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American religious leaders
series

WILBUR FISK

GEORGE PRENTICE, D. D.

PROFESSOR IN WESLEYAX UNIVERSITY

BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY

1890

Copyright, 1889,
By GEORGE PRENTICE.

All rights reserved.

The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A.
Electrotyped and Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Company.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

PAGE

The Methodist Invasion of New England .... 1

CHAPTER II.
The Youth of Wilbur Fisk 1^

CHAPTER III.
Ecclesiastical and Theolooical 1 '

CHAPTER IV.
The Itinerant Minister 40

CHAPTER V.

The Educator. — Wesleyan Academy 64

CHAPTER VI

Theological Controversies Ill

CHAPTER VII.
The Educator. — Wesleyan University 138

CHAPTER VIII
The Temperance Reformer 18f>

CHAPTER IX.
Slavery 1^4

IV CONTENTS.

CHAPTER X.
Manifold Activity 222

CHAPTER XI.
The Preacher 232

CHAPTER XII.
European Travel 239

CHAPTER XIII.
The Renewal and the End of Labor 252

CHAPTER XIV.
Final Lessons 276

WILBUR FISK.

CHAPTER I.

THE METHODIST INVASION OF NEW ENGLAND.

Up to the year 1789 no minister of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church had made more than a brief
visit to New England ; but at the New York Con-
ference convened that year on May 28th in New
York, Bishop Asbury gratified a well-known long-
ing of Jesse Lee by sending him to New England
as a missionary. Mr. Lee had a colleague, but he
was left to undertake the mission alone. He be-
lieved that the Methodist Episcopal Church had
a great part to play, by the overthrow of formal
and unspiritual religion wherever it had become
rooted in pastors and churches, by assailing and
putting to shame Calvinistic errors which were
alike dishonorable to God and ruinous to souls,
and by gathering churches after the model of the
Wesleyan societies, with an Arminian theology
and a regenerate and sanctified membership.

After three months of untiring labor, Mr. Lee
organized a class of three members, and after three
months more a class of two members. On the 26th

2 WILBUR FISK.

of September, 1789, the first Methodist Episcopal
Church in New England was organized at Strat-
field, Conn. In February, 1790, Jacob Brush,
George Roberts, and Daniel Smith were sent to
assist Mr. Lee. Leaving Mr. Brush in charge of
the circuit he had formed, Mr. Lee and Mr. Smith
laid out the New Haven circuit, extending as far
as Hartford. Two churches were built and two
hundred members were gathered into the societies
within the first sixteen months of Mr. Lee's mis-
sion. This small beginning did not dishearten the
souls of the wide-wandering itinerants themselves,
nor mislead the keen-sighted Asbury as to the im-
portance of the new work. Within the first decade
of New England Methodism, three and a half pre-
siding elders' districts were established, thirty cir-
cuits formed, forty-one ministers were on their
rounds, while ninety-five preachers in all had taken
part in this Methodistic invasion of the Eastern
States. Converts had been won at the rate of five
hundred a year. At the end of the second decade,
the total membership of the Methodist churches in
New England was 14,488, and at the end of the
third decade, the year after Wilbur Fisk joined
the New England Conference, the total was 21,365.
How shall we account for such remarkable suc-
cess ? First, the men who won it were remarkable
men. Yet should we print the names of the
ninety-five itinerants who were in New England
within the first decade, very few of them would be
known to the American public. Nay, many of

METHODIST INVASION OF NEW ENGLAND. 6

these names would have an unfamiliar sound to
New England Methodists. The reason is not far
to seek. Most of them were not New Englanders
by birth, lived but a few years in the Eastern
States, and returned to their earlier residences to
spend the strength of their manhood far away from
New England. It is no marvel if their names are
largely forgotten by the present generation. Were
the names of a hundred average lawyers, clergy-
men, or physicians, their contemporaries in the
Eastern States, printed here, how few of them
would call up any distinct image or recollection
to the American public ! The itinerants' success
in New England is itseK the resistless evidence
of their remarkable qualities. Dr. Stevens has
sketched them in a volume called " Memorials of
the Introduction of Methodism into the Eastern
States."

Bishop Asbury's part in the movement was that
of official superintendence. His unrivaled ac-
quaintance with the preachers who were to be dis-
patched on this mission enabled him to select men
who woidd be sure to win success. First, they
were men of good personal appearance, whose
dress was unique, whose manners were familiar and
accessible, whose outdoor habits of life made them
at ease with all sorts and conditions of men. The
fact that, like Henry Clay, George Washington,
and Abraham Lincoln, they were not college-
bred but self-made men made it easier for them
to comprehend and take advantage of currents of

4 WILBUR FISK.

feeling amongst the "plain people," whom only-
such men can fully comprehend and readily influ-
ence.

Then they were men of extraordinary spiritual-
ity and devotion, whose every-day life was a denial
of the world, the flesh, and the devil. To forsake
home and kindred and all worldly ambitions and
selfish modes of living, to be always in the saddle,
always on the march like soldiers, to go amongst
strangers on religious errands which would bring
them into collision with the settled convictions of
all New England, to be counted and to be the off-
scouring of all things for Christ's sake, was a
spiritual discipline compared with which those of
Jesuit and Trappist were slight and ineffectual.
And they did all that on an allowance of sixty
dollars a year, subject to every appeal which the
greater needs of some men always make to gen-
erous minds. And all this was done, not in a
spirit of submission, but of exultation that they
were permitted to win souls from sin to holiness at
any possible expense of effort and self-sacrifice.
Nobody could accuse them of worldly and secular
motives in their ministry of love.

Then the intensity of their convictions gave a
dread or happy accent of reality to all their say-
ings and doings. They believed in every article of
a Christian's faith with all their minds and hearts.
Every motive that has its roots in the a^vfulness of
sin, the brevity, swiftness, and solemnity of life,
the danger of delay in religious duties, the possi-

METHODIST INVASION OF NEW ENGLAND. 5

bility of saving souls from death who might other-
wise persist in impenitence and incur eternal per-
dition, told with unabated energy upon their minds.
What cheered and comforted them was that they
had a salvation to offer which was adequate for
the relief of every lost soul around them. Not one
of them was there who was not ready to testify
that he had himself received that regenerate life
which he commended to others, by the direct oper-
ation of the Holy Spirit, and that entire sanctifica-
tion was a conscious possession. In spite of all the
hardships of their lives and the obstacles their mis-
sion encountered, they were the only ministers in
New England who seemed fully to have the apos-
tolic spirit, the apostolic faith, and the true fruits
of apostleship.

At first they would gladly have steered clear of
controverted points, insisting merely on the neces-
sity of regeneration, of a holy life, and of saving
other men from sin and death. But their adver-
saries soon taught them better by maintaining that
the only reason for their reticence was the badness
of their principles. Hence they set before the
people who were gathered in their assemblies the
dogmas of universal redemption ; that the call of
the gospel comes to all men alike; that all may be
saved on the same terms ; that none are eternal
reprobates by God's decree, but only by their
own avoidable misdoing; that all are so equally
free agents that any one may sin against any light
forever, when obedience to that same light would

6 WILBUR FISK.

have saved him ; and that even the holiest saint
can stand fast in the faith and hope of the gospel
only by incessant watchfulness.

Then ensued a persistent effort to spread these
doctrines all over New England. Since the invad-
ing party had no newspapers, no schools or col-
leges of their own, they coidd not assail their foes
in newspapers, in the teacher's seat, or the pro-
fessor's chair. They were wandering evangelists
who made use of such chances as came into their
hands for doing their work. In private conversa-
tion, in class-meetings, in prayer-meetings, in love-
feasts, in quarterly meetings, in the home pulpit,
at camp-meetings, and conferences, an incessant
war was kept up against Calvinism. One minister
was baptizing a child in church; he lifted up
the sweet face, smiling under the baptismal drops,
for the congregation to see, asking, " Does this
look like an eternal reprobate?" When the pre-
siding elder came on his rounds, one of his sermons
was pretty sure to aim at developing the higher
Christian character, and the other to arraign the
mysterious and awful dogmas of the popidar creed.
At camp-meetings one or two sermons were de-
voted to a systematic exposure of Calvinistic errors.
This polemic against Augustinianism was rarely
metaj^hysical, but kept to the plain, obvious decla-
rations of Scripture. The preachers had studied
with care all the arguments by which their oppo-
nents undertook to vindicate the consistency of
their own views with Scripture, and could and did

METHODIST INVASION OF NEW ENGLAND. 1

expose them with great precision. Jesse Lee used
to wind up some of his detailed discussions of
these controverted texts and points with " God's
oath that he was no Calvinist." "For I have no
pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the
Lord God : wherefore turn yourselves and live."
(Ezek. xviii. 32.)

When Whitefield met Wesley's first mission-
aries, Boardman and Pilmoor, in Philadelphia, he
said to them, "If you were only Calvinists you
would carry the country before you." Were
Whitefield to return to earth, what would be his
surprise to find that the Wesleyan itinerants had
carried the country with them as he never did or
could ! When Whitefield came to New England,
he found the Congregational churches secularized
by the effects of the law, enacted in 1631 and re-
pealed in 1688, that only church members should
vote or hold office. Under that law the rule was
to admit everybody into the church whose life
stopped short of public scandal. Real Christians
soon became a small minority in most of the
churches, and lost the general direction of the
church. A secularized church membership soon
desired pastors after its own heart, and had
them, too. The natural consequence of creating a
church membership without spirituality was, that
the doctrine was stoutly maintained that piety was
not necessary in the pastors of the church. Wick-
edness in the pews did not care to put holiness into
the pulpit.

8 WILBUR FJSK.

This condition of things resulted naturally in
the adoption of the Halfway Covenant. The in-
tent of this measure was to treat common morality
in parents who had been baptized in infancy or
afterwards, but were not members of the church,
as though they were Christians, and to give their
children baptism on condition of a pledge to train
them in the moralities rather than the spiritualities
of the gospel. Thus baptism opened the way to
office and honor. So rapid was this ill-omened
change that on his first visit to New England,
Whitefield found himseK compelled stoutly to de-
mand the signs of regenerate life in his own con-
verts. He also denounced the practice of admit-
ting unspiritual persons to the sacraments or to
the ministry. Yet so general was this habit that
more than twenty ministers near Boston, who were
converted through Whitefield's faitliful rebukes,
had become ministers without conversion. It was
devotion to the Halfway Covenant which silenced
Edwards, and embittered Whitefield's later visit
to New England. Revivals ceased. Many con-
gregations of unbelievers had unconverted pastors.
The result did not fail to justify the wisdom of
the divine saying, " If the blind lead the blind,
they shall both fall into the ditch." Yet not
a few "kept their garments unspotted from the
world."

For fifty years there had been no great religious
revival. The Revolutionary War had largely
demoralized public morals, and popularized the

METHODIST INVASION OF NEW ENGLAND. 9

French and the Tom Paine styles of infidelity.
There was no sign of a revival in the churches.

But suddenly, two by two, i^sbury's itinerant
evangelists begin to traverse New England. They
preach in town-houses, churches, school-houses, in
orchards, on commons. They act as their own
sextons, ring the bell, light the candles and fires.
They preach three or four times on Sundays, and
once or twice every week-day. Here and there
they find little knots of prayerful and expectant
souls, whom they form into classes and speedily
gather into churches. They accept no halfway
covenants, tolerate no unconverted members in
their societies : they build up churches rich in
every Christian virtue. For some reason the
movement does not, any more than St. Paul's re-
vival, lay hold of " many noble " or " many wise ; "
yet, hke his, it made many noble and many wise.

They made great use of the Wesleyan hymns
in the effort to diffuse their theology amongst the
masses. Nearly all of them were good singers,
and knew how to catch and hold the public ear by
their songs. These hymns themselves embody the
system of thought, the burning emotions of one of
the greatest religious revivals the world has ever
seen. They were sung at public worship, in
prayer-meetings, class-meetings, love-feasts, camp-
meetings, and in the home churches, all over New
England. It is ten times as easy to learn and
repeat a hymn as a sermon. Then the new hymns
were set to music, which lingered on the ear in

10 WILBUR FISK.

such a way as to tempt their frequent repetition.
There is no telling how far a single hymn may
fly ; and when a whole mass of such winged mes-
sengers are at the command and on the tongues'
end of multitudes, they become a very potent
evangelizing force, not only in the transformation
of individual character, but also of public opinion.
Charles Wesley's hymns have had quite as much
to do with the popularizing of the Wesleyan doc-
trines as John Wesley's sermons. One has no
difficulty in seeing how such doctrines, proclaimed
in such a spirit and by such men, should have
made a great impression on the public mind in
New England. Puritanism had lost out of its
doctrine, out of its pulpit, out of its religious life,
that joyous element which Christianity always had
on the lips of Jesus and of Paul, since it is good
tidings of great joy for all people, and especially
to men of goodwill. This spontaneous joy in
God and his salvation, the joy of forgiveness and
the raptures of holiness of heart, were instantly
felt to be the restoration of something that was a
real part of the gospel. Hence, in spite of all the
social disadvantages under which Methodism was
propagated in New England, it carried into the
public feeling and consciousness the clear percep-
tion that to be, and to be sure that one was, a
child of God was such a change in spiritual con-
dition as ought to give birth to a deep and per-
manent religious exhilaration. The early New
England Methodists carried this atmosphere of

METHODIST INVASION OF NEW ENGLAND. 11

religious exMlaration with them everywhere. This
made their private intercourse serenely happy, and
their public worship electric with spiritual life and
love.

Before this movement had been fifteen years in
New England, it had reached the Fisk household.
The mother of Wilbur, descendant of a Puritan
minister though she was, had somewhere listened
to the preaching of the Methodist preachers, and
she gave ear to their word as the very word of
God. She invited the itinerants to her house,
joined a religious class, became a member of the
church, and presently had the happiness of seeing
all her family members of the same body. She
effected this change in the religious relations of
the household because the doctrines and life of the
new church seemed to her more scriptural, more
reasonable, and more helpful than those of the
church to which her family had been devoted for
eight generations.

In this way Methodism gave substance and shape
to Wilbur Fisk's first serious religious development.
It is wonderful to reflect how largely this stripling
was destined to give it a new and higher direction.
If there was any one point where the leadership of
Asbury, Lee, and men of their stamp was at fault,
it was in their failure to appreciate the immense
and indispensable importance of having educa-
tional institutions under their patronage and con-
trol. Had Wesley led the American Methodist
societies, instead of Asbury and Coke, he would

12 WILBUR FISK.

never have submitted to defeat at Cokesbury on
the collegiate education question. The very fact
that they had lost f 50,000 by the successive con-
flagrations which visited the institution (nearly
half as much as Wesleyan University was worth
in Wilbur Fisk's day) is a striking evidence of
the depth and sincerity of the interest of early
Methodists in educational work. One of the
questions most often put to Lee and his associates
was, whether they were college-bred men. Nor
did Lee quite realize how insufficient was his usual
answer, "that he made no great pretension, yet
thought he knew enough to get through the
country."

CHAPTER II.

THE YOUTH OF WILBUR FISK.

Wilbur Fisk was born at Brattleborough, Vt,
August 31, 1792. He was the son of Isaiah and
Hannah Fisk, and was descended on both sides
from ancestors who were amongst the early set-
tlers of Massachusetts.

The family life was of the sort so felicitously
described by Dr. Bushnell in " The Age of Home-
spun." It was a life in which the farm and the
shop and the church had far more to do with the
training of the people than school and college. So
true was this of young Fisk that until his sixteenth
year he had not been to school more than two or
three years. Then he attended a sort of acad-
emy at Peacham. Not much is known about the
school, but the ambitious Fisk carried his studies
so far there that he was admitted on examination
to the sophomore class in the University of Ver-
mont, in July, 1812. He continued a student at
Burlington until the suspension of the work of the
university in consequence of the buildings being
turned over to General Macomb for the use of the
American army. We know that the course of
study was not very different from that at Union

14 WILBUR FISK.

and Dartmouth in those days. The course of study
may still be seen, and Fisk's certificate of admis-
sion shows the president's name. In Fisk's letters
to his friends, the names of a few student friends
are given ; and a few compositions, orations, and a
poem, called " Vermont," may be seen by the curi-
ous. But the letters do not show what his associ-
ates and superiors thought of him, or what kind
of impression his educators made upon him. Of
them there is neither criticism nor laudation.

In the spring term of 1814, Mr. Fisk was ad-
mitted to the junior class of Brown University.
Of this institution the Kev. Asa Messer, D. D.,
was then the president, with four professors and
two tutors to assist him in the work of instruc-
tion. There Mr. Fisk would naturally have to do
only with the president and professors. Here,
again, we hear no criticism on his new instructors
or the course of study, no comparisons with any-
thing at the University of Vermont, no hint of
the personal impressions made upon him by any
instructor. Nor is there any trace of any impres-
sion he made on his instructors. One of his class-
mates ranks him as their best scholar. One might
excel him in the mathematics, another in the
classics, but none in belles lettres or in general
scholarship. He won a high reputation for skill
in debate at the preparatory school and in both
universities. He won friends everywhere, whose
friendship was of the warmest and most enduring
character. The appointments assigned Fisk for

THE YOUTH OF WILBUR FISK, 15

public exercises show a high opinion of his abili-
ties. In both universities he was chosen by the
under-graduates to speak before the college of the
death of one of their number. He read much of
the best English literature while an under-grad-
uate. He took special pains with his elocution, and
in Providence he managed to hear the leaders of
the Rhode Island bar whenever possible. Though
a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he
was not known in school or coUege as a religious
man. He was graduated in the summer of 1815.

Soon after his return home, he began to study
law in the office of Isaac Fletcher, of Lyndon. But
he had not been long about it before he saw that
the legal profession would be fatal to his religious
character. Hence he resolved to study for the
ministry, and wrote to his classmate, the Rev.
George Taft, upon the whole subject. Meanwhile
he had become private tutor in a family near Bal-
timore. But his residence there was suddenly ter-
minated by such severe hemorrhages of the lungs
that his physician told him he must not hope to use
his voice much in his professional labors. He had
more than once suffered in this way at Burlington
and at Providence. On reaching home in June,
1817, he found Lyndon the scene of a profound
religious revival. Here his earlier religious con-
victions resmned their sway so fully that, before he
had any chance to confess his backslidings, he had
recovered the favor of God, and the witness of the
Spirit to his sonship. Instantly he resolved to

16 WILBUR FISK.

become a minister. His classmate, David Gould,
corresponded with him on the points in debate be-
tween Calvinism and Arminianism, after a distinct
avowal of Fisk's purpose to preach Calvinism in
case he was convinced of the truth of that system.
These letters would show us whether Fisk's repudi-
ation of Calvinism, that was the motive wliich kept
him out of the Congregational Church, also barred
him out of the service of the Episcopal Church.
Some things would have led him with gentle force
to that church. The lady to whom he was engaged
was an Episcopalian. His classmate, Taft, set be-
fore him such motives as he thought would influ-
ence Fisk's mind. Another classmate repeated
Taft's arguments, and denounced with rude energy
the faults and errors of the Methodist Church. It
is probable that the main reason which kept Mr.
Fisk from entering the Episcopal ministry was its
toleration of Calvinistic dogmas, though he may
have been influenced further by his keen sympathy
with the intense religious activity of the Methodist
Church.

March 14, 1818, Wilbur Fisk ^vas licensed a
local preacher at Lyndon, Yt. He joined the
New England Conference on probation in June,
1818.

CHAPTER III.

ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL.

Should Wilbur Fisk revisit the glimpses of the
moon to inquire into the condition of the church
of his choice in New England, instead of the
21,365 church members then served by 122 minis-
ters reported in 1819, he would now (1888) find
155,413 members served by 1,250 ministers. He
would find the territory occupied by the confer-
ence he joined partitioned into six annual confer-
ences, the least of which is larger than the body
he joined, while the conference with the old name
is almost thrice as large as the one he entered.
Should he ask after Vermont Methodism, — a very
natural question for him, — he would learn that the
state now numbers more Methodists than his old
conference had in 1819. Should he ask after the
present rate of growth, he would hear that more new
members had joined the church within the bounds
of the old New England Conference last year than
it had, all told, the day he joined it. Should he de-
mand — another very natural question for him —
what the church is doing in the educational work
that was so dear to his heart when on earth, he
would be informed that there were eight semina-

18 WILBUR FISK.

ries under the patronage of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, the poorest of which was richer, and
better equipped with buildings, teachers, libraries,
and scientific apparatus, than Wesleyan Academy
ever was in his time, and the richest of them far
stronger in all these particulars than Wesleyan
University ever was when under his care ; that
Wesleyan University had in real estate, buildings,
and other college property, with its invested funds,
11,270,000 ; that a new Methodist University had
sprung up at Boston, with a property valued at
f'l, 252,580, having, besides the college work, flour-
ishing law, medical, and theological schools, with
120 instructors of all grades and 775 students.

Such is the change which has come to pass in the
standing and work of New England Methodism in
less than seventy years. It used to be held by all
the theological and ecclesiastical critics of Meth-
odism, that the Eastern States would prove inacces-
sible to Wesleyan ideas, and unsuited to Methodis-
tic methods. On the surface of things, there was
much to justify the notion. The itinerant system
was in complete antagonism to the pastoral ideals
cherished there by all ecclesiastical parties. The
Baptist, Congregationalist, Catholic, and Protes-
tant Episcopal churches had many points of mu-
tual jar and conflict ; but they had one point of
agreement, their common rejection of the itinerant
system as unsuited to New England. They prob-
ably still cling to their old ideas on this point,
though with less confidence since the judgment of

ECCLESIASTICAL AND TUEOLOGICAL. 19

events has gone so strongly against them. If there
still are many in the Eastern States who deem the
itinerant system a source of strength, they are
probably chiefly Methodists. The idea is held by
some that the growth of Methodism has been largely
due to weariness of Congregationalist forms of
church government and life. There may be such a
weariness in the ecclesiastical temper of New Eng-
land ; but if this has really operated to any great
extent, it has helped the Protestant Episcopal rather
than the Methodist Episcopal Church. Methodist
ministers become Congregationalists, Baptists,
Churchmen, or, like the two Colliers, Unitarians.
Rarely do clergjanen from other churches seek a
place in our conferences on account of our church
government. The reason of this is, doubtless, that
we have no faith at all in the dogma of apostol-
ical succession, and all its kindred ideas and prac-
tices. Hence the ecclesiastical unrest of the New
England mind never turns its victims to a church
which drew its apostolical succession from John
Wesley and Thomas Coke.

But the Protestant Episcopal Church, notwith-
standing all the advantages which have accrued to
it, from its episcopal form of government, from its
more aesthetic and liturgical forms of worship, and
from its welcoming with impartial warmth Calvin-
ists and Arminians to its fold, has failed to make
anything like such an advance as the younger
church has secured. Though organized and at
work in New England far earlier than the younger

20 WILBUR FISK.

denomination, she counts here only 61,314 church
members, served by 522 clergy; while the Meth-
odist conferences, as we have just seen, number
155,413 church members, served by 1,250 minis-
ters of the gospel. Certain extravagant reasoners
affirm that the Methodist body has outstripped her
competitors because they have always found some
of their most efficient preachers in men who have
never seen a college or a theological seminary.
Such visionaries quite forget that the more fully
educated a man is, the warmer is his welcome in
our conferences, while well-educated ministers suc-
ceed at a far nobler rate than any of their less in-
structed predecessors ; and, finally, that the Eastern
States are the most unlikely places in the world for
uneducated ministers to succeed in. The main
cause of our success has not been in our peculiar
organization, or in our itinerant ministry, or in our
imperfectly educated clergy, but is mainly found
in the theological doctrines we have proclaimed.
While this is no place for any careful and detailed
exliibition of all the elements of the Arminian
creed, and especially of its points of agreement and
of collision with Calvinistic dogmas, a brief sketch
will be necessary in order to render Wilbur Fisk's
career intelligible.

His mother had somewhere listened to the
preaching of the early Methodist preachers in her
adopted state, and had been dra^vn to their doc-
trines in preference to the Calvinistic ones she
had been wont to hear. To her it seemed like the

ECCLESIASTICAL AND rilEOLOGICAL. 21

dawning on her mind of a new and better doctri-
nal system. She was prompt to invite these new
preachers to her home in Lyndon. In the original
Methodist class of Lyndon her name found a place,
and that class was the root out of which grew, all
in good time, the Methodist society of the town.
Her home was often the home of the itinerant
preacher on his rounds through his circuit, and so
it had grown to be the head centre of Methodist
influence and activities. It is said expressly that
this descendant of a Puritan minister made this
change in the religious relations of the family be-
cause she thought this system a more rational and
more scriptural theology than the Calvinism she
had been bred in. Through all the joyful begin-
nings of his early Christian life, through his long
seasons of backsliding at school and college, her
prayers had pursued her son as fervently and as
unwaveringly as the prayers of St. Monica had
gone up, centuries earlier, for her gifted son, Au-
gustine ; for she seems to have had an almost
prophetic foresight of the future usefulness and
gTeatness of her Wilbur. She once told her son's
widow : " All through the period when my son
was planning to become a great lawyer, and study-
ing to render himself a great statesman, my fer-
vent petitions went up incessantly that God would
make him a herald of the cross, and God heard
and answered my prayers." Hence her memory
should be sacred to all who honor the work of her
son.

22 WILBUR FISK.

But we are confronted by the statement of a
brilliant essayist tliat the Methodist system, from
the very nature of the case, cannot be a good one.
Matthew Arnold, who always had the courage of
his opinions, and whose courage was sometimes
stoutest just where his ignorance was greatest,
holds the Dissenters of England in profound con-
tempt because in religion they are typical British
Philistines ; and he regards the Methodist vari-
ety as the most discouraging species of the reli-
gious Philistines. In " A Word about America "
he says : —

" In that universally religious country, the religious
denomination which has by much the largest number of
adherents is that, I believe, of Methodism, originating
in John Wesley, and which we know in this country as
having for its standard of doctrine Mr. Wesley's fifty-
three sermons and notes on the New Testament. I have
a sincere admiration for Wesley, and a sincere esteem for
the Wesleyan Methodist body in this country, for I have
seen nmch of it, and for many of its members my esteem
is not only sincere but also affectionate. I know how
one's rehgious connections and religious attachments are
determined by the circumstances of one's birth and
bringing up ; and jDrobably, if I had been brought up
among the Wesleyans, I should never have left their
body. But certainly I should have wished my children
to leave it ; because to live with one's mind, in regard
to a thing of absorbing importance, as Wesleyans believe
religion to be, — to live with one's mind, as to a matter
of this sort, fixed upon a mind of the third order, such
as was Mr. Wesley's, seems to me extremely trying and

ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 23

injurious for the minds of men in general. And people
whose minds, in what is the chief concern of their lives,
are thus constantly fixed upon a mind of the third order,
are the staple of the population of the United States, in
the small towns and country districts above all."

If Mr. Arnold had suffered his '' affectionate
respect " for his clerical Wesleyan Methodist
acquaintances so far to overcome his inborn and
inbred contempt for all forms of English dissent
as to have asked for the theological manual from
which they had learned their systematic theology,
he would have had the " Theological Institutes " of
Richard Watson put into his hands, of which so
competent and impartial a judge as Professor J.
W. Alexander, of Princeton College, says : " Tur-
retine is, in theology, instar omnium ; that is, so
far as Blackstone is in law. Making due allow-
ance for the difference of age, Watson, the Meth-
odist, is the only systematizer within my know-
ledge who approaches the same eminence ; of whom
I use Addison's words : ' He reasons like Paley
and descants like HaU.' "

Not only would he have found this account of
Watson fully justified, but he would have learned
that Wesley's pet ideas about assurance, the witness
of the Spirit, and Christian perfection occupy a
very subordinate, though not unimportant, place
in the work. Mr. Arnold's idea that Wesleyan
boys and girls are brought up on Wesley's sermons
and notes on the New Testament, that they repeat
them as other boys repeat hymns and catechisms,

24 WILBUR FISK.

and that tlie more of Wesley a boy's retentive
memory enables him to cram, the surer he will be
to Avin the aj^proval of good Methodists, is as ab-
surd as any other grotesque fiction. It may hoax
ignorant Churchmen like himseK, in England or
America ; but it will move no intelligent Metho-
dist to return to the Church of England, lest his
sons and daughters should fiiid " sweetness and
light " impossible achievements. It has been said
of the English Church that it possesses Calvinis-
tic articles, an Arminian clergy, and a Eomanist
liturgy. Yet Mr. Arnold is never tired of repeat-
ing that the one infallible panacea for curing all
the religious Philistines who are known as Wesley-
ans, Baptists, Independents, and Congregational-
ists, (including even Mr. Miall and Mr. Winter-
botham) is to go back to the Church of England.
If we are to believe him there is for them salva-
tion in no other course ; and, indeed, in the sense
of Jesus and of Paul, they are plain schismatics as
things now stand. Are there any good reasons for
supposing, as the Episcopal House of Bishops evi-
dently thinks, that there are ministers who have
a riglit to address to us the same arguments, and
remonstrances, and denunciations that Mr. Arnold
flings at the Philistine hordes of English Dissent-
ers ? To an Episcopal clergyman who once urged
upon me the propriety of putting an end to our
anomalous condition by joining the Episcopal
Church (he could not say " returning to," as Mr.
Arnold does, for we never belonged to them), I

ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 25

made this candid response : There are two ways in
which Methodist clergymen and laymen may join
the Protestant Ei)iscoi3al Church. One is, by con-
vincing individuals of the justice of the claims of
the " Historic Episcopate." This is done some-
times, and then they go over to the Episcopal
Church, as two of my old friends, the Rev. B. F.
De Costa, D. D., of New York, and the Rev. J. E.
Heald, of the diocese of Connecticut, have done.
We wish them Godspeed in their new fields of
labor. How fast this process is going forward,
they probably know better than we, but it makes
little difference with us.

The other way would be to have the two churches
united under some such plan of union as Tillotson's
Proposals of Comprehension drawn up in 1G89.
In case the Methodist Episcopal Church should
ever feel the same longing after union which the
Protestant Episcopal Church shows, they might ac-
cept two of these proposals, modified as follows : —

1. "That for the future those who have been
ordained in the Methodist Episcopal Church be not
required to be reordained to render them capable
of preferment in the Church.

2. That for the future none be capable of eccle-
siastical preferment in the Church of America that
shall be ordained in America otherwise than by
bishoj)S ; and that those who have been ordained
only by presbyters, or bishops deriving their ordi-
nation from presbyters only, shall not be compelled
to renounce their former ordination. But because

26 . WILBUR FISK.

many have and still do doubt the validity of such
ordination, where episcopal ordination may be had,
it shall be sufficient for such persons to receive
ordination from a bishop in this or the like form :
' If thou art not ordained, I ordain thee,' " etc.

There would have to be the like provision that
bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church should
not be required to renounce their former ordina-
tion, and the like contingent ordination to remove
the scruples of any who question the value of
the prior ordination. Some such general plan as
this might be taken up in case the desire of union
with the Protestant Episcopal Church should
ever become general in the Methodist Episcopal
Church. Of this there are no present signs. But
suppose such a union effected, the next day the
" Protestant Methodist Episcopal Church " would
have five members and five ministers with Meth-
odist training, views, modes of worship, methods
of special activity (like love -feasts, class -meet-
ings, revival services, and camp-meetings), which
must suddenly become church institutions. Do
our Protestant Episcopal friends desire such a
revolution ? It does not seem to me to be at the
doors ; but I am not a pro]3liet, nor the son of
a prophet, that I should pro23hesy. Hence the
chances are that we shall have to go on mere
Methodists, notwithstanding that still leaves us
under the control, in the profound matter of
theology, " of a mind of the third order," trusting
that Wesley's great distinctive gift, ''his genius

ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 27

for practical godliness," may somehow make us
amends.

But it is time to say that Mr. Arnold makes a
profound and disgraceful mistake in assuming that
Mr. Wesley has put into the creed of the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church his pet notions about as-
surance, the witness of the Spirit, instantaneous
conversion, and instantaneous and complete sanc-
tification, and the possibility of losing grace. He
trusted, all his peculiar views, which he always
affirmed to be the teaching of the English Church
itself, to their own intrinsic reasonableness and
scripturalness ; yet this confidence has always been
justified by results. Doctor Stevens says: —

" Wesley provided the theology of American Method-
ism in a symbol called the ' Articles of Religion,' and
these articles were taken from the ' Thirty-nine Articles '
of the Anglican Church. They are abridged and some-
times slightly amended, but they convey no tenet which
is not received by the Church of England, and they are
the only officially recognized standard of Methodist doc-
trine in America. Wesley's emendations chiefly guard
them against interpretations favorable to sacramental
regeneration and other Romish errors. He eliminated
the supposed Anglican Calvinism, but he does not intro-
duce his own Armlnlanism, except In the thirty - first
Anglican article on the Oblation of Christ, which is
Armlnian as to the extent of the atonement." ^

Mr. Arnold makes much of the obstinacy where-
with the English bishops struggled to keep Cal-
1 Stevens, Centenary of American Methodism.

28 WILBUR FISK.

vinism out of the formularies of the Anglican
Church. Had they been able to keep it out alto-
gether, that would have been a more illustrious
achievement, and Mr. Arnold e^ddently regrets
that they did not succeed in the effort. From the
creed of the Methodist Episcopal Church AVes-
ley's hand struck out Calvinism root and branch.
No member of the Methodist Church is forbidden
to hold the Calvinistic dogmas, but he must not
disturb the church by disseminating them. No
preacher can find room in Methodist conferences
who teaches Calvinism. No legislation from the
hand of the founder of Methodism has ever had a
more unanimous acceptance than this exclusion of
Augustinianism ; for the two schemes are irrecon-
cilable. Thus does Doctor Whedon summarize
their antagonisms ; —

"the issue between ARMINIANISM A:N-D CALVINISM.

" The essential and universal issue which Wesleyan
Arminianism has taken against Calvinism may mostly be
stated in a single proposition. We deny and they affirm
the GENETIC PRINCIPLE that the divine government
may in alternatively secure the sin of any being, and
then justly damn him eternally for the sin so secured.
We deny, and they affirm or assume, that a being can
be justly damned for sin he never had the adequate
power of avoiding. We affirm that adequate, unneu-
tralized power to a volition is necessary to res23onsi-
bility ; unless, always, that J90tuer has been res-joonsibly
forfeited.

" Calvinism affirms, or assumes, that God may damn

ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 29

beings for sin which they had no adequate power to
avoid, in at least the following seven cases : —

" 1. Original Sin and Ability. — The whole human
race, as fallen in Adam, might justly be damned with
an absolutely universal damnation, without any Saviour
being interposed, or any adequate power of avoidance.
At such a view we stand aghast with abhorrence. Ar-
minians hold that a ' gracious abiUty ' is necessary to
the responsibihty of fallen man ; Taylorism holds that
fallen man has still natural ability to repent, — his de-
pravity consisting in the free uniformity of voluntary
sinning.

" 2. Eternal Reprobation. — From the above first Cal-
vinistic point it follows, (I fortiori^ that God might pass
by as reprobate, and leave in eternal damnation, those
who, without any adequate volitional power of their
own, are involved in the guilt of Adam's sin, so that the
reprobates are damned for what they never could avoid.
About the most apj^alling of dogmas !

" 3. Infant Damnation. — A fortiori, it is equally
just for God to pass by and leave in reprobation and
eternal death any or all infants, as they are merely, like
all others, damned for what they cannot help. Our
Arminianism teaches universal infant salvation.

"4. Will Power. — A foi^tiori, again, no adequate
volitional ability, or power of choice, is requisite in
order to make any choice, or course of choices and
actions, justly worthy of eternal damnation ; so that,
again, any man may be justly and eternally damned for
what he cannot help. Taylorism teaches that the agent
must possess adequate power of choice contrary to the
strongest motive, though it is certain he will never exert
it ; Arminianism, such power of counter-choice, unbound
by any such certainty.

30 WILBUR FISK.

" 5. Foreordained Damnation. — By an act of irre-
spective, unforeknowing foreordination, predetermining
what shall come to pass, the reprobates passed by, and
intrinsically incapable of rejDentance, are decretively
consigned to perjDetual sin and eternal death. So that
reprobates are again damned for what they cannot
help.

" 6. Pagan Damnation. — All pagans and other
persons who never heard of Christ, and never had any
means of salvation, are justly damned eternally for that
want of faith in Clirist which they cannot help.

" 7. Imputation. — Sin may be justly and literally
imputed to the innocent, whether the innocent could
avoid it or not ; so that Adam's personal sin may with
strict justice be imputed as guilt in his innocent pos-
terity, and the sins of men may be literally imputed in
their guilt to Christ, and he suffer infinite punishment
in strict justice ; so that a man may, by intrinsic justice,
be held responsible for what he did not do and could
not help. Arminianism denies the transferability of
guilt or literal jDunishment. The sin of Adam is not
imputed to his posterity, nor the sin of man imputed
to Clu'ist. Taylorism here is rather Arminian.

" Now, whoever holds any one of these seven points
must hold it on the generic principle that a man may be
justly damned for what he cannot help ; and, having
once conceded this principle, he has no defense against
either of the others. He must, in strict logic, accept or
reject the whole. He can reject any one only by sum-
marily rejecting the generic principle on which the whole
are based."

There has never been a controversy carried on
against this general system of rehgious thought in

ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 31

any of the religious bodies which trace their origin
back to the Wesleys. I cannot recall that any
clergyman has ever left our church and joined
the Protestant Episcopal Church because he was
weary of his Arminian theological principles, and
desired to adopt and teach the characteristic dog-
mas of Calvin. Several Methodist clergymen
kno\\Ti to me have become pastors of Congrega-
tional churches, with a clear and avowed under-
standing on all sides, that they are to preach their
old views with absolute unconstraint.

How great the influence of these anti-Calvinis-
tic views has been in dramno- the minds and the
hearts of men to the Methodist communion is not
easy to say with more than proximate exactness ;
but the best judges, w^th the best and widest means
of information, agree that it has been a very influ-
ential motive. In replying to one of his opponents
of the Calvinistic school. Dr. Fisk incidentally
testifies to the large share of these doctrines in
extending Methodist principles : —

" Does not the reverend gentleman know that a great
portion of our members in New England are those who
were once members of Calvinistic congregations ? Does
he not know that they were trained up in these doctrines
from their infancy, and have heard them explained and
defended from their earUest recollections ? Does he
not know that Methodism has made its way against the
impressions of the nursery, the catechetical instruction
of the priest and the schoolmaster, the influence of the
pulpit and the press, and in maturer age against the still

32 WILBUR FISK.

stronger influence of academies and colleges ? And
does he not know, also, that all this has been done in
this generation ? And shall we now be told that Meth-
odists examine but one side of a question ? How aston-
ishing such a charge from a man who can make any pre-
tensions to a knowledge of ecclesiastical matters in this
country ! " ^

In speaking of the causes wticli have modified
New England Calvinism, Dr. Fisk proceeds : —

"I allude to the introduction of Unitarianism and
TJniversalism : The proximate causes of the introduc-
tion of these sentiments were, among others, probably
the following : The Aiitinomian features of old Calvin-
ism had introduced into the churches a heartless Chris-
tianity and a very lax discipline. It was natural, there-
fore, when religion had come in point of fact to consist
chiefly in external performances, for its votaries to seek
a theory that would accord with their practice. Unita-
rianism was precisely such a theory. It is also to be no-
ticed that the state of formality and spiritual death that
prevailed, was greatly increased by the withering alli-
ance which then existed between the church and the
civil government. This revolution was undoubtedly
hastened also by the ultraism, on the one part, and the
technical inconsistencies on the other, of the Hopkinsian
theory. The elements had long been in motion, and at
length they united in an array of numbers and influence
that wrested the fairest portions of their ecclesiastical
domain from the orthodox churches of Massachusetts,
and turned them over, together with the richly endowed
university of the State, into the hands of the Unitarians.

1 Calvinistic Controversy, p. 74.

ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 33

" In Connecticut, Unitarianism, as that term is com-
monly understood among us, has not prevailed. There
is but one Unitarian pastor, properly so called, in the
State. This sentiment, however, prevails very exten-
sively, in this and all the other New England States,
under the name of Universalism ; a sentiment which
differs but little from Socinianism, and has its origin
doubtless from the same source. About a half a century
since, a Calvinistic clergyman, as he was supposed to be
up to the day of his death, left a jDosthumous work, which
was published, entitled ' Calvinism Improved.' It was
merely an extension of unconditional election and irre-
sistible grace to all, instead of a part. From the pre-
mises the reasoning seemed fair, and the conclusions
legitimate. This made many converts. And this idea
of universal salvation, when once it is embraced, can
easily be moulded into any shape, provided its main
feature be retained. It has finally pretty generally run
into the semi-infidel sentiments of no atonement, no
divine Saviour, no Holy Ghost, and no supernatural
change of heart, as well as no ' hell, no Devil, no angry
God.'

" It may be a matter of some surprise, perhaps, to a
superficial observer, or to one not well acquainted with
the circumstances of the case, why, in leaving Calvin-
ism, these men should go so far beyond the line of
truth. But in this we see the known tendency of the
human mind to run into extremes. The repulsive fea-
tures of the old system drove them far the other way. It
ought to be remembered, also, that there were few, if
any, who were stationed on the middle line, to arrest
and delay the public mind in its fearful recoil from the
' horrible decree.' Had Methodism been as well known

34 WILBUR FISK.

in New England fifty years ago as it is now, it is doubt-
ful if Universalism or Unitarianism would have gained
much influence in this country. Late as it was intro-
duced and much as it was opposed, it is believed to have
done much towards checking the progress of those senti-
ments. And perhaps it is in part owing to the earlier in-
troduction and wider spread of Methodism in Connecti-
cut, that Unitarianism has not gained more influence in
the State. This is undoubtedly the fact in the States of
Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, where Methodism
was introduced nearly as early as those other doctrinal
views. The result has shown that the foregoing suppo-
sition is corroborated by facts in those cases where the
experiment has been tried. These remarks may not
now be credited, but the time will come, when the preju-
dices of the day are worn out, that the candid historian
will do the subject justice." ^

If this view of the relations between the domi-
nant Calvinistic systems of New England and the
reactions against the Genevan dogmas which have
found their embodiment in Universalism and Uni-
tarianism are correct, it will at once appear how
indispensable was the appearance of some body of
believers who should combine, with an utter and
systematic rejection of the dogmatic and metaphys-
ical errors of the popular creed, faith in the author-
itative revelations of the Bible, faith in a reasona-
ble theory of human depravity, faith in the possi-
ble salvation of every hearer of the gospel message,
and faith that no soul can ever be lost forever un-
less it has wilfully closed its eyes upon the light of

1 Calvinistic Controversy, p. 85.

ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 35

the gospel, and spurned the very grace by which all
souls are saved. The Protestant Episcopal Church
was so handicapped by its traditional toleration o£
Calvinism that it would have been illogical for her
to lead a crusade against New England Calvinism.
The Methodist Episcopal Church alone was able to
put her whole heart into her challenge of those fatal
dogmas. That she was in a position to make this
protest effectual she owed to the far-sighted sagac-
ity with which John Wesley purged her articles of
reli2:ion from the last traces of sacerdotalism and
Calvinism. Let Matthew Arnold prate as he will
of John Wesley as a mind of the third order,
Methodists in all the world will gratefully remem-
ber that, in his unique position as their providen-
tial legislator, he gave them in substance that no-
ble Greek theology before which a great future is
so visibly opening. Nor was this a slight benedic-
tion, since there are to-day, in all branches of the
Methodist Church, 5,500,000 members.

Of course, distrust of Cahdnistic dogma was not
the only motive which drew so many thousands of
people from the other New England churches to
the Methodist fold. The belief in instantaneous
conversion, of the witness of the Spirit of God to
his own work in renewing the sinner, and the pos-
sibility of constant and unbroken communion with
God, have very widely commended themselves to
popular favor. The doctrine of Christian Perfec-
tion has always and everywhere commended itself
to not a few of the most pious and devout souls in

36 WILBUR FISK.

all churches. This experience was the joy and the
crown of Wilbur Fisk's life.

Whoever compares the development of Methodist
theology as it has been shaj)ed by Wesley, Watson,
Fletcher, Pope, Summers, and Raymond, and con-
troversialists like Fisk, Hodgson, and Whedon,
with the works of the English Platonists, or those
of Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Athana-
sius, will see that the Methodist leaders have not
yet fully reshaped that theology for modern uses
and necessities. That theology taught that God is
immanent in the universe ; that humanity has its
life and being in Christ ; that the divine mercy cov-
ers the whole race of man in its promises and gifts ;
that the ethical transformation of human charac-
ter is the grand proof of the Christian religion ;
that Christ dwells both in nature and the human
soul ; that for the soul, by virtue of its original con-
stitution in the image of God, it " becomes the law
of its being to fulfill its possibilities, and to rise
to full resemblance to God ; " that Greek philoso-
phy as well as Jewish prophecy was a preparation
for Christ ; that the most essential quality in God
is love, and freedom the fundamental trait of man ;
that ignorance and an impaired will are the chief
obstructions to salvation ; that life is a probation
for all, but may be made for any a divine educa-
tion for eternal bliss ; that in enlightened human
reason the best guide is found to the understand-
ing of the Bible ; that all ecclesiastical institutions
are to be treated with honor and respect, but

ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 37

apostolical succession, or the necessity of recogniz-
ing the authority of the local bishop to become a
genuine Christian, or to enjoy valid sacraments, are
not essential elements in the system of the Chris-
tian Church.

The two great truths to which Wesleyan theol-
ogy has everywhere ai^pealed are, the freedom of
the human will, and the indwelling of Christ in
the redeemed soul. This latter doctrine lies at the
root of the Wesleyan doctrine of the witness of the
spirit. This indwelling of Christ in the redeemed
soul is a return to the primal constitution of man
before he had ever known sin at all, and so is
a natural condition supernaturally restored in re-
demption. Hence the exalted joy which peals out
in every portrayal of this experience of salvation
from the beorinnino: until this hour.

The probable reason why these points have had
a laro:er share than other elements of that noble
system in the thought and teaching of the AVesley-
ans is the fact that its teachers have been rather
leaders in a great religious revival than leisurely
students and professors of theology. Such men
naturally seize, and urge upon the attention of the
public, those religious and philosophical truths
which speak most impressively to the conscience
and intellect of men. Such men may be a little
slow to make out that the conception of God which
has ruled and inspired that theology is an even
greater advance upon the conception of God enter-
tained and advocated by Augustine and Calvin

38 WILBUR FISK.

than the Whedonian conception of freedom is over
the Edwardean.

The immanence of God in nature and in the hu-
man mind, the natural relationship of humanity to
Christ, the sacredness of the act of personal voli-
tion in which every redeemed spirit renounces self-
rule and puts itself into the hands of its divine in-
structor, and the fact that these critical choices are
nowise connected with the sacraments, are points
which show the structural sympathy of that system
with Wesleyanism. The Wesleyan theology will
not attain its full coherence and significance until
all these elements have fully resumed their proper
place and vitality.

It is along this line of living growth in the
churches which derive their theology from John
Wesley that this noble and comprehensive theolog-
ical system will find the requisite conditions for its
rapid and perfect growth. Here the revelations of
the New Testament will always be regarded as the
enlightening and renewing power that shall yet
make all things new, which are still alien to its
spirit in the church and the world.

How uro:ent the call for such a broad and nor-
mal development of that theology is, may be seen
from the distortions that theology has undergone
in the hands of Schleiermacher. He assigns to the
" Christian consciousness " not only power to add
to the teachings of the New Testament, but also to
revise and correct them. This he proceeds to do
by denying personality to God and immortality to

ECCLESIASTICAL AND THEOLOGICAL. 39

the soul, tlius making freedom a dream, morality
impossible, and any permanent and personal rela-
tion between Christ and the luunan soul a delusion
and a snare. In the Greek theology, Christ is
always the master and the instructor of the human
soul, but here Christ himself is corrected by the
" Christian consciousness " of later times, in respect
to all the essential features of his theology, in the
most remorseless manner. It is an absolute re-
versal of the main idea of the Greek theology
that we witness here. This reversal of roles be-
tween the great instructor of souls and the souls
he instructs is fatal to all Christianity. This
folly Methodist theology has never committed, and
doubtless never will commit. Here lies its safety
and its promise.

Incomparably the best discussion of this subject
for the general reader is Doctor A. V. G. Allen's
" The Continuity of Christian Thought," a broad-
minded, impartial, and scholarly work. Of church
historians, Pressense's account is best. Absolutely
fascinating is John Tulloch's " Rational Theology
and Christian Pliilosophy in England in the Seven-
teenth Century," as a picture of the English school
from which the Wesleys drew their theology.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ITINERANT MINISTER.

In the brief space at our command, we cannot
follow Wilbur Fisk in any detailed exhibition of
his ministerial labors. We shall try only to show
in what spirit and with what success he performed
the ordinary work of the ministry, and how these
soon conducted him to the special educational ac-
tivity of his subsequent career.

The pastoral life of Mr. Fisk was very brief,
covering less than three years in all, since he be-
came the presiding elder of the Vermont district
at the conclusion of his stay in Charlestown.
Three years he was a presiding elder, and then
began the educational work which was to fill all
his remaining years. As he had no foresight of
the brevity of his pastoral career, he set about it
with such earnestness and care as would have be-
come a life set apart solely to such duties.

His first appointment, in 1818, was to Crafts-
bury circuit in Vermont, about thirty miles from
his home. His first preaching-place there was in
a private house. The population then was small
and scattered, and at first his message seemed to
make no impression. This bred in him great

THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 41

searchings of heart. He thought that where so
much careful and painstaking labor had been put
forth by his predecessors, he might properly look
for speedy results of his labors. As Father Tay-
lor once said of another, " He carried both seed-
basket and sickle to the field together." But so
faithful was he in visiting his flock, in house-to-
house conversation with all classes of his hearers,
and so plain and impressive were his sermons, that
his expectation of finding a chance to use his sickle
proved well founded. A removal of the public ser-
vices to the court-house became necessary ; a revival
of religion spread far and wide, and drew in many
of the best citizens as converts. A church was
built for the rapidly growing society, so that the
pastorate of Wilbur Fisk marked a new era in the
life of the Methodist Church there, for he admit-
ted eighty -four converts into the church. Not-
withstanding his frail health and the severity of
the climate, he went through all the routine duties
of an itinerant minister. He kept a full list of
the persons converted to Christ during his stay at
Craf tsbury, — a list that may still be seen among
his papers. It is said that Mr. Fisk used to read
over the list sometimes, and pray earnestly that
God woidd fill them with his grace and heavenly
benediction. They were, indeed, noticeable for the
strength and purity of their religious character.

At the Lynn Conference in 1819, Mr. Fisk
was appointed pastor of the Methodist Church at
Charlestown, Mass. Here the church was small.

42 WILBUR FISK.

feeble, and in debt. There was little on tlie face
of tilings to encourage the hope for a successful
pastorate ; but he turned toward the new work with
obedience and hope. The first sermon preached
there shows how well he knew that God alone
could hel}) him, and how fully he thought the Lord
could render his ministry fruitful. Here are the
resolutions which he fixed on to aid him in making
the best use of his time : —

1. To retire at nine and rise at five.

2. To appropriate one hour to my morning de-
votions.

3. Allow one hour for breakfast, family devo-
tion, and such incidental circumstances as may de-
mand my attention.

4. Will write two hours each day.

5. Will spend two hours in some regular scien-
tific or literary study.

6. Will spend one hour in miscellaneous reading.

7. One hour for my devotions at noon.

8. One hour for dinner.

9. One hour each day in preparing my discourses
for the Sabbath.

10. The remainder of the day will generally be
devoted to visiting.

11. Whenever constrained to break in upon my
regular course, I will endeavor to prevent loss of
time by returning to it as soon as may be, and
then attend to those branches which my judgment
dictates it will be most improper to neglect; at all

THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 43

times remembering not to curtail my devotions, or
my preparations for the Sabbath.

12. When, in the course of my employments, a
passage of Scripture occurs to my mind, or a strik-
ing thought occurs to me, I will take the first op-
portunity to commit it to writing.

13. In my devotions it shall be my particular
duty to pray for a deepening of the work of grace
in my heart, and for a revival of the work of God
in the town where I labor.

14. I must not dine out on the Sabbath.

The criticism which one ought to make upon
such a scheme of daily labor is, that there is no
provision for recreation in it. At five o'clock
every day he was to begin his morning programme
of varied mental and devotional employments,
and, his dinner once dowoi, the rest of the day
was to be devoted to pastoral visiting. With his
make-up, his intense convictions of duty, his notion
that his devotions and his visiting alike should be
directed towards a revival of religion in his new
charge, he ought to have secured two or three hours
of exercise in the open air. Probably he fancied
that he should get, in his visits to his people, as
much air and exercise as he really needed. But
true pastoral visiting, such as he was certain to
devote himself to, is quite as heavy a draft on one's
nervous vigor as any study. Such an unbroken
round of labors would be certain beforehand to
brinof on broken health. But he set about his new

44 WILBUR FISK.

life with the firmest purpose to do his best for
his people, at whatever risk to himself. From the
very beginning his preaching made a decided im-
pression, so that the little congregation was greatly
enlarged. With his characteristic himiility, he ex-
plained this growth by the existence of an ugly
quarrel in the churches whose attendants sought his
church. He noted various topics down for care-
ful study and inquiry, some so wide-ranging they
would have demanded years for a full investiga-
tion, and others relating to Christian experience.
He asks : —

"How far may those bodily exercises, which many
religiously affected persons are influenced by, proceed
from the operation of a good spirit, and how far from
that of a bad spirit ? How may we be able to distin-
guish between them ? "

With such theological and practical questions stir-
ring in his mind, he kept about the routine duties of
his calling, until he attended a camp-meeting held
at WelWeet, Cape Cod, the 10th of August, 1819.
To interpret what haj^pened to Mr. Fisk there,
one should bear in mind the Wesleyan doctrine of
entire sanctification, Christian j^erf ection, or perfect
love. This doctrine Wilbur Fisk held so strongly
that he had given this belief to his betrothed, Miss
Peck, as one of the reasons why he felt compelled
to enter the Methodist ministry. From the ques-
tions noted down above, it is evident that the " bod-
ily exercises " that had been reported to him as

THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 45

happening in certain cases, were objects of special
suspicion to his mind. These questions were all
settled for him at that meeting. In a record made
August 19th he tells his experiences there. He
had been earnestly longing for more of God, yet
went to the meeting without any special impression.
Tuesday he rather looked on than joined in the wor-
ship. As he was passing one of the Boston tents, a
lady asked him to stay in that tent. She then told
him that, on the way down, an assurance had been
given her that Mr. Fisk would receive the blessing of
a holy heart at that meeting. " Her words thrilled
through me in an indescribable manner. I wept a
few moments, I trembled, I fell. But Satan drew
a veil of unbelief over my mind. They prayed for
me, but all was dark, — my heart was harder than
ever." And so the struggle went on, growing in its
intensity and depth, until fearfulness and anguish
laid hold upon him. He was beset with a sudden
fear that he should never possess that most price-
less pearl, a clean heart, but certain passages of
Scripture seemed to break the force of such fears.

" Thursday morning we had a familiar conversation
concerning heart-hoHness. Some of the holy women
prayed for me again, but without a sensible answer. I
preached that day with considerable liberty, felt my
mind more and more given up to the work, but thought,
if I had been through such struggles and had not ob-
tained what I was seeking, much more remained to
be endured. And I felt willing to endure anything.
About the setting of the sun, word came that souls were

46 WILBUR FISK.

begging for prayers in Brother Taylor's tent. I went
immediately in, and, behold, God was there. We
united in prayer, when one after the other, to the num-
ber of four or live, were converted. We rose to sing.
I looked up to God, and thanked him for hearing
prayer, and cried, ' Lord, why not hear prayer for my
soul ? ' My strength began to fail me while I looked in
faith. ' Come, Lord, and come now. Thou wilt come.
Heaven opens, my Saviour smiles, — glory, glory I Oh,
glory to God ! Help me, my brethren, to praise the
Lord.' The scene that was now opened to my view I
can never describe. I could say, ' Lord, thou knowest
that I love thee ! I love thee above everything.' I was
humbled in the dust, that God should so bless such an
undeserving soul. I could look back upon my past life,
and see how he had led me even while I was in disobe-
dience ; how he had supported me even in the midst
of temptation. And now nothing was wanting but to
snap life's tender thread to let the soul fly away to
heaven. I sang, I shouted, and methinks the spectators
must have thought me filled with new wine. 0 my God,
how dost thou bring to naught the wisdom of the world !
When we would be wise, we must become fools that we
may be wise. Then we shall have the wisdom that is
from above. What shall I render unto the Lord for all
his benefits ? how shall I praise him for all his mercies ?
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me
praise his holy name."

This wonderful event is described in a letter un-
der date of 1839, written by a sympathetic spec-
tator, Rev. Jotham Horton, on whose mind an in-
delible impression was left. We cite so much as
concerns Wilbur Fisk : —

THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 47

" But for nothing was the meeting more remarkable
than the work of holiness among believers. The atten-
tion of the church had been directed to that subject by
the Rev. T. Merritt and the seniors in the ministry.
Many sought and found the pearl of great price. An
awful but delightful serenity marked the countenances
of believers. Our beloved Brother Fisk was among the
preachers present. Like others, his mind was deeply
wrought upon for holiness. But the habits of philo-
sophical investigation, which his previous education had
induced, made him exceedingly careful lest the fruits of
imagination under high devotional feeling, or the effer-
vescence of strong religious excitement, should be substi-
tuted for the sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost.
Hence the extraordinary exercises, which in some cases
were exhibited, were observed by him with a jealous
scrutiny.

" In one of the larger tents, where a number of those
most deeply experienced in the things of God united in
earnest supplication, Mr. Fisk was present, and so over-
whelming were the manifestations of the power of God
that he sank to the ground. This was as unexpected
to others as to himself. He had just been engaged in
vocal prayer, and one sentiment which he had most de-
voutly expressed was that no influence, save that of the
Holy Spirit might give character to the devotion in
which they were engaged. He was in the very act of
guarding against strange fires, and supplicating a holy
baptism, when nature sank under the power of God.
The meeting progressed in great power and glory. I
saw Brother Merritt but a few moments after, and men-
tioned to him what was doing in the company. . . . He
repaired to the place, and, after standing a few mo-

48 WILBUR FISK.

ments gazing with wonder and admiration upon a work
which bore such evident marks of the finger of God, he
remarked to several standing by, 'I never saw the
power of God so displayed on earth.'

'* When Wilbur Fisk had so far recovered his physical
strength as to be able to be taken to his own tent, there
was held another season of holy communion. Being un-
able to stand, he was supported by ministerial brethren.
His language and whole appearance had something in
them more than human, indicating that his soul then
glowed with ardors of love allied to those of angels.
From this period, Mr. Fisk dated his experience of per-
fect love."

It was truly characteristic of this honest and
conscientious man that he should give such critical
study to all the elements and phases of his own
spiritual life, and those of the company around
him at Wellfleet. He was eager to learn the exact
truth from the study of the word of God, from
the experience of mature Christians, and through
intercession with Christ, that he might be able to
offer a pure offering in his approaches to God.
It is certain that the marvelous scenes at Wellfleet
made a permanent change in Wilbur Fisk's reli-
gious life. Before that, he had passed through sea-
sons when he doubted the fact of his acceptance
with God, his personal interest in Christ, and even
the truth of Christianity itself. When a young
minister consulted him at one of the sessions of
the New England Conference concerning just such
a series of difficulties as Mr. Fisk had passed

THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 49

through himself, he told him that he had been de-
livered from such things forever at the Wellfieet
meeting. But, of course, the removal of such spir-
itual obstructions is only one of the indispensable
prerequisites to the full development of the life of
perfect purity, perfect faith, perfect love, perfect
humility, and meekness. We have further light
in respect to his spiritual condition and views in a
letter

TO HIS SISTER MARY.

Charlestown, November 20, 1819.
I think my confinement has proved a blessing to me.
I find every grace must be tried. I had been previously
sorely tempted in many ways. And because the infirm-
ities of the body sometimes weighed down the soul, Sa-
tan would say, ' You have lost the blessing you received
at Wellfleet ' (for he was not permitted to say I received
none). However, in the midst of these and various
other temptations, which caused me to be in heaviness,
my faith was not moved from its object. But this
seemed to be my state. In the work of sanctification
upon the heart, there appear to be two distinct opera-
tions : one is, to empty the soul of sin and everything
offensive ; and another is, to fill it with love. 1. The
strong man armed is bound and cast out ; 2. The
stronger takes possession. God was pleased, however,
in my case, to empty and fill in the same moment. But
to try my faith, or for some other purpose, that full-
ness was, after a time, occasionally withdrawn. Still
I could not discover that there was anything in my
heart contrary .to the will of God. In this situation,
Satan assailed me. Then I had reason to thank God

50 WILBUR FISK.

for fathers and mothers in the church that could both
instruct me and pray for me, but more especially that
Jesus is my friend; for I felt him so. I prayed the
Lord to fill me and sink me into his will before I left
the chamber. The Lord heard. O my sister, what a
blessed Saviour we have ! He saves his people from their
sins. He fills them with his fullness. It was not that
ecstasy of animation which I have sometimes felt, but it
was a holy sinking into the will of God. Often, ever
since that time, while I am sitting in my chamber, look-
ing at what the Saviour has done for me and for the
world, ' my heart is dissolved in thankfulness, and my
eyes are melted to tears.' My best hours are in retire-
ment, holding communion with my Saviour. At these
times I think of you, in your seclusion from the world,
and think what blessings you may enjoy, if you seek and
obtain all that is your privilege. Every day I bear your
case to our heavenly Father. O sister ! be in earnest.
You must be holy ; but it will cost you a struggle.
Though you have not wandered as far as I did, yet you
continued too long ' a slain witness.' But perhaps the
Lord will bring you in a way you have not known.
Leave with him entirely the manner how, and the
means by which, you are to be brought there. Ask the
Lord for just what you want, — a victory over inbred
corruption, a fullness of love, an abiding witness of the
Spirit. Stop not to debate with the enemy the question
whether you ever were converted. The question is,
"What do I want ? And, when you have discovered your
wants, carry them to him in whom all fullness dwells, —
to Jesus. The very name, sinful and unworthy as you
may feel yourself, will afford you encouragement.
What says the angel ? ' Thou shalt call his name Jesus.'

THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 51

Why, heavenly messenger, why call his name Jesus ?
' Because he shall save his peoi^le from their sins.' "

From this time forth, Wilbur Fisk never
changed his estimate of the nature of the work of
grace wrought in his soul at the Wellfleet camp-
meeting ; nor was there anything in his spirit, or
speech, or conduct, public or private, which ever led
men associated with him to think his conception
of that work a mistaken one. On the contrary, the
testimony of all his associates in the various jDosi-
tions he filled was uniform and outspoken that he
did live up even to the high standard he professed.

Dr. Holdich, whose long association with Dr.
Fisk at Wesleyan University renders him well
informed, says : —

" From this time he has been heard to say that he
never laid his head upon his pillow at night without feel-
ing that, if he never waked in this world, all would be
well. Prior to this, he was often subject to desponding,
gloomy seasons : we heard him say long afterwards that
he knew no gloomy hours ; his mind was always serene
and happy."

This wonderful baptism of the Holy Spirit made
certain permanent changes in his theological views.
He had learned, in those hours of passionate yearn-
ing after God, the profound lesson of his utter de-
pendence on Christ for salvation. Nothing that
he was, nothing that he had done or could do,
nothing that he had suffered, and nothing that any
creature could do for him, was of any avail before
God as a ground for pardon or sanctification. This

52 WILBUR FISK.

he had learned, not from books or human teachers,
but in the mysterious and awful struggle after the
perfect submission of his own will to the will of a
holy God, and his passionate pleadings with God
that even in this life the almighty Saviour would
bestow on him the utmost grace of possible sal-
vation from sin. After such an experience, any
man's conception of his utter sinfulness, and of the
sole sufficiency of Christ's blood to cleanse, must
remain forever changed. The incarnation of Christ
was regarded as a necessary means of revealing the
nature and especially the love of God to mankind.
The Gospels must be studied and understood as the
records of the life of God incarnate on earth. But
the culminating act of this manifestation of the
love of God the Father for lost men was the sac-
rificial, the atoning, death of Jesus Christ on the
cross. Contrasted with the worthlessness and help-
lessness of all human merit, strength, and interces-
sion was the omnipotence of the gracious interces-
sion of Christ. That had availed, had brought
him pardon for sin, peace with God, and purity of
heart. Of him he gratefully sang : —

*' Thy offering still continues new,
Thy vesture keeps its bloody hue,
Thou stand' st the ever-slaughtered Lamb,
Thy priesthood still remains the same."

What Christ had done for him upon the cross
he believed was done equally for all men, so that
all men were called to the same grace and might
be partakers of the same salvation he had found.

THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 63

He did not believe that God had given any man
that dehisive freedom which would make men
justly responsible for a life of universal obedience
to the will of God, and yet withheld from them
that special and gracious call (always given to the
elect) without which they would not, even though
they could be, saved. From him we hear no
dreadful phrases about God " saving all he wisely
can." He thinks God would not be love to such
lost souls. Writing to Miss Peck, he states these
views at some length : —

" Love to God is something that can be felt in the
soul, something that Satan himself cannot counterfeit.
If you have this genuine love, you know it. Do not,
my dear, suffer the enemy to harass and disturb you on
account of your motives in loving God. None but a
good motive can induce you to love God in his true
character. Any motive, then, that leads to this, lay
hold of. Is your soul melted into tenderness and love
while contemplating what the Saviour has done for you ?
Is your soul transported with delight from a view, by
faith, of an expected paradise ? Let these be motives
to draw you on to love and obedience. This will bring
you nearer to God. . . .

" On the subject of loving God ' for what he is in
and of himself,' you have quoted a passage which seems
to convey the idea that we ought to and can love God
even if he does not love us. According to my view, I
could no more love a God that did not love me than
reconcile the widest contradictions."

In writing to another friend he tells her : —

54 WILBUR FISK.

" The Tempter would make you believe, if he could,
that yours is a partial God ; that he has a few choice
blessings, which he bestows upon individuals, — preach-
ers, perhaps, and a few others, — but they cannot be
obtained by all. Believe him not ; he is dishonoring
your God by such a suggestion."

To his Aunt Palmer he wrote : —

" Christ is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, to
professor or non-professor ; those who have been once
renewed and those who never were renewed ; Jew or
Gentile, barbarian or Scythian ; worthy in their own
estimation, or unworthy ; rich or poor, sick or well : all
must come to Christ in the same manner, and as to
their rights are on an equality, only luith this excep-
tion: those that see themselves the most wretched, their
case the most difficult, themselves the most unworthy,
their wants the most pressing, have the best claim, and
are the fittest vessels for the Saviour to show his mercy
in. Dear aunt, let me exhort you to take Christ for
your alir

It can easily be understood that a ministry be-
gim under such auspices as marked the beginning
of Mr. Fisk's at Cliarlestown must of necessity
be a fruitful ministry. Such diligence in gen-
eral study, such careful preparation for preaching,
such unsparing pastoral \^sitation, such a sense of
the priceless value of souls, such a feeling of the
shortness of time and the solemnity of its due em-
ployment, and such rich and living experience of
Christ's salvation, must have given that ministry
a unique character. And so it really was. His

THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 55

congregations grew steadily larger; there were
many conversions, and some inquirers after the
highest life, whom he trained with the most con-
scientious fidelity. A single sermon in a strange
pulpit was sometimes made instrumental in the
conversion of souls ; for he was diligent in aiding
other pastors in revival services, or in holiness
meetings. On Charlestown bridge he one day fell
in with a boyish fish-seller. Mr. Fisk bowed to
him, asked his name, and kept his eye upon him,
until the two had become acquainted. Learning
that the boy was neglecting to go to church,
notmthstanding his mother's advice and exam-
ple, he invited the lad to come to his church in
Charlestown. For this bright-eyed boy, whether
on the bridge or in church, Mr. Fisk always had
a bow, a smile, or a pleasant and earnest word.
So began the fascination of Isaac Rich for Wilbur
Fisk, and so it came that Mr. Rich left nearly all
his great estate to educational objects in the Meth-
odist Church. There was a universal demand for
Mr. Fisk's return to Charlestown the second year,
and he was accordingly returned.

He attended the commencement exercises of
Brown University, and received the degree of
A. M. in 1820.

Under all circumstances, Wilbur Fisk labored
bravely on, seeking to make full proof of his min-
istry. He had gone quite beyond the bounds of
reasonable prudence in his untiring exertions in
doing good. He preached three times a Sunday

66 WILBUR FISK.

and two or three times a week. Every night lie
was at some religious meeting, and his afternoons
were devoted to pastoral calls. This was sinning
against light, too, since he had already suffered
from a cough, from severe catarrhs and hem-
orrhages. In November, 1820, he had, what he
should have expected, a severe hemorrhage of the
lungs. Instead of preaching, he was laid up from
work all winter; he had five hemorrhages, and
kept his chamber until March. The physicians
gave him up to die, his father came to see him
depart to a better world, and all chance of life
had failed.

" But on the very night when his friends were gath-
ered around his bed expecting every moment to be his
last, his church, with the churches in Boston, including
some of other denominations, were engaged in solemn
and importunate prayer for his recovery. The meet-
ings were called with special reference to his case ; and
He who said the prayer of faith shall save the sick, re-
buked the disorder. His symptoms began to improve
from that night. Mr. Fisk always believed that he was
raised up in answer to prayer."

Let us trust and hope so, with good Dr. Holdich.
But the Lord was sore displeased with Wilbur
Fisk for the cruel and irreligious way in which he
treated his own body. Had he or anybody else
treated a beast with half the severity with which
this educated, devout, and sanctified person treated
his own body, temple of the Holy Ghost though
it was, he might have been brought to trial for

THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 57

habitual cruelty, and convicted he certainly would
have been. It is evident that the Lord had set his
face sternly against the sin of AVilbur Fisk in the
matter, as we may see from the fact that he was
just barely suffered to escape alive. If the Lord
did, in the crisis of threatened death, turn back the
power of disease, one should not forget that the
cure stopped at a point where the patient's condi-
tion was a sort of standing warning against any
more such desperate madness of zeal for the fu-
ture. Had it pleased Him, His power might have
strengthened the enfeebled frame so that Wilbur
Fisk might have gone back to his delightful em-
ployment at once. But He visibly meant to utter
a vehement protest against any more such sins
against one's physical frame. First, notice the
fact that this eloquent preacher, this gifted and
sanctified spirit, was not allowed for two years to
speak a word from the pulpit. He was obliged to
go home, to give up reading, and to keep in the
open air, to ride on horseback up and down his
native mountains, to diet carefully, to swallow ob-
noxious drugs, to feel many a fear that he never
should get well, or that his future condition would
never allow him to preach again. Of course, Mr.
Fisk was not conscious that he was setting his face
against the will of God by his excesses in labor,
and so he did not have the pangs of a guilty con-
science to endure. In fact, he seems a little more
at ease about his conduct than was desirable. Thus
he writes to Mrs. Goodwin, one of his Charlestown
friends : —

58 WILBUR F/SK.

"You recollect, in our Minutes of Conference, we
have, among others, this question : ' Who have died this
year ? ' Then follow the names of our deceased breth-
ren. In this catalogue, if you are careful to read it
over year after year, you will find, ere long, the name
of your much-obliged friend, Wilbur Fisk. To the
short account that may there be given, you may add
with your pencil this : His early departure excited in
his breast but one regret, which was, that he had to
leave the war before the cause of truth obtained a sig-
nal triumph."

It was not until May, 1822, that Mr. Fisk re-
sumed preaching. Yet lie dared not assume the
burdens of the pastoral office that year. After the
next September, there was such a sudden and
marked improvement in liis health, that he took
up the cares and duties of the pastor's calling in
room of a preacher who had been compelled to
drop his work. Finding by actual trial that he
was now fully equal to the duties of his vocation,
he thought best to marry the lady to whom he had
been engaged, through good health and through
poor health, for seven years. This was Miss Ruth
Peck, of Providence. Prior to the marriage, he
seems to have known her chiefly by correspondence,
and possibly that mode of procedure was somewhat
discredited by its results in this instance. This
event in his personal history was entered upon in
a sensible and religious spirit, for he wrote to his
betrothed a few days before their marriage : ^ —

1 The raarriag-e occurred June 9, 1823.

THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 59

" It is my ardent prayer that Christ would unite us
to Himself, as the branch is united to the vine ; that,
while we may love each other with pure hearts fervently
we may love Him supremely ; and have, above all
things, an experimental knowledge of that mystical union
that exists between Christ and His church, so that here-
after, when Christ shall come to take home His weary
bride, you may go into the marriage supper of the Lamb,
and there be met by your unworthy but truly affectionate

"W. FisK."

The belief is a deeply rooted one, both at Wil-
braham, where the Fisks resided five years, and at
Middletowu, where they lived nine years, that this
was not the happiest of marriages. Wilbur Fisk
won everybody's approval as a son, brother, son-in-
law, friend, and counselor ; so that there can be
no doubt that he would be strictly and even gener-
ously attentive to all his conjugal duties. Indeed,
no suspicion of fault or defect in his conduct in
that sacred relation has ever gone abroad ; and
if there had been, Mrs. Fisk constantly speaks in
her letters of his faultless and chivalrous devotion
to her as compared with that of ordinary husbands.
For the forty-five years of her widowhood she told
the same story. Was this unhappy tradition true
or false ? One who has heard it from his boyhood
up is rather apt to read their correspondence with
the aim of getting at the truth. There are passages
in Mrs. Fisk's letters to her husband that mis^ht
be construed as illustrations of its verity. Eleven
months after the marriage, he was absent five or

60 WILBUR FISK.

six weeks, attending the General Conference at
Baltimore, when Mrs. Fisk writes from Lyndon,
May 29th, saying : —

" The belief that you sincerely love me, even though
now far separated, gives a zest to all my duties, and
Hghtens all my trials. But, Wilbur, I often feel that I
am unworthy of it ; and when supplicating my Heavenly
Father to grant me the qualifications I need to deserve
it, with streaming eyes do I beseech Him to grant you
all that patience you need to bear with me. Could tears
wash my infirmities, weaknesses, and errors from mem-
ory, they would be obliterated."

There are people to whom such language will
seem confirmation strong as Holy Writ of the
suspicions entertained against Mrs. Fisk. If the
habit of accepting petitions at the throne of grace
in room of affidavits should spread among biog-
raphers, it would add a new terror to communion
with God, and be an effective persuasion to irreli-
gion. And, besides this, the lady's letters to other
people, even when dealing vdth less weighty sub-
jects than personal faults, are rather apt to be
lachrymose and pyrotechnical in their rhetoric,
without any great provocation. If these jealous
suspicions had any justification in fact, certainly
the conduct of Wilbur Fisk deserves our admira-
tion. He made nobody a confidant of his troubles,
made no complaint to others, sought no sympathy
from others ; and when his wife carelessly made
friends or strangers eye-witnesses or ear-witnesses
of her vexation, treated all such facts as non-

THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 61

existent. In all his intercourse with her, in all his
references to her, in all his letters to her, he made
much of her virtues and nothing of her faults. In
aU the letters I have read, not one personal defect
is mentioned, while this or that good quality is
generously lauded. It is only when one reflects on
the things and virtues which are not praised by a
husband so ready to commend, that one realizes how
truthful as well as generous this correspondence
is. Had Ruth Fisk been like Lyman Beecher's
heavenly - minded Roxana, her husband's praises
would have been as unstinted and comprehensive
as Beecher's. What love letters such a lover as
Wilbur Fisk might have been would have left be-
hind for our wonder !

In his last intercourse with her on earth, there
was the like generous appreciation of his wife's vir-
tues, merits, and exceptional exposure to trouble.
She was overwhelmed with sorrow when told that
his death was at hand. In taking his final leave
of the professors of Wesley an University, among
other things it is said : —

" He commended his afflicted wife to their care and
sympathy, observing, ' I believe she has added years to
my life by her constant care and nursing. You will love
her for my sake when I am gone.' The wife of one of
the professors assured him they had done so, and would
do so still."

The way in which this promise was kept to Dr.
Fisk's widow is a signal instance of his power to

62 WILBUR FISK.

influence others. The decease of her husband
left Mrs. risk with only her venerable mother
and an adopted daughter, Martha. Presently they
both had followed Dr. Fisk to the grave. There
were visits paid by Mrs. Fisk to the parents and
sister of her departed husband, at Lyndon ; but as
the elder Fisks soon became too much broken in
health to travel much themselves, and too depen-
dent upon the care of their only surviving child to
admit of her leaving them to themselves on such
journeys, there were few and infrequent visits at
first; and soon none at all were possible. For
some reason, the Peck kinsmen were never known •
to visit Mrs. Fisk after her widowhood ; so that
she was thrown very greatly upon the kindness
and sympathy of her Middletown friends for so-
ciety and aid. It became one of the unwritten
laws of the Wesley an University faculty that they
must all have a part in taking care of Mrs. Fisk.
A son of one of those families once said : " I was
brought up at home, so that I always felt that I
must always look out for our family and 3frs.
Fisk. It was so with every boj'^ or girl that be-
longed to that set of households. She was the
common care of them all."

Of course, it was natural for people who had
been linked together so long and so pleasantly as
the professors of Wesleyan University had been
with Wilbur Fisk, to show personal kindness to
his widow ; but they did something far better than
that, since they made it such a point of honor and

THE ITINERANT MINISTER. 68

pride to show her kindness that, when the last as-
sociate in the faculty of Dr. Fisk had disappeared
from Middletown, she was just as faithfully re-
garded as ever. As she grew older, she either
would not have or could not keep any servant with
her long. She grew too feeble to attend to her
own wants, but was reluctant to abandon the little
house, at a corner of the college grounds, which
had become her home on her husband's death.
There some member of the faculty families daily
saw that she had her food for meals ; her errands
about town done ; her coal, wood, and water abun-
dantly at hand. Sometimes students made it their
daily care to do anything she wished done, all
through their college life. In some respects she
was a spoiled child to the last ; for nobody could
be certain of satisfying her in such humble offices
and services. The affecting part of her situation
was, that she lived only in and to her husband's
memory. She knew little about the strange world
which had grown up around her, and had no in-
terest in later generations save as they were some-
how related to her husband's career.

CHAPTER V.

THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEY AN ACADEMY.

When Wilbur Fisk was invited to become prin-
cipal of Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Mass.,
his pious mother urged him for the sake of his own
soul not to accept the new work. She appealed
to his own experience in such matters. Had he
not declined in his interest in religious truth and
spirituality of life while he was a student in
Peacham Academy, and continued in a backslid-
den condition during all his successive connections
with the University of Vermont and Brown Uni-
versity? He could not challenge the truth of her
assertions, but he did deny that he had been under
any compulsion to backslide at school or college,
and affirmed that schools and colleges could be so
organized and managed as to make them intensify
instead of deadening the piety of the students.
This was one of his most serious purposes in all
his career as an educator. Nay, he maintained
that such schools and colleges might be made hot-
beds of revival influence.

In this opinion, Mrs. Fisk represented the pre-
vailing view in the churches of all orders. How
did the churches of that period come to have so

THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN ACADEMY. Qc>

poor an opinion of the colleges of the country ? In
these times, such an idea could only be founded on
ignorance of the actual condition of the colleges,
and could be refuted with an overwhelming array
of argument and illustration. At that period, not
only did pious and intelligent people in all the
churches cherish such ideas about colleges, but
spiritually-minded clergymen of all denominations
shared this notion. We know how powerful were
the influences of unbelief and secularity at Har-
vard, since they at last swept her wholly away
from her moorings to the faith of the fathers, and
made her the disseminator of Unitarianism. We
know that at Brown University the same leaven
of unbelief was at work.

In his essay on " Prayer for Colleges," Profes-
sor Tyler, of Amherst College, has shown that this
state of things was not peculiar to this college or
that, but was universal. We quote some details as
to the condition of Yale Colleo'e : —

" It was a period of declension in the churches also,
and of infidelity and immorality in the country, when
the disastrous effects of our own Revolutionary War
(we mean, of course, the moral and religious effects),
and still more of the French Revolution, infected, like
a plague, all classes of the people. ... In 1795 only
eleven undergraduates are known to have been profes-
sors of religion ; about four years after, the number
was reduced to four or five ; and at one communion only
a single undergraduate was present, the others being
out of town. A surviving member of the class of 1783

QQ WILBUR FI8K.

remembers only three professors of religion in the class
of 1782, and only three or four each in several of the
preceding classes. In his own class, which was blessed
with a revival, there were eleven. In the darkest time,
just at the close of the century, there was only about
one professor of religion to a class. The state of things
was even worse in the churches."

When Lyman Beecher, who belonged to the
class of 1797, speaks of the religious state of the
college, we get the graphic touches of an ear and
eye witness : —

*' Before Dr. Dwight came, college was in a most un-
godly state. The college church was almost extinct.
Most of the students were skeptical, and rowdies were
plenty. Wine and liquors were kept in many rooms ; in-
temperance, profanity, gambling, and licentiousness were
common. I hardly know how I escaped. Was invited
to play, once, in a class-mate's room. I did so and won.
Next day I won again, then lost, and ended in debt. I
saw immediately whereunto that would grow ; obtained
leave of absence, went home for a week, till cured
of that mania, and never touched a card afterward.
That was the day of the infidelity of the Tom Paine
school. Boys that dressed flax in the barn, as I used to,
read Tom Paine, and believed him ; I read and fought
him all the way. Never had any propensity to infidel-
ity. But most of the class before me were infidels, and
called each other Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert."

Hence there can be no doubt that the religious
condition of the American colleges themselves, in
the disheartening period between the acknowledg-

THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEY AN ACADEMY. 67

ment of our independence and 1820, was such as
to justify the fear that they fostered impiety and
irreligion. This evident fact was enough to make
many Methodists reluctant to send their sons to
be educated where they would be in danger of los-
ing their spirituality. There was another source
of danger for Methodist students in the colleges of
the land, since, even if they did retain their piety,
they would be likely to lose their antipathy to Cal-
vinism and enter the ministry of other churches.
Wilbur Fisk's chum at Brown University thought
Methodists fanatics, and in this he represented the
universal sentiment of New England. Still the
Methodists could not well hesitate about foundinsf
schools of their own, since they saw the best and
ablest of their youth entering the schools and col-
leges of other churches.

As all the colleges of the land were under the
direction of their theological foes, the need became
very urgent that they should establish colleges of
their own for the school - training of those who
would have such training somewhere. Nay, it was
plain that no church could perform its proper work
for the country which should leave the education
of its young people in the hands of its theological
adversaries. Still it was only the clearest-sighted
who could adequately realize how great would be
the advantages of making Methodist colleges the
peers of the best in endowments and opportuni-
ties, while keeping them full of revival influences.
Yet these few had been able to impress their senti-

68 WILBUR FISK.

ments on the New England Conference so deeply
that, in 1816, action was taken by that body to se-
cure the establishment of a literary institution in
New England.

The New Market Academy was founded at this
time by the New England Annual Conference.
It was after much previous discussion that a
preachers' club, which met at New Market, N. H.,
resolved to secure the establishment of a Meth-
odist Academy at once. New Market was a pleas-
ant, healthy, and moral place. Besides, it was the
residence of Rev. John Brodhead, a man of mark in
New England Methodist circles, a good preacher,
a wise counselor, a man who more than once had
represented his party in the State Senate, and his
district in the House of Representatives at Wash-
ington. His great influence made him a pioneer
in the establishment of the New Market Academy.
But the local pledges of the New Market people
to the school never were fully redeemed, so that a
general subscription was made mainly by the min-
isters. Thus was raised 1755. The largest sum
was paid by Rev. Martin Ruter, $80.

A small buildinof was erected for school use.
The conference was to provide a preceptor for five
years ; the receipts were to be at its disposal ; the
salary was not to exceed i500. There was some
opposition to the plan in the body ; but the lead-
ers, like Soule, Hedding, Brodhead, Merritt, and
Pickering, overbore all resistance. The scheme
was adopted at the session of 1817.

THE EDUCATOR — WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 69

The first tecacher was Mr. Moses White, a Meth-
odist, a graduate of the University of Vermont,
pious and able. Ten pu2)ils were on hand the first
day, and seventeen more before the term ended.
They were largely day scholars, like any country
academy, with a conference attachment. From the
start, both sexes were educated together. The
tuition paid Mr. White's salary of 1400.

A board of trustees was incorporated by the
New Hampshire legislature in June, 1818. On
July 10 the first trustee meeting was held. Amos
Binney was chosen president, and Daniel Filmore
secretary. The board of trustees was to lay the
whole situation of the school before the conference
at every session, and annual visitors were sent to
examine the school, and report on all its concerns
to the conference. The following course of study
was adopted : Class L, Reading, Writing, and
English Grammar ; Class II., Geography and
Astronomy ; Class III., Latin, Greek, and French ;
Class lY., Mathematics and the Rudiments of
Natural Philosophy ; Class V., The Hebrew and
Chaldee of the Old Testament, and the Greek of
the New ; Class YL, Divinity, Logic, Rhetoric,
and Moral Philosophy.

This ambitious course of study was quite be-
yond the range of Mr. White's scholarship, and
pointed to a new leader to execute this broad but
ill-digested scheme of study. Accordingly, Mar-
tin Ruter, pastor of St. George's Church in Phila-
delphia, a self-made man like Asbury and Lee,

70 WILBUR FISK.

was chosen president. He was a man who had de-
voted himself to extended lines of study. Mr. Ru-
ter was a very popular and very influential pastor.
His election was thought to be certain to be very
advantageous to the school. It not only drew
the attention of Mr. Ruter's personal friends, but
also that of the church, to an institution until then
comparatively unknown to the public. It did
look like new life for the school to see eighty stu-
dents enrolled the first day. Many had come
from States outside New England, for the first time
in the history of the institution, attracted by the
fame of Ruter for learning and eloquence. And
he deserved his fame. Tlie first revival of reli-
gion visited the school soon after the new princi-
pal came. There was a great deal of talk about
profound scholarship, high ideals were urged, and
every man began to look as though he knew twice
as much as he did know. Not even Theodore
Parker in his palmiest days could swaUow down a
whole language and literature more expeditiously
and crudely than they.

Mr. Ruter was a dreamer of dreams. Soon he
hoped to create full-fledged preparatory schools,
— a fall-grown college, with law schools, theologi-
cal schools, and medical schools. What has been
the work of seventy years, he hoped to achieve in
ten. Such plans were doomed to failure. As a
teacher his success was only moderate, and that
must have been a sore personal disappointment
after his brilliant career in the pastorate. At the

THE EDUCATOR.— WESL E YA N ACAD KM Y. 7 1

General Conference of 1820, Dr. Ruter was elected
book agent. The fact that he accepted this of-
fice shows that the sense of his own defects as
an educator and of the visionary character of his
dreams, had been brought home to him in his
brief service at New Market. For with his in-
tense conviction of the necessity of education and
of educational institutions, Mr. Ruter would have
had every motive for remaining in the educational
work which moved Wilbur Fisk twice to decline a
bishopric that he might devote his life to a higher
work. Mr. Ruter was self-denying and unworldly
enough to have clung to so noble a work, had not
the conviction come over him that tliis high honor
was held in reserve for another brow.

With Mr. Ruter's resignation vanished all the
high hopes of many preparatory schools, a full-
blow^i college, and professional schools. Discour-
agement set in, numbers fell off, and the trustees
had only a plain little academy on their hands
where poor Moses White and an assistant had
been doing what little true educational work had
been going on at New Market Academy. From
that date deficits grew larger and students grew
fewer, until the only way to keep things alive was
to raise money in the churches. The finishing
stroke was given when the conference refused to
open the pulpits of that body to the agents of the
Academy. Various expedients were resorted to
in the vain hope of infusing fresh vigor into the
school. The last two terms,, but twenty students

72 WILBUR FISK.

were in attendance. Wilbur Fisk was asked to
do something for the school, but refused to do so
while the institution stayed at New Market.

To Wilbraham it was finally determined to re-
move the institution, notwithstanding efforts had
been made in favor of Rochester, N. H., Lynn,
Mass., and Ellington, Conn. The chief reasons
urged for the removal were these : in the former
location the school was surrounded by the best
and largest schools in the country, while at Wil-
braliam it would find no near competitors, as this
was long before the founding of the schools at
Easthampton, Northfield, and South Hadley. As
this was a school where both sexes were to be
educated together, there was good reason for ex-
pecting a larger patronage from the vicinage than
at New Market. It was hoped that the school at
Wilbraham might be attended by students from
the Middle States much more largely than would
be the case at the former site.

In Sherman's " History of Wesleyan Academy "
we read : —

" Rev. J. A. Merrill was the occasion of the selection
of Wilbraham as the site of the Academy. As Presid-
ing Elder of the jS'ew London District, in which Wil-
braham was included, he was at the house of Rev.
Calvin Brewer, a local preacher of the charge, in the
summer or early autumn of 1823, in company with the
Rev. Phineas Peck, who resided at Wilbraham and
supplied the pulpit. Attention was drawn to the Acad-
emy at New Market, which led Mr, Merrill, himself a

THE ED UCATOR. - WESLE YAN A CAD EM Y. 73

trustee, to observe that the conference at its last session
had taken action in favor of its removal to a locality
adapted to secure a larger attendance of students. Mr.
Brewer asked what he thought of Wilbrahara. Mr.
Merrill replied that he could say nothing officially, but
if the inhabitants wished it, and would make the proper
exertions for it, he thought the matter could be accom-
plished."

After the Wilbraham people had communicated
with the New Market trustees, and learned their
views through the Rev. Mr. Peck, things took
a new start amongst them. They were greatly
pleased with the prospect of a literary institution
in their village ; and arrangements were at once
made to enlarge the amount of their subscriptions.
To secure this desirable end, twelve subscription
papers were prepared and put in circulation in
the town and immediate vicinity by various hands.
The chief solicitor, however, was the Rev. Calvin
Brewer, who had begun the work prior to the ac-
tion of the trustees in regard to location ; but the
work was taken up and nobly seconded by other
parties interested in the success of the enterprise.
On the twelve papers, as reported to the trustees
in January, 1825, the round sum of $2,693 was
pledged for the erection of the new building or
buildings. This was thought to be a liberal sum,
and was, in fact, much more than they at first an-
ticipated obtaining. The people, though not always
able to give large sums, were found quite ready
to respond to this unusual call ; and this was true

74 WILBUR FISK.

as well of many members of the Congregational
Church as of those of the Methodist, evincing
their deep interest in education, and the breadth
of their charity in aiding a sect with which, in
earlier years, they had not always maintained the
pleasantest relations. Nor were the contributions
confined to members or attendants of the churches ;
many added their mites who were connected with
no church.

The Rev. John Lindsay, then a resident of Bos-
ton, had procured the passage of an act of incor-
poration for the new institution by the legislature
of Massachusetts, which received the governor's ap-
proval, February 7, 1824. The first trustees were
Amos Binney, Abel Bliss, Abraham Avery, Cahdn
Brewer, Enoch Mudge, Jr., Wilbur Fisk, Joshua
Crowell, William Rice, and John Lindsay. The
first meeting of the new board was held at Mr.
Lindsay's house in Boston, February 19, 1824.
Colonel Binney was made the first president and
Abel Bliss the first secretary of the board of trus-
tees.

Rev. John Lindsay, as financial agent, had raised
$3,511.67 ; Rev. Wilbur Fisk had obtained |303 ;
Rev. George Pickering §780 ; making, with the
$1,000 received from the New Market trustees and
12,693 subscribed at Wilbraham, $8,287.67.

These subscriptions were far from what would
have been needed to meet the expenses for erect-
ing a suitable series of buildings ; for a properly
organized school would require a school building

THE EDUCATOR.- WESLEY AN ACADEMY. 75

proper, a boarding-house, a residence for the prin-
cipal, besides two or three special structures for
carrying out the plans of some of the trustees.

The local committee certainly did select the very
best spot for the academy on all the long Wilbra-
ham street, as anybody can see who surveys it with
a critical eye. The first building is thus described
by Dr. Sherman : —

" The Board decided to build of brick, sixty-five feet
by thirty-five, two stories high, ten and twelve feet each
high, divided into one large and two small rooms, one
large hall, forty-one by thirty-five feet, and four draw-
ing rooms, above, with two flights of stairs, the basement
story to be eight feet deep with stairway at each end,
for wood, with the necessary doors and windows. At a
later date the committee were instructed to erect a suit-
able cupola, and to ' use their discretion ' in grading the
grounds about the new building."

It was intended to have the Academy building
done, and ready for school operations in Septem-
ber, 1825 ; but this was not the case until Novem-
ber. Meanwhile they elected Wilbur Fisk Prin-
cipal of the Academy, on the 28th of September
1825, with power to appoint such instructors as
he may deem expedient, and that he be requested
to give notice that the Academy will be opened
for the reception of pupils on or before the first
Monday in November next, and that he prepare a
proper code of rules and regulations, and a proper
course of studies to be pursued by the scholars, fix
the price of quarterage, and the price of board

76 WILBUR FISK.

with the inhabitants, until the boarding-house is
provided and opened, and that he write advising
with the steward, and direct and provide the fur-
niture necessary for the boarding-house.

It will be seen that there was not only a great
deal of work to be done in connection with the es-
tablishment and organization of the new institu-
tion, but a large confidence in the executive ability
of Mr. risk, since otherwise they would not have
given him such unlimited control. This action
shows that the board of trustees had not yet learned
how to do its own work. But this reliance upon
Mr. Fisk's discretion and practical skill gave him
a chance to show his high ability in this untried
field. On his advice, the trustees procured the
services of Mr. Nathaniel Dunn, Jr., a graduate
of Bowdoin College, as teacher. Mr. Dunn was a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and
was anxious to enter the new institution. He had
excellent testimonials both to his scholarship and
character. He was to teach the classics and other
branches. As Principal Fisk could not yet give
his undivided attention to his duties at AVilbra-
ham, the chief direction of the school would de-
volve upon Mr. Dunn until the ensuing session of
the New England Conference, when the presiding
eldership of the Vermont district could be trans-
ferred to other hands.

The trustees determined to signalize the open-
ing day of the school by public exercises, whose
chief feature should be an address by Principal

THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEY AN ACADEMY. 11

risk. Presiding Elder Fisk was so busy on his
official rounds of duty that he could only spare
Principal Fisk the odd moments which could be
picked up while in a chaise on his journeys. Then
Mrs. Fisk would officiate as driver, and her hus-
band would turn his hat into a writing-desk for
the penning down of his well-considered inaugural.
What did he say ? This : that the lecture-mon-
gers, who pretended to teach some of the broadest
and most diversified branches in a few fleeting
hours, were simply a delusion and a snare. They
gave their patrons only the vaguest and most su-
perficial ideas of subjects which could be mastered
only by diligent and protracted study. This part
of the speech would not be without its striking ap-
plications to our own times.

In reply to the allegation that the method and
system of the scholar in the distribution of time
are artificial and ill-adapted to the contingent pur-
suits of life, he says : —

" The merchant has his regular mode of doing busi-
ness, notwithstanding the variations of the market, and
his different successes and losses. The mariner has his
regular course, and his fixed system of making his cal-
culations, and established rules by which he turns to
the best possible advantage all the contrary winds and
shifting currents in his voyage. Indeed, the changes
and adversities to which he is subject make it the more
necessary that he should proceed by rule. Without this
he would be the sport of every wind, and be driven from
his course by every current. So without system in the

78 WILBUR FISK.

voyage of life, the mind of man will be driven out of
its course and away from its object by all the various
changes of time. Instead, therefore, of excusing ourselves
from a systematic employment of time, on the ground of
the varieties of life, this should be the very motive to
incite us to a close adherence to rule and method, that
we may make the most of a short and changing life."

A somewliat detailed discussion of the relation
of athletic sports to the health and happiness of
students follows, setting forth their great impor-
tance to a well-rounded education. But even such
things should be "guarded and regulated with
care by the instructor ; who, like a father, should
watch over his charge, in season and out of sea-
son, regulating their recreations as well as their
studies."

To the objection that education unfitted people
for the practical duties of life, he made answer,
" That the experience of our common schools con-
victed this plea of error. Such education as was
there given fitted men for a better discharge of
every-day duty. Why should not more education
still produce the like effect on the same persons
that it did before?"

Finall}^ the orator of the day approached the
most serious difficulty of all, the alleged immoral-
ity and irreligion of the schools. There the stu-
dent " Meets the filthy conversation of the wicked,
and learns to blaspheme. He meets the debauchee,
and learns incontinency ; he meets the jovial com-
panion, and indulges the social glass ; he meets

THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 79

with the caviling infidel, and learns to sneer at
religion. In short, he leaves the university more
learned, but frequently more corrupted, if not
wholly ruined."

Is there any way to prevent this? Can we
guard scholars with securities equal to those they
enjoy at home? Doubtless we can. Nay, it is
believed that a public seminary may be governed
and regulated upon a plan such as will better
guard the habits and morals of scholars than they
are usually guarded, in our common schools, where
the children are a part of the time under the pa-
rental roof. They should be under the immediate
control of the instructors, who will be able to guard
their morals out of school as well as during hours
of instruction.

" Not only should the pupil be guarded from expos-
ure to temptation ; but morality and religion should be
made a part of his instruction. The youth sent from
home to a literary institution usually has much less re-
ligious instruction than before. When in his father's
house, in common with the rest of the family he enjoyed
the means of grace and the pastoral services of the
minister. Now, if he mingles in the congregation of the
place, he goes as a stranger and returns as a stranger.
Unless, therefore, he is taught morality and religion by
his instructors, it may be said, no one cares for his soul.
How important, then, that he should be taught these
by those to whose immediate care his education is in-
trusted.

" By religious instruction is not meant teaching the
peculiar tenets of a party. Literary institutions should

80 WILBUR FISK.

not be prostituted to the low purposes of proselytism.
This would not be to make Christians, but bigots. But
those leading principles of religion should be inculcated
which are calculated to make the heart better ; and
those practical jDrece^Dts which regulate the life. Nor
should these be impressed on the young mind in an
arbitrary and austere manner. The ground and pro-
priety of what is enjoined should be explained. Our
religion is a reasonable service, and this, its true char-
acter, should be exhibited to the young as soon as their
reason begins to dawn ; and in this way, through all the
succeeding stages of religious instruction, should the re-
quirements and sanctions of the divine government be
illustrated until they commend themselves to the under-
standing and conscience."

After defining in this wise and catholic spirit
the scope of the new academy, Mr. Fisk left the
school in the hands of Mr. Dunn, while he re-
turned to the duties of his presiding eldership of
the Vermont district. The full term only lasted
four weeks, and only seven students were present
in all. During the winter term the attendance,
drawn from the place and its vicinity, ran up to
forty-four, while during the year one hundred and
four students belonged to the school. Tuition was
low : the charge for English studies was 13 ;
for astronomy and higher mathematics, $3.50 ; for
Latin and Greek, $4; for ornamental branches,
15. The price of board was fl.25 per week.
We are again reminded of the three chief aims of
the trustees, — first, to make their education good;
second, to make it cheap ; and third, to make it

rilE ED U CA TOR. — WESLE YA N ACA DEM T. 81

religious. Here it might be thought that the
second aim had been carried out so effectively as
to render the first impossible. For a time, Wilbur
Fisk only accepted the ordinary meagre salary of
a Methodist preacher while performing the duties
of his principalship, and a part of the time he
acted as pastor of the local church, when he drew
no pay from the funds of the academy. Mr.
Dunn's salary was 8400 a year and board. Yet
these small salaries did not necessarily mean very
great hardship. Fifteen years earlier (in 1810)
Lyman Beecher asked the presbytery for a dis-
mission from East Hampton, Long Island, on
account of insufficient support. The presbytery
wished Mr. Beecher to look the matter over, and
report to them upon what sum he could properly
support his family of seven persons. He replied
that if all arrearages were once paid, he could
live on #500 a year. Such things must be borne
in mind in estimating the scale of prices at Wil-
braham.

They had four terms a year, beginning on the
first Monday of September, December, March,
and June. There were six weeks of vacation in
summer. Among the text-books used were Ad-
ams's Latin Grammar, Goodrich's Greek Gram-
mar, Liber Primus and Jacob's Greek Reader,
Stoughton's Virgil, Clark's Introduction to Mak-
ing Latin, Blake's Natural Philosophy, Com-
stock's Chemistry, Day's Algebra, Blair's Rhet-
oric, Hedge's Logic, IngersoU's English Gram-

82 WILBUR FISK.

mar, Walker's Dictionary, and Scott's Lessons for
Reading.

Wilbur Fisk was appointed to the position of
principal at Wilbraham at the Conference of 1826,
and henceforth could give his undivided attention
to that task. He removed his family to Wilbra-
ham in May, 1826. This one work was, however,
in reality a manifold one. He was everybody's
adviser who had responsible connection with the
work of the school. He filled his proper office of
principal with painstaking fidelity and skill. This
alone would have overtaxed the powers of an ordi-
nary man. Colonel Binney was the only member
of the board of trustees who had ever filled such
an office. His skill and his money gifts made his
services invaluable. But his residence was about
a hundred miles away from Wilbraham, so that he
could not be consulted, even if his private business
would have yielded time, for guiding school affairs.
Hence upon the new principal fell the full burden
of planning the business to be presented to the
board, getting it into the wisest shape for adoption,
arguing the case so as to carry the body with him,
and then executing the work assigned him with
such tact and spirit as to compel approval. He
always had the unflagging assistance of the board
of trustees in all his work. Gradually he trained
them to perform their duties with such spirit and
self-devotion that when he ceased to be active in
their affairs, their courage and wisdom and gen-
erosity constantly opened the way to a higher use-
fulness for the honored academy.

THE EDUCATOR. —WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 83

The steward was as new to his duties as the
other officers of the institution. Mr. Fisk was
very careful in the selection of the best persons
within reach for all such positions, and then he
was accessible to them at all times when a word
of counsel, of direction, or of encouragement was
wanted. He was so fully convinced that the su-
preme test of any school was the quality of the
instruction imj^arted that he took every possible
safeguard to procure the best possible instruction.
He was fortunate in securing, in most cases, very
competent persons for this work. He corresponded
with Stephen Olin, then a rising young man in the
church, and afterward Dr. Fisk's most eminent
successor at Middletown. Had not Mr. Olin been
under engagement, he would have begun his teach-
ing at Wilbraham. Mr. Dunn, the first classical
teacher at Wilbraham, was from the start a very
successful instructor. He gave the most of his life
to teaching, and always justified the high reputa-
tion he gained at AYilbraham. The first precep-
tress, in charge of the girl's department, was Miss
Caroline Tillinghast, of Providence, R. I. She was
a lady of very superior-education, quiet and refined
manners, of a profoundly religious temper, whose
graces had been exercised and developed by a re-
markably diversified career. She evidently had

' ' A heart at leisure from itself
To soothe and sympathize."

Mr. Fisk not only took indefatigable pains to
obtain the most competent men for teachers, but

84 WILBUR FISK.

he had the most remarkable skill for getting out
of every man his best work. This was partly the
natural effect of his own example. Nobody could
be more unwearied than he in his endeavors to
do his very best. Whether he was preaching a
sermon, hearing a class, advising a teacher, stu-
dent, or the steward, his w^hole heart and soul
went into the work on hand. Such an examj^le
in a principal is contagious, and sure to breed a
like spirit in others. How much pains he would
sometimes take is shown in the following incident
narrated by Dr. Holdich : —

" At a certain time when the school was in need of an
additional teacher, and one just suited could not be found,
he selected a young minister, but indifferently qualified,
and that he might appear before his classes with credit
regularly heard him. in his own hours of relaxation,
through every lesson." ^

Then he breathed an atmosphere of hopefulness
about him wherever he went. This was partly the
natural fruit of his temperament, but not wholly
so. His friends in college days, like Gould and
Taft, agree that there was always a vein of sadness
and melancholy about his mind ; and Fisk himself
says that these characteristics did not leave him
wholly and forever until that notable blessing at
the Wellfleet camp-meeting. Then Giant Despair
and he parted forever. But no matter when or
how he won it, he had a heart of sunshine in him^
and a hopeful face always.

1 Life of Wilbur Fisk, p. 180.

THE ED UCA TOR. — WESLE YAN A CAD EM Y. 85
" His summer" did " last all the year."

Such undecaying hopefulness of temper made it
easy for others to work with him and enjoy the
most difficult work. For surely this Methodist
parson-saint could say as Tennyson's Sir Galahad

" My strength is as the strength of ten
Because my heart is pure."

It would be comparatively easy for a person
like Mr. Fisk to govern a large school such as
Wilbraham Academy soon grew to be under the
new auspices. The basis of all good government
in such a school must be respect for the regulations
of the school and a deferential obedience to the
officers thereof. In Mr. Fisk's time there was no
lack of the usual arrangements for good and even
strict discipline. For the more difficult cases they
had a prison, and for the worst, the utterly incor-
rigible, there was a dungeon. The prison was a
room furnished only with a hard bed, a single chair,
and a naked table ; the dungeon was a room with
clean straw scattered over the floor. The fare of
these prisoners was not such as to tempt them to
intemperance. A brief seclusion in these cheer-
less rooms usually broke the resolution of the most
rebellious. On some occasions public whipping
was resorted to. This whipping was, as Arnold of
Rugby would always have it, severe enough to do
its work effectually. At Wilbraham, it was rather
the publicity than the severity of the castigation
that was found effectual. Wilbur Fisk usually
inflicted these whippings himself ; for his sincere

86 WILBUR FISK.

kindness and strict self-control made it safer not
to intrust such disagreeable duties to subordinates.
Hence lie sometimes found himself in circumstances
where it required all his coolness to face success-
fully a ridiculous situation. Once, when his pa-
tience had been tried beyond all endurance, he
told the offender to be ready for a whipping after
prayers the next morning. The victim prepared
himself accordingly, and the first blows of the rat-
tan fell ineffectually upon the student's shoulders.
Then the principal ordered the removal of the
overcoat. A smaller overcoat was found under the
first. That, too, was ordered off. Then the whip-
ping was resumed, to no purpose, for the crafty
youngster had concealed under his waistcoat a
thick pasteboard atlas, on which the blows rained
harmlessly. " What on earth did you get your-
self up that way for ? " asked the smiling master.
" You told me to come prepared for a whipping,
sir, and I thought I had better." By this time
the school was in a roar, and the whipping was
very brief.

However, punislmient was not often resorted to
in the school management. Mr. Fisk was a manly
man, and he aroused a like spirit in others, and
his bearing tended to call out manliness in stu-
dents. His appeals were always addressed to the
nobler side of the young people. He sought al-
ways to get them to recognize the princi23les of
self-respect, high-mindedness, and personal honor
in their relations to each other and the authorities

THE EDUCATOR. - WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 87

of the school. All his influence was thrown pow-
erfully against those j^ractices by which students
are encoura2:ecl in loose and low views of their
duties to each other. That was before the days
of the temperance reformation, so that one of the
things against which he had constantly to guard
was the opening of places where wine, beer, and
ardent spirits could be purchased. Under such a
state of things any school principal who keeps his
eyes open to what men are doing around him, and
who can command the respect and assistance of
the town opinion, becomes a wall of defense to his
school. This, Mr. Fisk rarely failed to do and
to be. To one hardened offender, whose avarice
had tempted him to induce certain students to
run up forbidden and unreasonable bills at his
store, he wrote, " Sir, I never shall pay such bills,
and the parents will never pay them if I can hin-
der it."

One of the pecidiar features of Wilbraham
school-life was the " Social Interview." As the
school was made up of young people of both sexes,
Mr. Fisk thought it desirable that they should be
trained to social life under wisely regulated princi-
ples. Hence all the officers of the school used to
meet with all the students in a large room. Here,
after tea had been served, they were expected to
engage in conversation on whatever topics they
pleased; though devices were resorted to from
time to time to prevent the same persons from
monopolizing each other's company. The object

88 WILBUR FISK.

of the Interview was to break up shyness and self-
absorption, and induce easy and refined manners
in social life.

One point of great practical importance in the
plans was the securing good and cheap board. It
was thought that for a while board might be ob-
tained in the families of the "sdllasfe at such low
rates as to protect the interests of the students.
Such families as had boarders entered into an agree-
ment not to charge more than §1.25 a week for it.
But it was obvious to all that this resource could
not safely be depended upon. The place was not a
large one, so that trouble might easily arise either
by some families asking too high a rate, or by some
declining to offer board at all. In either case
there would have been perplexity. Should the
school increase according to the hopes of its foun-
ders, there would some time be hundreds in attend-
ance. Then it was thought that the gathering of a
large number of students of both sexes in one large
boarding hall, under the direction of the steward
and teachers, would tend in many ways to the devel-
opment of a unified school-life and the production
of a home atmosphere. Hence the trustees pur-
chased Warriner's Hotel of its owners, directly
across the road from the school-buildings. In this
way, after the hotel had been considerably remod-
eled and enlarged, they were always able to afford
astonishingly cheap rates of board in view of its
quality ; so that when three hundred and fifty
students resorted to the school, board was as good

THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 89

and cheap as ever. The large dining-room after-
wards became the scene of the week-day prayer-
meeetings, over which the principal always pre-
sided, and where many a soul was won to Christ.

At a later date the trustees built a house for the
use of the principal, and a plain structure for the
use of students interested in the mechanic-arts de-
partment. After a while the boarding-house proved
too strait to accommodate all the students who de-
sired entertainment there, and so it became needful
to enlarg-e it and to make the most of all the room
they had. Such an advance in numbers of neces-
sity compelled the employment of more teachers.
William Magoun, an alumnus of Brown Univer-
sity, was associated with Mr. Dunn in the work of
instruction. At times the services of Joel Knight
and of David Patten, Jr., were secured for some
of the more elementary branches of study. When
the first preceptress, Miss Charlotte L. Tillinghast,
gave up her duties, in consequence of her mar-
riage to her associate in teaching, Mr. Dunn, the
position was taken by Miss Susan Brewer, a sister
of the Rev. Calvin Brewer of Wilbraham, a lady
of liigh character and various accomplishments.
These names complete the roll of the members of
the academy faculty in Dr. Fisk's day.

Somewhat perplexing to the trustees was this
remarkable growth of their institution in numbers
and popularity. For they were compelled to re-
spond to these indications of prosperity by a bold
and liberal policy. With them it was the day of

90 WILBUR FISK.

financial small things ; one man, Colonel Binney,
gave 110,000 ; but the next largest gift was 1175
by Abel Bliss, and from $150, the next largest
subscription, the gifts ran all the way down to ten
cents. The chief collector was the Rev. John Lind-
say, and at times Wilbur Fisk and Rev. George
Pickering also acted as collectors. The conference
passed resolutions opening every pulpit within their
bounds to the agents of the trustees, and sometimes
they appointed special collectors besides. The
ministers preached sermons on the subject. They
circulated subscription papers intended to reach
all their people, high and low, rich and poor ;
not a child was unsolicited. Gifts from without
were welcome, and sometimes such outside gifts-
enabled the principal to make a very effective ap-
peal to the careless or niggardly in the Methodist
congregations, as we see from his article in " Zion's
Herald " : —

ERA OF GOOD FEELING.

" A circumstance occurred, during a late tour in Ver-
mont and New Hampshire to solicit donations for Wes-
leyan Academy, which I deem worthy of public notice.
I had a letter of introduction to Colonel B. of Hanover
(Dartmouth College), N. H. ; and as I hardly supposed
the people of that villlage would be disposed to do much
towards the object of my mission, I had designed to
call on the colonel, and then go on my journey. In
conversation with the Rev. William W., Congregational
minister in N., I mentioned my design, and he sug-
gested the propriety of my calling upon other citizens in

TEE EDU CA TOR. - WESL E YA N A CA D E M Y. 91

Hanover, and especially upon the officers of the college,
and kindly offered to be my company, and introduce me
to such gentlemen as he thought would be favorable to
my object. This was accordingly agreed upon, and in
the course of a few hours, the next day, we received
subscriptions in that small village to the amount of
seventy-jive dollars. Most of the officers of the college,
including the president, became subscribers, and seemed
to wish success to the institution. The donations them-
selves were not more gratifying than the spirit in which
they were given. No captious questions were asked, no
long complaints were made by those who gave ; though
complaints might have been made with propriety at that
time, if ever, by the good people of Hanover. They
had but a little before completed a fund of $10,000 for
their own college, of which a generous part had been
subscribed in that village, and but just before about
$1,000 had been collected in that place for a religious
charity by Mr. C. of S., and, in addition, they had just
undertaken to raise a fund of $50,000 for their own col-
lege, $5,000 of which had been subscribed, or would be
subscribed, in Hanover. In the midst of this almost un-
paralleled levy of public benevolences, they gave $75 to
an institution one hundred and thirty miles from them,
under the patronage of another denomination, and of
which, until that day, they had probably had but little
knowledge.

" I call this at least one good j^roof that the present
is an era of good feeling. When men of different de-
nominations and of different local interests in literary
seminaries unite their valuable efforts with the men of
other denominations and other local interests to aid the
common cause of religion and of science, we may expect

92 WILBUR FISK.

such a holy alliance will drive sin and error from the
field : an alliance this, which can only exist among men
of enlarged and noble minds.

" Another reflection grows out of the above facts,
viz. : that men are not the less willing to give because
they are often solicited and have been in the habit of
giving. As in Hanover, so I believe it will be found
in other places, that where the objects for public charity
are the oftenest presented, there their importance is most
considered, and the duty of giving is best understood.
The yoke of benevolent duties, where it is taken and
worn, is easy, and the burden thereof becomes light. It
is the man who seldom gives that chafes and complains
most when requested to give. It has been intimated by
some of our ministerial brethren that, unless we cease
our public and private solicitations for charity, we shall
sour our people, and drive them from us. This, how-
ever, I believe, is a mistake. If we are careful to solicit
only for worthy objects, and if we prudently expend the
public charities intrusted to us, we need not fear. We
have been too fearful of calling upon our people to aid
in the great works of benevolence of the present day, and
this is why we are so doubtful of their willingness to give.
Are Methodist Christians different from other Christians
in their dispositions and feelings ? If they are, Method-
ism has made them to differ, for it has selected its ad-
herents from the same mass of population with the other
denommations. Are we prepared to acknowledge that
that modification of Christianity which maintains a uni-
versal atonement, and offers a free salvation to the whole
human family, has a tendency to lock uj) the soul of him
who believes it within the narrow walls of self ? Shall
those who believe in perfect love to God and man, in com-

THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAX ACADEMY. 98

plete deadness to the world, in the entire subjugation
of the unholy and earthly passions, be accounted less ac-
cessible to the pleas of benevolence and to the claims of
charity than other Christians ? It cannot be. Method-
ism is a benevolent religion. It makes high professions
of consistency, as well as of that charity which ' seeketh
not its own.' Frequent appeals for laudable charities to
men under the influence of such a religion cannot drive
them from us, but draw them to us by the strongest
cords of attachment. We may, indeed, irritate the feel-
ings of those who have connected themselves with us,
not because they have any peculiar attachment for us,
but because they think ours a cheap religion, and that
they can live with us without paying for it. Such men
ought to be disturbed. Thoy have hung upon us like
dead weights, and been sponging around our ecclesias-
tical gates long enough. If they will not reform, it is
no matter how soon they leave us, and it is to be hoped
no one else will receive them. The least we ought to
do to such narrow, covetous minds is to make them
uneasy everywhere. Such souls will never be admitted
to the heavenly feast in their present state, for there will
not be found a wedding-garment in the vestry of heaven
to fit them — they are all too large ; and they ought to
have no seat at the table of the church below. But, thank
God, the great body of the Methodists are not such. If
they are deficient in their public charities, it is chiefly
because their attention has not been often enough called
to these subjects, and their importance and necessity
have not been sufficiently set before them.

" But I will close this article by adding that the
seminary at Wilbraham, for which the above-mentioned
subscriptions were received, will succeed and prosper.

94 WILBUR FISK.

unless its more immediate patrons are greatly want-
ing to themselves. With the best wishes of other de-
nominations, and even with their pecuniary aid in its
favor ; with a large and increasing number of students
and a prosperous beginning, all that is now wanted is a
united effort at this time to relieve it of its present em-
barrassments, and a steady perseverance in its support.
But if a few be left to groan and toil under the burden
till they faint and give over, it shall be to our shame
and confusion, if not to our overthrow. Let us, then,
urged on by the good example and encouraging aid of
others, show by our icorks that we are what we profess
to be, the supporters of a liberal and enlightened system
of truth. W. FiSK.

" WiLBRAHAM, March 27, 1827."

Let us look at the religious side of life at the
Wesleyan Academy. The students were required
to attend morning and evening prayers in the school,
and attendance at one of the village churches was
expected on Sundays. If a student were disposed,
he might attend the Tuesday evening sermon or
lecture in the dining-hall ; there was a general
prayer-meeting on Thursday evening, and a reli-
gious class-meeting to which those needing religious
counsel and direction could resort. Attendance
on these week-day meetings was strictly voluntary.
Iq Dr. risk's day the Tuesday evening lecture
or sermon was well attended; for the principal
used to discourse upon some theme announced be-
forehand, so that those who liked might study the
topic for themselves. These discourses were so

THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 95

impressive that the seats were usually all full.
Dr. risk was very urgent that these regular means
of grace should be so spiritual that believers might
steadily grow in grace, and sinners be turned to
the wisdom of the just. So fully was he sustained
in these soimd views by the efforts of his faithful
associates that no entire term ever went past with-
out some conversions, and thus the tone of the
school was always religious. But he was also con-
vinced that such schools ought to be, even more
frequently than ordinary churches, scenes of reli-
gious revival.

On the Tth of June, directly after Mr. Fisk had
gone to Wilbraham, the New England Conference
held its annual session in that place. Bishop
George was the presiding bishop, a man of the
most devout piety, and a preacher of fervid and
melting eloquence. As the official and formal
business in those times was not so extensive as
now, it was the custom to devote no small part of
the session to religious, and even revival, services.
Nothing suited them better than to leave a blaze
of revival influences behind them. There were
revivalists of no mean power in the body itself.
Such were Jotham Horton, Orange Scott, Abra-
ham D. Merrill, Leroy Sunderland, and Wilbur
Fisk himself. Above all these eminently success-
ful revivalists towered the fame of John Newland
Maffitt. Maffitt took the front rank among such
honored names as easily and undeniably as Mr.
Moody would do in our time. I remember ex-

96 WILBUR FISK.

pressing my doubts to the Rev. Kalph W. Allen,
of the New England Conference, of the justice of
Maffitt's fame. Instantly his face lit up : " Well,
then, you never heard him preach. Nobody who
ever heard him preach could doubt that." Still
that did happen sometimes, for I remember the
late Mr. James T. Fields of Boston gave me a
most vivid description of the effect of Maffitt's
preaching on him when a boy. " But," said Mr.
Fields, "I was a boy then. I wonder how it
would seem if I could hear him now." Ex-Gov-
ernor Claflin of Massachusetts once gave the best
grounded and argued statement of Maffitt's supe-
riority to all subsequent and recent revivalists,
like Moody and Pentecost, I have ever heard.
He had certain external points of distinction over
them which gave a charm to everything he said.
He was a handsome, well-formed man, of dignified
bearing, dressed with exquisite taste and natural-
ness. His elocution was exceedingly easy and re-
fined, and his enunciation of words whose pronun-
ciation is disputed always followed the best au-
thorities. Yet, unlike many, all these matters of
petty distinction were so thoroughly spontaneous
to him that they seemed to operate of themselves,
with the easy gracefulness of a bird's pinions.
Then came the more important matter. His
preaching was thoroughly orthodox. He preached
all the great doctrines of the gospel with unspar-
ing earnestness and devotion. He had a study
where he used to pass the intervals between one

THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 97

service and another. There he used to employ all
his time and thought in preparation for the next
service. He made out his points in a clear and
convincing manner from the express teachings of
Scripture or the experience of holy men. Much
of his time was spent in prayer, so that he carried
with him that heavenly influence which sways all
hearts.

This was the revivalist, just then in the full
flush of his power, whose participation in the pro-
ceedings of the conference, and whose preaching
during and after the session, rendered the coming
of the first great revival in the academy a marked
and memorable event. After the conference
closed, Maffitt was induced to remain to take ad-
vantage of the general interest in religion which
had been aroused. His preaching was made in-
strumental in extending and deepening the work
of grace through the school and throughout the
town.

Maffitt showed his unusual readiness of retort.
Somebody asked, "Brother Maffitt, why do you
always say wind in reading your hymns ? " Like
a flash came the answer, " Because I cannot find
it in my mind to say wind." In this revival
at Wilbraham the Congregationalist pastor com-
plained that there was too much noise. "My
brother, this is the stillest world you wiU ever be
in," was the quick and genial reply of the great
evangelist. Dr. Fisk sent an account of the re-
vival to " Zion's Herald."

98 WILBUR FISK.

REVIVAL AT THE WESLEYAN ACADEMY.

" WiLBRAHAM, July 7, 1826.
" Dear Brother, — Through the columns of the
' Herald ' we would give a short notice of the prosper-
ity of our rising seminary, and of the dealings of God
with us in this place. The students are generally well-
behaved, diligent, and easily governed. This is undoubt-
edly in part owing to that which rejoices us more than
anytliing else — a revival of religion among us. There
were several instances of conversion and some good
symptoms of a work of grace among the people previ-
ously to the sitting of the conference in this place ; but
now a number profess to have found forgiveness through
Christ, and numbers more are inquiring after salvation,
insomuch that present appearances indicate a general
shower of divine mercy, not only in this parish, but
in the South parish and in other neighboring parishes.
The labors of our brethren during the conference have
doubtless contributed to this ; and the work has been
especially forwarded, under God, by the instrumentality
of Brother Maffitt, who tarried more than a fortnight
after the conference rose, and labored with much suc-
cess among the people. Of this work our interesting
family at the boarding house have shared a good propor-
tion. I will not name the number who have professed to
experience justifying grace, because among such young
persons, in times of great excitement, there cannot al-
ways be a strong assurance that the work will in every
case prove genuine. A number, however, give good evi-
dence of a change of heart ; and I know some of our
preachers will rejoice when they learn that some of their
children are among the number. I cannot express the
feelings of my heart when I returned from a journey

THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEY AN ACADEMY. 99

which I took immediately after conference, to find that
a number of these dear youths who have been intrusted
to our care are rejoicing in the Lord. We rejoice over
them, however, with trembhng ; we shall watch for their
confirmation in the Divine life with affectionate anxiety ;
and constantly pray, ' O Lord, strengthen what thou
hast wrought for us ! ' Oh, that all our brethren would
join with us in this prayer ! We are the more encour-
aged to hope the work will prove permanent, because a
number of the scholars were confirmed in experience
before they came here, whose example and conversa-
tion are very helpful to the converts. W. FiSK."

Lyman Beecher says that usually he had pre-
monitions in his own spiritual condition or in his
work as a pastor of the advent of his revivals, but
that one revival of great power broke out in his
church without any heralding sign whatever. Thus
was it with the coming of the greatest revival of
religion ever known at Wesleyan Academy in Dr.
Fisk's day. At such seasons an unwonted effi-
ciency is given to the ordinary means of grace by
the direct influence of the Spirit of God. We
have seen how anxious Mr. Fisk had all along
been not only that the divine blessing might at-
tend all the religious instruction and admonition
given there, so that the devout might rise to a
higher type of devotion and sinners be won from
their waywardness by godly Christian example,
but also special seasons of refreshing from the
presence of the Lord might be vouchsafed the
school. His feeling was profound that such wide-

100 WILBUR FISK.

spread awakenings ought to be not only feasible,
but more feasible in such Christian schools than
elsewhere ; that a revival amongst such excellent
young people would redound far more widely to the
glory of God than an ordinary awakening could ;
and that such school revivals would arouse more
sympathy for the work of Christian education in
the church than anything else. That was an era
of widespread revivals in the American churches,
so that their occurrence would be promptly noted
and widely reported. Hence the ardor and per-
sistence of Dr. Fisk's labors to secure a revival
year by year. We quote Rev. Stephen Cushing's
account of the result.

" On the morning of that ever memorable day,
(March 9th, 1828), a young man of sixteen said to an-
other whom he chanced to meet, ' Edward, will you seek
religion, if I will ? ' 'I desire to think of it, and will
give you an answer in an hour,' was the reply. At the
expiration of the hour he consented to join him. They
walked together to church and in the evening another
joined them in a prayer-meeting. Together they fre-
quently read the Bible and prayed until Wednesday
evening, when, after a sermon by Dr. Fisk on the text
* Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth.' they with one
more rose for prayers, signifying that they intended to
make religion the business of life. A prayer-meeting in
the students' room followed, and at a late hour three of
the number were converted.

" The next evening they all testified at the usual fam-
ily prayer-meeting that they had found the Saviour, and
six others desired prayers, most of whom were before

THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 101

midnight rejoicing in the forgiveness of their sins.
Through the next day and evening there were many
small prayer-meetings. On Saturday the school exer-
cises were suspended and the time devoted to prayer
and Christian conference. During the week as many
as thirty liad been converted. At the close of the sec-
ond week but five remained in the boarding-house un-
converted. Meantime between fifty and sixty had given
their hearts to God, and of these six became ministers.
Osmon C. Baker, David Patten, and Morris Hill were
of the number. . . .

" One incident I well remember. A backslider, after-
wards a well-known and beloved teacher in the institu-
tion (William G. Mitchell), was concerned for his soul
and sought a retired place for prayer. Entering a room
in the boarding-house, he knelt and began to pray in
earnest. Another student coming to his room saw him,
and called in two others to pray with him. Unaware
of their presence the seeker prayed aloud, and as he
ceased another prayed for him, when he suddenly fell
to the floor and remained apparently unconscious for
nearly an hour. On reviving, his joy was unspeakable
and full of glory.

" At class-meeting in the evening, as J. B. Merwin,
now a Presiding Elder in the New York Conference,
arose and expressed a desire to be a Christian, Mitchell
seized Merwin, a large and strongly built man, and car-
ried him the length of the boarding-hall to Dr. FIsk,
and asked him to pray for the seeker. For weeks the
joy of young Mitchell continued full and overflowing. . . .

"One characteristic of this revival was the promi-
nence given to the subject of sanctlficatlon or Christian
perfection as the duty and privilege of all believers.

102 WILBUR FISK.

Were this more frequently done, the results of revivals
would be far more satisfactory. In this instance the
converts were urged to go on to perfection, and to de-
vote themselves fully to God. In a short time after his
conversion Baker [afterwards Bishop Baker] professed
entire sanctification, and exhibited the spirit of it in all
his after life. Other converts profited by these exhor-
tations, and many of them soon received this fullness of
the blessing of the gospel of Christ."

On this account, Dr. Sherman, who knows the
religious history of Wesleyan Academy by heart,
comments : —

"Among the many revivals which have gladdened
the student life at Wilbraham, none has equaled in
depth, and power, and ascertained results, that of 1828.
During its progress. Dr. Fisk remarked that he had
never before seen the power of God so marvelously dis-
played in the conversion of souls. The work began with-
out observation, and apparently without human instru-
mentality, and, once under way, the flow of the stream
was quick, steady, broad, and deep. It was the Lord's
doing, and it was marvelous in the eyes of all who wit-
nessed it. By this surprising uplift, nearly all the mem-
bers of the school were brought into the Kingdom of
God. So overpowering was the movement that for an
entire week the usual duties of the school were put aside,
and the attention of students and citizens was given to
the subject of personal religion."

Three young men, who intended to enter the min-
istry, had associated themselves together in 1827,
partly for united study in theology, and partly for

THE EDUCATOR. -WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 103

gaining information as to the best lines of study
for young ministers and the best books to help them
in their work. These men were Charles Adams,
John W. Merrill, and Edward Otheman. They
were soon joined by Selali Stocking, Joel Knight,
Horace Moidton, Jefferson Hascall, Jefferson Ham-
ilton, and others. They appointed a committee to
ask the suggestions of Dr. Fisk, and found, to their
delight, that they had anticipated him in a favor-
ite plan for the advantage of the school. Under
these delightful auspices the class soon rose to
thirty members. Henceforth Mr. Fisk met the
class on an appointed evening every week. This
arrangement was very helpful to its members, but
the enthusiastic writer who calls such a weekly
meetins: with Wilbur Fisk a " a theoloo^ical edu-
cation " is wide astray. A former member of the
class. Rev. John W. Merrill, D. D., of Concord,
N. H., has kindly furnished notes of this famous
class : —

" We then thought no one could take the lead of it so
well as our revered principal. It was doubtful, with his
feeble health, with his many cares, whether he could as-
sume this new work ; yet we could think of no one else
so genial, so competent. We imparted our plan and our
wishes to Dr. Fisk, who with a radiance of joy on his face
not only consented to be our president, but expressed his
conviction that it was a providential event. ... He ap-
pointed one evening a week to sit with us as our teacher,
critic, director, and president. These appointments,
when in town, he uniformly kept ; and at our meetings

104 WILBUR FISK.

he would fervently pray for us that we might be sancti-
fied by the Holy Spirit, and prepared for our great
work. With what fervor he jDoured out his soul for us,
those only can know who have seen and heard him.

" At these meetings he would give out some of the
principles of constructing sermons, assign us our texts,
or let us choose them. At the next meeting we would
present our plans. He would show wherein they were
faulty, and note what was most happy with singular
aptness. Hard questions in theology he would often
propose for us to think of and then discuss. Topics in
theology were given us on which we were expected to
write. He would look these productions over, and at
the next time give the suggestions needed. His conver-
sations at these times were feasts to our hungry souls.
Clerical visitors were often invited to spend the evening
with us, and never was the face of Wilbur Fisk more
radiant than when, like the Master, he sat with his
disciples. Under Christ he was our Master, a master-
spirit."

Of course, this was no small addition to the cares
of an overtasked man ; but notice " the radiance
of joy on his face " with which Wilbur Fisk con-
fronts this burden of unremunerated labor. With
such a heavenly glow from the Sun of Righteous-
ness on his face, one is surely safe in concluding
that the sanctilication he won at Wellfleet camp-
meeting was still a living possession.

While the academy was thus making its way
into public confidence and favor by its high stand-
ards in all the ordinary branches taught in such
institutions, certain members of the board of trust

THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 105

showed a restless eagerness to connect with It
experiments in the manual labor line. A build-
ing was erected where, it was thought, instruction
might be given in chair-making or shoe-making to
any who might be disposed to devote to these oc-
cupations the time usually spent in diversion and
conversation. But somehow the zeal for such ex-
periments seems to have flamed more hotly and
perseveringly in the wishes of some of the trustees
than anywhere else. For several years they kept
at it, passing resolutions, appointing committees to
carry out their ideas, and turning from one project
to another with singular zeal. Yet there was al-
ways some hitch about the business at the last mo-
ment, and real instruction in these mechanic arts
was never given, so that the hopes of such things
gradually showed their visionary and impracticable
character. Once they set up a country store to be
run under the charge of a committee of the board.
It is pretty evident that the fundamental trouble
in all such experiments is, that a full tale of regu-
lar and systematic intellectual labor is a sufficient
tax upon the physical endurance of ordinary men.
Only now and then a person of exceptional phys-
ical vigor can take up this double task long with-
out breaking down. The attitude of the teachers,
including Dr. Fisk, toward these experimental ma-
nias is not clear. Apparently matters were in such
a condition in the trustee board that they saw noth-
ing else to be done but to expose such dreams by
earnest attempts to realize them.

106 WILBUR FISK.

There was only one kind of experiment in man-
ual labor whicli any large number of students took
any interest in, — the attempt at a sort of coopera-
tive or communistic farming. Farming is a pur-
suit with which quite a number of young men in
any large school in New England are pretty sure
to have some practical acquaintance. Hence it
would be easy to make them take an interest in
learning to be scientific agriculturists, and so put-
ting the old folks at home to the blush over their
inferior methods of farm management. If actual
farm boys would be the last to be persuaded that
a man can be at the same time a successful stu-
dent and a successful farmer, still many of them
might be tempted into making the experiment.
Hence the agricultural craze was once widespread
in the school at Wilbraham. Mr. Dunn tells the
story : —

" The trustees braced themselves up for the occasion,
and decided to try a larger experiment at amateur
farming. Accordingly the large field back of the board-
ing-house was put into prime order for the production
of crops ; and a good number of students took plots
to cultivate during the season. The several lots were
staked off, and a shallow trench dug between them as a
clear distinction between meum and tuum. In due
time the seed was committed to the bosom of Mother
Earth ; and with the requisite skill, the hills or drills, as
the case might be, were nicely patted down with the
hoe. So far all was well. That was a sample of stu-
dent planting. Who, after that, could doubt that stu-

THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 107

dents conld work at farming as well as write poor Latin
and Greek, or run through idioms, or master mathemat-
ics ? Please examine the field ; note each plot contain-
ing the seed awaiting sun and rain and the willing hand
of toil, to yield a return of a hundred-fold. The blade
soon appears and affords early promise of a future and
abundant harvest. The workmen are on the spot with
rake, hoe, trowel, to cultivate the soil. At first the en-
thusiam was too great to be expressed with pen and ink.
It was a furor for agriculture, resembling that at a later
date for the morus miiUcaidis. But such intensity of
interest never continues long at white heat. Even love
at too high a temperature is subject to decline. And so
the fervor of our young men for geoponics lessened with
each day. Each week their visits to this Eldorado be-
came less frequent, until the steward made complaint
to Dr. Fisk that something must be done to stir the
amateur agriculturists to greater zeal and constancy in
the performance of their duties. He gave me an in-
vitation to walk out with him and view the Promised
Land. We went, we saw. We saw weeds of the most
approved kinds and the most luxuriant growth. The
soil was rich and productive, — indeed, too much so to
allow any chance for the grain. The doctor smiled and
looked wisely over the profuse growth. I need not say
that this was the last experiment at student farming at
Wesley an Academy."

Such was the career of successful educational
work on which Wesleyan Academy was launched
under the auspicious care of Wilbur Fisk. The
managers had learned in the remorseless school of
experience what parts of their plans were really

108 WILBUR FISK.

valuable, and responded to public necessities. The
school at Wilbraham, and in a lesser degree that
at Kent's Hill, ilVIaine, became models on which
other schools in New England and all over the
country were planned. We shall be able to see
the work done and the change wrought by these
schools if we present a statistical exhibit of the
Methodist schools which are now doing the kind
of work in New England done by Wilbraham
Academy in Dr. Fisk's day. All these schools,
except that at Auburndale, educate the two sexes
together. They have done an immense and price-
less work in making education good, cheap, and
religious. They have made Methodism honorable
in the eyes of all their students. These statistics
are from official sources. It is not until the tabu-
lar statement given hereafter is read that we can
realize how truly the conference schools founded
first under Wilbur Fisk at Wilbraham responded
to a widely felt need. For the sake of clearnesss
and definite impression, we limit our statistics to
New England, though the movement has spread
through the entire Methodist Episcopal Church.
It will be seen that such schools are only at the
beginning of their career of usefulness.

There are eight such schools to-day, served by
ninety-nine teachers, with 1,715 students in attend-
ance, whose endowments and other property of all
sorts amount to $1,000,000, whose yearly income
from all sources is $90,190, while but one school has
a debt of $12,500. No less than 85,203 different

TUE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN ACADEMY. 109

persons have been members of these schools. This
last statement rests in part on estimates. Where
estimates differ, the mean estimate between highest
and lowest has been followed : —

NAME.

GRADE.

LOCATION.

1.

2.

3.

4.
5.

6.

7.
8.

East Greenwich Academy
New Hampshire Conference
Seminary and Female Col-
lege
Vermont Methodist Semi-
nary and Female College
Troy Conference Academy
Maine Wesleyan Seminary

and Female College
East Maine Conference Sem-
inary
Wesleyan Academy
Lasell Seminary for Young
Women

Academic ....
Shown by name

Shown by name.

Academic ....
Shown by name

Academic and col-
lege preparatory

Shown by name

East Greenwich, R. I.
Tilton, N. H.

Montpelier, Vt.

Poultney, Vt.
Kent's Hill, Me.

Bucksport, Me.

Wilbraham, Mass.
Auburndale, Mass.

1. Rev. F. D. Blakeslee,M. A.

2. D. C. Knowles, D. D. . . .

3. Rev. E. A. Bishop, M. A.

4. Rev. E. H. Dunton, D. D. .

5. E. M. Smith, D. D

6. Rev. A. F. Chase, A. M., Ph. D.

7. Rev. G. M. Steele, LL. D. .

8. C. C. Bragdon, A. M. . . .

^

M .

1

1"

211

1841*

6,875

1843

209

7,000

1834

215

14,000

183G

199

5,500

IS'il

220

25.000

1850

180

10,828

18'24

230

16,000

1851

151

ENDOWMENT.

$30,000

48,000
40.000
30,000
111.000
25,000
14,000

Bought in.

110

WILBUR FISK.

ii

i

if

INCOME

FROM
TUITION.

INCOME

FROM OTHEE

SOURCES.

DEBT.

>

r

<

>

i

1,050

1. $70,000

2,000

Si.ooo

S6,176.19

$1,184.75

2. 75,000

600

500

2,500

3,500.00

2,000.00

3. 80,000

1,400

125

2,000

8,500.00

3,000.00

4. 50,000

1,800

600

1,500

7,728.54

14,000.00

5. 121,000

5,500

5,000

2,500

6,036.70

3,314.24

6. 30,000

1,300

7. 160,000

5,000

3,200

2,000

12,750.00

8,000.00

8. 115,000

1,300

2,000

750

13,000.00

$12,500

CHAPTER VI.

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES.

Besides his addresses and articles upon educa-
tional subjects, Dr. Fisk was the author of two
sermons on the errors of Universalism. The first
was the sermon delivered before the New England
conference during its session at Providence in
1823, and published at the joint request of the
conference and the students of Brown University ;
the second was a sermon delivered in the Metho-
dist Church at Springfield, Mass., and published
in a little volume, " Anti-Universalism," of which
Dr. Fisk and Rev. T. Merritt were the authors.
The first sermon was arraigned by a Universalist
clergyman at Providence, Pickering by name. The
second was answered by Mr. Paige, a Springfield
Universalist minister. It has been impossible to
find in print the Universalist share in this contro-
versy ; and although Dr. Fisk was honor itself in
the statement of an adversary's views, it would,
perhaps, be better to pass this debate by with
the general remark that Dr. Fisk shows here his
wonted keenness of argument.

Under the signature, " A Friend of Mankind,"
Mr. Fisk published, in " Zion's Herald," " Stric-

112 WILBUR FISK.

tures on a Unitarian Tract, by Eev. John Pierpont,
entitled 'Jesus Christ not a Literal Sacrifice,'
printed for the American Unitarian Association."
These " Strictures " were reprinted without date,
and widely circulated in tract form. This has all
the qualities of a good tract ; it is brief, pointed,
logical, sprightly, never rails, or misses the point.
It probably served its author's purpose in its own
day. Unlike his other controversial papers, it
called out no reply.

The most important as well as most considera-
ble of these controversial papers is still kno^vn
to readers as the " Calvinistic Controversy." This
book is important, because it shows the reasons
which determined the ecclesiastical relations and
the theological system of Dr. Fisk. Here are the
motives which retained him in the Methodist Epis-
copal Church, notwithstanding the reasonings by
which David Gould would have won him for the
Congregational Church, and led him to reject even
the mitigated Calvinism of the Protestant Episco-
pal Church, which his friend Taft, and especially
Simon Wright, commended to his acceptance by
every conceivable plea. It will be needless to more
than epitomize Dr. Fisk's views in the various
phases of the debate, since he had the single aim
to show the essence and results of Calvinism, with-
out impeaching anybody's motives, or pretending
that any or all Calvinists admitted the logical con-
sequences which he arrayed against their system.
He never confounded his inferences with their be-
liefs.

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 113

The small town of Greenwich, Mass., was mainly
made up of Calvinists and Methodists, and Dr.
risk had preached with his usual acceptability to
both parties. He was requested by both sides to
preach on the points in dispute between Calvinists
and Arminians. The sermon was so effective that
some of his hearers renounced their former views.
A committee of Greenwich people requested him
to publish it. It went through two editions with-
out making much stir, but when it was stereo-
typed, and issued from the book room as a tract,
attacks began from various quarters. To these at-
tacks Dr. Fisk rephed, and so the book grew to its
present shape in about 1835. It is still on sale at
the book-room. I have thought best merely to
epitomize the book because the latter portions are
replies to the criticisms of the Eev. Dr. Fitch, of
the New Haven Divinity School, the Rev. David
Metcalf, and others. Mr. David Metcalf was, in
his old age, my neighbor when I was pastor of the
Methodist Episcopal Church at Oxford, Mass. He
gave me the first copy of President Fisk's " Cal-
vinistic Controversy " I ever saw. I read it with
care, and as Mr. Metcalf was fond of discussion,
we debated it point by point. The book itself is
black with my old friend's annotations. He re-
tained a profound respect for Dr. Fisk, notwith-
standing their keen discussions.

The text of Dr. Fisk's discourse was : —

114 WILBUR FISK.

PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION.

' ' According as he hath chosen ixs in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should he holy and without blame before
him in love.

" Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, by
Jesus Christ, to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will." — Ephesians, i. 4, 5.

" The ground of controversy is the unhmited extent
to which some have carried the idea of predestination.
Calvin says, ' Every action and motion of every creature
is governed by the hidden counsel of God, so that noth-
ing can come to pass but was ordained by him.' The
Assembly Catechism is similar : ' God did, from aU
eternity, unchangeably ordain whatever comes to pass.'
But ' we believe that the character and acts of intelligent
beings, so far at least as their moral accountability is
concerned, are not definitely fixed and efficiently pro-
duced by the unalterable purpose and efficient decree of
God.' Here, therefore, we are at issue.

" The more common and plausible argument for fore-
ordination is, that the 'foreknowledge of God neces-
sarily implies predestination. For how can an action
that is really to come to pass be foreseen if it be not
determined ? God foreknew everything from eternity ;
but this he could not have known if he had not so
determined it. God's decree precedes his knowledge.*
Fisk objects: 'Prescience is an essential quality of the
divine nature. But a determination to do this or that
is not essential to the divine nature. . . . But to know
is so essential to him that the moment he ceases to
know all that is, or will be, or might be, under any pos-
sible contingency, he ceases to be God. Is it not absurd
to make an essential attribute of Deity depend upon the

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 115

exercise of his attributes ? ... If God must predeter-
mine events in order to know them, then, as the cause is
in no case dependent on the effect, the decrees of God
must be passed and his plan contrived independently of
his knowledge, which only had an existence as the effect
of these decrees.' It is better to say ' that the plan of
the Almighty is the result of his infinite knowledge.*
So runs Scripture : ' For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of
his Son ; ' ' Elect according to the foreknowledge of God
the Father.' In these passages predestination and elec-
tion are most clearly founded on foreknowledge.

" But, pleads Calvinism : ' The foreknowledge of God
is tantamount to a decree, since God cannot be in a
mistake : whatever he foreknows must take place ; his
knowledge makes it certain.' This is sliifting the argu-
ment ; for if God's knowledge makes an event certain,
of course it is not his predetermination. ' Does the
event take place because it is foreknown, or is it fore-
known because it will take place ? ' He would be con-
sidered a fool or madman who should seriously assert
that the knowledge of a certainty produced that cer-
tainty.

" To deny Calvinian predestination is not to deny
that God has a perfect plan. God, whose eye surveys
immensity and eternity at a glance, and who knows all
possibilities and contingencies, all that is or will be, can
perfectly arrange his plan, and preclude the possibility
of a disappointment, though he does not, by a decree of
predestination, fix all the volitions and acts of his sub-
jects. . . . Nor does it follow, because God hath pre-
destinated some things, that he hath decreed all things.
Those passages, then, which are so frequently quoted as

116 WILBUR FISK.

proof of this doctrine, which only prove that God hath
predetermined certain events, are not j^roof in point.
We know of many passages which say of certain
events which have come to pass, that God did not com-
mand them nor will them, but forbade them.

"All the stock quotations from Scripture to prove
this dogma are shown not to prove it. We give an
example or two : ' He hath blinded their minds and
hardened their hearts.' ' Him, being delivered up by
the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye
have taken, and by wicked hands ye have crucified and
slain.' . . . God blinds men and hardens their hearts
judicially, as a just punishment for abuse of their free
agency. For his blinding and hardening them, he does
not make them responsible. He holds them responsible
for that degree of wickedness which made it just and
necessary to give them over to this hardness of heart
and blindness of mind.

"Calvinism makes God the author of sin. Calvin
says, ' I will not scruple to own that the will of God
lays a necessity on all things, and that everything he
wills necessarily comes to pass.' Yet they deny that
God is the author of sin, because they say, ' God neces-
sitates them to the act, and not to the deformity of sin ; '
or ' God does not sin when he makes men sin, because
he is under no law and cannot sin.' But these are mis-
erable shifts. Has not the deformity of sin come to
pass ? Then God has decreed that deformity.

" This doctrine of jDredestination destroys human free
agency and accountability. By ample quotations from
Southey's ' Life of Wesley ' it is shown that Mr. Wesley
and Mr, Fletcher were roundly abused by the Calvinists
of their time because they taught the freedom of the

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 117

human will. He cites these words from Calvin: * Every
motion and action of every creature is governed by the
hidden counsel of God.' Hence man 'wills as he is
made to will, — he chooses as he must choose, for the
immutable decree of Jehovah is upon him.' But such
volition cannot mvolve moral responsibility. It is ar-
gued that man is responsible because he feels that he
acts freely. This is a good argument, upon our princi-
ples, to prove that men are free ; on Calvinistic ground
it proves that God has deceived us. He has made us
feel that we might do otherwise, but he knows we can-
not, — he has determined that we shall not.

"This doctrine arrays God's secret decrees against
his revealed word. God commands men not to sin,
and yet ordains that they shall sin. His rule of action
is in direct opposition to our rule of duty. Is God at
war with himself, or is he sporting and trifling with his
creatures ? We are told, to relieve the difficulty, that
this seeming contradiction is one of the mysteries of
God's incomprehensible nature. But it is not a seeming
contradiction, it is a real one.

"This dogma takes from God his goodness. Hence
it breeds Universalism.

" Calvinism teaches that, ' By the decree of God for
the manifestation of his glory, some men and angels are
predestinated unto everlasting Hfe, and others foreor-
dained to everlasting death. Those of mankind that
are predestinated unto life God, before the foundation
of the world, hath chosen in Christ unto everlasting
glory, ivithout any foresight of faith or good works.'
"We hold that God did decree, from the beginning, to
elect, or choose in Christ, all that should believe unto
salvation, and this decree proceeds from his own goodr

118 WILBUR FISK.

ness, and Is not built on any goodness in the creature ;
and that God did decree to reprobate all who should
finally and obstinately continue in unbelief. Ours is
an election of character, theirs ignores character in the
elect. With the latter go, as natural concomitants, ' Ir-
resistible grace, effectual calling, and infallible perse-
verance.' . . . We assert that election to eternal life
is conditional, they unconditional. ' Election to salva-
tion, in Scripture, is founded on the divine prescience.'
* Elect according to the foreknowledge of God, through
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and sprink-
ling of the blood of Jesus Christ.' ' Whom he did fore-
know he also did predestinate to be conformed to the
image of his Son.' These Scriptures seem decisive that
the decree of election rests on foreknowledge, and that
this election is made, not according to the arbitrary act
of God, but on the ground of sanctification and obedi-
ence.

"Such an election annihilates human free agency and
moral responsibility in man, doctrines of which the Holy
Scriptures and the human conscience are full. With
the Calvinistic election to life eternal all those Scrip-
tures are inconsistent which warn believers against fall-
ing and apostasy. Calvinists will not allow that there
is any danger of counteracting or frustrating the plan
of the Almighty. Hence there is no danger of the elect
coming short of salvation. All the exhortations, cau-
tions, and warnings, therefore, recorded in the Scrip-
tures, are false colors and deceptive motives. They are
like the attempts of some weak parents to frighten their
children into obedience by superstitious tales and ground-
less fears. God knows, when he is giving out these
intimations of danger, that there is no such danger;

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 119

his own eternal, unchangeable decree had secured their
salvation before the means were planned, — if election
is unconditional. But far be this from a God of truth.
When God warns, there is real danger.

"The Scriptures teach a conditional election. 'For
many are called, but few chosen.' This passage, with
the parable of the wedding that precedes it, teaches that
the choice was made subsequently to the call, and was
grounded upon the fact that those chosen had actually
and fully complied with the invitation, and come to the
wedding duly prepared.

" ' He hath chosen us from the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy, having predestinated us
unto the adoption of sons.' (Eph. i. 4, 5.) ' For whom
he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be con-
formed to the image of his Son,' and 'whom he did
predestinate, he called, justified, glorified.' (Rom. viii.
29.) The argument is, that predestination could not be
founded on their faith or holiness, because they were
predestinated to become holy ; predestination had their
holiness for its object and end. But if these passages
had an allusion to a personal election to eternal life,
they would not prove unconditional election, ' because,'
to use the language of another, ' it would admit of being
questioned whether the choosing here mentioned was a
choice of certain persons as men merely, or as believ-
ing men, which is the most rational.' But this exposi-
tion must be given to the passage from Romans, since
they who were subjects of predestination were first fore-
known, — foreknown, not merely as existing, since all
were so foreknown, but foreknown as possessing some-
thing which operated as a reason why they should be
elected rather than others. The ninth chapter of

120 WILBUR FISK.

Romans is shown to deal, not with the personal election
of individuals, but the making the Gentiles ' heirs of the
promises.' Along with these differences of lot and
nationality goes the maxim, ' It is required of a man
according to what he hath, and not according to what
he hath not.'

" ' Unconditional election implies unconditional repro-
bation. To the rejDrobates there is no grace or mercy
extended. Their very existence, connected as it neces-
sarily is with eternal damnation, is an infinite curse.'
This theory makes God partial and a respecter of per-
sons. . . . Had God nothing to do with man until his
prescient eye beheld the whole race in a ruined state ?
How came man in that state ? He was plunged there
by the sin of his federal head. But how came he to
sin? 'Adam sinned,' Calvin says, 'because God so
ordained.' Taking all the links together, they stand
thus : God decreed to create intelligent creatures ; he
decreed that they should all become sinners and children
of wrath : and it was so. He then decreed that part of
those whom he had constituted children of wrath should
be taken, and washed, and saved, and the others left to
perish ; and then we are told that there is no unjust
partiality in God, since they all deserve to be damned.
What a sinofular evasion is this ! This dooina limits
the atonement, which the Scriptures make universal."

Of the reviews called out in Calvinistical jour-
nals by Dr. Fisk's sermon, perhaps the most re-
markable appeared in the " Boston Telegraph."
The writer agreed with Dr. Fisk in saying of the
dogma of Calvinism concerning sin, " The fiat of
God brought forth sin as directly as it made the

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 121

world." The criticisms of Rev. David Metcalf and
of Dr. Fitch are made from a stand-point essen-
tially Arminian. " Let me say once for all, I do
not consider these gentlemen, nor any who think
with them, responsible for the doctrine of predesti-
nation as stated and oj^posed in the sermon." He
explains his failure to except them from his criti-
cisms by saying : " The views of Dr. Taylor and
'those who think with him,' on this particular
point, were unknown to me at the time. It is but
lately that those views have been developed, never
so fully before as in Dr. Fitch's review of my ser-
mon. That any set of men, holding on the article
of predestination the doctrine of James Arminius,
John Wesley, and the whole body of Methodists,
would call themselves Calvinists, never occurred to
me. This is all the apology I have to offer, and
whether or not it is sufficient the public must
judge." This position Dr. Fisk proves clearly.
One of the facts which went far to justify this as-
sertion was, that men like Drs. Woods, Griffin,
Tyler, and Green also charged the New Haven di-
vines with rank Arminianism. While two classes
of Calvinists thus agreed with Dr. Fisk's state-
ments respecting these Calvinistic dogmas and
their logical consequences, '' a third deny my defi-
nition of their doctrine. They say they are not
chargeable with such a doctrine, either directly or
by implication." This is the next issue. These
persons " deny that the responsible acts of moral
agents are definitely fixed and efficiently produced

122 WILBUR FISK.

by the purpose and decree of God ; " that these
acts " are the result of an overruling and control-
ling power ; " " that the will, in all its operations,
is governed and irresistibly controlled by some
secret impulse, some fixed and all-controlling ar-
rangement." The aim is to prove that these are
the real traits of Calvinism. First, there is a uni-
versal consensus that such are the Calvinistic doc-
trines amongst anti - predestinarians. But many
predestinarians also ascribe these characteristics to
the system. This was openly done by the "Bos-
ton Telegraph " and the New Haven party. The
terms the Calvinists use are " decree," " predes-
tination," " foreordination," " predetermination,"
" purpose." The adjectives that commonly modify
these nouns are, "sovereign," "eternal," "immut-
able." " They are the secret coimsels of his own
will ; and so far from being law that often, per-
haps oftener than otherwise, in the moral \vorld,
they are in direct opposition to the precepts of the
law. When these decrees come in conflict with the
law they supersede it. Law^s may sometimes be
broken ; these decrees, never. God commits his
laws to subordinate moral agents, who may keep or
break them. But his decrees he executes himself."
In a controversy with Dr. Taylor, these persons
" strenuously maintain that sin, wherever it occurs,
is preferable to holiness in its stead, and is the
necessarj^ means of the greatest good."

Dr. Chalmers, in a sermon on predestination,
says : —

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 123

" Every step of every indivitluars character receives
as determinate a character from the hand of God as
every mile of a planet's orbit, or every gust of the wind,
or every wave of the sea, or every particle of flying
dust, or every rivulet of flowing water. This power of
God knows no exceptions : it is absolute and unlimited.
And while it embraces the vast, it carries its resistless
influence to all the minute and unnoticed diversities of
existence. It reigns and operates through all the secre-
cies of the inner man. It gives birth to every purpose, it
gives impulse to every desire, it gives color and shape to
every conception. It wields an entire ascendency over
every attribute of the mind ; and the will, the fancy, and
the understanding, with all the countless variety of their
hidden and fugitive operations, are submitted to it. It
gives movement and direction through every one point
of our pilgrimage. At no moment of time does it aban-
don us. It follows us to the hour of death, and it car-
ries us to our place and to our everlasting destiny in the
region beyond it."

Calvinists uniformly use the same terms, " de-
cree," " predestination," etc., in the same sense in
regard to all necessary events. They say God's
decrees extend to all events, physical and moral,
good and evil.

To tell us a thousand times, without any distinc-
tion or discrimination, that all things are equally
the result of the divine decree, and then tell us
that the relation between God's decree and sin is
essentially different from the relation existing be-
tween his decree and holiness, would certainly be a
very singular and unwarrantable use of language.

124 WILBUR FISK.

How, then, does God produce holy volitions ? Why,
say the Calvinists, by a direct, positive, and effi-
cient influence upon the will. Well, how does God
execute his decrees respecting unholy volitions?
Consistency requires the same reply. But, says the
Calvinist, he need not exert the same influence to
produce unholy volitions, because it is in accord-
ance with the nature of sinful men to sin. Indeed,
and is not this nature the result of a decree ? It
would seem that God approaches the work of exe-
cuting his decree respecting sin either more re-
luctantly or with greater difficulty, so that it re-
quires two steps to execute this, but only one the
other. It is, however, in both cases equally his
work. This will be more clearly seen if we turn
our attention to the first sin ; for it is certainly as
much against a perfectly holy nature to commit
sin as it is against an unholy nature to have a
holy volition. Hence the one as much requires a
direct, positive influence as the other.

The theory of motives as related to volition runs,
" The power of volition is never excited, nor can
be, except in the presence and from the excitement
of motives. Hence the strongest motive rules the
will (see ' Views in Theology ').... Since God
creates both the mind and the motives, and brings
them together for the express purpose that the for-
mer should be swayed by the latter, it follows con-
clusively that God efficiently controls the will, and
produces all its volitions. It is stated in ' Views
in Theology ' that ' God is the determiner of per-

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 125

ceptions, and perceptions are the determiner of
choices.' Hence the inference, God is the deter-
miner of choices.

But it is urged, " ' We know that we are free and
responsible, because we are conscious of it.' If
this doctrine is true, I am not sure that I am free
and responsible because I feel that I am. I am
quite as conscious that I ought not to be held re-
sponsible for what is unavoidable as I am that I
am possessed of moral liberty."

What " constitutes man a free moral agent ? It
is the power of choice, connected with the liberty
to choose either good or evil. Both the power and
the liberty to choose either good or evil are requi-
site to constitute the free agency of a probationer."
" When asked, ' How can you reconcile with free
agency that kind of divine efficiency necessary to
secure the execution of the decrees, and that kind
of dependence of moral agents which this efficiency
implies ? ' the answer is, ' AYe cannot tell, — the
how in the case we cannot explain.' "

To this Dr. Fisk demurs : " When you say, ' God
executes his decrees by controlling the will of man,'
and also, ' The mind of man is free,' both these
propositions are clear ; there is nothing mysterious
about them. But you say, perhaps, ' The mystery
is, in want of light to see the agreement of the
two : ' we cannot see their agreement, but we should
not therefore infer that they do not agree. ' What
is light in this case but a clear perception of the
propositions ? ' This we have, and we see that they

126 WILBUR FISK.

are in their nature incompatible ; and tlie more
light you pour upon them, the more clearly must
this incompatibility appear. If you say, ' Perhaps
neither you nor I fully understand these proposi-
tions,' I reply, ' We have no business to use them.'
' Who is tliis that darkens counsel by words with-
out knowledge ? '

" It is presumed, if the question came to this,
that they must either give up human liberty or
predestination, candid Calvinists themselves would
not hesitate ; they would say the former must
stand, whatever becomes of the latter. Hence, pre-
destinarians themselves being judges, the doctrine
of predestination is not so clear as some moral
truths. Hence man is not responsible for the inev-
itable, the divinely controlled elements of his life.

" Only one further theory needs to be particu-
larly noticed, because it is the most plausible of
all, so that, if this will not bear the test, it is prob-
able no other will ; and, second, because this is
the theory pretty generally, and perhaps almost
universally, adopted by Calvinists: I mean the
Calvinistic doctrine of motives. It is in substance
this : the power of choice is that power which the
mind has of acting in view of motives, and of de-
ciding according to the strongest motive. And
this relation between mind and motives is fixed by
the very constitution of our natures, so that it may
be said to be a constitutional necessity that the
mind should be controlled by motives.

" But all the arguments pleaded in favor of this

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 127

absolute subjection of one class of minds to the
absolute control of motives, hold equally well in
respect to all minds, hence, to the Divine Mind.
Here Edwards and Spinoza are absolutely in agree-
ment. Professor Upham states the doctrine in
these words : —

" * Our condition in this respect seems to be essentially
the same with that of the Creator himself, — he is inev-
itably governed in all his doings by what is wisest and
best. It is believed there is no avoiding this conclusion ;
and what then ? Why, then, the doctrine makes God a
necessary agent, and leads to atheism. Of what use is
such a Deity ? Might we not as well have none ? ' "

" This doctrine tends to materialism. Leibnitz
illustrates it in this way : 'It is as if a needle
touched with a loadstone were sensible of, and
pleased with, its turning to the north ; for it would
believe that it turned itself, independent of any
other cause, not perceiving the insensible motions
of the magnetic power.' This quotation is impor-
tant because it shows that one of the most philo-
sophical defenders of this doctrine considered the
law of motive influence similar to magnetic attrac-
tion, differing only in being accompanied by sen-
sation and a deceptive consciousness." As the
choices of the human mind obey their motives
as assuredly as physical effects come from their
causes, this doctrine delights in illustration drawn
from the realm of physics, — a realm where aU
shadow of freedom has visibly disappeared. Hence
Edwards " compares our volitions to the vibrations

128 WILBUR FISK.

of a scale beam, the different ends of wliicli are
respectively elevated or depressed as tlie weights
vary."

A further objection is, that this theory destroys
the very existence of self-originated action. And
yet another trouble is, " it leads to the notion of
conversion by moral suasion merely. If motives
govern the will absolutely, all you need to convert
a sinner is to bring a motive strong enough to
make him choose God as his chief good, and he is
converted. Well might a divine of this cast, whom
I heard preach not long since, say of regeneration,
' There is nothing supernatural or miraculous in
it.' For surely it is one of the most natural things
in the world to be converted. It is only to be op-
erated upon by motive, according to the law of his
natural constitution, and the man is converted."

Over against all these favorite theories of a nat-
ural ability or a gracious ability in unregenerate
man to obey God and gain heaven, which were in-
vented by their authors to save their theories from
fatal embarrassment, though the theories are as
incapable of salvation as reprobate souls. Dr. Fisk
set up the Methodist article, " The condition of
man after the fall of Adam is such that he can-
not turn and prepare himseK, by his own natural
strength and works, to faith and calling upon
God : wherefore we have no power to do good
works, pleasant and acceptable unto God, without
the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we
may have a good will, and working with us when

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 129

we liave that good will." With this view Dr. Fisk
has no trouble in showing that the older Calvin-
ists, like the Synod of Dort and Calvin, agreed.
The Synod says of man after the fall, " Man is
but a slave to sin, and has nothing of himself, un-
less it is given him from heaven." " They be-
lieved tliat whenever this grace was imparted to an
extent to restore to the mind the power of choos-
ing good, it was regenerating grace ; while the Ar-
minians believe that grace may and does restore
the power to choose good before regeneration."

Tlien we find " that God actually gives grace to
those who finally perish. It is said even of the
unregenerate that fchey grieve, resist, and quench
the spirit of grace. God gives grace to the repro-
bates that their condemnation may be the more
ao-o-ravated." The ars^ument stands thus : " God
gives grace to the reprobates for some nnportant
purpose. He does not give it that salvation may
be possible to them ; without it they can be saved.
He does not give it to make salvation certain, for
this it does not effect ; nevertheless he gives them
grace, the invariable effect of which is to increase
their condemnation."

To assume that reprobates have ability, whether
natural or moral, to obey God, leaves it possible
that some reprobate may use his powers so as to
gain eternal life. So, too, an elect soul may use
its natural power of obedience long before grace
has visited it, — a new kind of salvation by the
works of the law. The Scriptures abundantly

130 WILBUR FISK.

teach this doctrine of human inability : " Without
me ye can do nothing ; " "no man caji come unto
me except the Father draw him." All the other
schools of Calvinists agree in calling Dr. Taylor's
theory, that a man can regenerate himself, Pelagian
error.

Some make God the sole agent, and man purely
passive, in regeneration. The Pelagian error leaves
man free from any perilous defect until his own
choice should make him sinfid. With such a
view of the nature of conversion, infants who die
before the age of responsible action must face
another life with no character whatever. As the
whole work of regeneration lies in a change of
volitions, man is in no absolute dependence on the
Holy Ghost. He becomes his own Saviour.

Methodists " say ' the saving grace of God hath
appeared unto all men ; ' and that this grace so
enlightens, strengthens, and aids the human mind
that it is thereby enabled to make that choice
which is the turning-point, conditionally, of the
soul's salvation ; and that it is by this same gra-
cious aid that the man, when he has this good will,
is enabled to work out his salvation to the end.

"We believe that the merits of the atonement
are so available in behalf of the human family that
the guilt of depravity is not imputed to the subject
of it until, by intelligent volitions, he makes the
guilt his own by resisting and rejecting the grace
of the gospel ; and that, being thus by grace in a
justified state, the dying infant is entitled to all
the blessings of the new covenant."

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 131

Dr. Fisk closes a long discussion of the various
views of natural and moral ability with the fol-
lowing summary, with which we shall have to be
content, instead of giving the details of his reason-
ing : " 1. Adam did not render himself incapable
of sinning by the fall, but rather rendered him-
self and his posterity incapable of any other moral
exercise but what was sinful ; and it was on this
account that a gracious ability was necessary in
order to a second probation. 2. Sin, since the
fall, has not been the result of supernatural grace,
but the natural fruit of the fall ; and supernatural
grace is all that has counteracted sin. 3. Man
needed the grace of God, both because he was
wicked and because he was weak, 4. The moral
difference between one man and another is to be
ascribed to God and not themselves. We say the
sinful nature of man is changed in regeneration
by the power of the Holy Ghost. 5. The posterity
of Adam did need a Saviour to atone for actual
sin. For actual sin is the result, not of gracious
power, as some think, but of a sinful nature vol-
untarily retained and indulged. 6. This opinion
is perfectly consistent with the doctrine of grace.
7. There is constant guilt in the present rebellion
of the infernal regions. 8. This grace is a greater
blessing to our race than the fall of Adam was a
calamity, for where sin abounded grace did much
more abound.

To clear the ground for his own discussion of
the doctrine of regeneration, the erroneous views

132 WILBUR FISK.

are first examined by Dr. Fisk. The first is the
theory that man is entirely passive in regeneration,
or, if active, active only in opposition. The sec-
ond is the theory of self - conversion. Here the
spirit " acts in some indefinable way through the
truth as an instrument. The truth acts on the
mind in the way of moral suasion, and the sinner,
in the view and by the influence of truth, resolves
to give himself to God and to his service, and this
is regeneration.

These views of regeneration are carefully tested,
and shown to be inconsistent with the dictates of
common sense and with the declarations of Scrip-
ture. Dr. risk thinks these views exhaust the
possibilities of the Calvinistical system. " There
can be but two alternatives : either God must
renew the heart, independent of all cooperation on
the part of the subject of this change, — and this
is the old doctrine of unconditional divine effi-
ciency, — or the first acceptable act of the will
must be regeneration ; and this is the new doctrine
of self -con version."

At last Dr. risk states the Scripture doctrine of
regeneration as follows : —

1. The work of regeneration is performed by the
direct and efficient operation of the Holy Sj)irit
upon the heart.

2. The Holy Spirit exerts this regenerating
power only on conditions to be complied with by
the subject of the change. The first statement
would be denied only by Socinians (whose views

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 133

are not debated), and the persons whose views he
has just subjected to such a critical discussion as
entitled him to leave them in order to discuss the
conditionality of the work of the Holy Ghost in
the regeneration of men.

'' If I were called on to give a general definition
of Calvinism that would include all the species that
claim the name, I would say, Calvinists are those
who believe in unconditional regeneration. For
the moment this point is given up by any one, all
ao'ree that he is not a Calvinist."

The Scriptures themselves do not condemn a
conditional new birth. The difficulties raised are
mainly of a metaphysical nature : such are, a de-
praved sinner cannot perform an acceptable condi-
tion until he is regenerated ; God cannot consist-
ently accept any act short of that which constitutes
regeneration ; that the idea of conditional regener-
ation implies salvation by works, in part at least,
and not wholly by grace.

Neglecting a present response to these objec-
tions, an account is given of those characteristics
of the mind which are the basis of the ability to
perform conditions acceptable to God. 1. Con-
science lays the foundation of the notions of right
and wrong, so that we feel approval or disapproval
of our conduct, . . . and even in an unregenerate
state this susceptibility often operates in accord-
ance with its original design, and therefore agree-
ably to the Divine Will.

The intellect may, in an unregenerate state, be

134 WILBUR FJSK.

SO enlightened and informed on the subject of
divine truth as to perceive right and wrong, and
to perceive, to some extent, the way of salvation
pointed out in the gospel.

That the affections (often called the heart) are
the principal seat of depravity, and that these are
often arrayed in direct opposition to the convic-
tions of the judgment, and the feelings of moral
obligation.

That the will, or volitional power, while it is
more or less, directly or indirectly, influenced by
the judgment, the conscience, and the affections,
is designed to give unity and direction to the
whole mental action. And it always accomplishes
this where there is a proper harmony in the men-
tal powers. The unholy affections have gained
an undue ascendency, so that in the unregenerate,
in all questions of preference between God and
the world, despite conscience, judgment, will, the
world is loved and God is hated.

That in those cases where we cannot control our
affections by a direct volition, we ma}^ under the
promptings of conscience and in the light of the
judgment, resolve against sin ; but these resolutions
will be carried away and overruled by the strength
of the carnal mind. This shows us our weakness
and drives us to self-despair, until, under the en-
lightening influence of grace, and the drawings of
the Spirit, the soul is led to prayer and to an abdi-
cation of itself into the hands of the Divine Mercy
through Christ ; and then, and on these conditions,

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIEa. 136

the Holy Spirit changes the character and current
of the unholy affections : and this is regeneration.

" It is objected that the action of the mind
under such motives is purely selfish. . . . This
objection to a mental act, merely because it is
prompted by self-love, has always been to me a
matter of wonder. All alike condemn selfishness.
But that self-love which leads us to seek our own
highest interests, and especially our eternal inter-
ests, without injury to others, and in accordance
with the Divine Will, is never thought criminal,
except where one has a particular system to serve
by such a notion."

To this enslavement of the will by sin it is ob-
jected that it destroys accountability, since no man
is to blame for what he cannot avoid. " But I
have not said they cannot avoid it; I assert di-
rectly the contrary. Every probationer decides
whether he will be holy." This enthrallment of
the will to sin is strongly depicted in the last part
of the seventh and the first part of the eighth
chapters of the Epistle to the Komans. " I see
another law in my members, warring against the
law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin in my members." ..." For the
good that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I
wotdd not, that I do." The same appears in Gal.
V. 17 : " For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,
and the Spirit against the flesh ; and these are con-
trary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the
things ye would." After setting aside various ob-

136 WILBUR FJSK.

jections to his views, Dr. Fisk sums up the condi-
tional aspects of regeneration as follows : —

" Faith seems to be the exclusive channel through
which every gracious effect is produced on the mind.
The sinner cannot be awakened without faith, for it
precedes every judgment in favor of truth, and every
motion of moral feeling, and of course every favorable
concurrence of the will. The sinner never could throw
himself upon the Divine mercy, never would embrace
Christ as his Saviour, until he believed. Hence the
Scriptures lay such great stress upon faith, and make
it the grand, and indeed the only immediate, condition
of the work of grace upon the heart. Repentance is a
condition only remotely in order to a justifying faith,
agreeably to the teaching of Christ : ' And ye, when ye
had heard, afterward repented not, that ye might be-
lieve on him.' But faith is necessary immediately, as
that mental state directly antecedent to the giving up
the soul into the hands of the Divine mercy. And shall
we still be told that faith is not the condition of regener-
ation ? The order of the work seems to be : 1. A degree
of faith in order to repentance ; 2. Repentance, in or-
der to such an increase of faith as will lead the soul to
throAv itself upon Christ ; 3. The giving up the soul
to Christ as the only ground of hope ; 4. The change
of heart by the efficient operation of the Hol}^ Sjiirit.
Now, on whichever of these four stages of the process,
except the first, the objector lays his finger and says,
That is not a condition of regeneration, for it is regen-
eration itself, it will be seen that that very part, call it
regeneration or what you will, is conditional. If, for
instance, he fix on the second stage, and contend that

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 137

that is regeneration, wliich I call repentance in order to
regenerating faith, — even that would be conditional, for
this repentance is preceded by faith ; and so of all that
follow. And surely no one will contend that what I call
the first stage, the faith which precedes awakening and
remorse of conscience, and the exciting alternations of
hope and fear in the anxious and inquiring sinner, is
resreneration."

CHAPTER VII.

THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY.

The report of tlie Committee on Education to
the General Conference in 1828 was a long and
able document drawn by Wilbur Eisk. It begins
with a statement of the efforts already made in
different conferences to comply with the instruc-
tions of the Conference of 1820, that classical
schools should be established within the bounds
and under the patronage of the annual confer-
ences. The work is summarized as follows : —

" In review of the whole, we find the successful efforts
in the different conferences to promote the cause of liter-
ature and science have increased very considerably since
the last General Conference. There are six or seven
promising institutions in successful operation, two of
them having college charters, namely, Madison College
and Augusta College, which are already prepared to take
students through a regular course, and confer upon them
the ordinary degrees and literary honors of such insti-
tutions, and hold forth encouragements and assurances
that authorize us to commend them to the patronage of
our friends. Other institutions are advancing to the
same standing, and several more are contemplated and
will soon be in operation. It is a matter that calls for
special gratitude to God that revivals of religion are so

THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 139

frequent in our colleges. This ought to encourage and
stimulate our people to patronize these institutions. . . .
" Tlie subject of education ought to be considered of
special importance and of special interest to Methodist
ministers, both as it respects their own usefulness and
that of their families. A cultivated church will have a
cultivated ministry."

The report ends witli these resolutions : —

" 1. Our people are not sufficiently awake as yet to
establish a university for the whole connection.

*' 2. Not half the conferences are yet provided with
academies under their own patronage, and we think it
more congenial with our religion, our civil government,
and the good of society to make provision for the com-
mon instruction of the many before we exert ourselves
to endow and establish a university for the few.

"It is still questionable whether, even for the most
liberal course of education, one university for the whole
connection would, on the whole, be so well patronized
and attended as two or three.

" Single conferences, or groups of two or three con-
ferences, should establish seminaries that shall promote
literature, morality, industry, and a practical knowledge
of the arts of usefid life. . . . God will give success to
their labors, so that not only their own children but
future generations wiU rise up and call them blessed."

In Cazenovia, New York, and Kent's Hill,
Maine, academies had been established like that
at Wilbraham. Here young men were prepared
for college, but when they were ready no Metho-
dist college could readily be found to take the
further charge of their education. It was obvious

140 WILBUR FISK.

that such a condition of things could not continue
with safety. There was much talk of expanding
the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham into a col-
lege. The people of Bridgeport, Conn., and of
Troy, N. Y., put forth efforts to secure the estab-
lishment of the proposed college amongst them-
selves. The " American Literary, Scientific, and
Military Academy " had been opened at Middle-
town, Conn., in 1825, by Captain Alden Partridge,
the first superintendent of the United States Mili-
tary Academy at West Point. Failure to obtain
a charter in Connecticut ultimately led Captain
Partridge to remove his institution to Norwich,
Vt.

Thus the two solid and spacious stone buildings
erected for the use of the military school, with the
grounds and other property, were left unoccupied.
This entire property, valued at §30,000, was of-
fered to a joint committee of the New York and
the New England Conferences on two conditions :
first, that it should always be used as a university;
and, second, that $40,000 should be raised for an
endowment fund. This fund was soon raised, a
board of trustees appointed, and the college was
established under the name of " The Wesleyan
Universit}'."

At the first meeting of the Joint Board of
Trustees and Visitors of the infant college. Dr.
risk was elected President of Wesleyan Univer-
sity. After some hesitation, an answer was sent
in these terms : —

THE ED UCA TOR. — WESL E YA N UNI VERS IT Y. 141

"To the Joint Board of Trustees and Visitors of the
Wesleya)i Uniuersitij now in session at Iliddletown,
Conn.

" Gentlemen, — With a high sense of the confidence
reposed in me by a majority of your board, in electing
me president of your proposed university, I tender you
my sincere and grateful acknowledgments. I have a
deep conviction of my own inability to perform the im-
portant and responsible duties connected with this ap-
pointment. In accordance, however, with the judgment
of my friends, and in reliance upon the cordial and
united aid of the board, and of the colleagues who have
been or may be appointed, and especially in a humble
reliance upon Almighty God, without whose assistance
the most gifted labor in vain, I will engage to the ex-
tent of my ability in the service of the board, in the
discharge of the duties assigned me, as soon as I can, in
honor and justice, disengage myself from my present
relation to another institution.

" W. FisK."

It was not until the ensuing spring that Dr.
risk removed his family from Wilbraham to
Middletown. Had Dr. Fisk had his own way,
the opening of the college would have been de-
ferred imtil the fall of 1832, that the intervening
time might be devoted to the work of making the
best possible arrangements for such an enterprise.
The halls of the University were thrown open for
the admission of students the 21st of September,
1831, with appropriate ceremonies. From the
Inaun^ural Address of Dr. Fisk we gather the
scope, peculiarities, and the prospects of the new

142 WILBUR FISK.

institution. His theme was, "The Science of
Education."

Education aims at two things, — the good of the
educated man, and the good of the world. Omit-
ting the first point as too evident to be debated,
attention is drawn to arguments to show that edu-
cation should look steadily at the improvement of
the world. The greater ease of travel and commu-
nication these days renders mutual interest and
mutual acquaintance most natural and desirable.
" The general interests of learning, and the mutual
alliance of the friends of literature, also greatly
increase this general union. These, though scat-
tered over the world, form a republic of them-
selves, and are drawn together by cords that no
distance can attenuate, and bound by connections
that no vanities can sever. They all drink from
the same fountains without jealousy, and climb
up the same intellectual elevations without envy ;
for the attainments of each are the property of
all." The Christianity of the age sees in every
man a brother, and in every land a fresh realm of
Christ. The same spirit has free sweep in the
political world.

Under these circumstance the function of Chris-
tian education becomes very serious : " Ministers
and merchants, lawyers and physicians, teachers
and statesmen, farmers and mechanics, authors and
artists, all are wanted in this work, and wanted
in greater abundance than can be supplied." He
would have men of all professions alike serve God

THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 143

in their professional careers, and will have it that
any lower view is base and pernicious. He thinks
that nowhere else are there so many or such good
materials for such an education as here in New
England.

" A young man thus educated is prepared for active
hfe. He is prepared to rely upon himself ; his habits
of industry and economy are formed ; and he, of all
others, is the man for the great interests of the world."

Next he asks what tone and character should be
given to the minds of the pupils, what knowledge
imparted to secure these great purposes.

Education should procure the physical, the in-
tellectual, and moral perfection of its recipients.
If a man cannot combine great knowledge with
great usefulness, let him prefer usefulness. " The
great object which we propose to ourselves in the
work of education is to supply, as far as we may,
men who will be both willing and competent to
effect the political, intellectual, and spiritual regen-
eration of the world."

With the best mental training should go very
careful attention to bodily health. Dr. Fisk was
still, though not without some misgiving, inclined
to rate the physical exertion of farming or of
working in shops, the best form of physical exer-
cise. " The mind should be cultivated with direct
reference to the object of making the pupil a man
of enterprise and activity. Everything that is
calculated to call forth such a spirit should be

144 WILBUR FJSK.

cherished, and everything which discourages it
should be discountenanced." Independence, seK-
dependence, intellectual alertness, and enlightened
and universal benevolence, are traits which educa-
tion ought to bring out into rich and effective
operation.

"Modern literature, the natural and exact sciences,
and the application of the sciences to the useful arts,
are first in importance in a useful education. Next in
order I would place mental and moral philosophy, and
the kindred sciences ; last, and least in consequence for
the great portion of students, I would place ancient
literature, the graces of learning, and the fine arts. . . .
If a knowledge of the ancient languages were of no
other importance than to preserve the purity of the
Holy Scriptures, and secure a correct translation of
them into other languages, this of itself would keep
them in credit, and make a critical study of them neces-
sary. . . .

" It may be proper that most students, who have an
opportunity of commencing their education early and
of pursuing it without embarrassment, should obtain
some general knowledge of the Greek and Latin lan-
guages ; especially as there is an age in the development
of the youthful mind in which language can be pursued
to greater advantage than any other study. And if, at
that age, a good foundation can be laid for a knowledge
of etymology, of philology in general, and for a mare
ready attainment of the modern languages, this might
be advantageous to the pupil."

After touching upon the whole material side of
education with breadth and liberality, Dr. Fisk
says : —

THE EDUCATOR.-WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 145

" The proper organization of the board of instruction
is a matter of great moment and of difficult attainment.
All agree that they should be united among themselves ;
that they should be men of learning, apt to teach, in-
dustrious in their habits, energetic and enterprising in
their character, interested in their work, and faithful in
the performance of their duties. But how to obtain
such men, how to keep them after they are put in place,
and how to get rid of them if they do not prove such,
are questions that have never been satisfactorily settled.
After the greatest precautions, improper persons may be
introduced into the board of instruction."

To hinder such dangers Dr. Fisk would have
the faculty partners in filling every vacancy in
their board, have the salary rise with the growing
success of each officer, and have incompetent in-
structors removed from office.

" A college corporation should have a committee to
examine into the standing of their officers of instruction,
as regularly as one to audit the accounts of their treas-
urer. And to do this it is not necessary to examine
these officers. Their official character will be written
on the mind of their pupils, and may be known and read
of all men. It has been well said, that ' he who cannot
put his mark upon a student is not fit to have one.' ^
Let it be a condition of office, that when a teacher's
pupils are deficient, he must give place to another."

As to government, he would have it proceed
wholly from the faculty.

" A code of statute laws for the officers to execute
among the students will never be respected. . . . The
1 Dr. F. Wayland.

146 WILBUR FISK.

intercourse between the student and the president and
professors should be of an affectionate and familiar char-
acter. I cannot close these remarks on the subject of
government without giving my decided testimony in fa-
vor of a moral and religious influence to aid in the gov-
ernment of youth. This is of paramount importance.
Several years' experience in the government of a liter-
ary institution has convinced me that there is nothing
like it. With such an influuence, government is easy ;
without it, good government is impossible."

In reference to the classification and gradua-
tion of students, Dr. Fisk would have had the old
method of arranging them by years given up, in
order that they might be distributed in all the
departments in which they were studying any
given year. In this way class distinctions based
on time would be done away, and you. could only
learn by the college catalogiies in how many de-
partments a man was at w'ork, and how far ad-
vanced he was in each. By this method it w^as
thought that the less faithful or less able students
might be retained in college until they could pass
a satisfactory examination in all their work, while
the abler men might be graduated on the actual
completion of their course ; while weak and shiftless
students would not obtain their diplomas merely
because they had been four years in college, and
had taken in as much scholarship as would just
pass them up at the end of each year. The uned-
ucated graduate ought to disappear.

It is certain that Dr. Fisk overestimated the

THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 147

efficiency of his measures to suppress the uned-
ucated graduate. It is also certain that the new
mode of classification did not attract a large num-
ber of students, whose circumstances or age com-
pelled them to forego a classical education, to the
Scientific Course he had blocked out for them with
the appropriate degree of Bachelor of Science. Of
the one hundred and fifteen who graduated under
the presidency of Dr. Fisk only five took the sci-
ence degree, while all the rest took the regular
classical degrees. In 1836 the students were first
classified by their year in college and not by de-
partments, an innovation which has proved per-
manent. After a year or two the salaries of the
professors were equalized. Thus two features of
the institution upon which Dr. Fisk laid great
stress disappeared forever. The scheme of turn-
ing the daily exercise of the students into profita-
ble farm-work or shop-work remained a dream, in
spite of much talking and some vigorous resolving
on its behalf. So, one after another, the vision-
ary elements of the new scheme were detected and
thrown aside. The Classical Course has main-
tained itself to this day. The English and Scien-
tific Course is represented by two courses, the Sci-
entific and Latin - Scientific Courses. It was not
until the other courses were made nearly equal to
the Classical in the preparation required for enter-
ing them, and the time and labor demanded for
successfully executing them, that the non-classical
or half -classical students felt their position respect-

148 WILBUR FISK.

able and respected. But while these varying plans
were being tested thus by actual experiment, and
the administration was shaped in harmony with the
logic of actual results, Dr. Fisk w^as creating a new
colleae under circumstances which showed the hand
of a master builder. We have already seen how
difficult and how important he deemed the obtain-
ing and retaining of a proper faculty. If we con-
sider with due care all the conditions under which
the first faculty was collected and organized, we
shall see how wise the mind that planned and how
skillful the brain which pondered the conditions of
the development of this faculty. The first charter
of Wesleyan University provided that men of any
religious creed might become students in Wesleyan
University, and that no religious test should be
exacted of any person elected to any office in the
institution. At first, this principle was carried
out by the election of certain officers who were
not members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Certain facts must be borne in mind if w^e would
understand how difficult this especial task, the
creation of a proper faculty, was. First, the sala-
ries offered were not such as would attract able
men from the service of other colleges ; and there
were no other Methodist colleges from which
trained men could be draA\ai. The only places
where men were to be found who had obtained
any experience in teaching were the seminaries at
AA^ilbraham, Cazenovia, White Plains, and Kent's
Hill. It was even more important than it was

THE EDUCATOR. -WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. 149

difficult to obtain the best man for each place from
such stinted sources of supply ; for the fame of the
^vrong man in any place travels swifter and further
than the countervailing success of his colleagues
can. Then the removal of an unfit man is slow
and painful and harmful. Let us look at the
names of the men who were members of the faculty
of Wesleyan University in Dr. Fisk's days. They
were, Rev. John Mott Smith, the Rev. eTohn Price
Durbin, Mr. Augustus W. Smith, the Rev. Jacob
F. Huber, Lieut. W. ^N. Mather, Rev. D. D.
Whedon, the Rev. Joseph Holdich, Mr. John
Johnston, Mr. William Magoun, Mr. Willard M.
Rice, the Rev. William M. Willitt, Mr. Loren L.
Knox, Oliver P. Hubbard, and D. H. Chase.

Li Methodist circles it would be lost pains to
praise John Price Durbin, the famous pulpit
orator, chaplain to the United States Senate, and
known world-wide for his brilliant career as mis-
sionary secretary. Mr. Augustus W. Smith,
LL. D., after a brilliant career as Professor of
Mathematics in the Wesleyan University, was
elected the fourth president of the college in 1852,
which office he filled acceptably until 1857. Rev.
Daniel D. Whedon, after a promising career as
head of classical studies in Wesleyan University,
entered the ministry for a few years, when he be-
came a professor in the University of IViichigan,
where he continued until driven away, by growing
deafness and political management, from the work
of teaching. In 1856 Dr. Whedon was elected

150 WILBUR FISK.

editor of the " Methodist Quarterly Review," an
office in which he was continued, by successive
quadrennial reelections, twenty-eight years. Dr.
Whedon was one of the most brilliant and pains-
taking: of American editors. His work on the
" Freedom of the Will," his " Commentary on the
New Testament," intended for popular use, and
two volumes of Essays, show powers of the high-
est range and capacity. Mr. John Johnston was
for forty-two years Professor of Natural Science
in Wesleyan University. Rev. Joseph Holdich,
though not a college graduate, was a capable, indus-
trious, and useful college officer, until he was made
one of the secretaries of the American Bible Society,
an office in which he served the church with great
fidelity, until the failure of his sight compelled his
retirement. The other professor of those days,
the Rev. John Mott Smith, was a graduate of Co-
lumbia College, who had been engaged in teach-
ing several years before he was made Professor
of Ancient Languages at the organization of the
new faculty. Mr. Smith was cut off suddenly ere
his work at the college had gone beyond its begin-
nings. Those who had the best means for know-
ing him and his* work felt that his career, had his
life been spared, would have been as brilliant and
useful as that of any other member of this remark-
able faculty. The office of tutor in that early
time was held by Mr. William Magoun, Oliver P.
Hubbard, Daniel H. Chase, Mr. Willard M. Rice,
Rev. W. M. Willitt, and Mr. Loren L. Knox.

THE EDUCATOR. -WESLF.Y AN UNIVERSITY. 151

Lieutenant W. W. Mather was acting-Professor of
Natural Science at Wesleyan University for the
year 1833-34. The same faultless judgment which
found the right man for every professorship that
was established, was apparent also in the selections
for the minor positions in the board of instruction.
Lieutenant Mather was a graduate of the Military
Academy at West Point, who had been an assist-
ant there in the same studies which he was em-
ployed to teach at Wesleyan University. His
subsequent military and scientific career shows his
fitness for services of a high order in his favorite
lines of study. Mr. Oliver P. Hubbard, a graduate
of Yale College, gave sure token as tutor in Wes-
leyan University of fitness for advancement to a
college professorship, which he won at Dartmouth.
Mr. Daniel H. Chase, the first graduate of Wes-
leyan University, here opened brilliantly his career
of life-long service in the cause of education. Mr.
W. M. Rice has had an honorable and useful
career in the pastoral service of the Presbyterian
Church; while Mr. Knox and Mr. Willitt have
been quite as distingiiished pastors in the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church. Mr. William Magoun,
a graduate of Brown University in the year 1823,
ran a somewhat peculiar career, but one of such
high distinction as to show that he was a man of
marked endowments and eminent culture. He
taught in Brooldyn and New York after leaving
Middleto^vn; then practiced law awhile in New
York, when he became private secretary and tutor

152 WILBUR FISK.

in tlie family of Hon. Nathan Niles, United States
charge d'affaires at Turin, Italy. In this and
similar positions he continued to act until 1871.
In 1867-68 he was consular agent of the United
States for Turin and the provinces. He taught
Italian and English in Turin, and was once Eng-
lish tutor to the royal family at Turin. He died
there in 1871. He was a gentleman of courtly
manners, varied and elegant accomplishments, and
greatly loved and trusted by his acquaintances.

It is a remarkable fact that none of the men
appointed to different positions on the board of in-
struction in Dr. Fisk's days was removed from it
on account of dissatisfaction with the quality of
his work. Death and calls to better positions else-
where were the sole ground of the only changes
made in the first faculty of the Wesleyan Univer-
sity, with a single exception. Professor Huber, the
first Professor of Modern Languages. Mr. Huber
had studied in the Gymnasium of Basle, his native
place, so that German was his mother tongue,
while his knowledge of French, Spanish and Ital-
ian was broad and accurate. He had already
served five years as instructor in modern languages
in Dickinson College, when he came to Wesleyan.
Mr. Huber's department was one about which Dr.
Fisk had no personal ability to decide, and was
one where he was compelled to trust to recommen-
dations from others. Such commendations Mr.
Huber must have been able to present. The only
fault ever charged to Mr. Huber was a want of
self-control.

THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 153

This simple story is enough to reveal the re-
markiiLle gift for organization and administration
of Wilbur Fisk. As we see this set of seminary
teachers gradually transformed into a college fac-
ulty which so far commanded j)ublic respect and
confidence as to collect a body of one hundred and
fifty students around them long before Wilbur
Fisk's death, we are involuntarily reminded of the
story of the artist's apprentice, who was employed
merely to aid his master in such parts of the work
of fashioning: a g-oro^eous cathedral window into a
splendid artistic masterpiece as could be wrought
by rude and untaught hands, but whose untutored
hands wrought the broken and rejected fragments,
which had been flung aside as wortliless, into such
a matchless creation of peerless art as far outshone
his own master's masterpiece. If there was a bet-
ter or wiser administration in the early days of any
other New England college than this, it has not
come to my knowledge.

In his relations with the other members of the
faculty, Dr. Fisk was as nearly a model as we may
well hope to see. He took a very friendly attitude
towards every associate in the board of instruction,
for he felt profoundly the importance of prompt-
ing every man to the greatest exertion in the im-
provement of his powers of mind and opportunities
for usefulness. He knew everything about them
in their relation to the college and the public by
observation, by inquiry, by conversation. AYhen
he was absent for any time, a frank and detailed

154 WILBUR FISK.

correspondence kept him informed as to the turn
thing's were taking during his absence. Thus was
such an atmosphere of vitality, of hopefulness, and
of mutual affection created as would readily bring
the college instruction to a high degree of effi-
ciency. If the income of the college was not al-
ways sufficient to pay all the salaries of the offi-
cers, the only salary which was ever suffered to go
unpaid was President Fisk's. This was probably
the result of the president's natural thoughtfulness
for others, though it was also the dictate of the
soundest business principles.

Of the instruction of President Fisk, Dr. Hol-
dich says : —

" He generally heard only one daily recitation, and at-
tended to the weekly exercises in composition and decla-
mation. The subjects included in his course of instruc-
tion were such as are common in most American colleges
in the junior and senior years, embracing Rhetoric,
Evidences of Christianity, Logic, Ethics, Mental Pliilos-
ophy, with Political Economy, and the Elements of
Constitutional Law. His recitations were always con-
ducted from a text-book, but without a servile adherence
to the author ; and his mode of questioning was adapted
to ascertain both how closely the students had studied
the lesson, and how far they understood the subject. He
allowed, and even encouraged, the utmost freedom on
the part of the class ; took pains to awaken interest ;
patiently listened to what any member had to say ; and
satisfied, as far as jDossible, all inquirers. Frequently he
would illustrate the lesson by some stroke of humor or
a pleasant anecdote ; always taking care, however, to

TEE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 155

maintain a proper dignity while thus ministering at once
to instruction and entertainment. In short his inter-
course with his chisses had more the air of familiar con-
verse than of formal recitations. He seemed to address
them ex animo rather than ex cathedra. Thus he not
only kept the mind of the student constantly on the alert,
but also united in a good degree the advantages both
of recitations and lectures. Courses of lectures he did
not deliver, either because he preferred the other mode
of teaching, or because his various engagements did not
allow him to prepare them. But he delivered lectures
occasionally, either on such portions of the subject as he
thought not clearly or satisfactorily treated in the text-
books, or on such topics as he desired to expand or en-
force. These lectures were sometimes before the whole
college." ^

It was in his relations with the students that the
peculiar charm and force of Dr. Fisk's system lay.
He thought it so important that he should have
ample opportunities for this work that he curtailed
his class-room work in its favor, and he gave him-
self to it with the most unsparing zeal and affec-
tion. He was much occupied by calls from all his
associates in order to obtain the advice, sympathy,
and impulse of his practical and experienced mind.
But, however busy he might be in any of these
ways, he always had time enough for full, careful,
and earnest conversation with any student who felt
the need or made an occasion for a free conversa-
tion with him. In this way he came to know very
thoroughly the make-up, the circumstances and pos-
1 Holdich, Life of Wilbur Fisk, p. 322.

156 WILBUR FISK.

sibilities of the whole body of the students under
his care. Hence any advice he gave them in regard
to their college duties, or their personal pursuits
after graduation, was uniformly marked by good
sense, by insight into their wants and needs, and
by a generous faith in their devotion to the highest
interests of mankind. They felt that he had a pro-
found personal interest in their honorable charac-
ter and their usefulness in life. They felt it an
honor and privilege that such a man as he was
should be their friend and adviser. One of the
most common remarks made by the men who stud-
ied under Dr. Fisk is this : " Whenever I find my-
self in a situation of difficulty and delicacy, I usu-
ally ask myself how^ Dr. Fisk would have acted in
my situation, and when I have found a reasonable
answer to that question, I know wdiat to do my-
self." Like all good and wise advisers, this coun-
selor's special helpfulness lay in his fidelity in
pointing out the true course to be taken. Advis-
ers there are who are spoken of as wise, sympa-
thetic, and helpful, — whose sole wdsdom lies in
catching the secret bias of those who consult them,
and telling them to obey that. Dr. Fisk was no
such silly echo of other men's wishes and hopes.
He showed the wisdom of taking the hard rather
than the easy path, the true rather than the pop-
ular course, the religious rather than the godless
life. He not only made men see that these were
the best paths for men to walk in, but he made
them feel that no other course must be thought of

THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 157

for a moment, because the high and honorable line
of conduct was possible for them all. Dr. Fisk
was himself such an example of all the virtues he
commended to others, that his words came home to
men's hearts with great impressiveness. It is mar-
velous how a right example reinforces the might
of right words. A man whose preaching has not
persuaded himself, whose life exhibits all the weak-
nesses and vices he censures in others, who wants
the supreme wisdom he would commend to others,
can never be a successful teacher or preacher in
the way of influencing character. Dr. Fisk's su-
preme appeal to his students came from the jDer-
fect blending in his own life and character of all
the virtues and characteristics he commended to
them. He was himself in a rare degree all that he
would lead them to be. And he was so, not by the
accident of a happy constitution, a singular career,
or special gifts of divine grace, but by fidelity to
homely and lowly duties, by using forces offered to
all alike, and by obedience to light which shines
alike for all.

Nor did he fail to point, to any who doubted of
the possibility of their attaining the traits of char-
acter he recommended, that the divine Saviour's
ears are open to the cries of the humblest and
worst. Hence the possession of the highest char-
acter was the duty and the j)rivilege of all. The
religious side of the students was thus appealed to
in the noblest and most spiritual way. Low charac-
ter, unspirituality of soul, li\dng for any but the

158 WILBUR FISK.

highest ends, all assumed in his presence their nat-
ural shame and deformity. They were crimes in
the sight of God, and marks of shameful degrada-
tion in bearers of the divine image. It was the
vi\^d impression of the reality and transforming
power of these truths in the hands of Wilbur Fisk
which made his personal intercourse with the stu-
dents so beneficial. They loved him so greatly
that all difficult things seemed easy under his lead-
ership.

Out of this strong personal hold upon the stu-
dents grew the strength and security of his govern-
ment of the college. It rather often happened that
he did not favor some of the schemes and measures
of the students. On such occasions his view of
things was pretty sure to prevail, but never merely
because it was his view. Dr. Fisk would examine
the arguments presented against his own view
candidly, appreciate them at their full value, and
then array against them the reasons which ought
to be decisive so impressively that he usually con-
vinced his opponents that they were wrong. He
favored the organization of a temperance society
among the midergraduates, and so that society had
a flourishing career. But once, when there was a
very active movement in college in favor of the
establishment of another society, which he thouglit
improper, he prevented its success. It was proba-
bly an abolition society. Committee after commit-
tee waited upon the president to secure permission
for putting such a society into oj)eration. They

THE EDUCATOR. -WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 159

stated their case in detail to the president, but so
candid and cogent and public-spirited was his op-
position to the proposal that he convinced the com-
mittee of the propriety of his views. The com-
mittee reported the result of their interview with
the president to the college, whereupon a new com-
mittee was raised to wait upon the president. They
also were converted to the propriety of this view,
and so reported. As there was some excitement
amongst the students on the matter, an attempt
was made to send another committee with instruc-
tions to insist on the college view ; but the persons
appointed members of the committee declined ser-
vice, on the ground that President Fisk was just
as likely to convince them of the correctness of his
position as the gentlemen who had already waited

on him.

Like all other college presidents, Dr. Fisk some-
times had to deal with men who put his patience
and forbearance to their sharpest test. We have
no accounts from such persons of President Fisk's
conduct towards them, nor copies of any letters ad-
dressed by him to themselves or their friends, for
they naturally kept all such documents under the
seal of silence and secrecy. A few letters written
by such offenders to Dr. Fisk give us our only
ghmpse of his administration in such cases.

One of the peculiar features of these letters is
the uniformity and the bitterness with which the
writers confess that they have forfeited all claims
to President Fisk's respect and affection, and the

160 WILBUR FJSK.

palpable sincerity with which they protest that
this is the severest puiiisliinent they have to bear.
There is almost always a humble hope expressed
that they may yet be able to regain the esteem of
their honored friend. It is easy to see, in the po-
sition of these transgressors, both the restraining
influence exerted by such character upon young
men in circumstances of special temptation, and
the fact that their eager longing for his full respect
was one of the strongest motives to renew their
struggles for regaining their standing. It took a
pretty bad man to break away from him. Few
gave him the slightest solicitude. He never spoke
of the student's misdoings to his family or other
friends, so that his self-respect might lead him to
break off faults before they became notorious.

Among the questions which Dr. Fisk had to
give early attention to was that of establishing
schools of law, medicine, and theology, as the Uni-
versity was by its charter fully authorized to do.
The best judges whom he confidentially consulted
on these subjects advised him that the proper
place for a medical school was a large cit}^ while
a law school was hardly advisable in an institu-
tion where so much needed to be done in the de-
velopment of a college fit to take its place beside
the most advanced colleges of the country. This
advice has been substantially followed at Middle-
town to the present day. There has been until
recently no necessity felt for the creation of a
law school or a medical school under Methodist

THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. 161

auspices. With regard to theological schools the
case stood differently ; for why shoidd Methodist
colleges only conduct the education of their young
ministers up to the point where their education
should be directed wholly to those branches of
study and science which are to be the themes
of all their special study and exposition? These
questions were put to Dr. Fisk by his associates in
the work of education, and by the early graduates
of Wesleyan University. He did not deem it wise
for Methodist students to put themselves into the
ranks of the students of non-Methodist theological
seminaries. He proposed that the same course
should be pursued at Wesleyan University that
had been pursued at Harvard College and Yale
College long before any theological course was
thought of at either. Some of the studies of spe-
cial importance to ministers were grouped together
in the last year of the college course, so that the
senior year was often called " divinity year." Then
graduates might remain at college a year after
graduation. Here are Dr. Fisk's reasons ; —

"1. It will be a great saving of expense. In our lit-
erary institutions we have the buildings, the libraries,
the teachers, already prepared. To get up and support
separate establishments woukl ahiiost double the expense.
The attempt, therefore, in the present condition of these
seminaries, would be likely to ruin both.

" 2. By having an experienced and well - educated
minister in these seminaries, this work can be accom-
plished to all needful extent.

162 WILBUR FISK.

^' 3. It will be a saving of time to the young men, who
can thus mingle the study of theology with their other
pursuits. It will become a part of their miscellaneous
reading, and, in hours of relaxation, of their conversa-
tion ; mind acting upon mind will elicit truth almost in-
cidentally, and there will always be one to whom they
can appeal to settle all doubtful questions.

" 4, In this way we shall not be so much in danger of
carrying speculation too far, so as to make the instruc-
tion end in dogmatism, or lead to the spinning out of
new theories, as is the case sometimes in theological sem-
inaries.

" 5. In this way we should throw a greater amount
of salt into our literary fountains, and thus get new and
promising candidates for the ministry converted. What
I have here proposed is not mere theory. I have acted
upon this princij^le ever since I entered ujDon the business
of education, and I have now a class of from twenty to
thirty promising young men under this kind of training.
... I ought, however, to say that the theological in-
struction which we impart is not made a part of the col-
lege course ; it is extra and voluntary on their part and
gratuitous on ours."

It is e\ddent that the crowning objection to the
establishment of theological schools in the Metho-
dist Ejiiscopal Church, in Dr. Fisk's mind, was the
financial one. A man of so much experience in
teaching or study as Dr. Fisk could have looked
upon such provisions for the instruction of young
ministers as merely a temporary makeshift, only to
be tolerated until the conference seminaries and
university had become fully equipped with all the

THE EDUCATOR. — WES LEY AN UNIVERSITY. 163

necessary facilities and funds for doing their work
in the best possible manner. It was the keen
sense of the fact that none of these institutions had
yet come anywhere near such complete readiness
to do its work in the most efficient manner, and
that the vigorous pushing of any scheme for sepa-
rate theological seminaries would prolong too far
the deficiency of abundant resources in such insti-
tutions, which gave emphasis to Dr. Fisk's recom-
mendations. At such a time nobody would have
rejoiced more warmly than Dr. Fisk in the estab-
lishment of theological seminaries endowed with
the amplest resources to render them successful.
When the wi'iter was a student in the first Meth-
odist theological school in New England, three of
the four professors, Bishop Baker, Dr. John W.
Merrill, and Dr. David Patten, had been trained
in Dr. Fisk's theological class both at Wilbraham
Academy and at Wesleyan University. They then
thought themselves following out lines of work in
which Wilbur Fisk woidd have been proud to have
borne a vigorous share.

In 1833 Mr. Fisk introduced a resolution at the
New England Conference in favor of the establish-
ment of education societies. While this subject
was under consideration, it became evident that
the question could not be weighed with proper care
and settled to universal acceptance unless it was
examined in connection wdth the foreign mission-
ary work of the church, for the missionary is nec-
essarily an educator. Hence, at the session of the

164 WILBUR FISK.

New England Conference in 1834, the Missions
Committee, of wliieli Rev. John Lindsay was
chairman, and the Education Committee, of which
Wilbur Fisk was chairman, united in preparing
their work, and the following report drawn by Dr.
Fisk was presented as the report of both commit-
tees, and adojDted by the conference : —

"It is evident from the signs of the times that the
only embarrassment to the missionary cause, which
threatens seriously to impede its progress amongst us,
consists in the want of suitable men to carry it on. The
mission work is peculiar in requiring an education for
the particular work to which the missionary is called.
We have already commenced the foreign missionary
work, and calls are made upon us for the enlargement of
these operations, in places where an acquaintance with
other languages, and with some of the sciences, and with
other professions, especially medicine, is indispensable.
To suit these peculiarities, it is necessary that an educa-
tion should be given of an appropriate character.

" Then another peculiarity of the missionary work
is its identity with the cause of education. Education
and the Christian religion always have been and always
should be closely connected. A minister of the gospel
that is not interested in the cause of education is an
anomaly, and has forgotten an important part of his call-
ing. But this applies wdth peculiar emphasis to the mis-
sionary work. Here not only must the missionary aid
the cause collaterally and indirectly, but he must make
it a part of his business, or, at least, he must superin-
tend this work as performed by others, associated with
him for that express purpose. Hence the missionary

THE EDUCATOR. — WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. 165

must himself be prepared for the work of instruction,
and in many cases must have associated with him mis-
sionary teachers, all of whom need to be educated for
the purpose. Where shall we find the men qualified for
this work ? We find young people of both sexes ar-
dent in piety, glowing in love to God and men, burning
with a commendable zeal for missionary enterprise, but
altogetlier unprepared to prosecute this work successfully.
... It is also known that a great portion of these per-
sons are poor, and unable to secure an education without
aid. The committee have therefore agreed to report a
plan, the general features of which, they are confident,
will meet the exigencies of the church in this matter, if
the members of the conference will enter into it with
unanimity and zeal ; and until some plan of this kind
be adopted, the intellectual resources of the church will
never be fully developed, and rendered, to the full ex-
tent, efficient and useful in the great cause of evangeliz-
ing the world. The youth of our church are diverted
from the purposes of the church, either into business
purely secular, or into the service and under the control
of others, who offer them advantages for intellectual im-
provement and subsequent employment which they have
sought for in vain among us. . . .

" Wesleyan University has strong claims upon the
conference for patronage and support. But paying
students are as profitable for the time being as money.
If, therefore, the conference would provide funds for the
purpose of education at the University, they will so far
strengthen and aid the institution ; and if they do this
in connection with the missionary work, they will so far
aid the cause of the church directly, and hence the cause
of education and of religion will by the same operation
be promoted."

166 WILBUR FISK,

To this argument was appended a resolution
that a society should be formed whose purpose was
to be, " to look up and bring forward such young
persons as may be judged suitable for home or
foreign missions, either as teachers or as preach-
ers, and to furnish them vAih. the means of an edu-
cation suited to the peculiar duties to which they
may be respectively called."

This report was at once adopted by the confer-
ence, and an agent was appointed to give an imme-
diate and constant impulse to the work of the new
society. So the new plan went into instant opera-
tion, and with such effect that at the ensuing ses-
sion of the conference there were eight benefici-
aries of the organization, — three at Middletown,
and the others at Wilbraham Academy, — who
were helped to the amount of from i85 to f 100
each yearly.

This was the first of the education societies es-
tablished by an annual conference in the Meth-
odist EpiscojDal Church, — an example which was
widely imitated by the other conferences, until in
1872 the entire church was directed to organize
such societies by the action of the General Con-
ference. Of this whole system Wilbur Fisk was
the unquestioned originator, as he was its most
effective advocate before the church. In 1888
these societies raised ^47,000.

But while the students in attendance at Wes-
leyan University gathered rapidly around its rap-
idly growing faculty to the number of one hundred

THE EDUCATOR. -WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 167

and fifty-two, vigorous exertions were made to pro-
vide books and other facilities for successful and
effective study, and for broad and efficient instruc-
tion. As early as 1837, it was the pleasure and
honor of the authorities to say : —

*'The philosophical and astronomical apparatus has
been greatly enlarged the past year by an expenditure
of about S4,000, and an increase of about one hundred
instruments. Among them are a fine telescope, with a
six-inch object-glass ; a splendid plate electrical machine,
with two plates of thirty-six inches in diameter ; a mag-
nificent altitude and azimuth instrument, so constructed
as to be used also for meridian transits ; an astronomical
clock, and various others of the latest construction and
the best quality. The entire apparatus is believed to be
as good and useful, for the purposes of instruction, as
any in the country.

"The advantages of the Department of Chemistry
have been increased by a new laboratory and lecture-
room."

Through gifts and purchases, the books in the
libraries amounted to 10,000 well-selected volumes.

We have reserved to the last the discussion of
the financial administration of Wesleyan Univer-
sity under Dr. Fisk's presidency. The valuation
of the property of the institution, when it was
opened for the reception of students, was -170,000 ;
when Dr. Fisk died it was about #100,000 ; so
that the funds of the institution grew by just
$30,000 during the eight years of Dr. Fisk's pres-
idency. The first charter of Wesleyan Univer-

168 WILBUR FISK.

sity authorized it " to possess estate not exceeding
$200,000, excluding college buildings, library, and
apparatus." In his private letters, and in his ad-
dresses on the subject. Dr. Fisk always speaks of
this sum as the one which ought to be in the pos-
session of the board of trustees, to enable them to
respond fully to the claims made upon them in
their work. Now, as it would have taken just a
quarter of a century for the college to have gained
that amount of endowment, it does not look as
though the new institution was effectively solving
the financial problem under the Fisk administra-
tion. But the truth is that almost all the addi-
tions to the college funds made between the begin-
nino: and the close of Fisk's career at Middletown
were raised before he sailed for Europe in Sep-
tember, 1835, so that up to that date about $8,000
a year were added to the college property. Of
course, this rate would have completed the full
endowment of the college in about twenty -five
years. It is probable that the latter estimate is
the one to be used in any just estimate of the Fisk
presidency. Of the justice of this we shall be
convinced when we remember that, within six
months of Dr. Fisk's return to America, the finan-
cial crisis of 1837 was in full blast. Says Mr.
Schurz : —

" The first installment of the treasury surplus, amount-
ing to $9,367,000, due on January 1, 1837, was taken
from the deposit banks amid great agony, and trans-
ferred to the several states ; also the second, about

THE EDUCATOR. -WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. 169

April 1. But before the third fell due the general
collapse came. First, the influx of capital from England
ceased. The speculation, which had prevailed there
during the same period, was brought to an end by finan-
cial embarrassment in the autumn of 1836. Discounts
went up and prices down. Some banks were compelled
to wind up, and three large business houses, which had
been heavily engaged with America, failed. English
creditors called in their dues. The manufacturing in-
dustries, which, carried along by the general whirl, had
produced beyond demand, had to reduce their opera-
tions, and the price of cotton fell more rapidly than it
had risen. In August, 1836, it had been from 15 to 20
cents a pound ; in May, 1837, it was from 8 to 12.
The cotton houses in the South went down. Nine
tenths of the merchants of Mobile suspended. New
Orleans was in a state of financial anarchy. Tobacco
shared the fate of cotton. The whole South was bank-
rupt. . . . Fortunes in city lots disappeared overnight.
The accumulated masses of imported merchandise
shrank more than one third in their value. Stocks of all
kinds dropped with a thump. Manufacturing establish-
ments stopped. Tens of thousands of workingmen were
thrown on the street. Bankruptcies were announced
by scores, — by hundreds. Everybody was deeply in
debt ; and there was a terrible scarcity of available
assets. The banks, being crippled by the difficulty in
collecting their dues, and by the depreciation of the se-
curities they held, could afford very little if any help.
In May, 1837, while the preparatory steps for the distri-
bution of the third surplus installment were in progress,
the Dry Dock Bank of New York, one of the deposit
banks, failed. Runs on other institutions followed ;

170 WILBUR FISK.

and on May 10th the New York banks in a body sus-
pended specie payment, — the effect of the surplus dis-
tribution act, and the heavy drafts for specie, being given
as the principal causes. All the banks throughout the
country then adopted the same course." ^

It was no discredit to Dr. Fisk, or any other
college president, if lie was not able to make large
additions to the funds of an educational institution
during such a -national crisis of panic and bank-
ruptcy. The storm was still raging in its full
intensity when Wilbur Fisk went to his grave in
1839. So small had been the accumulation of en-
dowment funds at that period that Wilbur Fisk
may be said to have carried out of the world the
clear conviction that, if the church had a full per-
ception of the urgent needs of the work of the
college in the church and the world, not less than
$200,000 would have found its way into the treas-
ury of the University, and that very few of the
members of the church were alive to this duty.
It was one of the earthly anxieties that clung to
the mind of the saintly Fisk most tenaciously in
the parting scenes of earth, this noble and unself-
ish thouofhtfulness about the necessities of the
institutions of learning he had so dearly loved.
The sharp strain of financial calamity was so in-
tense as to render the last hours of Dr. Fisk
gloomy and foreboding, but for a faith which no
darkness could daunt. No unseen, angelic hands
lifted the veil of uncertainty from the coming good

1 Henry Clay, vol. ii. p. 126.

THE EDUCATOR. -WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 171

or evil fortunes of these institutions to comfort the
dying eye of the noble president. He could only
commit their fortunes as well as his own salvation
into the loving hands of a faithful God. As he
said himself in his last days : —

" Education must go hand in hand with religion, or
the world will never be converted without a direct mira-
cle from God. Our people will take good care of our
other institutions, but I fear they are not sufficiently
awake to the cause of education. Oh, if I could feel
that our people — our brethren in the ministry — were
alive to the interests of the University, how it would
cheer my departure ! But I leave it in the hands of a
good God, who has blessed it beyond our most sanguine
expectations, and I trust will continue to bless it for the
good of the church and for his own glory." ^

It was not until the year 1868 that the Univer-
sity funds were raised quite beyond the amount
which the original charter authorized the trustees
to hold, by the sudden subscription of $200,000 by
Isaac Rich, of Boston, and Daniel Drew, of New
York. It is necessary to go back a little in the
history of Isaac Rich, in order to trace the influ-
ence of Wilbur risk in the great benefactions
which at once lifted Wesleyan University to a
broader and a richer existence. Isaac Rich was
the young fish-peddler on Charlestown Bridge with
whom the gifted preacher had made friends, had
attracted to his own church, and had led into those
paths of piety which were his own delight. In the
1 Holdich's Life, p. 448.

172 WILBUR FISK.

phrase of tlie Old Testament AVilbur Fisk spoke
to the heart of Isaac Rich. Soon this young man
felt an intense desire to become a minister of the
gospel, that he might turn sinners to holiness of
life. Yet no prayer and no readiness to give up
all other interests or pursuits for this purpose, ever
brought him any conviction of a real vocation to
the ministry. He felt dimly that his real calling
was to business and commerce. It is more than
probable that Rich was among those who attended
the prayer-meetings held in the Methodist churches
of Boston and Charlesto^vn, to pray for young
Fisk's restoration, to which Mr. Fiak himself at-
tributed his recovery. Rich saw in ^Vilbur Fisk
the kind of minister he would gladly have been
had God so ordered it. Hence, when an untimely
death cut short the career of Dr. Fisk, by nobody
was his memory more warmly cherished than by
Isaac Rich. He studied his life as described by
Dr. Holdich ; he read all that appeared in the pub-
lic press concerning his favorite ; he had many an
anecdote to tell of Dr. Fisk to any comer; the por-
trait of Dr. Fisk, now in the library of Wesleyan
University, was copied for Mr. Rich, and was the
picture which greeted all eyes as they entered Mr.
Rich's dwelling, and anything new about the great
preacher was always welcome to his admirer down
to the last day of his life. AVhen child after child
was taken away, and money accumulated in his
hands beyond the boldest dreams of his boyhood,
Mr. Rich felt a long-ino: to connect his own name

THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEY AN UNIVERSITY. 173

with the work of Dr. Fisk, by gifts that should put
the Academy and the University into a position to
do under the best conditions the work which they
had been doing under such embarrassing circum-
stances. If solicited to give to other objects, he
would sometimes excuse himself a little curtly, be-
cause he wished to make as large gifts as possible
for educational purposes. Once such a refusal so
pained and shocked a saintly old lady, who had
made application to him for help, that she could not
believe she was talking with the real Isaac Rich.

" I was looking for Isaac Rich's office, sir."

" I am Isaac Rich."

" But there must be some mistake about it : you
can't be the Mr. Rich I am looking for ; he is a
gentleman."

Her visible distress and her unintended sarcasm
so cut Mr. Rich to the heart that the visitor got
her money. This, then, was the man who in 1868
not only gave #100,000 himself to the college, but
induced Daniel Drew to give a like sum. To
Wesleyan University Mr. Rich gave in all about
$150,000 ; to Wesleyan Academy about 150,000 ;
and to Boston University what remained from an
estate which was appraised at ''$1,600,000 at Mr.
Rich's death, but had been shrunken by losses in
the great fire, and by the rapid depreciation of real
estate.

What a wonderful comfort would have attended
the last days of Wilbur Fisk could he have fore-
seen that the total property held in trust for edu-

174 WILBUR FISK.

cational purposes in New England by Methodists
would in the year 1887 amount to 13,520,000, and
that the sum raised by the education societies, of
which he was the first founder, should that same
year amount to $47,000 ! It may be doubted
whether he would regard the establishment of two
universities with favor, but we cannot doubt that
he would be charmed with the great work they
have already accomplished, and yet more with the
greater and better work they promise.

We have seen how careful Wilbur Fisk always
was, both at Wilbraham and at Middletown, in all
his personal intercourse with his students, to set an
examjile of high devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ,
and to turn as many of them as he could into
active Christians. How much he achieved in these
ways can only be fully known " when men are
judged out of the things written in the book." An
early graduate of the coUege has told me this inci-
dent as an illustration of his fidelity and success in
such wayside labors. He was in attendance on a
prayer-meeting at the Methodist Episcopal Church
at Middletown, where Dr. Fisk spoke briefly and
affectingly of his personal trust in the Lord Jesus
as a Saviour, when he closed with a sudden appeal
to the manliness of the young people present to re-
nounce the sins they confessed and deplored, and
lead new lives. One student arose and said, " By
the grace of God I will ; " and he did.

But it was a sore grief to Dr. Fisk that he had
been able to affect so little the spiritual condition

TEE EDUCATOR.- WESLETAN UNIVERSITY. 175

of the college. There was an intense longing in
his devout soul that a revival of pure and undefiled
religion might break out, and transform the reli-
gious condition of the college. There were plausi-
ble ways enough in which the thing might be ex-
plained by a cold and unbelieving heart. For one
thing, Dr. Fisk himself was in an over- worked and
jaded condition, so that any extra work he might
undertake would make severe demands upon his
time and strength. Yet when the pastor of the
church, Kev. B. Creagh, in the spring of 1834, an-
nounced that a protracted meeting was to be held
there, the announcement at once awakened the
deepest interest in Dr. Fisk. The evening when
the meeting was to begin he gathered his family
about him for their customary devotions : his mind
was full of the subject ; he read an appropriate
passage of the Scriptures, and spoke of his own
spiritual condition, and the need of devotion to the
new efforts to be put forth in the local church. He
said : " I have never labored so long anywhere as
here without special evidence that God owned my
labors by the outpouring of his Holy Spirit. Can
it be that by this God means to indicate that I am
not in the path of duty ? I do not feel that my
own soul has lost any of its fervor ; but the Uni-
versity, — the souls in the University ! "

Then he poured forth such a prayer as only
such a soul can pour forth when deeply moved
and melted under the gTacious breath of the Holy
Comforter. Fearing lest the All-seeing Eye might

176 WILBUR FJSK.

find some taint of unhallowed motive in his pro-
found earnestness for the salvation of souls, he was
heard to say : " I ask not to be made the honored
instrument ; only give me a token that thou dost
own the University." He gave himself up freely
to the needful labors of a great sjiiritual harvest
season. Then, God who knew the purity of his
servant's heart and the integrity of his motives,
gave him his heart's desire. The following is Dr.
Fisk's account of the revival, in the " Christian
Advocate and Journal : " —

" Wesleyan University, March 12, 1834.
" Dear Brethren, — I have the inexpressible hap-
piness of communicating to you the cheering intelligence
of a blessed work of grace in Wesleyan University.
This is the first general revival we have had since the
institution was oj^ened. Although we have had a great
proportion of pious students from the beginning, still
those who entered in an unconverted state have gener-
ally continued so, and in some instances the piety of the
professing students had evidently declined. This was to
us a matter of great grief and of special solicitude. The
University was established for the good of the world by
the church, and especially for the advancement of the
Redeemer's cause ; and to experience no spiritual re-
freshing for more than two years, seemed peculiarly in-
auspicious. The young men were moral, regular in
their habits, remarkably correct in their general deport-
ment, active in the cause of temperance, of missions,
and of other benevolent enterprises ; but all this, com-
mendable as it was, did not come up to the important
standard, personal holiness of heart and life. But God

THE EDUCATOR. -WKSLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 177

had not forgotten us. He has at length visited us in
great mercy. A few students are absent. Of those that
are present, but very few, perhaps but three or four, can
be found who profess not to have found peace in believ-
ing, or are not earnestly pressing after it. The work
in most cases seems to be thorough and deep. So great
has been the interest for the past two weeks, we have
been obliged partially, and some days almost wholly, to
suspend our regular college duties, and our college edi-
fices have resounded with the voice of prayer and
praise.

" Although all that are acquainted with our literary in-
stitutions know that here, as elsewhere, there are snares
and temptations for inexperienced youth, — so that we
rejoice with trembling, — yet I cannot but believe that
a goodly number of young men have here, witliin a few
days, been brought to a state of feeling and a course of
action that will be productive of lasting advantage to
themselves, and through them to others. What an in-
teresting consideration is this ! and how strongly does it
recommend our literary institutions to the care of the
church ! This is a point to which I strongly suspect the
attention of the church has not been sufficiently di-
rected. Let one fact speak on that subject. To say
nothing of the advantages of our seminaries for those
who are already pious, and of the moral and religious
influence that has been thrown over others, I have the
means of knowing that about three sevenths of all the
students of the University have become pious, either here
or at one of our academies, before they entered here.
Thus religion and literature have met together — in
which there is the greatest hope for the cause of God —
in young men who are training and girding themselves

178 WILBUR FISK.

for the great enterprise of subduing the world to Christ.
And will our friends look on and see our institutions
languish for want of the necessary funds, when God is
showering salvation upon them ? And will our pious
members hesitate to send their children here for fear of
injury to their souls ? Brethren, inquire what is duty
in this matter.

" The work in the University has been in connection
with a gracious revival in the town. W. Fisk."

That this was no transient mood with him ap-
pears from Dr. Holdicli's words : —

" In the spring of 1837 the Methodist congregation
in Middletown, under the pastoral care of Rev. C. K.
True, was favored with a blessed work of grace in which
the University largely participated. In this work Dr.
Fisk was deeply interested, and seldom appeared to
greater advantage. He labored diligently and efficiently.
It was delightful to see him, as the students came for-
ward for prayers, singing, praying, and conversing with
them, solely intent on leading them to the ' Lamb of God
who taketh away the sins of the world.'

" The character of his preaching was remarkably ap-
propriate and evangelical. Divested of the stately forms
of art, it was delivered with all that ' simplicity, dignity,
and directness ' that indicate a pure solicitude for the
triumph of truth. But then, conscious of the high im-
port of his message, he threw into his sermons all his
mental power and resources. He selected for his themes
the more familiar points of the evangelic plan, and
with evident painstaking labored to bring them home to
the understanding and the heart. Two very common
faults of the pulpit he thus avoided : one is, the selection

THE EDUCATOR.— WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY. 179

of topics so remotely connected with personal piety as
to leave the conscience of the hearer untouched, and his
feelings unstirred ; the other is, discussing more familiar
themes in a manner so indifferent, and with such little
effort of mind, and variety of thought and illustration,
as to create an impression that the speaker is not inter-
ested in his own peculiar business. If he treated of the
doctrine of repentance, or faith, or regeneration, it was
with a clearness of statement, an amplitude of scriptural
illustration, that exhibited at once the experienced Chris-
tian and the able theologian." ^

At some points the educational work of Dr.
Fisk was noteworthy. It was remarkable that
there should have been no religious test imposed
on any officer of the college. The unusual stress
put upon the acquisition of the modern languages,
as an important element in the highest culture,
showed breadth and independence of judgment.
As long as he lived, modern languages held almost
as great a place in the course of study as the an-
cient. Yet Professor Whedon, the teacher of the
ancient languages under Dr. Fisk, declares that he
prized the ancient languages so highly that he
would gladly, had circumstances permitted, have
been their devotee.

The slight esteem for the fine arts exhibited in
Dr. Fisk's Inaugural is its weakest point. But
how should a man of his circumstances and train-
ing find the path to broader views ? In this re-
spect, Dr. Fisk's European tour disposed forever
of all such narrow ideas.

1 Holdich's Life of Wilbur Fisk, p. 393.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER.

How great room there was for the Temperance
Reformation may be shown in a hundred ways, but
perhaps nowhere better or more vividly than in
Lyman Beecher's Autobiography : —

" Soon after my arrival at Litchfield, I was called to
attend the ordination at Plymouth of Mr. Heart. . . .
WeU, at the ordination at Plymouth, the preparation for
our creature comforts, in the sitting-room of Mr. Heart's
house, besides food, was a broad side-board covered with
decanters and bottles, and sugar, besides pitchers of
water. There we found all the various kinds of liquor
then in vogue. The drinking was apparently universal.
This preparation was made by the society as a matter
of course. When the Consociation arrived, they always
took something to drink round ; also before pubhc ser-
vices, and always on their return. As they could not all
drink at once, they were obliged to stand and wait, as
people do at a mill.

" There was a decanter of spirits, also, on the dining-
table, to help digestion, and gentlemen partook of it
through the afternoon and evening as they felt the need,
some more, some less ; and the side-board, with the spill-
ings of water, and sugar, and liquor, looked and smelled
like the bar of a very active grogshop. None of the

TEE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 181

Consociation were drunk ; but that there was not, at
times, a considerable amount of exhilaration, I cannot
affirm.

" When they had all done drinking, and had jiipes
and tobacco, in less than fifteen minutes there was such
a smoke you could not see. And the noise I cannot de-
scribe ; it was the maximum of hilarity. They told
their stories, and were at the height of jocose talk. . . .
I think I remember some animadversions were made at
that time on the amount of liquor drunk, for the tide
was swelling in the drinking habits of society.

" The next ordination was that of Mr. Harvey, in
Goshen, and there was the same preparation and the
same scenes acted over, and then afterward still louder
murmurs from the society at the quantity and expense
of liquor consumed."

This was the beginning of the temperance re-
form in the righteous and indignant soul of Ly-
man Beecher, and marked a new era in the mor-
als of New England. These revolting spectacles
stirred up his pure mind to secure, first, a moral
revolution in tlie drinking habits of the clergy and
church members. It was his manly and resolute
protest against the convivial habits of those days
wdiich gave the first great impulse to the temper-
ance reform. Mr. Beecher has himself recorded
the painful circumstances which led him to prepare
the famous " Six Sermons on Intemperance." His
first male convert after he went to Litchfield had
gTadually been ensnared in the vice of drunken-
ness. And to make the matter as bad as possible,
the young man's father was entangled in the same

182 WILBUR FISK.

corrupting habit. It was in tlie agony of a true
and loving pastor's heart under these disheartening
discoveries that that stern and remorseless indict-
ment of the rum-drinking habits of New England
was written. The so-called '' standing order " had
no monopoly of such weaknesses, wickedness, and
misery. The other churches had the same cease-
less fight to wage against the same unsleeping foe.
They, too, saw all their Christian zeal and love ex-
erted in vain to save the brightest and noblest of
their converts from a drunkard's grave. These
painful incidents were sure to affect most deeply
the Christian ministry as a body, and especially
those ministers whose faith in the renovating and
transforming power of the Gospel of Christ was
most vivid and potent. As Wilbur Fisk had be-
come better acquainted with the moral condition of
the country at large, he must have realized keenly
how great an obstacle the habit of using ardent
spirits as a beverage, and as a special promoter of
hospitality, everywhere opposed to keeping public
morals up to any point once attained, not to men-
tion its paralyzing effect on efforts to raise them
to a purer, nobler plane. When he asked himself
honestly about the actual moral standard of the
Methodist Church, the answer was an apparently
comfortable one. Wesley's faithful words of warn-
ing and rebuke were still proclaimed, still gave in-
spiration to the public action of the conferences,
whether general or annual, which had any occasion
to deal with the subject, and enforced, with all the

THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 183

weight of his apostolic authority, the faithful teach-
ings of the itinerant clergy. But when faithful
pastors asked themselves how safe their folds in
reality were from the devouring wolves of intem-
perance, the truth was sometimes startling enough.
For gradually had custom won a sort of implied
toleration for all the most abhorred features of the
trade in ardent spirits, not only in the public mind,
but even in the bosom of the churches. The mem-
ber or minister of any church, who fancied his own
body especially secure against the invasion of such
vices, was sure to be startled out of his unreal
safety by the sudden fall and irretrievable ruin of
some dearly loved Christian friend. This experi-
ence soon befell Mr. Fisk. One of the members
of the Wilbraham Methodist Church, a trustee of
Wesleyan Academy, a cordial friend, owned a dis-
tillery. He carried on a large business in the pro-
ducts of the distillery, and used them so freely him-
self as greatly to alarm his dearest friends. But
as the discipline of the church, relaxing its former
stringency, only prohibited " drunkenness, or drink-
ing spirituous liquors, unless in cases of necessity,"
it was not a clearly defined case of violation of
church law. And as every man had to be his
own judge, at first, how far his own indidgences
were " cases of necessity," it often happened that
church members were in danger of getting irre-
trievably involved in intemperate habits before
any courageous warning had been sounded. For
years this had been the most frequent cause of

184 WILBUR F/SK.

backslidings, compelling excision from the church.
From careful investigations, Mr. Fisk had learned
that this dreadful sin and peril, not confined to
New England Methodism, were especially notori-
ous in the West and South. He soon saw that
the only possible safety for the Methodist Church
was to make all her legislation and administration
conform to the highest standards of the Bible. It
was fortunate in this case that the first legislation
of the church needed only to be amended by pro-
hibiting also the manufacture of ardent spirits, to
bring it up to the scriptural standard. To bring
about this new order of things. Dr. Fisk began by
preaching and lecturing on temperance wherever
he had an oj)portunity. To the full extent of his
strength he accepted invitations to speak out the
full and earnest convictions to which he had come.
He aided in the organization of local temj^erance
societies, helped to obtain and circulate temper-
ance information, and sent letters to newspapers to
help on the great movement.

To the surj^rise and sorrow of Mr. Fisk, he
sometimes found sharp opposition, where he least
expected it, in the very bosom of the church itself.
When on his way to lecture in a Connecticut town,
he encountered a member of the church who tried
to persuade him to throw up the engagement to
lecture, because the local church was not in favor
of temperance, because some of its members traded
in liquor, and because the Methodist society there
would be divided if the lecturer persisted. Said

THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 185

the inflexible advocate of gospel temperance, 'SS'zV,
if the church stands on rum^ let it go ! " The
fidelity and wisdom with which the new reform
was carried forward, under such skillful and brave
leadership, were such that the New England con-
ferences were speedily enlisted almost to a man in
the good cause. Mr. Fisk was ready at all times
to use his pen to recommend the reform to all
Methodists. His sagacious leadership was recog-
nized far and near, so that suggestions, informa-
tion, and congratulations flowed in to him from all
quarters in the church. There were some who
challenged his views, and some did not fear to im-
pugn his motives in stirring up this temperance
crusade. He showed his gift for real leadership
in the skillful way wherewith he won over to the
movement those who could most effectively help it.
He knew that the " Christian Advocate," under
the care of the Rev. Nathan Bangs, D. D., could
reach the most influential minds in the church ;
for it had fifteen thousand subscribers. Hence he
endeavored to commit Mr. Bangs to the new re-
form. But at first, to the keen disappointment and
grief of Dr. Fisk, the paper pronounced against the
temperance movement and societies as not called
for, and possibly mischievous. A camp - meeting
held at Somers, Conn., adopted a series of resolu-
tions recommending the formation of temperance
societies, which was forwarded to the " Christian
Advocate " for publication. The resolutions were
explained and enforced by remarks from Dr. Fisk.

186 WILBUR FISK.

The " Advocate " retained a hostile attitude for
some months longer. But meanwhile it happily-
turned out that Dr. Bangs had failed to convince
himself of the rightfulness of his own ideas, and
while men were planning to obtain a hearing for
conferences which had been refused individual
members thereof, the veteran leader not only car-
ried his own conference, the New York, into the
temperance ranks, but made the newspaper which
he controlled a great help to the reformers. This
conversion was very largely due to Wilbur Fisk,
and his recognition of the value of Dr. Bangs's
help was very prompt and generous. Finding those
opposed to these new views somewhat reluctant to
yield. Dr. Fisk issued in 1832 an "Address to the
Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church on
the Subject of Temperance."

This begins with the declaration that " many in
the visible church are actually standing in the
way of sinners, and are hindrances to the work of
God." He thinks it an urgent duty of the church
to remove her stumbling-blocks of all sorts from
the paths of sinners. While there are many such
stumbling-stones to be taken away, he for this oc-
casion confines himself to one, "the use and sale
of ardent spirits by the members of the Church of
Christ." He renounces declamation on this topic,
but tells us that ardent spirits then cost the nation,
directly or indirectly, ninety-four millions of dol-
lars yearly. He says it is admitted that three
fourths the crime and three fourths the pauper-

THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 187

ism of the nation come from this cause. He does
not describe the wretchedness caused by rum in
the homes of men, because " you have seen the
drunkard^ and you have seen his family T

The really grave point is, that " the same train
of means and causes that have produced the in-
temperate of the past and present are still in oper-
ation to produce an equal or greater proportion
in the next generation, and so on forever." Then
comes a solemn declaration that the church was
aiding and abetting this dreadful work of death.
" Do not many of her members use ardent spirits ?
Do they not traffic in the accursed thing ? Do
they not hold out on their signs invitations to all
that pass by to come and purchase of them the
dreadful poison ? " What makes rum-drinking tol-
erated at all in general society is the example of
the good and pious men who use strong drink with
moderation. To the plea that temperate drinking
only sanctions the temperate, not the intemperate,
use of rum, he responds : " It is the certain cause,
and will be the certain cause as long as moderate
drinking and the sale of strong drink are toler-
ated." He pleads : " Do not pass over this conclu-
sion lightly. Look at it, pray over it ; go to your
closet, and with your eyes raised to heaven, and
your finger on Rom. xiv. 21 [' It is good nei-
ther to eat flesh nor to drink wine, nor anything
whereby thy brother stumbleth or is offended, or
is made weak'], justify yourself before God if you
can. Do not say it does you good, and there-

188 WILBUR FISK.

fore you must use it. God knows, and you might
know, that it does you no good. I say you might
know ; for the experiment is easily made. Just
leave off the use for one year, and try it for your-
self. Thousands have done so, and have found that
they were better without than with it. Do you
hesitate? then you already love it. Yes, reluctant
as you may be to own it even to yourself, you love
rum. And you have need to leave it off for your
own safety ; for there is but a step between you
and ruin. Oh, my brother, put down that cup
quickly ! It will burn up thy life, and kindle up
in thy soul the fire that is never quenched." His
words kindle into a flame of anger over any petty,
personal advantage of comfort or of gain to the
ruin of human souls.

*'The man who makes a common use of ardent
spirits, if he has received grace, becomes thereby stu-
pid and undevout, and if he is unregenerate he is al-
most impervious to the shafts of truth. ' Rum,' said a
brother in the ministry, ' is a non-conductor to religious
truth ; ' and he then added, in an emphasis that caused
his words to thrill through my whole frame like the
death chime of souls, ' Drinking rum and going to hell
are synonijnious terms. ^ "

He strikes dead with one indignant thrust of
his blade the pleas of those who cry out " priest-
craft," " union of church and state," sectarianism,
the boasters of their own independence, the time-
server, and the indolent. All such are found
among the opponents of total abstinence as the only

THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 189

sure and effectual cure for all the woes and inju-
ries of intemperance. The only real obstruction
the good cause has so far met has been the refusal
to make total abstinence the rallying cry of all
temperance men. Were that once done, success
would be swift and complete. In this eventful
moment of the conflict with the evil, Dr. Fisk
described it in these solemn words : —

" The chief cause of all this obstruction is to be traced
to the church. We expected infidels, and rumsellers,
and selfish men would scoff and oppose ; but against
them we expected to array the enlightened statesman,
the philanthropic citizen, and, above all, the great body
of the church. But it has not been so. Christians of
various denominations are strengthening the hands of
the wicked. And is our own church clear ? Let the
truth be told to our shame : in spite of our excellent
rules on the subject ; in spite of the writings of Mr.
Wesley ; in spite of the worthy example of the greater
portion of our members, — in almost every place I visit
or hear from, and I have made much inquiry on this
point, some Methodists are found who drink and deal
in ardent spirits! Now all this they do in the full
blaze of the light that has been poured upon this subject.
It is this, therefore, that has led me to say the woe, the
curse of the Almighty, is out against such. The respon-
sibility of the church on this subject is great. If church
members drink and sell, and the church countenances
them in it, in vain may we look for victory ; the refor-
mation is effectually stayed. When was it ever known
that the community at large carried a question of morals
beyond the church ? . . . Nay, I am not sure that this

190 WILBUR FISK.

question does not now depend mainly on the Methodist
Church."

In this critical hour in the fortunes of the re-
form and the destinies of the church, Dr. Fisk
urges every Methodist to give up the use of strong
drink. "Let the waving banner of our church
have inscribed on it, in large capitals. Entire Ab-
stinence ! and to this principle let every member
pledge perpetual fidelity." Secondly, he would
have them abandon altogether the traffic in liquor
in all its branches : —

" My Christian brother, if you saw this trade as God
sees it, you would sooner beg your bread from door to
door than gain money by such a traffic. The Christian's
dram-shop ! Sound it to yourself. How does it strike
your ear ? It is doubtless a choice gem in the phrase-
book of Satan. But how paradoxical ! How shocking
to the ear of the Christian ! How offensive to the ear
of Deity. Why, the dram-shop is the recruiting ren-
dezvous of hell ! And shall a Christian be the recruit-
ing officer ? Above all things should no Methodist
manufacture ardent spirits, since these are the main-
springs of the terrible traffic, ' poisoners-general ' of the
public."

Should any refuse, after the most loving and
painstaking instruction and warning, he would
have them all excluded, with the formal discipli-
nary processes, from membership in the church.
For he does not regard practices such as he has
been denouncing as legally screened by the ex-
empting clause, " except in cases of necessity."

THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 191

The original rule of Mr. Wesley, lately published
in the " Advocate," would be better ; but, until we
can get that, let us come up to the fair construc-
tion of our present rule.

He urges Methodist preachers to enlighten the
church and the world by frequent sermons, and
through private conversation to persuade any that
are slow to yield. He is sure, that if they all
work in unison, they will bring about a universal
triumph in America. To people who say: "I
have been a member of a temperance society ever
since I was a member of the Methodist Church.
Why should I join another?" Dr. Fisk gives the
cogent reason : —

" First, then, if you are already a member of a tem-
perance society, embracing all that is embraced in these
societies, you can have no objection certainly to joining
another. It is no matter to how many such societies
you belong, if you do good thereby. Again, however
gratified we might be, as Methodists, to have others
come up and join our church, and thus cooperate with
us in the temperance cause, and all other objects that
we, as a church, may wish to accomplish, yet we know
that many will not do this ; but if we will relax a little
from the pride of our ecclesiastical caste, and combine
with them in opposition to intemperance, we may in this
way unite moral men of all religions, and of no particu-
lar religion, in this enterprise. Thus we shall strengthen
and encourage them in a good cause, and they will aid
us in establishing principles which you say you have
long since espoused and vindicated."

192 WILBUR FISK.

To the end of his life Dr. Fisk retained the
keenest interest in this good cause, so that he was
ready to travel, to lecture on every phase of the
measure, to encourage the formation of local tem-
perance societies made up of all who woidd join
them, conference temperance societies, and organi-
zations to prepare and put into circulation tem-
perance literature covering every side of the ques-
tion. In May, 1833, he made an address, which
made a very marked impression, which was his
first formal publication on the topic. Dr. Holdich
says : —

" In May, 1833, he delivered his celebrated address
on the nature of the traffic in ardent spirits. This
branch of the subject was almost new. The consumers
of the article were the principal objects of attack, while
the manufacturers and venders were but little disturbed.
An inquiry into the morality of the trade, therefore, was
not only novel, it was bold, evincing no slight share of
moral courage. It was fortunate for him and the cause
that his mode of presenting the subject was so clear and
dispassionate. He selected his ground with great skill,
laid down his premises fairly and distinctly, and deduced
his conclusions so justly that few would be likely to con-
trovert them. This done, his close, searching, powerful
appeals carried home with them a mighty force, and yet
they could scarcely give offense."

So effective was Mr. Fisk's agitation in behalf
of a vigorous administration of the existing law,
and so scriptural and overwhelming were the argu-
ments adduced in behalf of a change in the law

THE TEMPERANCE REFORMER. 193

itself, that he had not been three months in his
grave when the General Conference shaped its
legislation on temperance as follows : —

'* Question. What directions shall be given concern-
ing the sale and use of spirituous liquors ?

^^ Answer. If any member of our society retail or
give spirituous liquors, and anything disorderly be trans-
acted under his roof on this account, the preacher who
has the oversight of the circuit shall proceed against him
as in the case of other immoralities, and the person ac-
cused shall be cleared, censured, suspended, or excluded,
according to his conduct, as on other charges of im-
morality."

To Wilbur Fisk more than to any other man is
due the credit of this change in the letter of the
law, and the far greater change in the spirit in
which the rule was administered, which has since
pervaded the whole church.

CHAPTER IX.

SLAVERY.

In January, 1835, Dr. Fisk was informed by
the editor of " Zion's Herald " that the paper was
to be opened for the discussion of the slavery ques-
tion, and he was invited to bear a part in the de-
bate. So far Mr. Fisk had held aloof from the
contention, because he thought the ultra doctrines
of the new movement likely to have pernicious con-
sequences in church and state. He saw that the
partisans of the new measures hoped to create a
popular effervescence which would be unfavora-
ble to the judicial and fraternal spirit essential to
the wisest settlement of so grave a question, with
all its complicated social and political relations.
Hence he meant to keep silent.

Meanwhile the Rev. George Storrs, a leading
Methodist anti- slavery agitator, took Dr. Fisk's
address on temperance, and changed it into an
anti-slavery document by putting in brackets after
the words used by the author others necessary to
give the document an anti-slavery squint. Against
this " unauthorized transformation " Mr. Fisk
printed a spirited protest in " Zion's Herald ; " but
finding neither Mr. Storrs nor his friends disposed

SLAVERY. 195

to apologize, he embodied his views in the follow-
ing cool, keen, but Christian letter to the " Her-
ald : " —

" Mr. Editor, — I am sorry to notice that both
Brother Storrs and his friends for him persist in main-
taining the propriety of his course in respect to the met-
amorphosis of my temperance address. If Brother Storrs
really feels, after a fair review of the subject, that he is
justified in that course, and if he also justifies the per-
sonal reflections which have been thrown out in the paper
of which he is a principal proprietor, in reference to my
disclaimer, I can only say he does not view the subject
as I view it, or as most of those whose opinions I have
heard and read on the subject. Brother Storrs may
rest assured, however, that my Christian regards toward
him are the same as ever, because I believe the error
the effect of an honest zeal, which is 7iot according to
knoiiiedge.

" Brother Storrs is hereby further assured that I do
not consider the offense of so high a character as seems
to have been attributed to it by some of the public peri-
odicals. He did not say the abolition sentiments were
mine. It is true, those who did not know my senti-
timents on abolition would, if I had not disclaimed it,
naturally have supposed that I consented to such a use
of my composition, especially as Brother Storrs did not
inform the pubHc that I had not consented to it, nor yet
that I was not a modern abolitionist. I do not, how-
ever, in my reply, accuse him of designing to represent
me as an abolitionist, and I regret to see that design at-
tributed to him. I know him too well to believe he
would knowingly misrepresent the opinions of another,

196 WILBUR FISK.

or take what he believed to be improper means to pro-
pagate his own opinions ; and I thoitght I knew him well
enough to believe that, when his attention was recalled
to a step improper in itself, he would see it and retract.
But if I was mistaken in this, I have nothing more to
say en that point : the public have my views.

" W. FisK."

This was one of tliose subjects that was not to
be kej)t back by any amount of self-restraint, can-
dor, or tact on the part of the conservatives. De-
spite himself, there were few subjects that occu-
pied Dr. Fisk's thoughts more largely tban this ;
and rarely has he been worse misunderstood than
on this question. While he was yet alive he com-
plained sadly that he was called a pro-slavery man,
an apologist for slavery, and a champion of oppres-
sion. This evil fame he bears to-day, so that his
conduct must be discriminatingly weighed.

On December 19, 1834, "An Appeal to the
Members of the New England and New Hamp-
shire Conferences of the Methodist Episcopal
Church" was published in Boston, signed by Ship-
ley W. Willson, Abram D. Merrill, Le Koy Sun-
derland, George Storrs, and Jared Perkins. The
subject of the appeal was slavery. The aim of
the document was not only to speak of the wrongs
of the needy and helpless slave, but also for the
Methodist Episcopal Church. " A¥e feel that we
should prove ourselves utterly unfit for the rela-
tion we sustain to the church, either as members
or ministers, were we longer to keep silence and

SLAVERY. 197

do nothing to avert the dreadful evils with which
slavery threatens so evidently lier peace and pros-
perity. We cannot look on with indifference and
see some of the plainest rules of her discipline out-
raged and set at defiance." After a summary view
of the evils of slavery they say : —

" Hence we say the system is wrong, it is cruel and
unjust in all its parts and principles, and that no Chris-
tian can consistently lend his influence or example for
one moment in support of it, and consequently it should
be abandoned now and forever."

But so far is this from being so that —

*' Hundreds of her ministers and thousands of her
members are enslavers of their fellow-men, as they have
been for years. They hold the bodies and souls of men,
women, and children — many of whom are members
of the same church with themselves — in abject slavery,
and still retain their standing without any censure on
this account. Nay, the ' Christian Advocate and Jour-
nal,' the official organ of the church, apologizes for the
crimes of the enslaver of the human species, and at-
tempts to justify the system."

Against this course they quote these Scrip-
tures : —

" And he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if
he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death "
(Exodus xxi. 16). " If a man be found stealing any of
his brethren of the children of Israel, and maketh mer-
chandise of him, or selleth him, then that thief shall
die ; and thou shalt put evil away from among you "
(Deut. xxiv. 7). " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy-

198 WILBUR FISK.

self" (Matt. xxii. 39). "Therefore all things whatso-
ever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even
so unto them " (Matt. vii. 12). *' Masters, give unto
your servants that which is just and equal, knowing
that ye also have a Master in heaven " (Col. iv. 1).
"Let every man abide in the calling wherein he was
called. Art thou called, being a servant ? care not for
it : but if thou mayest be free, use it rather. For he
that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's
free man. Likewise also he that is called, being free, is
Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a jn'ice ; be not
ye the servants of men " (1 Cor. vii. 20-23).

Various comments are made on these passages
of the Bible, of which the essential ones, as bearing
on the duty of the Methodist Episcopal Church,
are, first, " that a certain kind of servitude was
permitted by the Jewish economy ; " and, second,
" that two things are apparent : first, that Chris-
tianity does not alter the civil connection which
one man may sustain to another, merely by his em-
bracing it. Secondly, slavery is here condemned,
inasmuch as the apostle commands such as were
slaves to use the first opportunity which might be
afforded them for obtaining their liberty."

The address analyzes the rules of the Methodist
Episcoj)al Church on slavery as follows : —

" 1. Slavery is ' a great evil,' and we declare that we
are ' as much as ever convinced of it.'

" 2. No ' enslaver of men, women, or children ' is

* truly awakened,' and hence he cannot have a sincere

* desire to flee from the wrath to come ' (Dis. ch. xi.
sec. 1).

SLAVERY.

199

<' 3. No ' enslaver of men, women, or children * can be
received or continued a member of the Methodist Epis-
copal Church (Dis., ch. xi. sec. 1).

" 4. Traveling preachers in the Methodist Episcopal
Charch may become enslavers of men, women, or chil-
dren in those States where the laws will not admit of
their giving their slaves their freedom after they have
bought them."

Quoting provisions made in the General Confer-
ence of 1804 to protect the purity of the church
by requiring the ministry to converse freely and
faithfully with slave-holders desiring to become
members of the church about the sinfulness of
slavery, and compelling manumission when the
laws would permit, a great point is made over the
words: "Nevertheless the members of our socie-
ties in the States of North Carolina, South Car-
olina, Georgia, and Tennessee shall be exempted
from the operation of the above rules."

" But what changed the nature of this ' great evil
in the States of North and South Carolina. Georgia,
and Tennessee ? Yearly the church is becoming more
deeply involved, for ' the general minutes of our annual
conferences announce eighty thousand colored members
in our church ; . . . but what proportion of these and
others are enslaved by the Methodist members and
preachers, we have no means of determining."

The address asks what are the opinions of
Wesley, Adam Clarke, and Richard Watson, and
the English Wesleyan Conference, on such a state
of things in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

200 WILBUR FISK.

Then comes a long and impressive citation from
Wesley's "Thoughts on Slavery," which fails to
show either that Wesley did think that slave-
holders were never admitted to the fellowship of
the apostolic churches, or that he had ever made
slave-holding a ground of exclusion from the sacra-
ment when he was pastor of a church at Savannah
in a slave-holding community, or in the discipline
of his societies in slave-holding countries, like the
West Indies or the Southern States.

From Adam Clarke they produce this declara-
tion : "In heathen countries slavery is in some
sense excusable ; among Christians it is an enor-
mity and a crime for which perdition hardly is
an adequate state of punishment," — a statement
whose white heat is no less manifest than its failure
to cover the point at issue.

From Richard Watson they cite resolutions
presented by him at the English Wesleyan Con-
ference, when the cause of West Indian emancipa-
tion was on the verge of its complete victory in
the British Parliament. The resolutions are a
solemn and impressive statement of the moral and
religious grounds on which the conference desired
to see West Indian slavery abolished, ending with
the recommendation that Wesleyan petitions and
votes should be used for the overthrow of slavery.
These are all the authorities. The address con-
cludes with three recommendations : —

"1. These evils have come upon us while we have
been sleeping and dreammg of prosperity ; and so we

SLAVERY. 201

have been resting unconscious of any danger, until the
horrid monster has insinuated liimself into the church
of God, and Wighted her fairest prospects with his pes-
tiferous breath. And how can we be faithful to our
solemn trust without informing ourselves upon this mo-
mentous subject ?

"2. God himself commands us to 'remember them
that are in bonds, as bound with them ; and them which
suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body '
(Heb. xili. 3).

" 3. If, as we trust it has been made fully to appear,
slavery is one general system of violence, robbery, injus-
tice, vice, and oppression, then it is a sin in the sight of
Heaven, and ought to cease at once, now and forever.
But mark us here. We would have their situation one
which would secure to them, by adequate and impartially
administered laws, the right of enjoying the fruit of
their own labor, and the right of obtaining secular and
religfious education."

The reason why the signers of this document
resorted to this publication was because the papers
of the church were not open to them.

On the 27th of March, 1835, was issued a
" Counter Appeal," addressed to the same parties,
signed by W. Fisk, John Lindsey, Bartholomew
Otheman, Hezekiah S. Ramsdell, Edward T. Tay-
lor, Abel Stevens, Jacob Sanborn, and E. H.
White.

It is evident enough that this document, not-
withstanding the number of names signed to it,
proceeds from the pen of Dr. Fisk, so that we

202 WILBUR FISK.

shall analyze it as the embodiment of his personal
views. Of the " Appeal " it is asserted : —

" Against that publication, fraught as it is with doc-
trines radically erroneous ; arraigning as it does the fa-
thers, the discipHne, and the institutions of our church ;
and productive, as we fear it must be, of consequences
deeply injurious to the holy cause in which the affec-
tions and powers of our souls are engaged, — we firmly
declare our dissent, and earnestly enter our protest."

After an earnest appeal to all parties engaged
in the discussion to exhibit candor, fair-minded-
ness, and a truth-loving spirit, the paj)er contin-
ues:—

" With regard to their theoretic view of slavery, the
following sentence appears to convey the most concise
and explicit expression : * We say the system is wrong,
it is cruel and unjust in all its parts and principles, and
that no Christian can consistently lend his influence or
example for one moment hi support of it, and conse-
quently it should be abandoned now and forever.' This
general proposition has, like many other of the broad
maxims used by the advocates of our brethren's views,
the merit at once of a simple conciseness and sweeping
comprehensiveness, which, however convenient for splen-
did declamation, even the authors find somewhat embar-
rassing when they are to be applied to practical opera-
tions. . . . We understand it as declaring that no part
of the system is just or humane, that no Christian can
consistently support any part of it, and that the whole
should be this moment abandoned. From other parts
of the ' Appeal ' we also understand them to maintain

SLAVERY. 203

that they consider the doctrine of our disciplinary Gen-
eral Rule, to which they have as Methodists given their
consent, is, that no slave-holder is truly awakened, and
that therefore no slave-holder can rightly be permitted
a place in the Christian church. On this issue appeal
is made to Scripture, the discipline of the church, tlie
authorities brought forward in the 'Appeal' itself, a crit-
icism of the measures presented is offered, and a better
method heralded.

" The argument of the ' Appeal ' founded on Old Tes-
tament usages is neglected, because the New Testament
is such an immense advance on the Old that no thought-
ful Christian would wish to accept any other than New
Testament grounds for his behavior on such important
matters. How the spirit of tlie gospel bears upon the
relations of men to each other may be seen in the com-
mands: 'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,' and
'All things whatsoever ye would that men should do
unto you, do ye even so unto them.'

" From these two simple texts results the rule : No-
body has the right to remove any providential evil upon
himself by imposing a still greater evil upon another.
Whatever be the nature of any evil imposed by Provi-
dence upon me, — loss of health, of liberty, or of life, —
if I love my neighbor as myself, I shall continue that
endurance rather than relieve myself by the infliction of a
greater evil upon another. If any class of men to which
' I belong, by any dispensation of God, by birth or other-
wise, shall be placed in any circumstances of unhappi-
ness, of whatever kind, they are bound by the author-
ity of the Golden Rule to continue that state of unhap-
piness, so long as it can be removed only by imposing
a still greater amount of unhappiness upon society at
largre. ...

204 WILBUR FISK.

" Applying this same reasoning to the specific case of
slavery, we should not be justified in revolutionizing its
position unless we had rational grounds to believe that
such a process would add to the sum of hajjpiness. . . .
The results may be stated thus : 1. The authority of
the master should terminate so soon as its termination
would not produce more evils than would its longer
continuance ; and, second, this authority should be dimin-
ished in amount and severity when such diminution would
not produce more evil than it would subtract. . . .

"And it may be well here to remark the fallacy
which both our brethren and others use when arguing
the morality of this question ; in founding their reason-
ing, not upon the relation itself, nor upon what that rela-
tion would be in the hands of a truly Christian master,
but upon extreme cases of licentiousness and cruel abuse
of that relation in the hands of a tyrant. Supposing
the case of a Christian necessitated to hold men in the
relation of slaves, such would be the proper influence of
religion that, though the form of slavery might remain,
its infamies and its miseries would cease. When, there-
fore, our brethren and others portray the horrors of
cruelty and abomination exercised by tyrannical and cruel
masters, carrying out the specific statements with all the
exactness of physical detail, and ask us if those barbari-
ties are for a moment exercisable by a Christian, or jus-
tifiable by Scripture, we readily answer, ctrtainhj not.
It is as certain that abuses of the master's authority are
not for a moment justifiable as that its existence in some
circumstances is.

" Our brethren favor us with an exegesis u} on two
texts which appear in our view somewhat unmanageable
in their hands. Between text and commentary there

SLAVERY. 205

appears to be a fair combat ; and as they come to no
compromise, it is unnecessary to say which comes off
with the mastery. To illustrate the justice of our stric-
tures, we shall give their entire exegesis of the first, pre-
fixing, however, to the verse they quote, the four i)reced-
ing verses, which they choose to omit. We include their
text and commentary in quotations.

" ' Servants [slaves] obey in all things your masters
according to the flesh ; not with eye-service, as men-
pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And
whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not
unto men ; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive
the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord
Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the
wrong which he hath done : and there is no respect of
persons' (Col. iii. 22-25). 'Masters, give unto your
servants that which is just and equal ; knowing that ye
also have a Master in heaven ' (Col. iv. 1). ' This text
alone, were it projDerly obeyed, would annihilate the sys-
tem of slavery from the church and nation. And is it
just and equal when the i>oor slaves are compelled, often
by the stroke of the club or cowhide, to toil in weariness
and want as long as they live, till they finally drop into
the grave without their ever being paid a penny ? '

"The question asks, with the most ingenuous simplicity,
whether the most tyrannic cruelty be equity and justice ?
We as ingenuously answer, we opine not, just as two
and two are not five.

" ' Let every man abide in the same calling wherein
he was called. Art thou called, being a servant ? Care
not for it : but if thou may est be free, use it rather.
For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is
the Lord's freeman : likewise also he that is called,

206 WILBUR FISK.

being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a
price ; be not ye the servants of men ' (1 Cor. vii.
20-23).

" Our brethren say, ' From this, two things are ap-
parent : first, that Christianity does not alter the civil
connection which one man may sustain to another merely
by his embracing it.' The writer in this simple sen-
tence concedes the whole question, and gives up the
whole point. Is not the relation of a master to a slave
a ' civil connection,' and will not Christianity, ' merely
upon his embracing it,' dissolve that connection? If
not, then religion and slavery can exist together, and
the dispute is at an end. Our brethren grant more
than we can accej^t. If embracing Christianity alters
no civil relation, slavery, for aught religion does, may
become perpetual ; and thus the whole is conceded
which the most inveterate slave-holder can desire. From
such a liberality of concession we beg to be excused."

In favor of his view of the subject, Dr. Fisk
cites passages wdiich the " Appeal " neglects to
quote, as though they " were given up in honest
despair as impregnable to assault, and inflexible
to perversion."

" ' Servants, be obedient to those who are your masters
according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sin-
gleness of heart as unto Christ. Not with eye-service
as men - pleasers, but as servants of Christ, doing the
will of God from the heart ; with good will doing ser-
vice, as to the Lord and not to man ; knowing that what-
soever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he
receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And,
ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing

SLAVERY, 207

threatening, knowing that your Master also is in heaven ;
neither is there respect of persons with him ' (Eph. vi.
5-9).

" ' Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear,
not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to
the f roward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for con-
science towards God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
For what glory is it if, when ye be buffeted [boxed or
cuffed on the ear] for your faults, ye take it patiently ? '
(1 Pet. ii. 18, 19.)

" ' Let as many servants [slaves] as are under the
yoke count their masters worthy of all honor, that
the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
And they that have believing masters, let them not
despise them because they are brethren, but rather do
them service because they are faithful, and beloved, and
partakers of the benefit. These things exhort and
teach. If any man think otherwise ... he is proud,
knowing nothing ' (1 Tim. vi. 1, 2, etc.).

" These passages are brought to show that in the
primitive church, under the apostolic eye, and with
apostolic sanction, the relation of master and slave was
permitted to subsist."

Dr. risk sums up the discussion of the attitude
of the New Testament to slavery in these state-
ments : —

" 1. The relation of master and slave was a tolerated
relation.

'* 2. Christianity pronounces all men alike immortal,
responsible, and precious in God's eyes. Hence it does
attest the innate ascendency of his nature, by which he
must inevitably rise above this fictitious and unnatural

208 WILBUR FISK.

position of a mere chattel into an elevation worthy of
his true character.

" 3. The letter of the golden rule and the spirit of
the gospel operate with an irresistible tendency to the
amelioration, diminution, and destruction of slavery as
a system ; holding forth its perpetuation as an abomi-
nation ; and its continuance, .by the authors of legisla-
tion, beyond the time of its jjractical removal, a sin."

After showing that Christianity was diffused
under the influence of political institutions which
recognized slavery as a normal p)art of the civil
order, Dr. Fisk shows that its attitude to existing
evils was a guarded one : —

" It is thus historically evident, that the apostles
preached the gospel to every creature under heaven, —
in the palace of the master, if accessible ; in the hovel
of the slave, if permitted ; nor did they permit them-
selves to endanger the lives and safety of society by a
reckless carelessness of results : nor did they preclude
the possibility of preaching to the slave by uncompro-
mising injunctions of emancipation upon the master."

Upon this model, the discipline and the admin-
istration of the church of our fathers have been
modeled in respect to slavery. Instead of excus-
ing that course, he exults in it ; for he says : —

'' The spirit of our ministering brethren in the South
has borne the impress of the primitive type. They, like
the early apostles, are a small minority, beneath a gov-
ernment (though nominally Christian) which has slav
ery constructed into its fabric, and is held by rulers who

SLAVERY. 209

have the will and tlie power to pass oppressive laws,
which mercy does indeed weep to see inflicted. It is
no more necessary to defend that wicked system of leg-
islation, in order to justify the cause of our brethren,
than it is necessary to vindicate the Roman govern-
ment in order to justify the course adopted by the apos-
tles."

The -plan of operations against slavery sketched
in the " Appeal " seems to Dr. Fisk not suited to
be effective. His criticism goes straight to the
mark : —

'' Some glimpse our brethren do afford us of a plan
of emancipation, which we may briefly notice in order
to show how they refute in practice what they assert as
abstract theory. They say : ' We do not mean by this
that all the slaves should be thrust out loose upon the
nation, like a herd of cattle, nor that they should be
immediately invested with all political privileges and
rights, nor yet that they should be banished from their
native land to a distant clime. But we mean that the
slaves should immediately be brought under the protec-
tion of suitable laws, by placing them under such a su-
pervision as might be adapted to their condition.' Our
brethren here specify three essential parts of slavery to
be retained : 1. The slaves are not to be 'loose, like a
herd of cattle.' 2. They are not to have all their polit-
ical rights. And, 3. They are to be under special laws.
How our brethren can assert ' that the system is cruel
and unjust in all its parts,' and yet that these essential
parts are right, that ' no Christian can lend his influence
one moment to its support,' yet coolly advise that these
unjust parts should be supported ; that the entire sys-

210 WILBUR FISK.

tern ' should be abandoned now and forever,' and yet be
retained indefinitely for years, — is to us a ' harmony
not understood.' "

As to the authority and example of Wesley, it
is said : —

" Yet, as it happens, on this subject it would be very
difficult for the sudden devotees of Mr. Wesley's author-
ity to show very tangible opposition in principle between
Mr. Wesley and ourselves. Mr. Wesley begins by de-
fining a slavery such as no one can for a moment sup-
port from the Bible, and describes such a slavery as we
have repeatedly affirmed no Christian can 23erpetrate ;
and he concludes with exhortations to emancipation,
without prescribing the mode or measures : but we may
infer from his ajjproving letter to Mr. Wilberforce that,
like Wilberforce and the Methodist Conference, Wesley
was a gradualist."

Dr. Fisk doubts whether Wesley himself would
have used the same language or followed the same
course here that he did in England, or that he
" would have considered it likely to forward the
cause of Southern emancipation." Thus lie paints
" the contrariety of the cases : " —

" The chains which bound the slaves in the West In- ^
dies were held by the hands of the English Parliament,
assembled in London, and elected by the people of Brit-
ain. The path to emancipation, then, was plain and
direct. Rouse with thrilling peals the public efferves-
cence, rear a ' system of agitation ' through the land,
swell u}) the surging tide of pojjular commotion, and
Parliament must soon yield. This was perfectly safe,

SLAVERY. 211

for those islands were too petty to revolt and separate ;
it was perfectly sure, for every syllable that touched the
national nerve sent its electric thrill into the soul of
the Parliament ; it was perfectly right, for with Britain,
people and Parliament, was the power of liberation, and
therefore the responsibility of the oppression, hi all
these three respects ice are lyreciseltj and diametrically
the reverse. With us, it would not be safe ; for the
Southern States, near half the nation in firm phalanx,
would be perfectly able and willing to form themselves
into an independent, perpetual slave empire ; it could
not be sure, for every impulse we could give would only
reanimate the spirit and renerve the arm of that cruel
legislation which now oppresses them ; it would not be
right, for we could not be morally justifiable in adopt-
ing measures rationally certain of resulting in increased
cruelty, disunion, and confirmed slavery."

The " Address " is criticised because its tone
and spirit are such as to obstruct the further exe-
cution of the only really effective measures for the
removal of slavery : —

" Many a keen-eyed slave-holder, upon principle, is
secretly pleased with the over-doing violence which dis-
gusts and assails the friends of practicable emancipation
in the South ; which affords a pretext of stronger laws
and tighter fetters ; Avlilch cools the hopes and silences
the voice of the friends of liberty around him."

Further agitation would be sure to remove the
question from its status as a moral and ecclesias-
tical question, and make it a political issue.
" Methodism has been evangelically powerful be-
cause she has been politically neutral. Let her

212 WILBUR FISK.

become prond of her influence and impregnated
with the spirit of politics, and her beams are
dimmed, her strength departed, and her ruin nigh."
No deliverance can come to the slaves from politi-
cal agitation. It is only those who do not like this
course who can expect a hearing from Southern
men. It was merely because Wilbur Fisk and his
friends had kept aloof from such proceedings that
they could hope for a kindly hearing : —

" We have not — we know not that in the nature of
the case we can have — demonstration that our brethren
of the South have never, while laboring for the salvation
of the slave, omitted any opportunity of effecting their
emancipation. Of this, from their more intimate knowl-
edge, they are best able to decide ; and we have confi-
dence in their piety that they will make, upon a subject
so momentous, a conscientious decision. Yet to our
brethren of the South, if our feeble voice may not be
wholly unheard by them, in language which we are sure
they will recognize as the general tone of Christian
brotherly kindness, we would address our most intense
entreaty that, unless it be at the expense of higher, im-
mortal interests, thsy would now, in this day of light and
peace and of moral power, emulate the noble stand of
our brethren of England, and, with the name of Wes-
ley on their banners, and his spirit in their hearts, would
seize the timely honor of leading out the foremost van
of the greatest Christian movements which, in some of
our states, are directing their onward march towards the
ultimate achievement of universal emancipation."

With his usual energy in forwarding any views

SLAVERY. 213

he had adopted, Dr. Fisk aided in the formation
of colonization societies (though he vvoukl not join
an anti-slavery society). He kept himself informed
as to their methods of operation, he treasured up
documents and letters setting forth their work,
and delighted greatly when one was formed at
Middletown.

In an address before this body delivered on July
4, 1835, he states and argues the reasons for his
special devotion to colonization. He says that
there is no natural reason why a colonization ist
should not belong to an anti-slavery society also,
save that the partisans of the latter have waged un-
relenting war upon the former.

*' 1. The anti-slavery society has no good chance to
improve the condition of the slaves.

" Nay, some of their lecturers have publicly said that
one of the greatest difficulties in the progress of their
principles was the fact that some of the slave-owners
treated the slaves with kindness. A meliorated condi-
tion of slavery would be to them one of the most unde-
sirable events that could occur.

" The members of that society are none of them
slave-holders, — their constitution excludes such, — hence
they cannot liberate slaves themselves in a private way.
Can they do it in a public way by legislation ? It would
seem not. The great theatre of this society's opera-
tions is in the non-slave-holding states. Now, what have
these states, in their legislative capacity, to do with the
question of slavery in the slave-holding states ? Noth-
ing. What has the national legislature to do with it ?
Nothing."

214 WILBUR FISK.

Colonizationists have at various times emanci-
pated slaves by the hundreds : —

" We are sometimes taunted with the demand, by
what rule of arithmetic we can calculate the final extinc-
tion of slavery by colonization, if, in nineteen years, this
plan has removed but a small proportion of the net in-
crease of one year. We will solve this arithmetical
question when our opponents will solve the following :
If, in three or four years of modern abolitionism, not
one slave has been liberated by the society or any of its
members, how long will it take them to emancipate all
the slaves of the United States ? "

Dr. Fisk next argues that the education of the
free blacks in the Northern States has been quite
as much in the hands of colonizationists as of those
of abolitionists. He argues that the social standing
of free blacks at the North has been rather injured
than improved by the anti-slavery societies. He
says that the agents of the colonization society
have improved the condition and prospects of the
slave, since they labor where labor may suc-
ceed : —

" The voice of a Bascom, and a Finley, and of a
Breckenridge, and others have been heard through the
entire South, pleading for the elevation of these victims
of prejudice and oppression. Nor were they heard in
vain : a general interest was beginning to be felt, and
the work of alleviation was gradually advancing, until
an ill-timed, precijiitate benevolence began to urge for-
ward its high-pressure system of agitation and excite-
ment. Tliis has increased the severity of slave legisla-

SLA VER Y. 215

tion ; it has silenced the voice of discussion in the slave
states, and has checked and retarded, perhaps for years,
the progress and final consummation of slave meliora-
tion and emancipation."

The triumph of such principles would mean the
removal of the question to the political arena,
where its victory would mean a dissolution of the
Union : —

"A political anti-slavery party will doubtless soon be
organized, and when once this is made a question at the
polls, its moral bearings will be lost sight of. If such a
political party should succeed, nothing short of a disso-
lution of the Union would follow. . . . There is nothing
the South ' would be more inclined to do than to sep-
arate herself from the Northern States, whenever they
assume a jDolitical attitude in o])position to her social
and political rights, — riglits guaranteed to her by the
solemnities of constitutional provisions and j)ublicly
plighted faith.'

" At a late protracted anti-slavery meeting it was
moved and carried with acclamation, without a dissent-
ing voice, that all ministers and church-members who
are the owners of slaves ought to be excluded from our
pulpits and from our communion. Let this doctrine be
carried out, and what would be the consequence ? The
most ruinous to the peace of our churches. The con-
gregational churches, from the independent character
of each church or association, would feel it least. The
Baptists would feel it more. But these could not feel it
like the Protestant Episcopalian, the Presbyterian, and
the Methodist Episcopal churches. It would be an en-
tire dismemberment of those churches, not merely a

216 WILBUR FISK.

grand division into Northern and Southern ; but here in
the North we should be divided among ourselves, brother
against brother, and society against society : and the
work of God would be neglected and the spirit of devo-
tion lost in the schisms and contentions which Avould
ensue. . . . No church would suffer like ours. We are
not only bound together by a common faith, a common
discipline, and common ecclesiastical judicatories, but we
are united also by a common pastoral charge, by which
the whole flock is, in a manner, the property of each
and every pastor, and each and every pastor the prop-
erty of the whole flock. Throw this spirit of disfellow-
ship and schism into a religious community thus consti-
tuted, and what would be the result ? . . . Even infidels
would weep at the consequences, political, social, and
domestic, that would follow such a schism."

Once, when Dr. Fisk was returning from New
York to his home by steamboat, he had as fellow-
passengers several earnest abolitionists, one of
whom was the Hon. James G. Birney. They be-
came involved in a discussion of slavery. Shortly
after Dr. Fisk received a request to correct a par-
tial and garbled account of their debate, that Mr.
Birney might publish it. This elicited the follow-
ing response : —

" Hox. James G. Birxey : —

" Dear Sir, — I was not a little surprised at the
reception of your note of the fourth instant, announcing
your purpose to publish a sketch of the discussion we
held on Saturday last, while on our way from New
York to New Haven.

SLAVERY. 217

"To this I have many objections. Amonr^ others,
before I choose to have my sentiments spread before
the pubHc, I prefer to do it myself, in my own words,
and in my own way. In these times of public calumny
and misrepresentation, I would not have a familiar
friend publish my sentiments for me, much less an
interested opponent.

" I object, also, to the sketch given in your letter, as
one-sided, deficient, and unfair. I do not accuse you
of designing to misrepresent the conversation ; I only-
state the fact, as a reason for objecting to your proposed
course. If you should publish your sketch as it is given
in your letter to me, one of two things must follow : I
must be silent and suffer the public to be deceived, or I
must enter into a public controversy with you. For the
latter alternative I have neither time nor inclination.
The public, sir, do not pay me a salary to spend my
time writing upon this subject. I am engaged in other
and important duties ; and if I appear before the pub-
lic, I must choose my own time and manner of doing
it, so as not to interfere with other paramount engage-
ments.

" It is in accordance with the practice of many abo-
litionists, I know, to draw others before the public when
and as they will, without reference to the proprieties
and courtesies of life. That you, sir, are of this char-
acter, I have yet to learn. If, however, you attempt it
with me in this case, and in the manner proposed, you
will have learned beforehand that I consider it unfair,
ungentlemanly, and unchristian.

" Most respectfully yours,

" W. FisK."

218 WILBUR FISK.

Yet Mr. Birney published liis sketch, with the
accompanying correspondence.

By this time Dr. Fisk had come to the settled
conviction that some of the leaders in the agitation
meant to divide the church, unless they could
force their views upon the whole body. This view
he announced to various ministerial friends both
at the North and in the South. So strong were
his fears that he kept a keen watch on the contes-
tants to hinder any such efforts. In certain arti-
cles in the " Christian Advocate " he denounced
the Rev. George Storrs for having committed him-
self to schismatic principles. In the same articles
he gave such offense to La Roy Sunderland, the
editor of " Zion's Watchman," that he sent Dr.
Fisk formal notice that charges would be presented
against him of defamation and slander at the
Conference of 1838. Dr. Fisk's outline of his
defense exists in his own hand, showing that, even
with Sunderland's own statement of the facts,
there was no defamation, no slander. But the
testimony of the Rev. Dr. Luckey and another
witness, both from New York, proved the truth of
Dr. Fisk's allegations so directly that the prosecu-
tion broke down.

The course events did take, both in the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church and in the nation at large,
was such as to vindicate the soundness of Mr.
risk's judgment. These new movements had got
such full possession of the conference that he
thouo^ht this the controUino; influence in the elec-

SLAVERY. 219

tion of deleorates to the General Conference of
1836, and he protested against this change by re-
siofning: his own seat in the General Conference,
and having his reasons for the step entered on the
journal. The organization of a new church, under
the leadership of Orange Scott, showed how true
was Dr. Fisk's much denounced assertion, that
some of the abolition leaders would rather divide
the church than wholly fail in their enterprise.
The division of the parent body into two sectional
bodies, the Methodist Episco^^al Church and the
Methodist Episcopal Church South, in 1844, sent
ecclesiastical discord and contention into every
Methodist conference, society, class - meeting, or
home. The election of Mr. Lincoln, even on a
platform which foreboded no attacks upon the
institution of slavery in the states where it existed
under constitutional protection, was the signal for
the secession of the Southern States from the
Union.

One may fairly doubt the feasibility of the plan
of action in reference to slavery proposed by Dr.
Fisk and his associates, but how can anybody
wonder that the scheme appealed to his confidence
as a Christian and his hopes as a patriot ? Can
any one doubt but that the proper effect of the
Christian religion operating upon the minds of
Christian masters and slaves would be to rob that
awful system of its infamy and cruelty? Why
could not such cases be reproduced, by high and
holy and constant endeavor, so widely as to render

220 WILBUR FISK.

community after community, and state after state
tlie abodes of the most enliglitened opposition to
human bondage ? Such a faith might seem hope-
less, and such a task impossible ; but nothing is
impossible to Christian wisdom and love.

Had such a conquest of human reason and Chris-
tian love banished American slavery off the face
of the earth, that would have been one of the no-
blest victories our Christian civilization has ever
won. We should have had no schisms in the local
or national churches. Slavery would have been
gradually abolished by the voluntary action of
enlightened slave-holders, by the careful legislation
of wise and well-informed statesmen, suj^ported by
the sympathy and cooperation of all who bear the
Christian name.

There would have been no rebellion, with its
immense drafts upon the life and the treasury of
our nation. Death in battle and camp would not
have scattered consternation, sorrow, and bereave-
ment through all the homes of our fair land. No
jealousy of North and South, no Ku-klux Klans,
no frauds on the ballot-box, no military govern-
ments, no mutual jealousies and rivalries in the
good work of enlightening and educating the col-
ored people, and no direful race prejudices to ob-
struct the spirit of American political and social
advancement.

i\nd how easy to turn the self-denial and self-
control won in such a triumphant struggle against
such an enormous evil system against other evils

SLAVERY. 221

which still infest and curse our country ! To win
the whole world to the side of Jesus Christ would
have seemed easy to the veterans who had with
their combined efforts put away slavery, root and
branch, from our country.

CHAPTER X.

MANIFOLD ACTIVITY.

Dr. Fisk, notwithstanding liis manifold labors,
was always deeply interested in missionary toil.
He gave freely of his means, time, and efforts to
diffuse the missionary spirit throughout the entire
church of God. He preached, lectured, sent com-
munications to the newspapers, in order to diffuse
useful knowledge concerning this work, and to re-
kindle apostolic zeal for the conversion of souls.
He induced the Young Men's Missionary Society
of New York to support a missionary to Liberia.
He, whose devotion to the negro race was disputed
by men who hated the Colonization Society, whose
cause was advocated by Dr. Fisk with such ability
and effect, offered his own ser\dces for the Liberian
Mission, and would have actually gone to labor
and lay down his life on that dangerous coast, but
for the irresistible protests that came from the
friends of Wesleyan University. He rejoiced in
the appointment of Eev. Melville B. Cox to the
perilous field which he had coveted for himself,
and visited New York and other places to raise
money for that noble work.

The missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church

MANIFOLD ACTIVITY. 223

amongst the Canadian Indians had been so suc-
cessful that numerous and flourishing stations were
established amongst them. Few of these converts
could read English, and, as there was no transla-
tion of the Scriptures into their language, the
progress of the native churches was slow and pain-
ful. Dr. Fisk, in seconding a speech by the Rev.
W. Case in behalf of this work, induced the Young
Men's Bible Society to secure three thousand dol-
lars for printing the entire New Testament in the
Mohawk tongue. This proposal was made in 1831,
and Dr. Fisk did his utmost to carry out this be-
nevolent work until the translation was completed
in 1839. A well of salvation to those tribes has
that precious book become.

In 1833 four Indians of the Flathead tribe had
made their appearance at St. Louis to inquire into
the Christian religion. Two of the four messen-
gers who brought this novel report had visited one
of the Catholic mission schools in Canada, and so
their interest had been excited. But the imme-
diate occasion of this singular embassy was the fact
that some visitor of their idolatrous feasts had told
them that their methods of worshiping the Great
Spirit were entirely wrong and deeply displeasing
to him, and that the white people far to the east-
ward had a book which would tell them how to
worship God with acceptance in his sight. So much
were they moved by this statement that they called
a council to deliberate on the subject, and four
chiefs were dispatched to the East in quest of inf or-

224 WILBUR FISK.

mation. These chiefs had heard of General Clarke,
the companion of Lewis on his travels through
the Oregon Territory, and turned their steps to
St. Louis, where Clarke then resided as Indian
commissioner ; for they thought he must be able to
give them information about the white man's God
and his religion. General Clarke kindly gave
these ignorant but noble men the main facts of
the history of the Bible, the great central truths
concerning the nature of God, the incarnation,
and the redemptive death of the Son of God,
and the doctrines and precepts of the CJmstian
faith. The facts here set forth were sent to G. P.
Disosway, Esq., in a letter from Mr. William
Walker, the exploring agent of the Wyandots,
and appeared in the " Christian Advocate and
Journal," March 1, 1833. Though burdened with
work at the university. Dr. Fisk's eye caught sight
of the wonderful tidings of the quest of heathen
tribes for a knowledge of the true God. He at
once read the article aloud to Mrs. Fisk and said,
" We will have a mission there."

" It would be a noble enterprise, but W'here
will you get the man ? "

" I know of but one in the world every way
qualified for such an undertaking, and 3 on know
who that is."

" Yes, but you are too late for him. You know
Mr. Jason Lee is about to apply for admission to
the British Conference."

Mr. risk wrote a letter, before sitting down, to

MANIFOLD ACTIVITY. 225

Mr. Lee, and thus by his promptness and decision
secured the most available man in the world for
the Oregon mission. Then he sounded the follow-
ing bugle - call in the " Christian Advocate and
Journal : " —

" HEAR ! HEAR ! WHO WILL RESPOND TO THE CALL
BEYOXD THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS?

" Messrs. Editors, — The communication of Brother
G. P. Disosway, inclosing one from the Wyandot agent
on the subject of the deputation of the Flathead Indians
to General Clarke, has excited in many in this section
intense interest. And, to be short about it, we are for
having a mission established there at once. I have pro-
posed the following plan : Let two suitable men, unin-
cumbered with families, and possessing the spirit of mar-
tyrs, throw themselves into the nation ; live with them ;
learn their language ; preach Christ to them ; and, as
the way opens, introduce schools, agriculture, and the
arts of civilized life. The means for these improvements
can be furnished through the fur-traders, and by the
reinforcements with which we can from time to time
strengthen the mission. Money shall be forthcoming.
I will be bondsman for the church. All we want is the
men. Who will go ? Who ? I know one young man
who I think will go, and of whom I can say I know
none like him for the enterprise. If he will go (and we
have written to him on the subject), we only want an-
other, and the mission will be commenced the coming
season. Were I young and healthy and unincumbered,
how gladly would I go ! But this honor is reserved for
another. Bright will be his crown, glorious his reward.
" Affectionately yours, W. FiSK.

*' We8Leta>- University. March 9, 1833,"

226 WILBUR FISK.

This spirited appeal brought offers from quite a
number of devoted ministers of the Gospel of
Christ, who would readily have foregone all the ad-
vantages of civilized existence, and confronted the
dangers of barbarian life, with the probability of a
premature death, if only they might lead the sav-
ages of the Oregon region to the true faith and a
godly life. But before these offers reached Dr.
risk by mail, he had already obtained the Rev.
Jason Lee and his nephew. Rev. Daniel Lee, and
Mr. Cyrus Shepherd, who went out as a school-
teacher. By the ensuing November, these three
were accepted by the Missionary Society, and ap-
pointed by Bishop Hedding to their remote scene
of labor and sufferings. While they were still
lingering in New York, uncertain what sort of
preparation would be most useful to them in their
work, news reached Dr. Fisk that a Captain Wyeth
had returned to Boston from a trading expedition
to Oregon. Says Dr. Holdich : —

" This seemed like an opening of Providence. By the
advice of the board they turned their course to Boston.
On this journey Dr. Fisk accompanied them, aiding
them by his counsel, and holding pubHc meetings with
them. He preached on Friday and on Sunday evenings
in the Bromfield Street Church, and on the former oc-
casion Captain Wyeth answered, in the presence of the
congregation, sundry questions touching the prospects of
a mission to Oregon, and gave much information highly
valuable to the missionaries. . . . Early in the spring
the missionaries proceeded to St. Louis, holding public

MANIFOLD ACTIVITY. 227

meetings at every important town, and everywhere
quickening the church to effort. The latter i)art of
April thay started from St. Louis on horseback for the
place appointed to meet the trading companies, and
thence over the Rocky Mountains, three thousand miles
away from the abodes of civilization."

The financial response to this appeal was very
prompt and general. Societies and individual
members of other churches, as well as in the Meth-
odist Episcopal Church, hurried on their contribu-
tions. Here is a specimen of these outside con-
tributions : —

" Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D. D. :

** Sir, — I was interested in the account recently given
in some of the public journals of the solicitude of the
Flathead Indians to know the true God, and how to
worship him.

"The appeal made by you in their behalf derived
weight from the assurance given by you that, if you
were younger, you would yourself carry the gospel to
them. While I rejoice that you have taken up the sub-
ject with so much zeal, I still more rejoice that devoted
men of ardent piety have consecrated themselves to this
holy employment. Let them endeavor to possess the
prudence of Schwarz, the humility of Brainard, the
learning of Martyn, the devotedness of Fisk, the self-
denial of Judson, the untiring ardor of Gutzlaff, and,
with the blessing of the God of missions on their labors,
they may soon hope to see these children of the forest
becoming sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty.

" Funds will be required to accomplish your benev-
olent undertaking, and the enclosed $50 will not, I

228 WILBUR FISK.

trust, be less acceptable from the circumstance that it is

presented by one not of your denomination.

" X. X.

"New London, July 19."

So numerous were these offerings that Dr. Fisk
was obliged to publish a ijublic request that this
special mission might be left to the generosity
of the churches in New Haven, Hartford, and
Micldletown.i

Thus Dr. Fisk had the intense satisfaction of
founding one of the most interesting and useful of
modern missions by his personal leadership and
Christian courage. He kept himself acquainted
with all the details of the growth of a mission in
which he had the double interest of a founder's
love, and of watching the personal success and
usefulness of missionaries who were " his own sons
in the gospel."

It is doubtful whether any other man ever
possessed so much influence in the New England
Conference as Wilbur Fisk. Hence he was the
adviser to whom all looked on critical occasions.
Timothy Merritt was thoroughly familiar with all
the localities and distances involved in the charge
of murder brought against the Rev. E. K. Avery,
a member of that body. But though he was one
of the wisest, ablest, and noblest ministers of the
conference, he did not think he had done his duty

^ For a full account of this sing'ular Indian embassy and its
results, see Oregon : The Struggle for Possession. By William
Barrows (American Commonwealth Series).

MANIFOLD ACTIVITY. 229

by a brother minister under such awful charges
until he had by private correspondence made Dr.
Fisk thoroughly familiar with these facts. Dr.
Fisk's mind and pen gave shape to the action
taken before that body in that intricate and per-
plexing case. Such influence quite as often
brought him personal criticism as commendation
from tlie various parties interested. But all such
letters reveal the utmost confidence in his integ-
rity.

In the Anti-masonic excitement which followed
the tragedy at Batavia, the intensest sentiment
was gradually aroused against clergymen in all
denominations who were Masons. Many excellent
people would not hear Masons preach or pray.
Here and there a man of great force of character,
or remarkable originality, stood out, bold and
defiant, against this storm of obloquy and distrust.
Father Taylor never bent for an hour to these
blinding and perverting influences. He marched
in all Masonic processions in his full regalia as
a Masonic chaplain, and shot out his irresistible
arrows of wit upon all and any who challenged
him. On one ceremonial occasion, he was to make
the public prayer. It was one of his most com-
prehensive prayers. This was one petition : '' O
Lord, we beseech thee to bless all the enemies of
the noble and ancient order of Free Masons.
Gracious Lord, make their hearts as soft as their
heads are."

Notwithstanding some such examples of inde-

230 WILBUR FISK.

pendence, it looked as though the usefulness of
many a minister would be greatly imperilled, if
not utterly destroyed. Here, again, Dr. Fisk drew
up the report which was adopted by all parties as
an adjustment of these difficulties. So wise and
prudent was it that in a few years the agitation
wholly vanished.

He also was the person who represented the
New England Conference whenever its adminis-
tration was challenged. The impression made by
Dr. Fisk on the other members of the General
Conferences of which he was a member is told by
Rev. George Peck, D. D. : —

"When Dr. Fisk took the stand, whether as a preach-
er, or as a platform orator, he was always well-prepared
and perfectly self-possessed. He had a sufficiency of
self-reliance to overcome all timidity, yet his modesty
and delicacy were as evident as his manly dignity. He
usually conquered in debate, though he never triumphed
over an adv^ersary. It was so evident that he contended
for truth not victory, and he bore his success with so
much meekness and grace, that his opponents were
saved much of the mortification of defeat. When he
assailed the vice of intemperance, he conciliated even
the rum-drinker and the rum seller by contrasting the
right and the wrong so strikingly that both avarice and
appetite were struck dumb. He would sometimes })lant
his batteries on some such generalization as this : ' To
him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it
is sin.' He preached a most effective sermon on this
text, in the city of Philadelphia, during the session of

MANIFOLD ACTIVITY. 231

the General Conference in 1832, in which he demon-
strated, in a most triunipliant manner, the moral obliga-
tion to help forward the great temperance movement
by all proper means. The justice and truth of his
statements, in connection with his peculiarly felicitous
manner, left upon all minds the impression of fitness ;
and the intelligent hearer spontaneously exclaimed,
' How forcible are right words ! ' "

CHAPTER XL

THE PREACHER.

Dr. Whedon gives this account of tlie preach-
ing of Dr. risk : —

" The simplicity we have mentioned was the basis of
his manners as a gentleman. If conversation be an art
susceptible, as some think, of systematic and improving
cultivation, the unstudied spontaneity of Dr. Fisk's col-
loquial remarks betrayed very little indeed of such delib-
erate elaboration. UnjDrepared appropriateness was its
prevailing characteristic. He affected no polished points,
no quick-sprung antitheses. There were no previously
adjusted plans, no conversational ambushes, no prepared
accidents, no premeditated impromptus. You carried
from his intercourse an impress of interest, as if you
had experienced a sense of diffusive fascination ; but re-
tained no one outstanding gem of surpassing brilliancy,
flinging a shade over the surrounding lustre, and itself
endowed with diamond indestructibleness. He seldom
flun^ out the elastic jen cV esprit, to be rebounded around
the circle, reverberated into publicity, and stcreotyiied
into a proverb. He was not of the Johnsonian sch3ol,
jT professed converser, nor needed to borrow from the
Boswell school a colloquial reporter. He never found
it necessary to assert his social dignity by arrogating
tlie whole conversation: he dealt forth no elbow-chaif

THE PREACHER. 233

orations, as if the sound of his own voice were the sweet-
est music to his ear, transforming the parlor into a lec-
ture-room, the social circle into auditory, and the dia-
logue into soliloquy. Bland, cordial, animate, recollected,
and dignified ; flexible to all the varieties of rank and
character ; sympathizing with the humblest and courteous
to the dignitary ; dextrous in every difficulty, felicitous
ill every exigency, and self-possessed in every surprise,
— he diffused around his daily presence and converse
the atmosphere of his own pure, gentle, and high-toned
spirit ; ever ready with the judicious counsel, the lucid
illustration, or the even-handed discussion ; now bright-
ening up the scene with a cheery yet chastened humor ;
now sobering it with recoUective monition, checking the
rising impropriety by the powers of severely silent re-
buke, or, when it would surge up in rebellion, capable of
rising into a subduing mastery over the rampant ele-
ments : these are the traits which, it is conceived, should
all the memories qualified by near acquaintance to deline-
ate the original, would be found visible in every picture.
" From the fact that Dr. Fisk did not indulge in col-
loquial harangue, it is not to be inferred that, in assum-
ing the public speaker, the transition was a transforma-
tion. On the contrary, the man in public was just the
unchanged man of j)rivate life, in both states appropri-
ate to the situation. As a public speaker, his style was
the natural and spontaneous product of his personal
qualities, flowing out of his true individuality and not
artificially assumed upon it. A more extencjj^d audience
requh'ed of course a more elevated elocution, a wider
range of tliought, and a loftier })ersonal bearing. He
usually began with a clear enunciation of his starting-
points ; then ranged through a train of consecutive logic,

234 WILBUR FISK.

so accurate as generally to evince its own justice, yet so
relieved by fancy, or illustrated by analogies, or impreg-
nated with a feeling glow, as to secure attention ; and as
he passed through the process, gathermg fervor from its
rapidity and gathering intenser rapidity from its fervor,
he generally rose to flights of surpassing grandeur, or
wound off with periods of thrilling appeal. And this
style of thought was accompanied with its corresponding
appropriate delivery. First, rising with a simple, col-
lected, saint-like presence (preceded, however, usually by
the almost convulsive cough, which commonly awakened
for the moment a painful sympathy from the unaccus-
tomed part of the audience), his manner was for the
time easy and equable ; but as he warmed with his sub-
ject, the feeling flowed out in the natural gesture, the
eye lighted up with new animation, the countenance
beamed with a glowing expression, the frame dilated
into a loftier bearing, and the whole man impregnate
and luminous with the subject.

" The description which we have here given is of
course more particularly true to the successful order of
Dr. Fisk's pulpit oratory. In the efforts of his latter
days, especially those exhibited in the chapel of the
University, either from the state of his health or from
views of practical usefulness, he seemed to adopt a style
of less sustained and more colloquial character. With
his pupils and associate officers, as in a family coterie,
he seemed to indulge the privilege of a more easy and
familiar style, less prepared and elaborate than his pub-
lic efforts, following very much the incidentally sug-
gested trains and transitions that seemed to arise in his
mind. These efforts were not particularly calculated for
sermonizing models ; they, of course, presented occa-

THE PREACHER. 235

sional crudenesses of tlioii-ht and improprieties of ex-
pression ; they were somewhat irregular in their arrange-
ment, and disproportionate and digressive in form : but
they possessed high interest as the apparently spontane-
ous discoursings of a superior mind ; and they abounded
with many a lesson of divine wisdom, many a passage of
impassioned eloquence.

"The common-sense substratum which we have as-
signed as the basis of Dr. Fisk's character may be pro-
nounced preeminently the basis of his mode of thought
as an orator. A prominent fault, we have often thought,
of pulpit ministry is, that its modes of reasoning and
expression are too professional, too unnatural. They
are the thinking of the trained theologian, with his
own vocabulary, his own logic ; indulging which all
the more freely because he feels sure of his audience,
and secure from audible contradiction, he goes along
disregarding the unspoken difficulties, and exulting in
conventional demonstrations, which prove just nothing
to the ordinary thinker. Dr. Fisk was the common-
sense preacher. He was at bottom — and without educa-
tion would have been ~ a direct, practical, clear-headed,
common-sense man ; and with such minds, comprehend-
ing the world's great average, he had a natural power
of" sympathy and self - identification. This quality--
his perfect self-adaptation to the popular mind — consti-
tuted one main secret of his great power over it. He
knew that in every breast there are the germs of good
sense ; that there are elementary starting-points, — the
mental sprouts of all sound thought. Into these he
transfused his own soul ; he impregnated the germ with
the quickening spirit; he brought it out into new yet
natural developments, and he elevated it into lofty

236 WILBUR FISK.

and glorious expansions. And so natural and sponta-
neous was the process, that the hearer thought the rea-
sonings jDretty much his own. They were his own sort
of thoughts ; at any rate, he was sure they were just
what he could and should have thought ; only it was
thinking a little harder, a little farther, a little more
clearly, and a great deal more nobly. And thus the
worldly and the shrewd were forced to feel the grapple
of his mind, while they appreciated the purity of his
character, and to doubt whether, after all, there was not
some common sense in theology and religion somewhere
else than in books. Through his life he thus drew un-
der his moral influence secular men of thought and char-
acter, and in his life presented to them a not ineffective
lesson. To one of these he exclaimed, ' You behold me,
sir, hovering between two worlds ! ' ' And fit for either,'
was the beautiful reply.

" It was uncongenial with the manly simplicity of Dr.
risk's mind carefully to hoard his oratorical reputation.
The arts of rhetorical keeping he knew not. When
once advised, upon the assumption of the college presi-
dency, to preach seldom, and reserve himself only for
great occasional displays, he shrunk at the thought. He
had no fear, by constant pouring forth, to exhaust the
fountain ; and he was not too proud to waste the most
masterly exertions of his mind upon the smallest and
humblest audience. Strains of oratory, that might richly
have filled the city cathedral, were freely lavished upon
the country school-house ! It was not his object to make
a grand oration, but to gain a more ultimate and business
purpose. He aimed to be the faithful Christian minister,
not the splendid pulpit-orator. He forgot not his subject
in himself ; he forgot himself in his subject. And when

THE PREACHER. -237

he came forth to his ministerial performance, it was not
after a period of solicitous, intensive, verbal, memoriter
premeditation. He did not, then, involve his plain
thonghts in folds of wordy gorgeousness ; nor did he
invest them with that intensive glare of diction which,
however entrancing to the fancy, renders the thought it-
self too dazzlingly painful to the mental gaze to be intel-
ligible to the mental perception. No : his oratory was
the Jiatural and animate glow of the mind, effervescing
with the subject ; or rather, it was the spontaneous effer-
vescence of the min 1 itself. For the subject that ani-
mated his periods animated his soul. In the days of
what was his health, but what to others would have been
disease, he esteemed it as his high delight to preach with
unremitting frequency ; when the sympathy of all oth-
ers for liis illness would have spared his service, he
could not spare himself. So long as he could stand in
the ])ul23it, he proclaimed the mission of his Master ; and
when he could no longer stand up to proclaim it, he pro-
claimed it still. It were a picture worthy a nobler hand
than mine to portray this minister of Christ, as his
friends watched his successive yieldings to the attacks
of the destroyer ; a feeble yet resolute figure, visited by
successive shocks of disease, and losing at each shock
that which he did not recover ; preaching so long as he
could stand in the desk ; when he was never again to
stand up in that desk, preaching from his seat, — in his
sick and dying chamber preaching, it was said, as he
never preached before ; so long as the crumbling ele-
ments of his body could frame a voice, sending forth the
dying articulations of his faithful ministry.

" There was a kind of public exercise which we must
not omit to mention, which, the farthest possible re-

238 WILBUR FISK.

moved from artificial rhetoric, presented, as Dr. Fisk
pevformsd it, a specimen of eloquence most genuine and
pure : we mean the eloquence of prayer. If eloquence
be the natural utterance of the simplest and most spon-
taneous breathing of the highest and holiest sentiments
with which our nature is susceptible of being inspired,
then were Dr. Fisk's addresses to the Deity specimens
of the truest eloquence. Devoid of artificial pomp, and
devoid of affectation, and especially devoid of that most
subtile of all affectation, the affectation of simplicity,
they possessed a real simplicity, variety, and pertinency
which we have never seen equaled. They were simple,
for they expressed in direct and unambitious words the
natural mind of the speaker ; they were varied, for he
had no stereotyped phrases, and the persons most famil-
iar with his daily devotions remember not his ever twice
using the same form of exjDression ; they were pertinent,
suiting with happy and instantaneous yet dignified ap-
plicableness the peculiar exigencies of specific circum-
stances and characters. Persons of intellectual character
of other denominations, or of worldly views, have ex-
pressed their surprise and pleasure at the unstudied, ex-
tempore beauty of his occasional, instantaneous prayers.
Among the most hallowed recollections of our departed
friend are the soft and soothing tones of his voice, as
they melted along the current of fervid devotion with
which he loved, at the close of an evening social as-
semblage, to consecrate the hour of interview."

CHAPTER XII.

EUROPEAN TRAVEL.

In the year 1834 Dr. Fisk laid a severe strain
upon his physical strength by his unwearied labors
in that season of religious revival which has been
already described. Never after that did his gen-
eral health appear so good as it had usually been
up to that date. If he wrote in the latter part of
the day, after he had gone through the usual rou-
tine of labor, his handwriting was apt to be poor
and indistinct, so that he took up the habit of
writing as much as he could in the morning hours.
What veiled from many eyes the serious condition
of his health was the amount and variety of the
work he contrived to perform, and the sweet and
sunny disposition which was as fully manifest in
his worst seasons as in his most vigorous health.
Such unvaried cheerfulness and unabated hope-
fulness kept many of his friends from any keen
sense of his danger.

His best medical advisers, and especially his
most trusted adviser, Dr. Sewall, of Washington,
D. C, advised him to try the effect of a sea voyage
and the European tour. But Dr. Sewall urged
him to make evervthing else subservient to the

240 WILBUR FISK.

recovery of his health, and to take Mrs. Fisk with
him. Then large additions to the philosophical
and chemical apparatus would be requisite to put
Wesleyan University in the front rank of New
England colleges in its equipment for teaching nat-
ural soience. Books, also, were needed in various
departments, to give the students and instructors
the best facilities for doing good work.

Hence the Joint Board of Wesleyan University
authorized Dr. Fisk to visit Europe, to afford him
a long respite from care and duty, in order that he
might regain his usual health, and that he might
make purchases of books and apjiaratus while
abroad. Even before his departure he was taken
ill, and seemed far advanced in pulmonary disease.
But he rallied quickly from his worst symptoms,
and set about some of his most urgent business
while unable to be about the house more than a
part of the time.

By these means his departure was delayed until
September 8, 1835. Besides Mrs. Fisk he had as
a traveling companion Mr. Harvey B. Lane, after-
wards for more than twenty years a Professor of
Mathematics or Greek in Wesleyan University.
He was furnished with a good store of letters of
introduction to such persons as could be helpful to
him in his official business. He was requested by
various missionary societies to inspect and report
concerning the operations of missionary societies
in Europe. He was also invited to represent the
American Bible Society at certain meetings to be

EUROPEAN TRAVEL. 241

held while Dr. Fisk would be in Europe. The
General Conference of 1836 requested Dr. Fisk to
represent the Methodist Episcopal Church at the
ensuing meeting of the British Conference.

It would be a long and largely unprofitable task
to follow these travelers through their protracted
wanderings in Europe, for not only does Dr. Hol-
dich give a full account of them, but Dr. Fisk
himself published at the press of the Harpers a
volume of some 688 pages covering the whole
range of this journey. The volume evidently ap-
pealed to a wide circle of readers, since 12,700 was
paid over to Dr. Fisk as the author's honorarium.
Here this massive volume will be used simply to
cast light on the character of its author. A trav-
eler who records a long series of observations on
foreign countries is pretty sure to throw not a
little light on himself, whether he does upon the
countries visited or not.

We have already had occasion to criticise the
somewhat narrow and illiberal views taken by Dr.
Fisk, in his introductory address at Wesleyan Uni-
versity, of the relation of the fine arts to educa-
tion. This European journey corrected these ideas
with respect to music, architecture, and painting,
though the masterpieces of sculpture left him cold.
We have space only to insert his account of the
effect of Italian music upon his mind : —

242 WILBUR FISK.

" TENEBR^ AND MISERERE.

" On Wednesday, p. m., there was the finest music by
the pope's choir that I ever heard. The function is
called Tenebrce, or darkness, and seems to be designed
to commemorate the darkness and gloom of the church
at the hour of betrayal, or perhaps the scene in the
garden. The origin and design of this performance,
however, seem not to be fully settled by the Catholics
themselves, nor is it of any great consequence to deter-
mine it. It is enough for me that it was, on the whole,
one of the most interesting occasions I have enjoyed at
Rome. The pope attends in the Sistine Chapel, and
thither, of course, the multitude resorted ; but as there
was to be the same music at St. Peter's, we proposed
hearing it there, rather than endure the crowd at the
chapel. The exercise was long, and consisted, in the
fore part, of lessons sung and chanted from the Psalms,
the Lamentations, and from that part of the Epistle to
the Corinthians describing the institution of the sacra-
ment. The whole was interspersed with antiphonies,
and all performed with admirable skill. Indeed, it is
said that none but those trained in this school can per-
form this music. The French, when they were in
power here, carried this music to France ; but it availed
them not, for none of their performers could sing it.
But this choir perform it to universal admu'ation. The
great concentration of excellence, however, and of
course of interest, is in the closing piece, called the
Miserere, which is the 51st Psalm set to music by
Allegri. It has its name from the first word in the
Psalm, which commences in Latin, Miserere met, deus.
All who have read this Psalm have noticed what hum-

EUROPEAN TRAVEL. 243

ble confession, what deep contrition, run through the
whole of this beautiful composition. But what the
psalmist has expressed so inimitably in words, seems, if
possible, to be still more forcibly expressed in sounds ;
at least, putting the two together, they were overwhelm-
ing. Such wailing, such lamentation and woe, such
tender, melting, agonizing strains of penitential grief
and contrition ! They came over my soul like a dissolv-
ing charm, melting my heart, and opening the very
fountains of grief. Every emotion of my heart chimed
in with the sentiments and the music, and I felt myself
entirely carried away and transported by the inspira-
tions of the occasion. It is worthy of notice that there
were no females in the choir, and yet there were some
of the finest treble voices I ever heard. I have heard
before a counterfeit treble from a man, but it was not
natural ; here, however, it was the most perfect, and
the strains fell in, one after another, from the finest fal-
setto to the gravest bass, and all so skillfully arranged
and modified as to produce but one effect ; it was like
a multitude of old men and maidens, young men and
children, pouring forth their united, concordant strains
of chastened grief in all the bitterness and reverence of
supplication and adoring penitence.

" As usual, in all cases of Catholic worship, numerous
candles were burning, but they were extinguished one
after another, until only one was left, and that was par-
tially concealed behind the altar. Of the meaning of
this there is not an agreement : some say it is the grad-
ual extinction of the prophetic lights before the coming
of Christ ; others say it is designed to represent the
fact that, when Christ was apprehended, all his disci-
ples forsook him and fled. The concealing of the only

244 WILBUR FISK.

remaining light represents Christ in the tomb, whose
light was suspended but not extinguished."

How corrupt the papal church w^as, in the judg-
ment of Dr. Fisk, appears from a letter to Dr.
Bunting, of London, dated February 12, 1836 : —

" Next to the ' mystery of godliness,' the ' mystery
of iniquity ' is most marvelous ! Whence had Satan
such wisdom ? Whence had iniquity such venom ? How
is it possible that all the combined cunning and sin of
earth and hell could have succeeded, not merely in
measurably corrupting the gospel, but in filling the very
channels of salvation with the waters of death ? "

With this striking statement of the fallen con-
dition of the Roman Church, ever}i:hing w^hich
Dr. Fisk says about the religious condition of the
various Catholic countries visited by him coin-
cides. He saw nothing else to do but to j^lant
new churches, Methodist churches if possible, but
Protestant churches anyhow, and commit to them
the immense but disheartening mission of trans-
forming the unbelie^dng world and a corrupted
church. This is one of the points where Dr.
Fisk seems to have accepted without reserve the
opinions of the English and Protestant mission-
aries w^hom he met at various points in Europe.
As he understood neither French nor Italian, he
was not able, by hearing wdth his own ears nor by
reading with his own eyes, to learn what was actu-
ally going on in the society about him. Had he
been able to do this, he would, with his impartial

EUROPEAN TRAVEL, 245

habit of observation and judgment, have gathered
many signs which might justify the faith that the
Roman Catholic Church is possibly nowhere so
utterly corrupt and fallen away from God as to
make her incapable of revival and renovation.
For the Catholic Church in France was already
far advanced on that movement of quickening
through which she has had so great and honorable
a share in what Guizot, in his " Meditations on the
Actual State of Christendom," describes as " The
Awakening of Christianity in France in the Nine-
teenth Century." Here Guizot is able to speak
with a fullness of detail, and with the authority of
an eye-witness of, and personal participant in, this
great awakening. Had Dr. Fisk been fully cog-
nizant of the condition of Catholic France in his
day, not only would his sojourn in France have
been much more cheerful and healthful than it
was, but he might have seen, in the revived Chris-
tianity of Catholic France, good reasons for the
hope that the revival would spread until many an-
other nation of the Catholic world w^ould yet come
under the quickening breath of spiritual transfor-
mation, and so the hope arise that all Christen-
dom should yet be brought back to newness of
life. Here and there in Dr. Fisk's " Travels "
come misleading passages hke this : —

" And here it may be remarked that the fasts and
penances of the papists are admirably contrived for
sensual enjoyment. No man who wished to enjoy the
most sensual gratification possible in this life would, if

246 WILBUR FISK.

he adapted the end to the means, pamper the senses to
the full continually. He would have his changes and re-
straints at intervals, by which he would court the ap-
petite, and keep alive and invigorate his desire and zest
for pleasure. It is thus artfully that Romanism has min-
gled her cup, and meted out her indulgences and pro-
hibitions ; and when to this are joined her ecclesiastical
pageantry and splendid ritual, a system of religion is
formed the best possible to gratify the pleasure-seeking
man of the world. In short, Romanism is practically
— I will not say a religion merely, but emphatically —
the rehgion of the natural heart."

It is such passages as these that mar our pleas-
ure in reading Dr. Fisk's " Travels." It is true
that, with his ignorance of the Italian and French
languages, he was of necessity left to draw his in-
formation from English missionaries and other
English-speaking persons whom he encountered in
Europe. Nor was this a venial error merely, but
one of great practical importance to himself and
the world ; since all the advice he gave to the va-
rious missionary and other societies which he rep-
resented was vitiated throughout by this error of
vision. He did it ignorantly, but the very enor-
mity of such conclusions should have warned him of
his danger. At that day. Dr. Fisk represented the
educated mind of the Methodist Episcoj)al Church
in a greater degree than any one man has done
since, and the very highest function of education
should be to broaden the intellectual sympathies of
a man. Of course Dr. Fisk had been too busy to

EUROPEAN TRAVEL. 247

learn modern languages and literatures, so that he
lies under no blame on that score ; but since he
knew the traditional narrowness of some of those
whose counsel was to g-uide him so absolutely, it
would have been well, when the policy of great
Christian societies was to be shaped, to have spo-
ken with more modesty, and with a clearer per-
ception of the doubtful elements in his knowledge.
The policy of some of the societies he advised has
never wholly escaped from these narrow views for
which Dr. Fisk was partly responsible.

Of Dr. Fisk's appearance before the British
Conference, as delegate of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church, Dr. Holdich says : —

"On the 19th of July, 1836, Dr. Fisk left London,
with IMi's. Fisk, for Birmingham, the seat of the con-
ference. During this journey, a disagreeable incident
convinced him that his sojourn in England was destined
to be disturbed by unkind offices growing out of a mis-
apprehension of his views on the slavery question. A
stranger informed him, while on the road, of a public
meeting held the night before in Birmingham, at which
it was announced to the audience that ' a Methodist
bishop was expected at Birmingham in a few days, as
a delegate to the Wesleyan Conference ; that he was
sent by a pro-slavery party in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and was himself an advocate of slavery ; and as
the informant understood it, and as one of the journals
afterward reported, it was also added that this bishop
was a slave-holder. The name of the gentleman was
called for by some in the assembly, that he might be
known and ti'eated accordingly when he should arrive.'

248 WILBUR FISK.

* Bishop Fisk ! ' was the reply. The stranger also ' inti-
mated that it would be very unpleasant, if not unsafe,
for the American bishop to show himself in Birming-
ham, as he would meet with rough treatment.' Dr. Fisk
remarked that he ' did not claim to be a bishop (be-
ing only bishop-elect, and unordained) ; yet as he was
the delegate from the Methodist Episcopal Church to the
Wesleyan Conference about to be held at Birmingham,
he supposed he must be the person alluded to ; that he
should not take any pains to hide himself from the good
people of Birmingham, and, therefore they should have
full opportunity of doing all their pleasure in the
case.' . . .

" But all this was by no means so trying to his feelings
as a memorial sent by some members of some American
conferences to the British Conference on this painful
subject. It was signed by eighty-five names. This doc-
ument, though, as is claimed by the signers, it was not
so intended, was yet precisely adapted to create a preju-
dice against Dr. Fisk, and prevent his cordial reception
by his brethren and the British public. He felt this
the more keenly because many of the signers were those
with whom he had long been on the most intimate terms,
and some of whom he had laid under particular obliga-
tions. Perhaps, in the whole course of his life, nothing
ever affected him so painfully as this transaction. Yet,
while under the lash of lacerated feeling, his prayer was,

* Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'

" But, whatever influence this document may have
had with individuals, the conference was too high-minded
and honorable a body to listen to or entertain it ; they
decided that it would be improper for them officially to
receive communications from single conferences or por-

EUROPEAN TRAVEL. 249

tions of conferences while in regular correspondence
with the whole body. The document, therefore, was not
allowed to be read. Tliis decision was made spontane-
.ously, when Dr. Fisk was absent, to whom afterward
the paper was handed by the ])resident.

" A touching proof of Christian virtue follows. On
the day of this painful transaction, the family whose
hospitality Dr. and Mrs. Fisk enjoyed had invited com-
pany to dinner. Dr. Bunting was among the guests.
With his usual cheerfulness and self-command. Dr. Fisk
appeared in the drawing-room and at the table. Dr.
Bunting mentioned the offensive document, and ex-
pressed his disapprobation of the measure. ' Dr. Fisk,'
says Mrs. Fisk, ' with his peculiar sweetness replied :
' I know those brethren, doctor. They are good men.
They have doubtless meant well, though their zeal for
the slave seems, with them, to be the sundering of all
other ties, and the all-absorbing principle of goodness.'
To the same purport was his communication concerning
it in the ' Christian Advocate ; ' but that was for the
public eye, and this in pivate intercourse, while the
wound in his feelings was just inflicted.

" Notwithstanding these efforts, Dr. Fisk was re-
ceived with very gratifying cordiality and respect. For
this he was no doubt, in part at least, indebted to the
characteristic magnanimity of their president. On his
introduction to the body in his official character, wliich
had taken place before the arrival of the aforesaid me-
morial, in the course of his remarks he explained the
attitude of the American church with reference to slav-
ery, and explained its administration of discipline on
this subject. On his conclusion, the conference expressed
themselves satisfied, admitting that, so far as ecclesias-

250 WILBUR FISK.

tical action was concerned, the Methodist Church in
America had done more than the Wesleyans in Eng-
land, since the instructions given to their missionaries in
the West Indies were to preach the gospel to all, and not*
intermeddle with their civil relations. To these views
Dr. Bunting assented ; adding, however, a wish that the
General Conference of 1836 had reiterated its disappro-
bation of the system of slavery, but admitted neverthe-
less that it did not become the British ' to interfere and
dictate in this matter, and especially to send agents to
the United States to agitate the public mind.' "

As a preacher Dr. Fisk met with an appreciative
hearing whenever he was himself, and he was fully
himself whenever the ventilation of the buildings in
which he sf)oke was such as to give him that fresh
air which his delicate lungs demanded in order to
enable him to speak with any effectiveness. There
were one or two occasions when it was all he could
do, with extreme exertion, to get through the ser-
mon. But so impressive was he in his happier
efforts that he preached twenty-eight sermons dur-
ing his stay in England, besides giving several
other public addresses. Among these was a charge
delivered on the ordination of certain young mis-
sionaries for the foreign service. The " London
Watchman " published this in full, saying : " Both
from its intrinsic excellence, and the most imjDres-
sive manner in which it was delivered, it is likely
long to live in the remembrance of those who had
the pleasure of hearing it."

By this time Dr. Fisk had completely accom-

EUROPEAN TRAVEL. 251

plished the official purposes of his European tour.
The English part of his journey, while much the
pleasantest for him and the occasion of his form-
ing friendships of the tenderest nature, was unfa-
vorable to his health. The humidity of the cli-
mate, the exertion of so much public speaking, and
the demands of social life, wearied him so much
that he gladly embarked at Liverpool on the ship
Roscoe, late in October, for New York and home.

CHAPTER XIIL

THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR.

Dr. Fisk arrived in New York November 23,
1836. The next Sunday lie preached to a large
and delighted congregation on the felicitous text,
" Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of
my pilgrimage " (Ps. cxix. 54). On the invita-
tion of the Board of Managers of the Young
Men's Missionary Society, he gave an account of
his tour of observation and study in Europe.
The delighted audience requested him to publish
a volume of travels.

On returning to Middletown, Dr. Fisk found a
hearty and universal welcome. Despite his ab-
sence, Wesleyan University had gone on prosper-
ing. The fact that he was absent to add, by the
expenditure of 17,000, to the philosophical, physi-
cal, and astronomical apparatus, and to the library,
made his absence less felt than it would othermse
have been. Professor A. W. Smith had shown
himself a skillful and prudent administrator of the
internal affairs of the University during the inter-
regnum : but it was due only to the tact and firm-
ness of President Fisk that this skillful and tactful
navigator was at the helm. A proposal had been

THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 253

made to invite the Rev. Nathan Bangs, D. D., to
a professorship in Wesleyan University. Some-
how Dr. Bangs got the notion that he was to be
acting president whenever Dr. Fisk was absent
from college, an offer which Dr. Fisk had been
extremely careful not to make. Had Dr. Bangs
been presiding officer during this period, he would
doubtless have shown the same inefficiency he did
show when elected president a few years later.
When Dr. Fisk was dying, somebody asked him
who would be the best man to succeed him. He
responded, " Dr. Olin," thus repeating his earlier
verdict on Dr. Bangs.

Yet this very success of the youthfid college
made the erection of new buildings for their ac-
commodation a necessity. But under the terrible
financial depression of those days, there was only
one way open for obtaining the money needed for
these enlargements, — an appeal to the Connecticut
legislature. In the fall of 1838, Dr. Fisk printed
an appeal for circulation amongst the members of
the legislature, setting forth the needs of Wesleyan
University, and the strict justice and propriety of
state aid. This appeal is a masterly paper, setting
forth every argument that could be urged with
propriety, anticipating and skillfully exploding
every objection that could be raised. It had the
rare merit in such papers of not setting up any
excessive or unreal claim, but keeping to reasons
which appealed to every man's sense of justice.
This appeal was so impressive that a grant of

254 WILBUR FISK.

$10,000 was made by the legislature. Dr. Charles
Woodward, then a representative of Middletown
in the Assembly, a devoted friend of Dr. Fisk, was
very useful in helping this bill through the legis-
lature. Dr. Fisk also wrote private and public let-
ters not a few, respecting the general interests of
education or the special needs of Wesleyan Uni-
versity, though none of them of such importance
as to need further remark here. Busy as he was
in all these various ways, he set about the work of
preparing his " Travels " for the press. One mo-
tive for doing this was the fact that, although
President Fisk offered to bear the whole expense
of his journey to Europe, the trustees generously
and wisely refused his offer. He then offered, if
they would build a house for the president, to turn
over the proceeds of the sales of his " Travels "
towards the house, to remain without interest so
long as he occupied the house, but to pay six per
cent, interest in any other case. In 1838 the
" Travels " went forth to encounter the usual
fortunes of such publications. It speedily ran
through seven editions, and eight thousand copies
were sold. Thus Dr. Fisk had the satisfaction of
turning over #2,700 towards the erection of the
president's house on the conditions named.

In 1838, Dr. Fisk attended the New England
Conference for the last time. It was on many
accounts a painful and sad occasion for him ; for
he was to be brought to trial before that body on
charges of slandering the fair name and defaming

THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 255

the honorable reputation of La Roy Sunderland.
The correspondence between Sunderland and Fisk
on this painful subject exists in their own hand-
wi'iting. Also, the defense of Dr. Fisk against
these charges, in his own well-known hand, exhibits
the skill of a legal expert, the nobleness of a great
character, and the humility of a saint. There
was only one point where any doubt could arise, —
a private conversation between Fisk and Sunder-
land was reported one way by Fisk, and a very
different way by Sunderland. If the conference
believed Sunderland, they would condemn Fisk;
if they believed Fisk, they must condemn Sunder-
land. Under ordinary circumstances a conference
would have no trouble in deciding between a Sun-
derland and a Fisk. But the circumstances were
not ordinary. Sunderland was an ardent anti-
slavery man, — one of the sort who had denounced
Fisk as pro-slavery, an advocate of slavery because
of his colonization principles. Fisk knew that
the conference favored Sunderland's views rather
than his own, and that not a few of the men whose
votes were to decide the issue had signed the
memorial addressed to the British conference
which had so embarrassed him at Birmingham.
Rev. Dr. Luckey, then editor of the " Christian
Advocate" at New York, and another equally
reliable witness, made deposition that La Roy
Sunderland had willfully and repeatedly lied about
the action of the New England Conference respect-
ing Sunderland's case. These witnesses threw Sun-

256 WILBUR FISK.

derland's case so completely out of court that noth-
ing was left for him to do but voluntarily and
unqualifiedly to withdraw his charge. It was char-
acteristic of Fisk's magnanimity that, though Sun-
derland had charged him with having left his char-
acter to suffer under defamation and slander while
he was taking his ease and pleasure abroad, Dr.
Fisk did not wish extreme measures taken against
his disarmed antagonist.

On the first of August, 1838, Wilbur Fisk pre-
sided for the last time at the Commencement of
Wesleyan University. There was some apprehen-
sion on the part of many personal friends of Presi-
dent Fisk that this might prove his last appearance
on such ceremonial occasions, but this fear was
apparently not shared by the president's immediate
family. Hence nothing presaging such a change
appeared in his remarks on that day, nor in any
of the addresses spoken on the commencement
stage by the youthful orators or essayists. Yet he
was so feeble that many doubted his ability to
endure the fatig-ues of the occasion. He was so
anxious to participate in those pleasant scenes,
that he laid down on his bed until the moment
came for joining the procession. He bore the exer-
tion better than he had expected to. That evening
he held his commencement reception, and received
the guests in his usual cordial and affectionate
way. As sixty candidates for admission were ex-
amined, the whole aspect of college affairs was
bright and encouraging.

THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 257

The first token that Dr. Fisk was overdoing
came to him in ascending the famous leaning tower
at Pisa. His companions carried him down in
part. " But possibly it was owing in part to this
that my legs were for months afterwards subject
to a peculiar numbness and dull sensation of in-
ternal pain, which complaint was not a little em-
barrassing in my subsequent sight-seeing." This
trouble recurred in 1838, attended with swelling
and stiffness of the knee. Yet he went on with
almost all his engagements. He had now come to
such facility in the use of his pen that he planned
three new books, — one on Mental Philosophy, one
on Moral Philosophy, and one on the Philosophy
of Theology. Meanwhile his correspondence grew
every year wider and wider. He never lost an old
correspondent. He readily took up new ones, and
even the humblest, who could not spell even, much
less tell coherently what they wished, were sure of
a careful and detailed answer from him. After his
death seven hundred and twenty-five letters were
found filed away, all received and answered after
his return from Europe. Yet was there no com-
plete file kept.

The approach of winter renewed and intensified
the pains in his limbs, so that he consulted a doctor
and used some local applications. The old longing
for preaching took fresh hold of him, and he gave
two or three movino^ sermons from his chair. He
visited New York in the interest of his dear Ore-
gon Mission. He also attended the farewell ser-

258 WILBUR FISK.

vices for several missionaries to Liberia. He was
not to speak, but being asked to do so, Dr. Fisk
arose, and delivered one of his most splendid and
stirring appeals. " For vivacity and power it
equaled, if it did not exceed, any former effort.
It completely thrilled his audience, and ' drew tears
from eyes unused to weep.' He was then so feeble
that he had to sustain himseK on his cane, to which
he affectingly alluded in his remarks." He made
appeals to the Methodist Episcopal Church for a
celebration of the Centennial of Universal Method-
ism, and gave needed counsels for doing it in the
wisest manner.

At a watch-night service, the last night of the
year, Dr. Fisk preached the first sermon, on the
text, " Few and evil have the days of the years of
my life been, and have not attained unto the days
of the years of my fathers " (Gen. xlvii. 9). Una-
ble to stand, he spoke from a raised seat. Thus he
discoursed of life, death, and immortality. "As
he compared man, in the current of life, to a vessel
in a whirlpool, borne round and round by the mad
current, offering feeble resistance, until it reached
the vortex and disappeared,'* the thought startled
many that he was thus describing his own peculiar
situation. The next day being New Year's Day,
he devoted the whole of it to making calls on
friends whom his duties had compelled him to
neglect through the year, sapng : " I must exert
myself to meet the calls of friendship, or I never
shall have time to meet them. My duties only
seem to increase with my years.'*

THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 259

The last time Wilbur Fisk visited an earthly
sanctuary it was in the company of the Rev. Jason
Lee, of the Oregon Mission, with three little
native boys to be educated at the East in the
Christian religion. Dr. Fisk was greatly pleased
to see them, and they to see the " Father of the
Mission." These noble men conversed on this
work as only two such men can. There and then
Dr. Fisk drew a plan for the employment and
location of about thirty additional laborers. The
next September they sailed for Oregon. Then
he took part in a service at the church held in
behalf of this work.

Notmthstanding the swelling of his feet, Dr.
Fisk went on with his work. He preached his
last sermon the 13th of January, 1839. The next
day he spent in sketching plans for a new boarding
hall. On pleasant days he took walks or drives
in the open air. His last excursion of this sort
was to visit a graduate of the University who was
seriously ill a couple of miles away. On the 31st
of January he for the first time kept his room, yet
lie kept the business of the college in his feeble
hands until a fortnight before his death. As late
as February 5th, he sent off thirty letters written
in the interest of the college.

As all his bad symptoms had grown steadily
worse, — constant pain in the limbs, the unabating
swelling of his feet, his expectoration less, but his
breathing gro^\dng steadily more obstructed and
difficult, — a council of physicians was called to

260 WILBUR FISK.

examine liis condition. Tlieir report was tliat no
improvement could occur, and tliat tlie end was
not far off. This rej)ort was a great surprise to
him. His physical condition during the last fort-
night was like this : —

" A constant struggle for breath, almost to suffoca-
tion, and a most excruciating pain in his chest and
bowels. Though it was cold, he could bear but little
fire, — at times none at all. The doors were kept open
all the time, and sometimes the windows ; and yet he
required some one to fan him almost constantly, to
increase the circulation of air around him to assist his
respiration. Those around him had to wear cloaks and
shawls."

Lying down usually had the effect of greatly in-
creasing the difficulty of his breathing, so that he
commonly spent twenty-three hours of each day in
his chair, and only one on his bed.

As to his spiritual condition he answered all in-
quirers substantially as follows : " Death has no
terrors ; but I have not that open vision of heaven
I could desire. Pray for me, that the prospect
may brighten. I have a fixed peace." Yet this
settled peace was once for a brief time disturbed.
To the Rev. Horace Bartlett he said : " The enemy
is thrusting at me sore. If you have any faith,
pray." The prayer of faith broke and terminated
the evil spells of unbelief.

As to the ground of his confidence, it was the
sacrifice and intercession of the Saviour. He would
not tolerate any reference to his Christian useful-

THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 261

ness in the church and world, as a ground of spe-
cial gladness or hope in his dying hours : —

'' Oh how httle have I done ! Oh the many defi-
ciencies ! I feel constrained to ask forgiveness of the
church and the world. I shall be a star of small mag-
nitude, but it is a wonder that I shall get to heaven at
all. It is because love works miracles that such a sin-
ful, feeble worm may be saved by grace. Oh the mercy
of God, to put such comehness on such a worm as I !
I am an unprofitable servant. How little have I done
of what I might have done ! . . .

'^I have thrown myself on the mercy of God in
Christ Jesus."

As to the great Christian doctrines he said,
"They are the truth of God, and will bear the
light of eternity."

Many things contributed to render his parting
with his family a painful and anxious one. The
advanced age of his mother-in-law, the youth of
their adopted daughter, and the peculiar unfitness
of Mrs. Fisk to encounter the trials of wddowhood,
must have made his thoughts about them gloomy
and comfortless as he looked to their situation on
its eartlily and human side. As he had always
expected to outlive his wife and her mother, he
had not been careful to provide means for their
support after his departure. He knew that all
they had, supplemented by the aid which would
be rendered his widow from the funds of the New
England Conference, would be but a meagre sus-
tenance. Not six months earlier, after the session
of the New England Conference, says Mrs. Fisk: —

262 WILBUR FISK.

"' I felt alarmed for his weakness, and expressed my
fears that his exertions at conference would lay the
foundation of a disease which would prove fatal. He
replied : ' I hope not. After I have rested, I shall be
better. I have been called to make great exertions, in
behalf of the church, against a spirit which I cannot
think is the spirit of the gospel. I have done it consci-
entiously, and from a sense of duty.' And, raising his
eyes full upon my face, with an expression I had never
seen on his face before, he added : ' Dear wife, if my
exertions could only be the means of uniting the church,
I am willing my life should be the sacrifice. And is it
asking too much of you ? ' I burst into tears, saying,
* I cannot feel as you do.' "

This touching scene must serve as a background
and relief to the leave-taking from his family.
Witnessing the intensity of Mrs. Fisk's sorrow on
hearing the adverse result of the physicians' coun-
cil, he said ; —

" My dear wife, I have always loved you ; I have
loved to love you ; and you were never dearer to me
than at this moment. But do not distress my dying
moments with your grief. This ought not so to be. I
have a great work to do : you must help me by your
prayers. I have always thought I should outlive you,
and have always prayed that this lot miglit never be
yours ; that it might be reserved for me, for I know
how unable you are to bear it. But God seems to be
determining otherwise. Bear it ? You cannot bear it !
But God will help you ; for he has promised to be the
widow's God and husband, and he will not fail."

Mrs. Fisk dropped on her knees before him (he

TEE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 263

was in his chair), when her husband laid his hands
upon her head, and poured out his soul to God
for her in prayer. Then, beckoning Mrs. Fisk's
mother, and the daughter, Martha, to him, he gave
the whole family, as they knelt around him, his
dying blessing, concluding with the words : '' I
leave you in the hands of a good God. He will
take care of you." From that hour God strength-
ened the heart of the chief mourner for the duties
and trials which lay before her.

At another time the sick man comforted his wife
in these terms : —

" Your husband cannot be buried I he will be in
heaven. His body may be ; and let it go, and mingle
with its mother earth : why should you lament ? And
yet I love this body, notwithstanding it has so often
been a hindrance to the aspirations of my mind ; for it
has been an old companion of mine. It has cost me
much care and pain, its tendency being continually to
decay ; and though it may lie long in the grave, it shall
be raised, and I shall see it again ; for I. hope to be
united with it, but with none of its infirmities, with none
of its moral deformities. Yes, every particle of this
dust shall be raised and changed, in the twinkling of an
eye, on the morning of the resurrection. Then it will
be freed from all its infirmities. It will have no lame
limbs, no weak lungs. It will be refined from all its
gross particles. It will be buoyant and ethereal, glo-
rious and immortal ! It will be perfect, for it will be
fashioned like unto Christ's most glorious body, and
united with the soul forever."

264 WILBUR FISK.

Referring to his fond parents, Dr. Fisk said : —

" My dear, aged parents, how will they bear the stroke !
God will strengthen them for all his will. Write to
them, as soon as you can, all the particulars of my sick-
ness. Give them my best love. Wherein I have failed
in duty, I believe they will put it down to poor human
nature. Give my best love to all of them. Tell them
I believe I shall meet them all in heaven."

Hearing Mrs. Fisk say that his life had been
sacrificed through his excesses in labor, Dr. Fisk
said : "Sacrifice — sacrifice — what did you say?"
Being reminded that this was the opinion of the
physicians, he proceeded : —

" Yes ; they say my nervous system is prostrated, and
that, to be sure, looks like sacrifice. But it is too late
now. ... I do not know but my friends will think I
have done wrong in exerting myself so much, and I do
not know but I have ; but I have not intended it. It is
much more pleasant for me now to look back and feel
that I have exerted myself to the utmost degree of
my strength — for you know I could do but little at
best — than it would be to look back on a life of idle-
ness. We were not placed here to be idle ; nor shall we
be idle in heaven. I feel, indeed, as if I should hardly
want to go there if I thought I should be idle. If the
Lord take me away, he has something for me to do ; for
he never gave me such energy of soul as I have, with-
out designing to employ it."

There were two things which he now arranged
for the benefit of his family. Being told that
the church and world would expect to see a biog-

THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 265

raphy, he reluctantly consented to the suggestion,
so far as to name Professor Holdich as his choice
for that work.

At a later day he said to Mrs. Fisk : —
" AVrite to Dr. Bangs, and say that it is my request
that my writings which have been published may be
collected into one form, and published for your benefit.
Tell Dr. Bangs to say to the brethren I believe they
would wish to see you provided for, and if there should
be more than you need, let it go to the University : I
think it will do more good to the church generally. If
I had thousands to leave, I should think I was benefit-
ing the general church most by leaving it to the Univer-
sity ; for, I trust, streams will issue thence which will
greatly assist in fertilizing our whole moral vineyard.
Education must go hand in hand with religion, or the
world will never be converted without a direct miracle
from God. Our people will take care of our other in-
stitutions, but I fear they are not sufficiently awake to
the subject of education. Oh, if I could only feel that
our people — our brethren in the ministry — were alive
to the interests of the University, how it would cheer
my departure ! But I leave it in the hands of a good
God, who has blessed it beyond our most sanguine ex-
pectations, and I trust will continue to bless it for the
good of the church and for his own glory."

This message shows that the University had the
next position to his ov/n family in the affections of
Wilbur Fisk; hence we may as well complete here
what he had to say on that point. It is noticeable
that he sent no message to the New England Con-
ference on the kindred subjects of education and

266 WILBUR FISK.

the University, probably for the reason that he
had already so trained that conference to liberal
ideas and action on that matter, that it was already
leading the church. But when he last saw Dr.
Bangs he intrusted him with a message to tell the
New York Conference : " That I give it as my
dying request that they nurse Wesleyan Univer-
sity, — that they must exert themselves to sustain
it and carry it forward." The selection of Dr.
Bangs as bearer of this solemn message shows the
usual sagacity of President Fisk, since Dr. Bangs
could induce that conference to heed this dying
request, if anybody could.

When peo23le spoke to Dr. Fisk about the loss
the college woidd sustain by his death, he replied :
" I think it is of God, and if so, he will no doubt
take care of it. If it is not, certainly I have been
connected with it long enough. It has always
been my aim, and, so far as I know the feelings of
the faculty, it has been the aim of us all, to send
forth young men into the world to make it better."
Again : "It will be easy to find another president,
but not so easy to find another father."

Of the facidty circle he once said : " We all
loved each other, and lived together in such har-
mony." Mrs. Holdich responded: "Yes, doctor,
but you were the magnet that drew us all to-
gether. We all loved you." " Yes, but not be-
cause I was worthy," was the modest reply.

As his illness was during the long vacation, not
aU the members of the faculty were accessible.

THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 267

But to those who were in town the invitation went
to come together to the sick-room of their friend
and president. To them he expressed his fears
that the church in general was not keenly enough
alive to the cause of Christian education, and went
on: "On you, therefore, will devolve a double
duty. Oh, be faithful ! Hitherto you have been
faitliful." Then to Professor Smith, who had al-
ways been acting-president during his various ab-
sences from the college, he said : " I thank you
for the interest you have manifested in reheving
my burden. You and Professor Huber have been
associated with me the longest; you have, there-
fore, shared with me the deepest in the cares, the
interest, and the poverty of the University. But
you will not lose your reward. I would express
my love and gratitude to you all for your kindness
to me. It gives me great pleasure to recollect
how pleasantly we have lived together, not only in
college, but in our little family circle. We have
shared each other's joys and sorrows." Then for
the beloved wife so soon to become a desolate
widow he asked, with incomparable grace, a tender
place in their homes and hearts, saying: "I be-
lieve she has added years to my life by her con-
stant care and nursing. You will love her for my
sake." Mrs. Professor Smith answered for all
that so it always had been, and so it always should
be; a vow which was sacredly redeemed. With
his habitual courtesy the dying man said, that
what he had said of the professors applied to those
absent as well as to those present.

268 WILBUR FISK.

The students who were in town, to the number
of about a hundred, wished to bid their honored
president and faithful friend good-by. At his de-
sire, they came to his house in a body. As soon as
he caught sight of them he beckoned to them to
come in. To each he gave his wan and wasted
hand, and whispered a few parting words. It was
remarked by all present that his counsels varied in
accordance with his knowledge of their character
and wants. The impression upon their minds was
ineffaceable.

Mrs, Fisk asked him if he had any message for
the New England Conference ? His answer was :
" I have not strength to frame one. Yet you may
say to them, ' Oh, be faithfid I And, though we
have had some differences of opinion, I die at
peace with them, and with all mankind; and I
hope they will meet me in heaven, where we shall
see eye to eye.'" It was possibly in connection
with this that somebody asked his present views
of the Colonization Society. He replied : " I advo-
cated that cause from principle. It was not blind
impulse or passion, though I may sometimes have
erred in spirit. But they have been nnhrotherhj
in imputing to me motives that were never in my
heart."

The Board of Managers of the Methodist Mis-
sionary Society in New York called a special
meeting to send a committee of nine members,
" to repair forthwith to Middletown, in token of
the interest felt in the present season of alarm on

THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 269

account of our esteemed brother, and that they be
authorized, in the event of his death, to prepare and
adopt, on behalf of this Board, such resolutions of
condolence as the melancholy occasion may require,
and take such other measures as circumstances may
call for."

Three of the committee — the Rev. Dr. Bangs,
the Rev. John Lindsey, and G. P. Disosway, Esq.
— visited Dr. Fisk on this mournful errand.
When they told him why they had come, he said :
" I feel very grateful, though unworthy of such
attention. It is, however, only an additional evi-
dence of the Christian sympathy and brotherly
affection I have so long beheld among my breth-
ren."

A letter reached him from some of the saintly
members of the British Conference. When it had
been read to him he said : " Dear, dear brethren !
it is so like them ! I shall meet them in heaven."

With his keen delight in music, it was a sweet
pleasure to have some of the songs of Zion sung
by some of his visitors. One of his favorite hymns
is number 822 of the revised Methodist hymn-
book. This was often sung in his room during
his illness, and his face glowed with holy joy as
he whispered the words : —

" Happy if with my latest breath
I may but gasp his name,
Preach him. to all, and cry in death,
Behold, behold the Lamb! "

Watts's hymn, another favorite, was sung at his
desire : —

270 WILBUR FISK.

*' Lord, in tliy temple we appear."

He whispered out, slow and distinct, the last two
stanzas : —

' ' Jesus, the vision of thy face
Hath overpowering- charms ;
Scarce shall I feel Death's cold embrace
If I be in thy arms.

" And while you hear my heartstrings break,
How sweet the moments roll !
A mortal paleness on my cheek,
But glory in my soul."

His catholicity of temper was very naturally
called out when clergymen not belonging to the
Methodist Episcopal Church called on Dr. Fisk.
Thus, when the Rev. Messrs. Granger and Tyler,
pastors of the Middletown Congregational churches,
visited him, " he immediately began to converse
about the solemn responsibilities of the ministry,
and said, ' I hope you will give the trumpet a
more certain sound than I have ever done.' " Af-
terwards he spoke of the happiness of the union
of all real Christians, of whatever name, remark-
ing, " Oh, the near prospect of heaven seems to
swallow up all those little distinctions whicb sep-
arate evangelical Christians." To the pastor of
the Baptist Church, the Rev. Mr. Cookson, he
said : " I am leaving the walls, but I leave you on
them. God bless you and make you more faithful
in sounding the gospel trumpet than I have been.
Oh the responsibilities of a minister I May not
the blood of souls be found on our skirts ! "

THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 271

In one of his awful paroxysms of distress, when
all present thought the breath had left the body
forever, the Rev. Dr. Jarvis, of the Episcopal
Church, chanced to be present, and pronounced
over the departing saint these words : —

" Unto God's gracious mercy and protection we com-
mit thee. The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The
Lord make his face to shine upon, and be gracious unto
thee. The Lord Hft up his countenance upon thee, and
give thee peace both now and evermore."

On re\4ving, the weary man said, " I thought I
should never breathe again."

To the various visitors whom he received in his
sick-room, whether they came merely to show their
respect or on errands of mercy, he always had
just the right thing to say, so that these words
were long treasured up with gratitude. One of
his visitors managed to say to him what all felt.
To Judge Hubbard, whom he had known in busi-
ness relations, he said, "You find me hovering
between two worlds." " And fit for either," was
the felicitous response.

He could not bear to think of the trouble and
distress of his family during his long illness. His
wife says : —

'' He became somewhat easier, and occasionally had
brief naps. Such had been his distress that I had passed
several days and nights without sleep. He had repeat-
edly urged me to lie down until I said to him, ' My dear,
don't make the request. Let me be with you while I
can. Every moment, every word, is precious.' Then

272 WILBUR FISK.

he ceased ; yet every look told his anxious feelings.
Mrs. Waring came to watch that evening. Seeing his
anxiety, she urged me to lie down, saying, ' It will do
your husband good to see you resting, and he continues
easier.' My dear husband looked up ; he spoke not,
but his eyes pleaded her petition. I placed myself on a
bed near him, so that I could see him. He remained
easier, and sleej) soon overtook me. As soon as I woke
I went to him and he said, ' Why did you not sleep
longer ? ' When the lady went, he asked her to ' come
again, you relieve Mrs. Fisk so much.' "

He expressed his gratitude to all who had any
care of him in terms which showed how deeply he
felt their sympathy and love. When all efforts
on one occasion did not give him the ease he
hoped for, he said, as if apologizing for a personal
fault : —

" We will try and make it do. I hope you will not
think me impatient because I want moving so often.
... I hope I am not impatient : I groan and sigh a
great deal, and I have, perhaps, been in the habit of it
all my life ; but I hope it is not impatience, and I think
it is not. It is only one of Nature's methods of express-
ing her agony, and I do not know but she finds relief
that way."

Again, after intense pain : —

" All this and not death ! I thought I was almost
home ; but if the Lord bid me suffer, I would say,
'Thy will be done.' It is sweet to sink into the will of
God, and feel that all is well."

When one tried to ease him by holding him in
an easier posture, he said : —

THE RENEWAL AND TEE END OF LABOR. 273

'" It will not afford relief enough to compensate you
for your fatigue. I am sure I do not know what I am
spared for, unless to furnish an opportunity of showing
the patience of my friends. Sure never man had such
friends ! "

His sujffei'ings had now become so intense that
it took four persons to attend to his wants. He
could find no relief from his complaint except by
lying down, and then for no more than an hour at
a time, when he would begin to strangle. He
was seated the rest of the day in his chair. One
was incessantly busy fanning him; another gave
him his food and medicines ; and two were busy
shifting him to positions which might promise
momentary relief, or changing this pillow or that
blanket in the vain hope that the sufferer would
find things a little less unendurable. His very
flesh seemed all alive with anguish, and his weari-
ness became intolerable, unutterable. After vainly
trying to keep his bed a few moments, he said :
" I can find no rest, — tried the bed, but my body
is sore all over. I cannot lie down. What must
a man do when he can neither lie nor sit? O
weary, weary me ! When shall I find rest, — rest
in the grave ? " After another bootless quest for
an easier position on his couch for a body which
ached in every muscle, quivered in every nerve,
and was tired in every fibre, he said : " I have
always thought I should have a lingering illness,
but an easy death. I would like to have my bed
my dpng pillow ; but my Saviour died on the
cross.''

274 WILBUR FISK.

Yet even in such distress lie was as unselfish as
ever. After one of his terrible spasms of distress,
when he knew from his symptoms that another
was not far off, as he noticed one of the attendant
physicians, 'Dr. Woodward, leaving the room, he
exclaimed, " The doctor will not leave me now. I
feel that the paroxysm will be very severe." But
when told that he had been sent for by another
patient, a lady who was very sick, he said, '' Oh,
then, let him go." Then he asked Mrs. Fisk to
pray with him for her relief, and closed his eyes
for a time in silent prayer. Anything finer than
this I know not where to find in history, though
something of the same nature I do observe in
the famous act of Sir Philip Sidney at Zutphen,
where he received a wound in his left leg. . . .
" Being thirsty with excess of bleeding, he called
for drinli, which was presently brought him ; but
as he was putting the bottle to his mouth, he saw
a poor soldier carried along, who had eaten his
last at the same feast, ghastly casting his eyes at
the bottle, which Sir Philip perceiving took it
from his head before he drank, and dehvered to
the poor man with the words, ' Thy necessity is yet
greater than mine.'' " Assuredly Wilbur Fisk was
a true kinsman to the noblest of English heroes
and noblemen.

The last few days were less distressing, because
he had fallen into a lethargic torpor, from which
it was not easy to arouse him, but when aroused
he was rational and intelligent. His last words

THE RENEWAL AND THE END OF LABOR. 275

were spoken when Mrs. Fisk aroused him by
pressing- his hand, and asking him if he knew her.
He returned the pressure, saying, "Yes, love, yes."
It was the 22d of February, 1839, that Dr. Fisk
died.

CHAPTER XIV.

FINAL LESSONS.

It is fifty years since the death of Wilbur Fisk,
so that this is a natural point for asking ourselves
how far he was successful. A saintly life always
is successful in the eyes of God. In human eyes
this is not always so apparent, though a saint like
Madame Guyon, John Fletcher, St. Francis of As-
sisi, or Mrs. Judson, makes a strong impression
even on worldly men. In the case of men like Fa-
ber and Newman, there is always a suspicion that
their fame for saintliness has been heightened, if
not created, by solitude and congenial companion-
ship. They impress the world with their holiness
in an indirect and a roundabout way. But a saint
who is a pastor, a presiding elder, the principal of a
large school for young people, president of a col-
lege, has a fond and very exacting wife, is delegate
to general conference, interested in the temperance
and slavery questions, who must organize boards
of trustees for educational institutions, and faculties
of instruction, be school commissioner and visitor,
be twice chosen bishop, have much controversy on
theological questions and also on questions of
ecclesiastical and national policy, has the immense

FINAL LESSONS, 277

advantage of acting with all the force of his sanc-
tity on men who are in the thick of this world's
business. A man who is a saint in all this and
through all this is the sort of saint the world
needs. Whatever Wilbur Fisk had to do in any
of the relations of life was better and more faith-
fully done because of his holiness ; for he thought
the whole conscience, the whole judgment, the
whole will, ought to go into every act of duty.
Hence the many-sidedness as well as manly vigor
of his activity. Hence too the religious fruitful-
ness of Dr. Fisk's life. If one considers the brev-
ity of his ministerial life (for he joined conference
in 1818 and died in 1839, and was for some years
too ill to preach) it was a fruitful life. We have
seen that at Crafts bury, Charlestown, Wilbraham,
and Middletown, however successful in other ways,
he would have and did have souls as seals to his
ministry; for nothing else would content him. He
was often asked to assist other pastors in revival
labors, and more than one church owed its exist-
ence to his missionary zeal.

How far successful Dr. Fisk was in educational
work has been already set forth with such detail
that it will not be needful here to do more than
allude to it. It was shown that there had been
an extremely creditable change in New England
Methodist education since Dr. Fisk's day. From
the fact that nothing was said of such work in
other parts of the country, it should not be suj)-
posed that there was nothing to be said. Schools

278 WILBUR FISK.

on the model of the one at Wilbraham have been
multiplied in every part of the country, so that
nothing: but want of room has led to the omission
of details about them. Were all the Methodist
colleges that have been established elsewhere in
our land to do the same kind of work that Wes-
leyan University has done, grouped together at
Middletown, the array in point of numbers would
dwarf Oxford University itself. And of this vast
educational movement Dr. Fisk was the providen-
tial leader, because he first brought into play the
common sense, the hard work, the saintly charac-
ter, and the religious inspiration needful for such
a difficult work.

The two reforms for which Dr. Fisk labored so
assiduously and unsparingly, temperance and anti-
slavery, have had curiously contrasted fortunes.
He thought the victory of the temperance cause at
the very gates, on account of the ease with which
Christians of every section of the country and of
all churches could be combined against it. Yet
the saloon still baffles its enemies, and secures a
reversal of all legislation that seeks its extinction.
But slavery, which seemed so impregnable to him
behind its constitutional defenses, has been swept
out of existence, simply because it was mad enough
to renounce the constitutional protection which
was its only safeguard against the civilization and
humanity of the age. Yet with what heightened
courage and faith in God woidd he not renew the
war against rum in view of the unhoped for and
magnificent victory over slavery !

FINAL LESSONS. 279

So with the missionary work in which Dr. Fisk
took such an early and intelligent interest. It is
not merely the immense advance that has been
made in the sums given for missions ; in the better
literary, classical, and scientific education given
modern missionaries ; in the wiser methods of mis-
sionary activity that would seem hopeful to Di-.
Fisk, but the profounder way in which the church
has grasped the true principles of missionary zeal
and acti\aty. A good man triumphs in the tri-
umph of the causes to which he is devoted.

The most recent of Edwards' biographers has
shown us how he was drawn on to undertake the
defense of all the extravagances of Calvinism both
at the bar of reason and of Scripture. So pow-
erful was that defense that it compelled a read-
justment of the views of all the advocates of
Calvinism in the English Protestant world. This
movement of readjustment was equally obvious
amongst the adversaries of Calvinism ; for they
were compelled to reexamine the philosophical
basis of his views, as well as to submit to search-
ing scrutiny the exegetical principles to which he
had resorted. This work of readjustment has
been largely left to the American Wesleyans, be-
cause Edwards is much more of a vital force here
than abroad. Amongst the other American critics
of Edwards' Inquiry, the book of Bledsoe, " Ex-
amination of Edwards on the Will," deserves
careful study, as being the only formal reply by
an Arminian.

280 WILBUR FISK.

The real answer, thougii not a formal one, to
the doctrines of Edwards and his school, was to
come from a pupil and associate of Dr. Fisk's at
Wesleyan University, — Daniel Denison Whedon.
Young Whedon had enjoyed long and fruitful in-
tercourse with President Fisk. Of him he says,
" I learned more theology from Dr. Fisk than any
other man." He was Fisk's trusted friend through-
out his " Calvinistic Controversy," and it was prob-
ably at his suggestion that Whedon began a care-
ful study of Edwards' Inquir}^, for he says : —

" Even so late as my puj)ilage, tlie scholar was ex-
pected to understand his soul from Locke, his con-
science from Paley, and his responsibihty from Edwards.
Of this triad, if the indicated materialism of the first,
the low expediency of the second, and the granitic fatal-
ism of the third, did not prepare me for the atheism of
Hume, it was because my moral sensibiHties disbelieved
and repudiated the whole quaternion. I could neither
believe, from the first, that I had no soul ; from the sec-
ond, that I had no conscience ; from the third, that I
had no will ; nor from the fourth, that I had no God." ^

This systematic and thorough study of Edwards'
Inquiry had one unexpected result : —

" As he followed Edwards' steps, he felt compelled
to assent to Edwards' arguments, until he at length
found himself led into the terrible grasp of an iron
fatalism. From this his soul revolted, but his reason
saw no way of escape. It caused him the greatest dis-
tress. It haunted him by day, and awoke him from

1 Whedon's Essays, Reviews, and Discourses, p. 38.

FINAL LESSONS. 281

sleep by night. He called on God for relief, and be-
soiio-lit liini for lioht ; he would rise from his bed to
pray ; and finally, when on his knees in prayer, he saw
the clue. With that clue he turned anew to his read-
ing the first chapters of Edwards, and soon detected his
fallacies and mistakes. That clue was the fact of human
responsihilltij. It is the basis of his argument against
the necessarian theory. Thus the treatise on the Will
was begotten in prayer. It was at the suggestion of
Dr. Fisk that he began to write."

It is a curious fact that Jonathan Edwards was
for years in a state of mind towards those dogmas
closely resembling that of his illustrious critic.
" From my childhood up, my mind had been full
of objections against the doctrine of God's sover-
eignty, in choosing whom he would to eternal life,
and rejecting whom he pleased, leaving them
eternally to perish and be everlastingly tormented
in hell. It used to appear like a horrible doctrine
to me." It is curious to mark the sharply con-
structed outcome of such scruples in the minds of
these two greatest of American metaphysicians.
Edwards says : —

" I remember the time very well when I seemed to
be convinced and fully satisfied as to this sovereignty of
God, and his justice in thus eternally disposing of men
according to his sovereign pleasure ; but never could
give an account how or by what means 1 was thus con-
vinced, not in the least imagining at the time, nor a
long time after, that there was any extraordinary influ-
ence of God's spirit in it, but only that I now saw fur-

282 WILBUR FISK.

ther, and my mind saw the justice and reasonableness
of it. However, my mind rested in it, and it put an
end to those cavils and questionings. . . . God's abso-
lute sovereignty and his justice with respect to salvation
is what my mind seemed to rest assured of, as much as
of anything that I see with my eyes ; at least it was so
at times. But I have often since had quite another
kind of sense of God's sovereignty than I had then.
I have often had not only a conviction, but a delightful
conviction. The doctrine has very often appeared ex-
ceedingly bright, pleasant, and sweet. But my first
conviction was not so."

If ever a great thinker went through with griev-
ous, sorro^vful, and contradictory frames of mind
towards his own inherited dogmas, it was Jona-
than Edwards. The first attitude, " from my
childhood up," was one of strong repulsion and
disgust ; then came a second attitude of strong
approval of them, but never was he able to assign
and explain any reasons for this transition from
strongly hostile to strongly favorable feelings : it
happened and Edwards recorded it ; " at least it
was so at times " is incidentally thrown in. The
fuial transition in his mind is " from conviction to
delio:htful conviction " of their truth.

Edwards' account has the frankness and candor
of a great and powerfid thinker. His statements
are not without certain elements of contradiction.
In one sentence he " could never give an account
how or by what means I was thus convinced ; "
and in the next he thought, " I now saw further,

FINAL LESSONS. 283

and my mind saw the justice and reasonableness
of it." Then the idea comes to him that this
changed attitude, whose logical reasons he does not
see and cannot explain, may proceed from " an un-
common influence of God's spirit." It was in this
illogical and confusing way that Edwards' mind
found rest from " those cavils and questionings "
which had followed him from his youth.

The younger metaphysician, brought up in tra-
ditional unbelief of Edwards' principles, but led
both by the advice of Dr. Fisk and the natural
attraction of a strong book for a strong thinker to
study Edwards, exposes his mind to the full force
of Edwards' argument. At first, the reasoning
overwhehns his mind ; he becomes temporarily an
Edwardean in philosophy and theology. But his
moral distress is so intense as to fill his soul with
anguish. In prayer to God for direction, the
clue to the errors of Edwards is given him in the
fact of human responsibility. A quarter of a
century later, this pupil and successor of Wilbur
Fisk in the chamj)ionship of Arminian theology
gave the best exposition and defense of those views
the world has yet seen in " The Freedom of the
Will as a Basis of Human Eesponsibility, and a
Divine Government Elucidated and Maintained in
its Issue with the Necessarian Theories of Hobbes,
Edwards, the Princeton Essayists, and other Lead-
ing Advocates."

This book was instantly recognized by all good
judges, whether friends or foes to its doctrines, as

284 WILBUR FISK,

tlie broadest, most scholarly, and most philosophic
defense of the Arminian system that has ever
been published. It has long been one of the
books every young Methodist clergyman has to
lay to heart as a part of his course of study. It
has made an equally decided impression upon hos-
tile critics and students, as apj)eared from the vio-
lence of their attacks as well as the carefulness
with which they study it. Eegular courses of
lectures on it are given in several Calvinistic the-
ological schools, which bestow no such honor on
Edwards' Inquiry. Yet no formal answer has ap-
peared.

It is mainly on the strength of this book that
the romid of questions relating to the freedom of
the wiU may be regarded as having found an ade-
quate settlement.

It is not meant by this that the advocates of
necessity will disappear from the realm of philoso-
phy or of theology. What is meant is, that what-
ever can be said on either side has been said. At
the present hour, one of the most hopeful religious
omens is the frankness with which former Calvin-
ists repudiate their own errors. When that most
conservative of churches, the Presbyterian, is
widely agitated by vigorous movements in favor
of a revision of its Calvinistic formularies, Wesley,
risk, and Whedon may well congratulate them-
selves that not only does no such contention divide
the peace and energies of tlieir followers, but also
that not a few of the noblest and wisest of the

FINAL LESSONS. 285

Calvinistic leaders see in the unity and ortho-
doxy of Methodism one of the happiest omens for
the future of the American churches.

Jonathan Edwards is reported to have said that
nobod}^ had answered his famous Inquiry. Shoukl
he return to earth, he woukl find that formal an-
swers now abound. Yet perhaps the most unan-
swerable response to his greatest book is the extent
to which his own earlier feelings of repulsion and
disgust are shared not only by saints like Wesley,
risk, and Whedon, but also by an innumerable
army in all the Calvinistic bodies. It is barely pos-
sible that even Jonathan Edwards might now re-
gard his early disgust at Calvinism as the profound
and sacred voice of a conscience that coidd only be
reduced into silence by his greatest efforts. In
the present struggle to repudiate Calvinism, he
might perhaps see the proper and just reaction of
tlie reo:enerate conscience and heart of our times
aofainst his donnas.

Certain it is that the repudiation of Calvinism
is one of the most characteristic and widespread
movements of our time. All must conclude that
the wide diffusion of Methodism has had much to
do with this changed temper of the times. So far
as this movement involves an especial repudiation
of Edwardean theology, that result is mainly due
to Fisk, Whedon, Bledsoe, and their helpers.

There is no doubt that Dr. Fisk would regard
his large influence, direct and indirect, in promot-
ing this change of sentiment, as one of his chief
earthly honors.

286 WILBUR FISK.

In the main, the causes which enlisted Dr.
risk's interest, in church and state, are the causes
which have made signal advances in the world
since his death, and are destined to a universal
triumph over sin, wrong, and error.

INDEX.

Academy, Cazenovia, 139, 148. |

Academy, Kent's Hill, 139, 148.

Academy, Military, 140.

Academy, New Market, 68, 72 ; first
subscription to same, 73.

Academy, Wesleyan, 18 ; Dr. Fisk as
principal, 7G ; course of study, 81.

Anti-Masonic excitement, 2'29.

Arnold, Matthew, on Methodists, 22 ;
mistakes of, 27, 35.

Asbury, Bishop, sends Jesse Lee to
New England, May 28, 1789, 1 ; his
relation to the work in New Eng-
land, 3 ; defect in his leadership,
11.

Baker, Bishop, 163.
Bangs. Rev. Nathan, 185, 253.
Bartlett, Rev. Horace, 260.
Beecher, Lyman, extract from auto-
biography of, 180.
Birney, James G., 216.
Boardman, 8.
Boston University, 18.
Brewer, Calvin, 72.
►Brodhead, John, 68.

Case, Rev. W., 223

Chase, Daniel H., 151.

" Christian Advocate " at first not

favorable to temperance reform,

185.
Clarke, General, 224.
Coke, Thomas, 11, 19.
Conference, general legislation on

temperance in 1839, 193
Controversy, Calvinistic, 112, 120.
Cox, Melville B., 2'22.
Cushing, Rev. Stephen, 100.

Disosway, G. P., 225.

Drew, Daniel, 171.

Dunn, N., 76, 106.

Dimn, Nathanael, Jr., 76, 80.

DurbiM, J. P..' \\U.

Edwards, Jonathan, the theology of,
m the light of Fisk's life, 279-286.

Fields, James T., on Maffitt's preach-
ing, 98.

Fisk, Hannah, 13, 20.

Fisk, Isaiah, 21.

Fisk, Wilbur, first contact of, with
Methodism, 11 ; birth of, 13 ; an-
cestry and home training, 13 ; at-
tends Peacham Academy, 13; at
University of Vermont, 13 ; in
Brown University, 14 ; studies law,
15; private tutor near Baltimore,
15 ; sudden Ulness of, 15 ; renewal
of his religious life, 15 ; his motives
for entering the Methodist ministry,
15 ; is licensed to preach, and joins
the New England Conference, 15,
16 ; on the spread of Methodism in
New England, 16 ; on Unitarianism
and Universalism, 31 ; on Crafts-
bury Circuit in 1818, 40 ; in Charles-
town in 1819, 41 ; his rules for use
of time, 42 ; his success, 43 ; camp-
meeting at Eastham in 1819, 44 ;
peculiar religious experience there,
44 ; Horton's accoimt, 46 ; change
in his religious life, 48 ; his theolog-
ical views changed, 51 ; his success
in Charlestown, 51 ; intercourse
with Isaac Rich, 55 ; illness, 57 ;
impaired health, 57 ; his marriage ;
58 ; his wedded life, 58 ; his gen-
erous conduct to wife, 59 ; kindness
to Mrs. Fisk after his death, 62;
his mother's scruples, 64 ; his
answer, 64 : declines to aid New
Market Academy, 72 ; elected Prin-
cipal of We.sleyan Academy, 75;
wide range of his duties, 7(3 ; his
inaugural speech, 76 ; manifold
duties, 81 ; school government un-
der, 83 ; the social interview, 85-87 ;
boar.ling house, 87 ; obtains further

288

INDEX.

subscriptions to the academy, 89;
his letter to " Zioii's Herald," 90 ;
religious life at Weslej'an Academy
under Wilbur Fisk, 95 ; first revival
in the school, 95 ; his letter to
" Zion's Herald " on the first revival,
98 ; his theological class, 102 ; his
views on farming, 106 ; elected
President of Wesleyan University,
140 ; his letter of acceptance, 141 ;
his inaugural address, 142-146 ; his
relations with the faculty, 153 ; his
relations with the students, 155 ;
strength of his coUege government,
158 ; certain college organizations
approved and disapproved, 158 ; his
patience with perverse students,
159 ; his decision regarding estab-
lisliiug schools of law, etc., 160 ;
his financial administration of the
University, 167 ; his anxiety in re-
gard to reUgious welfare of Univer-
sity, 175 ; his account of first revival
in University, 176; his regard for
modem languages, 179 ; his attitude
regarding temperance, 182; his
preaching and lecturing on temper-
ance, 184 ; his address on subject of
temperance, 1832, 186 ; his letter to
"Zion's Herald, ' ' 195 ; his connection
with the slavery controversy, 201 ;
aids in forming colonization socie-
ties, 213 ; his address upon coloni-
zation, July 4, 1835, 213 ; predicts a
dissolution of the Union, 215 ; his
letter to James G. Bimey, 216 ; re-
signs his seat in General Conference,
219 ; offers his services to the Lil^e- ■
rian Mission, 222 ; his interest in j
missions among the Indians, 223 ; \
voyage to Europe, 239 ; his views on ;
the Roman Cliurch, 244; his ap- i
pearance before British Conference, i
247 ; writes a memorial to British i
Conference, 248 ; returns to Ameri- I
ca, 252 ; appeals to the Connecticut ;
Legislature, 253 ; his last appear- ,
ance at the New England Confer- :
euce, 254 ; his dispute with Sunder- j
land, 255 ; his last appearauce at ]
commencement, 256 ; his last sick- i
ness, 257 ; his wishes regarding ;
tlie University, 265 ; receives a j
Committee of Methodist Missionary i
Society in New York, 268 ; final I
lessons of his life, 276. j

Free moral agency, Wilbur Fisk's '
argument upon, 125, 130. j

Holdich, Rev. Joseph, 52, 56, 149, 150,

178, 226, 247. 1

Hubbard. Oliver P., 151. '

Huber, J. F., 152.

Itinerant preachers in New England,
the first, 1, 2, 18 ; success in their
mission, 2-12 ; their doctrine, 5 ;
strength of, in 1888, 20.

Jarvis, Rev. Dr., 271.
Johnston, Prof. John, 150.

Knox, Loren L., 151.

Lane, Prof. H. B., 240.

Lee, Daniel, 226.

Lee, Jason, 224.

Lee, Jesse, mission of, to New Eng-
land, 19 ; organizes the first church
in 1789, 2 ; his first assistants, JacoO
Brush, George Roberts, and Daniel
Smith arrive in February, 1790, 2 ;
his controversial methods, 7.

Library and philosophical apparatus
in Wesleyan University, 167.

Lindsay, John, 74, 164, 201 ; incor-
poration act of, February 1, 1814.

Luckey, Rev. Dr., 218.

MaflBt, Rev. Joliu Newland, 95.

Magoun, William, 88, 151.

Mather, H. W., 151.

Merrill, Abram D., 196.

Merrill, John W,, 103, 103.

Merrill, Joseph A., 72.

Merritt, Timothy, 228.

Messer, Asa, 14.

Metcalf, David, 113.

Methodism in New England, begin-
ning of, 17 ; its rapid spread, 17 ;
its reasonableness, 34 ; could alone
oppose Cilvinism, 35.

Metliodist Episcopal Church, the, 25 ;
its union with the Protestant Epis-
copal Church, 26 ; articles of reli-
gion of, 27 ; amount of funds held
by it for education in 1887, 174;
division in, concerning slavery, 1844,
220.

Methodist Episcopal Church, South,
the, 220.

Natural and moral abilitj% 131.

New Haven Circuit, the, 2.

New England, religious condition of. 8.

Olin, Dr., 253.

Otheman, Bartholomew, 201.

Partridge, Capt. Alden, 140.
Patten, Dana, 163.
Peck, Rev. George, 230.
Perkins, Jared, 196.
Pilmoor, 8.

INDEX.

289

Protestant Episcopal Church, the, 16, I Temperance reform in New England,

18, 19, 22, -JS. ' 181.

Protestant Methodist Episc. Church, Theology, deficiencies in Wesley, 36;

the, 26 ; its Calvinism, 35. i the Greek, 36.

Ramsdell, Hezekiah S., 201.
Regeneration, as stated by Dr. Fisk,

132.
Report to committee on education,

138.
Tlice, William M., 151.
Rich, Isaac, 171 ; his gifts to Wesleyan

University, 173.
Ruter, Martin, made principal, 69 ;

his dreams, 70 ; resigns, 71.

Sanborn, Jacob, 201.

Scott, Orange, 219.

Seminaries in New England, Meth-
odist, 17.

Shepherd, Cyrus, 226.

Sherman, David, 102.

Slavery : appeal to New England and
New Hampshire Conferences, 1834,
196.

Smith, Augustus W., 149, 252.

Smith, Rev. John M., 150.

Stevens, Abel, on our articles of reli-
gion, 3, 27, 226.

Storrs, Rev. George, 194.

Sunderland, La Roy, 196.

Taylor, Edward T., 201.

Universalism : two sermons thereon

by Dr. Fisk, 111.
Tlllinghast, Caroline, 83.
True, Rev. Charles K., 178.

Walker, William, 224.

Wesleyan University, 18; purchase
of site for, 140 ; trustees, first meet-
ing of, 140 ; date of opening of, 141 ;
students in, first classed by their
college year, 147 ; requires no re-
ligious test for students or officers,
148 ; names of its first faculty, 149 ;
financial difficulties in consequence
of panic of 183G, 1G9.

Wesley's, Charles, hymns, 9, 10.

Wesley's, John, sermons, 5 ; his ec-
clesiastical liberalism, 19.

Whedon's, Dr., " Issue between Ro-
manism and Calvinism," 149 ; his
account of Dr. Fisk's preaching,
232 ; his refutation of the doctrines
of Jonathan Edwards, 280.

White, E. H.,201.

Whitfield in New England, 7, 8.

Willitt, William M., 151.

Wilson, Shipley W., 196.

Woodward, Charles, M. D., 252.

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Life in the United States.

JONATHAN EDWARDS. By Professor A. V. G.

Allen, author of " The Continuity of Christian Thought."

WILBUR FISK. By Professor George Prentice, of

Weslej'an University.

DR. MUHLENBERG. By Rev. W^illiam Wilberforce
Newton.

FRANCIS WAYLAND. By Professor J. O. Mur-

ray, of Princeton.

ARCHBISHOP JOHN HUGHES. By John G.

Shea, LL. D., author of " The Catholic Authors of America," etc.

CHARLES HODGE. By President Francis L. Pat-
ton, of Princeton.
THEODORE PARKER. By John Fiske, author of

" The idea of God," " Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy," etc.

CHARLES G. FINNEY. By Professor G. Frederick

Wright.

This Series will include biographies of eminent men
who represent the theology and methods of the va-
rious religious denominations of America, yet the ob-
ject of the Series does not contemplate emphasizing
personal character and history except as these are re-
lated to the development of religious thought or the
quickening of religious life. The Series when com-
pleted will not only depict in a clear and memorable
way several great figures in American religious his-
tory, but will indicate the leading characteristics of
that history, the progress and process of religious
philosophy in America, the various types of theology
which have shaped or been shaped by the various
churches, and the relation of these to the life and
thought of the Nation.

Other volumes to be announced he7'eafter. Each volume^ rbmo, gilt

top, $/.2J.

HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COMPANY,

4 Park St., Boston; ii East 17TH St., New York.

Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries

1 1012 01207 0795

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