was sown in weakness is 
 raised in power. 
 
IN MEMORIAL. 
 
 (O 
 
 Man, born of woman, is of few days. Like the flower of 
 the field he facleth, and full quickly goeth to decay. Man, 
 the offspring of the skies, his being quenchless, is heir to the 
 the immensities and the forever. 
 
 Tin's our brother, whose mortal remains we now commit 
 to the keeping of the grave, has ascended, and become seized 
 of his estate. For well on earth, had he read and learned 
 his horn-book for the skies. 
 
 As he enters there, beaming, devoted, and loving — all 
 worlds open to receive him, angels rise up to greet him, 
 the infinite bosom itself warms to welcome, to embrace 
 him. 
 
 So, may we too live, that when to each of us, one after 
 another, the hour shall come, we also may find death to be 
 birth, and time but the door, that opens tj us the eternities 
 of God. 
 
 In pare. 
 
 
LIBRARY OF a***** 
 ™?U932 725 8