LAWRENCE J. GUTTER 
 
 Collection of Chicogoono 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 AT CHICAGO 
 
 The University Library 
 
^a^C^)2<^^c 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2010 with funding from 
 
 CARLI: Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries in Illinois 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/receptiondinnertOOIawr 
 
l\eception and Dinner 
 
 TEKDBBED TO 
 
 J)rof. J)ayid g wina 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE CENTRAL CHURCH AND CONGRE- 
 GATION, AND OTHER PERSONAL FRIENDS, 
 
 PALMER HOUSE, 
 
 CHICAGO, 
 
 Monday Evening, February 22, 1886. 
 
 CHICAQO: 
 
 Rand, MoNally & Company, Printers, 
 
 148-154 Monroe Street. 
 
 1886. 
 
Deception and P inner 
 
 PROF. DAVID SWING. 
 
 It appeared to numerous friends of Prof. Swing that some 
 notice should be taken of the fact that he has resided and labored 
 in the City of Chicago for twenty years. It was the opinion of 
 his friends that these two decades marked an epoch in the morals, 
 religion and literature of our city; and also that he had been foremost 
 in creating such epoch. Hence they took advice among themselves 
 as to the form of such testimonial, the result of which will appear 
 from the following : 
 
 CIRCULAR. 
 
 Chicago, Feb. 2, 1886. 
 Dear Sir: 
 
 Many friends of Prof. Swing consider some appropriate notice 
 should be taken of the twentieth anniversary of his labors in 
 Chicago. 
 
 In order that the fitting thing may be done, we urgently request 
 you to meet us and others of his friends in consultation at the Club 
 Room in the Palmer House, on Thursday, Feb. 4, at 4 o'clock, p. m. 
 
 We think that his life and labors in Chicago mark an epoch in 
 the history of our city, and are anxious to devise a proper method of 
 showing him that the same are appreciated by his people and the 
 
RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 entire community. Do not fail to impress on your mind the time 
 
 and place of the meeting. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Charles Fitzsimons. 
 D. S. Mead. 
 A. M. Pence. 
 A. L. Chetlain. 
 W. S. Henderson. 
 C. B. Holmes. 
 
 In response to the foregoing, very many friends of Prof. Swing 
 met at the Palmer House, and discussed a variety of plans for 
 celebrating the event, and appointed an Executive Committee, com- 
 posed of C. B. Holmes, Chairman; Gen. A. L. Chetlain, A. M. Pence, 
 D. S. Mead, John G. Shortall, W. S. Henderson, and Gen. Chas. 
 Fitzsimons, Secretary, with power to determine the kind of cele- 
 bration, and make full arrangements therefor. 
 
 The Executive Committee met on the 5th of February, and decided 
 to tender to Prof. Swing a reception and dinner, on the evening of 
 the 2 2d of February, at the Palmer House, and appointed the 
 following committees: 
 
 ON RECEPTION. 
 
 N. K. Fairbank. 
 Gen. A. L. Chetlain. 
 O. F. Fuller. 
 L. L. Coburn. 
 Dr. R. N. Isham. 
 Potter Palmer. 
 Dr. H. A. Johnson. 
 Ferd. W. Peck. 
 J. B. Rayner. 
 J. N. Jewett. 
 
 W. S. Henderson. 
 J. H. McVicker. 
 John C. Black. 
 A. A. Carpenter. 
 E. M. Phelps. 
 E. R. Wadsworth. 
 George Howland. 
 O. W. Potter. 
 H. C. Hayt. 
 C. Clemons. 
 
 Wirt Dexter. 
 Eugene Cary. 
 Joseph Medill. 
 W. W. Kimball. 
 Gov. Wm. Bross. 
 Lyman J. Gage. 
 George L. Dunlap. 
 Moses Wentworth. 
 D. S. Mead., 
 H. L. Norton. 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 
 
 N. K. Fairbank. 
 
 ON INVITATIONS. 
 
 W. S. Henderson. 
 Gen. Chas. Fitzsimons. 
 
 C. B. Holmes. 
 
 ON SPEECHES. 
 
 A. M. Pence. E. M. Phelps. John G. Shortall. 
 
 Gen. A. C. McClurg. 
 
 ON DINNER. 
 Samuel M. Jones. 
 
 E. B. Sherman. 
 
 Gen. Chas. Fitzsimons. 
 
 W. W. Kimball 
 C. B. Holmes. 
 
 ON MUSIC. 
 John G. Shortall. N. K. Fairbank. 
 
 ON FLOWERS. 
 
 Mrs. W. S. Henderson. Mrs. Wirt Dexter. 
 
 Mrs. W. W. Kimball. 
 
RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 THE RECEPTION 
 
 In response to invitations, the parlors of the hotel were filled 
 at an early hour with an assemblage of prominent citizens, 
 members and pastors of various city churches. At seven o'clock 
 Prof. Swing, accompanied by his daughter, Miss Helen, was pre- 
 sented by N. K. Fairbank, Esq., and Gen. A. L. Chetlain, to the 
 many friends who had gathered to express friendship and admi- 
 ration for one who, through many years of Christian labor, has 
 drawn about him the true and noble of the city. 
 
 After an hour spent in the exchange of congratulations and 
 friendly greeting, and when all had participated in a rich social 
 feast, the company, led by the honored guest, retired to the 
 " Banquet Hall," where sweet music, fragrant flowers and delicate 
 viands added their charm to the beauty and brilliancy of the 
 occasion. 
 
 THE DINNER. 
 
 ZMI IE IsT TJ 
 
 Blue Points. 
 
 Consomme Macedoine. 
 
 Sliced Cucumbers. Kennebec Salmon. French Peas. 
 
 Fillet of Beef ; with Truffles. 
 Browned Sweet Potatoes. 
 
 Roman Punch. 
 
 Lettuce Salad. Jack Snipe. Curled Potatoes. 
 
 Nesselrode Ice Cream; with Sauce Maraschino. 
 
 Assorted Cake. Confectionery. 
 
 Fruit. Coffee. 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 
 
 THE SPEECHES 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 ABRAM M. PENCE, ESQ. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : I have been called upon to occupy the 
 chair to-night, not because of any personal fitness in myself for the 
 position, but for the reason that I am the oldest friend and immediate 
 follower of Prof. Swing in our great city. 
 
 Thirty years ago I met him among the hills of Southern Ohio, 
 which form in such a charming manner the perspective and setting 
 of that beautiful picture called " La Belle Riviere." He was then 
 a young man of twenty-five years, and I a boy. 
 
 He then and there became my teacher and friend; and, whilst his 
 labors in the capacity of teacher may have had but little direct 
 influence upon your Chairman, he was nevertheless laying wide the 
 foundation upon which a magnificent career has since been erected. 
 
 I heard his first efforts as a preacher, and I am pleased to inform 
 you that he stepped forth a literary athlete from the beginning. 
 He had no boyhood in the use of his pen. His literature was 
 always orthodox, and, as to his religious views, he was then as care- 
 less of all schools of theology as he is to-day. 
 
 You must excuse my seeming egotism, for I do not praise myself 
 for my good fortune; but, after ten years of friendship, having cast 
 myself into this great whirlpool of life, I had the opportunity of 
 performing the most useful act of my existence, when I assisted in 
 placing the footsteps of Prof. Swing upon the threshold of this new 
 world. He entered the gates of our city. He came, he saw, he 
 conquered, and for twenty years his life and his thought have been 
 an inspiration, a solace and a pleasure to all the great Northwest. 
 
8 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 When the young Aristides said that he gained strength by being 
 in the room with Socrates, he testified to the personal sway of the 
 great ambassador of reason. 
 
 So we here to-night, who have occupied the same city with our 
 guest for twenty years, can testify to the strength we have gained, 
 and thus illustrate his personal sway over our lives and our hearts. 
 
 His intimate friends and followers can say of him what Plato 
 said of his great master: "If you would be honored with my com- 
 pany, make him also welcome who has made me what I am." 
 
 With the greatest pleasure of our lives, this goodly company 
 here again places the feet of our guest upon the threshold of a new 
 era of twenty years, knowing, if life and health be preserved, that 
 his work will mark a still more brilliant epoch in our city's ethics and 
 religion and literature. 
 
 We therefore hail the guest of the evening as the friend of art, 
 of literature, and of true religion; as a man with charity for all and 
 with malice toward none. 
 
 PO E 
 
 GEO. HOWLAND, ESQ. 
 
 Poetry is not fiction: it is truth too great for prose. "Swing. 
 
 Twenty years ! with what sweet pleasure 
 The fond memories we treasure 
 
 Of all that to us they have brought ! 
 How the thought unbidden ranges 
 Over all the goodly changes 
 
 That within each true heart have been wrought ! 
 
 We no dusty path have threaded, 
 To the past forever wedded, 
 
 With our leader so trusted and true ; 
 But where fields were thickly budded 
 With new truths, we there have studied 
 
 Their unfolding beneath heaven's blue. 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 
 
 We would seek no needless quarrels 
 With the devil for the laurels 
 
 In a fruitless assault to be won ; 
 But would strengthen up the sinner 
 With true wisdom in the inner 
 
 Man, ere yet the fierce strife is begun. 
 
 Not with scourging and with fasting, 
 Or in lamentations lasting, 
 
 Do we serve at a shrine that we dread ; 
 But in striving, with thanksgiving, 
 To make life well worth the living, 
 
 We with flowers our altars have spread. 
 
 And we with no track of iron 
 Lay the pathway to our Zion, 
 
 With free pass to a new world of bliss ; 
 But in friendship with our neighbor, 
 We in liberty would labor 
 
 To be found at least worthy of this. 
 
 Nor yet idly would we ponder, 
 In such sad and solemn wonder, 
 
 When the kingdom of Heaven shall appear 
 But with all our best endeavor 
 Would we fill the moments ever, 
 
 Till we make it all heavenly here. 
 
 And, perhaps, in the hereafter, 
 When beneath the golden rafter 
 
 We are learning life's purpose to read, 
 We, like children, with our lettered 
 Blocks of wisdom, all unfettered, 
 
 May see who can construct the best creed. 
 
 And we then, perhaps, unparted, 
 To our wise, our simple-hearted, 
 
 Our golden-lipped teacher may turn, 
 Of the many hidden beauties 
 Of that life and its glad duties, 
 
 In his fitly framed phrase still to learn. 
 
10 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 THE GROWTH OF RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 
 
 REV. HIRAM W. THOMAS, D. D. 
 
 "The wooden plow has not grown any more rapidly than the wooden God." — Swing. 
 
 When we speak of the growth of religious ideas, we should 
 discriminate between ideas and the things for which they stand. 
 Things have an existence in themselves, and wholly apart from the 
 minds by which they are perceived. The mind of man does not, by 
 thinking, create ; it performs the humbler task of perceiving what 
 already is. The thoughts of the Creator having taken shape in 
 worlds and systems, and having in this way been objectivized, man 
 then comes to be a learner. The earth might be here just the 
 same were there no human beings to puzzle over its mysteries, 
 and no eyes to behold its beauty. It was here, and was round, 
 and revolved through space, when men thought it was flat and 
 stationary. 
 
 And so God and the principles of religion exist apart from the 
 minds by which they are perceived ; and in their essential existence 
 they are what they are ; nor can the thinking of man make them 
 other or different. But men have in all ages formed conceptions of 
 the Divine, and these conceptions have taken shape in creeds or 
 statements of belief. These may grow ; they have grown with the 
 growth of intelligence ; but all the time God, and the principles of 
 religion, have remained the same. And hence the growth of relig- 
 ious ideas has been a result of the growth of the mind and heart 
 of man. 
 
 And thus we may see that the growth of religious ideas finds its 
 natural and not unexpected place as a part of the growth of mind 
 in everything else ; for we can no longer study religion by itself. It 
 forms a part of the many other great facts and problems with which 
 our world has to deal. Religion has traveled along in company with 
 government, and art, and science, and has not only been affected by 
 these surrounding conditions, but has shared in their many fortunes 
 and misfortunes. 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 11 
 
 It is only natural that religious ideas should have grown with the 
 growth of the world. Not that we would affirm that the ideas 
 of religion have had only an earthly and human origin, — that they 
 have been evolved out of the nature and the environments of the 
 mind of man. Each form of life has its own peculiar nature, and is 
 unfolded along the line of its own possibilities. But when we come 
 to man, we find a being who is not only related to the earth, but has 
 progressive and improvable powers ; he has reason and self- 
 consciousness, and a part of his lofty nature — the spiritual — opens 
 up to God. And hence man has been the subject of a divine 
 illuminism. 
 
 This illuminism has been shared in some sense by all nations ; 
 but in its fullest and most distinctive sense it was limited to the 
 Hebrew and the Christian religions. But even with these revelation 
 was itself progressive, so that we can plainly discern the growth 
 or development of religious ideas from Abraham to Moses, and 
 from Moses and the Prophets on to its culmination in The 
 Christ, where God is fully revealed as a Father, as a Spirit, and 
 religion becomes no longer an outer form, but a kingdom, — a life 
 in the heart. 
 
 But through all these ages God was the same, and the essential 
 principles of religion were the same, and hence the growth was not 
 in these, but in the mind and heart of man ; and, when man could 
 understand a spiritual religion, from that uplifted point of vision, 
 religion took on the larger thought of immortality, — a kingdom of 
 principles moving on forever. 
 
 Thus God appears as the teacher and the leader of mankind ; 
 but the divine idea of religion is so large as to include all truth, — the 
 truth of philosophy, of science, of history. And hence religious ideas 
 have shared in the growth of all these. The wonderful awakening 
 that we call the reformation, was not of religion alone, but was a 
 part of a general movement of thought, quickened and intensified by 
 the inventions and discoveries of those great years. The printing 
 press, the new astronomy, and the new ideas of the church and 
 religion, all moved along together. And with the larger universe, 
 and the larger and better conceptions of God, men have gone on 
 
12 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 thinking better and better of God, until to think of Him at all they 
 must think of Him not only as good, but as the best. And thinking 
 better of God, our world has come to think better of itself. And hence 
 the old views, that so long filled all the future with an awful fear 
 and foreboding, have been so modified that a new hope has taken 
 the place of the old despair. 
 
 The growth of religious ideas has been very marked in our day, 
 and in the twenty years since Prof. Swing began his ministry in 
 Chicago. A quarter of a century ago the views of Bishop Colenso 
 created no little controversy in the Church of England and in 
 orthodox circles generally. Now these views are quite generally 
 accepted by the thinking public. The same was true of Dr. Bush- 
 nell's theory of the atonement, twenty-five years ago ; but now his 
 books are in nearly every minister's library, and the doctrine of the 
 suffering of love to save, is rapidly displacing the cold, penal and 
 commercial conception of the death of Christ. Canon Farrar, in 
 his "Eternal Hope," and "Justice and Judgment," has written more 
 powerfully, perhaps, than any other man, against the old dogmas of 
 endless punishment ; and yet Canon Farrar was welcomed by the 
 orthodox clergy in all the great cities of this land. Such a welcome 
 could not have been possible thirty years ago, nor when Prof. 
 Swing came to our city. 
 
 And in all this there is not revealed a looseness or an in- 
 difference to religious truth, but a positive growth of the minds and 
 hearts of the people, a larger and a better theology ; higher views 
 of God, and of man and his destiny in the world to come. And 
 those holding these views, and trying to do good, will soon be 
 welcomed by the great army of religious workers. 
 
 The strange history of the church in the past has been, that it 
 has never been large enough to hold the thinking of the people, 
 not even of the children taught in its own schools. And it naturally 
 followed, that, when the church was not broad enough to hold two 
 thoughts at the same time, if any one got a new idea he had to get 
 a church to put it in ! It was so when the Greek church left the 
 Latin, and so when Luther sought to make men and women kings 
 and priests before God, And when some one got an idea that 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 13 
 
 baptism was by immersion only, he had to get a church to put that 
 in ; and there had to be a church to hold the ideas of Calvin and 
 Wesley. Some one came to think that God was so one that he 
 could not be three, and there had to be a Unitarian church. George 
 Fox thought that religion was less an outer form, and more a sub- 
 jective life, and there had to be a Quaker church; and, for the better 
 hope of our poor world in the future, there had to be a Universalist 
 church. 
 
 And there came one in our day who loved God, who loved man, 
 who loved nature, who loved the true wherever found, and loved 
 beauty in every form ; one whose home was Chicago, and whose 
 religion was to do good ; and for him there had to be a Central 
 Church. 
 
 By patience, by learning, by suffering, by piety, by long and hard 
 work, Prof. Swing, whom we gladly honor at this hour, has made 
 possible a larger personal liberty for the mind and heart of man; he 
 has made smoother the paths for other feet, and brighter the way that 
 leads to Heaven and God. 
 
 MODERN CHICAGO. 
 
 REV. SIMON J. M PHERSON, D. D. 
 
 " Earth, under the touch of Man's mind, is a miniature of the Universe under the touch 
 of God." — Swing. 
 
 The first thing that strikes one about this toast — Modern 
 Chicago — is, that like a tramp it goes everywhere and starts no- 
 where. Our city is so utterly modern that it evidently inspired 
 those lines which Tennyson meant to write: "Better fifty years of 
 Chicago than a cycle of Philadelphia." Fancy asking the guest of 
 the evening to describe that particular period of his career which 
 belongs to ancient history ! Yet, Prof. Swing, despite his beardless 
 condition, is really older than Chicago. It would require an 
 Egyptian guide's capacity for inventing antiquities to discourse on 
 so purely imaginary a theme as Ancient Chicago, and I do not won- 
 
14 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 der that a predestined bishop ran away to old Mexico to escape a 
 subject which has received so slight a heritage from the " Fathers." 
 New York had a pre-existing state as New Amsterdam. But in 
 Chicago's prehistoric times it was nothing but a river, so sluggish 
 and insignificant that it was often indifferently called St. Louis. 
 London eked out two miserable millenniums before she could afford 
 a first-class fire ; but, with less than forty years of effort, Chicago 
 forever blotted out the records of 1666 with her palimpsest of 
 October, 187 1. A few school-boys still remember that Paris, which 
 is now so old a maid that she has at least stopped growing, is 
 described in Caesar's "Commentaries" as "Lutetja," "a collection 
 of mud huts." But Caesar refers to Chicago only prophetically in his 
 opening sentence, "All Gaul is divided into three parts," where 
 Gaul is obviously a misprint for Chicago, since Julius must have had 
 in mind the South, North and West Sides, with a great Roman's 
 natural preference for the Cisalpine, or South Side. Hence, in 
 order to find any background for my remarks, I must remind you 
 that, like Minerva, Chicago was already old when she was born ; 
 and, in order to keep to my appointed subject, I must take the 
 standpoint of the daily newspaper, to which the news of the day 
 before yesterday is ancient history. By putting emphasis upon an 
 alternative title for this toast — The Chicago of 1886 — we may find a 
 foot-hold for a couple of familiar remarks. 
 
 One is that the Chicago of 1886 is peculiarly tolerant of conflict- 
 ing opinions, even in religion. This may be due to the fact that her 
 spirit is uncommonly humanitarian ; and, as we know, the revival 
 of the "humanities" historically preceded the Reformation, which 
 restored liberty of conscience. The pathetic needs and struggles, 
 the high aspirations, the transcendent possibilities, of human nature, 
 have found in our honored guest a noble exponent, and that fact 
 gives him one kind of right to represent Chicago. 
 
 When I came here an inexperienced immigrant from New Jersey, 
 three or four years ago, I was surprised at receiving a universal wel- 
 come from ministers of every ecclesiastical name, and also from rep- 
 resentatives of our celebrated "no name series." One day I asked 
 a Baptist neighbor why Chicago should thus show finer denomina- 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 15 
 
 tional harmonies than any other city. He replied : " Oh, that ques- 
 tion is easy to answer. We are all so much engaged in fighting 
 the devil that we have neither time nor disposition to fight one 
 another." "Thank God," I answered, "for revealing another of 
 Chicago's great achievements ; she has discovered a good use for 
 the devil." 
 
 Perhaps you have never heard that modern Chicago is a cosmo- 
 politan city ! Even though it sadly lack other characteristics of 
 Pentecost, it does possess "men out of every nation under Heaven." 
 Its climate is consequently unfavorable to bigots. If you want to 
 manufacture narrow men, you must cage them up in a corner of the 
 world, where they can become familiar with only one set of notions. 
 Fanaticism is like the figure of rhetoric called synecdoche: it puts a 
 part for the whole. I remember a young minister, fresh from the 
 theological seminary, preaching one of his first sermons in the church 
 which had called him. When he had finished, a wise and friendly 
 elder, who had been so much among men that he forgot more every 
 year than his juvenile pastor had ever learned, met him at the foot 
 
 of the pulpit stairs, and said, " Mr. , I wish that I could be as 
 
 sure of anything in the world as you seem to be about everything in 
 the universe." As men grow wiser, they become less sure about 
 some opinions, and more tolerant about most opinions. A cosmo- 
 politan city like modern Chicago has a bad climate for one whose 
 foible is self-conscious omniscience. I recognize the fact that 
 tolerance of conflicting opinions is an inconvenience for men in 
 authority. Torquemada and Robespierre were far more effective 
 than we can be in silencing opponents. But the consequence of 
 their method was that Torquemada's Spain grew idiotic, and Robes- 
 pierre was beheaded by his own guillotine. I know, too, that, when 
 our knowledge becomes perfect, tolerance will be a useless virtue. 
 But, so long as the wisest of us has only a fragment of all wisdom, 
 charity will remain a higher grace than forcible uniformity of 
 opinion. 
 
 Two things seem to me essential to true tolerance: First, in- 
 dividuals need to cherish strong and sincere opinions. Indifference 
 is the tragic mask of tolerance. We must each put the emphasis of 
 
16 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 life upon what he thinks and believes, rather than upon what he 
 doubts or ignores. Tolerance is impossible to those who are intel- 
 lectually fibreless and morally flabby ; for they leave nothing to 
 tolerate. Secondly, individuals can be tolerant only by cherishing 
 a generous spirit. We must not be technical and microscopic in the 
 righteous exercise of love. Broad wit is intolerable, broad opinions 
 are despicably loose; but broad charity is the mantle that falls down 
 upon the waiting prophet of God out of the ascending chariot of 
 Heaven. 
 
 Now, of this tolerance in opinion which is so characteristic of 
 modern Chicago, Prof. Swing — to his honor be it spoken — has been 
 a conspicuous apostle and representative. For that reason largely 
 he has been Chicago's darling; I may say, Chicago's Patton-ted 
 darling. That darling, after twenty years of honeymoon, is still 
 pressed to Chicago's bosom, while Dr. Patton has gone to another 
 world, to find his earthly Paradise in Princeton. You are all tolerant 
 enough here to-night, I hope, to remember him as a man of almost 
 peerless ability in some directions; tolerant enough to congratulate 
 him on finding our Princeton theology according to his own heart, 
 even though to some of you that he left behind him, it seems the 
 very opposite of St. John's little book, sweet in the mouth, but bitter 
 in the digested state. 
 
 As you see, I am not forgetting that your guest to-night was 
 once a Presbyterian. Of course that is all in the preterit or even 
 pluperfect tense now ; perhaps I am mistaken ; it may be that I, 
 who have only infinitesimal hankerings after war, even against 
 supposed heresies, cannot claim to represent fully the brethren of 
 my own ancestral faith, in whose essential tenets I cordially agree ; 
 but, son of Scotch Covenanters as I am, I have a fancy that if my 
 friend, the St. John who now presides over the First Church of 
 modern Ephesus, had been the prosecutor in a certain famous eccle- 
 siastical trial, Prof. Swing would still be a Presbyterian to-day, or 
 at least would be much more nearly one than he is. At any rate, he 
 can reach some of you with sermons, who would be very slow to 
 give any of the rest of us ministers a chance at you. Meantime, 
 see how we Presbyterians, grown tolerant in modern Chicago, have 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 17 
 
 improved our methods of supplying another church with one of our 
 bright preachers. One of us rises in his place, and announces his 
 reasons, theoretical and practical, for desiring to exchange his plain 
 frock coat for gown and cassock, perhaps for exchanging also, 
 according to an illustrious precedent, his silk hat for the mitre, and 
 his worst punishment is to have a photograph of some criminal 
 printed in the newspapers as his portrait. The Episcopal church 
 has every reason to be happy ; for she knows that it is not with 
 " true blue " that Green ought to harmonize. The Presbyterian 
 church congratulates her sister, and cheerfully says to her departing 
 friend : "Au revoir, brother ; you will be back with us again when 
 we all get to Heaven." 
 
 Secondly — The Chicago of 1886 can celebrate a golden oppor- 
 tunity to transfer the emphasis of her marvelous energies from the 
 material to the spiritual. The twenty years that we recall to-night 
 have already witnessed a unique transformation. Long ago we real- 
 ized the myth of Phoenix ; we were purified of wood, hay, stubble, 
 and established in stone, by fire. The " panic " exploited the vir- 
 tues of wild-cat speculation. Eastern capital has largely ceased to 
 enshackle us as creditors. The infant Chicago has grown to man- 
 hood, and with manhood it should be ready to put away childish 
 things, — the devotion of all its energies, as in babyhood and boyhood, 
 to the mere building up of its physical body. The natural time has 
 come for Chicago to cultivate mind and heart and soul. The fine 
 arts should succeed to the mechanic arts. Books should be as com- 
 mon and influential as trade-marks. Our institutions of learning 
 should no longer be a by-word abroad ; we should learn to educate 
 our sons and daughters at home as far as Harvard, or Oxford or 
 Berlin could bear them. Ethics should abate our ardor for physics. 
 We must learn our momentous moral responsibilities to the vast depen- 
 dency of the North and West. We cannot live forever simply by 
 and for our flat, rich, bottomless prairies. We must look up to the 
 mountain of Calvary, which waters all outlying foot-hills, — the Hima- 
 layas, the Apennines, the Alleghanies and Rockies. 
 
 And this must we in modern Chicago do, if we would truly honor 
 the guest of the evening, by carrying out his highest wish for us. 
 
18 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 His works are fine specimens of an indigenous literature. His name is 
 associated with nearly every up-look in art and ethics. Almost his latest 
 utterances have urged us to the Herculean task of cleansing our 
 municipal Augean stables. The names of Washington, of Wesley, 
 of Savonarola, of Chrysostom, of Jesus Christ, are not strangers to his 
 influential lips. As he sits at this banquet table of friends to-night, 
 he thinks, no doubt, of the immortal marriage feast of the King's 
 Son. If we accept his best counsel, the Chicago of 1886 shall be no 
 more to the Chicago that is to come than the Jerusalem of old was 
 to the promised new Jerusalem that shall be eternal in the heavens. 
 
 MAY OR SHOULD A CLERGYMAN READ NOVELS. 
 
 REV. DAVID UTTER. 
 
 "A novel is human thought, ornamented by a woman in love." — Swing. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: When I received the 
 invitation of your committee to be present on this occasion and 
 make a speech upon the question, " Should ministers read novels ?" 
 I was so delighted with the idea, after having been a heretic for so 
 many years, and somewhat out in the cold, of being once more in 
 good orthodox company, that I determined to prepare my extempo- 
 raneous utterances to the best of my ability, and to school myself to 
 say the thing that would naturally be expected of me. And know- 
 ing, of course, from the orthodox traditions handed down from our 
 Puritan ancestors, that it was altogether wrong and out of place for 
 ministers to read novels, I began to make my preparations on that 
 line. And, in looking up my authorities, where should I go but to 
 one of the most famous preachers of the first century of American 
 history, the man who wrote more books than any other man of 
 his time in this country, wrote and published more books than 
 any other man who has ever lived in this country, and about as 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 19 
 
 many as any man ever wrote in the world ; I refer to the Rev. 
 Cotton Mather. 
 
 The book of his that I found that seemed to bear most directly 
 upon the question in hand was a little volume, " Manductio Theo- 
 logicum," being instructions given a young man preparing for the 
 Christian ministry. I did not find that he recommended that the 
 young man should read any novels. Cotton Mather gives no evi- 
 dence in all his works of having read any, — it cannot be proved, 
 even, I am told by capable authority, that he had ever read a line 
 of Shakespeare. The Rev. Mr. Mather gives his young divinity 
 student much good advice, and, among other things, makes out a list 
 of books for him to read, the titles of which would mean very little 
 to us, and I am sure I cannot repeat them. If the question of novel 
 reading had come up, the Rev. Cotton Mather's advice would no 
 doubt have been given on the broad and comprehensive principles 
 laid down by Caliph Omar in regard to the Alexandrian Library. 
 "If these books," said the Caliph, "are in harmony with what is 
 written in the Koran, they are superfluous, since we have the 
 Koran ; if they are not in harmony with it, they are pernicious ; so, 
 at any rate, let them be destroyed." Mr. Mather would have said : 
 " If the novels are in perfect harmony with these other books which 
 I recommend, it will not be necessary for you to read them, as these 
 are sufficient, and thoroughly furnish you unto all good works ; if 
 they are not in harmony with them, they are pernicious ; so, in either 
 case, they are to be let alone." 
 
 Then, in proceeding further in the preparation of my speech, I 
 was looking up the natural reasons for letting novels alone, and I had 
 got far enough to see, that, if a minister undertook to know anything 
 of modern fiction, he ought to know it quite thoroughly, lest his 
 people think him a smatterer ; and that to know modern fiction 
 thoroughly one would have no time for studying anything else; and 
 I was about to set this down as a good point, when, imagine my con- 
 sternation, it was whispered to me that our guest for this evening, 
 Prof. Swing, himself was a reader of novels, and approved the 
 practice! So, of course, there Vas nothing for it but to throw all my 
 speech away, and take a different tack altogether; and I am here to 
 
20 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 say that novel reading is expected of any modern minister. Any 
 man who would keep up with the times, know what his people are 
 thinking, must read what they are reading, and, whatever the sub- 
 stance of that reading may be, the form of it is pretty sure to be 
 fiction. 
 
 Each age seems to have its favorite literary form ; with Homer 
 it was the epic, in Shakespeare's time it was the drama, and in our 
 age it seems to be the novel; whatever a man would write to-day, be 
 it science or history, or an argument setting forth some new theory 
 of art or some new theory of the universe, the form in which he 
 must cast his thought, if he would find ready readers, must be that 
 of the novel. There is doubtless a deep reason for this. Goethe 
 says, " Beauty is a manifestation of a secret law of nature, which, but 
 for such manifestation, would forever remain hidden." But beauty 
 is greatly in the eye that sees it, and the beauty of this modern 
 form in which the thought of humanity of the present seeks chiefly 
 to present itself, seems to have been revealed chiefly to modern 
 eyes. Yet I doubt not Goethe is right; and, believing the beauty of 
 fiction to be a real beauty, I feel sure that it indicates a real advance 
 in the art of human expression. The deeper and finer shades of 
 human thought and emotion are better set forth in that form of 
 narrative which, while describing things as they actually exist, yet 
 shows all in an ideal light that, while showing us what is true, shows 
 us truths of purer and higher kinds than we are able to embody in 
 our everyday living. 
 
 Then, of course, I could see, after I came round to the right side of 
 the question, that it was necessary for a minister to read novels in order 
 to know what to recommend to the members of his flock. How could 
 he condemn that which he had not read ? how could he recommend 
 that with which he was unacquainted ? And surely no part of his 
 ministry is more often really helpful than the putting of the right 
 books into the hands of a person, young or old. The novel has ad- 
 vantages for such purposes over every other sort of book. More 
 frequently than any other book the novel awakens the desire to 
 read; and no greater service can any of us ever do a fellow-man 
 than to awaken within him the desire for literature of the higher and 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 21 
 
 better kind. It is one of the greatest of mysteries, this awakening to 
 intellectual life: no man can say with certainty what will accomplish 
 it, at what time of life it is most likely to be accomplished, or 
 whether the awakening will ever take place. It is like the kindling 
 of a fire: sometimes a very little flame will kindle that which makes 
 a very great light; sometimes with greatest effort nothing can be 
 done. But no human device has ever led so many people to read 
 and think, and think and read again, as this form of thought ex- 
 pression which we call fiction, or the novel. 
 
 And so, Mr. Chairman, upon the whole I would heartily answer 
 this question affirmatively: Ministers may, ministers should, all wide- 
 awake, practical ministers must, read novels. And now that I have 
 said this, I wish the subject of my speech were changed; at any rate, 
 if the subject were, instead of "Should a minister read novels?" 
 " Should a minister write a novel ? " I would like, in regard to one 
 prominent minister of Chicago, to give an affirmative answer. I 
 know one minister whom I should like to exhort to write a novel, 
 and that is our guest of the evening, Prof. Swing. 
 
 THE PRESS AND THE CLERGY. 
 
 HON. FRANK GILBERT. 
 
 "The newspaper hauls the rough marble, out of which the historian rrry build eternal 
 temples." — Swing. 
 
 It is evident that the toastmaster of this festal occasion is not a 
 Paulist ; for the most illustrious doctor of the higher law said : " Be 
 ye not unequally yoked together," and certainly the clergy and the 
 press are not exactly a matched span. As well compare the temple 
 of Karnak and the Crib. One is of to-day, and, in its best estate, of 
 each day ; the other is as old as the race, for it is universal human 
 nature to be afraid of the mysterious, to feel some apprehension 
 
22 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 about the future, some curiosity about the unknowable, and to 
 exercise some skill in explaining the inexplicable. 
 
 The press professes not to deal in eternal verities. So far from 
 feeding the public with the bread of which if a man eat he shall 
 never hunger, it must of necessity gather fresh manna every day ; 
 and the one unpardonable sin with the press is to call to mind that 
 bit of nursery lore, " What they could not eat that night the Queen 
 next morning fried." The clergy deals with the truths which 
 belong to all time and to all eternity. So far, indeed, from doling 
 out the rations which perish with the using, masons are they 
 building with stones quarried from the Rock of Ages heavenward 
 aspiring towers ; and they cannot be thwarted by any confusion of 
 tongues, for they can build in all languages. 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding these surface contrasts, they possess 
 deep lines of similarity. If one is actual and the other theological, 
 both can say, and say it with equal emphasis: "The field is the 
 world." Their libraries, unlike those of the lawyer and the doctor, 
 are not professional and special, but broad and universal. The 
 preacher and the editor must both pursue their studies wherever the 
 star of genius shines, or the spade of research digs. The pews 
 demand that intellectual grip which comes of familiarity with the 
 latest knowledge and with the best thought, and the journalist who 
 confines his range of ideas to current events and discussions will 
 shrivel into a mere organ-grinder. 
 
 Better and best of all, to the two professions apply the same ethi- 
 cal rules. What could be more appropriate for either the editor's 
 sanctum or the preacher's study than the prospectus of the first 
 American newspaper, which runs: " Say nothing which is not believed 
 to be true, repairing to the best fountains for information, and, if any 
 material mistake is made, correct it in the next issue." Facts and 
 truths equally demand perfect sincerity, tireless investigation, and 
 the honorable correction of error. Both professions also demand 
 the clear recognition of certain limitations. The ethical abomination 
 of the daily press is a surfeit of criminal news, and the more correct 
 the reports, the worse their influence. 
 
 But it is to be remembered that, while the clergy portray the 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 23 
 
 world as it should be, the press deals with and shows the world as 
 it is. One has to do with the ideal, the other with the actual, and 
 there is no other agency of reform so potent as the newspaper, with 
 its light focalized upon passing events. The clergy has a different 
 but no less notable limitation. The true preacher is not a prisoner 
 immured within a dungeon creed, walled in and shut out from the 
 light of day by ancient symbols and formulas, his only luminary the 
 tallow dip of by-gone thoughts. The platform, to vary the figure, 
 whereon he stands, is the deck of a ship in mid-ocean, with her sails 
 full set to catch every breeze that makes for righteousness and prog- 
 ress. He sees only the few objects which float within the range of 
 a narrow vision ; but he knows very well that there are continents of 
 truth lying beyond his limited horizon. Consistency is indeed a 
 jewel ; but, when purchased at the expense of candor and sincerity, 
 it becomes the veriest pinchbeck. 
 
 Fortunately the lofty teachings of him whose life work is in all 
 our thoughts to-night has not been circumscribed by any pulpit. 
 The press has furnished him an audience beyond the capacity even 
 of a coliseum. And in this higher use the press is not a one-man 
 power. The Monday issue of a properly conducted newspaper is a 
 symposium of thoughts upon the great solemnities. The longing 
 thoughts of philosophy and scholarship still go back to Athens. In 
 the noon-tide of her intellectual splendor her academy was the 
 brain centre of the world. Studious youth from far and near flocked 
 thither to sip the honey of Attic wisdom. Long and tedious jour- 
 neys, fraught with great peril and hardship, were accounted a 
 small price to pay for the privilege of catching the words which fell 
 from the lips of those classic teachers. But in these latter days one 
 has only to invest a nickel, and above him sway the stately plane 
 trees of the grove. With the regularity of Monday morning, a 
 goodly number of the clergy take their accustomed walk from the 
 Piraeeus along the cool and shady Ilissus. It is not a promiscuous 
 detail either, but rather a picked company of choice spirits. The 
 unfortunates who are left in the lurch may assuage their chagrin and 
 envy by blatant outcry against the press; but the procession moves 
 on all the same. And with those chosen few goes a mighty multi- 
 
24 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 tude of laymen — men of business and the other professions — who are 
 blessed with some thoughts above the muck-rake. Better still, among 
 the throng, unseen perhaps, but intently listening, march the bright- 
 est spirits among the clergy. All denominations are represented. 
 They take as they go lessons in homiletics, in religion intershot with 
 philosophy and set to sermons. Thus, thanks to the natural selection 
 of the press and the clergy, has there been founded a training school 
 for the ministry, which has the advantage of the grove without its dis- 
 comforts. It exerts an immeasurably potential influence upon pul- 
 pit and pew. 
 
 And now, in conclusion, allow me to offer the sentiment : This 
 new academy of Chicago, may it long enjoy the presence and always 
 feel the influence of its Plato. 
 
 LITERARY PAUPERIS 
 
 MAJOR JOSEPH KIRKLAND. 
 
 "The landowner's wealth is in his thousand acres; the thinker's wealth is in his thousand 
 thoughts." — Swing. 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentle?nen: Why is it that literature 
 and poverty are the Siamese twins of history ? Why are the men 
 who lead the thought of the world the paupers of the world ? We 
 who are privileged to address you at this feast are expected to eat 
 at least our share of the good things provided; but the speakers at 
 the world's banquet are expected to live on bread and water. It 
 seems as if penury must spring from the root " penna," an instrument 
 for writing. 
 
 Honor and fame ! Admirable and delightful abstractions on 
 which the poor human stomach starves to death ! Do you remember 
 what Falstaff says, as quoted by a sixteenth century writer (either 
 Shakespeare or Bacon, I am not sure which, but suspect it was 
 Bacon)? Sir John says: "Can honor set a leg? No. Or an arm ? 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 25 
 
 No. Or take away the grief of a wound ? No. Who hath it ? He 
 that died a Wednesday." 
 
 I think St. John, in the Apocalypse, must have been dreaming of 
 the empty honor of unpaid authorship, when he spoke of the little 
 book which was sweet in the mouth, but bitter in the belly. 
 
 Our honored guest of this evening is a leader of the thoughts, 
 words and actions of men. His writings are a perennial fountain of 
 common sense, uncommon wisdom, charity, and love, — yea, of wit, 
 fun, laughter, — pure, unrestrained, because unashamed. Now, sup- 
 pose him brought down to living upon the copyright of his published 
 works, — in other words, on literature pure and simple. I violate no 
 confidence when I tell you that, though, as you see him here, he is 
 not obese, David Swing is to-day a perfect David Davis compared to 
 what he would be after a year of that diet. [Laughter.] 
 
 And if he cannot make literature pay, who can ? No one. The 
 atmosphere is too thin, and no wing need try to soar to immortality 
 through a medium too thin for David's wing. Why is this ? Partly 
 because man, ever since he emerged from the condition of the 
 catarrhine ape into that of catarrhal human, has misapprehended 
 the relative values of things. He has considered the tangible matters 
 of earth to be permanent, whereas they are the most transient of 
 all. They perish in the using. Words are the only things that live 
 forever, and words and thoughts man has always taken as cheap as 
 he could get them, — usually for nothing. A second reason is because 
 law has not yet escaped from the trammels of barbarism. She has 
 freed one of her hands; but the other is still chained to the rock. 
 With her one free hand she has done wonders. Starting from the 
 modest aim of protecting a man's skin and bones, a little later his 
 crops and his flocks and herds, she reached as her highest flight the 
 protection of his reputation and his feelings. In this last task she 
 has been of late going backward ; but then, the newspapers have 
 taken the job off her hands. Never yet has she soared to the 
 height of recognizing fully private property in published words. 
 Perhaps in some millennium of time, some Utopia of place, she may 
 give us copyrights unending in duration, unlimited in space and 
 untrammeled in scope ; but this is far away. Meanwhile there is a 
 
26 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 step of progress now possible , to us. The bill for international 
 copyright, now before the Senate, may become a law, and will, if 
 you and I and all of us do our duty and bear our testimony. Do 
 you know, that, in this matter of international copyright, America 
 is the tail of the procession ? Every other civilized nation on 
 earth has already announced herself as too rich to beg and too 
 proud to steal. America, the richest and the proudest of all, alone 
 to-day confesses herself poor enough to beg and mean enough to 
 steal. This law will relieve her from that stigma. 
 
 The late lamented Jim Fisk, at a critical point in every negotia- 
 tion, used to ask: "Where be I in this thing?" So Chicago, which 
 follows the lead of Mr. Fisk in some matters, may now ask her- 
 self: "Where be I in this copyright thing?" Here is where she 
 stands. She is about to come into possession of the Newberry free 
 library, — probably the first in the world, not even excepting the 
 British Museum. Being thus provided with all the ready-made liter- 
 ature mankind possesses, will she ever have a home-made literature 
 of her own ? As things stand now, she will not. Her rising literati 
 cannot compete with a literature stolen ready-made. Zola sends 
 over his semi-annual sewer-delivery, and it is furnished in our 
 market " without money and without price." Salvation and damna- 
 tion are quoted at the same rates on the American ticker. As 
 William Nye remarks, "we are ruined by Chinese cheap labor." 
 When I was in Washington last week, a Boston publisher testified, 
 that, owing to the absence of international copyright, they could not 
 publish books of unknown American authors, good or bad. Every 
 such manuscript offered him — and there were hundreds of them — 
 was returned to its author, unopened. 
 
 If the copyright measure shall become a law, the next genera- 
 tion of Chicago geniuses may present a literature indigenous, and 
 worthy of its birthplace. In the last Century magazine Charles G. 
 Leland uses a figure which I envy him, it is so perfect and so pat. 
 As he did not copyright it, and as I am an American, I will steal it. 
 He says: "An ancient fable relates, that, when a serpent eats the brood 
 of another, her own young die unborn within her." I do not think 
 that for this audience I need to elaborate on the moral of this fable. 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 2? 
 
 Let us do honor and justice to our beloved guest of the evening 
 as a literary man. It is he who gave me my text, and it is a true 
 and worthy apothegm, " The landowner's wealth is in his thousand 
 acres: the thinker's wealth is in his thousand thoughts." Therefore, 
 let us refrain from stealing the latter as well as the former. 
 
 THE MODERN SERMON. 
 
 REV. ABBOTT E. KITTREDGE. 
 
 " Man is a tree whose blossoms are sentiments, and fruit, thoughts." — Swing. 
 
 I am very happy to be with you this evening, and to bring my 
 hearty congratulations to my brother, whom, for more than 
 fifteen years, I have loved to know, and known only to love. You 
 have asked me to speak on the " Modern Sermon," and I am a little 
 puzzled to know what that means. If it had been the " Model " or 
 " Ideal Sermon," the meaning would have been plain; but even then 
 my ideal might have differed from yours, and so my painting have 
 been a disappointment. I will, therefore, interpret my topic to 
 signify the modern sermon as contrasted with the sermons of past 
 centuries, and will seek to show in what respects the prevailing type 
 of preaching is an improvement on the prevailing types of the past, 
 and how far the best sermon of to-day conforms to the preaching by 
 the noblemen of the pulpit in former ages. 
 
 We will notice the modern sermon in its theological character. It 
 is unmistakably different from the prevailing type of sermons in recent 
 centuries, and yet, fundamentally, it is the same; the change is one 
 simply of theological adjustment. There was a time when, to the mind 
 of the church, the truth of the justice of God stood out most prom- 
 inently, as the one sublimest doctrine of the creed. Sinai was in the 
 foreground, with Calvary less noticeable, though in the picture, — and 
 always the theme of adoring wonder and praise. The theology of 
 
28 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 to-day is not a modern discovery; it has no new God, no new system 
 of faith; it has not leveled Sinai, nor robbed the divine law of its 
 sublime and majestic holiness: it has simply brought Calvary to the 
 front; it has made the divine justice the background on which faith 
 has painted the glory of redeeming love; it has substituted as glad 
 tidings the heart of the Christ for the thunders of the law, flooding 
 the creed with the sunlight of redemption. So that the modern 
 sermon is an invitation instead of a threatening; it is the echo of the 
 " come " of Jesus the Master ; and you have only to study the 
 gospels and the epistles of the New Testament to see, that, in this 
 particular, the theology of to-day is more evangelical than that 
 which prevailed in some centuries, — not that the latter was unscrip- 
 tural, but simply that it was not the gospel, which is glad tidings, not 
 wrath and fear. And, as the warm rays of the summer's sun cause the 
 seeds in the cold earth to burst their wrappings, and the plant to 
 actually leap into verdure and blossoms and fruit, so the preaching of 
 the fathomless and eternal and comforting love of God is the sun- 
 shine of this world, breaking up the hard soil, and wooing the 
 thoughts and affections out of the wrappings of selfishness, and up 
 into the beauty and richness of sanctified, holy lives. 
 
 The modern sermon formulates a very simple creed for the 
 anchorage of faith, for the manual of daily living. There was a 
 time when the church sought to comprehend the God side of re- 
 demption as well as the human side, and constructed its creed with 
 doctrines, all of them perhaps true, but doctrines which were so full 
 of infiniteness that to be able sincerely to confess an understand- 
 ing of them, was to affirm a comprehension of God Himself. These 
 doctrines were placed by the church at the portal of its visible 
 fellowship, thus making what was originally the visible body of 
 Christ to be a theological school, into which those only could enter 
 who were already prepared for graduation to glory. The sermon of 
 that day was largely a doctrinal disquisition, to the hearers dry 
 because its profound analyses did not so much as touch the outer 
 fringe of daily experience ; and men and women listened with no 
 personal interest, except such as leads one to study the stars through 
 the telescope, only in this case the telescopic glass was necessarily 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 29 
 
 blurred, and the children went quietly to sleep, unable to catch a 
 word whose meaning their young minds could grasp. Some of us 
 can remember those sermons in our childhood days, when topics 
 such as predestination, election and the definition of the Trinity 
 were the favorite pulpit themes, and when the minister seemed to us 
 so grandly far away from all the facts of common life, that we felt 
 very much like the little girl who, when the clergyman called on her 
 mother, hid behind the sofa, emerging only when he had gone out 
 of the door, with this wondering question of awe on her lips: 
 " Mamma, was that God ? " 
 
 Now, I am not saying, this evening, that these incomprehensible 
 doctrines were not all true, but only this, that they pertained to the 
 God side of redemption ; that they were beyond human grasp ; that, 
 with our limited, because finite, vision, they could not be harmonized 
 with the opposite truths of human action, and the sad result was 
 unhealthy speculation, unnecessary and harmful skepticism, and the 
 shutting out from the inestimable privileges of the Christian church 
 of a vast number who did not deny, but could not assent to, truths 
 which they could not understand. The modern sermon emphasizes the 
 human side of doctrinal truth. It leaves with God those facts con- 
 cerning His being and eternal purposes, which are too vast to be 
 comprehended, and deals with such clearly perceived facts as the 
 love of the Father, the atoning work of the Son, the gospel invi- 
 tation to the whole world, grace provided for all, and man's ability 
 to accept the invitation and to walk with God, and to grow in spir- 
 itual stature to be like God. It brings the blessed helps of the 
 Bible provision down to man's practical daily life ; seeks to purify 
 his heart, to ennoble his principles, to make him honest in trade, 
 loving in his home, benevolent to the needy; and, taking the Master's 
 own graphic language as its basis, it throws open the Gate that is 
 one resplendent pearl, to all those, who, in the name of Christ, com- 
 fort the sick, feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, 
 and give the cup of cold water to parched lips. Thus the sermon 
 is an inspiration to purer, manlier, Godlike living; and the world, I 
 believe, is made brighter and holier by each Sabbath's communion. 
 
 Spurgeon tells of a fountain in the town of Goslar, in the Hartz 
 
30 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 Mountains, which was so peculiarly constructed that the jets and the 
 basin into which the water fell were above the reach of any man of 
 ordinary stature, and yet the object of the fountain was to supply 
 the people of the town with water. In order to gain it, however, 
 every person brought a spout or trough with him, long enough to 
 reach to the top of the fountain, and thus he brought the water down 
 into his pitcher. If he came without a trough, he must go away 
 thirsty; and yet, a little expenditure of money to secure a mason's work 
 with a chisel, would have brought the crystal stream within the reach 
 of all. It was an absurd construction of a fountain for the people, 
 and any sermon whose style is so lofty, and its truths so profound, 
 that the common people cannot drink the waters of life without 
 a dictionary, is an absurd discourse, and souls will perish from thirst 
 on such preaching. 
 
 The modern sermon culls from every field of literature, as well as 
 from the Bible, its materials with which to add to the beauty and 
 power of the truth, as our Lord thought it not beneath His dignity 
 to teach the sublimest truths to His disciples, from the lily of the 
 field and the radiant plumage of the birds. The great truths of the 
 Bible, before their construction into a sermon, are like the rich, 
 metallic ores when they are in the rocky mine; and in this state they 
 are totally unlike the equestrian statue which the artist builds up 
 from that metallic ore by his genius. The work of the preacher is 
 construction work, bringing divine truths into new combinations, 
 and organizing them into a complete unity, which shall teach some 
 grand lesson, by the inspiration of which there shall be formed heroic 
 soul statues. Into this construction, the preacher pours his whole 
 being, imagination brings in her vivid images of beauty, not for the 
 purpose of delighting an audience, but as the clothing of the truth; 
 the thought searches through realms of history, poetry, art, science, 
 for gems with which to make the diadem of God's love more 
 radiant, and care is given even to the elegance of style, and to per- 
 spicuity, in order that there may be appropriate companionship for 
 conceptions the grandest, and truths the profoundest, that mortal 
 mind can consider. Poverty of ideas or plainness of style are no 
 help, but an injury, to the truth; for, as in nature, you find the 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 31 
 
 beautiful and useful combined, as the blossoms of the apple tree do 
 not repress, but serve to bring out, the golden fruit, so the sermon is 
 made more rich and powerful by those thoughts that blossom into 
 beauty; and he is unfit to preach who seeks to deform himself by 
 trying to get into the mould of another mind, so as to preach like 
 this or that celebrated sermonizer. God has made every soul 
 peculiar from every other; and He meant that each one should pour 
 his soul into his preaching, his thought, his imagination, his style, 
 his impassioned feeling; and such a preacher cannot fail to make 
 himself a power in the community, and it must be a power for good, 
 so long as he thinks and writes in the light streaming from the face 
 of Christ, though his way of putting the truth into words may differ 
 from the stereotyped form. We bring garlands of flowers at Christ- 
 mas and Easter into our temples of prayer and our homes, and we 
 weave the Name that is above every name, into the fragrant beauty of 
 nature's sweetest offering. So the modern sermon loses nothing, 
 but gains immeasurably, when it weaves the name and the love of 
 Christ with the richest flowers of thought and fancy; when, with 
 every faculty of a disciplined and furnished intellect, it holds up the 
 gospel with loving hands. 
 
 The modern sermon is the terror of evil-doers, because it is the 
 fearless enemy of iniquity, and its words of condemnation give no 
 uncertain sound. When the sermon is sensational, through gro- 
 tesque topics to awaken curiosity, or vulgarity or slang to attract 
 religious tramps, then the pulpit is degraded, and religion, as thus 
 represented, becomes an object of contempt to the world. But, 
 when the sermon goes to the other extreme, and is an aimless, life- 
 less, monotonous thing, striking at nothing, touching every question 
 with gloved fingers, then the pulpit is the object of ridicule ; it is a 
 citadel with no watchman on the walls, and the billows of vice and 
 crime roll on unchecked and undisturbed, and wicked men pursue 
 their iniquitous designs with boldness. The sermon should have no 
 affiliation with any political party ; for, when the preacher stands in 
 the pulpit, he stands above all party divisions, as God's ambassador, 
 and as a member of the glorious party of which Christ is the head. 
 But this party is the foe of sin everywhere, and in every form ; its 
 
32 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 torch of salvation not only lights up the way to Paradise, but 
 reveals by its radiant purity, the corruption and evil that are in the 
 world, and fearlessly rebukes, in the name of the Father, and for the 
 rescue and upbuilding of the souls of men. Such preaching will 
 arouse opposition. You cannot empty a nest of vipers without a good 
 deal of hissing and striking at you ; but that is the very best sign. 
 It shows that the sermon hit somebody, as a Scotch minister once 
 said to one who was afraid of agitation : "Agitation ! Why, what 
 good in the world was ever done without agitation ? We cannot 
 make butter even without it." You remember the reply which a 
 minister gave to one who came to him, complaining of a remark in 
 the sermon of the day before, " Did you know, sir, that you hurt my 
 feelings yesterday ? " " Oh ! " answered the fearless preacher, " I am 
 very sorry that you took that. I meant that for the devil, and you 
 stepped in and took it yourself. Don't get between me and the devil, 
 brother, and you won't get your feelings hurt." 
 
 The modern sermon will paint Christ on the canvas, and the 
 preacher will be hidden behind Him whose love is to rule, at last, in 
 every heart; and such Christ-preaching with Christ-living will triumph 
 at last over all evil, and the banquet of the millennium will begin. 
 
 In this grandest of all missions, the overthrow of evil and the 
 elevation of humanity to the purity, liberty and love of the Christ- 
 life, all the preachers of Christianity are one ; and in the joy of this 
 mission I clasp your hand, my dear brother, Prof. Swing, in a hearty 
 and warm friendship, praying for you the richest of blessings, a long 
 life, an increasing power for righteousness, and a heavy crown when 
 you pass up higher. 
 
 CHURCH INSURANCE. 
 
 HON. EUGENE CARY. 
 
 "The true church is not external : its temple, and worship, and virtues are in the heart." — Swing. 
 
 " Church Insurance." I am at a loss how to handle this theme, 
 unless, after the old manner of the divines, I divide the text into two 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 33 
 
 sections, and speak of the church now, and leave the insurance part 
 to be considered " on the evening of the next Lord's day at early 
 candle light." 
 
 I suppose it is assumed there is a heap of fun and humor buried 
 somewhere under this theme. Of course, there has been a good 
 deal of the grotesque about the church, the same as there has been 
 grotesque law, grotesque philosophy, and grotesque physic. But, in 
 my present mood, I am not the one to develop it here, or to speak 
 in any light and merely humorous vein about an institution which, if 
 not dear to all of us, has been dear to many who were dear to us, 
 and that has filled so large and solemn place in the hearts and lives 
 of men, and in the progress and destiny of the world. 
 
 When Gen. Grant was a candidate the first time for the 
 presidency, one of the conundrums of the canvass, referring to an 
 expression in his letter of acceptance, was: "Why is Gen. Grant 
 not like an insurance company?" Answer: "Because he has no 
 policy." 
 
 If I must keep somewhere near to the language of our sentiment, 
 I will have to say, that, if the church be like insurance, or is to be 
 likened to an insurance company, it must be because it has, and 
 has had, a policy. 
 
 The church has indeed had a policy which, though perturbed at 
 times, in its grand reach and purpose, has always been constant, 
 broad, strong, upward and helpful. It has been with the march of 
 civilization, making it humane; it has been with the progress 
 of society, lifting it upward; it has been behind the governments 
 of the world, seeking to make them just; it is the only institution 
 whose ambition and policy has ever compassed another world, and 
 sought to lift men to a destiny too large for time. 
 
 Looking back now we see much in it that we think was weak ; 
 much that we feel was false. We see how much waste there was of 
 time, strength and feeling on senseless controversy about idle defi- 
 nitions, on worthless abstractions and heartless creeds. But we can 
 also see that these defects and errors were but the incidents and 
 weakness of the times, which did not materially affect the flow and 
 direction of the mighty current ; were but the colorings from the 
 
34 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 banks through which the great stream ran, and from which it is now 
 emerging with waters sweet and clear. 
 
 While there were alchemists and visionaries among scholars 
 and philosophers outside the church, it would be strange if they did 
 not exist within it ; and if, while those without were seeking the 
 elixir of life or searching for the fountain of perpetual youth, those 
 within did not seek to weigh the divine essence, or measure and set 
 with metes and bounds the divine will and purpose. But these were 
 but the results of contemporary human contact and influence, to 
 which governments and all institutions were alike subject. 
 
 The student of law may find it written down in the books of his 
 profession, as the law of the British realm, certainly as late as when 
 the doctrine of reprobation was exactly defined, that a husband may 
 legally chastise his wife, if the stick he use be no thicker than his 
 thumb. I think this law has never been formally repealed, and that 
 this statement of the law remains true at the present day. Still, not- 
 withstanding the law, the stick has dropped from the husband's 
 hand, and the law of force and blows has given way to the rule of 
 religion and love. So, too, while the offensive definitions and 
 formulas remain imbedded in the creeds of the church, into which 
 they were frozen in a vindictive and speculative age, somehow or 
 other they have dropped out of the life and policy of the church, 
 and out of the sermons of the clergy, and are heard no more than 
 the husband's stick in the execution of the kindred barbarism. Both 
 are a dead letter, useful only as marks from which to note the prog- 
 ress of humanity and religion. Neither has place any longer in 
 the life or policy of state or church. 
 
 It is said that even the sun is not without spots on his face and 
 record; yet he has always been a glorious king of day, and his 
 presence has been light and warmth and life. 
 
 When Col. Ingersoll shall have destroyed the church because of 
 the blots on its record, and when he shall have destroyed the law, as 
 he logically must, because of the blemishes on its record, let us hope 
 that he will spare us the sun, despite his spots, because, with 
 religious and legal restraints all removed, I fear we should not be 
 quite safe in the dark. 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 35 
 
 The world having become practical in all its thoughts, methods and 
 strivings, see how the life and policy of the church are becoming 
 practical also. Having found that the future can always take care 
 of itself, it has now turned to looking after the present, which always 
 needs help. Having found, with Job, that no one can "by search- 
 ing find out God," it has turned to a kindly study and care of His 
 image. Having learned anew the lesson of the Sermon on the 
 Mount, that the allotments in the future are to be according to the 
 benefactions rendered in the present, it finds the field of duty and 
 religion is where humanity dwells in sorrow and rags, — where the 
 hungry, the thirsty and the stranger are ; where the naked are to 
 be clothed, and where the sick and the prisoner languish for visi- 
 tation and succor. Having learned that "God hath made of one 
 blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth," 
 it has come at last to recognize a common brotherhood of man, and 
 to at least venture to hope for all a common glorious destiny. 
 
 It is not on the bare, white mountain top, kissed first, last and 
 oftenest by the sun, where his generous warmth rests and lingers, 
 but down in the shadows of the valley : here the fields put on their 
 living green, the birds sing, the flowers bloom, the fruits ripen, the 
 husbandman garners his harvest, and industry finds opportunity and 
 reward. 
 
 And so the practical church of our day, leaving the bare though 
 glistening heights of cold abstraction, is found warm, active and use- 
 ful down among the activities, needs, temptations and trials of 
 humanity. Looking up for light, it looks around for opportunity. 
 Here it may sow the seeds of love and kindness and charity, sure of 
 a rich harvest of blessing. 
 
36 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 THE CHURCH AND ART. 
 
 BY REV. JOHN H. BARROWS, D. D. 
 
 " Literature is that form of thought which offends no mind. It is thought and beauty." — Swing. 
 
 For twenty eventful years our guest has been a high priest of 
 the beautiful, an influential preacher of the value of higher things 
 in a community which is supposed to appreciate the art of wrestling, 
 and the art of slaughtering swine, and the art of " fixing " election 
 returns, far more than Lessing's Laocoon and the " Seven Lamps of 
 Architecture." In the apprenticeship of our city, he has held before 
 us the value of the ideal good; and, as Mrs. Browning says, "It 
 takes the ideal to blow a hand's breadth off the dust of the actual." 
 He has had the joy of seeing among us vast changes for the bet- 
 ter, both aesthetic and ecclesiastical. Only a wicked St. Louis 
 newspaper would now dare to assert that it was a Chicago lady 
 who came back from Rome and told of her rapture in seeing 
 the Apollo Belladonna and the Dying Gladiolus ! As Emerson 
 labored to correct the faults of "this great, intelligent, sensual 
 and avaricious America," so our friend has aimed to mend the man- 
 ners of " this great, intelligent, sensual and avaricious Chicago." 
 Lowell says, that, in his own life, Poor Richard has been slowly 
 " elbowing Plato out ; " but I believe, that, in the life of our 
 city, Plato has been cordially invited to come in and teach us 
 that the beautiful is as really an expression of the Divine mind as 
 the true and the good, and that, as Ruskin has taught us, the 
 highest form of the beautiful cannot be appreciated apart from 
 some degree of moral sensibility. 
 
 I know that the church has nothing to do with art directly, and 
 yet it is unquestionable that religion has given to art its greatest 
 themes and noblest inspirations. We all know that music, the most 
 universal of the arts, and next to poetry the highest of all, — music, in 
 which Richter found something holy, has been the sweet-voiced 
 attendant of the Divine King, who was cradled among angelic sym- 
 phonies, and who has marched down the centuries amid cathedrals 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 37 
 
 builded to His glory, and pictures on which genius and devotion have 
 toiled to reveal the face of the Altogether Lovely. Puritan Christian- 
 ity has been the enemy of art whenever art was the friend of im- 
 purity and superstition ; but out of Puritanism sprang the two 
 greatest works of literary art of the seventeenth century, the 
 " Paradise Lost " of Milton and the " Pilgrim's Progress " of Bun- 
 yan. George Eliot, the greatest prose artist of our generation, 
 with all her vagaries of thought and life, found the basis of her 
 literary inspiration, not in the theory of the satanic school of Wilde 
 and Swinburne, that any element of morals is " an evidence of 
 incompleteness of vision in literary and artistic matters," but rather 
 in a deep desire to join "the choir invisible " of those selecter souls 
 " whose music is the gladness of the world." And when we rise to 
 perhaps the supreme literary artist of all time, the author of the 
 " Divine Comedy," that " mediaeval miracle of song," which Canon 
 Farrar commended to us as a re-enforcement to our weakened moral 
 fibre, we find it to have been the work of one who made God and 
 sorrow his daily companions. 
 
 True art, whether it seeks expression in colors or tones, in forms 
 or words, aims to penetrate to the soul of things ; and the soul of 
 things is the Supernatural. " Nature," says Emerson, " is too thin a 
 veil : God is all the while breaking through." " I'd rather be a 
 pagan suckled at a creed outworn " than look on the outer world 
 with agnostic eyes. The artist who does not see Nature as translu- 
 cent with the light of invisible spheres, is like the Israelite who 
 reads Moses with a veil over his soul. The transfiguration of art is 
 the radiance which, as in Correggio's picture of the " Infancy," comes 
 from the face of Him by whom all things were made, and who 
 traverses the world like the child in Guido's " Morning," holding in 
 his hand the torch which is — 
 
 " The fountain light of all our day, 
 And the master-light of all our seeing." 
 
 Oliver Wendell Holmes has expressed the hope that America 
 may yet produce a literature as original as the Rocky Mountains and 
 the Mississippi river. That day may be far distant. It may be 
 a remote epoch when American art shall have distinctive form. But, 
 
38 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 if that form is to be notable and worthy, it will spring, as all that is 
 greatest has done, from the moral and religious sentiment. It will 
 have in it something of that beauty of holiness which shines from 
 the verse of Milton and the canvas of Fra Angelico as well as from 
 the pages of David and Isaiah. " Contrive," said the great Leonardo 
 da Vinci to his pupils, " that your figures receive a broad light from 
 above." It was the habit of the Roman maidens who had been 
 promised in marriage, to be seen first by their lovers in the rotunda 
 of the Pantheon, where, as you remember, the only light descends 
 from the single sublime aperture in the dome. So let the light which 
 falls on our civilization come from the uplifted cross of Christ, and 
 the face of America shall be fair to look on, and we shall be skilled 
 in the best of all arts, that of building up men in the knowledge and 
 practice of whatsoever things are pure and true and lovely and of 
 good report. 
 
 Longfellow sang regretfully of the days of Albert Durer, " when 
 art was still religion;" but the time can never come when art shall 
 rightly be severed from the Christian ethics which are the basis of 
 all permanent blessing. The Parthenon which lifts toward the 
 golden-tinted sky the whiteness of its untarnished beauty, must 
 repose on the immovable Acropolis of truth and goodness. And the 
 artist, who ought to be of stature to carry " the torch of life which 
 has been passed from lifted hand to hand down the generations," 
 must not become, as Dryden for a while descended to become, as 
 Lowell has said, "a link-boy to the stews." And the modern 
 aesthete who prefers form and finish to substance and thought, and 
 who, forgetting all that is greatest in architecture and sculpture, 
 painting and music and poetry, asserts that ethics and aesthetics 
 have no common base, scorning the teaching of Cousin, that the 
 moral idea is the chief element in the beautiful, and the teaching of 
 Schelling, that the aesthetic lies in character, is the apostle of an un- 
 wholesome and meretricious art, the art of literary fops and dudes, 
 and the disciples of the " dirt philosophy." Such earthy and unholy 
 art, which, in much of modern French painting, delights in sensuality 
 and slaughter, pandering to the savage and salacious in man, is 
 the poison sucked from a decaying flower. It is the corrupter of the 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 39 
 
 soul, which is the one priceless thing in the world, and it leads to 
 lives selfish, sensual, restless, or, to say it in one word, Parisian. 
 Such a life is like the Dead Sea, into which, though the streams pour in 
 floods, it is made no sweeter thereby, but stretches out an acrid 
 expanse, above which hang the mists of discontent, and along whose 
 shores the driftwood of many a bitter year is tossed. But the truest 
 art, whether we find it in Homer's heroic and resounding line, in the 
 intricate harmonies of Browning's "Saul," or in Wordsworth's great 
 meditative " Ode to Immortality;" whether we feel its grandeur in the 
 symphonies of Beethoven, or its pensive tenderness in the landscapes 
 of Millet; whether we are touched by the homely scenes of David 
 Wilkie and Thomas Faed, or are startled by the magic light and 
 shadow of Rembrandt, — the truest art, which lifts us to the " joy of 
 elevated thoughts," as, in imagination, we watch the hand that pen- 
 ciled the Dresden " Madonna," or the greater — 
 
 ' ' Hand that rounded Peter's dome, 
 And groined the aisles of Christian Rome," — 
 
 is always found the friend and promoter of truth and goodness, of 
 aspiration and faith. It is like the Christ-life, which resembles, not 
 the Dead Sea, but the sacred Ganges, coming down to our earth 
 from the highest heights, feeding the roots of thirsty grasses along 
 its shores, offering a tribute to the majestic palm-tree and the blos- 
 soming shrub of the oleander, giving a cup of water to pariah and 
 prince, cooling the night air for the infant's slumbers, and, under the 
 moonlight, showing a face of beauty to the lone watchers from the 
 walls of Delhi and the minarets of Benares, until, made doubly 
 sacred by its countless benefactions, it rolls through a hundred 
 channels into the Indian Sea. 
 
 Professor Swing, let me close these remarks in grateful recog- 
 nition of your eminent services to the higher life of this community, 
 with an expression of the kindly feelings of that group of your 
 friends which I represent. The venerated Charles Hodge, of Prince- 
 ton, once wrote: " Old controversies and diversities of opinion are 
 passing out of view; I dread being estranged from any who truly 
 love and worship our common Lord and Saviour." Our differences 
 have not estranged us, and you will allow me to give you this 
 
40 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 benediction: "May the light of the True, the Fair and the Good, 
 ever shine along your brightening pathway, until, returning late into 
 Heaven, you shall see the King in His beauty." 
 
 A REMINISCENCE. 
 
 1 Music is the most universal art. Put a king in disguise, and he will follow a brjss band 
 like a boy."— Swing. 
 
 Though long the poet's pen hath lain in rust, 
 
 His verse a half-remembered fantasy, 
 Well might his art awaken from the dust, 
 
 To pay its fleeting tribute, friend, to thee. 
 No need to ask that friends of early days 
 
 May keep the place thou gav'st them in thy heart : 
 Thou saidst to me the single word ' ' always " 
 
 As once we briefly met, as soon to part. 
 The willing world will give thee praise and fame, 
 
 And tell thine empire over smiles and tears: 
 I only bring thee now, in friendship's name, 
 
 A simple story from the by-gone years. 
 
 Once, when the summer was a full-blown rose, 
 
 And God came near to nature with His grace 
 
 To crown with beauty every living thing, 
 
 Two friends, grown languid in the city air, 
 
 Wearied with toil and of the din of trade, 
 
 Sought the sweet haunts of nature for repose. 
 
 One bore a name that even then was great, 
 
 Known in two worlds, the other was his friend. 
 
 In woodland shades, by waters sweet and clear, 
 
 In converse they beguiled the summer hours; 
 
 Their themes, the landscape, waters, skies and flowers. 
 
 Not to imprisoned dwellers in the town 
 
 The heavens declare God's glory. The wide sky 
 
 Is narrowed to the channel of a street 
 
 Unfringed by wayside flowers. The fleecy clouds 
 
 Are seen not, nor the glowing, golden west : 
 
 The life that now is veils the light on high, 
 
 And men doubt God who never see His sky. 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 41 
 
 The friends one Sabbath rambled near a wood 
 
 Crowning a hill, where, half concealed, there stood — 
 
 Rich in stained glass and deftly carven stone 
 
 (A poet builder's realistic dream) — 
 
 A church (Nashotah mission, it is called) 
 
 Embowered in shade; and, through its open door 
 
 Came in sweet melody a sacred hymn. 
 
 The place was holy ground, and, drawing near, 
 
 They sought the door-step of the fane for rest. 
 
 The air was sweet with clover, and the bees, 
 
 Careless of Sabbath in their search for spoil, 
 
 Made drowsy music for the listening ear. 
 
 Below them flashed the waters of a lake ; 
 
 And overhead the birds, in shady trees, 
 
 Joined their sweet treble to the song of praise; 
 
 Then came the litany, with its response; 
 
 But the great preacher, seated at the door, 
 
 Joined not, and still his look was far away 
 
 Where smiled the waters of the little lake, 
 
 Until his brother at the sacred desk 
 
 Had read, ' ' From envy, hatred, and malice, 
 
 And all uncharitableness ; " and then, 
 
 While in his eyes there shone a tender light, 
 
 He softly whispered the responding words, 
 
 " Good Lord, deliver us." 'Twas all he said. 
 
 Since that sweet morning years have come and gone, 
 And the great preacher, list'ning from his height, 
 Hears happy voices calling, "Lo ! the dawn ! " 
 And wailing voices crying, " Lo ! the night ! " 
 And he makes answer : ' ' Not in written creeds 
 Exists the power to satisfy our needs; 
 Man striving, falling, yet^that Friend may trust 
 Who knows our frame, rememb'ring we are dust. 
 The heart, doubt-wearied and by sin enticed, 
 Needs not opinion, — only Jesus Christ." 
 And thus, of all the sacred litany, 
 The words which ask that love may guide alway, 
 Which something good in every mortal find, 
 And plead for gentle judgment of mankind, 
 Inspire his life. He still the theme loves best 
 That touched thy heart that Sabbath morn, dear guest. 
 Feb. 22, 1886. Thomas S. Chard. 
 
42 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 RESPONSE. 
 
 PROF. DAVID SWING. 
 
 When Canon Farrar was in our city he told me of some London 
 lawyer or writer to whom a dinner was unexpectedly given, and, 
 when the parlors became thronged with guests, the man, awkward 
 and bashful, whispered to the Canon, " It does not seem possible 
 that all this disturbance of the peace is made over me." I must 
 repeat that form of argument, — and must wonder if there is some 
 mistake about this banquet, and if I have not a "double" somewhere 
 who ought to be here. 
 
 It is rather late for informing the Committee of Arrangements; 
 but I cannot accept of this whole grand gift of an evening from 
 you, whose time is so valuable; cannot accept of all these kind 
 words and kind deeds: what part I do accept I take without any 
 egotism, but with a full consciousness of the fact that this is an 
 instance in which it is at least as blessed to give as to receive. 
 
 My twenty years in Chicago have taught me that the city is full 
 of generous men and women, and that such an hour as this, along 
 with the honor it brings me, brings a happiness to the hundreds here 
 assembled. Next to the pleasure of hearing good words is the 
 pleasure of saying them. I see around me citizens who have done 
 full duty, social, political and moral, for a score of years; men who 
 have helped build up the city, and who have brought honor to its 
 name. I see members of the learned professions, physicians, law- 
 yers, teachers, whose influence has always been upon the side of the 
 public welfare, and, knowing you all, as I do, I must ask permission 
 to divide this banquet into many parts, and apportion it out to the 
 many excellent ones in this room. These flowers which your orators 
 and poets have brought to me I appreciate and admire; but I must 
 now tear the bouquet to pieces, and fling a rose to each of you, that 
 we may be like the Greeks, who, when they gave a banquet, made 
 each one wear a chaplet of leaves, men and women alike. All fore- 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 43 
 
 heads were one in those hours of friendship. To respond to the 
 sentiments offered this evening in prose and poetry is impossible. 
 The variety of themes treated, the wit and wisdom of the remarks, 
 and the merit of the poems read turn my mind wholly away from 
 myself, and fill me with admiration of a city which can give banquets 
 at which all professions and callings meet in perfect harmony, and 
 where the viands upon the table are no more delicate or tempting 
 than those spread out by the mind and heart. 
 
 Mr. Froude, the English historian, passed through this city a year 
 ago, and, having spent a couple of hours in a carriage or railway 
 station, repeated the customary conclusion of a certain kind of 
 Englishman, that Chicago was remarkable for its pig-killing. We 
 wish there could be some manner by which the information could be 
 conveyed to such foreigners, that the grains and meats shipped by 
 Chicago have no more to do with her moral and intellectual standing 
 than the beer manufactured in London has to do with her students 
 and writers, the members of her parliament, her pulpit, and of the 
 Temple Bar. England has $500,000,000 employed in the manufacture 
 of beer. She produces each year 25,000,000 barrels. Such a nation 
 ought to be swift to forgive Chicago for shipping certain barrels of 
 pork, and the traveling Froudes who can find something at home 
 besides beer, ought to be able to find something in Chicago 
 besides bacon. 
 
 Our city, like all great cities, contains two lives ; its business life 
 and its intellectual life, and Chicago will soon be as great in the 
 latter as she is in the former. Looking and listening to-night, I can- 
 not but wish that it will soon be discovered that twenty years have 
 passed over some other heads than mine, and that you will assemble 
 again under the two flags of friendship and philosophy, feasting and 
 thought. I thank you deeply for the honor of this banquet. To me 
 the assemblage is one of peculiar worth, because, being outside of 
 the denominations, I am much like Selkirk in his island, and have 
 much needed this fraternal greeting from brethren in the pulpit and 
 from members of other and all pursuits. I shall more than ever 
 feel the presence of that brotherhood which has this night been 
 made visible. 
 
44 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 It is a wonderful kindness in society, when it finds that some one 
 of its co-laborers is getting gray, to meet together and rejoice over 
 him and with him, as if old age were a blessing of which he might 
 not be fully aware without the help of your speeches and poems and 
 flowers. Happy city to live in where its friendships can, by a banquet, 
 convert twenty almost lost years into a delightful memory. 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 45 
 
 REGRETS. 
 
 The stage does not often congratulate the pulpit, which must 
 make the following dignified and scholarly letter from Lawrence 
 Barrett all the more acceptable to the Professor : 
 
 Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, Feb. 15. 
 Dear Friend : Let me intrude upon your festival to wish you 
 joy, but chiefly to wish the religious world joy that you have lived 
 so long to make your influence felt from one end of the land to the 
 other, — an influence which has kept frank minds within the faith 
 through its breadth and health, which has comforted the doubting 
 by a liberal interpretation, and has resisted above all the spread of 
 infidelity by the clear exposition of a faith which knows no narrow- 
 ness, no bigotry. In the name of the arts which you have so lov- 
 ingly cherished and sustained, I wish you long life and health and 
 many imitators; but chiefly, dear Professor, on this festival occa- 
 sion, I express for your future health and happiness the deep and 
 hearty prayer of your faithful friend, 
 
 Lawrence Barrett. 
 
 Prof. Swing's Irish friends also did not fail to remember the kind 
 words he has often had for them, as the following note, which ac- 
 companied a floral harp, will show : 
 
 Prof. David Swing — Dear Sir : In your public addresses and 
 on private occasions, you have frequently spoken humane, eloquent, 
 and generous words in behalf of the struggle of the Irish people for 
 social and political advancement. We join, therefore, with our 
 
46 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 fellow-citizens of other races and denominations in congratulating 
 you upon the twentieth anniversary of your arrival in Chicago, and 
 we sincerely wish you many years of health and happiness. 
 
 T. A. Moran. 
 
 Alexander Sullivan. 
 
 John F. Finerty. 
 
 Rockford, III., Feb. 19, 1886. 
 
 Messrs. N. K. Fairbank, W. S. Henderson, C. B. Holmes and 
 Gen. Chas. FitzSimons — Gentlemen : Thanking you for the invita- 
 tion to attend the complimentary dinner to Prof. David Swing, we 
 regret that we shall not be able to be present. 
 
 We wish to express our love for Prof. Swing, and appreciation of 
 the grand work which he has accomplished, in the religious and 
 intellectual upbuilding of Chicago, and the world at large, during 
 these twenty years of active, faithful service, which this gathering is 
 intended to commemorate. 
 
 When the roll of honor is made up, of the thinkers and teachers 
 who have been most instrumental in giving to the world the gospel 
 of love and liberty, which to-day fills our land, the name of Prof. 
 Swing will appear among the first of his generation. 
 
 We feel "that to have known * * * one man who, 
 through the rubs and chances of a long life, has carried his heart in 
 his hand, like a palm branch, waving all discords into peace, helps 
 our faith in God, in ourselves, and in each other, more than many 
 sermons." Such a man is Prof. Swing. 
 
 It is given to those who have felt the comforting power of his 
 words in days of sorrow and affliction, most fully to know and 
 appreciate his work and life. His character and influence are the 
 rich possession of the race, and will add an inspiration and tender, 
 loving sympathy to the lives of all who come within its reach. 
 
 Our most earnest desire and prayer is, that his life may be con- 
 tinued to a ripe old age. 
 
 Very truly your friends, 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Talcott. 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 47 
 
 Racine, Wis., Feb. 5, 1886. 
 
 Dear Sir : As one who listened to Prof. Swing's first sermon in 
 Chicago before he began his regular work there, — and who has since 
 been so great a debtor to him through the reading of his sermons, — 
 with only at great intervals having the privilege of listening to him, 
 permit me to express my gratification that the proposition for a tes- 
 timonial has taken form. 
 
 Thousands upon thousands of people outside of, but still a part 
 of, Chicago, because all their highways lead to your city, — will sym- 
 pathize in your acknowledgment of the debt which the entire West 
 is under to your great preacher of the real gospel of the Saviour of 
 the world, and who is influencing a much larger audience than 
 could be contained in many Central Music Halls to better living, 
 giving them broader and higher views of life. 
 
 Sincerely yours, Simeon Whiteley. 
 
 Hon. A. M. Pence, of Committee. 
 
48 
 
 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 THE GUESTS. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. R. McKay. 
 
 H. W. Quan. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Fulton. 
 
 Mrs. L. W. Ferris. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. John J. Herrick. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Edmund Norton. 
 
 Rev. and Mrs. H. W. Thomas. 
 
 J. H. Thayer. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. H. W. Thomson. 
 
 Rev. and Mrs. David Utter. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Dye. 
 
 Mrs. Wirt Dexter. 
 
 Miss Pierce, Boston. 
 
 Maj. and Mrs. C. A. Dibble. 
 
 Mr. J. O. Smith. 
 
 James Rood. 
 
 Ambrose Risdon. 
 
 E. Batchelor. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Frank Gilbert. 
 
 Gen. and Mrs. C. FitzSimons. 
 
 Edward D. Cooke. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Frank M. Blair. 
 
 Jewett E. Ricker. 
 
 H. G. Selfridge. 
 
 Mrs. L. F. Selfridge. 
 
 P. D. Skinner. 
 
 Rev. T. E. Green and lady. 
 
 Mrs. H. A. Johnson. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Harding. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. James B. Rayner. 
 
 Miss Quan. 
 
 John L. Fyffe. 
 
 Fred. P. Fisher. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Henry H. Handy. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Hiram Tompkins. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Tompkins. 
 
 Mrs. Chas. E. Towne. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Ira Tomblin. 
 
 Mr. James L. Clark. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Augustus N. Eddy. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Asa Dow. 
 
 Dr. R. N. Foster and Miss Foster. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Eugene S. Pike. 
 
 Gen. E. R. Wadsworth. 
 
 A. J. Snell, Jr. 
 
 Mrs. A. J. Snell. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. John M. Clark. 
 
 T. B. Skinner, Battle Creek, Mich. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. O. J. Stough. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. E. B. Sherman. 
 
 Mrs. John H. Barrows. 
 
 Mrs. Hugh T. Birch. 
 
 Mrs. E. M. Bedell. 
 
 M. E. Mead. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. A. A. Carpenter. 
 
 Miss Carpenter. 
 
 Mrs. L. K. Waldron. 
 
 Mrs. C. F. Kendall, Topeka, Kan. 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 
 
 49 
 
 Mrs. A. B. Stiles. 
 
 Bertha L. Howe. 
 
 Geo. N. Wright. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Dewitt C. Cregier. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. Hutchinson. 
 
 C. N. Fullerton. 
 
 James O. Hinkley. 
 
 Mrs. Jane de Mary. 
 
 J. O. Cottrell. 
 
 Austin Bierbower. 
 
 Jno. H. Hamline. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Bogue. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Ames. 
 
 Geo. Howland. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Kerr. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. E. O. Seymour. 
 
 John Crerar. 
 
 Robert L. Rayner. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. A. G. Sears. 
 
 Mrs. A. J. Stevens, California. 
 
 Mrs. T. J. Worth. 
 
 Arthur J. Caton. 
 
 Mrs. G. O. Chamberlin. 
 
 Mrs. H. O. Stone. 
 
 P. P. Heywood. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. E. F. Abbott. 
 
 Geo. A. Wheeler. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. F. Van Voorhis. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. R. H. McCormick. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Holmes. 
 
 Miss Allie Barnett. 
 
 Mrs. A. J. Stone. 
 
 J. Coleman Adams. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. I. S. Blackwelder. 
 
 Mrs. John P. Altgeld. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. L. High. 
 
 J. Stearns Smith. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. O. P. Curran. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Geo. D. Broomell. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Erskine M. Phelps. 
 
 E. D. Cooke. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. T. Boal. 
 
 Thos. B. Bryan. 
 
 Miss Florence Long. 
 
 Rev. R. Stuart, Battle Creek, Mich. 
 
 Miss Mamie Leighton. 
 
 Miss Ada E. Springer. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Joseph B. Leake. 
 
 Flora Wilson. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. D. F. Kenly. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. George M. Bogue. 
 
 Miss Evelyn Matz. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ayer. 
 
 Catharine M. Bogue. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Chesebrough. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Cook. 
 
 Mrs. C. P. James. 
 
 Mrs. G. H. Stafford, Washington, 
 
 D. C. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Ham. 
 Miss F. Sill, La Crosse, Wis. 
 Mrs. John Hamline. 
 Miss Helen Swing. 
 R. E. McAlister, New Orleans. 
 Huntington W. Jackson. 
 Mr. and Mrs. D. L. Shorey. 
 Mr. and Mrs. H. C. Hayt. 
 John Wentworth. 
 Chas. Knox. 
 Mrs. Emma Milbury. 
 Mrs. P. G. Noel, Topeka, Kansas. 
 
50 
 
 RECEPTION AND DINNER 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Wm. P. Nixon. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Norton. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. L. L. Coburn. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Chetlain. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. L. D. Webster. 
 
 J. H. Brooke and Wife. 
 
 Mrs. Edwin Brainerd. 
 
 N. K. Fairbank. 
 
 Chas. B. Hills. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. A. Dibble. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. W. J. Hawkes. 
 
 Mrs. M. N. Holland. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. John M. Durand. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Ira W. Allen. 
 
 F. P. Potter. 
 
 Mrs. Clinton Locke. 
 
 F. W. Callender. 
 Julius Rosenthal. 
 Dr. W. J. Home. 
 Moses J. Wentworth. 
 Mrs. H. W. Raymond. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Truman Penfield. 
 
 Mrs. Amanda S. Cook. 
 
 Azel F. Hatch. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Babbitt. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. O. F. Fuller. 
 
 Miss Minnie E. Marble. 
 
 Walter W. Mead. 
 
 Miss Fanny C. Wright. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Kirkland. 
 
 Wm. Ruger. 
 
 Louis M. Greeley. 
 
 G. A. Springer. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Kimball. 
 Robt. B. Gregory. 
 Miss Maggie Robinson. 
 
 Miss E. Nichols. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Howe. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. John T. White. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Josiah Stiles. 
 
 Mrs. A. C. Easton. 
 
 Mrs. H. D. Cable. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. W. O. Carpenter. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. S. M. Dunning. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Homer M. Thomas. 
 
 Miss Mary L. Hammill. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Blatchford. 
 
 Miss Amy Blatchford. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. Abbott E. Kittredge. 
 
 Miss Jennie Barlow. 
 
 Prof. H. M. Dickson and Wife. 
 
 H. H. Windsor. 
 
 Miss Nellie A. Fuller. 
 
 Senora Peixada. 
 
 J. B. Klein. 
 
 Wm. Bross. 
 
 Will. H. Rose. 
 
 Miss Allie Barns. 
 
 R. W. Lynch. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Willis F. Johnson. 
 
 Miss Minnie Greer. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. N. H. Warren. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. D. C. Leach. 
 
 L. W. Stone. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur S. Henderson. 
 
 M. R. Stow. 
 
 John G. Shortall. 
 
 S. S. Greeley, Jr. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. F. P. Stone. 
 
 Wm. G. Hibbard. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. B. Kirtland. 
 
 Judge and Mrs. Sidney Smith. 
 
TO PROF. DAVID SWING. 
 
 51 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. T. S. Chard. 
 
 Miss Waters. 
 
 Miss Rogers. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Plowdon Stevens. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. D. S. Mead. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. C. E. Affeld. 
 
 J. M. Schofield. 
 
 Isaac Emens Adams. 
 
 Edgar Madden. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. O. M. Butler. 
 
 Col. Farlin Q. Ball. 
 
 Wm. McGregor. 
 
 Wm. G. McGregor. 
 
 A. M. Pence, 
 
 Louis Shissler. 
 
 Mrs. E. S. Miller. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. L. B. Mantonya. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Henry S. Monroe. 
 
 Mrs. L. M. Johnson. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. W. M. Brewer. 
 
 J. L. Windsor. 
 
 Harry Monst. 
 
 Mrs. Addison Phieey. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. D. C. Bradley. 
 
 Mrs. E. Efner. 
 
 J. K. Edsall. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. O. W. Potter. 
 
 L. G. Hallberg. 
 
 A. A. Sprague. 
 
 Lewis J. Block. 
 
 Mrs. W. S. Hinkley. 
 
 Miss Minnie Edwards. 
 
 Rev. and Mrs. S. J. MacPherson 
 
 Robt. Greer. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Nellegar. 
 
 Washington Porter. 
 
 Hon. J. G. Rogers. 
 
 Nathaniel C. Sears. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. B. J. Moore. 
 
 Geo. M. How. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Cary. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. B. W. Sherman. 
 
 Mr. L. K. Waldron. 
 
 Charles B. demons. 
 
 Mrs. J. R. Wilson. 
 
 Geo. L. Dunlap. 
 
 Miss May E. McGregor. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. A. F. Stevenson. 
 
 Chas R. Holmes. 
 
 John R. Miller. 
 
 S. M. Jones. 
 
 A. J. Stone. 
 
 A. D. Wentz. 
 W. H. Swett. 
 Mrs. B. L. Rider. 
 D. P. Harris. 
 
 Max Behrens. 
 Mrs. Benny Moore. 
 
 Robert R. Manners. 
 
 Mrs. Easton, New York. 
 Mrs. W. H. Estey. 
 
 Miss Estey. 
 
 John D. Gill. 
 
 L. L. Whitney, Boston. 
 
 Charles L. Hutchinson. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Morse. 
 
 Dr. and Mrs. L. H. Montgomery. 
 , Mrs. Geo. A. Wheeler. 
 
 D. W. Eldred and Wife. 
 
 Judge B. D. Magruder. 
 
6X 
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